I do mostly low keys. Now, ususally between 5-12. I don’t know if it’s something I’m missing, or because the lower level keys have tanks still learning, but it feels damn near impossible to keep a BDK safe the same way I can with a bear or pally. I was told to get a WA for RP and to allow the tank to regain on his own, but in more than half my runs with BDK I’m burning every CD I have into him and surging my team just to stay alive, all the while they’re full or nearly full of RP. It looks like they use DS as an afterthought many times instead of a core mechanic. How should I treat BDK tanks? Trust them to help themselves or just constantly dump heals into them? I don’t think I’ve ever had a BDK run where I’m able to do any meaningful DPS.
Sounds like they are still learning, not much you can do about it to be honest, either leave the group or try your best and keep him alive.
Nothing is safer than a bear so you can’t really compare a BDK and bear. Pally and BDK are pretty simillar though in that they can full heal themself without any help. Blood just has less cd to mitigate a lot of damage like Pally.
This is generally a good idea since an experience BDK will rarely need you to pop a cd on them in such a low key, but since you are doing pugs I would recommend just not beating yourself up too much since most people in this level of keys are still learning how to play their spec in harder forms of content.
The natural instinct as a healer is to just spam heals into a BDK but you have to just let them do their own thing, BDK only needs a healer’s cd if they go into a pull with 0 runic power and less than 5 stacks of bone shards. Besides these two examples a BDK should be able to heal themself back from whatever hits them.
If they are full on RP then they are either bad and just don’t know how to play, or they are waiting for a big hit to DS off of and full heal. Again at this low level of keys a lot of people are still learning and can’t really base a spec off of people in these key ranges. A good BDK doesn’t need a lot of cd pumped into them.
I would say you should trust that the BDK knows to DS and not just full cap on RP without even pressing DS when they are about to die. I would advise to not pump heals into a BDK when they have RP and bone shield stacks up, as stated earlier at the start of a pull you may need to until they get more RP and stacks going.
You are panicking too much then and need to trust them more. If you are scared then you need to relax since their whole design is to be a yoyo that just keeps going up and down, they will often out heal you if played correctly. Just take a chill pill when you see they have 40 runic power and they are taking big damage, a DS will almost full heal them (depending on if they got hit with a big hit).
You barely need to heal a good and appropriately geared blood DK, so it’s probably more of a them problem than a you problem. I’ve healed bloods in 15s that nearly matched my overall healing for the dungeon.
That being said, make sure that your raid frames show their runic power bar. If they have RP, they shouldn’t die. If that bar is empty, then you know you’re gonna have to help them out.
Keep in mind a BDK is a reactive mitigation, not proactive like other tanks, so they will have the greatest benefit from DS after they take a big hit. At the start of the pull is when they are the most in-danger. The Runic Power WA will help you predict when they will be in danger, but if they are newish and learning the class there is nothing you can do to ease your stress. Keep rolling HoTs on he BDK and you shouldn’t have to blow your Cooldowns in most situations.
keep an eye on the Blood Dk’s Runic Power and Vampiric Blood to the extent.
Runic Power is their lifeblood for them to heal themselves.
Thanks for the reply man. I’ll work on trying to relax. Just sucks seeing someone die as a healer. I was actually wondering if a few bad experiences was coloring how I viewed other runs and kind of connecting dots that weren’t there. I’ll just keep at it and try to get used to the BDK tanking flow. Take care.
Yeah if their healing is not matching/beating you on the DK then they arent really playing the class correctly. DKs have been an active mitigation tank meaning they have to use DS and rotate CDs otherwise its rough on healers. As a healer I see this too but as a DK played since wrath its not the healers is the DK tanks that havent learned the class yet.
Shortly after my question I did a ToP +14 with a DK tank. Easily the best DK I have healed, and it felt great being able to trust him to take care of himself while I stabilized the team. I’m pretty certain that since I’m not doing high keys I’m encountering people learning the class, same as me. With how he played I’m surprised they’re considered to be weak, but I’m sure there are other aspects I’m not considering.
We arent in any danger if we have over 5stacks of Bone Shield, and 40 or more Runic Power.
The sign for us being in danger is low Bone Shield stacks and/or no runic power.
I knew about RP and keep an eye on yalls bar I have set up, didn’t know about BS though. Thank you. Yeah this guy I did a 14 with must have really optimized his rotation because he felt like a brick wall. Totally different than the other BDKs I’ve played with. It’s gotta just be people learning the class. I can’t think of any other way to explain the difference.
If you really want to get down into things, keep track of Vampiric Blood on the Dk. If they use it there is probably a reason if its a good dk. Healing on them should be increased from all sources during its duration unless its just another instance of something being changed in the past at some point and the tooltip not being updated to reflect it.
Ive had bad BDKs when I heal them and good ones, but more often than not its just a bad player not knowing what they are getting into.
Would Vampiric Blood be tracked by OmniCD, or would I need to find a separate WA to track that?
Like others have said you need to keep an eye on a DKs runic power bar and CDs. If they have a full RP bar they can bounce back most of the damage, needing only HoTs and light heals for the rest, CDs used may indicate a need for more healing attention but not your CDs.
When a DK has no CDs and is Low on RP and dieing, that the time to panic because they messed up and are also in panic mode, the difference between a good or even a great DK and the bad ones is NEVER letting that happen.
Yeah I know. I mentioned in the OP that I have been tracking the RP. A few DKs actually gave me good advice, I mentioned a few posts back that I finally got a really good BDK in a 14 ToP and it felt fine. They were just learning the class and not using abilities well.
I have absolutely no clue. Im a little more basic and just watch for it through say having them as my focus. Im sure there would be something an addon could provide to tell you if they have Vampiric Blood up or not
Ok I’ll try and figure out where it is, if it’s tracked automatically, next time I have a BDK tank. I really appreciate your advice.
Its just something that might help out if you know they use. It increases their healing as well so you might not have to heal as much. Just keep track of the stuff people listed before for the most part. I probably wouldnt go out of my way to really set stuff up for Vamp Blood or specifically look for it. More information is better but the other information is much more useful overall.
On a side topic, just wait for Wrath Classic, the dk class as a whole might be one of the easiest classes to heal especially blood and unholy just due to how you build a tank and how DS healing works.
idk if this helps anyone.
but i generally use Vamp Blood in 3 PvE situations.
Situation #1. PANICING
Situation #2 Lining it with Bonestorm to face tank a pack for 12 seconds with virtual damage immunity.
Situation #3 Lining with Flesh Craft because ive run into downtime, and VampBlood+Flesh Craft is a massive shield wall+ great down time filler.
With Low vers and depending on legendary choice or miss matched builds Blood DKs can range from damn near unkillable to paper mache.
One of the favored low effort low level builds is Rune of Hysteria, Voracious, Red Thirst with the Superstrain or Gorefiend’s Domination legendary. Both will give give you a plentiful of RP so on average you have a Death Strike for both emergencies and mechanics. You can play very poorly with this set up and a bunch of vers and still get by with a healer not paying much attention to you. There are several things a BDK has to manage and with there bad aggro generation you will at times be running around picking stuff up after you start a pull. BDK is probably the least beginner friendly tank already so add in aggro issue and you have a fresh player who is constantly in full panic mode.