Blood Tank Reforging

Personally, I'd wait until you start gearing at 85 before reforging.  I noticed during leveling from 80 to 85 that I was swapping gear out constantly, weapons, shoulders, everything just seemed to be constantly replaced.  This is expected, so don't worry about min/maxing just yet.  Although, the cost is low enough, if you are struggling with tanking some dungeons, go ahead, throw a reforge on there to get used to it.

Mastery is a great stat for Blood tanks and generally speaking this would be the stat I would reforge into.  However, you must first be to the Hit and Expertise soft cap.  This will become an issue as you struggle more and more for aggro as your DPS starts gearing and becoming more of an issue.  After hitting the mob is no longer a worry, start putting some points into Mastery.

A Death Knight Tanks Mastery Rating will affect Blood Shield.  Blood Shield will proc off of your use of Death Strike, which will provide a 50% damage absorption of what you were healed for.  The percentage of damage absorption is directly affected by how many points you have in Mastery.  Each point in Mastery stats will increase the percentage of absorption by 6.25%

More Blood Shield information on Wowhead.com.

Therazane Dailies in Cataclysm

Therazane Rep

It's been 1 week since Cataclysm has been released and we are starting to see a lot of level 85's running around.  But even if you are taking your time, enjoying the sights, this doesn't mean you can't work on some reputation.  One of the first reputations you will want to earn at least honored with and move into revered and later exalted will be Therazane.

Therazane is the faction in Cataclysm, which can be found in Deepholm, which provide you with your shoulder enchants.  There are a total of 8 shoulder enchants, 4 available at honored that cover all classes and then an upgraded version of each at exalted.

Therazane Rewards

Honored
Death Knight Tanks will want - Lesser Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz
Death Knight DPS will want - Lesser Inscription of Jagged Stone

Exalted
Death Knight Tanks will want - Greater Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz
Death Knight DPS will want - Greater Inscription of Jagged Stone

To unlock the Therazane Quartermaster you will need to complete one of the last quest chains within Deepholm. After completing the quest you will also unlock a number of dailies, comparable to the Sons of Hodir.  More dailies become available at different reputation levels.  Below is a list of all the dailies that will become available for gaining Therazane rep.

Therazane Dailies

Therazane Dailies List

Beneath The Surface
Fear of Boring
Fungal Fury
Glop, Son of Glop
Lost in the Deeps
Motes
Soft Rock
The Restless Brood
Through Persistence
Underground Economy

Death Knight Blood Tanking Nerfs

So, if it sounds like a nerf, acts like a nerf, and looks like a nerf, it's probably a nerf.  However, just because it's a nerf doesn't make us irrelevant or unable to complete content current or future within the World of Warcraft.  Unfortunately, a lot of people get worked up over a few set backs or tweaks within our class, so lets slow down and take a look at what is actually going on with the latest Blood Tank Spec nerf.

Blood Tank Nerf Gun

First of all, armor and stats are based off of existing equipment and gear.  Next week all of this will change and new gear will be on par with the talent trees Blizzard has imposed upon us.  Perhaps a new spec will be in order, something more optimal, or more cookie cutter.  Either way, Blizzard will not just allow a tank class to flop around on the ground, unable to complete dungeons or raids.

Now, I will agree that we aren't the flavor of the week, but guess what, no one is.  Every tank class has been nerfed in some way, where we may have been dinged hard on armor, others were dinged hard on threat, AOE abilities, and stamina.

Things will start to normalize, but not with a new expansion imminent and probably not until a few months after content is starting to be cleared.  Hunker down, take the nerfs on the chin, and let it make you a better tank and/or DPS.  It's not worth complaining about, but it is worth discussing in an open and constructive format.

Lastly, keep in mind situational abilities.  Perhaps its time to revisit our spell book and take a look at some spells that we perhaps didn't use as much before.  Change up some rotations, plan ahead, because Cataclysm will change the way 5-Man normal and heroic dungeons are ran.

Looking for a place to vent your concerns in a constructive manor?  Check out this thread over at MMO-Champion.

Death Knight Tank Reforge Gear Guide

With the introduction of 4.0.1, everyone has access to an NPC that will reforge your gear.  That is, reforging will allow you to take 40% of one stat and convert it to another stat not found on that particular piece of gear.  Reforging cannot affect gem slots or base stats, which means as a Death Knight tank you will typically only be attempting to reforge stats to reach cap on hit or expertise.

When choosing a stat to reforge, consider stealing from hit or expertise.  The reason for choosing these stats is because you are most likely over the cap for one or the other, if geared well.  Take the amount over cap and convert that stat into the one needed or into the new Mastery stat.

Basically the reforging process is a method to get rid of useless over cap stats and convert them into needed stats to reach cap.  Once caps are reached, spend excess stat points on the Mastery skill.

Death Knight Tank Recommended Addons

Addons provide a functionality or user interface change not available in the standard setup of World of Warcraft.  Blizzard is known for their availability to the mod community, ease of access, and lack of customization limitations.  Basically with addons you can do almost whatever you want within WoW, including making your life, as a Death Knight Tank, easier.

Below are a list of addons that I recommend for Death Knight Tanks.  Please don't consider this the end all guide to addons, rather a brief list of what I personally couldn't live without.  I would encourage everyone to add their own list of addons that they can't live without in the comments section at the bottom.

Tidy Plates - Curse Link To Tidy Plates

Nameplates refer to the health bars and names of your enemies and friends that float above the characters heads.  Although standard Blizzard setup has them set to hidden, pressing 'V' reveals them.  Tidy Plates takes the default look of these name plates and presents them in a much cleaner format.

Threat Plates - Curse Link to Threat Plates

Threat plates uses Tidy Plates to display threat levels in the form of graphical changes within the nameplates of your enemies.  These makes tabbing through enemies more efficient and will quickly alert you to low threat and loss of threat situations.  Thus allowing you to react to a situation faster.

Deadly Boss Mods - Curse Link to Deadly Boss Mods

If you are one of the 5 people who still haven't installed Deadly Boss Mods or DBM, then stop what you are doing and make it happen, NOW.  Although not a tank specific addon, DBM fulfills the requirement of a tank and that's having all the information available about an instance.  This simple addon announces changes within a boss fight, allowing for better reaction times, and saving on time needed to read up at WowHead.

Omen Threat Meter - Curse Link to Omen Threat Meter Addon

Perhaps this should have been linked at the top, a necessity to keep an eye on threat levels.  Does what Threat Plates does, only provides threat levels in the form of bars at the top of your screen, for easy monitoring.

These are not the only addons that I use for Death Knight Tanking, but it is a minimum list that I will use when doing randoms.  However, this list grows pretty fast when getting involved in Raids, inspecting, and of course the gold making tools.

What are the minimum addons you will use when tanking as a Death Knight in 4.0.1?