Tanking help

**Cookamungas** · 2010-07-19 22:57

Hello everyone. I have begun to try and gear my alt DK (my main is a boomkin) and she is currently unholy. I want to dual spec to blood so I can begin tanking, but I don't know where to begin. Can any tanks, or DK tanks give me some pointers? I don't know anything as far as rotation, gear stats to look for etc. Here is a link to my armory profile http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...cn=Ritarepulsa I figure I can do a bunch of randoms to try and get some t9 for tanking, and save up some frosts as well. Any advice is welcome, thanks

**Tricen** · 2010-07-19 23:04

It's really no different then any other nondruid tanking class. Get Dcapped, keep diseases up, Death and Decay is amazing, don't forget about blood boil and blood tap. Get hit capped and try to get a good chunk of expertise.

**Meph** · 2010-07-20 01:26

elitejerks covers pretty much everything.

heres the basic info to start out slowly with:
http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t42539-d...efore_posting/

then change it up to the advanced section:
http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t44638-s...dgame_tanking/

I basically only read those 2 pages while leveling up my DK and I atleast know how to handle myself in pretty much any fight (altho only tanked up until festergut)

**Tajin** · 2010-07-20 01:34

If you're short on money you can replace your DPS pieces for the cheap cobalt/saronite craftables, the most important thing to be a decent tank is to be at 535+ defense rating for heroics. Unless you're sure you'll get grouped up with decent healers.

Death and Decay is awesome indeed.

**Cookamungas** · 2010-07-20 01:45

Thanks for the info guys

**el_tio** · 2010-07-20 10:43

Originally Posted by Cookamungas

Hello everyone. I have begun to try and gear my alt DK (my main is a boomkin) and she is currently unholy. I want to dual spec to blood so I can begin tanking, but I don't know where to begin. Can any tanks, or DK tanks give me some pointers? I don't know anything as far as rotation, gear stats to look for etc. Here is a link to my armory profile http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...cn=Ritarepulsa I figure I can do a bunch of randoms to try and get some t9 for tanking, and save up some frosts as well. Any advice is welcome, thanks

One thing I've downloaded which has been a nice help for multi-mobs (which I wish I had leveling) was tidy plates + threat plates. Makes it easier to see where aggro's at.

Also, get omen.

**Cookamungas** · 2010-07-20 13:43

I tried using omen on my low lvl pally to tank before but thought it was awkward. Is it just supposed to display the names and threat amount? There was a small window with names on it that you could move around. Or maybe there's a certain way to configure it?

**Norellicus** · 2010-07-20 13:49

Omen is just a threat meter, that's its only job. It's useful as a tank so you can see who might need to be intervened or when you may have to taunt or just to be sure you're comfortable with your threat lead.

**ajs zero** · 2010-07-20 15:12

If you're just starting out with heroics, I'd highly recommend speccing Frost tank instead of Blood. Frost has AMAZING AoE thread (Glyphed Howling Blast applies Frost Disease to everything it hits) and most pulls become Howling Blast > DnD > autoattack until everything dies. Bloods strengths don't really matter until you start tanking raids, and it's going to be much harder to tank heroics as Blood than Frost. Even undergeared, Frost can hold threat just fine.

**Kaylia** · 2010-07-20 15:15

Originally Posted by Norellicus

Omen is just a threat meter, that's its only job. It's useful as a tank so you can see who might need to be intervened or when you may have to taunt or just to be sure you're comfortable with your threat lead.

Personally, I find threat meter to be useless most of the time. The only time threat is messy is when there is a lot of adds, or when you have very little threat (and its jumping all over the place). In both situation, you're better off spamming your normal ability than looking at the meter.

Well, it's not completely useless since dps can pull threat in a single target fight, but it's not common either. I wouldnt bother with it unless you're trying to be optimized for raid progression.

For threat. Tidy plate (show which mobs you're not tanking in green) + grid/clique (show who has aggro for righteous defense, dunno if dk have an equivalent though) is everything I need

**Norellicus** · 2010-07-20 15:35

Running the meter yourself has the side benefit of performing asynchronous connections to your raid members so they can be sure they have accurate threat data too.

It's also more customizable in terms of warning you when threat changes are occurring, though its default behavior does not do these. If nothing else, it's just a useful tool for information on one of the primary statistics tanks have to concern themselves with (threat); it was super useful in deducing certain things about various mechanics like the shadow orbs in the Blood Council fight as well.

And who clicks on a person for Righteous Defense? ToT macro says hi. Plus, I think the "ToT" functionality of it was baked in sometime after 3.0 and you can just target the mob with it anyway.

**Kaylia** · 2010-07-20 15:45

Nothing could be faster than clique macro on my UI to pull monster off someone...I'm not sure what you're saying. here.

You can use Righteous defense to taunt off the monster's targets, however, you don't know immediatly if that monster is targeting the offtank, a plate dps or a healer. A single click on my UI allow me to save the person that is in danger.

And of course, it doesnt prevent me from using it like you said.

**Norellicus** · 2010-07-20 15:47

I'm saying every other taunt in the game requires you to target the mob with it, setting up some weird different method than that for RD doesn't make sense from a "tank reflex" point of view where you need to react to a situation with a taunt.

**Kaylia** · 2010-07-20 15:55

Just rename RD "Hands of Give me your aggro", maybe it will makes more sense this way. Keeping track of who has aggro through my UI always felt more natural than looking at the onscreen mess. Tidyplate help a lot, but even then, it's hard to know who has what when there is multiple tanks. The UI never lie, and your RD will never be wasted this way.

**Norellicus** · 2010-07-20 15:57

It's never wasted anyway if you use a ToT macro, and like I said the "ToT" part is baked in now so it just happens <_>

**Kaylia** · 2010-07-20 16:03

And what's the difference between ToT macro and clique+grid? I dont see any.

[edit]
You were saying that RD shouldn't be used on player, that's why I'm arguing. RD used on players is perfectly fine and the result are usually a lot more accurate than clicking on a random mobs you're not tanking..

**Norellicus** · 2010-07-20 17:24

Why are you taunting it if you're not tanking it? And if you are tanking it, the time it takes you to find the person with aggro and invoke that macro (because I seriously doubt you have it bound to left click all by itself) you could have taunted back already.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with clique macro, I have my raid frames set up to show who has aggro too, but it's still there more for information than any actual need to rescue them.

I'm saying trying to custom craft this weird unique process for RD when you can use it exactly the same way you use any other taunt is silly.

**Meph** · 2010-07-20 17:37

Originally Posted by ajs zero

If you're just starting out with heroics, I'd highly recommend speccing Frost tank instead of Blood. Frost has AMAZING AoE thread (Glyphed Howling Blast applies Frost Disease to everything it hits) and most pulls become Howling Blast > DnD > autoattack until everything dies. Bloods strengths don't really matter until you start tanking raids, and it's going to be much harder to tank heroics as Blood than Frost. Even undergeared, Frost can hold threat just fine.

what he said.
Im always using frost in HCs and blood for raiding.
http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-ta...dsinne&group=1 (dont mind the glyphs, I just noticed they are changed in some recent patch or w/e lol)

**Tricen** · 2010-07-20 18:14

If you do go frost, at least be useful to the group by speccing into icy talons. I'd still prefer blood to tank over frost just because of self healing and what not. For AoE pulls, DnD, spread diseases, blood tap then blood boil and tab around to higher hp mobs and your threat should never really be an issue.

**Kaylia** · 2010-07-20 18:24

@norellicus

Is it so unnatural to "middle click" on the dps/healer box with a red dot? Looking at the screen alone, I don't know if the shaman is more in danger than the holy paladin. It's simply impossible to tell.

Spoiler: show

In the last picture, what would you do to taunt the snowbold "normally" without raid UI (and don't be a smartass saying you don't taunt kobold, I just dont have any pictures of icc adds). Explain me why a single click on your UI is slower or less efficient.

The camera isnt always facing in the right direction (you won't be able to see everything all the time), and you need to find out which one are not tanked by another tank. It's not the kind of visual cue you get from Tidyplate, and it's not easy to tell when everyone is packed together.

I've nothing against "onMouseover" taunt for HoR and RD, you should have them macroed as well, but if you're not taunting using your UI, you're missing on a tool that can improve your reaction time. It's true there is situation where it's useless (when you're tanking a particular set of adds away from the alliance and nothing else), but most of the time, you will wants the adds to taunt the roaming adds off the non tank asap.

Beside, can you even use righteous defense on a monsters that are farther than 40 yard with mouseOver (I never tested if it would let you). I know the skills will be used on its target, so it should work, but I'm wondering if the UI let you do it.

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