Please help - New to tanking with DPS

[knopstr]

I suck at tanking and dps'ing with my shamans and new DK tank.

Whew, now that I said it, I would like your help getting better at it.

I'm not necessarily bad at one or the other, just at both at the same time. Like a lot of you I held out with my 5 shamans for as long as I could until I realized that I needed a main tank. The adjustment period has been kind of brutal though. I'm finding that while leveling is quite easy as a DK adding in DPS while tanking can be a bit overwhelming and confusing. I've been following James' guide from wow-pro.com for just DK leveling and DPS rotation. I've been very impressed with his guide. No, I'm not a paid advertiser lol.This is my only experience with a tanking type character. I've always played DPS characters.

This is my standard DPS rotation with my DK while taking on anywhere from 1-6 mobs. I'm currently spec'd Unholy (5 0 56) atm. I throw in D&Decay and Unholy Blight depending on the fight. My DK is lvl71 and my shamans are 80.

Icy Touch --> Plague Strike --> Pestilence --> Blood Boil --> Death Strike --> Death Coil --> Death Strike --> Blood Boil --> Blood Boil --> Death Strike --> Death Coil --> Death Strike --> Blood Boil --> Blood Boil

My goal is to be able to run instances by myself as I usually am interrupted quite frequently and don't want to waste other people's time.

I understand the need to gear up my tank should be my #1 priority. At the moment, what I'm trying to do is to level her up but at the same time, have some fun running instances. Here's my armory link: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...r&n=Laydnblack

Let's say I have the following keys bound ('cause I do but am more than willing to switch); #3 "Icy Touch" #4 Plague Strike #5 Pestilence #6 Blood Boil #7 Death Strike #8 Death Coil

My initial pull for a set of mobs is usually Icy Touch or Death Grip and then the cast sequence in purple up above. What I'd like know is what others do? I'm guessing the days of sequential number mashing for tank isn't going to work while trying to get the shamans to shoot LB's and CL's and heals. I can see that if I'm trying to pull with the #3 which will cast icy touch that if I have that bound to say "Chain Lightning" on the shamans that it's going to get ugly fast. When I pull with Icy touch about 1 sec later I have 4 CL's hitting my 1st mob which usually sends all of the mobs heading for the shamans and totems and then when I try to re-establish aggro, the mobs are either mostly dead or if I do manage to get aggro back beating me down before I figure out "oh snap" I need to heal...in which case spinning up healing takes too long and tank is dead....sigh. At which point, I kill everything with the shamans and rez the tank. I've only attempted instance near Valgarde Keep and would like to try the Nexus as they're lvl 71-73. I keep thinking that I shouldn't be dying so damn fast so frequently, but yes I am.

I'm a big fan of the videos from Hachoo. I'm attempting to emulate some amount of your success, but admittedly am failing hard and fast.

Is the correct way to make pulls in the following order?

1) Maneuver team near intended target - target actual NPC - if say LB lights up as cast-able in the 4 shamans UI's then this is the point to begin making attack
2) Spread out Shaman team in say a horizontal line - throw down necessary totems
3) Pull Trash
4) Try to hold aggro and not die

It would be so nice to know what keys you guys have bound and what exactly you are doing that makes you so successful from a button touching experience. I realize that not every fight is the same and that there are always other factors involved.

I would love to have a fight described - say Prince K (shadow bolt/ice tomb) in UK. Chances are someone has, but I'm talking down to the minute details of when I press #3 on my tank's screen to pull what is #3 doing on the slaves. Is the best thing to set up cast sequence macros for the tank and the random cast macros for the slaves. At this point, I really only have macros established to DPS and or heal the Shamans as a group, the DK is new to the group.

Please give me your thoughts and help.

Thank you kindly and again you guys are the best.