Blood Death Knight Tank Gear and Best in Slot — Shadowlands 9.2.5
On this page, you will find the best gear and best in slot items for your Blood Death Knight in World of Warcraft Shadowlands 9.2.5.
Best in Slot List for Blood Death Knights
We do not currently provide a Best in Slot list. You should aim to prioritize item level above everything else, as anything 10 item levels or more is virtually guaranteed to be an upgrade.
If you have a choice on the same item level, the alternative will likely, in generic circumstances, not make a difference defensively. As such, we recommend just simming the choice and going with whatever helps you do more damage.
There are some exceptions to this rule and encounter-specific situations where a stat is massively devalued. You should keep an eye on the raid encounter guides to be aware of this. Similarly, certain Mythic+ key levels and dungeons will require a slightly different gearing path. We linked the related guides below, but generally, we will also add a note on here as well:
Dungeon Gear Recommendations for Blood Death Knight
Below is a guideline of items to seek and the Dungeons they drop from:
Slot | Item | Dungeon |
---|---|---|
Helm | ![]() |
The Necrotic Wake |
Neck | ![]() |
Halls of Atonement |
Shoulder | ![]() ![]() |
The Necrotic Wake or Halls of Atonement |
Cloak | ![]() |
Plaguefall |
Chest | ![]() |
Theater of Pain |
Bracers | ![]() |
Theater of Pain |
Gloves | ![]() |
Plaguefall |
Belt | ![]() |
Plaguefall |
Legs | ![]() |
Halls of Atonement |
Boots | ![]() |
Sanguine Depths |
Ring #1 | ![]() |
Theater of Pain |
Ring #2 | ![]() |
Crafted (262), with optional ![]() |
Weapon | ![]() |
The Necrotic Wake |
Sepulcher of the First Ones Recommendations for Blood Death Knight
Below is a guideline of items to seek and the Bosses in Sepulcher of the First Ones they drop from:
Pieces marked with a * are higher item level pieces that you can
convert into higher item level tier pieces using the
Creation Catalyst, allowing you to also craft Memory of Unity
in the one free, lower item level tier slot: your Helm. Evidently,
until you have two Creation Catalyst charges and the respective
pieces at Mythic item level, you really should just
aim to acquire
Gauntlets of the First Eidolon or
Chausses of the First Eidolon to activate the 4-piece part of your set.
Domination Sockets in Sanctum of Domination Raid Gear
Some raid items from Sanctum of Domination featured Domination Sockets, allowing the player to socket in Shards of Domination to gain a noticeable performance boost. Previously, during Patch 9.1, these effects were available everywhere; in Patch 9.2, these effects are now constrained to The Maw, Korthia and Torghast.
Patch 9.2 also features a new Boss Rush mode in Torghast, with brand new cosmetics and rewards, and as a result, if you have some Sanctum gear, do not disenchant it — the effect of the 3-Shard Rune Words far outweigh a small loss in item level for Torghast specifically.
We have kept the Shards of Domination guide up to date, and it is linked below. In short, if you are particularly interested in the new Torghast mode, make sure you have 3 Blood Shards equipped — and if you favor regular Torghast instead, the Unholy set bonus is a much more fitting choice!
PvP Gear Recommendations for Blood Death Knight
It is important to know that the items available from PvP are the best items available for Blood Death Knights if you are able to achieve high PvP rating.
Notably, you are able to obtain end of Heroic-quality items (item level 246) at 2100 Rating.
All of these items have Versatility on them.
If you are wanting to obtain PvP gear, we would advise doing Rated Battlegrounds as Frost.
Trinket Recommendations for Blood Death Knight
Sepulcher of the First Ones Trinkets for Blood Death Knight
Unfortunately, the only notable trinket for Blood Death Knights in
Sepulcher of the First Ones is Elegy of the Eternals. You can also
make a case for
Earthbreaker's Impact from a pure numbers perspective,
but in most cases, these are likely to get beaten by Sanctum of Domination
trinkets.
Other Notable Trinkets for Blood Death Knight
Weave of Warped Fates was changed between Patch 9.1 and
Patch 9.2 to function as a true cheat death, featuring a very generous
overkill cap and lower cooldown than
Splintered Heart of Al'ar. It is so
appealing that, should you need a cheat death for a specific encounter, it may
be worth a trip or two back to Sanctum of Domination in order to acquire
one. Just like all other cheat deaths, it is a strict throughput loss, and
functions as an insurance policy of sorts.
Shard of Annhylde's Aegis is a must-have trinket from Sanctum of Domination
as the shield will absorb damage from every hit received during the 8 seconds
it is active with no maximum cap.
Codex of the First Technique is one to watch out for from Tazavesh, the Veiled Market
as it will provide a consistent defensive benefit and provide a moderate amount of damage.
It is quite similar to
Reactive Defense Matrix, although its benefit scales
with key level (the cap on the effect is unreachable in normal circumstances).
Blood-Spattered Scale is the main trinket you will be after and drops
from De Other Side. It is a good defensive trinket and also has a
good damaging component behind it too. It scales very well with item level, too.
Reactive Defense Matrix can provide a good amount of damage in a
multi-target scenario (such as Mythic+), however on single-target encounters it may
not be a worthwhile choice if you have other options available.
Generally you will not be using two defensive trinket choices at all times. When this is the case your other trinket slot will generally be whatever you have that has a benefit that you are needing whether this be more DPS, stats, or utility.
Legion Timewalking Trinkets for Blood Death Knight
Unfortunately, Legion timewalking offers very few appealing trinkets for us, as
most of them were abused by players during Battle for Azeroth and promptly nerfed
as a result. For example, things like Writhing Heart of Darkness saw its use change
from a really strong defensive trinket to an effect that is barely worth talking about.
As a result, you will not be looking for anything other than a potential
Jeweled Signet of Melandrus, maybe. The effect is not a part of the item's
stat budget, so it is technically "free" bonus damage, but it is very little
additional damage.
Valor Upgrade Recommendations for Blood Death Knight
Blood-Spattered Scale — If you do not obtain this at the maximum
item level from the Great Vault, it is recommended to upgrade this as
the value of this item is not available anywhere else in-game.
Phial of Putrefaction — This is a very strong damaging trinket and as
you will typically not be using two defensive trinkets at a time this is a very
good choice for your 2nd trinket slot.
Rimebinder's Runeblade — If you do not have a Weapon from the raid,
then upgrading this will be valuable.
Drustlord's Greataxe — As with
Rimebinder's Runeblade, if
you do not have a Weapon from the raid then upgrading this will be valuable.
The differences between these two weapons is really minor.
Changelog
- 31 May 2022: Page reviewed for Patch 9.2.5.
- 10 Apr. 2022: Refined gear recommendations to account for tier hotfixes and number crunching.
- 20 Feb. 2022: Reworked Shards, added Sepulcher BiS, reworked trinkets, clarified the Fatescribe trinket change, and explained all the things.
- 01 Nov. 2021: Added Legion timewalking disclaimer - nothing is great.
- 20 Oct. 2021: Updated Shard of Domination recommendations and included additional trinkets.
- 29 Jun. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1.
- 09 Mar. 2021: Added Valor recommendations. Updated trinket recommendations. Added PvP gearing section.
- 22 Dec. 2020: Added Castle Nathria loot. Fixed incorrect dungeon link.
- 23 Nov. 2020: Fixed typo.
- 20 Nov. 2020: Removed BfA information. Added Shadowlands Dungeon Gear.
- 12 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
More Death Knight Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Mandl and Panthea.
Mandl is one of Acherus' Useful Minions and Blood Death Knight theorycrafter.
Panthea raids in Catalyst and is the author of TankNotes. He plays all tanks and is a "Useful Minion" for the Acherus Death Knight Discord. You can follow him on Twitter.
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