1.
Death Knight in Battleground Blitz
1.1.
Playstyle as Death Knight
In Battleground Blitz, Death Knight, regardless of spec, is focused ondisrupting the enemy team. This is done using Chains of Ice, Blinding Sleet,and even Strangulate can be useful.
The strengths of a Death Knight in the Battleground Blitz format arethe pressure during an extended team fight, a strong AoE stun through Frostwyrm's Fury, and even Dead of Winter can beextremely strong in a teamfight.
Death Knight lacks mobility, so you will find yourself often playing Defenseand being in the team fight. You should not be looking to drift between nodesunless it is necessary. This role is typically reserved for moremobile classes such as Druids and Demon Hunters.
1.2.
Offence as Death Knight
Where possible, you should ramp your damage before using crowd control on healers.However, at the beginning of a game, when you know yourwhole team have their offensive cooldowns ready; it is better for your teammatesto use their CC as Death Knight has relatively short CC.
When you are able to, it is a good idea to pressure casters such as Magesand Warlocks, as you are the best anti-caster DPS in the game. You can also lookto shutdown healers, especially immobile healers like Discipline Priests.Simply throwing Chains of Ice on the healer can make it difficultfor them to keep up with their team.
Save Death Grip for high priority targets. For example, you can gripthe enemy flag carrier (EFC) into your team, or you can grip healers to coordinate stunsand land a kill.
1.3.
Utility as Death Knight
Death Grip is one of the primary reasons that Death Knight is useful inBattlegrounds. As mentioned, this allows you to bring high-priority targets into your team.You can even use grip to save your teammates when they are Mind Controlled if you grip thembefore the Mind Control ends.
You should also be using Anti-Magic Zone on your teammates as earlyin the fight as possible. This can be used to counteract strong offensivecooldowns such as Combustion and Avenging Wrath.
Whenever you are supporting a flag carrier that is kiting enemies, youcan continually spam Chains of Ice to prevent enemies from catching themand ensure that they are able to escape.
1.4.
Survivability as Death knight
You have a number of defensive cooldowns which can be used to carry flags orstall at a base while waiting for help from teammates.
- Icebound Fortitude
- Anti-Magic Shell
- Anti-Magic Zone
- Lichborne (if talented into Unholy Endurance)
Death Knight does have the option to get additional self-healing by using a Death Strike and this can keep you alive for quite some time butthis does not mean you should try and tank enemies if you do not need to.
1.5.
Capture the Flag (Warsong Gulch, Twin Peaks)
At the start of a Capture the Flag map, you should either:
- Identify who the likely enemy flag carrier is and move to slow/crowdcontrol/kill them to delay their push to your base for as long as possible
- Join the team fight, shutting down an enemy healer or caster as soon as possibleand getting your damage rolling
Death Knight is great at fulfilling both of these roles.
On both Warsong Gulch and Twin Peaks, if you are defending your own flagcarrier, you should encourage them to take high ground as you can grip enemiesdown if your flag carrier stands near the edge.
Similarly, when attacking enemy bases, you should look to grip players offthe high ground. You can do that either to make sure that your teammates canattack the enemy flag carrier or to separate the flag carrier from theirhealers.
Generally, you will never want to pick up the flag as a Death Knight. Youhave okay defensives, but you lack mobility and will quickly become overwhelmed.The only time you will pick up the flag is when there is no one else around, and the enemy is about to capture the flag
1.6.
Resource Race (Arathi Basin, Battle for Gilneas, Deepwind Gorge)
Before a Resource Race battleground starts, you should decide with your teamwhich base you should focus on first, but generally, you will want to go for theteam fight.
Whether defending or attacking, whenever you are in Arathi Basin at LumberMill, you should try to get value from your Death Grip. Simply gripan enemy near the edge and have a teammate with a knock use it when they arein position such as Ring of Peace or Blast Wave.
1.7.
Hybrid (Eye of the Storm)
Death Knights can excel at attacking bases or controllingthe fight in the centre map, and during the game, you can choose whichever yourteam needs most. Usually, you will aim to join the fight in the middle as soonas possible, although if nobody on your team is going to take and defend a basewhen the Battleground starts, you should focus on that instead.
As a Frost Death Knight, try to avoid sitting bases alone. You do have a pet similarto Unholy, but your pet cannot be controlled, and it does not have full uptime.This makes it very easy for a Rogue to capture your base, especiallyif they are attacking with another stealth class
During any skirmish at mid, you want to be careful not to overextend, as it can be easy to get caught behind the enemy team and die. Thiscan set your team back significantly.
1.8.
King of the Hill (Temple of Kotmogu)
As a Death Knight, you will almost never pick up the orbs but rather focuson defending the orb. Using Chains of Ice will make it very easyfor the orb carriers to escape. You can pick up the orb in rare circ*mstanceswhere no one else is available to do so, and you are at risk of losing.
2.
Battleground Blitz Talent Builds
This build survives some single-target damage in favor of more cleave and AoE.Keep in mind that the standard Frost build will work for Blitz, and there areonly minor differences. At the end of the day, the playstyle is largely the same.Your goal is to burst enemies down with Pillar of Frost and maintain pressurewith your standard rotation.
3.
Recommended PvP Talents for Death Knight
Your default talents will be:
- Dead of Winter
- Delirium
- Strangulate
These talents are fairly standard from arenas, as Frostlacks any solid AoE talents. You might consider Shroud of Winter,but this forces you to stand on top of the enemy team which couldeasily get you killed if you do not have every defensive available.
4.
Death Knight Stat Priority and Gear
- Versatility,
- Haste, to 20%;
- Mastery;
- Crit (should be avoided)
The stat priority for Death Knight is the same in Battleground Blitzto Arena. There is no benefit for going for a different gearing strategy
5.
Embellished Gear
In Battleground Blitz, the strongest Embellished gear bonuses are Duskthread Lining which will significantly increase your versatility.
You can also play the defensive Embellishment option Captured Starlight.However, this is generally not needed on Death Knight.
6.
Changelog
- 27 Aug. 2024: Page added.
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