Xeneres Multiboxing Guide and Tips

[Xeneres]

Artifact Traits and Pathway and Talent Choices Part 1.

Death Knights:

Talents: 2,1,1,2,1,3,1

Blood Dks really do not have much of a choice in talents. You are almost forced to go this route so you can get out as many death strikes as possible. I found that while boxing purgatory is not very useful. If it procs you are most likely dead and since you hardly ever use it then why have it? Bonestorm is excellent for bursting trash packs down or to cleave adds down on a boss and keep focusing on the boss. It also gives excellent healing against multiple mobs.

Tier 1 row of of the talents that do healing they are largely a joke and can't even compare to a basic death strike. Blood worms do terrible healing and heart strike with 5 targets is an extra 15 runic power per heart strike which is very powerful. Blood drinker does about 2-3 million damage with 4 DKs at 30 yards but you cannot do much while channeling it. Most mobs you can just death grip to you from range but there are quite a few that you cannot pull do you. I have decided that bloodrinker is the better talent for multiboxing at least for boss fights boss fights as it helps DK mobility by giving us some healing and damage at range or while you are switching and moving to a target or dodging a mechanic. I still do really miss heartbreakers extra runic power on trash as it takes longer to build up runic power for bonestorm.

Tier 2 row rapid decomposition gives you 15% more runic power gain while in DnD. If you don't have to move you will have death and decay down 100% of the time. It also makes it do 50% more damage and it does a lot of damage even single target. Soulgorge changes your play style and why as a boxer would you want to have to manually apply blood plague and consume it when there are passive choices that are way better. Spectral deflection may be useful for burst and dangerous attacks but in dungeons but you very rarely get damaged for more than 25% of your hp so this makes rapid decomposition much more beneficial. If you do get damaged for more than 25% HP its likely a powerful attack that you can use AMS or Vampiric Blood on.

Tier 3 row there is no choice but Ossuary as more max runic power and more efficient death strike means you can bank 3 death strikes to use in a row. I often use this after a big hit like Odyns AoE. I'm too slow to move out of it so I just eat it.


Tier 4 row you have to go Red Thirst. Mark of blood is awful as its only 1/5th of a 2% heal, costs 30 runic power and only benefits the toon taking melee hits. Death strike by comparison deals damage, costs 40 runic power heals for at least 10%. Tombstone is pretty bad as well. It does not synergize with foul bulwark or ossuary. When you get umbilicus eternus you basically have a better absorb that has its cooldown reduced by Red thirst. I turn a 1.5 minute cd into a 40-50 second cd and after 10 seconds it turns into at least a 60% absorb shield. That's way better than a 30% absorb on a 1 minute cd that lowers my hp by 20% and makes death strike cost 5 more.

Tier 5 row this is the CC and mobility tier. I always go for Tightening Grasp. It lowers the CD of Gorefiends by 1 minute (turns it into a 2 minute cd) and gives DnD a very powerful 70% snare. Tremble Before Me isn't very good as it breaks on damage and if you play horde you best be blood elf master race! Arcane torrent can do interrupts so much better. Use more Gorefiends and cluster and then AoE them down casting arcane torrent every 2-3 seconds and hardly anything will get a cast off for almost 10 seconds. March of the Dammed can be ok if you need more movement but I find grouping adds and trash up is more useful. Wraith Walk is a terrible ability and I refuse to put talents into buffing it to be slightly less terrible. If you get stuck on a rock, stairs or object on the ground you cant use jump to free yourself. It basically pacifys you for 3 seconds just for a tiny bit of movement speed.

Tier 6 Foul Bulwark is the default talent choice and synergies well with Ossuary. For the toons that are not tanking it buffs your healing by buffing your health and gives you an extra hp cushion to survive dangerous mechanics. Runetap is ok for some situations as DKs have no way to lower their percent of damage taken (other than the 16% absorb from bone shield). I believe if blizzard buffs blood dks they will make this ability baseline because almost every spec in the game as some form of % damage reduction except blood dks. Will of the Necropolis is ok but you shouldn't remain at 35% hp for very long which makes this talent less ideal.

Tier 7 Bonestorm is what I pick in most situations as I'm able to better utilize it in more situations. Purgatory, as I said earlier, will most likely not be used that often and even if it does the absorb shield will likely be very high and a DK on its own without the old Death Pact ability (50% heal) will not be able to heal themselves enough to not die at the end of the 3 seconds. Hand of the protector is enough to save only 1 of the 4 dks and it will get its maximum benefit as they are at 0% hp. Typically, if situations occur where all of my toons die and proc purgatory its almost always a wipe and best to just try again unless the boss is really low or I finally got over a mechanic hurdle where its worth using all my rezes. In the heat of the moment I'm always wasting my battle rezes then go back after I wipe anyway and think to myself "that was stupid, you were dead anyway and now you have no rezes for 10 minutes." Blood mirror is useful as a damage cooldown but not very effective as a survival cooldown. It can be used to throw out 3-5+ million burst on something like Odyn summoned add to wipe it out. The only issue is that its a 2 minute cooldown and you have to be in melee range to apply it to a target.


I currently am about 40k from my 3rd golden trait and have just maxed out Coagulopathy.

1. Consumption

2. Sanguinary Affinity

3. Vampiric Fangs

4. Rattling Bones

5. Bone Breaker

6. All-Consuming Rot

7. Unending Thirst

8. Blood Feast

9. Dance of Darkness

10. Mouth of Hell

11. Meat Shield

12. Umbilicus Eternus

13. Coagulopathy

14. Skeletal Shattering

15. Veinrender

16. Iron Heart

17. Grim Perseverance


My logic for this pathway is start by to focus on damage reduction, making deathstrike more efficient and CDs that benefit all toons not just the one that is tanking. DKs take a lot of damage but heal for a lot too. We are one of the worst tanks for raiding but are still solid 5 man tanks. Marrowrend and Boneshield traits give me the most bang for my buck for bosses as I generally do not use heart strike during boss fights unless there are adds and favor maintaining 10 stacks of boneshield, even if that means using marrowrend at 10 stacks of boneshield. This way my DKs always have that 16% absorb via boneshield and the 20% extra HP from foul bulwark which helps out as deathstrike always heals for at least 10% hp.

Next, I next go for death and decay and the leech section at the bottom middle. The leech talents are very useful on trash and on bosses the leech from unending thirst and taunt trades allow my dks who were pummeled down to quickly heal up to full. I'm always taunt trading every 8-10 seconds to make sure my dks all stay roughly high hp. I typically start fights with aggro on the paladin as DKs are weak at the start of fights and trash until they get those boneshield stacks up.

Then, I move towards burst damage with dancing rune weapon duration buffs and double dancing rune weapon. This allows all of my dks to burst well over 300k at the start of any fight with all CDS popped and a 25% haste drum. Since dancing rune weapon copies your abilities it more than doubles your damage output and healing while its up. While its more of an offensive cool down it is still a defensive one too in that it gives the toon tanking more avoidance and for the rest it increases their healing.

For the next path I wanted to get Umbilicus Eternus but had to decide which was the best way to get it. I really wanted that Heartstrike buff of 9% but I decided to go for stamina as it benefits all toons whereas the extra armor from iron heart only benefits the toon that is tanking melee hits and I also already had 3 points in Dance of darkness so it would take me much longer to get that Umbilicus Eternus. FYI Umbilicus Eternus is a 3-4 million hp absorb on single target with my 855+ ilevel and even higher if you combo it with dancing rune weapon as it will apply 3 diseases per DK.

After, getting umbilicus eternus I wanted to go for my 3rd trait and again it was 3% parry vs 12% disease damage (and healing) so I chose to go for Coagulopathy as I always have blood plague up and it does 100% of its damage as healing. I should get Skeletal shattering within the next day or so on all of my DKs.

After that I plan to finally get that 9% hearthstrike damage from Veinrender, the armor buff from Iron heart and finally the 3% parry from Grim Perseverance.


Update 10/17/16 - Tier 1 Talent Update:

I decided to go with Blooddrinker instead of Heartbreaker as its more useful on bosses.