Brushing off my DK a little bit and wanted to ask about azerite traits. Sure I can sim stuff all day but do I want to go for a pure dps build or a pure defensive build or a little of both?
Obviously, simming only does DPS, so I’m kind of at a loss as to what azerite traits to use to balance out the tanking aspect.
Short answer is that all of the blood traits are bad, so it hardly matters. I don’t even bother re-traiting when I tank, literally.
Slightly longer answer, you want the one that gives you haste when your free dnd procs, the one which gives you extra armour from bone armour and the one that buffs rune weapon.
They’re all bad though, which is why everyone just says sim for dps. The best ones are actually the defensive ones in 3rd ring, especially the big armour buff when you drop below 40% health or whatevrr it is. That stacks with will of necropolis and actually makes us quite tanky in that 1-30% health range.
For blood traits, pick the one that makes crimson scourge give haste if its on the outer ring and always pick the generic trait on the middle ring.
None of them matter except inner ring traits with the huge armor bonus and maybe crimson scourge.
BDK traits have been notoriously garbage this expasion.
FDK traits have also been notoriously hot garbage too.
UHDK has Magus and Festermight though, so thats nice.
Well, if you’re going blood dk.
Make sure you go for Heart of Darkness since most if not all of the Blood DK Azerite Traits are hot garbage.
Getting one Bones of the Damned, Bloody Runeblade, and Eternal Rune Weapon would suffice, it’s not worth stacking any of them but it’s worth getting one of them.
Icy Citadel and a Baby Frostwyrm that gives Mastery would like to have a word with you.
Don’t you dare call that little one hot garbage. It’s an adorable thing we have in BFA. 
Both Icy Citadel and Frostwyrm lose out to generic traits.
They’re not as AWFUL as BDK’s traits, but they could have been substantially better. IMO, frostwyrm is nice since it makes Icy Pillar less of a stat buff. Could be more interesting though
Actually no, i take it back, frost tempest traits are pretty good.
take generic traits that buff your dmg. one rank of “some” of the BDK traits are desirable but nothing really stacks to be great. Dmg procs, haste/secondary procs are best. Impassive visage is a great final trait.