Unholy Death Knight 7.3

[Guest RamosDK]

So you're telling me that the same stats for gear we use for DPS is the same as Tanking... 

 

Yeah... these changes will not last. 

[Guest Zimaya]

Hotfix on Aug 22 will impact Tier 3 talent selection. Not quite sure of the varying impact it will have as the talent changes damage type as well as damage amount. I'm sure simulators will figure it out. 

[Guest storm]

With the change to clawing shadows, does that change anything here or are we to close to legion for it to matter until 110?

[Tegu 1]

19 hours ago, Guest storm said:

With the change to clawing shadows, does that change anything here or are we to close to legion for it to matter until 110?

Gonna test it later if it's live the hotfix and let you know, either way CS should be in a good spot and viable.

[Guest WeakAuras]

Tegu could you please post your WeakAuras here, or in the guide?

[Tegu 1]

18 minutes ago, Guest WeakAuras said:

Tegu could you please post your WeakAuras here, or in the guide?

Sure i will, but for now you can use those: http://pastebin.com/9rrABZT4 and http://pastebin.com/0Ff1PQFe.

[Mortichar 0]

Would like to add some notes to the guide:

In the Festering Wounds category, I think it should be noted the the prime number for spending and generating festering wounds is 3 stacks. If you have 3 stacks, you should use Scourge Strike, and if you have 2 stacks or less, you should use Festering Strike. Note that this information is with the CASTIGATOR talent in T45(dk58).

This is because:

Scourge strike, if both hits crit (the physical AND shadow components) will consume THREE stacks.

If Festering Strike generates between 2 and 4 stacks, generates 4, and then crits, it will generate SIX stacks. As the stacks cap out at 8, the prime time to use festering strike is under 3 stacks as to not waste potential stacks.

 

In the outbreak/Virulent Plague category I think it should be mentioned that virulent plague does about 1.71x its listed damage, accounting for the fact that both parts of the damage (the plague and the eruptions) scale off of AP and stay proportionate. You get an average of 71% extra damage from the eruptions, not including the on-death eruption.

 

Under runes, I think it should be noted that AT LEAST THREE runes should be kept on cooldown AT ALL TIMES. This maximizes rune regeneration, as up to three runes can be regenerated at a time.

 

Under runic power, the main purpose of our RP spenders, except for when Val'kyr is out, is the facilitate the regeneration of runes with Runic Corruption. If the player does not have at least three runes recharging, that should be priority over spending the runic power. One runic corruption without three runes on cooldown is a loss of .9 runes, 2 runes (of 3) on cooldown is .6 runes, 1 rune (of 3) on cooldown is .3 runes. All three scenarios lead to a damage loss. Death coil should in general only be used with at least 3 runes on cooldown, or when runic power capped. All values are before haste, but as our rune regeneration, and thus RP regeneration, and GCD all scale with haste, the damage losses remain the same.

 

Anti-Magic shell says that it absorbs 100% of all damage for 5 seconds. Is should say 100% of all magic damage, up to 30% of your health, for 5 seconds.

Edited August 26, 2016 by Mortichar

[Mortichar 0]

Also, I think it should be noted that while clawing shadows was buffed, with any reasonable amount of crit it still falls decently behind Castigator, as both hits of Castigator can cause wounds to burst, doubling the benefit the talent gets from crit (not including the benefit bestowed upon Festering Strike).

Clawing shadows should only really see use where you have some serious space between you and the boss for a large part of the fight. As long as you're not wasting runes or RP because you're not on the boss 100% (spending them as you get them), clawing shadows cannot be a damage increase.

Castigator also speeds up the rotation by generating and bursting more wounds, which provide RP on their own.

Edited August 26, 2016 by Mortichar

[Tegu 1]

Thank you for your feedback @Mortichar gonna udpate some of those sections since they were outdated, everything should be up to date for Legion in a few days.

[Zataron 5]

Hi, I would like to ask a question:

The unholy guide on wowhead says that you shouldn't spend runes without proper setup. I take this to mean that you should keep 2-3 runes off cooldown until you have procs like Scourge of Worlds, Trinket or Unholy Strength up. Since the other 3 runes are recharging, you wouldn't be inefficient. In my personal experience with the prepatch, I always feel like I'm doing something wrong when I spent all my runes with no buffs up and then get Unholy Strength + Trinket proc. I would like to know your take on this, since I didn't really see it mentioned in the guide.

 

[Guest uzza]

Hi, I was wondering if there will be any update to this guide before Legion hits (with optimal artifact  trait routes etc)?

[Guest asking]

Unholy

• Clawing Shadows damage has been changed to 130% weapon damage (was 150% Attack Power) and now requires facing the target.

 

can we use ist again? or is it still crap 

thank you

[Tegu 1]

1 hour ago, Zataron said:

Hi, I would like to ask a question:

The unholy guide on wowhead says that you shouldn't spend runes without proper setup. I take this to mean that you should keep 2-3 runes off cooldown until you have procs like Scourge of Worlds, Trinket or Unholy Strength up. Since the other 3 runes are recharging, you wouldn't be inefficient. In my personal experience with the prepatch, I always feel like I'm doing something wrong when I spent all my runes with no buffs up and then get Unholy Strength + Trinket proc. I would like to know your take on this, since I didn't really see it mentioned in the guide.

 

That is mentioned probably because of Dark Arbiter outside of that he's talking about pre-patch not Legion. Saving runes for potential Scourge of Words procs is good only if you have runic power then you can prioritize Death Coil over Scourge Strike if you bait for Scourge of Words. 

 

56 minutes ago, Guest uzza said:

Hi, I was wondering if there will be any update to this guide before Legion hits (with optimal artifact  trait routes etc)?

Yes you can expect it tomorrow or sunday.

20 minutes ago, Guest asking said:

Unholy

• Clawing Shadows damage has been changed to 130% weapon damage (was 150% Attack Power) and now requires facing the target.

 

can we use ist again? or is it still crap 

thank you

From what i've been hearing ( haven't tested it myself ) Clawing Shadows is doing more damage than Scourge Strike itself but combined with Castigator you have to add the Festering Wounds damage that Castigator provides. I'd assume that Castigator is better but once you have to move around or be outside range or do mythic + and you are in danger of dying in melee Clawing Shadows takes over.

[Zataron 5]

1 hour ago, Tegu said:

That is mentioned probably because of Dark Arbiter outside of that he's talking about pre-patch not Legion. Saving runes for potential Scourge of Words procs is good only if you have runic power then you can prioritize Death Coil over Scourge Strike if you bait for Scourge of Words.

Hey Tegu,

thanks for the fast answer! You're of course right about Scourge of Worlds. However, I'm still wondering why it's not worth holding runes for procs that appear independently of death coil, like unholy strength or a trinket. My thought process is that holding 3 runes is (usually) not harmful, so I might aswell wait till I can do the most damage with them. Do you think it just doesn't make enough difference to be worth it?

[Tegu 1]

2 minutes ago, Zataron said:

Hey Tegu,

thanks for the fast answer! You're of course right about Scourge of Worlds. However, I'm still wondering why it's not worth holding runes for procs that appear independently of death coil, like unholy strength or a trinket. My thought process is that holding 3 runes is (usually) not harmful, so I might aswell wait till I can do the most damage with them. Do you think it just doesn't make enough difference to be worth it?

I just think that it's better to save them for something that you need them like Dark Arbiter, Scourge of Worlds, Soul Reaper etc etc. Saving for something like potential trinket or Fallen Crusader  isn't worth it unless you know that you'd get some benefit from it pointless to hold for too long. Especially with talents like Pesteling Pustules and let's say the legendary bracers  or the legendary pet ring that might give you a rune and cap your runes

[Quiks 0]

Tegu, thanks for the guide and everything u have answered since 7.0.3 came, but i think i'm about to drop my DK, it makes me feel really sad with lot of nerfs on the class even before the legion is here, wishes the best to u man :) 

[Tegu 1]

1 hour ago, Quiks said:

Tegu, thanks for the guide and everything u have answered since 7.0.3 came, but i think i'm about to drop my DK, it makes me feel really sad with lot of nerfs on the class even before the legion is here, wishes the best to u man :) 

You are welcome, what do you plan to play ? Death Knight should be still in a good place ( the unholy spec, frost is garbage ).

[Guest face]

do you know how apocalyptic deathblade works exactly? and does it proc on bosses for damage?

[Tegu 1]

Just now, Guest face said:

do you know how apocalyptic deathblade works exactly? and does it proc on bosses for damage?

What exactly is Apocalyptic Deathblade ? Do you mean the Weapon Artifact Apocalypse ability ?

[Guest Death God Fuzzy Cat]

On 8/26/2016 at 2:23 PM, Tegu said:

From what i've been hearing ( haven't tested it myself ) Clawing Shadows is doing more damage than Scourge Strike itself but combined with Castigator you have to add the Festering Wounds damage that Castigator provides. I'd assume that Castigator is better but once you have to move around or be outside range or do mythic + and you are in danger of dying in melee Clawing Shadows takes over.

CS gets a 10% buff from the Artifacts +10% shadow damage, and with gearing Haste>Mastery for CS wouldn't the increase in shadow damage on everything else off set the extra FW damage heck even mastery would increase the FW dmg

[Quiks 0]

1 hour ago, Tegu said:

You are welcome, what do you plan to play ? Death Knight should be still in a good place ( the unholy spec, frost is garbage ).

Warrior Fury, if they won't nerf it a lot either :( , because i only play dk and warrior and every time they get nerfs haha

[Guest Death God Fuzzy Cat]

52 minutes ago, Tegu said:

What exactly is Apocalyptic Deathblade ? Do you mean the Weapon Artifact Apocalypse ability ?

It's the hidden effect from the Artifact

 

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=204897/apocalyptic-deathblade

 

IIRC it only works on non-elites.

[Tegu 1]

3 hours ago, Guest Death God Fuzzy Cat said:

CS gets a 10% buff from the Artifacts +10% shadow damage, and with gearing Haste>Mastery for CS wouldn't the increase in shadow damage on everything else off set the extra FW damage heck even mastery would increase the FW dmg

It might be, but we don't have sims right now or logs to work with, not sure how it's gonna work out at level 110, friend of mine tried with 97 % mastery really good artfiact weapon and Clawing Shadows was definetly doing more damage than Scourge Strike but then it comes down  to the value of Castigator. Like @Mortichar mentioned above Castigator gives you a smoother rotation and a lot of damage income from Festering Wounds. I assume that their intend is to keep Castigator top while having Clawing Shadows available if we have to be moving a lot. Everything needs to be tested more or less and then i would update the guide once again at some point. Legion guide update should be comming tomorrow (sunday) if everything goes to plan.

 

2 hours ago, Quiks said:

Warrior Fury, if they won't nerf it a lot either :( , because i only play dk and warrior and every time they get nerfs haha

Well you should have the Death Knight as an option still but either way good luck to whatever you decide to play.

2 hours ago, Guest Death God Fuzzy Cat said:

It's the hidden effect from the Artifact

 

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=204897/apocalyptic-deathblade

 

IIRC it only works on non-elites.

I didn't even know about it to be honest so no, no idea how it works.

[Guest Unholynoob]

Hello Teggu i play Alliance Unholy dk and want to reroll my race can you tell me whats the best race for unholy dk? I heard Draenei is very good with the Str buff they have but i dont know how good it scales since it scales on lvl.

[Tegu 1]

2 hours ago, Guest Unholynoob said:

Hello Teggu i play Alliance Unholy dk and want to reroll my race can you tell me whats the best race for unholy dk? I heard Draenei is very good with the Str buff they have but i dont know how good it scales since it scales on lvl.

I have no idea about the alliance but i have seen some of the top allaince guilds playing Human even though i'm not sure what they get from racials.