Slacker Blood DK Needs Advice

[Lethbridge 0]

I  have two blood DKs, one Horde BE and one Alliance Worgen. I made both in Wrath, so have been playing them a while. Both are engineers. DK is my favorite class, but I also have Mage, Priest, Warlock, Hunter, and Druid, in descending order of enjoyment. I don't use many add-ons (I've used some Weak Auras), but I would use more add-ons if I tanked dungeons. I used to use a good taunt add-on. I have so many taunts and interrupts as a Blood DK! I know I need to set up some sort of add-on for cooldowns and stacks of debuffs. 

Well, I'm in the over 50 crowd, and kinda a slacker at that I haven't done many dungeons or haven't raided since early Shadowlands, and I mostly did those as a Mage or Priest. My guild is mostly on break, and I've just been gearing up with dailies in ZM and such. I've never even asked to tank in my guild because they already have too many really good tanks (and they are the guild founders). I did tank a lot in WotLK and Cataclysm.

My blood rotation is pretty much as recommended here for Easy Mode, but I am mostly solo-questing, killing elite bosses in the wild, doing Torghast, and tanking the occasional dungeon that I am way over-geared for just to learn it (but people can be mean if you don't know your way in a dungeon). I've also been running old dungeons and raids solo for pets and mounts I want. Lately Motherlode Mythic every week. I rarely die and can take on huge groups, but my dps is suboptimal. It can take a really long time to kill a boss on my own. My alliance DK has been trying to get the rare butterfly mount from BfA, but the dps just isn't there for the event you get the pet from.

So, my questions:

1) What is the best way to increase DPS as a Blood DK for these sorts of activities? This will help in Dragonflight and on. Are there pages with advice for DK tanks to amp their dps for questing?

2) I kinda half-*filtered* Unholy sometimes, and my dps is higher, but the blood rotation and abilities are what I know. I've never even tried Frost. Is it worth giving it a go? Is it easier than Unholy? 

3) Can you recommend any basic add-ons or tweaks to the new WoW interface?

I don't suck, but I would like to get better, and maybe even tank properly one day again. At least, I'd like to kill faster.

Cheers!

[Immortal 2]

On 11/11/2022 at 11:15 AM, Lethbridge said:

I  have two blood DKs, one Horde BE and one Alliance Worgen. I made both in Wrath, so have been playing them a while. Both are engineers. DK is my favorite class, but I also have Mage, Priest, Warlock, Hunter, and Druid, in descending order of enjoyment. I don't use many add-ons (I've used some Weak Auras), but I would use more add-ons if I tanked dungeons. I used to use a good taunt add-on. I have so many taunts and interrupts as a Blood DK! I know I need to set up some sort of add-on for cooldowns and stacks of debuffs. 

Well, I'm in the over 50 crowd, and kinda a slacker at that I haven't done many dungeons or haven't raided since early Shadowlands, and I mostly did those as a Mage or Priest. My guild is mostly on break, and I've just been gearing up with dailies in ZM and such. I've never even asked to tank in my guild because they already have too many really good tanks (and they are the guild founders). I did tank a lot in WotLK and Cataclysm.

My blood rotation is pretty much as recommended here for Easy Mode, but I am mostly solo-questing, killing elite bosses in the wild, doing Torghast, and tanking the occasional dungeon that I am way over-geared for just to learn it (but people can be mean if you don't know your way in a dungeon). I've also been running old dungeons and raids solo for pets and mounts I want. Lately Motherlode Mythic every week. I rarely die and can take on huge groups, but my dps is suboptimal. It can take a really long time to kill a boss on my own. My alliance DK has been trying to get the rare butterfly mount from BfA, but the dps just isn't there for the event you get the pet from.

So, my questions:

1) What is the best way to increase DPS as a Blood DK for these sorts of activities? This will help in Dragonflight and on. Are there pages with advice for DK tanks to amp their dps for questing?

2) I kinda half-*filtered* Unholy sometimes, and my dps is higher, but the blood rotation and abilities are what I know. I've never even tried Frost. Is it worth giving it a go? Is it easier than Unholy? 

3) Can you recommend any basic add-ons or tweaks to the new WoW interface?

I don't suck, but I would like to get better, and maybe even tank properly one day again. At least, I'd like to kill faster.

Cheers!

Hi Lethbridge... (do you actually live there or weird name coincidence)
Blood is great, but on single targets can feel a bit slow (great on aoe packs).  I would try one of the other specs as with this expansion, they both are pretty tanky and have many ways to mitigate incoming damage.  And let's face it... death strike is pretty OP - just remember to press it within 5s of taking a big hit.

I would give frost spec a try... and a few less buttons to push than unholy.  I'd play the Obliterate build only as the Breath of Sindragosa build is... trickier.  It'll do decent dps right out of the gate without having to worry some of the unholy intricacies.  I just came back to DK after many years and this has been my experience thus far.  You're probably not going to top any raid dps boards, but you also won't find yourself at the bottom. 

Good luck!