DK tanking, and damage taken

[Supergoofy]

Ok. Long story short. I got an offspec tanking spec, and gear.
My gear is quite good, i think about 5 pieces of 258 (Not awesome in anyway, but good for a offspec)
http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...renas&n=Borlaq

However, i seem to be taking alot more damage then my other tanks in equal or even somewhat lesser gear while tanking in raids.

Is this a general issue with Dk tanks atm? Or am i doing something terribly wrong? It's not like im turning my back to bosses or anything. And yes, im in frostpressence while tanking.

I'll try to keep on logging off in tank gear and spec so you can check my armory.
So i hope someone can help out with ways to improve, or atleast let me know if this is a dk problem atm.

[Lights]

From my own dk's pov i seem to take a lot more dmg in heroics than fx a pala or warrior - mainly because we dont got shieldblock. In icc10man there didnt seem to be much difference between the warrior tank and me. This is what i remember thou, but ill try see what the healers from the last 10man have to say.

[Akshak]

Biggest thing is what he eluded to - the absence of block value. We don't block - we only dodge and parry (2/3 of the other stats on some tank gear). I experience the same things but manage to get by just by clever use of my "Oh s**t" CD's and good healers behind me.

[Pieterman]

looks fine, use cooldowns more often perhaps, otherwise get proper trinkets.

[Arachnan]

Having maintanked ICC10 up to putricide and completed totgc with 49 attempts left (damn those faction champions and their random burst) I can agree with what's said above. DK tanks take ALOT more damage than any other tank when you overgear an instance. I am noticing this myself with my newly dinged 80 prot paladin. Funily enough I am building a SBV set for him, and with my libram up (selfbuffed) I am running with 3k SBV. "normal" heroic mobs don't even hit me. While on my dk I still only have my 56% avoidance, and any hits that get trough that will hit me for that 2-3k.

Yes we take more damage, but my deathstrike also heals myself for 7.5-8k. Ofcourse you cannot rely on that heal in raids (altough if you are steaming ahead of aggro, you can watch the boss swings and try to time the heal) but we have powerfull cooldowns. That is, if you are blood. Having vampiric blood up every 45s for a 15s duration if you glyphed it, is pretty awesome.

I'd say that the other 3 tanks are "better" at tanking heroics with higher tier gear than us. Not that we have any trouble with it, but they just take less damage. But in raids we are equal, if not more powerfull single target hard hitting boss tanks trough our various cooldowns.

Oh and, /wave Cataclysm, where block value will be a static % of damage reduced just like armor is now.
That will be interesting to see really.

[kryo27]

56% avoidance is a bit low. I'm sitting at 65%, and still take a lot of damage on HCs, but have no problems tanking ToC 10/25 and ICC 10/25, either in Frost or Blood spec. Confirmed this with my guild healers, they say i take about the same damage as our MTs, which are better geared than i am.

But on HCs, whenever i get sorrounded by a pack of mobs (AOE ftw), i get hit fairly often, and although i parry and dodge a lot, there is not enough damage mitigation.

[General Vezax]

Every tank is a bit different. DKs are the "cooldown tanks" so to speak (or, they used to be). We have the shortest CDs and are balanced around using them all the time. We dont have a true OH SHI- button, as that would be IBF but we need to use it often to counter our lack of block.

Use your 1min CDs all the time, and your damage taken will go down. But in heroics, you will take much more damage than any other tank no matter what you do.

[vkei]

Every tank is a bit different. DKs are the "cooldown tanks" so to speak (or, they used to be). We have the shortest CDs and are balanced around using them all the time. We dont have a true OH SHI- button, as that would be IBF but we need to use it often to counter our lack of block.

Use your 1min CDs all the time, and your damage taken will go down. But in heroics, you will take much more damage than any other tank no matter what you do.

use VB all the time seems stupid

UBA when u don't need will end up only overhealing,but giving some more threat,not bad for 5man,no point for using it every CD unless u need more threat,and doesn't really save u when u need it ,i just use it together with IBF

BA seems good for both oh shit and use every min ,20% 3 hits from a boss should be noticable by healers, but useless as muti-mobs

[gamerguy19876]

Sorry to say this but DK's take alot more Dam than any other tanking class with the same gear lvl. :'(

[mhp]

Sorry to say this but DK's take alot more Dam than any other tanking class with the same gear lvl. :'(

In heroics, yes. On Anub25 adds, yes. Everywhere else? No, not really. Unless the DK fails.

[dreadrune]

in HC's we do take a lot more damage but i haven't really noticed major diffirences in raids, when using my CD's cleaver i generally live longer then our warrior tank

and to reduce damage taken we also have abilites like Blade Barrier, you might want to look into that as its a 5% damage reduction just for using your abilities

overall i'd say we're pretty balanced with other tanks in raids but lacking a bit in HCs