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Unholy Death Knight: Mists of Pandaria Rotation Changes, Talents, and Glyphs (Patch 5.0.4)

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This article is no longer being updated. Please check our Unholy Death Knight guide, which is fully compatible with Mists of Pandaria, and is being constantly updated. Thank you.

In preparation for the updates to our guides for Mists of Pandaria Patch 5.0.4, we are releasing articles such as this one, explaining what has changed for a particular class and spec, and what the new rotation is likely to be.

Keep in mind that this is still a work in progress (both from Blizzard's side and from our own) and that this article assumes you are at least somewhat familiar with the Cataclysm version of the Unholy Death Knight rotation and playstyle (such as from reading our guide).

We will first list the most important changes to the Unholy Death Knight Cataclysm abilities, and then we will proceed to explaining the (likely to be) optimal rotation. Keep in mind that we do not document every single change or new ability, only those that impact the rotation.

Finally, we will give you some information about the most useful talents and glyphs you should choose.

New Abilities

  • inv_helmet_08.jpgUnholy Aura is a new raid buff that increases the melee and ranged attack speed of all raid members by 10%. This effect was previously provided by a talent (spell_deathknight_icytalons.jpgImproved Icy Talons) that was only available to Frost Death Knights.
  • inv_misc_bone_skull_01.jpgControl Undead allows you to take control of any hostile Undead mob (only one mob at a time, however). Bosses are immune to this ability. The mob's attack speed and casting speed are diminished, but it retains all of its abilities. You cannot have your own ghoul (spell_shadow_animatedead.jpgRaise Dead) and the controlled mob active at the same time, making this ability nearly useless to you.
  • ability_deathknight_soulreaper.jpgSoul Reaper is a nuke, with "execute" properties. It deals 100% weapon damage and applies a debuff on the target, lasting 5 seconds. If, when the debuff expires, the target is below 35% health, it deals a moderate amount of Shadow damage. The ability's damage, when the target is not below 35% health, does not make it worth casting. Finally, if the target is killed while the debuff is active, you gain 50% haste for 10 seconds.
  • ability_creature_cursed_03.jpgEbon Plaguebringer now provides the ability_deathknight_brittlebones.jpgPhysical Vulnerability debuff, which was previously only provided by Frost Death Knights.
  • Tier 1 talents offer a choice between ability_creature_disease_02.jpgPlague Leech and spell_shadow_contagion.jpgUnholy Blight (and ability_deathknight_roilingblood.jpgRoiling Blood, although this is a passive ability). We discuss these talents in greater depth in the Talents section.
  • Tier 4 talents offer a choice between ability_deathknight_deathsiphon.jpgDeath Siphon, spell_shadow_deathpact.jpgDeath Pact, and ability_deathknight_deathsiphon2.jpgConversion. We discuss these talents in greater depth in the Talents section.
  • Tier 5 talents offer a choice between spell_deathknight_bloodtap.jpgBlood Tap and two passive spells, inv_misc_rune_10.jpgRunic Empowerment and spell_shadow_rune.jpgRunic Corruption. We discuss these talents in greater depth in the Talents section.

Changes to Existing Mechanics

  • The base global cooldown is now 1 second by default. Previously, this was a feature of spell_deathknight_unholypresence.jpgUnholy Presence.
  • inv_misc_horn_02.jpgHorn of Winter now grants 10% increased attack power to all raid members. This is due to the old buff of Horn of Winter (549 Strength and Agility to all raid members) having been removed. Horn of Winter now also lasts for 5 minutes, instead of 2 minutes (3 with the appropriate glyph).
  • spell_deathknight_frostfever.jpgFrost Fever and spell_deathknight_bloodplague.jpgBlood Plague now last 30 seconds.
  • spell_shadow_unholyfrenzy.jpgUnholy Frenzy is no longer an Enrage effect. This only means that it no longer has particular relevance for Fury Warriors.
  • ability_creature_cursed_03.jpgEbon Plaguebringer no longer applies the magic damage taken increasing debuff.

Removed Abilities:

  • spell_deathknight_bloodtap.jpgBlood Tap has practically been removed. There is a new spell with the same name in Mists of Pandaria, although it has nothing to do with the Cataclysm version of Blood Tap.

Single Target Rotation

The Unholy Death Knight rotation remains practically unchanged from the Cataclysm version (detailed in our guide). The only relevant change comes from the inclusion of ability_deathknight_soulreaper.jpgSoul Reaper in the rotation (when the target is below 35%). It should be used on cooldown with a very high priority. Other abilities that you gain from your talents will be used sporadically, as described in the talents section or as dictated by their situational benefit.

Multiple Target Rotation

In terms of multiple target and AoE rotations, there are some proposed changes currently on the Beta. We will continue to follow their evolution before commenting on them here.

Talents

Tier 1 talents offer a choice between 3 talents that are related to your diseases.For single-target situations, ability_creature_disease_02.jpgPlague Leech will result in a small DPS increase, making it preferable to the other two options.

In multiple-target situations, the choice between spell_shadow_contagion.jpgUnholy Blight and ability_deathknight_roilingblood.jpgRoiling Blood will depend on the specifics of the encounter.

Tier 2 talents offer a choice between 3 survival talents.

spell_shadow_raisedead.jpgLichborne allows you to heal yourself with spell_shadow_deathcoil.jpgDeath Coil for 10 seconds every 2 minutes.

spell_deathknight_antimagiczone.jpgAnti-Magic Zone places a protective barrier at a target location, reducing the magic damage taken by any raid members inside it by 75%. The zone lasts for 10 seconds, or until it absorbs a fixed amount of damage (rather low). It is unchanged from its Cataclysm version (except that it can now be placed at a targeted location), and it will remain useful for reducing the damage of a powerful AoE attack, and less useful for reducing damage that comes in over time.

inv_misc_shadowegg.jpgPurgatory allows you to survive an attack that would otherwise kill you, every 3 minutes. The amount of damage that is prevented from reaching you (i.e., the amount of damage that would have been the "overkill" portion) will be turned into a healing absorption effect on you, lasting 3 seconds. During those 3 seconds, you cannot die, and all damage done to you is added to the healing absorption effect. If, after 3 seconds, you were not healed for that amount (so, if the absorption effect still exists), you will die.

The mechanics of the encounter you are progressing on will determine your choice. Anti-Magic zone is useful as a raid cooldown any time there is a big magic damage attack that you want to mitigate. Purgatory can be useful in allowing you to bypass encounter mechanics, while Lichborne simply allows you to help out the healers by keeping yourself alive during times of heavy damage.

Tier 3 talents offer a choice between 3 crowd-control and utility talents.

spell_shadow_demonicempathy.jpgDeath's Advance will probably be the default choice unless encounter mechanics require something else, simply due to the fact that it offers a passive 10% increased movement speed at all times.

spell_frost_wisp.jpgChilblains will be useful when there are adds that must be kited.

ability_deathknight_asphixiate.jpgAsphyxiate, which is an improved spell_shadow_soulleech_3.jpgStrangulate (half the cooldown, no rune cost, stun instead of silence, when possible), will mostly have PvP applications and, unless there is a specific encounter where it is for some reason particularly beneficial, it will not show up in PvE.

Tier 4 talents offer a choice between 3 self-healing talents.

ability_deathknight_deathsiphon2.jpgConversion provides a high amount of healing, but it will also negatively affect your DPS.

spell_shadow_deathpact.jpgDeath Pact will be the default choice when you need a large amount of healing on-demand, especially considering that it has no resource cost.

At the same time, ability_deathknight_deathsiphon.jpgDeath Siphon is quite powerful and, despite the fact that it costs a death rune, it is very useful because it also deals damage to the target.

Tier 5 talents offer a choice between 3 talents that improve your rune regeneration.

In terms of efficiency, the choice will come down to either inv_misc_rune_10.jpgRunic Empowerment or spell_shadow_rune.jpgRunic Corruption.

We believe that Unholy Death Knights will probably opt for spell_shadow_rune.jpgRunic Corruption.

Tier 6 talents offer a choice between 3 crowd-control talents.

In a rather disappointing turn of events, the tier 6 talents have no effect on your actual DPS performance. These talents are heavily PvP-centric and we believe that for PvE the choice will be largely irrelevant.

Glyphs

While many Death Knight glyphs are interesting and have applicability for PvP or questing, in terms of PvE performance, there are only a few Major Glyphs that we consider worth mentioning.
  • inv_glyph_majordeathknight.jpgGlyph of Unholy Frenzy removes the damaging portion of spell_shadow_unholyfrenzy.jpgUnholy Frenzy, a small but worthwhile benefit.
  • inv_glyph_majordeathknight.jpgGlyph of Death Coil makes your spell_shadow_deathcoil.jpgDeath Coil castable on allies. When doing so, it will place a damage absorption shield on them.
  • inv_glyph_majordeathknight.jpgGlyph of Anti-Magic Shell allows your spell_shadow_antimagicshell.jpgAnti-Magic Shell to absorb all the magic damage taken (instead of only 75% without the glyph), up to 50% of your maximum health. In practice, this will allow Anti-Magic Shell to absorb slightly more damage, in some situations, improving your survivability.
This concludes our Unholy Death Knight preview for Mists of Pandaria. We hope you have enjoyed reading it and that it proved useful to you. As always, we are looking forward to reading your opinions on the matter!

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Notes.

- Blood Boil does a great deal more damage than live, and deals 50% more damage with a disease up. It actually deals comparable damage to the AE component of Howling Blast, once you include Unholy's 25% higher attack power. The disease scaling component has been bugged for years, and was recently fixed in beta.

- Blood Boil is on Reaping now, so it refreshes as Death runes

- Unholy sustained AE involves using Festering Strike twice to get 4 death runes, then use them to Blood Boil. All 4 will refresh as Death runes, including the frost rune. This is due to another bug that was fixed.

- Note that this AE can take well over 20s to ramp-up, depending on whether Outbreak is off cooldown and if you chose Unholy Blight, so it is not usable in most content, it's only worth doing on long-lasting (~30s+) sustained AE. In dungeons and on trash, unholy just spreads diseases, Death & Decays, and uses blood boil when it's available. It doesn't bother with the Festering Strike setup.

- Unholy lost its third disease, but Scourge Strike was changed to scale from 25% damage per disease up from 18%, so this is a zero-sum change

- The ghoul pet has a lot less health in 5.x.

- Unholy Frenzy is no longer an enrage effect, so you don't need to feel obligated to use it on a Fury warrior

- Ebon Plaguebringer applies Physical Vulnerability raid debuff now. Previously only frost DKs had this.

- Unholy lost the Spell Damage Taken raid debuff

- Plague Leech is the best single-target DPS talent. Unholy's diseases last 60s when played correctly, so it's worth 1D rune every 60s. UB and RB are worth exactly zero in single-target situations.

- Unholy Blight allows unholy to ramp-up AE more quickly.

- Roiling Blood offers a bit of extra AE damage since you can skip a Pestilence.

- Death Coil innately does 20% more damage for Unholy. It does not heal for 20% more when used with Lichborne.

- Chilblains is terrible for Unholy PvE. If a DK wants to kite, they will spec Frost.

- Blood Tap is being taken (back) off the GCD in the next beta build. It's unclear how exactly they will do that. If it's reverted entirely, so it can be macroed, Blood Tap will be the best choice for everybody.

- Runic Empowerment is not an optimal choice for Unholy because the spec can't game it. Unholy needs to Festering Strike because those runes turn into death via Reaping and the ability also extends disease durations.

- It's worth noting that Soul Reaper is very powerful for unholy. It scales with mastery and unholy has 25% more AP than frost. Using SR is top priority for every DPS DK spec, but it's doubly so for unholy. SR should end up a significant portion of your total damage.

Edited by rodalpho

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Notes.

- Blood Boil does a great deal more damage than live, and deals 50% more damage with a disease up. It actually deals comparable damage to the AE component of Howling Blast, once you include Unholy's 25% higher attack power. The disease scaling component has been bugged for years, and was recently fixed in beta.

- Blood Boil is on Reaping now, so it refreshes as Death runes

- Unholy sustained AE involves using Festering Strike twice to get 4 death runes, then use them to Blood Boil. All 4 will refresh as Death runes, including the frost rune. This is due to another bug that was fixed.

- Note that this AE can take well over 20s to ramp-up, depending on whether Outbreak is off cooldown and if you chose Unholy Blight, so it is not usable in most content, it's only worth doing on long-lasting (~30s+) sustained AE. In dungeons and on trash, unholy just spreads diseases, Death & Decays, and uses blood boil when it's available. It doesn't bother with the Festering Strike setup.

- Unholy lost its third disease, but Scourge Strike was changed to scale from 25% damage per disease up from 18%, so this is a zero-sum change

- The ghoul pet has a lot less health in 5.x.

- Unholy Frenzy is no longer an enrage effect, so you don't need to feel obligated to use it on a Fury warrior

- Ebon Plaguebringer applies Physical Vulnerability raid debuff now. Previously only frost DKs had this.

- Unholy lost the Spell Damage Taken raid debuff

- Plague Leech is the best single-target DPS talent. Unholy's diseases last 60s when played correctly, so it's worth 1D rune every 60s. UB and RB are worth exactly zero in single-target situations.

- Unholy Blight allows unholy to ramp-up AE more quickly.

- Roiling Blood offers a bit of extra AE damage since you can skip a Pestilence.

- Death Coil innately does 20% more damage for Unholy. It does not heal for 20% more when used with Lichborne.

- Chilblains is terrible for Unholy PvE. If a DK wants to kite, they will spec Frost.

- Blood Tap is being taken (back) off the GCD in the next beta build. It's unclear how exactly they will do that. If it's reverted entirely, so it can be macroed, Blood Tap will be the best choice for everybody.

- Runic Empowerment is not an optimal choice for Unholy because the spec can't game it. Unholy needs to Festering Strike because those runes turn into death via Reaping and the ability also extends disease durations.

- It's worth noting that Soul Reaper is very powerful for unholy. It scales with mastery and unholy has 25% more AP than frost. Using SR is top priority for every DPS DK spec, but it's doubly so for unholy. SR should end up a significant portion of your total damage.

Thank you and sorry to reply so late. We've incorporated many of your suggestions into the guide :)

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Blood Tap was indeed taken off the GCD, so all the DK guides need to be changed. Since soul reaper doesn't cost a death rune, Blood Tap is less advantageous than before, so if the blood or unholy player really prefers Runic Corruption they can use it without hurting themselves too much. Frost is much better off with Runic Empowerment due to its higher efficiency.

Blood: Blood Tap, either macroed or unmacroed as the player prefers (unmacroed for control)

Frost: Runic Empowerment (macroed Blood Tap for PvP/Necrotic Strike or if you pick Death Siphon)

Unholy: Blood Tap, macroed. Gives more Soul Reapers, and SR is very important for unholy. Also helpful for PvP/Death Siphon.

The blood tap macro:

#showtooltip

/startattack

/cast Death Coil

/cast Blood Tap

(Replace Death Coil with your spec's RP dump as appropriate.)

Interestingly, Runic Empowerment sims as a 0.8% DPS gain over Runic Corruption for Unholy, so if Blood Tap was still on the GCD the technical recommendation would be RE for Unholy also, even though you'd be stuck with unpaired runes and can't game it, RE's slightly greater efficiency wins out. Luckily Blood Tap is usable now so that's a non-issue.

Also sims have shown that Plague Leech is a much smaller DPS improvement than previously accepted. It's only a 0.5% DPS gain, and if you mess up at ANY TIME and don't use Plague Leech when your diseases are at <3s remaining duration, you lose that advantage. I personally will be choosing Unholy Blight for this reason.

Similarly, Plague Leech is worth 1.4% DPS over Unholy Blight for frost. That's a more significant gain, but in fights with movement, etc, I still strongly feel Unholy Blight is a better choice. If you play perfectly, get PL. If you're human, UB.

Edited by rodalpho

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Thank you for keeping us updated as to the changes. We'll update the Unholy DK guide (not this article) over the next few days, and we'll be sure to include it all :)

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From more recent sims, Plague Leech is a 0.8% (Unholy) or 1.8% (frost) improvement over no T1 talent at all. Unholy Blight has no value on single targets. I can't imagine Unholy dealing with the annoyance, but frost players may want to choose PL if they think they can execute it well. I personally will be taking UB.

With all the various nerfs/buffs, Unholy is ~3% behind frost. Remains to be seen if it's buffed up to match frost. Unholy suffers from significant mechanical disadvantages (ramp-up, target switching, lack of burst damage, AE) so if it's not neck and neck with frost, there's really no compelling reason to choose unholy.

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      Unleashed Fury: your choice if you are aiming for single target healing in this fight. Not valuable if you chose High Tide in Tier 7.
      Primal Elementalist: An acceptable choice. There is nothing to heal for most of the fight, so you could use elementals for DPS!
      Elemental Blast: I can’t see any reason for having mana issues in this fight, so I wouldn’t take this talent.
       
      Tier 7:
      Cloudburst Totem: This is my preferred Talent for this fight. Damage on the Raid is low, so it feels better to single target heal while CBT will redistribute our healing to the raid.
      High Tide: The only reason to take this talent on Kargath, in my opinion, is when you are assigned to go upstairs. It’s problematic enough to time CBT there, people are running all over the place, so it might be easier to Riptide the group and Chain Heal them.
       
      MAJOR GLYPHS:
       
      GLYPH OF HEALING STREAM TOTEM
      GLYPH OF HEALING WAVE
      GLYPH OF SPIRITWALKER’S FOCUS (you can take something else instead but I don’t see anything really useful)
       
       
      THE BUTCHER (top)
       
      This is the fight with very high raid damage in both Normal and Heroic versions, especially for soaking groups.
      My guild uses a very specific tactic for this boss:
      We have two healers for 2 soaking groups (5+5 people) - myself (Restoration Shaman) and Disc Priest. Our Restoration Druid stays on the raid full time while our Holy Paladin prioritizes the Tanks. Sub-30%, our Healers come into the soaking groups to help minimise the damage, 2 healers in each group.
       
      TALENTS:
       
      Tier 1: I take Nature’s Guardian for accidental (or not accidental Sub-30%) Cleave damage.
       
      Tier 2: Doesn’t matter
       
      Tier 3:
      Call of Elements or Totemic Persistence.
      If you are aiming for Cloudburst Totem in Tier 7, Totemic Persistence could be your choice.
      I prefer High Tide for The Butcher. According to my assignment, I will have at least 5 heavily injured people during the entire fight. It’s clearly worth the constant use of Chain Heal.
      So Call of Elements is my choice here. The overall damage is very high, so even one more HST could help.
       
      Tier 4:
      Elemental Mastery: I wouldn’t take it. The other two talents are much more useful.
      Ancestral Swiftness: If you like to cast faster and to have an ‘oh, shit’ instant cast once every 90 seconds, this is a good choice.
      Echo of the Elements: A chance for additional Riptides or an Unleash Life without CD definitely increases our healing output. Remember that Unleashed Life empowers Chain Heal too so you can benefit from EotE when taking the High Tide talent.
       
      Tier 5:
      Rushing Streams or Conductivity.
      I prefer Rushing Streams but if you are good in handling Conductivity full time on melee - why not?
      You can find the WeakAura for tracking HR with Conductivity talent in our WA thread.
       
      Tier 6:
      Elemental Blast: I would say that this is our talent of choice for the Butcher. The fight is very intense and we’ll need every possible bit of mana.
       
      Tier 7:
      Cloudburst Totem: you can choose this it if you prefer single target healing. If you are using spells wisely, CBT will nicely redistribute your healing to all the injured people.
      High Tide: This is a very good talent for this fight. You will always have a lot of injured people and the power of High Tide will be fully utilized.
       
      MAJOR GLYPHS:
       
      GLYPH OF HEALING WAVE
      GLYPH OF SPIRITWALKER’S FOCUS (for knockbacks)
      Other possibilities:
      GLYPH OF FLAME SHOCK (a bit more of passive self healing)
      GLYPH OF RIPTIDE - if you don’t have a Resto Druid in the raid, it can be a possibility. If you can’t manage your High Tide CH targets without blanketing the raid, it’s a possibility too. But frankly, the amount of Riptides you'll have with the EotE talent should be enough to fully utilize High Tide.
       
       
      TECTUS (top)
       
      This is a fight with very intense movement for the entire raid, including healers.
      The tactic that my guild uses for this boss involves the whole raid spreading out in a big circle around the boss, no stacking.
      We have the assignments for raid healing CDs during Tectonic Upheaval for every Healer too.
       
      TALENTS:
       
      Tier 1: Nature’s Guardian for accidental ‘standing in crap’ damage or Astral Shift for Tectonic Upheavals.
       
      Tier 2: Doesn’t matter
       
      Tier 3: Call of Elements or Totemic Persistence.
      If you are aiming for Cloudburst Totem in Tier 7, Totemic Persistence could be your choice.
      Many people prefer CBT for this fight because of constant movement and obstacles that cause loss of LoS for direct target heals.
      Call of Elements can be a good choice too. One more HST in the moments when you have to run from Crystalline Barrage or around Earthen Pillar could definitely help.
       
      Tier 4:
      Elemental Mastery: You can take it if feeling like one more CD is needed but it will burn your mana really fast.
      Ancestral Swiftness: If you like to cast faster and to have an ‘oh, shit’ instant cast once every 90 seconds, this is a good choice.
      Echo of the Elements: A chance for additional Riptides or an Unleash Life without CD definitely increases our healing output. Remember that Unleashed Life empowers Chain Heal too so you can benefit from EotE when taking the High Tide talent.
       
      Tier 5:
      Rushing Streams is the only choice here really.
       
      Tier 6:
      Unleashed Fury or Elemental Blast.
      If you are able to cast a lot and burn your mana quickly or if you took Glyph of Riptide for this fight, then take Elemental Blast.
      If you prefer single target spells and CBT, take Unleashed Fury - 50% increased heal is really good - you can cast less and pay more attention to your movement.
       
      Tier 7:
      Cloudburst Totem: you can choose this it if you prefer single target healing. CBT will also nicely redistribute your healing to all injured people when you’re moving around!
      High Tide: good talent for people who are good in positioning or with Glyph of Riptide. You will have a lot of injured people in this fight and the power of High Tide will be fully utilized.
       
      MAJOR GLYPHS:
       
      GLYPH OF HEALING STREAM TOTEM
      GLYPH OF HEALING WAVE
      GLYPH OF SPIRITWALKER’S FOCUS (so much movement)
      Other possibilities:
      GLYPH OF FLAME SHOCK (a bit more of passive self healing)
      GLYPH OF RIPTIDE - if you don’t have a resto druid in raid, it’s a possibility. If you are not very good in finding safe spots and move a lot, it’s a possibility too.
       
       
      BRACKENSPORE (top)
       
      By the tactic my guild uses for this boss, we have assignment for every healer. On Heroic progression you will need two healers assigned to heal mushrooms (one healer in Normal).
      I have to say that a resto shaman with Cloudburst totem assigned to Mushrooms can do miracles ^^. I was able to pull 11% of total healing from CBT on this fight.
       
      TALENTS:
       
      Tier 1: Nature’s Guardian for accidental ‘caught in crap’ damage or Astral Shift for Infesting Spores.
       
      Tier 2: doesn’t matter
       
      Tier 3: Call of Elements or Totemic Persistence.
      If you are aiming for Cloudburst Totem in Tier 7, Totemic Persistence could be your choice.
      Call of Elements can be a choice too. One more HST on Infesting Spores - why not?
       
      Tier 4:
      Elemental Mastery: no need really and it burns your mana too quick.
      Ancestral Swiftness: if you like to cast faster and to have ‘oh, shit’ instant cast once in 90 sec. - it’s your choice.
      Echo of the Elements: I like it on this fight. More UL for mushrooms!
       
      Tier 5:
      Rushing Streams talent would be the best choice here really. Conductivity is very arguable, imo. While there are periods when all the raid is stacked on mushroom, I’m not sure that this time is long enough for using this talent.
       
      Tier 6:
      Unleashed Fury or Elemental Blast.
      I would take Unleashed Fury, especially if assigned to mushrooms. 50% increased single heal is really valuable here. If you are healing the raid, Elemental Blast could be your choice too, but frankly, you can refill the mana from blue mushroom.
       
      Tier 7:
      Cloudburst totem: best choice for healing mushrooms. CBT will nicely redistribute your healing on mushroom to the raid.
      High Tide: good talent if you are healing the raid.
       
      MAJOR GLYPHS:
       
      GLYPH OF HEALING STREAM TOTEM
      GLYPH OF HEALING WAVE
      Other possibilities:
      GLYPH OF FLAME SHOCK (a bit more of passive self healing)
      GLYPH OF RIPTIDE - if you don’t have a resto druid in raid, it’s a possibility, but remember that it’s weak and burns your mana fast.
       
       
      TWIN OGRON (top)
       
      This is the fight with intensive movement for all the raid, including healers.
      By the tactic my guild uses for this boss, the ranged dps and healers are mostly stacked together and move together, except of moving of fire and Pulverize.
      It would be nice if your hunters will cast Aspect of the Fox, so you could cast when moving from the fire.
       
      TALENTS:
       
      Tier 1: I would advice Nature’s Guardian here, especially if you are not very good in moving out of fire.
       
      Tier 2: doesn’t matter
       
      Tier 3: Call of Elements or Totemic Persistence.
      If you are aiming for Cloudburst Totem in Tier 7, Totemic Persistence could be your choice.
      Many people prefer CBT for this fight because of movement it demands.
      Call of Elements can be a good choice too. One more HST for fire times or Pulverize could definitely help.
       
      Tier 4:
      Ancestral Swiftness: don’t think that more Haste could be very useful in this fight.
      Echo of the Elements: A chance for additional Riptide or Unleash Life without CD definitely increase our healing output. Remember that Unleashed Life empowers Chain Heal too, so you can benefit from EotE when taking High Tide talent.
       
      Tier 5:
      Rushing Streams talent is the only choice here really. I don't think that there is enough time of stacking in one spot to benefit from Conductivity.
       
      Tier 6:
      Unleashed Fury or Elemental Blast.
      I would advice on Elemental Blast, this fight is way mana intensive and has more raid-wide than single damage.
       
      Tier 7:
      Cloudburst totem: chose it if you move a lot. CBT will nicely redistribute your healing to all the injured people in the time when you are moving around.
      High Tide: good talent for people who are good in positioning themselves. You will have a lot of injured people in this fight and the power of High Tide will be fully utilized.
       
      MAJOR GLYPHS:
       
      GLYPH OF HEALING STREAM TOTEM
      GLYPH OF HEALING WAVE
      GLYPH OF SPIRITWALKER’S FOCUS (so much movement)
      Other possibilities:
      GLYPH OF FLAME SHOCK (a bit more of passive self healing)
      GLYPH OF RIPTIDE - if you don’t have a resto druid in raid, it’s a possibility. If you are not very good in finding safe spots and move a lot, it’s a possibility too, but remember that it burns your mana!
       
       
      KO’RAGH (top)
       
      This is the fight with a high damage from both the boss mechanics and not paying attention.
      One of the fights where you should use shaman utilities.
      Remember that there are two main healing strategies for this encounter regarding dealing with Expel Magic: Frost: you can heal through it or move away if you don’t have enough HPS throughput.
       
      TALENTS:
       
      Tier 1:
      Nature’s Guardian, if you are not very good in moving out of things.
      Astral Shift if you are able not to forget to use it on Expel Magic: Frost or Expel Magic: Fire.
       
      Tier 2: Windwalk totem! Use it to help the raid to get away from Frost Orbs.
       
      Tier 3: Call of Elements or Totemic Persistence.
      If you are aiming for Cloudburst Totem in Tier 7, Totemic Persistence could be your choice.
      Call of Elements can be a good choice too to reset the cooldown of Windwalk totem. Especially if you don’t have druids for Stampeding Roar.
       
      Tier 4:
      Ancestral Swiftness: not sure that more Haste will really shine in this fight, but it worth a shot if you like it.
      Echo of the Elements: A chance for additional Riptide or Unleash Life without CD definitely increase our healing output. Remember that Unleashed Life empowers Chain Heal too, so you can benefit from EotE when taking High Tide talent.
       
      Tier 5:
      Rushing Streams talent is the only choice here really. Not enough time stacking in one spot to benefit from Conductivity.
       
      Tier 6:
      Unleashed Fury or Elemental Blast.
      I would advice on Elemental Blast, this fight is way mana intensive and has more raid-wide than single person damage.
       
      Tier 7:
      Cloudburst totem: chose it if you like it.
      High Tide: just the same.
      Both talents are valuable for this fight.
       
      MAJOR GLYPHS:
       
      GLYPH OF HEALING STREAM TOTEM
      GLYPH OF HEALING WAVE
      GLYPH OF PURIFY SPIRIT (Purify Spirit has 2 charges now. Useful for Expel magic: Fire dispels)
      Other possibilities:
      GLYPH OF SPIRITWALKER’S FOCUS
      GLYPH OF FLAME SHOCK (a bit more of passive self healing)
      GLYPH OF RIPTIDE - if you don’t have a resto druid in raid, it’s a possibility, but remember that it burns your mana and cuts healing output of Riptide!
       
       
      IMPERATOR MAR’GOK (top)
       
      This is a very long fight with a high damage from both the boss mechanics and not paying attention. There are many boss abilities that will do a raid-wide damage if people handle them in wrong way.
       
      TALENTS:
       
      Tier 1: I would recommend Astral Shift here. Use it on Force Novas or when you are Fixated.
      You can take Nature’s Guardian too, but there’s enough raid damage, so I think it’s better to mitigate.
       
      Tier 2: You can use Windwalk Totem on Slow debuff, but I think that it’s better to just dispel it.
       
      Tier 3:
      Call of Elements or Totemic Persistence.
      If you are aiming for Cloudburst Totem in Tier 7, Totemic Persistence could be your choice.
      Call of Elements can be good for another HST too. It is a long fight, so you’ll be able to use it at least 3-4 times.
       
      Tier 4:
      Ancestral Swiftness or Echo of the Elements: both talents are valuable for this fight. Chose what you are more comfortable with.
       
      Tier 5:
      Rushing Streams talent would be the best choice here. Not enough time stacking in one spot to benefit from Conductivity.
       
      Tier 6:
      Elemental Blast.
      The encounter is more than 10 min. long. You will definitely run out of mana without this talent.
       
      Tier 7:
      Cloudburst totem or High Tide: both talents are valuable for this fight. Chose what you are more comfortable with.
       
      MAJOR GLYPHS:
       
      GLYPH OF HEALING WAVE
      GLYPH OF SPIRITWALKER’S FOCUS
      Other possibilities:
      GLYPH OF FLAME SHOCK (a bit more of passive self healing)
      GLYPH OF RIPTIDE - if you don’t have a resto druid in raid, it’s a possibility, but remember that it burns your mana and cuts you healing output of Riptide!
      (top)
    • By tarokor
      Recently looked at starting to tank with my pally again and was looking through your site regarding tanking. On the Paladin protection page one of the Major glyphs you recommend is shield of the righteous however unless i am going blind it is no longer available as a glyph. Was it renamed or removed and if renamed what is it now called.
      Cheers guys
      ps:- apologies if i am blind, have searched the majors 3 times thou and cannot find it lol
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