DK Tanking

[Syban]

I am a newly turned level 85 death knight and already been asked to tank FL. I have an ilvl of 360 just wondering if i need to get better gear and some tips of bosses.

Much appreciated,

Syban, Draenor

[jokerfmj]

Your gear should be fine as long as you can play well. Remember to use your cooldowns often. VB shouldn't be saved until you're almost dead, use VB to assist your healers when you hit around 50% health. It's a 1 minute CD, practically nothing. If you're not using it often then you're using it wrong. Also remember that there are quite a few encounters that take some time to complete in Firelands just because of their mechanics. Feel free to use IBF more than once or twice a fight. It's really basic DK tanking, nothing new; for some reason however, some people seem to think that all of their CD's are emergency buttons.

As far as class specific encounter tips... I'll see what I can think of...

Shannox:
AMS over fire traps as often as you can. It'll help out your raid and you'll take next to no damage. This is especially helpful on heroic mode.

Beth:
Go up top, use your Mirror trinket. AMS/Mirror as much magic damage as you can. Your healer will be thankful.

Rhyolith:
AMS whatever spark damage you can, jump just before stomps (I don't know if this actually mitigates any damage but, it seems to sometimes.)

Alyss:
AMS through the worms fire breath for easier access during Torment.
AMS tornado's if you have a problem dodging them.
Don't get too close to the worm before Torment, the range is about a wing and a half length.
When Alyss flies through the middle, you can pestilence your diseases onto her and it does a pretty decent amount of damage.

Baleroc:
AMS inferno blade.
Remember, your healing abilities are percentage based, this helps during Decimation Blade (be sure you're using the Glyph of VB if you're not already.)

Stag:
You can AMS some of the orb if it spawns near you.
You should be able to DS (at least once) immediately after each attack during Scorpion phase; sit on your runes if you need to in order to make this happen.

Rag:
AMS/Mirror every trap, there's no need to take any extra damage from these.
DG any adds during transitions that are getting too close to the hammer. This also works well for nearly dead adds if your healers are having a hard time getting everyone topped up during transition (or during transition 2, to give your DPS some more time to down the Scion's before Rag reemerges.)
Pop up bone shield when the other tank taunts Rag so you'll have it up when you take him back.
AMS/Mirror during flame seeds to avoid as much damage as possible.

That's about all I have right now.

[SybanDraenor]

Yeah thanks, I have tried all of the things you said on the bosses and i seem to find my self being more survivable and helping the healers. Think the advice you have given me has made me a better player as a whole while knowing when to use my VB, IBF etc.

Thanks Alot!

[jokerfmj]

Glad it helped. :)

[SybanDraenor]

also, we have started on 10 player hc now, and if you looked on armory see my gear is alot better than last time, now im needing a few tips on hc mode, ive already downed shannox hc using the method you said to AMS over traps etc and seemed to help raid out when trapping Rageface, would be awesome if you have anything on the hc bosses excluding shannox :)

Thanks again! :)

Syban, Draenor

[jokerfmj]

Glad that stuff helped out on heroic Shannox, and congratulations on downing him.

I actually DPS on Rhyo, Beth, Baleroc and Stag heroics (that raid composition lacked a hunter so Chillblains helped out on Beth's adds. Also, I was able to AMS 1-2 broodlings every 45 seconds and take nearly no damage. Myself and an SPriest soaked them all quite easily.)

Honestly, I never really had a problem with Alys, so I'm not sure that I can give you many tips there that are different from normal mode. I had a macro that cast Chains of ice on the meteor, and I pretty much spammed that on the first one that spawned and we used that as our slow while the DPS burned it. It usually stopped near the middle and this helps out tremendously during firestorms (or whatever they're called.)

When the sad face debuff appears on the bird you're tanking, count to 7, eat a worm, repeat. HS near Alys to get as much damage as possible, etc...

If you have specific questions please let me know and I'll answer to the best of my knowledge (DPS or tank, although tanking is my forte... lol) But, as far as preemptive tips, I'm not sure I found the fights that much different.

[SybanDraenor]

yeah cool i normally go dps aswell for Bale, Rhyo and Major, and i could go dps for beth hc aswell cause we are lacking a hunter and since we only use two heals we got a extra healer that has a tank spec. Yeah for alys we have tried him just to get familiar with tacs but our main prio now is going to be lord and major hc since Raid leader thinks that they are the easier 2 of the 7 (not including shannox). and i was doing exactly what you were doing with chains of ice on the meteor, just a question there whats the bests class for killing meteors, Spriest or Boomkin since we are lacking a bit of ranged. The spriest normally flies up and we have boomkin killing meteors just wondering whats better. Yeah for the adds i tend to pop VB when reaching 50% along with the dodge revered trinket with avengers as helps when im moving towards a worm. Ah i never knew that you stand near middle and hit boss at same time will be trying that next time i attempt it. Yeah will do mate, been a great help so far :D

Cheers!

Syban, Draenor

[jokerfmj]

When we were first trying Alys we were having some difficulties with the meteors being killed near the edges of the rooms. We had our Boomkin on them and whoever happened to be within range. After a while I mentioned to my RL that I thought it would be beneficial to have all ranged DPS on the ground nuke the meteors as soon as they dropped, then return to their previous assignments. That's what we did and the meteors generally died right near the middle. So, my answer to you is, use all of your ranged that's on the ground to nuke the meteor as quickly as possible.

If you guys are appropriately geared (and skilled), DPS shouldn't be an issue on the druids or the hatchlings.

Other than Shannox, I'd say Stag and then Baleroc is the easiest (since the nerf the DPS requirement is way down and the hardest part is not spreading torment with countdown), Rhyo would be next (1 tank, 2 heals, chillblains is nice for the oozlings but, honestly not necessary -- Free HB's on the fragments help though).

My order post nerfs would be (I only downed 2 pre-nerf, so I can't speak for that):
Shannox
Domo
Baleroc
Rhyo
Alys
Beth
Rag

[SybanDraenor]

well everyone atm in the raid is in the region of 374-380 ilvl so it technically should be enough to work our way through the first hc bosses.

also raid leader hs decided to go baleroc after shannox, but thnking about suggesting to him to go domo and since we are generally a melee heavy raid having 3 melee and 2 ranged we got a reasonable set up for dps wise.

[jokerfmj]

My guild did Baleroc quite easily and we were melee heavy (Ret pally, Rogue, Warrior, and I DPS'd as a DK because our warrior tank pulled really low DPS.) We had a SPriest, Warlock and Boomkin as ranged with a Shaman and Paladin healing. The biggest problem you will probably run into is not spreading torment while coming together for Countdown.

Great communication and teamwork make this fight a joke with the DPS requirement nerf; but it's a matter of people being able to react to the changing situation without spreading their torment debuff.

I've read a few strategies where an SPriest will take the entire first crystal (disperse at 19 stacks I think it is) and both healers spam him with heals in order to get their stacks up. The tank just has to pop whatever CD's he has in order to live through the first crystal.

With your gear levels (and the nerfs) you shouldn't have issues with Baleroc or Domo.