Guide: Death Knight Tanking 101

[eint]

Since the Blood Tank guide seemed to go over well in this Death Knight community, I just thought I would post my new guide Death Knight Tanking 101 for the benefit of this great MMO-Champion Death Knight community as well. The officially maintained version of the guide can be found at http://forums.worldofdeathknightcraf....php?f=7&t=103 though I will try to update this post to reflect changes over time. Enjoy!

Guide: Death Knight Tanking 101
Author: Nathan "Eint" McIntyre
Version: 1.0
Last Updated: 11.24.2009
Updated To: Patch 3.2.2

Fair Use Policy:
This guide is written specifically for WorldofDeathKnightCraft.com. The author, Nathan "Eint" McIntyre, hereby authorizes this guide to be re-posted and redistributed to other guild forums, sites, or any other location seen fit by the reader so long as the original work remains unchanged and this notice is also posted with it. Thank you for your support and I hope it is of benefit to the Death Knight community.

Introduction:
Being the newest class added to World of Warcraft in it's 5+ years since release, invariably it is also probably the least documented tank currently available. Over the patches since it's release with Wrath of the Lich King, the Death Knight tank has had multiple reworks that have lead to some dramatic changes in play-style and strategy. With this in mind, it is the intention of this guide to provide players with a broad understanding of the tanking mechanics of the Death Knight as well as clear the air about some common misconceptions that continue to plague the class. We are the new kids on the block when it comes to tanking, but that does not mean we are not just as effective as the tried and true core tanks.

Talents:
One of the unique aspects of the Death Knight class is that as of this posting, all three talent tree have completely viable tanking specs with each excelling in different ways. With that in mind, there are three core talents that all Death Knight tanks should NEVER forget (this is without exception). They are Blade Barrier (Blood Tree), Toughness (Frost Tree), and Anticipation (Unholy Tree). Every tank build should have 5/5 in each of these talents as they provide the base damage mitigation for the class. Beyond that there are a number of different variations for talents and glyphs depending on which tree the Death Knight chooses as their main spec. Below are a listing of some basic talent builds for each of the three talent trees. Please keep in mind that there are always different camps who will say "X talent sucks, take Y talent instead", thus I recommend that these be used as a starting point and tweaked to fit each individuals needs and play-style.

Blood Tank: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jMEGV...xZ0gh0L:idGMmV
Frost DW Tank: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#j0EZh...fuzAo0x:kadMmV
Frost Two-Handed Tank: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jcEMZ...buzAo0x:kadMmV
Unholy Tank: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#j0EMZ...c0L0ucq:MALMmV

Glyphs:
In the same way that talents are a hotly debated topic due to personal preference, so too are glyphs. Below are simply some outlines and general reasoning behind each glyph and why it worth considering for your build. Also note that major glyphs are the only ones that are discussed since there are so few minor glyphs currently available that they little to no impact at all on your tanking abilities.

Glyph of Rune Strike: Rune Strike is a massive chunk of the Death Knights threat and thus a free 10% boost to it's critical strike chance and thus threat is just a borderline must have glyph. Personally, I almost always include this glyph in any of my tanking talent builds and would highly recommend that all Death Knight tanks do the same.

Glyph of Vampiric Blood: The extra duration for Vampiric Blood is also considered to be a near must have for any Blood Death Knight Tank. There just aren't any other glyphs available to a Blood tank to give enough reason to not use one of your three glyph slots for this spec defining ability.

Glyph of Dark Death: This is only a glyph that should be used if you are planning on tanking as an Unholy Death Knight. Since one of your core threat abilities as an Unholy Death Knight Tank is Death Coil, this ability is a "no brainer" for the raw 20% damage increase. Just think of it as even more threat while you are spamming Death Coil to build up your Unholy Blight stacks.

Glyph of Unholy Blight: Once again, this is a glyph that should only be used when tanking as an Unholy Death Knight which probably goes without saying due to where Unholy Blight is in the talent tree. With that said, all the reasons that Glyph of Dark Death is used can be applied to Glyph of Unholy Blight. The straight 40% damage increase will be a massive amount of threat increase.

Glyph of Bone Shield: Since this is the spec defining tanking ability for the Unholy Death Knight it goes without saying that this is a must have talent. The extra charge to Bone Shield allows for more "up-time" and thus is a massive part of the Unholy Death Knight's damage mitigation ability. No Unholy Death Knight Tank should ever be caught without this glyph, period.

These are some of the key glyphs that I felt were worth spending some extra time discussing and pointing out. Unholy Death Knights are by far the most restrictive talent spec when it comes to glyphs as you pretty much have only three glyphs that should be taken. For Frost and Blood Death Knights you are given a little more slack and choice in glyph selection. For examples regarding my glyph recommendations for each tank talent build, please look at the tank build links in the Talents section of this guide.

Strategy:
Starting it Off Right, The Pull:
Single Target: A good pull is always the first part of a successful encounter. Botch the pull and you are starting your fight off at a disadvantage that is guaranteed to have side effects on the rest of the raid or group due to the confusion and chaos. With that said, as a Death Knight the best way to start a pull is to use your Taunt ability from range followed the start of your tanking rotation depending on talent spec. In most circumstances this is much better than using Death Grip so that you have a guaranteed way to pull aggro back (guaranteed 3 seconds) should a silly DPS choose to not give you time to generate some base threat on the mob.

Multi-Mob Packs (AoE Tanking):
In AoE situations, I personally forgo the Taunt and will start the fight out with a Death and Decay to ensure that I have some solid threat on all the mobs in the pack. After that, pick a target as your primary and get your diseases up quick followed by a Pestilence ability with your next available Blood Rune. This will spread your diseases around and allow you to use the rest of your Blood and Death Runes to spam Blood Boil and build up some solid threat on all the mobs quickly.

For Frost Tanks the only real change here is that Howling Blast should be used as much as possible in AoE situations since it provides a good deal of threat on the whole pack. That isn't to say that you shouldn't worry about using Pestilence to spread the diseases around, just that you should first use Howling Blast to build some quick threat and get Pestilence taken care of while Howling Blast is on cooldown.

Weathering the Battle, Thinking on your Feet:
Due to the rune system that the Death Knight class uses, our class as a whole is one of the most structured rotation based classes in the game. This has lead many player to construct "fail safe" rotations that many like to suggest players adhere to strictly. For DPS Death Knights, this is normally a much easier rule to live by due to the nature of DPS being a bit more static than that of a tank. However, as a tank each fight is quite different and thus requires a much more dynamic use of your abilities. In general, you should stick to a rotation as you would a handy road map for how to use your abilities. Don't be a fool however and follow the road map so strict that you end up taking a wrong turn because you simply weren't paying attention to where you were because you were trying to follow the map so strictly. Another way of saying this might be, "Use your head and think on your feet, don't let your rotation play your character, let the player play the character."

In implementation, this means that as a tank you should always be paying attention to the fight dynamics and adjusting your ability rotations and cooldowns accordingly. Know your healers and learn when it makes sense to pop your mitigation cooldowns to help give them some breathing room. Perhaps there is some heavy damage being taken by some foolish DPS who are standing in fire, getting hit by cleaves, etc. This would be a better time to use something like Icebound Fortitude so that your healers can focus on keeping those silly DPS alive so you able to get the boss/mobs down.

Additionally as a tank you should almost always be running a threat meter like Omen so that you can have an on the fly sense of where you are sitting for threat vs your DPS. This allows a smart tank the information necessary to determine when it might be safe to reposition a boss that might have gotten moved or when it might be necessary to use something like Empowered Rune Weapon to build up some extra threat so the DPS don't have to throttle themselves.

Leading the Troops to Victory:
As a tank you will play a pivotal role in the overall effectiveness of the raid. Learning how to lead by example means making sure that you have done your homework on the encounter at hand as well as having a thorough understanding of the game mechanics and bosses/mobs that you will be facing.

The decent tank will be successful in only the most optimal of situations.
The good tank will be able to handle most situations and come out alive.
The real tank is capable of handling the worst situations and and by maintaining a cool head, lead his raid to victory.

This is one of the great intangible qualities of a great tank. The ability to think on one's feet and know when and how to adjust rapidly when the proverbial shit hits the fan. When raiding, try to always maintain a cool head and when you wipe (and you will no matter what), make sure that you objectively look at what happened and correct the problem. It is often very easy to badger that terrible DPS who pulled aggro, or the off tank that taunted at the wrong time, but in the end communicate the issue to the raid and move on to the next attempt.

Balancing Act, Suvivability vs. Threat:
As has been discussed throughout this guide, the tanks role is two fold. While defensive gearing and talents are vital for mitigating damage, all is for naught if you can't keep the boss targeting you. It is especially important to keep this in mind while taking and making sure that rotations are tight and well executed with little wasted time between abilities to ensure you maximize your abilities and thus maintain a consistently high amount of threat. By doing this, you free the DPS from having to even worry about causing too much threat and instead can let them focus on maintaining a precise DPS rotation to maximize the speed at which boss dies. By keeping this in mind, you are able to improve the raid a great deal because the faster the boss dies, the less amount of damage the healers have to worry about.

Gearing As a Death Knight:
Since gear rapidly changes I will try to keep this as general as possible. As a Death Knight tank you will want to always focus on defensive tanking gear with a heavy emphasis toward raw stamina in order to have a large amount of effective health. Personally, I always gem my gear for stamina for the most part, with the only exception being made when I need to use a specific color gem for my meta gem slot. Simply put, in the current tanking environment, having a metric ton of stamina is the best way to spend your gem slots. That isn't to say that you will fail if you don't use pure +30 Stamina epic gems, it will just make it easier on your healers and add to your survivability.

Important Statistics:
As a tank it isn't enough to simply worry about defensive gearing. You will also want to spend a decent amount of time balancing your threat statistics to make sure that you are putting up enough threat to allow your DPS to blast the boss/mobs without having to hold back. Below are some goals for both hit rating and expertise that you should shoot to hit. While it is highly likely that you will not be able to always hit these caps, it is best to try to get as close as possible. Often this might mean leveling up your cooking so that you can eat the +40 expertise or +40 hit food instead of the easy to use Fish Feast.

Defense Cap: 540 (this is a MUST before even considering starting to raid)
Hit Rating: Cap vs Level 83 mob = 8% Hit = 262.32 Hit Rating (Raid Bosses)
Expertise: Cap vs Level 83 mob = 6.5%(Dodge) / 15%(Parry) = 213.135 / 491.85 Expertise Rating (Raid Bosses)

With Expertise specifically it is probably never going to be possible to hit the full Parry Cap of 491.85 and thus you should try to shoot for the Dodge Cap of 213/135 and just realize that you will occasionally get parried.

Item Enchantments:
Enchantments here are listed in order of preference per inventory slot. Please note that only generic enchantments are contained in this list and thus it is recommended to use the upgrades for a particular tradeskill should you have it.

Helm - Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector
Shoulder - Greater Inscription of the Gladiator, Greater Inscription of the Pinnacle (should only be used perhaps while early on in gearing if you need defense)
Chest - Super Health, Super Stats
Cloak - Major Agility, Titanweave (should only be used perhaps while early on in gearing if you need defense)
Bracer - Major Stamina
Gloves - Armsman, Precision (should be used if below hit cap and threat is not an issue)
Legs - Frosthide Leg Armor
Boots - Greater Fortitude, Tuskarr's Vitality (useful for speed increase at a small cost of only 7 stamina)
Weapon (Two-Handed) - Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle (no exceptions)

Gems By Color:
While I personally almost always use the +30 Stamina Epic gems, here is a listing of tanking gems by color that can be used to swap in and out to allow the Death Knight to tweak stats in order to get closer to hit and expertise caps if necessary for threat. These gems are listed by what should be considered for each gem slot color, not by the color of the gem itself.

Generally speaking every gem that is used should have stamina on it and thus there are no gems in this list without stamina as one of the statistics.

Meta Gem - Austere Earthsiege Diamond
Blue Gem Slot - Solid Majestic Zircon
Red Gem Slot - Guardian's Dreadstone, Defender's Dreadstone, Regal Dreadstone
Yellow Gem Slot - Vivid Eye of Zul

Conclusion:
Thank you very much for taking the time to read through this rather lengthy guide. As with all guides and posts on the internet, please take this with a grain of salt and use it as a template for becoming a successful tank. While I realize there are many who may or may not agree with me, please keep all comments and suggestions constructive so that they may be incorporated into future versions of this guide. I certainly how that this is of benefit to the Death Knight community as a whole. Take care!

Please leave a reply with thoughts comments and feedback. You can also contact WorldofDeathKnightCraft.com by clicking here and submitting the contact form. Thank you in advance!

[LavaDuck]

/applaud

I might change my frost build into the build you linked. Mine is kinda fail

edit: someone apply sticky glue and hang it at the top

[tialol]

I looked at your Blood Tank specc and it is C.R.A.P!!!!

Drm is not increasing your threat nor your mitigation so it is useless (cause you will have enough RP to cast DC's inbetween AND 1xDS is better as 2xHS because of the heal, which can safe your ass!)

you didnt specc 6% less haste for your IT affected targets, which is FAIL!

Necrosis isn't worth to even get looked at with Blood specc.

I also looked at your Frost DW specc, which was also skilled by a FAIL player.


Nuff said

oh yeah..A real Blood Tank specc:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jcEGV...xhxZ0gh:idGMmV

[silbrev]

very good guide indeed, i cant say i agree 100% with ur specs but as you said there a good starting point

im blood spec tank, was unholy for ages but when i got closer to end game stuff found it lacked the agro

[BoxofRox]

Remember that some of this information may become inaccurate or false as time progresses.

[piken]

Actually most of this post is just bad information.

Look at some of the statements and the linked builds. A frost dk tank gets his tps from constant KM procs, with that spec with only 2/5 KM and going for imp icy talons is just plain bad. Unless you out gear the dps by a lot, you will never hold aggro from them using that build.

Blood caked blade in a tanking build??? come on, it can be parried and is a very poor choice of a tank talent. 4/5 Desolation, talk about a threat hit, no SoB is just lol when unholy is about spamming dc's as much as possible between runestrikes. Also magic supression with out AMZ, really if your not taking AMZ you shouldn't touch magic suppression.

The only tanking build that is listed that is not bad is the blood one, but it is not good either, things like imp icy touch should be in there but are left out. Necro is a waste of 4pts so that would be a good place to start moving them arround.

If you dig deeper there are things that just make you look bad to state.

Glyph of Rune Strike: Rune Strike is a massive chunk of the Death Knights threat and thus a free 10% boost to it's damage and thus threat is just a borderline must have glyph. Personally, I almost always include this glyph in any of my tanking talent builds and would highly recommend that all Death Knight tanks do the same.

Hmm, WOW talk about a bad statement. the RS glyph doesnt give a 10% damage boost, learn to read. It gives 10% more crit to runestrike which is not bad, but is easily replaced in any tanking build for more worth while glyphs.


My eyes are hurting just looking at the wall of text and its issues. I would suggest pulling that embarssing post off of every site you put it on as it is some of the worst tanking advice I have ever seen. I really feel bad if there are any new DK's that are using the site you listed for information as this guide is very poor and your previous guide touched on 1 ok point and that was in one of the suggested specs, but falls on its face when glyph choices are shown.

Pls stop with the bad information and just point people to http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t44638-s...nking_updated/ that way they get good information from people that dont appear to have learned how to tank on a dk recently.

[Gazi]

Although we could argue about your specs, I think you've done a good Guide.

[eint]

Actually most of this post is just bad information.

Look at some of the statements and the linked builds. A frost dk tank gets his tps from constant KM procs, with that spec with only 2/5 KM and going for imp icy talons is just plain bad. Unless you out gear the dps by a lot, you will never hold aggro from them using that build.

Blood caked blade in a tanking build??? come on, it can be parried and is a very poor choice of a tank talent. 4/5 Desolation, talk about a threat hit, no SoB is just lol when unholy is about spamming dc's as much as possible between runestrikes. Also magic supression with out AMZ, really if your not taking AMZ you shouldn't touch magic suppression.

The only tanking build that is listed that is not bad is the blood one, but it is not good either, things like imp icy touch should be in there but are left out. Necro is a waste of 4pts so that would be a good place to start moving them arround.

If you dig deeper there are things that just make you look bad to state.

Hmm, WOW talk about a bad statement. the RS glyph doesnt give a 10% damage boost, learn to read. It gives 10% more crit to runestrike which is not bad, but is easily replaced in any tanking build for more worth while glyphs.


My eyes are hurting just looking at the wall of text and its issues. I would suggest pulling that embarssing post off of every site you put it on as it is some of the worst tanking advice I have ever seen. I really feel bad if there are any new DK's that are using the site you listed for information as this guide is very poor and your previous guide touched on 1 ok point and that was in one of the suggested specs, but falls on its face when glyph choices are shown.

Pls stop with the bad information and just point people to http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t44638-s...nking_updated/ that way they get good information from people that dont appear to have learned how to tank on a dk recently.

Nowhere in the post do I state that its a raw 10% bonus to all Rune Strike damage. Also, Anti-Magic Zone is a joke, but ultimately could be taken. Nowhere in the guide to I state to have all the right answers or be the god of all Death Knights.

I can tell you that I easily tank heroic TotGC with that Blood Tank spec and have run the other specs as well. Before flaming and posting walls of text in contrary how about you pay attention to the quote disclaimer that I added regarding talent builds. Anytime anyone posts talent builds someone is bound to hop on and flame because they feel that they know everything.

Perhaps you could post some constructive criticism and I might look into taking them into account in upcoming versions.

I looked at your Blood Tank specc and it is C.R.A.P!!!!

Drm is not increasing your threat nor your mitigation so it is useless (cause you will have enough RP to cast DC's inbetween AND 1xDS is better as 2xHS because of the heal, which can safe your ass!)

you didnt specc 6% less haste for your IT affected targets, which is FAIL!

Necrosis isn't worth to even get looked at with Blood specc.

I also looked at your Frost DW specc, which was also skilled by a FAIL player.


Nuff said, if you like more Information feel free to talk to me when i'm online. (tialol / eu-azshara)

oh yeah..A real Blood Tank specc:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jcEGV...xhxZ0gh:idGMmV

Regarding the idea that Necrosis is bad, you are discounting that your top threat generation as a Blood Tank comes from Rune Strike and Auto Attack. Necrosis gives a bonus to both of them. It is a massive increase in threat.

As far as IT is concerned, if you feel that you have to have it as a tank then take it instead of some points in Necrosis to sacrifice some threat for survivability. Ultimately I almost always have a Frost DW DPS in the raid and thus the points are much better spent in Necrosis.

Please keep in mind that there are always different camps who will say "X talent sucks, take Y talent instead", thus I recommend that these be used as a starting point and tweaked to fit each individuals needs and play-style.

[Deathcold]

EJ is a religion, dont say anything diferent or you ll be purified by flames!!! opps the flames already begun.

I do not agree with some talent choices either, maybe you should tell players in advance why to skip some talents and get others depending of your raid composition, like you did with the improved IT at your last post. Good guide anyway.

[piken]

Nowhere in the post do I state that its a raw 10% bonus to all Rune Strike damage. Also, Anti-Magic Zone is a joke, but ultimately could be taken. Nowhere in the guide to I state to have all the right answers or be the god of all Death Knights.

I can tell you that I easily tank heroic TotGC with that Blood Tank spec and have run the other specs as well. Before flaming and posting walls of text in contrary how about you pay attention to the quote disclaimer that I added regarding talent builds. Anytime anyone posts talent builds someone is bound to hop on and flame because they feel that they know everything.

Perhaps you could post some constructive criticism and I might look into taking them into account in upcoming versions.

Regarding the idea that Necrosis is bad, you are discounting that your top threat generation as a Blood Tank comes from Rune Strike and Auto Attack. Necrosis gives a bonus to both of them. It is a massive increase in threat.

As far as IT is concerned, if you feel that you have to have it as a tank then take it instead of some points in Necrosis to sacrifice some threat for survivability. Ultimately I almost always have a Frost DW DPS in the raid and thus the points are much better spent in Necrosis.

Maybe you should reread your own post before replying with stupid remarks. And while you are at it read the link that I placed there, every single one of your assumptions has been proved wrong many times in that thread.

Oh and as to your comment of I never said the rs glyph is 10% damage, read your post!!!

"Glyph of Rune Strike: Rune Strike is a massive chunk of the Death Knights threat and thus a free 10% boost to it's damage and thus threat is just a borderline must have glyph. Personally, I almost always include this glyph in any of my tanking talent builds and would highly recommend that all Death Knight tanks do the same."

Again quoted from your own post stating that it is a 10% boost to its damage which is wrong, so please learn the class and info before posting.

[eint]

Made a minor mistake in the language of it. It is a 10% critical strike bonus and has been adjusted accordingly. So much for positive constructive criticism. Guess I expected too much from the internet trolls yet again.

[piken]

Made a minor mistake in the language of it. It is a 10% critical strike bonus and has been adjusted accordingly. So much for positive constructive criticism. Guess I expected too much from the internet trolls yet again.

the criticism was there, Read the EJ post before wasting peoples time with a hacked together guide that makes assumptions about tanking that have been proven wrong for months. There is no criticism beyond that because it is not the job of every reader of the forums to teach you what you should have known before trying to write a guide for others.

[eint]

the criticism was there, Read the EJ post before wasting peoples time with a hacked together guide that makes assumptions about tanking that have been proven wrong for months. There is no criticism beyond that because it is not the job of every reader of the forums to teach you what you should have known before trying to write a guide for others.

By all means please point out all the glaring issues? I simply took my personal experience and put it into a guide format for others to use when starting up on how to tank. Guess I will need to inform my guild that I don't know how to tank next time we clear TotGC.

[piken]

By all means please point out all the glaring issues? I simply took my personal experience and put it into a guide format for others to use when starting up on how to tank. Guess I will need to inform my guild that I don't know how to tank next time we clear TotGC.

Good for you that bad practices as a tank work while your doing your 10 man totgc. But to place a guide for others to use that has horrible talent specs listed and misinformation is doing a disservice to new DK tanks that actually want to learn and perpetuates a cycle of DK tanks being seen as bad.

Look at my dk's achieves and what I have actually tanked before you decide to be an a** because you don't like being told that you are passing bad information to new DK tanks. (dps is off spec, blood tank is main spec. All achieves and kills in 10 and 25 man totgc have been as MT)

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...orgath&n=htaed

[endric]

http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc...00000000000000

i use this spec personally for tanking

[eint]

Good for you that bad practices as a tank work while your doing your 10 man totgc. But to place a guide for others to use that has horrible talent specs listed and misinformation is doing a disservice to new DK tanks that actually want to learn and perpetuates a cycle of DK tanks being seen as bad.

Look at my dk's achieves and what I have actually tanked before you decide to be an a** because you don't like being told that you are passing bad information to new DK tanks. (dps is off spec, blood tank is main spec. All achieves and kills in 10 and 25 man totgc have been as MT)

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...orgath&n=htaed

I see you personally like Rune Tap. So besides the fact that you don't like my talent specs even though I clearly stated that they are my personal preference. I fail to see what sort of beef you have with anything else.

Really intrigued by the Rune Tap since thats 4 points for an ability that is only providing benefit on use, while many other abilities provide constant passive improvements. Please do tell.

[piken]

I see you personally like Rune Tap. So besides the fact that you don't like my talent specs even though I clearly stated that they are my personal preference. I fail to see what sort of beef you have with anything else.

Really intrigued by the Rune Tap since thats 4 points for an ability that is only providing benefit on use, while many other abilities provide constant passive improvements. Please do tell.

Normally those points are in subversion and filling morbidity. I took imp RT for 25 man heroic anub. Healing gets really tight in phase 3 that we have been working on and when I am not dpsing it as unholy, I end up on anub as the tank. When you get a frozen slash when you have penetrating cold on you, a 14k+ heal at the cost of 1 blood run helps the healers mana out a little more. Only reason for it.

[piken]

http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc...00000000000000

i use this spec personally for tanking

Not too bad, I never found a use for worms as a tank as they do nothing for threat or eh. You would want to fill bladed armor in as it is huge as a raid buffed tank. I avg almost 890 ap from it alone in tank gear and buffed (with devo).

Sudden doom is nice for single target threat, but you would get more out of epidemic to allow you to clean up your rotation a bit. I have also come to like Glyph of Disease over RS as over a 7-10 minute fight (seen in WWS logs), the threat increase from rolling disease and getting an extra ds or 2xHS per rotation ends up being more threat over the course of the fight then the 10% crit to RS gives.

[eint]

Normally those points are in subversion and filling morbidity. I took imp RT for 25 man heroic anub. Healing gets really tight in phase 3 that we have been working on and when I am not dpsing it as unholy, I end up on anub as the tank. When you get a frozen slash when you have penetrating cold on you, a 14k+ heal at the cost of 1 blood run helps the healers mana out a little more. Only reason for it.

I have been eyeing Rune Tap a bit more with the changes to normalize raid damage in Patch 3.3. I just couldnt justify the 4 points in current content due to all the instant deaths due to avoidance mechanics and raw damage. I could definitely see it coming in handy for Anub hardmode though.

[Alkore]

http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-ta...n=Final+Breath

May seem a little different to anything posted, but I'l give a break-down on certain points and why:

2/3 Scent of Blood - At a certain stage when tanking in Ulduar, I noticed that I was forced to chose between a recently proc'd RS or DC, and that my RP was always floating at ~40. Ofc RS>DC, but I thought at a cost of 2 points, I could float at ~60 RP, and afford both. As such, I've never looked back on the decision.

3/3 Improved Rune Tap - The talent is so worth the points. Considering how much ToGC Gormokk Impale's tick for, and I as it ticks after he dies before the Jormugar come, I pop it to ensure that I'm topped off before p2.

1/1 Hysteria - Usually I use it on a Feral DPS when it comes to a burn or when Hero is popped. Jaraxxus Portals; Twin Valkyr Shield; XT Heart; etc.

3/3 Sudden Doom - A lush 3 point talent considering that your pretty much building up your rotation to spam HS. Nice added TPS.

I've ran with this spec since 1 month after Uld. Patch. Has never let me down. Raid buffed I'm pulled close 9.8k TPS consisent, with 14k bursts. HP stands at 53.8k raid buffed, with 41 Exp, ~6% hit, and 57% avoidance. I may not be entirely pro as others believe themselves to be, but I'm a capable tank. Never had complaints so ^^.