In this article, we present you with the best gems and enchants that you can get for a Blood Death Knight in WoW MoP 5.3, including profession-specific perks. We also list the best consumables: food, flasks, and potions.

Make sure to check our Gear Optimisation Guide, which serves as a support guide for this article. The other articles of our Blood Death Knight guide can be accessed from the table of content on the right.

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Reniat, the author of the Blood Death Knight guides on the Official Forums and MMO-Champion.

1. Gems↑top

Sockets	Gems
	Austere Primal Diamond or Indomitable Primal Diamond (better)
	Fractured Sun's Radiance/ Perfect Fractured Sunstone or Fractured Serpent's Eye (JC)
	Puissant Wild Jade/ Perfect Puissant Alexandrite
	If focusing on avoidance after Mastery Fine Vermilion Onyx/ Perfect Fine Tiger Opal If focusing on Expertise after Mastery Keen Vermilion Onyx/ Perfect Keen Tiger Opal

If you are still unsure what the optimal gemming strategy is for your character, you can Ask Mr. Robot for a personalised optimisation of your character's gear, by filling the form below.

2. Enchants↑top

Slot	Main Enchantments	Extra Enchantments
Shoulders	Greater Ox Horn Inscription Ox Horn Inscription (cheaper) Secret Ox Horn Inscription (Inscription)
Back	Enchant Cloak - Greater Protection
Chest	Enchant Chest - Superior Stamina
Wrists	Enchant Bracer - Mastery Fur Lining - Stamina (Leatherworking)	Socket Bracer (Blacksmithing)
Hands	Enchant Gloves - Superior Mastery	Synapse Springs (Engineering) Socket Gloves (Blacksmithing)
Waist		Living Steel Belt Buckle
Legs	Ironscale Leg Armor Heavy Leg Reinforcements (Leatherworking)
Feet	Enchant Boots - Pandaren's Step
Rings	Enchant Ring - Greater Stamina (Enchanting)
Weapons	Rune of Swordshattering Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle See next section.

Note that Extra Enchantments can be applied to an item in addition to a Main Enchantment.

2.1. Runeforging

Runeforging allows you to enchant your weapons with a variety of Death Knight specific enchants. Most of these have an emphasis on PvP or are simply not very useful.

Keep in mind, however, that you should always use a Runeforge, instead of a regular enchant. You should choose one of the following two Runeforges:

• Rune of Swordshattering: grants 4% chance to parry. This is preferable for most encounters;
• Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle: grants 4% armor and 2% Stamina. This Runeforge may be preferable for encounters with heavy magic damage, where the Stamina is more useful than the extra avoidance offered by Rune of Swordshattering.

3. Consumables↑top

3.1. Food

For encounter with heavy physical damage, you should always eat food that gives you Strength. You will be granted:

• 300 Strength by Black Pepper Ribs and Shrimp;
• 275 Strength by Eternal Blossom Fish, Banquet of the Grill, or Great Banquet of the Grill;
• 250 Strength by Charbroiled Tiger Steak or any of other banquets.

For encounter with heavy magic damage, you should always eat food that gives you Stamina. You will be granted:

• 450 Stamina by Chun Tian Spring Rolls;
• 415 Stamina by Twin Fish Platter, Banquet of the Oven, or Great Banquet of the Oven;
• 375 Stamina by Wildfowl Roast or any of the other banquets.

3.2. Flask

You should always use a Flask of the Earth.

3.3. Potion

During the encounter, your best choice for a potion will be Potion of the Mountains for physical damage and Master Healing Potion for magic damage.

4. Summing-up Profession Perks↑top

Choosing a profession for your Blood Death Knight can impact your raid performance. As a rule, you should shy away from gathering professions (with the exception of Mining), which leaves the following viable professions for raiding:

Profession	Perks
Blacksmithing	Provides a 640 Mastery or 480 Stamina gain through two extra sockets, Socket Bracer and Socket Gloves, in which you can fit 2 Fractured Sun's Radiance or 2 Solid River's Heart..
Jewelcrafting	Provides a 320 Mastery Rating gain through the ability to use 2 Fractured Serpent's Eye, or a 480 Stamina gain through the ability to use 2 Solid Serpent's Eye (if you gem for Stamina).
Engineering	Provides a 1,920 Dodge Rating bonus for 10 seconds, on a 1 minute cooldown, through Phase Fingers. Engineering also provides a belt addon called Frag Belt, which you can use every minute (off the global cooldown) for additional damage.
Alchemy	Provides a 480 Stamina gain to your flask through Mixology.
Leatherworking	Provides +750 Stamina through Fur Lining - Stamina, instead of the usual +170 Dodge provided by Enchant Bracer - Superior Dodge or +170 Mastery provided by Enchant Bracer - Mastery. Also provides Heavy Leg Reinforcements, a much cheaper equivalent to Ironscale Leg Armor, the traditional leg enchant.
Enchanting	Provides a 480 Stamina gain through Enchant Ring - Greater Stamina.
Inscription	Provides a 450 Stamina gain through Secret Ox Horn Inscription.
Mining	Provides a 480 Stamina gain, through Toughness.

5. Changelog↑top

• 20 May 2013: Patch 5.3 update: nothing to change.
• 14 May 2013: Fixed a small issue where we mentioned that you can use 3 Jewelcrafting-only gems instead of 2.
• 24 Apr. 2013: Added legendary meta-gem.
• 02 Apr. 2013: Removed green-quality gems.
• 31 Mar. 2013: Added Keen Vermilion Onyx/ Perfect Keen Tiger Opal as an option for red sockets when not prioritising avoidance after Mastery. Also added mention that the default food and flask should be the one that provide Stamina.