I was just practising the boss opening with:

IT-HB-BT&OB-BS
ERW
OB-OB-UA-IT
OB-OB-IT-BS
OB-OB-BS-IT repeat

when i stumbled upon that bugged deathrune which i already heard about somewhere. It happens to me when i got 2 deathrunes active (one from bloodtap, one from bloodstrike) and bloodtap runs out. Then one deathrune switches back to blood and the other stays death "forever". Since this situation happens exactly with my opening rotation listed above if i don't use any of the deathrunes after the UA-line until bloodtap runs out. With the resulting perma-death rune it's possible to go OB-OB-IT -RP dump all the way. Further UAs can be used with the next bloodtap. Since this is clearly a bug and i'm not sure if i have enough RP (with BoSanc) to really benefit from the one global cooldown i have more without BS in the rotation, i won't actively use it in tonight's raid.

edit: blood/death typo
edit2:
Now that i am aware of the bugged death rune, i can't seem to NOT get it once the situation described above happens. Even if it switches back to blood after ~1min, it gets bugged on the first bloodstrike, turning it into a death rune. Only a relog seems to reset the rune. My previous rotation was IT-OB-OB-BS. I then switched to IT at the end (shifting it one place each rotation until it's OB-OB-BS-IT). While trying to figure out, which missed death rune would hurt more (the single IT cast or a death rune in an obliterate), i noticed that death rune misses refund the death rune instead of turning back to blood. I know that back in my unholy days, a missed double-death runed SS resulted in two blood runes. When did that change happen?

The reason you take DRM is for AE pulls. I wouldn't use DRM for anything besides 10man Naxxramas or dare I say it, heroics. I say 10man Naxxramas because in 25man I'm pretty sure the two other tanks won't have any problem with AE pulls. You would obviously take Spell Deflection and IRT over DRM and Hysteria/Blood Aura if you aren't doing 10man Naxxramas and even then you don't really need it either.

Perhaps this is a stupid question but if hit cap is 8% and alliance always run with Draenai with their 1% hit aura, why aren't we saying alliance DK's only need 7% hit?

Shike,

Remember that Draenei aura is party only (yeah, one of those anomalies from Blizzard).
Go ahead and gear/gem for 7% hit if you are guaranteed a Draenei in your group. I would get 8% melee hit though as I don't always get a draenei in mine.

It's hard to keep track of raid wide buffs vs party buffs nowadays. Thanks for the answers gents.

Keep in mind, if you aren't speccing into Virulence, that additional 1% hit is going to help you get closer to spell-hit capped as well. Having a bit of extra melee hit is just going to get you that much closer to 16% (with Dranei) spell-hit, so if you can afford it, it's going to benefit you in the long run. You also have to determine if you are a big spell user (IT/HB/DC) or if you go "spell-lite" (only using IT's) or none at all (diseaseless, etc). Spell hit might not even be on your list of things to consider.

I would like to see the OP updated with various information:
- Recommended Sarth3D builds (a FAQ to be sure)
- Trade-offs between Stoneskin, Sword/Spellshattering Rune Enchants (It's been discussed, let's codify it)
- Gem choices (for threat vs avoidance vs stam)
- First and second choices for endgame tank gear (copy/paste from other posts found here or in the mega thread)
- Clarifications on talents (Will of the Necropolis was discussed/clarified, for example)
- The basic stats (8% hit, 26 expertise soft cap, 540 defense)

Anyway, those are just suggestions for the OP to update. Those are things I would like to see in a thread that detail DK tanking, similar to how I've seen other class/role threads in other forums. Thanks.

I'm compiling some additional info that references some of these suggestions.

My favorite S3D spec is posted, though I should provide alternatives as well. These additions should be up early next week. Hopefully by then we'll have some concrete info about 3.1 changes. If so, I'll put off amendments until I've put those changes into perspective.

I'll rephrase my request in another fashion. The best tanking reference I found during BC was the following thread, which I would like to see emulated at least a little bit for DKs in the near future:
The Protection Guide

Actually, several "class" type threads include a variety of information, some of which is situational, some of it is just "basic" but good reference. Another "detail" example would be the scaling of IBF to defense. The answer is on this forum, but not in the OP. Anyway, it would be nice to see the thread be informative on the level of other class threads around EJ, that's all I'm conveying.

So far my career as a Deathknight has only been unholy dps (I havent been 80 very long) recently my guild decided they wanted me to tank shadron on Sarth+3 drakes and even more recently they've decided they want me to mt sarth lol. My question is out of the 2 unholy tanking builds you listed the one with anti-magic zone doesnt go ne deeper into unholy that build in general is appealing to me cuz I for one like the magic resistance provided by unholy but my problem is I'm the only dk in my raids so I have to provide EP and I kinda need imp icy touch as well what build would you suggest me pref one that went deep into unholy to where I could get anti-magic zone but still get like EP and the other needed talents keep in mind this is mostly just geared towards tanking sarth but me as a tank should last even after we down him.

Yeah we really need another Death Knight if we had another I'd spec completely different but so far I've been tanking shadron since we started attempting 3 drakes and we've been getting pretty close so thats just with ep on one drake.