Blood Death Knight Tank Gems, Enchants, and Consumables — Dragonflight 10.2.5

Last updated on Jan 15, 2024 at 15:00 by Mandl and Panthea 35 comments
General Information

On this page, we list the best gems, enchants, flasks, potions, and food you can get for your Blood Death Knight, based on your stat priority. We also give budget alternatives. This page is updated for World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2.5.

1.

Best Gems for Blood Death Knights

You should use a Resplendent Illimited Diamond Icon Resplendent Illimited Diamond in your first available gem socket, and fill every other with Radiant Malygite Icon Radiant Malygite.

2.

Best Enchants for Blood Death Knights

Slot Enchantment
Rings
  • Enchant Ring - Devotion of Haste Icon Enchant Ring - Devotion of Haste
Weapon
  • Rune of the Fallen Crusader Icon Rune of the Fallen Crusader in all content. It very strong defensively, despite being intended for use by Frost and Unholy. The heal from the proc will account for a significant amount of self-healing over an encounter, and the 15% Strength translates into both armor and parry chance.
Helm
  • Incandescent Essence Icon Incandescent Essence
Chest
  • Enchant Chest - Sustained Strength Icon Enchant Chest - Sustained Strength
Cloak
  • Enchant Cloak - Homebound Speed Icon Enchant Cloak - Homebound Speed
Bracer
  • Enchant Bracer - Devotion of Speed Icon Enchant Bracer - Devotion of Speed
Belt
  • Shadowed Belt Clasp Icon Shadowed Belt Clasp
Legs
  • Fierce Armor Kit Icon Fierce Armor Kit
Feet
  • Enchant Boots - Watcher's Loam Icon Enchant Boots - Watcher's Loam

In practice, these guidelines are largely down to how enchants do not compete over primary stats, merely secondaries. As a result, the gearing stat priority is applicable and can be simply followed: Versatility as a good default, or whatever sims the highest for you at the time for damage. You can find more information about this on the stats page of this guide.

3.

Consumables for Blood Death Knights

3.1.

Best Phials for Blood

Use Phial of Tepid Versatility Icon Phial of Tepid Versatility as a general-use phial if you are unsure whether anything else would bring situationally better value. This phial is both cheap and mechanically simple - it increases all your damage done by 3.6% and reduces your damage taken by 1.8%.

Should you wish to gain more damage, or you find yourself in a situation where auto-attack damage is great; you can consider Iced Phial of Corrupting Rage Icon Iced Phial of Corrupting Rage. This gives you a significantly higher amount of stats than other phials (almost 25% more than Phial of Tepid Versatility Icon Phial of Tepid Versatility), but comes with brief periods where this effect is instead a small damage over time on you.

Don't let the tooltip scare you - the damage over time effect converts into bigger Blood Shield Icon Blood Shield as its effect counts in the calculation window for Death Strike Icon Death Strike. It is also small and predictable damage, making it ideal to just ignore. The damage calculation part of this effect also considers Mythic 0 damage - in other words, the uptime on the positive effect from this phial should be roughly consistent no matter what key level you are doing.

3.1.1.

Mythic+ Phial Swap Strategies

If you are actively pushing Mythic+ keys and gold is no issue to you, it is possible to gain a significant amount of value on specific encounters by swapping phials mid-run. If you intend to do so, you should plan your swaps ahead. You can leverage the following phials:

  • Phial of Tepid Versatility Icon Phial of Tepid Versatility as your default phial
  • Phial of the Eye in the Storm Icon Phial of the Eye in the Storm when fighting trash packs, as its value is significantly higher there than Phial of Tepid Versatility Icon Phial of Tepid Versatility, both defensively and offensively
  • Phial of Icy Preservation Icon Phial of Icy Preservation when dealing with encounters with predictable, large, one-hit tankbusters. This phial applies to the entire hit if you had the right debuff at the time of the hit - be above 50% when the tankbuster lands and you will gain 6% damage reduction instead of the 1.8% you would get from Phial of Tepid Versatility Icon Phial of Tepid Versatility.
3.2.

Best Weapon Augments, and Potions for Blood Death Knight

Howling Rune Icon Howling Rune as a safe defensive and offensive option. Unfortunately, once you are relatively geared, it takes a very high number of targets for Primal Whetstone Icon Primal Whetstone to catch up offensively.

Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power Icon Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power should be your combat potion of choice on pure single target. For anything else, you should instead use a Potion of Shocking Disclosure Icon Potion of Shocking Disclosure.

You should use Dreamwalker's Healing Potion Icon Dreamwalker's Healing Potion for in-combat healing. Healing potions do not share a cooldown with Healthstone Icon Healthstones, so you can use both independently if you can access a Warlock.

You should also keep a stack of Potion of Withering Dreams Icon Potion of Withering Dreams in your bags for when a Dreamwalker's Healing Potion Icon Dreamwalker's Healing Potion just is not enough. If you have Anti-Magic Shell Icon Anti-Magic Shell active when consuming it, the Damage over Time effect from Potion of Withering Dreams Icon Potion of Withering Dreams is immuned.

3.3.

Best Food for Blood

Use Deviously Deviled Eggs Icon Deviously Deviled Eggs as your food buff of choice. This is equivalent to the Primary stat buff from Feasts. The recipe drops in the Zskera Vaults, should you wish to craft it yourself. You can also buy them at the Auction House.

If a Grand Banquet of the Kalu'ak Icon Grand Banquet of the Kalu'ak is available, use this instead.

3.4.

Augment Runes for Blood

In addition, if you can afford it, you should use Draconic Augment Rune Icon Draconic Augment Runes to increase your primary stat. Since there is a finite amount of the consumable runes available, you should make sure to use them wisely and to stock up on them for when you need them.

Through the new Emerald Dream Zone and its Dream Wardens Faction, you can also obtain the Dreambound Augment Rune Icon Dreambound Augment Rune, which is permanent!

4.

Changelog

  • 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
  • 06 Nov. 2023: Added helm enchant, changed health pots to 10.2.
  • 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
  • 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
  • 01 May 2023: Updated and clarified Onyx annulet section, added 10.1 Belt enchant, clarified gems, clarified potions and phials. Ready for 10.1.
  • 20 Mar. 2023: Added Onyx Annulet and clarified info for 10.0.7.
  • 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
  • 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
  • 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
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