Blood is for survival. You won’t hit as hard as Frost or Unholy, but you’re much tougher than either which gives you an edge. The lack of damage (and control) is the reason that Blood is very rare in the Arenas. If the arenas are your game then you should probably go Frost. Blood can work well in the Battlegrounds, though.
If you’re not yet level 85 then you won’t be able to use everything on this page. If are interested in getting your characters, all of them, to max level quickly, take a look at this leveling guide.
Changes are coming with Mists of Pandaria and we’ve noted some of them here.
Blood Spec Death Knight PvP Contents
Other Death Knight Guides
- Death Knight overview
- Blood Tanking (PvE)
- Frost PvE
- Frost PvP
- Unholy PvE
- Unholy PvP
- Level Faster, Much Faster
Stats for Blood Spec
All DKs value Strength far above all other stats. Resilience, of course, is also pretty important. “How much Resilience?” is a question that is often asked. The answer is that it depends on you. If you seem to be holding your own, or better, then you don’t need any more. Concentrate on more offense.
If you’re getting crushed you should first make sure your personal skills are up to snuff, then make sure your gear is competitive, then get more resilience (through gems and enchants) until you’re properly in the game.
- Primary Stats: Strength and Resilience
- Secondary Stats: 3% Hit > 3% Expertise > Mastery
- Weaker Stats: Haste, Crit,
- Useless: Excess Hit and Expertise
Blood Spec Gems
With gems for secondary stats having twice the value of gems for primary stats (eg: 320 PvP power Vs 160 Str) it might be worthwhile to ignore a few socket bonuses and gem for PvP Power. Gem priorities below are focused on damage, rather than avoidance/mitigation. As Blood you will need all the damage you can get.
Mists of Pandaria
| Gem Priorities | ||
|---|---|---|
| Meta |  |
Reverberating Primal Diamond: +216 Str & Increased Crit Effect |
| Red |  |
Bold Pandarian Garnet: +160 Str |
| Yellow |  |
Fractured Sun’s Radiance: +320 Mastery |
| Blue |  |
Stormy River’s Heart: +320 PvP power |
| Prismatic |  |
Bold Pandarian Garnet: +160 Str |
Blood Spec Enchants
Mists of Pandaria
As with gems, you will want to enchant for damage.
Head enchants are gone, shoulder enchants come from the Inscription profession.
| Enchantments | |
|---|---|
| Weapon | Living Steel Weapon Chain: +200 Expertise and reduces disarm duration by 60% Rune of the Fallen Crusader: Chance for 3% heal and a chance for +15% Str, for 15 seconds |
| Shoulders | Secret Tiger Fang Inscription: +520 Str and +100 Crit, requires Inscription Greater Tiger Fang Inscription: +200 Str and +100 Crit |
| Cloak | Enchant Cloak – Superior Critical Strike: +180 Crit rating Enchant Cloak – Accuracy: +180 Hit rating |
| Chest | Enchant Chest – Glorious Stats: +80 to all Stats Enchant Chest – Super Resilience: +200 Resilience |
| Bracers | Enchant Bracer – Exceptional Strength: +170 Str Socket Bracer: Requires Blacksmithing, self-only, pop in a nice gem. |
| Gloves | Enchant Gloves – Super Strength: +170 Str Socket Gloves: requires Blacksmithing, self-only, drop in a nice gem |
| Belt | Ebonsteel Belt Buckle: Sockets your belt, pop in the best gem. |
| Leggings | Angerhide Leg Armor: +285 Str & 185 Crit rating |
| Boots | Enchant Boots – Pandaren’s Step : +140 Mastery and Slight run speed increase. |
| Rings | Enchant Ring – Greater Strength: +160 Str, Requires Enchanting 550 |
Macros for the Blood DK
This macro is one I’ve been using on an Orc DK that I’m leveling. Orcs have the Blood Fury racial, which increases attack power for a few seconds. In this case he’s also working on Herbalsim, which has a heal/haste effect. So roll both of those into a macro and you have:
- #showtooltip Death Grip
- /startattack
- /cast Blood Fury(Racial)
- /cast Lifeblood
- /cast Death Grip
Note that you can do the same with any “on use” item or ability, such as a Draenei’s heal, Troll’s berserking, trinkets, etc.
This one Death Coils your mouseover target. You can do the same with any ability, including Death Grip. Mouseover some target, launch the spell, continue to mash your original target.
- #showtooltip Death Coil
- /cast [nomodifier] Death Coil
- /cast [modifier:alt, target=mouseover] Death Coil
