mitigating damage

[Yerbury]

Hello all

Last night I dusted off my lvl 76 priest and went into The Old Kingdom with some guildies. The group consisted of 2 lvl 80 DKs, an 80 shaman, myself and a lvl 72 DK.

We had never run this instance before. That said, we figured we'd have no trouble as we seemed a very overpowered group for an instance of this level. We did it on normal mode.

While everything went fine, the 80 DK who acted as MT lost health at a crazy rate. Whether it was boss fights or clearing trash, I was spamming heals on him as quickly as possible just to keep him alive. Other group members seemed to be fine.

Is there anything that he can do to mitigate the damage he is taking? I'm not going to name him on the forums, but he is Unholy spec, with about 17.8k health (unbuffed) and 12.2k armor.

[Maliander]

Having those HP and armor values at level 80 while in frost presence requires being half-naked. My guess: he was in Blood or Unholy presence or forgot to unequip his RP set.

[Yerbury]

I honestly couldn't tell you.

We are all finding our way. My main is a mage; his is a warrior. Our guild gets along great, and we are always looking for (and gratefully receiving) constructive feedback. He volunteered that the damage he was taking was a problem - we just need to put our heads together and figure out why.

[keeprock]

Just for reference, my death knight is level 78 (frost) and I have 17.6k health and 13.3k armor. So the numbers aren't extremely low but at 80 you should be collecting better gear more easily and start heading for 30k health, etc.

I agree that it sounds like his defense is too low and he's getting critted alot. I'm already at 543 and I have been for a long time. I'd check that.

[Keemen]

maybe he forgot to put on his tank gear?

Was he able to hold Arggo?

Maybe he was new at tanking and did not understand the tricks of tanking.

I understand about not wanting to name but without looking at the gear that was worn and see the specs, and gemming, it is really hard to tell.

I have attempted to OT while still in DPS gear and failed miserable.

[taek]

Is there anything that he can do to mitigate the damage he is taking?

AN, even on normal, is primarily AE Poison & Shadow damage. Someone has to be on the ball on curing AE poison, and DPS have to be on the ball on interrupting the AE shadow bolts.

But that being said, your DK's stats look amazingly bad.

[Yerbury]

Thanks for the feedback everyone - very helpful.

I spoke with him about it earlier today, and he confirmed that he does not possess much in the way of tanking gear, so clearly that is the main problem. We'll bring in a dedicated tank until he is up-to-par with his gear.

He did hold aggro very well, so I don't think it is an issue of his ability. That said, I have looked around and his stats are very low compared other lvl 80 DKs.

Again, thanks for the positive input.

[Gomexus]

Thanks for the feedback everyone - very helpful.

I spoke with him about it earlier today, and he confirmed that he does not possess much in the way of tanking gear, so clearly that is the main problem. We'll bring in a dedicated tank until he is up-to-par with his gear.

He did hold aggro very well, so I don't think it is an issue of his ability. That said, I have looked around and his stats are very low compared other lvl 80 DKs.

Again, thanks for the positive input.

Direct him here: http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=28521.0

It's a pre-heroic tanking gear list. It's not entirely necessary to get every piece of it since it was made prior to Stone Skin Gargoyle Runeforge being put into the game...but it's a very nice list with fairly easy to attain gear choices.

If he has been lvl 80 for a while he is probably up to the point of having higher rep with some factions. That will also help make it easier for him to gear up his tank set.

It's entirely possible to get a complete set of tank gear without running a single dungeon/heroic past a little rep grinding for Wyrmrest and Argent.

There are plenty of player made and quest items around to help gear up.

From the stats you posted it really seems as if he was in dps gear and just switched to frost presence for additional threat. Maybe he chose to do this to help burn through the run faster...or maybe he just doesn't have any tank gear. In regular OK even with a base defense rating of 400 those level 74ish mobs should not have been getting too many crits on him...I am leaning more towards low avoidance and not using his CD's properly...without much dodge/parry your Bone Shield will last about 10 seconds on trash pulls and with 400 defense his IBF is only at 20% efficiency. Basically he was taking almost 80% of all hits instead of taking ~35% of all hits...crit or not that is alot of incoming damage.

[Yerbury]

Thoughtful comments Gomexus - thank you. I will certainly direct him to that link.

[frozenpatato]

http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=28521.0 as said above, very good thread for DK who just got 80.

If his specs suck, direct him here also: http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=29716.0