Blood Death Knight Guide - The War Within 11.0.2

Greetings, fellow servants of the Lich King! Our WoW The War Within Blood Death Knight 11.0.2 guide will provide you with the knowledge you need to succeed in any scenario that the game might throw at you. We will cover Blood Death Knight abilities and talents, equipment and consumables, ways to improve and frequently asked questions, and everything else in between. If you are already familiar with the spec, feel free to skip around to the portion of the guide you are most interested in. However, if you are relatively new to the Blood DK, we suggest you read it through from start to finish. Anyway, let’s dive right in!

 

Blood Death Knight Pros and Cons

Every WoW spec has strengths and weaknesses, and Blood Death Knight is no exception. It is useful to familiarize yourself with them from the get-go so you know what to expect if you decide to re-roll to Blood DK.

Blood Death Knights are truly a force to be reckoned with. Here are their advantages:

• Huge collection of defensive CDs, such as: Anti-Magic Shell, Icebound Fortitude, Lichborne and Vampiric Blood. You’ll have an answer for anything!
• Great utility, most of it unique: various grips (single-target and AoE), a ranged interrupt, 90% slow for mobs, in-combat resurrection, on-demand immunity to magic debuffs.
• Quite easy to learn the basics, but an endless potential for min-maxing.
• Self-healing model based on incoming damage.

Blood DKs also have some downsides. There are not many, but you should be aware of them:

• Mobility is not great, to put it mildly. You are difficult to slow down or incapacitate, but getting from point A to point B quickly will not be easy.
• Very cooldown-dependent. You have a lot of them, but spending them unwisely can make you quite vulnerable.
• Talent builds force you to choose between single-target and AoE damage, you’ll struggle to do both at the same time.

Of course, to measure the full potential of any spec, you need to play it at max level. If you don’t already have a level 80 Blood Death Knight, and the process of leveling from scratch seems quite off-putting, there is a simple and effective solution. Check out our The War Within Leveling service. Our professional players will take your character under their wing, and you’ll have it at level cap in no time! Our prices are fair, and the result is guaranteed. BLOG20

Blood Death Knight Basics

Tanking on the Blood Death Knight is very fun and engaging. Death Strike is your bread and butter when playing this spec. It costs Runic Power which you generate by spending Runes on other abilities like Heart Strike and Marrowrend. It will also heal you for the percentage of damage that you took during the last few seconds. If you’ve wondered how that DK in your group managed to stay alive doing some crazy pulls and didn’t even require any healer attention, this is the spell that does the trick. That’s why it is essential to learn how to use it.

Another layer of defense is your wide array of defensive cooldowns. Each of them is unique and needs to be well-understood to be used properly. Some of them are proactive and some are reactive, and every one of them is an important piece of the puzzle that is tanking on Blood Death Knight.

All-in all, this spec offers a truly unique and rewarding playstyle. You’ll very quickly grasp the gist of it, but becoming a great Blood DK is quite a challenge. Blood Death Knight is an embodiment of the famous Blizzard motto, “easy to learn, hard to master”.

Blood Death Knight Core Abilities

The core of Blood Death Knight starts with its unique dual resource system: Runes and Runic Power. You have a total of six Runes that recharge separately and can be used on your basic attacks. Spending them grants you Runic Power that you use on your most powerful spells. Mastering these resources is what separates good Blood DKs from great ones. Here is a list of the most iconic Blood Death Knight spells and abilities:

• Death Strike – Strike an enemy and heal yourself based on the damage recently taken. Costs Runic Power.
• Heart Strike – Spend a Rune to deal damage to several targets around you. Generates bonus Runic Power per target hit.
• Marrowrend – Spend two Runes to damage an enemy and generate 2-3 Bone Shield charges which have defensive and offensive value.
• Death and Decay – an AoE spell that you put on the ground. Gains various additional effects based on your talents.
• Vampiric Blood – your primary defensive CD, giving your increased maximum health and increasing healing received. Can be used proactively and reactively and has quite a short cooldown with the right talent build.
• Death Grip – signature DK utility, forces a mob to move to your location. Constantly used in Mythic+ dungeons to reposition casters and archers, and can be invaluable on some raid encounters.
• Death’s Advance – our mobility spell. The speed boost is quite modest, but it also prevents knockbacks which is very useful in the current raid.

Of course, this list is far from complete. Your spellbook will offer many more rotational skills and CDs, and you should take time to read them through and learn when to use them. Target dummies are a great way to practice, but sooner or later you should dip your toes into serious content. Mythic+ dungeons are great in that regard, as they are both a good source of gear and a form of content that allows your kit to truly shine.

However, running Mythic+ dungeons with PUGs can be quite a stressful and sometimes outright negative experience, especially for a tank that’s trying to gear up and earn some M+ score. Fortunately, we have a solution for this exact problem. You can order our Mythic Carry services and be joined by a team of our pro players who will clear any and all The War Within dungeons for you. The gear and the score that you’ll get will be of great help in your adventures.

 

Blood Death Knight Stat Priority

Before we dive into your talent builds and BiS gear, let's dicusss Blood Death Knight stats. Your primary stat is Strength, and you should aim to get as much of it as possible. The secondary stats are also very useful for you, each in their own way. Critical Strike increases your damage output and the chance to parry enemy attacks. Haste accelerates your GCD and provides more resources by increasing your rune recharge rate. Mastery grants you attack power and causes your Death Strike to grant you an absorb shield for physical attacks. Versatility reduces the incoming damage and increases the damage you do, all of which are very useful for a tank.

The secondary stats are quite close in value, so you should simply try to get equipment with the most item level. However, if you are choosing between pieces that are relatively close in ilvl, this is the priority list that can guide you

1. Strength;
2. Haste/ Critical Strike / Mastery;
3. Versatility.

This list is just a general guide that is useful when you are starting out. When you are more experienced, the best way to find out whether a certain item is an upgrade is to sim your character. This is because the relative value of the stats might change when you gear up. However, in 99% of cases, following the rule “item level above all” and sometimes checking with the stat priority above will be more than enough.

 

Best PvE Blood Death Knight Builds

As you know, The War Within introduced a new and improved talent system that allows players to create multiple builds and customize their characters as they see fit. Most of the time, this system really provides a lot of flexibility for various encounters and opens room for experimentation, just as the developers intended.

After reading the section below (and hopefully saving all these builds in your talent templates), your character will be truly ready for any scenario that WoW might throw at you. Of course, having the right build does not automatically mean success. As a Blood Death Knight, you may be a one-man-army, but in a world of long raid queues, spontaneous key leavers and overall frustrating PUG experience, you often can’t do all that much by yourself. If you wish to speed things up, you can Buy The War Within Boost from our extensive list of services. There’s certainly something there that will suit your needs!

Blood Death Knight Single-Target Raid Build

This build aims to give you the best single-target DPS possible while maintaining great survivability. Note that it forgoes some AoE enhancements and general utility that are useful in Mythic+ but rarely come into play in raid encounters.

To export this build into your talents to the game, copy and paste the text below:

• BoPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACJhQSicgISERiIhgkkEJAAAAAQikkDEk0EiEAAQkkkkAAAAA

Blood Death Knight Mythic+ Build

This build is not that much different from the raiding one above. However, it opts into a little more AoE potential and, more importantly, several pieces of utility in the form of crowd control. It could be invaluable for disrupting dangerous caster mobs (and there are a lot of them in The War Within dungeons). Some points are flexible, but this is the default set-up that will do for 99% of dungeons:

You can copy the string below to import this build into your character template in game:

• BoPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACJJCJJi0iEBJiECSSSkAAAAAAJSSOQEJNhIBAAESSSAAAAA

Best Blood Death Knight PvP Build

If you are interested in Arena battles or the famous Solo Shuffle, you should honestly look into other Death Knight specs. However, if you still wish to have some fun in Battlegrounds on your Blood DK, who are we to stop you? And who knows, maybe there will be a patch where Blood Death Knights will suddenly become the kings of Arena (as it sometimes happened in the past).

Your utmost priority as a Blood Death Knight in PvP is to maintain high melee uptime. Fortunately, you have plenty of tools to achieve that. Use your Asphyxiate, Chains of Ice and Death Grip liberally, and don’t forget that your speed boost, Death's Advance, lets you ignore all pushback effects! Abomination Limb is also quite invaluable for repositioning enemy players and can be used to great effect even against a single target

Besides disrupting enemy movement and crowd controlling, you can add quite a bit of rot damage to your party. The main tool for that is the PvP talent Death Chain that duplicates 20% of any damage that one of the chained targets takes for the duration of the spell. Your taunt, Dark Command, becomes a great DPS boost against a single enemy that will help your party members secure a kill.

The talent builds are quite similar to those used in PvE. The only difference is the Blood Draw talent becomes quite useful in PvP. Of course, there are also PvP talents to consider. We suggest you take the following three for most of the time for maximum burst damage:

• Death Chain
• Blood for Blood
• Murderous Intent in BGs; Strangulate in arena

Blood Death Knight Best in Slot Gear

With the plethora of gearing sources in The War Within, from raids and Mythic+ tp the Crafting Order system, the concept of BiS gear became somewhat redundant. However, chasing after a list of certain items can be quite fun and is actually the primary drive to participate in WoW content for many players.

You should also remember that the power of a given item is dependent both on the type of content you are doing, such as PvP or PvE, and on the other pieces that you have equipped. We strongly recommend that you sim your character to find out the exact value of any gear for your Blood Death Knight.

In general, you should strive to get items with the most item level, as they will provide you with the most amount of your highest-value stat, Strength. Only then should you look into the stat priority that we discussed earlier.

Amirdrassil, the Dream's Hope Best in Slot Gear for Blood Death Knight

We must include a disclaimer that raiding in The War Within is certainly not the most efficient way of gearing your character. If your goal is to get the gear fast, you should look into alternatives such as crafting or Mythic+. That being said, if raiding is your cup of tea, here's the list of what you should be aiming to collect:

While completing the above list is going to make your character very powerful, chasing it obsessively may not be the best idea. It is tempting to strive for “mathematically best” options, but there are alternatives for many of the equipment listed that are much easier to obtain and provide almost identical benefits.

Moreover, developers frequently make changes to the game and introduce new gearing options. Any minor patch can throw a wrench in the gear theory crafting, which prompts players to constantly update these BiS lists.

And do not forget that proper rotation execution, extensive knowledge of the encounters and effective communication and coordination with your fellow players will net you much more DPS and tankiness than any item on this list!

Mythic+ Best in Slot Gear for Blood Death Knight

The Mythic+ system is a very efficient source of gear in The War Within. Completing higher-level keys is certainly not an easy task, and tanking these dungeons presents an especially difficult challenge, However, if you succeed, you will be able to equip your Blood DK with some of the best equipment that WoW PvE has to offer.

Again, these items are just an example of what you should be looking for in the end-of-the-run chests and in The Great Vault. You will almost certainly run into some alternatives while completing Mythic+ dungeons or from other sources. Thus, completing this exact set is not a mandatory goal.

The Best Upgrade, Spark of Dreams, and Embellishment Options for Blood Death Knight

Dreaming Crests have been introduced as a replacement for Flightstones, Valor, and other forms of currencies that were previously utilized for upgrading items. One of the significant advantages of using Dreaming Crests is that they enable players to upgrade certain raid gears as well. Prioritize upgrading your lowest-level items to keep them as close to each other as possible in terms of ilvl.

The Spark of Dreams allows you to craft pieces that are on-par with Raiding and Mythic+ gear. Here’s what you should be looking to craft (in this order):

1. Vibrant Wildercloth Shawl with Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch;
2. Primal Molten Vambraces with Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch;
3. Signet of Titanic Insight and put a flavor pocket in it.

Last but not least, you should aim to have two crafted items with Embellishments (as this is the maximum amount of these pieces that you can equip at a time). Here are the two best options:

• Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch.
• Unstable Frostfire Belt.

Of course, gearing your character with all this crafted equipment is quite gold-consuming. Farming it could take you weeks of concentrated effort. However, there is a much faster and more convenient way to get the necessary sum. You can simply Buy WoW Gold using our service, and it will be delivered to your character in a blink of an eye. Our prices are always reasonable, and the result is guaranteed. 

Best Blood Death Knight Enchants and Consumables

Having proper enchantments for your gear is always a great idea. It adds quite a lot of power to your character and also lets other players know that you are knowledgeable and serious about your class. Here is the list of the best enchants available in The War Within:

As for consumables, Phial of Tepid Versatility will be your best choice of phials in almost all situations. The best potion for Blood Death Knights, both in raiding and Mythic+, is Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power. You should also always have enough Refreshing Healing Potion on you in any type of content (or even Potion of Withering Vitality for dire situations).

And do not forget to buff your weapon with Howling Rune and eat some Grand Banquet of the Kalu'ak/Hoard of Draconic Delicacies before every pull (or Deviously Deviled Eggs if you do not like to share).

To optimize your gem slots, we suggest using two-stat gems such as Radiant Malygite, with the exception of one slot where a Fierce Illimited Diamond should be inserted. This combination will offer the best results.

Of course, having the proper enchantments and consumables will not kill bosses for you. And if you did not manage to find a good raid group for a given week, you are in danger of missing out on a whole raid lockout! Fortunately, purchasing our WoW Raid Boost services completely solves this issue. With the help of our team, you’ll get your hands on the best raid items for your character, so you can put all these gear enchants on something good!

Blood Death Knight Rotation Guide

Now we will finally discuss how to play your Blood Death Knight. As with all things, practice makes perfect, so be sure to train your muscle memory on target dummies before engaging in real combat.

Before we dive in, here are some general rules:

• As a tank, dealing DPS is secondary to keeping threat and staying alive. If the situation requires you to sacrifice damage for survivability, do not hesitate.
• The list below includes only the DPS spells. But your defensive CDs are equally important, so use them regularly! We will discuss them a bit later in the article.

Blood Death Knight Opener Rotation

1. Death and Decay
2. Empower Rune Weapon + Raise Dead + Abomination Limb
3. Dancing Rune Weapon
4. Blood Boil
5. Tombstone
6. Heart Strike
7. Death Strike
8. Marrowrend

Blood Death Knight Single-Target Rotation

1. Marrowrend to keep Bone Shield stacks up.
2. Death and Decay if not down.
3. Soul Reaper if the detonation will occur while your target is below 35% HP.
4. Maintain 5+ Bone Shield charges.
5. Dancing Rune Weapon on cooldown.
6. Tombstone (if you will gain more than 20 seconds of cooldown reduction from Tombstone on Dancing Rune Weapon, will consume 5 Bone Shield and are standing in your Death and Decay).
7. Death Strike when you reach 75 Runic Power, or to keep Icy Talons up.
8. Blood Boil to not cap on charges.
9. Heart Strike to consume Runes (aim to have three runes recharging at all times).

Blood Death Knight multi-target rotation is identical to the single-target rotation.

Blood Death Knight Leveling Guide

Leveling as a Blood Death Knight is a great choice, as the spec has great survivability and self-sustain. You can gather entire areas of monsters and AoE them down quite effortlessly. Here is the talent setup for the leveling process:

String for copying:

• BoPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACJJCJJi0iEBJiECSSSkAAAAAAJSSOQEJNhIBAAESSSAAAAA

You may find the following consumables helpful during your journey to level 80:

• Draught of Ten Lands for an experience and stat boost.
• Spectral Flask of Power if you have some spare gold or left-over stock from Shadowlands.
• Shaded Sharpening Stone or  Shaded Weightstone super cheap enchantment for a small damage boost.
• Fried Bonefish for a small speed burst after any kill.

There is no special leveling rotation that is different from the general one. If you’d like to know what spells to use, please see the section above.

Of course, leveling your Blood Death Knight is just the first step in the long WoW journey. Reaching the level cap opens up a whole world of possibilities for your character. If they seem overwhelming and you’d like some help with your newly-leveled toon, check out our World of Warcraft Raid Boosting services. They always have the best market price and are completed by our professional players as fast as humanly possible.

The Best Primordial Stones for Blood Death Knight

You may have heard that patch 10.0.7 has brought a new and unique equipment piece in store for players — Onyx Annulet — along with numerous Primordial Stones for it. The system allows you to combine their unique effects and customize the ring to suit your needs.

Blood Death Knights can improve their raiding performance by inserting the following Primordial Stones into their Onyx Annulet:

• Prophetic Twilight Stone: This stone triggers your damage and healing stones interchangeably, providing a great balance between damage and healing.
• Desirous Blood Stone (2.5ppm): This stone deals damage while simultaneously leeching health. We recommend it because the healing effect is considered healing stone damage.
• Freezing Ice Stone (2.5ppm): This stone inflicts frost damage.

On the other hand, if you're planning to engage in Mythic+ dungeons, we recommend using the following gems instead:

• Prophetic Twilight Stone: Same as above.
• Desirous Blood Stone (2.5ppm): Same as above.
• Storm Infused Stone (2.5ppm): This stone has a chance to hit your target and two others with a powerful burst of damage whenever you land a critical strike.

How to Become a Better Blood Death Knight in The War Within

Now you are well-equipped, properly enchanted, and well-fed, and you even have your opener memorized and trained. In this section, we offer some more advanced tips and tricks for playing your Blood Death Knight:

• Take some time to browse through your Spellbook and Talents and read everything there carefully (even those talents that are not included in our recommended builds). Knowing your spec like the back of your hand is what separates great DKs from just good ones;
• Do not neglect the target dummy training or running low-level keys. Our opener and general resource management are quite complex and require some muscle memory to execute properly;
• Try to find gear upgrades in multiple sources. Do not focus on “BiS lists” or on any single type of content. You can get equipment from almost anything in The War Within, which is very useful for anyone that’s just starting out;
• Research raid strategies and dungeon routes. As a tank, you have unique responsibilities and should be the most prepared and knowledgeable in your party;
• Be a team player! Playing Blood can certainly make you feel quite self-sufficient. However, you are still playing WoW, and you can rarely achieve great results all by yourself in this game. learn to coordinate your crowd control and CDs with your party and raid members, and you will be able to climb heights that are otherwise unreachable;
• Feel free to experiment! We already mentioned that, but it is worth repeating: your talents and abilities are not set in stone! Try different things and see what happens.

Other Articles to Read

We at SkyCoach are working hard to cover all aspects of our favorite games. If you are interested in any other topic related to World of Warcraft, feel free to browse our blog. It has detailed guides and articles on different WoW specs and in-game activities.

Maybe you want to learn more about the Zskera Vaults to farm the Primordial Stones that we talked about earlier? Or perhaps you’d like to switch gears and learn about some new specialization like Retribution Paladin? In any of these cases, we got you covered!

If you are still interested in Blood DK specifically, we suggest our Blood Death Knight Mage Tower Guide. This fun challenge with unique rewards will definitely test all your skill with this tanking spec!

Conclusion

Our Blood Death Knight tank guide was designed as a comprehensive source of information on every aspect of this spec in The War Within. If you previously had any question about Blood DK, hopefully you were able to find the answer here. We are confident that the recommendations in this guide will help you become a better player and have more fun while playing WoW. And remember, these are just advice, not strict commandments. Feel free to experiment with different talents, rotations and gear. This is a game, after all, so we should treat it as such.

F.A.Q.

Are Blood Death Knights good in The War Within?

They are very good! Due to top-tier self-healing and an armada of defensive CDs, Blood DKs are pretty much unkillable in the right hands.

Is Blood Death Knight hard to play in WoW?

Starting out as a Blood DK tank is not very hard, as it is rather intuitive. However, climbing the Mythic+ or raiding ladder can be quite challenging at higher levels. It really takes a skilled player and a determined mindset to master all the intricacies of this spec

What is the best weapon for a Blood Death Knight?

You always want to equip a two-handed weapon with Strength on it. Shields are for weaklings! (Sorry, Warriors and Paladins)

What is the best profession for a Blood Death Knight?

Having a certain profession (or any profession, for that matter) is not strictly mandatory. Blacksmithing seems like an obvious choice, so that you can craft both armor and weapons for yourself. Herbalism and Mining are also great for general gold making.

Is Blood Death Knight good in PvE WoW?

It most certainly is. Blood DKs are a top-tier raid tank and also a great choice for Mythic+. You are certainly going to be in high demand.

What is the best rotation for a Blood Death Knight?

The key to playing Blood DK correctly is to understand and master your resources. If you do that, the spell sequence will flow quite naturally. Reading through the Blood Death Knight rotation section of our guide will be more than enough to get you started.