Mists of Pandaria Classic Blood Death Knight Spell Summary

Blood continues to be one of the most self-sufficient tanks in Mists of Pandaria. The single largest change in Mists of Pandaria is the new emphasis on maximizing your active mitigation. This is nothing new for a Blood Death Knight but we have also gained a few new tools to better maximize our survivability and damage done.

Blood puts en even larger emphasis on efficient Rune usage in Mists of Pandaria as high levels of Vengeance give us the opportunity to be the highest damage dealer in the raid. Properly understanding how each of your abilities works is key to maximizing your personal output, both in damage done and damage mitigation.

• Heart Strike — an instant cast melee attack that deals physical damage based on your weapon damage. It also hits two additional targets dealing 50% less damage for each target struck. The damage from this ability is increased by 15% for each disease active on the primary target. Heart Strike remains a key to our rotation but will be replaced by Soul Reaper when the target is below 35% health.
• Rune Strike — an instant melee attack that deals damage based off of your weapon damage and Attack Power. This ability cannot be dodged, blocked or parried.
• Outbreak — instantly applies Blood Plague and Frost Fever to your current target.
• Soul Reaper — is an instant cast attack that deals damage to the target based off of your weapon damage and attack power. It also applies a debuff that after 5 seconds if the target is below 35% deals massive damage to the target. If the target dies before this debuff is able to expire it grants the Death Knight 50% Haste for 5 seconds.
• Death Coil — is an instant cast, ranged attack that deals Shadow damage based off of your Attack Power. This ability deals slightly more damage than Rune Strike at very high levels of Vengeance so consider using it then or when out of melee range of your target.
• Death and Decay — summons a patch of corrupted ground dealing Shadow damage based off of your Attack Power.
• Death Strike — is an instant cast melee attack that deals physical damage. Death Strike also heals for 20% of the damage you have sustained in the previous five seconds with a minimum of at least 7% of your maximum health. This also grants us our Mastery, Mastery: Blood Shield which makes up a massive part of our damage mitigation arsenal.
• Blood Boil — is an instant cast AoE in a small range around the Death Knight that deals Shadow damage. This ability deals extra damage to targets effected by diseases. It will also cause your diseases to be refreshed thanks to Scarlet Fever.
• Pestilence — is an instant attack that spreads the diseases on your current target to any nearby enemies.

Blood Death Knight has a wide array of cooldowns that will bolster your ability to survive incoming damage in a way that no other tank can match. Due to the amount of cooldowns it is crucial to know exactly how they function so you can best determine which cooldown should be used to handle the incoming damage.

• Bone Shield — grants you 6 stacks of a buff that will cause you to take 20% less damage as long as a single stack is still active. Each time you take an instance of damage you will lose one of these stacks.
• Rune Tap — a 30 second cooldown that instantly converts one of your Blood runes into a 10% maximum health heal. This effect can have its cooldown instantly reset if you find yourself reduced below 30% health and your Will of the Necropolis procs.
• Dancing Rune Weapon — a 90 second cooldown ability that instantly summons a rune weapon that will duplicate your attacks for 12 seconds. It also grants an additional 20% Parry Rating while active, so consider pairing with Army of the Dead in a high damage situation where you do not need the added threat.
• Anti-Magic Shell — is a 45 second cooldown buff that absorbs 75% of the damage dealt by harmful Magic spells and makes you immune to Magic effects for its five second duration or until 50% of the Death Knights health is taken in Magic damage. This can also make you entirely immune to the application of specific Magic abilities.
• Anti-Magic Zone — summons a bubble at a targeted area that reduces incoming Magic damage to those inside of the bubble by 40% for 3 seconds.
• Army of the Dead — summons a horde of ghouls to attack any nearby enemies. While channeling Army of the Dead you will not be able to Dodge or Parry but you will take reduced damage equal to the combined total of your Parry and Dodge percentage.
• Dark Simulacrum — applies a debuff to an enemy that allows the Death Knight to duplicate the next spell cast by the enemy. This ability has some very powerful situational uses in PvE so always try to be aware of what spells can be Dark Simulacrum'd.
• Blood Tap — is a stacking buff that when used at 5 charges activates a random depleted Rune as a Death Rune. This can be activated at 5 stacks but you can have up to 12 stacks maximum.
• Icebound Fortitude — is a reduces all incoming damage by 50% for 12 seconds and prevents you from being stunned during its duration.
• Asphyxiate — replaces your Strangulate ability and now causes it to Stun the target for 5 seconds instead of silencing. This can be used as an interrupt on targets that are immune to stuns.
• Raise Ally — instantly resurrects a dead party/raid member. This will return them to life at 60% health and 20% mana so make sure to use this during a period of low incoming damage.
• Death Grip — a 35-second cooldown that instantly pulls the target to the Death Knight and taunts the target for three seconds. This can be used as an impromptu interrupt.
• Strangulate — a two-minute cooldown that silences the target for five seconds. This can also be used as an interrupt for targets that are immune to silencing effects.
• Empower Rune Weapon — a five-minute cooldown that instantly resets the cooldown of all of your Runes and grants you 25 Runic Power. This ability is best used in a situation where you desperately need to cast a Death Strike or you find yourself without any Runes available.
• Gorefiend's Grasp — pulls all enemies within 20 yards to the Death Knight's location. This ability effectively acts as an AoE Death Grip.
• Remorseless Winter — enemies within 8 yards of the Death Knight will start to gain a stacking debuff slowing their movement speed by 15% per stack for 3 seconds, up to 5 stacks. Upon reaching 5 stacks the target will be stunned for 6 seconds.
• Desecrated Ground — summons a corrupted patch of ground that causes the Death Knight to become immune to all crowd controlling effects for 10 seconds. This can be used to free yourself from an already existing crowd control.

In addition to the many rotational abilities and cooldowns you find yourself using Death Knight has been given a number of utility based tools that you will find yourself using, including the iconic Death Grip.

• Dark Command — taunts the target forcing it to attack you for 3 seconds and increases the threat generated against the target by 200% for those 3 seconds.
• Chains of Ice — slows the target by 60% for eight seconds.
• Mind Freeze — is a ten-second cooldown short ranged interrupt that allows you to disrupt spell casting.
• Death Pact — instantly heals you for 50% of your maximum health in exchange for dealing 50% of your ghouls maximum health.
• Death's Advance — is a 30-second cooldown that when active increases your movement speed by 30%. It also includes a passive effect that increases your movement speed by 10% at all times.
• Horn of Winter — is an instant cast spell that generates 10 Runic Power and increases the Attack Power of your group by 10%.
• Raise Dead — summons a ghoul that will fight by your side for one minute.
• Death Gate — opens a gate that allows the Death Knight to teleport back to Ebon Hold.

Presences in Mists of Pandaria have been greatly simplified, as a Blood Death Knight you will always be in Blood Presence.

As a Blood Death Knight in Mists of Pandaria there are three primary choice when it comes to Runeforging: Rune of Cinderglacier, Rune of the Fallen Crusader, and Rune of Swordshattering Cinderglacier will result in the largest damage increased if utilized properly. Fallen Crusader is the balanced option as it will both increase your damage dealt and survivability especially if you are able to play around snapshotting when your Rune is active. Swordshattering is the most defensive option here and likely the best choice in a situation where you are taking massive amounts of incoming Physical damage.

• Rune of Lichbane — your weapons deal 2% extra weapon damage as Fire damage or 4% against Undead enemies.
• Rune of Razorice — your weapons deal 2% extra weapon damage as Frost damage and increase the targets vulnerability to Frost Damage.
• Rune of Spellshattering — your two-handed weapons reducing incoming Spell damage by 4% and reduce the duration of silencing effects by 50%.
• Rune of Swordshattering — your two-handed weapons increase your parry rating by 4% and reduce the duration of disarming effects by 60%.
• Rune of the Fallen Crusader — your weapon has a chance to heal you for 3% of your total health and increase your Strength by 15% for fifteen seconds. This will be your default Rune as Unholy.
• Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle — your two-handed weapons increase your armor by 4% and your total Stamina by 2%.
• Rune of Cinderglacier — causes your attacks to have a chance to increase the Shadow damage done of your next 2 attacks that deal Shadow or Frost damage by 20%.