Issues to be fixed in patch 4.0.3: Improved Death Strike doesn't improve healing right now. Rune regeneration will get a 20% speed up in Improved Blood Presence. Rune Strike won't have a dodge requirement.


1. Tank stats
1.1. Stats changes in 4.0.1
1.2. Reforging
2. Facts worth knowing
3. Armor
4. Stamina and evasion
5. Diminishing returns
6. Threat and taunt
7. New rune mechanic
8. Talents and glyphs......................... <-- talents
9. Priorities......................................... <-- abilities
10. Abilities and mastery
11. Gems, enchants, and runeforging
12. Gear
13. Professions
14. Macros and addons
15. Acknowledgments


This guide collects the contributions of many sources. Remarkable ones are mentioned in "15. Acknowledments". This guide is available in spanish: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=14870146812&sid=4&pageNo=1



1. TANK STATS
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The desirable stats for a tank are:

• 23 expertise (154 rating for blood tanks thanks to the passive talent Veteran of the third war) to prevent 6.5% boss dodge (22 on heroics).
• A healthy balance between evasion, stamina, and armor.
• 8% melee hit (246 rating) to avoid failing with your special abilities (6% on heroics).
• If you have anything else on your gear, reforge it to Mastery to increase your Blood Shield.

When you start tanking you won't reach any of these numbers. Take it easy and don't replace all your stamina gems to increase your expertise or something like that. Keep your stats balanced and be patient.


Your priority gearing up should be:

threat (expertise | melee hit | strength) > armor | stamina > dodge | parry > strength

How bad do you need them?

• THREAT: Increase it if you fall behind your fellow raid players. This may be less than the hit and expertise cap depending on the gear level of your group. You are the judge.
• STAMINA: gem as much as you can. More on this later.
• DODGE/PARRY: There isn't a magic number. The dodge/parry you need to tank an instance is the amount you get from the gear that drops in the previous instance. Something like this:
  normal 200 blue > heroic 200 epic > naxxramas 219 > ulduar 232 > toc 245 > icc 251
  The differences between dodge and parry are insignificant. You can consider them to be the same thing.
• You will get the other stats through your loot. If you have any choice on it, follow the order above.

See below 1.2 Reforging about reforging avoidance to mastery.


About 23 expertise

According to the following blue post, needed expertise at 80 against level 83 enemy is 23. Therefore the character sheet is currently broken because it shows 0.75% dodge at level 23 expertise.

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Q u o t e:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=27397547423&amp;postId=274908951657&sid=1#4

Due to recalibrating expertise for Cataclysm, level 80-83 creatures (which includes bosses) dodge and parry less, so you need less expertise, 23, to be exact. Sorry we didn't announce this. I would classify it as an unintended consequence (though not unknown) and not a desired change on our part.

At level 85, you will need 26 again.

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1.1 STAT CHANGES IN 4.0.1
=======================

Removed from the game

• Defense: Get Improved Blood Presence instead.
• Spell ranks: There is only one and scales automatically with level.
• Weapon skill: You start with max skill.

Removed from gear

• Attack Power: You get 2 per Strength point.
• Armor Penetration: Only present on talents and abilities.

Changed

• Armor: there is less of it on gear.
• Haste: speeds up rune refreshment.
• Mastery: Empowers an ability related to your talent tree. You get it by spending a number of talents on a given tree or by reforging (that's reforging, not runeforging).

Everyone has more stamina and less armor now. The difference in stamina and armor protection between plate and non plate classes have been reduced. See blue post: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=27187850231&sid=1



1.2. REFORGING
==============

• New vendors allow you to change 40% of one (only one) SECONDARY stat (not strength, agility, intellect, stamina, sockets, or enchants) in each gear item.


• Visit a Reforging vendor in a major city. They are near the enchanting trainer.


• You can undo the reforging on an item and re-reforge it again.


• Cap for Mastery doesn't exist or it is not known.


• A DK tank should reforge any crit, haste, and excess hit or expertise (beyond 8% and 23) to mastery.

REFORGE EVASION TO MASTERY?
=============================

If in doubt, don't do it, you'll be fine.


WHY REFORGING? The benefit of increasing mastery is a direct increase of Blood Shield. Blood Shield is a reliable (not RNG) mechanic and may help you to increase the effective health (EH) of your character. This reduces the chance of death when evasion fails, and decreases the amount of damage from big hits.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? Depending on your gear, a increase of EH may be what you need to survive one more hit of a hard hitting mob (eg: LK 25 hc), which is an important advantage.


CONSEQUENCES OF REFORGING

If you rely on Blood Shield, you need to use Death Strike (doh!).

• Avoidance is a passive mechanic (you benefit from it without having to do anything). But Blood Shield is only good if you use it.
• The average character needs 6 DS per minute to break even with avoidance after reforging some of it.

If you reforge all your avoidance:

• You will need unrealistic amounts of DS to break even with avoidance.
• You will lose a high amount of threat, because Rune Strike requires dodge/parry to happen.
• You will actually receive more damage in the long run (you are not avoiding half of it anymore), but the damage is more predictable (DS always works if you use it).

Some unsorted background info:

• IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR NUMBERS go to http://pwnwear.com/forum/death-knight-tanking-guide-blood-t703.html#p11148 and scroll to the quoted block. Satorri came with the 6 DS number there (5.4 specifically), and may expand the math on a future "Advanced Skills and Concepts" post.


• Mitigation from DS is damage*0.6525 (you can simplify calculations using total damage in a fight, instead chunks of 5 seconds, it yields the same result).
  0.6525 comes from Improved Death Strike + Blood Shield = (0.3*1.45 + 0.3*1.45*0.5). That's the theory at least. In 4.0.1 Improved DS is broken and doesn't heal.


• You can use up to 12 DS per minute (you get back runes spent on diseases with runic empowerment).

Nice work :-)

This guide has been added to the compilation atop the Death Knight forums:
Death Knight Guides & Useful Links

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Q u o t e:
Updated with 4.0.1 goodness. Spells, priorities, mastery, glyphs, reforging and whatnot.

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Cool :-)

I updated the sticky compilation atop the Death Knight forums to reflect that this guide is now updated for 4.0.1:
Death Knight Guides & Useful Links