Blood Death Knight PvE Guide — Midnight

This is a tank whose primary stat is Strength. It does not use a shield — instead, it wields a two-handed sword.

Its core mechanic is healing off the damage it has already taken and then absorbing what comes in next, which makes it the tank least dependent on outside healing, both in raid and in keys.

The price for that enormous self-healing is taking more incoming damage than any other tank spec.

Here is what the stats give us in terms of dealing damage and, more importantly, of survivability:

Strength

Priority #1 (ahead of every secondary stat). It affects both your outgoing damage and your survivability:

• Attack Power — scales all of your damage.
• Parry — through the "Riposte" passive, a 1:1 conversion into parry.
• Armor — through Bone Shield it increases your armor.
• Self-healing — it boosts healing through abilities with Leech, as well as healing abilities other than Death Strike (for example, Umbilicus Eternus), and your diseases as well.

Versatility

A simple increase to your outgoing damage and a reduction of your incoming damage. Its survivability value is halved: only half of Versatility's damage value carries over into survivability — 1% more damage dealt for 0.5% less damage taken. At the same time, in terms of rating → effectiveness, this is the most expensive stat.

Mastery

The unique "effect" of our spec. It increases the % of the shield you get after Death Strike depending on the healing done. Important: this shield cannot be larger than 50% of your maximum HP (up to 65% with the Bloody Reflection talent). That is exactly why our "cap" is 50–60%: you healed yourself for 100% of your HP and received a shield worth at most 50% of your HP, you will not get any more. A new shield stacks with the previous one, but it still cannot exceed 50% of your HP (65% with the talent).

After the rework in Midnight, this shield is what keeps you alive more than anything else. You want this shield on you AT ALL TIMES. Mastery also increases attack power for every tank spec, which directly increases your damage, but attack power, unlike Strength, does not increase survivability. That is, we do not get a double effect on survivability from it.

Critical Strike

The chance to deal double damage. Basically it means that 1% of crit increases the damage you deal by 1%. But critical strike rating also increases your parry chance.

Important: it is critical strike rating, not the percentage, that increases your parry chance. An example — the buff at the start of Algeth'ar Academy: 3% Versatility is 3% more damage and −1.5% damage taken. But 3% crit is just 3% critical damage and 0% parry. Everything that grants crit rating grants parry; everything that grants crit % does not.

On the one hand that makes it a very good stat, because for every 1% of parry rating you take 1% less damage (which overall may look better than Versatility). On top of that, we have the Dancing Rune Weapon talent, which grants +25% parry, plus 5% parry from Apex, plus the standard 5% parry — that is already −35% under DRW. Accordingly, under DRW or an Apex proc you take on average 35% less damage from mob auto-attacks. And every % of parry adds on top of those −35%. That is, under DRW you get −35%, and if you stack 10% crit = 10% parry, you get −45%.

But since inside the DRW window you always have 35% parry (whether you stacked crit or not), those 10% of crit reduce the damage you could still have taken — you are cutting into the remaining 65% of incoming damage. That is, 10% of parry reduces the damage you take during DRW not by 10%, but by 15%, which is really good.

HOWEVER — parry is a chance, and our class has a very weak base kit when it comes to damage reduction. By increasing our parry %, we lower our other stats — mostly at the expense of Versatility — and after that every auto-attack that does land punishes us harder.

Considering that we are in the first season and secondary stats are scarce, it is all the more important to use them as efficiently as possible.

Haste

Increased attack speed, faster cooldown recovery and a lower GCD. But in terms of survivability this is the worst secondary stat for BDK. Yes, of course, pressing buttons once per second is far more pleasant than once every 1.3–1.5 seconds, and it is "more effective" for survivability. BUT — right now it is the first season, secondary stats are very scarce overall, and we are forced to choose between stats that affect survival DIRECTLY and ones that do so indirectly. The exception is if you play San'layn, but more on that below.

When talking about Haste it is important to know what the GCD is — the Global Cooldown, the global recharge of your abilities. Using MOST abilities starts the global cooldown, during which those abilities are unavailable. By default it is 1.5 seconds for most classes (Monks, Rogues, Feral Druids — in general, classes whose primary stat is Agility have a 1-second GCD). There are abilities — interrupts, defensives and some "burst" ones — that are off the global cooldown. The rest, the "basic" ones, are on it. So, the GCD is reduced by haste rating with the formula 1.5 / (1 + haste): at 33% haste it is roughly 1.13 s, at 50% haste it is exactly 1 second, which is the GCD "cap" without external effects. Bloodlust/Heroism is multiplied with your haste and pushes the GCD even lower — the hard floor is 0.75 s (at around 100% total haste).

BDK is one of the few specs that does not really have a stat priority as such; there are trends you can follow. If you look at the top 100 BDKs, you will notice one single trend: the overwhelming majority of BDKs in high keys pick the Deathbringer hero talent tree.

And now in more detail about each PvE aspect from the standpoint of secondary stats for BDK.

Mythic+

In Mythic+ your stats differ depending on the hero talent tree you have chosen.

The priority hero talent tree for Mythic+ is Deathbringer.

It survives better because it has passive damage reduction from its hero talents (Rune Carved Plates), it does not depend on how often you press Heart Strike — there is no problem with generating bones — and it is completely independent of Haste. Accordingly, you can invest more into the secondary stats that give you passive survivability: Versatility / Mastery / Critical Strike.

And here you have two options for stacking secondary stats.

1. The working "classic":

Strength > Mastery > Versatility > Critical Strike > Haste

2. The "new" meta:

Strength > Mastery > Haste = Critical Strike = Versatility

• In the first option — 1100+ Mastery, 900+ Versatility, 300+ Crit, minimum Haste. The Haste and Critical Strike come with the stats on your tier set, which you cannot avoid.
• In the second one — 1000+ Mastery, 600+ of everything else.

And if you enjoy pain, the second option for a hero talent tree in keys is San'layn, with several variants:

1. Focus on Versatility:

Strength > Haste > Versatility > Mastery > Critical Strike

2. Focus on Haste + Crit:

Strength > Haste > Critical Strike > Mastery > Versatility

In both cases we keep in mind that we need around 50% Mastery (less is worse, more means we lose other stats). Haste should be at least 20–25%, playing San'layn with less than that is rough. Above 25% it feels good to play, but you lose other stats that are important for survival. This is where you look for the balance. BUT — we are extremely dependent on parry. Bad luck, poor positioning, mass crowd control lands on the mobs, they all swing at once and connect — and we proc Purgatory.

On average, San'layn survives far worse in Mythic+ content for several reasons:

• It needs Haste — accordingly, we lose a large amount of other secondary stats.
• Bone management is harder — Marrowrend does not fit well into your rotation.
• One of your few but strong defensives — DRW — becomes your strongest burst cooldown. During DRW you want to maximize damage, which makes planning cooldowns during a run harder.
• For passive damage reduction you only have −5% against physical attacks inside your Death and Decay (−5%) — less than (Rune Carved Plates) in Deathbringer.

From everything said above it follows that for Mythic+ content at the moment (the first season of Midnight) Deathbringer looks like a slightly better choice of hero talent tree. Perhaps as stats accumulate and classes change between seasons, the situation will shift.

Raid

In raiding, in 99% of situations you are required to provide not only survivability but also damage. You also have 4 healers watching the raid's health, and in most situations you can afford to skip defensive spells and defensive secondary stats, saving your cooldowns for tank busters.

And here, in ST, our best tree is San'layn, and on every boss except the last one it will perform far better in terms of damage. Here your main stat is Haste, until we reach 27% — that is the "baseline minimum" at which the raid plays more or less comfortably. But beyond that, Haste remains the best stat for dealing damage — all the way up to the soft cap at 1320 rating. In the first season secondary stats are scarce, so the exact stat balance is best worked out with a sim for each character individually.

San'layn

Strength > Haste > Critical Strike > Mastery > Versatility

If for some reason (known only to you) you have chosen Deathbringer for raiding — you like the effects, the style — then the stat priority changes:

Deathbringer

Strength > Critical Strike > Mastery > Versatility > Haste

Again, this is important: since survivability is much less of a problem in the raid, there is no 50% Mastery "cap" either. BUT — in terms of damage it is better to sim your own character to get optimal results. These priorities are the "starting point" of what you want to stack for each situation; after that it is up to your imagination and to Simcraft's help.

Delves

In delves, once again, everything depends on the hero talent tree you have chosen.

San'layn

Strength > Haste > Critical Strike > Mastery > Versatility

Deathbringer

Strength > Critical Strike > Mastery > Versatility > Haste

It is important to understand: we have two hero talent trees, each of which has its own pros and cons and, you could say, its own purpose.

The Deathbringer tree — better suited for keys, since it has good, stable and predictable AoE damage thanks to the Blood Boil buff, the DoT and the hero ability. You have no problems with bone stacks — this hero tree is built around the hero ability (Reaper's Mark), which gives you bone stacks. You can skip the talent for extra Heart Strike damage, because in this tree Heart Strike has the lowest priority and is used purely as a filler to generate RP (Runic Power) without affecting your damage. It is easier for you to build threat and easier to deal AoE damage — Blood Boil hits harder, Exterminate hits in AoE, and right after it you have bones. Next comes the passive damage reduction talent (Rune Carved Plates). And you are not tied to DRW as a burst cooldown — it is your defensive and nothing more. All of this lets you skip Haste as a priority secondary stat and focus on Versatility and Mastery.

Weaknesses: you press significantly fewer Heart Strikes — fewer Apex procs. You have no Haste — the gameplay can feel sluggish and less dynamic. Less ST damage.

The San'layn tree — better suited for raid content, since it has higher ST/cleave damage. It has a pronounced burst in the form of DRW. Very dynamic gameplay — you stack 20%+ Haste in keys (Haste is the worst stat for survival, but it is critically needed for the spec to play well) and 27%+ in the raid — that is the "baseline minimum" for comfort. And even beyond those values Haste remains the top stat for dealing damage — all the way up to 1320 rating. Under Gift of the San'layn stacks you have at least 40% Haste. While DRW is active you will be at around 70% Haste, which turns into very, very dynamic gameplay.

Weaknesses: you are forced to stack Haste, 20–25% is the baseline minimum, without it the spec simply does not play. Your damage is Death Strike, your burst is DRW. That is, the abilities you have to press in order to stay alive are the very same ones you press to deal damage. During DRW you want to build 7 stacks of Gift of the San'layn, but at the start of a pull you have to stay alive AND press Blood Boil to build AoE threat. To get all the buffs of this hero tree you have to play around Death and Decay, the way paladins used to, because your damage is Heart Strike and Death Strike (the Cleaving Strikes talent), as well as −5% incoming physical damage (the Blood-Soaked Ground talent).

Accordingly, by choosing San'layn for keys you pay with survivability for dynamic gameplay.

In Midnight we have three new kinds of "help" from Blizzard (God bless that company). Available to you:

1. Casting spells on your focus target. First you need to bind "set focus", then enable the option for casting spells on your focus and choose a modifier key (Ctrl/Shift/Alt). After that, any spell cast while the modifier key is held will be used on your saved target. An important clarification: that key combination has to be free. (Example: E is your Death Grip, Ctrl is the modifier. For Death Grip on Ctrl+E to be cast at your focus, you must have nothing bound to Ctrl+E. I think the example is clear.)
2. Casting spells on mouseover. When this option is enabled, with the right mouse button not held down, spells will be cast on the target that is under your cursor. This DOES NOT WORK for ground-targeted spells (Death and Decay) — for those we still need macros. If you are holding the right mouse button (the cursor is "hidden") or there is nobody under the cursor, spells are cast on your selected target.
3. Dynamic target selection. When you press the "next target" key (Tab by default), the highest-priority target will be selected. For example: if there is a target that is currently casting a spell, that one will be selected.