Blood Death Knight Tank Mythic+ Tips — The War Within (11.1.5)

Mind Freeze is your kick; it is a talented ability, has a 15-yard range and is on a standard melee cooldown. You can choose to spec into Coldthirst to reduce this to 12 seconds if you manage to successfully interrupt a spec, but we generally recommend against it; in Season 1, no notable enemy has a 12-second recast time on a dangerous ability.

You should use a macro similar to the one below in order to be able to easily transition between kicking your focus or your current target if you do not have a focus target set. This generally allows you to pre-identify what you will kick, even if it is not your current target:

• /cast [@focus,exists,nodead] [] Mind Freeze

Make sure that your UI shows your Focus Target's casts clearly so that you are always able to kick it on cooldown or in coordination with the rest of your group.

Asphyxiate is available on the class tree; it is a relatively long cooldown (45s), ranged stun, and costs an entire GCD to cast. When used, your target is stunned for 4 seconds.

Blinding Sleet disorients all targets in front of you until they take a small amount of damage, or for 5 seconds. When the disorient breaks, they are slowed by 50% for 6 seconds.

Death Grip's primary utility is as a soft stop on casts; with two charges on a rolling 15-second recharge timer with Death's Echo, and only costing 1/3 of a GCD, it is very useful to force certain enemies to restart their cast. Unfortunately for us, in The War Within, the default behavior of most spells is to just attempt to recast if stopped, and as a result, this only buys you a short amount of time.

Abomination Limb can technically be considered a stop, as it will reliably pull the furthest target further than 8 yards from you to your position, and this check + grip can occur up to once per second and up to once every 4 seconds per mob.

Finally, Gorefiend's Grasp can be picked on the spec tree; it functions as a targeted AoE displacement tool. It requires a target to cast, and when used, all hostile targets within 15 yards of the target are pulled to the center of that target's hitbox. This is incredibly dangerous to cast on yourself; you should always cast on somebody (or something) else. It is also worth noting that the target you cast it on is not moved, and thus, no cast is stopped if they were casting.

You can augment Gorefiend's Grasp with a 3-second silence on anything it gripped, including its main target, by talenting into Tightening Grasp.

Death and Decay, when paired with the Grip of the Dead talent becomes a highly effective tool for starting to kite as you head to the next pack. As with Bone Shield, be sure that Death and Decay is available to use when you are ready to move on to the next pack.

Raise Ally is the Death Knight combat resurrection spell. While in a raid environment, you would not normally want to rely on the tank for combat resurrection, in a Mythic+ dungeon, you may be the only player to bring this utility. Additionally, the instant-cast nature of Raise Ally will make it preferable to other combat resurrections in some circumstances, even considering its steep Runic Power cost. If you need to resurrect an ally, be sure to consider both timing and positioning — avoid placing the newly resurrected player in the path of a dangerous boss cleave or immediately before a dungeon-wide damage event.

Anti-Magic Zone provides Death Knights with a way to help the group survive large bursts of magic damage. Its range and duration are limited, but mostly sufficient in Mythic+. Its cooldown can be brought down to 90 seconds with Assimilation, but much like Coldthirst, we recommend evaluating whether this is a concrete gain for you instead of just blindly picking it and never leveraging it.

Control Undead can potentially see play in Theater of Pain in order to trivialize the hardest pull in the dungeon. When the season launches, this and many other tips will be shown at the bottom of this page. Stay tuned!

Unfortunately, neither Ol' Waxbeard nor Blazikon have any noteworthy or important mechanics for Blood Death Knights beyond just planning cooldowns and moving Ol' Waxbeard to the bomb carts.

Instead of a class-specific tip (as there isn't any, except maybe just using Anti-Magic Shell before Throw Darkflame is applied to you), the biggest impact a tank can have on this fight is by positioning the boss so that Eerie Molds have no chance to overlap.

Very shortly in the fight and 10 seconds after every Throw Darkflame, the boss will recast Eerie Molds, creating wax molds of players near their current position. However, every single previous mold that was broken with Throw Darkflame will continue to grow in size, rendering a large part of the area unusable.

The trick to positioning for this is to move away the moment Throw Darkflame resolves, and to keep alternating between three points in the room: the entrance and the two areas in the back of the room. Move when Throw Darkflame resolves, kick Paranoid Mind immediately after Eerie Molds and profit.

You should resist the urge to carry candles by yourself, as this reduces the damage and healing done by 99%. As a tank, you are probably the best player to move the candle out of the way of Umbral Slash.

This dungeon also has very few mechanics where Blood Death Knight specifically shines, as most dangerous abilities are on the group. Beyond simply kicking mandatory spells ( Wicklighter Bolt and Mole Frenzy before Ol' Waxbeard, Explosive Flame in the area near Blazikon and Drain Light in the last segment), we strongly encourage you to review your route and to make sure there aren't too many casters in each pull.

Darkflame is a fantastic dungeon to chain-pull packs, as a lot of the difficult packs have one enemy with significantly higher health than the rest. The most textbook example of this is the room that Blazikon spawns in: pull the Wandering Candle and half of the blazing fiends, deal with them, then pull the other half so that you do not end up spending a minute fighting a single-target enemy.

This boss is all about positioning for any tank, and Blood Death Knight is no exception. Contrary to its Battle for Azeroth incarnation, Coin Magnet is cast on a schedule, and this makes positioning easier.

You should aim to immediately take the boss as far on the edge of the room as you can on pull, and to only move him at 90+ energy. Do not leave this to the last possible moment.

Static Pulse and Coin Magnet forced movement can be countered by Death's Advance.

There are no important mechanics for Blood specifically, other than a note that non-empowered adds can be gripped. You should aim to form a neat pile with all of the adds and keep the boss in the pile to maximize cleave damage.

Cast Anti-Magic Shell the moment you pull this boss. Her auto-attack replacement deals magic damage and her ability set-up means that you will be taking eight of these in a row until you get your first break due to her casting Propellant Blast. Since Searing Reagent has an effective 40 yard range, the first two are the most lethal - hence the suggestion to pre- Anti-Magic Shell.

Positioning is everything on this boss, but you are unfortunately not in complete control of where the safe zones are. Watch which areas your teammates clear with Propellant Blast and adjust accordingly.

During the active phases, make sure to tank the boss on either of the grids on the left or the right thirds of the encounter area.

Razdunk does not auto-attack, and instead spams Alpha Cannon. This is the same deal as for Rixxa - Anti-Magic Shell on pull, and then cycle defensives during times when Razdunk is not casting anything else. Everything else - particularly Gatling Gun - is avoidable.

When Razdunk flies up and transitions into phase 2, quickly grab the adds and tank them near the unexploded missiles.

There is unfortunately very little to talk about in terms of trash that is specific to Blood.

When fighting Mechanized Peacekeepers (and if your route is optimized, this should only happen twice), use Anti-Magic Shell to counter Charged Shield. This will not negate the random party zaps after it, but it will deal with the upfront damage and negate the snare it applies.

You can prevent Mech Jockeys from entering their mech with Death Grip if they are already casting it; you can also use it to reposition them in order to make them take longer to get to their mechs.

Dessia's Mortal Strike can be parried, along with all of their auto-attacks. This, however, does not make it worth holding Dancing Rune Weapon for it, as you cannot guarantee a parry with it. Plan accordingly, and be aware that Mortal Strike only applies to healing and not absorbs. As the lion's share of this encounter's damage is physical damage, this fundamentally means that the solution to it is to pool Runic Power ahead of it.

You can pre- Anti-Magic Shell Withering Touch.

Create a cooldown plan for Hateful Strike. This is cast every 15 seconds and deals pure physical damage.

Beyond this, create safe spots for your team. Leftovers leave a relatively large voidzone when they die, making it important to relocate the boss so that your team does not have to choose between a voidzone or a hook.

There is nothing noteworthy for Blood on Xav. You are not a target for the duel, and Brutal Combo simply deals increasing physical damage and is solved by pooling Runic Power for it.

You can pre- Anti-Magic Shell Well of Darkness. Beyond this, no other mechanics are important as blood.

Anti-Magic Shell has one extremely worthwhile use as blood on this fight: it effectively completely negates Reaping Scythe's magic hit. You can use it for 50% of the casts on the fight.

Every fourth cast, Manifest Death will be cast 5 seconds before Reaping Scythe. When this happens, you should cast Anti-Magic Shell as late into Manifest Death in order to immune both.

Beyond this, simply create a safe path for your teammates, particularly in phase 2. Death's Advance completely negates the pull-in from rifts.

Plan your route carefully around Kul'tharok's area. We recommend going left (one necromancer and three souls), then right (Marrowgar miniboss + 2 Bone Spear casters) to make it easier on your group. Bring Control Undead to this dungeon to trivialize this further.

You can (and should!) Control Undead the first Bone Magus on the first large platform with a Portal Guardian. Prior to the dungeon, create macros to replace most of your commonly-used spells to include a /cast Bone Spear in them, in order to allow this controlled minion to spam Bone Spear at enemies. Once the Maniacal Soulbinder in this pack dies, release your magus and kill it.

On the marrowgar platform, immediately Control Undead another Bone Magus and keep it until the end of the dungeon. This platform is amazing bonus count for forces if you want to skip other things - like the last miniboss in Xav's wing.

Boss tips in this dungeon are somewhat sparse as the bosses are very light on tank mechanics.

Plan your cooldowns for Electrocrush. You can use Anti-Magic Shell on it to immune the DoT it applies.

There is nothing to note here. Wallop barely does more damage than a single auto-attack, and so there is nothing to do beyond just cycling cooldowns and positioning the boss to clear bombs.

Anti-Magic Shell deals with the magical portion of Sludge Claws and prevents its healing absorption entirely. The first is cast very early (3 seconds) into the fight - do not get caught out by it!

You should Death's Advance Thunder Punch. Beyond this, use Anti-Magic Shell if you need to walk through a leaping spark.

Floodgate is surprisingly sparse on trash tips, unfortunately. The overwhelming majority of tips would concern mechanics that have bright, obvious and lenient telegraphs, or a list of kicks, and there is nothing particularly noteworthy on either.

Plan your cooldowns for Platinum Pummel. It is relatively infrequent, and pure physical damage. As the only important source of damage in the fight, you can send every single cooldown on it. Plan your movement so that you can instantly Death Strike after it is cast.

Beyond this, you should plan your movement so that your teammates are safe when they are flipped backwards by the Foe Flipper.

You can pre- Anti-Magic Shell Blazing Chomp.

Position your party safely for Venting Flames. You can position the boss so that it is still attackable while behind the boss by finding the box's long side, positioning the boss to the side of it, and then back pedalling to reverse the boss into position so that a third of its body is in the box.

You can stun the plants if you brought Asphyxiate. We recommend that you do so for this dungeon specifically, as this removes the most dangerous source of damage for your group on this fight.

Every other source of damage is avoidable, and you should position the boss to allow your party to navigate it safely:

1. Position the boss ahead of flamethrowers
2. Do not stand in Discom-BOMB-ulator
3. Position the boss slightly out from either the middle pillar or the edges in order to minimize the chance to move for sawblades while also removing the chance for surprise bounces. The sawblades spawn from a number of fixed spots, and you should be aware of their spawn timer.

Position the boss safely for your team in phase 1. You can Anti-Magic Shell Pulse Blast.

Do not walk out of melee range in phase 2. You can Death's Advance the knockback from running into a orb and have Anti-Magic Shell up to survive it if the worst comes to the worst - but this is a personal failure more than a necessity.

The trash in workshop is completely scripted and has very few opportunities for Blood to shine. Our only advice beyond kicking mandatory casts ( Gigazap being the prime contender for this) revolves around the corridor between Tussle Tonks and K.U.-J.0, and the area immediately before King Mechagon.

In the first half of the trash immediately after Tussle Tonks, be aware that every single Metal Gunk you pull will periodically cast Corrosive Gunk on the entire party. While this healing absorb by itself is not extremely dangerous for your group, if two or more of them line up with Mega Drill, it can catch your healer unaware. You can Anti-Magic Shell its application on yourself.

Similarly, the Junkyard Dogs before K.U.-J.0. frequently apply a magic debuff on a random target in your group. You should aim to not pull too many, as most healers only have a limited amount of magic dispels available to them. This is especially true if you are doing lower keys on Devour week.

On the segment of trash after the Machinist encounter, two bits of information may help speed your key up:

• You can pull both Spider Tanks safely; mark the one closest to the end platform with a skull as its death is what triggers the spawn of the flying machine leading to the next area. It is possible to save 5+ seconds by focusing a bit more damage on it.
• Workshop Defenders in the last area cast Shield Generator relatively frequently; while the shield is up, any player or enemy in it takes 75% less damage from all sources. This is ideal to counter a lot of mechanics, but means that you should tank enemies outside of it. As a tank, you do not care for this damage reduction, as all of the damage on these packs is trivial.

Regardless of which path you opted for, plan your cooldowns for Pierce Armor. If you opted to go left, Divine Judgment will occasionally buff it by 25%. You can pre-immune Divine Judgment with Anti-Magic Shell.

You can soak all of the pyre's charges by casting both Death's Advance (to immune the knockback) and Anti-Magic Shell (to remove all stacks and immune the upfront damage). By pre-casting Anti-Magic Shell and realizing that you have 30 seconds to deal with every pyre, you can take 3/4 of all pyres by yourself.

Murrpray herself has no specific encounter mechanics that are immediately threatening to Blood, or tanks in general.

Plan how you will gather the adds during the transition. You should aim to have Abomination Limb, Bonestorm and Death and Decay ready to slow and gather both sides safely.

Before we go into the few mechanics that matter, a quick note on pathing. Priory has three very impactful choices in routing that determine both the pace and difficulty of the instance:

• Your very first pull - where you should opt to do two Knights or one Knight and Suleyman, and lust. Not lusting the first pull is a major mistake as there are no other good lust opportunities until the first boss is dead
• Your choice on whether to go left or right. Left is typically better known and easier for most groups, and as Blood, the additional miniboss it adds to Captain Dailcry is trivially countered by Anti-Magic Shell.
• Your pathing in the last room of the instance.

You can opt to bring Control Undead to this dungeon for the last room, as all enemies there are undead. It is possible to remove a Risen Mage from play with it, and thus reduce the number of required kicks. Combined with aggressive routing, this can allow you to chain-pull more on the miniboss in the center of the room.

Note that the packs immediately to the left and the right staircase at the end pull when Prioress Murrpray is engaged.

Cinderbrew Meadery is arguably all about pathing and routing, as there are no dangerous unique mechanics on bosses or on trash for Blood.

Start the encounter on either side of the room, and always bring the boss back to a side after the intermission. Hug the wall as much as possible as the boss's tankbuster - Keg Smash - leaves three growing puddles of goop that snare and deal heavy damage to anybody standing in them. These are extremely problematic if left in the middle.

Tank the boss away from the adds. It is useful to occasionally cast Death and Decay at range in order to snare multiple droplets if they happen to be together, or to use Chains of Ice to slow individual droplets.

The bee corpses from dead bees pulse AoE damage in a very short radius around them.

You should plan your cooldowns for Honey Marinade. Anti-Magic Shell can be used to deal with ~50% of the casts.

Cash Cannon is physical damage; plan your cooldowns accordingly and aim to detonate a handful of vicious barrels with it. There are no worthwhile uses of Anti-Magic Shell on this encounter.

The only noteworthy element beyond smart routing is in the first room. All enemies that are sitting down at tables periodically enrage with Hungry; you should aim to pull them immediately after the buff has faded in order to reduce their upfront damage slightly. This is primarily for you and not for the group.

Everything else in this instance is about smart routing and pathing.

Hired Muscles are the primary danger and you should aim not to have more than two in any given pull. Both Throw Chair and Volatile Keg are surprisingly potent party damage sources.

Beyond this, you should only pull a number of Venture Co. Pyromaniacs that allows you to consistently kick Boiling Flames.

Chef Chewie buffs anything in fight with him by 15%, making anything else deadlier. You should aim to chain-pull him at the end of your first pull, and to then keep going around the room with him until he dies.

Careless Hopgoblins spawn a number of droplets when they ram a wall and when they die. Be ready to pick these up, as they melee non-tanks surprisingly hard. You can easily plan where they will drop based on where the charge is pointed at; the easiest way to pick drops up without having to physically walk over there is Death and Decay.

Be aware of the hidden pack of mobs that spawns as you enter the boss' room. It catches every newcomer unaware the first time.

Beyond this, plan your route properly, most trash in this room is skippable and a lot of them are annoying for your group.

There is nothing noteworthy on Kyrioss other than positioning the boss slightly away from the middle pit during down phases. The main reason for this is because it is exceedingly easy for DPS players to panic while trying to position for Crashing Thunder.

You can completely negate Chaotic Corruption by having Anti-Magic Shell up when it bounces to you. It is impossible to know the first target of it until the debuff goes out, and as a result, we recommend AMSing the first bounce instead.

Beyond this, position the boss so other players can dodge both Crush Reality and have space to move out of Dark Gravity safely.

You should not worry about anything on this fight as a tank other than pointing the tankbuster in an area free of other players. We recommend just parking yourself on the furthest left or right corner of the boss and essentially treating it as a target dummy. You are not a target for any other mechanic and cannot interact with shards, directly or indirectly

Rookery is very linear once you figure out which packs are skippable - the one to the immediate left of the starting area, and the one immediately down the elevator pit after Kyrioss. Everything else needs to be pulled.

There are no immediately threatening mechanics and no game-breaking use of Anti-Magic Shell. Instead, we will only state that the Consuming Voidstone elementals at the end of the dungeon periodically cast Consuming Void, buffing themselves by 2% for every active enemy within 40 yards of them at time of cast. This prevents you from pulling a lot of the Afflicted Civilians on it, as it quickly leads to a very large elemental and raises the risk of you dying to sheer auto-attack damage from it.

Our default builds already include Blinding Sleet and Mind Freeze. Be aware of the orb spawn timer, and position yourself so you can stop multiple with sleet!

Periodically, a large blue orb will spawn around all players and slowly orbit them. Another player needs to come in contact with it to remove it, granting 4% mastery and 2% leech per stack.

Failure to do this within 15 seconds buffs all mobs within 100 yards, granting them 10% damage and 20% damage reduction per stack.

There is nothing to do about this from a talent or spec perspective - just help soak the orbs!

Voidbound emissaries are a straightforward DPS check. If you are playing Deathbringer, we recommend trying to save either an Exterminate stack or two to assist in dealing with it.

They have 1% health and a large shield, making them ideal targets for Soul Reaper.

You can pre-emptively Anti-Magic Shell this affix, but this costs your entire team damage. Instead, you should simply Death Strike it away!