Blood DK tank - End Game Build

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cherno666
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Blood DK tank - End Game Build

#1 » Post by cherno666 » 19 Feb 2015 02:08

As I've seen some DK tank guides here , I decided to also post mine which I made a while ago , bear in mind , Frost tank may be good for AOE tanking , but YOU DON'T NEED AOE AGGRO IN END GAME RAIDS . You are tanking 1 target 99% of the time during all end game raids. Exept when you are clearing adds before bosses , but you are not making a build for trash clearing or rep farming,

I had 4 DK tanks and I've tried out a ot of builds , with experience of tanking every wotlk boss/raid with different builds. My toon linked from armory is fresh here and I only lined it for talents I use.

So to make a long story short here it is.

Ok guys , so blood DK is a nontypical tank class that carries a lot of discussions about talents , glyphs etc. so I decided to post a guide about Blood Tanking , which I use and works like a charm for me.

First of all here are my talents that work really fine. Some will say that those are not ideal talents , but they give me everything I need ; Endurance , nice aggro and enough rune energy to spam Rune strikes practically all the time.
there are few points that you can put in other slots maybe , but as I said , blood DK tanks have variety of builds and out of all I tested this worked best for me.

http://www.truewow.org/armory/character.php?n=Eviltits

Now obviusly i should start with some sort of BIS list , which also is known to vary a bit from tonk to tonk but here is the one I think would be ideal :

HEAD : Sanctified Scourgelord Faceguard
NECK : Bile-Encrusted Medallion
SHOULDERS: Sanctified Scourgelord Pauldrons
BACK : Royal Crimson Cloak
CHEST : Sanctified Scourgelord Chestguard
BRACERS : Bracers of Dark Reckoning ( or DBS10HC ones)
HANDS : Sanctified Scourgelord Handguards
WAIST Verdigris Chain Belt ( or Belt of Broken Bones)
LEGS : Legguards of Lost Hope
FEET : Treads of Impending Resurrection
RINGS : Ashen Band of Endless Courage and Juggernaut Band
TRINKETS : Sindragosa's Flawless Fang and Petrified Twilight Scale
WEAPON : Glorenz ( untill you get it use Cryptmaker)
SIGIL : Sigil of the Bone Gryphon

let me add something about the gear :
bracers and waist - 2 BIS pieces? well you need some armour , and 1 item is with more stats on each slot and 1 with more armour , my suggestion is you use 1 armor + 1 stat piece . for example if you use Bracers of Dark Reckoning you should use Verdigris Chain Belt.

TRINKETS : Any good tank knows that you need to swich your trinkets depending on boss fight , on some bosses you need pure stamina trinkets (Sindy) , on some you need more armour and damage reduction , so if you for example have pts and sff already you should still roll or bid for organ from PP , it is more usefull in some fights than pts.

GLYPHS :
Glyph of Icy Touch - IT is your main aggro ability , so even when you are high geared , you can use them depending on your raid's gear , if you are raiding with a bit less geared dps , feel free to change it to something else for that raid.
Glyph of Anti-Magic Shell : 2 more seconds? Because why the fuck not , also makes your life easier when you want to soak vile spirits and reset stacks on Sindy.
Glyph of Rune Tap : Improves your defencive cooldown effect by 10% , and i would say your main defencive cooldown cause it has only 30s cooldown, and heals everyone in your patry for 10% of their maximum HP, so in addition to boosting youself , you are also making yourself even more usefull as you can litelarly save someone from dying and saving them battle ress for later stages of the fight ,of course with this glyph you should be in a party with a bit squishier classes , not in party with paladins . it's really OP when you are tanking shadow realm on RS10hc , releaves pressure of healer a bit and helps out on your party heal. 1 more thing about this glyph , the heal to the party does not have range limit , so you can heal some1 you see gonna soak 1 spirit too much on LK and has wandered off a bit to far away. I can go for ages about this glyph and it's awesomness.


Why no Glyph of whatever its called that refreshes disiases when you use pestilence?
Easy: as a tank you will be spamming Icy touch and Plague strike anyways , it is much more usefull for dps where if you manually refresh them you lose dps , and for obvius reasons you dont give a fuck about your personal dps loss. So in my opinion replacing it with Glyph of Anti-Magic Shell or Glyph of Vampiric Blood is much more usefull.

''A good tank will stay alive , but a great tank will keep his raid members alive too''

CAPS: let me say few words about caps here : TAUNT IS A SPELL!!! HIT CAP OR 8% FOR PHISICAL DOES NOT APPLY TO IT!!! ( you can go for Glyph of Dark Comand , but IMO its a waste of some sexy defencive glyph)
Even though you need a caster hit cap here , don't bother , just reach 8% , so rest hit!
Reason I didn't go for a glyph of dark command is cause as a DK you will be Main tank in 99% of the time , and as a Main tank you should not really be using taunts much unless you suck and can't hold aggro. So that glyph would practically be usefull on DBS not to miss taunt ( wauuuuuu big deal... -.-) not worth wasting a slot for a major glyph.
Defence cap is something you will reach with your gear no problem so not worth mentioning(540).
EXPERTISE: I think 31 but going for expertise cap is too big waste of stats ,and dont even mind it , i tanked A LOT with only 6 expertise from talent , and didn't really have aggro issues , amount of your attacks that are dodged or parried are to small to waste some other stats to go for expertise cap , so totaly ignore it untill you get Glorenz.

ROTATION : At start of the fight obviusly your intentions are to build up a nice aggro , you do it by spamming Icy touch as much as you can , so at start -2xIT , Blood Tap , IT , spam Rune Strikes ALL THE TIME!!! Or even better bind Rune Strike to every skill you use, rest of rotation is pretty much easy , use plague strike to keep 2nd disease up to in case you need to use Death Strike to heal yourself up a bit , menage your defencive cooldowns during fight , you got loads of them, and many have low cooldown (rune tap 30s , Vampiric Blood 1m...) you can even ''waste'' in every fight just to make healers job even easier.

GEMS :
META : usuall tank meta (that adds armour%)
OTHER : PURE STAMINA AND ONLY STAMINA , DON'T LISTEN IF ANY1 SAYS OTHERWISE ( use purple parry/stam gem to fill red spot to activate meta)

I surely hope this guide has been helpfull to everyone and if any1 has something to add feel free to do so!

As Harry Potter always said in Lord of the Rings : '' Live long and prosper , young Jedi Padawan!''
Chernoo - lvl 80 MM Hunter (Main Char)
Eviltities - lvl 80 DK Tonk
Cherniggar - lvl 80 UH DK
Chernomoffo - lvl 80 Shadow Priest
Chernokingg - lvl 80 Disc Priest
Chernobull - lvl 80 Boomie/Feral Dps Druid
Chernomoo - lvl 80 Boomie/Resto Druid
Hollyboner - lvl 80 ProtHoly/Ret Paladin
Hollycherno - lvl 80 Prot/Holy Paladin
Belewonnabe - lvl 80 Prot/Ret Paladin
Chernobylus - lvl 80 Demo Warlock
Evilsmile - lvl 80 Demo Warlock
Onlyforbl - lvl 80 Resto/Ele Shaman
Friedpan - lvl 80 FFB Mage
Chermoo - lvl 80 Fury/Prot Warrior

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Lhotsegirl
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Re: Blood DK tank - End Game Build

#2 » Post by Lhotsegirl » 16 Jun 2015 01:12

Thanks for your effort on this, will be very useful when I finally get to level my DK blood tank, Dhaulagiri... I loved this spec on retail, so it's nice to see someone with a guide on it.

Best wishes,

Krystyna aka 'Annapurna'.
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valaya
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Re: Blood DK tank - End Game Build

#3 » Post by valaya » 16 Jun 2015 01:38

bladed armor 3/5, no heart strike, no bloody strikes, 1 point in bloody vengenance, no might of mograine, no dancing rune weapon, actually using spell deflection (!!), actually subspeccing into frost so deep, no glyph of dark command, no glyph of death strike/DRW/decay/AMS

shit spec, 0/10, reroll to loladin

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Dr. Who
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Re: Blood DK tank - End Game Build

#4 » Post by Dr. Who » 16 Jun 2015 02:48

i agree in some points with @valaya your blood spec talent tree.... well.... kinda suck mate... i would change some things like:
http://www.truewow.org/armory/talentcal ... ,0,0,0,0,0

about the rest of the guide, good work.
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MerelyASetback
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Re: Blood DK tank - End Game Build

#5 » Post by MerelyASetback » 16 Jun 2015 11:48

cherno666 wrote: CAPS: let me say few words about caps here : TAUNT IS A SPELL!!! HIT CAP OR 8% FOR PHISICAL DOES NOT APPLY TO IT!!! ( you can go for Glyph of Dark Comand , but IMO its a waste of some sexy defencive glyph)
This is wrong though.
Every taunt is Physical, so you only need the melee hit cap not to miss.
(This is also why the glyph increases the chance by only 8%)
Dark Command

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valaya
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Re: Blood DK tank - End Game Build

#6 » Post by valaya » 16 Jun 2015 12:03

MerelyASetback wrote:
cherno666 wrote: CAPS: let me say few words about caps here : TAUNT IS A SPELL!!! HIT CAP OR 8% FOR PHISICAL DOES NOT APPLY TO IT!!! ( you can go for Glyph of Dark Comand , but IMO its a waste of some sexy defencive glyph)
This is wrong though.
Every taunt is Physical, so you only need the melee hit cap not to miss.
(This is also why the glyph increases the chance by only 8%)
Dark Command
paladin't taunts are spells which respect spell hit chance

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MerelyASetback
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Re: Blood DK tank - End Game Build

#7 » Post by MerelyASetback » 16 Jun 2015 14:44

valaya wrote:
paladin't taunts are spells which respect spell hit chance
True, I overlooked that one.

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Shmoo
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Re: Blood DK tank - End Game Build

#8 » Post by Shmoo » 01 Jul 2015 07:57

Yeah about that build...

You realize Improved Death Strike requires 35 talents in blood? Your build only has 34, therefore requiring either:

No Dancing Rune Weapon, if full Anticipation in Unholy. 3/3 Might of Mograine. 1/2 2H weapon specialization(For minimum requirement or some other talent)

Dancing Rune Weapon, 2/3 Might of Mograine, 1/2 2h Weapon specialization, and 5/5 Anticipation.

Dancing Rune Weapon, 3/3 Might of Mograine, 2/2 2h Weapon specialization, 3/5 Anticipation.

55Blood/ 13Frost/ 3Unholy
Shmoo: 80 Druid
Icedmilk: 80 Death Knight
Milkbubbles: 80 Paladin

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cherno666
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Re: Blood DK tank - End Game Build

#9 » Post by cherno666 » 01 Jul 2015 11:49

errrrr i have 43 talents in blood .

let me answer all about build , heart strike , dancing rune weapon etc are aggro abilities or all the talents you linked are maybe more helpfull on aoe aggro , this build as I said is end game build , where I don't have any aggro issues and have a role of MT on lk ,pure solo target , with max resistance , 1 more point in blood or unholy and you lose frigid dreadplate , so why then take dancing rune weapon to get more aggro which you don't need anyway and lose 3% avoidance???

+even if you take heart strike , it doesn't do much more aggro then blood strike and you only spam it to keep blade barrier up.

1 more thing of all those talents I put 1 point in - bloody vengeance - it applies obly to your phisical damage and since most aggro you get comes from icy touch , its not that usefull anyway.

hysteria - at lower gear , that 1 talent replaces all the talents you guys linked , since you get to keep all the defencive ones and you can just pop it on yourself if you are strugling on aggro build up.
at higher gear its a usefull tool to spam on some hunter for example.


taunt - it is a spell , I have 8.11% hit on my other dk (Eviltities) and yes , it misses sometimes.

any more questions I didn't answer?
Chernoo - lvl 80 MM Hunter (Main Char)
Eviltities - lvl 80 DK Tonk
Cherniggar - lvl 80 UH DK
Chernomoffo - lvl 80 Shadow Priest
Chernokingg - lvl 80 Disc Priest
Chernobull - lvl 80 Boomie/Feral Dps Druid
Chernomoo - lvl 80 Boomie/Resto Druid
Hollyboner - lvl 80 ProtHoly/Ret Paladin
Hollycherno - lvl 80 Prot/Holy Paladin
Belewonnabe - lvl 80 Prot/Ret Paladin
Chernobylus - lvl 80 Demo Warlock
Evilsmile - lvl 80 Demo Warlock
Onlyforbl - lvl 80 Resto/Ele Shaman
Friedpan - lvl 80 FFB Mage
Chermoo - lvl 80 Fury/Prot Warrior

*Proudly Married to Liqueur*

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Decimo
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Re: Blood DK tank - End Game Build

#10 » Post by Decimo » 24 Dec 2015 12:21

Helpfull...tnx for posting.

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Re: Blood DK tank - End Game Build

#11 » Post by mcheka » 24 Dec 2015 14:48

I know that was a massive bump, but I only now saw this as a result.

Expertise has changed quite a bit since you posted your guide (dodge/parry caps are fixed outside of ICC), and I would strongly recommend the VDW 25hc boots over the RS25hc ones. This is because your death strike doesn't heal you if the boss dodges it or parries it. Since blood tanks aren't as passively durable as paladins or druids are, and rely on rune tap + death strike for self-healing, you lose one of your spec's core benefits when death strike doesn't land.
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Cocopuffs
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Re: Blood DK tank - End Game Build

#12 » Post by Cocopuffs » 24 Dec 2015 15:08

I've been experimenting with Unholy tank builds. By far my favourite. Edgy as fuck too. 8-) 8-)

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Mythilogic

Re: Blood DK tank - End Game Build

#13 » Post by Mythilogic » 29 Dec 2015 19:10

You should add a section about when to use defensives, like the real urges of those.

A tip is to always keep Blood Barrier up through using bloodstrike time by time.
Also, if you loose aggro or know you are in a group with DPS mad people, pop the spell
"Empower Rune Weapon"
and facedesk Icy Touch for maximum aggro.


Am I wrong?


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Re: Blood DK tank - End Game Build

#15 » Post by Blacklustersoldier » 30 Dec 2015 04:29

Saw this guide and decided to post here a few things.
Since this build is focused on being a main tank and whatnot I have few suggestions on your talents.

Icy reach, the only time this talent is useful is if you want to start the fight while being in dalaran, otherwise you are in melee range. Thus the talent is useless.

Chill of the grave, a little bit of extra runic power won't make that much of a difference since you generate enough runic power for rune strike by using 2 abilities, and as a blood dk your swing timer is quite high and I know for sure you won't get to swing your weapon two times in one global CD thus the talent is not worth it IMO if it means you will get to sit at 100 runic power all the time.

You could move those points into black ice to maximize the dmg output of your IT, thus increasing threat generation even more.

Other than that I guess the spec works fine for you, and if it worked fine for you like this than awesome, but I figuered since you're up there being personal with the boss, those two talents are pointless.

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