How To Be Your Tank’s Best Friend (Without Turning Anything Into A Sheep)

A quick note up front: Most of my PvE posts for a while are going to be from a DPS perspective. Even before Cataclysm I officially declared DPS my main spec when I found a good 25-man ICC group that was full up on tanks, and now that I have a leveling/instancing buddy who insists on tanking everything I’m not called on to play meatshield as often as I was in BC and Wrath. I will cover tanking to a certain extent, but for the moment DPS is my specialty.

After the faceroll-fest that was Wrath Heroics, Blizzard decided to bring the pain back to dungeons in Cataclysm. Crowd control abilities that languished on some forgotten keybind for the last two years are suddenly in demand again. Crowd control abilities...that Death Knights do not have.

Well crap.

We aren’t completely useless, though. There are still things we can do to make dungeon runs easier for the whole party:

Don’t attack the sheep. Those of us who played back before crowd control went out of style should remember the importance of not hitting targets who are under the effect of crowd-controlling spells. All the trouble that mage or shaman went through to turn their target into a cute little animal will be for naught if you immediately run up and start AoEing in its face. Ideally the tank will pull mobs far enough away from CCed targets to allow you to hit Howling Blast, but be mindful that tanks who aren’t used to working around CC may not remember to do this, and even those who are may have some complication keeping them from doing so. When in doubt, just Obliterate the skull.

Watch for stragglers. Two abilities that make us such great tanks on our own can also help our tanks keep things together: Strangulate and Death Grip. If there’s a pesky caster mob who refuses to come over to the tank, use Strangulate to silence it and force it to come into melee range. If you’re dealing with something ranged but nonmagical like an archer, you can use Death Grip to bring it into the Death and Decay/Consecrate/Shockwave/Swipe area. Use it wisely. One of the biggest complaints about Death Knights is misuse of Death Grip, but when used in communication with your tank it can be an effective form of crowd control. If possible, let the tank know you’re going to do it before you do it - I cheat by being able to yell into the next room, but a macro will do - and immediately switch back to attacking the main kill target so you don’t keep aggro any longer than necessary. As plate wearers we can take a couple hits, but we can’t tank these guys solo in our DPS gear. Yank it into tanking range and then let the tank pick it up.

Take care of yourself. This is more to make things easier on your healer, but keep in mind that even with a DPS spec you have the ability to heal yourself up a little and mitigate some damage. Death Strike doesn’t do as much damage as a nice fat Obliterate, but as they say, you do 0 DPS when you’re dead. Anti-Magic Shell works wonders against AoE magic damage. Remember that your healer is dealing with a much more challenging mana situation than they’re used to and may have to choose between healing you and healing the tank. Don’t stand in the fire - or at least use Anti-Magic Shell.

Stand in the good. Some healing classes now have area-targeted AoE heal-over-time spells - think a healing Death and Decay - that they can cast into the middle of the fight to help keep the tank and the melee healed up. Learn what these look like and stand in them. For the love of all that is unholy, stand in them.

Interrupt whenever you can. Even trash mobs can do magic damage that will put a huge dent in your tank’s massive HP - not to mention yours if it’s an AoE. Learn what mobs cast interruptable high-damage spells and use Mind Freeze to stop them. Make sure your unit frame of choice has cast bars turned on for your target and keep an eye out for in-game and DBM warnings. Keeping the tank alive keeps everybody alive.

Save the healer. The short duration on Chains of Ice keeps it from being a proper crowd control spell, but if you notice something pulling away from the pack and heading over to eat the healer’s face it can be a lifesaver. Taunts can also be used in a pinch, but again, get it to the tank and then let them take it.

Remember, it’s an exciting new world for all of us. Be patient with your tanks, give your healers time to drink, stay out of the bad, and we’ll all be back in epics in no time.

Death Knight 101: Tanking Basics

Whenever I ask my friends what sort of topics they'd like to see covered on a Death Knight blog, I almost always hear, "Tell them how to tank!" I came into DK-ing from playing a Prot Warrior in Burning Crusade, so I had already learned the basics of tanking back when "threat" was as much about yelling at your shaman friend who thought Chain Lightning was the best thing ever as it was holding the attention of the mobs. But for a lot of people, their Death Knight is their first tanking class. If that's the case for you, well...welcome to the wonderful, stressful, but ultimately satisfying world of tanking!

Let's start with the two most basic aspects of tanking: Threat and Mitigation.

Threat
Since patch 3.0, generating threat has been much easier than it used to be. Until your DPSing friends start pushing at least 4k DPS you'll likely hardly ever bother to glance at a threat meter. But it's still important to understand the concept, because to hold threat first you have to establish it.

Threat is, essentially, based on damage. So how do we generate more threat than the DPS if we do less damage than them? That's thanks to our good buddy Frost Presence. The most important thing you as a Death Knight can do to generate threat is to stay in Frost Presence! In addition to other benefits, Frost Presence makes the little bit of damage we do much more threatening than, say, your mage friend's damage. But you can't just turn on Frost Presence and stand there. Threat generation is why you will see tanking armor with DPS stats like Hit on it and why so many talents are shared between a good tanking spec and a good DPS spec in the same tree. Though I focused primarily on mitigation talents in my prior post regarding tanking talents, the need to generate threat also makes DPS talents like Bladed Armor excellent for tanking. This is why Threat of Thassarian, on the surface a DPS talent, made DW Frost tanking not only viable but the preferred tanking spec of the moment. All the mitigation in the world won't do any good if you can't hold the boss' attention well enough for the DPS to do their job.

When tanking, one should keep in mind the need for both single-target and AoE threat. Single-target threat is most important on bosses and on those rare occasions when DPS can be coaxed into focusing fire. However, whenever engaging more than one mob you always need to employ AoE threat tactics for one very important reason: so your healer doesn't get eaten. The most important tool Death Knights have available for AoE threat is Death and Decay, and I personally recommend it in any situation where you're pulling more than one mob. It's also a good idea to hit Pestilence as soon as your diseases are up on your main target to spread your DoTs around, and then of course Howling Blast if you're Frost. Death and Decay alone is enough to keep mobs off your healer, but a full disease and HB rotation will give you enough threat on the whole group to let the DPS say "lol kill order". As someone who started tanking as a warrior, nothing makes me happier than to see the DPS kill something I've held aggro on exclusively through AoEs.

And for any class, no matter your level or your gear, the single most important thing you need to do to establish and hold threat is pay attention! Death Grip or Strangulate that caster who didn't run into your Death and Decay with the rest of the pull. Taunt (in our case, that's Dark Command) that mob running off to smack the mage around. Situational awareness isn't what makes you a good tank, it's what makes you a tank, and you can never learn it too early or practice it too much!

Mitigation
The other basic aspect of tanking is mitigation, or your ability to take punishment and stay alive while not making your healer cry. This is a much more passive thing than threat. You will have abilities that you can use to decrease the amount of damage that you take based on your level and spec, but primarily your mitigation will be tied to your gear and your talents. I don't like bogging down my DK101 posts with too much math because I don't want them to be obsolete in a month's time - that's what the links to Elitist Jerks and Tankspot on the sidebar are for - but once you reach 80 there will be some vitally important numbers to remember.

While leveling, though, there aren't many benchmarks for mitigation, so the most important thing (apart from, again, Frost Presence) is to be as well-geared as you can manage. I can vouch for the fact that a DK in an Unholy DPS spec can get away with tanking Blood Furnace in starter gear and plate heirlooms because I did it once for a few pulls when the tank DCed, and my healer friend said it was no trouble keeping me up. But if you plan to tank as you level, put points into a proper spec for it and grab every quest reward with Defense you're offered. Greens with "...of the Champion" stats are also excellent. You don't need to have every slot filled with tanking gear like you do when you're 80, but the more you have, the better. Make sure all your armor is plate. You may have found some awesome leather gloves for DPS, but no one but a druid should be caught trying to tank in anything but plate. And that goes for any heirlooms you may have, too. Don't try to tank anything in cloth heirlooms! I saw a paladin try it once and it was not pretty.

Anything I have to say about level 80 mitigation will be completely obsolete once Cataclysm comes out, but for now, if you decide you want to start tanking at level 80, make sure you have at least 535 Defense Rating for Heroics and 540 for raids! That's Defense Rating, not raw Defense. This will keep you from taking massive critical hits. You also want items with Dodge and Parry for mitigation and Stamina for straight-up HP. Since Death Knights don't use shields, we don't benefit from Shield Block. In general, it's best to have as much of those primary mitigation stats as possible, especially as you're starting out and getting a feel for the role.

Balancing the Two
I often see newer tanks who are still getting a good grasp on these concepts asking, for instance, if they should use DPS weapons vs tanking weapons when dual wielding. This is an excellent example of deciding between threat (DPS weapons) vs mitigation (tanking weapons), and often these decisions are situational. If you're running Heroics in full T9 or T10 with equally geared DPS and heals, then you want to focus on threat so you can stay ahead of your friends. If you're just starting out in Heroics or with a group running earlier Wrath raids and your DPS friends aren't riding your tail on the threat meters yet, you might as well make life easier for the healers and focus on mitigation. Sometimes it's even good to put a nice slow hard-hitting DPS weapon in your main hand and keep a tanking weapon in your offhand for the mitigation stats.

With these basics in mind, I encourage anyone interested in tanking with their Death Knight to use the aforementioned resources to find the most up-to-date information on the specific numbers they want to be aiming for as of the most recent patch. Then check that Tank role, queue up, and good luck!

Death Knight 101: What Makes a Tanking Spec?

I mentioned in my last post that there are tanking options in every talent tree, but that you wouldn't want to use exactly the same spec for tanking that you do for DPS. So what sets a tanking spec apart from a DPS spec when they're both in the same tree?

The Big Three
Each tree has a first-tier talent that's a must-have for tanking: Blade Barrier in Blood, Toughness in Frost, and Anticipation in Unholy. Once you've filled out your chosen tree to the 51-point talent, these should be your next priority if you plan to tank while leveling. No level 80 tanking spec should ever be lacking these talents! You can use these as a cheat sheet in PuGs to see if your DK tank is actually a tank and not just a DPSer who wanted a faster queue. These talents, in addition to a set of proper tanking armor and a tanking-appropriate weapon rune, are part of what keeps you from going squish like a clothie.

The A La Carte Talents
Each tree also has at least a couple damage-mitigating talents far enough into the tree to make them prohibitive to pick up unless you're committing to that tree. Frost has several: Frigid Dreadplate, Unbreakable Armor, Improved Frost Presence, and Acclimation. Lichborne used to have a damage-mitigating component, but it's since been nerfed into something more suitable for PvP than tanking.

Blood's tanking talents are less directly mitigation-based. Scent of Blood doesn't mitigate on its own but procs when you mitigate. Veteran of the Third War gives a Stamina boost. Rune Tap, Improved Rune Tap, Vendetta, Mark of Blood, Bloodworms, Improved Death Strike, and Vampiric Blood are all self-healing talents. Spell Deflection and Will of the Necropolis are the only real mitigation talents in the tree. Improved Blood Presence should be skipped in a Blood tanking spec as you will still tank in Frost Presence (which I'll be writing about later.)

Unholy has the fewest talents with tanking utility, but Magic Suppression and Bone Shield do provide some mitigation. Again, Improved Unholy Presence should be skipped in a tanking spec because you won't be tanking in Unholy Presence.

Keep in mind that you may not need to use every tanking talent in your chosen tree, as depending where they're at in the buff/nerf cycle some may not be worth taking at the moment. And Death Knights can still do acceptable DPS out of Frost Presence with a tanking spec - not competitive with a proper DPS spec in raids, but good enough for soloing. When leveling or even in PvP you might want to put some points into these tanking talents for survivability.

Next I'll be explaining the Presences and why the best Presence may not match the tree you're specced into!

Death Knight 101: The Talent Trees

Because we start at level 55 and unlock our talent points over the course of only three levels' worth of quests, the question of which tree to put your talent points in comes up much sooner for Death Knights than any other class. We are also unusual for having talent trees that are less clearly-defined than most classes, as you can find a spec in any tree for either tanking or DPS (though you shouldn't rely on the same one for both if you want to do either well). There are more nuances than just, "This tree is for tanking," and as a result your choice of spec is based more on your own personal preference than anything else. So which one do you pick?

Before I really get into the meat of it I'd like to note that this post isn't going to be about min-maxing except for the occasional "As of this posting..." comment. We didn't see nearly as many adjustments to our class in the most recent patch as we have in prior ones, but Blizzard is still working out the kinks. The flavor of this month may not be the flavor of next, and I would like this post to still be a useful resource next month. Therefore, I'm just covering the concepts of the different talent trees rather than what's currently best. As always, I recommend Elitist Jerks for up-to-the-minute theorycrafting.

Frost
I'll start with Frost because, as you may have noticed, it's my specialty. Early in development, Blizzard declared Frost to be the tanking spec for Death Knights. They later changed their minds and gave all specs viable tanking options, but it's kept that reputation. More recently it's become the dual-wield spec because it is the only tree with talents that apply specifically to one-handed weapons. Both of these are misconceptions to a certain degree: It has excellent, solid tanking options but is not the only tree for the task, and while your DPS will be gimped if you try to dual wield as any other spec there are perfectly good two-hander-based Frost specs.

Personally, I see Frost as the AoE spec, whether you're DPSing or tanking, no matter what weapon you're carrying. The tree's 51-point talent, Howling Blast, is an AoE powerhouse for both damage and threat, doing damage on par with Obliterate on each mob it hits. Frost tanking is comparable to Paladin tanking for AoE threat generation, and it's excellent in any situation with trash pulls, especially if you're dealing with a rowdy PuG. For leveling, it's best for burning down large groups of mobs. If you're going to dual wield, the talents Nerves of Cold Steel and Threat of Thassarian are absolutely required for reasons that are self-evident in their descriptions. No other tree has talents that are specifically geared to bringing DW damage in line with two-handers.

The downside to Frost for most people is that, compared to the other trees, it's frankly kind of boring. There's no real gimmick to it. Even from a lore perspective, you have the necromancy tree, the vampirism tree, and the...hypothermia tree. The 9k+ AoE crits keep it interesting enough for me, though. The emphasis on proc-based talents like Killing Machine and Rime make it more reactive, which doesn't appeal to everyone.

TL;DR: Spec Frost if you want to dual wield or if you want to have strong AoE capabilities.

Blood
The whole point of Blood is survivability, both through raw stamina and self-healing. Early on it was primarily considered a leveling tree, since the self-heals meant you could keep going with very little downtime. More recently it's become a popular raid-tanking spec, trading Frost's AoE threat for talents that just plain keep you alive longer. Where Frost's threat generation is like a Paladin's, Blood's is like a Warrior's, with more emphasis on single targets. DPS is likewise more single-target based, with Strength-buffing talents that improve your overall damage but no AoEs except the basic class ones. This is fine for leveling, since you likely won't have more than a couple mobs to deal with and you can survive long enough to take them all down one at a time. It's also very good for boss fights. As a whole, Blood is the least magic-focused of the talent trees.

The downside to Blood is that when tanking, much like Warriors, you need time to ramp up threat on multiple mobs, which requires your DPS to actually show some restraint and maybe follow a *gasp* kill order. For DPS, your numbers won't look quite as good on those big trash pulls as more AoE-based classes.

TL;DR: Spec Blood if you want self-healing and extra survivability.

Unholy
The poor Unholy tree has been nerfed and buffed and tweaked all over the place since Wrath went live, but the basic concept has stayed the same: This is essentially the pet spec. All Death Knights can summon a ghoul for a short period, but with Master of Ghouls you get a permanent buddy. It even gets a new name randomly generated from some ghoulish words every time you raise one, some of which are unintentionally hilarious: I have a friend who once summoned a Gravelstealer, inspiring us to express concern about the safety of our driveways, and I once saw a Bonegobbler which made me giggle because I have a dirty, dirty mind. The perma-ghoul is a great little DPS boost for groups or soloing as well as an irritant for PvP. It's also useful for distracting any mobs that might attack when you're mining or herbing. I went Unholy DPS for a bit before 3.2 made Frost dual wielding viable, and I missed my ghoul when I changed. Unholy also has an AoE in the form of Corpse Explosion, but it requires you to have finished killing something to use it, so it doesn't have quite as much utility as Howling Blast.

The downside to Unholy is that, while you certainly could tank in an Unholy spec, there's nothing to recommend it like Frost's AoE threat or Blood's survivability. There's also the added responsibility that comes with using a pet, such as keeping it from randomly attacking the wrong things.

TL;DR: Spec Unholy if you want to play as a pet class, or if you think making corpses explode is the best thing ever.

Hopefully now you have a better idea of which talent tree is right for you and your up-and-coming Death Knight. In an upcoming post I'll get more in depth on the nuances that can make the same tree good for both tanking and DPS roles!

On "Rotations", Part 2: DPS

On Friday I posted about a fairly standard tanking rotation for Frost Death Knights, and I'd recommend at least glancing over that article first since I'll be referring to it a bit here. Death Knights produce threat by DPS, so the abilities that generate the most threat, with a couple exceptions, also generate the most DPS. There was a little controversy in the comments about another rotation that's gained some popularity, and if that rotation becomes a little more accepted I'll write up an article on it as well, but for now I'm focusing on the best-known Frost rotation that also, IMO, gives the best idea of how the class is intended to function.

I will note again that this rotation is helped immensely by having Glyph of Disease, which causes Pestilence to refresh your diseases on all targets. If you prefer not to use that, you'll have to add another Icy Touch > Plague Strike to refresh the diseases. It's very important to keep your diseases up! You may even want to look into an addon to help you track them if you don't have one already.

Again, your rotation will vary slightly depending on whether you're fighting a single target or AoEing. Frost is excellent for AoEs thanks to the high AoE damage of its signature 51-point ability, Howling Blast. I usually start off with Icy Touch > Plague Strike to get my diseases up, a Pestilence to spread the love around, Howling Blast, and then a Blood Strike to turn over that last Blood Rune. You want to make sure Frost Fever is up on everything before even bothering with Howling Blast. After that it's just a matter of hitting Howling Blast whenever it's available, Frost Strike to dump HP, Pestilence when you need to refresh diseases (or Icy Touch > Plague Strike > Pestilence if you're not glyphed for it), Obliterate whenever your runes are refreshed and Howling Blast is still on cooldown, and Blood Strike to flip Blood Runes. And be sure to take advantage of those Killing Machine and Freezing Fog/Rime procs! I generally skip Death and Decay when DPSing because I'd rather spend those runes on Howling Blast. You can try it if you really trust your tank, but I wouldn't recommend it with anything but a paladin or another DK, and not until they have a good tight hold on the group. It's a decent enough AoE DoT, but it does generate extra threat, relies on keeping the mobs standing in it, and at a whopping 1 of each Rune it's the most expensive ability in your arsenal.

On a single target, just as when tanking, you want to focus on Obliterate over Howling Blast unless you have a Freezing Fog/Rime proc. Killing Machine procs can be put to use with Frost Strikes unless Freezing Fog/Rime is up. Even on a single target, it's better to use Pestilence to refresh your diseases if you're glyphed for it.

The main differences between the Frost tanking and DPS rotations, beside the hopefully obvious difference that you're doing it in Blood Presence instead of Frost Presence, are the lack of Death and Decay, the lack of Rune Strike, and the lack of bothering with your mitigation cooldowns unless you really feel like popping Anti-Magic Shell (or as I call it, the Banshee Bubble) so you can keep standing in that Blizzard. Unbreakable Armor is also back to giving a Strength bonus, so it's still worth speccing into and using even for DPS. And pop a ghoul every so often! If Rune Strike does proc there's not much reason not to use it, but if you just dodged something that means you've gotten something's attention and you might want to throttle back for the tank to pick it up. For me it's extremely easy to switch between the two since they're so similar. Your biggest difference is going to be gearing, which is a subject for a whole 'nother post.

But before that, we'll be discussing something that's become a hot topic lately: How Not To PuG.

On "Rotations", Part 1: Tanking

I often get asked what my rotation is, and the idea of "rotations" as something to strictly follow is a pretty strong one in the WoW theorycrafting community, but personally I don't feel they're as valid for Death Knights as a spell priority. There is a particular sequence I always use for starting combat, but once that has been established it's largely a matter of using the best abilities for the resources I have available. Death Knights have a complicated resource system, and it lends itself to a much more reactive playstyle than, say, a mage. As always, my advice is heavily biased toward Frost, but can be adjusted for your spec of choice.

I should start by saying that I can't lavish enough praise on Glyph of Disease. It's vastly preferable to spend one Blood Rune that'll flip into a Death Rune to refresh your diseases on all targets than it is to spend a Frost/Unholy pair that could be spent on an Obliterate or a Howling Blast. I'm also fond of Epidemic from the Unholy tree for letting you refresh them less often. Disease management is important, but anything you can do to keep it from taking too many resources from other things is worth doing.

A good Death Knight will remember that their starting rotation is highly situational. If you're tanking multiple mobs, you want to start with Death and Decay, then Icy Touch > Plague Strike > Pestilence. From there it's just a matter of hitting Howling Blast whenever possible, especially if Killing Machine or Freezing Fog proc, Rune Strike when it becomes available, Frost Strike when you have the spare Runic Power, Obliterate if you have the runes for it but Howling Blast is still on cooldown, Pestilence whenever your diseases need to be refreshed if you glyphed for it, Icy Touch > Plague Strike >Pestilence if you didn't, and Blood Strike whenever you need to flip an extra Blood Rune.

When tanking a single target I personally skip over D&D and go straight to Icy Touch > Plague Strike > Obliterate, then Blood Strike/Blood Tap to churn out some Death Runes, Rune Strike/Frost Strike because I have some RP now, and then I move to a minor variation on the priority above. A good single-target priority is pretty much the same as the AoE priority with Obliterate replacing Howling Blast. If Freezing Fog procs, use it. Try to fit it in when your runes are on cooldown and you don't have enough Runic Power for a Frost Strike, since it's not as important to get maximum AoE out on a single target, but don't let it go to waste because even on a single target it's a nice chunk of damage and damage, of course = threat. If you have Glyph of Disease it's best to just hit Pestilence to refresh your diseases when needed, since even on a single target it's cheaper than Icy Touch > Plague Strike again and you get a Death Rune.

I'll note that I don't bother with Blood Boil much because Death and Decay generally provides all the AoE aggro I need until Howling Blast is available, and since it doesn't refresh into a Death Rune it's not as good a use of a Blood Rune as an ability that does.

There's also the matter of your mitigation cooldowns. Those are too situational to hammer into an iron-clad rotation, and on top of that hitting them takes away resources that would throw your rotation off if you stuck to a set one, so the fact that you need them pushes DKs further into a "priority" playstyle rather than a "rotation" one. I'm personally fond of tanking trinkets with a Use effect, as that gives me a mitigation cooldown to add to the rest that doesn't use any resources. I wouldn't turn down a significant upgrade in favor of one, but I would probably hem and haw over it for a bit first.

Tomorrow I'll be back with a look at optimal Frost DPS priorities. Spoiler alert! They're very similar to the tanking ones. :)