How to be an Effective Raider

Raiding is one of those "easy to learn, hard to master" kind of undertakings.

WoW is full of those. In a break from the norm around here at Unliving a Death Knight, this post will not be dedicated to Death Knights. This post instead is directed towards anyone and everyone who wants to get into raiding or wants to improve their raiding, and to help make the transition from raid attendee to an irreplaceable asset and member of an effective team.

I want to stress that raiding isn't supposed to be easy. It's not supposed to come naturally. Raiding is the most fun I've ever had in a video game, but more often than not it's challenging, stressful, and full of pressure on you to perform well.

Frost Verses Unholy (Mists of Pandaria)

I imagine I'm not the only PvE Death Knight questioning my spec at this point in the expansion

So what spec should a concerned PvE Death Knight play?

Well, as you may imagine, the answer is not so straight forward. I'm going to start at the end with this article. I just made the switch from Unholy to Frost. While I still have a heartfelt attachment to Unholy, I realized that I was attached to what Unholy represented rather than what it brought to the raid. 

Bloody Tanking (Mists of Pandaria)

Blood tanking in Mists is a fight for survival.

It's certainly not for the faint-of-heart. From the moment the boss is pulled until that boss is nothing more than loot-laden carcass decaying on the ground, a Blood Death Knight must carefully time every button press, be mindful of every fight mechanic, and quickly analyze and react to any situation. This expansion is not going to be any easier than Cataclysm, and will severely punish any Death Knight tanking carelessly.

However, if you are a capable of playing a Blood Death Knight well, you will be an almost unstoppable force, more powerful than we were even in Dragon Soul.