I only really do +10s thru +12s, rarely a +13, but I never felt particularly squishy as Prot. There are pulls you have to kite on in Shadowlands. Every tank will kite some of those pulls. You’ll also just want to learn which pulls hit hard, so you can go into them with a CD and/or mitigation already rolling. I also heal, so I’ll see it occasionally where a tank walks into the next pull and just instantly dies. That’s not a reflection on any tank spec, that’s on the player.
Protip: Don’t use the legendary that supercharges your Shield of the Righteous damage. I know some guides (including Icy-Veins last I checked) recommend it first for M+. But if you’re worried about staying alive? It’s literally useless. I like to run the First Avenger talent + the legendary that has a (fairly high) chance to reset your Avengers Shield CD every time you cast it. It contributes a significant amount of self-sustain. Then consider that the Kyrian ability is just… another set of Avengers Shield? Yeah, it’s a good setup.
Yeah, I’ve pugged this entire season so far so I know what you mean. Ele is always right on the edge of the meta (until very recently) and even though the buffs make it super valuable in m+ the stigma is still somewhat there.
I’ll deal with stigma to play the class I wanna play though, but I think it’s perfectly valid to play meta classes to avoid the stigma too. Just a choice at that point.
I just finished pugging my way to KSM on a Blood DK. It’s doable. Rough at times and you definitely feel squishy in high level keys, but it’s doable.
Some thoughts:
I don’t think BDKs are that complicated. There are two things you really need to be able to do as a BDK. One, don’t waste your RP. Pool as much as you can. Only spend it if you’ve taken a big hit and can get full value out of Death Strike, or if you’re about to cap and the RP would be wasted anyway. A lot of players have a natural instinct to always be pressing something to maximize their output and that can actually be counterproductive as a DK. The second is CD usage. You have a LOT of CDs as a BDK and most of them aren’t very good. On high level keys you need to be going in to most packs with either Vampiric Blood or Icebound Fort up at the start of a pull. This is true of all tanks to an extent I think, but you want to use your CDs proactively, not reactively. Learn when the big damage is coming and mitigate it beforehand, because as Blood you can drop very quickly and you don’t want to bet on you or your healers’ ability to pull you back up before the next hit comes. That can be a very small window.
Kiting on a DK is not that bad in my opinion. This may just be my bias for the class, but Grip of the Dead gives you a mass AoE slow on a short CD, plus you have Chains of Ice which is spammable. So you may not be great at running away, but you can easily keep things out of reach. This actually threw me for a loop when I tried playing VDH and found I only had one slow on a long CD meaning I was almost completely at the mercy of my teammates to do the slows for me. Granted, VDH doesn’t need slows to avoid damage, but your DPS can’t do their jobs if the mobs are running all over the place. The downside of this though, is that if mobs are immune to slows (or if it’s Inspiring week) you’re in trouble.
Since you’re playing with an RSham I will also say that Earth Elemental is your best friend. If you meet any Boomkins, Treants are even better. Anything that takes pressure off of you during the difficult pulls is amazing. There are some packs where it’s a bad idea (Cleaves or cone abilities for instance) but generally these things are a lifesaver. Don’t be afraid to call on them when you need them and don’t be one of those tanks who gets mad when they’re used because, used properly, they’re an enormous blessing for you.
I was able to pug pretty easily up to around 13-14 range, then group invites fell off sharply. I’m not sure how much of this is due to me being Blood, and how much is just the availability of better geared tanks with more impressive IOs at that level (I was only at 213 when I did my last 15). Most of my 15s were done on my own keystone. I do get “lol bdk” comments every now and then, but it’s not super common. Healers will hate you, but if you’re bringing your own that isn’t a problem.
Guardian druid. It’s going to take you a lot of time to get good and be able to tank properly. Guardian druid is the most forgiving and easiest to learn tanking spec. If anyone says otherwise they are 100% wrong. If you want to learn, and not feel bad doing it, guardian druid is the way to go.
A GOOD BDK is actually easy to heal. They just give healers heart attacks with the way their health goes up and down.
I was tanking with a Resto Druid in a 5 the other day (both of our ilvl are currently sub 200) and was told I was the easiest tank they’ve healed at that level.
I don’t understand this when referring to healing a blood dk. They are one of my favorite tanks to heal, both on this character and on my mistweaver. Yes they’ve been a little squishy at the start of this expansion but I normally find I don’t need to worry about them much outside of big damage windows.
Dk Dk is exciting because you can pop your big cd’s on initial pulls , in one gcd you can lose half your hp or more before you get bone shield up . Or you can taunt from a distance and as they get close use range like a scared little tank to get bone shield up . I vote Dk . The only tank with very little armor unless you have Bone shield up .
Bulwark of Righteous Fury is a huge bonus in Mythic+, but not so much in raids. The main advantage of Paladin tanks over any other class is our ability to shell out a lot of DPS, which Shield of the Righteous makes up ~25% of our overall damage.
The resetting of Avengers Shield can be useful, but more for the interrupts than anything else. The extra avenger’s shield won’t make up for a lack of skill. They are going to have to learn to manage defensives regardless.
In most dungeons, I am walking out with 4-4.5k DPS without using potions. Without the legendary, it would be significantly lower.
Ya, I wish I wasn’t so swayed by online tier lists and fotm specs. There’s a small part of me that looks at that, sees DK in last place on every list, and makes me want to switch. Especially as a new player. But I genuinely love how it plays and have the most fun on it when I’m able to get that “but its not the best spec” out of my head
I’m also a little less concerned with what healers like, since I’m running with my gf most of the time and she likes healing me as a bdk over the other classes because she barely has to do anything and she tracks my RP. Plus were in the same room so communication is easy.
That being said, I’m way more into this game than she is, so I do worry what will happen when I inevitably want to do dungeons and she doesn’t.
Pure fun for me is veng DH/peot warrior. Mobility, mobility, mobility. You’re everywhere and threat isn’t an issue. Sustain is good and I feel I can mitigate almost everything on my warrior.
Bear, it’s good to me and I like the idea of an infinite health tank but I hate staring at bear butt.
Monk is weird. Mobile, fun spells, but feels clunky to me for some reason. I wish that blackout combo was Baseline and had more interactions. Combo strings need to be a thing like in vanguard saga of heroes. In theory they should allow someone to take the least damage by just not taking it period.
DK, it’s just slow. It feels like I’m a giant two hand weilding bad mama jama but in reality it delivers your grandma swinging her cane with one arm at a wall. Doing no damage and just feeling underwhelming. I wish I could love DK again but it’s butts.
I actually really felt like that at the start too with DK. My first 60s were brew then DH, and then tried DK and it was awful. Once I was better geared it helped, but I actually kinda learned to love the slower pace. Things feel less spammy and more meaningful to me now.
I play brewmaster because guardian and DH feel so boring to play. Sometimes I feel really squishy. But BM has a high skill cap to improve and can do it all. If you want to play what’s best go Gaurdian or DH
Re: monk you need to be purifying more. Using purify gives you stacks of celestial power that makes your celestial brew shield beefchonk big. There is no reason to try to max out the stacks because it only lasts 8 seconds.
Use your mobility skills to kite when your stagger is high so healer can catch up.
Also, try very hard to not let any mobs get behind you in packs, because our only avoidance is dodge and you can’t dodge from behind, and we have super low armor.
And we’re weak to magic damage because blizzard decided so.