Blood Death Knight Midnight Talents Guide

Currently I recommend playing San'layn in all content.

Deathbringer has a slight edge over San’layn on Single Target, partly due to a bug with Echoing Fury.

Various tuning changes to San’layn has it out-performing Deathbringer in Mythic+, but Deathbringer remains the more approachable spec.

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The Class tree has a lot of flexibility, with a vast amount of utility options which should all be taken into consideration.

Utility requirements may vary between raids or dungeons, so here are the most notable options.

Wraith Walk can be talented if you need either a form of root-removal or a separate bonus to movement speed outside of Death's Advance charges.

Coldthirst and Asphyxiate can be used in conjunction with Death Grip to lock down individual targets.

Control Undead is useful where Undead mobs are featured, either adding onto your own damage or simply removing a kick/stop requirement from pulls.

Anti-Magic Zone can be crucial in cooldown plans for both Raid and Mythic+. It’s cooldown can be decreased with an extra point in Assimilation.

Grip Of The Dead is extremely valuable in Mythic+ as it allows you to kite better, and avoid unnecessary melee swings.

Subduing Grasp can be planned around as an additional defensive.

This section will serve as an explanation on why some more 'defensive' talents are either not recommended or where they might be useful.

Improved Vampiric Blood’s is weaker than on first glance, the absorb increase will not increase your Mastery: Blood Shield cap. The main strength of the talent is the duration increase on Vampiric Blood.

Swapping these points over from Improved Heart Strike means you need to take Relish In Blood to path downwards on the right side of the tree.

Abomination Limb can be taken instead of Gorefiend's Grasp providing there are delayed spawns of new adds that need to be controlled.

Bloody Reflection can be taken to raise the Mastery: Blood Shield cap, if you are consistently reaching it. You should verify this before taking the talent.

Consumption should always be considered when planning ahead of a difficult encounter due to its short cooldown and strength against healing absorbs.

Umbilicus Eternus can be taken in Mythic+, to either patch up inconsistencies or to add to already existing cooldown plans.

In practice, by the end of Vampiric Blood we are already stable as a result of a built up Mastery: Blood Shield.

Blood Death Knight receives Dance Of Midnight as our Apex Talent, the goal of which is to make your Dancing Rune Weapon stronger and more frequent.

Currently it is worth investing all 4 talent points into them, and the most impactful points are Ranks 1 and 3.

Dance Of Midnight Rank 1: Parried attacks during Dancing Rune Weapon buff Heart Strike, making it do more damage and making it completely free, while still providing the full expected RP.

Dance Of Midnight Rank 2: Each Dancing Rune Weapon provides extra damage and damage reduction.

Dance Of Midnight Rank 3: Each Rune you consume has roughly a 12%~ chance to summon a Dancing Rune Weapon.

Deathbringer

Deathbringer’s gameplay revolves around casting Reaper's Mark and stacking up the debuff to the maximum stacks so that it explodes.

Reaper's Mark stacks are accrued by dealing shadow damage, with talents like Bind In Darkness, Wither Away and Dark Talons being major contributors.

Deathbringer uniquely has access to extra tools that benefit our survivability, via;

• Wither Away (Doubled Blood Plague damage/healing)
• Frigid Resolve (Increased effectiveness for Permafrost)
• Rune Carved Plates (Consistent 7.5% Damage Reduction)

Alongside the defensive benefits and cool visuals, Deathbringer is also easy to play.

San'layn

San’layn adds complexity to the spec through our already existing cooldown, Dancing Rune Weapon. In addition to this we have another maintenance buff to focus on, Essence Of The Blood Queen.

Essence Of The Blood Queen stacks are the bread and butter of San’layn, increasing our Haste, Mastery and our Death Strike damage. These stacks are gained as a by-product of casting Vampiric Strike.

Heart Strike has a chance to become Vampiric Strike from every
Death Strike cast, the exception to this comes from Gift Of The San'layn, which will transform Heart Strike for the entire duration of Dancing Rune Weapon.

San’layn has easy access to group utility, helping the team in various ways;

• Newly Turned (100% HP Battle Res, with a bonus shield)
• Vampiric Speed (AoE speed buff)
• Vampiric Aura (Aoe Leech buff)

San’layn’s only drawback is uptime-related, due to it relying on the maintenance of Essence Of The Blood Queen. This is somewhat mitigated by Blood-Soaked Ground being the default choice node option.

Generally your goal is to always hold a Vampiric Strike before downtime begins.