Blood Death Knight Tank PVE Guide – WotLK

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

In this guide, you’ll learn how to play a Blood Death Knight tank in a raid. It covers talents, glyphs, gems, enchantments, rotation, and gameplay tips.

This is a core build for a Death Knight main tank. You have 4 remaining talent points. It’s recommend to allocate them to Dancing Rune Weapon and 3/3 Morbidity. Alternatively, you could opt for 3/3 Scent of Blood.

Scent of Blood is needed with a minimum 1/3, the rest you can spend somewhere else if you think it’s better.
Subversion is optional, you could take Rune Tap or Spell Deflection but the Rune Tap heal is minimal, 1 healer will do the same with 1 direct healing spell easily and Spell Deflection isn’t very helpful.
Mark of Blood may seem worthwhile but it’s not. Bosses hit slow and hard, so it won’t be as useful as it appears.

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Rune Strike
• Glyph of Vampiric Blood
• Glyph of Death Strike

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of Pestilence

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

• Meta – Austere Earthsiege Diamond
• Red – Nightmare Tear x1 or Regal Dreadstone x1
• Yellow – Solid Majestic Zircon
  Also, can be filled with Hit Rating gems
• Blue – Solid Majestic Zircon

• Head – Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector
• Shoulder – Greater Inscription of the Gladiator
• Cloak – Enchant Cloak – Mighty Armor or Enchant Cloak – Titanweave
• Chest – Enchant Chest – Super Health
• Bracers – Enchant Bracers – Major Stamina
• Gloves – Enchant Gloves – Armsman or Heavy Borean Armor Kit
• Waist – Eternal Belt Buckle
• Legs – Frosthide Leg Armor
• Boots – Enchant Boots – Tuskarr’s Vitality
• Weapon – Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle

• Hit – 8% with two-handed weapons
• Expertise – 26
• Defense – 540 (for raids)

1. Use Icy Touch
2. Use Plague Strike
3. Use Death Strike
4. Use Blood Strike for Blood runes
5. Use Blood Tap with Icy Touch.
6. Use Rune Strike to dump Runic Power.
7. Use Pestilence to refresh your diseases

1. Use Death and Decay
2. Use Icy Touch to apply Frost Fever.
3. Use Plague Strike to apply Blood Plague.
4. Use Pestilence to spread Frost Fever and Blood Plague to all nearby targets.
5. Use Blood Boil as your primary AoE ability whenever possible.
6. Use Death Strike when you have extra Frost and Unholy runes or need a self heal.

• Use Frost Presence as your aura.
• Maintain Horn of Winter.
• Rune Strike is only usable after dodges or parries.
• Icy Touch generated a significant amount of thread while in Frost Presence.