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Standard RotationThe rotations for single-target and AoE are extremely similar, so wehave grouped them together. The recommended playstyle is based on the followingpriority of abilities. Use if your is close toexpiring (3 seconds or less), or if you will not be in range of a target beforeyour Bone Shield will expire. Use, if any of these conditions is true.
Immediately after taking a threatening hit, or if you are in an optimaldamage window to maximize its healing. Using your next rune spender will overcap your Runic Power.
Use (if talented) whenis not up. Survival Cooldowns for Blood Death KnightsBelow, we present the cooldowns at your disposal and quickly go over howthey should be used. More information about each cooldown can befound in. absorbs up to 30% of your maximum health in magicdamage over 5 seconds, and should be used to mitigate magic damage and generateRunic Power. increases your chance to parry attacks by 40%.It also significantly increases your damage and resource generation and shouldbe used in situations where you can benefit from both the offensive anddefensive components of the ability.
Most blood elf paladins are associated with a faction known as Blood Knights. Unlike other paladins, Blood Knights draw their power from the Sunwell, the source of arcane magic upon which all blood elves are dependent. This means your character is much less obligated to be an ethical beacon, as it were.
increases your maximum health and the amount ofhealing you receive by 30% for 10 seconds. It should be used either proactivelyin anticipation for high amounts of damage, or reactively when low on healthand in danger of dying.
reduces all damage taken by 30% for 8seconds. It should mostly be used proactively when you anticipate takinghigh damage, such as from specific boss abilities.
RunesYou have a total of 6 Runes, which are available by default. Some of yourabilities have Rune costs, and whenever you use an ability that consumes oneor more Runes, those Runes will immediately begin recharging. The exact amountof time it takes a Rune to recharge depends on how much Haste you have.Whenever a Rune is consumed, you gain 10 Runic Power (more on thatbelow).At most, 3 of your runes can be charging up at the same time. It istherefore optimal to keep at least 3 runes on cooldown in order to maximisethe recharge rate over the course of the fight. Anti-Magic Shell's most powerful effect is its ability to preventthe application of debuffs.
If a magical ability would apply a debuff, and anydamage the ability causes is fully absorbed by, thedebuff is not applied.Timing the use of is critical, particularly whenyou are taking magical damage from sources other than the ability you intend toprotect against. Heavy magic damage can easily eat through the shield beforethe intended attack, leaving you vulnerable to the debuff.Effects that increase you maximum health, to include,will increase the value of your Anti-Magic Shell even after those abilities fade.Planning around this can make the difference in Anti-Magic Shell beingable to completely absorb an attack, and therefore immune a debuff.can allow for more effective use ofin nearly every way, with a reduced cooldown,increased size, and increased duration. Dancing Rune Weapongrants you 40% chance to parry for 8 seconds.Moreover, for the duration, there are several other benefits that you gain:. Uses of will cause your rune weapon to strike andgrant 5 additional Runic Power. Uses of will cause your rune weapon to stackexactly like using your own Marrowrend, making Marrowrendduring Dancing Rune Weapon yield 6 of Bone Shield.
Avoid usingduring until you drop to4 stacks of. Using will leave an additionaldebuff on your target. Your rune weapon's Blood Plague debuff is not attributeddirectly to you and does not heal you.Your rune weapon's attacks deal approximately 33% of the damage you deal,making a potent DPS cooldown. On encounters withburn phases where the boss takes additional damage, you should saveto line up with those phases.Avoid using while not actively tanking, unlessyou will have to hold its cooldown for more than 20 seconds - it isgenerally not a DPS loss to hold it for your next period of active tanking, andthe 40% parry is a powerful overall reduction to damage taken.
Vampiric Bloodis your most versatile cooldown. It grants you30% extra health for 10 seconds and increases your healing received (from allsources, including self-heals) by 30%. It can be used reactively; however, youwill gain more benefit from using this proactively, and you should have aspecific plan for what abilities you will mitigate with it.It is worth noting that this increased healing can be used to game certainabilities or mechanics. For instance, certain effects will be 30% larger evenafter Vampiric Blood fades. Also clears stuns and makes you immune to stuneffects for the duration of the buff.
In encounters where stun effects areapplied to the tank, you should consider whether you can incorporate IceboundFortitude into your cooldown plan in a way that both mitigates threateningdamage while leveraging the stun immunity.Blood Death Knights deal very poorly with abilities that take into accountraw damage amounts before absorbs and self-heals (given their low number ofdamage reduction abilities). Abilities that mirror damage dealt to you ontoother players, or otherwise determine their effect based on how much damage youtake, can be particularly difficult for Blood Death Knights to manage;should be saved for those abilities in thosesituations. Death Strike and Blood Shieldis your most important self-healing ability. It isalso part of your regular ability rotation during combat. In order to make themost out of Death Strike and of your Mastery ( ),you cannot simply use Death Strike whenever it is available.The most immediately apparent effect of Death Strike is that it heals you,so it is always well used after you have taken damage to heal yourself backup a bit and help the healers. Be smart about when you are using Death Strike.As it depends on your damage taken in the previous 5 seconds, it should beused after taking high damage.
Of course, capping your Runic Power while notusing Death Strike should also be avoided.Generally, you should avoid trying to stackproactively while actively tanking - using at fullhealth sacrifices as much as 85% of its value. While not actively tanking,you will work to rebuild resources — to include Blood Shield— for your next period of active tanking. Blood Shield has a10-second duration; it can fall off between uses of ifyou are not actively using your rotation during off-tanking periods.Note that only absorbs physical damage; do not relyon it to mitigate a large magical attack. Bone ShieldYour ability applies 3 stacks ofeach time you use it, up to a maximum of 10 stacks.
As long as you have atleast 1 Bone Shield stack active, your Armor is increased by 40% of yourStrength and your Haste is increased by 10%. Each successful melee attack madeagainst you consumes a Bone Shield charge. Bone Shield has a duration of 30seconds, after which the stacks simply drop off you. This is unlikely to occurwhile actively tanking in a normal boss encounter, but you should take care towatch the duration of your buff on encounters with nomelee attacks, or with long periods of downtime.There is an internal cooldown of 2.5 seconds for Bone Shield charges beingconsumed.Keeping Bone Shield up is pivotal to playing Blood properly. The Hasteincrease is essential for Rune regeneration and the damage reduction isessential for survivability.
Moreover, if you have taken thetalent, then with 5 or more stacks of Bone Shield, the costof is reduced by 5 Runic Power, which allows you to useit more frequently.Effectively, you will always want to prioritize maintaining high amounts ofstacks; you should use when youhave 7 or fewer stacks of Bone Shield (6 or fewer if you have any ranks of, unless you need the additional Runic Power fromusing ). Even then, you should immediately try to re-stackBone Shield. 2020: Small readability changes for optional talents.
13 Jan. 2020: This page was reviewed for Patch 8.3 and no changes are necessary. 26 Jun. 2019: Updated for Patch 8.2. Minor changes and clarifications, including changes to the priority list to reflect up-to-date knowledge. 22 Jan.
2019: Added rotation consideration for Bloody Runeblade. 09 Dec. 2018: Removed references to legendary effects and tier bonuses, fixed an error in Icebound Fortitude Detailed Usage, clarified wording in rotation. 13 Aug.
2018: Updated for Battle for Azeroth launch. 04 Aug. 2018: Updated the rotation to include new optimizations.
Blood Death Knight Viability in the Current PatchWith the right playstyle and the knowledge of encounters, Blood Death Knights canbe a force to be reckoned with, particularly in fights with infrequent, high, but notlethal physical damage. Their toolkit is also varied, and seasoned players will findanswers to almost every situation they might get into in Mythic+.This said, due to the changes that occured in 8.1, we are currently the tank withthe lowest amount of armor, both baseline and with Active Mitigation up. We takea significantly larger amount of damage than other tanks, and this can be a veryimportant fact to be taken into consideration when choosing a tank. After all, youcannot heal back up if you are dead.Our damage is strictly middle-of-the-road, requiring a specific set of trinkets toexecute. Our Azerite traits are weak to non-existent, making the first ring a minimalgain at best.
Our Essence choice is largely down to generic Essences. This is both agift and a curse: Azerite means virtually nothing to us, but it also means thatthe massive potential gain that other tanks are seeing are just not realized with thisspecialization. 2020 : Added note about third Minor Essence choice. 08 Apr. 2020 : Added link to Corruption page. 08 Apr. 2020 : Added page.
08 Apr. 2020 : Edited default Essence choices. 24 Mar. 2020 : Small readability changes for optional talents.
20 Feb. 2020 : Large update on boss tips.
21 Jan. 2020 : Guide added.
14 Jan. 2020 : This page was reviewed for Patch 8.3 and no changes are necessary. 13 Jan. 2020 : This page was reviewed for Patch 8.3 and no changes are necessary.
13 Jan. 2020 : This page was reviewed for Patch 8.3 and no changes are necessary. 13 Jan. 2020 : Updated trinkets and weapons slightly. 13 Jan. 2020 : This page was reviewed for Patch 8.3 and no changes are necessary.
13 Jan. 2020 : This page was reviewed for Patch 8.3 and no changes are necessary. 13 Jan. 2020 : Updated for Ny'alotha, added Heart of Darkness, reworked recommendations slightly. 13 Jan. 2020 (this page): Reviewed for Patch 8.3. 13 Jan.
2020 : Added Patch 8.3 Essences, proofread and updated to reflect current community knowledge. 13 Jan.
2020 : This page was reviewed for Patch 8.3 and no changes are necessary. 13 Jan. 2020 : This page was reviewed for Patch 8.3 and no changes are necessary. 13 Jan.
2020 : This page was reviewed for Patch 8.3 and no changes are necessary. 13 Jan. 2020 : Added Season 4 information. 13 Jan. 2020 : This page was reviewed for Patch 8.3 and no changes are necessary. 13 Jan.
2020 : This page was reviewed for Patch 8.3 and no changes are necessary. 20 Dec. 2019 : Updated essence choices. 16 Aug.
2019 : Changed recommendations based on live testing and analysis. Will change again when Worldvein gets fixed. 15 Aug. 2019 : Changing essence recommendations. Worldvein is bugged.
05 Aug. 2019 : Added more information on handling Beguiling adds. 23 Jul. 2019 : Updated with Mythic information from Week 1. 13 Jul. 2019 : Further updates to class tips. 11 Jul.
2019 : Updated with additional information and up-to-date Essence recommendations. 11 Jul.
2019 : Added section on Beguiling. 11 Jul. 2019 : Added Essences section. 11 Jul. 2019 (this page): Reviewed viability section. 11 Jul.
2019 : Added TEP/Mechagon traits. 08 Jul. 2019 : Guide added. 26 Jun. 2019 : Added notes about spending runes. 26 Jun.
2019 : Updated for Patch 8.2. Removed false claims about rune strike and re-worked the Defensive vs. Offensive section. 26 Jun. 2019 : Added new potions section.
26 Jun. 2019 : Updated for Patch 8.2. Minor changes and clarifications, including changes to the priority list to reflect up-to-date knowledge. 26 Jun. 2019 : Updated for Patch 8.2. 25 Jun. 2019 : This page has been reviewed for the release of Patch 8.2 and no changes are necessary.
25 Jun. 2019 : This page has been reviewed for the release of Patch 8.2 and no changes are necessary. 25 Jun. 2019 : This page has been reviewed for the release of Patch 8.2 and no changes are necessary. 25 Jun. 2019 : This page has been reviewed for the release of Patch 8.2 and no changes are necessary. 25 Jun.
2019 (this page): Updated for Patch 8.2. 25 Jun. 2019 : This page has been reviewed for the release of Patch 8.2 and no changes are necessary. 25 Jun. 2019 : This page has been reviewed for the release of Patch 8.2 and no changes are necessary.
25 Jun. 2019 : This page has been updated for Patch 8.2.
25 Jun. 2019 : This page has been reviewed for the release of Patch 8.2 and no changes are necessary. 25 Jun. 2019 : This page has been reviewed for the release of Patch 8.2 and no changes are necessary. 25 Jun. 2019 : This page has been reviewed for the release of Patch 8.2 and no changes are necessary.
25 Jun. 2019 : This page has been reviewed for the release of Patch 8.2 and no changes are necessary. 25 Jun. 2019 : This page has been reviewed for the release of Patch 8.2 and no changes are necessary. 25 Jun. 2019 : This page has been reviewed for the release of Patch 8.2 and no changes are necessary. 25 Jun.
2019 : Macro added for Re-controling pet. 24 Jun. 2019 : Page added. 11 Jun. 2019 : Overhauled page for Season 3 and TEP release.
26 May 2019 : Page was completely reworked with new information and recommendations. 25 May 2019 : Removed Reference to Refreshing Blood Shield. 21 Apr. 2019 : Guide added. 22 Jan. 2019 : This page has been reviewed for Season 2 and no changes are necessary.
22 Jan. 2019 : This page has been reviewed for Season 2 and no changes are necessary. 22 Jan.
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2019 : Updated wording in the introduction. 22 Jan. 2019 : Guide created for Season 2. 22 Jan.
2019 : Added Season 2 trinkets; removed Legion legendary discussion. 22 Jan. 2019 : Added rotation consideration for Bloody Runeblade.
22 Jan. 2019 : This page has been reviewed for Season 2 and no changes are necessary. 22 Jan. 2019 : This page has been reviewed for Season 2 and no changes are necessary. 22 Jan. 2019 : This page has been reviewed for Season 2 and no changes are necessary. 22 Jan.
2019 : This page has been reviewed for Season 2 and no changes are necessary. 22 Jan. 2019 : This page has been reviewed for Season 2 and no changes are necessary. 22 Jan.
2019 : Fixed the ordering of secondary stats in the stat priority. 22 Jan. 2019 : This page has been reviewed for Season 2 and no changes are necessary. 22 Jan. 2019 : Added Season 2 traits and added discussion of a larger array of trait choices.
18 Dec. 2018 : Updated stats answer; added race selection. 18 Dec. 2018 (this page): Added 8.1 viability section. 11 Dec. 2018 (this page): Added change to Purgatory.
10 Dec. 2018 : Added new 8.1 food, clarified runeforge recommendation, updated flask/feast usage for 8.1. 10 Dec. 2018 : Updated recommendations for Fetid Devourer, Vectis, Zul, Mythrax, and G'huun. 10 Dec. 2018 : Updated stat distribution answer.
10 Dec. 2018 : This page has been reviewed for Patch 8.1 and no changes are necessary. 10 Dec. 2018 : Simulations updated to use Raidbots. 10 Dec. 2018 : Updated tips for Freehold.
10 Dec. 2018 : Added consideration of Bloody Runeblade to the Crimson Scourge proc. 10 Dec.
2018 : This page has been reviewed for Patch 8.1 and no changes are necessary. 10 Dec. 2018 : Updated and clarified stat priority.
10 Dec. 2018 : This page has been reviewed for Patch 8.1 and no changes are necessary. 10 Dec. 2018 : This page has been reviewed for Patch 8.1 and no changes are necessary. 10 Dec. 2018 : Updated trait recommendations for Patch 8.1.
10 Dec. 2018 (this page): Updated for Patch 8.1. 10 Dec.
2018 : Added Patch 8.1 talent changes. 09 Dec. 2018 : Removed references to legendary effects and tier bonuses, fixed an error in Icebound Fortitude Detailed Usage, clarified wording in rotation. 24 Sep. 2018 : Updated recommendations for several bosses. 24 Sep.
2018 : Added trinket recommendations. 24 Sep. 2018 : Updated stat priority. 24 Sep. 2018 : Updated consumables with changes to stat priority. 24 Sep.
2018 : Updated tips for Atal'Dazar and Temple of Sethraliss. 24 Sep. 2018 : Updated stat priority.
06 Sep. 2018 : Updated MOTHER and Fetid Devourer recommendations.
04 Sep. 2018 : Added Strength gem recommendation.
04 Sep. 2018 : Added Uldir boss recommendations. 02 Sep. 2018 : Added dungeon tips. 26 Aug. 2018 : Fixed Death and Decay macro to cast at cursor.
24 Aug. 2018 : Made minor changes to talent recommendations.
24 Aug. 2018 : Clarified stat/upgrade priority.
24 Aug. 2018 : Updated Azerite Trait and Gear recommendations. 24 Aug. 2018 : Updated talent recommendations for Levels 56, 75, and 100. 24 Aug. 2018 : Made a few tweaks to the page.
13 Aug. 2018 : Updated for Battle for Azeroth launch. 13 Aug.
2018 : Page added. 13 Aug. 2018 : Page added. 13 Aug. 2018 : Updated for Battle for Azeroth launch. 13 Aug. 2018 : Page added.
13 Aug. 2018 : Updated for Battle for Azeroth launch. 13 Aug. 2018 : Updated for Battle for Azeroth launch. 13 Aug.
2018 : Updated for Battle for Azeroth launch. 13 Aug. 2018 : Page added.
13 Aug. 2018 : Updated for Battle for Azeroth launch. 13 Aug. 2018 : Page added.
04 Aug. 2018 : Updated the rotation to include new optimizations. 04 Aug. 2018 : Updated Rotation to include new optimizations. 23 Jul. 2018 : Updated Legendary ranking.
16 Jul. 2018 (this page): Updated for the Battle for Azeroth pre-patch.
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