Blood Death Knight PvE Guide

Akarg · Last edited by Akarg on 18-06-2018, 13:00:37; edited 2 times in total

1. Introduction.

Hello there,
You may wonder who am I and why am I making this guide, so let me give you a brief overview. I'm Akarg and I main Blood Death Knight in Legion since 1.5 year, by this time I took part in many Raids and Dungeons. Why am I making this guide? Well, Blood Death Knights seem to be not that popular on Freakz there are only few of us raiding Mythic Nighthold, why is that? There are rumors about Blood Death Knights being not viable/useless in this raid. Yes, they are not as good as other classes here, but it's still manageable to progress it with proper knowledge and gear. We have a lot of healing, but sometimes we lack mitigation or mobility, fortunetaly it's not as big issue as it seems, becouse we can get rid of these disadvantages with proper legendary/talent combination. Of course perfection requires time and practice, a lot of it, but I hope this guide will help you a bit with improving yourself.
Note that the guide is based on my taste and experience, some of talent/gear choices may be different than in other guides you've been reading before.

2. Races and Their Benefits.

Race bonuses can help yourself a bit, but differences are not huge, if you want to go just for the visual effects there shouldn't be any problems with this.

Alliance.

Spoiler:

Horde.

Spoiler:

3. Talents

1. My standard build used for all raids except Nighthold Heroic and Mythic.

·Tier 1. Why Blooddrinker? Fast and effective for both healing and dealing damage.(More haste you have, the faster channel will be) You can't really depend on Bloodworms due to its randomness and Heartbreaker is more useful vs. multiple targets.
·Tier 2. Rapid Decomposition is great for gaining Runic Power, especially when your haste is too low and/or you don't have at least 2 piece bonus from Nighthold set to keep Spectral Deflection. Soulgorge just no.
·Tier 3. Ossuary Death Strike is cheaper with this one, 5 Runic Power doesn't seem to be much? Well in longer fights this talent can save your life. Anti-Magic Barrier isn't really as good as it seems to be. Blood Tap in this case you have better choices than this one.
·Tier 4. Red Thirst is great choice due to its Vampiric Blood cooldown reduction.
·[color=cyan]Tier 5. Tightening Grasp well, this one is a matter of taste, you could try to use March of the Damned in the fights that require a lot of mobility, but Tremble Before Me is completely useless in 90% of boss encounters, unless it's add-based fight or you want to respec to this just for trash mobs.
·Tier 6. Foul Bulwark gives you a lot of HP during fight, Will of the Necropolis the worst talent from this tier and Rune Tap you may use this one if you feel like you need more defensive CDs, I personally don't need it.
·Tier 7. Purgatory Will save your life not once and not twice. Bonestorm for single target fights is bad and Blood Mirror damage reduction is a bit too low compared to what Purgatory can do.

2.Build used after reaching ~30% haste and using 2 piece Nighthold set.

The only difference is changing Rapid Decomposition to Spectral Deflection with increased Runic Power generation and more haste you can easily afford Rapid Decomposition and keep your Bone Shield up with at least 5 stacks.

3. Build used for M+ dungeons.

·Tier 1.Heartbreaker gives you tons of Runic Power versus multiple targets.
·Tier 2. Stick with Rapid Decomposition
·Tier 3,4. Without changes.
·[color=cyan]Tier 5. I prefer Tightening Grasp due to its damage and Rune Power bonus. Some people prefer Tremble Before Me, yes you can choose it, it's more safe option versus big pulls.
·Tier 6. Without changes.
·Bonestorm gives you a lot of survivability and healing versus big packs, I recommend taking this talent for M+.

4. Trait progression and relics.

This is the way of progressing traits that I found most comfortable and useful for me.

A brief explanation of paths: Vampiric Fangs really strong trait which improves one of your main defensive CDs => Rattling Bones strong and useful trait => Unending Thirst the best golden trait in my opinion => Mouth of Hell second Dancing Rune Weapon additional Bone Shield stack from Marrowrend while it's active and more damage => Umbilicus Eternus good versus multiple enemies, not bad on single target either => Skeletal Shattering well, this one is kind of random, that's why it's last golden trait that we take => Dance of Darkness, Meat Shield good traits => Coagulopathy and Blood Feast aren't bad, however they are last because they aren't as good as other traits.

Relic Choices.

Higher ilvl relics are not always better than lower ones with better trait upgrade, so let me show you the best trait upgrades you may want to go for:
1. Vampiric Fangs
2. Meat Shield
3. Grim Perseverance

5. Stat priority.

Haste is without any doubt is our best and main stat. It provides faster rune regeneration, so more survivability. There's no real cap on it, but I feel comfortable with 30%, since Bone Shield gives me additional 10% in fight, however you may want to go for more, more=better in this case.
Secondary, versatility - increased healing and reduced damage taken, everything that Blood Death Knight needs.
Afterwards Critical Strike.
Mastery in my opinion is the worst stat for us in this expansion. "But why?" Well, don't forget that Blood Shield absorption works only vs. physical damage and the absorption itself is not that big anyway.

6. Gameplay.

1. Raids

Your gameplay really depends on the encounter and situation, but let me explain few basic things. Firstly remember to use Marrowrend to keep your Bone Shield at at least 5 stacks for damage reduce, haste and HP increase, if you're running Spectral Deflection you may want to make it higher. Avoid capping Runic Power, but also remember to keep some spare Runic Power for Death Strike, becouse sometimes you may need to heal yourself immedietly.
Bone Shield in some encounters you'll need to really care on not losing the stacks, however in some fights similar to Star Augur Etraeus in which bosses don't melee attack you at all you can freely build up to 10 stacks and just use Marrowrend once per 30 seconds, so the stacks don't fade away.
Heart Strike is your basic Runic Power generator, use it whenever you have free runes.
Death Strike use it whenever you need healing or you have too much Runic Power.
Blooddrinker Depending on the situation is your healing cooldown or damage burst.
Dancing Rune Weapon as either defensive cooldown due to its Parry bonus or damage burst, if you have Mouth of Hell Marrowrend will give you 9 stacks of Bone Shield on use.
For a bit of healing and damage remember to keep Blood Boil active on the boss.
Remember to maintain Death and Decay active, especially if you're using Rapid Decomposition.

2. M+

Lets focus on multiple enemies in dungeons, your main objective is to stack them Gorefiend's Grasp is perfect for this, then you can start using Death and Decay and spamming Heart Strike which hits up to 5 enemies while standing in Death and Decay.
Dancing Rune Weapon gives you tons of survivability in such situations, 40% bonus parry chance with Mouth of Hell trait and tons of damage when combined with Blood Boil.
Blood Boil versus multiple enemies gives you really a lot of healing and damage.
Bonestorm will probably keep you alive for the whole time until DPSers will get rid of mobs.
Death Strike Don't forget about using this one too.
But what about Marrowrend and Bone Shield? Well, your Bone Shield stacks are reduced each time enemy melee hits you, so versus really big pack of mobs you won't be able to keep it up at all, unless you'll use Dancing Rune Weapon for faster stack generation.
Also it's worth noticing that Consumption healing is huge vs. many enemies.

3. Defensive Cooldowns
There are 3 main defensive cooldowns, use them wisely:
·Vampiric Blood is used as damage reduction cooldown, not healing increase. Let me show you an example: You have 5000k health, you use Vampiric Blood = 6500k HP. Enemy hits you for 4000k, you have 2500k left, Vampiric Blood expires, your health remains at 1900k instead of 1000k if you wouldn't use Vampiric Blood. I'm not sure if I made it sure, but anyway your remaining HP scales with % of total HP. And yes, Vampiric Blood scales with Archimonde's Hatred Reborn and Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus also its cooldown is reduced by several talents and legendary items.
·Anti-Magic Shell is your strongest defensive versus magic damage, it also prevents application of debuffs on you, sometimes if encounter allows you, you can use it just for Runic Power generation.
·Icebound Fortitude used less often, but still useful.

4. Macros

There's only one macro that I am using and it is:

Spoiler:

It helps you to cast Death and Decay quickly under your feet.

7. Legendary items and trinkets.

1. Legendary items.

Legendary choices depend on the encounter, you may need to learn boss mechanics and find out which legendary will be the most useful, however for the most of encounters you'll use Skullflower's Haemostasis and Shackles of Bryndaor, these two are your best in slot legendary items, here are a few other legendaries that I am using.
·Skullflower's Haemostasis increases healing and damage of your Death Strike, perfect when you need a lot of healing fast.
·Shackles of Bryndaor perfect for encounters in which you lack Runic Power.
·Service of Gorefiend good choice for M+.
·Archimonde's Hatred Reborn really strong defensive cooldown when combined with Vampiric Blood I really like it for both M+ and Raids.
·Acherus Drapes I found this one useful only once in Mythic Star Augur Etraeus fight.
All other legendaries are either weak or useless, however in some situations you'll need to use either Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus or [Sephuz's Secret.

2. Trinkets.

Stamina trinkets? No. As a tank you may want to go for the best trinket effect and/or secondary stat. I personally love Emerald Nightmare trinkets, I'm using Phantasmal Echo since really long time and it does a good job due to its haste bonus and equip effect. I found Goblet of Nightmarish Ichor good as well, however if you feel like you're lacking defensive cooldowns or can't get any of these trinkets, Animated Exoskeleton could do the job as well, of course there are dungeon trinkets as well which I won't list here, but the point is, stamina is not always the best choice, if trinket has good secondary stat and good equip effect, just go for it.
Fang of Tichondrius seems to be good choice when combined with Bonestorm. Credits to @Fendinabbi for this combination.

8. Food, enchants and gems.

Food.

1. Azshari Salad - gives you 375 Haste.
2. Seed-Battered Fish Plate - 375 Versatility.
3. The Hungry Magister - 375 Critical Strike chance, out of these 3 it's be your last choice.

Enchants.
1. Weapon - Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle - gives you stats and armor increase, perfect for tank.
2. Neck - Mark of the Claw - Haste bonus and critical strike chance bonus.
3. Back - [Binding of Strength
4. Ring - Binding of Haste

Gems.
1. Quick Dawnlight - haste as our the best stat has prority when it comes to bonus stats.
2. Versatile Maelstrom Sapphire - versatility gems should be your second choice if you have enough haste or can't afford other gem.

If you have any questions or comments about this guide feel free to PM me on forum or in game.

Fendinabbi · Posted: 18-06-2018, 11:38:45 | Translate post to: ... (Click for more languages)

It's a cool Guide, well structured and clear,but i do not found myself in talents and stat choice.
"By the book" what you typed is more then correct, but i could find myself a different way to gain strenght where we lack.
On my Dk i've chosen to go haste>crit>mastery>versatilty for a simple reason...using bloodworms...after 25/30% crit they will come and aid their master very frequently.
Also why mastery? like you said blood shield will give absorb just on physical damage, but there is a thing from where you can have a big magical benefict...Acherus legenday drape + anti-magic barrier(third choise of level 58 talent).
I know it may sound weird...it was for me also in the beginning...but when i got used to that strange build i became an unstoppable vampire that suck life from any resource xD.
Also a cool combo is Bonestorm + tichondrius trinket.

Hope that can help and keep doin that good work :3

Akarg · Posted: 18-06-2018, 12:26:01 | Translate post to: ... (Click for more languages)

Fendinabbi wrote:

It's a cool Guide, well structured and clear,but i do not found myself in talents and stat choice.
"By the book" what you typed is more then correct, but i could find myself a different way to gain strenght where we lack.
On my Dk i've chosen to go haste>crit>mastery>versatilty for a simple reason...using bloodworms...after 25/30% crit they will come and aid their master very frequently.
Also why mastery? like you said blood shield will give absorb just on physical damage, but there is a thing from where you can have a big magical benefict...Acherus legenday drape + anti-magic barrier(third choise of level 58 talent).
I know it may sound weird...it was for me also in the beginning...but when i got used to that strange build i became an unstoppable vampire that suck life from any resource xD.
Also a cool combo is Bonestorm + tichondrius trinket.

Hope that can help and keep doin that good work :3

To be honest, it seems like an interesting choice, I don't have gear at the moment to check how effective it is, but when I think about this, it may really work. As I mentioned in the guide, build is mostly a matter of taste, glad that someone's found something unconventional and it worked for him. If someone has capabilities of trying it, it's worth a try for sure. If I'll get more feedback about it, I may include it in the guide if you don't mind, for now I'd like to add Fang of Tichondrius + Bonestorm aswell, as long as you don't have anything against this.

Fendinabbi · Posted: 18-06-2018, 12:55:39 | Translate post to: ... (Click for more languages)

Go ahead

i wanted to answer on the topic exactly to help so i dont mind if you want to use those tips...otherwise i'll be glad

Yuckfoo · Posted: 23-05-2019, 09:48:40 | Translate post to: ... (Click for more languages)

Very Helpful guys many thanks for your efforts.
May you live as long as you want , and never want as long as you live.

I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just
going to ask them where they're goin', and
hook up with them later.

Mitch Hedberg