Blood Death Knight Tank Guide (Legion 7.3.5)

Table of Contents

• ×Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.3 Changes for Blood Death Knights
  • 3. Patch 7.2.5 Changes for Blood Death Knights
  • 4. Patch 7.2 Changes for Blood Death Knights
  • 5. Contents
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics of Blood Death Knights
  • 2. Talent Choice for Blood Death Knights
  • 3. Stat Choice for Blood Death Knights
  • 4. Basic Rotation for Blood Death Knights
  • 5. Active Mitigation and Cooldowns for Blood Death Knights
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Main Resource of Blood Death Knights
  • 3. Basic Abilities for Blood Death Knights
  • 4. Important Procs for Blood Death Knights
  • 5. Active Mitigation for Blood Death Knights
  • 6. Defensive Cooldowns for Blood Death Knights
  • 7. Offensive Cooldown for Blood Death Knights
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Tier 1 (Level 56) Talents for Blood Death Knights
  • 3. Tier 2 (Level 57) Talents for Blood Death Knights
  • 4. Tier 3 (Level 58) Talents for Blood Death Knights
  • 5. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents for Blood Death Knights
  • 6. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents for Blood Death Knights
  • 7. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents for Blood Death Knights
  • 8. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents for Blood Death Knights
  • 9. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression for Blood Death Knights
  • 2. Relic Choice for Blood Death Knights
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths
  • 1. General Optimization Advice for Blood Death Knights
  • 2. Path Choices for Blood Death Knights
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Rotation for Blood Death Knights
  • 2. Taunting
  • 3. Survival Cooldowns for Blood Death Knights
  • 4. Optional Read: Mastering Your Blood Death Knight
    • 4.1. Runes and Runic Power
      • 4.1.1. Runes
      • 4.1.2. Runic Power
    • 4.2. Artifact Ability for Blood Death Knights
    • 4.3. Detailed Cooldown Usage
      • 4.3.1. Anti-Magic Shell
      • 4.3.2. Dancing Rune Weapon
      • 4.3.3. Vampiric Blood
      • 4.3.4. Icebound Fortitude
      • 4.3.5. Tier 6 Talents
    • 4.4. Death Strike and Blood Shield
    • 4.5. Bone Shield
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
    • 1.1. Survivability
    • 1.2. DPS-oriented
    • 1.3. Balanced (Recommended)
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding of Blood Death Knight Stats
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems for Blood Death Knights
  • 2. Enchants for Blood Death Knights
  • 3. Consumables for Blood Death Knights
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Macros
    • 1.1. Generic Macros for Death Knights
      • 1.1.1. Raise Ally
      • 1.1.2. Mind Freeze
    • 1.2. Specific Macros for Blood Death Knights
      • 1.2.1. Gorefiend's Grasp
      • 1.2.2. Death and Decay
      • 1.2.3. Blessing of Protection Cancelaura Macro
      • 1.2.4. Gorefiend's Grasp Self-Grip Macro
  • 2. Addons
    • 2.1. Generic Addons for Death Knights
      • 2.1.1. ElvUI
      • 2.1.2. Boss Mods: Deadly Boss Mods or Bigwigs
      • 2.1.3. GTFO
      • 2.1.4. Parrot or Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 2.1.5. Weak Auras
      • 2.1.6. Recount / Skada / Details!
      • 2.1.7. mRunes
      • 2.1.8. Omen Threat Meter
      • 2.1.9. Grid and GridClickSets (Optional)
      • 2.1.10. Compact Runes
    • 2.2. Specific Addons for Blood Death Knights
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Best in Slot List for Blood Death Knights
  • 2. Tier 21 Set Bonuses for Blood Death Knights
  • 3. Legendary Items for Blood Death Knights
    • 3.1. Tier 1 Legendaries
    • 3.2. Tier 2 Legendaries
    • 3.3. Tier 3 Legendaries
  • 4. Loot Competition for Blood Death Knights
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Battle for Azeroth
  • 1. Foreword
  • 2. Gameplay Changes for Blood Death Knight in BfA
  • 3. Mechanical Changes for Blood Death Knight in BfA
  • 4. Changes to Baseline Abilities for Blood Death Knight in BfA
  • 5. Changes to Talents for Blood Death Knight in BfA
    • 5.1. Tier 1 (Level 56) Talents
    • 5.2. Tier 2 (Level 57) Talents
    • 5.3. Tier 3 (Level 58) Talents
    • 5.4. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
    • 5.5. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
    • 5.6. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
    • 5.7. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 6. Azerite Traits for Blood Death Knight
    • 6.1. Blood Death Knight Azerite Traits
  • 7. ChangeLog

General Information

Welcome to our Blood Death Knight tank guide for World of Warcraft Legion 7.3.5. Here, you will learn everything you need to know about playing a Blood Death Knight in a raid environment and in Mythic+ dungeons.

About Our Reviewer

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Volstatsz, a Blood Death Knight theorycrafter and moderator for the Acherus Death Knight community. You can follow him on Twitter.

1. Class Overview

The Blood specialisation relies on self-healing, taking more damage (on average) than other tanks and healing more to make up for this. Through Death Strike, Bone Shield, and other leech effects, Blood Death Knights can easily reach extremely high amounts of healing.

Note that this guide focuses on aspects that are specific to Blood Death Knights, and general tanking strategies are beyond its scope. If you wish to know more about the tanking role and what you can do to improve, we recommend that you read our tanking guide.

2. Patch 7.3 Changes for Blood Death Knights

• No notable Patch 7.3 changes.

3. Patch 7.2.5 Changes for Blood Death Knights

• Tier 2 talent Soulgorge removed and replaced by Heart of Ice, a new talent.
• Many abilities and talents have received buffs in damage done (most notably Death and Decay and Heart Strike, which received the largest buffs).
• Two new legendary items, Soul of the Deathlord and Soulflayer's Corruption, were added.

4. Patch 7.2 Changes for Blood Death Knights

• Artifact traits have been slightly reworked. After spending 35 points, you now open up a new path, made up of 5 new traits ( Fortitude of the Ebon Blade, Carrion Feast, Vampiric Aura, Souldrinker, and Concordance of the Legionfall) and all traits with 3 ranks get an additional 4th rank that you can invest in.
• A new legendary item, Rethu's Incessant Courage, has been added.

5. Contents

To make it easy to navigate the guide, we have split it into 11 pages:

• Easy Mode: TL;DR to own without reading much;
• Spell Summary: see a summary of all your useful spells;
• Builds and Talents: learn how to choose your talents;
• Artifact Traits and Relics: discover how to level up your Artifact;
• Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths: choose the right paths on your Netherlight Crucible;
• Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities: master your rotation and your cooldowns;
• Stat Priority: read up on the respective values of your statistics;
• Gems, Enchants, and Consumables: choose the best gems, enchantments, etc.;
• Macros and Addons: step up your game with useful macros and addons;
• Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot: find the best gear you can wear;
• Battle for Azeroth: learn how to play your class in Battle for Azeroth.

6. ChangeLog

• 21 Jun. 2018 (Battle for Azeroth page): Corrected an error in analysis and talent recommendations for Tier 4 (Level 60) talents; added changes to Mastery and Death Strike.
• 02 Jun. 2018 (Battle for Azeroth page): Updated Azerite Traits to remove one obsolete trait and add three new traits.
• 29 May 2018 (Battle for Azeroth page): Fixed a typo regarding threat generation; updated mechanics to accurately describe the change to damage calculation.
• 28 May 2018 (Battle for Azeroth page): Page added.
• 21 Jan. 2018 (gear page): Fixed an issue regarding the description of Shackles of Bryandor.
• 03 Dec. 2017 (enchants page): Replaced Ancient Healing Potion with Astral Healing Potion.
• 28 Nov. 2017 (gear page): Updated the Set Bonus recommendations and legendary rankings slightly.
• 28 Nov. 2017 (enchants page): Updated the gemming recommendations (to secondary-stat only).
• 28 Nov. 2017 (rotation page): Added a mention of how the Tier 21 Set Bonuses impact the usage of Dancing Rune Weapon.
• 28 Nov. 2017 (Netherlight Crucible page): Updated the trait suggestions slightly.
• 28 Nov. 2017 (talents page): Updated 1 and 4 talents to reference Tier 21 Set Bonuses.
• 15 Oct. 2017 (easy mode page): Added Blooddrinker to the rotation.
• 15 Oct. 2017 (rotation page): Added a mention of using Blooddrinker in the rotation.
• 12 Sep. 2017 (Netherlight Crucible page): Added Netherlight Crucible page for Blood Death Knight.
• 28 Aug. 2017 (easy mode page): Updated the rotation and talent recommendations slightly.
• 28 Aug. 2017 (talents page): Updated tier 1, 2, and 6 talent sections slightly.
• 28 Aug. 2017 (this page): Added summary of Patch 7.3 changes (of which there were none).
• 28 Aug. 2017 (addons page): Removed Death Grip mouseover macro, and added link to mRunes addon.
• 28 Aug. 2017 (enchants page): Updated the potion section, and added a mention of Healthstones being preferable to potions. Added Lightforged Augment Rune and new 7.3 epic gems.
• 28 Aug. 2017 (gear page): Updated the legendary ranking.
• 13 Jun. 2017 (this page): Slightly reworded part of the Patch 7.2.5 change summary to better reflect how significant the buff to certain abilities was.
• 13 Jun. 2017 (gear page): Updated the wording on Skullflower's Haemostasis to mention the interaction with Dancing Rune Weapon, and also rephrased the evaluation of Soulflayer's Corruption.
• 13 Jun. 2017 (rotation page): Added a mention of Skullflower's Haemostasis to the Dancing Rune Weapon section.
• 12 Jun. 2017 (enchants page): Updated the DPS potion section, and added Azshari Salad as a non-feast food alternative.
• 12 Jun. 2017 (this page): Added summary of Patch 7.2.5 changes.
• 12 Jun. 2017 (talents page): Updated tier 2 talents to account for the new Heart of Ice talent.
• 12 Jun. 2017 (spells page): Corrected the amount of damage reduction provided by Icebound Fortitude.
• 12 Jun. 2017 (easy mode page): Updated rotation slightly and corrected the damage reduction provided by Icebound Fortitude.
• 12 Jun. 2017 (stats page): No changes needed for Patch 7.2.5.
• 12 Jun. 2017 (gear page): Added Tier 20 Set Bonus recommendations and updated the legendary item ranking (including adding the new Patch 7.2.5 legendaries).
• 12 Jun. 2017 (artifact page): Updated relic recommendation.
• 12 Jun. 2017 (rotation page): Updated rotation slightly, and made a few more minor edits (including adding a mention of the new Heart of Ice talent).
• 23 May 2017 (enchants page): Added a mention of switching to Frost or Unholy before eating in order to receive the Strength buff.
• 23 May 2017 (artifact page): Updated relic recommendation.
• 17 Apr. 2017 (gear page): Removed an outdated mention about Blood Death Knights preferring Mastery.
• 28 Mar. 2017 (enchants page): Changed food recommendation to Lavish Suramar Feast.
• 28 Mar. 2017 (artifact page): Updated Relic recommendations.
• 28 Mar. 2017 (gear page): Updated the legendary ranking slightly.
• 27 Mar. 2017 (talents page): No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 27 Mar. 2017 (this page): Added summary of Patch 7.2 changes.
• 27 Mar. 2017 (stats page): No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 27 Mar. 2017 (addons page): Updated Death Grip macro to fix an error.
• 27 Mar. 2017 (rotation page): Added a small mention of how to use the Souldrinker Artifact trait.
• 27 Mar. 2017 (gear page): Added Rethu's Incessant Courage to the list of legendary items and reviewed the ranking.
• 27 Mar. 2017 (artifact page): Added path for the Artifact traits added in Patch 7.2.
• 14 Feb. 2017 (addons page): Fixed an issue with the Death and Decay macro.
• 07 Feb. 2017 (talents page): Updated 2, 3, and 6 talent discussions slightly.
• 07 Feb. 2017 (this page): Updated the 7.1.5 changes text regarding the Purgatory talent to be more accurate.
• 07 Feb. 2017 (stats page): Updated the introductory text.
• 07 Feb. 2017 (easy mode page): Updated tier 6 talent recommendation to Foul Bulwark.
• 11 Jan. 2017 (easy mode page): Added Blooddrinker to tier 1 talent recommendation.
• 10 Jan. 2017 (talents page): Updated tier 1 talent discussion (recommendations changed).
• 09 Jan. 2017 (this page): Added summary of Patch 7.1.5 changes.
• 09 Jan. 2017 (easy mode page): Changed tier 6 talent recommendation and stat priority.
• 09 Jan. 2017 (stats page): Updated the balanced stat priority.
• 09 Jan. 2017 (spells page): Updated a few ability descriptions to account for 7.1.5 changes.
• 09 Jan. 2017 (gear page): Updated the legendary item ranking.
• 09 Jan. 2017 (rotation page): Updated the description of how Bone Shield works to account for Patch 7.1.5.
• 09 Jan. 2017 (talents page): Updated talent descriptions for Patch 7.1.5 and changed the evaluations of tier 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6.
• 09 Jan. 2017 (addons page): Added a Death and Decay macro.
• 09 Jan. 2017 (artifact page): Made a change in Relic recommendation for AoE situations.
• 16 Dec. 2016 (easy mode page): Fixed an error referring to tier 7 talents being available at level 110, instead of 100.
• 08 Dec. 2016 (spells page): Page added.
• 08 Dec. 2016 (easy mode page): Added easy mode page.
• 14 Nov. 2016 (rotation page): Further edited the Icebound Fortitude section to mention its usefulness in dealing with certain abilities like Elerethe Renferal's Web of Pain.
• 10 Nov. 2016 (rotation page): Made a small tweak to the Icebound Fortitude recommendation.
• 10 Nov. 2016 (gear page): Added some Return to Karazhan and Trial of Valor items to the BiS list.
• 25 Oct. 2016 (rotation page): Added Icebound Fortitude to the guide since it was re-added in patch 7.1
• 16 Oct. 2016 (enchants page): Removed a mention to sometimes use the Stoneskin Gargoyle weapon runeforge, which was incorrect.
• 16 Oct. 2016 (gear page): Revamped the BiS list.
• 04 Oct. 2016 (enchants page): Updated neck enchant recommendations and added a mention that Potion of the Old War should always be the pre-pot choice.
• 04 Oct. 2016 (addons page): Added a Death Grip macro and the Compact Runes addon.
• 04 Oct. 2016 (talents page): Tweaked and improved the descriptions and discussions of several talents, although no recommendations have changed (except for Tremble Before Me being viable in Mythic+ dungeons).
• 04 Oct. 2016 (rotation page): Massively reworked rotation, as well as improved and updated various other sections.
• 04 Oct. 2016 (this page): Revamped the introductory paragraph to bring it in line with the current stat of the spec.
• 04 Oct. 2016 (stats page): Updated all 3 stat priorities.
• 04 Oct. 2016 (artifact page): Slightly redesigned the Artifact path, removed one of the two alternative paths, and updated Relic recommendations.
• 22 Sep. 2016 (enchants page): Fixed an error whereby we were not recommending weapon runes.
• 21 Sep. 2016 (gear page): Added BiS recommendations.
• 29 Aug. 2016 (talents page): Updated for Legion's launch.
• 29 Aug. 2016 (rotation page): Updated for Legion's launch.
• 29 Aug. 2016 (enchants page): Updated for Legion's launch.
• 29 Aug. 2016 (stats page): Updated for Legion's launch.
• 29 Aug. 2016 (gear page): Updated for Legion's launch.
• 29 Aug. 2016 (this page): Updated for Legion's launch.
• 29 Aug. 2016 (artifact page): Added.
• 21 Aug. 2016 (talents page): Updated the descriptions of Tremble Before Me and Red Thirst to account for a recent hotfix.
• 21 Aug. 2016 (rotation page): Updated the damage reduction granted by Bone Shield to account for a recent hotfix.
• 28 Jul. 2016 (enchants page): Added Strength flask option if trying to maximise DPS output.
• 22 Jul. 2016 (stats page): Merged balanced and survivability stat priorities since they end up being identical.
• 22 Jul. 2016 (talents page): Fixed a small issue in the description of Tombstone.
• 21 Jul. 2016 (rotation page): Slightly updated the single target and AoE rotations to give Blood Boil more importance. Also clarified that Death Strike should not simply be used on cooldown, since it is part of your active mitigation.
• 20 Jul. 2016 (enchants page): Updated the recommendations to account for Haste being the best stat in all cases. Also updated potion suggestions.
• 20 Jul. 2016 (gear page): Updated tier set bonus recommendations.
• 20 Jul. 2016 (stats page): Updated the survivability and DPS-oriented stat priorities (Haste is now on top).
• 19 Jul. 2016 (gear page): Updated trinket recommendations, to fix a miscalculation regarding the value of Unending Hunger.
• 18 Jul. 2016 (enchants page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
• 18 Jul. 2016 (addons page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
• 18 Jul. 2016 (gear page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
• 18 Jul. 2016 (this page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
• 18 Jul. 2016 (talents page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
• 18 Jul. 2016 (stats page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
• 18 Jul. 2016 (rotation page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
• 09 Jan. 2016 (enchants page): Added bit about Potion of Prolonged Power.