Patch 3.2: Assessing The Damage

A lot of stuff happened in Patch 3.2 and it definitely has a large effect on the writings of this guide.

This guide was formulated in a time where DPS tanking was at its all-time high. I myself personally am a more defensive-minded tank, but more than defensive or offensive tanks must adapt and that is what a lot of us did, we adapted.

Now that playstyle has been turned *almost* completely on its head.

The number one change?

Attack Power before scaled at a 1:1 ratio with the STR stat.
Attack Power now scales at a 0.45:1 ratio with both STR *and* VIT.

The number two change?

Enmity modifiers of tank stances were boosted from 2.3x to 2.7x.

This did a number of things which I will list neatly here for the record.

1. Tank DPS was nerfed. We now do out of tank stance about the same damage that we were doing in tank stance pre-3.2. A roughly 20% loss across the board from STR gear, but about a 5-10% increase from fending gear.

2. As a direct result of this, every tank's self-healing capability also suffered by the same margin. Again, full VIT tanks from pre-3.2 are likely seeing this as a buff.

3. HP pools are significantly larger now. At the time of this writing DRKs with 22K HP are cropping up as new i220+ gear is being gathered.

4. While DPS suffered, the boost to tank stance enmity almost perfectly matches this (2.3*1.2 (20%) = just above 2.7). Keeping aggro in tank stance is mostly unaffected, and may actually be easier, again, for tanks that were employing VIT builds prior.

5. However, with tank DPS so much lower now in proportion to actual DPS jobs (on average a difference of about 400 DPS assuming equal gear/skill) we can no longer count on our DPS-stance output to maintain enmity against DPS (or healers, for that matter). A significant lead in enmity must be built first and then maintenanced throughout an encounter.

6. Following the above, stance dancing has become a more evenhanded and conservative affair. Fights are taking full advantage of our large HP pools now and dishing out fitting amounts of damage. So before jumping into DPS stance as a tank, you must now not only assess incoming damage, but also your party's enmity. Gone are the days of dropping tank stance indefinitely save only for your opener and/or tank busters.

What does this mean for DRK?

1. MP is not as easy to manage while MTing. You can't just drop Grit any time you want Blood Weapon. So you must now more than ever make the most of Blood Price and attempt to rotate it in such a way as to get the most MP out of it.

2. A single Power Slash at the start of the fight is not enough. You'll probably now want to open with two, and throw 1 out at the start of each new phase of a fight, as a rule of thumb (healers gain a LOT of hate on you in those add phases and other similar interruptions).

3. Souleater heals can be meaningful now. While they're gonna be considerably smaller, you'll see more of them just by virtue of being in Grit more.

So... enjoy your big HP pool, learn to play nice with Grit, watch your hate, find windows for stance dancing, and remember that you are much more dependent on your tank stance now because at ~DPS lower than bonafide DPS jobs now your damage alone will not carry your aggro for extended periods.

When accuracy caps are known, I'll be posting a couple of BiS lists here for progression and farm builds, etc.

(-will be quoting this and inserting into the main guide-)