Blood Death Knight The War Within 11.2.5 Guide

G’day legends, I’m Darkmech, a wow esports caster/host and content creator for Method. I’m a multi rank 1 mythic+ tank and an ex CE Raider. I've also been playing since Vanilla, which means I know exactly what I’m talking about.

A LOT has changed for Blood Death Knights in The War Within. We have seen a significant overhaul of the talent tree pathways, on both the class and spec side of the trees; and The War Within also now introduces a new hero talent system, with San’layn and Deathbringer being the two choices for Blood DK. The playstyle is still fast paced and rewards players for good gameplay loops and decisions, and once again Blood is an extremely strong and viable choice for Mythic+ and Raid content.

Strengths:

• A toolkit that can handle both physical and magic damage profiles well.
• Excellent self-sustain.
• Raid and M+ utility via Death Grip, Mass Grip, and AMZ
• Hero talents that have a direct impact on gameplay and class strength.
• Knockback immunity via Death Advance
• Cheat Death talent in Purgatory
• Many changes through the talent trees have resulted in more talent choice freedom for Blood DK

Weakness:

• Changes to Death Strike means you can’t be a 2 to 3 dumping Death Strike muppet anymore without heavy consequence.
• Survival is tied to taking damage and healing it back.
• Poor gameplay is punished heavily.
• Standing inside your Death and Decay is still a vital component to leveraging as much out of the Blood DK kit for damage and healing.

Patch 11.2.5 Blood Death Knight Changes

Patch 11.2.5 brings a total of zero class changes, so the good news is if you’ve managed to adjust from 11.2 where we did some slight changes you’re right to continue rolling towards Midnight. If you are returning a quick recap of changes that occurred in 11.2

• Abomination Limb has been removed.
• Anti-Magic Zone (AMZ) returns to its pre Castle Nathria state with a percentage-based magic damage reduction, but with a reduced duration and effectiveness compared to its pre-nerf version.
• The Assimilation talent now reduces Anti-Magic Zone’s cooldown by 60 seconds and increases its duration by 2 seconds.
• Unholy Momentum was changed to 2% static Haste. This effectively works out to a 3% Haste nerf for Blood.
• Exterminate no longer has a chance to re-apply Reaper's Mark when playing Deathbringer
• Blood Boil now grants one charge of Bone Shield if it hits 2 or more targets when playing San’layn.

Legion Remix

In Patch 11.2.5 Legion Remix enters the fray and if it’s anything like MOP Remix, it’s something you don’t want to miss.

A very quick run down for Legion remix.

• Normal Talents apply from retail, pick San’layn
• Highest item level gear wins
• Stats - Haste > Crit > Mastery
• Choose the Fel Path on the Artifact Weapon

Patch 11.2 Blood Death Knight Changes

Patch 11.2 is here and whilst there are no major core ability changes, there are a few things that are changing for Blood Death Knight.

• Abomination Limb has been removed.
• Anti-Magic Zone (AMZ) returns to its pre Castle Nathria state with a percentage-based magic damage reduction, but with a reduced duration and effectiveness compared to its pre-nerf version.
• The Assimilation talent now reduces Anti-Magic Zone’s cooldown by 60 seconds and increases its duration by 2 seconds.

The War Within Changes to Blood DK from Dragonflight

There are a number of changes incoming to Blood DK’s in the War Within, not only have the talent trees seen a rework, but you now also have the choice between 2 hero talent systems; San’layn and Deathbringer, with both bringing a different variation of power and playstyle to the class.

Hero Talents

Deathbringer offers a finer finesse to the class rewarding good gameplay loops and decision making with solid numbers, exciting visuals and a happy feeling on your face and damage meter. Whilst San’layn is the fast paced broccoli hair cutted kid at the gym who just wants to get on the gear 2nd session in, and watch the world burn.

Change In Direction

We have also seen a shift in the philosophy around Blizzard's vision for tank styled gameplay, this was delivered to Blood DK via a change to how Death Strike functions. Death Strike previously healed based on damage taken over the last 5 seconds. In The War Within however, Death Strike now heals based on either damage taken in the last 5 seconds, OR, the time since the last Death Strike, whichever is the next counted event.

People who have previously pooled 2 or 3 Death Strikes and triggered them back to back in content will notice this change drastically, even though this has never really been a recommended rotational play. If you were weaving your Death Strikes in and out of your rotation (like you should have been), you likely won’t feel the change in as drastic a fashion. The big change here is that you can’t heal multiple times off the one sequence of damage as you did before.

Talent Changes

The class and spec talent tree has seen significant changes from Dragonflight to The War Within. With new talents being added:

• Null Magic
• Unyielding Will
• Vestigial Shell
• Runic Protection
• Osmosis
• Ice Prison
• Ossified Vitriol
• Reinforced Bones
• Subduing Grasp
• Suppression
• Carnage
• Bone Collector

Some old talents have been redesigned:

• Cleaving Strikes

And some talents have been deleted:

• Acclimation

New capstones have been added and new pathways created in the tree. All in all, Blood DK is possibly in one of the best positions it has ever been in from both a talent choice perspective and a gameplay perspective.