4.0 - Blood Deathknights - A new way of thinking?

4.0.1 - Blood Deathknights

A new way of thinking?

Okay - So here it is ...

I ran a few heroics last night, and by no means am i in top, top gear here - not by any stretch of the imagination, what i AM in however, is decent tanking gear which, before patch 4.0.1, would have allowed me to run any heroic dungeon, with any group hassle free.  Okay - So somethings HoR could get a little hairy, but still, i was no pushover.  Threat was good, damage was better, all in all, i could breeze through heroics like nobody's business, i reckon it's fair to say that i would get you from clicking the 'Enter' button to the last boss in around say, 20 minutes - Which isn't an easy thing to do across the board.

What i'm really trying to say, without boring you all to death (Excuse the pun) is that i'm not pushover, dumbass tank like the majority of deathknights seem to be.  I normally get complimented on my tanking, being able to handle aggro, to be able to pick up the random loose ends that we all get ocaisionally with ease and composure, can handle my cooldowns well, so that i'm not stranded in a boss fight with most of my rotation on cooldown ...  So you can imagine my surprise when i'm sitting in CoS wonder why the hell that this warlock isn't understanding that i'm having aggro issues.  Okay - so a day has passed since the patch, but that is nowhere near long enough for us all to get comfortable with our new specs and rotation.  I mean, for the love of god, stop spamming AoE for just one, bloody second, so i can gather things up and hold their attention!

So here is what i am thinking for Blood Tanking in 4.0.1 right now, okay - so things seem a little crappy at the moment, aggro has been turned upside down, people are getting thicker, but we're not completely out of the picture, not by a long stretch, it's just every other class seems to have been given a steroid injection ...

I guess you could say i was just a little pissed at this, i mean, my aggro wasn't completely abismal, with the exception of the total moron who decided that pulling using AoE, whilst in fully gemmed and enchanted T10.5, was a good idea and then complains that he has a mob or two following him, trying to jam their swords up his ass.  Bear in mind, i don't have a single piece of T10.5 tanking gear, never mind a full T10 set. 




Again, i get left with the feeling that we are broken, but not as bad as most people think.


Okay - So yeah, we're facing a major shift in old vs new and no-one completely trusts it yet.  In the old version, you could AoE until you're blue in the face and then RACE to the top of the DPS charts based soley on trash.  Us DK Tanks, scratch that, all tanks need to start kicking some ass and get people to understand that you can't just open up with all you've got anymore, you MUST stick to the skull in this new way of looking at things.  Okay, so when non-skull items get pulled the first time, we will normally taunt it back.  The second time, well,  good luck to whoever pulled it, just pray to god it wasn't the healer.

I mean, all these DPS cannons got new shiney toys to play with, you know what?  Fuck you!  Go play PvP and blast each others brains out with those new spells.  For the time being and up until catacalysm, anyone who is not with the program, had better learn how to tank as a mage.  And quickly.

Runic Power ... Sheesh, i think we're starting to loose a lot of runic power, simply because now, we're only really getting hit by two mobs, instead of four - Why is this you ask?  Because the other two are too busy chasing the fucking mages about ...  Take a gander at my talent build, go on.  I've ran with this since the day 4.0.1 came out, i haven't had a problem with runic power.  I hit like a pussy cat on weed, but i still got the power behind me ...

Look guys, without trying to sound like too much of a fuddy-duddy, do not get into an aggro hole.  Seriously, if you want to dig yourself into a hole, make yourself useful and dig to China and slap those gold sellers or something.  If you can, get a party member to put some sort of aggro mis-direct on your healers.  Screw your DPS - You can live without them, but good luck without a healer.

If DPS wants to go balls to the wall after you warn them that they need to focus skull, let them die. Period, end of discussion. I know it’s contrary to your protective nature, but if you don’t break habits now, when you get out there later they’ll be that much harder to retrain.

Peace.