Unholy Death Knight DPS Mythic+ Tips - 12.1 - World of Warcraft

In this guide, you will find tips and advice to tackle Mythic+ dungeons with your Unholy Death Knight in World of Warcraft Patch 12.1.

Table of Contents

1. Unholy Death Knight in Mythic+ in Midnight Season 2 2. Best Mythic+ Talent Builds 3. Utility Kit and Abilities 4. Dealing with Affixes

Unholy Death Knight in Mythic+ in Midnight Season 2

In this guide, we will talk about getting the most out of your Unholy Death Knight in Mythic+ dungeons, including the best way to set up your character, how your rotation may change, and tips and tricks for using your abilities most optimally.

If you are unfamiliar with Mythic+ and its associated general mechanics, you can read more about it on our Midnight Mythic+ page below, or check out our Mythic+ Tier List if you're curious about the current Mythic+ Meta!

Mythic+ Info

Learn More About Mythic+ in Season 2

Whether you are still new to WoW and want to just dip your toes into Mythic+ for the first time, or find out what the best specs and classes are for Mythic+, we got you covered!

Midnight M+ S2 Mythic+ DPS Rankings

Best Mythic+ Talent Builds

Unholy Death Knight has a wide array of potential talent build in Mythic+ which offer both unique game styles, as well as different damage profiles. We recommend running the minion-based San'layn build in Mythic+ as it brings both strong single-target and AoE damage.

You have the option of running the Blightfall Icon Blightfall plague build or Rider of the Apocalypse as well. The Rider build gives slightly more up-front damage, as well as better mobility with Death Charge Icon Death Charge.

San'layn Minion San'layn Blightfall Rider Minion

2.1.

Rider Minion Build

This Rider of the Apocalypse build is very similar to our single-target Rider build, swapping out Ghoulish Frenzy Icon Ghoulish Frenzy and Infected Claws Icon Infected Claws for Menacing Magus Icon Menacing Magus and Cycle of Death Icon Cycle of Death. The result is a versatile build that brings both high single-target as well as respectable AoE.

2.2.

San'layn Minion Build

This San'layn build significantly resembles our single-target San'Layn build, swapping out Ghoulish Frenzy Icon Ghoulish Frenzy and Infected Claws Icon Infected Claws for Menacing Magus Icon Menacing Magus and Cycle of Death Icon Cycle of Death. The result is a versatile build that brings both high single-target as well as respectable AoE.

2.3.

San'layn Blightfall Build

This San'layn build focuses heavily on plague damage, routing into the Blightfall Icon Blightfall talent. Blightfall is a really fun talent which revolves around building up significant plague durations, and then consuming them for great burst damage.

Unholy Death Knight - Not sure how to get the most out of your character in Mythic+? Our rotation page
will help you learn the perfect opener and how to properly AoE trash packs in dungeons.

Combat Information

Rotation Gameplay

Not sure how to get the most out of your character in Mythic+? Our rotation page will help you learn the perfect opener and how to properly AoE trash packs in dungeons.

Rotation

Utility Kit and Abilities

Interrupts, Stuns and Stops Other Utility

3.1.

Interrupts, Stuns and Stops

Mind Freeze Icon Mind Freeze is your "kick" and your most important bit of utility in Mythic+, used to stop enemy casts for the benefit of the group and especially the tank. It is highly recommended to use a Focus Kick macro for this.

Mind Freeze Mouseover

/cast [@focus,exists,nodead][@mouseover,exists,nodead] [] Mind Freeze

This macro will kick your focus target if you have one, mouseover if you have no Focus target, and your target if you have neither of those.

To quickly set a focus target in hectic scenarios, we also recommend a Focus Mouseover macro.

Focus Mouseover

/focus [@mouseover]

Make sure that your UI shows your Focus Target's casts clearly so that you are always able to kick it on cooldown or in coordination with the rest of your group.

3.2.

Stunning and "Stops"

Blinding Sleet Icon Blinding Sleet is your "AoE stop". You blind all targets in a cone in front of you, disorienting them for 5 seconds. Great way of stopping a big pack of mobs casting, especially if the cast is immune to standard interrupt.

Asphyxiate Icon Asphyxiate is your single-target stun, lasting for 5 seconds. Not a very common pick in our talent loadouts, but it's still a useful crowd-control tool.

Death Grip Icon Death Grip can both be used to help group up mobs, as well as stop-casting them. Remember that you need to move the move a certain distance to actually interrupt it, just so you do not use Death Grip when the mob is already on top of you.

Death Grip Icon Death Grip is notably also a defensive ability. With Subduing Grasp Icon Subduing Grasp, it provides damage reduction against any target you use it on. Useful when you are mitigating damage in boss fights or mini bosses.

Gnaw is your pet stun that stuns your target for 1 (2 during Dark Transformation Icon Dark Transformation) seconds. Off the GCD so a very useful quick stop.

3.3.

Other Utility

Raise Ally Icon Raise Ally is a combat-ress that you can use to bring a dead teammate back to life, even during combat!

Blinding Sleet Icon Blinding Sleet, Chains of Ice Icon Chains of Ice and Death and Decay Icon Death and Decay with Grip of the Dead Icon Grip of the Dead all reduce the movement speed of enemies hit, allowing us to help any tank that wants to kite the mobs.

Control Undead Icon Control Undead allows you to control an undead enemy in Mythic+. This is only a crowd-control tool to be used in emergencies for Unholy. You lose your main pet and thus a significant amount of your damage by controlling an enemy Undead. Do it if you must to help your party from wiping.

Control Undead

#showtooltip Control Undead /target pet /script PetDismiss() /cast Control Undead

Dealing with Affixes

Midnight Season 2 offers four unique affixes that we can deal with to different degrees with our kit. They rotate weekly with only one being active at a time. They are also the only affixes that are active and require you to specifically handle them.

Xal'atath's Bargain: Ascendant: Three waves of orbs will spawn that need to be interrupted or disrupted. Blinding Sleet is your most effective tool here to handle these orbs, with Mind Freeze and Death Grip handling any stray ones left.
Xal'atath's Bargain: Voidbound: A Void Emissary add will spawn that needs to be focus-targeted and interrupted. Simply swap to the new add and focus it down. If you know it is spawning soon, considering holding your Cooldowns to deal with it quickly.
Xal'atath's Bargain: Pulsar: Orbs will spawn around players and circle around them. You have 15 seconds to soak all of these to buff your group. Use your movement abilities like Wraith Walk and Death's Advance to quickly soak these up.
Xal'atath's Bargain: Devour: All party members will be affected by a healing absorb. You can pre-immune this with Anti-Magic Shell. However, this does mean that you miss out on the buff received when the shield is removed. Alternatively, help your healer to remove the shield by using Death Strike and Health Potions/ Healthstones if required.

Taeznak

Guide Author

Follow Taeznak

This guide is written written by Taeznak, who is a Death Knight Theorycrafter, SimCraft Maintainer, Analyst for Method during the RWF, and Acherus Moderator. He is incredibly passionate about Death Knight as a whole, and spends countless hours pondering even the little things that help DPS Death Knights maximize their potential.