Death Knight Tank In Depth Guide Wrath of the Lich King

[@Heracles94.]

Dude you are a life saver, thank you for taking this much time to cover everything about DK

[@H4nssoon]

This guide is just miles ahead of any other DK Tank guide out there. Deserves more views

[@vrubinets]

Wow, useful guide about DK tanking. So hard to find those nowadays. Most youtubers are just presenting wowhead instead :)

[@Mediiiicc]

Casting Horn of Winter refreshes the duration of blade barrier which allows you to keep two blood runes unspent should you ever feel the need to do so. Useful on pull and anytime there are expected damage spikes upcoming.

[@Zatar]

Once the blood runes are on cooldown most / all abilities will trigger blade barrier until the blood come off cooldown.

[@VizerPS]

really fun guide to listen to (even though i absorbed a ton of DK tanking theory from the classic DK discord and i no longer even play the class), you're my favorite classic WoW youtube person because you don't treat the game like a job, or something to minmax all the fun out of. DKs are definitely a top tank in this expansion, especially because of their flexibility to just DPS when they don't need to tank. for me though, that was one of the downsides. if you're someone who wants to spend your dual spec on two raid specs, and switch between them mid-run, tank DK is a blast. it's so fun to be able to play with different talents, and even change up which talents you feel like having from week to week, because DK has real choices. i didn't like dedicating both specs to raiding, though. if i could raid in 2-3 different groups on just my DK, every week, then i'd love it. but using both specs for raiding when i can only raid with one team in 25man and 10man... i think zatar oversells how good frost DK's AoE threat is. it's absolutely sufficient for holding aggro from any DPS, even demonology warlocks. threat-wise, though, in my experience (to be fair, i didn't try wearing full DPS gear and using frost presence, i still used tank gear + frost presence), prot paladins were still holding aggro from me when i was in full frost DPS spec, in tank gear, and in frost presence. i think paladin aoe threat is higher. "threat" is overrated, though-as i said, the frost DK tank trashing spec does enough threat to hold aggro from all the DPS. any more than that is overkill. on top of tanking trash well enough, it does more damage than the other tanks, i think? since it's basically a dps spec. i don't know if that's true, because prot warriors using the revenge spam dungeon tanking build will probably outdamage probably up to 5-6 targets. that spec has basically no mitigation though. my anecdote comes from week 1-2 25man naxx, though. and it wasn't a big sample size. if zatar insists that DK's frost trash tanking (howling blast + morbidity) spec does more threat than prot paladins, he's got way more experience than i do, so i'd defer to him

[@Zatar]

Paladins can definitely out threat you in aoe in smaller groups, but if you are pulling packs of 10+, any targets not hit by their hammer of the righteous they have bad snap threat. Also they are benefiting a lot from Holy wrath at the moment. You are right about having to commit 2 specs to pve. To be honest I feel like I need 3 for pve. Aoe tank, single target, and dps spec.

[@VizerPS]

i know, i spent hours agonizing over which 2 specs to take into raids as they opened up. i ended up doing trash tanking + single target blood mitigation to make sure i don't cause problems as a hateful tank on patchwerk early on. ultimately, i think that's a positive thing. being forced to specialize gives your character more of an identity. this is the level of customization other mmos (including retail WoW, which i prefer) should strive for: so many attractive choices that you're constantly wanting to change and try out new things

[@_faythene]

As someone who runs a frost dps spec and blood ot spec, I appreciate informing people of the threat potential for using HB, especially with KM locked in for the guaranteed crit, but the way you advertised it made it sound like you're running a blood MT spec and frost AoE tank spec as well which from the raid groups i've played with is not as viable as most will run a prot pally MT and you will be expected to have a dps offspec, and I would not spec the same as a frost dps and as a frost tank

[@bedivere246]

Great guide! Thanks a lot for your efforts. Btw on frost build, I personally think Blood of the north is super valuable because it gives you sometimes an extra HB/DnD/BB in case you need it for snap threat, especially on chain pulls that often happen. I rarely use rune tap or deathchill, but as you said, lots of talents are optional thanks to this flexible dk talent tree.

[@blummel97]

Very nice guide! Would you recommend the deadly glad wep for more stam or inevitable defeat to get closer to 6.5% expertise? What about ulduar weapons (I prefer 2h myself)

[@nugjoro]

I do not see Killing Machine ptoc?

[@sandrineconnolly4124]

hey loved your phase 1 loot prio, any chance for a phase 2 prio at some point?

[@georgie535]

They can do it all, horribly. Roll a Prot warr or a prot paladin.

[@antonismermigkas7517]

THANKS YOU MADE MY GAMING WITH YOUR SASSEION EASIER!!! 😀😃😁RESPECT!!!!!!YEAH!

[@BREAKocean]

Now that it has been some time. If you have around 5.1k gs. Is the frost tank spec good for gamma spams?

[@Zatar]

Yes. It’s the best gamma spec.

[@gudlaugurrobertsson7623]

would be nice to get a rotation guide on the frost tanking spec, its tough to keep blood striking and howling blasting... feels wierd to play that build.

[@DEEPGAMING980]

Bro ❤❤❤❤

[@yrvishappypostingarchive]

🪱

[@Erolious]

Brilliant! Well done. This is by far the best WoW guide I’ve seen yet. Keep it up @Zatar!

[@Ghost-fe1vp]

Biggest weakness imo: getting a raid spot.

[@larssamolberg8003]

Is raiding as a DK really that bad?

[@VizerPS]

yeah i stopped playing my DK because frickin 50-60% of the wotlk classic playerbase is a paladin, dk, or warrior. and having a tanking offset is easy as dirt. if it was just the expansion's new class being popular, that would have been fine. but it's not; all three of those classes are popular, and they're plate users that can tank, and they share lots of gear.

[@larssamolberg8003]

@@VizerPS So there is an oversaturation of tanks in your opinion?

[@VizerPS]

@@larssamolberg8003 definitely. they're a dime a dozen because all the plate wearers can see that no one wants them. they shine themselves up by keeping a tanking set and they can tank any t7 content (which is a boring joke) with ease. it's not even remotely difficult to tank. the job's easy in wotlk and the gear requirement in t7 is not high. things may change in ulduar and onward, with "part-time tanks" no longer sufficing with their offset tanking gear, but i don't see it. wotlk is a 13 year old game that was tuned for a much different generation. tank gear requirements will not be that big of an issue. plus, tanks are barely even needed in t7. i played a dk tank and for 80% of naxx, you don't tank. you go frost and switch to your dps offset and you dps. you let the paladin solo tank trash and solo tank almost every boss (minus some like gluth, gothik, anub'rekhan, patchwerk, kinda thaddius, and four horsemen). most raids can just have a dps player toss on their offspec tanking set to handle the few fights that need more than one tank.

[@larssamolberg8003]

@@VizerPS Shame, was looking forward to learning/starting out tanking in 10m content on a DK. Will still probably give it a go. If I can't raid then I guess there is always pvp to unload my frustrations in. Thanks for the great reply!

[@jarandboge5679]

This is a fantastic guide. Thank you.

[@SavageZebra67]

cant believe this guide doesn't have more views

[@christiansvendsen6668]

can you speak to gearing/specing soloing old content? - could be a video in itself

[@william18159]

How did you manage to get the enemy's swing timer to show up? I looked up the WA linked in your description, none seem to include it. Thanks in advance!

[@Zatar]

Addon called weaponswing timer

[@william18159]

@@Zatarthanks for the reply and the great content! There aren’t many dk tank guides out there and most are copy-paste from icy-veins or wowtavern. Yours stands out with more in-depth tricks (like timing death strike) and reasoning behind choices. Love it!

[@JetsetJourneystravels]

In this weake aura of yours I downloaded it here and the frost fever and the blood plague are not showing the cd would you know why?

[@Zatar]

I don’t use a weak aura to track either. I use plater and it shows those debuffs. I have a weak aura that tells me to pestilence when blood plague gets low.

[@rune7683]

Hey Zatar, you planning to do an Ulduar list ?

[@tradleoparden.arborist]

Worthy of the title "in depth" for sure

[@Inconnuedelaseine]

really good video! Do raid bosses still parry haste?

[@ValehGahramanov]

Hey what is the addon u used which one shows Ingredients when u disenchant item?

[@Zatar]

Enchantrix I think, usually comes with certain auction house Addons like TSM

[@niceft1031]

Great video forsure!

[@maloiik]

very interesting guide thanks. Can you keep us updated about the parry haste status of bosses pls

[@Zatar]

Yeah I can make a video if they are changed either in t7 or t8

[@coolclips101]

Great content as always. Thanks

[@kaiwar123]

Army of the Dead especially on Satharion is probably not a good idea because of the taunt of the army and the subsequent eratic turning of the boss during the flame breath.

[@Zatar]

Army mobs won’t taunt sarth

[@kaiwar123]

@@Zatar Oh that's good to know. I was under the impression that every tauntable boss would be taunted by the Army aswell.

[@Zatar]

Not in raids

[@ekijii]

@@kaiwar123 Tehy taunt only in dungeons luckily

[@brendansh6942]

great video! great info!

[@brendansh6942]

I am a returning player so a lot of these updates are absolutely amazing, thank you.

[@mattmoore3976]

Solid video, what about an unholy tank build?

[@Zatar]

For raid, no real strength over blood in my opinion. Blood doesn’t have issues with sustained threat, snap is the issue and unholy doesn’t really help with that. You lose a lot of the defense in blood with no real upside. In dungeons you can tank fine by just going in frost presence even with a full on unholy DPS build, so I wouldn’t play a hybrid tank unholy build. I do however play full unholy DPS as off spec right now in 25 mans for when I’m not tanking.

[@mattmoore3976]

For sure, definitely can’t compare to the survivability of blood. I meant more compared to frost and aoe threat. I’m trying out a build similar to one rugs put up and the threat gen is extremely high most ape pulls only need a dnd and single target threat is through the roof. Also, slightly better magic damage tanking.

[@Zatar]

Personally I think frost tank just has better snap threat and snap is all that matters in wrath.

[@MJ-di6ze]

Dude thank you so much for the upload. I need to finish this video

[@jesserivette4503]

Sadly in p3 there aoe is bad even compared to bear also with aoe tanking bear self heal is amazing from savage def and its constant when swiping, Ive got all 3 other tanks yet to have dk ive got an 80 nvr played after but im lvling another dk rn to tank on current server all my tanks are on so well see im just worried like yes they have BiS single target but like they take alot of dmg right so if pally war or bear can take less dmg and still hold threat could be wrong im excited to see how it works..!! Im also a HUGE FAN of pushing tanks to the limit and see what im able to solo tank as much as humanly possible atleast in 10m ULD Full HM was able to do on all 3 including bear and only solo tanked heroic 25 uld solo on Pally(aside from council) cant wait to push it to the limit!(But as you where talking about the 2m CD on IBF Just made me think of when Im on warr prot war still has best def cd ever sheild wall being 60% with talent and glyph puts it on 2m CD witch is lowkey insane) great vid just some thoughts I just had to try DK b4 ICC just so I can try all 4 tanks on LK

[@D3moknight]

Solid video overall, but I disagree on the expertise call. Most of our threat comes from Icy Touch and Rune Strike for single target, and Death and Decay and Blood Boil/diseases for AOE. Expertise doesn't do much for your threat. It does help your damage because a significant amount of our damage comes from auto swings, but it's not something I would focus on. IMO hitcap is the only dps stat to really ever pay attention to. Once you reach defense cap, then go for stam and hit, but lean hit. After that, you just stack stam and armor. Any other combat ratings are just a bonus. Our damage is so non-existant that it feels wasted to ever gem expertise.

[@Zatar]

Expertise is not for threat or damage, it is for death strikes to connect, which increases healing and survivability.

[@InnuendoOutTheOther]

You should listen to what he says... nothing to do with damage

[@Runningwhore]

I would love a DK guide oriented PvP ! 😇