Tanking Research

[Deleted]

Hi All,

I've just come back to wow after quite a large break, and due to personal circumstances I dont get a chance to play that much, so decided to level my deathknight (which is 89 atm), as I enjoy soloing older content and having the option to do more than just DPS. I've previously mainly played as a warlock and a priest, but have 85's of every class except shaman. I have of course read the sticky thread and tried to eek out as much info as possible before posting this.

1) My main question is, once I hit 90, I'd like to have the option of tanking dungeons/heroics but obviously dont want to let the group down, what process do you blood tanks go through to get ready for dungeons you havent tanked?

2) Is there a good website which gives you advice on strategies etc?

3) Is it better to finish all the zone quests first to gear up, or should I just run normals? I've DPS'd all the 85-89 dungeons as Frost, but obviously tanking them is different.

4) Glyphwise there seems to be quite alot of variances on recomendations, I guess depending on fight/gear etc. What would you say is the best set of glyphs for starting on heroics? I was thinking, Roiling Blood, Lichbourne, Asphyxiate, Death Pact, Runic Empowerment, and Gorefiend's Grasp. I notice quite a few tanks take purgatory in tier 2, is this more of a raid talent?

5) Any misc advice thats useful to give?

Sorry for the lots of questions, just want to be sufficiently prepared and not let the team down!

[FatMF]

are you preparing to launch yourself into space? or are you just playing a game? seriously, what the fuck

[Deleted]

Lol I'm at work, and dont have much to do, so thought doing some research and getting some advice would be handy, and pass the time!

[FatMF]

i think it's more fun to just figure things out as you go

[Sentientsix]

1) No process really, be aware of crap on the ground and things you can interrupt.
2) You can find good info here and elitist jerks (Reniat Posts specifically)
3) If you can run dungeons, do that
4) Rolling Blood, Purgatory, Death's Advance, Death Pact, Runic Corruption/Blood Tap, Gorefiend's Grasp // Vamp Blood, AMS, IBF
5) For dungeons/heroics... put up diseases and spam Blood Boil/Death Strike/Rune Strike -- for bosses normal priority (Diseases/Death Strike/Rune Strike/Procs on DnD or Blood Boil/Heart Strike) - Learn to roll your cooldowns, trinket, etc instead of blowing them all at once - and of course don't be one of those tanks that only uses cooldowns once they are are 10% hp and nearly beyond the point of saving.

[Tykku]

1) My main question is, once I hit 90, I'd like to have the option of tanking dungeons/heroics but obviously dont want to let the group down, what process do you blood tanks go through to get ready for dungeons you havent tanked?

Pay attention the the surroundings, nothing in normals is that hard tanking-wise.

2) Is there a good website which gives you advice on strategies etc?

Youtube.com

3) Is it better to finish all the zone quests first to gear up, or should I just run normals? I've DPS'd all the 85-89 dungeons as Frost, but obviously tanking them is different.

I bought gear off the AH to get into heroics, I tank them in dps gear (if i want to) just fine so low ilvl tanking gear should be fine.

4) Glyphwise there seems to be quite alot of variances on recomendations, I guess depending on fight/gear etc. What would you say is the best set of glyphs for starting on heroics? I was thinking, Roiling Blood, Lichbourne, Asphyxiate, Death Pact, Runic Empowerment, and Gorefiend's Grasp. I notice quite a few tanks take purgatory in tier 2, is this more of a raid talent?

Personally: Rolling Blood, Anti Magic Zone, Death's Advance, Death Pact, Runic Corruption, Gorefiend's Grasp
Glyphs: Anti Magic Shell (baseline tank dk glyph for all specs, no excuses), other 2 are whatever so long as you STAY AWAY from Icebound/vamp blood(ok to use in raids, no place in 5 mans)/and for the love of god do not glyph dancing rune weapon.

5) Any misc advice thats useful to give?

Pay attention

[Temp name]

1) My main question is, once I hit 90, I'd like to have the option of tanking dungeons/heroics but obviously dont want to let the group down, what process do you blood tanks go through to get ready for dungeons you havent tanked?

I just jumped straight into it, then again, that was day 2 of MoP

2) Is there a good website which gives you advice on strategies etc?

Youtube for a general overview, tankspot / similar for more in-depth

3) Is it better to finish all the zone quests first to gear up, or should I just run normals? I've DPS'd all the 85-89 dungeons as Frost, but obviously tanking them is different.

Normals is a good way to gear up, but doing the last zone is a pretty good way to make sure you have the Ilvl to get into heroics when you ding.

4) Glyphwise there seems to be quite alot of variances on recomendations, I guess depending on fight/gear etc. What would you say is the best set of glyphs for starting on heroics? I was thinking, Roiling Blood, Lichbourne, Asphyxiate, Death Pact, Runic Empowerment, and Gorefiend's Grasp. I notice quite a few tanks take purgatory in tier 2, is this more of a raid talent?

I'm going with:
RB
LB
DA
DP
RC (sue me, I'm lazy)
and RW
for talents and and AMS / Pest for glyphs (the 3rd depends on the last boss I did in raids, either IBF or VB)

5) Any misc advice thats useful to give?

The heroics are really easy, as long as you know the normal mode tacts and know how to not stand in fire you're pretty good. Also as a side note, 3rd boss in Scholo, click the bone piles. I've had WAY too many tanks who didn't and ended up getting 1shot by a bone spike..

---------- Post added 2012-12-18 at 02:35 PM ----------

Personally: Rolling Blood, Anti Magic Zone, Death's Advance, Death Pact, Runic Corruption, Gorefiend's Grasp
Glyphs: Anti Magic Shell (baseline tank dk glyph for all specs, no excuses), other 2 are whatever so long as you STAY AWAY from Icebound/vamp blood(ok to use in raids, no place in 5 mans)/and for the love of god do not glyph dancing rune weapon.

While it's true that they generally don't, I'm just too lazy to spend a tome on getting rid of them, especially concidering how easy the heroics are nowadays

[Boomcats]

Pay attention the the surroundings, nothing in normals is that hard tanking-wise.

Youtube.com

I bought gear off the AH to get into heroics, I tank them in dps gear (if i want to) just fine so low ilvl tanking gear should be fine.

Personally: Rolling Blood, Anti Magic Zone, Death's Advance, Death Pact, Runic Corruption, Gorefiend's Grasp
Glyphs: Anti Magic Shell (baseline tank dk glyph for all specs, no excuses), other 2 are whatever so long as you STAY AWAY from Icebound/vamp blood(ok to use in raids, no place in 5 mans)/and for the love of god do not glyph dancing rune weapon.

Pay attention

Vamp blood is 100% viable in 5 mans and even recommended if you know how to play properly. IBF is eh, I don't use ever- but i wouldnt stay never use it.

[Temp name]

Vamp blood is 100% viable in 5 mans and even recommended if you know how to play properly. IBF is eh, I don't use ever- but i wouldnt stay never use it.

The only place I've found Glyph of IBF usefull is on Bladelord or w/e the second boss in HoF is called. I guess possibly also on Elegon if you aren't tanking the adds that spawn in p3.

[Terridon]

If you've tanked before, and know how to use your interrupt and cds, you shouldn't have a problem at all.
Blademaster can kill you if you don't know him though. His whirlwind have a large range, and if you're not prepared you can get caught. You'll usually see one or 2 getting caught there.
Last boss in stormstout brewery. Just stay in range of boss, instead of killing adds, since the boss hurts if it can't melee you.
Scholos miniboss in the room with bored students. They hurt a lot so be slow there to you got some gear. And the professor in that room hurts when he change form. Just pop icebound fortitude.
Rest of the bosses is: Interrupt obvious abilities, like mass ress, rising anger and such.
Most can't even kill you when you run too fast in, without a healer, which i did on several of my first HC-runs. Blood is stupidly strong <.<

I can't remember any other boss that should give you trouble, on top of my head.

[Hellkung]

I'd honestly take Remorseless Winter over Gorefiend's Grasp if you're starting out.

A 6 sec AOE stun in incredibly strong at any gear level, 6 sec stun is 6 sec of no incoming damage in other words, time for you to recover and adapt.

IcyVeins is a good website for most info.

Install Blood Shield tracker and track your Blood Shield, estimated heal and Scent of Blood stacks.

[Deleted]

Thanks for all your help guys. Thats some good info. The tier 2 talents seem very variable. Is Purgatory not worth taking as its so rarely used then?

Also, and probably a silly question, how on top of your runes do you need to be? Ie is it worth getting a rune display in the middle of the screen so you know whats on cd etc? Also, like 2H frost, is a swingtimer useful, or not really?

[Hellkung]

Thanks for all your help guys. Thats some good info. The tier 2 talents seem very variable. Is Purgatory not worth taking as its so rarely used then?

Also, and probably a silly question, how on top of your runes do you need to be? Ie is it worth getting a rune display in the middle of the screen so you know whats on cd etc? Also, like 2H frost, is a swingtimer useful, or not really?

Yes, you need to be on top of your Runes so get an addon for that, I personally use Engraved.

Purgatory is really a talent that shines for HC/Hard mode, not something you want for dungeons.

[Terridon]

Yes, you need to be on top of your Runes so get an addon for that, I personally use Engraved.

Purgatory is really a talent that shines for HC/Hard mode, not something you want for dungeons.

Personally I don't like purgatory. For raids and challenge runs it can be usefull
Usually you will die when the healer is dead for some reason. You res the healer, they die again, and you die after that.

[Deleted]

Personally I don't like purgatory. For raids and challenge runs it can be usefull
Usually you will die when the healer is dead for some reason. You res the healer, they die again, and you die after that.

Purgatory did save me a few times coupled with a VB & Death Pact immediately after (the reason why purgatory popped is something entirely different but lets exclude that )

[Deleted]

What about tier 5 with Runic Empowerment etc. Obviously Blood Tap gives you the option of using a DS pretty much when you want (if you have enough stacks) All three talents seem fairly similar in overall quality

[Terridon]

Purgatory did save me a few times coupled with a VB & Death Pact immediately after (the reason why purgatory popped is something entirely different but lets exclude that )

True. Specially in the beginning it might have some more use. Might not be that bad overall ^^

What about tier 5 with Runic Empowerment etc. Obviously Blood Tap gives you the option of using a DS pretty much when you want (if you have enough stacks) All three talents seem fairly similar in overall quality

I'll shameless qoute one from another thread, instead of saying the same over again

Blood Tap: full control, but least runes overall (not 100% certain on this, maybe RC is less).
Runic Empowerment: very RNG, but most runes overall.
Runic Corruption: consistent rune regeneration, requires no attention.

As RE is most runes overall, it will yield the highest dps. Your death strikes will be more randomly spread though. If you go blood tap, you often have a death strike ready right when you want one. RC just increases the amount of death strikes you get steadily, smoothing out the damage intake a bit, and requires no attention so you can focus on other stuff more. They are all viable, so pick what feels best for you.

Blood tap gives you the least runes overall, but the ability to have a DS on demand is nice. Some safe survivability, instead of the risk of RNG giving you hell, at the wrong time, so i'dd go for that if i were you

[Temp name]

Thanks for all your help guys. Thats some good info. The tier 2 talents seem very variable. Is Purgatory not worth taking as its so rarely used then?

Also, and probably a silly question, how on top of your runes do you need to be? Ie is it worth getting a rune display in the middle of the screen so you know whats on cd etc? Also, like 2H frost, is a swingtimer useful, or not really?

Purg is usefull on SOME bosses (again, 2nd boss in HoF), but overall I feel LB is better.

You definately need to know what runes you have and when they're available, I go with a rune display just below my character, between my player and target frames. Swingtimer is slightly useful if you want to uptimize DRW damage (pop it just before a swing happens), but might add up to 100k damage over a fight, and is really not worth the extra attention if you ask me.

---------- Post added 2012-12-18 at 11:34 PM ----------

What about tier 5 with Runic Empowerment etc. Obviously Blood Tap gives you the option of using a DS pretty much when you want (if you have enough stacks) All three talents seem fairly similar in overall quality

as I said earlier, I go with RC because I'm lazy. I'd practice BT, but that'd require effort

[rhapso]

1) Just go in the. They aren't that hard and if you wipe, it's a natural thing. If you are really that insecure, you can always ask your group to give you some pieces of advice about the instance and there is always the dungeon journal.

2) if you are looking for raids, icy-veins.com - i don't know one for dungeons, since they are too easy anyway. exception being challenge modes, for which there are plenty of videos on youtube

3) just get the feel of your new "main spec" (=blood) by questing as blood. pull 5-6+ mobs at once and try not to fall below 90%. That's how you can learn the basics of your selfheal mechanisms and how to do dps at the same time. apart from that just go in there and get some practice - don't talk it dead, try'n'error.

4) I'm running with Rolling Blood, Purgatory (use Death Pact after it proccs - helps you in these OH-SH*T-moments, esp. if you're new to something and stand in the baaaad fire), Death's Advance (Asphyxiate is ok, but you don't really need it), Death Pact, Runic Corruption (easier/smoother playstyle) and Remorseless Winter. Remorseless Winter is TOP for taking less damage and group tanking in general. if there are plenty of mobs (4+) in a group, just use it right away. It's a great tool for group tanking.
Glyphwise I'd say Pestilence is mandatory, Outbreak can be convenient, if you get the hang of it and apart from that only Death and Decay may really come in handy.

5) Just get out there and practise. DK tanking isn't something that you can learn by reading - you can read the article on EJ or similar forums and try to understand how our class works, but tanking takes time. Take it slow, start with a normal dungeon and cross over to the heroic ones, as soon as you feel secure enough. If you have ppl to run dungeons with you, do it - it's always more fun and easier to run with a group of ppl that know each other.

Here are some links, where you can find some more comprehensive insight on our beloved class - might be a bit overkill for the start, tho.
EJ-BDK: http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t130560-...e_before_cool/
IcyVeins: http://icy-veins.com/blood-death-kni...pve-tank-guide