First: Please take BCB out of a Sarth MT sepcc, it doesn't belong there.

I'm tanking Sarth in the VottW/Lichborne/BSh specc, but I've heard enough about Blood tanking to know that it is effective enough to tank Sarth without major problems.
There's a more or less ongoing discussion about that in Buck's Thread so I won't elaborate too much about that.

Tl;Dr: Both are viable, pick the one you are comfortable with and/or check Buck's OP.

Just to comment on this, 4% parry is actually about +196 parry rating. However, the really important thing about swordshatter is that the 4% parry ignores diminishing returns. So while 2% stamina is nice, generally speaking swordshatter is a much better runeforge for most things, assuming you can get the defense in other ways (which you should be able to)

SS is not "much better...for most things", it is (and will always be) better for exactly one thing: maximizing avoid. For other applications (EH, threat), other runeforges will be better.

Further, with the items currently available, "getting the defense in other ways" means either a) using inferior survivability items or b) gemming for defense. It is not immediately apparent that SS is better for survivability at the moment, nevermind "much better" in this respect. There is extensive discussion of the runeforges starting around page 80 of the thread and continuing on well into the 90s. The upshot is that they're both quite useful currently.

Just for an example, feel free to check my DK profile (Kashnite, Frostmourne). I'm sitting on exactly 540 defense with Gargoyle, because this allows me to equip double stamina trinkets and gem mostly for +sta. Hitting 32k (33.5k with VottW) health unbuffed in mostly 10-man gear is well worth the trade-off for certain encounters; Sartharion obviously.

If I were to go for a max avoidance set (at the expense of stamina), then I'm well over the defense threshold and can swap to SS. They're both useful in different circumstances.

That is a very interesting spec for tanking casters, but i do not like it for several reasons. There are also several points in the unholy tree i think need to be changed.

First i would like to ask why you would get Outbreak over Ravenous Dead when you skipped every other AOE tanking skill in the tree?

Picking up talents other than Unholy Aura like OaPH even seems like better use of a talent point. Maybe even pick Dirge for the extra RP for threat or Gargoyle/Master of Gouls.

I feel the allocation of points into the Frost tree for Lichborne would also be better for survivability.

I am only 1 week into being level 80 and already have 28k HP, so it would seem the best part about the extra points in blood (the HP) does not seem hard to make up for with gear.

Making up hp by gear is not the case, DK tank is best when builded for EH tanking (effective health) due to lower avoidance (no block).
Avg DK with 10ppl gear will have about 60-65% avoidance, that's 20-25% less than warrior or Paladin, so what you have to do is stack up stamina and stamina talents, so every 1sta will give you in frost presence 11,8 (or so) hp.
Atm i have 40k hp raid buffed (in 10ppl) and about 65% avoidance also raid buffed, and i'm only gemming for stamina (or exp for threat). In this way i am very good tank on bosses like Faerlina when doing achivement, or Sartharion 3d as a main tank.

High HP pool is better choice than any other tanks stats, and that's for most DKs and DK's healers.
I was healing in TBC, and it was always better for me when i was assigned for Druid, as he had really high hp, but lower avoidance, same goes for my healers in wrath, they say dmg on me is more predictable than on avoidance tank, and so it's easier to heal me.

You want lichborn for survivability, but to be honest it's not really "oh shit button" skill, this one is not predictable, and so it's good for lowering dmg by some amount, but not for surviving critical situations.
And when you want go for Veteran of the Third War (really good talent, and often frost or unholy tank builds have it) you can boost your tps (2h weapon spec, dark confiction, bladed armor, or subversion when you are in frost), or survivability (spell deflection - great for some encounters, imp rune tap - my personal talent of choice for Sarth 3d along with spell deflection).

I beg to differ.

As a NE Frosty, with Fridged Dreadplate and Sword shattering you can easily reach 63-65% avoidance raidbuffed. Blade barrier stacks another 10% Parry on top of that putting you at 73% to 75%. Lichborn gives you another 25% miss.

On a physical damage fight, like Faerlina achievement or Patches, Lichbourne is amazing if not completely overpowered.

As far as I know only RATING is affected by DR. Flat stat/percentage increases (ie Talents and both Runes)

With 3.1 incoming, I'd love to focus on some specs for tanking when it goes live. I've been a big fan of 2h frost and are pretty disappointed with many of the changes, but still I believe I will stay frost 2h.

This is the spec I've been looking at.

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...0&version=9626


Why I took what I did. the most non-obvious ones.

Subversion 3/3: I still spam obliterate. 9%crit is nice
Virulence: Spell hit for taunts/icy touch/etc

Frost talents are all for survival or threat.

I skipped hungering cold even tho it's one point because I have never found a use for it. I respec for pvp completely so it's no bother to me at all. With this said tho, I have not seen any of the Ulduar trash and only a few bosses. I might re edit my use of hungering cold if it looks useful.

ST: IT - PS - OB - BS - BS - Runic dump
AE: Depends on how fast runes are up/chain pulls/blood tap. but normally:

DnD - IT - PS - Pestilence - HB - HB

or you can skip straight to IT - Pestilence - HB - blood tap - HB


Criticism go? or Does anyone have one they think is better? or better yet, I'm looking for highest single target threat for MTing bosses. Is frost 2h still the way to go or has blood surpassed it? Anyone got a good blood spec to post?

Post 3.1 Frost

This is likely what I will be sporting come patch day. Single-target threat with two-hander Frost is still going to boil down to strike damage.

They are giving Disc priests an ability that gives 35 runic power whenever a shield is absorbed, as well as the druid revitalize effecting Wild Growth. Between the three of then, we will hopefully still be producing a good deal of runic power.

As long as our runic power gain is significant enough to change a majority of our white attacks into Rune Strikes, we should be good on threat if we play tight.