Tanking multiple targetsFollow

I only see, like, two questions in here. >.<

And the answer is that, yes, 2-hand Frost is a fine tanking spec. It's also a fine DpS spec--only 400-600 or so behind the mas DpS for DW. Actually, as a tank spec, you will probably have a much easier time with a 2-hander before you are well geared.

And no, you don't need to go Blood. ESPECIALLY if you are only tanking Heroics. It's a preferred spec for raids, but there are plenty of Unholy/Frost tanks in raiding as well--all three are decent atm. I'm partial to Unholy, personally. And Blood is a difficult spec in heroics as putting out AoE threat is much harder than Blood/Unholy.

That said, if you want build critiques/gemming tips, I'd be happy to oblige.

Well, I'll give you some tips (Tanking is much less max/min-able than DpS):

1. I'd drop Icy Talons. This is a matter of taste, but I am not a fan of the talent for tanking. Some people disagree greatly, and I see their point. It is definitely valid.

But Haste just isn't that awesome for tanks--it really shines as you get more AP and your AAs do more damage (so getting 20% more is a much higher return). Now, if you really like buffing the group, feel free. But I personally would optimize my AoE threat (and ST threat, when raiding) before optimizing for groups.

2. As such, I highly recommend you grab at least one point in Morbidity. When your diseases drop, you lose a LOT of damage on your abilities. 15% off your top 3 attacks when FF drops, with an additional 25% drop in Obliterate. Then another 20% off 3 oft-used abilties from Glacial Rot. It just isn't worth it. One point will bring them to 18 sec, which should be enough.

Plus, diseases do quite a bit on their own. Minimizing their downtime is a nice return.

3. Max Black Ice. You really want to get as much as you can from diseases, BB, DnD and HB as a tank. You are losing 6% on them right now.

4. You shouldn't need Chill of the Grave AND Scent of Blood. I'd move those abilities to Two-Hand Spec.

5. If you have spare points, put them in Ravenous Dead, Bladed Armor, or Virulence--whichever is the best return.

6. For your glyphs, ditch Rune Strike. Glyph of Disease is only worth it if you take Icy Talons. I'd go with Frost Strike, Oblit and Icy Touch (personally). If you want the HB glyph, I'd drop Icy Touch or FS. Oblit is a really nice glyph.

7. So, this is the Frost spec I'd use. Actually, I wouldn't take Morbidity but it is a fine option if you want it.

For your Unholy spec:

8. Drop On a Pale Horse and Imp. Unholy Pres.

9. You shouldn't be using a Reaping build yet. You'll probably want to use the 17/0/54 build. You place diseases, BS, SS, BS and then alternate BS and SS your following set as the runes come up. Your glyphs are correct though.

10. As for gemming, this is a matter of choice. You did fine, but I would toss the /def gem in favor of /Hit. It won't help survivability, no, but the return from a /def gem is really low. The extra threat would be nice. And I think you'd be fine with gemming for the WK socket bonus, though you obviously don't have to.

11. As for weapons, the TTSD is quite good--I used it for a loooooong time. There wasn't really anything better until the FH instances. I use a Quel'Delar, but I recall there being a nice sword in Reg HoR. There's a good spear in HHoR, which makes up for the lack of Str with nice tank stats, and a Blue slot. And Garfrost's Tow-Ton Hammer is a nice upgrade (and drops in Normal PoS). HPoS can get you the Tyrannical Beheader. Edge of Ruin is also an okay upgrade. Some offer less Stamina, yes, but the much higher average damage would be great. And Reg PoS is quite doable.

Sorry for the block of text. The HHoR spear is the best in a time-to-live sense, but I'd honestly go with one of the others due to the better threat if I'm not raiding. And, of course, if you get a Battered Hilt that you don't need to sell, it is an awesome weapon for DKs who don't raid ICC (and possibly ToGC).

Acclimation can go die, for all I care.

[EDIT]

With 3 points, you have a 30% chance upon being hit by a spell to grant you 150 resistance to that school.

Resistance is a fairly dynamic stat--it does two things (uses a two roll system). A, it (as of Wrath) sets a minimum resistance level. So, if you have x resistance, you will always reduce damage taken by y%. It also gives you a chance to resist more of the damage (it seems to be fairly linear though--you will always resist in multiples of 10%).

Starting at 130% resistance, you will always resist at least 10% of a spell from that school. And you have a chance to resist as much as 40% (though the chance to do so is REALLY small--.7%, yes point-seven percent). At 130, you will have:

10%--24.3% chance to resist this much
20%--49.3% chance to resist
30%--25.8% chance to resist
40%--.7% chance to resist
Anything higher--impossible.

I'm not sure what exactly the chances are at 150 resist--but these are the average values of 180 and 130 resist:

10%--17.05% chance
20%--42.05% chance
30%--33.05% chance
40%--8% chance

So, say you are hit by a spell. You have a 30% chance to proc Acclimation. If you are hit by another spell in that 18 seconds span, then you will, on average, resist around 20% of that spell (I am NOT willing to do the math, but the chances of it being 10 or 20% are greater than in being 30 or 40%, though the chance of it being 20 or 30% is highest).

So, I'm going to choose a VERY arbitrary value of 22% mitigation over time (you will never see a 22% resist).

So, ASSUMING you will get hit again by that magic school during the buff, a spell cast that can proc Acclimation has a 30% chance to mitigate 22%. That evens out to Acclimation being worth to 6.6% mitigation on every spell cast that can proc it, assuming one mitigated spell with each proc of the ability (which just doesn't happen--you will often go without ever seeing it used).

It just is NOT worth 6% mitigation on paper, when it will be less than that in practical use even on fights where it could be useful. Especially considering that Unholy can get 6% mitigation to ALL magic easily.

And it is important to note that very few spells can actually proc the effect. DoTs can't, which means on a fight like Garfrost you will only get the chance for it to be useful if he actually attacks you with a frost attack (and I'm not certain they can do it--I just assume so). Just not worth it.

Edited, May 18th 2010 10:39pm by idiggory

I'm not too concerned with min/maxing the unholy spec to the point of dropping pale horse/IUP, but thanks for the info nonetheless. They were leveling talents mostly (and I haven't bothered to respect "proper" since I've been just tanking my way through badges), though pale horse is still handy for mining circuits :) Once I get some decent dps boots that I can slap tuskarr's vitality on, I'll probably drop IUP though.

I know there's some weird gear point statistic where reaping is and isn't useful but I like the rhythm of reaping, and I'm already not really maximizing anyway thanks to pale horse.

I used Rawr to find all my gems, which probably prioritized the /def as a raiding tank model. I probably won't switch it on the one there now, just because it's wasted gold, but if/when I replace the item I'll consider hit instead since it's just heroics.

I think Rune Strike was my first glyph because I was like "hey, that's a tank ability, I should glyph it" (and yes, I have it macroed to every button on my actionbar ), but looking overall I'll probably switch it for DnD to keep the aoe burst threat up since I only really tank heroics. I won't be changing the other two since they make the rotation upkeep a bit easier (Disease means one blood/death rune keeps BP up and also converts back to another death rune anyway, and FF is already refreshed by HB spam; HB is part of the opening salvo and glyph gives itself and DnD that extra oomph on the pull).

I've been meaning to move the two points I have in Endless Winter to Morbidity, and as far as Chill of the Grave is concerned I only put them there as filler; I tend to walk backwards down the tree until something looks useful when I'm just leveling up and trying to open the next tier of talents and haven't specifically gone researching effective point use. But that's good thinking about Chill/Scent, I'll move the chill points to Black Ice. I'm not keen on dropping IT/IIT though, the melee haste is nice for me to dish out rune strikes that much quicker and keep stuff glued to me. If I were raid tanking with it I might drop it since any dps frost dk or enh shaman would have it covered, but for just 5man it strikes me handy.

The damage dealt by Icy Touch uses an increased threat modifier in Frost Presence. The damage dealt by Frost Fever uses the standard modifier in Frost Presence.

However, due to the nature of single target threat, that should change a tank rotation to include more than one IT every 20 seconds. It may, however, make GoD a decent amount worse. It's just really nice in that it is, despite being a small increase to TpS, some snap aggro for the beginning of a fight.

Ah, I thought there was a big threat leap applied to both the IT attack and the resulting frost fever, which is why GoD seemed like a decent idea. I don't use PS either on trash packs in favor of just popping another HB/BB, it was just for bosses. But if the IT threat is only from the initial attack, then I'll probably move away from that as well and toss Ob glyph in there instead.

I do that too. Works in heroics and ICC as well :)
I only have a Frost tank spec, my off spec is DPS.

It works well. Frost is a very versatile spec.