Simple question. would it good in shadowlands or BFA atm. really enjoying lvling my dk thinking of maining him
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Problem with tanks in PvP is that they take increased damage so they are not really that ‘Tanky’. The real tanks in PvP are healers.
Blood does not deal great ST damage, has little support utility in a PvP setting and is slow AF. IMO they are one of the worse PvP tanks because they bring pretty much nothing to the table.
Veng Demon Hunters make good flag carriers because their mobility Allows them to avoid damage. Paladins are also decent because they have a huge amount of support Cooldowns and basically act as a hybrid DPS Healer. But even then they fill very niche roles that require more skill than just playing a DPS in the first place.
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Currently? Hell no. Unless you are dueling melee.
Shadowlands? Possibly - due to some of our Soulbind Conduits and a lot more cool-downs - Chains of Ice is also a welcome change and sorely needed against ranged and casters. We will at the very least be stronger than we are now.
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Want go good as Blood DK? Necrolord’s Abomination limb + Death and Decay + Bonestorm + Voracious + Lichborne + Mark of Blood make you go good. Warstomp add extra spicy. (From an Alterac Valley perspective)
we should assume, probably not.
It was unplayable in BFA PvP wise, and there arent any significant changes being made to suggest it would perform any better in SL.
presumably BDK will be worse without a Gettiku proc or Corruption procs to deal its damage.
There isnt any melee that should lose to a BDK unless theres a gear differencial.
Every melee in the game does more damage, takes less damage, and passively heals more.
The only melee a BDK beats is a UHDK and thats ONLY if the UHDK uses Apocolypse, and youre smart enough to Bonestorm it. If the UHDK doesnt use Apoc, you lose.
There isnt any melee that should lose to a BDK unless theres a gear differencial.
Protection Warrior.
It was unplayable in BFA PvP wise,
Unplayable? There are three Blood Death Knight’s above 2400 in 3’s.
and there arent any significant changes being made to suggest it would perform any better in SL.
There are many changes that make it better. Insatiable Appetite is one.
All those BDk’s in high rating got there as UH sadly and just do one or 2 games as blood.
I would LOVE for blood to be viable in PVP as I’m all in for tanks in arenas, bgs, wpvp, it’s the way I enjoy the game. But sadly, blood is the weakest of all the tanks for it:
- Warriors: more damage, cc, reduce damage on allies, and healing (yes…its crazy with the talent and legendary).
- DHs: great mobility, damage, cc, and a lot of sustain (more than us)
- Monks: they just don’t die.
- Bears: 3x tankier than us, reduce damage on allies, lots of heals, and the same damage as us.
- Palas: 3x our damage, 2x our durability, and they are the kings of utility, with buffs, immunities, dispels, heals, etc.
As blood we bring:
- Some peeling in the form of CoI and grip on 15 sec cd.
- Chains of torment: great for burst dps on 3 targets
- AMZ
- Silence
- Stun
- Mark of blood if we run with that.
Don’t get me wrong, is not bad, but is not the best of all the tanks.
There are 2 things that killed blood for pvp:
- 50% extra damage taken on tanks
- 50% less healing on death strike
Those 2 nerfs affect us waaaaaaay more than any other tank, since they rely on mitigation so the 50% damage taken doesn’t affect them as much. We get shafted both ways with that nerf.
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One possible workaround for the Death Strike nerf is running Mark of Blood. It’s a bit pain to keep up, and is merely ok on live with the 2% heal and 30 runic power cost, but it’s stronger in Shadowlands/PTR - healing increased to 3% and no runic power cost. In Details breakdown shows me doing more healing with that than by Death Strike, sometimes by 50% or so if I’m fighting a feral druid or rogue.
One easy thing I think they could do to make BDK viable in BG at least is to make the ghoul pet permanent - at least then we could solo defend flags. Could just be a PvP talent.
EDIT: One other thing I wanted to add but as Blood we get shafted by execute type abilities a lot more than most, since our health is so damn spiky. In Shadowlands we don’t have to deal with 200k Reaping Flames crits from non-execute classes before I can Death Strike my health back.
Blood DK issues
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lack of DR’s combined with increased damage in PvP makes your extremely squishy.
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Blood DK damage is pretty low even by tank standards.
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Unlike a Prot Paladin you don’t bring any significant utility that Frost or Unholy don’t already have. You can’t take hits like a druid or have mobility like a DH.
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Dampening hurts Blood Dks big time in arena.
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Deathstrike and Heartstrike require melee range. Against caster cleave you literally melt.
Maybe with the AOE healing coming in Shadowlands that will help a little? That said, tanks get a rough deal in PvP and Blood DK is at the bottom of the pile unfortunately.
Removed…
If you want to tank in PvP prot pally is always a better option. DKs are good at disruption but they hit like a wet noodle, have massively reduced self heals and their utility is meh. I guess you’d be good for grip as a target caller in RBGs but no one really does RBGs.
no there isn’t haha. they just logged out in a different spec, literally no one plays blood dk in 3s.
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I guess a BDK could beat a Prot Warrior, i think its more likely just going to be a stalemate though. Theyre both pretty unplayable.
There are zero BDK’s over 1800.
Unless tuning in general is significantly changed for us in SL, Insatiable appetite isnt going to have any impact on our viability.
BDK NEEDS to be able to use Necrotic Strike with Bone Armor charges inorder to be a viable spec, and inorder to justify having our damage mitigation and self healing completely gutted. This is the easiest, and most effective thing Blizzard could do to make BDK close to viable.
There are zero BDK’s over 1800.
Consider me corrected then.
Unless tuning in general is significantly changed for us in SL, Insatiable appetite isnt going to have any impact on our viability.
To be fair - you never said viability - you said it wouldn’t perform any better.
and there arent any significant changes being made to suggest it would perform any better in SL.
BDK NEEDS to be able to use Necrotic Strike
Back were the days when Dancing Rune Weapon doubled Necrotic Strike. 
Im sure nowadays they would tune DRW Necrotic Strike to be 25% as effective as the BDK’s Necrotic Strike 
You take what you can get I supposse. 
Its just such a easy thing to implement.
Bone Armor charges interact with our rotation/resources EXACTLY the way festering wounds does.
Theres no reason NS shouldnt be allowed to be used with Bone Armor charges.
It blows my mind they havent implemented this.
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There is some super miniscule solace in the fact that Blood isn’t being ignored - to some extent.
Rot and Wither - Death and Decay rots enemies each time it deals damage, absorbing healing equal to 100% of damage dealt.
It should work like;
(x%) of the damage dealt by you and your allies to enemies who are within your Death and Decay have the next (percentage damage taken) as healing absorbed - or something.
Yes, it is garbage.
As someone who dabbles in PvP as a blood dk. I dont think they are viable in arena at all. Without. TD proc I barely do any damage. I have a bit of crowd control but its usually never enough since they just double team the dps and then after that its game over.
Where we shine is more of a defensive roll in battlegrounds. I can survive for a really long time by myself at a capture point. Even with three players attacking me. By the time I’m dead they’ve waste so much time on one point that my team has had time to capture a node and rotate back to defending the one I’ve died on.
Just go in with the mindset of being a nuisance and deterrence. No one really wants to fight me because I can just full heal every 60 seconds. Not only that but I run rank5td so it puts a lot of strain on grouo fights where all of a sudden five people are at half health or lower.
Id say blood dk is more for casual fun though. If you put geared players next to a geared blood dk that’s when we start to become useless.
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