Blood Death Knight Tank Sepulcher of the First Ones Raid Guide — Dragonflight 10.2.5

During the Dragonflight Pre-Patch, Castle Nathria, Sanctum of Domination, and Sepulcher of the First Ones will be simultaneously featured as Fated Raids. During this time encounters within each specific raid will include an additional mechanic and items will drop at increased item levels. If you would like to learn more general information about the Fated Raids system as a whole, please see our overview below. Otherwise, continue to use this page for specialization-specific tips.

On this page, you will find Blood Death Knight-specific information to deal with each boss in the Sepulcher of the First Ones raid.

This page assumes that you already understand most of the mechanics of each encounter. These can be found on the full raid guide, so what is contained here are details specifically tailored toward Blood Death Knight and what you can do to deal with each fight as best as possible.

A note on Level 50 talents: The recommendations will show either Purgatory or Red Thirst for all bosses. Purgatory will be used when learning the encounter and the tank damage patterns. Once you are comfortable with those, Red Thirst will yield better results.

You can easily import the talent tree below into the game with the following string:

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We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Vigilant Guardian.

1. Superstrain
2. Unity

Recommended Covenant:Necrolord

• Phase 1: Swap after 3-4 stacks of Dissonance.
• Save Death Grip / Abomination Limb to pull Point Defense Drones when they start to cast Searing Ablation as it will interrupt the cast.
• Tank mobs near the Automated Defense Matrix you intend to activate.
• When the boss is at full Energy on the secondary resource bar move inside the barrier created by the Automated Defense Matrix to mitigate damage taken from Exposed Core.
• Phase 2: Swap after 1 stack of Pneumatic Impact.
• Anti-Magic Zone is useful during the Exposed Cores in Phase 1 and Core Overload in Phase 3.

For more information, please refer to our Vigilant Guardian guide.

We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Skolex, the Insatiable Ravener.

1. Superstrain
2. Unity

Recommended Covenant:Kyrian / Night Fae

• Both tanks should be stacked on each other as the boss will hit the closest target in 10 yards to the main tank. If no other player is within 10 yards the main tank will be hit twice.
• At 100 Energy Skolex will cast Riftmaw and Rend.
• Both Riftmaw and Rend hit all players in a cone in front of the boss so the tanks should stand 10 yards apart and swap after each differing attack.
• Use Rune Tap and Anti-Magic Shell for Riftmaw.
• At designated points in the encounter (after the second Retch usually) the Entire raid, including tanks & melee must stack to move the boss. This will remove all Ephemera Dust stacks, move the boss and make the boss deal 5% more damage.

For more information, please refer to our Skolex, the Insatiable Ravener guide.

We advise you to use the following Legendary against Artificer Xy'mox.

1. Superstrain
2. Unity

Recommended Covenant:Necrolord has a slight advantage

• During Phase 1 and 2 there will be 1 Genesis Rings, in Phase 3 there will be 2 per cast, and during the final 30% there will be 3 per cast.
• Swap on each Glyph of Relocation.
• Glyph of Relocation will grip the entire raid to your location. This will also trigger anything that players get dragged through (Traps/Portals/Rings).
• Use Rune Tap to mitigate damage for Glyph of Relocation as you will be out of melee range and unable to mitigate otherwise.
• You can run through a Genesis Rings with Anti-Magic Shell active and not die. This can be useful where the tank debuff happens at the same time as Genesis Rings.
• During intermissions the tank add will cast Massive Blast. This is a conal attack in the direction the add is facing at the time of casting. Move out of it and ensure that you do not point it toward the raid. This cast can also be stopped with stuns.

We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Dausegne, the Fallen Oracle.

1. Superstrain
2. Unity

Recommended Covenant: Any

• Swap when Infused Strikes expires and your co-tank has more than 4-6 stacks.
• When Infused Strikes expires it will explode dealing raid damage based on the number of stacks you had.
• If you are not tanking the boss, tank the Domination Core.
• The Domination Core should be placed away from positions the raid will want to move to as Encroaching Dominion pools spawned from it last for two minutes.
• If Anti-Magic Shell is active when you run through a Disintegration Halo you will not receive a debuff.
• Save Anti-Magic Zone for when the boss teleports away at 0 Energy as it will deal pulsing raid damage.
• Mythic: When running through Disintegration Halo if you are within 1 yard of another player, you will both take a lethal amount of damage.

For more information, please refer to our Dausegne, the Fallen Oracle guide.

We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Prototype Pantheon.

1. Superstrain
2. Unity

Recommended Covenant: Any

• Phase 1: Swap on each stack of Humbling Strikes from the Prototype of Duty. Each hit deals damage to the raid based on 30% of the damage taken, and each stack of the debuff increases damage taken from further Humbling Strikes by 100%.
• Phase 2: Swap on each stack of Wracking Pain from the Prototype of Absolution and point it away from other players.
• The debuff from Wracking Pain can be prevented with Anti-Magic Shell.
• Phase 3: All bosses are active. One tank will have Duty and one tank will have Absolution. Swap when both tanks have received a debuff from their respective bosses.
• Phase 3: Wracking Pain also increases damage taken by the Necromancers and you can hit up to 2 with good aim.

For more information, please refer to our PrototypePantheon guide.

We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Lihuvim, Principal Architect.

1. Superstrain
2. Unity

Recommended Covenant: Any

• When you have Deconstructing Blast move toward motes without running over them to destroy them. If you run over them it will leave a permanent pool on the ground.
• Death's Advance negates the pushback from Cosmic Shift.
• [Heroic] When the boss casts Resonance the two tanks should be 20y away from each other and swap after each hit.
• [Heroic] Use Rune Tap to mitigate the damage from Kinetic Resonance if you are on low HP.
• [Heroic] Use Anti-Magic Shell in addition to Rune Tap to mitigate the damage from Sundering Resonance
• Grip together Degeneration Automa when they are close to the raid. This will both cancel their current cast and be easier to kill.

For more information, please refer to our Lihuvim, Principal Architect guide.

We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Halondrus the Reclaimer.

1. Superstrain
2. Unity

Recommended Covenant: Any

• Run into any Ephemeral Motes that are close to the boss to knock them away. If any Motes hit the boss you wipe.
• Swap after each hit of Lightshatter Beam.
• [Heroic] Keep an eye out for Seismic Tremors with White Lines. These will require you to aim Lightshatter Beam at them to break the Fractal Shell on them.
• [Heroic] If Anti-Magic Shell is active you will take no damage from the Planetcracker Beam.
• Death's Advance will negate the knockback in the intermissions' Shatters.

For more information, please refer to our Halondrus the Reclaimer guide.

We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Anduin Wrynn.

1. Superstrain
2. Unity

Recommended Covenant: Necrolord

Recommended Talent Swaps: Change Bloodshot for Gorefiend's Grasp.

• When you are inside the Kingsmourne Hungers phase move the Anduin's Despair add on top of the Anduin's Doubt adds for more efficient DPS.
• Grip Anduins Doubt adds together for more efficient cleave DPS.
• Necrolord Death Knights should aim to go into the first group of Kingsmourne Hungers as you can use Abomination Limb here and it will be available again for the intermissions and the next Kingsmourne Hungers Phase if you use it on cooldown.
• Anti-Magic Shell can be used to negate the silence from Wicked Star and the debuff from Rain of Despair.
• Make use of your ranged kick Mind Freeze to interrupt the adds in Phase 2
• Anti-Magic Zone is very useful in Phase 3 to mitigate raid damage from Empowered Hopebreaker.

We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Lords of Dread.

1. Superstrain
2. Unity

Recommended Covenant: Preferably Kyrian or Necrolord

• Use your AoE abilities during the Unto Darkness phase as both bosses will take increased damage from AoE abilities such as Blood Boil and Abomination Limb.
• Both Leeching Claws and Anguishing Strike cleave. Point them in different directions away from the raid and your co-tank.
• Swap on every cast of Leeching Claws. If it hits a player with the debuff Mal'ganis will heal.
• When the Inchoate Shadow reaches full Health it will lose their Incomplete Form buff. Grip it into the raid and kill it.
• Move the bosses around the room after each cast of Slumber Cloud as one will spawn on melee each time.
• Avoid the slow moving green pools after a player has had Cloud of Carrion removed. If you are hit Cloud of Carrion will be triggered on you.

For more information, please refer to our Lords of Dread guide.

We advise you to use the following Legendaries against Rygelon.

1. Superstrain
2. Unity

Recommended Covenant: Kyrian

• Any damage not mitigated from Corrupted Strikes will apply Corrupted Wound on you. Swap on 2 stacks.
• Anti-Magic Shell will prevent Corrupted Wound from applying on you.
• Avoid standing in Collapsing Quasar Field as a Tank.
• Move Rygelon toward an Unstable Matter when he is on ~90 Energy as the raid will need to kill it at this point to trigger Unstable Matter Field.
• Move into an Unstable Matter Field on the ground to avoid dying from Massive Bang. Only one person can be in each of these!.
• Heroic: Move the boss and raid into an Unstable Core. Once it reaches 0 HP it will trigger Gravitational Collapse which needs to be soaked by a tank.
• Heroic: To survive Gravitational Collapse you should use Vampiric Blood, Rune Tap, and either Lichborne (with the Hardened Bones Conduit) or Icebound Fortitude. Trinkets and Externals can also be used for an additional safety buffer.
• You can spread Shackle the Unworthy to Quasars for bonus runes in the upstairs phases.

For more information, please refer to our Rygelon guide.

We advise you to use the following Legendaries against The Jailer.

1. Superstrain
2. Unity

Recommended Covenant: Kyrian or Necrolord

• Phase 1: Swap on each cast of Martyrdom.
• Phase 1: Martyrdom is a three part combo. Part 1 is a large Physical hit and a Physical Damage Taken Debuff. Part 2 is a raid-wide Bleed. Part 3 is a soak that requires at least 5 players to be in it (if 5 players are not in it, you will wipe).
• Phase 1: The raid can be inside the ring from Martyrdom instantly as Parts 1 and 2 do not cleave.
• Phase 1: Death's Advance will negate the pull from Chains of Oppression.
• Phase 2: Run to a pillar with Shattering Blast to destroy it.
• Phase 2: If three pillars in a row connect Phase 3 will begin.
• Phase 2: Grip and slow players affected with Rune of Compulsion. These players will have an absorb shield which needs to be destroyed while they attempt to jump off the edge.
• Phase 3: Soak Rune of Domination with the raid and heal off your debuff.
• Phase 3: Move the boss away from Defile.
• Phase 3: When the Jailer casts Desolation stand in the beam to mitigate the damage taken by Azeroth.
• Phase 3: Snap Chains of Anguish when it is applied to you.
• Mythic, Phase 4:Point the Meteor Cleave so it does not go into any open holes or off the edge.

For more information, please refer to our The Jailer guide.