Hello,
I got to lvl 60 on my BDK on sunday and started dipping into M+. It’s a really fun spec and I like the healing aspect of it. However I am struggling with the first few seconds of pulls. It feels like there are too many things to do if I can’t open with DRW.
If I don’t blood boil early enough my threat is all messed up and I got mobs all over the place. If I don’t use a defensive I have to use a lot of death strikes which waste globals on other things I need to do like marrowrend, DnD, more blood boil, etc. Then on top of all that I needa get some good heart strikes in there to make sure I have enough RP.
If I have DRW ready for pull everything is great and I can focus on my favorite part BDK tanking which is getting damn near every single important interrupt. I can interrupt them, I can stun them, and I can pull them with two different spells. It’s glorious when I have time to actually focus on that stuff but right now it just feels so hard.
I think a major issue is my threat. DPS are pumping mobs the second I walk up to them and my 200 ilvl self can’t keep up. Does this get better with gear or is threat an issue at all times?
Any tips to make the opener less hectic?
Unfortunately, that is the life for a blood DK. Oftentimes, you want to pull fast enough that you are carrying bones from the last pull, to save yourself a few global.
I always pull with a defensive, even if it’s trinket or something. Always. DND as an opener is not a bad call, either. You get initial aggro, everything is slowed to help you position, and what HS you CAN put out hit everything.
The biggest thing to avoid is holding defensive cooldowns. While you’re tanking, you’ll likely always have at least one rolling. Hitting mobs first is more important than hitting mobs hard, and survival is key above all. Don’t be afraid to move around if you need to.
I have been waiting for proc to DnD but that does sound interesting. I do try and pool as much resources as possible before the next pack but can’t get everything. I tend to prioritize pooling RP > bone stacks/duration > runes. Maybe I can skip out on some of the RP pool and focus more on runes. DnD with a heart strike at the start should make up a decent amount of RP.
You need bones to not get one shot, though. Blood dk tanking is like working on IT, you have a lot of priority 1 items.
If I had to rank them.
Bone shield
RP pool
Keeping runes on CD
Keeping cooldowns on CD
Keeping blood boil on CD / building hemo stacks
Without boneshield, you can easily be one-shot even by a level 60 mob. You WILL be one shot by any tank buster like the patchwerk monsters in wake.
RP pool is like your real health. Your actual HP is just fake health. Overheating is a sin, so make sure you don’t. Bottoming out on RP will kill your slightly slower than dropping bone shield, but just as dead.
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You counter it by having something available for the first pull, or through maintaining higher resources to carry on into the next pull.
It depends what covenant you are and what legendary you are currently running. I typically play Venthyr with CRW leggo, so I establish my initial BS stacks by using DRW on pull. If you’re Necro, Abombs Limb should be the first action you take on pull.
If you’re neither of those (and sometimes even if you are), don’t be afraid to walk in and immediately press a defensive cooldown. This is typically true for any pull what so ever, even when going into the next pull the first few seconds will more than often not be the most dangerous. Burning an immediate rune on blood tap isn’t a horrible decision, even though it’s a DPS loss when you need to be making that decision. Using Vamp Blood on pull or within the first 1-2 seconds if you don’t have another CD is generally a good idea as well.
My usual response for trash mobs is to generally have something rolling at all times. Either DRW + Swarming Mist → Vamp Blood + Lichborne (if it’s up) → IBF. If I don’t have something up and I need to preserve a CD, I’m kiting. There will be points where I disconnect those cooldowns, but in general there are CD’s that I just stack ontop of eachother. Keep in mind, outside of Enraging weeks like last week it’s generally less dangerous to not have something up toward the end of the pack and just opt for a small kite, or face tank if 2-3 of the mobs are already dead.
Some BDK issues get better with gear, I’m near unkillable unless others make mistakes that would kill me or the DPS is so low that I struggle to maintain in a pack after my defenses are exhausted. But, I generally don’t need a healer on most pulls because I’m so self sufficient. Threat is always an “issue”, and by that I mean it really depends on who you’re grouped with. Fury Warriors and Rets like to rip threat from their burst damage, but otherwise we’re good enough with the amount of burst threat we can pull off in our CD windows to make threat not a problem when we’re actively taking damage.
I’d watch a few video guides on how to play a DK such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LALF9CK4cps
Because you’re undergeared and itemlevel 200 though, holding threat over people that are 20+ itemlevels over you might be near impossible regardless of the situation. You just kinda have to do what you can and keep in mind that grip acts as a fixate and can help reestablish threat.
ALWAYS pull with a defensive rolling with DND. You should never have any issue holding threat, until an obnoxious mage blows all their CD’s on trash.
Dnd (10 rp)
blood boil
Marrowrend primary target (20 rp)
Heart strike (10 rp + rp per target if in dnd)
Death strike (depending on target count or rp from an interupt)
Blood boil
Heart strike (10 rp + target hit
Marrowrend (3 stacks after first one, this should put you to 5 stacks, and fall to 4 shortly after - 20 RP)
We are 7 GCDs into pull and your dnd rune is coming off cooldown.
At the end of trash use dnd or chains of ice to keep stuff off you while you move to next pack to keep RP up. Which one you use depends on what’s left and what you’re walking into and if you need dnd up again.
Taunt is off the GCD. It’s okay to use as part of your opener (it slots anywhere above) while you dump resources into other targets. It’s resource free off gcd threat.
Interupt is free off GCD RP. It should stay on CD in these dungeons. It’s almost half a death strike with empowered conduits.
If you are still having issues, CRW will be up almost every other pack and should be up whenever you start a pull chain between bosses. That first pull is the most important.
In general I don’t find myself using my major CDs often on trash anymore but I’m not playing at the highest level.