Death Knight Tanking Stats

Hey again everyone,

As my first official Death Knight related post I thought that I might as well start from the bottom up namely, which stats you need as a Death Knight. First I'll go over the stats needed for tanking.

Tanking

Defence: Defence rating is the single most important stat for a tank but only however up to a certain point. For those who are unaware raid bosses are for gameplay purposes 3 levels above you (i.e. level 83) what this means is that if you don't have 540 defence (not defence rating) then you will be critted by bosses and you wil die. After 540, defence does give you some extra avoidance (parry/dodge) but there are much better stats.

Stamina: Stamina is a fairly simple stat and works very simply. The more stamina you have, the more health you have and the more damage you can take. Do not however fall into the trap that stamina is the end-all tanking stat as there are many more important ones. An important note however is that many PUGs will prematurely judge your ability as a tank by the amount of health you have. Do not give in and just try to stamina as these are usually the PUGs that you won't want to be a part of.

Parry/Dodge: I've put these two together as they do more or less the same thing and that is they prevent you from taking damage. They are fairly important for tanking and I would personally get them over stamina.

Armour: This is another fairly simple stat as all it does is decrease the amount of damage you take. Important but don't worry about it as it scales with whatever level of gear you have.

Strength: Strength is another very important stat as it not increase threat you cause by increasing your damage (you get 2 attack power for every 1 point of strength) but also because it gives you 0.25 parry rating for every point of strength you have. This should always be taken above attack power or agility.

Check back soon for a review of the stats you'll want to stack as a DPS death knight.