Death Knight Tank questions

[Kalros]

So my B-Team is going to have a DK as the main tank. He's already 71, but I'm sorry to admit that I have no idea how to play him as a tank. I've been doing some research and saw that there are several spec options for DK tanks. So here are my questions:

-What spec do you use? Is there one more beneficial for boxers?

-What is your spell rotation for holding aggro?

-Do you go Dual-wield or 2-hander for weapons?

Thanks in advance!

[Kalros]

I'm bumping this because it immediately got buried after I posted it :P

[Diwa]

3.2 Death Knight tank specs
http://pwnwear.com/2009/08/06/3-2-death-knight-tank-specs/

More DK reference
http://elitistjerks.com/f72/

[Raimius]

I use a DK tank for my Team tho I'm still trying to lvl my DPS. I really like it. Tho it's not a pally.
Was Unholy untill about 2 weeks ago. I just wanted something diff so I switched to Blood. I wish that I would have been blood from the begining due to the play style but thats neither here nor there.

Here is my Armory.
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Thunderhorn&n=Xli

My Rotation is.
(Single Target);
IT, PS, DS, HS, HS, Dump RP, HS, HS, Pes, HS, HS.. then just DS / HS and Pes when you need to Refresh Diseases.

(Multi Target)
DnD, IT, PS, Pes, BB, DS, BB, DS, HS, HS, HS, Pes.. something like that. I've found after 1 or 2 BB it's more threat to use HS due to the cleave. and by the time you get to that there are only 2-3 mobs left.
So BB don't do enough Dmg to be worth it.

[Saoul]

Running with an unholy -with a wee bit of blood- DK and the rotation is;

use 14
use 13
cast !rune strike
castsequence reset=8 icy touch, plague strike, pestilence, scourge strike, blood strike, scourge strike, !death and decay
startattack
targetlasttarget

http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Bloodfeather&n=Shawee


This allows for both single and multi pull tanking and maintains aggro when Shammies are putting out up to 5000 dps+ . The DK's dps is 1500+, higher with more mobs than single. Desecration is wonderfull for slowing down mobs, but ebon plague increasing magical damage by 13% allows very quick boss finishing power. Even when hooking up primary tanking macro with primary team dps macro the tank hold aggro very well.

Two handed tanking over dual wield because to dual wield you have to run as frost which would loose you the 13% magical damage buff from ebonplague and rune of the gargoyle is only availiable for 2 handed weapons (although this may change next patch). Without rune of the gargoyle you may struggle to make yourself def capped.

[Noids]

Running with an unholy -with a wee bit of blood-

Maybe you should see a doctor about that :eek:


The links Diwa posted are probably your best resources for sure.

Personally I have a DK tank for my team and I have an unholy spec for running 5 mans with them that gives me ebon plague for ripping through heroics. I also have a blood spec for raid tanking which gives the best survivability and single target threat.

For a newly geared DK tank, I would recommend with starting using a frost build (see EJ for specifics) as this is the least gear dependant and gives good defensive abilities whilst having the best multi and very good single target threat.

Cheers

[Kalros]

Excellent. Thanks for all the info, guys. This is definitely enough to get me started.