Death Knight Hero Talents — The War Within (11.2.5)

Deathbringer is underwhelming in Patch 11.2 from both a numbers perspective and mechanically, as both the changes to Exterminate and our new tier set turn what was a calm, measured rotation into a flood of Exterminate charges.

Numerically, it continues to be inferior to San'layn, although the gap has increased this patch. It is no longer up for discussion or debate as to which one to play, unless numbers are unimportant to you, as the gap is large (12%+).

San'layn excels in raid. Once you master the rotational changes it imposes on you, the combination of Incite Terror, a long-standing bugged interaction between Unholy Bond And Rune of Sanguination and the tripling of these effects during Essence of the Blood Queen nearly guarantees absurd single-target bursts of damage, particularly in execute.

Even in the face of all this, it is barely competing numerically with multiple other tanks, at least numerically, all while bringing no raid buff (all three other tanks at this level do), and the raid seemingly has very few chances for Anti-Magic Shell or Death Grip to shine. The additional nerf to Anti-Magic Zone further cements the fate of blood - nice, but not noteworthy outside of Dimensius.

Deathbringer is defensively stronger and more consistent than San'layn for Blood in Mythic+. Doubling the damage and healing that Blood Plague provides, along with providing a flat 7.5% damage reduction against all damage provides a significant amount of value at virtually all times. In addition to this, reducing Lichborne's cooldown to 90 seconds allows a level of flexibility in cooldown planning that San'layn struggles to match.

This is not without drawbacks, however, as Deathbringer is weaker on pure single target in keys where forced loss of uptime or extended downtime do not occur. It is also weaker in AoE, though significantly more reliable than San'layn in the hands of an inexperienced player.

San'layn suffers from an additional issue in Mythic+; you do not always want to send Dancing Rune Weapon on cooldown. This can easily lead to losing Essence of the Blood Queen stacks, and having to essentially start from scratch multiple times in a key.

Offensively, the overwhelming nerfs to The Blood is Life have severely reduced San'layn's potential to high-roll damage out of nowhere. This is both a good thing and a problem, as the bulk of its rotation in AoE during Dancing Rune Weapon strongly encourages the player to ignore Blood Boil, with the removal of Abomination Limb further exacerbating the problem. After all, if you are pulling more than 5 enemies, and your rotation is capped to 5, where does the threat on the other targets come from?

Deathbringer adds Reaper's Mark to your toolkit. This is an additional, single-target ability that gains a stack every time you deal Shadow or Shadowfrost damage of any kind (including trinkets) to the marked target. When it reaches 40 stacks - or 55 with your new tier set - it explodes, dealing a large burst of damage and granting a number of Exterminate charges.

It is worth noting that the number of stacks on Reaper's Mark are just damage, but reaching 40 stacks is done trivially by following your rotation as you normally would, with three simple changes:

1. If you are about to hard-cast Reaper's Mark, make sure Blood Plague is already ticking on the target.
2. While Reaper's Mark is on a target, make sure you have Death and Decay ticking under them. It is very often worth to just recast it when it fades if you have a Crimson Scourge proc or play Death's Echo.

While the absence of a new ability might at first look like simplicity, San'layn's rotational changes could not be further from the truth. At various points in the back-and-forth loop that Gift of the San'layn introduces, San'layn arbitrarily causes you to ignore certain resources entirely. In order to explain the implications, let us first explain the basics of the hero talent tree.

When you cast Dancing Rune Weapon, for the duration of it, Heart Strike is permanently replaced with Vampiric Strike, a shadowy version of itself that deals more direct damage, extends Blood Plague by 3s (and allows you to bypass its pandemic cap), and grants you a stack of Essence of the Blood Queen, increasing your haste and the damage of Death Strike. This buff stacks up to 7, lasts 20 seconds and is refreshed to its original duration only when Vampiric Strike is cast.

Outside of Dancing Rune Weapon, casting Death Strike has a combined 30% chance to enable a cast of Vampiric Strike, allowing you to refresh Essence of the Blood Queen to its original 20 second duration outside of Dancing Rune Weapon and giving you a precarious time advantage while racing for the next Dancing Rune Weapon cast.

Because of this loop, you have a perverse incentive to ignore certain resources:

• Before casting Dancing Rune Weapon, you will want to burn off all of the resources that you will not need during it: exactly one Blood Boil charges, and as little Runic Power as possible.
• During Dancing Rune Weapon, you will cast Blood Boil once to apply plague copies. Beyond this, you will alternate between Vampiric Strike and Death Strike, prioritizing the latter the moment you have enough Runic Power to cast it. In AoE, you should also make sure the Death and Decay buff is on you in order to cause Vampiric Strike to cleave. When you gain a Crimson Scourge during Dancing Rune Weapon, you also should hardcast Death and Decay due to the impact of Visceral Strength.
• After Dancing Rune Weapon, you will predictably cast three GCDs in a row to consume Infliction of Sorrow efficiently: Heart Strike - Blood Boil - Death Strike. The goal from there is to fish for Vampiric Strike procs while using all of the tools you neglected during Dancing Rune Weapon.

As Dancing Rune Weapon's cooldown is variable and the proc chance on Vampiric Strike is slightly larger than it used to be, you need to cash in one proc every 20 seconds to keep Essence of the Blood Queen stacks rolling. Since even under optimal constraints, it is difficult to cast Death Strike more frequently than every 4 seconds, this gives you a ~90% chance to keep your stacks on a rolling 20 second chance.