Thread from EJ
Page 1 of 1
Thread from EJ
Chuu Fri Mar 11, 2011 2:28 pm
How do I gear my Death Knight:
chardev 8 - Cataclysm Beta (If someone can make a cute little table w/ that listed I could add it in here, I would appreciate it.)
That is a char dev profile that I put together for what I would consider BiS for this teir of DK tanking. The helm is debatable between that and the Daybreaker helm, but that is covered below in the itemization breakdown. I do think that 4pc is amazing and should be used. There are fights where it shines more than others (Chim is the most optimal, but Nef / Cho'gall / Sinestra / and any other heavy tank dmg fight are nearly just as good), but in every situation the bonus helps quite a lot. Six seconds is a lifetime when dealing with tanking cds. If anything you're only gaining a slight amount of other stats and losing such a huge benefit if you chose to break 4pc.
*you will probably also note that the Sinestra caster cloak is listed on the chardev profile. That isn't a mistake. It has more mastery, a gem socket, more stm, more armor, and only comes at the loss of about .5% avoidance once you reforge the haste into dodge. This is mainly due to them not even adding a 372 tanking cloak and the BiS is supposed to be the Hyjal rep one. Who knows if this will stick or not, but I personally would take the mastery/stm gain over .5% avoidance.
Threat - Threat only matters within the first 30-45 seconds of a fight or when a new mob is picked up. For these situation DRW Glyph fixes most any issues you should encounter. If you're good with threat gen and are able to swing it - MD's should be used on the pull and that's it. Tricks should be optimized and used on other DPS as often as possible. If you're finding yourself unable to have legit threat gen, then have your rogues assist with tricks as well. With all that being said, reforge/regem out of your threat stats and turn them into avoidance or mastery choices.
Keep in mind you do still need SOME hit/exp, but it's not necessary to get capped in either. The actual 'cap' is a dynamic number that will change from person to person. Sure, you're going to have strings of dodge/miss/parry as some point if you aren't capped, but I've been sub 2% hit and around 12-18 expertise this entire teir and haven't had it turn into a serious issue at ANY point. For those ppl who argue about interrupts and being hit capped, I don't consider that into this statement because in 25 mans, interrupts are covered by other people than the tank. You can assist with them, but shouldn't be involved in any rotation due to the fact you shouldn't be hit capped or you're gimping your survival.
Mitigation vs Avoidance (aka Mastery/Armor vs Dodge/Parry) - I get asked this question more than any other. Tbh, it probably can be answered on a sheet of paper after doing a ton of math, but in the end there isn't going to be a huge difference in the overall outcome. What I mean by that is they're going to be within a comparable % of each other with each having a slight advantage in certain situations.
It comes down to what would you rather have: The rng of Avoidance or the consistency of Mastery? Whichever answer you pick, that gives you the direction you need to gear/itemize/reforge.
I've gemmed / reforged / geared towards both avoidance and mastery and tried them out for extended periods of time. However for the majority of our progression I chose Mastery due to the consistency of it compared to Avoidance.
Yes, avoidance will sometimes look better on paper and provide less dmg taken overall, but it forces you to be taking much heavier bursts of dmg. I see a lot of people referring to healer mana also. While, yes, it is more of an issue than it was in WotLK, it's still not something that is a game breaker. Healers aren't reactively healing to the point of cancel casting constantly or waiting to see if you take multiple hits THEN casting a reactive heal. If anything, they will choose to use a larger inefficient heal vs a lower more efficient one. In the end, tank healer mana isn't a huge issue. Even if it was, with the way dmg intake is atm, I don't see them being able to really change much in how they approach tank healing.
Stamina - Stamina is not what it once was. Gone are the days of it being the number one stat no matter what, and welcome to the day where it basically has a 'soft cap'. What I mean by that is you're never really in a situation where you're taking so much dmg in such a short time frame that it's going to kill you unless you have a certain amount of hp. There are some fights where that DOES still happen, but almost every situation can be compensated for with cooldowns and thus allowing you to focus more on non stm stats such as mitigation and avoidance. Don't get me wrong, stm is still a very important stat (and scales with most DK abilities), but it's not THE most important stat. It has nicely fallen into a balance area with the rest of tanking itemization (which I enjoy).
Trinket choices- This is a main area since it has such a large impact on your cd's and mitigation / stm / avoidance stats. On ANY type of fight with predictable magic dmg (ie Nef / Omnitron / Maloriak / Twilight Council / Cho'gall / Sinestra / Conclave / Alakir) the [Mirror of Broken Images] is a MUST. I like using that combined with [Symbiotic Worm] or [Vial of Stolen Memories] since they give you either a passive or on use cd combined with a significant amount of health.
With those quick overviews of each tanking stat / area I hope it clears up quite a bit for people that are questioning them. I am sure questions will arise, so just post if you have any on the above information.
How do I spec/glyph my Death Knight:
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
The above spec is what I have been using post 4.0.6 w/ the new Scarlet Fever changes. It is a single target spec and doesn't have any focus on AE whatsoever. It's also assuming you have 10% AP covered elsewhere (which you should in 25s).
To address anyone still talking about Lichborne post 4.0.6 - Yes, it is still an amzing talent choice. It still does the same thing it did before w/ just slightly lower healing output and fewer Death Coils able to be used. It will still save you in a pinch and is very helpful on any progression encounter where keeping yourself alive is the most important factor out there.
I like having the additional 4 seconds on diseases (3/3 epidemic) and put the lone floater point into SoB for more RP (which assists w/ more RE procs from RS). The glyphs are also based on what I think is most optimal for single target tanking.
Glyphs Prime
Death Coil- Mandated if you're using the Lichbonre spec (which you should be).
Rune Strike- Dmg amp glyph.
Heart Strike- Dmg amp glyph.
Death Strike- Some people like using the Prime DS glyph, but I find it less optimal mainly because I don't sit at high levels of RP at any point other than pooling for LB/DRW/DP.
Glyphs Major
Vamp Blood- I love this glyph and see a lot of people that don't use it. This glyph is amazing because it will gain you more through the additional healing you are getting from all sources than it will from the temporary hp gain you will get w/o it being glyphed.
Dancing Rune Wpn- Used on every pull or pickup of new mob for additional threat.
Bone Shield- Situational, but usable on some fights (ie Cho'gall / Sinestra)
Rune Tap- A very good choice since most encounters have a ton of raid dmg involved. I swap between BS and RT often.
AMS- Don't see the point of glyphing this outside of PvP. If you are doing it right, you don't need an extra 2 secs to assist your timing of the cd.
-If you find yourself in an AE tanking situation, obv spec into Imp BB and glyph Pest / BB.
I personally like the changes with SF and it doesn't interfere a ton with the rotation (lose one DS once a minute). I was never really a fan of having anyone keep up debuffs on the boss (attack slow and demo) for me since it wasn't always guaranteed to happen in every situation. Having SF tied into PS fits well since I was already keeping up FF.
If anything were to change I would say have Crimson Scoruge give a % change for your bloodboil to extend the duration of diseases by a few seconds or something like that. It would actually make it worth picking up outside of added BB dmg. In the end though, the DK tree is pretty solid for the most part without any wasted talents imo.
Which Professions should my Death Knight use:
This has already been covered (http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t105485-...1/#post1797713), but just to add it into the summary here, it's basically even across the board with slight variants of what you gain. I personally think LW is a must not only for the stm gain on the bracers, but for the drums of speed benefit as well. That is something that isn't able to be weighted, but is a nice raid utility xfactor and helps kill bosses. As far as the other profession you get your pick between BS / JC / Ench / Eng / Inscrp. All of them come out to around the same benefit for the most part other than Eng.
I picked Eng due to the 1500 armor gain since it gives me stats when I need them (I macro'd it into my VB) - stats that outweigh the passive from other profs during its uptime. That along w/ the 18k belt absorb or cardboard assassin (which still taunts non boss adds) give it quite a bit of an edge imo.
Overview:
The DK tank is a unique animal. It isn't like that of a Paladin, Warrior, or a Druid (btw I have one of each and tank on them all, this isn't just me speculating). I'm not saying any one class is 'ezmode' or any of that jazz. Anyone playing any tanking class at a high level is obviously on a different skill level. I'm just saying a DK isn't something you're going to pick up and be able to do easily. It is very unforgiving and advanced class and almost completely 'maunual-ized', so keep that in mind. You are going to see a ton of people confuse parses from people that don't know what they're doing with people saying things are 'broken', 'overnerfed', 'undertuned', etc. I highly implore anyone who has those questions about this class to directly ask someone who knows what they are doing and not fall victim to much of this fluff that clutters quite a bit of this thread.
The fact is - A Death Knight tank who has the ability to manage the numerous cooldowns properly, time death strikes optimally, and use their self healing at the correct times - you will find yourself able to do many things other classes cannot. Sure, you are going to be 'spikey' at times, but that is somewhat the premise of the class itself. A Death Knight excels at single target tanking, and that is it's niche in the current tanking scheme (which I am a fan of greatly). You are going to take more dmg, but you are also going to heal yourself for a ton more and be able to save a lot of situations where other tanks wouldn't.
With the gear/spec/glyph/itemization summary, I wanted to go over a quick overview for each boss. I know there is a huge range of guild progression out there so I will go over a few things from each boss that would be relevant for a DK tank to know and implement.
Keep in mind, any of this information could vary depending on how your guild does the fight and your role involved. Also, this isn't a complete 'how to' strategy session, but rather a quick outline of cds for a DK tank looking to step into these encounters and help out their guild. If you don't see a cd listed, that's not because its not being used, just use it as you see fit.
-Blackwing Descent-
Tronbots:
This fight is both feast and famine for a DK tank. The way most of the dmg bursts come in the fight ensures you have some form of a cd active for each of them. However, the periods of time where you are unable to attack the boss suck quite a bit since you are unable to DS - so try and have VB or BS up during those times. IBF if you are ever forced to be outside the group for Shadow Conductor. AMS and TB trinket the AE fire done by Magmatron.
Magmaw:
Pre fight change, it was a pretty fun fight since a DK could kite adds with the Bone shield glyph (as seen here: YouTube - Blood Legion vs Heroic: Magmaw - Kiting POV ). However, w/ the recent changes to the fight, the kiting is no longer needed. I would recommend using double stm trinkets on this fight due to how much physical dmg you are taking and how it comes in much more dangerous bursts than the magic dmg on the fight.
Maloriak:
It's best suited for a DK to be tanking the boss. During the Dark Phase, ensure you refresh Bone shield and move out of melee range until he starts casting again. This will keep 20% dmg reduc up the entire phase. Also, AMS the first breath and it will be up again near the end of the phase, and the same goes for the TB resist trinket. Save IBF for the Green phases. Use your other cds how you see fit throughout the rest of the fight.
Atramedes:
Not a hard fight to tank, just ensure AMS for Searing flames. That is the main cd you need to make sure happens. Bone shield glyph is awesome in this fight as well (during air phase), but you can also get away with running around in UH pres during that time so it's not really a must unless you specifically want to have full RP going into the following ground phase.
Chimeraon:
Death Knights make an amazing double attack soaker. Blood Shield helps a ton in making sure you're above 10k after the first of 2 hits from the dbl attack. During the feud's, depending whichs ones you are assigned to tank, ensure you have up IBF (4pc here is phenomenal). AMS the slime volleys during this phase to minimize dmg intake. Try and have as many cds up as possible for when tanking sub 20%, and LB heal yourself to full right before the phase change. Also, this is one of few fights I would put an emphasis on avoidance over mastery. If this fight is a serious roadblock for your guild or you're just having issues staying alive - you need to regear/reforge/regem/rerune/etc out of mastery and into avoidance.
Nefarian:
Nef is one of my favorite fights to tank this teir. While its clearly better for a warr/pally to deal w/ the adds, the DK excels at tanking on Nef. Your management of cds is paramount and knowing when to use each of them can mean the difference between consistent wipes and consistent kills. Between your AMS and your TB trinket, you will have a magic mit cooldown active for each of the 10% Lightning Nukes. Outside of this, I would highly recommend weaving in cds to keep as much uptime as possible w/o having any overlap.
-Bastion of Twilight-
Halfus:
Another pretty straight forward fight with not a lot going on for the tanks. DK's are better used on Drakes due to the MS debuff applied from Halfus (although it doesn't effect the Blood Shield, it does effect your self healing). If you do find yourself on Halfus, it would probably be a good idea to focus on avoidance for this fight. Outside of that, there is nothing too strict here other than to make sure to have your IBF up for the AE stun that happens at 50% and then VB/BS the following. If its not dead by then, prob make sure you have a PS/GS going into a 3rd.
Double Dragons:
Another pretty fun and unique fight to tank. Tank dmg intake isnt' exactly trivial either. It's not insane enough to require a ton of focus from healers, but it's also not trivial enough to ignore. A few things to note here - DRW upon picking up a mob w/ fresh threat (ie on the pull or the 2nd dragon coming down for the first time). IBF during the heavy movement of the breath strafing. Usually I try and use VB and such as a 'buffer' and have it active BEFORE I'm sitting at 15% hp and about to die and it works out pretty well, and this fight is no exception. Assist your healers as much as you can and don't sit on your cds until its too late. You have plenty at your disposal and they are on short cds. Use them.
Twilight Council:
DK is optimally used on the Ignacious (Fire guy) in p1 and Arion (Lightning guy) is in p2. While in p1, Try and have a cd up for each of the flame breaths from Ignacious (ie AMS/TB trinket/BoneShield/LB) and a Major cd active after each shield is broken (IBF after first, PS/GS on 2nd). Once in p2, make sure you AMS or TB trinket each of the nukes if they aren't able to be interrupted. If you're tanking the boss in p3, ensure to DRW on the pickup and AMS every other Lava Seed just incase and try and save IBF for a bit later in the phase when healing is rough. Outside of those, use cds as seen fit.
Cho'gall:
There are quite a few different ways to tank this fight and that all depends on how your guild handles their strat. If you find yourself on Cho'gall, you should line up your cds to assist with the Flame and Shadow debuffs. The flame one is obviously the most critical and should be prioritized when figuring out your cd mapping. If you find yourself tanking the large adds, it fits pretty well. DRW for each set pickup (90sec cd, 90sec spawn rate ). Reapply BS prior to picking them up so it will be active off the start of each set pickup. IBF every odd wave, and VB+avoidance trinket on the even ones. Once in the last phase, do your best to chain cds as much as possible when it is your turn on the boss. Keep in mind you can also AMS the magical portion of the Fury spell (not a game breaker, but can help in certain situations).
Sinestra:
TBD. I'll post more on this once its more of a common interest. However, here is another link to a vid if anyone is interested: YouTube - Blood Legion vs Sinestra 25hm
-Throne of the Four Winds-
Conclave:
Conclave is another fun encounter for this teir. Flying thru jet streams and changing platforms is always fun to do as a tank. As far as DK's and their cds go on this fight - It is important to have a cd up for the breaths on Nezir (frost dude). Rotating between AMS / TB trinket / BS+VB / LB you should be able to cover all of them. You need to save IBF for the high dmg output on Anshal (nature dude) coming out of his Ulti (again, 4pc owns for this). Outside of those, weave in the other cds as seen fit.
Al'akir:
Alakir is another fight where DK tanks can be a huge xfactor. Aside from being able to mitigate a ton of the Magic dmg, you are also able to Death Grip every other one of the adds in p2, which cuts down on a ton of raid dmg and/or movement on the raid. Ensure you are spell hit capped to land your DG's every time. AMS'ing off the acid rain stacks is a huge benefit as well.
-Summary-
I highly recommend getting used to browsing logs/parses and looking at how you're actually able to fit your cds in. FRAPS is a good tool also to see how you are performing. It's not really any diff than an NFL player watching film on games - same principle. If you're serious about raiding and your role as a tank, you need to get used to taking the extra steps to ensure your job is done as efficient as possible. Taking a few mins/hours a week during progression to set up timelines, cd maps, look at dmg intake breakdown, etc will make a world of difference and you will be happy w/ the results.
Just to reiterate, these aren't any 'strats' or guides on how to kill the bosses. They are just a quick summary for each encounter from a DK tank's perspective on how to best use cds. Also, understand these aren't mandatory or the ONLY way to do these fights. There are a ton of different options and ways to get the job done. These are just from my own experiences and proven to work. If someone disputes or has questions on any of this, please post. Hopefully this helps out anyone who is stepping into the fights for the first time or is having issues with fights they are currently on.
chardev 8 - Cataclysm Beta (If someone can make a cute little table w/ that listed I could add it in here, I would appreciate it.)
That is a char dev profile that I put together for what I would consider BiS for this teir of DK tanking. The helm is debatable between that and the Daybreaker helm, but that is covered below in the itemization breakdown. I do think that 4pc is amazing and should be used. There are fights where it shines more than others (Chim is the most optimal, but Nef / Cho'gall / Sinestra / and any other heavy tank dmg fight are nearly just as good), but in every situation the bonus helps quite a lot. Six seconds is a lifetime when dealing with tanking cds. If anything you're only gaining a slight amount of other stats and losing such a huge benefit if you chose to break 4pc.
*you will probably also note that the Sinestra caster cloak is listed on the chardev profile. That isn't a mistake. It has more mastery, a gem socket, more stm, more armor, and only comes at the loss of about .5% avoidance once you reforge the haste into dodge. This is mainly due to them not even adding a 372 tanking cloak and the BiS is supposed to be the Hyjal rep one. Who knows if this will stick or not, but I personally would take the mastery/stm gain over .5% avoidance.
Threat - Threat only matters within the first 30-45 seconds of a fight or when a new mob is picked up. For these situation DRW Glyph fixes most any issues you should encounter. If you're good with threat gen and are able to swing it - MD's should be used on the pull and that's it. Tricks should be optimized and used on other DPS as often as possible. If you're finding yourself unable to have legit threat gen, then have your rogues assist with tricks as well. With all that being said, reforge/regem out of your threat stats and turn them into avoidance or mastery choices.
Keep in mind you do still need SOME hit/exp, but it's not necessary to get capped in either. The actual 'cap' is a dynamic number that will change from person to person. Sure, you're going to have strings of dodge/miss/parry as some point if you aren't capped, but I've been sub 2% hit and around 12-18 expertise this entire teir and haven't had it turn into a serious issue at ANY point. For those ppl who argue about interrupts and being hit capped, I don't consider that into this statement because in 25 mans, interrupts are covered by other people than the tank. You can assist with them, but shouldn't be involved in any rotation due to the fact you shouldn't be hit capped or you're gimping your survival.
Mitigation vs Avoidance (aka Mastery/Armor vs Dodge/Parry) - I get asked this question more than any other. Tbh, it probably can be answered on a sheet of paper after doing a ton of math, but in the end there isn't going to be a huge difference in the overall outcome. What I mean by that is they're going to be within a comparable % of each other with each having a slight advantage in certain situations.
It comes down to what would you rather have: The rng of Avoidance or the consistency of Mastery? Whichever answer you pick, that gives you the direction you need to gear/itemize/reforge.
I've gemmed / reforged / geared towards both avoidance and mastery and tried them out for extended periods of time. However for the majority of our progression I chose Mastery due to the consistency of it compared to Avoidance.
Yes, avoidance will sometimes look better on paper and provide less dmg taken overall, but it forces you to be taking much heavier bursts of dmg. I see a lot of people referring to healer mana also. While, yes, it is more of an issue than it was in WotLK, it's still not something that is a game breaker. Healers aren't reactively healing to the point of cancel casting constantly or waiting to see if you take multiple hits THEN casting a reactive heal. If anything, they will choose to use a larger inefficient heal vs a lower more efficient one. In the end, tank healer mana isn't a huge issue. Even if it was, with the way dmg intake is atm, I don't see them being able to really change much in how they approach tank healing.
Stamina - Stamina is not what it once was. Gone are the days of it being the number one stat no matter what, and welcome to the day where it basically has a 'soft cap'. What I mean by that is you're never really in a situation where you're taking so much dmg in such a short time frame that it's going to kill you unless you have a certain amount of hp. There are some fights where that DOES still happen, but almost every situation can be compensated for with cooldowns and thus allowing you to focus more on non stm stats such as mitigation and avoidance. Don't get me wrong, stm is still a very important stat (and scales with most DK abilities), but it's not THE most important stat. It has nicely fallen into a balance area with the rest of tanking itemization (which I enjoy).
Trinket choices- This is a main area since it has such a large impact on your cd's and mitigation / stm / avoidance stats. On ANY type of fight with predictable magic dmg (ie Nef / Omnitron / Maloriak / Twilight Council / Cho'gall / Sinestra / Conclave / Alakir) the [Mirror of Broken Images] is a MUST. I like using that combined with [Symbiotic Worm] or [Vial of Stolen Memories] since they give you either a passive or on use cd combined with a significant amount of health.
With those quick overviews of each tanking stat / area I hope it clears up quite a bit for people that are questioning them. I am sure questions will arise, so just post if you have any on the above information.
How do I spec/glyph my Death Knight:
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
The above spec is what I have been using post 4.0.6 w/ the new Scarlet Fever changes. It is a single target spec and doesn't have any focus on AE whatsoever. It's also assuming you have 10% AP covered elsewhere (which you should in 25s).
To address anyone still talking about Lichborne post 4.0.6 - Yes, it is still an amzing talent choice. It still does the same thing it did before w/ just slightly lower healing output and fewer Death Coils able to be used. It will still save you in a pinch and is very helpful on any progression encounter where keeping yourself alive is the most important factor out there.
I like having the additional 4 seconds on diseases (3/3 epidemic) and put the lone floater point into SoB for more RP (which assists w/ more RE procs from RS). The glyphs are also based on what I think is most optimal for single target tanking.
Glyphs Prime
Death Coil- Mandated if you're using the Lichbonre spec (which you should be).
Rune Strike- Dmg amp glyph.
Heart Strike- Dmg amp glyph.
Death Strike- Some people like using the Prime DS glyph, but I find it less optimal mainly because I don't sit at high levels of RP at any point other than pooling for LB/DRW/DP.
Glyphs Major
Vamp Blood- I love this glyph and see a lot of people that don't use it. This glyph is amazing because it will gain you more through the additional healing you are getting from all sources than it will from the temporary hp gain you will get w/o it being glyphed.
Dancing Rune Wpn- Used on every pull or pickup of new mob for additional threat.
Bone Shield- Situational, but usable on some fights (ie Cho'gall / Sinestra)
Rune Tap- A very good choice since most encounters have a ton of raid dmg involved. I swap between BS and RT often.
AMS- Don't see the point of glyphing this outside of PvP. If you are doing it right, you don't need an extra 2 secs to assist your timing of the cd.
-If you find yourself in an AE tanking situation, obv spec into Imp BB and glyph Pest / BB.
I personally like the changes with SF and it doesn't interfere a ton with the rotation (lose one DS once a minute). I was never really a fan of having anyone keep up debuffs on the boss (attack slow and demo) for me since it wasn't always guaranteed to happen in every situation. Having SF tied into PS fits well since I was already keeping up FF.
If anything were to change I would say have Crimson Scoruge give a % change for your bloodboil to extend the duration of diseases by a few seconds or something like that. It would actually make it worth picking up outside of added BB dmg. In the end though, the DK tree is pretty solid for the most part without any wasted talents imo.
Which Professions should my Death Knight use:
This has already been covered (http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t105485-...1/#post1797713), but just to add it into the summary here, it's basically even across the board with slight variants of what you gain. I personally think LW is a must not only for the stm gain on the bracers, but for the drums of speed benefit as well. That is something that isn't able to be weighted, but is a nice raid utility xfactor and helps kill bosses. As far as the other profession you get your pick between BS / JC / Ench / Eng / Inscrp. All of them come out to around the same benefit for the most part other than Eng.
I picked Eng due to the 1500 armor gain since it gives me stats when I need them (I macro'd it into my VB) - stats that outweigh the passive from other profs during its uptime. That along w/ the 18k belt absorb or cardboard assassin (which still taunts non boss adds) give it quite a bit of an edge imo.
Overview:
The DK tank is a unique animal. It isn't like that of a Paladin, Warrior, or a Druid (btw I have one of each and tank on them all, this isn't just me speculating). I'm not saying any one class is 'ezmode' or any of that jazz. Anyone playing any tanking class at a high level is obviously on a different skill level. I'm just saying a DK isn't something you're going to pick up and be able to do easily. It is very unforgiving and advanced class and almost completely 'maunual-ized', so keep that in mind. You are going to see a ton of people confuse parses from people that don't know what they're doing with people saying things are 'broken', 'overnerfed', 'undertuned', etc. I highly implore anyone who has those questions about this class to directly ask someone who knows what they are doing and not fall victim to much of this fluff that clutters quite a bit of this thread.
The fact is - A Death Knight tank who has the ability to manage the numerous cooldowns properly, time death strikes optimally, and use their self healing at the correct times - you will find yourself able to do many things other classes cannot. Sure, you are going to be 'spikey' at times, but that is somewhat the premise of the class itself. A Death Knight excels at single target tanking, and that is it's niche in the current tanking scheme (which I am a fan of greatly). You are going to take more dmg, but you are also going to heal yourself for a ton more and be able to save a lot of situations where other tanks wouldn't.
With the gear/spec/glyph/itemization summary, I wanted to go over a quick overview for each boss. I know there is a huge range of guild progression out there so I will go over a few things from each boss that would be relevant for a DK tank to know and implement.
Keep in mind, any of this information could vary depending on how your guild does the fight and your role involved. Also, this isn't a complete 'how to' strategy session, but rather a quick outline of cds for a DK tank looking to step into these encounters and help out their guild. If you don't see a cd listed, that's not because its not being used, just use it as you see fit.
-Blackwing Descent-
Tronbots:
This fight is both feast and famine for a DK tank. The way most of the dmg bursts come in the fight ensures you have some form of a cd active for each of them. However, the periods of time where you are unable to attack the boss suck quite a bit since you are unable to DS - so try and have VB or BS up during those times. IBF if you are ever forced to be outside the group for Shadow Conductor. AMS and TB trinket the AE fire done by Magmatron.
Magmaw:
Pre fight change, it was a pretty fun fight since a DK could kite adds with the Bone shield glyph (as seen here: YouTube - Blood Legion vs Heroic: Magmaw - Kiting POV ). However, w/ the recent changes to the fight, the kiting is no longer needed. I would recommend using double stm trinkets on this fight due to how much physical dmg you are taking and how it comes in much more dangerous bursts than the magic dmg on the fight.
Maloriak:
It's best suited for a DK to be tanking the boss. During the Dark Phase, ensure you refresh Bone shield and move out of melee range until he starts casting again. This will keep 20% dmg reduc up the entire phase. Also, AMS the first breath and it will be up again near the end of the phase, and the same goes for the TB resist trinket. Save IBF for the Green phases. Use your other cds how you see fit throughout the rest of the fight.
Atramedes:
Not a hard fight to tank, just ensure AMS for Searing flames. That is the main cd you need to make sure happens. Bone shield glyph is awesome in this fight as well (during air phase), but you can also get away with running around in UH pres during that time so it's not really a must unless you specifically want to have full RP going into the following ground phase.
Chimeraon:
Death Knights make an amazing double attack soaker. Blood Shield helps a ton in making sure you're above 10k after the first of 2 hits from the dbl attack. During the feud's, depending whichs ones you are assigned to tank, ensure you have up IBF (4pc here is phenomenal). AMS the slime volleys during this phase to minimize dmg intake. Try and have as many cds up as possible for when tanking sub 20%, and LB heal yourself to full right before the phase change. Also, this is one of few fights I would put an emphasis on avoidance over mastery. If this fight is a serious roadblock for your guild or you're just having issues staying alive - you need to regear/reforge/regem/rerune/etc out of mastery and into avoidance.
Nefarian:
Nef is one of my favorite fights to tank this teir. While its clearly better for a warr/pally to deal w/ the adds, the DK excels at tanking on Nef. Your management of cds is paramount and knowing when to use each of them can mean the difference between consistent wipes and consistent kills. Between your AMS and your TB trinket, you will have a magic mit cooldown active for each of the 10% Lightning Nukes. Outside of this, I would highly recommend weaving in cds to keep as much uptime as possible w/o having any overlap.
-Bastion of Twilight-
Halfus:
Another pretty straight forward fight with not a lot going on for the tanks. DK's are better used on Drakes due to the MS debuff applied from Halfus (although it doesn't effect the Blood Shield, it does effect your self healing). If you do find yourself on Halfus, it would probably be a good idea to focus on avoidance for this fight. Outside of that, there is nothing too strict here other than to make sure to have your IBF up for the AE stun that happens at 50% and then VB/BS the following. If its not dead by then, prob make sure you have a PS/GS going into a 3rd.
Double Dragons:
Another pretty fun and unique fight to tank. Tank dmg intake isnt' exactly trivial either. It's not insane enough to require a ton of focus from healers, but it's also not trivial enough to ignore. A few things to note here - DRW upon picking up a mob w/ fresh threat (ie on the pull or the 2nd dragon coming down for the first time). IBF during the heavy movement of the breath strafing. Usually I try and use VB and such as a 'buffer' and have it active BEFORE I'm sitting at 15% hp and about to die and it works out pretty well, and this fight is no exception. Assist your healers as much as you can and don't sit on your cds until its too late. You have plenty at your disposal and they are on short cds. Use them.
Twilight Council:
DK is optimally used on the Ignacious (Fire guy) in p1 and Arion (Lightning guy) is in p2. While in p1, Try and have a cd up for each of the flame breaths from Ignacious (ie AMS/TB trinket/BoneShield/LB) and a Major cd active after each shield is broken (IBF after first, PS/GS on 2nd). Once in p2, make sure you AMS or TB trinket each of the nukes if they aren't able to be interrupted. If you're tanking the boss in p3, ensure to DRW on the pickup and AMS every other Lava Seed just incase and try and save IBF for a bit later in the phase when healing is rough. Outside of those, use cds as seen fit.
Cho'gall:
There are quite a few different ways to tank this fight and that all depends on how your guild handles their strat. If you find yourself on Cho'gall, you should line up your cds to assist with the Flame and Shadow debuffs. The flame one is obviously the most critical and should be prioritized when figuring out your cd mapping. If you find yourself tanking the large adds, it fits pretty well. DRW for each set pickup (90sec cd, 90sec spawn rate ). Reapply BS prior to picking them up so it will be active off the start of each set pickup. IBF every odd wave, and VB+avoidance trinket on the even ones. Once in the last phase, do your best to chain cds as much as possible when it is your turn on the boss. Keep in mind you can also AMS the magical portion of the Fury spell (not a game breaker, but can help in certain situations).
Sinestra:
TBD. I'll post more on this once its more of a common interest. However, here is another link to a vid if anyone is interested: YouTube - Blood Legion vs Sinestra 25hm
-Throne of the Four Winds-
Conclave:
Conclave is another fun encounter for this teir. Flying thru jet streams and changing platforms is always fun to do as a tank. As far as DK's and their cds go on this fight - It is important to have a cd up for the breaths on Nezir (frost dude). Rotating between AMS / TB trinket / BS+VB / LB you should be able to cover all of them. You need to save IBF for the high dmg output on Anshal (nature dude) coming out of his Ulti (again, 4pc owns for this). Outside of those, weave in the other cds as seen fit.
Al'akir:
Alakir is another fight where DK tanks can be a huge xfactor. Aside from being able to mitigate a ton of the Magic dmg, you are also able to Death Grip every other one of the adds in p2, which cuts down on a ton of raid dmg and/or movement on the raid. Ensure you are spell hit capped to land your DG's every time. AMS'ing off the acid rain stacks is a huge benefit as well.
-Summary-
I highly recommend getting used to browsing logs/parses and looking at how you're actually able to fit your cds in. FRAPS is a good tool also to see how you are performing. It's not really any diff than an NFL player watching film on games - same principle. If you're serious about raiding and your role as a tank, you need to get used to taking the extra steps to ensure your job is done as efficient as possible. Taking a few mins/hours a week during progression to set up timelines, cd maps, look at dmg intake breakdown, etc will make a world of difference and you will be happy w/ the results.
Just to reiterate, these aren't any 'strats' or guides on how to kill the bosses. They are just a quick summary for each encounter from a DK tank's perspective on how to best use cds. Also, understand these aren't mandatory or the ONLY way to do these fights. There are a ton of different options and ways to get the job done. These are just from my own experiences and proven to work. If someone disputes or has questions on any of this, please post. Hopefully this helps out anyone who is stepping into the fights for the first time or is having issues with fights they are currently on.
Chuu- Posts : 14
Join date : 2010-11-30
Age : 41
Page 1 of 1
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum|
|
|