DK + 4 rets - struggling in heroics

[Nemis79]

I'm running a frost spec DK, 3 retribution and 1 holy paladin as a healer. I'm having a seriously hard time with heavy aoe boss fights like Novos the Summoner, Ingvar the Plunderer, Drakkari Colossus, Slad'ran etc. The problem is paladins dont have any aoe heals.

Is there anyone in here with the same setup? How do you do it, spec all paladins as retribution? How do you deal with heals, AoW proc FoL on the tank, and burn the boss down as fast as possible?

Any input would be great.

[Fuzes]

tryed it => suxx

step 1 : spec dk blood dd (blood rota is so fkn simple u can run it with a freakin castsequence instead of a click makro+10%ap ... )
step 2 : spec one pala prot (prot pala >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>dk .. its so much easyer and the need of "awareness" )
DONE :D

well i added a step 3 ... switch the pala healer with a resto shami and enjoy the ride (nature resist totem , WF!!!! totem , chainheals , 10% dmg reduction @ tank , TREMOR TOTEM!!!!!

holy paladin is by far the worst multibox healer .. no heals while moving (u have the pimped healing stream at least for a shaman) .. and well .. with a melee team u have to move much more than with the 3ranged1heal standard team .. no real ae heal and so on.

but if u dont have another healer (drood would be quite nice too just let him on follow and spam hots all the time ... + one grp buff) dont forget to use your resi auras and bubbles and the holy flame helps a bit too .. but it will be quite hard (full pvp gear for the start will help alot ofc ... much hp


i think all hc's are doable with 1 tank dk 4 retris .. but only with decent gear on all chars (in other words : massive outgear the instance) ..

[Mosg2]

Um, what in the world are you thinking??

Spec the DK Blood/Frost tank spec and all your Paladins Ret. Currently with this setup I can *steamroll* Heroics. The passive healing through Divine Storm and Death Strike is insane. I barely have to heal on normal heroics.

[Nemis79]

Mosg2:

What is your DK rotation? Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Pestilence, Death Strike, Blood Boil, RP dump?

Also, do you have a good blood/frost tank talent spec?

And do you time your Divine Storms or just burn them whenever they're up?

[Zugdud]

I agree with the 4x ret remark unless you really want to play with a holy paladin, once you get used to playing this team and gear up you will find heroics are a breeze and can be cleared quite fast. I have not yet had time to try the ICC instances, but everything else is very doable in my experience. When I started out after hitting level 80 I found ToC a bit too difficult and stuck with preToC heroics which are far easier in comparison until I was geared. The most important things to master are good management of AoW on FoL procs, maintaining four sacred shields at all times, JoL, and divine storm. That alone will see you through most encounters, situationally you may find AOE damage overwhelming and in these cases you can always use 1 or more divine sacrifices in rotation

Having a good way to control your heals is pretty key, my personal preference for healing is 5 dedicated keybinds where each is a macro to drop 4 FoL on a specific toon

Good luck!

P.S. A tip for the puddle bosses like Colossus is to just kite him while tanking and dpsing during the elemental phase, that allows you to avoid a majority of the damage

[booker]

Sorry..and call me me a noob..but as a foreigner ..can you tell me,what AoW proc Fol" means ? I leveling exact the same setup and dont know what Aow, or Fol means.

many thanks

[Nemis79]

If you put 2 talent points into Art of War (AoW) in the retribution talent tree, every time you score a critical hit with a melee attack, the next Flash of Light (FoL) spell becomes an instant cast spell.

[booker]

many thanks.

And how fast you must consume the foL spell? And how did you see,when toons hit critical ? Hope you understand my question ;)

[Mosg2]

Mosg2:

What is your DK rotation? Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Pestilence, Death Strike, Blood Boil, RP dump?

Also, do you have a good blood/frost tank talent spec?

And do you time your Divine Storms or just burn them whenever they're up?

IT, PS, Pestilence, DS, then BB. Each key has Rune Strike in the macro so I don't have to worry about RP dumps. I have a /click for the Rets so they use it whenever it's up. I use a ISBoxer repeater region to accomplish healing--Each Ret usually goes no more than 3-4 seconds without havine an AoW proc.

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Gorefiend&n=Chernabog&group=1

That's my tank spec. I get all the damage buffs for the Rets but still have all the defensive talents for tanking.

[Nemis79]

Yeah, I figured out almost the exactly same talent spec after scratching my head a bit.

One question though, why do you have Vendetta? Does it work in instances? Tooltip says the mob has to yield xp or honor...

[Aradar]

One question though, why do you have Vendetta? Does it work in instances? Tooltip says the mob has to yield xp or honor...

These types of spells/talents work if a mob would have given xp or honor under normal circumstances. Since you are level capped, you can't gain xp, but it still works.

[remanz]

I'm running a frost spec DK, 3 retribution and 1 holy paladin as a healer. I'm having a seriously hard time with heavy aoe boss fights like Novos the Summoner, Ingvar the Plunderer, Drakkari Colossus, Slad'ran etc. The problem is paladins dont have any aoe heals.

Is there anyone in here with the same setup? How do you do it, spec all paladins as retribution? How do you deal with heals, AoW proc FoL on the tank, and burn the boss down as fast as possible?

Any input would be great.

I run 1DK 4 rets. All in gearscore 2600ish. And I can tell you. I am not rolling any bosses in heroics lol. Every single boss is a tough fight. To put it in perspective, for the first time ever, I had meathook (http://www.wowwiki.com/Meathook) enrage on me after fighting him for like 4 mins. My rets are doing a whopping 800 dps because they are constantly healing the tank.

4 rets is a solution once you have gears. But before that it struggles even more than DK 3rets, 1holy. For boss AOE on your melees, the way I see it. There are only two ways to solve this. Either you spread out avoid the damage, Or pop some defensive cool down (bubble + sacrifice) and continue to dps.

In details,
1. spreading out. Bind a spread out key to a place that is easy to access. 'E' for me. Hit this key for the AOE. Once you move out. Immediately start to heal tank. Once AOE done, move back with follow or IWT.

2. defensive cool down. No brainer here. Just use it in a castsequence. Bubble first. Sacrifice later.

One thing I would like to emphasis is that You have to know when the boss is going to AOE ahead of the time. So use DBM or whatever, know the timer. because when you see the AOE, and then cast bubble + sacrifice. that takes about 1.5 sec due to GCD. Its already too late. You have to pre-cast it before you get the AOE

[Mosg2]

I believe that if a mob would yield experience (IE, within the level band) then you get the heal. I guess I'll have to test it.

[Multibocks]

I have Dk + 4 rets and I wish that I had a paladin tank instead. I switched my paladin tank to my shaman group, so I replaced him with a DK. Talk about a headache. Too much clicking on a DK. I also have a mixed team with a warrior tank. Another mistake. Paladins for tanks. Always. It's one less thing you have to think about.
Now should I level another paladin or just switch my paladin back over to the ret team and try the crappy DK on my shaman team? DK even has good gear... too bad they require solo play to be the same effectiveness of an afk paladin watching TV.

[Mosg2]

It's pretty easy to make a castsequence for DK's that work great. Yeah, it's not as easy as running a Paladin but you gain a lot of melee damage buffs or 13% magic damage. Rets are so easy to run as followers anyways.

[Multibocks]

I use a castsequence for DKs, but problem is that for an ice tank (which I took for the haste buff to rets) you have dead time in castsequence you need to throw in rune using abilities to cover the dead time. For AE packs, it's frustrating that DnD uses 3 runes and totally messes up your sequence. It barely keeps the other mobs off the rets. Add in that DKs seem to take a lot more damage than my tankadin and you got a recipe for bad tank. I really dont understand it either. DKs have a ton of anti caster stuff and yet its casters that totally F up my tank. FoS is one zone that he can die in about 3 GCDs to those GD frost spamming gnomes. He sits at about 38k health with kings, not as much as my paladin, but close enough.

On paper they look fantastic, but in use they are just.... clunky. Same with warriors. I havent tried druid tanks yet, but I dont plan on leveling another class to 80, so guess I wont see that.

[Mosg2]

Shrug. My DK only has 34k with Kings and I breeze through all the trash in the new instances. I've been playing him since the launch of WotLK though, that might have something to do with it.

[Multibocks]

Do you breeze through PoS, FoS and HoR heroic? I'm not talking pre3.2 heroics.

[Mosg2]

Yes, the trash at least. Some of those bosses are a pita for melee boxing but the trash itself is simple.