Tank

  1. 1. Stats
    2. Talents
    3. Rotation
    4. Gems/Enchants
    5. Trinkets
    6. BiS List
    7. Macros and Addons
    8. Tips and Tricks
    9. Closing WordsSTATSDEFENSE:
    How defense works is it both scales your Dodge and Parry by .04% per point while reducing the chance you will be hit with a critical strike (2x damage).
    The cap for being immune to level 82 boss crits (mostly heroic dungeons) is 535
    The cap for being immune to level 83 boss crits (raids+) is 540
    For every 4.918 Defense Rating you have, you get 1 Defense (skill)
    The reasoning is as follows:
    Spoiler: Hide
    The same level npc has a 5% chance to crit you with your base defense of 400 (5 per level). For every level they have up on you they get an additional 0.2%. That means a level 82 boss has a 5.4% chance while a level 83 boss has a 5.6% chance.
    Every defense skill (not rating) reduces this chance by 0.4%.
    5.6% / .04% = 140
    5.4% / .04% = 135
    So 140 or 135 added to your base of 400 will make you crit immune.


    RESILIENCE:
    “Resilience will fix it”
    Blizzard also implemented another stat that reduces your chance to be critted.
    Every point of Resilience will give you a 0.01% chance to be critted. This means if someone tried to tank in resilience gear (not recommended) they would need 560 Resilience to become crit immune to a level 83 boss or 540 for level 82.

    Where this stat comes into play however is when gearing, this makes PVP viable to get to cap.
    Resilience = ¼ Defense
    HOWEVER:
    Resilience = 1.25 Defense Rating!

    To calculate your crit immune cap, use this:
    D = Defense (Skill)
    R = Resilience (Not Rating!)
    (.04 * [D-400]) + (.01 * R) = (Should be over 5.4 for Dungeon Bosses or over 5.6 for Raid Bosses)

    FAQ:
    Q: Are you telling me it me if I need to gem to reach my cap, Resilience is more effective?
    A: Yes! Thick King’s Amber will provide you with a ~0.1627% crit chance reduction (20 def rating) while Mystic King’s Amber will provide .02% crit reduction (20 resil).

    Q: Why don’t all Tanks use Resilience/PVP gear in end game?
    A: PVP gear provides your crit immunity along with strength and stamina, yet it doesn’t give Dodge, Parry, Expertise, Hit, or many other stats that are very Beneficial to tanks.

    Q: If PVP gear is viable, is Medallion of the Horde/Alliance viable for tanks? Starting trinkets are hard to get as a tank.
    A: The problem with trinkets like Medallion is they cost a lot to get, while that time could be spent farming ToC 5 or PoS HC for much better Trinkets.

    STAMINA:
    Stamina increases the amount of health you have.
    Stamina is essential for all tanks, the bigger our health buffer the larger hits we can take.

    ARMOR:
    Armor is important as it reduces the physical damage you take.
    Damage reduction from armor is capped at 75%, keeping that in mind you can use the following equation to formulateSpoiler: Hide

    Armor = (467.5 * Enemy Level – 22167.5 ) / ( 100 / %Reduction – 1)
    %Reduction = 100 / ( (467.5 * Enemy Level – 22167.5) / Armor + 1 )

    Where %Reduction and Armor are your Variables (Enemy Level should almost always be 83)

    DODGE/PARRY:
    Dodge and Parry aren’t as important to have as Stamina or Armor, but it’s certainly nice to avoid an attack entirely every once in a while.

    HIT:
    Hit as a tank isn’t a primary stat while gearing, but you should be at cap before attempting any major raids.
    8% is our cap for Melee attacks while we need to reach 9% with Glyph of Dark Command for our taunts to never miss. 8% is generally ok since with with a shadow priest and/or boomkin you get an extra 3% chance to hit against their target and you can even raid under hit cap with one, as long as your taunts don’t miss.
    Reasoning:
    Spoiler: Hide
    For level 83 bosses the formula is:
    2% + (Mob Level – Your Level) * 2%
    2% + 3*2% = 8%
    For your level 82 (or lower) bosses however:
    5% + (Mob Level – Your Level) * 0.5%
    5% + 2*.5% = 6%
    If you have 0 hit, you have a 100% chance of hitting a level 70 boss (:
    5% + (-10)*.5% = 0%

    17% is the cap for spells, 9% + Glyph of Dark Command’s 8% allows us to reach this for our taunt.


    EXPERTISE:
    Expertise is an opinionated subject, at BiS you should be capped but should you actively pursue it? Probably not.
    For every point of Expertise, the chance your attacks are dodged/parried is reduced by 0.25%.
    The soft cap for dodge is 26 expertise and the hard cap is 56. Being Expertise capped means your melee attacks won’t miss, but expertise isn’t really on a lot of gear. Currently I’ve had no problem with 18 expertise but your mileage may vary.
    Explanation:
    Bosses have a 5% chance to dodge you, plus .5% for every level they have on you. That means a level 83 boss will have a 6.5% chance to dodge and since every point of Expertise reduces their chances of dodging them by 0.25%, so 6.5/.25=26 Expertise.
    Bosses also have a 14% chance to Parry, which means you’d need 56 Expertise (14/.25). This number is difficult to reach, so most tanks don’t bother even with Parry-Hasting.

    Parry-Hasting:
    Spoiler: Hide
    Two end game bosses have Parry-Hasting on Warmane: Sindragosa and Halion. For these fights in order to prevent this mechanic you can A: Get lucky, or B: Get Expertise hard capped (56).
    Parry Hasting will increase the attack speed of the boss shortly after parrying one of your attacks.
    Talents
    If you want to keep it simple, use these:
    https://wotlk.evowow.com/?talent#j0E…bobsoZhgx0V0Io
    This is the ideal single target threat/raid utility spec I’d recommend. Deathchill can be used for an Icy Touch crit when Killing Machine doesn’t proc, so watch out for that.


    If you need Improved Icy Talons for your raid group go with this spec:
    https://wotlk.evowow.com/?talent#j0EMqIhIobobsZhxxxV0uz

    Along with these glyphs:
    Glyph of Dark Command
    Glyph of Vampiric Blood
    Glyph of Disease
    Glyph of Blood Tap
    Glyph of Horn of Winter
    If you’re interested in why you choose these talents, show more.
    Spoiler: Hide
    Blood Tree:
    Blade Barrier: should always be up, reducing the damage you take by 5% (5 points)
    Bladed Armor: Increases attack power which scales up your Icy Touch (Primary Threat Ability) (5 Points)
    Two-Handed Weapon Specialization: Increases your damage/threat by a bit, but really is just something to dump points in to reach later talents. (2 Points)
    Rune Tap: Free 10% healing from a blood rune, one of the most useful abilities you can get (1 Point)
    Death Rune Mastery: Allows your Death Strike to turn your Frost and Unholy runes into Death runes. Doing this allows you to use your unholy runes for Icy Touch. (3 Points)
    Dark Conviction: Another point dump, but this also increases your Icy Touch crit chance when Killing Machine or Deathchill aren’t active. (5 Points)
    Improved Rune Tap: Doubles your Rune Tap healing. (3 Points)
    Spell Deflection: In magic intensive fights this spell is going to come in handy. (3 Points)
    Veteran of the Third War: Increases your Strength, Stamina, and Expertise. 3 Important stats. (3 Points)
    Mark of Blood: Useful ability, especially when your off tank isn’t as geared as you (; (1 Point)
    Bloody Strikes: Another point filler, but helps with Heart Strike’s threat a fair bit. (3 Points)
    Abomination’s Might: Raid buff, also increases your strength and AP. Strength -> AP -> Bigger Icy Touch (2 Points)
    Hysteria: Some people swear to never spec Hysteria as a tank, except where you gonna put that point? Improved Blood Presence does pretty much no healing (damage based) and Bloodworms can be dangerous to a fight and soak up AoE healing. (1 Point) Tip: use a macro to cast this on a frequent raid member or your focus
    Improved Death Strike: EXTRA DEATH STRIKE HEALING!! (2 Points)
    Vampiric Blood: EXTRA 15 PERCENT HEALTH AND EXTRA 35 PERCENT SELF HEALING!!!!! (1 Point)
    Will of the Necropolis: Helps you not die. (3 Points)
    Heart Strike: Optional, i’d recommend using it for the additional bit of threat but if you’re an Improved Icy Talons build, I understand if you elect to not take it.

    Frost Tree:
    Improved Icy Touch: 15% Extra Damage on Icy Touch = 15% Extra Threat. (3 Points)
    Toughness: Increases armor by 10% (5 Points)
    Icy Reach: Kind of a point dump, but it’s useful for pulling or icy touching something off a healer.
    Black Ice: 10% Extra damage for ICY TOUCH! (5 Points)
    Icy Talons: Increases your melee haste. Icy Touch ain’t melee. If you’re going for Improved then you’re gonna have to take it though.
    Killing Machine: Makes your Icy Touch CRIT! This is by far the most important Icy Touch talent, Crit = 2x Damage = 2x threat. That means instead of your Icy Touch doing 1k damage and 7k threat it’ll do 2k damage and 14k threat! (5 Points)
    Frigid Dreadplate: Reduces the chance melee attacks will hit you. This is BETTER THAN DODGE IN UNHOLY! (see unholy tree) (3 Points)
    Glacier Rot: 20% More Icy Touch damage after you pull! (3 Points)
    Deathchill: Makes your Icy Touch crit. Use when you need more threat but Killing Machine is being difficult. (1 Point)
    Improved Icy Talons: If you’re not going to be raiding with an enhancement shaman or a frost death knight, it makes sense to pursue Improved Icy talons for the raid buff.

    Unholy Tree:
    Anticipation: 1% Dodge per point. Great, right?
    Wrong.
    That 1% dodge per point isn’t reduced by Diminishing Returns, however the dodge gained from your gear will be diminished a lot harder which makes this talent practically useless compared to Frigid Dreadplate. It’s a PVP talent.

    Rotation
    Your rotation will be strictly situational
    Opening:
    (Spam Rune Strike) + Icy Touch -> Plague Strike -> Death Strike -> Heart Strike (x2)
    My DoTs need to be refreshed, but I could use some extra healing and my threat is good:
    (Spam Rune Strike) + Pestilence -> Death Strike (x2) -> Heart Strike
    I’m having a hard time holding aggro:
    (Spam Rune Strike) + Icy Touch (x2)[if you have death runes up, use 4 Icy Touch and skip Plague Strike ]-> Plague Strike (x2) -> Heart Strike (x2)
    There’s a certain BiS warrior in my group who popped at the start of a boss fight:
    (Spam Rune Strike) + Icy Touch (x2)[4 if you have Death Runes] -> Blood Tap -> Icy Touch -> Empower Rune Weapon -> Icy Touch (x3)
    OUCHIE! MY HEALTH IS LOW!
    (If you already have both Diseases on your target):
    Rune Tap -> Death Strike (x2) -> Empower Rune Weapon -> Death Strike (x2)
    (If you don’t)
    Rune Tap -> Icy Touch -> Plague Strike -> Death Strike -> Empower Rune Weapon -> Death Strike (x2)
    AoE:
    Death and Decay -> Icy Touch -> Plague Strike -> Pestilence -> (Tab + Icy Touch as much as you can) ->Hope and Pray

    Defensives:
    Vampiric Blood – Increases your health temporarily and increases the healing you recieve.
    Rune Tap – heals you for 11% (21% with glyph) of your max health (and 10% for everyone in your party with glyph).
    Blood Tap (With 4 set T10) – 12% damage reduction for 10 sec.
    Icebound Fortitude – 30% Reduced damage (+ extra for defense rating) for 12 seconds.
    Mark of Blood – Places a debuff with 20 stacks on your target, every time they deal damage to a target it heals the target for 4% of their max health and consumes a stack. Lasts 20 seconds.
    Anti-Magic Shell – Shields you from debuffs and absorbs 75% magic damage for 5 seconds (up to a max of 50% of your health)
    Army of the Dead – Take less damage while channeling, increases with your dodge and parry chance.

    Self-Healing:
    Now here’s the fun part.
    Rune Tap – Heals you for 10% or 20% if you have the talents. (up to an extra 2% with glyph as well).
    Death Strike – Heals you for 5% per disease, a max of 10% when you have both diseases on your target.
    Death Pact – Sacrifice a Ghoul from either army or raise dead/ally for health.Gems and Enchants
    Gems:
    Meta: Austere Earthsiege Diamond
    Red (x1 for meta): Precise Cardinal Ruby**
    Everything Else: Solid Majestic Zircon*For lower gear, simply gem for whatever makes sense. Gemming for socket bonus is worthwhile if that bonus is stamina or defense (if you’re under cap)
    **If you have Glorenzelg, High-Blade of the Silver Hand, you can gem dodge or parry as long as you’re over soft expertise cap.

    Enchants:
    Weapon: Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle
    Wrists: Enchant Bracers – Major Stamina
    Chest: Enchant Chest – Super Health
    Cloak: Enchant Cloak – Mighty Armor (Or Flexweave Underlay if you’re an Engineer)
    Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Gladiator
    Head: Arcanum of the Frosty Soul (or Mind Amplification Dish if you’re an Engineer)
    Gloves: Enchant Gloves – Armsman (or Reticulated Armor Webbing if you’re an Engineer)
    Pants: Frosthide Leg Armor
    Boots: Enchant Boots – Tuskarr’s Vitality (or Nitro Boosts if you’re an Engineer)Trinkets
    BiS Trinkets: Juggernaut’s Vitality (Satrina’s Impeding Scarab for alliance)
    Sindragosa’s Flawless Fang


    Petrified Twilight Scale: Armor and an effect that increases your dodge rating (meh) after falling below 35%.
    Corpse Tongue Coin: Dodge (meh) and an effect that increases your armor after you dip below 35%
    Sindragosa’s Flawless Fang: Stamina and a Magic Resistance effect
    Unidentifiable Organ: Stamina and an Armor effect
    Corroded Skeleton Key: Stamina and an absorb effect
    Juggernaut’s Vitality/Satrina’s Impeding Scarab: Stamina and a health bump you can activate
    Glyph of Indomitability: Armor and dodge rating (meh)
    Eitrigg’s Oath: Dodge Rating (meh) and an armor stacking effect
    Ick’s Rotting Thumb: Dodge Rating (meh) and a health bump you can activate.
    The Black Heart: Stamina and a pretty good chance Armor effect. Fantastic Starting Trinket.
    Essence of Gossamer: Stamina and a decent equip effect. Awesome Starting Trinket.

    Starting Trinkets I’d recommend:
    The Black Heart
    Essence of Gossamer (OR Eitrigg’s Oath < Eitrigg’s Oath < Ick’s Rotting Thumb)
    You should always have AT LEAST 1 stamina trinket.

    DO NOT BUY: (if they drop, you may as well roll on them but don’t waste money on them)
    Petrified Twilight Scale
    Corpse Tongue Coin

    these trinkets can be DECENT if paired with a stamina trinket, but if you see someone using both of them, you’ll know they have no idea what the **** they’re doing.

    What trinkets you should use depends on your gear. If you’re low on armor, it makes more sense to run an armor trinket and a stamina trinket but if you have ~70% armor it’s almost pointless to run an armor trinket for most fights.
    Also keep in mind the fight. If you have Key, Fang, and Juggs you should be using Juggs and Fang for most of ICC but on a fight like Gunship where there’s going to be no magic damage done to you, swap out Fang for Key and get the extra effect. Make it a habit to think about the fight and change your trinket before you pull.

    BiS List
    So here’s your BiS armor list:
    Spoiler: Hide
    1. Glorenzelg, High-Blade of the Silver Hand
    2. Sanctified Scourgelord Faceguard
    3. Noose of Malachite
    4. Sanctified Scourgelord Pauldrons
    5. Royal Crimson Cloak
    6. Blightborne Warplate
    7. Bracers of Dark Reckoning
    8. Sanctified Scourgelord Handguards
    9. Belt of Broken Bones
    10. Sanctified Scourgelord Legguards
    11. Treads of Impending Resurrection
    12. Devium’s Eternally Cold Ring
    13. Ashen Band of Endless Courage
    14. Sigil of the Bone Gryphon

    Alternative Builds:
    Spoiler: Hide
    1. Cryptmaker
    2. Sanctified Scourgelord Faceguard
    3. Bile-Encrusted Medallion
    4. Sanctified Scourgelord Pauldrons
    5. Sentinel’s Winter Cloak
    6. Sanctified Scourgelord Chestguard
    7. Gargoyle Spit Bracers
    8. Sanctified Scourgelord Handguards
    9. Verdigris Chain Belt
    10. Pillars of Might
    11. Grinning Skull Greatboots
    12. Band of the Twin Val’kyr
    13. Devium’s Eternally Cold Ring
    14. Sigil of the Bone Gryphon
    15. Spoiler: Hide With Cryptmaker, you would use t10 + Pillars of Might, Bile-Encrusted Medallion, Sentinel’s Winter Cloak, Gargoyle Spit Bracers, Verdigris Chain Belt, Grinning Skull boots, Band of the Twin Val’kyr and Devium’s Eternally Cold Ring. Your hit comes from gloves + Cryptmaker + Virulence. Your expertise comes from Grinning Skull Boots + Veteran of the Third War + 3 exp/stam gems in helm, chest and belt with +9 stam bonus and food buff, which puts you at 21 expertise. You can get to 25 by putting exp/stam gems in the remaining +6 stamina bonus red sockets but ultimately expertise isn’t anywhere near as important as hit.

      You’ll lose 35 stamina for using Grinning Skull Boots instead of Impending Resurrection, 10 stamina for using Twin Valkyr ring instead of Ashen Band, 13 stamina for using Cryptmaker over Glorenzelg, 14 stamina for using Pillars of Might over T10 legs, 18 stamina for matching the +9 stamina red sockets and 27 stamina if you match the +6 red sockets. Totaling 102 stamina at 21 expertise and 132 at 25 expertise, after 13% stamina increase. In exchange you gain around 1550 extra armor, which is around 1600 more EH than 102 stamina and 500 more EH than 132 stamina.

    1. Shadowmourne
    2. Sanctified Scourgelord Faceguard
    3. Noose of Malachite
    4. Sanctified Scourgelord Pauldrons
    5. Royal Crimson Cloak
    6. Blightborne Warplate
    7. Bracers of Dark Reckoning
    8. Sanctified Scourgelord Handguards
    9. Belt of Broken Bones
    10. Sanctified Scourgelord Legguards
    11. Grinning Skull Greatboots (Orcs with can use 1 Precise Cardinal Ruby in Belt of Broken Bones alternatively paired with Treads of Impending Resurrection for a few extra stats)
    12. Devium’s Eternally Cold Ring
    13. Ashen Band of Endless Courage
    14. Sigil of the Bone Gryphon

    1. Bryntroll, the Bone Arbiter
    2. Sanctified Scourgelord Faceguard
    3. Noose of Malachite
    4. Sanctified Scourgelord Pauldrons
    5. Royal Crimson Cloak
    6. Blightborne Warplate
    7. Bracers of Dark Reckoning
    8. Sanctified Scourgelord Handguards
    9. Belt of Broken Bones
    10. Sanctified Scourgelord Legguards
    11. Grinning Skull Greatboots (Orcs with can use 1 Precise Cardinal Ruby in Belt of Broken Bones alternatively paired with Treads of Impending Resurrection for a few extra stats)
    12. Devium’s Eternally Cold Ring
    13. Ashen Band of Endless Courage
    14. Sigil of the Bone Gryphon


    As for trinkets, you can read above that you should have these 2 ready:
    1. Sindragosa’s Flawless Fang
    2. Juggernaut’s Vitality or Satrina’s Impeding Scarab




    Sindragosa Solo-Tanking
    Spoiler: Hide
    For Sindragosa Solo-Tanking, ideally you need to be Defense Capped, Expertise Hard Capped, and at Excellent frost resistance. Here’s how you can achieve this.
    *Note: these items + frost resist aura will achieve Expertise Hard Cap, Def Cap, and the proper frost resistance with the BiS gear stated above.
    1. Icebane Chestguard + 3x Precise Cardinal Ruby
    2. Icebane Girdle + 2x Precise Cardinal Ruby and 1x Rigid King’s Amber (Get socket bonus and use Eternal Belt Buckle)
    3. Icebane Treads + 2x Precise Cardinal Ruby and Formula: Enchant Boots – Surefooted
    4. Glorenzelg, High-Blade of the Silver Hand

    With these items and the rest your BiS, you should end up with 58 expertise (you need to be over 56 to avoid Parry-Hasting), 287 Frost Resistance (417 with aura/totem), 566 Defense, and 7.62% hit. Since Parry-Hasting is only from Sindragosa’s parry, it’s ok to be under hit cap (8%) although at 7.62% you shouldn’t have too many misses.
    **I don’t recommend solo-tanking Sindra during 25 man encounters, for 10 man encounters it may be more viable to swap an off tank for a healer or DPS but for 25 there should always be 2 tanks.
    Macros/Addons
    Macros:
    Hysteria (Places it on your focus):
    #showtooltip Hysteria
    /cast [target=focus] Hysteria
    Addons:
    1. DBM
    2. Gearscore
    3. Omen
    4. WhoTaunted
    Tips and Tricks
    Anti-Magic shell is your best friend. It’s by far the most underrated defensive.
    1. On Sindragosa you can use it to counter every other Frost Breath (as she’s casting it)
    2. On BPC if you’re tanking Keleseth it can help absorb shadow lance if you drop an orb or two
    3. Tank a little bit of Cutter in Ruby Sanctum
    4. and any other spell damaging abilities.


    Your mind freeze can be extremely useful when tanking bosses like Lady Death Whisperer or even Jaraxxus in ToC to interrupt their casting (frostbolt and fel firebolt)


    Mark of Blood will help on Death Bringer Saurfang when your offtank is taking too much damage, you can also use chains of ice to slow any blood beasts that don’t get caught in a frost trap.

    Chains of Ice makes death knights the best off tank for Rotface, simply Icy Touch the Big and Little Oozes and keep Chains of Ice on the Big Ooze as you kite it around the room.

    Icy Touch makes tanking Keleseth easy since an Icy Touch is more than enough to hold aggro of the orbs. (As of 3/15/18, Orbs on BPC have unlimited range meaning you can get the debuff from an orb across the room and allowing the DPS to use their AoE abilities.)

    On Blood Queen Lana’thel, Icebound Fortitude reduces the damage you take as a main tank and will in turn reduce the damage your off tank takes. Same goes for Blood Tap when you have 4 Set Tier 10.

    On Valithria Dreamwalker, Death Grip will interrupt Blazing Skeleton’s Lay Waste.

    On Sindragosa, Anti-Magic Shell will negate Sindragosa’s Frost Breath. She uses it twice per every cooldown of Anti-Magic Shell so it’s best to use on the first breath in the fight, the last breath before every air phase, and as often as possible in P2.
    Closing Words
    Tanking itself is very opinionated, there are many options you have and different ways to do it. Unlike damage you can’t just look at a chart, it’s not always easy telling a good tank from a bad one. That being said, there’s likely a lot of people who will disagree for many parts of this guide and I encourage that. If you feel I’m doing something wrong, please reply with a properly thought out reasoning. If you have any questions, also feel free to leave a reply or seek me out on Icecrown (Kelenis). Thank you (:
    Edited: January 17, 2019 Quote
  2.   March 15, 2018   Vaelicious Member Resilience doesnt reduce your chance to get crittically struck in 3.3.5aJuggernaut/Satrina is vastly superior to corroded skeleton key, or any other trinket that you mentioned for most encounters.Defense/dodge enchant on shoulders is a huge waste when you can get 30 stamina from pvp vendor.On sindragosa its the 40k meele hits that will kill you, not the frost dmg, if you go for frost resist set you’ll die form 2 meele hits. And you will get hit twice fast – even if she doesnt parry you, she will parry someone else or their pet.Shadowmourne for tanking is a waste of item – threat is generated with proper management of your spells not meele hits, and even those will give you more overall threat with gloren due to less parry/dodge on your attacks.You forgot to mention cryptmaker which is best weapon for EHP since it allows you to use pillars of might without dipping under hit cap.Hit as a tank isnt important, especially when you wipe because your taunt missed.Im done with reading, hard to find a single paragraph that is right.