Mobus's Dripping Halberd and Tanking

[Ohmbre]

So I recently acquired the polearm off Mobus, scourge of the seven seas, white whale, holy grail!

I know many people consider it best in slot for tanking pre-HC because it has the highest damage mitigation and avoidance stats of any weapon. But I noticed it also has a severe drawback, the weapon speed. My dps, and subsequently my threat, has dropped a significant amount since acquiring it. My DS and Heart Strikes hit like wet noodles. So, I was wondering what I could do in a raid environment to be more competitive in threat generation. I tested the thing out in heroics and going toe to toe with some people I found I was consistently having things ripped off me, granted some of these people are 3/13 geared compared to my sparse 353-359 gearing.

My priority system is usually as follows:
Diseases
CDs (one at a time)
Death Strikes after big hits (depending on what boss I am facing)
Blood Runes on CD (I game these for procs on my other runes)
Death Strike spam
Rune Strike
Bone Shield

I was honestly considering glyphing DRW as they seem to be nerfing our threat generation even more next patch with Rune Strikes modifiers, although I am not completely certain on that one.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[solvexx]

So I recently acquired the polearm off Mobus, scourge of the seven seas, white whale, holy grail!

I know many people consider it best in slot for tanking pre-HC because it has the highest damage mitigation and avoidance stats of any weapon. But I noticed it also has a severe drawback, the weapon speed. My dps, and subsequently my threat, has dropped a significant amount since acquiring it. My DS and Heart Strikes hit like wet noodles. So, I was wondering what I could do in a raid environment to be more competitive in threat generation. I tested the thing out in heroics and going toe to toe with some people I found I was consistently having things ripped off me, granted some of these people are 3/13 geared compared to my sparse 353-359 gearing.

My priority system is usually as follows:
Diseases
CDs (one at a time)
Death Strikes after big hits (depending on what boss I am facing)
Blood Runes on CD (I game these for procs on my other runes)
Death Strike spam
Rune Strike
Bone Shield

I was honestly considering glyphing DRW as they seem to be nerfing our threat generation even more next patch with Rune Strikes modifiers, although I am not completely certain on that one.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

The Rune Strike threat nerf has been reversed.
Diseases arent needed at the start, its better to only apply them via Outbreak once a minute.
Other than that, you are doing things stock standard and normal.

[Ohmbre]

I usually don't use the diseases at all except when refreshing with Outbreak. Do you believe I should wait before casting outbreak initially, until I have actually hit the boss with a solid ability? I usually cast it running in, but I have issues off the bat with someone unloading before I have struck the boss at least once in randoms. In raids I would hope my hunter or rogue would be more on top of things, granted I haven't exactly been tanking raids yet as power vacuums and they don't know how good I am or not.

I was thinking about just blowing DG/DCom or something right off the bat from now on to ensure I have a moment with the boss to hit them.

[Zaubo]

Tanking without diseases is silly, and completely inadvisable since that is your source of debuffs (damage reduction, attack speed). If anyone tells you tanking without diseases is ok, they are flat out wrong.

As far as starting threat, I typically do it like this:
While running in, Outbreak
Open with a Death Strike
lol at your threat lead

Honestly that sounds too easy, but a couple Death Strikes early as well as a Heart Strike will give you so much threat it is unfair. Getting DRW up ASAP can also help if you are having issues with people pulling bosses.

On top of that, you should never have boss threat issues if your raiders are "doing it right". My arcane mage and arms warrior open up around 50k DPS off the bat. If you have issues, MD/TotT, and a well placed taunt can give you a few seconds extra time to get your threat going with Vengeance.

[Ohmbre]

I seem to have a tendency to miss all my first Death Strikes. And I definitely understand the disease setup. It may really have just been the fact that I was tanking a heroic, but it seemed the target I was attacking was still being peeled off me with the new weapon. In a raid setting I would likely refresh my diseases manually if no other form of the debuff existed. (In the heroics (that I seem to be relegated to) it seems unimportant, mobs die before that point).

I will try taunting if my first DS misses. The peels in that particular heroic I was tooling around in were actually happening about 10-20 seconds in, which was likely a result of me securing threat on adds.

[Urass]

Dark Command -> DS -> HS -> HS -> DS -> RP dump (Rune Strike) (use Death Grip if u see ur loosing aggro while doing this) Single target Heroic Dungeons.

never use this for raids, as if you have another tank that need to taunt off u.

From Millerz

[Zao]

It may really have just been the fact that I was tanking a heroic, but it seemed the target I was attacking was still being peeled off me with the new weapon. In a raid setting I would likely refresh my diseases manually if no other form of the debuff existed. (In the heroics (that I seem to be relegated to) it seems unimportant, mobs die before that point).

I guess that's the problem. Threat in heroics is significantly tougher than threat in raid, since all mobs (trash and boss) hit for less and die faster. So we have little chance of building a nice stack of vengeance.

Also: You should not apply diseases with PS/IT if the debuffs are brought by someone else. The cost of one DS is quite hefty and should be avoided whenever possible.

[Nos]

Dark Command -> DS -> HS -> HS -> DS -> RP dump (Rune Strike) (use Death Grip if u see ur loosing aggro while doing this) Single target Heroic Dungeons.

never use this for raids, as if you have another tank that need to taunt off u.

From Millerz

^ This is what I do. And I have 0.00% hit right now, and no trouble holding agro. Now, that could change with this weapon, who knows. Just sayin.

Your taunts are on short cooldowns. Whore those things out. I taunt at the start of, and throughout every pull. HS, DS, and RS alot.

[Dyzon]

Don't forget, DnD for 1 rune is a fantastic threat generator and passive after the initial GCD. Sure it can screw with your flow, but if you're having threat issues there's no reason to not drop it.