Does anyone know what the current optimal Frost rotation is with the new disease scaling? I was using IT BS OB OB pre-patch, but perhaps IT PS BS BS OB OB OB OB is stronger now? Which rotation is better would, I think, play a large role in determining whether one takes full SoB or puts points into Epidemic.

I'm also starting to be convinced that even though the extra HP of Blood is nice, the extra 6 seconds on IBF with Frost makes it the best tanking tree, especially in Ulduar. An 18 second IBF, or 21 second with 4 piece T7 will will completely trivialize a lot of the trickier things bosses in Ulduar are prone to, such as Hodir's Frozen Blows. It's been my experience that surviving in Ulduar is much more about mitigating semi-regular intervals of extreme burst (Sunder/Unbalancing on Kolo/Thorim, if the OT is busy or dead, or buff stacking on Ignis etc.) than dealing with overall damage.

Vampiric Blood is getting less appealing to me as time goes on due to the number of mechanics that potentially disrupt healing (Flame Jets, well placed Icicles). When this cooldown had 50% uptime, it was exceptional. With less than 25% uptime, I believe it falls behind options that provide active mitigation, making Unholy's Boneshield and Frost's UA/extended IBF superior.

DS was healing for 10k+, regularly. Anyone who expected it to stay like that was not thinking clearly.

I'm strongly considering a blood spec to augment my frost tank spec and am trying to learn the ropes, but the Obliterates in this rotation are throwing me for a loop. Without Annihilation why would you want to throw an OB right after your initial IT and PS, thus consuming the diseases? Am I missing something or is this just merely a typo, with the correct skill being DS?

It used to be that Blood builds got Annihilation. Now they get Improved Death Strike, a DS glyph, and use DS instead of Obliterate in that spot of the rotation.

However, you want your Death Strikes to come after your two Heart Strikes to make sure you have at least 26 RP for the glyph to get maximum effect.

The AoE rotation can be modified to:

DND - IT - PS - Pest - DS - BB - Pest - DS - Pest - BB X 5

Thanks guys. The single target rotation makes a lot more sense now.

Question on this one. Since Pest doesn't actually do damage anymore, what's the point of the 2nd and 3rd Pest within this rotation?

When I tank Unholy and Frost, I macro RS to all my main attacks since it is better threat than the other RP dumps. Even doing this, I'd still usually have excess RP to dump at the end, but then again I would usually be running w/ BoSanc. It will be interesting to see if I can keep RS macroed in a Blood spec or if I'll need to manually RS to keep above 26 RP. Time will tell I guess, but I'd be interested to hear what others do.

Thats simple really, your diseases will expire, dont forget that after DND - IT - PS - Pest there's a fair old wait before you drop DS, if you BB instead your diseases expire

As blood you should be alright (since you'll definitely have SoB)...and I feel like the need to dump RP isn't as important as it is with frost, since FS is a bigger source of threat than DC is for unholy or blood. I've been tanking as frost in ulduar, and I macro RS to all my obliterates, and RP has been an issue especially when I use dump RP using FS like Photek mentioned earlier (though he has SoB).

Having enough RP is absolutely essential on fights like council in order to mind freeze.


Anyone know if spell deflection work on Hodir's frozen blows? I'd imagine it would. If it is, I'd think it'd be a much better investment of 3 points, than Sudden Doom.

On a side note....does anyone else feel like the trash before council (Double Golem pack wth flame cannons for hands) just isn't survivable without IBF or AMS? That flame thing they do just absolutely demolishes me if those CDs aren't up.

The issue is your hit rating. You're 2% below the cap. On the bright side, your expertise have pushed dodge off the table, but most of that seems to be due to gemming.

Shammies provide a constant haste buff due to Windfury totem, there is no need for you to use Improved Icy Talons if you always have the totem available. After that rotation you listed, are you switching to Obliterate X 3? Obliterate,is your most powerful threat generator from Runes. Also, I find it better to use your Death Runes from Blood Strike for Icy Touch and Plague Strike. Doing so means you never have to wait for a second rune to refresh before using Obliterate.

Opener: IT - PS - OB - BS - BS - Empower Rune Weapon

Rotation: OB - OB - IT - PS - Rune Dump/Rime Procs - OB - OB - BS -BS - Rune Dump/Rime Procs Repeat.

You'll need Epidemic to do that rotation though.

Improved Frost Presence is worth it. 2% damage reduction is too good to pass up. Point for Point it's equivalent to Blade Barrier, which is a must have talent.

As for Scent of Blood vs. Bladed Armor. It depends on how RP starved you are. If you use the IT Glyph and the FS glyph, you likely don't have much of a problem. If you're not using one or the other, you might want to consider Scent of Blood.

Oh, and make sure you're using Death Runes for your Unbreakable Armor whenever possible. Macro it to also cast Blood Tap immediately afterward, and you won't lose anything on your rotation. You'll get the damage reduction, and 25% strength, so it's worth using whenever possible to begin with.

Hey guys, i´ve been searching the tank threads for a while now for a blood rotation that includes the new disease glyph, but could not find anything. It would be very nice if could give me advice on that.

They stop casting the flame jets if you break line of sight, so we just position them next to a pillar/corner and dive around it as soon as they start casting, you take 2 ticks tops. Standing and taking the pain just doesn't seem doable at all, its around 12k damage a second(10 man) and isn't realistically healable without cooldowns or moving out of its path.

I played around with the UA glyph a little bit and found it somewhat lacking. It's great for AOE packs, but seems a bit weak as a major cooldown for single target. If you want a mitigation glyph, the IBF one is far better.


I'm using: Frost Strike, Obliterate, IBF right now. Obliterate and FS are necessary in my opinion. If you have Scent of Blood, don't get the IT glyph, if you want to do without it, use the IT one. Rune Strike is a good glyph too, but I think RP generation is more important if you're between IT and RS