Blood has a lot of waiting???

[Dastreus]

I caved into a friend's requests and re-subbed for a month to see. I do not have WoD but might on christmas. Anyway, I find that once I go through a rotation, using either Runic Corruption or Blood Tap (doesn't matter which), I still sit there and just auto-attack maybe 20% of the time. I have no tried Runic Empowerment.

This is confusing. I remember in Cata, I had so much Runic Power coming that I was spamming Rune Strike often enough to warrant using Unholy Presence in PVP, questing, and some solo raid runs, as many people figured out. This led into the 1 second GCD from Unholy Presence being given to Blood, too, (and I think Frost? I didn't play Frost that much in MoP).

Then, came MoP and I was worried about Runic Empowerment no longer being baseline and Blood Tap being changed to a crappy Charges mechanic. I picked Runic Corruption and wound up having less issues than I was afraid I'd have. This was because they gave improved Blood Presence better Rune Regen partway through beta. I was a part of the MoP beta and until the better rune regen came in, Blood was as crap as I am experiencing right now. Only when Runic Corruption was being an RNG bitch would I have dry spots, but Empower Rune Weapon was usually off cooldown by then, so no problems!

So why was Improved Blood Presence gutted without giving me some way to still have decent rune regen? I've ran 3 instances and so far, almost died twice due to not being able to stack Death Strikes as on demand as I remember.

(Side note, the removal of Heart Strike is throwing me off incredibly so. Hitting Blood Boil to get a group of mob's attention, since DPS like running in before I get to spread DoTs, then using Outbreak or Plague Strike and Icy Touch, THEN Blood Boil again... so weird to me. Moving Blood Boil to where Heart Strike was is helping, slowly.)

Do I need to be stacking the HELL out of Haste and Mastery, rather than Crit/Parry and Mastery with some Dodge, as my MoP and Cata end game days remember?? Or did Blizzard decide it's okay for Blood to suck incredibly amounts of ass before getting Runic Strikes at 90, which might help at least spam Death Coils more often?

Do other tanks need to stack Haste? I can see maybe Guardian Druids and Monks doing it.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

Go full multistrike.
Congrats on doing more DPS than the actual DPS specs.

Regardless, tanking is all about active mitigation now. Abilities are slower to perpetuate this.
Its just a change you need to get used to.

Drop Defile if you need snap threat, or instantly apply diseases and blood boil as they run by you. They will be coming right back with that 50k-to-the-6-mobs you just did.

[Deleted]

almost died twice due to not being able to stack Death Strikes as on demand as I remember.


This is why

Edit:
Not saying its the perfect gameplay. But its better then being blatantly overpowered

[Dastreus]

Just went on my 90 DK and DPSd on a target dummy for awhile. I dunno, Runic Strikes didn't seem to proc at all. Someone said to stack Multistrike, and I guess that's why. Seems Multistrike white damage grants Runic Power. Any other reason to stack Multistrike?

Also hell, we may as well be put back to a 1.5 second GCD. At least then, the wait times wouldn't be noticed as much, if at all since we wouldn't spam runes as quick.

As for the active mitigation post. DKs were active before. They still feel as active. I just couldn't keep Blood Shield up for crap with this shit rune regen.

[Naiattavain]

Feedback:

I liked at the start of mists of pandaria how the death knight was deployed. deathknight was different than WotLK but still felt like the concept was moving forward with preserving the awesome about the class. specifics on tanking as long as you could supply the blood tap charges with runic power-- that was enjoyable to run dungeons as tank.

onto currant live with WoD:

blood boil is being spammed in my rotations. its the only skill to use regardless of it being free cast and i think its because necrotic strike heart strike are gone because they were considered bloat. heart strike provided some great runic power and necrotic strike did. those are gone and replaced by blood boil now. i dont like deathcoil being used as primary spender. i prefer runic strike and i rather take runic strike over death coil to be conscious of bloat.

side note: i always used all abilities. i didn't care about bloat because i found everything useful.

thank you

[RuneDK]

Just went on my 90 DK and DPSd on a target dummy for awhile. I dunno, Runic Strikes didn't seem to proc at all. Someone said to stack Multistrike, and I guess that's why. Seems Multistrike white damage grants Runic Power. Any other reason to stack Multistrike?

Also hell, we may as well be put back to a 1.5 second GCD. At least then, the wait times wouldn't be noticed as much, if at all since we wouldn't spam runes as quick.

As for the active mitigation post. DKs were active before. They still feel as active. I just couldn't keep Blood Shield up for crap with this shit rune regen.

I play blood with Necrotic Plague and don't notice too much downtime personally...but that's at 100

[Krisppo]

We're not supposed to keep blood shield up as much anymore. Compared to SoO we are resource starved, but you have to remember that we are in the start of an expansion. I'm already noticing downtime getting lower as I progressively get gear in Highmaul, and I don't consider the downtime we have to be a problem. You are not supposed to spam everything as it comes up, timing death strikes is an integral part of playing Blood (especially now when the focus has shifted from the shield part to the healing part of DS).

[Deleted]

Yeah I went necrotic plague, plague leech, outbreak glyph, runic corruption and multistrike where I can get it, while trying to keep mastery as high as possible.

Have very very little downtime, and will probably soon switch necrotic to defile since I think I'm closing in on a level of multistrike that I wont need the RP from necrotic to keep it fluent anymore :P

[Dastreus]

I keep reading "SoO". What is that? Stopped playing last time, before the second tier raid came out in MoP. Early March 2013.

[Deleted]

I keep reading "SoO". What is that? Stopped playing last time, before the second tier raid came out in MoP. Early March 2013.

Siege of Ogrimmar, the last tier of raiding in MoP.

[Dastreus]

Let me update this for another question of the same area. What on earth should I be choosing while leveling for stats? In Pandaria, the gear option is usually crit and mastery or crit and haste. I've been going Haste>Mastery>Crit in my head, choosing Haste and Mastery above everything else so far, until I can get Multistrike.

[Deleted]

Well if you want to minimize downtime, then yeah... mastery and haste is pretty solid, tho haste wont have that much of an effect since it lowers rune cooldowns rather shoddily...

But its better than crit :P Honestly, just get to multistrike asap x'D

[Dastreus]

Well if you want to minimize downtime, then yeah... mastery and haste is pretty solid, tho haste wont have that much of an effect since it lowers rune cooldowns rather shoddily...

But its better than crit :P Honestly, just get to multistrike asap x'D

The reason to get multistrike doesn't seem to kick in until runic strikes at 90. I am level 88, so I can probably get runic strikes gear now yeah?

[Ironscroll]

I just started leveling my Blood DK that had been sitting at 80 since WotLK like last week. I leveled purely tanking dungeons 80-90 and just used what ever gear dropped in dungeons I could use. Honestly learn to use Blood Tap, it made the game play feel fast and fun like in WotLK the only complaint I had is I felt like Sam Kinison spamming Blood Boil.

Talents I use/d are
Plague Leech, Purgatory, Death's Advance, Blood tap, Death pact, and at 90 I use Gore-fiends Grasp.
There where times the healer was afk and I barely noticed. Just learn to use Plague Leech and Blood Tap.

Just my experience.

[Deleted]

The reason to get multistrike doesn't seem to kick in until runic strikes at 90. I am level 88, so I can probably get runic strikes gear now yeah?

well yeah, Bonus Armor, Mastery, Multistrike, Crit, haste/versatility is how I've been doing it, but yes runic strike adds the real benefit of multistrikes, then again multistrike doesnt exist on pre 90 gear anyhow.

[Sinzaram]

I've ran 3 instances and so far, almost died twice due to not being able to stack Death Strikes as on demand as I remember.

So my two cents to add.
Firstly the model with dks has kinda changed. Death Strikes aren't our sole and only active mitigation tool anymore. Blood Shield mastery isn't at ridiculous 200% of healing done shield anymore. But that isn't to say Death Strike isn't powerful still, it is powerful but in a different way.

Personally I find that stacking Scent of Blood from Blood Boil and Soul Reapers and spending Scent of Blood stacks when you need them with a big Death Strike and at high Resolve is often more burst healing than healers are able to put out at 100. Its that burst healing doesn't translate into a Blood Shield that you can often add and add to like you might be used to from Cata-MoP.

Also you should remember Rune Tap now exists. Its a big fat 40% damage reduction for 3 seconds, with a two charge system meaning you can use it once and keep the second used in reserve while the first charge regens. So you should always use rune tap when you're getting mauled by multiple mobs. Its more damage reduction than a Blood Shield that'll get pounded though in 2 seconds.

Gear is also different for everyone now.

Crit/Parry and Mastery with some Dodge


Do other tanks need to stack Haste? I can see maybe Guardian Druids and Monks doing it.

Dodge doesn't exist anymore except from agility for Druids and Monks.
Crit = Parry for Dks Warrior and Paladins and strength gives parry.
Haste should be useful for every tank because they all gain extra resources or extra GCDs from it. Warriors and druids ability cds and faster autos for more rage, monks more haste for more energy regen and Paladins have wanted haste since MoP due to faster ability cds.
If they had left Improved Blood Presence at 20% haste, we wouldn't want any haste at all and it would be a useless pointless stat.

Mastery is still the best stat for damage reduction, increasing the size of Blood Shields.
MS is only good for reducing that downtime and boosting your hp pool from Enhanced Death Coils at 92+.

[Grapple]

The reason to get multistrike doesn't seem to kick in until runic strikes at 90. I am level 88, so I can probably get runic strikes gear now yeah?

i think this is a large part of the problem. the game has been sort of rebalanced to focus primarily on level 91-100, skills and some other things dont flow very well until that point. that being said, my DK is doing things constantly while tanking, but I Do feel like the "Boil Blood" spam is getting a little boring.

[Dastreus]

Yeah, I am very used to using Rune Tap when needed. So much of my DK playing is ingrained in habitual movements at this point. It doesn't help that I am far more visual than I am a reading person. "Health low, and the damage isn't going to taper yet- hit the Red Crossy looking button!" Also, I am curious why some go for Plague Leech. When we're Rune Starved that seems like a weird option.

As for Dodge not existing on plate anymore, that's a surprise. One of my DKs is in MoP content right now sporting the Firelands red set of plate. I've been feeling weird getting stuff without Dodge when the plate still has dodge. It's like I am loosing mitigation, but I guess I am not?

[Muya]

If this is in the 80-90 area, I honestly can't say I know, or agree, with what you're talking about. In fact, I've had numerous healers complain that they have nothing to do when I tank an instance on my DK. I've done trash from the beginning of Vortex Pinnacle to 1 pull before the first boss with our healer AFK getting coffee. Granted the DPS died a few times, but I was never in any real trouble.

The one time I did die in a run, the group finally joked that it appeared I wasn't completely immortal....and that was due to massively overpulling an area by accident. The DK rotation isn't as stable as it was before, but I gotta say it's alot more fun than just macroing Rune Strike into every single ability. I find myself sometimes forgetting to use Blood Tap just simply because it isn't needed for me.

I hadn't tanked on a Blood DK since the early bit of Cata, but I still enjoy it as it is. That's going to be the next char I level. Mines sitting at 86 right now.

Edit - Also, people use Plague Leech because they pick up the Glyph of Outbreak. That allows you to have 0 CD on Outbreak and use it for 30 RP instead. They use Outbreak, Blood Boil and then a small part of the rotation, Plague Leech and then Outbreak again. It allows for more Death Strikes.

[Zamfix]

Yeah, I am very used to using Rune Tap when needed. So much of my DK playing is ingrained in habitual movements at this point. It doesn't help that I am far more visual than I am a reading person. "Health low, and the damage isn't going to taper yet- hit the Red Crossy looking button!" Also, I am curious why some go for Plague Leech. When we're Rune Starved that seems like a weird option.

As for Dodge not existing on plate anymore, that's a surprise. One of my DKs is in MoP content right now sporting the Firelands red set of plate. I've been feeling weird getting stuff without Dodge when the plate still has dodge. It's like I am loosing mitigation, but I guess I am not?

Plague leech + glyph of outbreak, trade rp for runes. I have about 30% multistrike and usually more rp than I can use.