Tanking in 3.1

[Memetomori]

Is it just me or does it seem like (from all the lowered damage in the patch notes) that DK threat generation is going to take a decent hit. Well, blood boil and plague strike are getting pve buffs I suppose but losing 2% str and stam from shadow of death will affect all damage dealing abilities. It also looks like frost lost a little on frost damage modifiers too. Let me know what you guys think based on what was posted so far.

EDIT: Yes I know Unholy single target threat is probably going to skyrocket but I'm talking about other trees too. I was looking forward to trying a dual spec with frost but with all the HB changes it almost doesn't seem worth it.

[exphryl]

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...0&version=9614

Is what i'm considering (currently a 50/13/7 blood tank)

With the DS changes i'm curious to see how that will affect threat gains. Wondering if that is going to change to our main ability for threat (whereas right now i'm using OB for big threat)

[Incarnated]

a bit curious how unbreakable armor is gonna work anyone knows how well it scales ?

13806 = 690 dmg Reduce, so its 5 dmg reduce per 100 armor or AC*0,05

[pizzkaka]

13806 = 690 dmg Reduce, so its 5 dmg reduce per 100 armor or AC*0,05

k k thx do you know if it scales with frost presence ?

[Incarnated]

k k thx do you know if it scales with frost presence ?

yes, it does seems to work with your current armor and not your base armor, should scale with potions and stuff as well... indestructible potion+unbreakable armor are surely gonna be nice

[Avadon]

Regarding threat, unholy and frost have massive aoe threat generation. Yes, frost took a bit of a hit with HB now doing 25% less damage than before, but considering the change in mechanics that Killing Machine recently underwent, that's warranted. Unholy's aoe dps is still amazing, and now you can get it without even going a full 51 deep into unholy if you don't want to. Blood's aoe pales in comparison to either frost or unholy, but it got a substantial buff, so it may even be viable now. And as you said, single-target threat didn't really take a hit, and actually probably got buffed for all 3 trees. Blood got insta-freebie-death coils, frost's Blood of the North now also affects frost strike, not amazing, but nice, and unholy is back to decimating things with Scourge Strike.

Also worth pointing out that the passive increase to disease durations, especially if you spec into Epidemic, allows more flexibility than ever with rotations, especially if the new glyph of Pestilence goes live.. 1 blood rune to refresh 21 second duration diseases? Yes please. And for unholy it's even a bigger deal, that's 1 or 2 more Scourge Strikes you get to use to proc that glyph to refresh them for free. Gogo Scourge Strike spam. Aoe threat was never an issue except for blood, it still won't be for frost or unholy, and maybe not even for blood now.

Personally I'm going to be rolling 9/51/11 for fun and 13/8/50 for Sarth. They're both great specs, just different styles, if you find yourself lost, give one a try. I like frost tanking the best, but unholy is OP for Sarth.

[Pcloadletter]

OK so a shit ton of changes are happening and based on what im seeing its not bad at all for those of us who like to tank. Here is what i think i will be rolling as my new Blood AOE/single target tank spec.

• I would like to see some comments on the spec. Mainly comments from Blood tanks and DKs that actually know how to play their class.

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...1&version=9614

Yes i know the Unholy points are kinda far out but i am curious to see how well the buff to Plague Strike and Blood Boil will play out. With the changes AOE tanking for Blood looks alot easier; spamming Blood Boil. I added all the glyphs in that im gonna use. BB for the snare and added threat, VB is obvious, and the pet. Tanking with a pet?? well ya for me its a nice bonus and is only one point now and when im in tank gear i can get the pet to have a massive amount of HP and Str for an amazing pet sac if things get rough in Ulduar. Plus the pet dps will be nice to have. Epidemic wont be needed because of the 15 sec changes to diseases woot! So now i can start doing more PS with the buff to its damage and keep diseases running and doing great AOE damage with the BB buff.

Heart Strike will probably be used for more of like 1-2 mobs since it only hits 2 targets and will be used in single target threat with constant DS spamming. The added talent for DS is so nice im excited to see what ill be healing myself for lol.

Again CONSTRUCTIVE comments would be appreciated. Excited for blood tanking even more now.

[Vallos]

I'm interested to see how Blood does now that it might actually be viable.

I'm staying Unholy, and I'm absolutely pumped. Single-target threat was mediocre, but sufficient. AOE threat was through the roof. Now they're both just profound.

Here's what I'll be using: http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...1&version=9614

I'm pretty pumped to see what kind of threat it'll be able to pull, assuming changes make it live!

[Firemist]

Out of curiosity why would you still use the glyph for VB, and why not just grab the gargoyle instead of 1% crit?

currently i'm a blood/frost tank, and am curious to see if going unholy for the aoe capabilities is worth the lack of "oh crap" buttons blood/frost has.

[taek]

Is it just me or does it seem like (from all the lowered damage in the patch notes) that DK threat generation is going to take a decent hit.

Frost single target Threat will be about the same or even go up. AE threat, not so sure. Depends on if HB is off CD or not.

OB in many cases was higher damage than HB to begin with, so people are going to stay OB for FU runes. KM procs will be saved for FS, which looks it's getting a buff with BotN.

The most interesting change to rotations will be the new Pestilence glyph, which refreshes diseases on your target. You can essentially drop both IT/PS from your 2nd & later rotations, so instead of F + U for IT/PS you can use 1 B for pestilence every 15 seconds. This has the added benefit of not accidentally using your KM proc on an IT (something that still happens to me randomly).

Glyph of Pestilence *new* -- Your Pestilence ability now refreshes disease durations on your primary target back to their maximum duration.

Overall it looks good for Frost tank threat, which was always 2H anyway.