How to Play Death Knight TANK - The Complete Guide for WotLK

[@diode9946]

Bread and butter blood tanking spec: 8:15 AoE dungeon blood: 11:25 Double buff build (use it so the enhance shaman in your raid can spec their improved haste talent points into something else): 12:31 Frost tanking build: 13:20 In case anyone ever needs a quick reference to the talent point trees without having to watch the entire video again.

[@MRkhaotic11]

Super huge help for someone coming back to WotLK classic after leaving the original many, MANY, years ago! Thanks for the short, to the point, and easy to follow build guide for someone dusting of a lot of cobwebs from the memory.

[@littilwood]

Only thing I've noticed about tanking as Blood is that it's very difficult keeping threat on AOE targets. With the listed "BiS" build, you aren't exactly hit-capped, and while D&D does generate a high amount of threat, it's easily mitigated by great AOE dps, who will rip threat almost instantly in dungeons, unless you are able to get the D&D down, get your icy touch and plague strikes on the enemy (and without a hit cap, you are likely to miss at least one of them), and then get pestilence out and blood boil. Even then, if it's a really good DPS like a fire mage or boomkin, they've done so much AOE that all of that will still likely not recover the lost threat, so you find yourself struggling to round them all back up, while all your abilities are on cd. It's definitely not like my paladin. For anyone curious if I'm potentially missing something, my rotation is: D&D, icy touch, plague strike, pestilence, blood tap, blood boil, rune strikes and death coils when I have them, etc. My D&D does 74.4 Shadow damage per second, which seems quite low for a BiS situation. I am obviously using Frost Presence, and I also have 2% added threat on gloves. All of my reading seems to indicate that blood is simply bad with AOE threat. Single-target threat and survivability are fine. I am happy with any tips.

[@aciuschristophores7789]

Sure, go Frost DK deeply. I've done so and can clear all Heroic Dungeons, he lists this build from 13:20. I personally found more success with a 2-hander as I don't have great 1-handers yet, but Frost is fantastic for snap AoE threat (a crit-Howling Blast is godly).

[@killerhawks]

^ your not wrong. especially running heroics with boom chic's

[@core36]

i had the same problem. i currently run blood until will of the necropolis, frost with a single point in killing machine and unholy, using unholy command and morbidity. D&D glyph is a must for aoe threat. deathgrip and taunt any stray mobs, keep an eye on where to hit runestrike and icy touch next. i have 3 points in sudden doom and took heart strike. heart strike is very mediocre in terms of damage output, but with a free death coil, it is much better. heartstrike can make this proc on both targets it hits. bloodboil has no threat modifier and without the crit chance (basically none on tank gear) and increased crit bonus, it does very little damage. it has it's place as an opener, but you may only want to use it to keep blade barrier. or use heartstrike for the sudden doom procs, again, only to keep blade barrier up. death strike as well, only use it to gain death runes. no death runes -> use death strike, all frost and unholy runes are death runes -> no death strike. use your death runes for icy touch. i stopped using death coil in my rotation, runestrike is much more important and not having enough runic power to use it hurts our threat. i only use it to hit ranged targets. if i have aggro over all enemies, i only use runestrike, keep blade barrier and deseases up and deathstrike to keep my deathrunes, other than that, i try to keep everything off cooldoun to be able to react to any changes on the threat table and taunt if neccessary.

[@BloodyWoopah]

You do have a MT and an OFF-tank in a raid for a reason you know? Where I play, the MT is a DK/bear to be on boss MDs and TOTs go to them when a boss is engaged and an OT Paladin for trash mobs, since paladin if by far the superior AOE tank, there's no arguing over that so the trash pulls are done from the pally with MDs and TOTs to him.

[@Verdis_deMosays]

Great guide, thanks you absolute legend! As someone who mained DK tank in 3.3.5 back in the day on LK heroic guild farm, I disagree a bit on the blood build. Blood Gorged is a really useful threat talent, since 10% damage (most of the time) and 10% ArP scales really well with gear. Plus most healers want to keep you over 75% health...hopefully. Heart strike is also better than most people give it credit for because of the massive crit bonus it can get seems to stack after the disease damage bonus. It absolutely slaps, especially with the ArP from Blood Gorged, which is up full time, and how much ArP you get later.

[@Darkmech]

Hey mate, thank you and cheers for the input. From what I could find the main issue with Heart Strike is it doesn't do that much more damage than Blood Strike, it barely has a threat modifier worth using as a prio either, so I think the point is better off somewhere else. That's just my opinion though of course. Blood Gorged as a damage option I guess is ok, but as a "tank" it doesn't really offer anything imo

[@evans7665]

Your threat from dk tanking is not really from any ability besides icy touch. Its kinda useless to spec into abilities like heart strike because they dont add too much to your threat. That being said, I take heart strike because its helpful in 5 mans.

[@hieudanh2112]

I just started to level DK and learning to tanking. Great video and infos. SUB!

[@GeoChad71]

I am so glad I found this! Outstanding info and channel! Subscribed immediately after watching this. I finally started a DK and had so many questions about tanking. You rock man!

[@Darkmech]

Thanks legend appreciate it!!!

[@Tsusday]

"video released 10seconds" ago WHAT already 20views?! You really helped me a lot to learn tanking in BFA. Mythic push were so much easier and tanking mythic as a BDK was much more easier and more fun thanks to your tutorials and quick guides. Not like other youtubers wasting 30+mins explaining ONE fight. Keep up the goodwork Darkmech! BDK nation rise up!

[@Darkmech]

Thanks so much mate, appreciate it!!

[@listoras2663]

Thanks so much for going down the rabbit hole and delivering solid information to all of us! Pure legend

[@Darkmech]

Haha most welcome mate!

[@andrewmaughan1205]

Interesting tutorial. I played WOW when it went live originally & clearly a lot has been changed since then. Back then, frost was the main tanking spec, blood was DPS & unholy was in a spot that didn't make sense to me and focused on it's ghouls, as best as I remember. I'm slept a few times since then though.

[@Darkmech]

Frost is still the main presence and in T7 you can legit pretty much tank as Blood, Frost or Unholy. Unholy is just flat out damage, frost combines damage with mitigation, and Blood is basically mitigation focused. It's not really till Ulduar area that blood and WOTN starts to shine. Wrath Classic also starts at the game version of 3.4 so a lot of changes had already been set in motion by Blizzard to make "Blood Tree" the tank tree type of deal.

[@killerhawks]

so great video man... my only issues not opening with D&C (or using it second in the rotation after grip) is like a pally not to open with concert. what are thoughts?1

[@mikefabricius2087]

Thank you for this video, as a brand new DK tank there’s a lot of videos out there, some a bit too informative while others lack info. Personally, I have been struggling to find the right spec and to really get into that spec. So far I have been enjoying blood aoe spec as it’s easy and rather forgiving. However, I have been looking into frost, but after researching further, it seems like it would be silly to change specs even if it was to dual wield and get more defensive stats. Would a DW blood spec be viable at all, at least for the struggles in the beginning of my gearing journey?

[@kamusacuarius5095]

Excellent video, but I'm missing the statistics, for icc 25H pls.

[@Darkmech]

When the ICC phase comes out, I'll likely go and make another video for that phase.

[@darianwydra6596]

best DK for dummies ever!! thanks!

[@Darkmech]

Thanks so much mate!!

[@jesserivette4503]

SO ive got all 3 other tanks in wrath well geared atm and am doing a DK rn why blood strike over heart strike, even with your dots up hearth strike is like 2% more dmg atleast reading tool tip and can hit 2 targets so single target if it does more dmg wouldnt I just use that?

[@wangyang8853]

I've yet to play a DK tank, but, Is there a reason why the single target opener is like it is in this video and other guides online? If you're Blood spec, your damage would be pretty insignificant right? Why not play to a Blood DK's niche of having the best single-target threat generation spamming Icy Touch in the opener instead since it's the main threat generator? In theory, you should be able to Icy Touch x 6 (Icy Touch > Icy Touch > Blood Tap > Icy Touch > Empowered Rune Weapon > Icy Touch > Icy Touch > Icy Touch) right?

[@core36]

Icy touch gives 7x the damage as threat, but wait, frost presence grants 45% more threat. This roughly equates to 10x threat for icy touch. Given everyone in your raid has the same gearscore, there should be no need to do more than one IT on the initial pull. You could still spam IT, but you at least want a plague strike in there. And a blood strike to gain blade barrier. And death strike to gain death runes. And pestilence if you have it glyphed and your diseases run out.

[@wangyang8853]

@@core36 Hi! Thank you for the feedback! I understand you'll eventually want a Plague Strike in there because you'll want to apply your DoTs and keep 100% uptime on your DoTs. The single-target opener in the video consists of 10 GCDs. The one I listed consists of 6 GCDs, so there's 4 GCDs of wiggle room there for a Plague Strike or Pestilence. Pre-pull, you can already have Blade Barrier up. Blade Barrier lasts 10 seconds, it takes 9 seconds to hit 6 Icy Touches. I know this is a bug for DKs and it's been a bug since OG Wrath but you can refresh Blade Barrier with Horn of Winter if you want 100% uptime on Blade Barrier, (not sure if Blizzard fixed this yet) other wise, you'd lose 3 seconds of Blade Barrier until you can consume your Blood Runes. You'll most likely lose damage if going to Icy Touch spam route. I guess my main question is how big of a difference in DPS is there between the two?

[@croszdrop1]

Is spell deflection really worth it? - for example, can you deflect Sarth breath?

[@Delaquoowa]

You can basically deflect anything that isn’t a dot. Breaths can be deflected

[@croszdrop1]

@@Delaquoowa o m g

[@savagedonut]

Good guide for 4 Builds. Is there a build that can tank everything, dungeons + raids and also can switch to dps easily?

[@Darkmech]

Hey mate, the Frost one would be my recommendation. You've got dual spec too if you wanted to have an overall tank build and then a focused dps build.

[@savagedonut]

@@Darkmech Yo yo, thank you for the response, understood!

[@Darkmech]

No worries mate, have fun!!

[@VoidShadow66]

Thanks that was great!

[@Oddman1975]

I started playing DK in WOTLK and are now main spec Frost DK, but i would like to start tanking in dungeons and 10 man, so as a new DK tank player what spec do you recommend, mitigation or AOE blood spec?

[@Darkmech]

In Tier 7 you can go ham as anything tbh. For all dungeons and Naxx etc. Unholy does a lot of damage at the cost of mitigation, Frost is great damage with some mitigation options, and blood is overkill for tier 7 but if you were main tanking it would be ok. I would go with the Blood AOE or the Frost Build as it'll serve you well through T7.

[@alexr.4955]

Hey man, thanks for this set guide

[@aishaimm]

Quick question; simply is it good ? ım playing blood elf paladin tank i want to change to death knight when i reach, is it good choice or paladin is better ?

[@Darkmech]

DK in Wrath is fantastic but Prot Palain and Prot Warrior are also great choices, in the end the content is deterministic around tank choice. So just play whatever you enjoy the most. DK is the hero class though ^^

[@aishaimm]

@@Darkmech yea yea i meant dk tank, thank for advice. Sub`ed

[@kyrian232]

"now what the fuck is double buff" that killed me!

[@Darkmech]

Researching all the Wrath DK stuff blew my mind 🤣

[@downs3627]

Thanks!

[@magnusmarvik5540]

Nice tutorial. You're having some microphone issues tho, I think it's the activate sensitivity being too high? Anyway, great stuff!

[@Darkmech]

Hey mate, thank you! I don't hear the microphone issues sorry?

[@magnusmarvik5540]

@@Darkmech It's extremely subtle. When you are silent for a bit, and start talking again, the volume "ramps up" a little bit. I was watching with studio headphones, so might not hear it with a normal one. Very good sound quality in general, it's only after short breaks.

[@tsunah2486]

​@@Darkmech After small pauses the sound seems to start off at a lower amplitude before "ramping up" to normal; couldn't hear it until I started listening for it though!

[@robertj6523]

why no unholy tank option ?

[@Xenalyn]

Good video but how to open tanking as AoE on Trash if Death & Decay is on cooldown?

[@Darkmech]

Either wait on your CD/runes or if a smaller packs / 3 mobs etc - BB, IT, PS and Pestilence to spread should be enough. But if it was a large pack I would be chilling the few seconds till it was up.

[@Xenalyn]

@@Darkmech Thanks for nice answer! I changed my talents to a mix of ST and AoE to run the build with the 3 points in the unholy -> Morbidity talent...this fixed my problem. Enjoy my like and subscription :)

[@Darkmech]

Thanks mate, appreciate it!!

[@Sadakostacos]

So why is heart strike a no no?

[@Darkmech]

Hey mate, Heart Strike doesn't do much more damage than Blood Strike. It basically doesn't have a threat modifier either, so I think and so do most people I've spoken to, that the point is better off elsewhere.

[@Sadakostacos]

@@Darkmech oh wow that’s interesting. I always thought it did. the cleave isn’t entirely needed I guess so I can see why not getting it would be useful in a raid scenario.

[@Tarkovrat69]

Bro looks like he mains death knight

[@Darkmech]

Gotta live it.

[@Awkd]

what gear stats do I need tho ?

[@Darkmech]

Can find that video right here - kzbin.info/www/bejne/d6itYoWMZ7mfe7s

[@Awkd]

@@Darkmech thank you sir

[@najiboutros]

What would your unholy DK tank build look like?

[@Darkmech]

Roughly something like this I think - www.wowhead.com/wotlk/talent-calc/death-knight/005-305-0350303051030151033051003133051 Would depend on if you would take Gargoyle or not too I think. Could easily move some points around, like I don't know how "needed" Virulence would be. But I think the main thing around unholy is just trying to find more damage at the sacrifice of mitigation. I think Frost just covers the best of those 2 worlds between Blood and Unholy.

[@najiboutros]

@@Darkmech Does Blade Barrier activate if my Blood Runes are Death Runes (from the Reaping UH Talent) and not on cooldown?

[@YTLGames]

How to do DK guide: make a Druid ❤️

[@Darkmech]

NEVER!

[@Danio88]

Give me same quality video about DK DPS - my OS in wotlk is unholy, and after Your bit of advice and info in this video tank does more damage and DPS. help

[@jerseyj2]

lol your “retail” screen snaps are from like legion. What’s that now, 4 expansions ago? Hardly “retail” now is it…

[@Darkmech]

What in the world are you on about!? 🤣The whole video is made from TBC classic footage and WOTLK at the start as it's a WOTLK DK Guide, WHAT ARE YOU SMOKING BRUV?

[@jerseyj2]

@@Darkmechwell…yeah, I’m smoking the top shelf shit, total 🔥 bro 😂😂 but the screen cap you show of retail at about 2:00 mins shows level 110 and right now retail is capped at level 70

[@Darkmech]

@@jerseyj2 haha ooooh kk now I see what you're pointing too, brah this was just to show the different rune colours that we moved too and it was the fastest screenshot I could show for 6 unholy, 6 frost, 6 blood runes compared to what is implemented in WOTLK. The item level hardly matters in this context, what a fucking odd thing to zero in on 🤣

[@jerseyj2]

@@Darkmech hey man! I can’t vouch for what my brain does all of the time! It definitely picks odd things to notice 😂 trust me, it’s been a life long struggle…hence all the pot lol! You gonna do a cata one? I’m brand new to DK tanking and well, it all just changed on me!

[@DankstaNug]

Once again, no love for Unholy spec tanks.

[@Darkmech]

Yeh Unholy is fine for dungeons but it doesn't really hold much to frost for Dungeons or the Tier 7 raid content, and after that point Blood really takes over. So wasn't really much of a point in researching unholy sorry!

[@DankstaNug]

@@Darkmech I honestly wonder where this general viewpoint is coming from. In original Wrath I tanked as unholy from Naxx to ICC, including in 3.3.5.

[@Darkmech]

@@DankstaNug Resources and TC communities are far more advanced in their understanding of tings, now than they were in Wrath. Also, no one is saying you can't, Unholy is not a terrible option for damage output. But from a mitigation perspective, Frost and Blood tree's are better. Frost is a good balance between the 2, still offering solid damage but more Mit than Unholy, and if you were main tanking in ICC then Blood from a mitigation standpoint is superior. If you have really good healers, and want to make lack of mitigation their problem, you can elect to do that.

[@Kyriacos92]

thats what i dont like about dk and this is where blizz should make changes to.....it doesnt feel u play a spec it just feels u play a role just for the raid or grinding stuff. its not like warrior where u feel like am arms am good on cleave and single target or fury am good on aoe and and single target or prot good on aoe an cleave!!dk feels like am raid main tank or dps no matter the specc and thats it

[@Darkmech]

I actually love DK like this, Wrath DK to me feels amazing, but obviously different strokes! It's probably why it was changed so heavily too, so you might very well be spot on.

[@buabhallconor1364]

Its not realy a complete guide mate

[@Beegashii]

I hardly ever see this macro mentioned in regards to Rune Strike. Macro this to everything! #showtooltip /cast Insert Spell Name /cast !Rune Strike Example: #showtooltip /cast Plague Strike /cast !Rune Strike /startattack You're welcome