Unholy Death Knight DPS Nerub-ar Palace Raid Guide — The War Within (Season 1)
On this page, you will find tips, tricks, and strategies tailored to your Unholy Death Knight for each boss of the following raid: Nerub-ar Palace. All our content is updated for World of Warcraft — The War Within (Season 1).
Introduction
Below, you can find class and spec-specific advice for every fight in Nerub-ar Palace. If you are looking for a general overview of the Raid that is not spec-specific, check out our dedicated Nerub-ar Palace guides.
This page assumes that you already understand most of the mechanics of each encounter. These can be found on the full raid guide, so what is contained here are details specifically tailored toward Unholy Death Knight and how you can deal with each fight as best as possible.
All recommendations are progression-based tips and will not necessarily be the best for an overall DPS ranking.
Nerub'ar Palace Boss Guides for Unholy Death Knight
Nerub'ar Palace Raid Builds, Tips, and Tricks for Unholy Death Knight
Tips for Ulgrax the Devourer for Unholy Death Knight
Defensive Tips
- You can help clear Stalker's Netting by using Anti-Magic Shell or Icebound Fortitude. Anti-Magic Shell will deplete as you soak, so it only works for a small number of soaks. Icebound works until the effect ends. Be careful when soaking as the AoE is larger than the actual soak range, causing nearby raid members to easily get rooted as well.
- Use Death's Advance to negate the pulling effect of Carnivorous Contest.
- Use Anti-Magic Zone for Carnivorous Contest as the raid groups up to soak the damage.
Cooldown Usage
- Use your Cooldowns as they come up. You can opt to send your 1.5 minute cooldowns during the intermission to do heavy add damage.
Mechanical Tips
- Use Death Grip and Abomination Limb to help group up the adds in the intermission.
Best Talents
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
Tips for Bloodbound Horror for Unholy Death Knight
Defensive Tips
- Use Anti-Magic Zone when your group soaks Gruesome Disgorge or when the boss casts Goresplatter.
- Use Anti-Magic Shell for Goresplatter to soak up the damage.
Cooldown Usage
- Simply use your Cooldowns as much as possible.
- Use Outbreak on the boss when you get sent downstairs. The big hitbox means that you can DoT up most of the adds, even the ones on the other side of the boss.
Mechanical Tips
- Use Death Grip to help control the Blood Horror adds, preventing them from reaching the boss.
Best Talents
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
Tips for Sikran for Unholy Death Knight
Defensive Tips
- Phase Blades is physical damage, so you can only use Icebound Fortitude and Lichborne to help yourself survive the mechanic.
- Use Anti-Magic Shell if you get targeted by Decimate.
- Use Anti-Magic Zone when your raid destroys multiple Cosmic Simulacrum.
- You can use Anti-Magic Shell to immune the DoT from Decimate destroying the adds.
Cooldown Usage
- Use on Cooldown.
Mechanical Tips
- Make sure to save Death's Advance for when the boss casts Shattering Sweep to quickly get out and back in again.
Best Talents
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
Tips for Rasha'nan for Unholy Death Knight
Defensive Tips
- Use Anti-Magic Zone and Anti-Magic Shell when the boss casts Erosive Spray.
- Use Anti-Magic Zone for Web Reave in the second phase.
- You can use Anti-Magic Shell to run across the puddles on the ground. The heavy movement and large damage of the puddles makes this a good tip.
Cooldown Usage
- Save Runic Power for the adds that spawn so you can DoT them up and spam Epidemic.
- Move your pet further out form the boss when you have Dark Transformation for the adds, allowing you to DoT them up more efficiently.
Mechanical Tips
- Make sure to have Death's Advance or Wraith Walk ready for when you are targeted by Spinneret's Strands so that you can quickly get out of the web.
- Use Death Grip and Abomination Limb to help group up the Infested Spawn adds.
- Try and save both charges of Death's Advance and Wraith Walk for the intermission, to help you keep up with the group!
Best Talents
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
Tips for Broodtwister Ovi'nax for Unholy Death Knight
Defensive Tips
- Use Anti-Magic Zone when the tank explodes with Volatile Concoction.
Cooldown Usage
- Save your Cooldowns for the adds that spawn. This means that you sometimes hold for around 20 seconds to line up with add spawns.
- Pool Runic power and leverage Outbreak to quickly DoT up the adds around the boss and spam Epidemic to kill them quickly.
- On Mythic, make sure to stack up 6 Festering Wounds on the boss before the adds get gripped in. Follow up with Vile Contagion and Scourge Strike spam. Make sure to use both Abomination Limb, Dark Transformation and Death and Decay before the adds spawn.
Mechanical Tips
- Use Blinding Sleet to interrupt the Blood Parasite adds.
- Use Death Grip to help control Blood Parasite adds that are fixating your fellow raiders.
- Use Anti-Magic Shell before Sticky Web to immune the application.
Best Talents
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
Tips for Nexus-Princess Ky'veza for Unholy Death Knight
Defensive Tips
- Use Anti-Magic Zone during Starless Night.
Cooldown Usage
- On cooldown.
Mechanical Tips
- Use Death's Advance to negate the pulling effect from the rifts.
- Save a charge of Death's Advance if you get targeted by Twilight Massacre.
Best Talents
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
Tips for The Silken Court for Unholy Death Knight
Defensive Tips
- Use Anti-Magic Shell before you get hit by Venomous Rain to immune the DoT application.
Cooldown Usage
- On cooldown.
- Use Death and Decay to cleave when the bosses are close together.
- Use Death Coil as your Runic Power spender as we pick up Improved Death Coil.
Mechanical Tips
- Use Death Grip, Abomination Limb and Blinding Sleet to help control the adds.
Best Talents
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
Tips for Queen Ansurek for Unholy Death Knight
Defensive Tips
- Use Anti-Magic Zone in phase 1 if your raid gets 3+ stacks from the Venom Nova mechanic.
- Use Anti-Magic Shell to immune the root from Silken Tomb. This also prevents the root add from spawning.
Cooldown Usage
- Stack up Runic Power and ideally a proc of Sudden Doom before each Silken Tomb add spawn. Use Outbreak to DoT up the adds and then follow with Epidemic. Do the same for the Infest mechanic in the final phase, where the tank runs out to spawn a group of adds. You can stick on the boss during this, just doing your standard rotation with lots of Epidemic weaved in.
- Leverage Death and Decay in the final phase to help cleave the three adds that spawn, as well as the two web pulls.
Mechanical Tips
- Wrest is cast multiple times during the encounter. Use Death's Advance to immune the pull. You will not have it up for each one so plan out when you need to do the mechanic properly.
Best Talents
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
General Defensive Usage Notes
Unholy Death Knight has several defensive spells that you should plan to use and rotate throughout mechanics. You should opt to use the smaller cooldown spells often as needed with incoming mechanics and save bigger cooldowns like Icebound Fortitude for large incoming damage.
- Anti-Magic Shell
- Anti-Magic Zone
- Icebound Fortitude
- Lichborne (with Unholy Endurance)
Changelog
- 09 Sep. 2024: Guide added.
More Death Knight Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Bicepspump, a semi-hardcore player raiding with Pescorus 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 moderator in the Acherus Death Knight 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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