Blood Death Knight Tank Talents & Builds for M+ (Dragonflight)

BDK Tank Guide

Talents & Builds

Gear & Stat Priority

Rotation

Macros & Addons

Abilities

Affix Information

Talents

This section will first provide information on individual talents before talking about overall talent build considerations. The individual talent information is intended to provide a foundation on talent usefulness, so that talent build considerations can be better understood.

Death Knight Talents

(Note: All qualifiers on talent strength are relative to the amount of benefits provided per talent point when compared with other talents that are available in the Death Knight Talent Tree, only. Typical talent power levels are different between the Death Knight and Blood Talent Trees, but they are never directly competing against each other.)

Row 1

[Chains of Ice] – This talent provides relatively low-value/situational snare utility and nothing else, but it is a prerequisite for several more impactful talents.

[Death Strike] – Baseline for Blood.

[Raise Dead] – A respectable single target damage increase talent that is also a prerequisite for other talents of interest.

Row 2

[Mind Freeze] – The Death Knight interrupt ability, which is arguably required in most M+ content.

[Anti-Magic Shell] – A strong defensive cooldown against magic damage.

[Cleaving Strikes] – One of our strongest AoE damage options in the talent tree that peaks on five target pulls (though worthless against only one or two targets).

Row 3

[Blinding Sleet] – An AoE disorient that breaks on damage and also applies an AoE snare. Situationally it can be very useful, particularly if you can make good use of the AoE CC effect to interrupt enemy ability casts, though it will provide little to no value if the AoE CC has no good application.

[Coldthirst] – The RP generation is a decent source of mitigation with minor priority damage gains when you have frequent interrupt opportunities. Otherwise, the lower [Mind Freeze] cooldown can either reduce enemy spell throughput or situationally make interrupt management easier for the group.

[Permafrost] – A flat source of absorb healing that is very underwhelming in situations where damage intake is actually threatening, but, since it never overheals even in non-threatening situations, will look deceptively strong on healing breakdowns.

[Improved Death Strike] – The healing increase and RP cost reduction on [Death Strike] results in what can be the strongest source of mitigation in the death knight talent tree, along with a respectable priority damage increase in AoE situations.

[Anti-Magic Barrier] – A significant power increase to [Anti-Magic Shell] and a relatively strong source of overall mitigation given that there is enough incoming magic damage to make use of it.

[March of Darkness] – A situationally-useful movement speed increase on [Death’s Advance].

[Sacrificial Pact] – An extremely weak and clunky AoE RP spender that only provides a marginal AoE damage increase at particularly high target counts, which also comes at a relatively larger cost of mitigation throughput if you are in a situation with significant incoming damage.

[Control Undead] – A very situational crowd control ability. The main application of this ability in Season 2 of Dragonflight appears to be controlling Fallen Deathspeakers in Underrot, which provide a group haste and movement speed buff along with non-trivial damage.

[Enfeeble] – Given the low average uptime on the debuff effect, the overall damage reduction effect is only decent for single targets and underwhelming outside of that.

Row 4

[Icebound Fortitude] – A respectable defensive cooldown and stun break.

[Blood Scent] – Leech of this magnitude is an extremely weak source of mitigation. It becomes relatively stronger against multiple targets, but still a very weak option overall.

[Veteran of the Third War] – A powerful source of passive EHP.

[Suppression] – Unless you are doing content with major EHP checks from incoming AoE damage (which is usually rare for the tank role and especially in M+), the Avoidance from this talent is exceptionally weak.

[Brittle] – The debuff application provides a respectable damage increase at all target counts.

Row 5

[Acclimation] – The cooldown reduction increases the frequency of our [Icebound Fortitude] casts by 50%, which provides a small increase in [Icebound Fortitude] uptime..

[Merciless Strikes] – The critical strike chance provides a respectable damage increase at all target counts.

[Anti-Magic Zone] – A strong group cooldown against magic damage, though it often has little to no personal value if we are ignoring its value for our teammates.

[Might of Thassarian] – The strength provides a respectable damage increase at all target counts.

[Clenching Grasp] – A snare on [Death Grip] provides little to no value in a majority of non-PvP situations as a tank.

Row 6

[Proliferating Chill] – While likely strong in PvP, an empowered [Chains of Ice] is generally providing no value in PvE content outside of extreme specific situations (such as fighting trash on the third boss of Uldaman).

[Gloom Ward] – Even assuming that no external healing is received in the form of absorbs, the absorb amplification results in one of the strongest sources of mitigation in the tree from [Blood Shield] and [Anti-Magic Shell], alone. This does not work on reactive absorb effects, like [Will of the Necropolis].

[Asphyxiate] – A ranged single target stun can be very useful at negating a number of trash mechanics.

[Assimilation] – In the types of situations where we are using [Anti-Magic Zone], personal survivability is not usually much of a concern and, in many situations where personal survivability is a concern, we won’t be able to generate significant RP with [Anti-Magic Zone]. So, the RP generation associated with this talent is not nearly as valuable as it could be.

[Death Pact] – Outside of very specific applications, this ability is simply a weak source of mitigation due to its low overall healing throughput.

[Grip of the Dead] – A powerful front-loaded snare on [Death and Decay] can be very useful if you have a need to kite in any situation, but it can be unnecessary or counter-productive in other situations.

[Death’s Reach] – Having a 40 yard range on your [Death Grip] provides some quality of life when setting up pulls, but it is otherwise not providing much, if any, value. The cooldown-refunding effect only applies to enemies you, personally, landed the killing attack on, which greatly limits the usefulness of that portion of the talent.

[Unholy Endurance] – This talent turns [Lichborne] into a defensive cooldown that is on par with [Icebound Fortitude], just with a weaker effect that has a higher uptime.

Row 7

[Runic Attenuation] – This passive RP generation is a strong source of mitigation and a respectable source of priority damage in AoE situations.

[Wraith Walk] – This movement speed ability can’t be used at the same time as other abilities, so it is mainly just providing improved out-of-combat movement between pulls in dungeons unless you are responding to a specific mechanic.

[Unholy Ground] – The haste bonus on [Death and Decay] results in a strong amount of increased damage along with decent mitigation benefits, as well. We will be using [Death and Decay] aggressively in all situations, so these benefits are always applicable.

Row 8

[Insidious Chill] – While the single target attack speed slow effect has some anti-synergy with other talents, it greatly reduces incoming damage from a single target.

[Blood Draw] – This uncontrollable trigger effect has too little damage and healing associated with it to provide significant value, even if we were to assume that the effect occurred at particularly valuable times. Nonetheless, it can be a minor dps increase if you are confident that it will trigger often on the content you are doing.

[Will of the Necropolis] – This low-health damage reduction is a particularly strong source of EHP.

[Death’s Echo] – While the other perks are nice too, the extra charge on [Death and Decay], combined with aggressive [Death and Decay] usage, means that this talent can increase our [Death and Decay] throughput. Not only are we less likely to be wasting cooldown recovery time before using [Death and Decay] with two charges, but [Crimson Scourge] procs will provide a full charge of [Death and Decay] whenever they occur. As such, this ends up being one of the best damage throughput talents in the tree, particularly on multiple targets.

Row 9

[Icy Talons] – The attack speed buff is a weak single target damage increase while the buff is maintained, and this increase does not scale well into increased target counts.

[Rune Mastery] – The bonus strength is a somewhat weak source of damage relative to the other damage-oriented talents, but it is something.

[Unholy Bond] – The bonus strength (assuming the use of [Rune of the Fallen Crusader]) is a somewhat weak source of damage relative to the other damage-oriented talents, but, again, it is something.

Row 10

[Empower Rune Weapon] – The haste and resource generation provides strong mitigation in all situations along with a strong damage increase.

[Abomination Limb] – This ability provides grip utility along with a very strong AoE damage increase that still retains some value against single targets.

[Soul Reaper] – This execute provides a very large amount of priority damage, though it does so at a relatively small cost to mitigation throughput and the raw damage throughput scales poorly into multiple targets. When using this talent, there is also a high gameplay emphasis on maximizing the usage of this short cooldown ability.

Death Knight Talent Build

Baseline Death Knight Talent Build:

General Pathing:

Given the power of the lower-tier talents in each column, it is preferable to path through each column from the start rather than to use the weak cross-over talents [Blood Scent] and [Suppression] in most circumstances. Beyond that, we are particularly interested in picking up stronger talents such as [Blinding Sleet], [Gloom Ward], and [Runic Attenuation] in the frost column, [Improved Death Strike] and [Veteran of the Third War] in the blood column, and [Unholy Ground] in the unholy column. Some flexibility exists when choosing between some parallel paths and also when deciding how to use the remaining talent points needed to unlock late-tier talents.

Late-tier talent selection is relatively straightforward, only two end-row talents can be selected, while [Will of the Necropolis] and [Death’s Echo] are particularly appealing for their independent strength. In general, [Empower Rune Weapon] and [Abomination Limb] are seen as the most desirable end-row talents, though a theoretical argument could be made for [Soul Reaper] if a dungeon ever places a very large emphasis on single target damage (particularly in a higher-end key).

Some potential decisions related to the baseline Death Knight Talent tree are highlighted and discussed below.

Decision Point 1: [Control Undead] vs. [Enfeeble]

[Sacrificial Pact] is extraordinarily weak unless you have some sort of very specific usage in mind, so that is why this choice mostly boils down to whether or not you have a reason to take [Control Undead] over [Enfeeble], which would be any time the extra crowd control could provide a noticeable value (the main current use being controlling Fallen Deathspeakers in Underrot). [Enfeeble], itself, is not too appealing on its own, but it at least provides some value, unconditionally, while creating a path to [Brittle].

Decision Point 2: [Grip of the Dead] vs. [Death’s Reach] vs. [Unholy Endurance]

[Grip of the Dead] and [Death’s Reach] both provide very specific utility, which may or may not be desirable to you depending on your need to kite or the usefulness of a 40 yard range ability with cooldown reset potential. However, if neither of these provide significant value, turning [Lichborne] into a reasonably strong defensive cooldown has decent value in practically all situations.

Decision Point 3: Choose 3 Extra Mid- or Low-Tier Talents (1 can be a Late-Tier Talent)

The baseline build allows for two additional mid- or low- tier talents to be taken before the late-tier talents are unlocked, in addition to a third unused talent point that can potentially be used in any part of the tree. All desirable options for these points are situational, but some of the more generally useful options include [Anti-Magic Barrier], [Anti-Magic Zone], [Blinding Sleet], [Coldthirst], [Acclimation], and [Asphyxiate] if they weren’t previously selected already. However, if you have a specific reason to consider other utility options, feel free to choose whatever works best for you. Other candidates for these talent points are [Grip of the Dead], [Death’s Reach], and [Unholy Endurance], (again) if these talents were not already taken from earlier decisions. A one-off point in [Unholy Bond] is an option for minor damage gains in situations where most utility talents are not generating value, but these situations effectively don’t happen in M+.

Decision Point 4: [Abomination Limb] vs. [Soul Reaper]

While [Abomination Limb] is an extremely useful and easy-to-utilize ability in M+ to the point where it is highly recommended for the decision you are making here, [Soul Reaper] provides a strong gain in priority damage at the cost of the AoE damage/grip utility advantages of [Abomination Limb], though these are several inconveniences associated with [Soul Reaper] related to lost value when using it on short-lived enemies, being relatively more punishing rotationally, and penalizing your mitigation while you are actively using [Soul Reaper]. There is a case to be made for [Soul Reaper] if a dungeon situation highly emphasizes priority damage while also de-emphasizing any other qualities, though whether or not it sees use will ultimately come down to dungeon tuning. Given the tradeoffs involved, we are generally going to be running [Empower Rune Weapon] in either case.

Blood Talents

(Note: All qualifiers on talent strength are relative to the amount of benefits provided per talent point when compared with other talents that are available in the Blood Talent Tree, only. Typical talent power levels are different between the Death Knight and Blood Talent Trees, but they are never directly competing against each other.)

Row 1

[Heart Strike] – Unavoidable core ability.

Row 2

[Marrowrend] – Unavoidable core ability.

[Blood Boil] – Unavoidable core ability.

Row 3

[Vampiric Blood] – One of our most powerful defensive cooldowns and mostly unavoidable.

[Crimson Scourge] – The rune cost and cooldown reduction on [Death and Decay] provides an impressive amount of mitigation and damage given the overall talent build, but this is also mostly unavoidable, in any case.

The mechanics of this ability are a bit unintuitive. Your auto-attacks against targets with [Blood Plague] have a 25% chance to proc [Crimson Scourge]. This buff will NOT proc while a [Death and Decay] is currently active. The base RP generation will not occur when casting [Death and Decay] with [Crimson Scourge], since a rune is not consumed. When [Crimson Scourge] procs, you will gain up to a full charge of [Death and Decay].

Row 4

[Ossuary] – The RP cost reduction on [Death Strike] is a solid source of unconditional mitigation and a decent source of priority damage in AoE. The extra maximum RP is also a nice perk.

[Improved Vampiric Blood] – The increased [Vampiric Blood] uptime, in particular, results in a strong source of controllable EHP in any content where high defensive uptime is desirable along with a decent mitigation benefit, assuming it is paired with other talents it has synergy with.

[Improved Heart Strike] – The increased damage is relatively below-average power-wise at all target counts compared to other damage talents, but there are also much worse damage talents in the tree.

[Death’s Caress] – This ranged filler sees only a minor amount of rotational use in melee because it is cast time inefficient, so it does not result in a significant power gain in any standard situation. That being said, it can quickly rack up value the more you find yourself in situations where no enemies are within melee range.

Row 5

[Rune Tap] – This rune-cost defensive cooldown provides a decently strong amount of controllable EHP at the cost of a relatively small mitigation penalty. When utilizing this ability to the extent that it does not create rotational downtime, damage output increases with higher use from increased [Blood Boil] casts. However, heavy usage *can* create rotational downtime with the current state of resources, which can result in a damage loss similar to the potential EHP gains (particularly when fighting multiple targets for an extended period of time).

[Heartbreaker] – The increased RP generation provides a respectable amount of mitigation against multiple targets. A small indirect EHP benefit is also provided through interactions with [Red Thirst]. However, the overall benefits are lackluster against single targets.

[Foul Bulwark] – A large increase in mostly-reliable baseline EHP.

[Dancing Rune Weapon] – One of our strongest defensive cooldowns, which also doubles as a potentially strong offensive cooldown (particularly with additional talents).

[Hemostasis] – The increased [Death Strike] damage and healing provides a decent amount of mitigation against multiple targets as well as some decent priority damage in the same situations. Note that the healing increase does not extend to [Blood Shield] healing, only the raw healing portion of [Death Strike]. However, the overall benefits are lackluster against single targets.

[Perseverance of the Ebon Blade] – Given the lack of emphasis on [Crimson Scourge] with the current rotation and talent tuning, the increased versatility provides relatively insignificant benefits at this time.

[Relish in Blood] – Given the lack of emphasis on [Crimson Scourge] with the current rotation and talent tuning, the increased RP and healing provide only relatively insignificant benefits at this time.

Row 6

[Leeching Strike] – The healing results in a very low amount of extra mitigation in dangerous situations with no other benefits.

[Improved Bone Shield] – The large passive haste increase results in a very strong combined mitigation and damage benefit in all situations.

[Insatiable Blade] – The bone shield generation and [Dancing Rune Weapon] cooldown reduction results in significant mitigation, damage, and defensive uptime benefits.

[Blooddrinker] – This single target damage ability provides a solid increase to priority damage, though it comes at a minor cost of mitigation throughput. As a ranged ability, this spell provides more benefits if you find yourself in situations where you are outside of melee range of enemies. The overall damage scales poorly into multiple targets if damage to all targets is desirable.

[Consumption] – This AoE ability is relatively lackluster. Even if you have it talented, it arguably isn’t worth casting, at all, at any target count unless you run out of other abilities to cast (which is extraordinarily rare with the current resource state of BDK).

[Rapid Decomposition] – A respectable damage increase at all target counts, though this is relatively stronger against multiple targets.

Row 7

[Blood Feast] – The healing throughput of this effect results in very minor amounts of mitigation, and, in real world situations, it is a very awkward form of healing to actually get value out of.

[Blood Tap] – Given the current resource situation, any additional [Heart Strike] comes at the cost of a [Blood Boil]. In most standard situations, this talent currently provides a small boost in mitigation at the cost of some damage throughput, though it has some pooling potential that is hard to quantify.

[Reinforced Bone] – The added armor is a below-average source of baseline EHP, power-wise, but there are definitely worse talents in the tree.

[Everlasting Bond] – This talent more than doubles the effectiveness of [Dancing Rune Weapon], especially when it comes to damage. Needless to say, this is a significant source of damage and defensive uptime as well as providing a solid amount of overall mitigation.

[Voracious] – The increased [Death Strike] healing, in particular, is one of the strongest mitigation benefits available in the talent tree.

[Bloodworms] – The worms provide above-average single target damage and a minor source of smart mitigation, but they scale poorly into multiple targets (if priority damage is not desired).

[Coagulopathy] – The increased damage potential of this talent at all target counts is quite significant and even the increased healing provides noticeable mitigation when fighting multiple targets once the buff effect is stacked up.

Row 8

[Mark of Blood] – The benefits are almost always not worth the cast time of using this ability outside of very unique situations.

[Tombstone] – While this ability has some value as a spot-defensive cooldown, the majority of its benefits are provided indirectly with [Dancing Rune Weapon] cooldown reduction via [Insatiable Blade] and AoE damage via [Shattering Bone]. As such, using [Tombstone] results in a strong combination of increased mitigation, damage, and defensive uptime.

[Gorefiend’s Grasp] – An AoE grip can be a very useful utility at times to improve enemy positioning or as an AoE micro-CC. However, there are also a large range of situations where this ability provides little to no value.

[Sanguine Ground] – This increased damage and healing effect results in a reasonably strong damage benefit at all target counts with some mitigation benefit.

Row 9

[Shattering Bone] – This is a powerful source of AoE damage that remains strong even against single targets assuming regular bone shield consumption.

[Heartrend] – This damage proc provides a near negligible increase to single target damage.

[Tightening Grasp] – The increased damage effect is relatively unimpactful, while the cooldown reduction on [Gorefiend’s Grasp] arguably provides very little additional value most of the time.

[Iron Heart] – With a moderate investment in Mastery, this talent provides a respectable amount of consistent mitigation in all situations.

[Red Thirst] – The [Vampiric Blood] cooldown reduction provides an impressive increase in controllable EHP benefits while also providing a decent amount of mitigation.

Row 10

[Bonestorm] – This awkward-to-use talent is capable of providing a solid increase to damage only when used against multiple targets (specifically when a high health priority target is not present), though casting it requires you to immediately sacrifice a large portion of your on-hand mitigation.

[Purgatory] – This 4 minute cooldown cheat death effect is very strong for what it does. This effect cannot fail from overkill damage, though there is a bug in the game where it will not work properly a small percentage of the time for currently unknown reasons.

[Bloodshot] – This increased damage effect will always affect [Death Strike] regardless of prior [Blood Shield] status. Our other physical abilities tend to be single target-oriented abilities as well, though exact [Blood Shield] uptime will vary. So, in general, this ends up being a strong single target damage talent.

[Umbilicus Eternus] – This absorb effect provides very strong mitigation throughput on multiple targets, though it scales off of the number of targets and is a lot less impressive on single targets. The size of the absorb effect is to the point where it can be treated as a substitute 100% damage reduction defensive cooldown while it is active with significant absorb value remaining. This talent interacts with and gains value from the 10.1 tier set bonus, resulting in increased total shield durations and absorb potential.

Blood Talent Build

Baseline Blood Talent Build:

General Pathing:

Our immediate priority in the low- to mid-tier sections of the tree is to path to our particularly high-value talents. All three [Dancing Rune Weapon] talents are desirable, with [Improved Vampiric Blood] being the more appealing pathing option within M+ where we will always be taking [Red Thirst]. For the left side, [Improved Bone Shield] and [Foul Bulwark] are significantly stronger than most other talent options in the tree, while [Ossuary] is a no-brainer pickup when it is only one talent point away. For the right side, [Coagulopathy] is strong enough to force pathing through some weaker prerequisite talents, while [Voracious] is also a no-brainer pickup when it is only one talent point away.

From there, we need sufficient pathing to reach the [Shattering Bone] talent and the [Vampiric Blood] branch in the late-tier talents, since those provide significantly powerful benefits. The pathing to both of these areas is fairly straightforward, since there aren’t any competitive alternatives to pathing through [Reinforced Bone] on the left side of the tree and there are no choices remaining for right side pathing. Within the late tier itself, the baseline big ticket talents for M+ are [Shattering Bone], [Purgatory], and all [Vampiric Blood] talents. In the end, this leaves us with two leftover talent points, where only one can be used on a late-tier talent.

Decision Point 1: Choose 2 Extra Talents (1 can be a Late-Tier Talent)

The baseline build allows for one additional mid- or low- tier talent to be taken before the late-tier talents are unlocked, and another talent that can be taken after the late-tier talents are unlocked. Putting the first of these talent points into [Iron Heart] and the second into [Heartbreaker] can be a good starting point as a solid mitigation-centric option, but, If you are in situation where defensive uptime/EHP would be significant for you and you are capable of proficiently using it, [Rune Tap] can be superior to [Heartbreaker] for a talent point. Of the three non-[Rune Tap] options, [Iron Heart] provides strong and consistent mitigation benefits, [Heartbreaker] provides solid AoE mitigation benefits with some [Red Thirst] synergy, and [Hemostasis] is a more aggressive take on [Heartbreaker] with more potential damage but no [Red Thirst] synergy. While the tradeoff is ambiguous from a model-based perspective, log data has generally indicated this expansion that [Iron Heart] outperforms [Heartbreaker] (though this isn’t definitive, by any means). Meanwhile, the log data has been more conclusive in showing [Hemostasis] as the worst of the four options in M+, and so, since we are only debating two talent points, there isn’t much reason to take [Hemostasis] at this time regardless of how talents are being distributed among the other three options.

For some less conventional options can be justified, in theory, but you are probably better off treating them with skepticism unless you are facing an exceptional situation. or some less conventional options, [Gorefiend’s Grasp] is available as a pure utility option if a particular situation makes it desirable. Meanwhile, some higher end keys could theoretically benefit from the situational use of a single target damage talent such as [Bloodworms] or maybe even the AoE damage talent [Bonestorm], if a situation calls for some less efficient damage tech options than what is generally advocated for in this guide. That being said, [Bonestorm] has a bad habit of getting its user killed and, since it is only providing useful damage on even-cleave multiple target pulls, it generally isn’t speeding up the dungeon as much as you may think it is from looking at the damage meter. So, while it is listed here for completeness, I am generally an advocate that [Bonestorm] isn’t a particularly good talent.

Decision Point 2: [Heartrend] vs. [Tightening Grasp]

IF you have chosen to use both [Purgatory] and [Gorefiend’s Grasp] in your final talent build, you have the option of selecting [Tightening Grasp] instead of [Heartrend] for extra [Gorefiend’s Grasp] usage, since the damage throughput difference between both of these talents is mostly trivial.

Decision Point 3: [Bloodshot] vs. [Umbilicus Eternus]

[Umbilicus Eternus] provides a fairly significant damage increase on single targets that falls off in effectiveness in situations where we care about damage to more than one target. In most situations, [Bloodshot] provides a fairly significant damage increase on single targets that falls off in effectiveness as the target count increases. In most situations, [Umbilicus Eternus] is often going to be the more appealing option, since mitigation and defensive uptime of this magnitude is generally more impactful for key success and multiple target situations are generally going to be the most dangerous parts of the dungeon, but specific dungeon and affix considerations can play a part in decision-making on this decision point. For Season 4, [Umbilicus Eternus] is greatly enhanced by the new tier set bonus, which further tips the scales for this decision.

[Bloodshot] can situationally be better if the specific dungeon especially emphasizes priority damage (damage check and soft-enrage bosses; disproportionately hard bosses in general; low-target-count and priority target trash pulls) while especially de-emphasizing the need for survivability on big pulls (trash that is disproportionately non-threatening to the tank with constrained routing options; timers that allow for trash wipes to be recoverable). The most obvious example of this situation was Court of Stars from 10.0, which was almost entirely priority damage pulls with low-tank-danger trash, low target counts, trash wipe recovery potential, and a boss that had both damage-check and soft-enrage mechanics. This potential is also larger on Tyrannical weeks for obvious reasons. Granted, you must use one of your previous flex talent points on [Iron Heart] to make use of this option and log data indicates that the situations where [Bloodshot] increases overall dungeon success is in the minority.

Build Modifications

While this guide generally recommends a build and play-style aimed at maximizing most players chances of timing M+ keys, higher keys continue to put a greater emphasis on EHP to manage pulls, while the highest of keys for some of the more timer-limited dungeons have such high damage requirements that options to increase a tanks personal damage at the cost of other metrics may be the only way a higher key level gets timed (assuming overall group damage isn’t lost as a result). The purpose of this section is to discuss and compare options for how the base recommended build could be modified if you believe yourself to be in a situation where you can benefit from more EHP or Damage (or if you are just looking to experiment).

EHP Modifications

EHP not only lowers the chance of dying to burst damage, it also gives BDKs more margin to safely dip to lower health levels before using [Death Strike], which can indirectly increase our mitigation in keys. EHP tradeoffs are tricky to judge because overall survivability comes from a combination of EHP and mitigation; the value of EHP, in particular, is heavily dependent on the levels of incoming damage you are receiving as a tank and its benefits likely suffer from some form of diminishing returns in any given situation. So, optimizing an ideal combination of mitigation and EHP is more of an art than a science. Furthermore, BDKs become more self-sufficient as expansions progress, which tends to shift priorities more towards EHP by the end of an expansion (at least in M+). The figure below lays out a number of EHP tradeoffs in a generalized order of efficiency for single target and 5-target situations considering the EHP gained for the mitigation and damage lost. The bottom-most modifications are most efficient in each case, while the modifications highlighted in green are already recommended by the guide and notifications in yellow are situational or have conditions attached to their use. So, this can provide reference information if you wish to modify the standard build outlined in this guide in one direction or another.

Secondary Stats: X -> Versatility – Note, this generalized listing was generated with a reasonably high ilvl profile that utilized a secondary stat priority as outlined in this guide; thus, prioritizing Versatility, Mastery, and Haste (in that order).

Converting critical strike and, to a lesser extent, haste into versatility are particularly high efficiency methods of gaining EHP due to the lack of overall value associated with those stats relative to versatility. While converting mastery to versatility is still generally recommended when no other tradeoffs are involved, it is noticeably less efficient than converting the other stats. In fact, if you wish to devalue EHP in your own build, the first thing you could consider is moving versatility into mastery.

[Sustained Strength] – The amount of stamina gained by this enchant is particularly high given the strength lost from not using [Waking Stats] and the tradeoff dynamic doesn’t change significantly with target count.

[Foul Bulwark] – It shouldn’t be too surprising that ~8% EHP for one talent point is a bargain in most situations. This holds true regardless of the target count, though it is less one-sided against multiple targets given that the usual alternative is [Heartbreaker].

[Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle] – While certainly not a popular or flashy option, [Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle] provides more EHP than any other runeforge and it technically provides the next best EHP tradeoff on all target counts if you wish to value EHP higher than this guide recommends when applied to your primary (and only) weapon.

Runeforge swapping gives us the option of selectively making this tradeoff on a pull-by-pull basis if you happen to have at least two competitive weapons, which is something that can’t be said for most of the other tradeoffs on this list. That being said, having at least two competitive weapons isn’t a luxury that all players will have, but, if you do, and if you are able to identify the specific dungeon situations where this runeforge would have elevated value, you have an opportunity to enjoy a disproportionate amount of its benefits where it is most valuable while minimizing the loss of [Rune of the Fallen Crusader] uptime in all other parts of the dungeon. As such, this runeforge is much more justifiable when used exclusively as a weapon swap.

DPS Modifications

More damage has the potential to lower completion time on a key, as long as overall group damage doesn’t decrease as a result and the increased risk of group deaths does not result in lowering overall key success rates. While damage-focused tank modifications aren’t particularly helpful at most key levels, damage requirements exponentially increase with key level and it will start to become a consideration once you get close to cutting edge key levels for your given group composition. At first, advanced routing techniques will be a much more impactful way of improving dungeon completion times, but there are sometimes limits to how much a route can be optimized depending on the dungeon. The figure below lays out a number of damage tradeoffs in a generalized order of efficiency for single target and 5-target situations considering the damage gained for the Mitigation and EHP lost. The bottom-most modifications are most efficient in each case, while the modifications highlighted in green are generally recommended by the guide while those in yellow are situational alternatives. So, this can provide reference information if you wish to modify the standard build outlined in this guide in one direction or another.

[Rune of the Fallen Crusader] – This runeforge provides one of the most efficient damage increases relative to other options and it is relatively consistent across different target counts. As such, it is generally recommended for use in single weapon setups and for use in the majority of the key in multiple weapon setups.

[Bloodshot]– Given the tradeoffs involved, this is an efficient source of damage on single targets, but the efficiency drops dramatically on multiple targets. Though, given the single target nature of [Bloodshot] and the fact that we are generally dropping [Umbilicus Eternus] (a talent that gets stronger with more targets) in situations where we would take [Bloodshot], this shouldn’t be too surprising. [Bloodshot] is a potential tech option for higher keys in dungeons that are particularly boss-limited (particularly on bosses with specific damage checks) in combination with generous dungeon timers and trash that is relatively non-threatening to the tank and particularly on Tyrannical weeks. That being said, most data indicates that this is a minority of situations, particularly given the tier set bonus at play in Season 4.

[Bloodworms] – [Bloodworms] is a reasonably efficient way to gain single target damage, though its efficiency drops dramatically in multiple target situations. Still, it’s arguably a potential tech option for higher keys if you are in a boss-limited situation, though the conditions for its use are very limited in M+, should they exist at all.

[Bonestorm] – While [Bonestorm] is a respectable damage gain on even-cleave multiple target situations, it has numerous downsides. One, it does not help, at all, in single target situations or in AoE situations with a high health priority target. Two, while the average mitigation loss looks tolerable on paper, the fact that you need to lose your entire RP pool on-cast on multiple target pulls (where most of the danger in a dungeon is usually concentrated) creates a lot of general usability issues outside of lower key levels. As such, even for the small subset of players who might benefit from a more aggressive setup, I don’t see much reason to recommend [Bonestorm] over other options such as [Bloodworms] and [Bloodshot].

[Improved Heart Strike] – As long as we are gaining benefit from an increased duration on [Vampiric Blood] and when paired with [Red Thirst], which is pretty much all the time in M+, [Improved Heart Strike] is a fairly poor method of increasing damage at all target counts.

Secondary Stat: X into Critical Strike – As has been the case previously, moving secondary stats into Critical Strike is generally an extremely inefficient way of increasing damage assuming it even increases damage, at all, given your existing character setup. The one partial exception to this is specifically moving from Haste to Critical Strike against multiple targets, which is somewhat more efficient, but still not particularly attractive in the grand scheme of things given Critical Strike’s large mitigation deficit relative to all other secondary stats.