Blood Death Knight Tank Spell Summary (Legion 7.3)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.3 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 4. Patch 7.2 Changes
  • 5. Contents
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
  • 5. Active Mitigation and Cooldowns
  • 6. ChangeLog
• ×Spell Summary
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Main Resource
  • 3. Basic Abilities
  • 4. Important Procs
  • 5. Active Mitigation
  • 6. Defensive Cooldowns
  • 7. Offensive Cooldown
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Tier 1 (Level 56) Talents
  • 3. Tier 2 (Level 57) Talents
  • 4. Tier 3 (Level 58) Talents
  • 5. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 6. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 7. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 8. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 9. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression
  • 2. Relic Choice
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths
  • 1. General Optimization Advice
  • 2. Path Choices
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Rotation
  • 2. Taunting
  • 3. Survival Cooldowns
  • 4. Optional Read: Mastering Your Blood Death Knight
    • 4.1. Runes and Runic Power
      • 4.1.1. Runes
      • 4.1.2. Runic Power
    • 4.2. Artifact Ability
    • 4.3. Detailed Cooldown Usage
      • 4.3.1. Anti-Magic Shell
      • 4.3.2. Dancing Rune Weapon
      • 4.3.3. Vampiric Blood
      • 4.3.4. Icebound Fortitude
      • 4.3.5. Tier 6 Talents
    • 4.4. Death Strike and Blood Shield
    • 4.5. Bone Shield
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
    • 1.1. Survivability
    • 1.2. DPS-oriented
    • 1.3. Balanced (Recommended)
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems
  • 2. Enchants
  • 3. Consumables
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Macros
    • 1.1. Generic Macros for Death Knights
      • 1.1.1. Raise Ally
      • 1.1.2. Mind Freeze
    • 1.2. Specific Macros for Blood Death Knights
      • 1.2.1. Gorefiend's Grasp
      • 1.2.2. Death and Decay
      • 1.2.3. Blessing of Protection Cancelaura Macro
      • 1.2.4. Gorefiend's Grasp Self-Grip Macro
  • 2. Addons
    • 2.1. Generic Addons for Death Knights
      • 2.1.1. ElvUI
      • 2.1.2. Boss Mods: Deadly Boss Mods or Bigwigs
      • 2.1.3. GTFO
      • 2.1.4. Parrot or Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 2.1.5. Weak Auras
      • 2.1.6. Recount / Skada / Details!
      • 2.1.7. mRunes
      • 2.1.8. Omen Threat Meter
      • 2.1.9. Grid and GridClickSets (Optional)
      • 2.1.10. Compact Runes
    • 2.2. Specific Addons for Blood Death Knights
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Best in Slot List
  • 2. Tier 20 Set Bonuses
  • 3. Legendary Items
    • 3.1. Tier 1 Legendaries
    • 3.2. Tier 2 Legendaries
    • 3.3. Tier 3 Legendaries
  • 4. Loot Competition
  • 5. ChangeLog

General Information

On this page, we list the spells that you will often use as a Blood Death Knight.

The other pages of our Blood Death Knight guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Reviewer

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Volstatsz, a Blood Death Knight theorycrafter and moderator for the Acherus Death Knight community. You can follow him on Twitter.

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 specialisation, how they interact with each other and also with important cooldowns. If you already have experience with Blood and are comfortable with it in Legion, it is recommended you skip this section and move on to the rest of the guide.

2. Main Resource

Runic Power and Runes are your two resources. Throughout the fight, you will look to spend as many Runes as possible and generate as much Runic Power as you can, which you will then spend to keep yourself alive through Death Strike.

3. Basic Abilities

These are your core skills that are available regardless of talents, and form the core gameplay of the specialisation.

Marrowrend deals damage to the target and generates 3 charges of Bone Shield (an important survival mechanism that is explained later on). Marrowrend costs 2 Runes to cast, and this is generally a top priority to use whenever your Bone Shield is about to expire.

Death Strike deals damage to the target and heals you for 20% 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 damage absorption shield. Death Strike costs Runic Power to use, and it is used almost exclusively for the healing and damage absorption it provides (as well as to avoid capping Runic Power).

Blood Boil deals damage to all enemies within 10 yards and applies your Blood Plague DoT to them. It is only used to keep up the DoT or if there are no other actions you can perform.

Death and Decay places a rune on the ground that damages enemies standing in it. It costs 1 Rune to use, and it is generally used simply to deal damage and generate Runic Power.

Heart Strike damages the target as well as another nearby target (up to 3 additional targets,for a total of 5 targets, if you are standing in your own Death and Decay), and costs 1 Rune to cast. It is used to convert Runes into Runic Power.

Wraith Walk is a useful movement ability that increases your movement speed by 70% for 3 seconds, breaking any root effects when used, and preventing you from being slowed or otherwise impaired for its duration. It has a 45-second cooldown and performing any action (other than moving) will cancel its effect.

4. Important Procs

Crimson Scourge is a passive that causes your auto attacks against targets affected by Blood Plague to have a chance to make your next Death and Decay free of cost and reset its cooldown. You should be on the look-out for these procs and always use them on Death and Decay, even if you are fighting a single target.

5. Active Mitigation

Bone Shield is a buff that reduces all damage you take by 16% and increases your Haste by 10%. Each cast of Marrowrend applies 3 charges (or stacks) of Bone Shield, and each melee swing made against you consumes one charge. Having Bone Shield up with at least 1 charge is a very high priority.

Aside from Bone Shield, Death Strike can be considered active mitigation, in the sense that you will be using it throughout the fight to keep yourself alive thanks to the healing (and damage absorption) it provides.

It is worth pointing out that for boss abilities that check whether or not an "active mitigation" effect is active, you are interested in the Recently Used Death Strike 3-second buff which is applied by using Death Strike and Marrowrend.

6. Defensive Cooldowns

Blood Death Knights have 3 important defensive cooldowns.

• Anti-Magic Shell absorbs up to 30% of your maximum health in magic damage over 5 seconds, and should be used to mitigate magic damage and generate Runic Power.
• Vampiric Blood increases your maximum health and the amount of healing and absorbs you receive by 30% for 10 seconds. It should be used either proactively in anticipation for high amounts of damage, or reactively when low on health and in danger of dying.
• Icebound Fortitude reduces all damage taken by 20% for 8 seconds. It should mostly be used proactively when you anticipate taking high damage, such as from specific boss abilities.

Note that Dancing Rune Weapon (discussed below) also has defensive properties.

7. Offensive Cooldown

Dancing Rune Weapon is generally used as a DPS cooldown, but the increase in Parry chance that it provides means it can also be used defensively.

8. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 12 Jun. 2017: Corrected the amount of damage reduction provided by Icebound Fortitude.
• 09 Jan. 2017: Updated a few ability descriptions to account for 7.1.5 changes.
• 08 Dec. 2016: Page added.