Mists of Pandaria Classic Unholy Death Knight Stat Priority

The stat priority for Unholy Death Knight is as follows:

1. Strength
2. Hit Rating to cap (7.5%)
3. Expertise Rating to cap(7.5%)
4. Critical Strike
5. Haste
6. Mastery

Secondary stats as an Unholy Death Knight are all incredibly close in value so a general rule to follow once you have achieved Hit and Expertise cap is to maximize the amount of Strength available which is usually done by choosing the highest item level piece available.

Strength is king as Unholy as it increases not only your personal damage done but also the damage dealt by your Ghoul and Gargoyle which will both make up a considerable amount of your damage profile.

Hit and Expertise are both a massive part of your damage out put as an Unholy Death Knight. While Runes are more available than ever before with new talents added in Mists of Pandaria the rule of thumb to always consider is a missed attack deals no damage. You will need 7.5% Hit and Expertise rating to ensure all of your attacks are able to land. It is important to note that Hit and Expertise both count towards your Spell hit cap, which abilities like Outbreak are calculated off of so ensuring you are capped on both is key to doing as much damage as possible and avoid wasting Runes. Keep in mind at 7.5% Expertise mobs will still be able to Parry your attacks but you can avoid this by making sure you are constantly behind your target.

Critical Strike is our best secondary stat as an Unholy Death Knight. Critical Strikes deal 200% the damage of a regular attack but more importantly as Unholy increase the rate at which your Ghoul and Gargoyle are able to Critically Strike. Your Ghoul and Gargoyle both make up a considerable amount of your damage done as Unholy so any Critical Strike rating is effectively double dipping its benefits.

Haste is another great stat for Unholy Death Knight as, similar to Critical Strike and Strength, directly scales with your Ghoul and Gargoyle increasing the rate at which they attack. Haste also reduces your global cooldown and increases the rate at which you regenerate Runes but with the amount of Rune generation available through abilities and talents this is slightly less valuable than previous expansions.

Your Mastery as an Unholy Death Knight is Mastery: Dreadblade which is just a flat increase to our Shadow Damage done. Abilities like Scourge Strike deal Shadow Damage and abilities that deal Shadow Damage make up a considerable amount of your damage profile as an Unholy Death Knight but in most scenarios it will be outperformed by Critical Strike and Haste.