Blood Death Knight Tank Abilities for M+ (Dragonflight)

BDK Tank Guide

Talents & Builds

Gear & Stat Priority

Rotation

Macros & Addons

Abilities

Affix Information

The ability section list some extra details on how abilities work (not all of which are intuitive), but, other than that, the rest of the information is mostly review. So, feel free to skip to the other sections whenever you desire.

Offensive Abilities

[Heart Strike] – This is our filler ability. It is our most rune-efficient generator of RP and it hits two targets by default and 5 targets while standing in [Death and Decay].
Extra Details: 

• Secondary targets hit are selected within a 10 yard 180 degree cone in front of your character.
• Hitting 5 targets with [Heart Strike] only requires that you, personally, are standing in [Death and Decay].

[Marrowrend] – This ability is primarily used to generate [Bone Shield] charges, but it’s a less rune-efficient generator of RP than [Heart Strike].

[Bone Shield] – This is a stackable mitigation buff provided by [Marrowrend] or [Death’s Caress].
Extra Details:

• You cannot lose charges more than once every 2.5 seconds.
• Outside of talent interactions and [Ossuary], the number of bone shield charges do not change the benefit of this buff.

[Blood Boil] – This ability is primarily used for strong uncapped AoE damage/threat generation, [Blood Plague] application, and to build [Hemostasis] stacks (with the appropriate talent).
Extra Details:

• The cooldown of this ability is lowered with haste.

[Blood Plague] – A low-powered DoT effect with 100% leech. It is passively applied through [Blood Boil] and is a mostly minor source of damage and healing at baseline strength, though it an become noticeably stronger with talents.
Extra Details: 

• Unlike most DoTs in the game, this is not affected by haste.

[Death and Decay] – A ground-based DoT effect that provides moderate damage and allows [Heart Strike] to hit up to 4 additional targets instead of its usual 1 additional target (with an additional talent). With [Grip of the Dead], this ability is also a strong short-duration AoE snare.
Extra Details:

• Being able to hit 4 additional targets with [Heart Strike] requires that you, personally, are standing in the [Death and Decay] radius.
• Unlike most DoT’s in the game, this is not affected by haste.

[Death Strike] – This is our primary RP spender, providing relatively high single target damage and a significant amount of healing based on recently taken damage. This also triggers [Blood Shield].
Extra Details:

• Many forms of environmental damage, such as damage taken from [Storming] and [Volcanic], does not count as damage taken for the healing of this ability.
• Damage that is considered friendly fire also does not contribute to the healing of this ability.

[Bonestorm] – This is an alternative RP spender that provides AoE damage and self-healing based on the number of targets hit.
Extra Details:

• This ability does not scale with haste.
• The healing portion of this ability cannot crit and is not affected by versatility.
• Partial ticks are provided when the amount of RP spent is not a multiple of ten; the damage of this partial tick is proportional to the amount of RP spent, while the healing is the same as a full tick.

[Abomination Limb] – This is a powerful AoE damage cooldown that generates [Bone Shield] and automatically uses [Death Grip] on nearby enemies.
Extra Details:

• Every tick of damage has the ability to [Death Grip] a target between 8 and 20 yards away from you (prioritizing the closest target in this range).
• The same target cannot be gripped more than once every 4 seconds.
• The [Death Grip] does the same amount of damage as the normal AoE ticks.
• This ability does not scale with haste.

[Soul Reaper] – This is an alternative rune spender and execute ability. It provides significantly more single target damage than [Heart Strike] when the target has low health, though it is a less rune-efficient generator of RP and can’t cleave multiple targets.

[Blooddrinker] – This is an alternative rune spender and ranged single target damage ability. It provides more single target damage than [Heart Strike], though it is a less rune-efficient generator of RP and requires extra cast time.
Extra Details:

• Haste reduces the channel time of this ability, but it does not increase overall damage.
• Defensive abilities not on the global cooldown can be used during the channel without interrupting the cast.
• You can move, dodge, and parry while channeling (not normally the case).

[Consumption] – An AoE frontal cooldown with marginally higher damage than baseline strength [Blood Boil] that heals based on damage done..
Extra Details:

• Targets are selected within a 10 yard 180 degree cone in front of the player character

[Raise Dead] – A single target dps cooldown that can enable the use of [Sacrificial Pact]. 
Extra Details:

• The ghoul attacks whatever you are attacking and it won’t stop attacking a target unless a new target is damaged by you or its existing target dies.
• Even though it is not directly controllable, the ghoul auto-casts [Claw] and [Gnaw] (a low duration single target stun that can drive up stun diminishing returns on enemies).
• Raise dead cannot be used while a unit is being controlled by [Control Undead].

[Sacrificial Pact] – A cooldown-based RP spender that deals relatively high AoE damage and provides flat healing by sacrificing an active [Raise Dead] ghoul. It can provide minor benefits when used perfectly and can be harmful when used incorrectly.
Extra Details:

• The healing does not scale with critical strike or versatility.

[Death’s Caress] – This is our ranged filler. It is a more rune-efficient builder of [Bone Shield] stacks relative to [Marrowrend] at the cost of being less cast-time efficient. The cast-time inefficiency greatly limits its normal rotational use, since it is generally not worth casting if anything else is competing for the same cast time.

[Death Coil] – A ranged RP spender that deals low damage or low situational healing for its cost. In extremely rare situations it could potentially save your life, but this ability is harmful to use outside of that situation.
Extra Details:

• You can heal yourself with this ability for the duration of [Lichborne], though there’s no reason to if you can use [Death Strike] instead.

Defensive Abilities

[Vampiric Blood] – This is our primary (indirect) damage reduction cooldown.
Extra Details:

• When this buff activates, your current health increases by 30% of your maximum health.
• When this buff deactivates, your current health decreases by the original 30% maximum health that was gained to a minimum of 1 health.

[Anti-Magic Shell] – This is a low-cooldown magic absorb shield.
Extra Details:

• For the duration of this buff, you will be immune to the application of many debuffs, but it will not remove debuffs if you had them before activating the buff.
• The base size of this shield is 30% of your maximum health (at the time of cast) adjusted for versatility and most absorb shield amplifiers (such as [Gloom Ward]).
• A baseline of  25 RP is generated as the shield absorbs magic damage. The actual RP generation potential is 0.8333 RP/HP% of shield, so anything that increases the size of your [Anti-Magic Shell] other than health increases will also increase the potential RP generation.

[Dancing Rune Weapon] – This is a parry- and resource generation-based defensive cooldown with significant offensive benefits.
Extra Details:

• The [Dancing Rune Weapon] copies casts of [Blood Boil], [Death Strike], [Death’s Caress], [Heart Strike], [Consumption], [Soul Reaper], and [Marrowrend] at 33% effectiveness when they are used by the player.
• The [Dancing Rune Weapon] auto-attacks at 33% effectiveness on a separate swing timer.
• All damage dealt by the [Dancing Rune Weapon] counts as threat for the BDK.
• Any resources gained by the [Dancing Rune Weapon], itself, do nothing.
• During the duration, [Heart Strike] generates 5 extra RP, [Marrowrend] generates 3 additional stacks of [Bone Shield], and [Death’s Caress] generates 2 additional stacks of [Bone Shield] for the player per weapon copy.
• The [Everlasting Bond] causes [Dancing Rune Weapon] to spawn an additional weapon, doubling the additional damage and bonus generation.
• Unlike most other defensive cooldowns, [Dancing Rune Weapon] is on the global cooldown.
• The parry gained by this ability is additive to your existing parry and is not subjected to diminishing returns.
• The summoned weapons will always prioritize the target [Dancing Rune Weapon] was cast on until they die.

[Icebound Fortitude] – This is our secondary (direct) damage reduction cooldown. It has a long cooldown, but has the added benefit of breaking stuns and providing stun immunity.
Extra Details:

• This can be used while stunned, as long as you are not *also* silenced or incapacitated in other ways.

[Lichborne] – An ability that breaks charm, fear, and sleep effects and provides immunity to them along with some leech for the duration.
Extra Details:

• This can be used while charmed, feared, or slept, as long as you are not *also* silenced or incapacitated in other ways.

[Rune Tap] – A short cooldown, low duration, and low-powered damage reduction ability that costs a rune.

[Anti-Magic Zone] – A ground-AoE magic damage reduction cooldown that affects our allies.
Extra Details:

• This ability is on the global cooldown.

[Tombstone] – An ability that converts up to 5 [Bone Shield] charges into an absorb shield and RP that synergizes with several talents that benefit from [Bone Shield] consumption.
Extra Details:

• This ability is on the global cooldown.

[Death Pact] – This ability provides burst healing at the cost of also applying a healing-absorb shield.
Extra Details:

• This heal cannot crit and does not scale with versatility.

[Mark of Blood] – This ability debuffs an enemy target so that they heal *their* target on every successful auto-attack, though this is generally a low-powered ability.
Extra Details:

• The heal does not occur when auto attacks miss, are dodged, or are parried.
• This heal cannot crit and does not scale with versatility.
• This ability is on the global cooldown

Utility and Misc. Abilities

[Dark Command] – Standard taunt ability.
Extra Details:

• You gain threat equal to the highest value on the target’s threat table (which can be yourself) and any threat you generate for the duration of the taunt debuff is increased by 400%.
• While a target is affected by a taunt debuff, it *cannot* melee attack anything other than the character who taunted it, even in situations where the character is out of range and it would normally attack the target with the next highest threat that is in range.
• (Raid Only) If a target gets taunted five times without 20 seconds passing between any two taunt effects, that target will become immune to taunts for 20 seconds; the duration of the taunt debuff will also be reduced by 33% (multiplicatively) with each subsequent taunt within the diminishing returns window.

[Death Grip] – A secondary taunt ability that also pulls the target directly in front of you.
Extra Details: 

• This ability shares the same taunt and threat rules as [Dark Command].
• The target will not be moved if they are immune to knockbacks.
• This ability can be used to interrupt most casted abilities with the knockback effect.
• If the target is already standing in the exact destination location of a [Death Grip] cast, they will not be moved and any actions that would normally be interrupted by the movement effect will not be interrupted.
• This ability cannot be used while your character is midair.
• The baseline global cooldown triggered by this ability is only 0.5 seconds, compared to the usual 1.5 seconds.

[Gorefiend’s Grasp] – An AoE [Death Grip] without the taunt effect. All affected units are moved directly on top of the target.
Extra Details:

• Any unit, including yourself, can be the target of this ability.
• This ability is on the normal global cooldown.

[Mind Freeze] – Our default interrupt ability, but with more range than most melee interrupts.

[Chains of Ice] – A strong ranged single target snare that costs a rune.

[Blood Tap] – This ability can be used to instantly generate runes.
Extra Details: 

• [Bone Shield] stacks consumed by [Tombstone] contribute to the cooldown reduction.
• This ability is not on the global cooldown.

[Empower Rune Weapon] – A strong cooldown that provides haste and resource regeneration.

[Asphyxiate] – A ranged single target stun.
Extra Details:

• This ability can hit spell immune targets, but not physical immune targets.

[Blinding Sleet] – A 90 degree AoE frontal disorient that breaks on damage and applies a snare after the disorient.

[Death’s Advance] – A movement speed cooldown that limits how much you can be snared when this ability is both active and inactive. This also provides immunity to most knockback effects.

[Wraith Walk] – This channeled ability removes roots and snares on cast, while providing bonus movement speed for a short duration.

[Raise Ally] – An instant cast combat resurrection ability.
Extra Details: 

• If needed, you can generate enough RP to use this ability out of combat by using [Death Gate], two casts of [Rune Tap], and [Death and Decay] in quick succession.

[Control Undead] – This can turn some undead targets into our pet for a short period of time, which provides bonus damage, situationally useful abilities, and crowd control.
Extra Details:

• M+ enemies lose their bonus health and damage from the key level when controlled. Still, it can be worth using for the damage if you can minimize the time lost from managing your pet.
• When an enemy dies *while* being controlled, they only give dungeon count if the enemy was damaged by the group before [Control Undead] was used and if your target has not left combat since the target was damaged by the group (though DoT effects can maintain the tag if they persist until combat is re-entered). Generally, you just want to release the unit if they are about to die just to make sure it won’t mess with the route.
• Sometimes it can be valuable to use this to temporarily control an undead unit to make a hard pull easier and to release/kill it with an easier pack.

Passive Abilities

[Mastery: Blood Shield] – Your [Death Strike] generates [Blood Shield], which absorbs physical damage, based on your mastery and the damage you have taken recently.
Extra Details:

• If you [Death Strike] while [Blood Shield] is already active, the duration is reset and the absorb values are combined.
• The maximum size of a [Blood Shield] is equal to the player’s health.