Home
Blood Death Knight Mythic+ Guide
Last Updated: August 11th 2024
Share on Social
11.0 - The War Within
Welcome to theBlood Death Knight Mythic+ guide for World of Warcraft patch 11.0! Here you are going to find tips and tricks for your survivability and damage so you are never going to deplete again (hopefully). Below you find a quick overview of what the class is about.
Blood Death Knights' resources are Runes and Runic Power. Managing these two as best as you can is your main job. Using Runic Power for Death Strike to heal yourself, while spending your Runes effectively is a nice challenge but also feels super rewarding when done correctly which makes it such a fun class to optimize and learn the little things step by step.
In this patch, both the class and spec tree received a huge rework, giving the class tree new talents and moving a lot of nodes around, sadly not changing any of the talents you pick. On the other hand, the spec tree is a lot more flexible now, making it possible to pick Gorefiend's Grasp without a huge loss. While also reworking Consumption, Blooddrinker, and Bonestorm to be very useful talents now.
Whether you are new to the Blood Death Knight or are looking to get some tips and tricks, this guide provides you with the basics while also having a special tailored section for every single dungeon with talent builds, boss and trash tips.
Overview
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Blood Death Knight
Blood Death KnightMythic+
Single-Target
Strong
AoE
Average
Utility
Excellent
Survivability
Excellent
Mobility
Weak
- Blood Death Knights are currently the best tank at self-sustain during any scenario. Death Strike healing is incredibly strong and if used properly will almost always bring you back to full HP.
- In Mythic+, Blood Death Knights can help out the group a lot with Death Grip and Blinding Sleet when it comes to CC. On top of that Mind Freeze is handy for you since it's a more ranged kick making it so you can easily interrupt without losing uptime.
- Blood Death Knights ST damage is pretty good, sadly trinkets make up a big part of the total damage done. Blood Boil being your main AoE damage ability is really nice to pick up aggro, sadly the overall damage is not super high.
- Blood Death Knights biggest weakness is the lack of mobility. When you run out of Death's Advance charges the only other option is to walk, which is as you might know not the fastest.
- Anti-Magic Zone is one of the best raid cooldowns for magic damage reduction in the entire game.
Talents
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Blood Death Knight
Standard Build
Improved Vamp Blood
When to use this spec
This is the default loadout going into any boss unless specified otherwise. You have to adjust the class talent tree based on the utility needed for the encounter. To make your life easier, dungeon-specific talent loadouts are available in theDungeonsection.
Gameplay Altering Talents
Discover all talents that significantly alter your gameplay within the Spec and Class Talent trees. This section gives a concise overview of these talents and their applications but for a more detailed look check out the Rotation andDeep Divesections below.
Spec Tree
- Bone Collector
- Gain 1 charge of Bone Shield when pulling an enemy.
- Ossuary
- While above 5 charges of Bone Shield your Death Strike costs less Runic Power.
- Improved Vampiric Blood
- Improves all aspects of your Vampiric Blood.
- Heartbreaker
- This provides a nice bonus to your Runic Power generation.
- Hemostasis
- Blood Boil gives you stacks to improve your Death Strike. The more enemies you hit the more beneficial this is.
- Insatiable Blade
- This is crucial for reducing your Dancing Rune Weapon cooldown. See the Deep Dive for a more detailed explanation!
- Everlasting Bond
- Duplicating Dancing Rune Weapon magnifies this cooldown's potency.
- Reinforced Bones
- With this, you now can have a maximum of 12 charges of Bone Shield.
- Red Thirst
- This provides a huge cooldown reduction for your Vampiric Blood.
- Shattering Bone
- Makes it so that losing stacks of Bone Shield deals a lot of damage to nearby enemies.
- Purgatory
- A Cheat Death every 4 minutes.
Class Tree
- Improved Death Strike
- Very important talent to make your Death Strike much stronger.
- Cleaving Strikes
- EnablesDeath and Decayto cleave more targets and extend yourDeath and Decayduration. Details in the Deep Dive.
- Anti-Magic Barrier
- Lowers the cooldown of your Anti-Magic Shell and makes it stronger.
- Icy Talons
- With this, you obtain a new buff to upkeep.
- Grip of the Dead
- Death and Decay now has a huge slow.
- Unholy Endurance
- Lichborne now becomes a potent defensive ability.
- Insidious Chill
- This reduces the enemy's attack speed and is more or less your party buff.
- Death's Echo
- This grants you an additional charge of Death and DecayDeath Grip and Death's Advance making them easier to use and juggle correctly.
When to use this spec
This loadout is dropping extra Heart Strike for extra Vampiric Blood uptime and healing. This is a ~3/4% DPS loss in Dungeons.
Talent Adjustments
Listing all the changes within the Class and Spec tree compared to the default build.
Spec Tree
- Added
- Improved Vampiric Blood
- +4 sec uptime and 10% healing during Vampiric Blood.
- Improved Vampiric Blood
- Removed
- Improved Heart Strike
- 30% Heart Strike damage.
- Improved Heart Strike
Rotation
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Blood Death Knight
Tier Set
Currently, Blood Death Knights want to use a combination of Season 4 (2pc) and Season 3 (2pc) since the current Season 4 set Bonus is just weaker both damage-wise and defensively, making it worth dropping your item level on Shoulders and Gloves.
If you can't get your hands on the Season 3 Mythic Tier set anymore, or your copy is below Ilevel 489 sim your character, Simcraft doesn’t account for the damage reduction, but you can use the damage difference as a guideline.
- Season 4 (2pc): Heart Strike and Blood Boil deal 20% increased damage and have a 10% chance to grant Vampiric Blood for 5 sec.
- Season 4 (4pc): Whenever you gain Vampiric Blood, you also gain Vampiric Strength for 5 seconds. While it's active, Heart Strike and Blood Boil casts extend the duration of Vampiric Strength by 0.5s.
- Season 3 (2pc): Consuming Runic Power has a chance to cause your next Heart Strike to apply Ashen Decay, reducing damage dealt to you by 10% and increasing your damage dealt to afflicted targets by 20% for 8 sec.
Opener
- The Goal of the opener is to make sure you have all benefits of your Death and Decay active while min maxing the Bone Shield stacks with Dancing Rune Weapon and Tombstone + Bonestorm to gain fast CDR through Insatiable Blade while also getting all your offensive cooldowns rolling.
- Death's Caress has a travel time and should be cast while running in for the pull.
- When casting Tombstone and Bonestorm make sure to stand in your Death and Decay to gain the maximum benefit from Shattering Bone.
Priority List
This is the standard priority list, follow this unless a Boss or scenario requires you to hold some abilities listed here. You can learn more about when to hold cooldowns in the Dungeons section.
- Never drop your Bone Shield! Use Marrowrend or Death's Caress to keep it active.
- Maintain 5+ Stacks of Bone Shield to make use of Ossuary, dropping below 5 is ok if Dancing Rune Weapon is coming up soon.
- Abomination Limb + Raise Dead on cooldown unless needed for other scenarios.
- Keep up your Death and Decay buff, this means you might have to recast if the buff fades. Cleaving Strikes grants you a 4sec window after it fades or you leave it.
- Use Fyr'alath the Dreamrender as long as it doesn't let your Coagulopathy stacks drop.
- Cast Soul Reaper if the Target is below 35% HP
- Dancing Rune Weapon on cooldown.
- Tombstone on cooldown under the following conditions:
- You are standing in Death and Decay for Shattering Bone.
- You have 5+ Stacks of Bone Shield.
- Your Insatiable Blade talent provides you with 20/25 seconds of cooldown reduction for Dancing Rune Weapon.
- Bonestorm on cooldown under the following conditions:
- You are standing in Death and Decay for Shattering Bone.
- You have 10+ Stacks of Bone Shield.
- Your Insatiable Blade talent provides you with 45/50 seconds of cooldown reduction for Dancing Rune Weapon.
- Spend Runic Power on Death Strike when you are about to overcap or Coagulopathy is about to fade.
- Blood Boil to avoid overcapping on stacks.
- Heart Strike to consume runes as a filler.
Defensive Cooldowns
- Vampiric Blood, most of the time you want to use Vamp Blood as much as possible when you take any form of damage. Holding it is only really required if you need to survive a big hit or are about to have downtime on the Boss, and it can't get full value.
- Dancing Rune Weapon, generally use this on cooldown unless you need the parry for some special situation, more detailed info is in the Deep Dive below.
- Anti-Magic Shell, is one of the strongest defensives when it comes to magic damage. In general, it can always be used when taking magic damage, in a lot of scenarios though delaying it or using it to immune mechanics is the best usage this ability can have. Make sure to keep an eye out during the specific sections on what to immune and how to make the most out of Anti-Magic Shell.
- Icebound Fortitude is an amazing defensive for general damage reduction, use this as much as possible in a fight without overlapping it with other cooldowns unless it's needed. It can also be held to immune a stun mechanic, but this is rather rare.
- Lichborne is nice and small defensives when specced into Unholy Endurance providing you with 10% Leech and 15% DR which makes it a good button to press when you just need a little bit of help, in an AoE scenario it becomes more worthwhile since leech is really strong in AoE. Also, if you get feared for some reason, press it!
Offensive Cooldowns
- Abomination Limb on cooldown, every time it tries to grip an enemy you get 1 stack of Bone Shield because of Bone Collector.
- Tombstone on cooldown under the following conditions:
- 1. You are standing in Death and Decay for Shattering Bone.
- 2. You have 5+ Stacks of Bone Shield.
- 3. Your Insatiable Blade provides you with 25 seconds of cooldown reduction for Dancing Rune Weapon.
- Bonestorm on cooldown under the following conditions:
- You are standing in Death and Decay for Shattering Bone.
- You have 10+ Stacks of Bone Shield.
- Your Insatiable Blade talent provides you with 45/50 seconds of cooldown reduction for Dancing Rune Weapon.
Deep Dive
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Blood Death Knight
Death Strike Healing and Absorb
Death Strike is what makes a Blood Death Knight a Blood Death Knight. This ability is the core of your class! Understanding how it works and how to properly use it is crucial for maximizing your damage, staying alive, and being the best tank out there through your incredible self-sustain.
- Death Strike heals you for a % of your maximum HP and increases this healing based on your damage taken in the last 5 seconds. This makes Death Strike an ineffective source of healing when you haven’t taken a meaningful amount of damage in the last 5 seconds.
- Environmental damage and friendly fire damage are not counted in the damage taken formula, which is the main cause of self-healing issues. Environmental damage can come from a lot of sources such as Boss room AoE damage, and affix damage like Storming.
- Your healing from Death Strike is now multiplied by a lot of different abilities and stats:
- Versatility is a multiplier for Death Strike healing.
- Voracious also increases your Death Strike healing including your Mastery: Blood Shield value.
- Hemostasis only multiplies your Death Strike healing, but does not increase the size of your Mastery: Blood Shield.
- Mastery: Blood Shield is next most import mechanic of Death Strike:
- The generated Shield from Mastery: Blood Shield is based on the full healing value, this does include overhealing.
- The absorb is purely physical and does not work on magic damage at all.
- The absorb is increased by your mastery stat value.
- Voracious does increase the Healing and value of your Shield, whereas Hemostasis does not.
- The maximum value that Mastery: Blood Shield can have is your max HP. This does dynamically update with HP buffs such as Vampiric Blood and Rallying Cry for example.
Managing Death Strike
Now that you learned how Death Strike works, let's talk about how to use it to gain the most damage and survivability out of it.
- For damage, you want to use Death Strike when you are getting close to overcapping your Runic Power or when you can afford to spend all your Runic Power to just do damage to a target.
- If you want to use Death Strike properly to heal up or counter certain mechanics, it all comes down to a good gameplay flow:
- Take your damage taken in the last 5 seconds into account when Death Strike is being used. Most of the time you want to Death Strike after tank mechanics or taking a lot of damage. This benefits you with both a big heal and big absorb shield right after using Death Strike.
- Most of the time, using 2 Death Strikes back to back is not a good idea since using 1 already tops you and gives you a big absorb. There are scenarios where you would want to use more Death Strikes back to back, but they are rarer than just using 1 with precise timing.
- Timing Death Strike correctly against magic damage is very important, since your Mastery: Blood Shield does not help you at all against this type of damage.
- Stacking up the absorb to be ready for tank mechanics can be quite handy but often comes at a great cost since generating big shields takes a long time if you don't take enough damage to feed into your Death Strike healing.
With all this info you are ready to fully understand and utilize Death Strike to the max. Always keep in mind tanking is not set on a rotation or rigid flow of abilities, getting a good gameplay flow going and having proper Death Strike usage comes with experience and practice.
Death and Decay Optimization
- Maintaining high uptime on your Death and Decay is important for both your damage and healing done as a Blood Death Knight because of these effects:
- Unholy Ground and Sanguine Ground.
- Because of Shattering Bone, whenever you use Bonestorm or Tombstone stepping out of your Death and Decay effect costs you a lot of damage.
- The main idea is to always use Death and Decay whenever it's not active, and you have it off cooldown. Cleaving Strikes grants you a lot of extra duration and quality of life benefits from your Death and Decay.
- Here are the advantages provided by Cleaving Strikes:
- You walk out of Death and Decay and retain the benefits for 4 seconds.
- Death and Decay duration runs out and this buff appears afterwards.
- Walking in and out of Death and Decay always refreshes the buff regardless of Death and Decay duration.
- Due to Cleaving Strikes giving you another 4 extra seconds of Death and Decay the rotation to upkeep this effect is very nice and smooth even without Death's Echo.
- The average uptime without Death's Echo is around 93% which is already very good.
- With Death's Echo you never drop the Death and Decay buff when playing correctly.
- Death's Echo is now not fully needed anymore to keep the buff active so picking it is mainly a nice benefit to utility with Death's Advance and Death Grip.
- Here is a timeline of how a good Death and Decay usage with Cleaving Strikes looks. Just pressing it off cooldown.
Dancing Rune Weapon
Dancing Rune Weapon is one of the most important spells in the Blood Death Knight's arsenal and has a lot of things that are not that obvious at first!
It is essential for both damage and defensive value when playing the class, and these are the key features you should know about the ability.
- The Weapon more or less counts as an untargetable "guardian" and always follows the target you used the ability on. This means when that target dies it follows you and attacks your current target.
- Dancing Rune Weapon spawns behind the target so it can pull more enemies or even despawn when used too close to other enemies or against a wall or corner.
- Each weapon you summon duplicates certain spells and gives you the benefits, so let's talk about them:
- Marrowrend grants you 9 Stacks of Bone Shield (3 Stacks per weapon).
- Death's Caress grants you 6 Stacks of Bone Shield (2 Stacks per weapon).
- Heart Strike grants you 15 Runic Power instead of 5 (each weapon casts Heart Strike generating 5 Runic Power).
- Blood Boil now applies 3 individual debuffs of Blood Plague (1 Debuff per weapon extra) the health transfer does not increase you still only benefit from your own Blood Plague.
- The same goes for Blood Plague from Death's Caress.
- Death Strike does more damage as the ability is copied by the weapon but the heal is not increased.
All these great benefits in addition to getting a 40% parry chance buff makes gaining Cooldown Reduction on Dancing Rune Weapon one of the most important things you can do. Keep that in mind when playing and make the most out of your CDR and your Dancing Rune Weapon.
Understanding Mechanics
Rotational min-maxing is just one aspect of mastering a specialization, but there are numerous other key mechanics that influence your performance. Use the following guides to improve them.
- Pandemic
- Spell Queue Window
- Stat Diminishing Returns
Dungeons
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Blood Death Knight
← Scroll for more Dungeons →
Brackenhide Hollow
Neltharus
The Nokhud Offensive
Algeth'ar Academy
Halls of Infusion
The Azure Vault
Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr
Ruby Life Pools
Boss Tips
Hackclaw's War-Band
- Use Anti-Magic Shell on Decayed Senses to prevent the disorientation.
- During Savage Charge make sure to soak for the targeted player and deal with the damage using defensives. Vampiric Blood and any other defensive is recommended.
- Make sure to keep interrupting Earth Bolt.
Treemouth
- Vine Whip is a really fast tank frontal that can be turned while casting. Aim it away from the team, and use Death's Advance to immune the small knockback.
- Use Blinding Sleet to control the Decaying Slimes that spawn from Decay Spray before they complete their Gushing Ooze cast.
Gutshot
- Gut Shot hits hard, use a defensive when tanking it. Also, use Death's Advance to immune the small knockback that happens.
- Call Hyenas summons two Hyeans, which you need to pick up. Being close to them causes a Crippling Bite, this is quite deadly and should be stunned or outranged. If you are hit press a defensive immediately!
- As this is a bleed both Stoneform and Cauterizing Flame can save your life.
- If Master's Call is being cast when a Hyean is in a trap, be ready to interrupt it.
Decatriarch Wratheye
- Decaystrike puts a large heal absorb on you, be ready with your defensives for this mechanic.
- You need to aim the Choking Rotcloud boss frontal correctly. After it goes out the cloud travels clockwise through the room, keep this in mind when placing the Rotburst Totem.
- Rotburst Totem always spawns in the position which is furthest away from the boss. Keep this in mind when placing the boss in the room.
- Save your damaging cooldowns and Runic Power for each totem if you can tank Decaystrike without them. Killing the totem is the most important part of the fight.
Trash Tips
These notes are here to help guide you through the overall flow of the dungeon and highlight key things to watch out for. The War Within Guide is going to be a lot more detailed!
- Pack Tactics from Warscourge, Rotsinger, and Ranger cause enemies to do a lot more damage. Keep this in mind when playing large pulls with these enemies.
- Use Blinding Sleet to stop Summon Lashers from Decayed Elders, this significantly reduces the damage your group takes.
- Counter Vicious Clawmangle from Claw Fighters with any of your available stops.
Boss Tips
Magmatusk
- During this boss, your main focus is to make the fight easier for the rest of the group with good boss positioning and movement. You can largely dictate if the Blazing Charge has a good or bad angle depending on boss positioning.
Chargath, Bane of Scales
- Fiery Focus does a lot of damage to you and you should use defensives whenever this happens. On top of that, drag the boss through 3 chains one at a time to stun the boss and end the phase.
- Due to the movement and ground swirls you have to dodge make use of Vampiric Blood whenever this phase starts and Anti-Magic Shell when needed.
Forgemaster Gorek
- Heated Swings deals a lot of damage to you. Rotate your defensives accordingly for this mechanic. On top of that at the end of the cast, you are knocked back. You want to get knocked to the same position the whole fight.
- Do not use Death's Advance as this immunes the knockback and the boss just leaps on your position and probably kills you.
Warlord Sargha
- You can cast Chains of Ice on the Burning Ember to slow it and help your group. If you want to kill it make sure to Death Grip it into melee.
- Since the boss doesn't have a tank mechanic your main objective is to pick up Piles of Gold to gain the weapons to break the Magma Shield.
- Make sure to cast Anti-Magic Shell before picking up the gold to avoid the curse on you.
Trash Tips
These notes are here to help guide you through the overall flow of the dungeon and highlight key things to watch out for. The War Within Guide is going to be a lot more detailed!
- If you are fighting multiple Lava Flares use Blinding Sleet or Death Grip to stop their casts since it makes them go on cooldown.
- Keep an eye out for the Qalashi Bonesplitter's Dragonbone Axe & Pierce Marrow to disrupt them.
- Qalashi Wardens cast Blazing Slash on you which is one of the most deadly tank busters in M+ watch out for that.
- Magma Fist is a frontal from Qalashi Trainee, so make sure to face them away from your group.
- Reverberating Slam is another very deadly tank buster be ready for it and make sure to use a defensive. You can also Anti-Magic Shell the debuff application.
Boss Tips
Granyth
- Nokhud Saboteurs spawn throughout the fight and need to be killed or controlled.
- Make sure to use Chains of Ice when a slow is needed and Death Grip to keep them into melee so they can be cleaved down.
The Raging Tempest
- Energy Surge is an important mechanic to look out for, it buffs the boss to do magic damage with its melee swings.
- If you have a purge class in your group make sure to let them know you can't do anything against this!
- When you need tank it, press Vampiric Blood or any other defensives to reduce your damage taken for the buff's duration.
- Minmaxing Surge of Power stacks are very important since they not only buff your damage but also your healing making it easier to survive.
- In most cases leave the stacks to the DPS players first since surviving this fight is normally not a big issue.
- If you run out of melee range the boss instantly casts Wind Burst which does very high magic damage. This means if you ever need to leave melee press a defensive or Anti-Magic Shell first.
Teera and Maruuk
- The most important part of the group's survival, and your own, is that you move the bosses together as fast as possible on every Spirit Leap. This is because the bosses receive a stacking damage buff from Ancestral Bond when separated.
- In some cases, it's unavoidable that the boss gets 1-2 stacks.
- Brutalize is the main tank nuke coming from Maruuk, it deals a huge amount of physical damage to you.
- Make sure to be ready with a Vampiric Blood and at least 1 Death Strike's worth of Runic Power to instantly top yourself off.
- This mechanic can become quite hard because of the heavy movement this fight has.
Balakar Khan
- This fight is split into 2 phases with a changing tank mechanic that does a lot of damage in different ways:
- Phase 1 the boss casts Rending Strike a bleed that increases your damage taken from the next mechanic Savage Strike by 500%. This is by far the highest damage hit you are gonna be taking in this fight so make sure to start rolling defensive for each of these.
- If you are a Dwarf or have an evoker in your group you can utilize their bleed removal mechanics Cauterizing Flame and Stoneform to completely negate the 500% damage taken increase making it deal almost no damage.
- In Intermission make use of Death Grip to gather and Blinding Sleet to stop the Storm Bolt casts of the adds.
- During phase 2 the boss now casts Conductive Strike into Thunder Strike in a similar way to the first phase's tank mechanic. The change now is that this is magic damage and the debuff that increases your damage taken can be dispelled by your healer.
- Every second set you can pre-use Anti-Magic Shell to avoid getting the Conductive Strike debuff making it easier for you and your healer.
Trash Tips
These notes are here to help guide you through the overall flow of the dungeon and highlight key things to watch out for. The War Within Guide is going to be a lot more detailed!
- You can cast Control Undead on the Risen Mystic to apply Swift Wind to your whole party a 20% Haste Buff for 10 seconds.
- This Dungeon has a lot of mobs that need stops to prevent casts from happening that wipe the group so make sure to use Blinding Sleet and Death Grip to stop these enemies.
- Nokhud Hornsounder Rally the Clan.
- Nokhud Beastmaster Hunt Prey.
- Desecrated Ohuna Rotting Wind.
- Risen Mystic Swift Wind.
- Primal Stormshields deal very high magical tank damage so try to ensure you have enough defensives ready when pulling multiple Primal Stormshields.
- Unstable Squall casts Surge on whoever has aggro, it is important to instantly get aggro on this mob as Surge deals extremely high damage.
- Ukhel Deathspeakers cast Chant of the Dead, this has a long cast time, Move all undead enemies out of it since they would get a buff which makes the pull even harder.
Boss Tips
Overgrown Ancient
- This boss casts Barkbreaker increasing your physical damage taken by 100% for 8 seconds. This mechanic is very deadly since it also works on the lashers spawned later in the fight.
- Use any of your available defensives when getting hit by this mechanic and keep in mind it also does a decent amount of initial damage so pre-use your cooldowns.
- You want to be stacked with the group while playing Germinate so the lasher adds spawn at the same positions.
- When Burst Forth is being cast all dormant lashers wake up and attack players you must get aggro on all of these so be ready with a Death and Decay down and Blood Boil to pick them up.
- These Lashers debuff you withLasher Toxinthis needs to get dispelled by your group members poison dispel.
- Should the stacks go too high use slows and kite them especially important during theBarkbreakerdebuff.
- You can also use Anti-Magic Shell to reset these stacks since they are poison.
- It is recommended to have a target macro for taunting the Ancient Branch as it can spawn a bit out of melee range and be quite hard to target.
- Remember to Death Grip the add into melee.
Crawth
- Savage Peck does heavy upfront tank damage to you and leaves a big bleed behind. Generally, make sure to have Vampiric Blood or any other defensive ready for the initial hit and the following bleed.
- If you are a dwarf or have an evoker in your group you can utilize their bleed removal mechanics Cauterizing Flame and Stoneform to completely negate the mechanic and only take the initial damage.
- Deafening Screech is the main magic damage mechanic happening every 25 seconds, use Anti-Magic Shell to immune as many as possible to lower the damage you take from this mechanic.
- On higher stacks make sure to press a defensive more as it sometimes lines up with a Savage Peck bleed debuff and can be deadly.
Vexamus
- This boss has a deadly tank frontal Arcane Expulsion, this deals magic damage so use Anti-Magic Shell for every second one and cover the other one with Vampiric Blood.
- Preferably you soak 2-3 Arcane Orbs on each rotation to make the fight easier for the rest of the group.
- Around 2 minutes into the fight there is a deadly overlap of Mana Bomb and Arcane Fissure, use Anti-Magic Zone if talented to help the group.
Echo of Doragosa
- Move the boss when one area of the room gets too crowded with Arcane Rifts.
- At the beginning of the fight he casts 2 Arcane Rifts in the middle of the room, so bring the boss to the entrance area. These 2 pools despawn 2 minutes into the fight
- Power Vacuum sucks you into the boss if you want you can tank it with Death's Advance to keep high uptime but it is not recommended.
Trash Tips
These notes are here to help guide you through the overall flow of the dungeon and highlight key things to watch out for. The War Within Guide is going to be a lot more detailed!
- In this dungeon, there are some very dangerous tank buster mechanics on the trash that you should be aware of and have a defensive ready for:
- Guardian Sentry Storm Slash does very high magic damage.
- Eagle Peck stacks up a dangerous ticking bleed.
- Spellbound Battleaxe Severing Slash big initial damage with a bleed after.
- The other dangerous part is the casts on the group, make sure to utilize your stop Blinding Sleet and Death Grip to the best of your ability.
- Corrupted Manafiend Surge and Mana Void.
- Spellbound Scepter Mystic Blast big AoE cast needs to be stopped.
- Unruly Textbook Monotonous Lecture.
- Spectral Invoker Arcane Missiles.
Pre Dungeon Start
- You should always pick the Red Dragonflight Pledge Pin buff as it's numerically the highest value even though it's tempting to grab Bronze Dragonflight Pledge Pin.
Boss Tips
Watcher Irideus
- Titanic Fist is a fast frontal cast that you need to aim away from the group and then dodge for yourself. Apart from this, the fight does not do much tank damage.
- Utilize your Blinding Sleet to stop Nullification Devices from casting Purifying Blast on your group.
Gulping Goliath
- Make sure to slow the Curious Swoglets with Chains of Ice when needed.
- Unless it's Sanguine it is recommended to spec into the Death and Decay slow Grip of the Dead to help with them.
- Make sure to keep all Curious Swoglets inside the Gulp you should also stand in it to avoid enraging the boss.
- Anti-Magic Shell can be used to immune some poison stacks on yourself
Khajin the Unyielding
- This Boss does a lot of group damage and she sometimes casts Frost Shock dealing high magic damage to you and slowing you.
- Pre-use Anti-Magic Shell before the timer to immune this mechanic.
- Make sure to move the boss close to the Ice Boulders to ensure melee uptime during Hailstorm casts.
Primal Tsunami
- Squall Buffet and Focused Deluge are very hard hitting tank mechanics that are cast back to back.
- Squall Buffet does high initial damage and knocks you back, use Death's Advance to immune the knock and Vampiric Blood to survive the damage.
- After that, Focused Deluge is cast. This does less initial damage but way more over time. You can pre-use Anti-Magic Shell to immune this mechanic but if it is not ready use Icebound Fortitude or Lichborne.
- When starting the intermission use Death Grip to stack up all 4 casters to make it easier to kill them. Ideally, you want to kick 1 and grip 2 close to the kicked one and let your team handle the last one.
- In the Intermission make sure to stop Inundate with your Blinding Sleet if needed.
Trash Tips
These notes are here to help guide you through the overall flow of the dungeon and highlight key things to watch out for. The War Within Guide is going to be a lot more detailed!
- To minimize the chance of getting stunned by Cheap Shot from Skulking Zealots place a Death and Decay on top of them to break their stealth.
- Glacial Proto-Dragons are very deadly for tanks with their Oceanic Breath. You can pre-use Anti-Magic Shell to immune most of the damage.
- Glacial Proto-Dragons are accompanied by Primalist Icecallers which cast Ice Shard on you as a tank, this spell is a deadly fast cast that can be disrupted. so make use of your Blinding Sleet and Death Grip but also ask your group for help since you are going to take a lot of damage in these pulls.
- Apart from these there are some more general stops/disrupts that are useful to keep an eye out for:
- Refti Defender Demoralizing Shout.
- Primalist Shocktrooper Elemental Focus.
- Primalist Galesinger Thunderstrike.
Boss Tips
Leymor
- It is difficult to get aggro on all the Bubbling Sapplings that spawn after Consuming Stomp. Make sure to have Death and Decay down and Blood Boil ready for this.
- Use Anti-Magic Shell to immune Infused Strike and trivialize the mechanic.
- Erupting Fissure is a high damage frontal, you should press Vampiric Blood and any other defensive if needed.
- You can also outrange it if you don't have enough defensives but this is quite difficult to do as a slow class.
- Erupting Fissure needs to be aimed at the Trees to clear them, pick a good spot long before the cast happens since you want to position the boss correctly.
- Consuming Stomp does a decent amount of damage to you but overall should not be deadly.
Azureblade
- Summon Draconic Image spawns a Draconic Images that need to be interrupted. Make sure to grip them close to the boss with Death Grip.
- Arcane Cleave is the main tank mechanic that is also a frontal cleave, it does a high amount of damage. Make sure to rotate Vampiric Blood and other defensives when tanking it. You can also outrange this mechanic if you run fast enough or the boss is busy casting but it is quite difficult without a leap.
Telash Greywing
- This boss does not do anything special for tanks, the only dangerous part is the Absolute Zero since it drops you quite low while the boss flies down and instantly swings at you. Consider using a defensive such as Vampiric Blood at the last possible moment of the cast.
Umbrelskul
- Dragon Strike is a very deadly tank mechanic, luckily you can use Anti-Magic Shell for a lot of them. Whenever you have to tank a Dragon Strike without it make sure to use Vampiric Blood and be ready to Death Strike after the hit.
- To increase the odds that Detonating Crystals spawn stacked you can tank the boss on the edges of the room which basically removes half of the possible spawn locations.
- The crystals spawn at 75%, 50%, and 25% boss hp.
Trash Tips
These notes are here to help guide you through the overall flow of the dungeon and highlight key things to watch out for. The War Within Guide is going to be a lot more detailed!
- One of the important interrupts in this dungeon is Icy Bindings from the Rune Seal Keeper. If not interrupted it causes a groupwide root which probably wipes you since there are too many ground-based mechanics to dodge during these pulls.
- This cast can be stopped by all of your AoE crowd control if necessary or kicks.
- Crystal Furies cast Piercing Shards quite frequently which you can mostly tank during the start of a pull. Later on or when the stacks are too high you want to start stopping this cast with Blinding Sleet and Death Grip then get help from your group.
- Ice Cutter from both Vault Guards & Scalebane Lieutenant deals massive damage should be respected. Utilize all your defensives on these pulls and if you are out of defensives make sure to kite them as the range of Ice Cutter is not that big
- These packs are also accompanied by Rune Seal Keepers which inevitably cast Condensed Frost on you, it does a good amount of magic damage keep that in mind when tanking them.
- Ice Cutter can also be stopped by any stun or AoE stop such as Blinding Sleet but the cast is quite fast.
- Some other noteworthy adds that can/should be disrupted or stopped with Blinding Sleet and Death Grip:
- Conjured Lasher Mystic Vapors.
- Arcane Elemental Waking Bane.
- Nullmagic Hornswog Null Stomp.
Boss Tips
The Lost Dwarves
- Baelog casts 2 spells that need to be aimed away from the group Wild Cleave and Heavy Arrow.
- PutOlafon focus to quickly interrupt hisDefensive Bulwarkwhen he casts.
Bromach
- After the boss casts Call of the Deep he summons 4 adds into the fight. 3 melee adds and 1 caster, make sure to grab aggro on all these running in with Blood Boil and use Death Grip to move the caster into melee.
- Quaking Totem summons a totem and while you want to hit the totem to avoid a wipe you also want to move all the adds into the totem circle so they get stunned by Tremor when the totem dies.
Sentinel Talondras
- As a tank, your main job is to removeInexorable stacks from the boss with Resonating Orb, these spawned and dropped on the ground by party members.
- When Inexorable is removed use Resonating Orb to stop Titanic Empowerment before the cast goes off.
Emberon
- Searing Clap is the main frontal mechanic. This does a lot of damage to you so use defensives on this! On top of that, it applies a debuff to the whole group, you can pre-use Anti-Magic Shell to immune the debuff and damage from the ability.
Chrono-Lord Deios
- Move the boss around the room to ensure the uptime of any melee DPS or to allow your group members to Line of Sight theWing Buffet.
- You can also use Death's Advance to immune the knockback.
- Sand Breath is another frontal boss mechanic and the same as Emberon it does a lot of damage to you make sure to rotate defensives here.
Trash Tips
These notes are here to help guide you through the overall flow of the dungeon and highlight key things to watch out for. The War Within Guide is going to be a lot more detailed!
- Refti Custodian's are the main tank killers with their Jagged Bite the bleed it applies is really dangerous and should be avoided but outranging the cast when it happens.
- Over time they stack up a Ancient Power increasing their dmg when stunned they apply a 50% damage increase to them Systemic Vulnerability and reset their stacks. Make sure to utilize yourgroup's stuns for that purpose.
- Some other noteworthy adds that can/should be disrupted or stopped with Blinding Sleet + Death Grip:
- Vicious Basilisk Spiked Carapace.
- Stonevault Geomancer Chain Lightning.
- Earthen Weaver Hail of Stone.
- Earthen Warder Curse of Stone.
Boss Tips
Melidrussa Chillworn
- The boss casts Frigid Shardat you the entire time. It does a good amount of damage and you need to use a defensive when Chillstorm is going on.
- Chillstorm sucks you toward its drop-off location and at the end does a bigger hit and a pushback. Use Death's Advance to immune the push and Anti-Magic Shell if you are running low on defensives.
- At 75% and 45%, Melidrussa spawns a lot of Infused Whelps. Make sure to meet these Whelps when they spawn to pick them up with Blood Boil.
Kokia Blazehoof
- Searing Blows is the tank combo happening every time after Ritual of Blazebinding. The effects of this tank combo can be dodged and parried so tools like Dancing Rune Weapon are extremely strong!
- If you do get hit you are affected by Searing Wounds this can be removed by Evokers thorugh Cauterizing Flame or Stoneform if you are a Dwarf.
- To ensure as much time as possible between Blazebound Firestorms Inferno casts you should interrupt the first 2 Roaring Blazes early and the 3rd one late.
Erkhart Stormvein / Kyrakka
- The initial hit from Stormslam is quite high so make sure to be ready with a defensive, on top of that you need to be dispelled after.
- You can pre-use Anti-Magic Shell to immune the debuff application
- Make sure to tank Erkhart Stormvein at the back of the room to ensure that Kyrakka always lands on the platform.
Trash Tips
These notes are here to help guide you through the overall flow of the dungeon and highlight key things to watch out for. The War Within Guide is going to be a lot more detailed!
- Flame Dance from Primalist Flamedancers is the main tank killer, you need to disrupt this cast with Blinding Sleet and Death Grip also ask your team for help on these stops.
- High Channeler Ryvati always prioritizes the tank with Shock Blast until you already have the debuff, and then he casts it on a random target in your group.
- It is possible to immune Shock Blast with Anti-Magic Shell.
- Some other noteworthy adds that should be disrupted or stopped with Blinding Sleet and Death Grip.
- Flashfrost Earthshaper Tectonic Slam.
- Flashfrost Chillweaver Ice Shield.
- Important interrupts in this dungeon are:
- Primalist Cinderweaver Cinderbolt.
- Flame Channeler Flashfire.
- High Channeler Ryvati Shock Blast.
- Tempest Channeler Thunder Bolt .
Affixes
Learn how to effectively handle various Mythic+ Affixes as a Blood Death Knight. Depending on the level of the Mythic+ Dungeon, you contend with up to two additional Affixes alongside Fortified and Tyrannical.
- Storming
- Death's Advance
- This makes you immune to the Storming knock up effect but not the damage, as a tank just use it and soak when needed.
- Death's Advance
- Entangling
- Icebound Fortitude
- Breaks the stun if you make a mistake.
- Anti-Magic Shell
- Pre-use before the application of Entangling.
- Icebound Fortitude
- Incorporeal
- Control Undead
- With this, you can make them a pet and negate the mechanic.
- Control Undead
- Volcanic
- Death's Advance makes you immune to the volcanic knock up effect but not the damage.
- Raging
- On Raging make sure to keep in mind that when enemies are Raging the chance that casts go off on you is way higher so be ready to use some defensives.
- Bolstering
- Bolster can be really dangerous for tanks since the melee swings + casts become deadly quite fast. Be ready to slow enemies and kite them picking Grip of the Dead as a talent is a really good option.
- Spiteful
- Spiteful does not target you unless the fixated target dies, so you don't have to worry about their melee swings
- Supporting the team is your main job on this affix make sure to use slows such as Grip of the Dead talent, Blinding Sleet, Chains of Ice to help the DPS players kite.
- Sanguine
- Sanguine is really difficult to handle but be aware of when the adds are dying, be ready to pre move, and use Death Grip to get mobs out of the sanguine pools.
- Bursting
- Bursting is not too dangerous for a tank since it just does damage and not % HP damage. Nevertheless, make sure to pre-use Anti-Magic Shell before enemies die to immune the stacks on you.
Stat Priority
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Blood Death Knight
Understand your secondary stat priority and the tertiary stats needed for optimal performance during Mythic + dungeons as a Blood Death Knight. For more detailed information, visit the Stats and Attributes guide.
Higher Item level items are better in most scenarios. For an accurate representation of what item to equip you should use Simcraft! A static "Stat Priority" is just a starting point and can easily shift depending on your individual gear.
All secondary stats are affected by diminishing returns. Click here to learn more!
Tertiary
- Avoidance - Great stat to reduce the damage intake of "Area of Effect" abilities.
- Leech - Provides additional healing through damage dealing. The damage of your pets does not heal you thus Leech is a great tertiary for us since most of our damage is coming from our own spells.
- Speed - Niche tertiary that can be very useful and has been proven useful in the past. Makes playing certain mechanics a lot easier.
In general, Leech is really strong for tanks, especially in AoE scenarios it can be by far the best stat you can have.
Avoidance is great but most of the time tanks are not struggling to survive the typical Area of Effect abilities.
Gear
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Blood Death Knight
Overall BiS
Farmable Alternatives
Slot | Item | Location |
---|---|---|
Head | Piercing Gaze of the Risen Nightmare | Tier / Catalyst |
Neck | Ouroboreal Necklet | Volcoross |
Shoulder | Skewers of the Risen Nightmare | Season 3 Tier Set |
Cloak | Vibrant Wildercloth Shawl | Crafting |
Chest | Casket of the Risen Nightmare | Tier / Catalyst |
Wrist | Primal Molten Vambraces | Crafting |
Gloves | Thorns of the Risen Nightmare | Season 3 Tier Set |
Belt | Trapmaster's Utility Belt | M+ |
Legs | Obsidian Guard's Chausses | Assault of the Zaqali |
Boots | Spittle-Resistant Sollerets | Magmorax |
Ring 1 | Seal of Diurna's Chosen | Eranog |
Ring 2 | Seal of Filial Duty | Broodkeeper Diurna |
Trinket 1 | Fyrakk's Tainted Rageheart | Fyrakk |
Trinket 2 | Prophetic Stonescales | Dawn of the Infinite |
Weapon | Fyr'alath the Dreamrender | Fyrakk |
Below you are presented a good list of farmable alternatives that are obtainable outside of WoW’s weekly lockout system. While replaced in time as you progress, these offer immediate character power.
Slot | Item | Location |
---|---|---|
Head | Decay Mother's Wrathful Gaze | Brackenhide Hollow |
Neck | Bromach's Disentombed Locket | Uldaman |
Shoulder | Pauldrons of Immutable Truth | Uldaman |
Cloak | Fireproof Drape | Ruby Life Pools |
Chest | Breastplate of Proven Knowledge | Algeth'ar Academy |
Wrist | Excavated Earthen Wristslabs | Uldaman |
Gloves | Forgemaster's Grips | Neltharus |
Belt | Trapmaster's Utility Belt | Brackenhide Hollow |
Legs | Venerated Professor's Greaves | Algeth'ar Academy |
Boots | Pristine Magma Stompers | Neltharus |
Ring 1 | Circle of Ascended Frost | Halls of Infusion |
Ring 2 | Thunderous Downburst Ring | The Nokhud Offensive |
Trinket 1 | Blazebinder's Hoof | Ruby Life Pools |
Trinket 2 | Idol of Trampling Hooves | The Nokhud Offensive |
Weapon | Ley-Line Tracer | The Azure Vault |
Trinkets
Below you can find active and passive alternatives to our recommended trinkets. Do note that some trinkets are better than others depending on the scenario.
Active Trinket alternatives
- Enduring Dreadplate
- Very strong defensive trinket that also does big AoE damage.
- Manic Grieftorch
- The best on-use-damage trinket you can get.
- Treemouth's Festering Splinter
- Another strong absorb trinket, this is not a bad pick but Rageheart is better.
- Storm-Eater's Boon
- A very strong trinket for big AoE. Watch out because it roots you for its duration.
- Ward of Faceless Ire
- This is a decent absorb trinket with 1 min cooldown. Mainly used on Tyrannical to help out to your DPS players if they are dying to mechanics.
Passive Trinket alternatives
- Augury of the Primal Flame
- If you just want to do damage, best passive damage trinket.
- All-Totem of the Master
- Decent passive trinket if you want to have a bit of everything. It procs damage, stats, and armor at random every 30 seconds.
- Cataclysmic Signet Brand
- Very strong damage trinket on super high Tyrannical keys, even better if you can chain combat.
Simcraft
To find the best combination of gear available to you or identify the best possible upgrades, visit our Simcraft guide to learn how to utilize Simcraft easily and effectively.
Embellishments
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Blood Death Knight
- 2x Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch
- Really good since it just does damage to the target
- On Wrists, Boots, Waist, or Cloak depending on your available gear.
Remaining Sparks
- Make sure to apply Alchemical Flavor Pocket if you have an additional crafted item equipped.
- Crafted items are 525 item level and regular items are 528 on max item level, therefore, it's not beneficial to equip crafted items outside of your 2x embellishments unless you don't have access to other high item level gear on that slot.
Enchantments
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Blood Death Knight
Head | Incandescent Essence |
Neck | Tiered Medallion Setting 3x |
Cloak | Enchant Cloak - Graceful Avoidance |
Chest | Enchant Chest - Waking Stats |
Wrist | Enchant Bracer - Devotion of Avoidance |
Belt | Shadowed Belt Clasp |
Legs | Fierce Armor Kit |
Boots | Enchant Boots - Plainsrunner's Breeze |
Ring 1 | Enchant Ring - Devotion of Haste |
Ring 2 | Enchant Ring - Devotion of Haste |
Weapon | Rune of the Fallen Crusader |
Consumables
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Blood Death Knight
Phials
- Phial of Tepid Versatility -- Your default choice
- Iced Phial of Corrupting Rage -- For maximum DPS.
Food
- Grand Banquet of the Kalu'ak
- Deviously Deviled Eggs
Combat Potion
- Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power
- Residual Neural Channeling Agent -- Can be used while being dead if your potion is ready.
Health Potion
- Potion of Withering Dreams -- Since this potion is the only potion able to make a bigger change in hp for tanks it's recommended to use if you need that emergency big heal.
- Dreamwalker's Healing Potion -- for a small heal over time but in return no rotting damage.
Weapon Rune
- Howling Rune -- Haste
- Buzzing Rune -- Crit
Augment Rune
- Dreambound Augment Rune -- Requires Reputation
- Draconic Augment Rune
Sockets
- Fierce Illimited Diamond -- Unique, made by work order
- Energized Ysemerald
Races
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Blood Death Knight
For min-maxing a Blood Death Knight in Mythic+ Dungeons, different racial traits can provide a tremendous benefit to your characters. If this is not your top goal, picking a race that fits your style works just as well.
- Stoneform -- Dwarf
- Is very valuable because you can dispel yourself or remove dangerous bleed effects.
- On top of that using Stoneform gives you 10% physical DR which can be used as a small extra 8 second personal when tanking.
- Use-case examples:
- Bursting stacks.
- Searing Wounds, Kokia Blazehoof (Ruby Life Pools)
- Primal Chill, Whelps (Ruby Life Pools)
- Rending Strike and Conductive Strike, Balakar Khan (Nokhud Offensive)
- Dragon Strike, Umbrelskul (Azure Vault)
- Savage Peck, Crawth (Algeth'ar Academy)
- Splinterbark, Overgrown Ancient (Algeth'ar Academy)
- Gushing Wound, Refti Defender (Halls of Infusion)
- Deep Chill, Glacial Proto-Dragons (Halls of Infusion)
- Withering, Fetid Rotsingers and Brackenhide Shapers (Brackenhide Hollow)
- Crippling Bite, Gutshot Hyena (Brackenhide Hollow)
- Chomp, Vicious Basilisk (Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr)
- Jagged Bite, Refti Custodian (Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr)
- Stolen Time, Infinite Timereavers (Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr)
- Shadowmeld -- Night Elf
- Can be very useful when doing any kind of skip in Mythic+
- Run past basically any mob and then cast Shadowmeld to make them reset. Even works on mobs that have stealth detection if you get enough distance before you Shadowmeld
- Rocket Jump -- Goblin
- Do a small jump in the direction your character is facing.
- While you're in the Rocket Jump animation you are placed on a global cooldown until your character lands.
- Arcane Torrent -- Blood Elf
- Strong racial to dispel or purge enemies, the value is very limited but sometimes can come in handy.
- Spatial Rift -- Void Elf
- Spawn a shadow traveling into your facing direction, and activate again to teleport to the rift.
- Maximum range of 100 yards.
Recommendation
As a tank picking a racial for damage is a small gain that it's not worth it most of the time. If you care about min-maxing your DPS go with the highest DPS racial.
That being said the recommended race for Mythic+ is either Night Elf or Dwarf both offer unique features one being more tactical with Night Elf skips and the other being more reliable when it comes to your survivability.
Macros
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Blood Death Knight
Discover recommended macros for Blood Death Knight during Mythic+ dungeons and watch a quick video guide on creating simple macros for your character.
Macro Import Guide Video
Taunt Macros
Taunt Macro --- This macro either casts Dark Command at your target or your mouseover (very handy to pick up mobs)
#showtooltip Dark Command/cast [@mouseover,exists,harm][@target,exists,harm] Dark Command
Boss 1 Taunt --- Casts Dark Command on Boss1
/cast [@boss1] Dark Command
Boss 2 Taunt --- Casts Dark Command on Boss2
/cast [@boss2] Dark Command
Mouseover Macros
Focus Macros
Utility Macros
Addons
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Blood Death Knight
Below, you see a screenshot of the author's User Interface for their Blood Death Knight, outlining which addons are used and how they are utilized in Mythic+ to make your life easier.
![Blood Death Knight Mythic+ Guide (3) Blood Death Knight Mythic+ Guide (3)](https://i0.wp.com/assets-ng.maxroll.gg/wordpress/DK-M-UI-1024x673.webp)
Addons
Weakauras
Changes this Patch
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Blood Death Knight
Patch 11.0
FAQ
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Blood Death Knight
Q: Why do I keep dying?
Credits
Written By: Meeres
Reviewed By: Rycn