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 Charger Animation Limp

Death Charger Animation Limp

The complaints have been in place since beta and now Cataclysm is live and our Death Charger is gimped or at least it looks like it in the animation.  It appears that the animation of the Death Knight Death Charger horse mount is now the same as every other horse animation in game, not like the wild Mustang animation from Wrath.

But, who is actually still using this mount, even now when you can fly in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms.  However, I understand the frustration, especially for mount nerds, and I mean that in a nice way.  Hopefully Blizzard will see fit to fix the now boring animated Death Charger and bring back a more unique mount to a unique class.

Death Charger Discussion on Official Battle.net Forums - http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1115861849
MMO Champion Discussing the Broken Animation - http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/796893-4.0.3a-deathcharger-animations

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

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.

Deathwing Fly Overs Are Meh

Talked with my guild last night and ever since The Shattering, NONE of us have seen Deathwing do his fly over thing.  No one has been burned and trust me, we have a lot of guild members out doing the new quests in Azeroth, not just parked in Dalaran.  So, what gives?

Apparently Blizzard wanted to make the Deathwing burn achievement be uber random, so getting scorched actually meant something.  But after a very lackluster elemental experience, I'd kind of like to be a part of this upcoming expansion and at least interact a little bit with the new baddy before Dec 7th.  Anyone else had this experience, is he bugged on servers, is he working as intended?