How To Improve As Unholy Death Knight — Shadowlands 9.0.2
On this page, you will find out how you can improve at playing Unholy Death Knight in World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.0.2. We list the common mistakes that you should try to avoid and the small details that can greatly improve your performance.
Not Capping Runes or Runic Power
Because you can have 3 Runes recharging at the same time, any time you are holding 4 or more Runes, you are effectively capped on runes and wasting potential Rune regeneration. There is never a point in your play where it would be valuable to not cast anything, or where you need more than 3 Runes saved up; always keep 3 Runes on cooldown.
Similarly, every point of Runic Power you generate when already at maximum
Runic Power is a fraction of a lost Death Coil. If you are using
the
Unholy Frenzy build, then make sure you are low on Runic Power
before casting Unholy Frenzy so you can maximize
Scourge Strike
casts during the uptime of this cooldown. There are no situations where it
would be better to spend a Rune than it would be to avoid capping Runic Power.
Not Casting Death and Decay with Low Festering Wound Stacks
In fights with AoE, you will be saving Death and Decay when multiple
targets come up. Due to Death and Decay causing your
Scourge Strike to
cleave, you benefit significantly from already having
Festering Wound
stacks already on the target. This becomes even more important if you are using
the talent
Bursting Sores. If you are running Bursting Sores, then you
also benefit from applying at least 1 Festering Wound to all targets you will
be cleaving before casting Death and Decay. Since Death and Decay causes your
Scourge Strike to cleave all targets, this also causes your Scourge Strike to
pop any Festering Wounds on the targets it is cleaving.
Not Casting Soul Reaper with 2 or More Runes
The new version of Soul Reaper generates 2 Runes when it is cast.
In order to keep 3 Runes regenerating, you want to make sure that you are
casting Soul Reaper at a maximum on 1 Rune available.
Make Sure your Ghoul is Casting Abilities
Your pet Ghoul has 3 attacks called Claw,
Gnaw, and
Leap. You want to make sure all of these are set to auto cast by
right clicking the ability on your pet action bar. These abilities do add a
significant amount of damage so having them turned off will lower your damage.
The only ability that you may want to turn off in certain fights is Leap because
when your Ghoul is under the effects of
Dark Transformation, casting
Leap will interrupt and stun the target for 2 seconds.
Refresh Virulent Plague close to the Expiration
Virulent Plague is your main DoT and provides a significant amount of
damage. This DoT like many others does have the effect of Pandemic. However
Outbreak constantly refreshes itself for 6 seconds, making Pandemic add
about... 3 seconds to Virulent Plague. This makes it important to spend as little
Runes as possible refreshing Virulent Plague by refreshing it as close to the
expiration as possible (about <1 second left).
Not Using Anti-Magic Shell on Non-Magical Damage
The defensive cooldown Anti-Magic Shell only absorbs magical damage
therefore making it useless when it comes to physical damage. A common mistake is
people casting it to protect against physical damage and not gaining the benefit
of a defensive absorb or the Runic Power generation. Make sure you know if
an ability from a boss is a physical or magical ability.
Changelog
- 23 Nov. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands.
- 12 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
More Death Knight Guides
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This guide has been written by Abyssalwave, a top level Death Knight player. He is a former US #2 hardcore raider who currently raids with didnt ask. You can also check out his YouTube channel.
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