old Cataclysm DK endgame tanking [4.x] - Page 9

raivyne · 10/14/10, 7:17 PM

I have spent the better part of the day running some small tests with different mastery ratings and here is what I have found:

at 50% mastery (+0% from gear):

Blood Shield is functioning at 50% (of the Death Strike Heal).

example data from test:
DS Heal for 4442
Blood Shield absorbs 2221
Shield is 50% of DS Heal

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

at 60.87% mastery (+10.87% from gear):

Blood Shield is functioning at 60.87% (of the Death Strike Heal).

example data from test:
DS Heal for 6186
Blood Shield absorbs 3766
Shield is 60.88% of DS Heal

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

at 65.50% mastery (+15.50% from gear):

Blood Shield is functioning at 65.53% (of the Death Strike Heal).

example data from test:
DS Heal for 5439
Blood Shield absorbs 3564
Shield is 65.53% of DS Heal

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

at 74.63% mastery (+24.63% from gear):

Blood Shield is functioning at 74.64% (of the Death Strike Heal).

example data from test:
DS Heal for 8090
Blood Shield absorbs 6038
Shield is 74.64% of DS Heal

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

at 76.00% mastery (+26.00% from gear):

Blood Shield is functioning at 76.00% (of the Death Strike Heal).

example data from test:
DS Heal for 6446
Blood Shield absorbs 4899
Shield is 76.00% of DS Heal

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

at 79.56% mastery (+29.56% from gear):

Blood Shield is functioning at 79.54% (of the Death Strike Heal).

example data from test:
DS Heal for 7826
Blood Shield absorbs 6225
Shield is 79.54% of DS Heal

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

at 84.6875% mastery (+34.6875% from gear):

Blood Shield is functioning at 84.72% (of the Death Strike Heal).

example data from test:
DS Heal for 10278
Blood Shield absorbs 8707
Shield is 84.72% of DS Heal

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

at 89.5% mastery (+39.5% from gear):

Blood Shield is functioning at 89.48% (of the Death Strike Heal).

example data from test:
DS Heal for 10825
Blood Shield absorbs 9686
Shield is 89.48% of DS Heal

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

at 93.3125% mastery (+43.3125% from gear):

Blood Shield is functioning at 93.287% (of the Death Strike Heal).

example data from test:
DS Heal for 6585
Blood Shield absorbs 6143
Shield is 93.287% of DS Heal

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

at 101.1875% mastery (+51.1875% from gear):

Blood Shield is functioning at 101.182% (of the Death Strike Heal).

example data from test:
DS Heal for 5330
Blood Shield absorbs 5393
Shield is 101.182% of DS Heal

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

at 106.75% mastery (+56.75% from gear):

Blood Shield is functioning at 106.76% (of the Death Strike Heal).

example data from test:
DS Heal for 9446
Blood Shield absorbs 10085
Shield is 106.76% of DS Heal

In most of the data samples I looked at mastery was doing exactly what the tool tip said is would do. I have no idea why riggins' samples were so consistently off, but there has to be an explanation. My testing was done outside of ICC, so that could be the missing link.

However, a couple of samples I looked at that did not match up, on one of them I noticed that there was a miss involved (not I dodged, or parried, but the incoming attack a miss). I would have checked for misses on the other two samples that didn't add up, but the data had already been scrolled away.

Here is the data from the sample that for sure contained a miss:

93.3125% mastery
6130 DS Heal
5005 Blood Shield
Blood Shield absorbed at 76% of the DS heal.

I am still testing to try and get more samples with misses in them. Will update if I find anything that conclusively links misses to lower absorb shields.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blood Shield "Stacking"

I tested applying using DS while Blood Shield was still active and I got interesting results.

First off, the combat log says that "Dæthe's Blood Shield has been refreshed on Dæthe".

I tested this with 65.5% mastery only, will do more tests later; the mastery test consumed most of my day.

My first DS healed for 6978 (4570.59 anticipated shield)
Incoming damage before 2nd DS added up to 3238
My 2nd DS healed for 6894 (4515.57 anticipated shield)
Incoming damage absorbed before the Blood Shield faded was 3243

I can't find any logic to match up these numbers yet, so more testing is needed. The total absorb amount is more than any single shield, but less than the sum of both, and each absorb is slightly less than the shield immediately preceding it.

The combat log would indicate that the Blood Shield timer is refreshed, but will have to see if actual stacking occurs.

Originally Posted by Lanlaorn

Why do you posit that the +45% healing not working on the 10% base healing is intentional? It doesn't logically follow and the only precedent we have is WotLK's DS healing for 10% base, 15% talented. IMO all signs point to it being a bug that should be reported.

At the time I posted, that's what his data was indicating.

I have the Imp DS talent and some earlier tests I did today, un-buffed, with a friend dueling me also support this. My DS Heal, in periods where 30% of incoming damage didn't add up to more than 10% of my maximum health, only healed me for exactly 10% of my maximum HPs.

Whether or not this is intended, I do not know.

Ramalama · 10/14/10, 7:35 PM

From just a quick duel (with a warrior partner, so no magical damage) I was able to determine that Blood Shield does not stack. My single Death Strike heals for (a minimum of) 5974 and produces a shield of 6882 (approximately 115.2% mastery).

To check for stacking I would DS once, get hit for less than the full amount of the shield, then DS again and continue to take damage until all shields were broken. As long as this could be done within 10 seconds, the total amount absorbed should be twice as much as a single shield if they stack. It turns out that the total absorption was less than twice as much as a single shield, by exactly the amount left on the first shield when I DS'd for the second time.

One test looked like this:
DS heals for 5974
Warrior's Bloodthirst was absorbed (3885 Absorbed)
DS heals for 5974
Warrior's attack was absorbed (1056 Absorbed)
Warrior's Raging Blow was absorbed (2131 Absorbed)
Warrior's Heroic Strike was absorbed (2370 Absorbed)
Warrior's Bloodthirst hits for 2560 (1325 Absorbed)
Warrior's melee swing hits for 1285

The test was all within 10 seconds, and the total amount absorbed was 10767. This is 2997 less than the two shields would absorb if they stacked, which is exactly the amount that the first shield had left on it when the second was applied. Sorry I wasn't more rigorous (I wasn't really planning to make a post when I did the test), but it's very easy to verify yourself if you have any doubts. But all signs indicate a second shield will overwrite the first, rather than stacking with it.

Edit: One other thing. It seems that Improved DS applies before the "to a minimum of 10% of your maximum health". In other words, even if you have the talent your minimum DS will be 10% of your health, not 14.5%.

riggins · 10/14/10, 8:01 PM

Originally Posted by raivyne

The total absorb amount is more than any single shield, but less than the sum of both, and each absorb is slightly less than the shield immediately preceding it.

This is also what I was seeing and the reason I mentioned it stacking. Its clear that it is able to add to the absorb, but I'm not sure how much it 'transfers' to the Blood Shield that is applied on top of the other.

Cesrae · 10/14/10, 9:09 PM

Im going quote myself and give some thoughts on the quote and how its going to tie into my testing for Roles, Gear, Spec, Encounters, and Abilities.

Originally Posted by Cesrae

..But Mastery is still very good considering anything less that a 6k overkill could save your life/buy one more swing timer for them heals to land.

Sindy and LK you have the raid within 40yards of each other for most of the encounter(Positioning is only required on some parts of the fight) and Halion requires a Split. Some of us have different roles such as Main Tanking the Hard Hitting Boss for majority of the Fight, or possibly you are that add tank(Talking about Halion).

The Sindragosa encounter requires 2 tanks(lets assume 2 DK tanks). Even though there is a bit of DPS required from the offtank for most of the encounter and its possible that a tank could go down and requires you to pick up where he left off. In a scenario where everything plays out how its suppose to, pre shielding your taunt is optimal. This fight doesn't require you to have an a stacked amount of avoidance when you only have 1 mob hitting you(that could parry might I add). You have all your raid members providing the necessary buffs and debuffs unless someone dies, but for now most classes have the ability to do the same buff/debuff. Off this analysis I see no reason not to stack Blood Shield for both DK'tanks.

The Lich King encounter requires awareness that plays on throughtout the fight. Im just going to talk about the Role I play on this encounter. During P1, I'm tanking ghouls/shamblers until the ledge phase where I AMS the last debuff stack and resume dpsing until the last spirit spawns which I tank. After that spirit dies which is usually before/after the first reaper, Im tanking for the rest of the phase. Same thing goes for the next outter phase where I tank the last 2 spirits, until they die off, the go back to tanking LK for the rest of the fight. Even though phase 1 is relatively fast, most of the damage can be prevented with cooldown usage internal and external. Blood Shield will be a good test on this fight(Even if you have 2 DK tanks with different Roles). The buffs/debuffs talked about above applies to this also.

Hallion on the other hand requires the raid to be split with adding another tank(3). Assuming you have 3 DK Tanks(might not be optimal but just a scenario) 2 Blood Shield Tanks and possibly an Avoidance tank could be used(I will go into more detail). Obviously the 2 Blood Shield Tanks(Main Tanking) will be taking the most physical chunks of damage throughout the fight. There is a great deal of positioning requirements required by the incoming debuffs and mechanics for the Blood Shield to be useful. The off tank on the other hand theoretically would benefit more for the short uptime of adds by stacking avoidance. This opens that DK to spec/reforge differently so he could not only benefit more from his avoidance.Seeing how if you stacked Blood Shield for the add tanking, using death strike(Shield) is not very optimal other than converting runes seeing how you have to make sure that diseases and aggro is locked on all targets. Im not sure how BCB would tie into and offtank other than it could possibly be a dps increase for the time he Isn't tanking.

Pre 4.0 had us basically going for a More EH approach but I see us now picking up more gear reforging all the avoidance gear that looked nasty, but should make Tanking and Encounters, and DATA more Interesting. Depending on Raid Comp, Our Threat, Gear/Reforging, and Bug Fixes, we could possibly see diseaseless MT's as a fight progresses.

Edit: Removed part talking about parry.

"We're also not happy with the new implementation of parry, where you take 50% damage from two swings. It sounded good on paper, but after testing it out we thought the second swing just feels goofy and confusing. Our plan is to revert parry back to 100% avoidance and remove the concept of swing speed increase for any creature (players could still do it). We would change the budget on parry to be exactly the same as dodge. We'd also like to add some more talent hooks that favor say parry over dodge for some classes -- stuff like "After a successful parry...." Ghostcrawler.

raivyne · 10/15/10, 1:15 AM

I did some more tests to see whether or not blood shield stacks. This first set of data is from duels with a warrior and I wrote it down by hand (before i remembered tuk's has a handy combat log copy feature). The second set of data is from combat with Thrym and I copied the log to post here.

Both sets of data would lead me to conclude that Blood Shield does not stack; the second Blood Shield simply overwrites the first.

Duel Data 1 - 101.1875% Mastery

4591 DS Heal (4645.51 Blood Shield)
4591 DS Heal (4645.51 Blood Shield)
1208 Absorb
1096 Absorb
1016 Absorb
4591 DS Heal (4645.51 Blood Shield)
1045 Absorb
4591 DS Heal (4645.51 Blood Shield)
933 Absorb
557 Absorb
2365 Absorb
790 Absorb

Total of last set of absorbs - 4645 (Expected amount of Blood Shield)

Duel Data 2 - 101.1875% Mastery

4591 DS Heal (4645.51 Blood Shield)
2143 Absorb
4591 DS Heal (4645.51 Blood Shield)
2226 Absorb
2419 Absorb

Total of last set of absorbs - 4645 (Expected amount of Blood Shield)

Duel Data 3 - 106.75% Mastery

4442 DS Heal (4741.835 Blood Shield)
4442 DS Heal (4741.835 Blood Shield)
2731 Absorb
2011 Absorb

Total of last set of absorbs - 4742 (Expected amount of Blood Shield)

Thrym Data 1 - 106.75% Mastery

Dæthe's Death Strike heals Dæthe for 4442.
Dæthe gains Dæthe's Blood Shield.
Thrym's attack was dodged by Dæthe.
Dæthe's Death Strike heals Dæthe for 4442.
Dæthe's Blood Shield is refreshed on Dæthe.
Thrym's attack was parried by Dæthe.
Thrym's attack was absorbed by Dæthe.(2731 Absorbed)
Thrym's melee swing hits Dæthe for 712 Physical.(2011 Absorbed)
Dæthe's Blood Shield fades from Dæthe.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Expected Shield - 4741.835
Total last set of absorbs - 4742

Thrym Data 2 - 106.75% Mastery

Dæthe's Death Strike heals Dæthe for 4442.
Dæthe gains Dæthe's Blood Shield.
Thrym's attack was dodged by Dæthe.
Dæthe's Death Strike heals Dæthe for 4442.
Dæthe's Blood Shield is refreshed on Dæthe.
Thrym's attack was absorbed by Dæthe.(2453 Absorbed)
Dæthe's Rune Tap heals Dæthe for 6663.
Thrym's attack was dodged by Dæthe.
Dæthe's Death Pact heals Dæthe for 12046.(5722 Overhealed)
Dæthe has slain Risen Ghoul!
Dæthe's Death Pact instantly kills Risen Ghoul.
Risen Ghoul was destroyed.
Thrym's melee swing hits Dæthe for 229 Physical.(2289 Absorbed)
Dæthe's Blood Shield fades from Dæthe.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Expected Shield - 4741.835
Total last set of absorbs - 4742

Thrym Data 3 - 106.75% Mastery

Dæthe's Death Strike heals Dæthe for 4442.
Dæthe gains Dæthe's Blood Shield.
Thrym's attack was absorbed by Dæthe.(2384 Absorbed)
Dæthe's Death Strike heals Dæthe for 4442.
Dæthe's Blood Shield is refreshed on Dæthe.
Thrym's attack was absorbed by Dæthe.(2241 Absorbed)
Thrym's attack was absorbed by Dæthe.(2408 Absorbed)
Thrym's melee swing hits Dæthe for 2673 Physical.(93 Absorbed)
Dæthe's Blood Shield fades from Dæthe.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Expected Shield - 4741.835
Total last set of absorbs - 4742

riggins · 10/15/10, 3:16 AM

Alright! I see quite a bit more math has been posted up, which is good. I wanted to toss in my 2 cents really quick after spending a few more hours with this. I'm fairly certain with the past page and a half we've got a solid feel for how the Blood Spec Mastery works.

TLDR Summary:

Things we know for sure:
Blood Shield scales w/ a direct 1:1 ratio from your Mastery % of the DS heal to Shield (ie a 15k DS heal = 15k Blood Shield at 100% mastery). Yes, you can increase this above 100% also, as seen in the results below.
Blood Shield does not stack.* (Clarified below)
Blood Shield absorbs only Physical Dmg.
Blood Shield is affected by Imp DS talent (the wording on this may need to be edited, but what I'm saying is that picking up 3/3 Imp DS will yield a larger heal and equivalent shield).
Blood Shield is NOT affected by Vampiric Blood.
Blood Shield does not dip into the ICC buff, but your DS heal does (ie your shield will be the same rate of consistency lower than your heal. In my case a constant 83%).

Questions still needing answers:
Blood shield is / isn't affected by DR. I still would like to know the answer to this, but it lies in the realm of being too complicated for me to pursue. I'm sure someone else would be able to find out and post some results.

Ok, with that out of the way, time to throw in some math from what was gathered tonight with zero buffs (this includes not having ICC buff). See screenshot below:

After we got LK down, I went back in and turned off the buff for some extended testing with some guild members. We did several tests with Imp DS (3/3), several tests without any points into Imp DS (0/3), and combined that with the data we gathered from testing with the ICC buff on Tues/Wed. Here is both a quick snapshot and the actual link to the page (since I know some people are lazy clicking on links ><) where we documented several of the results. The actual combat log snapshots are listed in the mspaint conversions below so you know these numbers aren't fabricated, mistyped, or altered in any way. There are plenty other samples in the listing of .png files below that aren't added to the spreadsheet due to time constraints. Again, the reason I'm not posting any WMO/WoL entries is that they are both inaccurate when it comes to reading the new absorbs (Blood Shield / Power Word: Barrier / etc):

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?...CMiuo7gD#gid=0

http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/6...oimpdsandb.png <-- 0/3 Imp DS (Bloodworm heals are also documented in this entry) No ICC buff

http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/3...oodshield4.png <-- 3/3 Imp DS No ICC Buff

http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/4...oodshield3.png <-- 3/3 Imp DS No ICC Buff

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/7...oodshield1.png <-- 3/3 Imp DS No ICC Buff

*One issue to address really quickly is that with the ICC buff active (Tues/Wed) the results I was getting were much more complicated (ie buff affecting the heal but not shield). I also had some absorbs that weren't adding up correctly and led us to believe the buff was stacking in some form. I honestly don't have an answer for that since they clearly aren't stacking outside of the ICC buff, but I'm sure it has one.

Also, the guy that posted the pic of the GM ticket saying the DS heal isn't affected by the ICC buff is wrong. Either that or my math is just shit and I need to quit

I hope this helps and please post if you have any questions or statements to disprove any of this math. Thanks for the help with the earlier posts and sorry for the ICC buff confusion even though its useful information ><. I also went back and edited my initial post to clear up any confusion for people reading through the thread initially. In the end however, its pretty obvious how it all works and seems to be a solid form of mitigation for us. As far as 'weighting' mastery vs avoidance, I still stand by my initial mindset of being fight dependent, but we'll see.

Quick other topics that are going to need to be addressed in here are:

Threat - Its much more of an issue that it was previously. Alot of that is due to OP classes that are getting tweaked (spriest/boomkin/mage).
Bloodworms - I'm completely up in the air on this due to their heals consistency and reliability.

Thx

Lichloathe · 10/15/10, 6:47 AM

Originally Posted by riggins

Also, the guy that posted the pic of the GM ticket saying the DS heal isn't affected by the ICC buff is wrong. Either that or my math is just shit and I need to quit

That GM response is absolutely and completely wrong. I am attempting to follow up with the person who posted it to make sure this is pointed out to the EU GMs. It seems someone needs to educate the person who responded to him on how things actually work in this game. Irritating.

I've been able to tentatively confirm that the issue of outside healing effects to Death Strike not affecting Blood Shield is being looked at, as well.

pablocabron · 10/15/10, 9:38 AM

I know as a general rule of thumb stat priority is given as Hit-Expertise caps > Stam > Mastery > Parry / Dodge, but has anyone crunched the current numbers enough to produce a workable stat-weighting for tanking?

rayfin · 10/15/10, 10:40 AM

Sorry I don't have the time for numbers and a full explanation. Just a quick thought I wanted to pass along to the community. I was having some issues even with Tricks and MD the past few days tanking in ICC 25 heroic with insane DPS pulling off me or complaining non stop. Obviously the upcoming changes to Imp. Blood Presence and Rune Strike will be a god-send. Until then, I decided I was going to reforge half of my gear to Haste or until I got around 300 haste then the rest to Mastery.

Let me just tell you all of my issues of being Rune locked disappeared and I was also able to Rune Strike more often as I was getting more RP generated.

All of my threat issues disappeared as well.

So for now, I recommend getting around 300 or so Haste until the changes take place.

mikeraskol · 10/15/10, 11:38 AM

Since the Blood Shield is not affected by Vampiric Blood, does this change how you feel about the Vampiric Blood glyph or do you still prefer that extra healing for the period rather than the increased health?

SuperiorityDK · 10/15/10, 12:04 PM

Was just doing some napkin maths in excel on reforging dodge into mastery.

These values were kind of arbitrary just to get a feel for the kind of conversion rate. Dodge DR is not taken into account and I've assumed the full Blood Shield is used.

Mastery stays close to dodge most of the time, but falls further behind the harder the boss hits (which is probably pretty obvious). Neither fast hitting Algalon-type fights, nor slow hard hitting bosses will favor mastery mathematically due to the fact that you can only Death Strike a limited number of times. Unlike block scales with the number of incoming hits.

Mastery will still help smooth spikey incoming damage when compared with dodge. Mathematically mastery's generally superior when the DS heal value is derived from your maximum health rather than from incoming damage.

Just a few observations I've made. Hope it contributes something to the discussion.

kidfrivolous · 10/15/10, 12:14 PM

Originally Posted by pablocabron

I know as a general rule of thumb stat priority is given as Hit-Expertise caps > Stam > Mastery > Parry / Dodge, but has anyone crunched the current numbers enough to produce a workable stat-weighting for tanking?

I'd like to know this as well. When it comes to reforging, what % of stats do we NOT want to fall below:

For example: dont go below 20% dodge when trying to gain more mastery..
(or) dont worry about keeping any certain amount of parry..

I would assume expertise and hit capped are a given. I'm just having a hard time gaining as much mastery as I see you guys stacking

Mjoedgaard · 10/15/10, 12:31 PM

Originally Posted by SuperiorityDK

Was just doing some napkin maths in excel on reforging dodge into mastery.

These values were kind of arbitrary just to get a feel for the kind of conversion rate. Dodge DR is not taken into account and I've assumed the full Blood Shield is used.

Mastery stays close to dodge most of the time, but falls further behind the harder the boss hits (which is probably pretty obvious). Neither fast hitting Algalon-type fights, nor slow hard hitting bosses will favor mastery mathematically due to the fact that you can only Death Strike a limited number of times. Unlike block scales with the number of incoming hits.

Mastery will still help smooth spikey incoming damage when compared with dodge. Mathematically mastery's generally superior when the DS heal value is derived from your maximum health rather than from incoming damage.

Just a few observations I've made. Hope it contributes something to the discussion.

There is something wrong in that excel sheet. Im pretty sure the DS heal should be 15000 in field H2 and H3 should only be 3000.

Also how are you getting the dodged dmg and healed numbers?

Mindaika · 10/15/10, 1:20 PM

Originally Posted by pablocabron

I know as a general rule of thumb stat priority is given as Hit-Expertise caps > Stam > Mastery > Parry / Dodge, but has anyone crunched the current numbers enough to produce a workable stat-weighting for tanking?

It's also probably worth noting that the initial stat weights were (I believe) determined assuming that the Shield stacked.

riggins · 10/15/10, 2:28 PM

Originally Posted by mikeraskol

Since the Blood Shield is not affected by Vampiric Blood, does this change how you feel about the Vampiric Blood glyph or do you still prefer that extra healing for the period rather than the increased health?

It does retract some of the value, yes, but not enough to stop running the glyph imo. If you do want to swap it out, it would make more since to do it now than later since in Cata healers will be more strapped than they are now and each bit of healing will be even more important.

The addition of Bone Shield replaces VB as our main 1min cd. That being said, I've been using VB as more of a 'buffer' cd to help healers top me off or keep me topped while moving. The extra healing that it gives to instants that healers are hitting you with on the move helps out a ton (ie holy shock) on top of the direct heals / RT / etc being buffed by an additional 15%.

On a related note: I'm not going to lie, tanking ICC this week was more fun than I've had in months. The new changes feel fresh and solid. The only thing I really wish they would update is our RS and 20% rune recharge rates to be implemented for a much 'smoother' feel with sacrificing a ton of survivability to get the haste required. Anyways, I updated the cd chart for LK since it does need a bit of altering from its previous version:

HLK CD Usage (4.0.1 Updated):

This is the MOST CRITICAL PART of the encounter for a DK tank. ENSURE you memorize when and why you should be using each and every cooldown. DK's can dominate this fight, but you HAVE to be on top of your game with your cd management. There are some ppl who just look at it like 'oh just pop a cd for each of these SR's lol thats not hard", but you have to remember there is a ton of other shit going on that will be occupying your time. Boss positioning to keep him in cleave range while dps'ing valks and still be in position to drop your defile correctly is also a huge priority. You need to be paying attention to make sure you also have demo/sf/vind on the boss as well as keeping up blade barrier and making sure AF/Insp is active. The instant one of these buffs/debuffs fall off, its YOUR job to call it out and get it back active. W/o demo/sf/vind and 10% dmg reduc from Insp/AF you will risk getting 2 shot by normal melee's from the boss. Not to mention you still need to put out a respectable amount of TPS during this whole process to avoid having to waste tricks on a tank instead of another dps and threat capping your raid.

The reason I start w/ IBF is because learning the fight pre ICC buff was when I made the list initially. IBF is the most dmg reduction and we were getting everything stabilized coming out of t1 (transition 1) so it gave healers the insurance to get everything up to speed and not having to worry if I am going to die. ***EACH OF THESE COOLDOWNS HAS TO BE POPPED 1-2 SECONDS BEFORE THE SOUL REAPER IS APPLIED!!!!!!!!*** If you are doing it reactively instead of proactively, you WILL get combo'd by SR + normal melee w/in the same timestamp at some point. You HAVE to have these cd's active before you get the SR applied. The new changes to Imp Blood Tap give us an awesome means of taking advantage of our t10 4pc. There will be times where you wont have it up for the initial application of the SR since it is on a 30sec cd along w/ your Blood Tap. This is mainly due to LK cast times and human latency, but just get in the habit of using it pretty much on cd for this fight once you pop it before the 2nd SR and it will fit in nicely.

p2:
1st SR= IBF
2nd SR= BS+4pc+Sind Trink - AMS
3rd SR= PS+VB+4pc
4th SR= BS+4pc+Sind Trink - AMS
5th SR= IBF
6th SR= BS+4pc+Sind Trink - AMS
7th SR= GS+VB+4pc
8th SR= BS+4pc+Sind Trink - AMS

p3:
1st SR = BS+4pc+Sind Trink - AMS (coming out of Frostmourne room 1)
2nd SR= IBF
3rd SR= BS+4pc+Sind Trink - AMS (coming out of FM2)
4th SR= VB+4pc+Sac
5th SR= BS+4pc+Sind Trink - AMS (coming out of FM3)
6th SR= IBF
7th SR= BS+4pc+Sind Trink - AMS (coming out of FM4)
8th SR= Army / Priest CD or whatever else is up. He will be enraging about this time, so its not really important lol.

These cd map also gives you some fluctuation on other shit. You still have Army / Death Pact / Dancing Rune Wpn (20% parry) / badge trinket absorb at your disposal to use whenever you feel the need. You also have several points where you can weave in VB, but that is completely dependent on the situation. I personally pull my pet out if any 2 out of our 2 pallies and resto shaman are picked up and pool RP to sac if needed. Also, the CSK absorb is nicely timed for use on the SR you take a GS on since there is no dmg reduction at all on that one. Use DRW at your discretion since its on a fairly short cd.