Blood Death Knight Tank Gear and Best in Slot — The War Within (11.2)

Last updated on Aug 04, 2025 at 19:30 by Mandl and Panthea 44 comments
General Information

On this page, you will find the best gear and best in slot items for your Blood Death Knight in World of Warcraft The War Within (11.2).

1.

BiS Gear for Blood Death Knights

Welcome to our Gear and BiS Page for Blood Death Knight for The War Within Season 3. Check this page to learn everything you need to know about gearing a Blood Death Knight, including the BiS Gear from all sources, Raiding, and Mythic+, information on the best Trinkets, Tier Sets, and much more.

We only provide a "Best in Slot" list as a mandatory requirement stemming from certain guilds and players thinking they absolutely need to blindly chase that one item in that one slot and nothing else will do. Sometimes, it is raid leaders enforcing a very strict "BiS list" for loot council without any nuance; other times, it is players themselves enforcing it on themselves.

Blood Death Knight gearing is very simple: you prioritize item level above everything else on everything except trinkets, as anything 6 item levels or more is virtually guaranteed to be an upgrade.

If you have a choice on the same item level, the alternative will not, in generic circumstances, make a difference defensively. As such, we recommend just simming the choice and going with whatever helps you do more damage.

There are exceptions to this rule and encounter-specific situations where a stat is massively devalued. Whenever an encounter features a difference (such as a boss not having a parryable auto-attack or dealing pure magical damage) and is deadly enough to warrant recommending small gearing changes, we will highlight it in the encounter guides as an exception, not a rule.

Similarly, at the absolute cutting-edge Mythic+ key levels, a slightly more fine-tuned approach towards secondaries and key-specific trade-offs on secondary stats may occur. This is extremely rare, and very often, even these players eschew or illogically favor choices that prove to be major mistakes just by cursory log analysis.

We have covered some of the caveats in a more detailed fashion on the following page:

2.

"Simming" Yourself as a Blood Death Knight

Throughout this page, we regularly refer to the importance of simming yourself on Raidbots, as it is an indispensable aspect of optimizing your character.

While we do offer generic sim charts for Trinkets, this should not be a replacement for simming. These charts are generated in isolation, without including a second trinket. As a result, this can mess with - to name just a few:

  • Cases where you have two on-use trinkets and the order in which they are used
  • Cases where trinket cooldowns clash at specific points
  • Cases where a certain trinket drastically impacts your rotation when it comes off cooldown

If you are new to simming and Raidbots, check out our detailed guide below.

3.

BiS Gear for Blood Death Knight

San'layn Season 3 Deathbringer Season 3 Manaforge Omega Gear Mythic+

This list contains the Best in Slot Gear from any source in Season 3 of The War Within. It is there as a reference to what is currently the highest performing gear available to players.

Slot Item Source/Note
Weapon Maw of the Void Icon Maw of the Void (723) Nexus King Salhadaar in Mythic Manaforge Omega
Helm Hollow Sentinel's Stonemask Icon Hollow Sentinel's Stonemask (723) Tier Set: Catalyst / Vault / Raid
Neck Duskblaze's Desperation Icon Duskblaze's Desperation (723) The Soul Hunters in Mythic Manaforge Omega
Shoulder Hollow Sentinel's Perches Icon Hollow Sentinel's Perches (723) Tier Set: Catalyst / Vault / Raid
Cloak Reshii Wraps Icon Reshii Wraps with Haste (730) Reshii Wraps
Chest Hollow Sentinel's Breastplate Icon Hollow Sentinel's Breastplate (723) Tier Set: Catalyst / Vault / Raid
Bracers Everforged Vambraces Icon Everforged Vambraces (720) Crafted
Gloves Hollow Sentinel's Gauntlets Icon Hollow Sentinel's Gauntlets (723) Tier Set: Catalyst / Vault / Raid
Belt Everforged Greatbelt Icon Everforged Greatbelt (720) Crafted
Legs Halkias's Towering Pillars Icon Halkias's Towering Pillars (723) Halls of Atonement
Boots Hollow Sentinel's Greatboots Icon Hollow Sentinel's Greatboots (723) Catalyst
Ring #1 Signet of Collapsing Stars Icon Signet of Collapsing Stars (723) Tazavesh: So'Leah's Gambit
Ring #2 High Nerubian Signet Icon High Nerubian Signet (723) Ara-Kara, City of Echoes
Trinket #1 Tome of Light's Devotion Icon Tome of Light's Devotion (723) Priory of the Sacred Flame
Trinket #2 Unyielding Netherprism Icon Unyielding Netherprism (723) Fractillus in Mythic Manaforge Omega
Trinket #2 (Traded to you from Hardmode Tazavesh) Miniscule Mailemental in an Envelope Icon Miniscule Mailemental in an Envelope (723) Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder

This list contains the Best in Slot Gear from any source in Season 3 of The War Within. It is there as a reference to what is currently the highest performing gear available to players.

Slot Item Source/Note
Weapon Skyreaver, Greataxe of the Keepers Icon Skyreaver, Greataxe of the Keepers (723) Tazavesh: So'Leah's Gambit
Helm Hollow Sentinel's Stonemask Icon Hollow Sentinel's Stonemask (723) Tier Set: Catalyst / Vault / Raid
Neck Duskblaze's Desperation Icon Duskblaze's Desperation (723) The Soul Hunters in Mythic Manaforge Omega
Shoulder Hollow Sentinel's Perches Icon Hollow Sentinel's Perches (723) Tier Set: Catalyst / Vault / Raid
Cloak Reshii Wraps Icon Reshii Wraps with Crit (730) Reshii Wraps
Chest Hollow Sentinel's Breastplate Icon Hollow Sentinel's Breastplate (723) Tier Set: Catalyst / Vault / Raid
Bracers Everforged Vambraces Icon Everforged Vambraces (720) Crafted
Gloves Hollow Sentinel's Gauntlets Icon Hollow Sentinel's Gauntlets (723) Tier Set: Catalyst / Vault / Raid
Belt Everforged Greatbelt Icon Everforged Greatbelt (720) Crafted
Legs Halkias's Towering Pillars Icon Halkias's Towering Pillars (723) Halls of Atonement
Boots Devoted Plate Walkers Icon Devoted Plate Walkers (723) Priory of the Sacred Flame
Ring #1 Logic Gate: Alpha Icon Logic Gate: Alpha (723) Plexus Sentinel in Mythic Manaforge Omega
Ring #2 High Nerubian Signet Icon High Nerubian Signet (723) Ara-Kara, City of Echoes
Trinket #1 Tome of Light's Devotion Icon Tome of Light's Devotion (723) Priory of the Sacred Flame
Trinket #2 Astral Antenna Icon Astral Antenna (723) Loom’ithar in Mythic Manaforge Omega

This list serves as a "My raid leader needs me to provide a wishlist, here is the wishlist" item list. If you were to assemble the best gear set from Nerub-ara Palace specifically, and no other source, this is what you would wear.

Slot Item Source/Note
Weapon Maw of the Void Icon Maw of the Void (723) Nexus King Salhadaar in Mythic Manaforge Omega
Helm Artoshion's Abyssal Stare Icon Artoshion's Abyssal Stare (723) Dimensius The All Devouring in Mythic Manaforge Omega
Neck Chrysalis of Sundered Souls Icon Chrysalis of Sundered Souls (723) Soulbinder Naazindhri in Mythic Manaforge Omega
Shoulder Beacons of False Righteousness Icon Beacons of False Righteousness (723) Nexus King Salhadaar in Mythic Manaforge Omega
Cloak Reshii Wraps Icon Reshii Wraps with Haste (730) Reshii Wraps
Chest Manaforged Displacement Chassis Icon Manaforged Displacement Chassis (723) Plexus Sentinel in Mythic Manaforge Omega
Bracers Discarded Nutrient Shackles Icon Discarded Nutrient Shackles (723) Loom’ithar in Mythic Manaforge Omega
Gloves Breached Containment Guards Icon Breached Containment Guards (723) Forgeweaver Araz in Mythic Manaforge Omega
Belt Fresh Ethereal Fetters Icon Fresh Ethereal Fetters (723) Soulbinder Naazindhri in Mythic Manaforge Omega
Legs Shrapnel-Fused Legguards Icon Shrapnel-Fused Legguards (723) Fractillus in Mythic Manaforge Omega
Boots Interloper's Plated Sabatons Icon Interloper's Plated Sabatons (723) The Soul Hunters in Mythic Manaforge Omega
Ring #1 Logic Gate: Omega Icon Logic Gate: Omega (723) Forgeweaver Araz in Mythic Manaforge Omega
Ring #2 Band of the Shattered Soul Icon Band of the Shattered Soul (723) Dimensius The All Devouring in Mythic Manaforge Omega
Trinket #1 Unyielding Netherprism Icon Unyielding Netherprism (723) Fractillus in Mythic Manaforge Omega
Trinket #2 (Short fights) Eradicating Arcanocore Icon Eradicating Arcanocore (723) Plexus Sentinel in Mythic Manaforge Omega
Trinket #2 (Long fights) Brand of Ceaseless Ire Icon Brand of Ceaseless Ire (723) The Soul Hunters in Mythic Manaforge Omega

This list contains the best items available per slot from Mythic+. It is there to provide you with a quick list of easily farmable gear if you need something in a specific slot.

Slot Item Source/Note
Weapon Emberbrand Zweihander Icon Emberbrand Zweihander (723) Priory of the Sacred Flame
Helm Wing Commander's Helmet Icon Wing Commander's Helmet (723) Halls of Atonement
Neck Sin Stained Pendant Icon Sin Stained Pendant (723) Halls of Atonement
Shoulder Stoneflesh Spaulders Icon Stoneflesh Spaulders (723) Tazavesh: So'Leah's Gambit
Cloak Reshii Wraps Icon Reshii Wraps with Haste (730) Reshii Wraps
Chest Breastplate of Otherworldly Influence Icon Breastplate of Otherworldly Influence (723) Halls of Atonement
Bracers Flameforged Armguard Icon Flameforged Armguard (723) Priory of the Sacred Flame
Gloves Devourer's Gauntlets Icon Devourer's Gauntlets (723) Ara-Kara, City of Echoes
Belt Venture Contractor's Floodlight Icon Venture Contractor's Floodlight (723) Operation: Floodgate
Legs Halkias's Towering Pillars Icon Halkias's Towering Pillars (723) Halls of Atonement
Boots Implacable Weatherproof Treads Icon Implacable Weatherproof Treads (723) Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder
Ring #1 Ring of the Panoply Icon Ring of the Panoply (723) Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder
Ring #2 Whispers of K'aresh Icon Whispers of K'aresh (723) Eco-Dome Al'dani
Trinket #1 Tome of Light's Devotion Icon Tome of Light's Devotion (723) Priory of the Sacred Flame
Trinket #2 Cursed Stone Idol Icon Cursed Stone Idol (723) Halls of Atonement
4.

Durable Information Securing Container

Path 11.1.7 brought with it Durable Information Securing Container Icon Durable Information Securing Container, a new belt with unusual effects. You can acquire it by venturing into Overcharged Delves and completing a short quest line. Its item level is upgradeable to 701 through a weekly quest chain. This puts it at a power level where only Myth-track belts will be able to dethrone it.

Depending on the type of content you will be doing, if you are using it, you will want to pick the following bonuses:

  • For Raid/Single-Target: Critical Chain Icon Critical Chain
  • For Mythic+: Critical Chain Icon Critical Chain (Deathbringer) / Spark Burst Icon Spark Burst (San'layn)
  • For World Content/Delves: Critical Chain Icon Critical Chain

You will be replacing this belt when you craft your second embellished piece with Gilded crests, or when you acquire a Myth-track belt - whichever comes first.

5.

Best Trinkets for Blood Death Knight in The War Within Season 3

Raiding Trinket Tier List Mythic+ Trinket Tier List
6.

Raid Trinket Tier List for Blood Death Knight

This Trinket Tier List is for trinkets that are used for Single Target/Raiding Purposes.

5.1.

S-Tier

  • Tome of Light's Devotion Icon Tome of Light's Devotion has two modes - a defensive mode which grants a pittance of armor and a chance to gain a small absorption shield when attacked, and an "offense" mode granting a decent amount of critical strike rating and a chance to deal holy damage to your target. You can switch between phases when you reach 50 stacks of the corresponding buff, which you gain when taking damage, or by using the trinket. Using the trinket also doubles the effect of the phase you swap into for 20 seconds.

    Use this weakaura to highlight when to use the on-use; you will want to delay it if it glows at the end of a pull.
  • Miniscule Mailemental in an Envelope Icon Miniscule Mailemental in an Envelope is not directly available to Blood Death Knights but can be traded by casters in Mythic+ and hardmode Tazavesh: Streets. It passively deals an absurd amount of damage, as its proc has not been affected by the tank tax (and thus is 33% stronger than it should be). Its proc rate is hasted, but an internal cooldown prevents it from proccing more than once every 3 seconds.
  • Unyielding Netherprism Icon Unyielding Netherprism passively deals a moderate amount of damage and has a stacking buff (up to 15). This buff can be consumed to increase your Strength. The direct damage proc is not reduced for tanks, making it much better than it should be.

    As San'layn, use it with Dancing Rune Weapon Icon Dancing Rune Weapon. As Deathbringer, use it with Reaper's Mark Icon Reaper's Mark.
5.1.

A-Tier

  • Astral Antenna Icon Astral Antenna ( Deathbringer only; B-tier as San'layn) passively procs and gives you Critical Strike rating. In a Single Target raiding environment the random nature of the proc can be a downside as you have very specific damage windows and this buff may not be available for them. Deathbringer gains more value from this due to its relative dislike of haste and frequency of large damage windows compared to San'layn.
  • Araz's Ritual Forge Icon Araz's Ritual Forge - use this as Dancing Rune Weapon Icon Dancing Rune Weapon starts, or on cooldown as Deathbringer. The health penalty is offset by a single Death Strike Icon Death Strike, and the amount of strength it provides more than outweighs this drawback.
  • Improvised Seaforium Pacemaker Icon Improvised Seaforium Pacemaker grants a large amount of critical strike rating every minute, and this can be extended further when you crit while this buff is up. As Blood deals a large amount of small instances of damage, this is almost a given - making this buff a 50% theoretical uptime with very little work.
  • Ara-Kara Sacbrood Icon Ara-Kara Sacbrood passively ramps with bonus strength. The buffs it provides stack and last 1 minute, independently of each other. This is more powerful on long fights, although its proc rate is affected by haste (and thus extremely swingy for San'layn and during Bloodlust).
  • Eradicating Arcanocore Icon Eradicating Arcanocore gains stacks as you attack. Once it reaches 10 stacks, it unleashes a large amount of damage on all enemies near you. As of writing this trinket is simming very well but does not have a tank tax applied to it (reducing the damage it does by 33%).
5.1.

B-Tier

  • Signet of the Priory Icon Signet of the Priory increases your highest secondary stat significantly on a 2 minute cooldown. This also buffs nearby players who also have the trinket equipped.
  • So'leah's Secret Technique Icon So'leah's Secret Technique grants you and a chosen ally a decent amount of secondary stats. Passive, simple; track whether it is still active with a weakaura.
  • Perfidious Projector Icon Perfidious Projector deals a large amount of damage to your target. Simply use on cooldown.
  • Incorporeal Warpclaw Icon Incorporeal Warpclaw passively deals damage to your target and all enemies in a line in front of you.
5.1.

C-Tier

  • Screams of a Forgotten Sky Icon Screams of a Forgotten Sky passively deals damage to your target. It is not tuned competitively enough to justify its use, even on single target.
  • Ticking Sack of Terror Icon Ticking Sack of Terror applies a stacking debuff to your enemies. When it reaches 3 stacks it will deal a high amount of damage. Short-lived targets can also cause you to waste some of the value of this trinket.
5.1.

Defensive-Tier

  • Loom'ithar's Living Silk Icon Loom'ithar's Living Silk applies an absorb shield to yourself and 4 nearby players which also reduces damage taken by 75%. It is difficult to justify in raid as it will target four random people.
  • Soulbinder's Embrace Icon Soulbinder's Embrace absorbs a relatively low amount of damage and pulses damage to nearby enemies. There are very few reasons to use this over Ringing Ritual Mud Icon Ringing Ritual Mud (and they are both underwhelming).
  • Brand of Ceaseless Ire Icon Brand of Ceaseless Ire applies a very small absorb shield to you and deals damage to nearby enemies. The values of either effect increase each time they proc. In practice, this trinket gains value on higher difficulties, and remains mediocre at best on farm, normal and half of the bosses on heroic.
  • All-Devouring Nucleus Icon All-Devouring Nucleus is a proc based trinket that will deal damage and heal you based on the damage dealt. It also has a cheat death effect, however the overkill value on this is quite low and also requires you to get back to 50% Health within 6 seconds to not die. It also interacts negatively with Purgatory Icon Purgatory, causing both to trigger relatively often. Another bug with Will of the Necropolis Icon Will of the Necropolis causes this trinket to misfire without you being sub-50% on very large hits when other absorbs are present, causing you to die 6 seconds later, as this trinket counts you going past 50% instead of just being above it at time of expiration.
  • Ringing Ritual Mud Icon Ringing Ritual Mud absorbs a large amount of damage every 2 minutes; its effective cooldown is situationally reduced to a minimum of 96 seconds, and you should evaluate fight conditions to verify both whether this is useful to you, and its effective cooldown based on periodic damage effects present. It is somewhat difficult to justify this over Loom'ithar's Living Silk Icon Loom'ithar's Living Silk, but the situation may exist where you need to triple your effective health for a single hit.
  • Codex of the First Technique Icon Codex of the First Technique forces you to trade a full Strength budget (~6% damage, ~1.5% physical damage reduction from armor) in order to randomly gain a ~1.1m 10% damage absorption effect 2.5 times a minute. Averaged, even as San'layn, this barely comes within range of Soulbinder's Embrace Icon Soulbinder's Embrace while being unreliable, unpredictable, low value, low damage reduction and reflects very little damage per proc, while trading a large amount both defensively and offensively. To highlight the absurdly poor tuning of this trinket, Symbiotic Ethergauze Icon Symbiotic Ethergauze quite literally triples it in average value, assuming you can absorb this much damage.
6.

Mythic+ Trinket Tier List for Blood Death Knight

This Trinket Tier List is for trinkets that are used for AoE Purposes in M+/Delves/Raiding.

5.1.

S-Tier

  • Tome of Light's Devotion Icon Tome of Light's Devotion has two modes - a defensive mode which grants a pittance of armor and a chance to gain a small absorption shield when attacked, and an "offense" mode granting a decent amount of critical strike rating and a chance to deal holy damage to your target. You can switch between phases when you reach 50 stacks of the corresponding buff, which you gain when taking damage, or by using the trinket. Using the trinket also doubles the effect of the phase you swap into for 20 seconds.

    Use this weakaura to highlight when to use the on-use; you will want to delay it if it glows at the end of a pull.
  • Unyielding Netherprism Icon Unyielding Netherprism passively deals a moderate amount of damage and has a stacking buff (up to 15). This buff can be consumed to increase your Strength. The direct damage proc is not reduced for tanks, making it much better than it should be.

    As San'layn, use it with Dancing Rune Weapon Icon Dancing Rune Weapon. As Deathbringer, use it with Reaper's Mark Icon Reaper's Mark.
  • Cursed Stone Idol Icon Cursed Stone Idol - use this right before Dancing Rune Weapon Icon Dancing Rune Weapon as San'layn, or use on cooldown as Deathbringer. This is primarily an AoE trinket, as its damage is unsplit and uncapped, but the generous amount of Critical Strike it provides makes it still worthwhile in single target.
  • Araz's Ritual Forge Icon Araz's Ritual Forge - use this as Dancing Rune Weapon Icon Dancing Rune Weapon starts, or on cooldown as Deathbringer. The health penalty is offset by a single Death Strike Icon Death Strike, and the amount of strength it provides more than outweighs this drawback.
5.1.

A-Tier

  • Improvised Seaforium Pacemaker Icon Improvised Seaforium Pacemaker grants a large amount of critical strike rating every minute, and this can be extended further when you crit while this buff is up. As Blood deals a large amount of small instances of damage, this is almost a given - making this buff a 50% theoretical uptime with very little work.
  • Ara-Kara Sacbrood Icon Ara-Kara Sacbrood simply provides a very large amount of value. As the buff it provides can stack, has an absurdly large amount of maximum range, does not decay out of combat and can be kept between pulls, it really shines in Mythic+.
  • Eradicating Arcanocore Icon Eradicating Arcanocore gains stacks as you attack. Once it reaches 10 stacks, it unleashes a large amount of damage on all enemies near you. This effect is currently is not currently subject to the 33% tank tax, rendering it stronger than it should be. You can keep the stacks of this trinket between pulls, making it even more appealing in Mythic+.
  • Screams of a Forgotten Sky Icon Screams of a Forgotten Sky passively damages your current target. When a target hit by this dies it will also trigger an AoE around them based on the amount of times they were hit by the initial effect. This has significantly larger value in Mythic+ as this AoE pulse will frequently trigger.
5.1.

B-Tier

  • Signet of the Priory Icon Signet of the Priory can be used every 2min along with burst cooldowns from most of your team, rendering the entire group (or at least those also wearing this trinket) stronger.
  • So'leah's Secret Technique Icon So'leah's Secret Technique grants you and a chosen ally a decent amount of secondary stats. Passive, simple; track whether it is still active with a weakaura.
  • Astral Antenna Icon Astral Antenna passively procs and gives you Critical Strike rating. In an M+ Scenario this is quite useful as this is additional parry chance and will also amplify your damage dealt.
5.1.

C-Tier

  • Perfidious Projector Icon Perfidious Projector deals a large amount of damage to your target on a 2 minute cooldown. This effect splits with nearby enemies without gaining bonus damage, making it instantly worth less on the majority of the time spent in a key.
  • Ticking Sack of Terror Icon Ticking Sack of Terror applies a stacking debuff to your enemies. When it reaches 3 stacks it will deal a high amount of damage. Due to the larger target count in Mythic+ and frequent enemy deaths, this very often leads to losing the majority of the procs from this trinket.
  • Incorporeal Warpclaw Icon Incorporeal Warpclaw deals damage to your target and all enemies in the path. This damage splits based on the amount of enemies hit, lowering its value significantly in Mythic+.
5.1.

Defensive-Tier

  • Loom'ithar's Living Silk Icon Loom'ithar's Living Silk applies an absorb shield to yourself and 4 nearby players which also reduces damage taken by 75%. The cooldown of this trinket is low enough to form a plan around it, and the fact it will apply to your whole M+ group is even more tempting.
  • Soulbinder's Embrace Icon Soulbinder's Embrace absorbs a relatively low amount of damage and pulses damage to nearby enemies. There are very few reasons to use this over Ringing Ritual Mud Icon Ringing Ritual Mud (and they are both underwhelming).
  • Brand of Ceaseless Ire Icon Brand of Ceaseless Ire applies a very small absorb shield to you and deals damage to nearby enemies. The values of either effect increase each time they proc, but never get to a point where either the absorb or damage dealt is meaningful.
  • All-Devouring Nucleus Icon All-Devouring Nucleus is a proc based trinket that will deal damage and heal you based on the damage dealt. It also has a cheat death effect, however the overkill value on this is quite low and also requires you to get back to 50% Health within 6 seconds to not die. It also interacts negatively with Purgatory Icon Purgatory, causing both to trigger relatively often. Another bug with Will of the Necropolis Icon Will of the Necropolis causes this trinket to misfire without you being sub-50% on very large hits when other absorbs are present, causing you to die 6 seconds later, as this trinket counts you going past 50% instead of just being above it at time of expiration.
  • Ringing Ritual Mud Icon Ringing Ritual Mud absorbs a large amount of damage every 2 minutes; its effective cooldown is situationally reduced to a minimum of 96 seconds, and you should evaluate fight conditions to verify both whether this is useful to you, and its effective cooldown based on periodic damage effects present. It is somewhat difficult to justify this over Loom'ithar's Living Silk Icon Loom'ithar's Living Silk, but the situation may exist where you need to triple your effective health for a single hit.
  • Codex of the First Technique Icon Codex of the First Technique forces you to trade a full Strength budget (~6% damage, ~1.5% physical damage reduction from armor) in order to randomly gain a ~1.1m 10% damage absorption effect 2.5 times a minute. Averaged, even as San'layn, this barely comes within range of Soulbinder's Embrace Icon Soulbinder's Embrace while being unreliable, unpredictable, low value, low damage reduction and reflects very little damage per proc, while trading a large amount both defensively and offensively. To highlight the absurdly poor tuning of this trinket, Symbiotic Ethergauze Icon Symbiotic Ethergauze quite literally triples it in average value, assuming you can absorb this much damage.

Anything not listed above would be a stopgap until you get something better.

6.

Best Crafted Items for Blood Death Knight

Embellishments have seen no tuning since the launch of The War Within, and weapon crafts tend to be extremely prohibitive for two-handed weapon users as they cost two Spark of Starlight Icon Spark of Starlight. This, in turn, delays the power gain from embellishments by two full resets if you wait.

Beyond this, as weapons tend to be the largest power gain per point of item level, we recommend crafting the following in this specific order for Patch 11.2:

  • Everforged Vambraces Icon Everforged Vambraces with Elemental Focusing Lens Icon Elemental Focusing Lens or Dawnthread Lining Icon Dawnthread Lining if you do not have a single colored gem
  • Everforged Greatbelt Icon Everforged Greatbelt with Elemental Focusing Lens Icon Elemental Focusing Lens or Dawnthread Lining Icon Dawnthread Lining if you do not have a single colored gem

Whilst a Missive can allow you to target certain secondary stats, Blood Death Knights tend to not see a large amount of difference between all of the different options. If you absolutely want to gauge this delta, use Raidbots to simulate all of the different combinations; they will all typically fall within 0.1-0.2% of each other. As such, we recommend not bothering until significantly later in the season, when re-crafting will be cheaper.

7.

Blood Death Knight Tier Set - Hollow Sentinel's Wake

With the launch of Season 3, Blood Death Knights will be able to gain the bonuses from the Hollow Sentinel's Wake. These change based on your hero talent choice:

7.1.

San'layn

  • Death Knight San'layn 11.2 Class Set 2pc Icon Death Knight San'layn 11.2 Class Set 2pcVampiric Strike Icon Vampiric Strike increases the remaining duration of Blood Plague Icon Blood Plague on its main target (and no other target) by 3 additional seconds, and Essence of the Blood Queen Icon Essence of the Blood Queen now grants 0.5% mastery per stack, tripling during Gift of the San'layn Icon Gift of the San'layn.
  • Death Knight San'layn 11.2 Class Set 4pc Icon Death Knight San'layn 11.2 Class Set 4pcInfliction of Sorrow Icon Infliction of Sorrow deals 50% bonus damage, and Vampiric Strike Icon Vampiric Strike causes Dancing Rune Weapon Icon Dancing Rune Weapon to deal 20% bonus damage for 8 seconds, stacking.
7.2.

Deathbringer

  • Death Knight Deathbringer 11.2 Class Set 2pc Icon Death Knight Deathbringer 11.2 Class Set 2pc — Casting Reaper's Mark Icon Reaper's Mark instantly grants two empowered stacks of Exterminate Icon Exterminate.
  • Death Knight Deathbringer 11.2 Class Set 4pc Icon Death Knight Deathbringer 11.2 Class Set 4pcExterminate Icon Exterminate deals 20% bonus damage, and Reaper's Mark Icon Reaper's Mark can stack up to 55 times. Reaper's Mark Icon Reaper's Mark's detonation also grants you 10% critical strike chance for 8 seconds.
7.3.

Which Pieces to Use?

You should prioritize the slots you have the worst items in; the absolute best gear set uses Head, Shoulders, Chest and Gloves to activate the 4-piece set bonus, but the difference between using the Legs or not could boil down to simply not getting a Myth-track headpiece from any other source.

8.

PvP Gear Recommendations for Blood Death Knight

Obtaining gear from rated PvP can be a powerful boost to your item level early in the season.

If you are wanting to obtain PvP gear, we would advise doing Solo Shuffle as Frost.

9.

Best Gear Upgrades for Blood Death Knight

Completing end-game activities in The War Within will reward you with Crests and Valorstones. Once you have upgraded a slot to a certain item level, upgrading other items of that slot to that item level is free.

We recommend upgrading with the following priority list:

  • Upgrade your lowest item level slots or use a Raidbots Droptimiser sim to evaluate what to upgrade next.
  • Finally, upgrade your weapon. The reason for this being last is that Weapons are the most expensive to upgrade, and you should focus on trying to farm a higher item level weapon and gain more overall value from your upgrades.
10.

Changelog

  • 16 Aug. 2025: Updating for hotfixes.
  • 04 Aug. 2025: Updated for 11.2, including all trinkets.
  • 25 Jun. 2025: Updating D.I.S.C. recommendations after hotfix.
  • 15 Jun. 2025: Adding D.I.S.C. recommendations for Patch 11.1.7.
  • 13 May 2025: Refining dinar recommendations.
  • 21 Apr. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.1.5.
  • 24 Feb. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.1.
  • 15 Dec. 2024: Adding Cyrce's Circlet.
  • 21 Oct. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 11.0.5.
  • 09 Sep. 2024: Updated for TWW S1, added all BiS lists and all trinket ratings.
  • 27 Aug. 2024: Removed legendary axe recommendation as new sims show this to be a DPS loss over item level.
  • 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within Launch with Pre-Season BiS. Stay tuned for Season 1 Updates!
  • 23 Jul. 2024: Removed bullion section to prepare for pre-patch.
  • 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
  • 22 Apr. 2024: Prepared for Season 4. Contains new BiS with all the S4 gear, cantrips, trinkets, bullions etc.
  • 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
  • 15 Jan. 2024: Clarifying BiS lists, removing crafted from M+/raid tables.
  • 03 Jan. 2024: Removing tuning disclaimers, adding Fyr'alath.
  • 27 Nov. 2023: Adding in murozond's rise/galakrond's fall separate links.
  • 07 Nov. 2023: Sporecloak got taken out back, so we update that.
  • 06 Nov. 2023: Prepared for 10.2, all trinkets are in, all gear sets are in.
  • 04 Sep. 2023: New format - and some clarifications + BiS lists for 10.1.7!
  • 10 Jul. 2023: Added 10.1.5 info about mega dungeon and open world trinkets.
  • 24 May 2023: Added timewalking section.
  • 01 May 2023: Updated for Season 2 launch. Moved Onyx Annulet section to the bottom of the page (It's still good for damage!)
  • 20 Mar. 2023: Added Onyx Annulet and clarified its use in content.
  • 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Season 1 launch.
  • 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
  • 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
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