Stat Priorities
Stat Ranking
Stats for Blood are pretty straight forward. Item level is king and reigns supreme. If something is a higher item level, you equip it regardless of what secondary stats it has.
There’s a few exceptions to this, mainly for trinkets, embellished crafted items, and jewelry, but you cannot go wrong equipping your highest item level pieces. When comparing two equal ilevel pieces, the best thing to do is to sim yourself to see which is better.
Secondary stats for blood are all pretty equal in value and the amount of stats you have will also have an impact on the value on which secondary is better.
Stat Outline
Critical Strike: Critical Strike has often just been referred to as a dps stat and generally not given the praise or consideration if offered from a defensive standpoint especially in Mythic+. Critical Strike is very strong offensively, but it is also a near-1:1 conversion to parry. The stat gains more value in a Mythic+ environment due to the number of enemies hitting you, (if their abilities can be parried). Overall, it’s a solid two pronged stat that only picks up value in M+ don’t listen to people who tell you to avoid crit.
Haste: Haste provides faster rune generation per percent of haste thanks to Bone Shield, it also factors into a number of proc abilities like Carnage. More haste allows for a smoother rotation to fuel Death Strikes and spend runes.
Mastery: Mastery feeds our Blood Shield and provides significant value against physical damage attacks and scales with the amount of damage you are taking. It also interacts with our talents Gloom Ward and Iron Heart, it’s not a strong offensive stat, and its value has actually dropped due to now only being able to build a blood shield up to 50% of your max HP, it was 100% previously, but this doesn’t mean avoid Mastery at all costs.
Versatility: Versatility has long been seen as a go to stat, and it’s a strong secondary for Blood DK’s, it provides both a reduction in damage taken and an increase in self-healing, in addition to providing a small damage increase. It is an expensive stat though in terms of item budget, and not often the saving stat you might think it to be. (Your rotation and pressing your buttons matters more than how much vers you have) nothing has changed in TWW and this is still the most expensive stat on the budget list for us.
General Stat Priority
- Item Level
- Haste/Critical Strike/Versatility/Mastery
When playing San’layn you will favor higher amounts of haste including your enchants/gems etc, for Deathbringer you will favor haste to a certain point (5% from your secondaries) then you’ll want to focus on the other secondaries, with critical strike gaining significant value when playing death bringer.
Races
Race doesn’t really matter for Blood. They all have their uses and benefits. For example:
- Goblin provides you with an extra movement cooldown.
- Dwarf and Dark Iron Dwarf are great for M+ because of the dispel.
- The dodge from Night Elf is great for increasing your physical avoidance and Shadow Meld can be useful to reset packs.
- Void Elf if playing Deathbringer may have a slight edge due to the racial counting as shadowfrost damage.
Just choose whichever race you think looks the coolest and have fun with it!
Enchants
Cloak: Enchant Cloak - Chant of Winged Grace
Chest: Enchant Chest - Crystalline Radiance
Bracers: Enchant Bracer - Chant of Armored Speed
Boots: Enchant Boots - Defenders March or Enchant Boots - Scout's March
Legs: Stormbound Armor Kit
Rings: Enchant Ring - Radiant Haste (San’layn)
Enchant Ring - Radiant Critical Strike (Deathbringer)
Weapon: Rune of the Fallen Crusader
You’ll be able to add 2 x socket options to your neck and rings via Magnificent Jeweler's Setting and then 3 x socket options to your head, belt and wrists via Nerubian Gemweaver.
Gems
1 x Culminating Blasphemite, then any of the 2 stat gems:
- Deadly Emerald
- Masterful Emerald
- Versatile Emerald
Be sure to continue to sim yourself with gear upgrades to ensure the optimal gem combinations.
Consumables
Food: Feast of the Midnight Masquerade
Flask: Flask of Tempered Swiftness (San’layn), Flask of Tempered Aggression (Deathbringer)
Potions: Tempered Potion
Health Potions: Algari Healing Potion
Weapon Oil: Algari Mana Oil
Runes: Crystallized Augment Rune