Unholy Death Knight DPS Amirdrassil Raid Guide — Season 4

Below, you can find class and spec-specific advice for every fight in Amirdrassil. If you are looking for a general overview of the Raid that is not spec-specific, check out our dedicated Amirdrassil, the Dream's Hope guides.

On this page, you will find Unholy Death Knight specific information to deal with each boss in the Amirdrassil raid. These are not complete encounter guides but specific tips for doing the bosses as a Unholy Death Knight.

This page assumes that you already understand most of the mechanics of each encounter. These can be found on the full raid guide, so what is contained here are details specifically tailored toward Unholy Death Knight and how you can deal with each fight as best as possible.

All recommendations are progression-based tips and will not necessarily be the best for an overall DPS ranking.

Here is a summary for each boss with tips, tricks and talents in a video format!

The Default Raid Build above is your generic single target talent tree. Each boss below will note if it uses this build or a different one and if you should tweak anything. The primary choice will be between the default build and the Defile build. The Defile build does sim slightly better (1% or so) but tends to be hard to pull off in practice. I, therefore only recommend it where it finds specifically good AoE value. Generally, we run Defile on Gnarlroot and Tindral!

This encounter has a significant amount of AoE, making the Defile build an excellent choice! Furthermore, the boss stays stationary for the majority of the fight, making you unlikely to lose value on Defile due to boss movement. Abomination Limb is a potential pickup here, but I do not think it's necessary. Yes, it deals more overall damage, but you lose priority damage from not having Soul Reaper. Picking up Unholy Pact is a potential choice here, losing you 1% on Single Target damage but doing a lot more on the adds!

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• Use Anti-Magic Shell when target by Controlled Burn. This deals a lot of damage, and you will be running out of the raid, making it more difficult to survive.
• Use Anti-Magic Zone when the boss casts Tortured Scream.
• Leverage Defile, Epidemic, and Clawing Shadows cleave to help deal with the adds that spawn.
• During phase two, try and continue using Death Coil as much as possible to not lose out on Cooldown reduction on Army of the Dead.
• Use your 3-minute burst cooldowns during the end of phase two when the boss takes 100% increased damage from Uprooted Agony for 20 seconds. Try and use use Army of the Dead and Summon Gargoyle at least 5 seconds before this damage phase starts (it's tricky to judge exactly when it happens, but you get a good idea from the remaining number of roots to be burned).

Doing good damage on Gnarlroot primarily comes down to two factors: being able to do good damage on the adds that spawn, as well as executing the 2 minute burst properly. For the adds, primarily use Clawing Shadows cleave to burst them down. Using Outbreak into Epidemic spam generally takes too many GCDs! The adds generally come in a staggered fashion and will be close to dead before you have had time to DoT them all up. The exception here is when your Unholy Blight is running as you do not need to manually apply your DoTs.

The 2-minute burst window is your primary boss damage timing. Most guilds will hold Bloodlust until this point due to Uprooted Agony increasing the damage the boss is taking by 100% for 20 seconds. The timing means that you can use everything you have on pull, except Army of the Dead, Summon Gargoyle, Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power and Mirror of Fractured Tomorrows. When it comes to actually executing the burst, it is crucial that you start your burst rotation before the boss becomes vulnerable. Your damage takes a couple of seconds to ramp and it also lasts for more than 20 seconds. You want to be up and running when the boss can be attacked again. This is tricky to execute well but I will generally assume that the roots are burned just after the second set of fire debuffs come out. Once they hit the ground, I send my cooldowns and hope for the best. I will also use Fyr'alath the Dream Render towards the end of the damage amp phase (after having used it on pull).

For more information, please refer to our Gnarlroot guide.

This fight has some nice intermittent add cleave whenever the Blistering Spear spawns but primarily is about maximizing single-target damage. You get good value from Improved Death Coil as well as Clawing Shadows cleave in Death and Decay. Defile does work well here, but so does the default build. We recommend default build since it is slightly more versatile!

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• Use Death's Advance to avoid the knockback from Marked for Torment.
• Use Anti-Magic Zone to help your raid mitigate the damage from Umbral Destruction, Smashing Viscera and Marked for Torment.
• Make sure you do not use your 3-minute burst Cooldowns when the boss is about to jump around the room during Smashing Viscera!
• Make sure to leverage Death and Decay/ Defile whenever the Blistering Spears spawn.
• You can pre-immune the Heart Stopper debuff with Anti-Magic Shell. Since the tank soak and the debuff alternates (on Mythic), you know that you will get the Heart Stopper if you soak the initial slam!

Doing well in Igira is primarily about leveraging your cleave to do high damage to the spears. If you are playing in a guild with good damage, you really need to be on your toes with the spears as they die so quickly. Furthermore, it is crucial that your team places the spears in a way that allows you to cleave well. If they are too spread out, Clawing Shadows will not be able to hit them from the boss. Before each spear set, pre-use Death and Decay at least 1 GCD before the spears spawn. Then simply spam Clawing Shadows until they are all dead. It is a good idea here to dump Runic Power before using your Death and Decay, as it gives you more Runes to play with.

For more information, please refer to our Igira guide.

This fight involves quite a lot of movement as well as being a pure Single Target encounter. I therefore recommend using the default raid build!

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• Use Anti-Magic Shell when targeted by Coiling Flames to help mitigate the damage.
• Use Anti-Magic Zone to help your raid mitigate the damage from Flood of the Firelands.
• Use Death's Advance to immune the knockback from Flood of the Firelands.

Volcoross is your standard pure Single Target encounter, testing the limits on your understanding of the rotation itself. You should really try and focus on the min-max aspects of the rotation for this boss, making sure your Festermight windows are done properly as well as trying to game Rotten Touch as much as possible. Other than that, getting a good parse is all about kill timing. 3:40 kill? You are chilling. 3:00, you really cannot do much, to be honest.

For more information, please refer to our Volcoross guide.

This fight consists of 3 target spread-ish cleave. You fight three bosses at the same time, but they tend to be relatively spread out, and move around quite a lot. I recommend running the default build since you will get a lot of value from Death Coil cleave, and be moving around too much to fully leverage Defile.

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• Use Death and Decay to cleave as much as possible when the bosses are stacked.
• Maintain Virulent Plague on all bosses.
• Use Anti-Magic Shell when targeted by Poisonous Javelin.
• Use Death's Advance during Emerald Winds to immune the push effect.

Parsing on Council is a tricky affair due to the constant movement and target swapping, as well as downtime induced from being ducked. As a general rule, you want to leverage as much cleave as possible in this fight. This means that you want to follow Urctos around, attack whatever boss stands next to him. Furthermore, you generally want to delay your second 3-minute burst slightly. The 3-minute mark is really messy with the bosses spread and ultimates coming out. Wait for around 20 seconds or so (as long as it does not lose you out on a cast overall) and then send your big CDs! Furthermore, if you have Fyr'alath the Dream Render, make sure to keep up the Mark on all bosses by using Outbreak as appropriate.

For more information, please refer to our Council of Dreams guide.

Primarily a single target encounter with some intermittent add cleave and heavy movement.

Even if this encounter presents some nice cleave opportunity, the heavy movement means that Defile won't be as valuable. The boss is kited around the room as the raid fills up the area with fire, meaning Defile will be difficult to leverage. I recommend running the default build! Abomination Limb has potential value here due to extra grips and added cleave. We do not think it is worthwhile, however, since you lose quite a lot of priority damage.

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• Use Death Grip to help gather up the Fiery Treants when they spawn.
• Leverage Death and Decay whenever the Fiery Treants spawn to do additional cleave damage.
• Use Anti-Magic Zone to help your raid mitigate the damage from Raging Inferno. Also, use Anti-Magic Shell to further mitigate the damage to yourself.
• Use Death's Advance during Consuming Flame to immune the pulling effect.
• You can soak the Blazing Coalescence orbs to gain a short crit buff. This also deals damage to you, so make sure to use a defensive if you drop too low!

Larodar is both about doing as much cleave as possible on the Fiery Treants, as well as timing the buff from Blazing Coalescence well. On pull, your back-to-back Death and Decay will overlap nicely with the treants that spawn. Prioritise Clawing Shadows to cleave but do not overcap Runic Power. Furthermore, make sure to use Anti-Magic Shell to follow the boss for his first charge. Try and soack an orb for the crit damage at the 2-minute mark when you are using your Legendary for the second time.

Nymue is an encounter with a stationary boss in Phase 1, and two adds in Phase 2. The adds are not stacked though, so it is essentially a single target encounter. We recommend the default build here. The boss is stationary, but it is not worthwhile to run Defile anyway.

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• You can use Icebound Fortitude if you are hit by Impending Loom. This will remove the stun and help mitigate the DoT afterward.
• You can use Anti-Magic Shell to immune the effect of an Impending Loom line. You should just dodge these, though.
• Use Anti-Magic Shell and Anti-Magic Zone during Viridian Rain to help mitigate the damage.
• You can use Anti-Magic Shell to cross across the walls without getting the DoT. You simply immune the application and can move freely through them for the full duration of Anti-Magic Shell. Great to use if you get the Weaver's Burden mechanic, as you will need to move out of the raid, crossing multiple lines.
• You can use Anti-Magic Shell to reset the stack of Unravel in the intermission.

Nymue is very much a Single Target encounter without that many tips to improve your DPS. Make sure to use /petattack to ensure your pet swaps quickly to the mob in the intermission. Furthermore, delay your 3-minute burst by one Apocalypse Dark Transformation cycle to ensure that it gets full value. Otherwise, the boss becomes immune at the middle point of your burst.

For more information, please refer to our Nymue guide.

Pure single-target fight with quite a lot of personal and boss movement. Due to the movement and risk of not seeing ground mechanics, I recommend the default Raid build! Improved Death Strike is a potential pick-up here, especially on Mythic. It allows you to use Death Strike once after you receive the heal absorb from the tank, significantly reducing the amount of time the absorb is on you and allowing you to drop it in a better location!

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• Use Anti-Magic Shell to help mitigate the damage when targeted by Overheated.
• Save your 3 minute burst for Devour Essence where you can collect Living Flames to increase your own damage. Make sure to use your cooldowns around 5 seconds before picking up the first Living Flame, as the buff lasts for 20 seconds and does not refresh. The best way to achieve this is the following:
  1. Walk to the center of the "ring" that is second to being the furthest one away from the boss.
  2. Use Death's Advance and wait for the boss to use his knockback
  3. Use Army of the Dead after the knockback as you run in.
  4. Use Death and Decay, where you will end up next to the boss.
  5. Use Summon Gargoyle macro and proceed with the opener.
  6. Collect the balls just after you hit Apocalypse.
• You can use Anti-Magic Shell to immune the DoT from the World in Flames. This also soaks up the entire initial damage (even on Mythic). Use this to your advantage to stand close to the boss during your Cooldowns, both generating Runic Power and keeping up your Unholy Aura on the boss.
• Use Anti-Magic Zone to help mitigate the damage from Brand of Damnation
• Be careful with using Death's Advance for the knockback in the intermission as you risk spawning the balls too close to the boss. It's better to have some distance to give yourself more time to soak them up.
• The intermission phase will have a 20-second window where you do significantly more damage due to the Living Flame mechanic. Providing 100% increased damage at 5 stacks. This window does not line up well with your cooldowns, so you need to plan ahead to make sure you get the best overlap. When using Bloodlust on pull, do the following:
  • 00:00 - Use all Cooldowns.
  • 01:10 - Use Dark Transformation and Apocalypse with Living Flame.
  • 02:00 - Use Dark Transformation, Apocalypse, Unholy Assault and Empower Rune Weapon.
  • 02:45 - Use Dark Transformation and Apocalypse with Living Flame.
  • 03:30 - Use Dark Transformation and Apocalypse.
  • 04:30 - Use all Cooldowns with Living Flame.
  With Bloodlust with the first or third damage phase, you'd do the following:
  • 00:00 - Use Dark Transformation and Apocalypse.
  • 01:10 - Use all Cooldowns with Living Flame.
  • 02:00 - Use Dark Transformation and Apocalypse.
  • 02:45 - Use Dark Transformation, Apocalypse and Unholy Assault.
  • 03:30 - Use Dark Transformation and Apocalypse.
  • 04:30 - Use all Cooldowns with Living Flame.

Smolderon is all about executing your burst windows in the intermissions, with correct soaking of the Living Flame. With the Army of the Dead windows, I make sure to stand in the middle in the second ring (counting from the outward in) with Death's Advance active. Starting to run when the knockback finishes allows for a good buff timing. You want to pick up the orbs just after you press Apocalypse in the burst! For the non-Army windows, stand closer to the boss so that you again can pick up orbs after your Apocalypse.

For more information, please refer to our Smolderon guide.

Primarily a Single Target encounter but with some period of heavy add cleave. Since the adds you kill aren't fully stacked, Defile works really well, since you also pick up Epidemic here! I recommend the Defile build here due to the large increase in burst AoE without any loss in Single Target.

There is an alternative build for this boss which leverages Bursting Sores. This does slightly less boss damage but manages to deal better Root damage in a quicker manner. It's all about Death and Decay with Clawing Shadows spam: BwPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIikEJiERISECJJJRAAAAAAAAAgSSSQCSKAgkESTkkkIC

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• Bank up Runic Power before the roots so that you can spam Epidemic when they spawn!
• Wraith Walk can be used to remove the root on this fight. However, it is difficult to justify picking up this talent due to the DPS and utility loss. You can use Anti-Magic Shell to immune the root. This spawns an add early (on Mythic) however and should only be done when your group breaks the roots in a coordinated manner.
• The fight consists of 90-120 seconds of platform action followed by 20-30 seconds of flying. This means Army of the Damned has a lot less value overall. We will have to hold our Summon Gargoyle for the third phase to line it up with Army of the Dead (Heroic)!
• Use Anti-Magic Zone to help mitigate the damage from Supernova. Potentially save your 3-minute CDs for this if your raid needs the burst DPS (Heroic). For Mythic, use the Runic Power you generate here to spam Death Coil!

Tindral parsing comes from two factors: Root damage and proper Army of the Dead cooldown reduction. For the root damage, you deal with it differently depending on build. With classic Defile raid build, bank up full Runic Power, pre-use Defile, DoT up the adds ASAP and then spam Epidemic. For the Wound build, dump Runic Power before the adds spawn, pre-use Death and Decay and then spam Clawing Shadows for damage! For Wound build, do not use Death and Decay in the opener! Save the first use for the first roots to have DnD for every root set in P1.

When it comes to your Army of the Dead timing, getting it back at the 3 minute mark is difficult, especially if you are in a feather group. The primary help here comes when you are breaking the Supernova shield. Anti-Magic Shell and Anti-Magic Zone provide a ton of Runic Power that you can then funnel into Death Coil, reducing your Army Cooldown.

Finally, cooldown usage. Due to the flying bit, your cooldowns will desync somewhat over the fight. The usage will look like the following:

• 00:00 - Use everything
• 00:45 - Dark Transformation + Apocalypse + Unholy Blight
• 02:00 - Dark Transformation + Apocalpyse + Unholy Blight + Legendary (First Shield)
• 03:00 - Use everything
• 04:15 - Dark Transformation + Apocalpyse + Unholy Blight + Legendary (Second Shield)
• 04:30 - Unholy Assault
• 05:15 - Dark Transformation + Apocalypse + Unholy Blight (Hold for roots)
• 06:00 - Use everything

For more information, please refer to our Tindral guide.

Fyrakk is a three-stage encounter with some cleave opportunity but primarily Single Target focused. We get nice utility from our Death Grip due to adds needing to be grouped up and killed quickly.

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• Dream Rend deals a significant amount of raid damage; use Anti-Magic Zone to help mitigate it.
• The boss will jump into the middle of the room as a dragon on two occasions: start of the first intermission and start of phase 3. You can use Death's Advance to avoid the knockback from this!
• Phase 2 will have multiple adds spawning. First two Burning Colossus adds followed by multiple Screaming Soul adds. Use Death and Decay as much as possible whenever the adds are stacked together.
• Use Death Grip (and Abomination Limb if you talent into this) to help group up the Screaming Soul adds! The adds that spawn in the middle of the room are the most important to grip as they can otherwise kill the healing adds that walk through the room.
• Apocalypse Roar knockback can be immuned with Death's Advance.

Fyrakk parsing comes down to proper cooldown management, as well as efficient cleave on intermission adds. The timings in the fight vary slightly depending on tactic, but this assumes you are using the standard Bloodlust in P3 approach. For the adds, dump Runic Power and save up Runes so that you can Death and Decay + Clawing Shadows cleave them down. Ideally you want 5-6 back-to-back Clawing Shadows on the small adds to cleave.

For cooldown timings, there is quite a lot of desync. Importantly, we need to hold Unholy Assault at various points to line it up with our CDs. Furthermore, we need to delay our CDs to hit the Bloodlust timing at the 07:45 mark:

• 00:00 - Use everything
• 00:45 - Dark Transformation + Apocalypse
• 01:30 - Dark Transformation + Apocalypse + Unholy Assault
• 01:30 - Dark Transformation + Apocalypse + Unholy Assault
• 02:40 - Dark Transformation + Apocalypse + Legendary (Save for intermission shield)
• 03:35 - Use everything (Start of P2)
• 04:20 - Dark Transformation + Apocalypse
• 05:00 - Legendary (Wait until after lines have finished)
• 05:05 - Dark Transformation + Apocalypse + Unholy Assault
• 05:50 - Dark Transformation + Apocalypse
• 06:50 - Legendary -> Dark Transformation + Apocalypse
• 07:45 - Use everything (with Bloodlust)
• Continue using stuff on CD

For more information, please refer to our Fyrakk guide.