Blood Death Knight Tank Gear and Best in Slot — The War Within (11.0.5)
On this page, you will find the best gear and best in slot items for your Blood Death Knight in World of Warcraft The War Within (11.0.5).
BiS Gear for Blood Death Knights
Welcome to our Gear and BiS Page for Blood Death Knight for The War Within Season 1. Check this page to learn everything you need to know about gearing a Blood Death Knight, including the BiS Gear from all sources, Raiding, and Mythic+, information on the best Trinkets, Tier Sets, and much more.
We only provide a "Best in Slot" list as a mandatory requirement stemming from certain guilds and players thinking they absolutely need to blindly chase that one item in that one slot and nothing else will do. Sometimes, it is raid leaders enforcing a very strict "BiS list" for loot council without any nuance; other times, it is players themselves enforcing it on themselves.
Blood Death Knight gearing is very simple: you prioritize item level above everything else on everything except trinkets, as anything 6 item levels or more is virtually guaranteed to be an upgrade.
If you have a choice on the same item level, the alternative will not, in generic circumstances, make a difference defensively. As such, we recommend just simming the choice and going with whatever helps you do more damage.
There are exceptions to this rule, and encounter-specific situations where a stat is massively devalued. Whenever an encounter features a difference (such as a boss not having a parryable auto-attack or dealing pure magical damage) and is deadly enough to warrant recommending small gearing changes, we will highlight it in the encounter guides as an exception, not a rule.
Similarly, at the absolute cutting-edge Mythic+ key levels, a slightly more fine-tuned approach towards secondaries and key-specific trade-offs on secondary stats may occur. This is extremely rare, and very often, even these players eschew or illogically favor choices that prove to be major mistakes just by cursory log analysis.
We have covered some of the caveats in a more detailed fashion on the following page:
"Simming" Yourself as a Blood Death Knight
Throughout this page, we regularly refer to the importance of simming yourself on Raidbots, as it is an indispensable aspect of optimizing your character.
While we do offer generic sim charts for Trinkets, this should not be a replacement for simming. These charts are generated in isolation, without including a second trinket. As a result, this can mess with - to name just a few:
- Cases where you have two on-use trinkets and the order in which they are used
- Cases where trinket cooldowns clash at specific points
- Cases where a certain trinket drastically impacts your rotation when it comes off cooldown
If you are new to simming and Raidbots, check out our detailed guide below.
BiS Gear for Blood Death Knight
This list contains the Best in Slot Gear from any source in Season 1 of The War Within. It is there as a reference to what is currently the highest performing gear available to players.
| Slot | Item | Source/Note |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon |  Anub'arash's Colossal Mandible (639) |
Silken Court in Mythic Nerub-ar Palace |
| Helm |  Soaring Behemoth's Greathelm (639) |
The Dawnbreaker |
| Neck |  Silken Advisor's Favor (639) |
Silken Court in Mythic Nerub-ar Palace |
| Shoulder |  Exhumed Centurion's Spikes (639) |
Tier Set: Catalyst / Vault / Raid |
| Cloak |  Wings of Shattered Sorrow (639) |
Rasha'nan in Mythic Nerub-ar Palace |
| Chest |  Exhumed Centurion's Breastplate (639) |
Tier Set: Catalyst / Vault / Raid |
| Bracers |  Everforged Vambraces (636) |
Crafted |
| Gloves |  Exhumed Centurion's Gauntlets (639) |
Tier Set: Catalyst / Vault / Raid |
| Belt |  Everforged Greatbelt (636) |
Crafted |
| Legs |  Exhumed Centurion's Chausses (639) |
Tier Set: Catalyst / Vault / Raid |
| Boots |  Shattershell Greaves (639) |
Silken Court in Mythic Nerub-ar Palace |
| Ring #1 |  Seal of the Poisoned Pact (639) |
Queen Ansurek in Mythic Nerub-ar Palace |
| Ring #2 |  Ritual Commander's Ring (639) |
The Necrotic Wake |
| Trinket #1 |  Ara-Kara Sacbrood (639) |
Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Trinket #2 |  Spare Meat Hook (639) |
The Necrotic Wake |
This list serves as a "My raid leader needs me to provide a wishlist, here is the wishlist" item list. If you were to assemble the best gear set from Nerub-ara Palace specifically, and no other source, this is what you would wear.
| Slot | Item | Source/Note |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon | Anub'arash's Colossal Mandible (639) |
Silken Court in Mythic Nerub-ar Palace |
| Helm |  Visor of the Ascended Captain (639) |
Sikran in Mythic Nerub-ar Palace |
| Neck | Silken Advisor's Favor (639) |
Silken Court in Mythic Nerub-ar Palace |
| Shoulder | Exhumed Centurion's Spikes (639) |
Tier Set: Catalyst / Vault / Raid |
| Cloak | Wings of Shattered Sorrow (639) |
Rasha'nan in Mythic Nerub-ar Palace |
| Chest | Exhumed Centurion's Breastplate (639) |
Tier Set: Catalyst / Vault / Raid |
| Bracers |  Ravaged Lamplighter's Manacles (639) |
Rasha'nan in Mythic Nerub-ar Palace |
| Gloves | Exhumed Centurion's Gauntlets (639) |
Tier Set: Catalyst / Vault / Raid |
| Belt |  Greatbelt of the Hungerer (639) |
Ulgrax the Devourer in Mythic Nerub-ar Palace |
| Legs | Exhumed Centurion's Chausses (639) |
Tier Set: Catalyst / Vault / Raid |
| Boots | Shattershell Greaves (639) |
Silken Court in Mythic Nerub-ar Palace |
| Ring #1 | Seal of the Poisoned Pact (639) |
Queen Ansurek in Mythic Nerub-ar Palace |
| Ring #2 |  Writhing Ringworm (639) |
Broodtwister Ovi'nax in Mythic Nerub-ar Palace |
| Trinket #1 |  Skyterror's Corrosive Organ (639) |
Silken Court in Mythic Nerub-ar Palace |
| Trinket #2 |  Sikran's Endless Arsenal (639) |
Sikran in Mythic Nerub-ar Palace |
This list contains the best items available per slot from Mythic+. It is there to provide you with a quick list of easily farmable gear if you need something in a specific slot.
| Slot | Item | Source/Note |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon |  Dismembered Submersible Claw (639) |
Siege of Boralus |
| Helm | Soaring Behemoth's Greathelm (639) |
The Dawnbreaker |
| Neck |  Trailspinner Pendant (639) |
Mists of Tirna Scithe |
| Shoulder |  Earthshape Pauldrons (639) |
Grim Batol |
| Cloak |  Swarmcaller's Shroud (639) |
Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Chest |  Dark Priest's Carapace (639) |
The Dawnbreaker |
| Bracers |  Bracers of Umbral Mending (639) |
Grim Batol |
| Gloves |  Machinist's Searing Handguards (639) |
The Stonevault |
| Belt |  Cannoneer's Toolbelt (639) |
Siege of Boralus |
| Legs |  Legplates of Broken Trust (639) |
The Stonevault |
| Boots |  Ichor-Stained Sollerets (639) |
City of Threads |
| Ring #1 |  Band of the Roving Scalawag (639) |
Siege of Boralus |
| Ring #2 | Ritual Commander's Ring (639) |
The Necrotic Wake |
| Trinket #1 | Ara-Kara Sacbrood (639) |
Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Trinket #2 | Spare Meat Hook (639) |
The Necrotic Wake |
Best Trinkets for Blood Death Knight in The War Within Season 1
Mythic+ Trinket Tier List for Blood Death Knight
This Trinket Tier List is biased for Mythic+, preferring trinkets that provide a larger amount of value in content that frequently alternates between packs and boss fights.
S-Tier
- Ara-Kara Sacbrood — the tooltip on this trinket is very deceptive; it has a 2.5ppm chance to spawn an egg near you. While you stay within 100 yards of the egg, you gain one stack of the buff on the tooltip of the trinket, granting you a large amount of Strength. It is trivial to keep 3-4 stacks continuously in TWW Season 1 dungeons, making this a grossly overbudgeted trinket.
A-Tier
- Spare Meat Hook — A colossal amount of single target damage. Great, considering the number of dangerous priority targets in almost every pack in Season 1.
- Sikran's Endless Arsenal — An interesting trinket; each buff provides an offensive and defensive gain:
Stance - Surekian Barrage is a frontal, and grants you a stacking speed buff while you remain stationary.
Stance - Surekian Flourish is a massive DoT on your target; the passive effect while holding the weapon grants you a notable amount of parry and avoidance.
Stance - Surekian Decimation is a skill shot-like line in front of you, dealing unsplit damage to anything it hits. The passive allows you to deal 20% bonus damage to shields; it is specifically useful and worth holding in Mists of Tirna Scithe to deal with 
Consumption on Tred'ova.
B-Tier
Overclocked Gear-a-Rang Launcher — Notable mention for the ludicrous AoE damage it is capable of inflicting. Send it while being at maximum melee range, it hits enemies twice if you do so.
Defensive-Tier
Unfortunately, this season, there are no worthwhile trinkets with a unique effect worth mentioning for raiding specifically. No trinket on the Season 1 loot table from any source confers a distinct, controllable advantage against any mechanic in Nerub-ar Palace. As a result, we strongly recommend simply defaulting to DPS trinkets.
Avoid-Tier
The following trinkets should be avoided as they are actively worse than just buying a
Darkmoon Deck: Symbiosis (580) off the Auction house:
- All stat proc trinkets from Season 1:
Mark of Khardros, 
Skarmorak Shard,
Treacherous Transmitter - Any tank-only trinket not mentioned above on this list.
Anything not listed in any list is largely a stepping stone to a better trinket.
Mythic+ Trinket Tier List for Blood Death Knight
This Trinket Tier List is biased for Mythic+, preferring trinkets that provide a larger amount of value in content that frequently alternates between packs and boss fights.
S-Tier
- Ara-Kara Sacbrood — the tooltip on this trinket is very deceptive; it has a 2.5ppm chance to spawn an egg near you. While you stay within 100 yards of the egg, you gain one stack of the buff on the tooltip of the trinket, granting you a large amount of Strength. It is trivial to keep 3-4 stacks continuously in TWW Season 1 dungeons, making this a grossly overbudgeted trinket.
A-Tier
- Spare Meat Hook — A colossal amount of single target damage. Great, considering the number of dangerous priority targets in almost every pack in Season 1.
- Sikran's Endless Arsenal — An interesting trinket; each buff provides an offensive and defensive gain:
- Stance - Surekian Barrage is a frontal and grants you a stacking speed buff while you remain stationary.
- Stance - Surekian Flourish is a massive DoT on your target; the passive effect while holding the weapon grants you a notable amount of parry and avoidance.
- Stance - Surekian Decimation is a skill shot-like line in front of you, dealing unsplit damage to anything it hits. The passive allows you to deal 20% bonus damage to shields; it is specifically useful and worth holding in Mists of Tirna Scithe to deal with Consumption on Tred'ova.
B-Tier
- Overclocked Gear-a-Rang Launcher — Notable mention for the ludicrous AoE damage it is capable of inflicting. Send it while being at maximum melee range, it hits enemies twice if you do so.
Defensive-Tier
This season, there are some potentially interesting trinkets with a significant defensive value in Mythic+. Unfortunately, the best one of them is acquired at a significantly lower item level, and thus has a somewhat reduced upfront value.
Silken Chain Weaver doubles as a 30% damage reduction with an interesting gimmick:
if you take a single hit, at least on beta, it bypassed the absorb cap and reduced the
hit by 30% overall. The other, more interesting part of the trinket is a 15% attack speed reduction
for 15 seconds on anything in front of you, and this stacks with other attack speed reduction effects.
Ceaseless Swarmgland gets a notable mention despite being purely random since its 6-second effect is a
hostile-sourced flat damage reduction and is calculated after other damage reduction effects.
Avoid-Tier
The following trinkets should be avoided as they are actively worse than just buying a
Darkmoon Deck: Symbiosis (580) off the Auction house:
- All stat proc trinkets from Season 1: Mark of Khardros, Skarmorak Shard,
Treacherous Transmitter
- Any tank trinket not listed in the "Defensive trinket" tier.
Anything not listed in any list is largely a stepping stone to a better trinket.
Best Crafted Items for Blood Death Knight
Embellishments have largely not received tuning yet, and as such, we expect that some of them will end up receiving some hasty hotfixes when Nerub-ar Palace launches. We strongly recommend not crafting with any Sparks just yet.
Should you wish to discard this advice, we recommend crafting the following:
- Everforged Vambraces with
Elemental Focusing Lens - Everforged Greatbelt with Elemental Focusing Lens
In order to activate this embellishment, you will need at least one Colored (i.e. non Diamond) gem slotted in a gem slot anywhere on your gear.
Whilst a Missive can allow you to target certain secondary stats, Blood Death Knights tend to not see a large amount of difference between all of the different options. If you absolutely want to gauge this delta, use Raidbots to simulate all of the different combinations; they will all typically fall within 0.1-0.2% of each other. As such, we recommend not bothering until significantly later in the season, when re-crafting will be cheaper.
Blood Death Knight Tier Set - Exhumed Centurion's Relics
With the launch of Season 1, Blood Death Knights will be able to gain the bonuses from Exhumed Centurion's Relics:
Death Knight Blood Season 1 2pc — While you have one or more 
Bone Shield charges,
the damage you take is reduced by 2.0%. Losing a Bone Shield charge has a chance to reduce the
damage you take by an additional 1.0%, up to 3.0% for 6 sec.- Death Knight Blood Season 1 4pc — Your damage is increased by 1% per active
Bone Shield charge. Taking damage while below 6 Bone Shield charges has a chance to generate
1-2 Bone Shield charges.
You should prioritize the slots you have the worst items in; the absolute best gear set uses Shoulders, Chest, Gloves and Legs to activate the 4-piece set bonus, but the difference between using the Headpiece or not could boil down to simply not getting a Myth-track headpiece from any other source.
PvP Gear Recommendations for Blood Death Knight
Obtaining gear from rated PvP can be a powerful boost to your item level early in the season.
All of these items have Versatility on them.
If you are wanting to obtain PvP gear, we would advise doing Solo Shuffle as Frost.
Best Gear Upgrades for Blood Death Knight
Completing end-game activities in The War Within will reward you with Harbinger Crests and Valorstones. Once you have upgraded a slot to a certain item level, upgrading other items of that slot to that item level is free.
We recommend upgrading with the following priority list:
- Upgrade your lowest item level slots or use a Raidbots Droptimiser sim to evaluate what to upgrade next.
- Finally, upgrade your weapon. The reason for this being last is that Weapons are the most expensive to upgrade, and you should focus on trying to farm a higher item level weapon and gain more overall value from your upgrades.
Changelog
- 21 Oct. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 11.0.5.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Updated for TWW S1, added all BiS lists and all trinket ratings.
- 27 Aug. 2024: Removed legendary axe recommendation as new sims show this to be a DPS loss over item level.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within Launch with Pre-Season BiS. Stay tuned for Season 1 Updates!
- 23 Jul. 2024: Removed bullion section to prepare for pre-patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Prepared for Season 4. Contains new BiS with all the S4 gear, cantrips, trinkets, bullions etc.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Clarifying BiS lists, removing crafted from M+/raid tables.
- 03 Jan. 2024: Removing tuning disclaimers, adding Fyr'alath.
- 27 Nov. 2023: Adding in murozond's rise/galakrond's fall separate links.
- 07 Nov. 2023: Sporecloak got taken out back, so we update that.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Prepared for 10.2, all trinkets are in, all gear sets are in.
- 04 Sep. 2023: New format - and some clarifications + BiS lists for 10.1.7!
- 10 Jul. 2023: Added 10.1.5 info about mega dungeon and open world trinkets.
- 24 May 2023: Added timewalking section.
- 01 May 2023: Updated for Season 2 launch. Moved Onyx Annulet section to the bottom of the page (It's still good for damage!)
- 20 Mar. 2023: Added Onyx Annulet and clarified its use in content.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Season 1 launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Death Knight Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Mandl and Panthea.
Mandl is one of Acherus' Useful Minions and Blood Death Knight theorycrafter.
Panthea raids in Catalyst and is the author of TankNotes. He plays all tanks and is a "Useful Minion" for the Acherus Death Knight Discord. You can follow him on Twitter.
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