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It's Time For UNHOLY!
Myrx — Mon, 12/01/2008 - 11:25am
So since I have tanked all existing content as Frost (the spec people claim is the tanking spec) I thought I'd stray away from the herd a bit, and do it all as Unholy.
So far in heroic dungeons my AOE threat is insane. Much higher than when I was Frost even with Deathchilled Howling Blasts. The flexibility to be able to drop a Death and Decay every 15 seconds is very nice. The DPSers all say this is their favorite of my tanking specs so far. This is a very potent AOE spec.
I did Naxx10 with this spec last night, and was noticing a lot on bosses where only one thing is hitting me that Bone Armor was sometimes staying up for 30-40 seconds before the 5th charge was expended. That's 30-40 seconds of 40% mitigation from everything because my avoidance is so high that the charges just don't get expended.
We also did Sartharion with Tenebron up. He's the drake with the eggs in the Shadow Realm. I was able to pick up all of the drakes instantly, and do significant damage to them. In fact, for the fight I was top DPS with 3998 DPS because I was AOEing the ENTIRE fight. When I was using Pestilence on the packs of fire elementals or drakes it was hitting Tenebron and Sartharion as well. I am assuming that it was a product of large dragon hit boxes and the Glyph of Pestilence.
As far as playstyle I think that this is my favorite spec. When I was frost I was still opening pulls with Death and Decay, but I felt like DnD was competing with Howling Blast. I don't have to worry about that anymore. I'll give this spec some more time, and do some more heroics with it, but honestly this is the most fun tanking spec I've used so far.
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Spec: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=j0EZ0xZfghc0bogcqMcsut
Glyphs: Death and Decay, Bone Armor, and Scourge Strike
Re: It's Time For UNHOLY!
Anonymous — Mon, 12/01/2008 - 5:56pmJust some comments on your spec. I've found Desecration to be subpar. You may want to shift some points from that and/or pale horse to get gargoyle and night of the dead. NotD is very beneficial as unholy as your pet dies very often, and this ensures the cooldown to resummon it is minimal at any given point of time. Likewise, Gargoyle does enough damage to not discount it (not sure if it combines with you for threat though, I think it does). Taking points from desecration and putting them into dark conviction is probably point for point a much more solid spec, as you don't have to worry about moving to get that 5% dmg.
Maybe something like this would be a little better? http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=j0E0zZ0xZfghI00kgcoMfsut
-tri
Re: It's Time For UNHOLY!
Myrx — Mon, 12/01/2008 - 6:37pmI certainly see your point, but the fact that my ghoul and gargoyle have their own threat makes me hesitant to care about them in my tanking spec. 95% of the time I'm standing in my desecration anyways, and I AOE tank a lot so the free snare is a nice comfort thing to have even though it's difficult to pull off of me. Also consider that my Death and Decay can fear so having Desecration down is nice in that sense as well.
I never liked NotD as my ghoul dies a ton when I tank. If I were DPSing from the back, and talented in to Ravenous Dead with a Ghoul glyph I would consider it, but if that were the case I would probably be in a position to better care for my ghoul anyways.
With my gear Tri my Runic Power is almost completely dumped on Rune Strikes at times. When I do amass over 60 I activate Unholy Blight, and if I have more RP still I will Death Coil. I don't think a tank can sustain a Gargoyle to be honest. Even if I could it wouldn't help my threat at all.
Re: It's Time For UNHOLY!
Anonymous — Mon, 12/01/2008 - 7:19pmAh, wasn't thinking about Rune Strike as a dump, I guess that would definitely diminish the use of gargoyle. I still think gargoyle was your threat though (would love to see a link proving me wrong /wink).
I see your point with desecration, but I just feel 5% crit all of the time is better than 5% damage some of the time. Not to mention, when the SS glyph procs, it's nice not having to waste a rune to get your 5% back. Maybe it's just a personal preference for the slow effect (which I found rather useless most of the time because it gets laid with a little delay).
As for the ghoul, doesn't it automatically attack from the rear? I guess I haven't tanked while unholy, so I haven't had a chance to observe this behavior. If that was true, the NotD is extremely useful as it's a free 400 dps with no real cost to it (besides a GCD, but you have free ones from time to time as unholy). I thought it sounded bad at first too, but ever since I gave it a try I have a hard time believing I'll ever go back, having your ghoul gibbed was annoying. Not to mention it lets you Dark Pact when it's needed (not a great "oh shit" button, but another nonetheless).
Just a question, do you macro Rune Strike into all your abilities when tanking? It seems like it'd be a hell of a lot easier, or do you find yourself needing to pool RP at times?
Re: It's Time For UNHOLY!
Anonymous — Tue, 12/02/2008 - 1:05pmIn a spec without rav dead and no ghoul glyph his damage goes *WAY* down. Last time I checked my ghoul only put out 200(ish) dps and even that sounds a bit high since removing the glyph. Add into that the death factor and it just seems like too much extra stuff to bother with in most cases. 1 point for the "pet" sure, but then the glyph, then the 3 pt to raise str/sta, then 2 more points for higher up time, bleh it's just too much.
For me rune strike is constantly taking almost all of my runic power. I've had it macro'd to a few of my main abilities, but I'm finding that sometimes I blow rune strike when I want to use the runic power for AMS or IBF or when I'm saving up for an UB. Later this week I'll probably start doing it manually just to be safe. Even when I do that rune strike will still be my biggest RP dump by far.
The garg is great and on most single target bosses I can pull them out, maintain my rune strikes, and get solid damage out of him. Usually I'll burn empowered rune weapon to help feed him a bit, but it's worth it. The garg scales very, very well. 40% of attack power as I recall. A side benefit to the AMS talent/glyph is that it helps keep the garg around. In some situations you will be wasting RP if you don't use the garg and everything else you have available.
Also, I notice neither spec currently listed takes imp IT. Are you guys often in a situation where someone else is slowing the mob's attack speed? Is there some reason I'm missing why you guys don't take it?
Another thing to mention real fast is wandering plague. I've always been a huge fan of the talent, but tanks don't have a ton of crit to begin with and if you aren't tanking a lot of mobs at once it's value is quite low point for point. That might be a spot to shave a few points for other talents if you are having trouble deciding.
Re: It's Time For UNHOLY!
Anonymous — Tue, 12/02/2008 - 3:19pmuhm.. IBF takes a frost rune.. AFAIK AMS uses an Unholy Rune.
garg =/= your threat..
Re: It's Time For UNHOLY!
Myrx — Tue, 12/02/2008 - 4:11pmIBF is 20 Runic Power ( 0 glyphed ) and AMS is also 20 Runic Power.
Re: It's Time For UNHOLY!
Anonymous — Tue, 12/02/2008 - 5:11pmYeah, IBF and AMS are both 20 runic power base. You can glyph IBF to be free though.
AMZ takes 1 unholy rune.