World of Warcraft®

Hello,
I used to tank on this toon back in wrath when the spec was still frost and haven't done
much with it since, until recently when for some reason the urge to play it came back around.
Anyways, im enjoying the toon and the tanking but im having issues with threat in heroics. Im ok as long as the dps is relatively low, but if it isnt, im losing aggro even on single targets. My dps isnt great, around 30k, and i know my gear leaves alot to be desired but im working on it. Im also terribly squishy against magic damage, ive been using my cd's but they only last so long. the stat priority as i understand it is STAM > HIT > EXP > MASTERY> PARRY> DODGE. Am i doing something wrong there? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

With the 500% threat in Blood Presence, the DPS should be doing about 100k+ to even nab aggro off you.

Also, as a DK tank, all you need is to cap hit (7.5%) for adequate threat, imo.

Anyway, since you said you were picking up the class again, you should just keep on trucking with it, get used to the rotation, and stuff.

Getting used to the rotation plays the biggest role in keeping aggro.

Tell us how you open up a pull.

If outbreak is available i always use that, then if it is single target, taunt, for multiple adds i hit a couple blood boils to spread my diseases around then drop a dnd when i can.

Im also using threat plates so i can quickly death grip something or everything if need be. when outbreak is on cd, i either pull multiple adds with icy touch then blood boil then dnd, or i drop a dnd on them and run in, havent decided which works better yet.

im still not very good with runes and runic power, often times when i want something i find that ive all ready used the rune/ power and screwed myself out of it.

oh, and for pulls where there are alot of other mobs around and it looks too dicey to run in, i grip one then use the talent that lets me grip the rest.

someone suggested stacking some extra strength for more threat? good idea or no? thank you for the advice.

For that extra glyph, I recommend using Outbreak. It will remove the cooldown on Outbreak but it will force it to require 40 runic power. It's very nice since you're still not hit cap and missing an Outbreak will more or less screw you over, but having a runic power costing Outbreak will refund the cost and allow you to spam it until it actually hits so you can Blood Boil to spread diseases.

I also see that we use the same talents on our Death Knights.

For pulling, never be afraid to just run into the fray, it will initiate proximity aggro, sure everything will be red in Threat Plates, but it will ensure near everything would be going towards your general direction which makes AoE a bit easier.

For example, a pack of mobs in a circular formation, just all of them too far for Death and Decay to completely cover, and Outbreak isn't up, you run in, they all go towards the group which makes them into a smaller group which Death and Decay can easily round up. Or just plainly slap on Death and Decay in their general area and hope for the best.

Since we are using Gorefiend's Grasp (AoE Death Grip), try to Outbreak, Self-cast Gorefiend's Grasp so everything's on you, and then blast off two Blood Boils, or three.

Use your cooldowns generously, except Icebound Fortitude. That thing's on a 3 minute cooldown, make sure you know things are going sour when you use that.

Do not stack Strength. It is bad ... as a Blood Tank. Or any tank for that matter. Unless it's the Sha-Touched gem, then go slap on that +500 strength gem.

Thank you! I had been wondering whether that glyph would be worth it, and it NEVER dawned on me that i could self cast gorfiend's grasp.

i have been wasting a death grip in alot of cases to get one close and then pulling the others to it. that info alone will be a major help. I will start doing more face pulling, hopefully being closer faster will improve my threat a bit.

thanks again for the advice!

It was by accident that I saw Gorefiend's Grasp could be self-casted.

I was holding alt (my self-cast button), then pressed Grasp by mistake, whoops, everything appeared on top of me.

Anyway, that's why these forums exist to help our fellow tanks. Don't hesitate to ask if you have more questions.

As for me, I gotta sleep ...

i never had trouble holding agro until recently it seems im losing agro rather easy now and i dont know why im reforged right and i got decent dps any other dk tanks notice this too?

01/30/2013 11:15 AMPosted by Sillix

i never had trouble holding agro until recently it seems im losing agro rather easy now and i dont know why im reforged right and i got decent dps any other dk tanks notice this too?

Could be a presence bug. Switch from Blood to Unholy/Frost to Blood Presence.

Key bind skull and mark your target. If a dps pulls skull off of you, then you have a threat issue. If a dps pulls threat on a unmarked target, its b/c they are not targeting skull. Solution, don't taunt and remain on skull... the rest of the party will judge the dps and not you. If the dps is a bursty cleave class, then taunt, otherwise, just focus skull.

You mention you have some trouble with resources- playing a DK more or less requires the use of a rune addon. If you don't have one already I like CLC DK from curse.com, but there are many to choose from.

Some people like the outbreak glyph but I don't. I like being able to cast it on the pull.

As far as how to pull this is how i do it- if outbreak is available I run into the group, drop d&d right on top of them, outbreak, and throw out a coupe of blood boils with roiling blood.

If outbreak is not available- get close to the pack but not close enough to facepull them, drop d&d so that I'm just inside the far edge of it and the bulk of it is between me and the pack, deathgrip one (preferably a caster), apply diseases manually to this one, the rest of the pack will run to you and take a few ticks of d&d arriving just in time for you to bloodboil and spread your diseases.

It is also worth noting that to hold threat on everything you will want to tab through and hit each one with a ds or rs- diseases and d&d are not enough alone to hold off good dps.

DK squishiness in 5 mans is usually the result of not using deathstrike enough. DKs have low passive mitigation but very strong active mitigation so if you aren't using enough deathstrikes you will be squishy.

2 things to consider in your talent build-
Gorefiend's grasp is great for positioning but remorseless winter is an extra defensive cooldown. Give it a try until you get better gear.

Blood tap is good in raids once you have mastered rune management, but is very clunky and easy to mess up while you are learning. For the time being I highly recommend using runic corruption because you don't have to keep track of it and it has less rampup time.

Hope this helps.

It is possible to lose aggro to a heavily armed and geared DPS toon. I discovered this on my Arcane Mage. I was just "topping" up my VP and ran a couple of dungeons and noticed that tanks can lose aggro to me when I trigger my trinkets, hit Arcane Power and something else procs (eg. lightwave). I'll be like landing 100k, 200k and even 300k+ hits, sometimes consecutively, on bosses or mobs and some tanks have trouble holding aggro.

This usually happens in heroics because the gear disparity is much higher there. You will have tanks in entry heroic gears and DPS toons geared in 480s, plus a Sha touched weapon with the gem on it.

Just be ready to taunt the boss/mob back.

The good news though, is that with such high DPS, the run is usually over quickly. DPS toons with extreme amount of DPS makes short work of bosses/mobs so even if you do lose aggro, it usually doesn't matter as they can burn them down rather quick. DPS toons with that level of gear usually also know how to avoid being hit (hello blink, mirror image and ice block!).