Blood Death Knight Talent Build & Glyphs
The 51/0/20 Blood Death Knight build for WotLK 3.3.5a, point by point. It is already loaded in the calculator below, so you can change a talent, try another build or copy a link to share it.
- 51/0/20 main build
- 4 builds
- Glyphs included
- Free · no login
Class Armory
3.3.5a · LEVEL 80
Save, share & build options
Click to add · Right-click or Shift-click to remove. On touch screens, select a talent and use + / −.
Major Glyphs
Minor Glyphs
Glyph recommendations aren't compiled yet for this build — the talent split above is still fully real and verified against actual WotLK 3.3.5a game data.
Build snapshot
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About the Blood Death Knight build
Blood is the only Death Knight tree with both a damage build and a tank build, and the calculator has four of them: a 51/0/20 Blood DPS build, a Raid Tank (43/23/5), an Aggro Tank (51/0/20) and a Double Buff Tank (43/26/2). The DPS build is built around Heart Strike, Dancing Rune Weapon, Sudden Doom and Blood Gorged. The tank builds trade those for Blade Barrier, Rune Tap, Vampiric Blood, Will of the Necropolis and Anticipation, and they reach into the Frost tree for defence. Pick the role first, then the build.
- 51/0/20main build
- 4builds to compare
- 6glyphs
- 71points at level 80
Blood Death Knight builds compared
The calculator above has 4 builds for this spec. Pick one from the Build menu to load it. Every build totals 71 points, and the last column shows what it changes compared with the main build.
| Build | Split | Use it when | What changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blood DPS main build | 51/0/20 | The damage build: Heart Strike, Dancing Rune Weapon, Sudden Doom, Blood Gorged and the Unholy points that go with them. | the reference |
| Raid Tank | 43/23/5 | The survival-focused raid tank. It goes into the Frost tree for defensive talents such as Toughness, Frigid Dreadplate and Anticipation. | Anticipation 0 → 5 Black Ice 0 → 5 Blade Barrier 0 → 5 Blood Gorged 5 → 0 Icy Talons 0 → 5 Necrosis 5 → 0 and 23 smaller changes Glyphs: Glyph of Dark Command, Glyph of Vampiric Blood |
| Aggro Tank | 51/0/20 | A tank build focused on threat. It keeps most of the Blood damage talents and adds only the essential defensive ones. | Anticipation 0 → 5 Blade Barrier 0 → 5 Blood Gorged 5 → 0 Bloodworms 3 → 0 Spell Deflection 0 → 3 Sudden Doom 3 → 0 and 6 smaller changes Glyphs: Glyph of Dark Command, Glyph of Vampiric Blood |
| Double Buff Tank | 43/26/2 | A raid tank that also brings extra raid-wide buff coverage. It costs a little more defence than the plain Raid Tank. | Black Ice 0 → 5 Blade Barrier 0 → 5 Blood Gorged 5 → 0 Icy Talons 0 → 5 Necrosis 5 → 0 Toughness 0 → 5 and 25 smaller changes Glyphs: Glyph of Dark Command, Glyph of Vampiric Blood |
Every talent in the main Blood Death Knight build
This is the 51/0/20 build, talent by talent, with what each one does at the rank the build takes. Talents are listed from the top of each tree to the bottom. The Frost tree gets no points in this build.
Blood51 points
| Talent | Rank | What it does at this rank |
|---|---|---|
| Butchery | 2/2 | Whenever you kill an enemy that grants experience or honor, you generate up to 20 runic power. In addition, you generate 2 runic power per 5 sec. while in combat. |
| Subversion | 3/3 | Increases the critical strike chance of Blood Strike, Scourge Strike, Heart Strike and Obliterate by 9%, and reduces threat generated while in Blood or Unholy Presence by 25%. |
| Bladed Armor | 5/5 | Increases your attack power by 5 for every 180 armor value you have. |
| Scent of Blood | 1/3 | You have a 15% chance after being struck by a ranged or melee hit to gain the Scent of Blood effect, causing your next melee hit to generate 5 runic power. This effect cannot occur more often than once every 20 sec. |
| Two-Handed Weapon Specialization | 2/2 | Increases the damage you deal with two-handed melee weapons by 4%. |
| Dark Conviction | 5/5 | Increases your chance to critically hit with weapons, spells and abilities by 5%. |
| Death Rune Mastery | 3/3 | Whenever you hit with Death Strike or Obliterate there is a 100% chance that the Frost and Unholy Runes will become Death Runes when they activate. Death Runes count as a Blood, Frost or Unholy Rune. |
| Bloody Strikes | 3/3 | Increases the damage of Blood Strike by 15% and Heart Strike by 45%, and increases the damage of Blood Boil by 30%. |
| Veteran of the Third War | 3/3 | Increases your total Strength by 6%, your Stamina by 3%, and your expertise by 6. |
| Bloody Vengeance | 3/3 | Gives you a 3% bonus to physical damage you deal for 30 sec after dealing a critical strike from a weapon swing, spell, or ability. This effect stacks up to 3 times. |
| Abomination's Might | 2/2 | Increases the attack power by 10% of party and raid members within 100 yards. Also increases your total Strength by 2%. |
| Bloodworms | 3/3 | Your weapon hits have a 9% chance to cause the target to spawn 2-4 Bloodworms. Bloodworms attack your enemies, healing you as they do damage for 20 sec or until killed. |
| Hysteria | 1/1 | 30 yd range · Instant · 3 min cooldownInduces a friendly unit into a killing frenzy for 30 sec. The target is Enraged, which increases their physical damage by 20%, but causes them to lose health equal to 1% of their maximum health every second. |
| Improved Death Strike | 2/2 | Increases the damage of your Death Strike by 30%, increases its critical strike chance by 6%, and increases the healing granted by 50%. |
| Sudden Doom | 3/3 | Your Blood Strikes and Heart Strikes have a 15% chance to launch a free Death Coil at your target. |
| Heart Strike | 1/1 | 1 Blood · Melee range · Instant · Requires Melee WeaponInstantly strike the target and his nearest ally, causing 50% weapon damage plus 125 on the primary target, and 25% weapon damage plus 63 on the secondary target. Each target takes 10% additional damage for each of your diseases active on that target. |
| Might of Mograine | 3/3 | Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Blood Boil, Blood Strike, Death Strike, and Heart Strike abilities by 45%. |
| Blood Gorged | 5/5 | When you are above 75% health, you deal 10% more damage. In addition, your attacks ignore up to 10% of your opponent's armor at all times. |
| Dancing Rune Weapon | 1/1 | 60 Runic Power · 30 yd range · Instant · 1.5 min cooldown · Requires Melee WeaponSummons a second rune weapon that fights on its own for 12 sec, doing the same attacks as the Death Knight but for 50% reduced damage. |
Unholy20 points
| Talent | Rank | What it does at this rank |
|---|---|---|
| Vicious Strikes | 2/2 | Increases the critical strike chance by 6% and critical strike damage bonus by 30% of your Plague Strike and Scourge Strike. |
| Virulence | 3/3 | Increases your chance to hit with your spells by 3% and reduces the chance that your damage over time diseases can be cured by 30%. |
| Epidemic | 2/2 | Increases the duration of Blood Plague and Frost Fever by 6 sec. |
| Ravenous Dead | 3/3 | Increases the total Strength 3% and the contribution your Ghouls get from your Strength and Stamina by 60%. |
| Necrosis | 5/5 | Your auto attacks deal an additional 20% Shadow damage. |
| Blood-Caked Blade | 3/3 | Your auto attacks have a 30% chance to cause a Blood-Caked Strike, which hits for 25% weapon damage plus 12.5% for each of your diseases on the target. |
| Night of the Dead | 2/2 | Reduces the cooldown on Raise Dead by 90 sec and the cooldown on Army of the Dead by 4 min. Also reduces the damage your pet takes from creature area of effect attacks by 90%. |
Blood Death Knight glyphs
Major glyphs
Glyph of DiseaseYour Pestilence ability now refreshes disease durations and secondary effects of diseases on your primary target back to their maximum duration.
Glyph of Death StrikeIncreases your Death Strike's damage by 1% for every 1 runic power you currently have (up to a maximum of 25%). The runic power is not consumed by this effect.
Glyph of Dark DeathIncreases the damage or healing done by Death Coil by 15%.
Minor glyphs
Glyph of Blood TapYour Blood Tap no longer causes damage to you.
Glyph of Horn of WinterIncreases the duration of your Horn of Winter ability by 1 min.
Glyph of Raise DeadYour Raise Dead spell no longer requires a reagent.
Blood Death Knight talents FAQ
QWhat is the best Blood Death Knight talent build in WotLK 3.3.5a?
Our main build is 51/0/20: 51 points in Blood, 0 in Frost and 20 in Unholy. The deepest talents it takes are Dancing Rune Weapon, Blood Gorged, Heart Strike and Might of Mograine. The calculator on this page loads it, and you can change any point to see what it costs.
QWhich glyphs should a Blood Death Knight use?
The main build uses Glyph of Disease, Glyph of Death Strike and Glyph of Dark Death as major glyphs and Glyph of Blood Tap, Glyph of Horn of Winter and Glyph of Raise Dead as minor glyphs.
QHow should a Blood Death Knight split talent points?
Level 80 gives 71 talent points. The main build spends them as 51/0/20 across Blood, Frost and Unholy. The other 3 builds (Raid Tank 43/23/5, Aggro Tank 51/0/20, Double Buff Tank 43/26/2) move some of the points, and the table above shows which ones.
QWhich Blood Death Knight build should I pick?
Blood DPS (51/0/20): The damage build: Heart Strike, Dancing Rune Weapon, Sudden Doom, Blood Gorged and the Unholy points that go with them. Raid Tank (43/23/5): The survival-focused raid tank. It goes into the Frost tree for defensive talents such as Toughness, Frigid Dreadplate and Anticipation. Aggro Tank (51/0/20): A tank build focused on threat. It keeps most of the Blood damage talents and adds only the essential defensive ones. Double Buff Tank (43/26/2): A raid tank that also brings extra raid-wide buff coverage. It costs a little more defence than the plain Raid Tank.