Blood Death Knight Leveling Guide from 8 to 90 — 12.0.5

Blood Death Knight excels at levelling by virtue of being a tank, and thanks to pretty impressive self-sustain built into the spec. You can effortlessly pull entire zones while levelling and sustain effortlessly thanks to Blood Plague and Death Strike.

Tired of grinding? Tank queues in group finder are instantaneous!

Leveling Information

Beginner Leveling Guides

If this is your first character, or want to know more about the leveling process in Midnight, we've got you covered with these two guides!

Basic LevelingMidnight Leveling

When leveling up, you should always choose the piece of loot with the highest item level.

Your goal is, evidently, to go as quickly as possible throughout the zones and levels, and the best way to do this is to get the best possible gear without getting out of your way while doing so.

Heirlooms are a particularly potent source of bonus power while leveling. The set bonus effects they confer is particularly noteworthy as a tank, especially if you manage to gain a level while in combat. We have documented all of them on our dedicated //www.icy-veins.com/wow/heirlooms-guide, Heirlooms Guide. The 5-piece set bonus is where the true power lies, but getting even more out of your rested experience is also great!

Itemization

Leveling Heirlooms

Learn how to use Heirloom gear to level your characters as fast as possible!

Heirlooms Guide

If you are not sure, or would like a short list of what to equip, the following are the highest impact heirlooms to unlock the 6-piece set bonus they confer; we have also curated this list because they do not require any reputation or other unlocking mechanism to acquire. Don't forget to upgrade them!

Slot	Heirloom
Helm	Burnished Helm of Might
Neck	Eternal Will of the Martyr
Cloak	Ripped Sandstorm Cloak
Shoulders	Burnished Pauldrons of Might
Chest	Burnished Breastplate of Might
Legs	Burnished Legplates of Might

Hellscream's Doomblade is the best heirloom weapon you can have equipped, but Bloodied Arcanite Reaper is not far behind.

We recommend stocking up on the following to ease leveling before levelling a character in Midnight, as the gain they provide can be significant:

• Umbral Essentia can be used in a similar fashion to Shadowmeld to drop combat, which is particularly useful to efficiently dip out of an encounter or area after you have collected what you need. You can immediately get on your mount while hidden from sight.
• We recommend buying at least one stack of Exquisitely Eviscerated Muscle. The speed boost from this food is particularly valuable when leveling.
• If you are okay with using combat potions, multiple stacks of Potion Bomb of Speed
• Swap your runeforge to Rune of Unending Thirst. The speed boost it provides when you slay an enemy quickly adds up to a noticeable amount of time saved.

If you are just starting your journey into Midnight, we have a Level 80 import string for you. You can follow the point-by-point allocation of the below tree once you start gaining levels in Midnight.

While leveling with War Mode enabled, you gain access to three additional PvP talents. Their effects also work on enemies in the open-world, and while most of them are lackluster, a couple of them can significantly speed up your leveling process. We have highlighted them below.

• Death Chain allows you to frequently (50% uptime) chain an enemy with two nearby hostile targets. While chained, damage done to one enemy is partially copied over to the other two. This effectively rewards you for pulling more than one target (which you should do, anyway. You are a tank) by allowing you to increase your effective damage by 30%.
• Decomposing Aura causes enemies to have their maximum Health reduced by 3% every 2 seconds, up to a maximum of 15%.
• Murderous Intent is a 3-15% damage increase on a target, refreshed by your auto-attacks. This is the least bad option we have access to after picking the other two.

The basic rotation as a Blood Death Knight is based on this priority. We have shown/hidden elements based on the level at which you acquire them; please use the slider at the very top of the page to select what level you are at.

Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!

Until level 10, if you are an old-school race, your Heart Strike will be replaced by its generic alternative, Rune Strike.

1. Use Death and Decay where you intend to fight, and refresh it when the buff it applies to you when standing in it fades. Do not get fooled by its visual presence, as Cleaving Strikes causes the buff from it to last four seconds longer.
2. Use Death Strike if your health is low or if you are above 75 Runic Power.
3. Use Blood Boil if any nearby enemies do not have your Blood Plague disease, or you are close to having 2 charges of Blood Boil.
4. If Reaper's Mark is available, cast it on any nearby enemy.
5. Spend Exterminate charges by casting Marrowrend.
6. Use Dancing Rune Weapon on cooldown.
7. Use Marrowrend (or Death's Caress if you are out of melee range) if your Bone Shield is about to expire.
8. Use Marrowrend if you have 6 or fewer stacks of Bone Shield.
9. Use Heart Strike if you have 2 or more Runes.
10. Use Blood Boil.

Class Guides

Death Knight Class Guides

Finished leveling your character? Check out our max level guides!

All Death Knight Guides

Mandl and Panthea

Guide Authors

Follow Mandl,Panthea

This guide has been written by Mandl and Panthea.

Mandl is one of Acherus' Useful Minions and an avid Blood Death Knight theorycrafter.

Panthea raids in the Hall of Fame guild Catalyst. He plays all tanks and is a "Useful Minion" for the Acherus Death Knight Discord. You can follow him on Twitter.