AoE threat inferior to other tanks as Blood, gem for it or swallow it?

[_Khasim_]

First of all, my armory.
I don't like being Blood. It's really boring, but it's the best spec raid-wise, because tanks are supposed to survive, which Blood does better than other trees while having no problems with threat. However, on every trash pack or on the adds in lootship, being Blood feels like somebody clipped my wings. I use a standard rotation of DnD – IT – PS – Pest DS – BB – BB – DS and then BB on every blood/death rune while keeping up the diseases, and every time I do that on a trash pack, warriors generally have 3+ mobs on them, while I have 1, 2 at most (without taunting/DG'ing anything).

I came up with an idea to either gem for pure STR or str+sta as a tank (while keeping my meta active ofc) and put FC on my weapon (which I already did today for some testing since I'm way over the def cap, but tests didn't show up everything because my bro made my internet lag like hell >.<), and then check if there was a serious difference in AoE threat, since I believe that BB benefits from AP. I'm currently 31 frost badges away from getting my last item (Cataclysmic Chestguard), which will allow me to use my heroic Bryn Troll (which might be on my armory page since I tank HCs with it for fun, I hate the looks of RBoC) as a tanking weapon. However, obviously, I would lose a fair chunk of Stamina by doing that.

Am I doing something wrong with my rotation? Is my gem idea completely pointless? Or perhaps I should just swallow it and accept the fact that blood DKs suck in aoe threat?
Please ignore the trolls. Any unusual idea is a troll magnet, so I expect a few of them here as well.

[Foibles]

Make a set with dps gear mixed in, and glyph DnD instead of Death Strike. Then you can pretty much drop DnD and afk.

[alien1099]

I haven't raided or played seriously since February (not long after the second wing in ICC was opened up) but I never had any problems with AE threat. Check my armory profile in my sig.

[Deleted]

Make a set with dps gear mixed in, and glyph DnD instead of Death Strike. Then you can pretty much drop DnD and afk.

This. Or just go for Glyphed DnD if you don't want to AFK.

P.S.

Orc ride around on wolves why not have worgen Orcs ride around on orcs Worgen?

Fixed That would be nice though.... Hehehehe, some real use for our Furry Friends

[RaiGadi]

oops
editing...

[Deleted]

Lay DnD, Spread Disease - Spam BB
If somebody pulls aggro during it let them die

[Foibles]

Lay DnD, Spread Disease - Spam BB
If somebody pulls aggro during it let them die

Or you could make a few simple changes so the dps can go all out and not worry about pulling threat, thus saving healer mana and making the run go faster.

[Organoth]

First off, get the crafted 264 legs and the 264 chest for the 4 piece.

On topic for your threat, Glyph DnD like others said but you can also try DnD>BB>IT>PS then get into spreading your dieseases and your BB rotation when the runes come off their first CD. You also have Empower Rune Weapon to reset your runes allowing you to do that itial AoE pull and immedetly hit Pest and BB again for big threat. DK tanks are not equal to classes like Paladins for AoE threat, especially in ICC. Blizzard didn't intend for it to be such a big difference but with the inflated gear scaling in WotLK it just happened that way. It also doesn't help that DKs weren't designed with a dedicated tanking tree so our balance is off compared to others. Blizzard wants all tanks to work harder for their threat in Cata and with the threat decay we won't be able to get so far ahead that we can just go AFK.

[_Khasim_]

Thanks for the advice, guys! Gonna try glyphing DnD asap.
@Organoth - I'm getting the 264 emblem chest because according to EJ it is one of the 2 BiS chests for DKs (the other one is the 277 set chest) and I need the expertise from the set pants, since without Ramaladni I'll be a little under the soft cap, but I always have the expertise food.

[Deleted]

4Piece T10 is situational, its great for Festergut Progress and LK HC Progress, outside of those two Encounters its no use getting it for everyday use unless you can get Helm, Shoulders, Chest and Gloves as 264. Never legs, those should always be the Crafting Legs since they're BiS. And even then its really worth breaking for any upgrade you can get.

For Expertise you can even drop to 20 and below if you don't have Threat issues, 26 is only necessary on Sindragosa due to Parry-Haste, and even with her outside of Progress its barely important anymore.

Drop some Hit btw, you're way over the Cap.

[Organoth]

Thanks for the advice, guys! Gonna try glyphing DnD asap.
@Organoth - I'm getting the 264 emblem chest because according to EJ it is one of the 2 BiS chests for DKs (the other one is the 277 set chest) and I need the expertise from the set pants, since without Ramaladni I'll be a little under the soft cap, but I always have the expertise food.

Like Alcotraz said you don't really "need" the 4 piece bonus unless you are doing some of the harder hitting Heroic fights. The rest of the CDs we have are more then enough to live through anything else. Stop trying to use DPS gear and enchants to try and make up for your threat. You only do that if you have so much end-game tanking gear that you're start to hit things like the Armor cap and are above things like the Expertise cap not below. Yeah can be below the Expertise cap if you don't have threat issues but you DO have threat issues so get yourself capped. Get the 219 lvl ring from ToC 5m Heroic for Expertise, get tanking bracers and enchant them with Expertise instead of Attack Power. ANd switch back to your tanking trinkets. ToC 5m reg has an great one http://www.wowhead.com/item=47216, then ofcrouse there's the badge trinket and the drop off Professor 10m (Not the best but for fast hitting bosses like Sarufang it works well).

Little side note for everyone here to see what they think, lately I've been using Glyph of Rune Tap over Glyph of Vampiric Blood. That base 10 seconds from Vampiric Blood has never been an issue for me and I've never found myself needing more time then that. With Glyph of Rune Tap combined with our huge health pools in ICC it makes for one big ass heal and the bonus party healing never hurts.

[Foibles]

It's a big heal, but the better your healers are the harder it is to use effectively. I do find it more useful in 10 man than 25. The harder the fights you do, the more useful GoVB becomes when you can chain it, IBF, trinkets, and 4pc (if you have it) for almost 100% cooldown uptime.

[Deleted]

Only place I've used GoRT (ever) is with my LK HC Spec to help soaking Infest and Spirits, it works well, apart from there haven't tried it but others claim its pretty good. Would drop GoRS before GoVB though, or even DS really.

[Foibles]

Definitely GoDS way before RS or VB. (Or DnD in my case!)

[Snuffleupagus]

I tank ICC25 all the way through with a single spec designed to tank HM LK and HM Sindragosa. With the changes to Icy Slam, AOE threat is not an issue.

Do NOT be afraid to pop Empowered Rune Weapon and Blood Tap on trash to get more Icy touches in. I tank with a geared Paladin and I generally hold more mobs than him.

[Organoth]

Only place I've used GoRT (ever) is with my LK HC Spec to help soaking Infest and Spirits, it works well, apart from there haven't tried it but others claim its pretty good. Would drop GoRS before GoVB though, or even DS really.

Rune Strike is so important to our threat I wouldn't do anything to reduce it's damage. I use Glyph of Rune Tap, DnD and Rune Strike. Now I'm not tanking H LK 25 as my DK is just my alt so I can't say a longer Vampiric Blood is not needed for that fight. But I've personally never found a need for a 15 second Vampiric Blood.

[Foibles]

I tank ICC25 all the way through with a single spec designed to tank HM LK and HM Sindragosa. With the changes to Icy Slam, AOE threat is not an issue.

Do NOT be afraid to pop Empowered Rune Weapon and Blood Tap on trash to get more Icy touches in. I tank with a geared Paladin and I generally hold more mobs than him.

You 'hold' aoe threat on trash over a Paladin by individually casting Icy Touch on EVERY MOB?

[Rüster]

Or you can do what I do for aoe trash. It's quite simple really. I let the other tank/tanks deal with it. I'm a boss tank. Simple as that.

Also, for "other" tanks. Any plate wearer with a 30% health buff is a tank imo. On all trash except the blood wing trash. And even then all I do is tank the tacticians. IBF and EMfH ftw.

[Gazgul]

I used to tank ICC 25 hc with 2 bloodspecs.

1spec for AOE
1spec for bosses

My AOE spec had 3/3 in D&D- Glyph of D&D, and Glyph of icy Touch (which increased the dot dmg of frost feaver by 20-30% i forget exactly how much)
This spec and glyph combination + the 2 part t10 bonus is really usefull for aoe threat. Better then Frost aoe imo.

BUT it does gimp you for bosses . Not by much mind you, but enough to warrent 2 tank specs for progression or tougher fights.

At the moment i roll DW-frost tank spec and MT-blood tank spec.

Mainly just for a change of pase as iv tanked icc as blood for 9 months and it was getting borring :P

Abyiss - Dunemaul EU if u wanna check me out.

[Snuffleupagus]

You 'hold' aoe threat on trash over a Paladin by individually casting Icy Touch on EVERY MOB?

Icy Touch + DnD + Blood Boil is amazing threat.