Blood Talents  

See Death Knight Talent Builds

The Death Knight Blood tree represents the Death Knight's focus on his/her ability to use the blood of his enemy and himself in combat. The Death Knight uses this ability to draw strength for combat, provide buffs and healing to party members and inflict massive amounts of pain and suffering on their foes. In addition to their considerable power granted from this talent tree, Blood specced Death Knights can also take on a presence of Blood, providing increased damage and additional healing benefits when attacking.

Primary uses

When the class was developed, it wasn't designed to be "just another tanking role". With the existence of several tanking classes (Warriors, Paladins, Druids) already, this newest "tank class" is designed more around burst damage and individual player style as opposed to a predefined "role". To do this, each tree of the Death Knight class has been designed for multiple roles and effective threat management situationally. This includes a whole new take on the stances, called Presences in this case. The class has three different presences: Blood, Frost and Unholy.

• Rather than create a whole new itemization for one class, it has been decided that they are sharing itemization with the other tanking classes.
• In a deviation from the current standard, the Deathknight is designed to be played differently, i.e. the use of runes and the manner in which they are used.
• With this, the runes and their use are tied into the weapon of the Deathknight. The power of the rune used is channeled through the weapon.
• Unlike other classes, there are very specific rotations and combo points with this class. The "combo points" are gained from the placing of diseases on the target.

The primary design for the Blood trees is focused around Burst Melee damage and Individual/Group Healing to augment other healing classes.

Tier 1

(5 points must be spent in the tree to open Tier 2 talents)

• Butchery (2 points) - Whenever you kill an enemy that grants experience or honor, you generate up to 10/20 runic power. In addition, you generate 1/2 runic power per 5 sec while in combat.
• Subversion (3 points) - Increases the critical strike chance of Blood Strike, Heart Strike and Obliterate by 3/6/9%, and reduces threat generated while in Blood or Unholy Presence by 8/16/25%.
• Blade Barrier (5 points) - Whenever your Blood Runes are on cooldown, your Parry chance increases by 2/4/6/8/10% for the next 10 seconds.

Tier 2

(5 points must already be spent in the tree)

• Bladed Armor (5 points) - Increases your attack power by 1/2/3/4/5 for every 180 armor value you have.
• Scent of Blood (3 points) - You have a 15% chance after being struck by a ranged or melee hit to gain the Scent of Blood effect, causing your next 1/2/3 melee hit(s) to generate 5 runic power. This effect cannot occur more often than once every 20 sec.
• Two-Handed Weapon Specialization (2 points) - Increases the damage you deal with two-handed melee weapons by 1/2%.

Tier 3

(10 points required to open this tree)

• Rune Tap (1 point) - Converts 1 Blood Rune into 10% of your maximum health.
• Dark Conviction (5 points) - Increases your chance to critically hit with weapons, spells and abilities by 1/2/3/4/5%.
• Death Rune Mastery (3 points) - Whenever you hit with Death Strike or Obliterate there is a 33/66/100% chance that the Frost and Unholy Runes will become Death Runes when they activate.

Tier 4

(15 points required to open this tree)

• Improved Rune Tap (3 points) - Increases the health provided by Rune Tap by 33/66/100% and lowers its cooldown by 10 sec.
• Spell Deflection (3 points) - You have a chance equal to your Parry chance of taking 10/20/30% less damage from a direct damage spell.
• Vendetta (3 points) - Heals you for up to 2/4/6% of your maximum health whenever you kill a target that yields experience or honor.

Tier 5

(20 points required to open this tree)

• Bloody Strikes - Increases the damage by 6/12/18% and the bonus damage from diseases by 20/40/60% of your Blood Strike and Heart strike.
• Veteran of the Third War - Increases your total Strength and Stamina by 2/4/6%, and your expertise by 2/4/6.
• Mark of Blood (1 point) - Place a Mark of Blood on an enemy. Whenever the marked enemy deals damage to a target, that target is healed for 4% of its maximum health. Lasts for 20 seconds.

Tier 6

(25 points required to open this tree)

• Bloody Vengeance (3 points) - Gives you a 1/2/3% bonus to physical damage you deal for 30 seconds after dealing a critical strike from a weapon swing, spell, or ability. This effect stacks up to 3 times.
• Abomination's Might (2 points) - Your Blood Strikes and Heart Strikes have a 25/50% chance and your Obliterates have a 50/100% chance to increase the attack power by 10% of raid members within 45 for 10 seconds. Also increases your total Strength by 1/2%.

Tier 7

(30 points required to open this tree)

• Bloodworms (3 points) - Your weapon hits have a 3/6/9% 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 (2 points) - Induces 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 suffer damage equal to 1% of their maximum health every second.
• Blood Aura (2 points) - All party or raid members within 45 yards of the Death Knight are healed by 1/2% of the damage they deal. Only damage dealt to targets that grant experience or honor can trigger this heal.

Tier 8

(35 points required to open this tree)

• Sudden Doom (5 points) - Your Blood Strikes and Heart Strikes have a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to make your next Death Coil consume no runic power and critically hit if cast within 15 sec.
• Vampiric Blood (1 point) - Increases the amount of health generated through spells and effects by 50% for 20 seconds.

Tier 9

(40 points required to open this tree)

• Will of the Necropolis (3 points) - Reduces the cooldown of your Anti-Magic Shell by 4/8/12 sec. In addition, when you have less than 35% health, your total armor increases by 10/20/30%.
• Heart Strike (1 point) - A brutal attack that instantly strikes the enemy, causing 150% weapon damage plus 615 for each disease effect on the target, and preventing targets from using haste effects for 10 sec.
• Might of Mograine - Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Blood Boil, Blood Strike, Death Strike, Heart Strike, and Obliterate abilities by 15/30/45%.

Tier 10

(45 points required to open this tree)

• Blood Gorged (5 points) - When you are above 75% health, you deal 2/4/6/8/10% more damage. Also increases your expertise by 1/2/3/4/5.

Tier 11

(50 points required to open this tree)

• Dancing Rune Weapon - Unleashes all available runic power to summon a second rune weapon that fights on its own for 10 sec plus 1 sec per 5 additional runic power, doing the same attacks as the Death Knight.

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