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1. Advantages and disadvantages of blood tanking
Advantages:
Superior effective health.
Good single target threat
Superioir healabiliy and self sufficiency due to multiple ways to self heal
Disadvantages:
Inferior AOE threat.
Less proactive damage reduction than other DK tanking specs.
2. Talent build
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You can Tank using 2 x 1H weapon or a 2H weapon. If you are using 2 x 1H weapons the take out points from 2H weapon specialization and put it inNerves of cold steel.
3. Glyphs
These are the glyphs i recommend
Major
Glyph of vampiric blood (Mandatory as a tank)
Glyph of death dtrike
Glyph of rune strike
Alternatives for these are but are not recommended
Glyph of rune tap
Glyph of disease
Minor
Glyph of horn of winter
4. Stats
Defense rating : Pushing critical strikes off your incoming damage is one of the most important steps you can take to become a full-fledged tank. To do that against heroic dungeon bosses, you'll need 535 defense. To do it against raid bosses, you'll need 540. Mind you, that is defense skill, not defense rating, which is what is on most gear. You'll need 4.92 defense rating at 80 to get a single point of defense skill. You can also get 25 points of defense skill by using Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle. Those are actual skill points, not rating, so it will be a very significant boost. It's also worth noting that while 540 and 535 are the defense "caps" for getting critically hit, defense points above that are still useful, since they provide dodge and parry rating. Each 25 Defense Points gives you 1% Dodge, 1% Parry and 1% chance to be missed. There is no Defense hardcap currently known to players.
Stamina : Stamina means more health, especially once bonuses from Veteran of the Third War and Frost Presence are figured in. If you're at a loss as to what to gear for, it's very hard to go wrong with stacking stamina.
Armor : Armor mitigates a percentage of all incoming physical damage. For physical damage boss fights, it's pretty much invaluable. After stamina, you're going to be wanting a ton of this. It's also valuable in that it does not really diminish in value as you get more armor, because every percentage point of reduction becomes that much more valuable. Always keep items with lots of armor handy.
Dodge rating : Dodging allows you to completely avoid incoming physical attacks. That means you survive longer and your healer has less work to do. In other words, it's very handy to have. Dodge is subject to diminishing returns, but for the most, a beginning tank shouldn't have to worry about stacking so much dodge they reach the cap, so it's pretty safe to equip dodge gear as you find it.
Parry rating : Like dodge, parrying also allows you to completely avoid incoming physical attacks. Like dodge, it is also affected by diminishing returns. Since death knights get parry from strength to begin with thanks to Forceful Deflection, they actually don't need to worry much about grabbing parry rating and should instead focus on dodge, especially when gemming.
Hit : 8% is the hit cap for 2H attacks and specials. You need it because if you can't hit the boss, yo can't generate threat.
Expertise : You need 26% expertise at the minimum being a tank. You get 6% expertise from talents and the rest you get from your gear.
Strength : Strength The more strength you have, the more threat you'll get. In addition, death knights get a chance to parry from strength. That said, you don't really have to go out of your way to get strength. You should get more than enough it just from grabbing good tank gear.
5. Gems
If you're raiding Icecrown Citadel go for straight Solid Majestic Zircon in every Socket, if there is no bonus worth taking left anymore with the stacking Zone-Wide Buff on Stamina Healing and Damage.
If a socket bonus is of +12 Stamina or more, take it ,if its less like +9 Stamina, don't bother.
Meta : Austere Earthsiege Diamond
Red : Stalwart Ametrine (use to activate he meta gem)
Yellow : Regal eye of Zul
Blue : Solid Mmajestic zircon
6. Enchants
Helm - Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector +37 Stamina +20 Defense, Engineering Only: Mind Amplification Dish +45 Stamina
Pauldrons - Greater Inscription of the Pinnacle +20 Dodge +15 Defense, Greater Inscription of the Gladiator +30 Stamina +15 Resilience Inscription Only: Master's Inscription of the Pinnacle +60 Dodge +15 Defense
Cloak - Major Agility +22 Agility, Mighty Armor +225 Armor, Titanweave +16 Defense, Engineering Only: Flexweave Underlay +23 Agility
Breastplate - Super Health +275 Health, Powerful Stats +10 All Stats, Greater Defense +22 Defense, Heavy Borean Armor Kit +18 Stamina
Bracers - Major Stamina +40 Stamina, Expertise +15 Expertise, Major Defense +12 Defense, Leatherworking Only: Fur Lining - Stamina +102 Stamina
Gloves - Major Agility +20 Agility, Armsman +10 Parry +2% Threat, Heavy Borean Armor Kit +18 Stamina, Precision +20 Hit, Expertise +15 Expertise, Engineering Only: Reticulated Armor Webbing +885 Armor (The Armor from this stacks with Frost Presence/Toughness/Meta Gem making it undoubtedly the best enchant possible if you have Engineering on your Character.)
Belt - Eternal Belt Buckle +1 Socket
Legplates - Frosthide Leg Armor +55 Stamina +22 Agility
Boots - Tuskarr's Vitality +15 Stamina Minor Runspeed Increase, Greater Fortitude +22 Stamina
Rings - Enchanting Only: Enchant Ring - Stamina +30 Stamina
Weapon 2H - Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle +2% Stamina +25 Defense
Weapon 1H - Rune of the Nerubian Carapace +1% Stamina +13 Defense
7. Rotation
Before we get into actually rotations for blood tanking, there are two general things to keep in mind when tanking. First, always be in Frost Presence. You'll need that extra armor, stamina and threat. When you're first entering a dungeon, double-check and make sure it's up. Second, use your Rune Strike as often as your runic power allows. It's just about your best single-target threat tool. If you need to, macro it to your other weapon strikes so it automatically gets used.
Now, as far as actual rotations, you'll basically be performing basic blood DPS rotations. For single targets, that's going to look something like this:
Icy Touch->Plague Strike->Death Strike->Heart Strike->Heart Strike
Death Strike->Heart Strike x 4 -> Death Coil
This is, of course, a very static rotation and your actual rotation in battle will change according to your needs for a particular encounter or battle. If you're lucky with activating rune strikes, you may not need to unload any Death Coils at the end of your rotation. Likewise, if you're low on health, you may end up replacing that group of four Heart Strikes with an extra set of Death Strikes. You'll also, of course, need to find ways to fit in your self-heal and emergency buttons. You may end up hitting Hysteria just after you apply diseases to give yourself an extra boost of threat, for example give histeria to one of the high dps rogue or hunter with MD or ToT in the raid and see how your threat rises. If you need to fit Vampiric Blood in there, it's optimal to hit Blood Tap so that you can use a death rune and mess up your rotation as little as possible.
Your AoE rotation, as above, will be relatively similar to a blood DPS rotation and go something like this:
Death and Decay->Icy Touch->Plague Strike->Pestilence->switch targets->Death Strike->Heart Strike->Pestilence->Blood Boil->Death Coil
This series of moves will allow you to keep your diseases spread between multiple targets via Pestilence and target-switching. The same caveats apply as to the single-target method: Keep the Rune Strikes coming and be ready to use your self-heal and emergency buttons as needed.
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Blood tanking 101
1. Advantages and disadvantages of blood tanking
Advantages:
Superior effective health.
Good single target threat
Superioir healabiliy and self sufficiency due to multiple ways to self heal
Disadvantages:
Inferior AOE threat.
Less proactive damage reduction than other DK tanking specs.
2. Talent build
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
You can Tank using 2 x 1H weapon or a 2H weapon. If you are using 2 x 1H weapons the take out points from 2H weapon specialization and put it inNerves of cold steel.
3. Glyphs
These are the glyphs i recommend
Major
Glyph of vampiric blood (Mandatory as a tank)
Glyph of death dtrike
Glyph of rune strike
Alternatives for these are but are not recommended
Glyph of rune tap
Glyph of disease
Minor
Glyph of horn of winter
4. Stats
Defense rating : Pushing critical strikes off your incoming damage is one of the most important steps you can take to become a full-fledged tank. To do that against heroic dungeon bosses, you'll need 535 defense. To do it against raid bosses, you'll need 540. Mind you, that is defense skill, not defense rating, which is what is on most gear. You'll need 4.92 defense rating at 80 to get a single point of defense skill. You can also get 25 points of defense skill by using Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle. Those are actual skill points, not rating, so it will be a very significant boost. It's also worth noting that while 540 and 535 are the defense "caps" for getting critically hit, defense points above that are still useful, since they provide dodge and parry rating. Each 25 Defense Points gives you 1% Dodge, 1% Parry and 1% chance to be missed. There is no Defense hardcap currently known to players.
Stamina : Stamina means more health, especially once bonuses from Veteran of the Third War and Frost Presence are figured in. If you're at a loss as to what to gear for, it's very hard to go wrong with stacking stamina.
Armor : Armor mitigates a percentage of all incoming physical damage. For physical damage boss fights, it's pretty much invaluable. After stamina, you're going to be wanting a ton of this. It's also valuable in that it does not really diminish in value as you get more armor, because every percentage point of reduction becomes that much more valuable. Always keep items with lots of armor handy.
Dodge rating : Dodging allows you to completely avoid incoming physical attacks. That means you survive longer and your healer has less work to do. In other words, it's very handy to have. Dodge is subject to diminishing returns, but for the most, a beginning tank shouldn't have to worry about stacking so much dodge they reach the cap, so it's pretty safe to equip dodge gear as you find it.
Parry rating : Like dodge, parrying also allows you to completely avoid incoming physical attacks. Like dodge, it is also affected by diminishing returns. Since death knights get parry from strength to begin with thanks to Forceful Deflection, they actually don't need to worry much about grabbing parry rating and should instead focus on dodge, especially when gemming.
Hit : 8% is the hit cap for 2H attacks and specials. You need it because if you can't hit the boss, yo can't generate threat.
Expertise : You need 26% expertise at the minimum being a tank. You get 6% expertise from talents and the rest you get from your gear.
Strength : Strength The more strength you have, the more threat you'll get. In addition, death knights get a chance to parry from strength. That said, you don't really have to go out of your way to get strength. You should get more than enough it just from grabbing good tank gear.
5. Gems
If you're raiding Icecrown Citadel go for straight Solid Majestic Zircon in every Socket, if there is no bonus worth taking left anymore with the stacking Zone-Wide Buff on Stamina Healing and Damage.
If a socket bonus is of +12 Stamina or more, take it ,if its less like +9 Stamina, don't bother.
Meta : Austere Earthsiege Diamond
Red : Stalwart Ametrine (use to activate he meta gem)
Yellow : Regal eye of Zul
Blue : Solid Mmajestic zircon
6. Enchants
Helm - Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector +37 Stamina +20 Defense, Engineering Only: Mind Amplification Dish +45 Stamina
Pauldrons - Greater Inscription of the Pinnacle +20 Dodge +15 Defense, Greater Inscription of the Gladiator +30 Stamina +15 Resilience Inscription Only: Master's Inscription of the Pinnacle +60 Dodge +15 Defense
Cloak - Major Agility +22 Agility, Mighty Armor +225 Armor, Titanweave +16 Defense, Engineering Only: Flexweave Underlay +23 Agility
Breastplate - Super Health +275 Health, Powerful Stats +10 All Stats, Greater Defense +22 Defense, Heavy Borean Armor Kit +18 Stamina
Bracers - Major Stamina +40 Stamina, Expertise +15 Expertise, Major Defense +12 Defense, Leatherworking Only: Fur Lining - Stamina +102 Stamina
Gloves - Major Agility +20 Agility, Armsman +10 Parry +2% Threat, Heavy Borean Armor Kit +18 Stamina, Precision +20 Hit, Expertise +15 Expertise, Engineering Only: Reticulated Armor Webbing +885 Armor (The Armor from this stacks with Frost Presence/Toughness/Meta Gem making it undoubtedly the best enchant possible if you have Engineering on your Character.)
Belt - Eternal Belt Buckle +1 Socket
Legplates - Frosthide Leg Armor +55 Stamina +22 Agility
Boots - Tuskarr's Vitality +15 Stamina Minor Runspeed Increase, Greater Fortitude +22 Stamina
Rings - Enchanting Only: Enchant Ring - Stamina +30 Stamina
Weapon 2H - Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle +2% Stamina +25 Defense
Weapon 1H - Rune of the Nerubian Carapace +1% Stamina +13 Defense
7. Rotation
Before we get into actually rotations for blood tanking, there are two general things to keep in mind when tanking. First, always be in Frost Presence. You'll need that extra armor, stamina and threat. When you're first entering a dungeon, double-check and make sure it's up. Second, use your Rune Strike as often as your runic power allows. It's just about your best single-target threat tool. If you need to, macro it to your other weapon strikes so it automatically gets used.
Now, as far as actual rotations, you'll basically be performing basic blood DPS rotations. For single targets, that's going to look something like this:
Icy Touch->Plague Strike->Death Strike->Heart Strike->Heart Strike
Death Strike->Heart Strike x 4 -> Death Coil
This is, of course, a very static rotation and your actual rotation in battle will change according to your needs for a particular encounter or battle. If you're lucky with activating rune strikes, you may not need to unload any Death Coils at the end of your rotation. Likewise, if you're low on health, you may end up replacing that group of four Heart Strikes with an extra set of Death Strikes. You'll also, of course, need to find ways to fit in your self-heal and emergency buttons. You may end up hitting Hysteria just after you apply diseases to give yourself an extra boost of threat, for example give histeria to one of the high dps rogue or hunter with MD or ToT in the raid and see how your threat rises. If you need to fit Vampiric Blood in there, it's optimal to hit Blood Tap so that you can use a death rune and mess up your rotation as little as possible.
Your AoE rotation, as above, will be relatively similar to a blood DPS rotation and go something like this:
Death and Decay->Icy Touch->Plague Strike->Pestilence->switch targets->Death Strike->Heart Strike->Pestilence->Blood Boil->Death Coil
This series of moves will allow you to keep your diseases spread between multiple targets via Pestilence and target-switching. The same caveats apply as to the single-target method: Keep the Rune Strikes coming and be ready to use your self-heal and emergency buttons as needed.
