[Blood] Tanking Challenge mode dungeons

[LichbornEU]

Hello everyone,

I have a few questions about challenge mode dungeon and tanking them (I know its about measuring skill rather than gear, but being better prepared never hurt anyone) :

1) General gearing questions

I understand that gear item level is getting scaled down to 463 - none upgraded heroic gear, and that there are some ways to "trick" the system.
I want to make sure i understand that claim since after reading a few threads about it i got some mixed opinions.

Is it better to look for gear with gems or is it all the same after the scale down to an ilvl 463 budget (is the socket bonus really "bonus stats")?
Do the profession specific benefits count, do the blacksmithing extra sockets work or get ignored?
Do enchants count or get ignored?
Do flasks and food buffs work?
What other ways can i tweak my gear in?


2) Blood death knight gearing questions

What stats should i look for? my friend is saying i should aim for items that have stamina dodge and parry and as many gems as possible for maximum survival such as:

wowhead.com/item=81287
wowhead.com/item=81696

And gem it for stamina or mastery (depending on socket color).

Does that cut it? wouldn't i miss a lot of mastery?

Any example of some sort of BiS gear for tanking the challenge modes would be awesome

I'm looking for answers from people who are experienced with the challenge modes and can shed some light on them, since so far i did quite get the picture yet.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Kaykay]

What stats should i look for? my friend is saying i should aim for items that have stamina dodge and parry and as many gems as possible for maximum survival such as:

Having tanked on druid/monk/deathknight i personally feel the dk is the easiest tank due to tools such as gorefiends, grips and the sheer amount of cd's. and the strength of deathstrike.

I went hitcap (you do not want to miss a taunt) mastery > dodge > parry > expertise. I managed to get to around 110% absorb. Having the valor trinket from shado pan greatly increased general survivability as you have it on pretty much every pull, and for the 2nd slot i grabbed the stam trink from mogushan palace. The amount of hp you have will greatly help your healer as he usually have many things to do outside of keeping the tank up (dpsing as disc, lightning as monk) which can help you get the timed.

edit: I'm not sure if you're aware. But a trick i found for all three tanks is that when you can get away with it (using chillblains, brews as monk or mangle as druid) Putting up solid threat on targets (using all runes) and then semi-kiting the mobs, so it coincides with your runes, eg.

Get in, icy/plague/deathstrike/bloodboilx2. Wait for runes, 2 deathstrikes, break from melee by semi kiting. hit stuff at range with bloodboil. And reapply deathstrikes when runes are ready.

That way every attack on you will be mitigated with bloodshields. Especially for stormstout the first 5 monkeys, can be a pain, the huge pull in mogushan palace where you pull everything upto the first boss.

[Ryleylol]

I just went with my normal DPS gear (full str gems), didn't bother to kite anything except the giant pull of monkeys in SSB. Swapped to 4 piece tier set for the additional sockets though not sure if it made a difference, also swapped out my RPPM trinkets for a Darkmoon Card and Will trinket.

If you know how to pull efficiently, you don't have to pull all the trash all the time if you're going for gold. For example in Kaykays post you don't need to grab all the trash up to the first boss in MSP, you can do it in two, etc. I think the only time I pulled more than one pack at a time was in GSS up to the first boss which caused more headaches than it was worth. If I were to do it again I'd probably do that in two pulls as well.

Stat wise I don't bother with mastery, I think I had somewhere around 2k mastery and 5k haste, str flask and str food with hit cap and exp soft cap. Everything works in them except the legendary meta gem and 500 stat gem. So professions, world buffs, whatever etc will work in them.

[LichbornEU]

I just went with my normal DPS gear (full str gems), didn't bother to kite anything except the giant pull of monkeys in SSB. Swapped to 4 piece tier set for the additional sockets though not sure if it made a difference, also swapped out my RPPM trinkets for a Darkmoon Card and Will trinket.

If you know how to pull efficiently, you don't have to pull all the trash all the time if you're going for gold. For example in Kaykays post you don't need to grab all the trash up to the first boss in MSP, you can do it in two, etc. I think the only time I pulled more than one pack at a time was in GSS up to the first boss which caused more headaches than it was worth. If I were to do it again I'd probably do that in two pulls as well.

Stat wise I don't bother with mastery, I think I had somewhere around 2k mastery and 5k haste, str flask and str food with hit cap and exp soft cap. Everything works in them except the legendary meta gem and 500 stat gem. So professions, world buffs, whatever etc will work in them.

Str? Did you tank it in dps gear?

[Ryleylol]

Str? Did you tank it in dps gear?

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...yleyx/advanced

What you see there, basically. Swapped out my helm for the haste/crit one off animus, swapped out trinkets as mentioned, and swapped to 4pc DPS for the additional sockets. Forgot to mention there were two other bigish pulls, one in scholomance after rattlegore and in scarlet monastery after brother kolof where I pulled multiple packs at a time, but there wasn't any real unmanageable damage. The pack of mobs after Armsmaster in Scarlet Halls might be iffy so I suggest popping Army there while focusing down the evoker for flame strikes.

[Kaykay]

I just went with my normal DPS gear (full str gems), didn't bother to kite anything except the giant pull of monkeys in SSB. Swapped to 4 piece tier set for the additional sockets though not sure if it made a difference, also swapped out my RPPM trinkets for a Darkmoon Card and Will trinket.

If you know how to pull efficiently, you don't have to pull all the trash all the time if you're going for gold. For example in Kaykays post you don't need to grab all the trash up to the first boss in MSP, you can do it in two, etc. I think the only time I pulled more than one pack at a time was in GSS up to the first boss which caused more headaches than it was worth. If I were to do it again I'd probably do that in two pulls as well.

Stat wise I don't bother with mastery, I think I had somewhere around 2k mastery and 5k haste, str flask and str food with hit cap and exp soft cap. Everything works in them except the legendary meta gem and 500 stat gem. So professions, world buffs, whatever etc will work in them.

You can do most pulls in two if your dpsers have their buttons in order. Otherwise the aoe pulls will help meet timers. I gotta admit i find it hard to believe going all out dps stats when tanking cm's have any benefits that outweigh the unnecesary pressure your healer comes under. But kudos for managing = P

[rhapso]

Hit/Exp 7.5% > Mastery > Haste with DPS trinkets and Fallen Crusader weapon enchant is what I went with. A lot of dps and still enough tankyness, but that all depends on your healer/comps - with a lot of stuns, you won't need that much survival and with almost no stuns, you will need to focus more on surviving ;p

[Ryleylol]

You can do most pulls in two if your dpsers have their buttons in order. Otherwise the aoe pulls will help meet timers. I gotta admit i find it hard to believe going all out dps stats when tanking cm's have any benefits that outweigh the unnecesary pressure your healer comes under. But kudos for managing = P

Yeah, if I were to go again I'd probably just go full haste gems or something, but we all went in there not knowing what to expect and the damage didn't seem that unreasonable, but calling out for cds or when stuns and shit were going out on mumble helps as well. A bit of kiting with chillblains helps as well =p

[JGWentworth]

Taunts can't miss...

[Kaykay]

Taunts can't miss...

true didn't remember that change. I'd still go for hit though, as icy touch works well as initial threat and is our only ranged threat-builder to follow up a taunt.

[Spartanics]

Taunts can't miss...

True but Taunts are just like a CC. If you taunt it the first time and then its taunted 2 more times theres a 15 second cool down. For example: Hunters pet or Warlock pet who have growl on will pull aggro off you and its untauntable for 15 seconds.


Challenge mode spec:
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#kD\|f
Similar to the 5 man spec, but made for fast chain pulling through large groups of trash as well as some add control options.

Depending on the healer depends on your stats. ENG is great for pve for dk's. I dont know how many countless times it has saved me during a close call.


Also note that Every piece scales down until it reaches ilvl 463. If you have any items that are lower than 463, they won't be scaled up.

Hit is also completely unaffected by the scaling, whether it's reforged into or out of; if you're hit-capped when you start, you'll stay capped. Every other stat is scaled down to 463 levels. Sockets, however, retain their full potency, meaning gear with more sockets, unless it's really terribly itemized, will be better than gear without -- and yes, those extra sockets mean a ton when challenge modes are balanced around you not having them.

Unfortunately, Sha-touched gems, set bonuses, and the legendary meta gem's proc (not its static stats) don't work in challenge modes. RPPM trinkets also have their proc rates scaled down to levels where they're hardly worth it. Use trinkets with internal cooldowns instead.

[Deleted]

As already said you're probably best off in DPS gear, use defensive CDs on trash pulls and aoe stuns, you can make good use of dark sim in a few of the dungeons like scholomance and MSP, and control undead also in scholomace and in SM too.