Blood Death Knight Tank Gear and Best in Slot — The War Within (11.1.0)
On this page, you will find the best gear and best in slot items for your Blood Death Knight in World of Warcraft The War Within (11.1.0).
BiS Gear for Blood Death Knights
Welcome to our Gear and BiS Page for Blood Death Knight for The War Within Season 2. Check this page to learn everything you need to know about gearing a Blood Death Knight, including the BiS Gear from all sources, Raiding, and Mythic+, information on the best Trinkets, Tier Sets, and much more.
We only provide a "Best in Slot" list as a mandatory requirement stemming from certain guilds and players thinking they absolutely need to blindly chase that one item in that one slot and nothing else will do. Sometimes, it is raid leaders enforcing a very strict "BiS list" for loot council without any nuance; other times, it is players themselves enforcing it on themselves.
Blood Death Knight gearing is very simple: you prioritize item level above everything else on everything except trinkets, as anything 6 item levels or more is virtually guaranteed to be an upgrade.
If you have a choice on the same item level, the alternative will not, in generic circumstances, make a difference defensively. As such, we recommend just simming the choice and going with whatever helps you do more damage.
There are exceptions to this rule and encounter-specific situations where a stat is massively devalued. Whenever an encounter features a difference (such as a boss not having a parryable auto-attack or dealing pure magical damage) and is deadly enough to warrant recommending small gearing changes, we will highlight it in the encounter guides as an exception, not a rule.
Similarly, at the absolute cutting-edge Mythic+ key levels, a slightly more fine-tuned approach towards secondaries and key-specific trade-offs on secondary stats may occur. This is extremely rare, and very often, even these players eschew or illogically favor choices that prove to be major mistakes just by cursory log analysis.
We have covered some of the caveats in a more detailed fashion on the following page:
"Simming" Yourself as a Blood Death Knight
Throughout this page, we regularly refer to the importance of simming yourself on Raidbots, as it is an indispensable aspect of optimizing your character.
While we do offer generic sim charts for Trinkets, this should not be a replacement for simming. These charts are generated in isolation, without including a second trinket. As a result, this can mess with - to name just a few:
- Cases where you have two on-use trinkets and the order in which they are used
- Cases where trinket cooldowns clash at specific points
- Cases where a certain trinket drastically impacts your rotation when it comes off cooldown
If you are new to simming and Raidbots, check out our detailed guide below.
BiS Gear for Blood Death Knight
This list contains the Best in Slot Gear from any source in Season 1 of The War Within. It is there as a reference to what is currently the highest performing gear available to players.
| Slot | Item | Source/Note |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon |  Best-in-Slots (678) |
One-Armed Bandit in Mythic Liberation of Undermine |
| Helm |  Cauldron Champion's Crown (678) |
Tier Set: Catalyst / Vault / Raid |
| Neck |  Semi-Charmed Amulet (678) |
Rik Reverb in Mythic Liberation of Undermine |
| Shoulder |  Cauldron Champion's Screamplate (678) |
Tier Set: Catalyst / Vault / Raid |
| Cloak |  Consecrated Cloak (675) |
Crafted |
| Chest |  Cauldron Champion's Ribcage (678) |
Tier Set: Catalyst / Vault / Raid |
| Bracers |  Everforged Vambraces (675) |
Crafted |
| Gloves |  Cauldron Champion's Fistguards (678) |
Tier Set: Catalyst / Vault / Raid |
| Belt |  Coin-Operated Girdle (678) |
One-Armed Bandit in Mythic Liberation of Undermine |
| Legs |  Galvanized Oxxein Legguards (678) |
Theater of Pain |
| Boots |  Sabatons of Rampaging Elements (678) |
The MOTHERLODE!! |
| Ring #1 |  The Jastor Diamond (678) |
Chrome King Gallywix in Mythic Liberation of Undermine |
| Ring #2 |  Cyrce's Circlet |
Siren Isle |
| Trinket #1 |  Eye of Kezan (678) |
Chrome King Gallywix in Mythic Liberation of Undermine |
| Trinket #2 |  Viscera of Coalesced Hatred (678) |
Theater of Pain |
This list contains the Best in Slot Gear from any source in Season 1 of The War Within. It is there as a reference to what is currently the highest performing gear available to players.
| Slot | Item | Source/Note |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon | Best-in-Slots (678) |
One-Armed Bandit in Mythic Liberation of Undermine |
| Helm | Cauldron Champion's Crown (678) |
Tier Set: Catalyst / Vault / Raid |
| Neck |  Flickering Glowtorc (678) |
Darkflame Cleft |
| Shoulder | Cauldron Champion's Screamplate (678) |
Tier Set: Catalyst / Vault / Raid |
| Cloak | Consecrated Cloak (675) |
Crafted |
| Chest |  Muckdiver's Wading Plate (678) |
Operation: Floodgate |
| Bracers | Everforged Vambraces (675) |
Crafted |
| Gloves | Cauldron Champion's Fistguards (678) |
Tier Set: Catalyst / Vault / Raid |
| Belt |  Heaviestweight Title Belt (678) |
Cauldron of Carnage in Mythic Liberation of Undermine |
| Legs |  Cauldron Champion's Tattered Cuisses (678) |
Tier Set: Catalyst / Vault / Raid |
| Boots |  Pyroclastic Greatboots (678) |
Operation: Mechagon |
| Ring #1 | The Jastor Diamond (678) |
Chrome King Gallywix in Mythic Liberation of Undermine |
| Ring #2 | Cyrce's Circlet |
Siren Isle |
| Trinket #1 | Eye of Kezan (678) |
Chrome King Gallywix in Mythic Liberation of Undermine |
| Trinket #2 | Viscera of Coalesced Hatred (678) |
Theater of Pain |
This list serves as a "My raid leader needs me to provide a wishlist, here is the wishlist" item list. If you were to assemble the best gear set from Nerub-ara Palace specifically, and no other source, this is what you would wear.
| Slot | Item | Source/Note |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon | Best-in-Slots (678) |
One-Armed Bandit in Mythic Liberation of Undermine |
| Helm |  Fullthrottle Facerig (678) |
Vexie Fullthrottle in Mythic Liberation of Undermine |
| Neck | Semi-Charmed Amulet (678) |
Rik Reverb in Mythic Liberation of Undermine |
| Shoulder |  Paydirt Pauldrons (678) |
Chrome King Gallywix in Mythic Liberation of Undermine |
| Cloak |  Test Pilot's Go-Pack (678) |
Sprocketmonger Lockenstock in Mythic Liberation of Undermine |
| Chest | Bullet-Proof Vestplate (678) |
Mug'Zee in Mythic Liberation of Undermine |
| Bracers |  Revved-Up Vambraces (678) |
Vexie Fullthrottle in Mythic Liberation of Undermine |
| Gloves |  Dumpmech Compactors (678) |
Stix Bunkjunker in Mythic Liberation of Undermine |
| Belt | Heaviestweight Title Belt (678) |
Cauldron of Carnage in Mythic Liberation of Undermine |
| Legs | Hired Muscle's Legguards (678) |
Mug'Zee in Mythic Liberation of Undermine |
| Boots |  Rik's Walkin' Boots (678) |
Rik Reverb in Mythic Liberation of Undermine |
| Ring #1 | The Jastor Diamond (678) |
Chrome King Gallywix in Mythic Liberation of Undermine |
| Ring #2 |  Miniature Roulette Wheel (678) |
One-Armed Bandit in Mythic Liberation of Undermine |
| Trinket #1 | Eye of Kezan (678) |
Chrome King Gallywix in Mythic Liberation of Undermine |
| Trinket #2 |  Chromebustible Bomb Suit (678) |
Chrome King Gallywix in Mythic Liberation of Undermine |
This list contains the best items available per slot from Mythic+. It is there to provide you with a quick list of easily farmable gear if you need something in a specific slot.
| Slot | Item | Source/Note |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon |  Circuit Breaker (678) |
Operation: Floodgate |
| Helm |  Monstrosity's Gaze (678) |
The Rookery |
| Neck | Flickering Glowtorc (678) |
Darkflame Cleft |
| Shoulder |  Skyscorcher Pauldrons (678) |
The MOTHERLODE!! |
| Cloak |  Cloak of Questionable Intent (678) |
The MOTHERLODE!! |
| Chest |  Abdominal Securing Chestguard (678) |
Theater of Pain |
| Bracers |  Flameforged Armguard (678) |
Priory of the Sacred Flame |
| Gloves |  Jumpstarter's Scaffold-Scrapers (678) |
Operation: Floodgate |
| Belt |  Lightning-Conductor's Bands (678) |
The Rookery |
| Legs | Galvanized Oxxein Legguards (678) |
Theater of Pain |
| Boots | Pyroclastic Greatboots (678) |
Operation: Mechagon |
| Ring #1 |  Ring of Perpetual Conflict (678) |
Theater of Pain |
| Ring #2 |  Bloodoath Signet (678) |
Theater of Pain |
| Trinket #1 |  Tome of Light's Devotion (678) |
Priory of the Sacred Flame |
| Trinket #2 | Viscera of Coalesced Hatred (678) |
Theater of Pain |
When to Replace Cyrce's Circlet in Patch 11.1 for Blood Death Knight
Cyrce's Circlet is tuned competitively enough to almost guarantee that you
will not replace it until you have The Jastor Diamond and another Myth-track
ring, and even then, the difference will be extremely small.
Best Cyrce's Circlet Gems for Blood Death Knight
Patch 11.0.7 brings with it Cyrce's Circlet, a brand new
customizable ring that is eerily reminiscent of the 
Onyx Annulet.
Completing activities on Siren Isle allows you to acquire and
upgrade unique gems that slot into the ring, granting you unusual and
interesting procs while in combat.
While there are a total of 12 gems - four per type - the overwhelming majority of them are relatively lackluster, and some of them barely function for non-healing specializations.
The state of Cyrce's Circlet and its gems as of Patch 11.0.7
launch, unfortunately, is mired with bugs, late-release hotfixes and issues.
Currently, all of the direct damage citrine tooltips make it seem like they
should be reduced by 33% for tank specializations, but their actual damage
(and healing) is not affected by this. This makes some gems 33% better
than intended, and will likely be fixed when the patch fully goes
live to the player base.
With this in mind, the ring is currently BiS; when they nerf this, it will return to its original state of being a catch-up sidegrade for alts.
If you do decide to use Cyrce's Circlet, we recommend the following
gems as a default recommendation, but we strongly recommend simming
the combinations for yourself to verify these.
Best Gems for Cyrce's Circlet in Nerub-ar Palace
For raid, you will want the following gems:
- Thunder:
Thunderlord's Crackling Citrine - Sea:
Undersea Overseer's Citrine - Wind:
Legendary Skipper's Citrine
Best Gems for Cyrce's Circlet in Mythic+
For Mythic+, you will want the following gems:
- Thunder:
Stormbringer's Runed Citrine - Sea: Undersea Overseer's Citrine
- Wind: Legendary Skipper's Citrine
We specifically advise caution when using 
Thunderlord's Crackling Citrine
for Mythic+ as it can ninjapull enemies that are in combat as part of roleplay
events, such as the start of the Stonevault. If you decide
that this is too much of a problem and wish to forsake this ring
altogether, the entire ring becomes a downgrade.
For more information on how to get the ring, as well as acquiring all of the different gems that you can possibly socket into it, check out our Cyrce's Circlet guide below!
Best Trinkets for Blood Death Knight in The War Within Season 2
Raiding Trinket Tier List for Blood Death Knight
This Trinket Tier List is biased for Raiding, preferring trinkets that provide disproportionate value on single target bosses.
S-Tier
Eye of Kezan — You can easily keep it at nearly full stacks in 6 of the 8
dungeons in the Season 2 pool.
Tome of Light's Devotion — Stay in Radiance (i.e. read the book when you swap
over after reaching 50 stacks), and this is easily one of the most competitive trinkets out there,
as long as you can consistently stick to a target.
Zee's Thug Hotline, 
Viscera of Coalesced Hatred — Higher value from Bloodshot
on an already competitive trinket
Chromebustible Bomb Suit if you need a defensive on a 90 second cooldown. Unlike
Swarmlord's Authority last tier, this one is tuned competitively - working out to roughly
80% of your max HP in shield at 75% effectiveness. You should check to see if you can actually
leverage it on cooldown, however.
A-Tier
- Zee's Thug Hotline, Viscera of Coalesced Hatred — Higher value from Bloodshot
on an already competitive trinket
Improvised Seaforium Pacemaker — You can very easily gain more value
out of this trinket in Mythic+ than in raids, and it is not just boring damage. You should
evaluate its value based on your current stats, as its value heavily depends on Critical Strike rating.
B-Tier
Suspicious Energy Drink — 15 ilvl below the competition, but competes with them based
despite that.
Defensive-Tier
The only real defensive trinket this expansion is Chromebustible Bomb Suit, and it is not
a massively questionable defensive trade-off. You should aim to verify whether it actually does something
you would not be able to do without it, but if that is the case and you are specifically after a
trinket that fills a gap in your cooldown plan every 90 seconds, it is a very appealing choice.
All other purely defensive trinkets are not even worth the gold the vendor would give you for them.
Avoid-Tier
The following five trinkets should be avoided if at all possible:
Remnant of Darkness — Takes a really long time to ramp,
and the actual value of the trinket is half of what the tooltip on the item says. It is
extremely lackluster, gimmicky, and frankly, just bad.
K.U.-J.0.'s Flame Vents — Even if it was instantaneous, it would still
be massively inferior to the competition. This trinket costing you 2-4 GCDs is the cherry
on top of a really bad idea. And, to make everything worse, you cannot dodge or parry
while channelling it.
Torq's Big Red Button — 
Razdunk's Big Red Button is better in every
single way and even provides more Strength (= armor)
Ratfang Toxin — Lackluster and 15 item levels below the competition,
and it is a targeted single target nuke. If you do use it, you should just snipe
the highest stack target nearby, and use it on pull with no stacks.
Algari Alchemist Stone — It is literally worse than other trinkets - the
value of this trinket once you average it ends up being worse than similar trinkets, and a
Strength proc like this is already bad. If you want a similar (but better!) trinket,
consider Chromebustible Bomb Suit (defensively), Eye of Kezan if you want
more stats, or essentially any other trinket generally.
Anything not listed in any list is largely a stepping stone to a better trinket.
Mythic+ Trinket Tier List for Blood Death Knight
This Trinket Tier List is biased for Mythic+, preferring trinkets that provide a larger amount of value in content that frequently alternates between packs and boss fights.
S-Tier
Geargrinder's Spare Keys — Currently bugged, does not split its damage
and can multi-hit the same target. It is ludicrously strong on multiple targets.- Eye of Kezan — You can easily keep it at nearly full stacks in 6 of the 8
dungeons in the Season 2 pool.
Signet of the Priory (with other users) — This trinket is tuned to be somewhat
competitive without the party amplification effect. The moment you can convince other people to
bring it, and considering that its cooldown lines up with the natural pull tempo in keys, its value
quickly becomes amazing.- Chromebustible Bomb Suit if you need a defensive on a 90 second cooldown. Unlike
Swarmlord's Authority last tier, this one is tuned competitively - working out to roughly
80% of your max HP in shield at 75% effectiveness. You should check to see if you can actually
leverage it on cooldown, however.
A-Tier
- Tome of Light's Devotion — Slightly lower value compared to Raid, particularly if you
take too many hits and lose uptime on Radiance (Devotion is a worthless stance).
- Zee's Thug Hotline, Viscera of Coalesced Hatred — Higher value from Bloodshot
on an already competitive trinket
- Improvised Seaforium Pacemaker — You can very easily gain more value
out of this trinket in Mythic+ than in raids, and it is not just boring damage. You should
evaluate its value based on your current stats, as its value heavily depends on Critical Strike rating.
B-Tier
- Suspicious Energy Drink — 15 ilvl below the competition, but competes with them based
despite that.
Defensive-Tier
The only real defensive trinket this expansion is Chromebustible Bomb Suit, and it is not
a massively questionable defensive trade-off. You should aim to verify whether it actually does something
you would not be able to do without it, but if that is the case and you are specifically after a
trinket that fills a gap in your cooldown plan every 90 seconds, it is a very appealing choice.
All other purely defensive trinkets are not even worth the gold the vendor would give you for them.
Avoid-Tier
The following five trinkets should be avoided if at all possible:
- Remnant of Darkness — Takes a really long time to ramp,
and the actual value of the trinket is half of what the tooltip on the item says. It is
extremely lackluster, gimmicky, and frankly, just bad.
- K.U.-J.0.'s Flame Vents — Even if it was instantaneous, it would still
be massively inferior to the competition. This trinket costing you 2-4 GCDs is the cherry
on top of a really bad idea. And, to make everything worse, you cannot dodge or parry
while channelling it.
- Torq's Big Red Button — Razdunk's Big Red Button is better in every
single way and even provides more Strength (= armor)
- Ratfang Toxin — Lackluster and 15 item levels below the competition,
and it is a targeted single target nuke. If you do use it, you should just snipe
the highest stack target nearby, and use it on pull with no stacks.
- Algari Alchemist Stone — It is literally worse than other trinkets - the
value of this trinket once you average it ends up being worse than similar trinkets, and a
Strength proc like this is already bad. If you want a similar (but better!) trinket,
consider Chromebustible Bomb Suit (defensively), Eye of Kezan if you want
more stats, or essentially any other trinket generally.
Anything not listed in any list is largely a stepping stone to a better trinket.
Best Crafted Items for Blood Death Knight
Embellishments have seen no tuning leading to the Liberation of Undermine, but the presence of an extremely strong cantrip weapon is enough to upend some of the crafting choices done in the previous season.
You should aim to craft the following pieces:
Consecrated Cloak with 
Elemental Focusing Lens
or 
Dawnthread Lining if you do not have a single colored gem
Everforged Vambraces with Elemental Focusing Lens
or Dawnthread Lining if you do not have a single colored gem
Whilst a Missive can allow you to target certain secondary stats, Blood Death Knights tend to not see a large amount of difference between all of the different options. If you absolutely want to gauge this delta, use Raidbots to simulate all of the different combinations; they will all typically fall within 0.1-0.2% of each other. As such, we recommend not bothering until significantly later in the season, when re-crafting will be cheaper.
Blood Death Knight Tier Set - Cauldron Champion's Encore
With the launch of Season 2, Blood Death Knights will be able to gain the bonuses from the Cauldron Champion's Encore:
Death Knight Blood 11.1 Class Set 2pc — Any time you take damage from any source, you
have a chance to automatically gain 4 seconds of 
Icebound Fortitude, and to increase your
damage done by 15% for 10 seconds. These Icebound Fortitude procs overwrite any
existing Icebound Fortitude buffs, making it possible to lose duration if you gain a proc
right after manually casting it.
Death Knight Blood 11.1 Class Set 4pc — The duration of 
Luck of the Draw!
(the 2-piece damage buff) is increased by 2 seconds, and while it is up, 
Death Strike
costs 10 less Runic Power and its direct damage cleaves to 2 nearby targets. Each of these bonus
hits grants a bonus stack of 
Coagulopathy.
You should prioritize the slots you have the worst items in; the absolute best gear set uses Shoulders, Chest, Gloves and Legs to activate the 4-piece set bonus, but the difference between using the Headpiece or not could boil down to simply not getting a Myth-track headpiece from any other source.
PvP Gear Recommendations for Blood Death Knight
Obtaining gear from rated PvP can be a powerful boost to your item level early in the season.
If you are wanting to obtain PvP gear, we would advise doing Solo Shuffle as Frost.
Best Gear Upgrades for Blood Death Knight
Completing end-game activities in The War Within will reward you with Undermine Crests and Valorstones. Once you have upgraded a slot to a certain item level, upgrading other items of that slot to that item level is free.
We recommend upgrading with the following priority list:
- Upgrade your lowest item level slots or use a Raidbots Droptimiser sim to evaluate what to upgrade next.
- Finally, upgrade your weapon. The reason for this being last is that Weapons are the most expensive to upgrade, and you should focus on trying to farm a higher item level weapon and gain more overall value from your upgrades.
Changelog
- 24 Feb. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.1.
- 15 Dec. 2024: Adding Cyrce's Circlet.
- 21 Oct. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 11.0.5.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Updated for TWW S1, added all BiS lists and all trinket ratings.
- 27 Aug. 2024: Removed legendary axe recommendation as new sims show this to be a DPS loss over item level.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within Launch with Pre-Season BiS. Stay tuned for Season 1 Updates!
- 23 Jul. 2024: Removed bullion section to prepare for pre-patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Prepared for Season 4. Contains new BiS with all the S4 gear, cantrips, trinkets, bullions etc.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Clarifying BiS lists, removing crafted from M+/raid tables.
- 03 Jan. 2024: Removing tuning disclaimers, adding Fyr'alath.
- 27 Nov. 2023: Adding in murozond's rise/galakrond's fall separate links.
- 07 Nov. 2023: Sporecloak got taken out back, so we update that.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Prepared for 10.2, all trinkets are in, all gear sets are in.
- 04 Sep. 2023: New format - and some clarifications + BiS lists for 10.1.7!
- 10 Jul. 2023: Added 10.1.5 info about mega dungeon and open world trinkets.
- 24 May 2023: Added timewalking section.
- 01 May 2023: Updated for Season 2 launch. Moved Onyx Annulet section to the bottom of the page (It's still good for damage!)
- 20 Mar. 2023: Added Onyx Annulet and clarified its use in content.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Season 1 launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Death Knight Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Mandl and Panthea.
Mandl is one of Acherus' Useful Minions and Blood Death Knight theorycrafter.
Panthea raids in Catalyst and is the author of TankNotes. He plays all tanks and is a "Useful Minion" for the Acherus Death Knight Discord. You can follow him on Twitter.
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