DK tank: Needs some help

[Hasslehoff]

About a month ago before i took a -much needed- break from WoW i was tanking heroics in the SAME GEAR i am tanking in now. Now i am back and im getting back into heroics and raiding and so far all ive been told is how squishy of a tank i am. Im trying to improve myself so i ask the awesome DK community of MMO-champion, what can i do to reduce the damage im taking? The only gear change i made from before my break was changing the DPS bracers i reforged to the bracers i have now (359 ramkahen exalted). So any thoughts? a few healers have said i should try stacking avoidance but idk the values of stat priority to well as i did in WotLK. Any help would be AMAZING!

-Kalbacka

PS.. armory link INC.http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...albacka/simple

[H2O Han]

1) Stack avoidance or 2) stack mastery. With high mastery, your blood shield absorbs more dmg hence reducing damage. The more dmg it can absorb, the less dmg you take. Stacking avoidance will be based on RNG. You take 0 damage, but that can provide spiky dmg taken (ie. no dmg a couple of times...and big dmgx2...dead). From reading around, it doesn't seem very clear to anyone just yet what's the best way to go. I went for number 2. I can't post a link yet to my armory but you can look me up at wowarmory: Handeek. It's my 2nd tank char so it's not as geared yet.

I didn't gem the prismatics yet since I just made them yesterday. Since my mastery is ~19% I might go for the 20ma + 30sta gem instead to get a bit more HP.

[haferflocken]

use cds every trash grp. i do it and i'm not running out of cds

[pibacc]

Simply put, you need more mastery. If an item doesn't have mastery, reforge into it. Gemming for hit is always a no-no, as is pure stam. Your DS shield is your mitigation.

Edit: I'd suggest going to EJ and looking at the DK tank thread, it doesn't have stat priorities yet but it'll show you how to spec. Your spec seems kinda crazy to me :S

[WReck]

The biggest problem I see with tanks being squishy is they are not using their cool downs. I mean all your cool downs to interupt spells use your ghoul to heal your self ice chains and run mobs that have enrage effects if the groups melee dancing rune weapon works great as a defensive CD use your rune tap I highly recommend glyphing for it as well if you can help group heal the healer can focus more on you I also have 2 points in blood parisites same reason it looks like you are worried a lot about threat in your spec and I just don't think threats much of an issue at all for DK's if people are following marks. speaking of marks mark a skull and X if players are focus firing down mobs it reduces the damage you are taking. On a side note go get your hyjal belt and reforge the crit.
Most of all remember your CD's though there are tons for a DK and the CD times are pretty short so use them often.

[Carneage]

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...%C3%B2n/simple

Here is my armory for some consideration. I took a lot of the advice from Elitistjerks and unfortunately for Death Knights tanks right now everything is up in the air for what we should be doing, So I socket Stam, Reforge Mastery and balance out my dodge and parry rating due to one stat actually losing weight the more you have of it.

The biggest thing that could help you is getting a good Lichborne macro, Pop lichborne and in the same button use death coil to heal yourself (Because you are undead from the lichborne! yay!), You need to spec into this first, For unholy just put to points in epidemic, This makes ur diseases last 30 seconds which lines up perfectly with the 1 minute cooldown on pestilence. Also you should probably copy my glyphs, as there are no other glyphs that are really even helpful other than what im using. Getting stam trinkets is probably the best way to, Socketing stam and trinketing it ensures a good health pool for some cushion, as we dont have a shield to just block and mitigate dmg constantly, we have to resort to using death strike and its shield, preferably after a hit to maximize the healing effect, It helps to death strike or at least attempt to death strike every 8 seconds.

Just noticed you wanna get rid of those + to dodge and hit rating green gems, Use + to mastery and stamina.

A good tip for pulling is when ur opening, Death grip and use Pestilence, then do ur normal Death Strike, Heart Strike, Rune Strike.

#showtooltip Lichborne
/cast Lichborne;
/cast [@player] Death Coil

^^ This is the macro for the lichborne heal.

---------- Post added 2011-02-28 at 10:40 PM ----------

Also, for mitigating/using cooldowns, dont be afraid to use vampiric blood more often, Have glyph of vampiric blood and it'll work great! Only a 1 minute cooldown and it lasts 20 seconds, Sheesh, thats like a passive 13 more healing on you if you use it everytime its up.

Glyph of vampiric blood drops the stam bonus but increases the healing bonus to 40%

Anti Magic shell in select situations is amazing, I use it everytime Im tanking cho'gall and he uses flame weapon (25-40k fire dmg every melee swing) That is just one example and it save my healers a lot of mana!

Overall, You could use some improvements from heroics, so I wouldnt be too worried about how much dmg ur taking until you are in all ilevel 346 gear.

Also keep in mind I have mastery on every piece of gear im using. Its great!

[Rimuladas]

Gemming for Hit is not a no-no. If your Death Strike doesnt hit when you need it to, you just lost 10k+ heals. Use all your 3min or less cooldowns on every pull possible. Death Strike everytime its up. Dont use diseases except when applied by Outbreak.

[Carneage]

Gemming for Hit is not a no-no. If your Death Strike doesnt hit when you need it to, you just lost 10k+ heals. Use all your 3min or less cooldowns on every pull possible. Death Strike everytime its up. Dont use diseases except when applied by Outbreak.

BAD! BAD DK! No! Stop filling these peoples heads with bad advice.*Gets the water bottle out, squirts nose with water* BAD!

[gibbie99]

Alot of people will say gem for avoidance but if you are 'squishy' then i would go for stamina or stamina/something to fill the socket bonus. Mostly if i see a tank at like 190k in heroics i am not going to worry too much. But a tank with 150k its pretty hard to heal them. Def. use your CDs, and maybe even hit some regulars for a bit until you get your slots filled. Also enchanting is pretty impt on ilvl 333 and above. Most of the cata enchants are pretty cheap (although many are designed for raiding, and are very non-cheap). Check the AH for enchant scrolls. Dont be afraid to regem if you need to. Most impt get used to people using CC. Don't feel like you have to have threat on everything all the time. Dps can take a few swings generally speaking, and its better them than a corpse run.