@ iddigory...Follow

My armory.

But, if I had my talents reset right now, I'd probably do this or this. I just don't use CE often enough for it to matter (meaning never). The extra 10% DpS on DC would work better for me.

After that, it's all about balancing around your needs/gear, and you can use Rawr for that. Mostly, this would be Bladed Armor v. Imp. Icy Touch v. Virulence v. Scent of Blood v. Ravenous Dead. I'm sure there's an optimum for raiding, but I have never tanked one and don't intend to.

I'm not a fan of Desecration--I like complete control of my mobs, and it annoys me if they move too slow. Plus, since it's an area and not a debuff, you can end up with some mobs in a pack snared and others full speed (though that isn't common). Desolation is a completely valid talent though. I'm just not a fan of it for AoE, because it requires you to switch off one BB for it (which is an overall boost, I think, just not a huge one). I rather just get AP from Bladed Armor/Ravenous Dead. Or Hit, RP or IT damage.

I took it to experiment with it in an AoE tanking situation. The theory was that, with enough mobs, the RP per cast would be a greater overall DpS gain than DC.

The problem was that, realistically, by the time something died and I could use it, the rest were very soon to go as well. And I NEVER had threat problems (AoE or ST) as Unholy, so it didn't really make much difference. I'd go UB or something else, just for the added benefit on bosses (UB isn't great for me as a tank, because my AP is so low).

If you have a Rogue in your group, along with a Mage, it could be useful though. The Rogue requires you to focus on a single target, the Mage on multiple. It could make the difference between a dead DpS. But, again, this is only if the Rogue's DpS is sufficiently high to kill that single mob fast. Because Mages tend to pull early, not late. And Rogues the opposite, in my experience (I figure their first Envenom is what launches them over the AoE threshold, on those situations where my AoE threat isn't enough, which is rare because I can put out 3K+ TpS to an AoE target).

[EDIT]

Additional problem with CE, that I forgot to include, if we specifically compare it with (say) UB.

UB will add 10% to every DC that you cast unless a target dies during its tics. Since CE cannot be used until something dies, you will probably end up with 2 or 3 DCs at least on some of the tougher trash packs, like in the Frozen Halls instances, before you can use CE. That means the DpS is a comparison between CE x #of targets to DC + .1DC x # of uses before something dies.

So, even if CE is a minor buff to DpS/TpS over a single DC, it becomes less and less so as the battle goes on. And on some trash fights, UB would have been stronger in the end anyway. If you could re-use corpses, maybe not. But it's a one time thing as it stands now (if I recall properly. As my armory shows, it's been a while since I've touched my DK).

Edited, Feb 21st 2010 10:31pm by idiggory

AMZ is situationally useful. Any time a boss(or trash mobs for that matter, think PoS on the hill after the second boss) uses an AoE that you can predict, you can save the healers a decent amount of stress by dropping that on yourself and the melee. It can also be used to help on certain raid fights where you're not the only tank to help mitigate damage to both of you a bit.

Unholy is great for gimicky fights and 5-mans, but I'm more into endgame raiding and unholy tanking just wouldn't cut it for what I need in that kind of situation. Plus with the upcoming buffs to blood spec? Man I can't wait.

I've been meaning to play around with Blood some more myself, and these are tasty treats that are enticing me to consider it even more.