The first of which is that I was trying to get home for the holidays, a nigh-black ops endeavor that quite nearly resulted in complete mission failure. (For those of you who care, which is likely a paltry two of of you, I did eventually make it back to CONUS, or the US, for a couple days, and it was refreshing, to say the least.)
On a less personal note, I was also deciding the future of the remaining 10 or so people that devotedly follow me in-game for reasons I cannot possibly fathom, given the dismal destruction my military service wrought on the last guild I lead. We have since merged into another guild, which gives me some breathing room, although it might be a temporary arrangement, since it is on a trial basis.
But, all my meaningless, dry, disinterested ranting aside, it's time for the second brief on DK tanking, and the itemization and accessories that go with it.
What's In FashionDefense Is This Season's Block Value
The main issue DK tanks encounter when choosing their gear sets is for most the ever-elusive defense rating. Although I suppose green or red is nearly as important for some. Fashion choice aside, with the elimination of crushing blows, the focus falls even more firmly on the "defense cap". At 80 this "cap" (my repeated use of quotations is due to this cap having nothing to do with a ceiling of any kind, which raises my eyebrow as to why it's called that at all) is a steep 540, or ~6% critical strike reduction. The main issue being that without the ever popular "sword-and-bored", or some new fangled nonsense (Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle), and with the decided lack of tanking 2handers in the the game, less itemization points can go towards avoidance.
Good thing for you that all my points I've been mulling over for the last few weeks in order to help you out will all be moot come next patch, due to the new Rune I just linked and the possibility of two new blacksmithing tank 2hander patterns.
Dual wielding DKs, widely regarded as the leper colony of WoW (having taken the long-held place of the lolret), have a slightly easier time with the defense cap due to the prevalence of 1handed tanking weapons, but are still hampered by the need for 2.2 or slower weapons to minimize the all powerful parrygib.
In other, related news, Scarele over at Dancing Rune Weapon has compiled you a rather extensive pre-raiding tank gear list, which was something I was intending to do. Beaten to the punch again. Epic, epic fail.
So I suppose I'll switch straight to the next topic of my post.
AccessorizingEach Of You Is Unique!
With the rise of the new profession, Inscription, on the....well, the rise....man I need to find some new material...."itemization" has taken on a whole new meaning. Now you can [quote]customize[/unquote] your character to a degree never before possible! And thus arises (ha, Sann: 1, thesaurus: 0!) the age-old question....how I mine for fish?
Glyph of Pestilence [Minor]
As pestilence is the bread-and-butter of your AoE rotation (specifically the bread, with blood boil as the butter, although this analogy is making me sick to my stomach), this glyph is incredibly useful.
Glyph of Dark Command [Major]
With the rather absurd amount of miss rate Blizz seems to have attached to ALL the taunts, this glyph isn't exactly a must-have, but it certainly helps when you have that overzealous retadin (sorry, my bad dawg).
Glyph of Bone Shield [Major]
Upside: you get five for the price of four! Downside: N/A. Sounds like a win/win to me.
Glyph of Icebound Fortitude [Major]
Something for nothing has always seemed like a good thing to me, and since you should be rotating IBF as much as inhumanly possibly, having it cost absolutely no runic power is definitely...a good thing.
Glyph of Death and Decay [Major]
As it stands now, this glyph is very useful, both for interrupting spellcasting in large groups and giving you a few precious "okay guys, stop hitting me" seconds. Expect a complete overhaul come next patch.
Glyph of Death Grip [Major]
Situational at best, this short stun can give you a chance to get a few heals or generate some aggro...although the mob is forced to attack you already. Like I said, situational.
Glyph of Frost Strike [Major]
Blah blah blah, situational, blah blah blah, frost.
I was hoping to delay this post until the next patch lumbered its way onto our computers, but it appears that we'll sooner wait for the arrival of the next ice age than the sweeping changes for the bugs and broken classes that are decimating arena play right now. With deep, deep bitterness in my heart, this is Sannhet, signing off the 2nd installment of....oh, bloody hell, you know the drill.
3 comments:
Ive been worried about strting to level my DK. Jumpin into a class at 55 and learnin it all is a little scary. Thnx for this; its gonna help.
What're they doing to D&D next patch?
The ORIGINAL D&D spell had a built-in 4 second fear....Blizzard decided this was overpowered and put out a glyph which gave it the current, commonly seen 3 seconds. Upon further review, they came to the conclusion that PvPers already came to: an AoE fire-and-forget CC was too much.
Thus, it is being downgraded harshly to a simple 20% damage increase...while still good for tanking, it's not quite the "amg" juiciness it was previously.
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