Hi everyone.
Been playing my BDK alt lately, and have been able to comfortably do keys in the range of 10-13 at an ilvl of 450+. Surprisingly, BDK is similar to Prot Warr in that you need to know when the incoming damage is going to spike and prepare resources accordingly… except for BDK you spend the resources after the damage instead of before.
Anyway, unlike Prot Warr, BDK seems to be lacking in the ability to quickly gain aggro. With Prot Warr, I can pop Avatar + Demo Shout and spam thunderclap + revenge for aggro, but BDK only has D&D, blood boil and heart strike (target capped) which don’t hit very hard, making it harder to hold initial aggro against bursty classes like Ret Pally and DH.
Got any advice for gaining initial aggro and holding onto it?
Same story all Expansion long, it is a damage scaling issue blood has. If Blood didn’t get TD corruption to throw in a good proc now and then, the glaring issues would of shown the most this last raid tier.
Lets just hope Shadow Lands brings Blood to par with the rest of the tank via dps, and not provided by a bandaid % buff to Blood Boil…
I see… well here’s hoping they do fix it soon, can’t imagine it on Skittish weeks lol.
This is interesting. I find it easier to hold aggro on BDK vs Prot Warrior.
I get that we don’t do as much damage, but in all honesty I tank the same:
Treat each mob like a petulant child, give each one a bit of attention, and I normally allocate Dark Command to the mob being wailed on the most (purely momentary insurance).
I find I’m Tab-keying all the time on my warrior to ensure aggro, whereas I never have to in BDK because I’m never losing aggro, but I try to do it anyway to keep the habit because it’s pretty much bulletproof.
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I’ve recently started playing dk myself and at 450 ilvl I have no issues with threat as of yet. And to be honest damage wise it isn’t bad either. I have no corruption pieces on him at all and I can easily hold around 20-22k single target which is more then good enough for the content I’ve been running him in. There might be a few times that I lose agro a tad to an overzealous overgeared dps but then just taunt or grip and I’m good.
Yeah after some tabbing and hitting I can get the aggro under control, it’s just a little dicey in the initial couple seconds of the pull sometimes. Usually with pugs it’s ok, maybe it’s just the guys in my usual group with their mad burst.
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Your opener depends on the situation. If you have bone shield and no runic power you can DnD>BB>Heart Strike, if you have runic power you can bonestorm>BB, if you don’t have bone shield or runic power, DnD>MR>BB.
That’s roughly what I do in the opener, but as stated in the OP those spells don’t do much damage, which sometimes leads to problems against strong burst from the DPS.
idk, I’ve never struggled with DK aggro, esp compared to prot war, I kind of feel like we’re just better equipped to handle it, so I don’t know where you’re going wrong. Use grip and dark command on loose adds, both are off gcd taunts, use Death Strike on stuborn mobs, it hits hard and gives you good healing aggro.
Maybe you aren’t tabbing between mobs for Marrow Rends and Death Strikes? If the issue is on pull, use your taunts and bigger strikes, but I’ve never really had an issue with pull aggro, and I don’t know what exactly you’re doing, so I can’t say what you need to do.
That’s ok, guess I’ll probably figure it out with more practice since I’m still quite new to BDK. Thanks, though.