Blood Death Knight State on Shadowlands Alpha - Lack of Changes, Talent Choices, Legendary Review

Shadowlands Posted 2020/07/04 at 3:57 AM by Mandl

Introduction - Another expansion with minimal changesAbout the authorsCatalystAcherus Death Knight communityNnoggieWhat Has Changed?The GoodRune of the Fallen CrusaderRune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle

Rune of Hysteria - extra maximum RP and more RP from runes on a hasted 3 RPPM proc chance (on 0% haste, 37% uptime)

Rune of Sanguination - a 1% damage increase to Death Strike for every 1% of the mob's HP missing, along with a 48% heal when you fall below 35%, once every 5 minutes

Rune of Spellwarding - 3% magical DR and a 10% max HP shield 3 times a minute. This proc is increased with haste.

Rune of Unending Thirst - the most questionable rune in PvE. All effects - haste and healing - are a 10s proc on enemy death. This is, evidently, less than ideal in raids, and very questionable in M+

Rune of the Fallen CrusaderRune of the Stoneskin GargoyleRune of HysteriaRune of the Fallen CrusaderRune of SpellwardingRune of SanguinationG'huun

Talent choices that depend on the fight profile (Voracious will be picked for pure survival and is actually good, now. Bloodworms will stay as the default due to it being the only talent on the row to provide DPS)

Talent choices that depend on your level of haste (Rapid Decomposition provides a pretty decent buff to blood plague, now. At higher haste scenarios, or where you are capable of getting more stacks out of it, Hemostasis will remain the go-to pick)

Talents that are no longer flat-out garbage. Mark of Blood might finally see some use outside of abusing it in ashran or helping your co-tank handle pa'ku!

10% extra armor from Bone Shield, bringing us up to 50% and effectively counteracting the surprise nerf of 8.1

As part of the unpruning, we recovered the following abilities: Lichborne, Anti-Magic Zone, Raise Dead (and Sacrificial Pact), and Chains of Ice so we no longer have to be in melee to snare stuff. In particular, Lichborne will likely allow you to immune and negate a variety of raid mechanics, making it much stronger than it initially looks

We also recovered Rune Tap. More on that below, however.

Blood Tap is back, providing an additional source of runes. Since it is off the GCD, however, it leads to a bit of APM bloat, something which could have been done baseline by bringing in an equivalent to Lucid Dreams.

There is now a healing option for when you are not in melee range, as Death Coil allows you to heal undead targets. Hit Lichborne, then coil yourself. The amount of healing you get from Death Coil is significantly weaker than if you had spent the runic power on Death Strike

Raise DeadSacrificial PactThe Badon pullneverThe UglyRune TapevercannotWill of the NecropolisOssuaryOssuaryOssuaryTombstoneBlooddrinkerHeartbreaker2onceHeartbreakerTombstoneRune TapTombstoneDeath PactDeath PactCovenantswildlyKyrianSpecificShackle the UnworthyGenericSummon StewardNecrolordSpecificAbomination LimbGenericFleshcraftNight FaeSpecificDeath's DueDeath and DecayexactlyDeath's DueGenericSoulshapeVenthyrSpecificSwarming MistGenericDoor of Shadowsliterally anywheredisgustinglysubstantialwasLegendary effects

Bryndaor's Might provides a RP refund when Death Strike heals you for slightly more than its minimum. Simple enough, throughput fueling Death Strike is always good, especially considering how central this spell is to our arsenal, both defensively and offensively

Crimson Rune Weapon likely has a missing multiplier in spellData and will very likely reduce by 3s, not 30s. The reduction is nice - the rune regen during DRW is a bait effect reminiscent of Lucid Dreams (the major), which will lead to resource overcapping during Dancing Rune Weapon and slightly degenerate play (you will have an incentive to go into DRW with nearly no RP). A strong feedback point on this would be to make it grant haste - nobody likes having extra runes without the GCDs to spend them

Gorefiend's Domination was a lot stronger in Legion than it will be in Shadowlands considering the number of multipliers we had on Vampiric Blood (Vampiric Fangs being the main driver). We'll see how it is, but right now, Vampiric Blood is nothing to write home about, and as a result, I don't expect this effect to be particularly desirable, especially considering the contenders.

Vampiric Aura - Do you like M+? Do you like your party members requiring EHP for certain hits? You'll likely be stuck with this one as a result. It is never fun as a tank to have to wear something for your group to be able to do stuff. This set bonus worked in Dragon Soul because it only really had value in the raid. With the advent of M+, and the fact that you are choosing this instead of other gains to your personal throughput and survival (Bryndaor's Might) as opposed to just "getting it", this item effect feels like it will be oppressive and choice-inhibiting

Superstrain - the main point of this is that Frost Fever has a chance to grant 5 RP every time it deals damage, along with just being more damage. Likely strong, but not necessarily gamebreaking

Death's Certainty will likely see play in M+ due to Death and Decay cooldown reduction, assuming the dungeons are as oppressive as they were in BfA

Item - Death Knight T15 Blood 4P BonusItem - Death Knight T16 Blood 4P BonusConclusion

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Comment by BarblyuGood writeComment by LeucienWeavrHi, Sickntwisted here from Acherus; Mandl helped me(With only minor complaints over how bad I was) change my mindset on what it meant to be a decent BDK and helped me go from idiot to, well, a massively better performing idiot. If there's ever anyone I'd trust to put out a good synopsis on what's coming for BDK, it's him.

That said, General Draven is looking particularly spicy for Soulbinds(Choosing between a 15% shield after teleporting and borrowing movement buffs from allies is gonna be tough), and i'm particularly interested in the conduits; I can't wait for this guide to be updated once we have even more info!Comment by DarlikOne of the most bored class spec in the game.Comment by Denalianit leads to a bit of APM bloatIn particular, we are the only tank requiring up-close-and-personal access to a mob to be able to get our active mitigation up.Comment by Ardensolis1I guess they didn't consider popping the new Rune Tap on pull to mitigate that first melee hit?

Anyway I main a Blood DK and I've never had any of these "problems."
The changes (what few of them there are) only seem to make us stronger, as this piece points out.

But yeah Ossuary should 100% be baseline.Comment by TomaotabcIn particular, we are the only tank requiring up-close-and-personal access to a mob to be able to get our active mitigation up.Comment by LoareI guess they didn't consider popping the new Rune Tap on pull to mitigate that first melee hit?

Anyway I main a Blood DK and I've never had any of these "problems."
realityComment by ThanatasgrWeek in, week out we get these posts doing some in-depth analysis of a spec. Week in, week out the TL;DR is 'yea the changes are nice but there's still a ton of problems that need to be ironed out'.

Personally I still feel like the old rune system would serve the DKs better. It had more interesting choices in what spell you cast when. I liked maintaining Frost Fever and Blood Plague as a rotational element. I also think the specs could do with a bit more crossover. And overall the talent tree for BDK feels uninspired and boring to me.Comment by EndurionIf I am not mistaken, the unmitigated 1st hit is problem for other tanks as well. The live version of SotR could be poped beforehand but with changes on Shadowlands, you have to generate 3 holy power to do so. Warriors have a similar problem with rage generation and bears are probably tanks who are without the AM at the start of the fight for the longest time. So the tanks who can jump into the fight with active AM are litterarly just Dhs and to some degree monks (whit their changes in Shadowlands).Comment by MandlHey guys, author here. The article got published when I was asleep. I'm here now, though!

In particular, we are the only tank requiring up-close-and-personal access to a mob to be able to get our active mitigation up.Shuffle15yd rangeAre you serious? Complaining about stuff being off the GCD is the dumbest thing I've heard. It literally just gives you more flexibility with your resources when you need it. This is exactly what we need.entirely new spellmassivelyI guess they didn't consider popping the new Rune Tap on pull to mitigate that first melee hit?

Anyway I main a Blood DK and I've never had any of these "problems."
realityComment by ShadowlygerHere's my feedback: I don't have enough keybinds for them to add TEN new buttons to the spec.Comment by MandlHere's my feedback: I don't have enough keybinds for them to add TEN new buttons to the spec.

Death Coil will likely not be something you bind. Right now, in terms of effective use, there really isn't any. Even though its base AP multiplier is slightly bigger than death strike, the spec aura ( Blood Death Knight ) has a +132% multiplier on death strike and not on coil. This invalidates all possible uses outside of torghast and/or ranged healing pot when you also don't have sacrificial pact up

Lichborne and Anti-Magic Zone will see some situational use and will therefore benefit from being accessible, likely on a modifier somewhere

Chains of Ice will rarely, if ever, see play outside of PvP

Blood Tap can be macroed into a bunch of other things. Assuming nothing changes, you'll macro it into marrowrend and, quite literally, be 95-99% of the way to optimal play with it (yes, this is a problem)

Raise Dead and Sacrificial Pact are valuable to have somewhere

Comment by SchattensangThis is why, back then, we were advising blood death knights to never, if at all possible, engage Orgozoa first.Crimson Rune Weapon ... the rune regen during DRW is a bait effect reminiscent of Lucid DreamsComment by Panthea

So... I guess I was one of the weird BDK to actually ENCOURAGE that I engage Gorgonzola, because it was far easier for me to gather the adds, than it was for our other tank. Granted, we didn't have any form of misdirect, so that didn't help at all.Comment by Schattensang

So... I guess I was one of the weird BDK to actually ENCOURAGE that I engage Gorgonzola, because it was far easier for me to gather the adds, than it was for our other tank. Granted, we didn't have any form of misdirect, so that didn't help at all.Comment by SarthoriusWell, Blood Tanks will now have a 'pre-fight' use for Rune Taps at least. The very first hits of a fight on you can be very important for the longer term. If you charge in a pack of mobs without it (as in live) those white melee swings can screw you up pretty fast, before you build enough RP for DS. Most tanks have this 'issue', even Prot wars for example. DHs, on the other hand, can charge in with the spikes on, giving them 'time' to mitigate properly.

Those split-seconds of a beginning of each fight are important to every tank. RTap baseline and off GCD is better, even if nerfed, than nothing.

Always the GCD thing, and I bet is thing, the change on BfA (to all classes and specs), that is one of the worst changes, and I still don't see much change on that, in Shadowlands. So many spells and skills, overall, that 'shouldn't' be put in GCD...Comment by verbsarewordsit leads to a bit of APM bloatIn particular, we are the only tank requiring up-close-and-personal access to a mob to be able to get our active mitigation up.Comment by verbsarewordsWell, Blood Tanks will now have a 'pre-fight' use for Rune Taps at least. The very first hits of a fight on you can be very important for the longer term. If you charge in a pack of mobs without it (as in live) those white melee swings can screw you up pretty fast, before you build enough RP for DS. Most tanks have this 'issue', even Prot wars for example. DHs, on the other hand, can charge in with the spikes on, giving them 'time' to mitigate properly.

Those split-seconds of a beginning of each fight are important to every tank. RTap baseline and off GCD is better, even if nerfed, than nothing.

Always the GCD thing, and I bet is thing, the change on BfA (to all classes and specs), that is one of the worst changes, and I still don't see much change on that, in Shadowlands. So many spells and skills, overall, that 'shouldn't' be put in GCD...Comment by Solartis29good sum up, can't wait to have the same for survival hunter and WW monk.Comment by ChristhammerOssuary baseline is a must.
Make it happen Blizz.

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