DK tanks can feel squishy compared to block-tanks in 5-mans. You can offset a lot of this through skill. We have a pretty impressive arsenal to use.
Here are some important pointers which are often overlooked by new DK tanks. It’s a good checklist.
Tank tree cooldowns
Use your tree’s big cooldown a lot: [Vampiric Blood], [Unbreakable Armor] or [Bone Shield]. They’ve got short cooldowns. Use them on trash.
I use UA on trash very happily, it’s ideal for that purpose. BS is just awesomeness and AMZ can be very nice but most Unholy DKs will have spec’d into threat instead of that talent.
Many padawans tanks save all their cooldowns for bad moments then end up struggling on trash. On a boss fight, of course, you should save them for the damage spikes you know about. On trash though, use them on the pull to reduce initial damage or if you get to 50% health during the pull. Don’t do 10 minutes of trash and never use your cooldowns.
VB isn’t so great in 5-mans, as its more a throughput talent that’s for raiding, so in 5-mans its better suited to oh-shit moments than the other two trees. That said, blood has Rune Tap which can be used liberally.
Icebound Fortitude
Think ahead, and don’t waste [Icebound Fortitude] if you are going to need it on the boss who’s coming up, or a huge pull of AOE adds, but otherwise use it liberally.
» continue reading
I have mentioned this great addon once before, Boss Notes (back in Sept 09). Those guilds going up against Putricide you might find it helpful. Saves alt-tabbing to whichever website you use.
It can learn boss’ abilities (make sure you turn this on; it’s off by default). This gives you their spells (with tooltips), in a handy notebook, into which you can also write your own tips and reminders. Includes simple written strategies for all the older bosses, too,
[ continue reading...]
I really paused for thought after reading Tobold’s classification of raid encounters.
Looking at the title of his post, ‘raid encounter classification’, you might well think his answers would describe the mechanics of a fight like this:
- tank/spank (Patchwerk)
- coordinated movement (Thaddius)
- keep yourself alive (Heigan)
- save your friends (Maexxna)
I used Naxx examples so everyone can relate to it.
But in fact, what’s so clever, is he looks instead at where the pressure is placed, and who needs
[ continue reading...]
I like this addon, Boss Notes. Gives you an in-game notebook for each boss.
Comes with dot-point reminders of the key things for Ulduar bosses, for example, and you can enter your own. These can be broadcast to a channel you choose.
Another example of what a warlock might put in a personal note for a boss:
It also knows and learns the abilities that boss’ cast, so you build up a reference
[ continue reading...]
One item that got my attention is this, from the wowraid liveblogging in Dungeon & Raid Panel:
1:42 csulok: CROSSREALM PUG DUNGEONS! 1:42 Cartina: Cross-Server LFG being talked about 1:43 csulok: planned for patch 3.3
Awesome.
That will make off-hours guilds much more viable, since you can PUG to fill your final slots. I wonder if it’ll extend to PUG raids; probably will because they’d be using the same LFM technology.
I don’t really care about reward/incentive to use
[ continue reading...]
Warrior tank specs
I presume any tank reader on my site knows Veneretio well, he’s posted the warrior tanks specs he’s running.
No more badge gear tank upgrades
Last night, I got my last tanking badge-reward upgrade from Conquest. Kind of wierd feeling.
I’m at 33.7K HP unbuffed and 55% avoidance without the Black Heart trinket, which I’m deliberating getting to replace my Ignis dodge trinket. Not like a casual raider like me needs more HP. What to do
[ continue reading...]
Hi all,
I had a few readers tell me they had no troubles as Blood tank heroics, so I went and tested it more thoroughly.
Result is I’ve changed my view, and now think it’s quite viable. I’ve updated this post and include a screenshot with the corpse explosion damage, which is one of the two key things you need for it to work.
Frost or Unholy still beat it hands-down, but Blood doesn’t suck. I even succeeded in
[ continue reading...]
The raid leadership interview series
I’m pleased to present the next in my series of interviews with guild leaders on the management of progression guilds, which will be jointly published on wowraid and pwnwear. I’ll interview guilds you can relate to, in the top 250 worldwide, taking my perspective of a raider with an MBA.
Today I’ve an interview with the guild Spike Flail. You’ll read about:
- the value of logic and looking below the surface
- the GM’s view on leadership
- how they treat players
- how poor performance is managed without drama.
» continue reading
Verified for 3.22 and 3.3.
See my 3.3 Blood spec page.
There are so many possible and valid variations on a Blood maintank spec, I thought it’d be useful for me to outline a few choices. Choosing a blood spec can give you an anxiety disorder.
My previous post on tank specs gave this one spec as a maintank template for 25-mans. Here are some alternatives:
- Survival-oriented: loses raid-utility of Abomination’s Might (10% AP buff) and Hysteria, to gain Spell Deflection and Mark of Blood. Works if you have enhancement shaman reliably in the raid. Will require more careful RP-management since there is no Scent of Blood, so that you always have RP for IBF and RS.
- Threat-oriented: no raid utility, also loses Rune Tap (self-healing) to gain Sudden Doom and Subversion. Requires someone else in the 25-man raid is buffing 10% Attack Power. Can swap will of the necropolis for rune tap if you prefer a more proactive tanking style, like this.
- Heroic 5-man bias: good spec to choose if you’re 2nd spec is for dps. No will of the necropolis, but has Abom Might and Corpse Explosion for 5-mans along with glyph of DnD so your AOE works.
- Single target tweaks: if desired, you can swap Rune Tap for Sudden Doom to gain single-target threat, or glyph of DnD for glyph of Rune Strike
- Raid tanking tweaks: you could drop Abominations Might if someone else brings it.
- 1/3 Scent of Blood to give that bit more RP for corpse explosion, RS and DCs.
I also have a diagram showing where talents can be moved. Attack speed reduction
The specs keep Improved Icy Touch (giving 20% melee and ranged attack speed reduction) since it can be applied so easily by a DK. I put it even on a ‘threat oriented’ spec, becauses it reduces incoming damage and that’s more important than tps.
Read on why this is important, plus about corpse explosion in heroics.
» continue reading
Overview of blood, unholy and frost recommended tank specs.
[ continue reading...]
Other related posts
- Avoidance gemming
- TankPoints in 3.2
- 3.2 tank specs
Spec bias
I wonder if the new no-trash bosses and encounter design in the Coliseum will give a bias to any particular tank class or sub-spec.
Personally if I don’t have to worry about spawns or AOE, then I’d spec a blood DK. I know we won’t have trash in there, at least.
On the other hand, I need to farm heroics, so will want serious
[ continue reading...]
You’ll be doing VH heroic a lot in 3.2. There are two bosses people have trouble with:
- Ethereal boss Xevozz
- Void elemental boss Zuramat
Xevozz requires continual kiting. Here’s the path you should take. You go back and forth all the way from one side to the other. With 2.5K+ dpsers, you should only need 1 to 1.5 rounds.
Violet Hold kiting path for Xevozz
Zurmat, void boss, requires you know about two things:
Improved LFG interface
I like 5-man heroics.
I like trying to do them as quick as possible and enjoy a bit of good old fashioned AOE tanking. With 3.2, everyone will be doing heroics, intensely. Once their main is all badged up (one or two months), then their alts will do the same. We tanks will have lots of opportunity to give some smackdown. Personally, I’ll be tanking anything I can for badges, even Heroic Oculus (the mounts get
[ continue reading...]
The raid leadership interviews
I’m pleased to present the first in a series of detailed interviews with guild leaders on the management of progression guilds, which will be jointly published on wowraid and here at pwnwear.com. I’ll interview guilds you can relate to, in the top 250 worldwide.
Today I’ve interviewed Saha, an Officer and Raid Leader from the guild Wrath. Saha has been playing WoW since the European launch, and been in the guild Wrath since summer 2007.
You’ll
[ continue reading...]
Blizzard news about the next tier of raiding content, with five bosses, coming in 3.2 includes an important change.
There will be four different versions: 10-player, 25-player, 10-player Heroic, and 25-player Heroic, with each one using a separate lockout.
Significance to raid leaders:
- you can schedule a 25-man loot raid, get saved to a raid ID
- and also schedule a 25-man heroic raid, in a separate ID
- plus a 10-man heroic for boss-encounter practice and loot.
Only
[ continue reading...]
|
|
|
From: 
Tags: 
