Blood tank thrown in the fire, need help on how to maximize while I gear up

[evilH]

So I brought my DK over to cover a tank opening on an alt guild of mine, they need an OT and are just progressing 10M normal right now. My gear isn't horrible but isn't the best right now and I'm wondering considering my gear makeup at the moment what I should spec for given this is progression raiding plus being slightly out of optimal gear. I have 522 crafted boots and helm on the way next week so that will help, but we are going to work on Animus and Qon Monday. I've survived so far although Primordius hit me like a truck tonight, overall they are happy with my work and are willing to invest in my toon for the future.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...vildk/advanced

this is the setup I had for tonight, I understand most stat priority seems to be "preference" but I want opinions on how you would go about setting yourself up if you were me. I'm not really worried about being wrong, would just like to be the best I can for progression purposes, we have a great group and I know my gearing will accelerate over the next few weeks but I'd like to go in with the best possible setup right now to tackle this last few progression bosses before heroic time.

Thank you in advance

[Deleted]

hit and exp are to high get some more mastery of health from them shoulde be 7,50 on em

[Deleted]

as mentioned by coldarian, your expertise and hit are a little too high, I see you've reforged out of expertise as much as possible, so it would be hard to reduce that stat in your current gear. you can remove some hit for more mastery however. Another thing of note is that you have purchased the dps trinket from SPA, the tanking trinket from them is very good in my opinion. I currently use the SPA dodge trinket and liquid courage. switching these trinkets over when valor allows will also reduce your expertise a great deal.

other than that its just a case of getting gear and using correct cooldowns at the right time. Your gear is good enough as is to clear 12/12 normal, im at 518 ilvl for my blood spec and have tanked all 12 without any trouble. Good luck with the rest of the tier.

[Nillo]

don't listen to those two up there.... like seriously don't
keep the hit cap
stop reforging expertise to mastery even though you could get rid of dodge instead (chest legs belt gloves)
stop using 'tank' gear - like seriously all that non mastery gear with avoidance is just crap
get roiling blood
get purgatory
stop using glyph of dancing rune weapon
use mastery on gloves instead of the stamina kit

Another thing of note is that you have purchased the dps trinket from SPA, the tanking trinket from them is very good in my opinion

All it offers is mastery - the on use is horrible except for maybe Malakk but even there it does next to nothing.

---------- Post added 2013-06-27 at 01:58 PM ----------

I have 522 crafted boots and helm on the way next week so that will help, but we are going to work on Animus and Qon Monday.

Get the haste version of those 2 items or you may find yourself being overcapped on hit and well the helm one has more mastery.

[Hellkung]

Don't listen to the one up there, like seriously don't...

I'd keep the hit and exp caps as well but it's based on preference, not needed but highly recommended. Any serious tank caps them. Always reforge the highest stat on anything to mastery if you're focusing on progression, it's your best stat, always.

Don't shy away from any gear that has mastery on it, haste/mastery, fine, dodge/mastery, fine too.

This means reforging away all of that dodge and maybe swapping out the Brutal Talisman for the tanking one because you'll be swamped in expertise.

The tanking trinket from them is bought solely for the massive boost in mastery so don't listen to anyone saying it's bad or anything, it's not. Even the use effect is good although highly situational, (add-tanking)

The reason different people will give you different advice is because of their playstyle and progression. Some DK's like to live on the edge, others try to squeeze out every last bit of mitigation. Find the survivability level you yourself are comfortable with and to a lesser extent your healers.

Good luck!

[evilH]

Thanks guys, going to play with stats over the weekend and get ready for Monday, I literally had 3 days notice on this tank and was 100% DPS build so that is why I'm missing a few things right now that are DPS gear equipped instead of tanking. I'm taking what I can get and running with it right now. Like I said, I went EXP/HIT cap then mastery because I wanted to make sure my threat would be high enough to keep aggro since some of the DPS out gear me by 10 ilvl or more. Overall we are happy with my ability to tank, so this is just my "never happy" approach which I take to everything to find out if I'm leaving something out there which would help me right now.

I have 400 valor after capping this week and getting a new trinket, so it will be a bit before I can valor myself up to buy anything else.

[Nillo]

If you were dps before then you should probably have some dps items that are better itemized than most of the parry/dodge pieces you're using /:

[evilH]

Never said I was good dps...lol, my max ilvl is like 517 and thats after getting upgrades (the bad dodge gear you are talking about) which are higher ilvl than my dps set.

[Teye]

don't listen to those two up there.... like seriously don't
keep the hit cap
stop reforging expertise to mastery even though you could get rid of dodge instead (chest legs belt gloves)
stop using 'tank' gear - like seriously all that non mastery gear with avoidance is just crap
get roiling blood
get purgatory
stop using glyph of dancing rune weapon
use mastery on gloves instead of the stamina kit

All it offers is mastery - the on use is horrible except for maybe Malakk but even there it does next to nothing.

---------- Post added 2013-06-27 at 01:58 PM ----------


Get the haste version of those 2 items or you may find yourself being overcapped on hit and well the helm one has more mastery.

So, we should do the exact opposite of everything Riggnaros (and almost every other high end raiding DK I've seen) does?

[Nillo]

So, we should do the exact opposite of everything Riggnaros (and almost every other high end raiding DK I've seen) does?

Riggnaros is a 25H tank.
He also tends to troll people by logging out in odd gear setups.

[Tarazet]

The Gargoyle enchant isn't any good. Just use Fallen Crusader. Put a +Mastery enchant on your gloves. Any plate you have that doesn't have Critical Strike on it should be fine, just go for the highest ilvl. You have more Expertise than you need, but you've done all you can about that right now. The two stats that will help the most at your level are Mastery and Haste.

[dementedlogic]

So, we should do the exact opposite of everything Riggnaros (and almost every other high end raiding DK I've seen) does?

Riggnaros has long been known to not do things typically deemed as being optimal (in particular hit/exp, glyph and sometimes talents). He is allowed to play a theoretically non-optimized gearing/glyph/talented setup because he raids with some of the best players in the world (things like DRW gain value when your raid is bursting for 800k dps on the pull) while also doing content far ahead of his potential gear level (an issue normal players don't have to worry about). Absalom has similar issues, among every other top tank in the world they both do things differently.

Stamina to live > 7.5% hit > mastery > 7.5% expertise > haste = 15% expertise > dodge/parry

Expertise can shift in value varying on personal preference, but from a min/max standard it's not typically regarded as an insane top priority.

Riggnaros also doesn't intend to "troll" people by logging out in various gear setups. He is legitimately using them while raiding (you can verify this by simply watching his stream). The most popular "troll" gear setup was running a pure haste build in BLs group 2 group because they were focused on normal content and pushing in to heroic content casually. Theres next to no reason to gear for optimal survival in a normal setting. Theres even a couple of 10H Blood DKs emphasizing haste over mastery (Tyvi rings a bell, he often times utilizes a full haste setup over full mastery). Changes to strats are often required for these kinds of stats changes, but yeah.

[evilH]

Guys, this isn't a "whats better at the highest level of theory crafting" thread, I'm merely trying to squeeze the most out of my gear as I can for now until I get a few drops my way. Positive is my helm and Boots will be new soon enough, and I'm the only plate wearer in the group who needs gear (only a pally to compete with). I've switched things a bit again to hit cap and add a bit of haste, I switched the EXP. trinket for spark which offers haste, yes my mastery went down a bit but I'm fine with that for testing purposes.

[Deleted]

don't listen to those two up there.... like seriously don't
keep the hit cap
stop reforging expertise to mastery even though you could get rid of dodge instead (chest legs belt gloves)
stop using 'tank' gear - like seriously all that non mastery gear with avoidance is just crap
get roiling blood
get purgatory
stop using glyph of dancing rune weapon
use mastery on gloves instead of the stamina kit

All it offers is mastery - the on use is horrible except for maybe Malakk but even there it does next to nothing.

---------- Post added 2013-06-27 at 01:58 PM ----------


Get the haste version of those 2 items or you may find yourself being overcapped on hit and well the helm one has more mastery.

oh so having exp overcapped is good? 7,50 all above is WASTED in nothing it does't count if its hight so why lose stats on doing this?

[Nillo]

oh so having exp overcapped is good? 7,50 all above is WASTED in nothing it does't count if its hight so why lose stats on doing this?

Exp from 7.5 to 15 still does something - the op would also gain some mastery by reforging that way....

[Whiteout]

Nillo's pretty much on point here.... Dodge/parry is essentially spirit right now (completely worthless). Also to coldarian, going over 7.5% exp isnt terrible, going over 7.5% hit however is. The reason going past 7.5 exp isn't recommended for blood is cuz you will get more dps out of putting those points into haste or crit due to the nature of rs and ds