Are DK tanks being pidgeonholed?

#0 - March 14, 2009, 7:56 a.m.

I've been following the changes on the PTR relatively closely and I posted a pretty long theorycraft peice on DK tanking with my actual numbers

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=15673098329

However, my opinion of "it's fine" is starting to falter a bit.

now with the new imp frost presence, and everyone's desire to min/max for maximum tanking efficiency
can you logically lay out for me how it is that people would choose the other trees for tanking vs frost?

currently, to achieve maximum mitigation, it's a mandatory 7 points across 2 talent trees vs a druid with protector of the pack, who spends only 3 talent points in one tree, for example.

to get our 12% mitigation doesn't leave us any room to go in to the unholy or blood trees.

I hope this isn't the final iteration of the tanking changes on the PTR, I know you guys are working on it but we're all a little gunshy of the changes. If you look at my math, you'll see our DTPS/DTPM are up significantly, even with the 12% mitigation, so I feel that most people are going to want to get as close as they were before the nerf, leading people in to having to take this talent as a mandatory thing.

Another thing of note, i'm not just going to have my dtps increased if those changes are final.

primarily i tank as an unholy/blood hybrid, just down to unholy to SS, and blood to the stam/str talent.
basically the build gives another 8% stam/str
Shadow of Death being removed with no equal replacement flat out denies us any place to make up that 2%

I went ahead and respec'd frost just to go ahead and give it a try, partially in anticipation that i'm going to be forced to play that way anyways as it will be the only real choice for tanking, and partially to get more familiar with the rotations if that does happen to become a reality. I find myself missing the hp that seperated me from the warrior/paladin and put me half way between them and the druids.
the buffer that serves to pad our lack of ability to block seems to be gone.

same:same comparisons here, 12% mitigation on a lower hp tank isn't the same as a 12% mitigation on a high hp tank

the tanking tools either need to be similarly equal when they're that deep in the tree, or the inequal talents need to be higher up in the tree so people who want to tank as blood or unholy will still have that option

I think the current incarnation of imp FP is going to pressure a lot of people into a cookie cutter build.

#12 - March 14, 2009, 7:27 p.m.

Our intent is not to force DKs down one tanking tree any more than they were before. It's cool that Frost tanking is getting more attention, but I think the jury is still out on whether one build is so much better than another one that players feel that they have no options. We'll give the community a chance to chew on all of the changes (more are coming, though mostly for dps DKs) and see if our opinion changes.

Since Unholy slightly emphasizes avoidance, Frost slightly emphasizes armor and Blood slightly emphasizes health, it's also likely that some builds will be more useful on some encounters compared to others. That isn't necessarily what we're going for, but it's a likely outcome, and again as long as the delta isn't too huge, it should work out fine.