» Ranting on a FailKnight

Ranting on a FailKnight

Good morning, audience!

This weekend, I had the pleasure of schooling a fellow Death Knight in the art of not sucking. Sort of. It was more a matter of me foaming at the mouth and him saying “I’ll change, I’ll change”. Whether or not he’ll listen to me is a topic for another post.

In a conversation on how well Death Knights manage the damage they take, I pointed out that I am not too difficult to heal – in fact, I’m apparently so easy that my friend Wyat, on his slightly lowly geared but nonetheless awesome shaman, was letting me take damage because he was bored. This Knight, who I shall name Mo, told the channel that a healer once told him that he was harder to heal than her Death Knight friend.

“Then you have a gear issue,” I said as I pulled up Armory.

I found:

A distinct lack of enchants.
Two pure parry gems.
This spec.
Dual wielding – without DW talents!

“No, nevermind,” I added. “You have more issues than just gear.”

If one intends to tank, please, for the love of kittens (and to save yourself from being brutally torn asunder by serious or semi-serious DK tanks like myself) – take the first-tier tanking talents. They are: Blade Barrier, Toughness and Anticipation. In the course of making use of your skill priority, Blade Barrier will activate (whenever your Blood Runes are on cooldown), which gives your healer some time to recover. Toughness adds to the reduction in squishy by adding more armour to what you already have. Anticipation gives you more dodge – everybody likes dodge!

Parry gems are problematic because parry suffers more from diminishing returns than dodge does (the curve for DR on Dodge is 88%, 47% for Parry). I would suggest Regal Twilight Opal/Regal Dreadstone for the stamina (Enduring Forest Emerald/Enduring Eye of Zul if one needs to hit the defense cap but doesn’t need enough to warrant a pure Defense gem, I’m using Stalwart gems in my red slots until I figure out how to re-arrange my gemming now that I’m at the Defense cap). Those who raid will be gemming for stamina regardless of socket bonuses – remember, raids are not my focus.

Regarding dual wielding: Unless you have the proper fucking talents, don’t do it. A lot of people go on about how dual wield tanking is so not something that should be done and omg! Dual wield tanks suck – those people are about a patch behind. Dual wield tanking is viable with the proper set of talents and stats, end of story. There, I said it. Don’t believe me? Read Chill of the Grave. You also might want to check out TankSpot’s Death Knight Tank Guide.

Next – enchant your gear. ILevel 200 blues? Enchant them. Greens? Get thee to the Auction House, and if you don’t have any money, what the hell? Check the categories. I’m not going over making money in this article. Buy yourself some entry-level crafted tanking gear (Tempered Saronite, Tempred Titansteel, Titanium Rings and Necklaces), then enchant.

TL;DR – ATTENTION FAILKNIGHTS: Get yourself a proper tank spec. Look! Two examples and three templates. Enchant your gear. Hit Defense cap, then start upping your Stamina while getting the Hit and Expertise soft caps with some Strength, Dodge and Parry on the side. Don’t dual wield if you’re not using the proper Frost talents.

Remember: If you find that you’re squishier than you’d like – check your spec, then your stats, gear, gems and enchants and finally, your rotation/priority system. There is always a way to fix it, and it is not the class. We are spiky, not squishy.

Durrr-hurrr Moments, FAIL, Looking For Asshats/Group, Matojo is a Snarky Bitch, RAGE, Tank Talk, WHARRGARBL | admin | January 18, 2010 3:13 pm

2 Comments

By Mo, January 18, 2010 @ 7:47 pm

Yes, ill listen. your advice was good advice, which I intend on taking, and the only reason I was dual wielding is because I was going to dps in a random. You were there, you heard it. And ive been reading the website mentioned – I have every intention of going for a proper tanking spec soon, that is, when I can bother to gather one thousand gold (or respec). tdlr: im learning. and certainly not attempting heroics with that spec.
By admin, January 18, 2010 @ 9:48 pm

Hell, if you even intend to DPS while dual wielding… you still need a proper dual wield spec.

Without the talents Nerves of Cold Steel and Threat of Thassarian you’re missing out on:

- Extremely important Hit
- An increase to the damage done by your off-hand weapon (which reduces the default 50% damage penalty, I think it is)
- Extra damage from your off-hand weapon during some of your special skills (obliterate, for example)

Even if you’re DPS, it’s important to pick a tried and true, proven spec to maximize your damage output and make you more useful to your party – especially if you’re just learning. You can start experimenting with specs when you know the class inside and out.