# World of Warcraft General Discussion **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [March 4, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294 "2009-03-04T17:44:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 441
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/8801 "2010-02-01T18:57:58Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > wathc [tankspot.com](http://tankspot.com) videos and join a raiding guild? Hey, we are trying to get enough guys for a 10man…don’t give him any ideas to ditch us! ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/8802 "2010-02-01T19:02:34Z")
> [@Quasimodem](#): > > Nope, not there, **FH**. I found some stuff called lua, but not a yellow WoW file folder other than the “read me” one. > > Thanks > > Q Look at the desktop or Start menu shortcut for WoW – you can see where it’s pointing to if you right click on it and select “properties”. The path that the shortcut follows is indicated in the “Target” field. That should give you an idea of where the “real” folder is. However, on Vista, WoW tends to get installed in C:\users\public\games\worldofwarcraft by default. That’s where it lives on my Vista machine at home. \*\*FH’s \*\*method of searching your computer for “World of Warcraft” should work, though, and you can figure out which one is the right one from there. To \*\*MDSL \*\*-- uh, oops. I don’t think I’ve ever used Distracting Shot, tbh. I’ve always just used MD or traps to redirect the angry mob. Although I could see how it could be useful on kite fights when one needs the extra aggro, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/8803 "2010-02-01T19:04:30Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Anybody who might use Massacre is probably using Berserking instead. Heh. Within a day of my posting that my Massacre scrolls weren’t selling, two of them sold 😛 > [@](#): > > +10 Stats to chest is the best option for pretty much anybody, and solid for everyone else. Yup, the handful I’ve made have sold fairly quickly. > [@](#): > > Woooo! Grats! Do I remember that that Pally is a Tailor? If so, don’t forget to go pick up your new cloak recipe from the trainer in Dalaran! Yup! And I _had_ forgotten about that; she’s been at 450 for so long that she hasn’t bothered to check in with the trainer in a while, so thanks for the reminder. And though on the enchanting side she hasn’t learned [Berserking](http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=59621) yet, when she does she’s going to stick with Massacre on her sword because as a tailor she has [Swordguard Embroidery](http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=55777) on her cloak, which gives her Berserking’s chance at +400 AP _without_ Berserking’s armor reduction downside. So she can keep Massacre’s permanent +110 AP and still get the occasional (in practice, very frequent) +400 from her cloak. Heh. I just went to WoW-Heroes to check my pally’s gear score, because I figured that since I socketed that third Bold Cardinal Ruby in her [Titanium Razorplate](http://www.wowhead.com/?item=47589) she ought to be pushing 2000. So when I saw 1593, I’m all WTF?! Then I noticed I logged her out holding her [Spring Flowers](http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45073) instead of her Massacre-enchanted [Claymore of the Prophet](http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45074) :smack: Sure enough, she equipped the sword and now her gear score shows up at 2014 🙂 So with that gear score, WoW-Heroes says 10-man Naxx, OS, and EoE should be “easy” for me, and 25-man Naxx as well. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to list “dungeons”, only raids. Is it safe to assume that if 10-man Naxx/OS/EoE should be “easy”, then all of the NR 5-mans should also be “easy”? I’m also puzzled as to why WoW-Heroes includes ICC in there. I was under the impression that the new ICC instances were 5-man instances, not raids. Or are they referring to the final ICC raid that isn’t actually opened up yet? She really really really needs a new libram. She finally has at least iLvl 200 gear in every slot except libram, where she’s still equipping the iLvl 150 Venture Co. Libram of Retribution. Can’t. Find. Librams. Anywhere. I had a very strange experience a couple days ago when I grouped for the threat/cit dailies. It was just me, a mage, and a rogue. We were fighting Chillmaw, and we had her (him?) almost down when, for some inexplicable reason, _none_ of my spells would go off. Everything was off cooldown, and I was hitting Hammer of Wrath, my Judgment, Exorcism, and Consecrate, and I just got that “failed” sound on all of them. Next thing you know, both the mage and I were dead. And then somehow, the rogue finished off Chillmaw and the Bombadiers (I guess she did, anyway. When the mage and I ran back to our corpses the rogue was standing there waiting next to Chillmaw’s corpse.) Mage said, “LOL - that’s a first!” and I replied, “Likewise. I don’t know what the hell just happened!” Oh well, we got credit for the quest and then sailed through Citadel. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/8804 "2010-02-01T19:18:57Z")
> [@Runestar](#): > > Many thanks to Kene and Kahmu, who were willing to group with my Belf Paladin Kalathan (yes, it was an all “K” night on Cairne yesterday!) All you needed was _my_ belf pally on Cairne, Keliraeda 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/8805 "2010-02-01T19:29:33Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > I’m also puzzled as to why WoW-Heroes includes ICC in there. I was under the impression that the new ICC instances were 5-man instances, not raids. Or are they referring to the final ICC raid that isn’t actually opened up yet? Mouse over the “IC” icons - the one above the bar has a tooltip that says “Icecrown Citadel 10 man”, and the one under says “Icecrown Citadel 25 man”. Typically people call these raids “ICC” or “ICC10”/“ICC25”. I’ve seen people calling the new 5-man dungeons “ICC5” or “FoS/PoS/HoR” (Forge of Souls/Pit of Saron/Halls of Reflection). The ICC 10/25 man raids are open, but not all the way yet. The 5-man instances are supposed to (storyline-wise) ease you into the plot for the ICC raids. The wings of the raid area are opening up bit by bit (IIRC, two are open right now), patch by patch, until the last part where you’re supposed to really face down the Lich King. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/8806 "2010-02-01T19:37:33Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > I’m pretty sure this was the tank’s issue but I know nothing about DK tanking. The problem with the PUGs is that there is a shortage of tanks and you get a lot of plate classes that check off the tank box when they (A) can’t hold threat, and (B) don’t have the effective health to survive 2 seconds without a heal. I have found this problem to be most prevalent among DKs (I think this is probably a huntard thing). ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/8807 "2010-02-01T19:38:42Z")
Yeti, you can probably get into an ICC10 pug. I was in one the other day and (unfortunately for me) a lot of plate dropped. If you read up on the fights ahead of time, they’re not really that difficult (but probably easier to heal than dps, admittedly). RE: DK tanks - I’ve noticed the same thing, DK tanks seem to have health points that fall faster than … something that falls quickly. I mean for most tanks I can toss a coupld of HoTs and then just watch for spikes, but DK tanks always seem to require constant heavy healing. Fortunately I get a lot more warriors, pallys and druids and very few DKs trying to tank. ---
**Author:** ![Runestar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/74df32/32.png) [@Runestar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runestar)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/8808 "2010-02-01T19:40:40Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > All you needed was _my_ belf pally on Cairne, Keliraeda 😃 That would have been Kool! ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/8809 "2010-02-01T19:41:09Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > For 40 gems, I believe the only correct response is for him to level a mule to 10 on his new server and transfer it back with the gems he took. > > Alternatively, he could open a ticket and see if a GM would remove the gems from his inventory and transfer them back to yours. Yeah he’s in no hurry. Its not the end of the world but its still a few K of gold and it just bothers me a bit. > [@](#): > > On my main, I spend my Frost badges on gear. That’s because she’s an endgame raider, so (a) she needs to have the best possible gear and (b) she has access to a steady stream of Frost badges from raiding ICC. On my other 80, I spend my Frost badges on Primordial Saronite. My reasoning was, with how little time I have to spend on her (and no time to raid ICC and get more badges), by the time I saved up enough to get more than a few pieces of badge gear, we’d probably be into a new tier of content, and Frost badges would be the new Triumph ones, flowing like water. However, the money I can make off of the PS at auction can be used to improve her in many other ways right now: from crafted and BOE armor to new recipes to regemming gear for a new spec. I do the same thing for pretty much the same reason although I generally don’t buy gear. My alts are all decked out in triumph badge gear and whatever they picked up in ICC PUGS. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/8810 "2010-02-01T20:01:18Z")
> [@My\_Darn\_Snake\_Legs](#): > > We don’t have much trouble on the ramp, but I think the key is to watch the casters. The best possible group composition is a Mage, a Priest, and a DK (preferably DPS, DPS, and tank, respectively). The Mage sheeps the middle Humanoid Vrykul caster, the Priest Shackles one Undead Vrykul caster, and the DK Death Grips the other Undead Vrykul caster to the party. The two melee Vrykul will then run down to join him, leaving the CC’d mobs out of range of any AOE. > [@](#): > > The problem that I have is with the Garfrost encounter. PoS, especially on Heroic, is what I like to call an idiot check: most of the encounters are about knowing how to make use of your class mechanics and not stand in stupid shit. 1.) Garfrost: Run away when you get targeted with a boulder. Run behind a boulder when he runs to a forge to drop your stacks. Have a Frost Resistance aura if you’ve got a Pally or a Shammy. 2.) Ick and Krik: Don’t stand in the green shit, and run away any time Ick uses a special ability. 3.) End dude whose name I can’t remember: Get away from others when Rimefang is about to spit frost at you (and bubble/ward if you’ve got it). Stop DPSing when you have the mark. Don’t run on the ice. If you’re the tank, get ready to kite after the knockback (try to keep a fresh patch of ice or a rune that’s soon to be one somewhere behind you). > [@My\_Darn\_Snake\_Legs](#): > > It never really worked well because he still had almost as much hp as our clothies. That’s why we have a tank sit at about 50% HP for the whole fight–to act as a damage magnet. You just have to make sure your healers know to not heal them above that 50% mark. > [@](#): > > I found out that you can’t misdirect a Distracting Shot. Correct. Distracting Shot will \*always \*make the target attack you, regardless of whether or not you have MD up. > [@Runestar](#): > > Second, against the second boss Krick and Ick, when I darted back in just as Poison Nova went off (ouch!) For that boss, you should always have him targeted with enemy cast bars enabled, or /focus him if you’re healing. Whenever he casts, you know you have to run. (1) Pursuit: Everyone needs to get the hell out of range the second he starts casting this, because if you wait to see who it is and you’re still in melee range by the time he picks you, you’re going to die pretty much instantly. (2) Nova: You need to outrange or LOS the explosion. (3) Mines: It’s not that you have to get out of range so much as keep moving constantly. Just don’t stand on any of the expanding purple bubbles. > [@](#): > > After the third wipe, I couldn’t find the entrance back into the instance (foolishly, never having been up there in non-ghost form) WI actually made a video for this. Can’t check from work, but [this is what I got](http://www.wow.com/2009/12/08/patch-3-3-how-to-find-the-frozen-halls/) from Google, and I’m pretty sure it’s the right page. > [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > I’m sure that even a “I’m not a healer/buffer, I’m a DPS, dammit” shadow priest would have Fortitude for at least buffing himself on soloing. Anybody who doesn’t train or use buffs is a bad. Bad, bad, bad. > [@Quasimodem](#): > > I’m going to start another ticket, but I am wondering if a complete re-install would solve this? Maybe, maybe not. And a reinstall would take a looooooong time, and you’d have to get rid of the old version, anyway, which means you’d have to find it first, at which point you’d already know where to look. 😛 Too bad I can’t just come poke my nose over your shoulder… > [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > And though on the enchanting side she hasn’t learned [Berserking](http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=59621) yet, when she does she’s going to stick with Massacre on her sword because as a tailor she has [Swordguard Embroidery](http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=55777) on her cloak, which gives her Berserking’s chance at +400 AP _without_ Berserking’s armor reduction downside. To me, that sounds like, “Oh, no thanks, I don’t need that $100. I’ve already got $100.” Wouldn’t you rather have $200? Assuming you’re wearing all Plate gear, the armor reduction should be moooooooore than outweighted by the AP when it procs, especially considering that as a Paladin you can heal yourself if things get rough. I use 'Zerking on Sleu’s DPS weapons, and I’ve never had it be a problem, even when soloing. (In groups, it’s even more of a non-issue, since you’ll seldom be taking damage anyway.) > [@](#): > > Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to list “dungeons”, only raids. Is it safe to assume that if 10-man Naxx/OS/EoE should be “easy”, then all of the NR 5-mans should also be “easy”? The original Northrend 5-mans, yes. ToC5 is the gear equivalent of Uld10, though not as difficult. The ICC5-mans are the gear equivalent of ToC10, but again not as difficult, for the most part.\* Really, it comes down to an issue of complexity and balance: when you only have five people, you just can’t tune encounters the same way as you would for 10- or 25-man groups. \*I swear to god, the trash waves before the first two bosses of H-HoR are harder than fucking Algalon. With a PUG, anyway. > [@](#): > > I’m also puzzled as to why WoW-Heroes includes ICC in there. I was under the impression that the new ICC instances were 5-man instances, not raids. Or are they referring to the final ICC raid that isn’t actually opened up yet? ICC is open and has been since 3.3 dropped. It’s just not opening all at once. We started with the first wing of four bosses, then added a wing of three, then a wing of two. IIRC, there’s one more wing plus Arthas to go. > [@](#): > > Everything was off cooldown, and I was hitting Hammer of Wrath, my Judgment, Exorcism, and Consecrate, and I just got that “failed” sound on all of them. I have a bug that pops up occasionally where I’ll get an “invalid target” error with any targeted spell or ability. (Doesn’t work when I hit the keybind or click the button, but does work if I type out, say, /cast Shield Slam, so any macro that uses /cast XYZ works.) It usually only shows up after I first log in or reload my UI, though (and I need to relog to clear it out)–I don’t think I’ve ever had it show up when I’ve been playing normally and haven’t done a UI reload. Added on preview: **Damuri Ajashi** , that’s more than a handful of gold. 40 gems would be anywhere from 4,000 to 6,000 gold… maybe more, depending on the gems and their final post-cut value if you weren’t planning on selling them raw. If the former guildie is dragging his heels over the whole thing, and you don’t care about keeping him as a friend, you could open (or threaten to open) a ticket reporting him for stealing your gems. Because intentionally or not, that’s what he did. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/8811 "2010-02-01T20:04:02Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > The problem with the PUGs is that there is a shortage of tanks and you get a lot of plate classes that check off the tank box when they (A) can’t hold threat, and (B) don’t have the effective health to survive 2 seconds without a heal. > > I have found this problem to be most prevalent among DKs (I think this is probably a huntard thing). This was an all-guild run, so the DK was a known person to us. His main is a DPS shaman and he’s awesome at that. I just don’t know what he was missing for this. I suggested I could swap to my feral (tank) spec/gear, which I had in my bags, and finish it, but he insisted he could do it. He had 34k hp with buffage (barely 30k on WoW-Heroes), he’s def-capped. No potions or food. Gems were blue quality, not purple; he’s got enchantments on. 24% dodge, 22% parry. 15k armor per WoW-Heroes. His gear per that site puts him into the yellow range from Ony10 to Ony25. … 15k armor? Is that normal? My husband’s pally holy gear is 21k. My husband’s pally in Holy spec is higher in gear (yellow for TotCr10/Uld 25 up through IC10/TotCr25). 2.3k healing power, 360/277 MP5, 34% holy spell crit, 22.6k mana, 537 haste. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/8812 "2010-02-01T20:20:24Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > This was an all-guild run, so the DK was a known person to us. His main is a DPS shaman and he’s awesome at that. I just don’t know what he was missing for this. I suggested I could swap to my feral (tank) spec/gear, which I had in my bags, and finish it, but he insisted he could do it. He had 34k hp with buffage (barely 30k on WoW-Heroes), he’s def-capped. No potions or food. Gems were blue quality, not purple; he’s got enchantments on. 24% dodge, 22% parry. 15k armor per WoW-Heroes. His gear per that site puts him into the yellow range from Ony10 to Ony25. > > … 15k armor? Is that normal? My husband’s pally holy gear is 21k. > > My husband’s pally in Holy spec is higher in gear (yellow for TotCr10/Uld 25 up through IC10/TotCr25). 2.3k healing power, 360/277 MP5, 34% holy spell crit, 22.6k mana, 537 haste. 15k isn’t too bad for a DK with the level of gear that would put you at 30k HP - my badge-geared DK tank has something like 16k armor, and doesn’t have problems in heroics. But DK tanks will normally take spikier damage than either shield-using tank class. They make up for this with several on-use defensive spells on short cooldowns (IBF, AMS, and class-specific ones like Vampiric Blood or Unbreakable Armor). The key, and what I’m still very lax about, is using all of these very often. The are all pretty solid cooldowns (Vamp Blood in particular is very good) and make life much easier on the healers. Tell him to focus on using them more frequently and see if that doesn’t make him a lot easier to heal. Still won’t be as easy to heal as a pally tank, but what is? 😉 On a side note, the reason you see fewer DK tanks may be because of the constant stream of shit we get from healers and DPS in random groups. It’s just not even worth queueing up as a tank anymore just to get yelled at by some teenager no matter how smoothly the run goes. I’m sure other tanks get it as well, but it can’t be as bad as it is for DKs (and not without reason - fail tanks are disproportionately DKs, IME). Once my feral druid gets to 80 (ding 63 last night - the new dungeon feature is making Outland a lot more pleasant this time around) I’ll compare and contrast the treatment from randoms. As far as raid accomplishments, not much to note for Jagaya. Our ICC25 group is not making progress due to lax attendance and sub-par DPS from too many spots. On the personal side, I did get [Zod’s Repeating Longbow](http://www.wowhead.com/?item=50034) this week, so at least it wasn’t a complete waste! :o ---
**Author:** ![aktep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@aktep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aktep)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/8813 "2010-02-01T20:45:00Z")
DK tanks seem to eat more physical damage than other tank classes, especially at the start of the fight as talents such as blade barrier don’t proc until runes are burned, and Icebound Fortitude needs RP which may not be available right away. I think the balance is supposed to be in reduced magic damage taken, which is less of an issue these days. If the DK is properly using his abilities, after the harrowing opening seconds it shouldn’t be too much different than any other tank, just without the chance to block the other plate classes have and without the health pool of a bear. It also doesn’t help that most of the mitigation talents are deep in the frost tree, and blood tanking has become very popular lately. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/8814 "2010-02-01T20:48:01Z")
> [@aktep](#): > > It also doesn’t help that most of the mitigation talents are deep in the frost tree, and blood tanking has become very popular lately. Yeah, folks like blood (especially for main tanking in raids) cause the threat is good, you can really pump up the HP, and Vamp Blood is just a great mitigation CD. The downside is much worse AoE tanking, which can just feed into the “DKs are crappy tanks” since AoE tanking is like 99% of heroics (which is where most of the player-base even deals with tanks). ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/8815 "2010-02-01T20:55:03Z")
Another “I don’t know jack about DKs” question: Can you viably tank with a Blood spec? We have one of the “ADD teen boy” contingent in our guild who took a leave of absence the day that Modern Warfare 2 came out, and returned last week or so. He tried to tank ICC10 in his Blood spec and just could not deal with the burst damage. WoW-Heroes says he’s geared for ICC25. (17k armor, 35k health, 29% dodge, 21% parry, 580 def.) Out of practice? Too short of an attention span to be hitting those “omg” buttons in time to save his butt? “WTH, tanking as Blood, are you crazy?!”? Edit: That’s what happens when I delay posting. Anything to add besides the above, then? ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/8816 "2010-02-01T21:01:47Z")
Oops - mispost ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/8817 "2010-02-01T21:04:08Z")
And now that I am myself again (that was me above - perils of a shared computer): Blood is definitely a plausible tanking spec; DKs are weird in that any tank spec is going to be a 3-tree spec since there are important damage mitigation abilities early in each tree and some useful tanking skills way down each tree as well; I haven’t seen an Unholy spec that takes advantage of anti-magic zone, but it seems like it would be a handy ability for a tank to have. In fact, I just had a random team member tell me I should switch to blood and I wouldn’t have problems with dps pulling off of me. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/8818 "2010-02-01T21:10:10Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Another “I don’t know jack about DKs” question: Can you viably tank with a Blood spec? > > We have one of the “ADD teen boy” contingent in our guild who took a leave of absence the day that Modern Warfare 2 came out, and returned last week or so. He tried to tank ICC10 in his Blood spec and just could not deal with the burst damage. WoW-Heroes says he’s geared for ICC25. (17k armor, 35k health, 29% dodge, 21% parry, 580 def.) Out of practice? Too short of an attention span to be hitting those “omg” buttons in time to save his butt? “WTH, tanking as Blood, are you crazy?!”? > > Edit: That’s what happens when I delay posting. Anything to add besides the above, then? ICC is tough on DKs (something even Blizzard has acknowledged) as main tanks. The dodge-reduction debuffs hurts avoidance tanks (DKs and Druids) a bit harder than mitigation tanks (Pallies and Warriors). You’re guild-mate wouldn’t be the first DK tank to get a shock when ICC destroyed them (and not the first to be dropped in favor of a Pallie… :mad:). That said, blood is perfectly viable, AFAIK. You just need very good gear and extremely aggressive use of the cooldowns to survive. > [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > In fact, I just had a random team member tell me I should switch to blood and I wouldn’t have problems with dps pulling off of me. ☹ I’m pretty sure Blood DKs currently have the best single-target threat. But it falls down a bit in multi-mob aggro. I have a Frost spec just for heroics because impatient DPS won’t let you apply and spread your diseases before opening up - Howling Blast + DnD + BB is normally enough to keep the pack stuck on you, at least initially. What spec are you currently using? ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/8819 "2010-02-01T21:13:17Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > And now that I am myself again (that was me above - perils of a shared computer): > > Blood is definitely a plausible tanking spec; DKs are weird in that any tank spec is going to be a 3-tree spec since there are important damage mitigation abilities early in each tree and some useful tanking skills way down each tree as well; I haven’t seen an Unholy spec that takes advantage of anti-magic zone, but it seems like it would be a handy ability for a tank to have. > > In fact, I just had a random team member tell me I should switch to blood and I wouldn’t have problems with dps pulling off of me. ☹ Yes, absolutely. Blood is actually the best tanking spec at the moment, especially for raids. Take a look at [my DK](http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Proudmoore&cn=Anathaemus), who’s blood specced and pretty well geared. He’s tanked everything up to Putricide in ICC10 and Rotface/Festergut in ICC25 without appreciable problems. Where Blood falls down, though (as others have already pointed out) is AoE threat. It’s not _bad_–it’s just not as good as Frost, or as a Paladin tank. If your DPS has half a brain and a bit of awareness (as you’re likely to find in a guild group) then it’s not usually an issue. If your group is a PUG full of “gogogo DPS top meters RAWR!!” teenage boy types, then yeah…it’s a problem. And it’s the reason why I don’t often tank randoms anymore except for guildies. I got tired of being bitched out by pimply teenagers with too much sarcasm and too little social skills, being called a “noob” (yeah, I’m a noob–that’s why I’ve got 2 piece T10 as a tank and I’m a frickin’ _alt_) and accused of Ebaying my character. Thanks, but I can live without that kind of annoyance. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294/8820 "2010-02-01T21:14:47Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > I’m pretty sure Blood DKs currently have the best single-target threat. But it falls down a bit in multi-mob aggro. I have a Frost spec just for heroics because impatient DPS won’t let you apply and spread your diseases before opening up - Howling Blast + DnD + BB is normally enough to keep the pack stuck on you, at least initially. What spec are you currently using? Frost with a big aoe emphasis; I tend to pull a mob into my pre-laid DnD, apply diseases, then throw a howling blast & blood boil as soon as the DnD runes come back. > **[World of Warcraft](https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com/en-us/?r=Cairne&n=Muzungu)** > > Join thousands of mighty heroes in Azeroth, a world of magic and limitless adventure. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294.md?page=440) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-warcraft-general-discussion/488294.md?page=442)