DK Tank Help

Fayera

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Guys,

Shot and sweet, I have read up on DK tanking but there are SO many variations and opinions, could anyone on this forum please give a a OT and MT build that I can use and some rotations on that would be great, I'm looking to make a Blood and Frost speced builds, Duel wielding in Frost and 2H in Blood.

If any XP Dk tank could assist I would really appreciate it.

I know they are not the easiest to tank with but would love to give it a go.

Thanks guys
 
tank in blood for everything best spec there,i tank most 25 man encounters pretty easily and fights like blood princes i can also tank 2 bosses also easy mode, blood have the best single target threat and the most stamina :)

i tried 2h frost threat was very poor :(

spec you can look up hereticangel on armoury :)
 
Will do thanks, I'm just scared for HC runs, which I still need cause I have NO gear ^_^ and there DPS go nuts on mobs and then I lose aggro very fast and I get blamed and comments starts flying, kinda wanna avoid that ^_^. 2H or duel wielding?

Do you have a rotation on mobs and bosses?
 
I tank as dual wielding frost dk for a while now also tanked first boss in ICC 10 when i get home from work i'll post my rotations and specs and stuff.
Only dpsed as 2 hander blood so not sure about that spec.
 
Ok,
Here goes.

This is for Frost.

Frost is a great spec for tanking in general, especially multi target.
As a single target spec it doesnt completely fail, but DW and Raid does not go easily together.

As far as build goes, my current build looks like this:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#j0xMZhxx0AbIofzbukAo0xG0z

The Frost Tree is pretty static there, not a DW Build.
For DW you would need to drop some talents (most likely in Unholy tree) to get Nerves of Cold Steel and Threat of Thassarian.

DW is dangerous as you require to be hitcapped (17% for DW before talents, hence 14% clear hit rating), and also a LOT of expertise. The straight 26 wont cut it anymore here, your aim would be to actually hit the parry-cap at 54 or something.

As far as rotation goes, Raid-trash and 5man:
DnD, Howling blast, Blood Boil x2 --> DnD, Blood Boil x2 + Obliterate + (If procced by Oblit to be free) Howling blast.

Single target:
Icy touch, Plague Strike, Obliterate x2, Blood Strike x2, (if procced) Howling Blast --> Runic Power Dump (anything you like: Frost Strike is good, Death Coil isn't terrible as it can crit 2x dmg, IceBound Fortitude if dmg is a bit high) --> Obliterate x2, Blood Strike x2 (or Unbrekable Armor) --> Runic Dump.

It might be important to note that for Single Target i do NOT use Pestilence. I gain far more Threat/second by reapplying the diseases manually, as each does it own little threat, whereas Pestilence offers no direct threat. Also, doing this, keeps my single target rotation static and not prone to any surprises or what-if's.

Unbreakable armor is excellent. Its cheap and it works really well. However, make sure you only use it when your Blood runes have changed to Death runes. That way you only loose 1x Blood Strike in your rotation instead of something far more valuable like Obliterate.


You will Notice i specced Unholy tree as far down as Corpse Explosion.
ONLY REASON I DID THAT: I love 5mans. I love AOE. There is no better AOE Runic dump better than Corpse exlode.
My other build is also for tanking, but is straight-up Raid only.

Another thing you MUST do: Macros.
You will need to make macros for EVERYTHING on your hotbar, to have it include Rune Strike in ever button. It triggers no Global Cooldown, and macroing it this way, makes sure you use it as much as (in)humanly possible.

#showtooltip Howling Blast
/startattack
/cast Rune Strike
/cast Howling Blast
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()


Simple replace Howling blast in first and second-last line with each different ability. It switches on autoattack, if no target obtains nearest target in front, casts the ability, and triggers Rune Strike if its active.
This way no matter what button you press at any time, your RuneStrike is going out if it can.

You CAN remove the last line, it simply removes all the Blizzard error messages on the screen. I HATE those "Not enough RUnic Power" "Out of Range" etc messages spamming while im button-mashing.

Have fun, lemme know if u have more questions.
 
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Quote: Single target:
Icy touch, Plague Strike, Obliterate x2, Heart Strike x2, (if procced) Howling Blast --> Runic Power Dump (anything you like: Frost Strike is good, Death Coil isn't terrible as it can crit 2x dmg, IceBound Fortitude if dmg is a bit high) --> Obliterate x2, Blood Strike x2 (or Unbrekable Armor) --> Runic Dump.

You cant use heart strike as frost thats a blood talent skill you thinking of frost strike
 
think you missed out when you got killing machine buff (i think its called always use howling blast or frost strike)

and using death chill when using howling blast
 
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think you missed out when you got killing machine buff (i think its called always use howling blast or frost strike)

and using death chill when using howling blast

I skipped it over as some ppl consider Killing Machine a waste for tank.
I dont personally agree with those sentiments, as i love killing machine.

In 5mans i pretty much ignore it. If it happens it happens and it will happen enough.

In raids though i watch it like a hawk.
I ALWAYS hit Frost Strike as soon as possible when it goes up.

I think though that it comes with experience. Cant expect a learning tank (imo at least) to be keeping that sort of awareness on buffs whilst still learning the basics.
 
tank in blood for everything best spec there
Disagreed. Frost has better passive physical mitigation, a better antimagic talent (Acclimation is actually good with so much aoe magic damage always being flung around[Festergut, for example, we are godly], Spell Deflection otoh is just rubbish) better AoE threat and according to some theorycrafters, better single target threat. Blood has a higher health pool, some health recovery and a Last Stand. Both perform more or less identically on bosses, with Frost streaking ahead on trash tanking/heroics.
If you fail on Frost threat you don't know how to use Killing Machine and Rime properly.

One of the things i really like about Frost is it extends IBF's duration on top of adding Unbreakable Armour, so with a good trinket or two (I use Eitrigg's Oath) you can stagger cooldowns so that you're constantly under the effect of some or other damage reduction. Blood can't quite accomplish this.

Both are solid overall though, I won't say Blood is worse, but I'm loath to say it's better.

Anyway to the OP. I've tanked tons of heroics and have tanked TOC 10 and 25 and part of ICC10, and the class is pretty good at tanking bosses. Trash can be a problem in heroics due to lack of shield block. We have great aoe threat as Frost but we're squishier than the other tank classes when taking lots of small hits at the same time, unless you know how to stagger your cooldowns properly. If you fai lto keep Blade Barrier up at al ltimes and fail to have either Unbreakable Armor OR Icebound Fortitude OR a trinket effect running, you WILL take heavy spike damage. So, regardless whether you go blood or frost, make sure to pick up 5 points in Blade Barrier, Toughness AND Anticipation. These are non negotiable. Once you have these, you can spec more or less how you please. For convenience sake I reccomend Morbidity in unholy for extra AoE DPS, as well as Epidemic which will keep your diseases on the target longer, and in the blood tree try and pick up Bladed Armor for extra threat , and 2handed weapon specialisation if you're using a 2 hander.If Frost, Best glyphs are Howling Blast, Unbreakable Armour and Rune Strike (macro rune strike into your main abilities as someone else pointed above). If Blood, it's Death Strike, Rune Strike and either Death and Decay(for heroics and offtanking) or Vampiric Blood(if maintanking).

For more help, check this site out, helped me a lot : www.pwnwear.com
 
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I think though that it comes with experience. Cant expect a learning tank (imo at least) to be keeping that sort of awareness on buffs whilst still learning the basics.
If you have PowerAuras and now how to configure it, it's cake.
 
Thanks guys, will try out Frost ust say prefer the duel wielding at the beginning as it will get my def up fast with two tanking weapons.

I have not had time to look at the builds yet, will have a look when I get home before I start respecing and see if I can accommodate all the advise, guys appreciate all the tips/help greatly appreciated.
 
2H or duel wielding?
My experience is that both work. You need to adjust stats and spec though. First off, only Frost can dual wield tank, don't try doing it as any other spec. Secondly, AVOID using tanking weapons. I know it's tempting, but it's a bad idea. The reason being, they're too fast. Fast weapons mean your big hits - Obliterate and Frost Strike - are wimpy and do way less damage. Less damage means less threat. If you must use a tanking weapon for stats, use 1x, and use it in your off hand. For your main hand, stick to a 2.6 or slower weapon. Something like Nighttime from Hc-PoS is ideal. Try and get 2, and put Nerubian Carapace on both. It's not worth using the parry rune - you want all the stam you can find and Carapace bumps it up 1%, so that's 2% if on both, which scales great with raidbuffs. Going over the def cap isn't terrible either, it adds a little bit to your overall avoidance. Lastly, expertise becomes more important as dual wield, you'll want to reach the soft cap of 26. Hit is less important since you're gaining about 3% free hit, so you only need 5% hit-cap as opposed to 8 if you're 2H.

Don't discount 2H Frost tanking, it puts out just as much threat as dw-frost and gives you an extra 6 talent points to put into other threat and mit talents. The only real reason to go one or the other is style preference.

Always try and gem for stam, and rather use trinkets to adjust between dodge/parry sets and effective health sets. Some fights will need more HP. Some will favour more dodge and parry, but for the most part, more stam wins out.
 
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If you have PowerAuras and now how to configure it, it's cake.

I second this, PowerAuras is probably the best tool for keeping informed about procs. Made warrior tanking, just that much easier. :)
 
Duel weilding is a nice idea but i found lower threat then 2hand on single targets. so i prefer blood 2h myself as tank, its also awesome for soloing pretty much anything :D
 
u wont get any better information/specs glyphs/advice anywhere then here http://elitistjerks.com/f72/

Yeah, everything I learned about DK tanking I learned from Elitist Jerks and Gravity (from pwnwear.com). Great resources for any budding zombietank.

Just a bit of warning, prepare to face a lot of pug abuse. PuG's are used to facerolling through runs with ezmode pallytanks. Just ignore them and go at your own pace.
 
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