Cataclysm Blood Death Knight End Game Tank Build Guide

This is the guide for a Blood Death Knight build for end game tanking purposes.  This build guide features talent spec and glyphs for a raid tank blood dk.

Talent Notes

The build is based on survivability for a Blood Death Knight.  There are pretty much 39 mandatory talent points in the guide, which leaves two points up for discussion.  I put those 2 points into Abominations Might for the Raid buff.  You may want to put them into BCB, Virulence or Crimson Scourge depending on your playstyle.

These are the best 85 raiding specs to go along with the best leveling route guide: Zygor’s Leveling Guide.

Glyph Notes

The glyphs can change depending on your playstyle.  I would suggest keeping the Prime glyphs mentioned.  Bone shield and Vampiric Blood are used for the Major glyphs with Dancing Rune weapon that can change depending on your taste.  As far as the minor glyphs are concerned, Deaths Embrace is the only one that is mandatory in my opinion.

Rotation Notes

In  Cataclysm there is no real rotation due to Runic Empowerment.  Rotations are priority based.

Cataclysm Blood Death Knight End Game Tank Build Guide

Level 85 Death Knight (33/6/2) (Link)

Blood (33 Points)

Blade Barrier – Rank 3/3
Whenever your Blood Runes are on cooldown, you gain the Blade Barrier effect, which decreases damage taken by 6% for the next 10 sec.

Bladed Armor – Rank 3/3
Increases your attack power by 6 for every 180 armor value you have.

Improved Blood Tap – Rank 2/2
Reduces the cooldown of your Blood Tap ability by 30 sec.

Scent of Blood – Rank 2/3
You have a 15% chance after dodging, parrying or taking direct damage to gain the Scent of Blood effect, causing your next 2 melee hits to generate 10 runic power.

Scarlet Fever – Rank 2/2
Gives your Blood Boil a 100% chance to afflict enemies with Scarlet Fever, reducing their physical damage dealt by 10% for 30 sec.

Bone Shield – Rank 1/1
Surrounds you with a barrier of whirling bones. The shield begins with 3 charges, and each damaging attack consumes a charge. While at least 1 charge remains, you take 20% less damage from all sources and deal 2% more damage with all attacks, spells and abilities. Lasts 5 min.

Toughness – Rank 3/3
Increases your armor value from items by 10%.

Abomination’s Might – Rank 2/2
Increases the attack power by 10% of party and raid members within 100 yards. Also increases your total Strength by 2%.

Sanguine Fortitude – Rank 2/2
While active, your Icebound Fortitude reduces damage taken by an additional 30% and costs no runic power to activate.

Blood Parasite – Rank 2/2
Your melee attacks have a 10% chance to spawn a Bloodworm. The Bloodworm attacks your enemies, gorging itself with blood until it bursts to heal nearby allies. Lasts up to 20 sec.

Improved Blood Presence – Rank 2/2
Increases your rune regeneration by 20% and reduces the chance that you will be critically hit by melee attacks while in Blood Presence by 6%. In addition, while in Frost Presence or Unholy Presence, you retain 4% damage reduction from Blood Presence.

Will of the Necropolis – Rank 3/3
When a damaging attack brings you below 30% of your maximum health, you generate a Blood Rune and the cooldown on your Rune Tap ability is refreshed, and all damage taken is reduced by 25% for 8 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once every 45 seconds.

Rune Tap – Rank 1/1
Converts 1 Blood Rune into 10% of your maximum health.

Vampiric Blood – Rank 1/1
Temporarily grants the Death Knight 15% of maximum health and increases the amount of health generated through spells and effects by 25% for 10 sec. After the effect expires, the health is lost.

Improved Death Strike – Rank 3/3
Increases the damage and healing done by your Death Strike by 45%, increases its critical strike chance by 9%.

Dancing Rune Weapon – Rank 1/1
Summons a second rune weapon that fights on its own for 12 sec, doing the same attacks as the Death Knight but for 50% reduced damage. The rune weapon also assists in defense of its master, granting an additional 20% parry chance while active.

Frost (6 Points)

Runic Power Mastery – Rank 3/3
Increases your maximum Runic Power by 30.

Icy Reach – Rank 2/2
Increases the range of your Icy Touch, Chains of Ice and Howling Blast by 10 yards.

Lichborne – Rank 1/1
Draw upon unholy energy to become undead for 10 sec. While undead, you are immune to Charm, Fear and Sleep effects.

Unholy (2 Points)

Epidemic – Rank 2/3
Increases the duration of Blood Plague and Frost Fever by 8 sec.

Glyphs

Glyph of Death Coil (Prime Glyph)
Increases the damage or healing done by Death Coil by 15%.

Glyph of Rune Strike (Prime Glyph)
Increases the critical strike chance of your Rune Strike by 10%.

Glyph of Heart Strike (Prime Glyph)
Increases the damage of your Heart Strike ability by 30%.

Glyph of Bone Shield (Major Glyph)
Increases your movement speed by 15% while Bone Shield is active. This does not stack with other movement-speed increasing effects.

Glyph of Vampiric Blood (Major Glyph)
Increases the bonus healing received while your Vampiric Blood is active by an additional 15%, but your Vampiric Blood no longer grants you health.

Glyph of Dancing Rune Weapon (Major Glyph)
Increases your threat generation by 50% while your Dancing Rune Weapon is active.

Glyph of Death’s Embrace (Minor Glyph)
Your Death Coil refunds 20 runic power when used to heal.

Glyph of Raise Ally (Minor Glyph)
Increases the health of your Risen Ally by 25% and its run speed by 15%.

Glyph of Path of Frost (Minor Glyph)
Your Path of Frost ability allows you to fall from a greater distance without suffering damage.

Do You Want To Level Faster Like The Pros?

If you are having trouble leveling or need to level faster in WoW Cataclysm I highly suggest you check out Zygor’s Leveling Guide. It has the perfect leveling path that gets you to 85 faster and easier than any other way. No matter what level you are, you load the guide and it points with an arrow to the direction of each monster, quest giver, trainer etc. Its pretty crazy. It also has an in game box that tells you exactly what to do, like kill 5 boars, run west 10 miles, etc. If you dont have this in game add on guide, honestly, you are missing out. You can find out more here or check out the Zygor Cataclysm Leveling Guide Review.