Death Knight tanking guide

[ChildeRoland]

First update and bump. Added glyph information, and (thanx to Hasselhoff) changed a little on the "defcap" thing

Anything you would like to change? PM me or post here.

[shedule00]

Nice, thanks for taking your time making this awesome DK tanking guide!

[maww]

The only thing that pretty much separates good dk tanks and bad tanks are 2 macros.

#showtooltip blood strike
/cast rune strike
/cast blood strike


#showtooltip obliterate (or whatever is talented)
/cast rune strike
/cast obliterate

Everything else is pretty much a moot point :\

[Dankone]

I uh, oof... Time to destroy this

14/5/52 spec. Information about glyphs can be found in the end of the post.

On a pale horse is useless, as is Unholy Command. Reaping is a must, as is Imp Unholy Presence (if you insist on tanking as unholy). Also, 4% damage with 2h attacks>2% crit.

Many main tanks are blood because of the enhanced single target capabilities, but frost 10/54/7 is the best way to go.

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

Even without Morbidity it has excellent AOE and single target capability with good mitigation and avoidance skills to start you off.

To get defcap, a good choice is a nice two handed weapon (anything with stamina) and Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle as weapon enchant.

minor note here, if you happen to be above 540 (Which is hard to do), go for the 4% parry rune.

Step Four
The rotation!
Death Knights have only 1 effective spell that gives extra aggro, and that is Death and Decay. This is why you should have 5/5/8 as a base for your spec.
Having reduced cooldown on Death and Decay is extremely important while tanking!

Just because it gives additional threat it does not mean that it's best even for single targets. Death and Decay gives 190% damage as threat (before frost presence), still too little compared to its damage to be better than starting off with diseases and strikes.

For AoE, you still don't need 3/3 morbidity. Howling Blast is there to help you, especially now since it doesn't need frost fever to do 2x damage. If you're unholy, sure, you're going to pick up this talent anyway for extra DC damage.

Also, Death Knights have two taunts. This is required, since DKs don't have any AoE taunt. Using one of your taunts at the right place is enough to sometimes save a raid.

pet peeve of mine, DG is -NOT- a taunt. Taunts put you at #1 on the threat list, DG only makes the mob attack you.

The normal rotation is Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Death and Decay and then Blood Strike/Heart Strike. Then Obliterate/Scourge Strike/Death Strike/Howling Blast. Repeat, and have a RP (Runic Power) dump with Death Coil, Unholy Blight or Death Coil.

No, standard rotation is PS IT BS BS SS dump, SS SS SS dump for single target. For frost it's the same, just replace SS with OB and HB when rime procs and weave in frost strikes so Killing Machine doesn't proc on itself.

For AOE, go DND, PS, IT, Pest, dump, HB, BB, BB, OB dump
for unholy, that's DND PS IT pest, unholy blight, dump, SS BB BB SS dump

if DND is on cooldown, disease up first then use an FU strike followed by pest BB

Rotation is very dependent on gamestyle, but as long as you keep spamming Death and Decay at all opportunities and at the same time keep DoTs up at all times tanking is really easy.

Like I said before, DND is not good in single target situations.

Myself I do Death and Decay, Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Scourge Strike, Blood Strike x2. I keep diseases and Unholy Blight up at all times, and uses Scourge Strike as often as possible. I'm slacking a little with the Death and Decay unless it is a big chance I'll loose aggro to good dps. Each time all runes is on cooldown I do a Runic Power dump, and each time available I use Rune Strike.

Yes. Macro Rune Strike to all of your abilities. You really do need to get reaping because of how much better than SS is compared to two blood strikes.

Glyph of Anti Magic Shield. This is useful in many situations, since Anti Magic shield helps a lot, as well as giving inhuman amounts of RP in some circumstances.

You don't need the extra 2 seconds in PvE. Even in PvP this is a lackluster glyph.

Glyph of Death and Decay. 20% extra dmg is a nice amount of threat.

No room for this, and really no need.

Glyph of Disease. Be ware, this glyph is completely useless if your defense depends on

Sigil of the Unfaltering Knight

It's alright for saving a GCD if your rotation is really cramped because of lag/bad reaction time. Use it when you're learning, but only as a crutch that you can get rid of once you learn to play.

Glyph of Bone shield. Sometimes pretty useful with 2 extra instances of damage reduction.
Glyph of Unholy Blight. 10 seconds increased duration on Unholy Blight makes it easier to keep up.

Not sure what most unholy tanks take because of how few of them there are, but be sure you pick up glyph of SS, the most important unholy glyph.

Glyph of Frost Strike. Frost Strike is your RP dump while in Frost spec, and you can throw more of them to get even more aggro with this glyph.

You don't need it. Frost Strike with glyph will often cramp your rotation as a tank.

Note: Some people use Glyph of Dark Command (8% more success chance with taunt), but I find this glyph a waste. In my broad tanking experience I have never missed with taunt.

It's actually a very good thing to have if you're in challenging content. Spell hit cap is 17%, and at 8% melee hit (which is what all DKs need to go for) you have 10% hit. With morbidity, that's a 4% chance to miss, 1% if you have IFF or misery in your raid, and 0% if you're a draenei. It's a good glyph if your hit is suffering.


Overall a good attempt at a guide, but there were some pretty big holes.

[reveng_]

DnD shouldn't be used every CD on ST threat.

[maww]

but frost 10/54/7 is the best way to go.

How are you arguing against the frost strike glyph if you're an advocate of frost tanking? :\ that's 4 dumps as opposed to 3, and regardless of your rotation, you ALWAYS weave in frost strikes when a killing machine procs. Always. That's what frost is pretty much all about. The glyph only gives you that much more leeway to get one off asap, which can be hard after a dump and rune strike is proccing every hit.

pet peeve of mine, DG is -NOT- a taunt. Taunts put you at #1 on the threat list, DG only makes the mob attack you.

Wrong.

It's actually a very good thing to have if you're in challenging content. Spell hit cap is 17%, and at 8% melee hit (which is what all DKs need to go for) you have 10% hit. With morbidity, that's a 4% chance to miss, 1% if you have IFF or misery in your raid, and 0% if you're a draenei. It's a good glyph if your hit is suffering.

You have two taunts, DG and dark command. Chances are slim to nilch that you won't be able to taunt something. Rune strike is probably one of the better choices to glyph if you're missing a major.

[Pragma]

Really like this guide +Rep

[cannibalx]

helpfull :./ fd

[slip9]

Nice, can use this info

[ChildeRoland]

Thanx for positive (and negative, Dank ^^) replies and the reputation.
Finally out of leecher! Hooray!

[Dankone]

How are you arguing against the frost strike glyph if you're an advocate of frost tanking? :\ that's 4 dumps as opposed to 3, and regardless of your rotation, you ALWAYS weave in frost strikes when a killing machine procs. Always. That's what frost is pretty much all about. The glyph only gives you that much more leeway to get one off asap, which can be hard after a dump and rune strike is proccing every hit.

Well, we both have our reasons, I just prefer more defensive capability over an extra frost strike here and there. You're going to put out insane aggro with our without the glyph, it's not like we're in BC where DPS actually has to watch their threat.

Wrong.

You have two taunts, DG and dark command. Chances are slim to nilch that you won't be able to taunt something. Rune strike is probably one of the better choices to glyph if you're missing a major.

No. Death Grip is force attack, not a taunt. I've used it as dps in cases like Thaddius, where the idiot tanks pulled a construct too far away from the tesla coil. In 2 seconds they were running towards me, but ran right back to the tank, who's moved up to chase the construct, after the effect faded. Still don't believe me?

1) Get a ghoul or friend to attack a mob
2) Death grip it after they, without a doubt, have aggro but don't do anything else, and make sure your friend/ghoul doesn't do anything else either.
3) If death grip were a taunt, the target would keep attacking you, but after 2 seconds pass the target will go back to your friend/ghoul. Dark command now to compare results.

[ChildeRoland]

Have you ever seen the DG buff?

Death Grip
Taunted

[Dankone]

Have you ever seen the DG buff?

Here's a shocker, programmers make mistakes. Try what I said and get back to me, and don't say any more until you do.

edit: I talked to some of my peers, they say that DG used to be a taunt in WotLK testing. Most likely it was changed but the tooltip was never updated.

[ChildeRoland]

Just tried it, and tbh,


YOU FAIL


Please do at least some research b4 posting

Edit:

1: Ghoul attacks untill it got 800 aggro (using Omen)
2: Stop Ghoul's attack, and set on passive.
3: DG, spam ESC and turning away.
4: I got: 1.3k aggro, and the target did NOT return to attack the ghoul after 2 seconds.

[Dankone]

Just tried it, and tbh,


YOU FAIL


Please do at least some research b4 posting

Edit:

Allow your ghoul to get to ~4k threat and tell me your results again. Giving 1.3k threat!=taunt.

edit: Alright, I did some testing myself after the VOA run, and on some random mobs in DB DG did act as a taunt with my ghoul out. I'll try and test it with a player. I'm certain, however, that in raid and dungeon situations DG does not act as a taunt, for example if a DPS used it on a boss it would go right back to the tank.