Unholy Death Knight DPS Easy Mode

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2 Changes
  • 4. Strengths
  • 5. Weaknesses
  • 6. Contents
  • 7. ChangeLog
• ×Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
  • 5. Cooldowns
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Main Resources
  • 3. Basic Abilities
  • 4. Important Procs
  • 5. Cooldowns
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Tier 1 (Level 56) Talents
  • 3. Tier 2 (Level 57) Talents
  • 4. Tier 3 (Level 58) Talents
  • 5. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 6. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 7. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 8. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 9. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression
  • 2. Relic Choice
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Single Target Rotation
  • 2. Multiple Target Rotation
  • 3. Cooldown Usage
    • 3.1. Apocalypse
    • 3.2. Summon Gargoyle
    • 3.3. Army of the Dead
  • 4. Optional Read: Mastering Your Unholy Death Knight
    • 4.1. Runes and Runic Power
      • 4.1.1. Runes
      • 4.1.2. Runic Power
    • 4.2. Virulent Plague
    • 4.3. Festering Wounds
    • 4.4. Anti-Magic Shell Usage
    • 4.5. Abilities and Cooldowns from Talents
      • 4.5.1. Tier 2 Talents
      • 4.5.2. Tier 6 Talents
      • 4.5.3. Tier 7 Talents
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding
    • 2.1. Statistics Priority
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems
  • 2. Enchants
  • 3. Consumables
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Macros
    • 1.1. Generic Macros for Death Knights
      • 1.1.1. Raise Ally
      • 1.1.2. Mind Freeze
    • 1.2. Specific Macros for Unholy Death Knights
      • 1.2.1. Outbreak Mouseover Macro
      • 1.2.2. Death Grip Mouseover Macro
      • 1.2.3. Pet Hook Grip Mouseover Macro
      • 1.2.4. Corpse Shield
      • 1.2.5. Dismissing Pet
    • 1.3. Generic Addons for Death Knights
      • 1.3.1. ElvUI
      • 1.3.2. Boss Mods: Deadly Boss Mods or Bigwigs
      • 1.3.3. GTFO
      • 1.3.4. Parrot or Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 1.3.5. Weak Auras
      • 1.3.6. Recount / Skada / Details!
      • 1.3.7. Omen Threat Meter
      • 1.3.8. Grid and GridClickSets (Optional)
    • 1.4. Specific Addons for Unholy Death Knights
  • 2. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Tier 20 Set Bonuses
  • 2. Legendary Items
  • 3. Loot Competition
  • 4. ChangeLog

This page is intended for players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty, or simply want a more straightforward way to play their specialisation without being overwhelmed by the numerous subtleties and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play.

1. The Basics

Unholy Death Knights is a melee DPS specialisation that provides strong single target and AoE DPS. Its playstyle is somewhat complex, however, and Frost is an easier specialisation to pick up.

Your main goal throughout fight is managing the Festering Wound debuff (ensuring not to over-cap it) and then consuming these stacks with Scourge Strike (technically with Clawing Shadows, which is a talent we advise taking).

2. Talent Choice

The following talent choices are effectively best in all situations.

• Level 56: Ebon Fever
• Level 57: Pestilent Pustules
• Level 58: Clawing Shadows
• Level 60: Sludge Belcher
• Level 75: Spell Eater (against magic damage) / Corpse Shield (against all damage/percentage damage reduction) / Lingering Apparition (mobility)
• Level 90: Infected Claws
• Level 100: Soul Reaper

3. Stat Choice

Currently, you will want to prioritise secondary stats as follows.

1. Mastery;
2. Haste;
3. Critical Strike = Versatility.

4. Basic Rotation

The single target rotation is based on the following priority.

1. Maintain Virulent Plague on the target, using Outbreak to refresh it when it is about to expire.
2. Cast Dark Transformation.
3. Cast Festering Strike if you have fewer than 2-3 stacks on the target.
4. Cast Soul Reaper while the target has 3 or more stacks of Festering Wound. Follow this up with 3 Clawing Shadows casts while Soul Reaper is still active in order to get 3 stacks of the Haste buff Soul Reaper provides. If Apocalypse is active, use it after Soul Reaper instead.
5. Cast Apocalypse with 6 stacks of Festering Wound.
6. Cast Clawing Shadows if the target has at least 3 stacks of Festering Wound.
7. Cast Death Coil and avoid capping Runic Power.
   • If you are using the Shadow Infusion talent, you should pool some resources so once Dark Transformation expires, you can cast back to back Death Coils and reduce the cooldown of Dark Transformation.

If you get a proc of the Scourge of Worlds trait, you should prioritise Clawing Shadows over anything else as long as you are not going to cap your Runic Power and you have Festering Wounds up.

If you have the Tak'theritrix's Shoulderpads legendary item, Dark Transformation should be used once your pets are active, so after you use Apocalypse, so that they can benefit from the buff.

Against multiple targets, you should also use Death and Decay on cooldown (behind Apocalypse, in priority).

5. Cooldowns

Unholy Death Knights have 2 DPS cooldowns as well as Apocalypse, the Artifact ability. They should be used as follows.

• Summon Gargoyle should be generally be used whenever it is available, but you can save it for a period when you need to do extra damage. The gargoyle scales with spell haste, and using it together with Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp allows the gargoyle to get a few extra casts off, increasing its damage slightly.
• Army of the Dead should normally be channeled before the pull, but it can also be channeled during the fight if you need high burst damage.
• Apocalypse should be used when you have 6 stacks of Festering Wounds.

About Our Reviewer

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Tain, a long-time Unholy Death Knight player who raids in Dead Weight, a top 50 guild in the US.

6. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 12 Jun. 2017: Page reviewed and deemed updated for 7.2.5.
• 11 Mar. 2017: Updated tier 1 talent recommendation.
• 17 Jan. 2017: Made a few updates to the page so that it accurately reflects the guide.
• 10 Jan. 2017: Updated for Patch 7.1.5.
• 16 Dec. 2016: Fixed an error referring to tier 7 talents being available at level 110, instead of 100.
• 13 Dec. 2016: Added easy mode page.