I'm happy to say that I got what I expected with my Death Knight tanking buffs - it's made things a little easier, a fair bit more interesting and a lot more fun!
The main cause of this fun? A very simple buff which was the threat increase that Icy Touch got whilst in Frost Presence.
Icy Touch is bound to the "1" key on my keyboard. It's there because it's the first thing that I want to hit as a threat opener. If I have to change targets, IT is the first thing that I'm looking to hit them with - even if I'm out of position, the 20 yard range means that I'm going to be able to put some threat on them and infect them with Frost Fever. That's means ranged instant cast threat, a DoT and it slows the target's attack speed a little so I take less damage off them. How much extra threat did we get with the buff?
A lot more.
This has made tanking fun and enjoyable (not that it wasn't fun before, but it's a little less stressful now and therefore I can enjoy myself more). It hasn't really affected my 5 man tanking because the only risk that there was of people pulling aggro off me was if they weren't attacking my main target, this buff does nothing to my AoE threat so lunatic mages can still pull the odd mob if they don't behave themselves. Where it really shines is raiding, it has its occasional downside, too... I'll get to that in a minute.
Getting a nice threat lead after taunting on a tank-swap: easy.
Keeping aggro on mobs that you're having to kite: easy.
Not overaggroing the Main Tank when you're sharing the same boss: a bit tricky.
Initially our MT thought that I was trying to have an aggro race with him when in reality I was just going through my old rotation at the same pace that I used to. I've had to adjust and reign things in a little; getting carried away could end up causing a wipe in some situations... got to watch that... I think that Blood DK offtanks will be making the MTs a bit more nervous in the future.
Kiting Big Slimy Dudes on Lady Deathwhisper (hang on, she doesn't exactly "whisper" does she?) is easy as I can spend more time concentrating on where I'm going and less time on shooting stuff at the target. Same thing with Rotface's Oozes.
Another interesting gameplay change is having to choose what to spend my Frost Runes on. Before the patch it was easy: use IT for an opener or when Frost Fever is about to wear off, at all other times use the rune as part of Death Strike. Now I get to make the decision on whether I'd like a threat boost or some self healing; it's a great play-style change that means you have to keep more of an eye on the situation than before and adapt to what is needed. In periods of low damage you can give yourself more of a threat lead and in periods of high damage you can focus on self healing, safe in the knowledge that you won't suddenly lose aggro.
Moodyloner reckons that it won't last past the weekend without a nerf... yeah, that's right Blizz... give me a few days of fun before you snatch it away... I sincerely hope that she's not right, I mean it's not as if it messes around with PvP or DPS specs, all it does is give the tanks a bit more single target threat.
Will of the Necropolis... I wasn't sure if I'd see a difference and I haven't so far. There are so many variables that contribute to tank survival (or lack thereof) that I doubt that I'll ever notice the buff. Maybe the healers will, but so far they haven't said anything to me!
The Abomination's Might change is quite nice. Having a permanent 10% raid attack power bonus is always good, no matter what you do and having a buff icon sat on your screen, reminding you of it being there is pretty cool, too. The best bit about it? When I mentioned it to one of our hunters, he decided that he's my new best friend.
Just keep your smelly wolf away from me, will ya?
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