Thinking of switching from frost to unholy tankingFollow

I was reading through DK builds and came across this build for tanking:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=j0xMZ0xZfg0ctboxeVocsht

I am currently using this build:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=j0EZGghthebohoVosx0g



Curious is this worth looking into or is frost the better route?

Also I have been searching almost all night long, but can't find a dual wield build for DK's (just planning ahead for dual spec)

Yeah, there is no reason not to have Imp Icy ouch if it is at all possible, ESPECIALLY in an AoE scenario. That is an additional 6% speed decrease for every mob. When fighting a group of 10 mobs, that is a hell of a lot of reduction to help your healers out.

Corpse Explosion sucks. Even with huge groups, its damage is way lower than, say, Unholy Blight and a rune strike on your group's main target would be better. Especially because you cannot even use it until something dies. In many AoE scenarios, the mobs will be hitting the ground around the same time, so it isn't even really helpful beyond the main target's initial death.

I don't like Desecration, personally, because 5% additional damage for 12 seconds isn't that helpful for a tank who isn't working to maximize DpS. 5 points is a LOT. I would put those 5 points into Bladed Armor instead. 5%? Maybe not, but it is passive and will help in boss fights where you are moving (where Desecration can actually be a hindrance).

I don't know how useful WP is for AoE tanking, mostly because I don't think our diseases constitute any kind of large portion of our threat. However, it IS a decent DpS boost, if not a threat-heavy one (though Frost Presence helps). Taking it is probably better than not taking it, but I worry that those points can be spent better elsewhere--like in SS, Virulence, on the way to Lichborne, MoG, SummG, etc.

There are definitely holes in that build. If you run with a set group you designed it for, they may not matter as much as we are making them. But, really think about it.

And, note, you need to think about your rotation. If you take Imp DnD, you are probably planning on using it every 15 seconds. Our runes have a 10- second CD. That means you will either be waiting for DnD to come up, or waiting for your rune to come up. So, think about it, your rotation will almost never be giving you an opportunity to use BB/BS. You are going to be using 90% of your free Blood Runes to spread diseases/cast DnD. So, are talents boosting the effect of said abilities really helpful? Or, should you get rid of/reduce the number of points in Imp DnD to two, allowing for it to be cast every other rotation?

Either way, you will only be getting 1 Death Rune per rotation. And you will likely be using that up again as a BR anyway.

lol and this is why I brought the build here instead of wasting my money and time on it.

It might not look like it at first sight, but Frost seems to actually build more AOE threat significantly faster thanks to simple IT - Pest - HB combos to open with and the new Killing Machine keeping things going at that rate.

I've been having far more issues tanking larger packs since I went Unholy than I used to have as Frost. The "snap"-threat of HB is simply missing.

How could you get out of it? You're still using the same runes/abilities. Only difference being that by the time you enter the big cooldown you should have enough RP as Unholy to fire up Unholy Blight. It will still take a significant amount of time to equal the damage/threat from HB. That's besides HB having twice the range and Deathchill being available every 2 minutes. Also, it's not like you don't want those seconds auto-attacking while waiting for your runes. It's after all where your Killing Machine procs come from. Add the occasional free HB from Rime to that...

I think there are plenty of reasons to pick Unholy over Frost for tanking, but AOE threat just doesn't seem one of them.

I usually run with the same people on my frost tank, usually 2 hunters a resto druid and somebody else. I haven't had any real aggro problems, but my dps is pretty smart for the most part. Still what I usually do is DnD, IT, Pest, Blood Tap, Howling Blast. It works pretty well as a opener, but I'm still learning myself.

What about the PTR and 3.1? Instead of looking to the now, I should be looking to the future which is a few weeks off still. I know they are moving HB to the bottom of frost and I wonder what changes that will bring, also I noticed they are changing the presences as well.