Blood Death Knight PvE Guide 5.4.8

[Erudax]

Erudax's Blood Death Knight Guide
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Races/Stats
3. Rotation
4. Talents
5. Glyphs
6. Gems
7. Enchants
8. Additional Content


Blood Death Knights are the ultimate tanking class in terms of damage intake. Thanks to their Blood Shield and Anti-Magic Shell, they are able to sustain incredible amounts of both Physical and Magic damage without a single dent to their health bar, all while doing average DPS. Sounds great, doesn't it? All those advantages and no disadvantage?
YOU'RE WRONG.
Death Knights are incredibly gear-dependant. That means you WILL take serious damage much like all the other tanks at lower item levels, but that amount will decrease as your item level increases. You shine at heroic item levels, and thus, a large amount of patience is needed. Unlike other tanks, Death Knights also lack mobility, but that can be solved in various ways.

It REALLY doesn't matter. It's more of a visual choice to me, honestly. But if I'd have to pick from a list, I'd go with:
ALLIANCE
I. Dwarf - Because of Stoneform which can be considered a minor cooldown and Shield Builder.
II. Worgen - Because of Shadowflight, which augments our poor mobility.
III. Draenei - Because of Gift of the Naaru, which is a heal over time in case our Blood Shield gets broken.
HORDE
I. Undead - For their lifesteal-type ability which heals you.
II. Orc - For their on-demand attack power increase and reduced stun duration
III. Blood Elf - For their on-demand Runic Power gain.
OMG YOU CASUL YOU DIDN'T INCLUDE TAUREN? No- because 5% of BASE health is insignificant.
Time to get into the important stuff, stats.
Mastery: Blood Shield
Mastery is without a doubt your most important stat, as it prevents damage taken. Parry and Dodge are next, as they provide a RNG-ish mechanic to completely avoid damage. You cannot Parry or Dodge spells.
I'll go over the builds worth mentioning.
1. DEFAULT DEFENSIVE
Hit/Exp cap (2550)> Mastery > Parry > Dodge > Haste > Critical Strike
This is the cookie cutter build. You cannot go wrong with it.
2. DEFAULT OFFENSIVE
Hit/Exp cap (2550)> Mastery > Haste > Parry > Dodge > Critical Strike
You will take MORE damage but will be able to output more and also regenerate runes faster due to the increased Haste.
3. HYBRID
Hit/Exp cap (2550)> Mastery > Parry > Haste > Dodge > Critical Strike
This builds discards Dodge for increased Haste. Keep in mind that while your Dodge is preety low, the amount of Haste gained won't benefit you as much, as it will be low too.

Let's do a quick rundown of all abilities and Runic Power system first.
Each Rune consumed for an ability generates 10 Runic Power.
OFFENSIVE ABILITIES
1. Death Strike - Heals you for either 7% of your maximum health or 20% of the damage taken, should that be higher than the first. Costs 1 Unholy and 1 Frost to cast, and will consume all stacks of Scent of Blood, granting you increased healing and Runic Power.
2. Heart Strike - Cleave-type ability, dealing additional damage for each of the targets' diseases. Affects up to 3 targets and costs 1 Blood to cast.
3. Rune Strike - Interacts with your level 75 Talent. Costs no runes to cast, but drains Runic Power instead. Cannot be Dodged, Parried or Blocked but you can still miss with it.
4. Soul Reaper - Deals minor damage and applies a debuff which deals a high amount of Shadow damage once it expires, if the target is at 35% health or below. Costs 1 Blood to cast.
5. Death and Decay - Deals Shadow damage over 10 seconds to all enemies in the targeted area. Costs 1 Unholy. Mainly used for AOE threat and/or for pulling.
6. Blood Boil - Deals Shadow damage to all nearby enemies. The damage dealt is increased if the targets are affected with either of your diseases. Refreshes Diseases on all targets hit. Costs 1 Blood.
DEFENSIVE ABILITIES
1. Rune Tap - Heals you for 10% of your maximum health. Costs 1 Blood Rune and has a 20 second cooldown. Once your health drops below 30%, its cooldown will be reset and its cost will be removed. That effect has a 45 second cooldown. It will be most efficient if you would use it just before you drop below the threshold, so you might use it again right after.
2. Vampiric Blood - Increases your health by 15% and all healing recieved by 25%. It has a relatively mediocre cooldown. While Vampiric Blood is active, your maximum cap of Blood Shield will be raised, but if you refresh it after it fades, the additional shield expires.
3. Anti-Magic Shell - The god spell. Absorbs all magic damage taken, up to a cap of 50% of your maximum HP. You will NOT be affected by most magic debuffs, allowing you to bypass certain mechanics. But that on a separate topic.
4. Dancing Rune Weapon - Grants you 20% increased parry chance while also replicating your ability usage while it is active. The secondary spells cast by the Runeblade will NOT trigger effects such as Scent of Blood or Crimson Scourge.
5. Bone Shield - Grants you 6 charges which reduce your damage taken by 20%. Each attack which will inflict damage onto your health (not absorbed, parried or dodged) will expend one charge. Synergizes perfectly with Blood Shield for as long as the latter keeps absorbing damage, your intake will be lowered.
6. Icebound Fortitude - Your massive cooldown. Halves all damage taken for 12 seconds. Has the incredibly long cooldown of 180 seconds, so you will not use it more than 2, at most 3 times per fight.
7. Army of the Dead - Sitting at cooldown of 600 seconds we have Army of the Dead, which is channeled, and reduces your damage taken by a total of your Parry and Dodge chance combined. It's not really recommended to use as a cooldown.
UTILITY
1. Horn of Winter - Raidwide attack power buff. When cast, generates 10 Runic Power. Has a 20 second cooldown.
2. Raise Ally - Combat ressurection. Costs 30 Runic Power and has a cooldown of 600 seconds.
3. Dark Command - Your first taunt. Applies a debuff to your target which increases your threat generated by 200% for its duration. Has a 8 second cooldown.
4. Death Grip - Your second taunt. Pulls your target, also applying a debuff that forces it to attack you. Keep in mind that most bosses are immune to its displacement effects, but they aren't immune to the taunt part. Has a 30 second cooldown.
5. Mind Freeze - Your intrerrupt. It has a 15 second cooldown.
6. Strangulate - A silence effect with a intrerrupt component. Costs 1 Blood Rune and has a 60 second cooldown.
Actual rotation:
I. Apply and maintain your diseases on the target.
I-1. Initially, apply them with Outbreak.
I-2. After that, always refresh them with Blood Boil (thanks to Scarlet Fever). This will also keep up the Weakened Blows.
I-3. In case your diseases fall off, or if you have consumed them using Plague Leech, re-apply them with Outbreak.
2. Use your Frost, Unholy, and Death runes on Death Strike.
3. Use your Blood runes on Heart Strike. Never use Heart Strike if you have no Blood runes, as this will cause Heart Strike to consume a Death rune, which should be saved for Death Strike.
III-1. When the target is at or below 35% health, you should use your Blood runes on Soul Reaper (the goal being to use Soul Reaper on cooldown during this period).
4. Use your runic power on Rune Strike to generate threat and dump runic power.
5. Use Horn of Winter when nothing else is available, in order to generate runic power.
6. Use your Crimson Scourge procs (free Blood Boil or Death and Decay) as follows.
VI-1. Use Death and Decay if available and if the target will remain in the area of Death and Decay for the whole duration.
VI-2. If Death and Decay is on cooldown or the target is likely to move, use Blood Boil.

LEVEL 56 - Roiling Blood. Adds an utility component to Blood Boil as means of spreading diseases, helping with AoE threat, which DK's have a bit of trouble with. Plague leech requires a more special playstyle.
LEVEL 57 - Purgatory. Allows you to avoid a deathblow, should your healers provide with enough healing to get a rid of the overkill. This is a god-tier talent and should be taken on EVERY encounter, no exceptions. If you raid group is struggling against magic damage or plain-out sucks, do the sacrifice and take Anti-Magic Zone. Be careful as its duration is short and your timing should be perfect.
LEVEL 58 - Death's Advance outshines all other talents due to the simple fact that it provides movement speed. It's not much, but it will improve your mobility, and that's something you lack. If the fight doesn't need movement or the group needs more intrerrupts, you can take Asphyxiate. Taking that talent will halve Strangulate's cooldown and remove its Rune cost. Also makes you feel like Darth Vader.
LEVEL 60- Death Pact. Other two consume either Runic Power or Death Runes, which reduces their cost effectiveness. If you need a massive burst heal, use Vampiric Blood first, as it will increase your maximum HP and squeeze out more healing.
LEVEL 75 - Blood Tap. You want absolute CONTROL. You don't want RNG stuff. While others might seem better, they're RNG and I would personally take something I can control over all others. Their effectiveness is preety much the same in the end.
LEVEL 90 - Bosses and most adds are immune to CC, and we'll disregard Remorseless Winter. You'll want to pick Gorefiend's Grasp for add situations, BUT BE CAREFUL! There are countless times when I pulled the Sha of Fear to the adds or Tortos into the middle of the room. Use with great care, as it can wipe your raid. Desecrated Ground provides CC immunity, which is incredibly useful on certain encounters (Megaera's Nether Wurm, Tortos' Stomp, Will of the Emperor). Either one is fine.
TL:DR VERSION


MAJOR
1. Glyph of Anti-Magic Shell - improves your Anti-Magic Shell, by increasing the amount of incoming damage that it absorbs to as much as 100%, up from 75%. Note that Anti-Magic Shell's absorption still remains limited by 50% of your maximum health.
2. Glyph of Regenerative Magic - procs each time your Anti-Magic Shell expires from you without having been fully consumed by damage. When this happens, the cooldown of Anti-Magic Shell is reduced by an amount based on how much damage it had absorbed (the more damage absorbed, the smaller the reduction), up to a maximum of 50%.
3. Glyph of Icebound Fortitude - reduces the cooldown of Icebound Fortitude by 50%, but also reduces its duration by 75%. This glyph is excellent when you need to use Icebound Fortitude more often, but for very short periods of time. This turns Icebound into a Shield Builder, but leaves no room for error.
MINOR
1. Glyph of Army of the Dead - The zombies summoned by Army of the Dead no longer taunt their target. The boss and his adds will no longer run amok in the raid.
2. Glyph of Long Winter - Increases the duration of Horn of Winter to 1 hour. Adds overall utility.
These two are preety much mandatory. The final glyph is your choice.

RED - Fine Vermilion Onyx
YELLOW - Fractured Sun's Radiance
BLUE - Puissant Wild Jade
META - Indomitable Primal Diamond
ALTER META - Austere Primal Diamond
PRISMATIC - Fractured Sun's Radiance

I. SHOULDER - Greater Ox Horn Inscription
I.2 ALTER SHOULDER - Secret Ox Horn Inscription <- Avaiable only to Scribes (aka Inscription).
II. CHEST - Enchant Chest - Superior Stamina
III. CLOAK - Enchant Cloak - Greater Protection
IV. GLOVES - Enchant Gloves - Superior Mastery
IV. 2 ALTER GLOVES Socket Gloves <- Avaiable only to Blacksmiths.
V. BRACERS - Enchant Bracer - Mastery
V.2 ALTER BRACERS - Socket Bracer <- Avaiable only to Blacksmiths.
V.3 ALTER BRACERS - Fur Lining - Stamina <- Avaiable only to Leatherworkers.
VI. BELT - Living Steel Belt Buckle
VII. LEGS - Ironscale Leg Armor
VIII. FEET - Enchant Boots - Pandaren's Step
IX. RINGS -Enchant Ring - Greater Stamina <- Avaiable only to Enchanters
X. WEAPON - Runeforging - Rune of Swordshattering

ADDITIONAL CONTENT
Raise Dead + Death Pact Macro

Spoiler:

#showtooltip Death Pact
/cast Raise Dead
/cast Death Pact

Double Blood Tap

Spoiler:

#showtooltip Blood Tap
/cast Blood Tap
/cast Blood Tap

Lichborne Heal

Spoiler:

#showtooltip Lichborne
/cast Lichborne
/cast [@player] Death Coil

Mouseover Ressurect (will ressurect your current target otherwise)

Spoiler:

#showtooltip Raise Ally
/cast [@mouseover,help][@target]Raise Ally

Gorefiend Pull (pulls everything within 20 yards to your location)

Spoiler:

#showtooltip Gorefiend's Grasp
/cast [@player] Gorefiend's Grasp

[Erudax]

Finished (or so I think). Posts are no longer reserved, you can ask questions from now on.

[Wedinn]

Thank you for the in-depth guide, Erudax. I'll go ahead and add it to the DK guide list!

Wedinn
Former Game Master & Discord Community Manager
(January 2017 - February 2018)

[sebi2sebi2sebi2]

I have few question about DK Blood. i didn't saw in your build stats for hit and expertise, in this moment a lot of ppl they tell me expertise is bugged ( is true or no ). if is true i need to reforge all expertise in another stats, or if is not how much expertise i need and for hit how much hit i need. Thx

[Erudax]

You do need hit/exp as if you miss (if your attack gets dodged/parried) with Death Strike, you won't gain any Blood Shield.
Updated stat prio, thanks for noticing.

[Gogumen]

Great