Blood Death Knight Tank Spell List and Glossary — The War Within (11.0.5)
On this page, we present you with all spells and procs that you need to understand as a Blood Death Knight in World of Warcraft — The War Within (11.0.5).
Introduction
If you are new to Blood, this is a great place to start to get an understanding of how the spec works. On this page we will discuss what abilities you have, what they are used for within the specialization, how they interact with each other and also with important cooldowns. If you already have experience with Blood and are comfortable with it in the current expansion, it is recommended you skip this section and move on to the rest of the guide.
Main Resource of Blood Death Knights
Runes and Runic Power are your main resources. You have 6 Runes, which are used for several of your abilities. Runes regenerate passively over 10 seconds, with the regeneration time reduced by Haste. You can have 3 Runes regenerating simultaneously, so you should be spending runes fast enough to always keep 3 Runes on cooldown. Each Rune spent generates 10 Runic Power, which is used primarily to power Death Strike, your main source of mitigation. Additionally, Heart Strike generates 5 bonus Runic Power.
Baseline Blood Death Knight Abilities
These are the abilities that you obtain without selecting anything in the talent trees.
Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
---|---|---|
Death Coil | Coil | Death Coil exists in your spellbook and should remain there, as it is more inefficient than Death Strike at everything Death Strike does. It has very situational uses where you need to burn Runic Power while standing at range for a large amount of time, but this is extremely rare (and, in most cases, a sign of misplay). |
Death and Decay | DnD | Death and Decay costs 1 Rune and places a damaging area at the target location, which persists for 10 seconds. A lot of the Blood Death Knights toolkit centers around staying inside of Death and Decay. |
Death's Advance | DA | Provides you with a small speed boost and prevents you from being slowed below 100% of your movement speed for 10 seconds. It also grants you immunity from knockbacks and pushbacks. Additionally, it has a passive effect that prevents your movement speed from being reduced below 70% |
Rune Strike | - | Rune Strike costs 1 Rune and deals moderate damage. Is replaced once we choose a specialisation ( Heart Strike for Blood). |
On a Pale Horse | - | A passive that increases your mounted movement speed by 20%. This does not stack with other movement speed abilities, such as Crusader Aura. |
Death Grip | Grip | Death Grip allows you to grip an enemy to you and also taunts it. Just like Dark Command, this taunt comes with a 3s fixate and 300% threat boost. |
Raise Ally | Combat Res/CR | Raise Ally costs 30 Runic Power and battle resses a targeted dead ally, bringing them back to life (even in combat). |
Lichborne | LB | Lichborne turns you undead for 10 seconds. This makes you immune to charm, fear, and sleep, and grants you 10% leech. You can also activate this ability to break any of these CCs, making it a useful tool if you are accidentally hit a mechanic that applies such a CC. |
Chains of Ice | Chains | Chains of Ice functions as a costly but very potent ranged snare on your target. At the cost of one Rune, you can apply a 70% slow for 8 seconds. |
Anti-Magic Shell | AMS | Anti-Magic Shell grants you a magic absorption shield equal to 40% of your maximum health for 5 seconds. While it holds, you are immune to most magical debuffs and each 1% of the shield consumed grants you 0.873 Runic Power. |
Death's Caress | DC/Caress | Death's Caress has received changes in The War Within and now grants 2 Bone Shield charges when used. It also picked up a 6-second cooldown to compensate. |
Crimson Scourge | - | This allows each auto-attack hit on a plagued target a 25% chance to reset the cooldown of Death and Decay. This can only happen if Death and Decay is not active (i.e., not on the floor)! |
Dark Command | Taunt | Dark Command is your taunt; this puts you at the top of an enemy's threat table and forces it to fixate on you for 3 seconds. During those three seconds, you generate 300% bonus threat - the ideal time to hit it with Death Strike for a guaranteed threat lead! |
Runeforging | - | Runeforging allows you to apply a powerful Runeforge to your weapon, acting as (usually) better enchant. You do this in the Acherus Hold at the Runeforges. |
Death Gate | - | Death Gate summons a gate that will teleport you to Acherus. Here you can Runeforge your weapon and practice your rotation on target dummies. Using the Death Gate again will bring you back to your original location. |
Path of Frost | - | Path of Frost costs 1 Rune and grants everyone in your group the ability to walk on water. Breaks on any damage taken. |
Mastery: Blood Shield | - | Mastery: Blood Shield is our mastery; every time you use Death Strike, a percentage of the raw healing done by Death Strike is duplicated as an absorption shield on yourself. It also increases your attack power, which in turn feeds into all offensive abilities. |
Riposte | - | Riposte, a passive ability currently invisible in your spellbook automatically grants you 100% of your critical strike rating as parry rating. This is designed to make critical strike rating appealing defensively and hits the mark pretty well. |
Talented Abilities
As part of the Dragonflight overhaul to the talent system, every specialization has received numerous new passive effects and active abilities. To attempt to break the list of every possible effect down into manageable chunks, we have grouped these abilities into active and passive effects, organized by the rows you will come across them from top to bottom in each tree.
If you would like to know more about which of these talents to select for your own Blood Death Knight, please see the builds and talents section of our guide.
Talent Tree Rows 1-4
Active Abilities
Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
---|---|---|
Icebound Fortitude | IBF | Icebound Fortitude is available on the class tree for all Death Knights. When used, for the next 8 seconds, you take 30% less damage and are completely immune to Stun effects. It can also be used while you are stunned to remove the Stun effect. |
Death Strike | DS | Death Strike deals damage to the target and heals you for 25% of the damage taken in the previous 5 seconds. Moreover, due to your Mastery ( Mastery: Blood Shield), a percentage of the healing is also applied to you as a physical damage absorption shield. Death Strike costs Runic Power to use, and is almost the only use of Runic Power for Blood Death Knights. |
Raise Dead | Ghoul | Raise Dead allows you to summon a Ghoul for one minute. This ghoul will auto-attack your current target and frequently cast Gnaw, a 1-second stun. |
Heart Strike | HS | Heart Strike damages the target as well as another nearby target and costs 1 Rune to cast. When standing in your Death and Decay, if Cleaving Strikes is talented; it will strike up to 5 targets. It is the most efficient Runic Power generator in your toolkit due to the bonus 5 Runic Power it generates and should be your Rune spender of choice when you do not need charges of Bone Shield. This is copied by Dancing Rune Weapon if it is active and grants you 5 bonus Runic Power per Dancing Rune Weapon active through Blood Strike. It also applies a 20% snare to affected targets, though this does not have a meaningful impact on your gameplay decisions. |
Marrowrend | MR | Marrowrend hits the target for a light amount of physical damage and grants you 3 charges of Bone Shield. This spell is copied by Dancing Rune Weapon if it is active and grants you 3 additional Bone Shield charges per Dancing Rune Weapon when cast. |
Blood Boil | BB | Blood Boil deals damage to all enemies within 10 yards and applies Blood Plague to them. Beyond applying your disease, it is generally used as a filler in your rotation when you do not need to spend Runes or Runic Power. |
Mind Freeze | Interrupt | Mind Freeze interrupts your target if they are casting. This also causes them to be locked out of that school of magic for three seconds. |
Blinding Sleet | Sleet | Blinding Sleet disorients all targets in a 12yd cone in front of you for up to 5 seconds. When they take damage, the disorient fades, and they instead are slowed by 50% for 6 seconds. |
Control Undead | MC | Control Undead allows you to take control over any non-CC-immune undead enemy. This turns this enemy into your pet and may grant you access to some of their abilities. |
Sacrificial Pact | Sac | Sacrificial Pact allows you to explode your ghoul for a small amount of shadow damage to all enemies near it. This explosion also heals you for 25% of your maximum health. This comes at a heavy Runic Power cost and does very little damage or healing, so we recommend skipping it. |
Vampiric Blood | VB | Vampiric Blood increases your maximum health and healing received by 30% for 10 seconds. |
Death Pact | Pact | Death Pact heals you for 50% and applies a 30% healing absorption effect; while this effect holds, all of your received healing is absorbed by it. Both effects (the healing and healing absorption) snapshot your maximum HP at the time of cast. |
Passive Effects
Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
---|---|---|
Runic Attenuation | RA | Runic Attenuation grants a very high chance to generate 5 Runic Power each time you successfully auto-attack a target. In practice, this works out to an average of 50 RP per minute, increased by your Haste. |
Improved Death Strike | Improved DS | Improved Death Strike reduces the cost of Death Strike by 5 Runic Power and increases its healing done by 10%. |
Cleaving Strikes | - | Increases the maximum amount of targets Heart Strike will hit from 2 to 5 targets while you are standing in your Death and Decay. |
Anti-Magic Barrier | AMB | Anti-Magic Barrier reduces the cooldown of Anti-Magic Shell to 40 seconds, increases its duration to 7 seconds, and its size by 40%. |
March of Darkness | - | March of Darkness grants you an additional 25% movement speed (60% total) for the first three seconds of Death's Advance. |
Unholy Ground | UG | Grants you 5% additional haste while you stand in your Death and Decay. |
Enfeeble | - | Enfeeble grants a chance for your ghoul's auto-attacks to reduce the damage the target deals to you by 15% for 6 seconds, and to snare them by 30%. |
Bone Collector | - | Bone Collector will give you a charge of Bone Shield when you attempt to grip an enemy with Death Grip, Abomination Limb, or Gorefiend's Grasp. |
Coldthirst | - | Reduces the cooldown of Mind Freeze by 3 seconds and if you successfully manage to interrupt a spell, you gain 10 Runic Power. |
Proliferating Chill | - | Causes Chains of Ice to cleave to the nearest enemy target |
Permafrost | - | Permafrost grants you a shield equal to 40% of all auto-attack damage you deal. This stacks and refreshes on each auto-attack. |
Veteran of the Third War | Veteran | Increases your stamina by 20%. |
Brittle | - | Brittle causes your ticks of Blood Plague to have a chance to weaken them, increasing all your damage dealt to them by 6% for 5 seconds. |
Death's Reach | - | Increases the range of Death Grip to 35 yards, and causes its cooldown to reset each time you deal a killing blow to a target that yields experience or honor. |
Ossuary | - | Passively increases your maximum Runic Power by 10 at all times. Additionally, it rewards you for staying at or above 5 Bone Shield charges. When this is the case, the cost of Death Strike is reduced by 5 Runic Power. |
Improved Vampiric Blood | Improved VB | Increases the duration of Vampiric Blood by 2 seconds and its healing amplification and maximum HP increase by 5% per rank. |
Improved Heart Strike | Improved HS | Increases the damage dealt by Heart Strike by up to 15% per rank. |
Ossified Vitriol | - | When you lose a stack of Bone Shield the damage of your next Marrowrend is increased by 15% (stacking up to 75%). |
Talent Tree Rows 5-7
Active Abilities
Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
---|---|---|
Anti-Magic Zone | AMZ | Anti-Magic Zone places a shadowy zone on the floor for 8 seconds; this zone absorbs 20% of the magic damage taken by any friendly target within it until it has reached its cap of 150% of your maximum health. |
Dancing Rune Weapon | DRW | Dancing Rune Weapon spawns a non-targetable entity to fight by your
side for 8 seconds. While it is active, you gain 35% additional parry and
some of your spells are copied with additional effects:
|
Asphyxiate | - | Stuns your target for 5 seconds. |
Wraith Walk | WW | Wraith Walk breaks all roots currently on you, renders you immune to any subsequent root effects while channelling Wraith Walk, and increases your movement speed by up to 4 seconds. Casting any other ability during this will cancel Wraith Walk. |
Soul Reaper | SR | Soul Reaper deals light shadowfrost damage to your target and afflicts them with a 5-second debuff. When it fades, if the target is below 35%, you deal a large amount of shadowfrost damage to them. If the target dies while afflicted by this debuff, you gain (a heavily nerfed version of) Runic Corruption. |
Gorefiend's Grasp | GG/Mass Grip | Gorefiend's Grasp grips all enemies within 15 yards to your target. The target of this spell can be you, an ally, an enemy, or any other entity that can be attacked by anything. |
Rune Tap | RTap | Consumes a Rune to reduce all damage you take by 20% for 4 seconds. |
Blood Tap | BTap | Blood Tap allows you to recover one Rune when cast. This will prioritize fully depleted runes. Each time you lose a Bone Shield charge, the cooldown of Blood Tap is reduced by 2 seconds. This works out, in practice, to roughly 1.5 bonus Runes per minute. |
Passive Effects
Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
---|---|---|
Icy Talons | Talons | Icy Talons grants you 3% melee auto-attack speed for 6 seconds each time you spend Runic Power (no matter how much you spent or what you spent it with). This stacks up to 3 times. |
Unholy Bond | - | Unholy Bond modifies your Runeforges in the following way:
|
Leeching Strike | - | Causes each Heart Strike damage event to heal you for 0.5% of your max HP. |
Heartbreaker | HB | Causes each hit of Heart Strike from you (the copies cast by Dancing Rune Weapon do not count) to grant you an additional 1 Runic Power (per point). |
Foul Bulwark | FB | Increases your maximum HP by 1% for each charge of Bone Shield you currently have. |
Hemostasis | Hemo | Causes each target hit by Blood Boil to grant you a buff, up to 5 stacks. Casting Death Strike consumes all stacks of this buff to increase the damage and healing done by Death Strike (but not the blood shield generated through Mastery: Blood Shield) |
Perseverance of the Ebon Blade | - | Grants you 6% versatility for 6 seconds when you consume a Crimson Scourge proc. |
Relish in Blood | RiB | Grants you a small heal and 10 Runic Power when you consume a Crimson Scourge proc. |
Ice Prison | - | Turns Chains of Ice into a 4-second root (this also roots the nearest enemy as well with Proliferating Chill) but adds a 12-second cooldown to Chains of Ice. |
Gloom Ward | GW | This increases all absorption effects cast on you by 15%. This includes effects cast by you, as well as other effects (for example, it increases Life Cocoon as well as Anti-Magic Shell). |
Assimilation | - | Increases the maximum HP coefficient on Anti-Magic Zone to 165% and causes each 1% absorbed by it to grant you 1 Runic Power. |
Grip of the Dead | GotD | Snares enemies by 90% when they enter Death and Decay. Every second from the time they first take damage from Death and Decay, this snare is reduced by 10%. |
Improved Bone Shield | Improved BS | Increases your Haste by 10% while at least one charge of Bone Shield is active. |
Insatiable Blade | - | Causes Dancing Rune Weapon to instantly grant 5 Bone Shield charges. Additionally, whenever a Bone Shield charge is consumed, the cooldown of Dancing Rune Weapon is reduced by 5 seconds. |
Rapid Decomposition | - | Causes Blood Plague and Death and Decay to tick 15% faster. Additionally, Blood Plague leeches 50% more health from enemies. |
Suppression | - | Increases your avoidance by 3%. When you are impacted by a crowd-control effect you gain an additional 6% avoidance for 6 seconds. |
Blood Scent | - | Increases your leech by 3%. |
Unholy Endurance | - | Causes Lichborne to last 2 seconds longer and reduces all damage taken by 15% while it is active. |
Tightening Grasp | TG | Tightening Grasp reduces the cooldown of Gorefiend's Grasp to 90 seconds, and silences enemies gripped for 3 seconds. |
Reinforced Bones | - | Allows you to have up to 12 stacks of Bone Shield, and increases the amount of armor provided by Bone Shield by an additional 10% of your strength (from 80% to 88%). |
Everlasting Bond | - | Causes Dancing Rune Weapon to summon a second Dancing Rune Weapon to mirror all your abilities and increases its duration by 6 seconds. |
Voracious | Vora | Increases the healing done by Death Strike by 20%, increases its minimum healing to 10.5% of your max HP and grants you 15% leech for 8 seconds after using Death Strike. |
Coagulopathy | Coag | Coagulopathy increases all your damage to targets affected by Blood Plague by 5% at all times. Additionally, using Death Strike grants you a buff that increases all damage by all your Blood Plague by 25% for 8 seconds, stacking up to 5. |
Bloodworms | BW | Bloodworms grant you a chance to spawn Bloodworms. These deal light physical damage to their target, and burst after 15 seconds or when you drop below 50% HP. When they burst, they heal you for 15% of your missing HP.5 |
Talent Tree Rows 8-10
Active Abilities
Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
---|---|---|
Mark of Blood | MoB | Mark of Blood debuffs your target for 15 seconds, causing each auto-attack to heal their target for 3% of their maximum health. This has very little value, and due to it being a choice node with Tombstone instead of a mostly free choice as it was in Shadowlands, there is very little chance that this ability will ever see play. |
Tombstone | Tomb | Tombstone consumes up to 5 Bone Shield charges. For each
Bone Shield charge consumed, you gain 6 Runic Power and 6% of your
maximum HP as an absorption shield. It also has the following interactions:
|
Consumption | - | Consumption deals moderate physical damage to all targets in front of you and heals you for 150% of the damage. This healing does not trigger Mastery: Blood Shield, and unfortunately, means you will likely massively overheal with it when used. It will also refund 2 Runes and cause all Blood Plague's to tick 30% faster for 6 seconds. |
Blooddrinker | - | Blooddrinker drains your target's health over 3 seconds, dealing high shadow damage to them. While channeling, you can dodge, parry, and use defensive abilities. It will also reduce the damage the target will deal to you by 20% while channeling and for 5 seconds after. For legacy reasons, Dancing Rune Weapon counts as a defensive ability and does not break Blooddrinker. |
Abomination Limb | Abom | Abomination Limb deals heavy damage to use and every second for 12 seconds. Every time it deals damage, it attempts to grip the furthest target within 20 yards of your current location to you. On use, 6 seconds in, and when Abomination Limb fades, you gain 3 charges of Bone Shield. |
Bonestorm | BS | Bonestorm allows you to spend up to 5 Bone Shield charges to deal periodic damage for up to 10 seconds to all targets near you; every time this ability deals damage, you are healed by up to 10% of your maximum health (2% per target hit). If you also have Insatiable Blade, Bonestorm also grants 25 seconds of cooldown reduction on Dancing Rune Weapon. |
Passive Effects
Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
---|---|---|
Osmosis | - | Increases all healing received (does not include absorbs) while Anti-Magic Shell is active by 15%. |
Insidious Chill | Chill | This is our new raid utility debuff. Each auto-attack you deal applies a debuff that lasts 30 seconds and stacks to 4 times on your target. For each stack, their auto-attack speed is reduced by 5%. You are strongly recommended to tab-target to all available targets and keep these stacks rolling. |
Runic Protection | - | Increases armor by 6%. The critical strike reduction is irrelevant for tank specialisations as this is already a passive for all tanks. |
Blood Draw | - | Blood Draw will trigger once every 2 minutes when you drop below 30% health.
It will trigger three effects:
|
Blood Feast | BF | Each point of damage absorbed by Anti-Magic Shell will also heal you. |
Bloodied Blade | - | Your strength will be increased by 0.5% for 15 seconds each time you parry; this can stack up to 8 times (with a 0.5-second cooldown between stacks). When you parry on 8 stacks of Bloodied Blade you will automatically cast Heart Strike for free and it deals 100% increased damage. After this, Heart Strike has been cast, you will gain 10% Strength for 6 seconds and cannot gain any stacks of Bloodied Blade while the buff is active. |
Sanguine Ground | SG | Sanguine Ground causes you to deal 5% more damage and receive 5% more healing and absorption effects from all sources while you are in your Death and Decay. |
Rune Mastery | - | Rune Mastery can occasionally cause you to gain 3% strength (per rank) for 8 seconds when you spend a rune. The number of runes you spent per ability does not affect this; the chance to trigger this is the same whether you have used Heart Strike or Marrowrend for example. |
Subduing Grasp | - | When you attempt to grip an enemy, it will deal 6% less damage to you for 6 seconds. It is worth noting that using Death Grip to trigger this effect may lead to enemies becoming taunt immune as Death Grip taunts the enemy. |
Will of the Necropolis | WotN | Will of the Necropolis causes a portion of all damage taken while below 30% or that would bring you below 30%, to be reduced by a percentage. The behavior of this ability is non-trivial, and as a result, its specific nuances are explained on a separate page. |
Shattering Bone | Shatter | Shattering Bone causes each Bone Shield charge consumed by taking auto-attacks or through Tombstone to deal 7% / 14% of your AP in damage to all nearby targets. This damage is tripled if you are currently in your Death and Decay. |
Heartrend | Rend | Heartrend causes all your Heart Strike to have a 12% chance to increase the damage of your next Death Strike by 20%. |
Carnage | - | Direct damage from Blooddrinker / Consumption contribute towards your Mastery: Blood Shield (at your mastery %). Additionally, when an enemy attacks you with Mastery: Blood Shield active, there is a small chance for the cooldown of Blooddrinker / Consumption to reset. |
Iron Heart | IH | Iron Heart increases the duration of Mastery: Blood Shield and its amount by 20% |
Red Thirst | RT | Red Thirst reduces the cooldown of Vampiric Blood by 2 seconds for every 10 Runic Power you spend. |
Null Magic | - | Reduces magic damage taken by 10% and makes most magic debuffs on you fade 35% faster. |
Unyielding Will | - | Makes Anti-Magic Shell remove harmful magic debuffs on you but increases the cooldown of it by 20 seconds. |
Death's Echo | Echo | Death's Echo grants you a second charge of Death's Advance, Death Grip, and Death and Decay. Additionally, it causes all effects that would reset the cooldown of those abilities (such as Crimson Scourge) to grant you a full charge instead. |
Vestigial Shell | - | When you cast Anti-Magic Shell, the two nearest friendly players will get a Lesser Anti-Magic Shell. This lesser shell is just a magic absorb shield and does not give any of the benefits of Anti-Magic Shell, such as debuff immunity or removal from Unyielding Will. |
Purgatory | Purg | Purgatory causes any damage that would kill you (while it is not
on cooldown) to afflict you with two debuffs:
|
Bloodshot | - | Bloodshot increases all physical damage you deal while Mastery: Blood Shield is active on you by 25%. |
Umbilicus Eternus | UE | Umbilicus Eternus tallies up all damage dealt by Blood Plague while Vampiric Blood is active. When Vampiric Blood fades or Umbilicus Eternus is cancelled; the total is quintupled and applies to you as a shield, capped at your maximum HP before any additional amplification effect. |
San'layn Hero Talents
Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
---|---|---|
Vampiric Strike | VS | Death Strike has a 25% chance to change Heart Strike into Vampiric Strike. Vampiric Strike will deal Shadow damage instead of Physical (meaning that you gain no value from Bloodshot), heal you for 1% of your maximum health, and give you 1 stack of Essence of the Blood Queen. Essence of the Blood Queen is the central focus of the San'layn tree. Every time you gain a stack of Essence of the Blood Queen you will get 1% Haste for 20 seconds, and each stack refreshes the duration (up to 5 stacks, 7 with Frenzied Bloodthirst). The Haste gained from this effect is multiplicative, so the more Haste you have, the better this buff will be. |
Newly Turned (Choice Node 1) | - | When you use Raise Ally, both you and the person resurrected will gain a 20% health absorption shield. |
Vampiric Speed (Choice Node 1) | - | The movement speed of Death's Advance and Wraith Walk are increased by 10%. Casting either spell will give the four nearest friendly players a 20% movement speed buff for 5 seconds. |
Blood-Soaked Ground | - | While you are standing in your Death and Decay, you will take 5% less Physical damage and have a 5% increased chance to trigger Vampiric Strike. |
Vampiric Aura (Choice Node 2) | - | Your leech is increased by 2%. When you cast Lichborne, it doubles, and the 4% bonus will be given to the four nearest friendly players. |
Bloody Fortitude (Choice Node 2) | - | Increases the damage reduction of Icebound Fortitude by up to 20%. This bonus is at full value when you are below 50% health. Additionally, if you get the killing blow on an enemy the cooldown of Icebound Fortitude is reduced by 3 seconds. |
Infliction of Sorrow | - | When Vampiric Strike hits an enemy with Blood Plague the duration of Blood Plague is increased by 3 seconds (up to 39 seconds total duration) and instantly deals 10% of the damage of Blood Plague. Infliction of Sorrow also interacts with Gift of the San'layn by dealing the full damage of Blood Plague to the target after Vampiric Blood ends with your next Heart Strike. |
Frenzied Bloodthirst | - | Increases the maximum amount of stacks of Essence of the Blood Queen by 2. You will also deal 3% more damage per stack with Death Strike. |
The Blood is Life | - | Vampiric Strike has a chance to spawn a Blood Beast. The Blood Beast will attack your target for 10 seconds and explode for a potion of the damage it dealt. This explosion will also heal you. |
Visceral Strength | - | When you consume a Crimson Scourge proc, you are given 6% Strength for 8 seconds. |
Incite Terror | - | This debuff increases shadow damage taken by the enemy by 1% per stack for 15 seconds (up to 5 stacks, and each stack refreshes the duration of the debuff). Incite Terror is applied from casting Vampiric Strike or Heart Strike on the target. Vampiric Strike itself will deal 4% more damage per stack. |
Pact of the San'layn (Choice Node 3) | - | Blood Beasts will now store 50% of the Shadow damage you deal. |
Pact of the San'layn (Choice Node 3) | - | The chance to trigger Vampiric Strike is increased by 15% if the target is below 35% health. |
Gift of the San'layn | - | Whilst Dancing Rune Weapon is active Heart Strike is replaced with Vampiric Strike. The Haste bonus of Essence of the Blood Queen is increased by 150% whilst Dancing Rune Weapon is active. |
Deathbringer Hero Talents
Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
---|---|---|
Reaper's Mark | - | Reaper's Mark is a DoT placed on an enemy that lasts 12 seconds. Each time Shadow
or Frost damage is dealt to the target it gains a stack. If it reaches 40 stacks, the target is below
35% health (can only happen every 3 minutes per target), or times out on the target
it will explode, dealing damage based on the number of stacks it had. If the target affected by Reaper's Mark dies, it is re-applied to the nearest enemy; if there are not enemies left alive, it instead fizzles (but still grants Exterminate stacks). |
Wave of Souls | - | Applying Reaper's Mark to a target will fire Wave of Souls from you to your target and then back to you. Enemies hit will take 5% increased damage (per stack, stacking up to 2 times) to enemies if they are critically hit by this ability, when the wave returns to you, it will always critically strike. |
Wither Away | - | Blood Plague will deal damage every 1.5 seconds instead of every 3 seconds, and the second scythe from Exterminate will apply Blood Plague. |
Bind in Darkness | - | Blood Boil's damage is now Shadowfrost and is recoloured to be Blue (in line with the asthetic of the tree). |
Soul Rupture | - | When Reaper's Mark explodes, 10% of the damage dealt to the target will be dealt to nearby enemies. Enemies hit will deal 5% less physical damage for 10 seconds. |
Grim Reaper (Choice Node 1) | - | Applying Reaper's Mark grants 3 stacks of Bone Shield. When Reaper's Mark explodes, it will deal up to 30% additional damage based on the missing health of the target. |
Reaper of Souls (Choice Node 1) | - | All Soul Reaper damage is buffed by 20%. Whenever you apply Reaper's Mark to a target, the remaining cooldown on Soul Reaper is reset and your next Soul Reaper is free and will detonate as if its target was in execute range. |
Pact of the Deathbringer (Choice Node 2) | - | Once every 2 minutes you can trigger Death Pact at 50% effectiveness. When Reaper's Mark the cooldown of this effect (and Death Pact) is reduced by 5 seconds. |
Rune Carved Plates (Choice Node 2) | - | Gain up to 7.5% damage reduction against Physical and Magic damage (1.5% per stack). Spending a rune will give a stack of magic damage reduction for 5 seconds and regenerating a rune will give a stack of physical damage reduction. Obtaining a stack of either effect will refresh the duration. With optimal play, you can maintain 5 stacks of this effect at all times. |
Swift and Painful | - | In single target, Reaper's Mark grants you 10% strength for 8 seconds when it detonates. Wave of Souls is 100% more effective against the target Reaper's Mark was cast on. |
Dark Talons (Choice Node 3) | - | Marrowrend and Heart Strike randomly cause you to gain 3 more Icy Talons stacks. Death Strike now grants 2 stacks of Reaper's Mark, 4 if it critically strikes. |
Reaper's Onslaught (Choice Node 3) | - | Reduces the cost of Reaper's Mark to one rune and reduces it cooldown by 30 seconds, but causes it to only grant one Exterminate stack. |
Death's Messenger (Choice Node 4) | - | The cooldown of Lichborne and Raise Dead is reduced by 30 seconds. |
Expelling Shield (Choice Node 4) | - | If an enemy directly hits you with a Magic spell (no DoTs, no AoE) while Anti-Magic Shell is active, their cast time will be reduced by 10% for 6 seconds. |
Exterminate | - | When Reaper's Mark explodes your next two Marrowrend are empowered by Exterminate. Each Marrowrend costs 1 rune and will deal additional damage in two parts. The first part will hit your target for a lot of damage and have a 30% chance to apply Reaper's Mark. The second part will deal AoE damage. |
Changelog
- 21 Oct. 2024: Updated to account for the entire Deathbringer rework of 11.0.5.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Season 1.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within Launch. Added Hero Talents.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Season 4.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.2
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
- 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
- 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
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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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