DK Blood Tanking Lv 60

Death Knight Tanking So Far

So my girl and i decided to make death knights!  i already have several death knights.  Unholy Tank, Frost DPS, and some others i got bored with.  What i find most interesting is the whole experience of tanking at level 60, and then turning around and healing other DK tanks at the same level.  Here is my experience so far.

Death Knight's POV
Here i am standing at the entrance of Ramparts, level 60, with brand new spells like Death and Decay.  I dont have all the talents i need yet to be effective (and when i say effective, i mean super good that everyone praises me and stays in hopes that i queue up again).  But i do have enough points to do what i need to do.

Preface:  There are talents in every tree for tanking, and in the first tier.  these talents should be used by all tanks at level 60, even if it keeps us from the juicy Howling Blast talent.  These talents are easy to get, as they're in the first tier of each tree.  Blood tree, get Blade Barrier. Frost tree, get Toughness.  Unholy tree, get Anticipation.  These talents are there for every Dk to easily get so they can tank effectively in any spec they choose.

I am spec'd in blood so i have some of the juicy self-healing spells that totally rock.  i also have the DK's version of the warrior's last stand.  I am sooooo hoping for icebound fortitude soon (warrior version is shield wall), which will reduce the damage taken by about 40%.  since i dont have defense rating, i'll need to glyp it, but i already have my two glyph slots filled (dilemas!!!) with Death Strike and Vampiric Blood.  I should probably get rid of the DS glyph. its more damage anyway.  I was thinking of replacing it with Rune Strike, but +10% crit "can" help, but not really if my main concern is just to hold aggro and stay up.

My blood tree is filled with talents that improve my survival, increases my runic regeneration, and gives me nifty tools to regain lost health.  it does not include any extra crit, but i do have the 2-hand weapon talent.  more damage is, actually, more threat.  but im more concerned about survival. 

I've also gone ahead and put 5 points in the frost tree in Toughness and 5 points in Unholy tree in Anticipation.  These are the bread and butter of tanking, but it does require 10 points spent elsewhere, and early on.  optimally, we'd want to spend those 10 points after we fill up 51 points in our main tree.  but for tanking, im at 40/5/5 instead of 50/0/0.  Since i only have 40 points in Blood, one juicy tanking talent (the one that reduces damage if im lower than 35% health, i forgot the name) is missing.  Imagine being a Frost tank, and not having howling blast (a staple) until level 70 because we have to spend 5 points in blood and 5 points in unholy first.  that sucks for frost tanks (unless they skip Blade Barrier and Anticipation to fill them up between 60-70). 

I am now building up my unholy tree and hopes to get a shorter cooldown/CD on Death and Decay and longer disease durations.  As of right now with zero points in Morbidity, i find that if DPS are decent, we will kill a group about 10 secnods before my DnD is refreshed.  What i'd like, is for the DnD to be available immediately after killing one group, so that i can use it on the next, or that i can use it again should there be adds. 

What i also find is that tanking is not as smooth as dps.  every pull requires Death and Decay.  why?  because of Disarms.  that's correct. for those who have never tanked Ramps, it is an annoyance for many tanks due to the mob's disarm effect.  they will "disarm" me for several seconds.  in which time, i am unable to attack much (but i do punch!) so having DnD down to maintain aggro is a great tool.  I cant imagine tanking without some AoE tool that will allow me to hold aggro until i get my sword back. and once i do get my sword back, i get disarmed again after a hit.  its quite annoying, but im still doing my job.  oh how i miss DPS.  i never get disarmed and my rotations are always as smooth as silk.

Positioning: In terms of positioning, Ramps is quite a challenge.  Every group is spread apart OK, with very little wiggle room to move around.  Not only that, there are patrols roaming around.  If those patrols arent dispatched properly, they can aggro during a fight (and not only the patrols, but also the group standing close enough to the patrols, so then you'll be dealing with two GROUPS of adds, instead of just one).  what i try to do is face the mobs to the side so my back is usually against the wall.  this offers lots of camera angling and zooming just to be able to see around me, but it keeps me and the DPS from "butt" pulling the next group. To butt pull, simply walk backwards into a group.  They will notice your butt and spank it.

This "buttpull" happens a lot with new tanks, actually.  They seem to not realize that when they charge into a group of mobs, the melee dps needs to stand BEHIND the mobs they're tanking.  in so doing, there is a possibility that the DPS will aggro a new group.  This is stupid play and all tanks should learn to move the group of mobs to a safer spot in order for the dps to actually stand behind the mobs.  now if you have only ranged dps, where the tank faces sometimes does not matter.  The tank still needs to be able to face the group to see if there are mobs running to chew on the healer or ranged dps.  but i find this practice uncommon in the many instances i've been in lately. 

Although it seems like i can handle two groups of mobs at a time, i usually try to keep it to one group only.  the reason for this is that i do not have all my cooldowns yet, my rune usage is wonky, i dont have rune strike until level 66 and i do feel a bit squishy.  When am i not squishy?  when i never dip below 35% health (this is when Mik's Scrolling Combat Test chimes me that im low in health).  But when the healer constantly has to work to keep me up, i know that im taking a lot of damage.  Whats strange is that i've healed many dk tanks similar to me and it felt just fine.  my mana usage was decent, my heals were flowing nicely, and i rarely had to use Nature's Swiftness emergency spell.  But when it comes down to me tanking, i have this irrational idea that if i dip too low in health, i shouldnt tank (maybe this is due to countless heroics where i've tanked, and kept many tanks up where we're never below 50% health unless somoeone screwed up bad). 

Anyway, that about wraps up my thoughts on level 60 tanking.  it sucks.  i dont know how people do it.