Blood Death Knight Shadowlands Tank Guide

Welcome to our complete World of Warcraft Shadowlands Blood Death Knight guide. Here and on the related pages, you’ll find all the necessary information about how to be a good DK and increase your survivability for as much as possible to help your party or raid kill anything on its path. Since here we’re going to talk about Blood spec DK, this is mostly a PVE guide, but the spec still has its niche in PVP, so we’re going to discuss that as well.

Keep in mind that this Blood DK Tank guide is subject to change as new changes are released with new updates. Don't forget to check out this page when a new expansion is available.

WoW Blood Death Knight Pros & Cons

Like any other class in the game, Blood Death Knight has its pros and cons. See what they are exactly in the table below:

If you want to conquer Shadowlands’ PVE content as a Blood Death Knight tank, you should carefully consider all the above-mentioned strengths and weaknesses. And thus understand what makes Blood Death Knight gameplay in Shadowlands truly unique.

Blood Death Knight Patch 9.1 Changes

With the last two updates, there weren't too many chances for the class. They did have some impact though, so pay some attention to them to better understand how to play your Blood DK.

Patch 9.1 Changes

Shadowland 9.1 changes for Blood Death Knight are pretty minor. Aside from the reworking of the Anti-Magic Zone, the main change here is that the class received a 6% spec aura buff, which means that every ability, that is the subject of this aura is going to hit 6% harder. This, of course, does not affect trinkets, your auto-attacks, and pets.

Overall, it’s just a slight DPS buff, that surely makes Blood DK better in PVP, but for PVE these changes were not terribly important. Not much changes for your WoW Blood DK Build here.

Patch 9.1.5 Changes

In the 9.1.5 update, all the Death Knight specs received much more changes. Here we will mention only those, which affect Blood DK:

• Abomination Limb (Necrolord spell) now deals reduced damage beyond 5 targets;
• Following AoE-spells now deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets: Sacrificial Pact, Consumption, Reanimated Shambler (Legendary power);
• Shackle the Unworthy (Kyrian spell) now deals 10% less damage but has a 100% chance to spread among nearby enemies upon activation;
• Abomination’s Frenzy (Necrolord Legendary power) now applies 10% damage increase to all targets affected by Abomination Limb;
• Withering Ground (Night Fae Conduit) effect now increased by 50%;
• Impenetrable Gloom (Venthyr Conduit) damage effect now increased by 50%;
• Death Coil damage increased by 30% in PVP;
• Consumption damage increased by 60%;
• Debilitating Malady effect increased by 600%.

As you see, Blood Death Knight received a significant buff in Shadowlands 9.1.5, and become even more valuable in raids and Mythic dungeons. So the current patch is a pretty good time to play this class.

Blood Death Knight Essentials

Blood Death Knight specialization is one of the six tanks available in World of Warcraft. Unlike others in this role, Blood DK depends on his self-healing capabilities and a wide array of supporting cooldowns.

With that being said, it is obvious that Blood Death Knight is quite different from other tank specialization in the game. The main difference here is that this class is all about self-healing, with less defensive capabilities and a significantly low stamina modifier, but with tons of utility and excellent multi-target threat preservation. Let us quickly review the main things to remember about Blood Death Knight gameplay.

Crowd Control

The ability to stack and control multiply targets is essential for any tank in the game. And there is no other class or spec that does it better than Blood Death Knight. You’ll have all the necessary abilities for that. Namely:

• Bonestorm: very good AoE threat generation and a small but very helpful portion of healing;
• Abomination Limb: this covenant ability not only spread threat among multiply targets but also will drag enemies towards you if they try to run off;
• Death and Decay: this is a fundamental ability for your crowd control, mostly because it makes you Heart Strike damage additional targets;
• Blood Boil: spreads life-draining DoT across multiply targets.

The main thing to remember while tanking a crowd of enemies is your defensive cooldowns timing. Blood Death Knight is not as tough as other tanks, so you should always understand when your healer won’t be able to keep you alive anymore.

Conduit Review

Conduits are unique items, that increase your Soulbind customization options. All Conduits are specific for class and role and there are three Blood Death Knight-specific Conduits:

• Debilitating Malady;
• Withering Plague;
• Adaptive Armor Fragment.

All of them provide a minor increase for your DPS, but are still worth some of your attention. There are many others, which we discussed in a separate guide. Some choices would be more valuable in raids, others in Mythic+ Dungeons, or PVP. You can see more about it in the detailed Blood Death Knight Gameplay Guide.

Core Abilities

When speaking about Blood Death Knight core abilities it’s impossible not to mention the resource system related to this class. The resource system is unique for almost every class in the game and is an essential thing, around which will revolve your play style. Here it is:

1. Runes: this is your most linear resource and you can have a maximum of 6 of them, with 3 recharging at the same time. The speed they recharging with depends on your Haste. Spending each Rune gives you 10 Runic Power unless described otherwise.
2. Runic Power: this resource is strongly resembling the Warrior’s Rage. You can get it either by spending Runes or with effects like Relish in Blood. Runic Power is needed to be spent by using special Blood DK abilities like, in the case of Blood Death Knight, Death Strike.

So, as you already may guess, the Blood DK gameplay revolves around Rune-RP management. You should always keep your 3 Runes recharging and keep your Runic Power Spending under strict control. It is actually not that hard since both offense and defense are carried out using your Death Strike.

As a tank, you’ll have special spells, that are used to engage targets. Blood Death Knight has two: Dark Command and Death Grip. These are regular taunt-spells, very similar to those of other classes, save that your Death Grip will also drag the target towards you (if the target can be dragged).

Blood Boil is used to spread your life-draining disease – Blood Plague. This, along with Death and Decay, helps you to maintain multi-target aggro, which is one of the strengths of Blood DK.

Your main direct damage abilities are already mentioned Death Strike and Heart Strike, which, when used within the Dead and Decay area of effect, will cleave 5 additional targets. These are also your main Runic Power spenders.

Your Bone Shield is your main defensive buff, which will save you from a huge chunk of incoming damage. You can generate Bone Shield stacks using Marrowrend. You should keep it active no matter what.

If you want more detailed information, regarding Blood Death Knight’s abilities, conduits, rotation, and priorities, please, visit our Blood Death Knight Gameplay Guide.

Covenant Features

Keep in mind that your Covenant choices would have a significant impact on how well you perform in raids and Mythic+ dungeons. This is as important as your talents and will impact your play style and even equipment choice at some points.

There’s really a lot to say about Covenants, so in short, just remember this:

• PVP: here optimal Covenant for Blood Death Knight would be Kyrian;
• PVE: your choice for PVE will probably be Venthyr.

Of course, there are variants, which may depend on your play style, personal preferences or equipment. See more about this in our Blood Death Knight Shadowlands Covenant Guide. There you’ll also find detailed information about Legendary (including BiS Blood DK Legendary) and Covenants changes, available for the spec.

Blood Death Knight Leveling in Detail

The leveling process for all the classes in the game suffered huge changes in Shadowlands. Still, being one of two hero classes in the game, Death Knights has a minor advantage over other classes: instead of starting at level 1, DK starts its leveling process at level 8 (and at level 10 if you pick one of the Allied Races).

With that being said, you will spend very limited time without choosing spec. Some players would prefer other Death Knight specs as their leveling build, but Blood DK will offer you far more survivability and an excellent opportunity to earn tons of experience in dungeons since it’s much easier to find a party for tank players.

The main thing to keep in mind regarding your Blood DK leveling gear is that you should always choose depending on item level (with the only exception for trinkets if it has 2 secondary stats instead of one). See more in our Blood DK Leveling Guide.

Leveling talents

The talents choice is essential for how fast you level up your character. Below you’ll find the most optimal leveling talents loadout for Blood Death Knight in Shadowlands:

• Level 15: Heartbreaker;
• Level 25: Hemostasis;
• Level 30: Relish in Blood;
• Level 35: Will of the Necropolis;
• Level 40: Wraith Walk;
• Level 45: Bloodworms;
• Level 50: Purgatory.

Frankly speaking, you can chose whatever you want during your leveling for this won't be your final WoW Death Knoght Blood build. If you want to study Blood DK talents in more detail check out our Blood Death Knight Talents Guide.

Blood Death Knight Tanking Tips

The art of Blood Death Knight tanking in Shadowlands is a complicated one. There’s a lot to keep in mind, so below we list some of the most important things, every Blood DK should know:

• You should always have 3 Runes recharging. Every second you don’t have a Rune recharging you wasted Runic Power, which means less damage, and therefore less self-healing.
• When using Bone Shield keep in mind, that your goal is not to have as many stacks as possible, it is to waste as few as possible. It means that you should never use Marrowrend when at 8-9 Bone Shield stacks, or keep 5+ stacks to use your Death Strike with the Ossuary passive skill.
• When using Dancing Rune Weapon note that your spells will have different effects: Hearth Strike will generate 5 additional RP and Marrowrend will grant 3 bonus Bone Shield stacks.
• Remember that you don’t have to be as tanky as possible. Your defense mostly comes from your personal skill in careful cooldowns arrangement and resource management.
• You also shouldn’t underestimate the importance of your DPS in PVE encounters. It may be that last bit that your raid lacks to kill the boss before it wipes you all. In Shadowlands damage dealers can easily rip the threat off you even if you had seemingly enough time to establish the aggro, so your own damage is important.

Check our others Blood DK Tanking Guides with helpful tips and advices on the related pages.

Blood Death Knight Shadowlands Gearing and Stats

Proper gearing your Blood Death Knight as any other class in the game requires a good understanding of how your spec works and what stats are more preferable to others.

When considering Blood DK BiS choices, remember that your primary stat would be Strength, which would increase your armor and attack power. As you might guess, armor is exactly what you looking for to survive all the incoming damage you’re going to face while tanking in raids and Mythic+ dungeons.

Secondary stats priority for Blood Death Knight is somewhat complicated. Let us explain it a little more thoroughly:

• Critical Strike: This stat is very strong in terms of damage but also has an almost perfect conversion to parry (about 1:1). This is very good for tanking, but very much depends on how many enemies hitting you, can you parry their attacks or not, and how much direct damage each parry-able attack does. Considering all this the stat kind of keeps the middle ground between being total garbage and being the most important characteristic for the class (even more so in Mythic+ dungeons);
• Haste: this is a purely tank-related stat which increases the speed of your Rune-generation per percent of the stat using your Bone Shield and, most importantly, it increases your reaction time and thus your self-healing potential since it depends only on your Death Strike timing;
• Mastery: another really important stat. Mastery: Blood Shield provides you with much-needed additional protection and slightly increases your damage output.
• Versatility: this stat is what you going to look for. It not only reduces incoming damage but also improves your self-healing and DPS. Keep in mind though that amount of Versatility per percent is the highest among all secondary stats.

There is a lot more to cover regarding Blood DK equipment. If you want to know more check out our Blood Death Knight Gearing Guide. There you’ll also find Blood DK BiS gear table and tips about the best Blood DK weapon in the current update.

Blood Death Knight End-Game

Fighting through the end-game content as a Blood Death Knight may not be easy, but certainly will be interesting. Your character will be as tough as any other tank in the game, while capable of dealing significant damage and providing excellent utility options for your allies. All the cooldowns and self-healing even allow you to survive low-difficulty encounters without any attention from the healer.

Playing this class, you’ll be able to kite as many enemies as you want and gradually wither them down with a range of powerful abilities. This utility’s extra important in modern raids and Mythic dungeons. The same applies to PVP as well. Blood DK can survive insane amounts of damage from other players. This makes him useful in battlegrounds since he can effectively defend points or carry the flag. Many players even find enjoyment in playing Blood DK in arenas, absorbing tons of burst damage and delivering more than decent damage in return. It's save to say that Blood DK PVP BFA is almost as strong as it was in the Legion update.

All this place Blood Death Knight among the best and most popular tanks in Shadowlands.

How to Be a Better Death Knight?

The answer here is as simple as you can imagine. You simply should train yourself. Master all the mechanics and memorize all possible variations in spellcasting sequence that may be needed in various combat situations. If it sounds difficult for you, it’s because it is.

Here are a few things, that may help you with that:

• Keep track of your allies’ HP. If your healer is having a hard time dealing with the incoming damage, it’ll be wise to start using your cooldowns, to let him save some mana and global cooldowns and thus help your party survive;
• Don’t forget about the Diminishing Returns when gearing. While your main stat is always Strength, your secondary stats priority will depend on how many Versatility, Hast, Crit Chance, or Mastery you already have. See more about that in our Blood Death Knight Gearing Guide;
• Feel free to check the equipment and performance of top-tier Blood Death Knight. You can easily find their combat logs, and it certainly will be helpful to thoroughly examine them.

Shadowlands Blood Death Knight changes?

If you are completely new to the game or had some experience playing Blood Death Knight in one of the previous big expansions, it would be good to know what changes this class received with the release of the actual update. There are many changes, that were added with Shadowlands 9.0, some of which are not present today, so we’ll list just the most important of them:

• Sacrificial Pact: this new ability is available at level 54 and allows you to sacrifice your ghoul to deal some AoE-damage and heal you for 25% of your max HP;
• Ossuary: this new ability is available at level 58 and reduces the cost of your Death Strike while you have at least 5 Bone Shield stacks;
• New PVP Talent: Rot and Wither, which makes your Death and Decay apply a powerful debuff on your enemies;
• Dark Command now available at level 9 instead of level 14;
• Anti-Magic Shell now available at level 14 instead of level 9;
• Death Coil, Death and Decay, Raise Dead, Chains of Ice, Lichborne, and Anti-Magic Zone abilities now available for any Death Knight regardless of the spec;
• New Runes for Runeforging: Rune of Sanguination, Rune of Spellwarding, Rune of Hysteria, Rune of Unending Thirst, and Rune of the Apocalypse.

This WoW Blood DK Guide will help you to figure out all the actual mechanics of the class and make your performance significantly better. Don't forget to check all the related pages.

Some Facts about Blood DK

• Blood specialization wasn’t always a tank spec. When the class was first released in the Wrath of the Ling King update, all three Death Knight’s specs were capable of tanking or DPS. In Shadowlands DK specs became more specialized;
• This was the first class in Shadowlands available for every race since the release;
• Blood Death Knight is the only tank that does not use shields. Feral Druid doesn’t count, since it uses Bear Form.

Why Blood Death Knight Are Special?

Well that's a good question. Sure, this kind of powerful and terrifying Blood Knight, available in WoW, is an excellent choice in terms of roleplaying. But why it is special, when we consider gameplay mechanics? It is special because of the way it carries out its tanking. There are no other tanks that rely so strongly on self-healing capabilities. Also, Strength and all the secondary stats not only increase your survivability but affect your damage output as well. Blood Death Knight is considered to be among the top tanks DPS in the game, so currently there are many top Blood DKs in the game.

Also, as we already said above, Blood DK has a relatively low stamina modifier and he's somewhat lacking in terms of armor, which makes proper cooldowns timing extremely important. That doesn’t mean that Blood DK’s tanking is inferior to those of other classes, it’s just that your gameplay style is going to be completely different.

Most Recent Transmogs for Blood Death Knight

The Timewalking event is going back to World of Warcraft and there are new beautiful transmog options for every class in the game. For Blood Death Knight it is the Gravewarden Armaments. This is Legion-themed appearance will definitely make your character stands out among other Death Knights.

FAQ                                                                                                                             

Q: Is Blood Death Knight worth playing in Shadowlands?

A: Yes, it is. Being one of the most popular tank specs in the game, it can offer excellent survivability and great utility options to any raid or party. Its unique play style is also quite enjoyable.

Q: What is the best Blood DK race?

A: When choosing best race for Blood DK, you should understand that this does not changes your gameplay completely. Mostly it's just a choice of between appearances and lore. Bot in practical terms, for Horde players, we’d recommend Blood Elf with their very helpful Arcane Torrent. Alliance players would be better off with Night Elf or Dwarf. The first will get you a good way to get yourself out of combat and the second provide a decent defensive cooldown.

Q: Is Blood Death Knight worth playing in Shadowlands?

A: Yes, it is. Being one of the most popular tank specs in the game, it can offer excellent survivability and great utility options to any raid or party. Its unique play style is also quite enjoyable.

Q: What are the DPS capabilities of Blood DK in Shadowlands?

A: Well, no. Or yes, if we speaking about PVP, but even there your damage will be far more limited in comparison with dedicated damage dealers. Still, your DPS will be decent for a tank. But there are many Blood Knights in Wow, playing purely for the good DPS\tanking balance.

Q: Which Legendary would the best choice for Blood Death Knight?

A: It depends, but most players of the class choose Crimson Rune Weapon for more toughness and Superstrain for more DPS.

We sincerely hope that you liked our WoW Blood Death Knight Guide. Please contact us if you think that this guide lacking something important!