Warning: the info in this post was posted prior to patch 3.1, and as such, while there may be some relevant information in it, large parts of it may be outdated or irrelevant. You have been warned.
Warning: The following is not only my opinion, it’s how I did it.
I’ve had a few people now ask about a good spec for leveling a Blood-spec Death Knight. There are a few talents in the tree that are well-suited for leveling but you probably wouldn’t want in other situations. I’ll walk you through what I did as best as I can, and hopefully you’ll get to 80 in no time flat.
Now, a little background on Blood. Whereas Unholy deals with AOEs, DOTs, and “fun toys,” and Frost has lots of mitigation and burst damage, Blood is all about physical damage, passive and crit buffs, and self-healing. The self-healing is what makes it especially suited for leveling.
Level 58: Here’s where it all begins. You’re fresh out of the Death Knight starting area. What now? Here’s where I put my talents to start leveling as Blood.
Mousing over these should be fairly self-explanatory as soon as I remind myself how image maps work. Where do you go from here? Well, for a couple more levels, you’ll be filling out the tree:
- 59, 60, 61, and 62: Finish filling out Blood-Gorged.
- 63: Dancing Rune Weapon. This is your emergency weapon. You’ll probably use this on elites and when you’re soloing group quests. (You can do that, you know.)
Now you’re at 54/0/0. You have a variety of self-buffs that happens on crit, you’re doing fantastic physical damage, and you’re pretty much healing yourself constantly. Where to from here? Follow me, friends – to the Frost tree!
This little sojourn is for one reason and one reason only: to pick up Annihilation. Note: you would help yourself a lot by adding a Glyph of Obliterate. I shouldn’t have to tell you how to put the talents into this tree: you can figure it out (since there’s only 5 talent points spent per line). Most of this just raises your damage in various matters, especially your frost damage. Obliterate, however, will be doing a bunch of damage, and having it not eat your diseases just adds to that.
Now you’re 54/13/0, sitting at level 76, ready for that last dash.
It’s a really short trip. You’re just tossing a couple points in here to round out bonuses to various strikes and spells.
That’s it! That’s you at 80. Now find you a spec better-suited for what you want to do for now, and have fun!
Thanks for this Stop – just what I needed!
[...] Leveling a Blood-spec Death Knight | The Stoppable Force [...]
You don’t go for Epidemic? It’s an extra 6 seconds of diseases for only 2 points. And it will also will boost your rotations because you’ll have diseases up longer for Blood Strikes, Heart Strikes, etc
@T$: I do in my end-game specs. But while leveling I didn’t find it necessary; my diseases were never in danger of falling off even after I finished a full rotation and dumped all my RP, so there was no lack of DOT uptime.
Nice post.
I’m currently leveling my DK (undead of course) in unholy, but thinkng of switching to blood for pure damage. The post has given me some ideas as to what to do. Thanks
Great guide, thanks for it! I swapped my level 63 DK over to your straight Blood spec, 54/0/0 currently…the amount of pain she’s bringing is insane. She’s ripping through stuff like crazy, even elites. I’m going to miss that snazzy starter saronite as she starts to put on the Outlands quest-reward clown suit, though…
Which glyph’s did you use while leveling? Thanks!
@j: Leaving Acherus, I used Glyphs of Obliterate, Death Strike (not worth it anymore IMO), Horn of Winter, and Pestilence. If I were doing it again, I’d take Glyph of Rune Tap instead of Death Strike.
At 70: add Glyph of Blood Tap.
At 80: it’s really up to you, because now you’ll be deciding on the role you want to play and the spec you want to use for endgame or PvP or whatnot.
hey br0o which a good way i will be at unholy i dont know which way is agood i did with blood and t
Is blood aura not worth pointing into?
@Seth: It gives you absolutely no benefits while leveling, since the majority of leveling is still done solo. And the 4% from Blood Aura does not stack with the 4% you get from Blood Presence.
As for 3.1’s Improved Blood Presence… well, we’ll have to wait and see, but my feeling on that is that it’s designed to be more “tanky,” but increased healing includes self-healing, which could be beneficial for up-and-coming leveling DKs too.