WoLK DKs...which spec is going to be tanking?

[aarrok]

If any of you remember the time when DKs first came out, you would know they had 3 specs. 1 DPS specs and 2 tank hybrid spec. But they were not the same as they are today. Back when DKs first came out, Unholy was pretty much only a DPS spec with Blood and Frost being the tank spec. But I am curious if they will make Frost tanks the default choice when tanking in WoLK. Frost was the more balanced tank spec and Blood, well...had its ups and downs. Anyone have thoughts on how Blizz will launch it or how you intend on playing it?

[DarkLimpan]

Back then, you could tank, and dps, in any of the 3 specs. One of our hunters from back then were tanking in unholy.

I couldn't say if one spec were that much better than other specs at either task back then. I think frost were the most common tank spec, because frost presence were the tanking aura?

[Neverafter]

We remember Wrath of the Lich King very different.

The DK was introduced as the class that could tank or dps, there wasn't 2 tank specs and a dps spec. All three could tank and dps. At various points in WOTLK, there was DW Unholy specs, 2 hand frost and Dual Wield frost didn't really take off till ICC. My favorite though was Blood DPS. Stacking armor penetration and popping rune weapon and just melting shit.

As to which will be the tank spec, while all 3 are viable, people naturally gravitated toward blood because of the self healing.

[Polybius]

You could tank in all 3. I preferred Unholy+Blood for AoE. I know dual-wield and Frost were enticing to many for parrying but I was fond of two-handers. I can’t recall their specialties due to faded memory.

[danki1337]

If any of you remember the time when DKs first came out, you would know they had 3 specs. 1 DPS specs and 2 tank hybrid spec. But they were not the same as they are today. Back when DKs first came out, Unholy was pretty much only a DPS spec with Blood and Frost being the tank spec. But I am curious if they will make Frost tanks the default choice when tanking in WoLK. Frost was the more balanced tank spec and Blood, well...had its ups and downs. Anyone have thoughts on how Blizz will launch it or how you intend on playing it?

blood with talents into frost since its 3.3.3 final patch of wrath. but for speedruns i think frost or unholy depending on setup, but again why bring a dk tank vs paladin.

[Deln]

We remember Wrath of the Lich King very different.

The DK was introduced as the class that could tank or dps, there wasn't 2 tank specs and a dps spec. All three could tank and dps. At various points in WOTLK, there was DW Unholy specs, 2 hand frost and Dual Wield frost didn't really take off till ICC. My favorite though was Blood DPS. Stacking armor penetration and popping rune weapon and just melting shit.

As to which will be the tank spec, while all 3 are viable, people naturally gravitated toward blood because of the self healing.

Blood DPS was truly the Hero class at its best, I hope they have that spec available because before the nerfs it was the terminator. An unstoppable damage machine with massive self healing. So fun leveling up and doing dungeons with no tank. It did need to be nerfed and it was way to hard to maintain 3 viable tank options in one class.

At the end Blood was the only tank option as it is now.

[kamuimac]

If any of you remember the time when DKs first came out, you would know they had 3 specs. 1 DPS specs and 2 tank hybrid spec. But they were not the same as they are today. Back when DKs first came out, Unholy was pretty much only a DPS spec with Blood and Frost being the tank spec. But I am curious if they will make Frost tanks the default choice when tanking in WoLK. Frost was the more balanced tank spec and Blood, well...had its ups and downs. Anyone have thoughts on how Blizz will launch it or how you intend on playing it?

that will depend on the patch and the gear you will have. and the gear that peoplewho run dungeons with you will have.

the more geared yu will be the less defensive build you can use and the more offensive talents you will take.

[garicasha]

I remember it depended on the bosses’ swing speed, slow-swinging bosses were unholy because you could maintain bone shield.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

All specs were viable to tank in WotLK.


However, the game will be launched in the balance patch that was at the end of the expansion. I think 3.3.3a?


That means as soon as people reach level 80 and start doing Heroic dungeons in preparation for Naxxramas, most (if not all) Death Knight tanks will be Blood spec. Blood spec lacks in AoE capability, though.


That patch saw specific tanking strengths being put into the Blood tree. Blood was essentially the superior tanking spec in that patch (the ICC patch) but you could still tank in other specs... just not as optimal as Blood could.


Somebody else said it best earlier this year:

People are giving you a lot of mixed information that is confusing.

Let me break it down better for you.

We’re getting the final patch of Wrath as the default balance. This means that each of the 3 death knight Specs is technically capable of doing both tanking and DPS.

The reason why so many people are saying that blood is “the tank spec” is because of balancing.

Blizzard does this thing where, when they want to overhaul a class or spec in the next expansion, they will make nerf and buff certain aspects of the class in the final patch of the current expansion in certain ways.
In the case of Wrath, they knew that they were going to change the way Death Knights would work in Cata so they buffed the tanking capability of Blood to be vastly superior to the other specs while making those specs much better than Blood for DPS.

They did the same thing for Warlocks in WoD. They knew they were going to overhaul Demonology Warlock, so they purposefully made it suck in the final balance patch so “nobody” would play it and be upset when the next expansion came out.

So you are totally able to play as a tank as all three DK specs, but the final balance patch means that you’re gimping yourself by not playing Blood tank.

https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...2#post53735242


I was a Frost DK tank all through WotLK up until Icecrown Citadel where I went Blood. From personal experience, Blood is an insanely stronger tank in that patch (which will be the default WotLK Classic patch tuning) compared to Frost and Unholy.

[Saltysquidoon]

It's worth noting that a huge part of the reason blood was dominant on the ICC patch was as a result of item stat scaling healers had infinity mana and thus health stacking and hence blood (and bear) since it scaled with health over mitigation were the obvious choices.
I don't think it's necessarily given blood will be optimal when you're in blues, it also has dogshit snap threat. It's entirely possible frost could be the go-to for 5mans/low GS runs.

Briefly touching on unholy I do think that launching on the ICC patch will mean it will be both below frost and blood in all content and obligate nonviable for actually serious play.

[Stormdash]

Frost tanking was great fun, I mean Howling Blast alone, right? But sadly that's not part of the Wrath experience we're going to get to relive :/

[Woods123]

Back then, you could tank, and dps, in any of the 3 specs. One of our hunters from back then were tanking in unholy.

I couldn't say if one spec were that much better than other specs at either task back then. I think frost were the most common tank spec, because frost presence were the tanking aura?

It’s been a long time but I think the ‘idea’ behind it was frost was good single target for threat, unholy for aoe, and blood was honestly not as great as the other two but survivability was great.

Most of the dks in our group were unholy or frost. Unholy for early early on because most of the content was a joke (sarth +3 and nax) and unholy was just the king of pulling EVERYTHING and keeping aggro.

[Hctaz]

All specs were viable to tank in WotLK.


However, the game will be launched in the balance patch that was at the end of the expansion. I think 3.3.3a?


That means as soon as people reach level 80 and start doing Heroic dungeons in preparation for Naxxramas, most (if not all) Death Knight tanks will be Blood spec. Blood spec lacks in AoE capability, though.


That patch saw specific tanking strengths being put into the Blood tree. Blood was essentially the superior tanking spec in that patch (the ICC patch) but you could still tank in other specs... just not as optimal as Blood could.


Somebody else said it best earlier this year:




https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...2#post53735242


I was a Frost DK tank all through WotLK up until Icecrown Citadel where I went Blood. From personal experience, Blood is an insanely stronger tank in that patch (which will be the default WotLK Classic patch tuning) compared to Frost and Unholy.

Okay but like... as somebody who posts a lot of potentially helpful information with no expectation of recognition or even being remembered: This actually made my day.
I clicked on this thread to try to explain this exact thing, and then I see my old post shared.

Edit: Oh crap, that typo in the original reply I made LOL I didn't catch that and it looks so jarring now that I'm reading it again lol

[Th3Scourge]

Blood. It's 3.3.5

[SinR]

I remember Unholy Tanking for a long time.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

Okay but like... as somebody who posts a lot of potentially helpful information with no expectation of recognition or even being remembered: This actually made my day.
I clicked on this thread to try to explain this exact thing, and then I see my old post shared.

Edit: Oh crap, that typo in the original reply I made LOL I didn't catch that and it looks so jarring now that I'm reading it again lol

Happy to acknowledge!

[Battlebeard]

The way I remember it, Blood was always the Tank specc.

Frost was the go to PvE specc and Unholy was the PvP specc.

[MuricaIsDead]

Unholy tanking was awesome during naxx. Our maintank was unholy. Then Ulduar hit and destroyed unholy tanking. I actually quit the game for a long time over this, as I find unholy DK to be one of the best spec/class combos in the game. Every class has a spec that the class 'should' be, like arcane for mage, arms for warrior, etc, etc... for DK, the 'it' spec is unholy.

- - - Updated - - -

The way I remember it, Blood was always the Tank specc.

Frost was the go to PvE specc and Unholy was the PvP specc.

Not even close. My unholy dps DK was almost always at the top of the dps, and i almost exclusively PVP'd in frost.

[Drench]

All specs were viable to tank in WotLK.


However, the game will be launched in the balance patch that was at the end of the expansion. I think 3.3.3a?


That means as soon as people reach level 80 and start doing Heroic dungeons in preparation for Naxxramas, most (if not all) Death Knight tanks will be Blood spec. Blood spec lacks in AoE capability, though.


That patch saw specific tanking strengths being put into the Blood tree. Blood was essentially the superior tanking spec in that patch (the ICC patch) but you could still tank in other specs... just not as optimal as Blood could.


Somebody else said it best earlier this year:




https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...2#post53735242


I was a Frost DK tank all through WotLK up until Icecrown Citadel where I went Blood. From personal experience, Blood is an insanely stronger tank in that patch (which will be the default WotLK Classic patch tuning) compared to Frost and Unholy.

WHAT IF? big if... that demo sucked so bad no one played it... so they decided to rework it?

[Flatspriest]

WHAT IF? big if... that demo sucked so bad no one played it... so they decided to rework it?

Then it would no longer be classic. They want to keep it as close to original as possible, and there were enough players that loved that as it gave more DPS to Frost and Unholy at the same time as giving more survivability and boss control to Blood. They will almost definitely NOT rework it for sucking to bad.