Death Knight Tank Elixir and Potions

I've become good friends with a couple of consumables that make my tanking easier. As mentioned previously, I'm new to tanking, so any help I can get I'm going to use. Consumables like potions and elixirs will be the first to come to mind, but don't forget the extra attack power and stamina boost from chowing down on your favorite food either.

Until defense capped I always used Elixir of Mighty Defense, which obviously can help you reach that cap to run Heroics or even Raids.

To help with threat generation I also down a Elixir of Mighty Strength. This is becoming increasingly important because most dps out gear me at this point and keeping threat on multiple mobs can be a challenge. Heck, even on single target tank'n spank bosses it can be an issue if maxed out warriors or warlocks decide to crit it up. Thank goodness Dark Command is on only an 8sec cool down.

To recap, new Death Knight tanks should always bring along Guardian Elixir's and Battle Elixir's. Only one of each can be active at any given time and they are inexpensive enough to keep plenty in your bags, just in case of wipes.

Lastly, as a side note, your healer may request you use Elixir of Mighty Fortitude. This has been a helpful elixir before I had a larger stamina pool or if my healer wasn't equipped to the teeth.

Happy Tanking.

Leveling A Death Knight

Without a question leveling my Death Knight was much more fun than it was on my Mage or Hunter. Death Knights are just plain fun and when leveling Blood you just feel OP at lower levels. It doesn't mean the class needs nerfing, all classes should be made this fun when leveling from 1.

Perhaps that's what Blizzard will try to achieve when they release Cataclysm, a 'Buff' to all classes so that they can be as fun to level as a Death Knight from level 1. We need more fun in the lower quests, more story telling, more involvement, and a feeling of opness so that the time goes by faster. Right now, it just seems like leveling takes forever. Yes, adding mounts at lower levels is a step in the right direction.

Also, I'm not against allowing classes to start at a higher level, like the Death Knight did, if a person already has a max level character. I didn't tank until I got to Northrend and I did just fine and I think others will too, even if they have to learn their class at max level. It's not like people are tanking at level 10 or clutch healing at lower levels either. Let's start all classes at higher levels...or just wait and see how much fun Cataclysm will be for starting a new class.

Death Knight Tanking Gear List BoE Ring

A good friend pointed out to me last night that there is a Bind on Equip (BoE) tank ring that is perfect for a Death Knight. Also, if you are like me, my rings were some of the lowest and least effective tanking gear I owned. So I was happy to dish out a few hundred gold to replace one of the weakest links in this Death Knights chain.

The Titanium Earthguard Ring provides a nice boost in stamina, defense, and doge. The tank ring is an iLevel 200 gear piece and is easily obtainable if you know a friendly crafter. For some reason the ring was never on the auction house, so I HAD to make friends. ;)

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.

My Must Have Head Enchant

Time to start grinding out some reputation to get certain rewards and enchants that will make my Death Knight Tanking life a little easier. Currently I'm setting at 500 defense and it' recommended to be 535 defense capped for heroic dungeons. To get there I will need some lucky drops in regular ToC and enchants. The Argent Crusade will provide me with my first tanking head slot enchant.

At revered the Argent Crusade rep vendor will sell you Arcanum of The Stalwart Protector. This head enchant will add 37 Stamina and 20 Defense rating to any head slot item. It's a must have and fairly easy to obtain, considering it's only a revered requirement.

To start getting reputation for the Argent Crusade, simply do quests in Zul'Drak and Ice Crown. There are a few long quest chains that help in getting at least a boost to your reputation. Just completing the one Ice Crown alone got me to Honored.

More on enchants for Death Knight Tanks coming later. Also, be sure to read other posts related to Death Knight Tanking Gear.

PTR Raid Spoilers

There is a great discussion going on in the forums today about the problem with testing raids on the Public Test Realm. Some believe that allowing guilds to run raids on the PTR for a month or more before going live ruins the 'surprise' factor. Consider that high end raiding guilds are able to clear the hardest raids day one of patch day.

So what do you think, do you think Raids and new Instances introduced during patches should be internally tested, so that when it goes live no one has seen the fight before?

Forum Thread Here: Beta Testing Raids

Personally, I like the idea of having seen an instance ran before going at it. Just because you see how a fight goes down does not always make it any easier, especially when coordinating with 10 to 25 people. It still takes some practice, good gear, and fast reflexes, which is what gaming is all about, at least to me. I'm happy seeing videos on Youtube for how to clear Raids and reading tips on WowWiki for killing the last boss.

Not that it really matters in the long run, after all most end game content I will never see. I never saw Black Temple and time will tell if I even see all of Ulduar. I'm casual, so it's never a surprise and I'm ok with that.

Death Knight Tanking Gear List Trinkets

There are some seriously nice tanking Trinkets for Death Knights available once you start raiding Heroic Naxx and Ulduar. However, this post will focus on building your tanking set before entering Raids.

The two tanking trinkets most easily accessible will be Seal of Pantheon (WoW Head Link), which is an iLevel 200 Rare piece and Essence of Gossamer (WoW Head Link), which is an iLevel 200 Rare Piece as well.

The Seal of Pantheon drops off of Loken in regular Halls of Lightning and the Essence of Gossamer drops off of Hadronox in Heroic Azjol-Nerub. While these aren't the easiest instances to be learning to tank in, with a good healer they are possible to run. Also, the experience in these more difficult instances will prep you for things to come.