Blood Princes Tank Spec

[Za1k]

Like Gihille said, seemed to be more like 10-15 sec. It was more the case than when I had 4 on me, I was looking around for another to grab cuz 1 of them was probably within 10 sec or so of dying off. Their natural decay is pretty quick.

Also, I agree that Soul Fire spam would be more DPS. BUT the majority of the time he has 1 HP and although you are still doing full damage it's not like DPS really matters (if you're the ranged tank). Trust me when I say you'll be way more focused on picking up the Nuclei than DPS on Keleseth or anyother Prince. This fight is in no way a DPS race. Hell, I'm not even sure if theres an enrage. If youre holding threat, that's what matters.

I think that this fight would be awesome to DPS as Demo. Supposing that shooting a Shadowbolt at one of the Princes not Empowered does procc Decimate (since they technically are below 35% health), you could very easily set a focus macro to get Decimate to proc, and then just absolutely WAIL on the actual DPS target. I havent tried it, but I'd be really curious if this would work

Very true, I had completely overlooked that they didn't actually take any damage when they were at 1hp. And dps doesn't matter because of that.

Thank you for the advice, I am gonna tank this tonight, wish me luck

[Lordcrimmeh]

I just finished the fight with my guild a bit earlier. I don't know what might have changed from the PTR, but honestly, a warlock tank isn't necessary at all. We found that the biggest problem in tanking him is the initial pull and 30s-1min where you may not have control of the nuclei and the boss. The damage is high starting out, and unless you have a special spec, theres no real cooldowns to pop as a warlock. After a few unsuccessful attempts (other people aggroing nuclei, bad boss positioning, lack of heals, etc) we swapped to a regular (paladin) tank on Keleseth. The amount of ranged abilities and taunts a paladin has, combined with tanking skill and a big enough health pool to handle a few shadow lances without dying, make them far more effective than a warlock.

If this was a fight more like shadow council or 4 horsemen, where you need more tanks than usual, a warlock might be nice... but most guilds have 3 or more tanks available, so its pretty pointless in a 25man raid setting.

[SpacelySprocket]

Very true, I had completely overlooked that they didn't actually take any damage when they were at 1hp. And dps doesn't matter because of that.

Thank you for the advice, I am gonna tank this tonight, wish me luck

Best of luck to ya!

@Lord:
Your right, a warlock tank is in no way neccesay. Any class that has decent ranged abilities and can hold threat will be fine. Just keep in mind that people raid both 10 and 25 mans. So for the Warlocks out there who will be tanking their 10 mans or even 25's, they come here to the WARLOCK forums for tips and advice which is what we're trying to provide.

Also, unless your Paladin is under 35% health (i.e. in Ardent Defender territory) the only other damage mitigation talents a Tankadin has are Imp Righteous Fury (6%), Guarded by the Light (6%), and Shield of the Templar (3%), for a grand total of 15% mitigation. I did not count BoSanc since a Disc can provide this which means a warlock tank can have it as well, thus they share this mitigation. A Demo Lock has Soul Link (20%) and Master Demonologist (10% with a Felhunter), which totals 30%. On raw mitigation, the Demo Lock wins. The tankadin has more health, for sure, but you cannot come close to straight spell mitigation of a Demo Lock. Also keep in mind this is using the standard 0/56/15 Demo spec. It does not take into account that one could also specc for Nether Prot (another 30%) and Molten Skin (6%). Consequently, all that mitigation makes a Demo lock the perfect tank for grabbing the acheivement. Everybit of mitigation helps making sure your Keleseth tank doesnt take over 25k in a single hit. That 15% advantage a Demo has goes a much longer way as far as that's concerned over the higher health pool of the Prot Pally.

Are people in the wrong if the don't use a warlock? No, you did it. It obviously works. Are they in the wrong if they do use a warlock? Nope. People just need to figure out what works for their composition and guild and go with it. I hope to provide my fellow warlock tanks with as much advice as I can here on the warlock forums

[Vicieus]

Nether Protection is a bit lackluster, considering it's a proactive talent. Also if it's anything like it's BC encarnation, once you proc NP, the mob will target something else.

Also, no point at picking Felguard when you're going to use a Felhunter to tank. 5% damage is HUGE.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IZbG0...cxZVchVbIzV:jd this is what I came up with. Emberstorm for added threat.

Hasn't been like this in BC. Ive tanked illidan and leotheras the blind with NP. still mainting aggro with searing pain.

[Vicieus]

You want specs that will give survivability while still keeping aggro.

heavy destro
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IZ0GchkhbZVfRVbcuVsVcct

or

less with more survivability:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IZbG0hkAdiZVfhVbcuAoV

soul link, master demonologist, molten skin, NP, and you could even use demon armor. Don't know if you'll lose threat though with 2nd spec. Ive used both spec to tank mimis head for 3rd phase of 10m firefighter.

Liked the first spec better though used VWs bubble which absorbs a lot of damage with the 3 points in demonic brutality.

[Ell]

Can some1 tell me what amount of hp a lock should be having on this fight?

[Merckx]

One thing I remember from Leotheras is that Soul Link isn't nearly as good as it first appears. Don't forget that the 20% damage doesn't just disappear, it goes to your pet and so your pet needs to be healed. If you have crappy healers, they will often have a harder time of healing you and your pet instead of healing just you. Considering that this is a new encounter with a lot of stuff going on in the room, a mediocre healer may very well forget to heal pets simply because pets usually don't take damage during the course of a normal encounter.

I hate to think of my healers as crappy, but when I was playing with Soul Link active during our first two pulls, my pet died within the first minute and for the next few pulls I had to remind my healers to heal my pet also. When I reminded them, my felhunter was still dipping pretty low. I ended up not using Soul Link just to make sure I wouldn't lose the 10% magic damage reduction from master demonologist.

[SpacelySprocket]

One thing I remember from Leotheras is that Soul Link isn't nearly as good as it first appears. Don't forget that the 20% damage doesn't just disappear, it goes to your pet and so your pet needs to be healed. If you have crappy healers, they will often have a harder time of healing you and your pet instead of healing just you. Considering that this is a new encounter with a lot of stuff going on in the room, a mediocre healer may very well forget to heal pets simply because pets usually don't take damage during the course of a normal encounter.

I hate to think of my healers as crappy, but when I was playing with Soul Link active during our first two pulls, my pet died within the first minute and for the next few pulls I had to remind my healers to heal my pet also. When I reminded them, my felhunter was still dipping pretty low. I ended up not using Soul Link just to make sure I wouldn't lose the 10% magic damage reduction from master demonologist.

Lol yup. I remember on one of ur pulls I had poor Bheezhem on Defensive still and as soon as he got in melee range, Keleseth put the hurt on him real fast. From then on, I just had him on passive next to me.

Yeah, reminding your healer to keep an eye on your pet is a big deal. Sure you could live without Soul Link, but, to me, 20% mitigation is too tasty to pass up. Have them clcik the Show Pets option on their Grid or whatever they use or set it as their focus or something. As much as a hassle as it seems, it makes their life hella easier since you take way less damage.

[exochaft]

We were having a hit-and-miss experience with the Dark Nuclei, so I couldn't get a real feel for it: When Keleseth does get the invocation, do you have to be careful moving around at the tank to not be out of range of the nuclei even though you have threat on them? Seems whenever we had a caster tank, they would get insta-gibbed when running around to get more nuclei while he was empowered. Happened with an actual tank as well, but the normal takes have the HP/cooldowns to eat it.

[Bakis]

Damn fun to tank this one, hectic like hell at times but very fun indeed
No need to spec or glyph anything special, I just used my usual demo, used soul link and a void walker in case I needed a shield.
Was no problem at all even tho I once forgot not to run into Kel's meleerange

[harky]

In 25 man your Demo Lock should tank it. In 10 man is just doesn't really matter. You need around 24k health to do it safely in 25 man and a bit less in 10. Have your resident Demo Lock do it due to having higher health and 25% damage reduction (no need for the Felhunter, Felguard's reduction works fine). Fun fight. Easy, but fun.

[gherkin]

In 25 man your Demo Lock should tank it. In 10 man is just doesn't really matter. You need around 24k health to do it safely in 25 man and a bit less in 10. Have your resident Demo Lock do it due to having higher health and 25% damage reduction (no need for the Felhunter, Felguard's reduction works fine) low dps and only there to provide buffs for the rest of the group. Fun fight. Easy, but fun.

Fixed. Having any other warlock tank this is a waste of their dps.

[Vicieus]

One thing I remember from Leotheras is that Soul Link isn't nearly as good as it first appears. Don't forget that the 20% damage doesn't just disappear, it goes to your pet and so your pet needs to be healed. If you have crappy healers, they will often have a harder time of healing you and your pet instead of healing just you. Considering that this is a new encounter with a lot of stuff going on in the room, a mediocre healer may very well forget to heal pets simply because pets usually don't take damage during the course of a normal encounter.

I hate to think of my healers as crappy, but when I was playing with Soul Link active during our first two pulls, my pet died within the first minute and for the next few pulls I had to remind my healers to heal my pet also. When I reminded them, my felhunter was still dipping pretty low. I ended up not using Soul Link just to make sure I wouldn't lose the 10% magic damage reduction from master demonologist.

Hey healers. Heal my pet I need it to tank this fight. problem solved. If your pet does die just fel dom another. Would rather risk my pet dying twice then me dying.

[Theplanet]

Nether Protection is a bit lackluster, considering it's a proactive talent. Also if it's anything like it's BC encarnation, once you proc NP, the mob will target something else.

Also, no point at picking Felguard when you're going to use a Felhunter to tank. 5% damage is HUGE.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IZbG0...cxZVchVbIzV:jd this is what I came up with. Emberstorm for added threat.

Nether Protection Dosen't function that way anymore.

[harky]

Fixed. Having any other warlock tank this is a waste of their dps.

That isn't really true. You should be spending the vast majority of your time attacking the kill target, only breaking to make sure you have a few purple poof balls. The aggro table of the non-Invocation princes is a little strange, as is the table on the Nuclei. We MD them on pull, then I throw up a Corruption to make sure I have a proper poof-army, then I DPS the kill target. Near transitions I do make sure to DoT Keleseth and when he goes active I get MD's + Tricks as well as obviously attacking him now. It's more like picking up Leo than anything. You will lose a little DPS, but you lose more from bad placement on a knockback than you would being the 'tank'.

As far as Soul Link? Use it. If you're doing it properly (see above) then Fel Synergy is enough to keep your pet topped off when he isn't empowered. It will take some extra heals when he is empowered, but it's not that big of a deal. If you have an Imp out make sure the little guy is next to you and the HL glyph will keep him up. If you're Afflic uh... won't matter, you don't have SL. HAH! If you're Demo... uhm, I didn't do anything and my Felguard was fine. It's only a problem if you make the mistake of attacking him when he isn't empowered (which is dumb).

[Xynthion]

Fixed. Having any other warlock tank this is a waste of their dps.

I'm the demo lock in my raid and I regularly outdps the destro locks. But hey, I guess you're still stuck in 3.2.

[harky]

I'm the demo lock in my raid and I regularly outdps the destro locks. But hey, I guess you're still stuck in 3.2.

You have bad Destro Locks. Or bad Locks in general since you have Destro Locks.

[Godlikehenry]

I have couple of questions here:

Does hunter's Misdirect work in this fight? (nuclei) In other words, can you misdirect all the nuclei to the warlock?
My guild healers have trouble healing me because i am constantly moving around "dotting" down the nuclei with corruption
(They want me to be stationary for this fight).

is it helpful to wear pvp gear in this fight? I hav2 24k hp unbuffed with pvp gear and 21k hp unbuffed with pve gear.

[harky]

PVP doesn't help much. The Shadow Bolts can't crit and the damage taken doesn't requires extraordinarily high health. 21k unbuffed is like 25k buffed. You only need ~24k on 25 and 21-22k on normal. You should be mostly stationary though... just not because that's what your healers want. Your DPS is higher the more stationary you are and you should be behaving like all other ranged DPS with the exception of hitting some Nuclei. I just grab them with a Searing Pain to limit the damage take and grab new ones as they fall under 25% or so.

[Lordcrimmeh]

Best of luck to ya!

@Lord:
Your right, a warlock tank is in no way neccesay. Any class that has decent ranged abilities and can hold threat will be fine. Just keep in mind that people raid both 10 and 25 mans. So for the Warlocks out there who will be tanking their 10 mans or even 25's, they come here to the WARLOCK forums for tips and advice which is what we're trying to provide.

Also, unless your Paladin is under 35% health (i.e. in Ardent Defender territory) the only other damage mitigation talents a Tankadin has are Imp Righteous Fury (6%), Guarded by the Light (6%), and Shield of the Templar (3%), for a grand total of 15% mitigation. I did not count BoSanc since a Disc can provide this which means a warlock tank can have it as well, thus they share this mitigation. A Demo Lock has Soul Link (20%) and Master Demonologist (10% with a Felhunter), which totals 30%. On raw mitigation, the Demo Lock wins. The tankadin has more health, for sure, but you cannot come close to straight spell mitigation of a Demo Lock. Also keep in mind this is using the standard 0/56/15 Demo spec. It does not take into account that one could also specc for Nether Prot (another 30%) and Molten Skin (6%). Consequently, all that mitigation makes a Demo lock the perfect tank for grabbing the acheivement. Everybit of mitigation helps making sure your Keleseth tank doesnt take over 25k in a single hit. That 15% advantage a Demo has goes a much longer way as far as that's concerned over the higher health pool of the Prot Pally.

Are people in the wrong if the don't use a warlock? No, you did it. It obviously works. Are they in the wrong if they do use a warlock? Nope. People just need to figure out what works for their composition and guild and go with it. I hope to provide my fellow warlock tanks with as much advice as I can here on the warlock forums

I realize people come here looking for warlock help... that's actually why i started the thread.... Looking at the fight to begin with and hearing that a warlock tank was recommended, i figured i'd try to make a spec to be the most effective lock tank for the fight. After doing the fight however (albeit in no special spec, just destro with SL) i found it didn't work too well. My health pool was too low despite damage reduction, and since I, like some other locks, have never had to tank an encounter where i had to pick up adds (my only experience, actually, was from 4 horsemen, where i just used my VW as a meatshield), it just didn't work well.

The reason we found that (in 25man) a paladin tank was better was a matter of health. Once you get into the flow of the fight and picking up nuclei, there really isn't any problem with the empowered shadow lances, since the tank should be taking little or no damage because of the nuclei. The main obstacle we faced was the initial pull, and keeping the tank alive long enough to get the nuclei to reduce damage. We warlocks may have good spell damage reduction (if demo or if spec'd into it) but on the whole, in 25man, it is far easier to have a tank with high health (50k or more in most cases) pop a cooldown and take the hits for long enough to round up the nuclei.

If you're in 10man, where you only have 2 tanks for most encounters, and you happen to have a warlock, sure, they might be the best 3rd tank for this encounter.

For the achievement, the tank still doesn't matter. The only thing from keleseth that should hit you for over 25k is the empowered shadow lance, and no matter who the tank is, they should have enough nuclei to negate the damage anyways.

In short,
25man: largely unnecessary
10man: fine if you don't have a 3rd tank