Blood Death Knight Tank PVE Guide – Cataclysm

Welcome to the PVE Blood Death Knight Tank Guide for World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King!

This guide will teach you how to play a Blood Death Knight in a raid. It covers talents, glyphs, gems, enchantments, rotation, and gameplay tips.

Prime Glyphs

• Glyph of Death Coil
• Glyph of Heart Strike
• Glyph of Rune Strike

For AoE, you can replace the Glyph of Death Coil with Glyph of Death and Decay.

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Rune Tap
• Glyph of Vampiric Blood
• Glyph of Dancing Rune Weapon

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of Blood Tap
• Glyph of Horn of Winter
• Glyph of Resilient Grip

Gems are situational and depend on the build and equipment. They are used to reach the required stat caps.

• Meta – Austere Shadowspirit Diamond
• Red – Fine Lava Coral or Fine Ember Topaz
• Yellow/Prismatic – Fractured Lightstone, Fractured Amberjewel, or Fractured Chimera’s Eye
• Blue – Puissant Elven Peridot or Puissant Dream Emerald

• Head – Arcanum of the Earthen Ring
• Shoulder – Greater Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz or Inscription of the Earth Prince
• Cloak – Enchant Cloak – Protection
• Chest – Enchant Chest – Peerless Stats
• Bracers – Enchant Bracer – Major Stamina or Enchant Bracer – Superior Dodge or Draconic Embossment – Stamina with Socket Bracer
• Gloves – Enchant Gloves – Greater Mastery with Quickflip Deflection Plates or Socket Gloves
• Waist – Grounded Plasma Shield or Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
• Legs – Drakehide Leg Armor or Drakehide Leg Reinforcements
• Boots – Enchant Boots – Lavawalker
• Weapon – Rune of Swordshattering or Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle

• [Optional] Use Dancing Rune Weapon pre-pull to generate threat, if using Glyph of Dancing Rune Weapon
• Use and maintain Frost Fever and Blood Plague via Icy Touch/Plague Strike or Outbreak
• Use Frost/Unholy runes on Death Strike
• Use Blood runes on Heart Strike
• Use runic power on Rune Strike
• [As needed] Make use of survival cooldowns

Multiple Target Rotation

• Use Death and Decay on cooldown
• Use Frost Fever/Blood Plague and spread to all targets with Pestilence
• Use Death Strike
• Use Blood Boil procs from Crimson Scourge
• Use Heart Strike if fighting 3 or less enemies, Blood Boil if facing 4 or more enemies
• Use Rune Strike to dump runic power if at least one rune is fully depleted

• Use Dark Command to taunt enemies as needed
• Death Grip can be used as taunt and an interrupt, and will also move you to non-boss enemies
• Horn of Winter can be used to generate extra Runic Power if runes are on cooldown and you are not at maximum Runic Power