Blood DK Tanking issues

Classes Death Knight
1

I’m having issues in 13 and higher M+ keys feeling like I’m taking way too much damage. Everything I have read says that stat priority for blood tanks in dragonflight is as follows:

  1. Item Level
  2. Haste;
  3. Critical Strike / Mastery;
  4. Versatility

Wowhead and icy veins both list “best in slot blood DK” items that support that and I have 5 of the best in slots right now.

In shadowlands I stacked versatility just under haste. Now it’s dead last.

In some groups I don’t really have an issue. In others I feel squishy as heck and am popping CDs constantly to try to stay alive on trash. I take way more Damage on my DK Tanking than I do on my DH. Boss fights aren’t really an issue, it’s mainly the trash. Is the info wrong? Should I be stacking more vers? Thanks

2

Yes you should have more vers if defense is your concern. Using CDs on trash is also normal, if you have them and don’t need them you can usually pull more and then use them. Current BDK can easily alternate DRW and Vampiric Blood to maintain a good defensive cooldown.

3

Take the Stat priority with a ton of salt. The guides prioritize dps, but going even further, your dps Stat priority will fluctuate a lot while gearing up. As in, maybe vers is currently your top dps Stat due to your gear, but after switching for a chest with tons of vers, now it’s the worst. So just sim it.

Dks have very little mitigation, because dks mitigate through using death strike after getting a big hit. Are you getting one shot? Then you need more vers/stamina/defensive talents. Are you not getting one shot, but dying over time? You are probably pressing your buttons wrong - anything that doesn’t kill dks instantly should not result in death.

For trash, it’s important to familiarize yourself with their abilities. As you go up in key levels, these become as important as bosses, so you should know when you need vb to survive a few big hits, when is the best time to have icebound up, when to benefit from lichborne, and very importantly what can be cheesed with ams/drw.

Our defensive CDs are very short and you should be using them in nearly every pull as you climb keys. There’s nothing inherently wrong with needing CDs on trash, it’s part of your kit.

2 Likes
4

Definitely not getting one shotted.

I am familiar enough with the mobs to know which CDs to pop going in and during.

Honestly part of me is wondering if it’s a pug group issue as well. I can do the same level key with one group and +3 it and then the next group I am struggling to stay alive. This morning I was running Academy and the DPS refused to DPS the add or aoe the others that spawn. I was doing all the DPS in the add and the add interrupts. I stayed alive for a while by myself with just me and the heals but I got over 70 stacks of the toxin each time and that finally got me, especially after the heals was gone. Not a single dps switched to the add or was hitting aoe for the rest.

Similar RLP issue. Felt squishy as heck last night in a pug group. Ran with a guild group today and it was ridiculously easy and fast, and I didn’t change anything I was doing. Not sure how to tell the difference between a crappy group and when I’m taking more damage than I should. There’s not really any difference in what I do between when I get a “great job” and a “wtf are you taking so much damage” messages. Sigh. I overthink things

5

It’s this 100% - a solid group that uses CC / interrupts / stuns accordingly does wonders. And although you don’t see it, that’s the difference you’re noticing

6

Yes, that’s just the group, but there are always stuff you can do.

With a well timed AMS you can have the toxins drop (it both soaks their damage and forbids new ones from sticking). Between that and DRW parrying everything, you can guarantee a lot of time without taking stacks.

It’s important to keep in mind when things aren’t your fault - adds should definitely die far earlier than 70 stacks, because that’ll kill even tanks with more mitigation. But it’s equally important to be aware of how you can help when the group isn’t very good.

We have enough CC to be self-sufficient for most of RLP.

You’re not grabbing Death’s Echo - that’s two Death Grips, and you can interrupt stuff with death grips (also Death’s Echo is one of the best talents we have due to higher DnD uptime, specially now that it’s been buffed, definitely check it out!).

Permafrost is good, but Blinding Sleet on the other side is an AoE disorient - you can interrupt entire groups with it (also works any time you need just a little breathing room, most mobs will stop attacking for 1-3 seconds when you use it, depending on RNG).

Asphyxiate is a long single target stun. If you expect your group to not be good at interrupting, it’s extremely valuable.

Between slappy hands, sleet, and grips, you, as a BDK, can handle most “interrupts” in RLP on your own. They’ve changed how casts work - in the past, anything other than interrupt would only give a small breathing room as they’d resume casting on the first opportunity. This time around, stuns and displacements that stop the cast will actually make it enter the CD period as if it was properly interrupted.

7

I would suggest mastery > haste (10%) > vers > haste (10+%) >> crit…
On contrary to pre-DF BDKs, blood shield is your main heal now. The tier set gives you more than enough runes to stack more haste. Haste has no effect on shattering bone, blood plague, two of your main damage sources.
Crit has anti synergy with BDK, it makes boneshield shatter slower against a few targets. It provides nothing against magic dmg and burst dmg, the two main reasons causing dead DKs.

1 Like
8

Stat prio on those sites are WAY off. Crit is crap. Can’t get enough to make the parry worth it right now. You want to go 20% haste first then mast/vers and a little bit of crit.

Also, dks use their cds anticipating damage coming and not reactively to damage incoming. If you wait to need a cd you’ll be dead. If you pop it before you need it, you’ll be fine. I recommend grabbing rune tap as a nice little filler between big cds

Last tip: tank busters, run away from them. We don’t have much dr in general so not getting hit is our best defensive there

9

10% haste will leave you with periods of time where you have no resources. 20% is the way to go unbuffed

10

Yes, but as a good DK you should also be a one man CC crew with sleet, 12 second interrupt, 2 grips, and abomb limb. I see a ton of DKs that don’t understand grip is another interrupt if the mob is going to cast something that matters, ESPECIALLY when it “can’t be interrupted”.

OP, figure out what is important to interrupt and make sure you’re getting as much as you can. Tectonic slam in RLP, death blast in SBG, rotting wind in NO, anything that fears, the healing spells in HoV, etc.

11

Easier said than done. And mobs don’t wait 15 seconds before trying to cast again.

Also:

Rune of Healing works on the players too :slight_smile: just kite outside of the rune and let the DPS get free heals

12

Mouse over macro for death grip is a god send.

13

Agreed! I love mouseovers. My comment was more made towards using 4-5 globals to be “interrupting” everything.

Used all your stops, and didn’t build RP, not using defensives, no DS.

Do you have the tools to be the one man team, definitely. To do it though, is harder than it sounds

14

Yeah we can stop a lot but eventually we’ll run out of stuff. That’s when we use our super secret ability of yell at the dps to do things other than “ha ha numbers go brrrrr”.

1 Like
15

Well, now that I know Mouseover Grip is a legitimate Interrupt, as one of those DPS I’ll be happy to stop more casts. Before, I’d just focus down a caster I know was a problem (Like the TJS fears) and hope my teammates can deal with any duplicates. Now that I can just yank the duplicates and prevent the cast, I don’t need to rely on my (sometimes braindead) teammates.

1 Like
16

For me, 10% is enough. Not considering 5% from D&D, we gain additional 10% and a lot of rune generation from the tier set.
Only crit is the bad stat (never trust internet guides), the rest are all good.

17

I’ve tried 10% haste and when you’re not just tanking but also pumping 10% leaves you resource starved. Wouldn’t recommend

18

Haste is the worst stat for dmg. It does nothing for blood plague and shattering bone, two of your main dmg sources.
More apm isnt equal to more dmg or healing.

19

faster rune gen = more runes to spend = more runic power = more death strikes. Death strike healing is based off of damage taken so more death strikes = more healing.

Don’t listen to me. listen to the top m+ bdk dreams. he says 20% as well.

20

You have a certain amount of stats for a specific ilvl. You either choose between more haste or master or more vers. All of them increase damage and healing. Haste is the worst one for damage.