Blood death knight, normal to heroic gear transition

[Sylvathane 0]

Hey there, my name is Sylvathane

 

armory -->  http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/emerald-dream/Sylvathane/advanced

 

My guild recently began heroic content after getting back into it after the holidays (many of us are fathers and had long family vacations) and I am just seeking a little help in the gear department.

 

Is my blood 4 set worth dropping for the stats on heroic gear? I have 2 peices, the head off norushen (dodge / parry) and the shoulders off immerseus (also dodge parry) Is it worth the stats to drop a 4set, (even though they are not BiS)

 

Keep in mind raid buffed my mastery sits over 250% so its not like losing the mastery would be a big problem after reforges.

 

Any help / opinions would be greatly appreciated! 

 

             -Thanks in advance, Sylvathane - Emerald Dream

[Storm 426]

It depends on your outlook on what a tank should be.

If you want to be the guy that absolutely lives every time no matter what is happening in the fight and even if you DC because a comet crashes into your house in real life, then the 4pc is better.

 

However, with the current state of tanking in general, by about 570 ilvl you will simply outgear 10/14 of the heroic fights. and dying is rarely something you'll need to worry about. From a survival standpoint it is nice to have 2 extra death strikes at your command every 1.5min, but as stated, for the vast majority of the fights you won't really "need" that to stay alive. From a dps standpoint 2 more deathstrikes every time you dancing rune weapon, or 4 heart strikes is also nice, but if you'll gain a much larger dps boost by abandoning the mastery laden tier gear and opting for parry/dodge gear instead.

 

It really comes down to how well you're managing your cooldowns, and how strong your healers are. If you need more survivability then stick with the 4pc. If you can live with taking less overall damage, but having 1 less cooldown at your disposal then trade the 4pc for the parry/dodge heroic gear.

[SparkSovereign 61]

It also comes down to itemization.  Blood tier gear is rather nicely itemized this tier, which is kinda self-reinforcing since more death strikes -> mastery's value inflates.  Doubly so since you're both using the 4pc and have the CD-reduction trink.  Basically, the current setup you have has a lot of internal synergy, which is awesome.  I personally wouldn't drop the bonus until I could replace 2 pieces at once with either very well heroic optimized pieces (parry/mastery that sort of thing) or reasonably well optimized heroic WF pieces.

 

Good luck, have fun, and don't die!  Well, don't die again, death knights and all that...

[Storm 426]

Nicely itemized is sort of subjective. They are the best itemized from a purely survival standpoint, but as stated above with my whole outlook on the 4pc bonus, most of DK's survivability is overkill most of the time. I prefer parry/dodge gear for the extra dps over mastery gear because I don't need that much self healing. even with a nearly pure parry/dodge build with barely over 100% mastery I can nearly 100% self heal a handful of heroic encounters, and there are only 3-4 fights where avoidance RNG can sometimes make me difficult to heal.

[Estarriol 167]

You can also keep your extra tier in your bags or bank in the case you encounter a situation where you need the survivability. You can give the avoidance gear a try and switch it out if you're having problems.

[Ceraius 34]

I personally run 4set after which I try to gear for high parry for some Riposte damage, but thats just cos im too lazy to gather a full parry set and the 4set is just crazy powerful for when you need it.

 

We're still in the progression of the later end heroics and the 4set is a good panicbutton there if nothing else. If you're looking to minmax I'd say hold the 4set somewhere close for those progress fights and get some parry heavy gear for the farm bosses where you feel comfortable with your survival.