Unholy Death Knight DPS Nerub-ar Palace Raid Guide — The War Within (11.0.7)
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 (11.0.7).
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 (Mythic). 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 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 make 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 from 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. - Use 
 Anti-Magic Shell during the 
 Nether Rift pull to soak up
the magic damage 
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
- 15 Dec. 2024: Reviewed and update for Patch 11.0.7.
 - 21 Oct. 2024: Added more detailed tips.
 - 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 Pixelbased Lifeforms on Kazzak. He is heavily involved in the DK DPS theorycrafting community, testing hyoptheses and investigating the correct priority to use. He produces guide content on YouTube and frequently streams on Twitch.
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