Optimizing tank gear

[assek18 0]

Hello, Icy Veins.

This is my first thread here so please be nice to a new guy . I also apologize for any mistakes I might make, English isn't my native language. I'd ended playing WoW a few weeks after realease of Icecrown patch. One month ago my friend told me to start playing again and I couldn't resist. I restore my account and tried to get back on track with everything. First thing I read was Icy Veins' DK tank guide then I moved to some more, which I found on MMO-Champion and Elitist Jerks. I quickly look through some high-ilvled players on my realm (DK tanks of course) to get some tips about gear. I've been practising tank stuff, like DS timing and familirazing with everything new for a few weeks and when I look on other players' toons I think I miss something very important. I'm forced to take a break for one month and when I'm back I'd like to improve my gear through LFR and Valor rewards and join some guild so I can get full experience with raiding and socialize with my guildmates. I want to take but I want to give in return, so it's very important to me to be the best tank as I can. I hope you, guys, can explain everything I miss or don't understand, so I can improve myself and my tanking.

Have a good day!

armory link: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/burning-legion/Proftank/advanced

Edited July 7, 2013 by assek18

[Shine 144]

your gear seems nice enough sofar, maybe an upgrade on your rings and trinkets would make a difference.

besides anticipating your Death Strike in order to build up Mastery: Blood Shield, you should learn to make the most of the Cooldowns in your arsenal.

As a Blood DK you have quite the number of cooldowns, and each can be used in reaction to certain mechanics.

It all depends on the fight. The only real tip I have for you is to learn the tactics of each fight before you start it, and try and think of abilities (including talents and glyphs) that might come in handy.

Rune Tap on Cooldown But only when you have 90% or less health. Otherwise it is just a waste.

I personally use Dancing Rune Weapon on Cooldown, I only save it sometimes for when the boss is nearing 35% health. I then use it in combination with Soul Reaper, since the Dancing Rune Weapon will copy that one aswell. (If you time it right you can make Dancing Rune Weapon copy Soul Reaper twice.)

Oh and try to use Scent of Blood procs mainly on Death and Decay, I know its tempting to use it on Blood Boil especially when Death and Decay is on cooldown, but even when you have 10 secs left on cooldown for Death and Decay, its worth the wait. (Procs from Scent of Blood will linger for about 14 secs.) It will make a huge difference in DPS.! Ofc, when you or your targets are moving alot, Blood Boil might be better to spend it on.

For the rest I only advise you to follow the guide provided by our good friends for Icy-Veins.com.

Cheers, and let me know it this helped.

[SirenX 0]

Hi. First of all you should be conscious about your parry chance might be to high if you change your actual rune. It's true, that parry is better than dodge, but many dks don't understand that right. Parry > dodge when the value is equal. Is does not mean that parry is always better than dodge. As said, if you change your rune, say, for Ji-Kun hc to stoneskin gargoyle, your parry is too high. More Information here: http://www.icy-veins...ority-reforging

If you plan to go some instances or lfr you should change your rune in fallen crusader anyways. the both "real" tank runes swordshattering/stoneskin only make sense if you encounter higher amounts of incoming damage. If I recall correctly, swordshattering is theoretically the best, as far as we talk about damage which can be parried, but keep in mind, that there is still a random factor. Some bosses have hard hitting attacks which cannot be parried or dodged. In this case take stoneskin. Also take it, if you need maximum self hps against high magical damage.

Another thing: I would recommend to change your jewelcrafting Fractured Serpent's Eye (giving you 480 mastery each) into Solid Serpent's Eye. This gives you 480 Stamina but in fact, your stamina gain is much higher. Your blood presence will add a 25% bonus. Power Word: Fortitude will add another 10%, Plate Specialization will add 5%. Veteran of the Third War gives 9% and finally, if you decide to forge Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle you will gain another 2% of stamina. This beeing said, it should be clear that stamina is more attractive than it looks like at the first glance. Since the juwelery stones with mastery and stamina share the same value (480) I would recommend to use stamina here and not mastery. Almost all of a blood death knight's healings depend on your maximum life and when is comes to magical damage, mastery has no effect at all. By the way: Armory tells: 1 unused Serpent's Eye

so long

Edited July 8, 2013 by SirenX

[luizofoca 2]

can i get some help too?

armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/azralon/eskeleticus/advanced

wol from jinrok hc (tried 10 times) and then normal till tortos http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-9ndln1ivaq8kkv6p/details/1/

i was doing dps job till 2 weeks ago so my equipment will not be optimal but i really need info on where to improve.

Im using hit/exp in front of dodge/parry because of agro problems and losing agro to the other tank a paladin

[Tyrendorf 1]

I hope you, guys, can explain everything I miss or don't understand, so I can improve myself and my tanking.

Hi Assek, I would say that to be the best tank you can, you should know:

- All your abilities, talents and glyphs VERY well;

- Learn each fight before the raid, looking for written guides, forums and videos (Wowprogress is a great source of them, as you can look for videos of your class and role POV).

- The sum of the tips above will provide you with the knowledge to choose the best playstyle for each fight.

The gear (enchanting, gemming and reforging) will vary with your ilvl, your raid formation, if is 25m or 10m, N, HC, LFR, Flex, if its phisical or magical damage... and so on.

[Tarazet 144]

can i get some help too?

armory: http://us.battle.net...eticus/advanced

wol from jinrok hc (tried 10 times) and then normal till tortos http://www.worldoflo...kv6p/details/1/

i was doing dps job till 2 weeks ago so my equipment will not be optimal but i really need info on where to improve.

Im using hit/exp in front of dodge/parry because of agro problems and losing agro to the other tank a paladin

Your tank set looks perfectly set up, talents are fine. You don't really need to use Stoneskin Gargoyle on 10's - you can use Swordshattering or Fallen Crusader.

The HC Jin'rokh attempts look normal for a guild working on it for the first time - too much damage taken by the raid because of personal failures. It's just practice. You were always one of the last ones alive which is normal on that encounter..

Edited July 10, 2013 by Tarazet

[luizofoca 2]

Your tank set looks perfectly set up, talents are fine. You don't really need to use Stoneskin Gargoyle on 10's - you can use Swordshattering or Fallen Crusader.

The HC Jin'rokh attempts look normal for a guild working on it for the first time - too much damage taken by the raid because of personal failures. It's just practice. You were always one of the last ones alive which is normal on that encounter..

Thanks for the info. i changed to stoneskin because i thought more stamina and armor would be good to start heroic.

There any other tip after looking my WoL? yesterdy i was talking to one of the healers and he said how hard was to heal me in horridon ( i was tanking horridon far from doors in our way of fighting no tank switching) comparing to our paladin tank.

And normally a dk can support more phisical damage than a paladin even if i cant take the debuff from me like he can.

(sorry for any english mistakes, not primary language and sometimes i feel a little rusty)

[Tyrendorf 1]

And normally a dk can support more phisical damage than a paladin even if i cant take the debuff from me like he can.

Luiz, I would say the opposite. You hardly can generate enough blood shield to neutralize the triple puncture damage. Otherwise, paladins can absorb a lot of damage due to SotR (absorbing % of damage) and Sacred Shield.

I suggest that you focus on the adds the whole fight, and the paladin tank Horridon (we used to do this way). If you have a pally healer, this will be easy.

If you want some help in portuguese, please, let me know.

Tyrendorf

Edited July 12, 2013 by Tyrendorf

[luizofoca 2]

Luiz, I would say the opposite. You hardly can generate enough blood shield to neutralize the triple puncture damage. Otherwise, paladins can absorb a lot of damage due to SotR (absorbing % of damage) and Sacred Shield.

I suggest that you focus on the adds the whole fight, and the paladin tank Horridon (we used to do this way). If you have a pally healer, this will be easy.

If you want some help in portuguese, please, let me know.

Tyrendorf

thanks for the help Tyrendorf

I will talk about this change with our raid leader that is a pally healer.

About the talking in portuguese no need. I just said that because i was afraid to let some mistake in english appear.