1) How do I spec to tank?

In Cataclysm, Blizzard has been kind enough to provide us with a single tree that is dedicated to tanking – Blood. That is what you will be picking and liking. There have been a number of changes, some good and some silly, but that’s where we’re at right now. Contrary to Blizzard’s design intentions for Cataclysm, I am not going to be telling you – “This is the base cookie cutter spec, and there are some points left over that you can put where you want.” While that was their goal, the reality didn’t turn out that way. You don’t have much wiggle room. That said, here are your specs:

5 mans:

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#jcGr0sMruszZbhc

Goal is to maximize aoe threat potential. Even though CC is more necessary and aoe threat is generally lower, it will be a while before the Wrath mindset breaks. A spec like this will help that transition be a little smoother.

Raid progression:

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#jcGr0sMruszG0obZ0b

This spec has the highest survivability potential. When Lichborne is available, you can pool Runic Power and use it to heal yourself with Death Coil, which synergizes well when you pick the VB Glyph. With large stacks of Vengeance, Death Coil heals for massive amounts and you can machine gun up to 3 in a row. It does require some preparation and loss of Rune Strikes, however, after the initial pull Vengeance largely makes threat a non-issue as it is currently tuned. For more in depth analysis, it is best to refer to this post:

http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t105485-old_cataclysm_dk_endgame_tanking_4_x/p14/#post1806084

There are a number of talents that are unused where you could, theoretically, put points in, but most of them are redundant or just downright bad.

Questionable:
3 Point Scent of Blood – Has stacking issues. You will hit 3 stacks, and it will proc, and any extra stacks will go to waste. 2 points is better and less likely to cause this problem, however, it does still increase RP generation.

Redundant:
Abomination’s Might – DPS classes can and will bring this and they do it better. The 2% Strength bonus that is not redundant is not worth the points you will spend on it.

Bad:
Hand of Doom – lol.

Blood-Caked Blade – Has a value of less than 0.5% overall damage increase per talent point. Not worth it.

Crimson Scourge – Blood Boil’s damage is extremely low, so the boost this talent gives is negligible at best. The proc is equally low in value. Thanks to Scarlet Fever being applied via Blood Plague, optimal play is now to ignore BP/SF when you can’t apply it via Outbreak. Half the time, the proc won’t even happen. The other half, if it does happen, it’s likely to screw up your Blade Barrier. This is because optimal play is to hold one B rune (to fish F/U RE procs) and expend it at the last second to keep up Blade Barrier using BB (since it consumes a Rune even if it misses). I’m sure you can imagine how a random free BB would screw this up.

Icy Reach – You will never be casting Icy Touch (the only one of the three spells it affects that you use as a tank) from far enough away (or probably at all) that this talent will matter. The only reason this is ever taken is for filler for a Lichborne spec.

Nerves of Cold Steel – DW tanking is no longer viable. It is possible but below 2H in almost every possible way. More information further down.

2) Should I dual-wield or use a two-hander?

This is no longer a question. You will use a two-handed weapon. If you dual-wield, you are doing it wrong.

3) What Glyphs should I use?

There isn’t much choice here. There are 4 Prime Glyphs that are relevant for Blood.
Rune Strike – Straight up threat bonus.
Heart Strike – Straight up threat bonus.
Death and Decay – Straight up threat bonus. Use on AoE.
Death Strike – Straight up threat bonus. Even though you will be dumping RP a lot and never keeping very much, you should still be ending up with more than 0 RP on an often enough basis that this will give you a bonus. This synergizes well with a Lichborne spec while you pool RP.

There are 6 Major Glyphs that are relevant, but in the end, again, only really 3 that you can expect to see use of.
Dark Succor – This Glyph can functionally be considered mandatory for Raid bosses. When off-tanking and not taking damage, you can switch to Unholy Presence, stack a large Blood Shield with this Glyph, then switch back immediately before you pick up the boss for large damage reduction. Tank swaps are arguably one of the more stressful times for healers, and this is hugely beneficial.
Rune Tap – Absolutely indespensible in the new healing game.
Vampiric Blood -Increases the healing you receive. I like this Glyph a lot, as it synergizes well with Lichborne and saves healer mana.
Dancing Rune Weapon – Many people like this Glyph, but the truth is that it’s really not that good. Here’s the problem: DRW costs 60 RP. Thanks to Vengeance, the only time you will ever need to worry about threat is the initial pull – which is also the only time in a fight you will never be able to cast DRW. By the time you’re able to get 60 RP, you don’t need the threat bonus. Skip it.

The remaining choices:
Bone Shield – Terrible.
Pestilence – Given that it’s going to be more healing and more mitigation to run Diseaseless (more on this later), Pestilence is pretty sub par. Since its only value is to spread Diseases, and it does so now at 50% of already terrible damage, there’s just not a lot of value here.

Minor Glyphs:
Blood Tap – Because it’s one of the only ones that gives you any benefit.
Resilient Grip – Infinite taunts on any mob than’t be moved by Death Grip

4) What is my single target rotation?

Because of the changes to the Rune system, Runic Empowerment, and the new Death Strike, we have a priority system now, and this is how it goes:

1. Outbreak on cooldown
2. Death Strike
3. Rune Strike
4. Rune Tap on cooldown (if 90% health or less)
5. Heart Strike
6. Horn of Winter if nothing else
7. Sometimes Dancing Rune Weapon

Obviously this takes a bit more explanation.
Death Strike functionally has the highest priority, but you don’t want Outbreak to ever not be on cooldown. However, as a general rule you will want to avoid Death Striking back to back unless you can ensure no melee hits from the boss happen while you do it. The Blood Shield you have up will clip off a portion of damage, resulting in a smaller heal and smaller shield from the second DS.

Heart Strike, while it is the “signature” ability of the Blood tree, is actually something you will use rarely on single targets because you want to maximize your Death Strikes. What this means is that even though Runic Empowerment will proc Death Runes, you aren’t going to use them immediately on a Heart Strike. You’re going to save them until you have the Runes for a Death Strike. You can also make use of Blood Tap and a single Rune from RE to get a Death Strike out faster.

Rune Tap is free healing with a cooldown, so you’re going to want to use it as often as possible to help with healer mana, especially glyphed. It shouldn’t, in general, preclude a Death Strike though, because Blood Shield is very important to maximize uptime for.

Dancing Rune Weapon is kind of a goofy cooldown with its ridiculous 60 RP cost, so you’ll never want to use it at the start of a pull, even if you were able to. Rune Strike is a better choice to establish initial threat, especially with the low RP that Blood generates. Later on in the fight, however, it works well when paired with Bone Shield as the extra avoidance will increase Bone Shield’s potential uptime. Something that also works well is to time your DRW when Outbreak is up, as it will duplicate your Outbreak and you get double diseases.

5) What is my AoE rotation?

Because of the changes to the Rune system, Runic Empowerment, and the new Death Strike, we have a priority system now.

1. If Outbreak is up, pull with it. If it’s not, don’t bother with Diseases.
2. Throw down a Death and Decay where you’re going to be tanking. Make sure that you target it so nothing that is crowd controlled is hit by it.
3. If you pulled with Outbreak, hit Pestilence. If not, skip this step.
4. Death Strike
5. Rune Strike until you have sufficient Runes.

Your priorities now become very similar to your single target, with one exception. If you have 4 or more targets, use Blood Boil instead of Heart Strike. That’s basically it.

Because Cataclysm trash takes longer, in general, than you’re used to from Wrath, you will have Death and Decay up for every pull. Remember that mobs are not intended to be AoE’d down anymore – Your AoE threat is meant to hold them from incidental damage and healers only.

6) Do I use Diseases?

At first glance this probably seems like a stupid question. Diseases are a core mechanic! you might say, Of course I want to keep them up at all times. But the answer is actually not that cut and dry.

For what purpose does a Blood tank keep up Diseases? What benefit do they potentially provide? Let’s have a look.

1. They do damage
2. Frost Fever slows attack speed
3. They cause Heart Strike to do more damage

Now, why might a Blood tank not want to keep up Diseases? There’s really only one reason. When you’re not applying them via Outbreak, it costs one Frost and one Unholy Rune – The cost of a Death Strike that you just lost. So the question is this – Does the extra Death Strike you get every minute outweigh those 3 reasons above? I believe that it does.

1. They do damage – Barely. Diseases, especially as Blood, are pretty terrible at doing damage.
2. Frost Fever slows attack speed – And so do other debuffs that cost less to apply. Do you have another Death Knight in the Raid? Your FF is now redundant. Another tank? They don’t exchange survivability to apply that attack speed debuff – You do, through lost Death Strikes.
3. It makes Heart Strike do more damage – But not by a whole lot. Remember, you still have 55% uptime on Diseases using Outbreak, so the net result is that you lose roughly 10% Heart Strike damage, and Heart Strike ends up being only between 10 and 12% of your total damage. Overall, a 10% hit to 11% of your damage is a loss of 1.1%. This is pretty much a non factor.

But what’s the end result? Let’s run some numbers using BloodSim on these settings:

• 20% avoidance, 110k health, 8k base AP, 1469-2728 weapon damage at 3.8 swing speed and 75% Blood Shield absorption
• Boss hits every 2 seconds for 23k-28k damage
• 100 six minute fights

Net differences between Diseases and Diseaseless:

• 6.1% less damage dealt
• 5.1% less threat generated
• 1.6% less damage taken
• 21.9% more damage absorbed
• 21.8% more damage healed

That’s essentially what you’re trading. Without yet seeing how that stacks up against the DPS threat output, I feel that tradeoff is worth it. You can make your own decision. The best part is you can change it based on the needs of the fight. If you’re finding that with Diseases you’re ahead on threat, try it and save your healers some mana.

7) How do I gem, enchant and Reforge?

While Reforging has added an extra level of complexity, this decision is actually even easier now because of it. Use the following guidelines for all of your enchanting, gemming and Reforging needs:

• If it is possible to choose more Mastery, do that.
• If it is possible to choose more Stamina but not more Mastery, do that.
• If you are not at the Expertise cap (6.0/6.5%), Reforge Dodge or Parry as above until you are. Do not gem or enchant for it.
• You want a modicum of Hit (2-3% is fine for Heroics, more for Raids), but don’t go out of your way for it. Reforge some Parry or Dodge if it’s extremely low.

If you have any remaining pieces of gear that have not yet been Reforged:

• Reforge Dodge or Parry as above into Mastery

If you are above the Hit or Expertise cap:

• Reforge excess Hit or Expertise into Mastery

For your Meta, you want the Austere Shadowspirit Diamond.

Mastery is superior to Avoidance for damage prevention. While on a 1:1 rating basis they are roughly equivalent, Avoidance’s value remains the same when Magic damage is added to a scenario, while Mastery’s goes up. This is because Death Strike heals will include magic damage, even though Blood Shield will not mitigate it. The Blood Shields will therefore be higher.

Why don’t I want to Dual Wield anymore?

Here’s some numbers for DW versus 2H tanking at 85. I’ll be fleshing this post out later.

Settings in BloodSim are taken from Zarko’s excellent thread on tank stats at Tier 11 (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?sid=1&topicId=27026401591) and damage based on wielding 372 weapons.

• 175,685 health, 32.36% avoidance, 46841 armor, 21 mastery
• Boss hits every 2.4 seconds for 110k-120k unmitigated damage
• 100 eight minute fights

Difference in switching from 2H to DW:

- 7.9% less damage dealt

- 9.8% less threat

- 0.1% less damage taken

- 0.7% less damage absorbed

- 1.1% more healed

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• Cataclysm Class Preview: Death Knight
• Death Knights will tank as Blood in Cataclysm
• Cataclysm Stat & System Changes
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• Cataclysm Class Preview: Paladin

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Tags: 5 man, Blizzard, Bone Shield, cata, catacl, cataclysm, Class, cooldown, Death, death knight, Diseaseless, Dual Wield, Glyph, Glyphs, guide, Lichborne, Major Glyphs, Minor Glyphs, Rune Strikes, Rune Weapon, Scarlet Fever, tank, tanking, tier 11, Vampiric, warcraft, world of warcraft, wo