1.
Introduction
If you are new to Blood, this is a great place to start to get an
understanding of how the spec works. On this page we will discuss what
abilities you have, what they are used for within the specialization, how they
interact with each other and also with important cooldowns. If you already
have experience with Blood and are comfortable with it in the current expansion, it is
recommended you skip this section and move on to the rest of the guide.
2.
Main Resource of Blood Death Knights
Runes and Runic Power are your main resources. You have 6 Runes, which are
used for several of your abilities. Runes regenerate passively over 10 seconds,
with the regeneration time reduced by haste. You can have 3 Runes
regenerating simultaneously, so you should be spending runes fast enough to
always keep 3 Runes on cooldown. Each Rune spent generates 10 Runic Power, which
is used primarily to power
Death Strike, your main source of
mitigation. Additionally,
Heart Strike generates 5 bonus Runic Power.
3.
Baseline Blood Death Knight Abilities
These are your abilities that you obtain without selecting anything
in the talent trees.
Ability |
Abbreviation |
Description/Effect |
Death Coil |
Coil |
Death Coil exists in your spellbook and should remain there,
as it is more inefficient than Death Strike at everything
Death Strike does. It has very situational uses where you need to
burn Runic Power while standing at range for a large amount of time, but this
is extremely rare (and, in most cases, a sign of misplay). |
Death and Decay |
DnD |
Death and Decay costs 1 Rune and places a damaging area at the
target location, which persists for 10 seconds. A lot of the Blood Death Knights
toolkit in Dragonflight centres around staying inside of Death and Decay. |
Death's Advance |
DA |
Provides you with a small speed boost and prevents you from being slowed
below 100% of your movement speed for 10 seconds. It also grants you immunity
from knockbacks and pushbacks. Additionally, it has a passive effect
that prevents your movement speed from being reduced below 70% |
Rune Strike |
- |
Rune Strike costs 1 Rune and deals moderate damage. Is replaced
once we choose a specialisation ( Heart Strike for Blood). |
On a Pale Horse |
- |
A passive that increases your mounted movement speed by 20%.
This does not stack with other movement speed abilities, such as
Crusader Aura. |
Death Grip |
Grip |
Death Grip allows you to grip an enemy to you, and also taunts it.
Just like Dark Command, this taunt comes with a 3s fixate and 300%
threat boost. |
Raise Ally |
Combat Res/CR |
Raise Ally costs 30 Runic Power and battle resses a targeted dead
ally, bringing them back to life (even in combat). |
Lichborne |
LB |
Lichborne turns you undead for 10 seconds. This makes you immune
to charm, fear and sleep, and grants you 10% leech. You can also activate this
ability to break any of these CCs, making it a useful tool if you are accidentally
hit a mechanic that applies such a CC. |
Dark Command |
Taunt |
Dark Command is your taunt; this puts you at the top of an
enemy's threat table and forces it to fixate on you for 3 seconds. During
those three seconds, you generate 300% bonus threat - the ideal time to
hit it with Death Strike for a guaranteed threat lead! |
Runeforging |
- |
Runeforging allows you to apply a powerful Runeforge to your weapon,
acting as (usually) better enchant. You do this in the Acherus Hold at the Runeforges. |
Death Gate |
- |
Death Gate summons a gate that will teleport you to Acherus. Here you
can Runeforge your weapon and practice your rotation on target dummies. Using the
Death Gate again will bring you back to your original location. |
Path of Frost |
- |
Path of Frost costs 1 Rune and grants everyone in your group
the ability to walk on water. Breaks on any damage taken. |
Mastery: Blood Shield |
- |
Mastery: Blood Shield is our mastery; every time you use
Death Strike, a percentage of the raw healing done
by Death Strike is duplicated as an absorption shield on yourself.
It also increases your attack power, which in turn feeds into all offensive
abilities. |
Riposte |
- |
Riposte, a passive ability currently invisible in your
spellbook, automatically grants you 100% of your critical strike rating as
parry rating. This is designed to make critical strike rating appealing
defensively, and hits the mark pretty well. |
4.
Talented Abilities
As part of the Dragonflight overhaul to the talent system, every
specialization has received numerous new passive effects and active abilities.
To attempt to break the list of every possible effect down into manageable chunks,
we have grouped these abilities into active and passive effects, organized by
the rows you will come across them from top to bottom in each tree.
If you would like to know more about which of these talents to select for your
own Blood Death Knight, please see the builds and talents section of our
guide.
4.1.
Talent Tree Rows 1-4
4.1.1.
Active Abilities
Ability |
Abbreviation |
Description/Effect |
Chains of Ice |
Chains |
Chains of Ice functions as a costly but very potent ranged snare on
your target. At the cost of one rune, you can apply a 70% slow for 8 seconds. |
Death Strike |
DS |
Death Strike deals damage to the target and heals you for 25% of
the damage taken in the previous 5 seconds. Moreover, due to your
Mastery ( Mastery: Blood Shield), a percentage of the healing is also
applied to you as a physical damage absorption shield. Death Strike costs Runic
Power to use, and is almost the only use of Runic Power for Blood Death
Knights. |
Raise Dead |
Ghoul |
Raise Dead allows you to summon a Ghoul for one minute. This ghoul
will auto-attack your current target and frequently cast Gnaw, a 1-second
stun. |
Heart Strike |
HS |
Heart Strike damages the target as well as another nearby target
and costs 1 Rune to cast. When standing in your Death and Decay, if
Cleaving Strikes is talented, it will strike up to 5 targets.
It is the most efficient Runic Power generator in your toolkit due to
the bonus 5 Runic Power it generates and should be your Rune spender
of choice when you do not need charges of Bone Shield. This is
copied by Dancing Rune Weapon if it is active, and grants you 5
bonus Runic Power per Dancing Rune Weapon active through
Blood Strike. It also applies a 20% snare to affected targets,
though this does not have a meaningful impact on your gameplay decisions. |
Mind Freeze |
Interrupt |
Mind Freeze interrupts your target if they are casting. This also causes
them to be locked out of that school of magic for three seconds. |
Anti-Magic Shell |
AMS |
Anti-Magic Shell grants you a magic absorption shield equal to 40% of
your maximum health for 5 seconds. While it holds, you are immune to most magical
debuffs, and each 1% of the shield consumed grants you 0.873 Runic Power. |
Marrowrend |
MR |
Marrowrend hits the target for a light amount of physical damage and
grants you 3 charges of Bone Shield. This spell is copied by
Dancing Rune Weapon if it is active, and grants you 3 additional
Bone Shield charges per Dancing Rune Weapon when cast. |
Blood Boil |
BB |
Blood Boil deals damage to all enemies within 10 yards and applies
Blood Plague to them. Beyond applying your disease, it is
generally used as a filler in your rotation when you do not need to spend Runes
or Runic Power. |
Blinding Sleet |
Sleet |
Blinding Sleet disorients all targets in a 12yd cone in front of you for
up to 5 seconds. When they take damage, the disorient fades, and they instead are
slowed by 50% for 6 seconds. |
Sacrificial Pact |
Sac |
Sacrificial Pact allows you to explode your ghoul for a small
amount of shadow damage to all enemies near it. This explosion also heals you for
25% of your maximum health. This comes at a heavy Runic Power
cost and does very little damage or healing, so we recommend skipping it. |
Control Undead |
MC |
Control Undead allows you to take control over any non-CC-immune undead
enemy. This turns this enemy into your pet and may grant you access to some of
their abilities. |
Vampiric Blood |
VB |
Vampiric Blood increases your maximum health and healing received
by 30% for 10 seconds. |
Icebound Fortitude |
IBF |
Icebound Fortitude is available on the class tree for all Death
Knights. When used, for the next 8 seconds, you take 30% less damage and are
completely immune to Stun effects. It can also be used whilst you are stunned
to remove the Stun effect. |
Death's Caress |
DC/Caress |
Death's Caress has received changes in Dragonflight and now grants
2 Bone Shield charges when used. It also picked up a 6-second cooldown
to compensate. |
4.1.2.
Passive Effects
Ability |
Abbreviation |
Description/Effect |
Cleaving Strikes |
- |
Increases the maximum amount of targets Heart Strike will hit from 2
to 5 targets whilst you are standing in your Death and Decay. |
Coldthirst |
- |
Reduces the cooldown of Mind Freeze by 3 seconds and if you
successfully manage to interrupt a spell you gain 10 Runic Power. |
Permafrost |
- |
Permafrost grants you a shield equal to 40% of all auto-attack damage you
deal. This stacks and refreshes on each auto-attack. |
Improved Death Strike |
Improved DS |
Improved Death Strike reduces the cost of Death Strike by 5 Runic Power
and increases its healing done by 10%. |
Anti-Magic Barrier |
AMB |
Anti-Magic Barrier reduces the cooldown of Anti-Magic Shell
to 40 seconds, increases its duration to 7 seconds, and its size by 40%. |
March of Darkness |
- |
March of Darkness grants you an additional 25% movement speed (60% total)
for the first three seconds of Death's Advance. |
Enfeeble |
- |
Enfeeble grants a chance for your ghoul's auto-attacks to reduce
the damage the target deals to you by 15% for 6 seconds, and to snare them by 30%. |
Crimson Scourge |
- |
This allows each auto-attack hit on a plagued target a 25%
chance to reset the cooldown of Death and Decay. This can only
happen if Death and Decay is not active (i.e. not on the floor)! |
Blood Scent |
- |
Increases your leech by 3%. |
Veteran of the Third War |
Veteran |
Increases your stamina by 10% per point. |
Suppression |
- |
Increases your avoidance by 3%. |
Brittle |
- |
Brittle causes your ticks of Blood Plague to have a chance
to weaken them, increasing all your damage dealt to them by 6% for 5 seconds. |
Ossuary |
- |
Passively increases your maximum Runic Power by 10 at all times.
Additionally, it rewards you for staying at or above 5 Bone Shield
charges. When this is the case, the cost of Death Strike is reduced by
5 Runic Power. |
Improved Vampiric Blood |
Improved VB |
Increases the duration of Vampiric Blood by 2 seconds and its
healing amplification and maximum HP increase by 5% per rank. |
Improved Heart Strike |
Improved HS |
Increases the damage dealt by Heart Strike by up to 15% per rank. |
5.
Class Tree Abilities for Blood Death Knights
The abilities below are available as talents on the Class tree
for Death Knights. Where possible, we have also highlighted related
passive talents (they will be described in detail in the Passive sections of
this page as well).
5.1.
Talent Tree Rows 5-7
5.1.1.
Active Abilities
Ability |
Abbreviation |
Description/Effect |
Anti-Magic Zone |
AMZ |
Anti-Magic Zone places a shadowy zone on the floor for 8 seconds; this
zone absorbs 20% of the magic damage taken by any friendly target within it, until
it has reached its cap of 150% of your maximum health. |
Rune Tap |
RTap |
Consumes a Rune to reduce all damage you take by 20% for 4 seconds. |
Dancing Rune Weapon |
DRW |
Dancing Rune Weapon spawns a non-targetable entity to fight by your
side for 8 seconds. While it is active, you gain 40% additional parry, and
some of your spells are copied, with additional effects:
- Each active
Dancing Rune Weapon causes any Heart Strike
cast by you to be replicated at 33% effectiveness and to
grant you 5 bonus Runic Power per active Dancing Rune Weapon through
Blood Strike.
- Each active
Dancing Rune Weapon mirrors your casts of
Blood Boil, applying their own Blood Plague on a target.
These deal damage at 33% effectiveness. As of 2022-10-16, a bug exists where
only one of the two Dancing Rune Weapon will copy Blood Boil
twice, thus robbing you of one Blood Plague.
- Each active
Dancing Rune Weapon duplicates your casts of
Marrowrend at 33% effectiveness. This also grants you 3 bonus
Bone Shield charges for each active Dancing Rune Weapon.
- Finally, each active
Dancing Rune Weapon casts its own copy of
the following spells at 33% effectiveness: Death Strike (does not heal
you), Death's Caress, Consumption
|
Asphyxiate |
- |
Stuns your target for 5 seconds. |
Death Pact |
Pact |
Death Pact heals you for 50% and applies a 30% healing absorption effect;
while this effect holds, all of your received healing are absorbed by it. Both
effects (the healing, and healing absorption) snapshot your maximum HP at the time
of cast. |
Wraith Walk |
WW |
Wraith Walk breaks all roots currently on you, renders you immune to any subsequent
root effects while channelling Wraith Walk, and increases your movement speed
by up to 4 seconds. Casting any other ability during this will cancel
Wraith Walk. |
Blood Tap |
BTap |
Blood Tap allows you to recover one Rune when cast. This will prioritize
fully depleted runes. Each time you lose a Bone Shield charge, the cooldown
of Blood Tap is reduced by 2 seconds. This works out, in practice, to
roughly 1.5 bonus Runes per minute. |
Consumption |
- |
Consumption deals moderate physical damage to all targets in front
of you and heals you for 150% of the damage. This healing does not trigger
Mastery: Blood Shield, and unfortunately, means you will likely massively
overheal with it when used. The AoE damage dealt by this ability is barely
higher than a Blood Boil, making it a very dubious pick. |
Blooddrinker |
- |
Blooddrinker drains your target's health over 3 seconds, dealing
high shadow damage to them. While channeling, you can dodge, parry and use
defensive abilities. For legacy reasons, Dancing Rune Weapon counts as
a defensive ability and does not break Blooddrinker. |
5.1.2.
Passive Effects
Ability |
Abbreviation |
Description/Effect |
Acclimation |
- |
Reduces the cooldown of Icebound Fortitude to 2 minutes. |
Merciless Strikes |
- |
Increases your critical strike chance by 2%. This does not
grant you 2% parry. |
Might of Thassarian |
- |
This talent gives you 2% bonus strength. |
Clenching Grasp |
- |
Reduces the movement speed of any target you grip by 50% for 6 seconds. |
Heartbreaker |
HB |
Causes each hit of Heart Strike from you (the copies
cast by Dancing Rune Weapon do not count) to grant you an additional 1
Runic Power (per point). |
Foul Bulwark |
FB |
Increases your maximum HP by 1% for each charge of
Bone Shield you currently have. |
Hemostasis |
Hemo |
Causes each target hit by Blood Boil to grant you
a buff, up to 5 stacks. Casting Death Strike consumes all stacks of this
buff to increase the damage and healing done by Death Strike (but not
the blood shield generated through Mastery: Blood Shield) |
Perseverance of the Ebon Blade |
- |
Grants you 4% versatility (per talent point) for 6
seconds when you consume a Crimson Scourge proc. |
Relish in Blood |
RiB |
Grants you a small heal and 10 Runic Power when you
consume a Crimson Scourge proc. |
Proliferating Chill |
- |
Causes Chains of Ice to cleave to the nearest enemy
target |
Gloom Ward |
GW |
This increases all absorption effects cast on you by 15%. This includes
effects cast by you, as well as other effects (for example, it increases
Life Cocoon as well as Anti-Magic Shell). |
Assimilation |
- |
Increases the maximum HP coefficient on Anti-Magic Zone to 165%
and causes each 1% absorbed by it to grant you 1 Runic Power. |
Death's Reach |
- |
Increases the range of Death Grip to 35 yards, and
causes its cooldown to reset each time you deal a killing blow to a target
that yields experience or honor. |
Grip of the Dead |
GotD |
Snares enemies by 90% when they enter Death and Decay.
Every second from the time they first take damage from Death and Decay, this snare
is reduced by 10%. |
Unholy Endurance |
- |
Causes Lichborne to last 2 seconds longer and
reduces all damage taken by 15% while it is active. |
Leeching Strike |
- |
Causes each Heart Strike damage event to
heal you for 0.5% of your max HP. |
Improved Bone Shield |
Improved BS |
Increases your Haste by 10% while at least one charge of Bone Shield
is active. |
Insatiable Blade |
- |
Causes Dancing Rune Weapon to instantly
grant 5 Bone Shield charges. Additionally, whenever a Bone Shield charge
is consumed, the cooldown of Dancing Rune Weapon is reduced by 5
seconds. |
Rapid Decomposition |
- |
Causes Blood Plague and
Death and Decay to tick 15% faster. Additionally, Blood Plague
leeches 50% more health from enemies. |
Runic Attenuation |
RA |
Runic Attenuation grants a very high chance to generate 5 Runic Power
each time you successfully auto-attack a target. In practice, this works out to an
average of 50 RP per minute, increased by your haste. |
Unholy Ground |
UG |
Grants you 5% additional haste while you stand in
your Death and Decay. |
Blood Feast |
BF |
Each point of damage absorbed by Anti-Magic Shell will also heal you. |
Reinforced Bones |
- |
Increases the amount of armor provided by Bone Shield by an
additional 7% of your strength. |
Everlasting Bond |
- |
Causes Dancing Rune Weapon to summon
a second Dancing Rune Weapon to mirror all your abilities, and
increases its duration by 8 seconds. |
Voracious |
Vora |
Increases the healing done by Death Strike by 20%,
increases its minimum healing to 10.5% of your max HP, and grants you 15% leech
for 8 seconds after using Death Strike. |
Bloodworms |
BW |
Bloodworms grant you a chance to spawn Bloodworms. These deal light
physical damage to their target, and burst after 15 seconds or when you drop
below 50% HP. When they burst, they heal you for 15% of your missing HP.5 |
Coagulopathy |
Coag |
Coagulopathy increases all your damage to targets affected by
Blood Plague by 5% at all times. Additionally, using Death Strike
grants you a buff that increases all damage by all your Blood Plague
by 25% for 8 seconds, stacking up to 5. |
5.2.
Talent Tree Rows 8-10
5.2.1.
Active Abilities
Ability |
Abbreviation |
Description/Effect |
Mark of Blood |
MoB |
Mark of Blood debuffs your target for 15 seconds, causing each
auto-attack to heal their target for 3% of their maximum health. This has very
little value, and due to it being a choice node with Tombstone instead of
a mostly free choice as it was in Shadowlands, there is very little chance that
this ability will ever see play. |
Tombstone |
Tomb |
Tombstone consumes up to 5 Bone Shield charges. For each
Bone Shield charge consumed, you gain 6 Runic Power and 6% of your
maximum HP as an absorption shield. It also has the following interactions:
Insatiable Blade causes Tombstone to grant up to 25 seconds
of cooldown reduction on Dancing Rune Weapon.
Tombstone grants up to 10 seconds of cooldown reduction on
Blood Tap
Shattering Bone allows you to predictably detonate for
180% AP in shadow damage to all nearby targets by casting
Death and Decay followed by Tombstone. This is, by far,
the most damaging ability combination in your spellbook and a great
source of burst threat.
|
Gorefiend's Grasp |
GG/Mass Grip |
Gorefiend's Grasp grips all enemies within 15 yards to your target. The
target of this spell can be you, an ally, an enemy, or any other entity that can be
attacked by anything. |
Empower Rune Weapon |
ERW |
Empower Rune Weapon grants you 1 rune and 5 RP on use, along with every 5
seconds thereafter for 20 seconds. While active, this effect also grants you 15%
haste. |
Abomination Limb |
Abom |
Abomination Limb deals heavy damage to use and every second for 12
seconds. Every time it deals damage, it attempts to grip the furthest target
within 20 yards of your current location to you. On use, 6 seconds in, and when Abomination Limb
fades, you gain 3 charges of Bone Shield. |
Soul Reaper |
SR |
Soul Reaper deals light shadowfrost damage to your target and afflicts
them with a 5-second debuff. When it fades, if the target is below 35%, you deal a
large amount of shadowfrost damage to them. If the target dies while afflicted
by this debuff, you gain (a heavily nerfed version of) Runic Corruption. |
Bonestorm |
BS |
Bonestorm allows you to spend up to 100 Runic Power to deal
periodic damage for up to 10 seconds to all targets near you; every time
this ability deals damage, you are healed by up to 15% of your maximum
health (3% per target hit). |
5.2.2.
Passive Effects
Ability |
Abbreviation |
Description/Effect |
Insidious Chill |
Chill |
This is our new raid utility debuff. Each auto-attack you deal
applies a debuff that lasts 30 seconds and stacks to 4 times on your target. For each
stack, their auto-attack speed is reduced by 5%. You are strongly recommended
to tab-target to all available targets and keep these stacks rolling. |
Blood Draw |
- |
Blood Draw drains a small amount of damage from nearby enemies when you drop
below 30% health. This amount is small, and the 3-minute internal cooldown on this passive
effect makes it 2 talent points best spent elsewhere. |
Will of the Necropolis |
WotN |
Will of the Necropolis causes a portion of all damage taken while below 30%, or
that would bring you below 30%, to be reduced by a percentage. The behavior of this ability
is non-trivial, and as a result, its specific nuances are explained on a separate page. |
Death's Echo |
Echo |
Death's Echo grants you a second charge of Death's Advance, Death Grip,
and Death and Decay. Additionally, it causes all effects that would reset the cooldown
of those abilities (such as Crimson Scourge) to grant you a full charge instead. |
Sanguine Ground |
SG |
Sanguine Ground causes you to deal 5% more damage and receive 5%
more healing and absorption effects from all sources while you are in
your Death and Decay. |
Icy Talons |
Talons |
Icy Talons grants you 3% melee auto-attack speed for 6 seconds each time you spend
Runic Power (no matter how much you spent or what you spent it with). This stacks up to 3 times. |
Rune Mastery |
- |
Rune Mastery can occasionally cause you to gain 3% strength for 8 seconds when you
spend a rune. The number of runes you spent per ability does not affect this; the chance to
trigger this is the same whether you have used Heart Strike or Marrowrend, for
example. |
Unholy Bond |
- |
Unholy Bond modifies your Runeforges in the following way:
Rune of the Fallen Crusader: Strength gain increases to 16.5% (rank 1) / 18% (rank 2).
Healing amount granted when Rune of the Fallen Crusader procs increased to 6.6% (rank 1) /
7.2% (rank 2).
Rune of Hysteria: Runic Power Generation while Rune of Hysteria is active
increased to 22% (rank 1) / 24% (rank 2). Maximum RP increases by 22 (rank 1) / 23 (rank 2).
Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle: Stamina, Armor and Strength gained increased to
5.5% (rank 1) / 6% (rank 2)
|
Shattering Bone |
Shatter |
Shattering Bone causes each Bone Shield charge consumed by
taking auto-attacks or through Tombstone to deal 12% of your AP in
damage to all nearby targets. This damage is tripled if you currently are in
your Death and Decay. |
Heartrend |
Rend |
Heartrend causes all your Heart Strike to have a 12% chance
to increase the damage of your next Death Strike by 20%. |
Tightening Grasp |
TG |
Tightening Grasp reduces the cooldown of Gorefiend's Grasp
to 90 seconds, and debuffs all enemies in range of Gorefiend's Grasp
(even immovable enemies!), causing them to take 5% more damage from you for
15 seconds. |
Iron Heart |
IH |
Iron Heart increases the duration of Mastery: Blood Shield
and its amount by 20% |
Red Thirst |
RT |
Red Thirst reduces the cooldown of Vampiric Blood by 1
second (per point) for every 10 Runic Power you spend.. |
Purgatory |
Purg |
Purgatory causes any damage that would kill you (while it is not
on cooldown) to afflict you with two debuffs:
Shroud of Purgatory indicates the remaining cooldown of
Purgatory.
Perdition is a healing absorb with a 3s duration whose value
is the damage that you would otherwise have been killed by. While it holds,
all healing done to you is absorbed to "pay off" this debuff, and any
additional damage taken is added to it.
If, 3 seconds after Perdition is applied, Perdition is
still on you, you die. For real this time. |
Bloodshot |
- |
Bloodshot increases all physical damage you deal while
Mastery: Blood Shield is active on you by 25%. |
Umbilicus Eternus |
UE |
Umbilicus Eternus tallies up all damage dealt by Blood Plague
while Vampiric Blood is active. When Vampiric Blood fades or
Umbilicus Eternus is cancelled, the total is quintupled and applies to you
as a shield, capped at your maximum HP before any additional amplification effect. |
6.
Changelog
- 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.2
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
- 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
- 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 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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