blood tap guide

[Deleted]

i was wondering if there was any guide out there on how to effectively play blood tap as a daeth knight. i have been using runic corruption up until now but i don´t like that it doesn´t have control.

Any good website or good guides are welcome.

thanks in advance.

[Cohesiac]

This would depend significantly on what spec you're playing. Blood uses the talent quite a bit differently than the DPS Specs.

[Kendeura]

Personally, I empty my death and frost runes, build up to 10 charges if possible, and empty the charges on 2 extra HBs.

[Ayonel]

Elitistjerks is the go to place. Their thread on blood tanking talks about this in some detail. Ultimately, you might want to use a couple of addons, and it will take a bit of effort to become proficient.

There are definitely a lot more things you can think about when blood tanking as compared with(at least in my case) pally tanking.

[Deleted]

Elitistjerks is the go to place. Their thread on blood tanking talks about this in some detail. Ultimately, you might want to use a couple of addons, and it will take a bit of effort to become proficient.

There are definitely a lot more things you can think about when blood tanking as compared with(at least in my case) pally tanking.

Blood tap =\= blood spec

[Ayonel]

Blood tap =\= blood spec

Got it. I only know blood(a little).

[Kraeth]

I don't think there's a guide that covers all the bases out there. BT pretty much requires quite a bit of mastery over DKs in general. You didn't specify which spec you seek info for either.

[Vrausc]

Well, if you are blood you have to convert your blood runes into death with blood tap. When you have a depleted blood rune it will always fill that up first so the ideal usage of blood tap:

1: Spend your blood runes
2: Use 1 blood tap and Death Strike
3: If you have charge repeat
Profit: 1 free Death Strike (from 2 blood runes)

As I said its only the ideal usage, if need a death strike immedietly you have to use 2 charge instantly couse you can't wait for gcd after HS or other runes to regenerate.

Blood tap is superior for tanking becouse blood runes are useless and you can make Death Strikes out of them. As for other spec I am not sure but you can spend all 3 runes on your main abilities so I think Runic Corruption is the better choice.

[Deleted]

Blood tap is superior for tanking becouse blood runes are useless and you can make Death Strikes out of them. As for other spec I am not sure but you can spend all 3 runes on your main abilities so I think Runic Corruption is the better choice.

Blood tap is superior in any spec if you are able to manage it. Otherwise RE/RC would be better, according to each spec.

[gamma Ray]

I don't know of any guides specifically designed just with Blood Tap in mind. Each talent has its uses and its downfalls. I've been playing Blood DK since MoP dropped and can only offer you my advice from that point of view. I played All 3 specs as DPS in Wrath and both UH and Frost in Cata though that doesn't really help much now.

-RC - Hard to waste procs completely. If you have only 1 rune on CD then you are getting less out of it than if you have 3 runes on CD, but you are still not wasting it completely. The downfall is that it is the most random. You can't really "game" it like you can the others.

-RE - When "gamed" provides the highest possible amount of DS's (sorry, but again, I play Blood DK). You do this by always keeping a Blood Rune ready while having the other 5 runes on CD before Rune Striking. The result is that if RE procs, it will proc a Unholy, Frost, or Death rune. The downfall is that a single proc doesn't really help out sometimes. You can proc once and still not be able to DS. The amount of control and work involved is somewhere between RC and BT

-BT - Provides the most control over your runes and can allow you to build up resources and expend them all at a great rate in a big burst, or slowly. This method is great on some fights when you know you are going to be without healing for a while and can build up resources. It is the one that will provide the least amount of "free" DS however.

I would highly suggest you check EJ, Icy Veins, and other sources for more info there. Without knowing your spec, what fight you are doing, or anything else its really hard to help ya out. Just remember that there is no "Best" talent. It all depends on your skill, playstyle, and other choices. And of course the RNG Gods. :P

[Dossou]

Blood tap is superior in any spec if you are able to manage it. Otherwise RE/RC would be better, according to each spec.

The exception is probably 2H Frost, since Blood Tap is 40% and RE is 45%.

Blood Tap DW and Blood Tap Unholy sim as the best choices however RE DW and RC Unholy are wayyyyyyy easier to play.

[Deleted]

I just re-specced into BT, and I've to say that I'm pretty happy with this talent. Before, I was playing with RE and often I was out of resources, but with BT (if managed well, and to me it’s not that easy) I've always 1 or 2 death rune ready to go!! Anyway, in both cases (RE or BT) I was and I'm still top dmg in any fight, but overall I think that BT is a DPS increase (especially if you had bad luck on 2h weapon drops).
Take into account that having the possibility to completely control your recourses, you decide when and where spend the charges on death runes and that decision depends on the procs and the execution of the DW priority. Thus, you should practice on a dummy and try to master it’s use.
I'm still trying to master this spec, so It's possible that what I'm going to say may be wrong (in that case correct me please), but that's my experience. I found that the best uses of BT are (the order in not a priority) :
- death rune for HB (above all whenever you are at low rp, you don’t have any other rp generators and you have a KM ready, and you are in need of some rp for a FS).
- death rune on SR, above 35% health whenever you need a rune for it and you don't have one.
- in heavy movement fight, charge up to 12 on one target and spend the charges to HB while moving (e.g. on Will with lot of adds going around).
- death rune on PoF if you don’t have a frost rune available.

Hope that helps. :-)

[NeverStop]

I don't agree with "more DS/min is better for Blood DK." Well-timed DS is more important than DS/min, as you want to DS when your effective heal is greatest (high amount of damage taken in last 5 seconds and you don't overheal). Blood Tap gives you control and lets you DS whenever that situation occurs.

As for Frost, RE > BT for 2H because for them U and F runes have the same value, as they both allow you to OB. But for DW, U is significantly worse than F because 2xHB > OB + 45% chance of Rime.

[Dossou]

I don't agree with "more DS/min is better for Blood DK." Well-timed DS is more important than DS/min, as you want to DS when your effective heal is greatest (high amount of damage taken in last 5 seconds and you don't overheal). Blood Tap gives you control and lets you DS whenever that situation occurs.

As for Frost, RE > BT for 2H because for them U and F runes have the same value, as they both allow you to OB. But for DW, U is significantly worse than F because 2xHB > OB + 45% chance of Rime.

RE is viable for DW because you game runes.

[Lovestar]

I'm DW Frost. Does it matter, in terms of maximizing benefit, which Rune you recharge with Blood Tap? For example, preferring to turn U into D. Or does it make no difference, and all that matters is Blood Tap gets used before the charges cap out?

Somehow, I got it into my head from reading one discussion or another that I should always try to use my Blood Charges on depleted U runes.

Thinking about it more, perhaps what the posters meant was that Blood Tap allows you to double-spend U runes as DW Frost — for example if you accidentally drop DND right before Blood Plague falls off — without worrying about it the same way RE has to (ideally) halt RP dumping until one of the U recharges.

But yeah. In a theory sense, does it matter which rune? Or just refresh anything you can when you've got the charges for it?

[Deleted]

The exception is probably 2H Frost, since Blood Tap is 40% and RE is 45%.

Blood Tap DW and Blood Tap Unholy sim as the best choices however RE DW and RC Unholy are wayyyyyyy easier to play.

Probably I misunderstood posts on EJ but I thought latest sims with 2h doing very close to DW were done using BT over RE.

[Skarssen]

Probably I misunderstood posts on EJ but I thought latest sims with 2h doing very close to DW were done using BT over RE.

If simulations are indeed suggesting BT is better than RE for 2-hand frost the difference is likely entirely tied to proper use of Soul Reaper. RE's throughput IS higher than BT, so the likely explanation is that BT allows more flexibility with soul reaper when used expertly.

[Deleted]

If simulations are indeed suggesting BT is better than RE for 2-hand frost the difference is likely entirely tied to proper use of Soul Reaper. RE's throughput IS higher than BT, so the likely explanation is that BT allows more flexibility with soul reaper when used expertly.

BT usage is only linked to KM procs and RP. I don't see anything linket to BT and SR but I could be missing something.


actions+=/soul_reaper,if=target.health.pct-3*(target.health.pct%target.time_to_die)<=35

actions+=/blood_tap,if=talent.blood_tap.enabled&buff.killing_machine.react
actions+=/blood_tap,if=talent.blood_tap.enabled&buff.blood_charge.stack>10&runic_power>76
actions+=/frost_strike,if=talent.blood_tap.enabled&buff.blood_charge.stack<=10
actions+=/blood_tap,if=talent.blood_tap.enabled&buff.blood_charge.stack>10&runic_power>=20


This is taken from the latest sim about 2h I was talking about. I copy/pasted only actions with BT and the SR one.

[Schizoide]

Yep. If you feel you can actually execute that priority while not standing in the fire, blood tap will win out. Personally, I'm sticking with RE.

This is one of those cases where the simcraft developers are doing players a disservice. Players read the profile, go "hey, blood tap is the highest DPS!" and all switch. And do worse.

[Skarssen]

BT usage is only linked to KM procs and RP. I don't see anything linket to BT and SR but I could be missing something.

I was referring to the fact that it is easier to keep SR on CD 100% of the time while also maximizing your OB count with BT rather than RE.