Unholy, Blood, or Frost for Death Knight Leveling In Cataclysm

Really depends on your favorite flavor of leveling on what spec you wish to use while hitting the new 85 level cap.  Currently I'm using a dual spec of Blood and Unholy, which allows me to tank the new dungeons and kill things faster while questing.  At this point, the cost for dual spec shouldn't be a hindrance and any hybrid class should be taking advantage of the ability.

But you say, 'I don't have good enough gear to run the new normal dungeons in Cataclysm as a tank.'  Pfsssh, the first few quest rewards are green items of ilvl 277 or higher, which will be the best gear available at lvl 80, pushing you above the arbitrary gear score Blizzard requires for queing in the dungeon finder.

Been doing a bunch of quests in Hyjal and starting to get burned out, take a break and go discover the new dungeon entrances.  As of this posting you cannot use dungeon finder to que for a dungeon until you discover it's entrance.  This means at level 80 you need to discover Blackrock Caverns and Throne of the Tides.

Fast XP

I will tell you that you need to take time to run each low 80 dungeon at least once.  The amount of XP received from running Blackrock Caverns is just a crazy amount and the new quest system is amazing.  The quest giver and receiver is all inline within the dungeon, so no returned trips necessary.  Kill 'X' and receive upwards of 70k experience and with all the bosses in Blackrock Caverns this adds up really quick.

Blackrock Caverns

5 Reasons To Drop Group

The new LFG Tool Blizzard has implemented has been a godsend and an eyeopener to boot. Imagine wielding the ability to randomly run dungeons and be thrown into a group willing to do the same, without having to spam trade chat in the big cities. Well, that's what we got, well, that and a whole new type of headaches.

Below are 5 reasons to immediately drop group in a random Heroic Dungeon run.

1. DPS only uses capital letters in chat and frequently replaces letters with numbers.
2. Tank states he's close to Defense cap, but should be fine.
3. Healer asks who's tanking after the 2nd pull.
4. Oculus
5. You join a run in progress that's taken 15 mins to get to first boss.

What Is An Update For The Titansteel Destroyer?

Death Knight tanks fight over weapons that may also be decent for other classes, like Druid's and Hunters. Luckily there are a few easily accessible weapons in the game that make replacing that craftable Titansteel Destroyer a little bit easier. We will stick to 2H Weapons, which will of course require the rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle for tanks.

Edge of Ruin - This is a great 2h Axe with lots of stamina and a plethora of strength, which us DK's eat up. Death Knight tanks appreciate the increase in strength to increase our damage and thus improve our threat.

The Edge of Ruin drops from the Champions Cache in Heroic Trial of the Champion.

Tyrannical Beheader - This 2h Axe is an ilvl 232 with lots of stamina and strength. Without question this is a big update from the Titansteel Destroyer, but may remain marginal when compared to the ilvl 219 Edge of Ruin. The main reason is because it contains haste, which is kind of a toss up stat for Death Knights. So, it's still an upgrade, so feel free to roll against those Hunters and Druids.

The Tyrannical Beheader drops from Heroic Pit of Saron on the last boss.

Kicked Out of Group By Healer

I had a first experience last night that truly confused me. It was during a PUG run of Heroic Violet Hold, where the group consisted of a Warrior, Death Knight, Rogue, Druid Healer and me tanking. I was informed that I wasn't cutting it and was booted from the group by the healer.

The reason given to me, after blaming me for dieing twice, was that the healer couldn't keep me alive. I was badmouthed and immediately removed from group without being able to discuss the problem. To be honest, I'm not sure what the problem was.

First of all, I am defense capped at 540 and have over 26k hp. I've ran heroic Violet Hold before without any issues, not one death, but for some reason I was blamed for a healer not being able to keep me alive. Furthermore, consider that I've also ran Heroic Nexus with an under geared healer, dressed mostly in quest blues with 1 or 2 greens. So how was this my fault again?

I can only hope that the next tank the group picked up was dieing just as I had. After 2 tanks in a row surely the Healer wouldn't be able to push the blame off on someone else again. Just frustrating.