Death Knight Blood 1-80 Leveling Talent Build & Guide

Death Knight Blood 1-80 Leveling Talent Build & Guide

Introduction

Death Knights, the "ex-servants" of Lich King are one of the easiest and fastest classes to level (and or solo). They can summon undead ghouls to fight for them and spread diseases to their enemies, all while using non-mana using heals. 

The only problem is that they are only available after you have leveled at least one character to level 55 on the same realm (if you have a premium account on Molten-WoW you can create Death Knights regardless of wether you have a level 80 character on that realm or not). 

They are currently the only* World of Warcraft hero class

=they are meant to be Over Powered

Contents:
1 - Leveling Spec
2 - Talents
3 - Rotations
4 - Tips
5 - Stats
6 - Gear
7 - Class Quests
8 - Glyphs
9 - Addons

Leveling Spec:

The fastest way to level a Death Knight (without downtime) is Blood and subspeccing a few talents into Unholy that increase your (and your pets) damage. Unholy has its own potential (especially when AoE grinding mobs), but is overall slower than Blood and lacks the self heal abilities.

You will be able to solo most elites/tougher mobs/mob packs with ease. Blood Death Knights are considered one of the best solo class-specs.

Talents

61/0/10




==//== Take the following talents in the appropriate order ==//==

Blood
1. Subversion - 3/3
2. Butchery - 2/2
3. Two-Handed Weapon Specialization - 2/2
4. Bladed Armor (only 3) - 3/5
5. Rune Tap - 1/1 <- Instant 10% of total health heal
6. Bladed Armor - 5/5
7. Dark Conviction (only 2) - 2/5
8. Improved Rune Tap - 3/3
9. Vendetta - 3/3
10. Dark Conviction - 5/5
11. Death Rune Mastery - 3/3
12. Bloody Strikes - 3/3
13. Veteran of the Third War - 3/3
14. Improved Blood Presence - 2/2
15. Abomination's Might - 2/2
16. Improved Death Strike - 2/2
17. Bloody Vengeance - 3/3
18. Mark of Blood - 1/1
19. Bloodworms - 3/3
TALENT BUILD UNTIL 55: 46/0/0

FROM LV 56 TO 80:
Blood
56 - 56: Hysteria - 1/1
57 - 57: Vampiric Blood - 1/1
58 - 58: Hearth Strike - 1/1
59 - 61: Sudden Doom - 3/3
62 - 64: Might of Mograine - 3/3
65 - 69: Blood Gorged - 5/5
70 - 70: Dancing Rune Weapon - 1/1

TALENT BUILD UNTIL 70: 61/0/0
Unholy
71 - 72: Vicious Strikes - 2/2
73 - 75: Virulence - 3/3
76 - 77: Epidemic - 2/2
78 - 80: Ravenous Dead - 3/3

FINAL TALENT BUILD (lv 80): 61/0/10

Rotations

Always take the weapon with the best stats.

Try to keep Frost Fever and Blood Plague refreshed at all times (except if the mob is going to die *very* soon)

ALWAYS use Rune Strike when possible

Single Target:

-Open the fight with Icy Touch (you can pull with Death Grip or Death Coil before this), then immediately use Plague Strike. Now right afterwards would usually be wise to use use Blood Strike as often as you have unused blood runes (except if you need healing. In that case, use Vampiric Blood/Rune Tap + Death Strike), and Death Strike as often as needed/possible. Remember to refresh Frost Fever and Blood Plague (manually).

Several mobs:

-Open the fight with Death and Decoy (make sure all the target mobs are affected by it), then immediately use Icy Touch and Plague Strike on ONE mob (that will survive both of them*) and then quickly spread the two diseases with Pestilence.

- Then continue like with "Single Target", but continue using Pestilence to keep Frost Fever and Blood Plague refreshed.

-You could also aggro more mobs *after* having used Icy Touch and Plague Strike on one, and then using Pestilence > Death and Decoy >

*You will need to be able to spread the diseases to all of the mobs

[EXTRA TIP:] If you know that the mob that you are going to use as a "spreader" won't survive both Icy Touch and Plague Strike (such as in low level instances), use only one of them, and Pestilence right afterwards. Then use the other ability that you didn't use yet on an other mob (preferrably the one with most hitpoints) and quickly use Pestilence. 

[EXTRA TIP:] Be sure to change the "spreader" (meaning the mob you use Pestilence on in order to spread Frost Fever and Blood Plague to all the other mobs)

Tips

Instances:

-Always keep Horn of Winter refreshed.

-Put Mark of Blood on a mob if the healer needs help healing. Put it preferably on a target with as fast attacks as possible.

-If you are not the tank and the tank dies (or can't keep aggro because of something else), aggro* the mob(s) before they kill the healer(s). (You DO wear plate after all...) This is called "off-tanking".

*Build up threat until the mobs attack you

Solo:

-Always keep Horn of Winter refreshed.

-Always keep both, Blood Plague and Frost Fever on the target(s).

-Remember to use Pestilence when against multiple enemies in order to dave you frost/unholy runes.

-Stay in Blood Presence (extra damage + healing from damage) except if you are going to die. In that

case, use Frost Presence. [Use Unholy Presence when you travel -> 15% faster]

-You don't need to have full health (or even half of it) before you aggro a mob. The reason for this is

that you will be able to get yourself to full health in one battle with your self healing abilities + your

Blood Presence.

-*ALWAYS* use Rune Strike, when possible

-When you get low on health, you can use Death Strike/Rune Tap/Death Pact/Mark of Blood (use

this early on, and preferrably against "speedy oponents", such as most of the Hunter pets.)/Vampiric

Blood (+ Rune Tap). You should use Death Strike as often as possible.

Player Versus Player (PVP):

-Always keep Horn of Winter on.

-Pretty much the same as with "Solo", but you have to move more and stay close* to the enemy.

Professions:

==//== These are suggestions ==//==

-Two gathering professions, such as Mining, Skinning, Herbloring. Gathering professions make loads of money if you know where to sell your materials (Auction House).

- Mining/Blacksmithing - Perfect for making your own gear. Blacksmithing gives both your rings two additional sockets. Later on, you can give Mining away and replace it with an other profession (such as Jewelcrafting).

- Mining/Jewelcrafting - A really good source of money + gives quite nice "jewelcrafter only

gems".

- Jewelcrafting/Blacksmithing - Only suggested if you have an other alt gathering the materials (Mining). Jewelcrafting gives you special "jewelcrafter only" gems and Blacksmithing gives you two additional gem sockets on both your rings.

- Enchanting/Tailoring - Not very "Death Knight lore-friendly", but they make a good amount of money.

- Enchanting - Enchanting is always a good choice, as you can choose the "disenchant" option while in instances/raids + you can enchant your own gear with

ATTENTION! All the professions are good, but these are especially for Death Knights.

Dual Spec:

- A PvP dual spec will make battleground leveling much easier and more enjoyable (playing battlegrounds does not give experience on Molten-WoW <- bug)

- An alternative leveling talent build; being able to change your gameplay is always refreshing. For example: Unholy

- A tanking spec will make instance tanking easier

- A dps spec: with one, you will make more dps in instances

Stats

Look for stats in the following order: Strength > Attack Power > Stamina > Critical Strike > Agility

Strength: 1 Strength= 2 Attack Powers -> Increases damage
+ Gives parry rating for Death Knights
Attack Power: Increases damage -> faster leveling
Stamina: Increases health -> less time running as a ghost (= dead)
Critical Strike: Increases your chance to do critical strikes
Agility: Increases Critical Strike + armor

Heirloom Gear

"Heirlooms bind to the account, as opposed to an individual character. This means they can be mailed (even after been used) to any character that shares the same account and server, including those of opposing faction."

*These are also suggested for Paladins/Death Knights (you can use these same items for all of them)

Heirlooms:
- Polished Breastplate of Valor 
- Polished Spaulders of Valor
- Bloodied Arcanite Reaper
- Swift Hand of Justice (2x)

Class Quests

Go HERE for a list of them (WoWWiki).

Glyphs

These are optional, but greatly help leveling and increase its speed/easiness

Major Glyphs:

Glyph of Dark Death(lv 55) - Increases the damage or healing done by your Death Coil by 15%.

Glyph of Death Strike(lv 55) - Increases 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 reduced by this effect.

Glyph of Rune Strike(lv 55) - Increases the critical strike chance of your Rune Strike by 10%.

Minor Glyphs:

Glyph of Raise Dead(lv 55) - Your Raise Dead spell no longer requires a reagent.

Glyph of Pestilence(lv 55) - Increases the radius of your Pestilence spell by 5 yards.

Glyph of Horn of Winter(lv 55)  - Increases the duration of your Horn of Winter ability by 1min.

Addons

Must haves addons list:

- Magic Runes - Magic Runes is a fresh way of displaying rune cooldowns with a set of bars. Its purpose is to either replace or be an addition to the normal Blizzard (or other Unit Frame) rune display.

- ForteXorcist - ForteXorcist, originally a DoT (Damage over Time) tracker addon for only Warlocks , is nowadays one of the most popular and powerful Raiding AddOns that exist. Its main features include (but are not limited to) a spell timer, a cooldown timer, self & raid messages and warning sounds.

credits: Thanks to the blog www.thewowcrafters.com for this guide!(the blog is not online anymore)