Greetings, Death Knights.
Are you tired of the same old, boring Unholy playstyle and seeing mediocre crits that don't even faze your opponent? Is relying on gargoyle a fleeting strategy, especially since every half-decent player CCs it or simply blows it up in a matter of seconds? Is Frost lacking in survivability and is overall clunky in its rotation to you? Well, I've taken it upon myself to bring you salvation in the form of a small guide on Blood specialization that might just catch your attention and peak interest in a spec that is rarely played for one reason or another, but when mastered, undoubtedly delivers.
A quick preface; I am entirely new to the concept of forums and decorating my post, so for now it will be extremely bare-bones, but I might come back to it later if it receives any attention. I also welcome all criticism and healthy discussion.
Before we dive deep, let me point out somewhat obvious things. Blood starts scaling favorably to compete with Unholy at best-in-slot metagame, that is over 6k GS. I'll talk about gear later, but just acknowledge the fact that to outdo Unholy, you will need BiS armor penetration gear. Secondly, I acknowledge that Blood might not be as competitive of a spec in the arena as Unholy, it is more of a FUN spec for BGs and open world PvP. However, with a good partner, you could go far in arenas nevertheless. I personally played in BiS gear with a BiS arms warrior at over 2.2k rating on another private server I won't name. Thirdly, if you hate getting kited and can't bare with it, Blood is not for you. Frost mages, hunters and elemental shamans will cause you much trouble if they are worth their bread. This is just something that you have to accept as a Blood DK. With that said, nothing is stopping you from blowing up these targets in the short period of uptime that you have on them with Dancing Rune Weapon, Hysteria and Unholy presence... Clever and timed use of your cooldowns, with a bit of luck and literally just a few seconds of uptime could net you a victory. Heed my words however, a skilled frost mage with BiS gear will flat out destroy you without letting you touch them. You will also be snuffed out in half the fights where your diseases are dispelled, but only half because you still have the raw damage and self-healing to kill them.
To begin with, I'll give you two specializations. (+glyphs included)
https://truewow.org/talent-calculato...stMgxz0MZc:zGp
Not much to be said here. This is a pure Blood spec with full burst capability. Align your Dancing Rune Weapon with Hysteria and attack damage procs, to wreak absolute havoc. This is the strongest burst combo of all the classes that can wield Shadowmourne. With this, I have often been able to burst down Holy Paladins, who you usually simply can't touch, even with high armor penetration percentages. This spec also has some dispel protection, but don't rely on it because if someone is hellbent on dispelling your diseases, they will be gone sooner or later. However, it can win you a fight against a Ret Paladin, I myself have seen this talent proc 2-3 times in a row against the aforementioned; the guy had to waste 3 or more global cooldowns on dispelling my diseases and simply fell behind on damage in the fight, eventually losing (that is, until he takes out his 1hander and shield).
https://truewow.org/talent-calculato...bGMIpbd00z:Gzp
Now here, is a little something extra, a hybrid that is suitable for arena, as it includes undispellable diseases and a controllable pet stun. I'm not a fan of this spec because pure blood does roughly 10% more damage, 20% if above 75% HP. However, you have a better chance at killing kiting specs with the pet stun. Generally, a hybrid is also quite strong in 1v1s.
Now, let's talk about gear. I'll start with my build.
I'm a blood elf (for the racial silence and dat ***), I roll with 6% hit, 75 spell penetration, 42% crit (self-buffed), 52% armor penetration and 1200 resilience. (Also 15% parry, 15% dodge)
I personally have all these pieces below available, so I switch them out depending on what I'm fighting
Head: WF
Neck: Penumbra Pendant 284 armor pen+strength
Shoulders: WF
Back: 272 Garrosh's whatever strength hit rating / WF cloak of victory
Chest: WF
Bracers: Tuskk's Maximized whatever, 277 agility+armor pen wrists
Hands: WF
Waist: Astrylians Sutured Cynch, 277 agility armor pen belt / Coldwraith Links 277 str armor pen belt
Legs: WF
Boots: 284 Apocalypse's Advance hit rating str boots
Ring 1: Might of Blight 277 str armor pen / sapphire whatever agility 277 armor pen ring
Ring 2: Signet of Twilight 284 / agility icc rep proc ring (my first choice)
Trinket 1: Sharpened Twilight Scale 284
Trinket 2: Insignia / Deathbringer's Will 277 (if I'm feeling ballsy, with this I have 60%+ armor pen, or whenever I faction change to human)
Weapon: Shadowmourne / Oathbinder 284 for more crit / WF Claymore 277 ( I equip this when I'm kited to take less damage, rarely to outlast tanky opponents)
Agility, why? Because Blood is very crit reliant, we need to crit in order to put out dangerous levels of pressure. Don't forget that resilience lowers our crit chance. Our crit multipliers are what essentially lets us see crazy numbers. Also, agility gives us dodge which is quite handy against melees, it lets us use Rune Strike, which is the hardest hitting ability we have.
Now, the never-ending question of "how much armor penetration"? I'll tell you this much, 50% does it for me as a blood elf. On BiS WF Warriors with around 900 resi, I get anywhere between 4k(with shield) to 7-8k crits with Hysteria when they have Smourne out. On Shamans, I get stable 4-5k crits, enough to pressure them into turtling and healing. Sure, the more armor penetration the better, especially since 90% of our damage as Blood comes from physical damage, but I feel like I've found the perfect middle ground between damage and survivability, for 1v1 at least. In BGs, 1200 resi is barely enough for taking on 2 geared people at once, but just enough to kill at least one foe if he is a melee. This is the amount of resi you want if you're gonna record flashy 1v3 or 1vx situations against scrubs.
Onto some tactics now, friends. ( I will expand this section eventually )
- ALWAYS kill the rogue that doesn't have evasion up first. While bursting, you will 3-4 shot a full geared rogue, or at least force them to stealth. The rogue is a glass cannon that has a lot of nasty CC. Same goes for mage, if you can reach them, lay the deeps onto them.
-Always pick the softest target with the smallest health pool. With BiS and SM, you have a lot of damage on your hands, so don't waste it. In other words, play smart. Don't run in and start hitting that WF warrior who is in shield wall while there's a juicy 20k HP mage standing next to him, waiting to be 2-shotted.
- Try to always hit your enemies in the back, I kid you not, I've had a mage DODGE my attacks 2 times in a row, quite frustrating.
- Fight in blood presence. As soon as an enemy switches to you, go into frost presence. The only time you should ever be in unholy presence is against kiting classes (unless you are not their primary target) ; as soon as you are in melee zone, switch to UH presence (or earlier, if you are not being focused) and hit them with all the Death and Heart strikes you can until they immobilize you.
-Don't overcap your Runic Power. Throw in a Death Coil unless it's a kity class, in that case you should maximize melee damage.
-Try to stay above 75% health with rune tap, vampiric blood and death strikes in order to maintain your 10% damage boost from Blood-Gorged.
1v1s
-WARRIOR: Fight in frost presence. Pop burst right from the start, as well as Icebound, as that's when they will have all their procs, and to avoid charge/ intercept stuns. Nuke them into turtling and kite out their defensive cooldowns. Mark of blood their Bladestorm. Unless the warrior is a ****ing GOD among men, you should win if you are BiS.
-PALADIN: I would suggest fighting in blood presence. Against a good ret, the odds are not in your favor. Unless you heavily outplay them, you will lose. And even then, they might bubble or bust out the 1 hander and shield. Try to catch the stun with Icebound or Antimagic shell. Use rune tap on cooldown. As soon as ( if, lol ) they pop wings, this is your chance. Pop Hysteria, DRW and pray for some crits, you have 30 seconds to kill them until they have bubble up. If they are dispelling your diseases, keep re-applying them mercilessly. Generally, if it's a paladin other than human that is switching out their weapons throughout the fight, it's a guaranteed loss. When popping mark of blood, instantly follow up with Strangulate so it does some healing before it's dispelled.
-DK: You will mostly be facing Unholy. Don't let them kite you, if they are spamming chains of ice, do the same and sit tightly on them. If you have good uptime on them, armor penetration does its thing and you will outdps them. Kill the gargoyle as soon as it lands. Preferably keep the death grip for the garg. Keep the trinket for a freshly applied chains of ice, and instantly follow up with AMS to break distance between you. Generally, against the average Warmane DK, an easy win.
-ROGUE: Wear resi gear. Trinket kidney shot and chains of ice them, RUN. Use rune tap on cooldown. Kite out their Evasion with chains of ice spam. If they cloak anything other than your mark of blood, you should win. Against a good rogue, you have NO room for error. Pop Icebound for when their Kidney shot comes off cooldown. Alternatively, you can choose to sit out their first kidney, to keep trinket for the second kidney or blind. I wouldn't recommend trinketing blind tho.
-HUNTER: Spam chains of ice (unless pet freedom), break distance, lay the deeps. AMS their traps. You can Line of sight them, and heal off of their pet if they are stupid. Keep in mind, Rune Strike doesn't get deflected by their bubble ability, forgot the name.
-MAGE: Fire and Arcane are somewhat killable. Death grip the blink, try to AMS nova, standard procedure. Fight in blood or unholy presence. Now Frost, just avoid them like the plague, in BGs and open world. If they are stupid enough to let you come near them, hit them with everything you've got with Hysteria and DRW. Pop AMS as soon as you are about to come into melee zone. When nova'd instantly pop icebound and while you're sitting the nova, you can pop Lichborne and self-heal.
-PRIEST: Pretty straightforward, prioritize Death strike, heal off of them as much as you can, keep reapplying diseases if they are dispelled. Pop mark of blood and instantly follow up with Strangulate before it's dispelled. Lichborne the first fear, trinket the second. If the fight prolongs until the third fear, you lost, unless you are undead.
-WARLOCK: Kill or be killed. Pop burst straight away. AMS as soon as possible, keep Deathgrip for when they teleport. When AMS ends, icebound to immune the stun. Keep trinket for Death Coil. Lichborne the fear. Basically, against a good, BiS lock, your lifespan is the duration of your Icebound, AMS and Lichborne. You have roughly 10 seconds to burst down the lock in Blood or Unholy presence, or you die.
-DRUID: Ferals are nasty with their dodges. Dodges alone will get you killed because they'll keep dodging your death strikes. Trinket cyclone, Strangulate or Deathgrip when they kite away to heal. I would suggest instantly trinketing their first stun and popping burst. AMS their roots buff or incoming cyclone IF they are low health. If they got a restealth out of a cyclone with your dot up, spam Icebound so they don't get the opener stun. Generally, against a good feral, the fight will be prolonged and you will eventually lose, unless they don't do enough damage to outdps your self-healing.
-ELE SHAMAN + Moonkins are tricky. If it's a good one, you will lose. AMS their roots self-buff, or AMS their starfall, if no ams then icebound their starfall. Grip them at max range. Strangulate them when they hardcast heals. If you have any uptime though, you can burst them down. Ele shamans pretty much follow the same logic. Deathgrip or AMS their Lava burst. Higher chances of beating a boomkin than a good ele sham.
Enhancement shaman goes down like a sack of ****e. Fite in frost presence. You won't be healing with death strikes because of disease dispel totems, so literally just use rune tap on cooldown, pop hysteria + DRW and kill him with DS + HS spam. The best I've ever seen an enh sham do vs me is bring me down to 50% health and it was a shammy with a bloody 2-HANDER :D. Try not to get your mark of blood grounded.
ARENA
Go with an Arms Warrior or Combat Rogue. Literally just tunnel vision one target with the healing debuff. If you are both BiS, you can even kill a plate target with a healer if the rogue plays his cards right. With a warrior, you literally run in and kill or die. Hunter works too, however you will have to peel for your hunter as opposed to the mongoloid mindset of just tunneling a target.
CONCLUSION
All in all, as a Blood DK the way I roll it, I see it as essentially becoming a warrior without the healing reduction, but with good self- healing. Pretty good for solo play, lone wolf kind of playstyle. As opposed to an Unholy DK that has to kite other melee classes (like a *****) , you are the one chasing people because you deliver quite some pain in melee encounters. I would recommend this build to anyone who is bored of unholy and wants to pwn some faces like a real man. I personally feel that because Shadowmourne has armor penetration on it, in theorycraft, Blood is the ultimate meta spec to roll in 3.3.5a, and it can do wonders when coupled with a healer or a healing reduction DPS. I've played this for about 2-3 years now and I have to say Blood is the most exciting spec of all the DK specs. And wait until you queue into some green-geared plebs in BGs, you will truly feel like a hero class raidboss ;)
