It's been a long time since I've faced up against a DT mob, what are all of the DT mechanics and mobs that do them? And, what all classes have ways to avoid/survive it?
Unless there is a built-in avoidance mechanic (something that can be quickly cured off, some item clicked, or moving to some location) nothing you can do about a DT. Know the mob, know the raid, try to make it so next DT is eaten by someone not critical, have backups for those who ARE critical, and have rezzers/buffers ready to pick people back up.
some old DTs (like in sky) are survivable as they are only ~50k damage. But otherwise, DTS are a raid mechanic to kill players. They are not meant to be survivable.
From what I remember it's traditional to feed a Ranger to the DT gods and get on with your raid. This has the added advantage of working for all classes (...except Rangers, heh heh)
Sometimes Divine Aura or Harm Shield type spells can keep you alive through a death touch. Other times they seem scripted to punch through those effects. Keeping aggro while DA'd is a separate problem - but that mechanic can be useful if you have a DA'd paladin charge the mob first to absorb the first death touch.
most new DT mechanics are curable or avoidable in some way, i know the DT in Damsel of Decay TBM raid was curable, if you didnt cure it you would die instantly and the raid would get a add. i dont think any modern DTs are like the old school DTs
You can in fact use divine aura to protect from the Lady of Life's deathtouch, as well as most DT in the game even on older events. In fact we had a notable amount of players on dial-up for the Demi-Plane of Blood back in the day (not to mention players that were less-than-stellar at kiting) so for Hatchet (and later Breakneck) we designated a corner to run to and I'd plop a bard DA on the person emoted, the boss slamming into the corner and AEing away from the raid. Some DT goes through DA, but I always find it interesting when there are multiple ways to approach an event.
Classic Cazic Touch (spell ID 982) is hardcoded to ignore invul. There is also various flags you can use to enable spells to ignore invul.
An old tank trick: if the death touch is timed or you have some kind of warning that it is about to go off, you can use unflinching on the mob and then harmshield(or any invul). then you will have aggro and survive the DT. Invul + unflinching should be in every decent tanks repertoire when it comes to single target tanking. Simply click off invul when unflinching is about to fade. (note: nothing looks cooler than a tank sitting down with their back to the named mob that is swinging on them!)
Another strategy if the DT's are able to be predicted and are not purely random, is to have an SK MT, and fd before the dt each time (having a 'sacrifice player' setup to be second on aggro (have them taunt aggro after each rez)
Oh I wasn't disputing that. It's just still usually a useful spell to block most DT, so it's worth exploring as an option depending on the fight and for what reason (such as snared DPSers on Lady of Life after that coffin is destroyed).
I suppose I could just go test what I'm about to ask as I haven't used that tactic in a good while but: unflinching + invuln tactic is only good if nobody else engages, correct? Or no?
invul + unflinching works fine with the entire raid going full bore dpsing, you can hold aggro over everyone else unless they use an aggro steal ability.
I tried using Harmshield on my 72 necro to eat a DT from Dread last night. He had around 21k hps with buffs, and took 92k damage (killing him obviously). I have been told the upgraded DTs in Fear are now 200k, so I am guessing the Harmshield has a cap on it, but does absorb some damage.
