DK tank help

[lans83]

I've recently put my slaves on hold for now and wanted to work on my solo toons from my main account for a while. I'm in the process of working on my Death Knight and running him through the LFD tool as a tank. I've read some of the FAQs from WoWHead.com and following some of the tips and builds from there, but I'm having some doubts/trouble with the rotations they provide. Anyone here that run DK tanks with your teams have any good suggestions that'll decrease my downtime? Seems like every pug I get into, everyone's always in a rush anyway, but I'm also wanting to use this one later to swap out with my Pally tank to run groups with as well. One team is using him to lead my 3 Rets I have through both instances and pvp. Right now, my focus is pve for leveling and gearing cause I want to get into the new Gnomer instance when Cata launches and whatever else they decide to throw at us. I never was geared enough or ready for the last major content patches before XP launches, so I wanted to this time around. Anyway, I'd appreciate any tips you can offer me here.

[Littleburst]

erm. You got quite a wall of text there with a lot of information but it kinda lacks any specific questions. It's somewhat hard to try and help if you just ask for "tips." If you could form some more specific questions, then it's easier to help out :) If you want help with rotation, tell us what you use. aoe / single target. What do you mean by downtime? why would a DK have downtime? waiting for dnd CD? etc

[lans83]

I'm sorry bout the WoT, I'm bad about that. Yes, I mean what is a good rotation to use, talent builds you may use, and should I put the rotation in /click, /castsequence, or normal spells on the hotbars? I don't get alot of time now to run instances when soloing, so I'm wanting to be able to pretty much blast through them with others. Since I'm running Northrend dungeons, everything is pretty much AoE mob grinding, so a good rotation there would be sufficient enough for single targets, which ain't many aside from bosses.

Right now, holding aggro is not a major concern since with my current Frost build/gear I have, I'm doing 2-3x the threat even the top dps are putting out, but some of the rune cooldowns are whats slowing me down + DnD both taking too long and costing me 3 runes right off the bat. I've changed my build a few times already both to lower the CD on DnD and to use those two points elsewhere to add to my damage, bout to respec yet again to put those points back in it to lower it again. Just wanted some input or advice before I did if I should go based on what's posted on the WoWHead forum sticky or not. Once he hits 80, I'm gonna use my Pally which is an Armorsmith to make him some more tanking gear, which is what he's got on now. Tanking or healing the LFD tool is a much faster way to get Emblem gear than dps, so this is my focus right now. I have no heirloom gear yet cause I'm still in the process of getting my pvp set for my Pally instead with the Emblems.

My Death Knight is Kauldwyn on Earthen Ring - US if you wanna check him out on the armory and Lansylot is my Pally.

[Coltimar]

For heroics I specced my DK blood and used these macros:


#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=combat Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Pestilence, Death Strike, Blood Boil
/cast !rune strike
/startattack
/use 13
/use 14


#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=combat Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Pestilence, Death Strike, Blood Boil, Death Strike
/cast !rune strike
/use 13
/use 14

I used a weird kind of spec that allowed me to self heal. He was on a DK +4 ret team.

I changed him to Unholy for my 10 boxing needs. I actually just dropped him but here's what I used :/

MULTIPLE MOB TANKING


/click MultiBarBottomRightButton1
/click MultiBarBottomRightButton2
/click MultiBarBottomRightButton3
/click MultiBarBottomRightButton4
/click MultiBarBottomRightButton5
/use 13
/use 14
/startattack


#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=10 Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Pestilence, null


#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=10 Scourge Strike, Blood Boil, Scourge Strike, Blood Boil,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,


#showtooltip Icy Touch
/castsequence reset=10 Icy Touch,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,


#showtooltip Plague Strike
/castsequence reset=10 Plague Strike,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,


#showtooltip Pestilence
/castsequence reset=10 Pestilence,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

SINGLE MOB TANKING

/click MultiBarBottomRightButton8
/click MultiBarBottomRightButton9
/click MultiBarBottomRightButton10
/click MultiBarBottomRightButton11
/click MultiBarBottomRightButton12
/use 13
/use 14
/startattack


#showtooltip Icy Touch
/castsequence reset=10 Icy Touch,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,


#showtooltip Plague Strike
/castsequence reset=10 Plague Strike,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,


#showtooltip Blood Strike
/castsequence reset=10 Blood Strike, Blood Strike,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,


#showtooltip Scourge Strike
/castsequence reset=10 Scourge Strike, Death Coil,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,


#showtooltip Scourge Strike
/castsequence reset=10 Scourge Strike, Scourge Strike, Death Coil,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,

Here's my spec:
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Doomhammer&cn=Torrethe&group=1

The Unholy build generates a lot of threat. He outpaced my, much better geared, pally over long fights. Hope this helps.

[lans83]

Thanks Col, I'll try that spec. I heard Unholy tanking is still viable, but not as much as frost for heroics. I see you don't have the ghoul points set for that, is it bad to have them if you're tanking? I know they don't have a 'taunt' ability like hunter/lock pets, but do they still pull your targets off you? I'll try out that /click setup too.

[Coltimar]

Unholy was great for heroics because I was able to control a lot of mobs at once. Frost, imho, is more appropriate for raiding because of the survivability that build can bring. I rarely used my ghoul but never had trouble with him pulling off of me when I did use him. He was good for pulling off of my healer with healing aggro.

[lans83]

What about the /cast !Rune Strike line everyone says to add to each line. You don't use that with your rotation or do you use that on it's own button and pop it when needed?