Bloodlust is a core shaman ability learned at level 70. It grants a buff to party and raid members' melee, ranged, and spell haste. Though it has a five minute cooldown, players may only benefit from it once every ten minutes.
The most common use for bloodlust is during bosses in raids. When it is used varies from boss to boss and guild to guild. When soloing, it can be useful for crunch situations or tougher mobs, such as targets for group quests.
As part of Blizzard's new movement toward "bring a player, not a class" raid compositions, Cataclysm endowed mages with a similar effect, Time Warp.
When Bloodlust is used in raids, it is usually a good idea to dump all other CDs you have at the same time, because in many cases it will result in higher overall damage than using the cooldowns separately.
Lore
Bloodlust is defined as "a strong desire for bloodshed."
Bloodlust is a spell that increases a creature's size, strength, and attack speed. Appeared in Warcraft II and III.
According to the RPG, Bloodlust requires a drop of blood mixed with earth to cast.
Patch changes
Patch 3.1.0 (14-Apr-2009): Cooldown reduced to 5 minutes, but Sated now last 10 minutes.