How To Improve As Unholy Death Knight — Shadowlands 9.2
On this page, you will find out how you can improve at playing Unholy Death Knight in World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.2. We list the common mistakes that you should try to avoid and the small details that can greatly improve your performance.
Over-Capping Runic Power and Holding Runes
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 (unless you are pooling Runic Power and, even then, try to minimize downtime), 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. There are no situations
where it would be better to spend a Rune than it would be to avoid capping
Runic Power.
Pooling Runic Power in AoE for Epidemic
In fights that have burst AoE, you want to plan out your AoE for when
adds spawn. One very important thing to incorporate into your rotation
is a pooling phase, where you save 60+ Runic Power to immediately cast
Epidemic before you use abilities like
Death and Decay.
An example of a fight where this is incredibly useful is Sire Denathrius
Phase 1 on the adds that spawn from Cleansing Pain. These adds do not last
very long, so having the Runic Power pooled can lead to a lot more damage.
Not Using Soul Reaper Often Enough
Soul Reaper should be cast off cooldown when the target is
below 35% health. It does a significant amount of damage, so do not forget
to use it very often in execute phase.
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 Gnaw because,
when your Ghoul is under the effects of
Dark Transformation, casting
Gnaw will interrupt and stun the target for 2 seconds.
Using Outbreak When You Have Unholy Blight for Single-Target
When you are talented into Unholy Blight, you do not need to
cast
Outbreak in single-target. It may seem bad to have downtime on
Virulent Plague, but it just is not worth the extra Rune and you should
instead just wait for
Unholy Blight to be up. In 2+ targets, you can
use
Outbreak to apply
Virulent Plague for the downtime between
Unholy Blights.
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.
Not Using Your Cooldowns Enough
Especially for Mythic+, it is easy to hold cooldowns in anticipation of larger and more difficult packs. It is generally a mistake to do so though. Try and use your cooldowns as soon as they come up! It sounds easy but it is a major improvement for many people.
Not Aligning Your Cooldowns Properly
In raiding scenarios, it is crucial to properly align your cooldowns.
Always use Unholy Blight with
Dark Transformation. Ensure your
second
Army of the Dead is used a couple of seconds before a
Unholy Blight and
Dark Transformation combo. Make sure to use
your
Apocalypse with
Unholy Blight with
Dark Transformation when appropriate. Holding cooldowns when the
cooldown difference is less than 10 seconds.
Changelog
- 20 Feb. 2022: Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.2.
- 01 Nov. 2021: Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.1.5.
- 29 Jun. 2021: Guide updated and reviewed for Patch 9.1.
- 10 May 2021: Added two more tips.
- 16 Mar. 2021: Fixed a typo in Ghoul ability section; changed Leap to Gnaw in the interrupt section.
- 19 Jan. 2021: Guide reviewed and completely updated.
- 23 Nov. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands.
- 12 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
More Death Knight Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Bicepspump, a semi-hardcore player raiding with Wicked Vigilantes on Kazzak. He is heavily involved in the DK DPS theorycrafting community, testing hyoptheses and investigating the correct priority to use. He is also a useful-minion in the Acherus discord, frequently answering questions and discussing optimisations (do not hesitate to reach out). He produces guide-content on YouTube and frequently streams on Twitch.
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