PvP as a Blood DK

Well, for the last few weeks I've been taking part in rated battlegrounds with my new guild - and having a great time. My rating is now 1601...and still going up! :)
Generally I'm loving the new guild and now awaiting only two votes before I become an official member. You can find my 'tldr' application here.


My role as a Frost DK has always been to be part of the attack group. My DPS is high and I have some valuable CC in the form of Hungering Cold, Strangulate, Mind Freeze and the very useful ability to stack on enemy flag carriers...Necrotic Strike.


I've also been target caller, mostly because the best target caller is a melee class and I'm one of those people with a clear/loud voice that can be understood pretty clearly. However, I have little RBG experience and this has shown in my target calling - I know pretty much who I would like to see dead first, and who I'd like to see CC'd but there are certain situations and compositions of teams that I've not yet come across and they require the calling of different targets.


The worst of it is, that people keep telling me I'm doing a good job, but I'm lacking so much confidence I'm constantly wondering to myself if I have called the correct target, especially when I see team members attacking a target different to who I've called out. But, I've recently found an addon (thanks to a guildie who discovered the addon first) that I plan on using from now on. It is called Battleground Targets and can be downloaded through Curse. It lists the enemy team and each person's class and role and can be used to target that person. It shows how their health is looking, but perhaps the most important tool for me as a target caller - it shows how many people have a particular player as target.


However, as much as I have been enjoying calling targets, I know there are much more experienced players in the team who would most likely do a better job, but are not suited to the job because of perhaps having a poor microphone, or they play as a ranged damage dealer or healer. I only hope that the team are willing to allow me to learn with them and appreciate that sometimes, it is easy to make a mistake - especially if it is been a long day or things are going on in real life which means the RBG does not have as much of my attention as it should. (There has been some trauma in my personal life recently, that's not appropriate to go into here - but it is my excuse for sometimes failing recently...and I'm sticking to it :P )


However, the team is consistently short of flag carriers - I assume this is a pretty widespread problem as most places are short of tanks for PvE too. At the moment, I know that Blood DK's are the most favoured Flag Carrier, because of their ability to stay alive. I've had in my head, the idea of taking blood as my off spec and so being able to step in as a FC if one is required. (I think that being able to be flexible in which spec I play will give me a better chance of joining the team as a full member.)


So, I finally got round to it. I started farming honor to replace gear so I could gem and enchant for Stamina and Resilience rather than Strength, and I've finally got my Jewel Crafting up to 525 in order to take full advantage of jewelcrafter's gems...101 stamina is luverly! ;)


So I started to scour the internet for a good Blood PVP guide and came up pretty much empty handed. There are excellent guides on places such as Arena Junkies but they only cover Frost and Unholy, and like other places don't mention Blood - or if they do, it's in passing. So I've found that I have had to look at PvE Tanking guides for some tips - so my plan is this...Over the next few weeks/months as I get more experience and play time with my Blood DK in PvP I am going to start compiling a Blood Guide. It's only going to be my opinion, so unlikely to be amazing or ground breaking ideas but it'll give me a chance to collate some research regarding various ideas I have, and see if they work, and see if other players agree.


As I started to play Blood in normal Battlegrounds, I found I was trying to play like Frost - but half way through my fourth Twin Peaks, something clicked into place. I'd already learnt my rotation and some tricks such as using Vampiric Blood just before sacrificing pet with Death Pact, to get a boost to the healing it does, or using Icebound Fortitude when I reach about 40% health or I know I'm about to take a massive blast of damage for example, but I realised I was trying to be too offensive, I was trying to kill the other player like I would in Frost and then I realised. It's not about me killing them...it's about them being unable to kill me.


After that, it clicked into place, single handedly taking on a warrior, paladin and warlock and slowly but surely getting each one of them down and emerging victorious with still half health felt amazing. Yes, I know that they were probably pretty badly geared, and there is no way I'd survive that in an RBG on my own against very well geared players...but the point is, if I'd have been Frost and fighting them - I wouldn't have survived.


So, I'm excited about playing as Blood - part of me wants to get stuck in right away, part of me knows I'll be extremely nervous when the time does come...and what if I die really easily? What if I let down the team, which in turn leads to us losing, and the team losing rating? It's nice to know that whatever character and whatever class or role I play...my insecurities are here to stay.


Afterall, "Each one of us requires the spur of insecurity to force us to do our best."


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