So I had this great idea. I was going to start a DK, and the sole purpose was going to be to have a couple extra professions. So I got to 65 and maxxed inscriptions. Then I realized I had to get my mining up to smelt saronite bars so I could send them to my alchemist to transmute, so I got up to 70 and got mining high enough. Then I thought it'd be a great idea to mine for Titanium so my JC could prospect it. At lvl 75, I thought to myself, "this isn't so bad. Tanking is fun!". Alas, I dinged 80 this morning and somehow managed enough time outside of ICC to whip up a 4.5k GS in one day. Now I'm left with some questions.
I know about stat priorities, rotations and things like that. I've done my reading. What most of those guides don't go into are some of the specific tanking cooldown abilities. For example: Vampiric Blood. I know what it does because I read the tool tip, but when do you use it and with what other abilities? Do you guys use it with your other CDs or save it as a 2nd CD when you know there'll be incoming damage?
The main problem I'm having is that whenever I use them, it seems like I didn't need to, and when I don't use it I feel like I should have. Is there some trick to knowing when to properly use CDs or does it just take some experience to get used to it?
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VB is the hardest of the tanking abilities to use, as it is reactive (as the whole blood tree is, which is why I don't like it). I don't really have any tips besides learning to anticipate events in fights. If you know there is a high damage spike coming, try and activate it just as/before it starts.
There isn't really anything else I can tell you. Well, I don't advise you sit on your CDs for too long. If the encounter doesn't have predictable damage spikes, then use them as is good for the encounter (if you know the boss is going to use a spell/ability/speed-buff in 30 seconds after IBF comes
up, wait 20-25 seconds before activating it).
If you don't like the reactive style, you can try Frost or Unholy.
[EDIT]
I should note, you CAN use VB proactively. But it is much harder. Take UA for example. You only have to get a single physical hit, or a parry that you wouldn't have gotten otherwise, for it to have been useful. Hell, even if you don't get either, you still add raid damage/threat with the added strength. With bone shield, the only way you can "waste" it is if you use it during something like Bone Storm. And, even then, it isn't "wasted." You are just getting the minimum duration out of it. So you can hit the ability whenever it is off CD and you know you'll get a return from it.
Vampiric Blood isn't so simple. It is only useful if that extra Health was necessary for something (including increasing Death Strike returns by a bit), or the extra healing was useful. If the healers use the same amount of mana/spells/time to heal you to full with it up, then it is wasted. And if you use it when there aren't huge damage spikes, this will likely be the case.
Since the general tactic is to keep tanks at full, since damage is so high, a huge amount of heals turn into overhealing (especially with a blood tank). As such, VB is often wasted without strategic use--quite often your healers won't even notice the difference if you use it without damage spikes. They MAY wait longer to cast the heal to cap you off. But since mana isn't often an issue, they probably won't, unless there is raid damage they need to take care of.
BS/UA can never be truly wasted like this. IBF can, though, if you avoid all the hits during its duration.
My best tip if you stay blood, and are in a guild, is to set up a macro that alerts your healers (either in party chat or in a pst) that you've used it. That way they can choose whether or not to lay off the healing to do other things. This lets it act as a sort of utility ability, rather than a tanking CD.
Edited, May 28th 2010 11:55am by idiggory
There isn't really anything else I can tell you. Well, I don't advise you sit on your CDs for too long. If the encounter doesn't have predictable damage spikes, then use them as is good for the encounter (if you know the boss is going to use a spell/ability/speed-buff in 30 seconds after IBF comes
up, wait 20-25 seconds before activating it).
If you don't like the reactive style, you can try Frost or Unholy.
[EDIT]
I should note, you CAN use VB proactively. But it is much harder. Take UA for example. You only have to get a single physical hit, or a parry that you wouldn't have gotten otherwise, for it to have been useful. Hell, even if you don't get either, you still add raid damage/threat with the added strength. With bone shield, the only way you can "waste" it is if you use it during something like Bone Storm. And, even then, it isn't "wasted." You are just getting the minimum duration out of it. So you can hit the ability whenever it is off CD and you know you'll get a return from it.
Vampiric Blood isn't so simple. It is only useful if that extra Health was necessary for something (including increasing Death Strike returns by a bit), or the extra healing was useful. If the healers use the same amount of mana/spells/time to heal you to full with it up, then it is wasted. And if you use it when there aren't huge damage spikes, this will likely be the case.
Since the general tactic is to keep tanks at full, since damage is so high, a huge amount of heals turn into overhealing (especially with a blood tank). As such, VB is often wasted without strategic use--quite often your healers won't even notice the difference if you use it without damage spikes. They MAY wait longer to cast the heal to cap you off. But since mana isn't often an issue, they probably won't, unless there is raid damage they need to take care of.
BS/UA can never be truly wasted like this. IBF can, though, if you avoid all the hits during its duration.
My best tip if you stay blood, and are in a guild, is to set up a macro that alerts your healers (either in party chat or in a pst) that you've used it. That way they can choose whether or not to lay off the healing to do other things. This lets it act as a sort of utility ability, rather than a tanking CD.
Edited, May 28th 2010 11:55am by idiggory
IDrownFish wrote:
Anyways, you all are horrible, @#%^ed up people
lolgaxe wrote:
Never underestimate the healing power of a massive dong.
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