Method Blood Death Knight Guide - Introduction

Introduction

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 Abomblimb (when it actually works on the targets), 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.

What has changed

Patch 11.1.5 Changes

Class Changes coming in Patch 11.1

We remain basically unchanged regarding playstyle and operation going into Patch 11.1.5
Deathbringer has received a small buff to single target and AOE damage, whilst San’layn is seeing a small nerf on it’s AOE front.

The 2 hero talents and styles are still very much a choose your own pathway, San’layn is a lotto gamble and if you win big, you win big, it can also be a lot fun in that regard. Deathbringer is a constant reward for good play but probably lacks jazz hands. I think when we eventually hit the highest keys of the season you could possibly see a switch to DB just for the added defensive value, but San’layn for the moment is still riding fine in the +17 area.

Corruption Returns

In the week of May 20 Horrific Visions will be returning to the game with the same styled mask difficulty curve we saw in BFA. To gain access to the corruption enchants you’ll need to complete a quest line that you can find on the wowhead guide the corruption enchant will be affixed to your helm slot.

Sadly the corruption isn’t like the days of old in thinking Twilight Dev and beams from Independence Day. Blizzard has recently (16th of April as I write this) done a sweep over corruption and nerfed/buffed several interactions, Void Rituals proc for example is no longer affected by Haste which San’layn DK’s were frothing at. It’s still a very solid option though and I’ll cover the corruption enchants in the enchants sections.

New Tier Set for Season 2

Cauldron Champion’s Encore is the new tier set that will be carving its way into season 2 for the War Within:

2pc - Each time you take damage you have a chance to cast Icebound Fortitude for 4 sec and gain Luck of the Draw! which increases your damage dealt by 15% for 10 sec.
4pc - Luck of the Draw! has 2 sec increased duration.

While Luck of the Draw! is active, Death Strike costs 2 less Runic Power and can strike up to 2 additional nearby enemies.

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:

Some old talents have been redesigned:

And some talents have been deleted:

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.

Blood Death Knight The War Within 11.1.5 Guide