Death Strike

Not to be confused with  [Death Striker].

Death Strike
Death Strike Level 56 death knight ability Melee range 1 Unholy Rune, 1 Frost Rune Instant Requires Melee Weapon Focuses dark power into a strike that deals 185% weapon damage plus X to an enemy and heals you for 20% of the damage you have sustained from non-player sources during the preceding 5 sec (minimum of at least 7% of your maximum health). This attack cannot be parried.
Usable by
Class	Death knight
Properties
Type	Offensive, Utility
School	Physical
Cooldown	None/Global Cooldown
Other information
Level learned	56
Improvements	[Blood Rites], [Scent of Blood], [Threat of Thassarian]

Death Strike is a Death knight ability. It is a deadly attack that deals 185% weapon damage plus damage and heals the Death Knight for at least 7% of maximum health.

Improvements

Passives

• [Blood Rites] Whenever you hit with Death Strike, the Frost and Unholy Runes will become Death Runes when they activate.
• [Scent of Blood]
• [Threat of Thassarian]

Glyphs

20

20

• Glyph of Death Strike
• Prime Glyph
• Use: Permanently teaches you this glyph.
  
  Increases your Death Strike's damage by 2% for every 5 runic power you currently have (up to a maximum of 40%). The runic power is not consumed by this effect.
• Classes: Death Knight
• Requires Level 56
• Sell Price: 1

Notes

• This ability is integral to Tanking, and forms the foundation for the Blood talent tree's Mastery bonus.
• Other specs use Death Strike to heal when necessary and not as part of their usual damage rotations (e.g. if the healer is out of mana and cannot keep you up) or, if blood specced, to generate Death Runes when needed. Its main purpose is to heal, not to deal damage.
• While tanking, if it is possible to stand idle for a few seconds without losing aggro, it may be best to wait until you take damage before using Death Strike; this will make the heal worthwhile, and spare your healer(s) some time and mana.

Patch changes

• Patch 5.1.0 (2012-11-27): Damage received from players (or player-controlled sources) no longer counts towards increasing the healing done by Death Strike.
  
• Patch 5.0.4 (2012-08-28): Weapon damage increased from 150% to 235%. Can no longer be parried.
  
• Patch 4.3.0 (2011-11-29): Now heals the death knight whether or not the attack misses, or is dodged/parried. As a result of this change, Death Strike no longer refunds its rune cost if it fails to hit the target, as the death knight will still receive the healing effect.
  
• Patch 4.1.0 (2011-04-26): Death Strike self-healing no longer generates threat.
  
• Hotfix (2010-11-24): "Death Strike now properly heals for 20% of the damage taken within the last 5 seconds."
  
• Patch 4.0.3a (2010-11-23): Now heals for 25% of damage taken in the last 5 seconds, down from 30%, and will heal for a minimum of 7% of maximum health, down from 10%.
  
• Hotfix (2009-04-21): "Death Strike will now heal the Death Knight for 5% of his or her maximum health per disease on the target, up to a maximum of 15%."
  
• Hotfix (2009-04-17): "The healing a Death Knight receives from damage done by Death Strike has been reduced."
  

Healing changed to 5% of maximum health + 5% per disease, up to a maximum of 15% with 2 or more diseases.

• Patch 3.1.0 (2009-04-14): Increased damage to 75% of weapon damage (up from 60%), reduced healing by 20% to 80% of damage dealt + 40% per disease (down from 100% of damage dealt + 50% per disease).
  
• Patch 3.0.2 (2008-10-14): Added.
  

External links

• Wowhead
• WoWDB