This site makes extensive use of JavaScript.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser.
Live
PTR
10.2.7
PTR
10.2.6
Beta
[Guide] Death Knight Dual-Wield Tanking (Revised for 3.2)
Post Reply
Return to board index
Post by
Nystali
It will be easier to gear for than it currently is (less +def gemming). It will also allow you to pick two slow DPS weapons and turn them into tank weapons which will boost your threat even more, which is kind of disgusting considering how well DW already scales.
If you use the runeforge on tank weapons, you might be going overkill with +defense stacking.
Post by
Achloryn
It will be easier to gear for than it currently is (less +def gemming). It will also allow you to pick two slow DPS weapons and turn them into tank weapons which will boost your threat even more, which is kind of disgusting considering how well DW already scales.
that's very true.. hmm... i honestly hadn't thought about taking DPS weapons for the extra threat. -ponders-
If you use the runeforge on tank weapons, you might be going overkill with +defense stacking.
depends on how well geared your guy is.. mine isn't particularly well off as I haven't tanked with him in -forever-, mainly DPSed. and if you do runeforge two tank weapons with the SSG rune, that just means more avoidance or stam in gems or enchants or what have you that you can play around with.
maybe having one tank weapon OH and a dps weapon MH.. or maybe runeforging one with swordbreaker or something like that. just a thought
Post by
391117
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Granticus
Here is a variation of the build you put. Been using it leveling as a DW DK Tank. It has been working effectively for me. Check it out.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#j0EhZhxe0A0I0c0fuuAoc:TpwM0m
Post by
Nelfshane
@ Granticus
Your spec's not bad, it's close to what I have, though I must admit I am wincing heavily at your not using
Anticipation
. Acclimation is alright, but in most cases, everything I've seen it's situational. Though I must admit it was comical (or still is, not sure if they fixed it) when shaman totems and a fel hunter's fel intellect would proc shadow resist acclimation.
Glyph wise I prefer
Glyph of Frost Strike
, but to each their own.
12/52/7
is my typical run, though I may swap out the D&D glyph for the unbreakable armor one. It looks like something interesting.
Post by
Animer
To the OP thanks for this thread. I find it really useful and the reply's made it complete, the different spec's etc. I'm not level 80 yet (3 levels to go) but plan on DW frost tanking.
Off topic all specs are great imo. Each spec + glyph setup should work, but I believe some will be superior than other in different cases.
For those who are interested here is the spec I'm going to try out 1st
13/52/6
P.S. I have never seen a fail DW tank, they have never been fail in my experience :D
gl hf
edit: some reason spec link did not work so I redid that part
Post by
Granticus
I came up with a new build that I thought would be pretty good for the usual tanking as well as gives you that necessary edge against magic as well as gives you plenty of Runic Power to work with. Check it out and tell me what you think.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#j0EbZhxe0A0I0c0fudAo0x:TwkMV0
Post by
woohaa
I'd just like to say i'm glad this topic went from flaming the poster to actual constructive posting. The idea of the post was to inform possible DW tanks and the hardships of being a dw tank which i personally know and the stats/gear they should be aspiring to achieve.
The only thing i'll add is that the gear you posted i pretty much have all of it and found it almost impossible to gem/enchant towards expertise. With raids/groups caring more about my unbuffed HP then my avoidance and TPS. Your speculation of having about 2-3k less hp is pretty much right on if your DWing and can't have
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=62158
on your weapons. However in 3.3 this will change.
For a couple of months i've pondered the age old question for tanks Stam vs avoidance. After attempting to tank toc10 and ony10 i've found stam as the prioritized stat when gemming/enchanting. Reason being is most of the gear you posted and that i'm wearing my avoidance is already higher then the other tanking classes with compareable gear however their max HP is anywhere from 3-10k higher depending on the class. And in many cases having the extra Cushion for healers is better in higher raids due to large spell hits, stacking dmg debuffs, or just really big hits from bosses. If your just starting out i have 2 Frost builds you can try out. They've both worked really well for me so far but are specialized builds as in 1 is best for MTing bosses while the other is good for OTing and Aoe tanking.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#j0xZhxe0AbIochfuzAo0xh:oTd0MV
skill rotation HB/DnD/BB/runic dump
Aoe Tanking
This build is mostly reactive and you can't follow your skill rotation due to killing machine and rime procs. however keeping your blade barrier up is easy due to the rune requirements for the skills. However that's my opening rotation to get initial agro on groups. Throw on Deathchill before running in whenever it's up to really make sure nothing comes off.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jcxhZGxe0A0Ioc0fuzAo0x:kadMV0
skill rotation: IT/PS/OB/BS/BS/RPdump
IT/PS/OB/OB/RPdump
With most tanking builds you'll find a 1-3 sec point where you have nothing to push...all runes are down and you spent all your runic power. With this build you will basically never run out of runic power for Frost strikes/Rune Strikes when your tanking a boss. Even with all my buttons macro'd to
#showtooltip
/cast Obliterate
/cast !rune strike
i pretty much never have to worry about running out of runic power between rune rotations. If your new and don't know what !rune strike does. the "!" prevents on-next-hit skills like runestrike from toggling off if you push the button multiple times. At the same time macroing all my buttons in this fashion insures i use runestrike whenever it's up. If your MTing and afraid of losing agro this build will maximize your TPS for dw tanking.
The builds i posted are difficult to pull off due to itemization issues with DW tanking so figure out what works for you. atm Expertise and hit are issues that i haven't been able to work out of my tanking gear due to my stam will decrease too much in order to hitcap or expertise cap.
Post by
462121
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Zandranas
Gulgoth - read the stickies please. your build misses a lot of key talents and dips into dps talents way to much.
Post by
462121
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Nystali
Expertise is not a useless stat as a tank. I think you are confusing how Rune Strike works. It works every time YOU parry or dodge an attack, NOT whenever a boss parries or dodges your attacks. Now yes, if you're deluding yourself that only using IT, HB, and DnD leads to effect threat generation, feel free to bypass expertise.
However, throwing Obliterate out of the window is probably one of the worst things I've read on these boards in a long while. HB's cooldown makes it non-spammable, and IT and PS don't generate a lot of threat on their own. You'd have some serious threat gaps.
If you want to make people believe it works, please link an armory page so we can see all your achievement glory in hard modes.
DW Tanking can and will work, but Fail build is Fail.
Post by
Nelfshane
O_o...
Alrighty... @ Gulgoth. No.... Just.... no....
First, I agree with everything that Nystali said... I just want to add more to it...
Spell Deflection is a lot like acclimation. It's a decent talent, but it's really really situational. Yeah there are a lot of bosses that make use of magical effects, however the three talents put there really could be of use elsewhere.
And I would like to add this to EVERY frost tank I've seen lately. Icy talons and it's counterpart improved icy talons are DPS orientated. Not tank. You want the DPS such as the shamans or the DW Frost DPS or if there are any still out there the 2H frost DPS to bring out the haste bonus, not the tank.
One point in killing machine within both specs is not nearly enough. You want that sucker to proc as much as humanly possible to get the boosted threat from crits.
Lichborne is more of a PvP talent. Not saying that it doesn't have it's uses in PvE, but it's situationalness places it in more of a PvP standpoint of occurrence than PvE. Chillblains is outright PvP no ands ifs or buts.
Deathchill is nice to have, but it's not necessary. The instant burst threat helps out at the start, but then you don't get to use it again for two minutes.
Rime, Glacial Rot, and Annihilation should all basically be considered mandatory for boosted damage and thusly boosted threat. Obliterate is a HUGE threat booster in single target tanking. Getting the free howling blast means hey, free spell for more agro. The idea of not using that is fairly comical...
Lastly, every DW Frost Tank that I've come across that used Death Coil in the place of Frost Strike failed horribly and lost agro within a matter of seconds. So I highly recommend placing that into the mandatory category as well.
*edit*
Just want to add after noticing the aforementioned "Frost strike is now only good for 2h not 1h." No..... Once again.... No.... If you even read into the Talent Threat of Thassarian, it makes it so that your frost strike does boosted damage from your offhand to the point that it is equal to, or (depending on the weapons used) even superior in damage dealt.
Post by
Eleazer
Good to see that the front page has been edited greatly to reflect the state of DW tanking as it is today. The funny part is that the front page was nothing like that about 4 months ago so now my comment way back then looks ridiculous and stupid haha.
I am happy to say that while I despise DW tanking it has come a long way in the last few months. In the next patch, it looks like they will be attempting to eliminate 2h from Frost completely which saddens me completely.
I do believe threat wise Slow/Slow with parry runeforging are better - however, it does mean you have to find extra defense somewhere.
Post by
146010
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Nystali
I'm finally going to give DW tanking a shot here. I haven't been very happy with my 2H threat production (been stuck with ironsoul, so that could be my issue). I've actually picked up two of the maces off 10m Anub (normal) and since I was able to hit uncrittable without SSG recently. I don't feel that badly just swapping a dps 2H for two dps one-handers with swordbreaker on them.
To start with... GOD I HATE LEVELING WEAPON SKILLS FROM SCRATCH!
Now that that's out of the way, I also don't like how I'm going from a 2H Tank tree which falls very nicely at exactly 51 points needed to a bloated DW frost tree. It is only like 2 extra points, but that causes you to miss out on some nice threat talents in the other trees. Right now I'm making due without Bladed Armor in order to pick up Virulence and Epidemic.
Once I get my mace skill up and tank some to get the feel for DW, I'll share my experiences. Since my two maces are higher ilvl, I'm expecting my threat to spike, but overall I just want to get a feel for how different DWing might be from 2H.
Post by
Nystali
Well, gave it a try. Saw my threat spike to a respectable amount finally from time to time (spiked up to 7-8k), but it just felt too different to really enjoy it. It might have also been that my maces were kinda stupid looking so it just threw the experience off.
Its almost like going from frost dps where I have frost strike to spam, to blood dps (would also include unholy, but I haven't dabbled in that tree) and having Death Coil. Frost strike just feels better. I felt like my aoe threat was a little weaker, and it probably was because my AP took an appreciable hit having to spec differently.
I just hope 2H frost tanking doesn't fall too far behind. Hoping that someday when I get a 232+ ilvl weapon to drop that I'll be able to see my threat get up to a similar amount.
Post by
239616
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
184358
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
292580
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post Reply
You are not logged in. Please
log in
to post a reply or
register
if you don't already have an account.