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Blood Death Knight

Blood Death Knight tank guide & helper

Tank as Blood Death Knight with your rotation, mitigation and defensives timed for you, kicks on the casts that matter and AoE threat on big pulls.

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Updated for patch 12.1.5 · World of Warcraft: Midnight · Windows

Guide

How Blood plays.

This rotation follows Kyrasis' Mythic+ tanking guide, not a damage list. Death Strike is your heal, Marrowrend keeps Bone Shield stacked, and Blood Boil keeps Blood Plague on the pack for threat. Dancing Rune Weapon goes out mostly on cooldown, strongest at the start of a pull.

One target

Death Strike when you're below 70% health (changeable).
Raise Dead and Dancing Rune Weapon on cooldown.
Marrowrend when Bone Shield is missing, has under 5 seconds left, or is under 3 stacks.
Blood Boil when your target has no Blood Plague or under 3 seconds of it.
Death Strike at 84% runic power or more (105 of 125), Reaper's Mark with Deathbringer.
Marrowrend under 7 Bone Shield stacks, Death and Decay, Blood Boil on Boiling Point.
Heart Strike, Consumption, Blood Boil, Death's Caress.

Staying alive

Death Strike heals what you took in the last 5 seconds, so the 70% line comes before everything else.
Death's Caress sits right under Marrowrend: it goes out when Marrowrend can't (not enough runes).
Bone Shield is refreshed with 5 seconds left (changeable), a little earlier than the guide's 3, so you still have the runes for it.
Vampiric Blood isn't in the rotation: the helper's defensive step uses it by health (50%, Spells page) and before boss tank hits.

Packs

Blood Boil is your first threat tool on a new pack.
With San'layn, Death and Decay goes out from 4 targets (changeable) or with Crimson Scourge.

Good to know

Deathbringer and San'layn both work: the helper picks the right list from your talents. With San'layn, Heart Strike becomes Vampiric Strike while it's up.
Your racial goes out during Dancing Rune Weapon.

What it does for you

Built for Blood.

01Defensives before the hitYour defensives and mitigation go up at the health you choose, and before a big tank hit lands (works with your boss mod).
02Hold the pullAoE and threat spells once enough mobs are on you, single-target spells on a single mob.
03Kicks and stunsInterrupts on the casts that matter, at the last safe moment, and no stuns on mobs that can't be stunned.
04Immunity learningIt learns which mobs shrug off your spells and stops casting them there.
05You stay in controlEvery spell, threshold and line of the priority is yours to change. One switch turns it off.