Blood Death Knight Guide — Class Guides · WoW Wrath of the Lich King

Self-healing and survivability, with the tree's own tanking and damage tools.

A plate-wearing melee fighter who spends runes and Runic Power on diseases, strikes and frost and unholy magic. Death knights start at level 55 and can tank or deal damage from any tree. More about the death knight

Class: Death Knight
Roles: Damage, Tank
Used for: Raids and dungeons
Top talent: Dancing Rune Weapon
Popular builds: 2
Version: WoW Wrath of the Lich King

How to play

Blood is the self-healing tree: Death Strike heals you for each disease on the target, Vampiric Blood raises your health and healing received, Rune Tap heals instantly, Mark of Blood heals you when the target attacks, and Will of the Necropolis cuts damage at low health. It is the strongest death knight tank late in the expansion, and can also deal damage with Heart Strike and Dancing Rune Weapon.

Tanking: apply both diseases with Icy Touch and Plague Strike, Death Strike with Frost and Unholy runes and Heart Strike with Blood runes; Rune Strike spends Runic Power for threat. On packs, Pestilence spreads diseases and Blood Boil and Death and Decay hold threat.

Dancing Rune Weapon copies your attacks for a burst of threat or damage.

At a glance

Single-target threat
Holding several enemies
Survivability
Utility for the group
Solo play and leveling
Ease of play

Rated 1 to 5 against the other specs in WoW Wrath of the Lich King.

Rotation and priorities

1Icy Touch and Plague Strike to apply both diseases.
2Death Strike with Frost and Unholy runes, for healing.
3Heart Strike with Blood runes.
4Rune Strike whenever you have Runic Power.
5Pestilence, Blood Boil and Death and Decay on packs.
6Vampiric Blood, Icebound Fortitude and Rune Tap for emergencies; Dancing Rune Weapon for burst.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

Strong self-healing: Death Strike, Rune Tap and Vampiric Blood.
Big health pool and cooldowns.
The same tree can deal damage.

Weaknesses

Rune management takes practice.
Holding packs is harder before Death and Decay.
Damage builds trail Frost and Unholy late.

Stats and gear

Stat priority

Most valuable first. Bars compare each stat with the best one; a cap in the note means the stat drops off once you reach it.

1
Defenseto 540: bosses can't crit you
2
Stamina
3
Dodge and parry
4
Armour
5
Expertisethreat
6
Hit

What to look for

Defense to 540 first, then Stamina and avoidance.
A two-handed weapon with Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle, or two one-handers.
Some hit and expertise make threat smoother.

Items worth chasing

Glyph of IndomitabilityA trinket with defense and a dodge proc.
Corroded Skeleton KeyA trinket with Stamina and an absorb on use.
Sindragosa's Flawless FangA trinket that cuts damage taken on use.
Unidentifiable OrganA Stamina trinket.

Builds

Each bar splits the build's talent points by tree.

Blood
Frost
Unholy

Blood DPS
DamagePvE
5120
51/0/20
Raid damage with 51 points in Blood, down to Dancing Rune Weapon, and 20 in Unholy.
- Unholy Frenzy 1/1
- Heart Strike 1/1
- Might of Mograine 3/3
- Blood Gorged 5/5
- Dancing Rune Weapon 1/1
Glyphs: Glyph of Dancing Rune Weapon (major), Glyph of Death Strike (major), Glyph of Disease (major), Glyph of Horn of Winter (minor), Glyph of Pestilence (minor), Glyph of Raise Dead (minor)
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting
Blood Tank
TankPvE
4323
43/23/5
Raid tanking with 43 points in Blood, down to Will of the Necropolis, and 23 in Frost and 5 in Unholy.
- Bloody Vengeance 3/3
- Unholy Frenzy 1/1
- Improved Death Strike 2/2
- Vampiric Blood 1/1
- Will of the Necropolis 3/3
Glyphs: Glyph of Disease (major), Glyph of Rune Strike (major), Glyph of Dark Command (major), Glyph of Horn of Winter (minor), Glyph of Blood Tap (minor), Glyph of Raise Dead (minor)
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting

Key talents

Dancing Rune Weapon · top talent, up to 1
Summons a second rune weapon that fights on its own for 12 sec, doing the same attacks as the Death Knight but for 50% reduced damage and healing.
Bloodworms · tier 7, up to 3
Your weapon hits have a 9% chance to cause the target to spawn 2-4 Bloodworms. Bloodworms attack your enemies, healing you as they do damage for 20 sec or until killed.
Unholy Frenzy · tier 7, up to 1
Induces a friendly unit into a killing frenzy for 30 sec. The target is Enraged, which increases their physical damage by 20%, but causes them to lose health equal to 1% of their maximum health every second.
Improved Death Strike · tier 8, up to 2
Increases the damage of your Death Strike by 30%, increases its critical strike chance by 6%, and increases the healing granted by 50%.
Sudden Doom · tier 8, up to 3
Your Blood Strikes and Heart Strikes have a 15% chance to launch a free Death Coil at your target.
Vampiric Blood · tier 8, up to 1
Temporarily grants the Death Knight 15% of maximum health and increases the amount of health generated through spells and effects by 35% for 10 sec. After the effect expires, the health is lost.
Will of the Necropolis · tier 9, up to 3
Damage that would take you below 35% health or taken while you are at 35% health is reduced by 15%.
Heart Strike · tier 9, up to 1
Instantly strike the target and his nearest ally, causing 50% weapon damage plus 125 on the primary target, and 25% weapon damage plus 63 on the secondary target. Each target takes 10% additional damage for each of your diseases active on that target.
Might of Mograine · tier 9, up to 3
Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Blood Boil, Blood Strike, Death Strike, and Heart Strike abilities by 45%.
Blood Gorged · tier 10, up to 5
When you are above 75% health, you deal 10% more damage. In addition, your attacks ignore up to 10% of your opponent's armor at all times.

Blood abilities by level

When each ability arrives: trained abilities at the level a trainer first teaches them, talent abilities (gold frame) at the first level the talent can be taken.