Is Death Knight tanking fun? And how is it fun compared to Paladins?

[Nidor]

Hi, I'm currently in a guild in which I have found myself at home, and now that Cataclysm is around the corner, we are able to reroll to another class. As it stands now, I find the new paladin systems unappealing. And as any logic player, I won't play a specc I don't like. (no bashing dev's here, it just appeals less to me and feels boring playing)

So, I'm wondering if any of you lovely Death Knight players could shed some light on DK tanking? The info/oppinions I'm looking for are about:

Why is the rotation/abilites/CD's etc fun?

Why choose a DK over another tank class?

How does a DK tank benefit a raid over other tanks? (yes my insight into DK's post 4.01 is non-existent, nothing personal!

Is it fun/hard/frustrating/easy or whatever other description you can use, to learn?

And last, Is it fun to DPS as a DK?

If you bother to take time to answer, Thanks you! And please, don't make this a 10 page long discussion about some aspect of Death Knight tanking, I will nag you later about that if I decide to roll a Death Knight!

[Deleted]

I think this is relative to each player for example some people may loath tanking on a DK and love tanking on a Pally as were other players may only like DK tanking. To be honest your best bet would be to play around with it yourself to see if it suits you but ill try to answer your questions anyway.

Why is the rotation/abilites/CD's etc fun?
Rotations are never really set in stone with being a DK specially more so (i think) in cata where blood shield will be alot hander (as it stands bosses tend to blow through your shield in one hit) You will have to adapt for example if Death strike was avaliable but you have a blood shield up with a diecent amount of absorb left you can heart strike instead. With the changes in the last build to rune recharge and rune strike we never really have a period where all we can do is auto attack (it can happen though but not for very long). CD's are fun because to be honest we have a diecent amount and can make a noticible different in the damage we take comparedto other tanks is used well. Vampiric blood, Blood tap and runetap combined can save a raid from wiping if something goes horrificly wrong. Anti magic shell is remarkable usefull as dps or tank on many different fights.

Why choose a DK over another tank class?
Again this depends on the player I think this is one you need to answer for yourself but I like the idea of the 2 handed tank rather than the shield/weapon combo. I know druids are the same but i just prefare the plate armour 2 handed tank.

How does a DK tank benefit a raid over other tanks? (yes my insight into DK's post 4.01 is non-existent, nothing personal!
To be honest bar making the healers life a bit easier (not much just a bit) we bring pritty much the same to the raid as the other tanks. Buff wise we bring horn of winter which is the same as a shammy's Strength of earth totum (although theres is better if talented) but ours it mobile. We also have abominations might if you take it but other classes also can provide the same buff. Bloodworms can help for aoe healing on melee chars and i think this will be helpful in cata and becoming stun immune is always handy although very situational (looking at you blood prince trash).

Is it fun/hard/frustrating/easy or whatever other description you can use, to learn?
For me it was fun and easy to learn to play although i leveled up as a frost DK tank when wrath was first released and DK's were in a bit of a god mode. Its still fun though regardless especially as blood is a viable and easy leveling tree so you can learn as you level. Also your remarkable hard to kill.

And last, Is it fun to DPS as a DK?
cant answer this i have never done death knite DPS. It's been my main since wrath and i only ever tank on it its just more fun (for me). I may change this in cata as i now have a dps spec as an off but before this i had frost tank spec and blood tank spec.

Still i think you should try it for yourself to see it will be different for each person.

[Ikkatsu]

I find it fun yet awkward and annoying at the same time.

The new Death Strike is certainly fun and planning how to use it at the right time is what seperates a good DK Tank from a bad DK Tank.

But then you have our awkward resource system. As a single-target main tank, it's not so bad... but if your an AoE Off-Tank or doing 5-Man Dungeons then the rune downtime can cause wipes. Not having any blood runes available to quickly Blood Boil/Heart Strike that newly spawned pack whilst Death n Decay is on cooldown can be extremely frustrating. Sure, we have Empower Rune Weapon... but the CD on that is long and the same thing could happen again 20 seconds later.

I tanked as a Druid in TBC and up to Ulduar in WOTLK and eventually it was boring due to just spamming Swipe, Mangle and Maul. I much prefer my Death Knight.

[Calaban]

I find DK tanking amazingly fun. Not only do you get the evil vibe, but the rotation is fairly complex and not monotonous because its a priority system. You also have a fast array of cooldowns, some unusual and interesting like death pact, that can really allow you to display your skill and push your tank survivability.

[Deleted]

I've had my DK on the shelf until 4.0.1, since I loahted to dps with it, and tanking was for me kinda iffy - nowadays, I'm loving it! I've played, to some extent, all tanking classes, and the "new" blood DK is the most fun by far. Excellent snap aggro, huge packs aren't a problem, a plethora of defensive CD's to save your ass in many situations, 2 silences of which one is on a 10 sec CD and the other one is ranged (3 if you're a belf, but that's another thing), a fun resource to manage, and at the same time being able to dish out very very decent damage.
It's easy to learn, and not so very difficult to master; I'd say skill cap is 'slightly' lower than say against a warrior and the new druid, though still not as faceroll as paladins.
Perhaps the only thing I'm missing are the reactive proc attacks, which naturally are shield based, which we don't have, besides rune strike there isn't much going on than looking at the runes and doing the best you can - but that's a very minor gimmick.

But then again, my experience is limited, and I may be missing out on some stuff since I haven't really tanked anything else than 5 man content, but it's helluva fun and keeps me logging in these days while waiting these last 6 days

[Sufferings]

DK tanking is in my opinion, a blast. I have been tanking on a warrior for a long time, and switching to a DK a few months ago (mainly for Cata, we already have an amazing Warrior tank), I am so glad I switched.

As far as rotations, talents, glyphs, etc, I will point you to my website, linked in my signature. It will give you all the info you want and we'll be posting even more information along with video guides of boss fights in Cata.

To be specific on why I love my DK, I will say that I love the concept of Blood Shield. While warriors and paladins have block (more static avoidance), we get to pick and choose when we avoid damage and heal ourselves through spike damage. It makes the DK tank have to focus much more on their incoming damage than a warrior or paladin. DK tanks also have slightly more cooldowns, which to me forces us to be more aware (again) of the damage we are taking and will take, and therefore in the end allows us more chances to survive and save healer mana.

Learning to tank as a DK is more difficult, as our rotation is not just for threat, but also for avoidance (blood shield). Paladins and warriors generally have their rotations just for threat, with their avoidance being more static (block) and having a few CDs to burn between that for spike damage. Therefore you have to dance a fine line on how to do enough threat, but also max out your avoidance, especially at the start of a fight when vengeance is not stacked up high enough.

As far as benefits over other tanks to the raid, beyond what I have already said, there are not any big ones. Buffs are so homogenized that you can pull one tank out for another and the buffs/debuffs will not really change, especially in a 25 man raid setting.

[xeroxide]

yup i've been tanking with a dk since wotlk release and i must say it's been fun. i've went from making a dk alt upon release, to making it my main.
now that the blood tree is a solid tanking tree, it feels refined. down time is minimized and ST threat isn't clunky (runestrike change).

monitoring blood shield and blade barrier, having multiple cooldowns, self heals, lolgrip... need i say more.
i plan to keep it as my main for cata.

[Chadwixx]

King of the 5man dung's. Not as effective now in raids.

[xeroxide]

King of the 5man dung's. Not as effective now in raids.

actually wars are king of 5man dung's... don't even need to heal an equally geared war tank atm.

but yeah atm it's kinda squishy since our self heals have been re-adjusted to suite lvl 85 stam -> hp conversions...
things are looking good however at 85.

[Chadwixx]

Im pulling 5-8k dps tanking in 5mans. Dont need alot of heals, a ele shammy or ret pally could handle it. Warriors are solid but alot less dps.

Soloing older stuff is some of the most fun ive had in this game, dk is perfect for that.

[Deleted]

With all theese changes to DK's blood specc tanking has become much _much_ more fun!

I am currently trying a disease-less tanking specc and I must say it even makes it funnier, because you can focus more on timing your HS for the shield better and - for me you get increased TPS. Also when i don't have to spend 2-4 GCD's on applying dots I feel like a much more mobile tank, much easier to pick up adds and to taunt-switch on some bosses.

Our TPS feels much more stable now then ever before and in cata with vengence(not sure if spelled correctly) being better with our huge health pools I think we will have alot of fun playing a blood DK.

Now theese are my personal thoughts I don't know if the disease-less way of tanking is optimal I just find it more fun excuse me if my english isn't the best.

[Deleted]

I for myself think it is the most sophisticated Tanking spec at the moment, cause it is different from all other game mechanics with the unique rune system, managing all your cds timing your DS - this makes the fun for me.

I think, looking at all tanking classes, the gap betwen a good and a bad Tank is the biggest among all Tanks, there are no mediocre DK Tanks.

[Omarian]

DK tanking is really fun atm, AoE is good, Main Tanking is fun, you just have tobe good in playing this... The extra's you get from playing this, is a weekly 1,5k-2k gold from just doing some raids.

[DrKirre]

Welcome to the world of Death Knightliness! Though many folks revile us, we're really quite good, if you take the time to learn to play us right! Now then, to answer your questions?
Why is the rotation/abilites/CD's etc fun?
Because of just how DIFFERENT all our stuff is from everyone else's. Tanks get a nice, big handful of cooldowns.
-Bone Shield: It only blocks a couple hits, sure, but that's nothing to sneeze at. Especially when it's a heavy hitting bit, like an enrage or something.
-Anti-Magic Shell: "Oh noes, big fireball that will instagib me!... nah, just kidding, it won't do a damn thing." Need I say more?
-IBF: This is pretty standard stuff.
-Vampiric Blood (and Rune Tap paired with, of course): Holy survivability batman. I can't put into words how win this is. You can go from the brink of death to fine and dandy with this lovely little combo.
-The Various Ghoul Things: Army is lovely in an ohshit moment to get you a bit of a break, if the healer is having issues or something. The solo ghoul is nice extra damage! Or you can just eat him with Death Pact for more health. And Raise Ally is AWESOME. It's a half b-rez!
Now, the rotation is... odd. You have to play it to really understand.

Why choose a DK over another tank class?
Because we're just so different than other tanks are. Other tanks rely on blocking, or dodging, or reduction, or.. stuff like that. We -thrive- on being smashed. We are fueled by our own injuries. Every strike the foe nails us with, we get stronger. All the hurt they dish out, it goes away.

How does a DK tank benefit a raid over other tanks? (yes my insight into DK's post 4.01 is non-existent, nothing personal!
Better magic survivability, nice AOE, and a high degree of self-healing to ease the healer's mana use. Verrry important in cata.

Is it fun/hard/frustrating/easy or whatever other description you can use, to learn?
"Interesting" is the word I'd use. We're, to put it bluntly, weird. You start to get a feel of what to do and when, after a while.

And last, Is it fun to DPS as a DK?
"Army of the Dead! Summon Gargoyle! Dark Transformation! /laugh"

[Dalavita]

DK tanking is by far the most reactive of them all.

Solo tanking LK as a DK tank is such a frantic encounter and probably my favorite boss fight of all time because of it, as it really tests the DKs strengths and individual players skill. On top of all the mechanics like moving LK around for defiles and vile spirits, putting chains of ice on the valkyrs, you have to keep an eye on every single one of your cooldowns, make a split second decision on what cooldown will keep you up through soul reaper, or what combination of cooldowns based on your health and the general situation for the healers, make sure you got frost fever+scarlet fever on LK if noone else provides them, and time your death strikes for after soul reaper lands on top of keeping your DS shield up, and making a mental list on that cooldowns you need to have ready for the next soul reaper.

After the latest patch, Single target and AOE-tanking has become way more interesting. Death&Decay and Pestilence provides a constant stream of incoming damage, heart strike and blood boil are used to provide a higher TPS in aoe, and tab targeting to the proper mobs, death striking to keep the shield up and get as little overheal as possible, while spamming rune strike with its satisfying mangle sound doing 15k crits with it.

The difference between a bad and a good DK is pretty big as well. If you time your death strikes right it can be the difference between 1k and 2k HPS, which obviously makes a huge impact on your survivability.

It's basically the real mans tanking class, nothing passive about it.

I do miss having truckloads of armor to be fair, was fun closing in on the armor cap, but I can understand why they rebalanced it. I also miss icy slam. Was always fun getting 20k TPS spamming icy touch, but our threat is even higher than that now with DRW+Rune strike spammage.

[archelios]

DK tanking is by far the most fun

[Jupiter II]

Yes

[Deleted]

well i cant tell :/ cuz ive only been a DK tank since start of wotlk, i had major fun with that cow! =)

[Deleted]

I find it fun yet awkward and annoying at the same time.

The new Death Strike is certainly fun and planning how to use it at the right time is what seperates a good DK Tank from a bad DK Tank.

But then you have our awkward resource system. As a single-target main tank, it's not so bad... but if your an AoE Off-Tank or doing 5-Man Dungeons then the rune downtime can cause wipes. Not having any blood runes available to quickly Blood Boil/Heart Strike that newly spawned pack whilst Death n Decay is on cooldown can be extremely frustrating. Sure, we have Empower Rune Weapon... but the CD on that is long and the same thing could happen again 20 seconds later.

I tanked as a Druid in TBC and up to Ulduar in WOTLK and eventually it was boring due to just spamming Swipe, Mangle and Maul. I much prefer my Death Knight.

Tanked every Heroic there was on beta and I had ZERO problems with keeping aoe threat even if we pulled a pack extra or so.

[Sithis]

By far the funnest tanking class for me. While I've never played a warrior tank at endgame, I found paladin and druid tanking lacking. I've flip flopped between having tank and dps be my DK's main spec. Atm, I'm thinking of having her be a tank for cata.