So you wanna level Blood? I say go for it. No really. The Death Knight Blood talent tree has a lot of great skills that’ll help you level your Death Knight. Since the Blood tree has both DPS talents and self healing talents, you’d still be able to do enough damage to get you through quests without skipping the self healing talents that’ll help you solo a lot of content. Also if you take on some skills from the Unholy tree you’ll also be able to throw out some AoE.

The upside to leveling Blood is that with all of the self healing talents you keep your health bar green.  Which means less time spent eating or bandaging, and you can save on pots. The downside is that the loss of Unholy Blight, Impurity, and Ebon Plaguebringer from the Unholy tree means that Blood’ll do a little less AoE damage. But by grabbing DPS talents from the Blood tree it is going to hurt when you land a hit.

The Spec: 41/13/17

Since this is a leveling spec, you’ll see that a lot more of the talents chosen out of the Blood tree are DPS based. But Geist, why? Ok, I’ll spill. When you’re leveling you’re grinding mobs for quest items. And without a good amount of DPS you might as well be running around naked and hitting mobs with a club. Not that there’s anything wrong with that if that’s your thing, but safe to say it’d take a LOT longer.

There’s also some spots where self healing talents are taken over DPS talents. Why’s that? Well unless you’re lucky enough to be running as a meat shield for someone leveling a holy Priest, then let’s face it. You’re gonna take some damage. If you take less damage though, you’ll see less downtime and be able to outlast some of those nasty elites that you’ve gotta plow through.

This build also dives into the Unholy tree to pick up some of the same favorites used in the Unholy Leveling spec. By hitting talents that buff AoE damage like Epidemic and Outbreak, you’ll be able to throw out Pestilence after landing Icy Touch and Plague Strike. This’ll make the diseases last longer (more damage) and boost the damage you’ll deliver when you hit Blood Boil. You’ll also have Corpse Explosion to hit as the bodies hit the floor. The bonus to this is that you can still take on a pack of mobs. The downside is that without deep Unholy talents you’re not going to see the mobs drop quite as fast.

The build also picks up talents like Death Rune Mastery that’ll give you a better chance to use Rune Tap to self heal when you need it. It also hits skills like Subversion and Bloody Strikes that’ll let you dish out more damage. Once you get up to Sudden Doom in the talent tree, you’ll also be able to toss out free Death Coil’s whenever Death Trance pops.

Now hitting Rune Tap is a little controversial. I mean you could use that talent point to beef up some DPS if you’re going to be leveling with someone who can toss some heals now and then. But yeah, let’s face it, most of the time you’re probably not going to be leveling with someone.  And as a Death Knight, you don’t have to. That’s the beauty of DK’s. When running solo, RT is a nice addition to the rest of the self heal talents in this build while also giving you extra tools when you take on some of those elites.

This is your Rotation:

1. IT -> PS -> HS -> HS -> OB -> DC

2. OB -> HS -> HS -> HS -> HS -> DC

If you do not have the Heart Strike talent yet, sub HS with Blood Strike until you get it. You’ll also want to substitute Obliterate with Death Strike if you’re health gets low, or if you do not have Annihilation yet and the mob is over 30% health.  Until you get Annihilation, OB is reserved for finishing off mobs basically.  Realistically you will use DS the vast majority of the time leveling to ensure that you stay high health. You can also use your Death Runes to fire of DS’s when needed. 

This is your Rotation on AoE:

1. IT -> PS -> Pest -> DnD -> DC

2. DS -> BB -> BB -> DS -> DC

Why the difference? Here you’ve got Death Strike in the rotation as a default to keep you’re health up because you’re getting hit more often. When the self heals kick in you can trade Death Strike out for Obliterate to finish off mobs. Oh and don’t forget that you’ve got Corpse Explosion as well.  The moment mobs start dying, you’ll want to hit it.

From Cradle to Grave:

For this build you can start off filling the Unholy tree first to get On A Pale Horse (and get those quest turned in faster), as well as buffing your AoE abilities. Since you’ll be leaving Archerus in a full set of blue gear, you shouldn’t really have a need for the bulk of the Blood tree’s self healing talents until you get a little further into the Outlands. You will have Rune Tap on hand pretty quickly in the build though, so you won’t go totally without healing when you need it.

Then the build works it’s way up into the Blood tree for additional damage, a Stamina boost via Veteran of the Third War, and the self healing talents like Bloodworms.

1. Level 58 – 32/0/17

2. Level 67 – 41/0/17

3. Level 80 – 41/13/17

And Fin

In closing you can level just fine with a Blood spec. While you may not have the same AoE damage you’d have using an Unholy build, you’ll still do some serious damage and level up quickly.

-Geist

Tags: Geistig, Power Leveling, Specs