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Has anyone tried pre-3.1 Blood DK tanking? Is it viable?
Looking at the 3.1 changes, I am thinking that this spec may be as viable as Frost or Unholy. There is not quite the same AE tanking capability, but I think that Heroic Boss tanking may be just as viable.
The cool thing about the dual-spec option is that you can try out 2 new specs, or have the trusty old spec in reserve just in case the new spec isn't working out.
These are the two specs I decided on
Primary Spec (23/5/43) Unholy Hybrid Tank:
http://ptr.wowhead.com/?talent=j0EGo...bghchfzgI0ocoz
Secondary Spec (51/13/7) Blood Tank:
http://ptr.wowhead.com/?talent=j0EGqI0IsbMcsRZhxb0hZ0g
The first is almost identical to what I've been running around with for about 2 months now. The second is almost a DPS spec, high threat and self healing. I'll be using it a lot on melee bosses probably, and fights where I'm DPSing.
blood is sort of like the prot warrior. great for single target but lacks in aoe threat in comparison to other classes.
Hor, any reason why you didn't pick up Ebon Plaguebringer in your blood spec? As a multiboxer tank imo thats pretty much required, unless the rest of your party is all melee or you have a boomkin. 13% extra spell is huge for any shaman team.
I'm not online right now but I went with something like 18/3/xx (rest in unholy), didn't get gargoyle or ghoul but got most of the other unholy stuff including ams/amz. I've heard from multiple people that frost may be the best single-target tank and DPS spec, although the point allocation is diff between tank/dps. It kind of sucks, I actually want 3 specs -- tank frost for single target tanking in raids, tank unholy for AOE tanking, and DPS frost for pew pew. Since the only thing I'm multiboxing atm is wintergrasp and the holiday events (noblegarden) I may swap to frost DPS and frost tank, as a unholy tank DK threat was always a big issue in naxx pug raids and I'd like to try a spec which is better at boss threat.
I've tweaked my DK to be a Blood spec and I have to say that so far, so good. I've not have much issue with AE tanking what with DnD and the Blood Boil changes.
Also, when I am tanking heroics, the most that I tend to pull is 4 elites, so keeping aggro on them is no problem as long as I don't do something stupid like forget DnD on the pull or do too much CL.
Seriously though, my shaman team is usually LB LB LB anyways with the occasional CL and FS/Lava so I just control aggro that way.
Bosses are perhaps harder, but I also made a change from 3 elemental/1 resto to 4 elemental so I was having some issues healing anyways.
A few more days of Blood tanking and I'll have a better idea.
Looking to add 2 DKs to a 3 Pally team. Thinking about making them both DWers. How about this spec?
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jfV0q...Zf0Mhxc:bVoVMm
Bascailly, I was hoping to have to do as minimal with them as possible and I think this complete hybrid is almost all auto attack. Does Improved Icy Talons stack?
No Improved Icy Talons does not stack. Only one of your dks should be spec'd into it and if you raid your shaman will most likely have it covered.
Blood tanking is definitely viable - I'll be running a blood tank spec for my all DK group...
But for a caster group, given that unholy provides better AOE threat and party DPS from Ebon Plaguebringer - you are gimping yourself going any other spec for PvE.
Cheers,
S.
I've tried and Blood spec. It's viable but subject to occasional burst like any other spec, really.
I respecced Unholy to compare and WOW what a difference. Stealthy is right, the Ebon Plaguebringer talent is just too powerful to ignore. Fights are shorter conserving mana and also making it less likely for bursts to occur.
My group's DPS went up from 1400-1500 to 1600-1800. I actually rarely had to pop Heroism during fights and could save it for the tough fights.
So, the Blood spec experiment is officially over.