Threat IssueFollow

Now I know that as DPS it is my responsibility to keep an eye on my threat and back down for a bit when I start to reach the tank but I seem to be sitting out close to half of every fight in instances to keep from pulling from the tank. Playing a DW Frost DK btw. Just wanting to know if anyone else is having this problem or if its just me whining for no reason.

Yeah.

You aren't in blood prescence, are you?

I haven't had threat issues unless I unload on packs right away with howling blast.

It sounds like you aren't attacking what you should be or the tank is having AOE threat issues.

Unlike Unholy, Frost AOE has no ramp-up time on their threat curve. Howling dumps damage (and so often crits) immediately, which brings a ton of threat with it whereas Unholy takes a few GCDs to really get rolling. Currently, tank AOE snap threat isn't what it used to be (comparatively) so even well-geared ones can't handle immediate threat explosions.

For pugs or tanks whom I don't know, I've started to IT/PS/Pest the primary target, even as frost, in order to give the tank time to build up tertiary threat on the non-focus mobs. Once the tank has build up a good rotation of AOE threat I can start Howling, if appropriate.

If the issues persist try IT/PS/Pest starters in Unholy presence. Last resort is to down-grade your weapons to ones with lower median damage (thus reducing the coefficient AP values). While fairly drastic, it can help you get through a pug where topping the meter is less important than smoothly completing the instance (badgers - stress > dps).

Good luck!

I have been having issues with a lot of tanks just not generating good threat. Guild tanks, I can blow cooldowns and not pull off of. Pugs, I've pulled off of white attacking. I know it's a tank issue too because I run omen and watch their tps.

When I personally tank I can pull between 30k and 40k tps (depending on trix etc.). As dps I pull 11-15k. More than half of the tanks I come across sit at about 20k tps, and they're fine I never pull off them. Other tanks dip as low as 5-6k tps, and doing nothing but white attacking for me pulls 7k, so I'll get aggro (I'm talking single target here, not multi-target).

Threat is an issue for people who got used to tanking being easy. Tanks have to work at a good, solid rotation and threat generation just as hard as I have to work at not to do something stupid and pull aggro.