Death Knights will tank as Blood in Cataclysm

[Sarevokcz]

nooooOOOOOOOOOOOO!! :-X

now seriously, I am really curious how are they planning on tweaking trees, I tank as frost, so it will be pretty different for me, no HB, no KM... one big sad panda here! but hopefully it still be fun tanking as blood and Im guessing some DPS talents like DRW or hysteria are gone from blood tree in cata.

It will be just hard to decide which dps tree will be offspec, its too bad blood was my least favorite tree and i was pretty much playing as frost or unholy :P

[Apostolic]

Isn't block getting removed in Cata? o.0

Nope, just changed to 30% damage reduction on block. No Block Value, but Block Rating.

[Azranas]

Thank for this I might start tanking again with my DK. . . AND ENJOY IT D=

[Tunaria]

If you use pestilence and howling blast instead of blood strike and obliterate in your single target dps rotations, your doing it wrong.

He was talking about multi-target/aoe, so both are viable options.
Frost dps rotation in general is pretty simple, although it's somewhat more proc-dependent than blood or unholy.

Personally, I don't mind this change. It is more simple to have a definite tanking tree, though it is kind of a shame that the versatility of having multiple playstyles as tanks is lost.
I would probably need some time to adjust, though, as I'm currently tanking as frost and dpsing as blood, but that probably goes for all classes in this case.

I don't get why some people get so overdramatic because of this. We don't know the details yet and most, if not all, classes will probably see some alterations in playstyle.

[Kryos]

I loved old DD Blood DK. The came the unholy buff. I played him that way but did not enjoy it so much. I event tanked a little bit just to get some blood spec fun. If I have to dual wield frost or 2-hand unholy to dps I will not play my DK very much. I prefer tanking with my druid anyway

[Unorthodox]

Just waiting for 4.0 when the clueless pack of brownies (intended mistake) who dont read the forums or how class mechanics work all spec right into blood again and start complaining about why there dps is so low or pull aggro... Oh how fun pugs on an alt will be then. I thought it was as bad now with just the usual half dps half tank spec'd deathknights that we have at the moment i wonder how bad it could get when dribbles and the gang get hold of the new blood tree.

Overall it will be a good laugh anyway

[CaptainArlong]

As Blood DPS, words cannot describe my anger.

[crsh1976]

Kinda sad about the Blood tree going fully to tanking, I leveled my DK as Blood and kept him Blood for DPS'ing, it's just a lot of fun.

While I get why DK trees are a bit too polyvalent, I'm kinda scared Frost will become the "whatever" tree with a mix of tanking and DPS'ing talents that both tanks and DPS'ers will need to spec into for complementary talents (with the good stuff always being too far down, as per all classes).

Blood DPS was just too good I guess, and instead of nerfing it into oblivion they're changing its purpose; not an entirely bad decision, even if I'm going to miss it.

[Isolyphic]

I can honestly say I didn't see this comming, it does make sense though.

Consider the new talent system (Damage reduction, Stamina and Parry for Death Knighs), this was seen coming with a siren and flashing lights.

[saeros]

my wish was a dedicated tank-spec, but i hoped that was frost, not blood.
i think that they should change the presence system, at least...

don't want to see dk tank in blood presence " coz im BLOooOODD!!11!"

by the way, glad to see that they remove rune strike

[Haven]

On april, 8th...

Death knights can now equip shields.

And we're set. *hangs himself*

[Mallus]

While some people might disagree with this, the maths-nerds and theory crafters have already placed blood as the best tanking spec for raiding, unholy for top DPS (the recent Scourge Strike changes have seen it come back into favour), and Frost being the dual wielders/'jack of all trades' tree.

I can't say I am surprised, and overall, I think it will be good. I did like having to research the best talents from the 3 trees, and I really enjoyed the non-linear talent choices that differed from my old prot warrior in Burning Crusade.

At any rate, I can't wait to see all the woeful DK tanks running around with Blood Presence on in Cata.....
Me: 'Hey excuse me mate, I noticed your threat is really low, are you in Frost Presence?'
Them: 'No lolz, I don't know if you realised, but tanking tree is now Blood. Noob.'
Me: *some typing*
Malefik has left the group.

[Saberoy]

Being a blood dps currently, I worry that this means it's going to change my favorite tree

I always foresaw that they would need to change a tree to be pure tanking, but I thought that tree would be frost.

Oh well, we adapt.

[azmodai]

Alright people clam down, this is getting silly.

Putting some points on the table.
1. You know only that blood is the tank tree, they haven't mentioned what changes are being made to the other trees.

2. As stated in the OP the six specs for one class was an experiment for WOTLK and now they have the results. Maintaining effectively six talent trees for one class is silly. If you don't think so ask demonology warlocks or subtlety rogues how long it took for them to become viable in PVE / PVP. Even the playing field and have more time spent on the overall design and the rest of the classes.

3. That said, they may radically change the other specs to become more fun. Iteration in design?! what is this madness. WOTLK is not Catalcysm so leave your WOTLK tuned rants at the door when you take home your boxed copy. You don't know what's coming. Designers are paid to make design decisions. Lots of changes are coming to every class so stay tuned.

4. How many times have you changed specs in wotlk alone to tank or dps? We had the imba unholy tank, we had the no diseases blood spec. We had blood become a solid tanking spec, we had dual wield frost tanking bounce between good and bad, we've had countless scourge strike changes. Why are you so surprised when they said "screw this for a game of soldiers, ONE tanking tree"? Simple = faster = better. That's the rule of game design. In wrath alone on my warlock main i've gone from playing dominant affliction to dominant destruction and now I play meta because the buff is awesome. The game changes and so do you, enjoy it.

5. All of this pales in comparison to what someone said earlier that the while the classes are homogenized we are still well away from classic and thus having two dps choices and a tanking tree is still quite good.

In classic you had warriors tanks (only), pallies heal, priests heal, druids heal, hunters autoshot afk pull threat and die, shamans healed, rogues went stabby stabby, warlocks died summoning their doomguard when they didn't have a soulstone ready, mages had the bugged ignite rolling dps meters and that was that. Keep some perspective here. You don't want to go back to that.

Just a note: I play a tanky dk with blood tank / frost tank specs to bring either buff when needed. They both have advantages and disadvantages. cry less and enjoy the game more.

[ketzil]

I'm really really happy they didn't screw frost over and make it the tanking spec. It seems like it would be more logical, what with frost presence and dw, but I am glad it didn't end up that way. Blood always just seemed like the leveling spec to me, Frost DPS is way more fun.

[Sharaki]

as good and most of the DPS classes can't heal themself anyway.

shamans having instant CH for bad place.. paladins with DS/instafol/loh.. druids with feralNS and hots to use.. warlocks and shadowpriests with leeches.. mages with shields.. warriors with bloodthirst/enraged..

Aa you mean hunters and rogues = most dps classes. cool.
I don't find it weird that dps can heal itself or prevent incoming damage.

[Karot]

Yay more QQ! Keep 'em coming, boys! Best-case scenario, this will mean a reduction in the DK population, which is good for everyone! ;D

[ShiroRX]

shamans having instant CH for bad place.. paladins with DS/instafol/loh.. druids with feralNS and hots to use.. warlocks and shadowpriests with leeches.. mages with shields.. warriors with bloodthirst/enraged..

Aa you mean hunters and rogues = most dps classes. cool.
I don't find it weird that dps can heal itself or prevent incoming damage.

So what you're saying is rogues need self healing. Noted.

[Sand Person]

Yay more QQ! Keep 'em coming, boys! Best-case scenario, this will mean a reduction in the DK population, which is good for everyone! ;D

well at least for us other plate wearing classes.

[Domiku]

As a healer Disc priest with 120days+ gameplay and a DK tank (blood) with 40days+ gameplay i can happily say this is awesome. im fed-up of healing tanks who go frost and just splat like a pancake when the boss has a moment. the cooldowns are inferior to blood and has less hp. blood has always owned it for tanking as for having less aoe that's true but aoe threat isnt an issue.

3/3 in d&d talent in unholy tree, glyph and t10 2 set sorted.. have no issue holding 8k+ dps in 25man and the same in 10man as blood. frost is useless get over the DW thing and pick-up a proper tank tree.

really hope from this day on people will re-roll blood to tank with and just forget about the other 2 tree's, this sucks for blood dps i guess i never dps on my tanky i have a pure dps class for that kind of thing.

THANKS BLIZZ