Tanking cooldown questions

Post by 262843

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Post by DraconisAerius

Vampiric Blood: this seems to work extremely well when used in conjunction with WotN and/or rune Tap. This one seems like a good candidate for using reactively rather than preemptively, correct? My health drops low, so I pop VB and then Rune Tap, hopefully followed up by a DS or two.

I'd actually do that in reverse. Pop VB then DS, then after you have Blood Shield up use Rune Tap.

IBF imo is a last resort if you are on trash, but on a boss fight, if your healer is having trouble or you are about to take a high damage attack, pop it to help keep your health up.

DRW is something I'd pop near the start of any boss fight, because of the extra threat it gives you, you are going to be able to hold that initial flurry of dps back. But of course this is only if you glyph it.

Bone Shield is spot on. I'd try to time it so that it's cd is over before a particularly high damage boss attack so you have it up for that attack.

Post by 110480

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Post by 616836

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Post by Orranis

: I usually pop this at the beginning, like you did, and then wait ten seconds before engaging so I still get the rune. Also useful for phase transitions or other points in the fight where you're just kind of running around and not hitting anything for a few seconds.

macro'd to : I usually use this, depending on the fight, when there's AOE damage going around that will hit pretty much the entire party and myself, so that the healer's have to bother with me less if I'm Death Strikeing immediately afterwards. Furthermore, when glyphed it will heal the rest of the party, and make you win the healmeters (Read: Really help out AOE healing.)

Vampiric Blood: This one is tricky. I vastly prefer to use it when I'm at low health and need some health FAST. However, I have used it in the past for when I'm about to eat a big hit and the extra health is very welcome, not to mention it's duration means I can get it up afterward (My health, you sicko).

Icebound Fortitude: This is your emergency Oh shi- button, last resorts of last resorts. Best used for when something that is not supposed to happen, does. I rarely ever use it on unavoidable damage unless the group is VERY near a wipe. I save this one for when something that can be avoided, and hurts a lot, goes off. This also continues into "Oh crap another pack of mobs just aggro'd."

Dancing Rune Weapon: I probably don't use this as much as I should. It's a nice threatcooldown, and 20% parry is never unwelcome, but I can never really figure out just when to pop it.

Anti-Magic Shell: This is probably the best magic-mitigation cooldown in game. And it's on a 45 second cooldown. Use it for heavy predictable magic damage, as it's short duration makes it much more of a preemptive then a reactive cooldown.

Death Pact: This one is another great one that I see hundreds of DK tanks failing to use. Best used when you've just eaten a humongous unmitigated hit and don't have Vampiric Blood up, or if you think the heals might not reach you in time. Only problem is raising dead costs a GCD. I also use it if the healer can't seem to get me out of the danger zone and just needs that little push.

Now I don't run with Lichborne, but I would use it how I'd use Vampiric Blood or Death Pact.

Post by DraconisAerius

Is Death Pact affected by VB?

Post by Orranis

Post by 262843

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Post by DraconisAerius

Is Death Pact affected by VB?

It is, but seeing as you're using them for the same purpose you may get more bang for your buck on paper, but you're also leaving yourself with one less cooldown, and you really don't need the extra healing if you're already giving yourself a straight 25% heal, plus Rune Tap and Death Strikes.

True. I was really thinking in those situations when things go really fuabr and the healer is dead.

Well, I guess it's good to know that I'm not a complete idiot.

Having read the tooltip for VB multiple times now, however, I have actually become a tad confused by it.

Okay, first off, it increases healing done to you while it's active, so, for example, instead of Rune Tap healing me for 10% of my health while VB is active, it will essentially heal me for 12.5% of my health. Now the part that confuses me is the granting of temporary health.Does that mean that, if say, I have 100k health (Obviously once I hit 85 and get geared I will have more than that, but this is for the sake of math simplicity), it will heal me for 15k but after the effect wears off, damage me for 15k health? Or will it raise my maximum health pool by 15%, thereby increasing my health pool to 115k (and consequently causing my %-health-based heals heal me for even more) and once the effect wears off, reduce my health pool back to 100k? Or both?

Really, I guess the best way to figure that out would be to try it out myself and see.

Basically VB increases your max health, and at the same time brings your current health up. When the buff expires the max health dissapears and your health amount technically lowers however it should still be approx. the same percentage that it was when VB was still active.

Post by AnrDaemon

Speaking of cooldowns... I'm rarely using them. Only when my HP get low, or when I eat too much magic damage.
I have VB (yeah, I actually remember I have it in my spec, without the need to check it on armory), but I don't have enough convenient space to put it on bars, so I haven't used it even once after 4.0 DK changes. (Before that I was Frost)
I rarely used Bone Shield in the past, until someone (I can't remember the name of that nice guy) thoroughly explained it's mechanics. Thank to him, I'm using it more often now, although, it's a bit inconvenient, given my keys setup.
I seldom use AMS, preferring carefully placed Death Strike, fully knowing that I wouldn't die from single attack, no matter how big it was, unless I make a clear mistake.
Despite my healer cries about DK's jumpy health pool, she adapted to 4.0 changes very quickly. After all, they seems well balanced.
Yes, she likes to have me on the full health, yet, it's not a problem for both of us that I often drop to half-HP, but never below.
Usually, by the time I reach half of my HP, I already used both blood runes and at least one Death Strike, which, basically, means that most of my defences already up and running.

Comparing my own tanking experience with other DK tanks, when I'm healing, I can say that my tanking viewpoint of healing issues is mostly comfirmed. Particularly, I had a rough run through Stonecore just today, the DK tank was not at half, but often at third HP (I suspect low armor and generally low health pool, because she interrupted most of bad stuff, as well as rogue did her job), but after that, it wasn't a problem to get her back up, as she would just stop loosing any more HP for a short while, thanks to DS absorbtion effect.

Post by 110480

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Post by Orranis

Does that mean that, if say, I have 100k health (Obviously once I hit 85 and get geared I will have more than that, but this is for the sake of math simplicity), it will heal me for 15k but after the effect wears off, damage me for 15k health? Or will it raise my maximum health pool by 15%, thereby increasing my health pool to 115k (and consequently causing my %-health-based heals heal me for even more) and once the effect wears off, reduce my health pool back to 100k? Or both?

Basically, it increases your maximum health by 15%, so if you had 90/100 health, you'd have 90/115 health. Then you get healed, yada yada yada, and with a dodge spree you cap at 115 health. However, when converting back to it, it takes the % of maximum health you have and reapplies it to your original health (i.e., going from 115/115 puts you at 100/100). Healing while you're extra health is applied work exactly as if you had it all along.

At least that's how I think it works.

Tanking cooldown questions

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