Blood DK Guide - Siege of Orgrimmar [10 Man Normal]

[Obsolus]

Disclaimers: First off, I read Gromok's healing priest guide for Siege and thought it was very useful. I decided to continue it one with blood DK guide. As he said in his guide, this is strictly opinion based and in no way caters for heroic-progression / hard core raiders. This guide also does not cover individual boss mechanics and strategies, but rather focuses on character optimization for each boss on normal mode. I have not yet cleared normal mode, so this guide will be for the most part incomplete. I will update it as I gain new kills. Please feel free to contribute.

UPDATE: Heroic mode tanking tactics added! Any tips? Please contribute!

IMMERSEUS

The best talent choices for this encounter are the norm. You should stick with Purgatory over AMZ as, although it may help to reduce a little bit of damage from the end of Phase 2, you'd easily benefit more from Purgatory as the healers and your AMS should be enough to keep you alive through excessive bursts of damage. Glyph of Anti-Magic Shell is a no brainer. Glyph of Icebound Fortitude is up to you.

Make sure no other players are stood close to you or behind you as they will get caught up in the Corrosive Blast and will require extra healing by your healers.

Phase Two Adds
For tier three, you should choose Chillblains to slow the adds in Phase two. You should combine this with Gorefiend's Grasp and the Glyph of Death & Decay. When enter phase three, run towards the most black adds. Throw down a D&D to slow them by 50% and damage them, use Gorefiend's Grasp to pull any near-by adds in and you can also use your Death Grip, too. Immediate hit with either Icy Touch or Outbreak, then Blood Boil to spread the disease and slow them further and finally Blood boil/Blood strike spam.

When to use AMS:
You have two choices. You can either:
a) Use it for Corrosive Blast before the tank switch, or
b) Use it at the end of Phase 2 for the busts of damage.
However, your healers and DPS should be good enough to prevent excessive bursts of damage so you shouldn't have to use it here unless it's free and off cool down. Save it for Corrosive Blast.

When to use Army of the Dead
Whenever, really. Preferably on pull with heroism/bloodlust.

Suggestion by Phinxx: Solo tank tactic, in the first phase take the first corrosive blast without cooldowns, take the second with AMS and if you get a third, soak it with AMZ. Thanks for the tip.

HEROIC
To tackle this boss on heroic mode, you'll need to take the corrosive blast mechanic much more seriously -- this means keeping it out of the raid at all times, as it can easily one-shot a non-tank plate wearer. It is advised to have Immerseus facing in one general direction at all times, with the rest of the raid around 45-60 degrees to the left/right of the tank. You'll need to move to avoid puddles by your feet, try not to move in such a way that you put the raid in danger.

When the fight starts, Tank A picks up Immerseus. Immediately after the first corrosive blast (around 10 seconds into the fight) Tank B taunts off and keeps him in the same position (again, make sure Tank B does not get hit by the blast either else he'll take 100% more damage from the next blast). Tank A begins to pick up the adds. It's important that your raid groups spawns the adds in moderation or you'll be over whelmed. Tank them near the raid, use any and all AoE abilities.

If you are tanking the adds, you can use Gorefiend's Grasp on yourself to collect the adds. If you are tanking the boss, you can use GG on the add tank to help them out.

This concludes everything you need to know about tanking Immerseus.

THE FALLEN PROTECTORS

The best talent choices off the bat here are purgatory, asphyxiate and gorefiend's grasp(GG). You can use GG in Rook Stonetoe's add phase to collect together the three adds as well as death grip.. You'll have to tell your raid to focus down one at a time, meanwhile, you should kite the adds you have around to avoid the damaging void zones on the floor that are placed by Embodied Misery.

Tanking Rook Stonetoe
Tanking Rook is simple. Keep him away from the raid as his does a spinning crane kick that does a fair amount of damage to everyone within and make sure he is facing away. He'll regularly do a Vengeful Strikes attack which deals heavy physical damage and stuns you for 3 seconds. This is unavoidable and acts as a frontal cone meaning anyone in front of Rook will also be effected. You should not need to use any cooldowns for this unless you are extremely low on health.

Tanking He Softfoot
There is one important ability here: Gouge. If you are facing him when he casts this, he will incapacitate you for 6 seconds and fixate on a random raid member until taunted. To combat this, you must be facing away when he casts this and instead he will knock you back a short distance.

Tanking Sun Tenderheart
Or rather, NOT tanking. Sun does not need to be tanked and acts very much like Mar'li in the council of elders fight. She will cast regular shadow priest dots and mind sears on raid members which CAN be interrupted. You should use your Asphyxiate from a distance to interrupt Tenderheart's mind sear and mind freeze IF you are close enough.

Which one to tank?
It's not really important. However Rook would be the best choice as he does bursts of physical damage which your blood shield can help protect you against.

When to use AMS:
During Calamity, preferably. Calamity is an uninterruptale, unavoidable burst of raid-wide AoE damage from Sun Tenderheart every so often. Casting AMS on yourself should make the damage from this entirely unnoticeable.

When to use Army of the Dead:
Entirely up to you, again. Preferably I would use it on pull as there is no obvious time to use it. It may come in handy during Rook's add phase but not necessarily.

HEROIC
Tanking here is very similar to normal mode. If you're tanking Rook, be sure to pull him out of the raid 5-7 seconds before Clash hits, face him away for Vengeful Strikes and have Icebound Fortitude glyped so you can use it for this.

This concludes everything you need to know about tanking The Fallen Protectors.

NORUSHEN

For this fight, there are no obvious talent choices. One might argue that Asphyxiate is best for interrupt the Titanic Corruption add's ability, although this is unnecessary as Mind Freeze should come off cool down before he casts it again. If you feel comfortable with having two interrupt, you can take this choice. Chillblains shouldn't be necessary as the only add you need to slow should be dead within a few seconds anyway and should be stunlocked, so slowing it is a waste of runes. You can, however, use Asphyxiate to stun this add. Death's Advance is not necessary. There is no point in which you need increased movement speed. You should easily be able to avoid the Titanic Corruption's abilities with normal run speed. To sum it up:

Asphxiate: 1 extra interrupt, can stun Manifestation of Corruption
Chillblains: Slows Manifestation of Corruption but shouldn't be necessary
Death's Advance: Unnecessary.

Personally, I would go with Asphyxiate as it has the most uses.

Tanking the boss
If your off tank is taking a long time in the test realm and your stacks are increasing, you should use Icebound Fortitude. If you have under 100 corruption (0, 25, 50 or 75) then you should be on top of the list to soak the purple orbs that are dropped by the Manifestation of Corruption adds. It is important for them to die near you so you can soak them quickly, use Death Grip to pull them into you.

Upon reaching 100 Corruption, wait for your off tank to taunt. Call out to your raid that you need to take the next golden orb. Once in the realm, you need to deal with the Titanic Corruption. Here's a simple guide to help you out:
Titanic Smash: Frontal cone, you must move out of this quickly.
Hurl Corruption: Must be interrupted. Mind Freeze/Asphyx
Burst or Corruption: Unavoidable. Use AMS.
Piercing Corruption: Unavoidable.
TIP: You can use Dark Simulacrum on the large add (Glyph into it to make it's duration last longer with reduced cooldown) followed by Anti-Magic Shell just before Hurl Corruption to hurl it right back, dealing a massive amount of damage to the add.

When to use AMS:
As mentioned above, during the burst of corruption from the Titanic Corruption add in the test realm. Otherwise, you can use your AMS while tanking the boss when the Amalgam is on low health and you are taking a lot of ticking damage from it's increasingly powerful raid wide aoe to help the healers.

Once your corruption is at 0, make use of your DPS and pop a strength pot if you have one to spare. This would be a good time for Army of the Dead and Dancing Rune Weapon for a DPS increase as well as supplementing your rotation with Soul Reaper at lower health. You should also make soaking purple orbs your #1 priority. You shouldn't have to enter the test realm for a second time, although sometimes it will happen. Enter only on 100 corruption.

If you are in a situation where you have no choice but to run through the cutter beam, use AMS if possible.

When to use Army of the Dead:
Use army as soon as you get out of the realm with 0 corruption and begin tanking the boss. Try and time it for Hero/BL.

HEROIC
Very similar to normal mode. You'll have more adds popping up so be prepared to switch to the big adds as quickly as possible and Death Grip (DG) / Dark Command (DC) them over you to asap. The test realm remains the same, except the add has increased health and deals more damage. You can still do the Dark Simulacrum/AMS trick here, but if you mess up you will likely be pushed into Purgatory. I personally wouldn't advise trying it for beginners on heroic mode.

This concludes everything you need to know about tanking Norushen.

SHA OF PRIDE

An easy fight for tanks. Purgatory is a no brainer here, but as for the tier three talents... Don't go Asphyx, there's simply no need for it. Personally I would go for Chillblains, and I'll tell you why later. In addition, pick Gorefiend's Grasp. These two talents will become handy later.

Glyphs are not too specific here, although I would advise Glyph of Death & Decay.

When tanking the boss on 10 man, position your character on the closest blue light on the edge of the first left hand side jail-circle on the floor as you enter the room, so the boss is facing south-west and you are facing north-east. Do not stand ON the blue light, instead stand just in front of it. Your off tank should stand close to you and should be ready to run to the furthest jail-circle light when a player gets jailed and you should backpeddle about 1 yard to stand on the light for an instant release of the jailed player.

Here is a diagram of where to stand, marked by the shielded tank icons:


When the boss casts "Wounded Pride" on the current tank, the off tank or you needs to taunt IMMEDIATELY! There is no messing around with this tank buff. This is your one and only job during this fight, so do it right!

When the boss casts Self-Reflection, you can do a little bit to help here.
#1 Target the boss
#2 After the adds have spawned, place a DND on the boss.
#3 Use Gorefiend's Grasp on the boss to pull all adds to him and slow their run back.
This will allow the targetted players a sigh of relief for a few moments while they are AoE'd down.

If a self-relfection add spawns on you or the other tank, ignore it and let it die to cleave damage.

When to use AMS:
Use AMS when the boss casts Swelling Pride.

When to use Army of the Dead:
No desired time. You can do it on pull or when your team uses Hero/BL.

HEROIC
Once again, very similar to normal mode. The only difference is that you might want to help and soak a Rift while you are not tanking, but make sure you do not run off to soak one just before adds spawn/prisons/wounded pride etc. As the fight progresses, you will have to move very quickly to avoid all missiles. Speccing into Death's Advance for it's run speed increase ability is -very- helpful here. You may or may not want to do the tanking-the-adds tactic. This basically just means the off tank at the time picks up the self-reflection and brings them in front of the boss to be cleaved down. Remember, if you do this don't forget to keep moving from the missiles on the floor. As soon as the small swirling animation appears at your feet, the missile will hit in 2 seconds. In the last 10-20% of the fight, it is very doubtful you'll be stood still for longer than 2-3 seconds. Key point: KEEP MOVING!

This concludes everything you need to know about tanking Sha of Pride.

GALAKRAS

This is a very complex, fast paced fight that is tank-dependant in a lot of situations and requires perfect execution and precision. Communication between you and your off tank is a must and you need to make sure that everything you do in this fight is done fast. There is very small room for mistakes to be made in this fight.

For your talents, Asphyxiate is a MUST. You'll need this not for interrupts, but rather for the stun. Use your mind freeze to interrupt Shaman's heals and use your Asphyxiate to stun the Fracture. You should also use Death Grip to interrupt Fracture if Asphyx is on CD, but remember: Death grip only works if the mob get's PULLED from its location, its no use using it right next to him. If stood next to him, run away, then DG. Gorefiend's Grasp also works with this and I prefer this choice over Remorseless Winter as there are a lot of adds and controlling them is important. Leave the mass stuns to other classes. You can use your GG to also pull in the Flameslingers (ranged adds) that are often annoying to pick up.

Other than that, take advantage of Jaina's Blizzard, that should never be ignored.
Remember I am not here to talk tactics. How your groups handles this fight is up to you as there are many ways to do it.

Tanking Korgra the Snake
Start off by tanking her and her two servants in Jaina's Blizzard. When the Demolishor spawns, tank her next to it and let her die to cleave while melee focus the Demo. As soon as she is dead, leave the Demo to the dps and run to the first tower (if you're going up).

First Tower & General Krugruk
Make sure you're the first into the tower. Spam blood boil as you run up the stairs. When you reach the top, throw down a D&D at the top of the stairs and pull Krugruk into it so he is not in the middle, this is important. By this point, your team should be with you and so should the adds from inside the tower. Now is the time for uber aoe tanking. Use Gorefiend's Grasp as soon as all adds are in range and pull them into the D&D, spread your diseases and spam blood boil. If your DPS are good, Krugruk will die before his first Arcing Smash. Otherwise, just make sure you don't get caught in it. Once Krugruk and the adds are dead (Excluding the flameslingers, they dont need to be tanked) you should jump down with a healer and prepare yourself for the next miniboss. Remember that all of this must be done VERY quickly in order to make it down in time.

Tanking High Enforcer Thranok
Gather Thranok and his minions in the Blizzard to begin with. Once your other tank is down, whoever doesn't have aggro on any adds needs to taunt Thranok out of the pack by himself so players are not hit by his cleave. Try to keep him in the Blizzard if you can and warn your team to stay clear of his front. Run out of his Skull splitter ability.

After this, you will be asked to tank the second tower OR to stay on the ground. The second tower is exactly the same as the first, whilst on the ground adds will keep spawning.

Tanking Galakras
So the crazy finger mashing, running around like a headless chicken part is over with. Decide who is tanking Galakras first. The tank should face her away whilst the off tank should be positioned under her wing until their stacks drop off and then swap. This diagram demonstrates how I do it:

Although the image of Galakras shows him facing west, the north-most tank current has aggro and she is facing north.

When to pop AMS:
When you have high stacks during the last phase. This is also the phase to pop every single one of your cool downs, but use them wisely. Try to pop them one-by one when the boss reaches 40% health and below, that's when things get intense.

When to use Army of the Dead:
You should use army for the Galakras phase for a dps increase, however if you are having trouble tanking all the adds you could try using it durign an add phase with the taunts on.

HEROIC
Wow, not really a lot to talk about here. This fight is VERY similar on heroic especially for tanks. In fact I'm tempted to leave this one blank. I've killed Galakras three times on heroic and honestly I just do exactly the same as I've done the seven other times on normal. If anyone has any tips/tricks for Galakras on normal/heroic please let me know.

This concludes everything you need to know about tanking Galakras.

IRON JUGGERNAUT

One of the easiest fights in the instance. I can imagine this one will be very short. Your talents are not too important here, for Tier 3 I would chose Death's Advance as there are no need for slows of interrupts and the run speed increase is good for getting back after being blown away. Your level 90 tier talents are irrelevant in this fight as this is the first fight in the instance that does not have any adds! Use glyph of IBF and AMS, other than that it's your choice.

Tanking the Jugernaut
Face it away from the raid, preferably towards a corner. Your off tank should be soaking bombs, if he is late back and you get high stacks then pop AMS. Other than that, keep your death shield up as much as possible and make sure you do not stand on the Borer Drill earth lines which can likely spawn underneath your character. It is advisable that you do not soak bombs while tanking as, if you are low geared, may kill you.

This is where I tank the Juggernaut, indicated by the small tank icon.


Taking the bombs
As a tank with semi-decent gear, you should easily be able to take 1-2 bombs without even noticing any damage as a death knight with a good blood shield up. Make sure your shield is high before taking bombs and you could easily take all three without popping a single cool down. But, if you must, use IBF.

When to use AMS:
Either on high stacks of flame vents or during the Siege phase as the boss does constant pulsating AoE damage. A good time to use it would be as he knocks you back, so you are protected for the (hopefully short) run back. It should be a no-brainer, but as this is an idiots-guide you need to have a solid surface behind your character to be knocked back into.

When to use Army of the Dead:
Whenever. Preferably in time with hero/BL.

HEROIC
Same as normal mode. Are you beginning to notice a pattern here? Okay, well if you handle this fight correctly it will be possible for you to soak at LEAST 2 of the crawler mines, sometimes even all 3. On pull, Tank B taunts Juggernaught off of Tank A after only 1-2 stacks, that means Tank A should have plenty of time to soak all mines. I would advise speccing into Anti-Magic Zone for the Siege phase and place it on a stack point indicated with a world marker and tell your team to stack for it when healing gets heavy.

This concludes everything you need to know about tanking the Iron Juggernaut.

KOR'KRON DARK SHAMAN

This boss is pretty simple. But be careful, simple doesn't mean easy. For talents you'll want Death's Advance for the run speed increase, Purgatory and Gorefiend's Grasp as your main choices. Additionally, chose Glyph of IBF, Glyph of D&D and Glyph of AMS.

If you are pulling the boss for the first time, inflict one of the mounts with Outbreak at maximum ranged and strafe outside. Using a movement speed pot and disc shield for this will help. It is not uncommon for tanks to be 1-shot on that first pull. Here's the tricky part - you now need to aggro the right two mobs providing you and your other tank have decided to split it 2 and 2. You can do this by aoe tanking for a few seconds and then both tanks using their taunts to straighten things out.

Earthbreaker Haromm will afflict you with a stacking debuff. You should perform a tank switch at around 7-15 stacks depending on your gear. In desperate measure you could easily make 20 stacks with decent gear, any more than that and you'll have to pop a cooldown.

The key to this fight is movement. When the slime adds spawn: Don't. Stop. Moving. Until you are out of melee ranged. Now is the time to use Gorefiend's Grasp on Wavebinder Kardris (The female one) as she is the one casting the spell and will be positioned pretty central around all the adds. Meanwhile, Haromm will be with your tank and GG'ing Haromm will pull all the adds to your tanks - killing you both. So GG Kardris and slap down a D&D for slows. While it is possible to get in range to Blood Boil them, it isn't advised as you'd be putting yourself too much at risk. Let your D&D and the ranged take care of them.

Here is a simple diagram of how we kite the Shaman. You may chose to go int he opposite direction of course.


When the Ashen Wall spawns, it is very likely that it will spawn ON you. There are two ways to avoid taking a lot of damage from this:
a) Keep moving when you see the cast, so you instantly move out of it when it spawns and then wait for your boss to catch up with you.
b) Pop IBF before it spawns, then move out of it.
I would highly advise the first option. The second option is only beneficially viable if you are trapped in a situation where moving would end you up in more harmful stuff, so pop IBF to reduce damage until you're in a safe location.

The key to this fight is honestly just moving at the correct pace. When you see the green beacon come down on the player, you should start moving too as the slimes will spawn short after. Use the green beacon as an indicator as when to put your D&D down on Kardris. This is the hardest part of the fight and the one that causes the most wipes. The ashen walls are easy to avoid and should not cause a problem. If you have to pass through one, pop either IBF (With glyph) or vampiric blood. Rinse & repeat.

When to use Army of the Dead:
On pull. There is not better opportunity to pop it as there is so much movement in the fight.

HEROIC
Yes! Finally! Some tank changes to this fight! The following information is for the three-tank tactic. That's right, you heard me right. Three tanks. It's considered a lot easier.
Tank A has Kardis (the female shaman) down in the same way she is tanked in the diagram above, being kited around the room just like normal mode. Meanwhile Tank B and Tank C are up all the way up the hill behind the throne room (see diagram).


(sorry for big pic!)

Tank A tanks Kardis around the red line. Pretty simple.
Tanks B & C run with Harom in the direction of the purple line after the second iron tomb has dropped (around 86-88% health) until they reach the first blue circle. Accompanying Tank B & C will be 1 healer, and one/two DPS -- typically a melee. If no melee, use a ranged. While up on the hill, you will have to deal with the tank swaps, the green-slime beam-thing, ashen walls and Iron tombs. When tanking the boss, position your back to the demolishers that form the blockade wall. This is where you will be placing the first 1-2 Ashen Walls.

TIP: You can run your character BETWEEN the demolishers seconds before the Ashen Wall hits, so the wall is placed THROUGH the demolishors and you'll never have to worry about them again. You can pop a cooldown (Like IBF) and repeat this action by stacking them on top of each other, the IBF reduced the damage you take from the other walls that you are stacking it on top of. You do not have to do this however, it just makes things easier but is a bit tricky to master. Try not to get stuck!

Once you're over-run with Ashen Walls and Iron Tombs on top of the hill, have your team jump DOWN between the hill and the throne room (where the second blue circle is on the purple line). Continue the same tactic here, stacking your walls behind you, slowly moving forward each time. Remember, you can pop IBF to stacks walls on top of each other. If you have to, you can move back half-way up the hill if you run out of space. The boss should be dead by then, however.

This concludes everything you need to know about tanking Dark Shaman.

GENERAL NAZGRIM

This is an easy going, fun and laid back fight with a few perks for Death knights. Again, this will probably be a short guide. For your talents, either Gorefiend's Grasp or Remorseless winter can work here but it's your decission. Personally I would go for GG as you can use it on the mobs even when you're tanking the boss. As per usual, stick with Purgatory and go Asphyxiate.

You should perform a tank switch at around 3-5 stacks, no more if possible. The beginning of the fight is easy but things wil get progressively more strainuous especially in the last 15% of the bosses health. As a tank, your main role is to tank Nazgrim somewhat central in the room and away from the Shaman adds. It is essential that these Shaman are no where near the boss.

Handling the adds.
As mentioned above, keep the boss AWAY from the shamans. Your raid should have them stunlocked and killed fast. You can DG/GG any Ironblades/Assasins/Arcweavers to yourself or to the off tank. I would also advise using your Asphyxiate on cooldown as much as you can on the adds. Ironbaldes should be cleaved down with the boss, do not let them run free. If you have a spare asphyxiate, use it on them, otherwise use it as follows:

When to use Asphyxiate.
Use it on either the assasins, or the arcweavers. The arcweavers deal high damage to players and are a medium-low priorty so CC is important until they are killed. If an assasin is up, however, and you are quick to target it, hit it with your asphyx to stun it and allow your DPS to swarm it.

When you are NOT tanking the boss:
You can be helping with the adds by gathering them up, especially at later stages during the fight. Gorefiend's Grasp helps a lot here. GG them to yourself, throw down a D&D, spread your diseases, Asphyx who you can and focous your attention on the War Shamans or the Arcweavers. You can spend your mind freezes on these as well as hitting them with a dark simalucrum if/when you get the chance. Keeping your raid free of adds is important, at the end of the fight (10% health and below) you should focus on controlling the adds rather than killing them with the exception of the Shamans.

When to use Army of the Dead:
Preferably near the end of the fight with taunts turned on to help with the mass amounts of adds running around, this can actually be very handy.

HEROIC
Pretty easy to tank on heroic, very similar to normal except for one new tank-related ability; Execute. I personally would advise tanking Nazgrim where the adds spawn during battle and berserker stance, and moving him far away during defensive. NEVER let the other tank go over 3 stacks, 3 is the absolute limit, or you'll end up getting War Songs which is very high damage on heroic. The adds do not have to be tanked as a priority! So do not freak out when they spawn! Your add priority goes like this:

1. If you do not have to taunt the boss any time soon, you can death grip the Shaman away from the boss. Asphyxiate, Mind Freeze, Remorseless Winter if you have too.
2. Taunt the Ironblades. Do this whether you are tanking the boss or not, these can NOT run freely through the raid and must be taunted away. Asphyx and RW should be used to stun and prevent it from whirlwinding.
3. If you have done/cannot do either of the above, then just blow your Asphyxiate cooldown on any add left up. Use Remorseless Winter if you can but it's not important.

Execute is a powerful attack on the current tank for 3 million physical damage. It cannot be immuned but armor will reduce it's damage. On a geared blood DK with no cooldowns/externals, Execute will deal around 60-90% of your total health to you depending on how much armor you have and how much blood shield you have up. I would advise glyphing IBF for this so you can use it to reduce it's damage even further. Be sure to call for externals if you have no cooldowns available.

This concludes everyting you need to know about tanking General Nazgrim.






Is this guide useful? If yes, would you like me to continue and finish the rest of the bosses? my current progress is 10/14 heroic so I can do up to that. Let me know

[chibichibiko]

I like what you're doing here; I think it will be very useful for a lot of dk's. I'm going to throw in some suggestions of alternatives or tricks that I've used so far.

My addenda:
Immerseus: I've found that Glyph of death and decay doesn't add much to a build already using chillblains for immerseus (although it's useful to blanket an area where oozes will spawn before they get there), as simply spreading frost fever with a single blood boil will slow all those oozes for even longer at the same GCD cost. You're missing the best part of chillblains on that fight: Chains of Ice roots for 3 seconds and still applies frost fever, meaning it's a 3 second root and 7 additional seconds of 50% slow. Glyph of unholy command deserves mention as a useful glyph, as it can allow chain-deathgrips in the blob phase. I prefer Remorseless Winter over Gorefiend's Grasp, as it's a slow/stun that requires no resources.

Fallen Protectors:
My guild has taken to throwing the big add during He Softfoot's desperate measurs on me until it's dead. I tank rook at the same time. In order to smooth out the spike damage, I use DRW once the mob gets to me and Desecrated Ground to prevent a rook-stun. I follow that up with Vampiric Blood and then IBF, once again to block the stun and also to mitigate the damage as it's spiking near the end of the add's life. I keep my diseases rolling on all three bosses when I can in order to shorten the fight, as prolonging it is rougher on healers than having rapid-succession of desperate measures phases. The Sorrow doesn't have to be in melee range to be tanked, so I get a few initial hits on it, spread diseases, and take Gloom and Misery off to the side so they aren't mucking up the raid stack.

Norushen:
Another option for the titanic corruption is to AMS+dark simulacrum the first Hurl corruption and dark sim it back onto the titanic corruption instead of using it for Burst of Corrutpion (which can easily be healed back via deathstrikes) You may be able to get a second dark sim copy before you leave with glyphed Dark Sim. That can help to shorten the Trial phase and maybe even carry a strong nuke back into the main fight.
The people who haven't yet gone into their trials (assuming they will go in) are the ones who really should be picking up purple puddles from the big adds. If the enrage timer isn't an issue, then tanks are on the top of the list for picking up puddles in the last 50%, but if the enrage has been an issue, healers are the ones who need to pick them up.

Sha of Pride:
If your raid is short on AoE stuns, Remorseless winter is a viable alternative to D&D+Gorefiend's Grasp+Chillblains for the pack of little adds. Simply outbreak onto a little add, spread diseases to quickly establish initial threat, remoreseless winter and drop some AoE on the little bastards. This will leave the pile of adds closer to the 'stack area' for melee cleavers/point blank AoE and during the stun you can move to position for Imprison. After the stun breaks, if any are still alive, the adds should come to you where you'll have an easy time whittling them down.
Our guild had a dps increase by having me taunt the boss whenever the boss applied the debuff to the other tank, and the other tank took the boss back when the debuff wore off (that tank always got the debuff, and I always relieved them). This cycles the boss twice as fast, which keeps vengeance/riposte up 100% of the time, and may be useful for guilds struggling with the soft enrage.
Death grip the big add into the stack group and strangulate it to keep it from casting if your guild doesn't have particularly good ranged interrupts/silences or bursty ranged dps such that it can kill the thing before it gets a cast off.

Galakras:
Our guild has a warrior tank for the towers for the extra mobility and the ability to heroic leap when falling to avoid fall damage, so my perspective is from the full-time ground tank. Remorseless Winter a strong mitigation talent for this fight, and is especially useful for a ground tank when dealing with any wave that involves a shaman+flagbearer. Gorefiends can be used to interrupt the Bonecrushers, but death grip and asphyxiate will already work to interrupt it and you shouldn't ever have more than 2 Bonecrushers up at a time. The loss of remorseless winter's AoE stun is, in my mind, too costly in order to have a redundant interrupt to fracture, but it can be used in conjunction with an AoE slow to force a mob pack into a kite situation.
It's ok to use all your cooldowns through High Enforcer Thranok, as they'll all be back up for the boss (IBF will be the straggler, depending on how fast the tower gets taken down).
Don't forget that Army of the Dead offers a lot of breathing room for healers in this fight by tanking mobs for you. If you really don't need the survival benefit, then it might as well be saved for the boss.

Dark Shaman:
/cast [@focus] Dark Simulacrum -- and focus wavebinder. 20 runic power for a 400k nuke is fantastic (and it can crit for 800k). Glyph Dark Sim.
Death's Advance is almost necessary due to how Toxic Geyser works (whoever is tanking wavebinder determines where the oozes land, so moving quickly will keep them from hitting anyone with their murder aura.
This fight can be done with 3 tanks or with 2, but it's one where the third tank offers a lot of extra control (two tanks will trade earthbreaker, the other gets wavebinder the whole time and takes him elsewhere with a healer and a couple ranged dps who will kill/slow slimes), but that's at a massive expense of cleave dps if the enrage isn't an issue and your group has someone that can offtank, then I'd suggest trying it. If a dk is the one on wavebinder, AMS with regenerative magic for every falling ash, as your healer will be stressed out every time that happens.

General Nazgrim
Lol, tauntswap at 3 stacks. The end.
But in all seriousness, asphyxiate is the T3 stronger talent, as it might prevent a stray add from doing something undesirable near the boss (like heal).
If your group ignores all adds except shaman during the last 10% burn (even they only have to be aggro'd and interrupted away from the boss), I'd suggest popping army just before that point to help mitigate the damage. Some groups might send a tank back to round up all the adds at 10% and keep them away from the boss during the final burn. You won't be able to dictate whether that tank is you (the sunder armor stacks and his stances will determine that), but if it is you and your group plans this, chillblains, remorseless winter, and (again) asphyxiate are all quite useful to keep the adds controlled.

Malkorok:
Plague Leach is the optimal T1 talent. Interestingly, a fight where Conversion has little chance of ever overhealing and might be useful (I still don't like it because it's a dps loss, but it's worth noting that with enough haste/avoidance to keep your runic power up you can push some incredible self-healing numbers). Death siphon, similarly, may be a strong talent, but that's more on account of death strike being weaker than normal on this fight (during half the fight, your death strikes will always be for the minimum amount. Yet Death Siphon will only be strong until your personal ancient miasma shield is full, at which point it mitigates nothing. Bone shield is bonkers (overpowered in our favor) for this fight. On normal this is a fight where stamina is a dps stat, as vengeance can easily cap in 10-man otherwise.

Alternative class mechanic: It's possible for a blood dk to run as a healer in phase 1 of this fight. If so, they would gear for Stamina/Haste, dual wield, and spam the shit out of every attack that can spawn blood worms. These guys are, just like bone shield, bonkers for this fight and can be instrumental in healing the melee/tank group. They almost never burst before their 20 second duration, so that healing won't be particularly targeted/reliable.

Spoils of Pandaria:
Dark simulacrum the Rage of the Empress buff (10 seconds of +50% damage to nearby allies and yourself). If you have multiple dk's get two to dark sim it, one to cast it immediately and one to refresh it before their simulacrum runs out (glyph dark sim for this fight). You might even consider keeping one of those adds alive for a long time to just leech that buff, since with 2 dk's you can keep it up almost 100% of the time (and holy shit does it trivialize the fight!). There's little vengeance and damage is fairly light a lot of the time. To that end, It's not unreasonable to put on every dps option you can as a tank. Avoidance is strong for mitigation in this fight, due to 100% riposte uptime. I prefer, as always with stunnable adds, Remorseless winter over Gorefiend's Grasp.

Thok:
If you're a badass, you can actually be on the boss in phase 2, but you need to move safely away before each fixate ends to not get run over. AMZ is rather potent for phase 1, as if you use it later in the phase it's rather easy to mitigate two roars with it. If you need the cheat-death, I'd suggest the tank cloak over purgatory, just because AMZ will result in more total raid damage done by just adding more seconds to those phases. Once Thok fixates on the jailee, he stops being a concern for eating players--get to where you need to be to tank him and the raid get their positioning stacked up.

[Deleted]

Almost a use for Simulacrum again? nice tip

[Obsolus]

Thanks chibichibiko you've gone in too some really nice detail there! I'll hopefully have the next 4 bosses on soon.

[Colors]

Thank you for taking the time to put together this guide, it'll be incredibly useful for tanks progressing on these fights.

[Phinxx]

Not got time to read all of this tonight, but my first tip would be solo tanking Immerseus which I did with an ilevel of 535 approx. Killed the boss on the first kill but what i did was: I ate the first Blast, used AMS on the 2nd and AMZ on the 3rd in the first phase, then after I got 2 blasts where i always ate the first then used AMS on the 2nd as my guild has good DPS, and eventually its just the 1 blast. I actually thought in the 2nd first phase i would get 3 blats again which i was saving IBF for, but turned out I never did.

As for the bloods they die so easily i would just save all your runes for DS/HS and always grip a last add before it gets to the middle

[Obsolus]

Thank you for taking the time to put together this guide, it'll be incredibly useful for tanks progressing on these fights.

You're most welcome, just sharing my knowledge!

[Hilltopperpete]

On Galakras, the Glyph of Swift Death is a nice way to mitigate losing the movement speed from Death's Advance. When Galakras drops, face him towards the water with his nose near the bridge and the friendly foot soldiers will do about 500k dps to him. I've heard rumors that they also count towards soaking the Flames of Galakrond, but it's very hard to tell from logs if that actually happens.

Fun tip on Malkorok, Use your Death Pact macro the second the Ancient Barrier debuff hits you. Bloodworms have almost overhealing because of the shield, and they have a 15-yard range, so get your whole raid to stand within 15 yards as often as they can. It doesn't seem like much, but in a 15-man flex group kill, I did 200k hps, and 120k of it was Blood Burst- I didn't notice this on 10m normal because we don't have any melee. The average pulsed AOE heal can be over 1M (160k smart heals per hit)- more than a Monk's Revival and a charged Wild Mushroometonate from a Druid. Bone Shield can have a 100% uptime, because charges aren't taken off if the damage is absorbed. I was able to keep my Ancient Barrier through almost the entire Blood Rage phase because Blood Shield is absorbed before Ancient Barrier- you can continue refilling the Ancient Barrier through the phase after the boss debuff falls off because the Absorb Shield only disappears after it's fully absorbed. Rune of the Fallen Crusader is great, as is the healing trinket off of Iron Juggernaut (also one of the better DPS trinkets for DK tank now b/c of riposte). With AMS, a DK can easily soak the Imploding Energy in melee range- dump all your runic power just before it explodes for a nice dps boost.

AMS prevents stacks on Thok's breath after phase 1, making it very easy to solo tank. Thok is the only fight I feel like I really need Might of Ursoc from symbiosis, just for the extra cushion if your comp can handle a crazy amount of Deafening Screeches (the easiest strat with lots of melee/hunters and holy priest/druid/monk heals). Make sure your ranged aren't nuking the jailer in phase 2, it's free damage on the boss and melee just sit on their hands after he goes down.

In general for raid tanking always glyph Regenerative Magic (it's so good for both survival and DPS), and swap the rest based on utility. I absolutely love Outbreak- mid-fight, the opportunity cost of putting diseases up when outbreak is off CD is 1 death strike, while the Glyphed Version's cost is about .4 death strikes (for whatever rune cycle you use). Refreshing obviously only costs 1 blood rune, but for fights with heavy target swapping and realm phasing and newly spawned adds, outbreak is always available when you need it. Considering DRW is now free, the 30 RP cost is now trivial, and makes it significantly easier to both apply double diseases and spread them via hard cast pestilence, for a massive cleave damage increase.

[kiblermission]

Also some uses for dark simulc for fights.
Galakras: Shaman Tidal Wave
Dark Shaman: Kardis' Froststorm Bolt
Nazgrim: Arcweaver Arcane Shock
Garrosh: Farseer Wolf Chain lightning, MCed players abilities
Norushen: (Tank PG)Hurl Corruption (use ams when stealing)
Spoils: 150% haste rune of power (mogu), 5% raid damage (mantid)

[Obsolus]

Updated with heroic versions of the ones I've done already.

[Goil]

Nice guides! A couple of things you may like to add.

On Protectors progression He should be tanked on top of the other 2 whenever he is using instant poison. Use AMS for instant poison for a lot of runic power. He shits out a lot more noxious poison on heroic mode so as soon as he applies it pull him away.

Tower tank on Galakras should ensure to have IBF up for the start of the second tower as it does hurt a lot, especially if the healer is a little way behind you.

No mention of Execute on Nazgrim? It is the only real difference for tanks on this fight. If you don't have a CD up for it you should have 2 death strikes saved up for this, use one death strike before to top yourself up and get a blood shield up, then one after to heal yourself up.
Glyph of IBF is good for the executes.

[Obsolus]

Nice guides! A couple of things you may like to add.

On Protectors progression He should be tanked on top of the other 2 whenever he is using instant poison. Use AMS for instant poison for a lot of runic power. He shits out a lot more noxious poison on heroic mode so as soon as he applies it pull him away.

Tower tank on Galakras should ensure to have IBF up for the start of the second tower as it does hurt a lot, especially if the healer is a little way behind you.

No mention of Execute on Nazgrim? It is the only real difference for tanks on this fight. If you don't have a CD up for it you should have 2 death strikes saved up for this, use one death strike before to top yourself up and get a blood shield up, then one after to heal yourself up.
Glyph of IBF is good for the executes.

Thanks for pointing that last one out, completely forgot about it!

[Bstore2]

OMG. This is AMAZING. Seriously, stellar work. Please please continue to post the rest!

[Deleted]

Spoils of Pandaria:
Dark simulacrum the Rage of the Empress buff (10 seconds of +50% damage to nearby allies and yourself). If you have multiple dk's get two to dark sim it, one to cast it immediately and one to refresh it before their simulacrum runs out (glyph dark sim for this fight). You might even consider keeping one of those adds alive for a long time to just leech that buff, since with 2 dk's you can keep it up almost 100% of the time (and holy shit does it trivialize the fight!). There's little vengeance and damage is fairly light a lot of the time. To that end, It's not unreasonable to put on every dps option you can as a tank. Avoidance is strong for mitigation in this fight, due to 100% riposte uptime. I prefer, as always with stunnable adds, Remorseless winter over Gorefiend's Grasp.

When copied by Dark Simulacrum Rage of the Empress becomes a 5% damage buff. Confirmed this last time I was attempting Spoils HC.

You can also Dark Simulacrum the Amber Priest's Residue and put a nice HoT on a raid member.

[Zhorek]

Would it be possible to solo tank inmersus hc with glyph of anti-magic shell? Wouldn't it in theory absorb the whole blast? This would be having another tank just for adds.