Blood Death Knight 6.2

[Guest airaani]

Is there a reason that Stamina isn't on the stat priority list? It's important to know how it weighs when considering, for example, an upgrade that gains 12 stamina but loses 70 bonus armor (hypothetically). It's also very important for picking trinkets.

[Avlaen 0]

How come multistrike isnt listed under survialbility wieghts? multistrikes give RP and thus max health and runes(and thus death strikes) from death coils

[Guest flem]

Why is versatility bad for blood dk's? It has everything the hybrid dk tank needs, also it will increase your blood sheild by moe hps and dps. So i see no problem in stacking it.

[Guest Kaedys]

Seems Icebound Fortitude is mis-annotated in the cooldowns section of the Rotations page.  It decreases damage taken by 50%, not 20%.  Also, Glyph of Vampiric Blood only provides a 10% increase to the healing taken benefit (15% -> 25%) at the cost of the max health benefit.  Lastly, I would tend to argue that both Glyph of Blood Boil (+50% Blood Boil range) and Glyph of Absorb Magic (doubles Absorb Magic absorption total from 50% to 100% of maximum HP) are worth mentioning on the glyphs page.

[Guest Malkavianic]

Why is crit valued so low? It provides parry via riposte, doesnt it

 

Basically I have the exact same question. I am currently checking for the stats with different kinds of gear (master+multistrike, hard-multistrike, hard mastery etc etc...) and as there are many items combined with mastery+crit or mastery+versatility, I am curious why crit (due to the direct parry value enhancement) should be so much worse then versatility?

[Malkavianic 0]

Why is crit valued so low? It provides parry via riposte, doesnt it

 

Basically I am asking myself the same thing right now.

The value in crit is added 1:1 to the value for parry... so why is this stat so low in the priority list?

Is it's skaling that bad?

Also why not prefering this stat over versatility?

 

edit: takes really long until a post as guest is added here... sry for that!

Edited December 30, 2014 by Malkavianic

[Malkavianic 0]

He did. for right now priority on stats you can actually get should be:

 

Str > Bonus Armor > Mastery > Crit > Haste

 

Str is 1:1 the best stat, but for gemming you would want either mastery for purely more survival, or crit if you want some hybrid dps+avoidance.

Ah, checking the thread again, I have found that gem...

 

Is it possible to update this priority on the main guide site?

Currently it still lists it that way:

1.1. Survival

1. Bonus Armor;
2. Strength;
3. Mastery;
4. Versatility;
5. Haste;
6. Critical Strike.

1.2. DPS-oriented

1. Bonus Armor;
2. Strength;
3. Mastery;
4. Multistrike;
5. Versatility;
6. Haste;
7. Critical Strike.

 

Understanding Storm the right way it's like I hoped it will be:

1.1. Survival

1. Bonus Armor;
2. Strength;
3. Mastery;
4. Critical Strike;
5. Versatility;
6. Haste.

1.2. DPS-oriented

1. Bonus Armor;
2. Strength;
3. Mastery;
4. Critical Strike;
5. Multistrike;
6. Versatility;
7. Haste.

Though I can think of the way, that in the DPS oriented part it most propably will be more like

 

1. Bonus Armor;
2. Strength;
3. Mastery;
4. Multistrike;
5. Critical Strike;
6. Versatility;
7. Haste.

Edited January 8, 2015 by Malkavianic

[Guest msrai]

i wonder why multistrike is so low value since most of the high end death knight blood tanks i've seen and asked (accension method paragon ect) say that multistrike and mastery are the top prior for survival dk tanks

[SkuulzonVelen 2]

I am still enjoying my Blood Knight.  The changes take a bit to get used to and soloing garrison group quests (The PIT for gods sake!  How many times am I going to visit that place?) takes a bit longer than it used to, I've found the rotation is pretty close to the same.

 

The biggest thing to me is getting the damage reductions and keeping them up.  A dps blood seems like an oxymoron to me, but I usually don't have 3 sets of gear either and just run the best of what I have all the time.

 

Enjoying the expac though!

[Storm 426]

i wonder why multistrike is so low value since most of the high end death knight blood tanks i've seen and asked (accension method paragon ect) say that multistrike and mastery are the top prior for survival dk tanks

 

Multistrike doesn't offer any survival benefit for blood dk's. it's purely a dps stat. If top DK's are prioritizing multistrike it's because they're outgearing the content now and are just trying to push faster kill times.

[Guest A lurker]

Could someone enlighten my how Blood Tap is supposedly the better choice over Runic Corruption?

 

I get far fewer runes back if using Blood Tap (15rp=1 BT charge, so each Death Coil gives 2 charges but you need 10 charges for 2 full runes so 5 Death Coils) If i use Runic Corruption 5 death coils means 2 1/2 procs (on average) but each proc basicaly gives you 3 runes trough increseased regeneration each time it procs. I realize this depends on you having an "empty" runeslot of each type so the regeneration isnt wasted but that is the case all the time anyways. Example as follows:

 

Your runes are XX YY ZZ. Death strike uses YZ so one of each type is always on CD. X are your blood runes you can spend on boil, soul reaper or rune tap. Since rune tap gives you a free proc once you drop below 30% there is no use in keeping any blood runes stacked around, I always boil them away as soon as i get them.

 

Another thing i noticed someone talking about was glyphed outbreak. The tier 4 / level 60 talent is now based on rp spent and the rp you spend on a glyphed outbreak counts towards this so i cant logicaly think of any reason why Glyhp of Outbreak isnt 150% mandatory for all DK specs in combination with Plagueleech

[Guest Burzurkur]

Did DK threat and dmg get nerfed to heck? Our warrior tank is pulling off me all the time and my dps numbers are like 13-15k on single target. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?!?!?!

[Guest Chris]

Can someone explain the bis items here ? the trinkets just look so wrong.

[Guest Guest]

Did DK threat and dmg get nerfed to heck? Our warrior tank is pulling off me all the time and my dps numbers are like 13-15k on single target. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?!?!?!

Yes, a recent patch had nerf'd the damage on BB by 30% while...yes screwing our dps and threat against warrior tanks being they got a full 30% buff to their damage. So your threat goes way down. Best to at least have Glyph of Dancing Blades if you want to start pulling your threat up. Usually best to use on all these tank swap fights. Let the warrior do the initial pull and at your swap, use Dancing rune blades which will increase your threat generation allowing you to pull aggro and keeping it til your warrior tank needs to take it. From that point on you will be able to easily pull aggro when needed and be able to keep it because your threat generation will be up near 100% while the warrior has aggro.

 

Now what Blizzard is saying to make us "happy" is buffing Necrotic Plague by 37%. But to be completely honest, I used to use Necrotic Plague as not all bosses get the "defile" debuff dealing 10% less damage to you (the dk since it only applies to you). But the benefits of it being 1 non-dispellable debuff in replacement to the original 2 (forgot their names) it starts at 1 stack and for each tick of damage, it increases it's stack by 1 -initial damage is 237, stack 2 will be 474...stack 15 will be 3,555. Now just increase that by 37% = 324.69 (stack 1), 649.38 (stack 2), 4,870.35 (stack 15). Second stat to it is that whenever an enemy that has the debuff hits you, you gain 2 (if correct) runic power. So it is a good way to get RP in AoE situations to which you can use Death Coil a lot more. Down point in all this Necrotic Plague? It's not refreshable by Death Coil or Blood Boil so you have to wait for it to automatically go down due to the time limit on it, then refresh it by using an ability that will apply it again.

 

Basically to say the least, level a paladin, hope your group will gear you and go that way...otherwise also make a warrior and tank with it. Blood DK's are bad right now except for their survivability when taking high damage and being able to heal themselves.

[Bearbehemoth 3]

 

Basically to say the least, level a paladin, hope your group will gear you and go that way...otherwise also make a warrior and tank with it. Blood DK's are bad right now except for their survivability when taking high damage and being able to heal themselves.

 

The nerf to BB was made because our AOE was absolutely ludicrous. On trash pulls or heavy add bosses we could chain them one after the other, especially when using Blood tap and Plague leach to proc more death runes. At the start of 6 I could double any of the DPSer's output on AOE and that needed nerfing.

 

Yes - blood Dks damage was nerfed, but we are tanks, not DPSers. We should be working hard to mitigate the damage too us and give the healers an easier time. Blood tanks should not be replaced with pallies/warriors, that's ridiculous.

 

Blood DKs are amazing right now for their survival, which is what a tank should be doing. Damage is not crap, just not OP any more.

 

And - just as a note: Warriors have Mocking banner, which is a continous AOE taunt that you cannot keep up with no matter how high your DPS is. If you find Warriors (and monks with black ox statue) are stripping all threat easily away from you then its a good chance this is the reason why.

Edited February 20, 2015 by Bearbehemoth

[Guest Hotcandlewax]

Can someone explain the bis items here ? the trinkets just look so wrong.

 

I agree.  At the top of the page you recommend 2 trinkets that don't even show up in the list.  Do we get so much survivability from gear that we don't need tanking trinkiets?  Is this an attempt to make up for the dmg nerf?

[Guest Teun]

Has anyone else noticed a pretty radical change to their rune regeneration after 6.1?  I can't tell if it's on purpose or a bug, but I'm leaning towards bug since it wasn't mentioned in any of the patch notes.  

 

Basically, I'm always left with 1 death rune that is "off" from my other runes in terms of cd, leaving me with 3 death runes coming off of cd at once instead of 4 (or 2 that would come off cd with 2 more right behind them).  What this meant is that, pre-6.1, I was sometimes able to use both blood runes as death runes either back to back or at the same time for extra death strikes.  

 

In terms of gameplay, I went from being more or less able to constantly use abilities pre-6.1 in a dance-like fashion vs. now I have instances where I am standing around with a random extra death rune that I can't use for death strikes (I typically end up just using it for blood boil/soul reaper or rune tap, which feels like such a waste since I can use a blood rune for those anyway) and which increases my overall wait-time between being able to use death strikes in-general.

 

Possible relevant note: I'm specced for blood tap, but since everyone else is also probably specced for blood tap I don't imagine this is all that unique to me.  

 

I saw this post on reddit which makes me wonder if this is the reason, but the reddit post seems to make it sound like a positive whereas my experience with the change has been exclusively negative due to significantly longer wait-times for my death runes to come off cd: http://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/2xc293/two_new_death_knight_bugs_in_61/

[Guest Tim]

I see you recommend mastery for blood tanking. I am looking at all the top builds and their blood tanks and they show multistrike for all enchants.

[Arthonor 0]

 Could someone enlighten my how Blood Tap is supposedly the better choice over Runic Corruption?

 

From my calculation Runic Corruption proc from every 66 RP and Blood Tap need 75 RP

Blood Tap is certain and you can choose when you want it to "proc" plus you get a Death Rune. Also you can save up 2 charges of it.

Runic Corruption give 0 - 3 runes back. Most likely 2 or 3 runes. 

Since you use only 30 RP at a time, you have 45% chance for it to proc. Unluckily you can spent a lot more than 75 RP for it to proc. But on average basis it should proc for every 66 RP spent.

I am not fully in to rotations, but 1 or 2 Death Runes being ready at a chosen time, could prove more useful than simply better recharge time. Also Blood Tap seems to prefer Runes that is not already Death Runes. Which is most likely Blood Runes.

It is worth noting that, Blood Tap is off GCD.

My quick test on a dummy:

Runic Corruption:

I get more Death Strikes, but not that much more. I mostly use 4 - 5 Death Coils for RC to proc (120 - 150 RP). But I am not a lucky person. In theory u could get a proc from every use of Death Coil(30 RP), unless there is an internal CD that I don't know about.

Death Siphon is not used, but in real fights it is used as ranged instead of Death Strike when catching mobs or running to another mob. Soul Reaper can be on CD all the time, but 1 Blood Rune is not on CD all the time. Due to Soul Reaper having 6sec. CD, thus using 1.5 Blood Runes.

Blood Tap:

Death Siphon can be included into rotations. Blood Tap can activate a Blood Rune into a Death Rune and then be used on Death Siphon. When this happens, Soul Reaper will have to w8 9sec. instead of 6. Basically Sacrificing 0.5 Soul Reaper for a Death Siphon. 

You may loose 1 stack of Scent of Blood(20% healing boost on next Death Strike). But you get more healing from Death Siphon.

I use 2.5 Death Coils for each Blood Tap(75 RP)

 

In both cases:

Keep in mind that, in both cases you need to break rotation for movement and for other Blood Rune abilities.

If you have other RP abilities than Death Coil, how do they work. Do they consume more or less. If you use Conversion, proc chances will be the same. If you use Breath of Sindragosa, Blood Tap will still be the same, but Runic Corruption will be even more random, due to the lower RP consumption per tick.

Conclusion:

I am inclined to convert from Runic Corruption to Blood Tap.

I feel that I have something to do all the time. I don't have to look at a Blood Rune not doing anything for 6sec.

It's like Blood Tap give a better flow.

[Guest Calypse]

I have a suggestion for Blood Tap Macros. I play Blood and Frost but I’m sure it translates to Unholy as well. Since Blood Tap is off the GCD, I have it macroed to my main moves. So for Blood I have Death Strike and Blood Boil as follows:

 

#showtooltip Death Strike

/cast Death Strike

/cast Blood Tap

 

#showtooltip Blood Boil

/cast Blood Boil

/cast Blood Tap

 

You could probably have it cast Blood Tap twice, once before and once after but I like the Blood Boil macro because (ideally) it replaces my Blood Runes with Death Runes. For Frost I did the same with Frost Strike, Obliterate, and Howling Blast.

 

This eliminates Blood Tap from your rotation completely.

[Aughyssul 3]

I have a suggestion for Blood Tap Macros. I play Blood and Frost but I’m sure it translates to Unholy as well. Since Blood Tap is off the GCD, I have it macroed to my main moves. So for Blood I have Death Strike and Blood Boil as follows:

 

#showtooltip Death Strike

/cast Death Strike

/cast Blood Tap

 

#showtooltip Blood Boil

/cast Blood Boil

/cast Blood Tap

 

You could probably have it cast Blood Tap twice, once before and once after but I like the Blood Boil macro because (ideally) it replaces my Blood Runes with Death Runes. For Frost I did the same with Frost Strike, Obliterate, and Howling Blast.

 

This eliminates Blood Tap from your rotation completely.

 

I would not recommend macroing blood tap. Overall, it has slightly lower rune return than RC, but its power comes from it giving Death runes, and from being able to choose when to use the stacks. Macroing it removes that advantage, and if you decide to go that route (which I do not recommend), you're better off taking RC.

Edited July 24, 2015 by Aughyssul

[simpetar 12]

Couple notes:

 

• As of 6.2, Conversion costs 20 RP per second for Blood. It is unuseable for tanking in any shape or form.
• Blood Tap's power is in control you have over it. BT in macro is yields worse results than RC and well managed RE. If this guide is (mainly) for beginners, you surely do not want to inspire them to learn bad habits that are difficult to unlearn. Please remove the note about BT macro.
• This paragraph: "A more advanced technique allows you effectively save up an additional 5 Blood Charges (for a maximum of 17). You do this by using 5 Blood Charges when both of your Blood Runes are on cooldown, thus turning one of them into a Death Rune, which you then save. This Death Rune allows you to use Death Strike at a later time by using only 5 Blood Charges (instead of 10), and it is efficient because Blood Runes are of not use for your mitigation anyway." (section 6.6.11) is incorrect. Blood runes are used for Rune Tap, active mitigation. It can be a perfectly good reason to use Death rune converted from Blood rune for Rune Tap, if the situation calls for it. Rune Tap can be and often is stronger than Death Strike in certain situations.
• BiS list for trinkets is inaccurate. Tyrant's Decree is anywhere but on the top. The only time DK tank needs more health is when they are taking big spikes of damage. If health is not reduced below 60%, the damage is hardly spiky. By conclusion: this trinket works when the tank is safe (off-tanking or just picking nose) which conflicts with definition of tanking and then its proc does not even contribute to DPS. The only real value of this trinket is BA it offers, and there are others that do the job better.

Edited August 3, 2015 by simpetar

[Aughyssul 3]

 

Couple notes:

 

• As of 6.2, Conversion costs 20 RP per second for Blood. It is unuseable for tanking in any shape or form.
• Blood Tap's power is in control you have over it. BT in macro is yields worse results than RC and well managed RE. If this guide is (mainly) for beginners, you surely do not want to inspire them to learn bad habits that are difficult to unlearn. Please remove the note about BT macro.
• This paragraph: "A more advanced technique allows you effectively save up an additional 5 Blood Charges (for a maximum of 17). You do this by using 5 Blood Charges when both of your Blood Runes are on cooldown, thus turning one of them into a Death Rune, which you then save. This Death Rune allows you to use Death Strike at a later time by using only 5 Blood Charges (instead of 10), and it is efficient because Blood Runes are of not use for your mitigation anyway." (section 6.6.11) is incorrect. Blood runes are used for Rune Tap, active mitigation. It can be a perfectly good reason to use Death rune converted from Blood rune for Rune Tap, if the situation calls for it. Rune Tap can be and often is stronger than Death Strike in certain situations.
• BiS list for trinkets is inaccurate. Tyrant's Decree is anywhere but on the top. The only time DK tank needs more health is when they are taking big spikes of damage. If health is not reduced below 60%, the damage is hardly spiky. By conclusion: this trinket works when the tank is safe (off-tanking or just picking nose) which conflicts with definition of tanking and then its proc does not even contribute to DPS. The only real value of this trinket is BA it offers, and there are others that do the job better.

• Conversion was never usable for tanking. That change must have slipped under my radar, but it's still a useless talent, and not recommended anywhere in the guide.
• The BT macro listed doesn't get rid of any of the control that makes the talent so powerful. It simply transforms two keyclicks into one. The macro is NOT binding it to a rotational ability, it still requires player input.
• I must have fallen asleep while writing that last sentence. You're right, Blood runes are important for mitigation. Regardless, the rest of that is true. 'Banking' 5 charges into a Blood rune is still a very useful technique, and does not impede the usage of Rune Tap at all.
• Tyrant's Decree is never mentioned as a BiS trinket. If you read the paragraphs at the beginning of "Best In Slot," I give my opinion on what the best trinkets are for any given situation. The lists below simply list possible pieces by item level.

[Vlad 411]

Aughyssul pretty much covered it, but I've also gone ahead and fixed the Conversion Runic Power cost issue, and we've removed that part about Blood Runes not offering any mitigation. Thanks for pointing it out :)

[Tsuannan 0]

A few mistakes I've seen - and I would like to say it's this sort of stuff that makes me trust what I read on Icy Veins a less and less - is when I see that the guide is up to date as of July 2015 or something and yet there are glaring mistakes that either haven't been picked up yet or haven't been changed.

 

I find this with most of the guides. Having said that I'm not here to bitch or moan just to notify, for the benefit of other players that follow the site (and many do).

 

 

 

 Icebound Fortitude is only truly useful if it is used before you take a high amount of damage. It reduces all damage you take by 20% for 8 seconds

Should read 50% for 8 seconds and not 20%

 

 

 

Lichborne passively increases your leech by 10%, so there is not much you should do to take advantage of the effect

I don't know if this was changed only recently as of 6.2 (I don't believe so) but this talent does not give passive 10% leech. As a blood DK outside of PVP it's real use comes in being able to self heal with death coil, which will heal almost as much as death strike, only without the accompanying blood shield. It does also give 10% leech while the talent is in use, however 10% leech for 10 seconds is complete garbage in terms of usefulness. Oh how I WISH it gave 10% leech as a permanent passive.

 

1.2.2. Blood Tap Macro

• #showtooltip Blood Tap
• /cast Blood Tap
• /cast Blood Tap

 

This isn't an error... but really? Really really? Who's this lazy? It's not like Blood Tap and Blood Tap are 2 separate buttons It's off the GCD meaning you can tap the button twice instantly, and the only good time to ever use blood tap twice would be before the pull to turn your blood runes to death. So.... really, really REALLY?