Shot Through The Heart

The power of Bon Jovi’s stare compels you!

The power of Bon Jovi’s stare compels you!

The power of Bon Jovi’s stare compels you!

Oh wait, sorry… wrong meeting. You’re probably wondering wtf is going on. Well, I’ve been wanting to talk about something for a long time (no I’m not gay, and no it really doesn’t have anything to do with Bon Jovi). Today I want to talk about a topic that sometimes gets out of hand on various forums: Heart Strike VS Rune Tap.

The Argument
There are a vocal group of people who believe that Rune Tap is quite simply a waste of 1-4 talent points. These people will argue up and down about the values of HS in comparison to RT till they are blue in the face. Now, to me this is an apples to bananas comparison. Some people value maximum threat, some people value survival. Though if you’re a Blood tank, I would think survival abilities are probably pretty high on the old honey do list. So what’s the beef?

Well, first these two abilities use a Blood Rune each. This can cause issues with your rotation (if you’re a castsequence macroing baddy) and I’ll admit it, I’ve been lazy and used a sequence macro for my rotation too. Unfortunately, that type of macro doesn’t fit the bill for me so I’ve broken my rotation up. Now I can adapt to the situation and use my RT when I need/want to (reactively) rather than just when I have a spare Blood Rune I’m not using … But, I don’t want to get too side tracked with rotation discussion. The point is that one argument made against RT is that it requires the use of a valuable (and limited) resource, a Blood Rune.

While this is true, and that it can throw off your rotation by making you use something other than your normal IT, PS, DS, HS, HS, DC, DS, HS, HS, DS, DC (RS when up) rotation. The question is this: What do you really give up for that Blood Rune?

Misconceptions and Misgivings About Rune Tap
Death Knights have had an odd history with healing and threat, some abilities have given 0 threat for the healing they do (Blood Worms) and some have changed (Rune Tap). In the case of RT, initially it gave no threat on use. It has been changed however over the patch history of WoTLK. We have thankfully a lot of work done by various theorycrafters which has led us to the understanding of RT’s threat formula (as well as HS’s). For specific formulas and numbers we’ll be using Tankspot – DK Threat Values as a guide. For now though, it’s important to note that a lot of theorycraft that came out for DK tanks was abandoned. There have been a lot of DK blogs started that died a month after release. Even the guy who made the Tankspot sheet is apparently no longer playing. However, the information is pretty current (despite a few minor issues with editing his changelog). Other than that, the info appears to be spot on.

Unfortunately, most people who argue are not using current numbers. Or even close to it, they’re running on the misconceptions formed in the early part of the expansion. Things have however changed drastically since release, Unholy doesn’t tank anymore (much anyway) and Blood actually DOES tank! And quite well I might add. Some people however, will never listen unless it’s posted on a blog somewhere… hence the reason for this post. So, to the meat of the myth dispelling campaign:

RUNE TAP DOES GENERATE THREAT!

Once upon a time, it didn’t then again once upon a time someone thought Kajagoogoo was a good name for a band, mistakes were made. I’ve met several people who are still working under the assumption that RT is bad, simply because it doesn’t generate threat. First, that’s not the primary use of this ability. But, even forgetting the fact that this isn’t meant to be a threat dump… your premise is still lacking, because RT actually DOES generate threat. Granted, it’s got a modifier to reduce the threat it generates, like all healing abilities this is baked in. This is why healers aren’t taking aggro contantly in raids, that and the fact that a lot of healing classes have threat reducing talents at their disposal.

I’ve argued in the past that RT does comparable threat to HS, and gives a heal when used properly. Now, I’m going to put my abacus where my mouth is!

Time for Maths!
+ Heart Strike is very simple in it’s threat formula. The threat generated is based on the damage of the HS modified by presence.
+ Rune Tap on the other hand, being a heal, has a more complex formula used to determine it’s threat.
(healing × 0.5 + 55, split between all mobs modified by presence.)
+ Frost Presence modifies each of these by × 2.0735

Now, there are several determining factors involved. First, we’ll assume I’m fighting a boss with no adds. That means no muddying of the waters for either ability. In a 25 man raid, we’ll round down and say I have 53K HP fully buffed. This gives me a Rune Tap of 10600 (without Vampiric Blood or similar effects active).

We’ll start by figuring out just how much threat a well used Rune Tap will generate on the boss:
10600 x 0.5 +55, divided by 1 (assuming you’re just tanking the boss, which is usually the case for me.) which equals 5355, add the Frost Presence modifier and we get:
5355 x 2.0735 = 11103.5925 Threat

And now for Heart Strike
The problem here is which median to use, crit or hit? Likewise, HS is affected by a number of procs. So, I’ve decided instead to find the amount of HS damage needed to equal the threat of RT.

To reach this number we’re going to have to work backwards, but since the formula for HS is so simple this shouldn’t be a problem.

11103.5925 / 2.0735 = 5150 damage

So, in order to equal the amount of threat produced by an RT with raid buffs, I will need to do at least 5150 damage with HS. That’s a decent HS hit honestly, I can hit harder. I’ve had 7K HS crits of course, but 5K and change is probably an average (I’d have to look at Recount to be sure). But to me, that appears comparable. Obviously, RT isn’t a clear winner in terms of threat, but it probably shouldn’t be either. And I don’t think anyone’s ever proposed that it is.

The Point?
Clearly RT does a significant amount of threat when used, fully talented it’s on a 30 second cooldown. So at best, it’s not going to mess your rotation up too much. If you can fit Vampiric Blood into your rotation, surely you can fit RT too. And what’s more, this is a potion you don’t have to restock between raids … a healing pot you can use multiple times in a single fight. And more importantly, it scales incredibly well with gear. In short, it’s an ability with a great deal of potential. Of course, if it sits on your bar and you never have occasion to use it, then by all means… respec, and please give me the name of your healers. I’d love to know how they never get silenced, never get out of range, etc. Cause I want to party with those guys!

Rune Tap is a tool, a defensive tool. I’ve always found that the best use of this ability is in those situations where a healer is for one reason or another unable to heal, and there’s a gap where the other healers are trying to pick up the slack. A nearly 11K heal can very well be the difference between a live tank, and a wiped raid in these types of situations. With Icecrown approaching and Blizzard’s cock block approach to progression, tanks will need to consider their survival techniques, since a single death could mean one less attempt for the week.

Post Script
As noted by reader Chris, there are a wide variety of variables not taken into account in this comparison. The primary person of this post is to make a baseline comparison between the median threat of these two abilities. Most notably though, Overheals do NOT count toward your threat. This makes the use of Rune Tap absolutely critical for effective use. If you heal yourself for 0 with it, you really have effectively wasted your Blood Rune for that cycle.

My overall point is that RT is an invaluable tool when used WISELY, it is most certainly NOT a waste of talent points or a Rune.