thefiddle
12-04-2009, 01:06 PM
If 'pure' dps class is defined to be a class that can deal damage in all three trees, then DKs probably come closest to a 'pure' tanking class (of course, no tanking class is pure). The 'hero class' offers a plethora of options in terms of threat, base damage mitigation and cool downs.
Blood:
http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml?cid=6&tal=0255320530003303201020131350305000000000000000 000000000000052300010000000000000000000000
Blood offers +3% stamina via veteran of the third war and a 5% reduction on all incoming damage that would take you less than 35% of your health with an internal cool down of 15 seconds. The mechanics of the latter make it favorable for encounters in which you anticipate getting hit not too often, but for huge amounts; it effectively increases your HP by 5% on a blow that could take you from 60% to 10% say (General Vessax).
In addition it offers vampiric blood, which is effectively half of a warrior's 'Last stand' ability (gives you 15% more hp while increasing healing taken by 35%). It is important to note that this ability scales with the juggernaught vitality's on use ability. Raid buffed, using the trinket would amount and then Vampiric blood would amount to an additional 600 hp (about 2-2.3% of your total health pool) .
Blood threat is mostly physical and mostly single target. Though the heart strike's cleave will help you establish threat on two adds, due to the cleave nerf, I often find myself tab-targeting to maintain a high level of threat. AOE threat in this tree relies heavily on the perfect placement of DnD, keeping diseases on all targets, using Death Strike to get death runes, and dumping using blood boil. I find tab-target-cleaving to be more effective than an AOE rotation on three targets, but not four.
Frost:
http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml?cid=6&tal=0055320000000000000000000000325050003520331003 002031013510050000000000000000000000000000
This is my favorite tree to tank in because, if for no other reason, threat is challenging. Frost offers a 2% less damage taken 'improved frost presence' along with a base 3% avoidance. In encounters where you expect to get hit often, the mechanics of the latter make this tree far superior to either blood or unholy.
Unbreakable armor, glyphed offering 30% more armor and 10% more strength, will be giving you about 7% more physical mitigation along with about 1.7% avoidance. To get an handle of about how impressive this is, you ought to think of this cooldown as a 'better than your average pair' of trinkets: indeed it is comperable to having aJuggernaut's Vitalityalong with the Glyph of Indomitability . The advantage to this cooldown is its exceptional uptime. It lasts 20 seconds (Juggernaughts: 15, Glyph of indomitability: 20) and has a cooldown of 60 seconds. Due to the way this cooldown scales with armor the two vendor pieces, Clutch of Fortificationand Glyph of indomitability, would greatly benefit anyone who is short of 27 k armor. After this point though, due to diminishing returns on armor, its seems be wise to dump the glyph of indomitability for a heavy stam trinket (Heart of Iron/ juggernaught). Unbreakable armor is especially useful when used during transitions as it offers a reasonable threat boost: nothing like hysteria, but still significant.
A defining feature of frost is its 50% increased duration on IBF ('super shield wall'), up to 18 seconds from 12. The usefulness of this is endless, especially in encounters where you expect complicated and high damage transitions like algalon or northrend beasts.
The worst part of this tree is threat. The tension comes, in my opinion, from the fact that a major threat generating ability, frost strike, consumes runic power. Dumping runic power incessantly is a definite no-no for DK tanks (it is best to keep your RP above 60; see remark below) and so it would seem as if one is stuck in terms of threat. This is why, I think, the glyph of frost strike is really useful, along with 3/3 scent of blood in the blood tree. Arcane torrent also helps (see note below). Since I have arcane torrent, I am comfortable glyphing for UA instead of frost strike on encounters I expect very frequent hits.
The use of Rime procs and Killing machine greatly contribute to threat. Since RP is in demand for tanking, and since Howling blast ignores armor, I use Howling Blast on single target whenever rime procs and frost strike when killing machine procs. AOE threat is based on DnD, keeping frost fever on all targets and following up by howling blast. Death-chill + howling blast is spectacular snap agrro, perhaps the snappiest agrro death knights can provide.
Unholy:
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight#3hXJObx-RIjhVj,,10952
(3.3 spec With 2 points from Night of the dead to either Wandering plague or desolation)
If you are a DK and doing 25 man anub hardmode, chances are you have been 'rolling face' with this rotation and a DPS 4piece for as long as 3.2.2 has been out: you must be sick of it. Unholy, however, is by no means an outdated tree to tank in. As 3.2.2 the single target threat problems have been prohibitive to unholy tanks. The exception being 25 man anubarak hardmode where a DnD and disease oriented rotation wins out, in my opinion due dps advantages in phase 3. More details about this tanking spec and rotation feel free to contact me in game or post.
As of 3.3 Unholy tanking gets a whole lot of single target threat (due to the massive Scourge Strike overhaul) along with a bone shield buff. Bone shield lasts for 5 min, allowing the tank to pre-cast before encounters and cast bone shield in 'down times' so as to be able to cast it back to back for a spectacular 20 % reduction of all damage for durations longer than either 15 or 20 seconds (VB and UA respectively) in addition to providing the most effective health increase. The change to army of the dead, makes the talent Night of the dead to be attractive stand -alone as it reduces the cool down of army of the dead (second cool down!) to only 6 min. Undeniably, these changes make unholy DKs very viable if not downright superior in TOC 25 man hardmodes.
The 20% dodge negation aura in ICC, however, greatly diminishes the value of bone shield as well as army of the dead and, for these reasons, will likely not be my choice for specs, at least initially, in ICC.
The scourge strike change in unholy makes it viable for single target threat, a simple blood rune to death rune rotation with a Scourge Strike finisher would be used. AOE threat is DnD and disease oriented (clearly).
Remarks:
DW frost: Frost dual wielding will likely be my choice for tanking in frost initially. I am hoping the inclusion of Rune Strike into ToT will accommodate for the threat nerf most DW tanks felt and also hoping that the single weapon stone-skin gargoyle will bring the effective health range frost DW tanks up to power with the other specs. In addition, due to my own selection, having a vastly superior main hand and a good tanking off hand, I suspect the overall stats will be superior. Threat may be an issue if you are using both tanking weapons for your main hand and off hand, or just an offhand. In my experience even with the current ToT, having a good main hand and blood and glory offhand is sufficient threat. Moreover, this combination gives me more avoidance and more stam/dodge/parry/defense and, in the next patch, also the stone skin. This is the spec i would try out:
http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml?cid=6&tal=0054300000000000000000000000305053003520330003 002331013510050000000000000000000000000000
Runic Power: Runic power is a delicate matter for DK tanks. As damage dealers, DKs use 'RP dumps' in between rotations to maximize dps. As a tank, however, one gets maximum threat from rune strike and so having spare RP for that ability is valuable in terms of threat. Also, having spare RP for IBF is essential; not having enough RP for shield wall can wipe the raid. Due to this resource mechanic for the shield wall, I preferred the blood elf's Arcane torrent: it allows me to use my RP more freely knowing that an AT + horn will give me enough RP to shield wall at any given time. As a frost tank, you will generate a **LOT** of RP. A bench mark is to have 60 RP at all times. This amounts to a death coil or two frost strikes.
Blood:
http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml?cid=6&tal=0255320530003303201020131350305000000000000000 000000000000052300010000000000000000000000
Blood offers +3% stamina via veteran of the third war and a 5% reduction on all incoming damage that would take you less than 35% of your health with an internal cool down of 15 seconds. The mechanics of the latter make it favorable for encounters in which you anticipate getting hit not too often, but for huge amounts; it effectively increases your HP by 5% on a blow that could take you from 60% to 10% say (General Vessax).
In addition it offers vampiric blood, which is effectively half of a warrior's 'Last stand' ability (gives you 15% more hp while increasing healing taken by 35%). It is important to note that this ability scales with the juggernaught vitality's on use ability. Raid buffed, using the trinket would amount and then Vampiric blood would amount to an additional 600 hp (about 2-2.3% of your total health pool) .
Blood threat is mostly physical and mostly single target. Though the heart strike's cleave will help you establish threat on two adds, due to the cleave nerf, I often find myself tab-targeting to maintain a high level of threat. AOE threat in this tree relies heavily on the perfect placement of DnD, keeping diseases on all targets, using Death Strike to get death runes, and dumping using blood boil. I find tab-target-cleaving to be more effective than an AOE rotation on three targets, but not four.
Frost:
http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml?cid=6&tal=0055320000000000000000000000325050003520331003 002031013510050000000000000000000000000000
This is my favorite tree to tank in because, if for no other reason, threat is challenging. Frost offers a 2% less damage taken 'improved frost presence' along with a base 3% avoidance. In encounters where you expect to get hit often, the mechanics of the latter make this tree far superior to either blood or unholy.
Unbreakable armor, glyphed offering 30% more armor and 10% more strength, will be giving you about 7% more physical mitigation along with about 1.7% avoidance. To get an handle of about how impressive this is, you ought to think of this cooldown as a 'better than your average pair' of trinkets: indeed it is comperable to having aJuggernaut's Vitalityalong with the Glyph of Indomitability . The advantage to this cooldown is its exceptional uptime. It lasts 20 seconds (Juggernaughts: 15, Glyph of indomitability: 20) and has a cooldown of 60 seconds. Due to the way this cooldown scales with armor the two vendor pieces, Clutch of Fortificationand Glyph of indomitability, would greatly benefit anyone who is short of 27 k armor. After this point though, due to diminishing returns on armor, its seems be wise to dump the glyph of indomitability for a heavy stam trinket (Heart of Iron/ juggernaught). Unbreakable armor is especially useful when used during transitions as it offers a reasonable threat boost: nothing like hysteria, but still significant.
A defining feature of frost is its 50% increased duration on IBF ('super shield wall'), up to 18 seconds from 12. The usefulness of this is endless, especially in encounters where you expect complicated and high damage transitions like algalon or northrend beasts.
The worst part of this tree is threat. The tension comes, in my opinion, from the fact that a major threat generating ability, frost strike, consumes runic power. Dumping runic power incessantly is a definite no-no for DK tanks (it is best to keep your RP above 60; see remark below) and so it would seem as if one is stuck in terms of threat. This is why, I think, the glyph of frost strike is really useful, along with 3/3 scent of blood in the blood tree. Arcane torrent also helps (see note below). Since I have arcane torrent, I am comfortable glyphing for UA instead of frost strike on encounters I expect very frequent hits.
The use of Rime procs and Killing machine greatly contribute to threat. Since RP is in demand for tanking, and since Howling blast ignores armor, I use Howling Blast on single target whenever rime procs and frost strike when killing machine procs. AOE threat is based on DnD, keeping frost fever on all targets and following up by howling blast. Death-chill + howling blast is spectacular snap agrro, perhaps the snappiest agrro death knights can provide.
Unholy:
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight#3hXJObx-RIjhVj,,10952
(3.3 spec With 2 points from Night of the dead to either Wandering plague or desolation)
If you are a DK and doing 25 man anub hardmode, chances are you have been 'rolling face' with this rotation and a DPS 4piece for as long as 3.2.2 has been out: you must be sick of it. Unholy, however, is by no means an outdated tree to tank in. As 3.2.2 the single target threat problems have been prohibitive to unholy tanks. The exception being 25 man anubarak hardmode where a DnD and disease oriented rotation wins out, in my opinion due dps advantages in phase 3. More details about this tanking spec and rotation feel free to contact me in game or post.
As of 3.3 Unholy tanking gets a whole lot of single target threat (due to the massive Scourge Strike overhaul) along with a bone shield buff. Bone shield lasts for 5 min, allowing the tank to pre-cast before encounters and cast bone shield in 'down times' so as to be able to cast it back to back for a spectacular 20 % reduction of all damage for durations longer than either 15 or 20 seconds (VB and UA respectively) in addition to providing the most effective health increase. The change to army of the dead, makes the talent Night of the dead to be attractive stand -alone as it reduces the cool down of army of the dead (second cool down!) to only 6 min. Undeniably, these changes make unholy DKs very viable if not downright superior in TOC 25 man hardmodes.
The 20% dodge negation aura in ICC, however, greatly diminishes the value of bone shield as well as army of the dead and, for these reasons, will likely not be my choice for specs, at least initially, in ICC.
The scourge strike change in unholy makes it viable for single target threat, a simple blood rune to death rune rotation with a Scourge Strike finisher would be used. AOE threat is DnD and disease oriented (clearly).
Remarks:
DW frost: Frost dual wielding will likely be my choice for tanking in frost initially. I am hoping the inclusion of Rune Strike into ToT will accommodate for the threat nerf most DW tanks felt and also hoping that the single weapon stone-skin gargoyle will bring the effective health range frost DW tanks up to power with the other specs. In addition, due to my own selection, having a vastly superior main hand and a good tanking off hand, I suspect the overall stats will be superior. Threat may be an issue if you are using both tanking weapons for your main hand and off hand, or just an offhand. In my experience even with the current ToT, having a good main hand and blood and glory offhand is sufficient threat. Moreover, this combination gives me more avoidance and more stam/dodge/parry/defense and, in the next patch, also the stone skin. This is the spec i would try out:
http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml?cid=6&tal=0054300000000000000000000000305053003520330003 002331013510050000000000000000000000000000
Runic Power: Runic power is a delicate matter for DK tanks. As damage dealers, DKs use 'RP dumps' in between rotations to maximize dps. As a tank, however, one gets maximum threat from rune strike and so having spare RP for that ability is valuable in terms of threat. Also, having spare RP for IBF is essential; not having enough RP for shield wall can wipe the raid. Due to this resource mechanic for the shield wall, I preferred the blood elf's Arcane torrent: it allows me to use my RP more freely knowing that an AT + horn will give me enough RP to shield wall at any given time. As a frost tank, you will generate a **LOT** of RP. A bench mark is to have 60 RP at all times. This amounts to a death coil or two frost strikes.