Need advice, Archie Heroic, Death Brand, Prot

[Alistania]

Hiya!

I am a tank with many years of experience, but I am having some survivability issues with Archie's Death Brand debuff on heroic.

I don't worry about it till phase 2 as we get the immunity buff.

After that it starts to destroy me. When I get it the first time after phase 2, I use LS and Barrier so that I can absorb as much as I can. I generally get 250k plus shields, with more commonly 300ish+ shields while LS is up. After that for the duration I focus on rage generation to spam barrier and mitigate the dot as much as I can. (I am positive there are other factors here as well, other absorbs from healers, hots, etc.) And that usually gets me by.

The next time I get it I use SW, and push absorbs on myself like I usually would.

I save Enrage Regen and potion for when I'm about to die.

BUT it seems that that's not enough sometimes, and often I get REALLY close to dying. I feel super squishy, and the extra shadow damage debuff doesn't help either.

I am not used to calling for externals, I try to not talk over the raid leaders and only really call out when I'm taunting, otherwise I try to stay quiet and do my job.

I also think I might focus too much on rage generation/mechanic execution/surviving on my own.

I don't know what else I can do besides work on calling out CDs, which kinda goes outside my comfort zone of tanking. (Likely a personal problem.)

But are there any tips other people have for me?

[AanvilGT]

If you are not comfortable calling for CDs, you should consider setting up a CD rotation before hand. For example, if you have a Paladin healer, he should be able to cast Hand of Sacrifice on you for each Death Brand. I would recommend having him cast the HoS during the Death Brand cast so that you get the benefit for the initial hit.

[Valech]

I am a bit surprised, because Death brand never appeared to be a problem, even during progression in the first week.
I would like to add a few things. Firstly, of course you pick Gladiator´s Resolve for this fight. That is a flat 5% less damage you take. Then, be aware, that whenever you are hit by Deathbrand, a Deathcaller will spawn, that is fixated on you. If you invest all your rage into Barriers, you will take a lot of his (not unsubstential) melee damage. Be also aware, that right after the spawn of that add and in fixed intervals, he will cast an additional, non-interuptable spell (Shadowstrike I believe) on you. This spell not only deals a huge amount of damage, it also increases the received shadow damage by 25% - stacking. The thing that kills you is most likely not the periodic ticks of Deathbrand but the combination of those ticks, Deathstrike burst and the thereafter increased ticks of Deathbrand (Since Deathbrand also deals shadow damage). I highly suggest the following:
If you are in posession of it, use the classtrinket. Shieldblocks will make the melee damage of the add trivial and flat out reduce the magic damage you receive.
If you have the option to, wear 4 pieces. Even if you only bleed off rage into barriers, they gain so much value through the bonus.
Observe how often the add manages to cast Deathstrike. If it casts more then twice (The one right after the spawn and one more) your group´s focus dmg is shit, since those adds have priority right after the doomfirespirits.
Make sure, that your co tank immediatly taunts the boss once the boss started to cast Deathbrand. The boss will still cast it on you. You can avoid being hit by the boss unnecessairily with that.
Time your Demoshout right AFTER the Deathbrand. With that, you will debuff the demon, decreasing his melee damage and the damage of his first cast. The initial damage of Deathbrand itself should be compensateable, since you did nothing but facetank the boss until then.

And finally, sorry to say, but get used to announce cooldowns. I am using the addon "Blood Legion cooldowns" for that. Just deactivate all group cooldowns like rallying cry and only display single target cooldowns like sacrifice. Make a sharp, short announcement right in time: "Sacrifice from pala1 on Alistania". It just makes stuff many times easier.

Good luck