DK and Pally group questions

[ragawaga]

I've been reading the posts of people using 5 ret groups or dk and 4 rets and it has me interested. I currently have an 80 decently geared prot pally. So would like to keep him as tank. So my questions in no order me importance are

I see that a dk is used as a tank and wondered why this is given that the pally tanks take less spikey damage?

What combo would be better of 1 prot pally, 1 ret, 3 dk ...or 1 prot pally, 2 ret, 2 dk?

Why use a dk at all? Do they bring something extra that would be lost with 5 pallys?

Slightly OT, how many levels can a level 80 grant to a linked account? Still only 30? I ask because only 2 of my accounts still have raf..

[Ualaa]

For the most part, a DK is harder to macro/click sequence then a Pally.
So many will drive with the DK, hitting whatever runes are not on cooldown.
There are some click macros for the DK, Stealthy has one for Unholy Tanking on the wiki.
Have not seen a click macro for a DPS DK, chances are you'd run Blood as a DPS.



I'd go with more Pallies and fewer DK's.
Basically, up to 3 Pallies get your additional blessings and useful aura's for your team.
Plus you can judge three different judgements.
A DK has quite a few melee buffs which they add to the team... but aside from a second Death Grip, an extra DK doesn't add as much as an extra Pally.

I'd probably go Prot, DK, 3x Ret.
Of your choices, I'd go with the 2nd option... Prot, 2x Ret, 2x DK.



The DK brings Death Grip, which is huge in pvp and overcomes the ranging/kiting issue in many cases.
They also have the Frost thing (sorry don't play a DK), for a substantial snare once someone is in melee range.
They add several other melee buffs to the team.

Once you already have four Pallies on the team...
A fifth lets you double up on a second Judgement in combat... you already have the buffs you'd want.
A DK brings a lot more then a fifth Pally does.

The Pallies have Divine Storm, which is a heal for the most hurt target.
And they have Art of War procs, which can be self heals or directed heals at whoever is taking damage.
That is probably the biggest thing a 5th paladin adds to the team.
But a DK has some self healing too, and brings a lot of buffs to the table.



You can grant 1 level, per even level gained.
But once you are 60th, RAF ends.

So if you were leveling 1st to 60th, you cap out at 30 levels granted (to a toon lower then yourself).
Or if you were a DK, then you only gained three levels (56th, 58th and 60th), in which case you can grant 3 levels.

[ragawaga]

Thanks for that.

So in a "standard" setup of 4 pally and a dk, is the reason to make the dk tank purely based on the further level of micromanagement needed...or is it based on something else?

[asonimie]

I tank on the DK because that 4th ret is too valuable.... not because the DK is a superior tank. Also - switching a pally to prot means the DK goes dps... which he fails at.

The extra dmg and healing from a 4th ret more than outweigh the extra dmg and PITA factor of tanking on a DK. Plus in PVP I prefer having my DK as a huge dmg sink... so full tanking gear is a plus for this also.

[Ualaa]

The DK brings a lot to the team, in terms of buffs.
And brings tactical options to the team in pvp.

You'd want the one DK on the team, over a 5th Pally.

But the 2nd DK, over the fourth pally... probably not.
Not saying don't go with it, just that it will not be an optimal choice.

[ragawaga]

So I've taken everyone's advice and went for a 4 pally and dk group. Like I've said, I already have an 80 prot pally, who I've changed his offspec from holy to ret..he has some ret gear. A 63 dk who's been gathering dust since about the second week of wrath.

I have 2 linked accounts that still have raf, but only 6 days left. I've gifted one pally to 31 and am boosting 2. When they'r 60 I'll gift the lower pally to 60 and transfer him to another account and begin the proper process. Getting them up to 60 in 6 days is fairly doable, I've done it before, but there's rl stuff going on, so it'll be tight! Nothing like a bit of pressure.

[Boylston]

It's fast enough without RAF that if you don't quite make it all the way to 60, it's not the end of the world. You will spend a much larger percentage of your time doing the final 70-80 stretch than anything else.

If you have Bind on Account heirlooms for more XP gain, by all means use them!

[Ualaa]

Also, you mentioned a character transfer between accounts.
The toon who transfers can move heirlooms, I've done that in the past.
And if they have badges unspent (or stonekeeper shards), they can spend them on the new account too.

[ragawaga]

I've got the pve chest and pvp shoulders on them, this should help speed it up a bit. Unfortunately I didn't get much time on last night, and only managed to get them from 12 - 27. I was hopping to have been into the 30's.
As far as moving the heirlooms, I'll not bother with that, the account it's going to be moved to will be able to farm the badges and shards for that without much difficulty.

[ragawaga]

One more question When doing the 60-80 levelling grind.....do you level the DK in a tank spec collecting the tank gear....or level as DPS to make it quicker?