Unholy Death Knight DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Shadowlands 9.2.5
On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your Unholy Death Knight in both single-target and multiple-target situations. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc. in order to minmax your DPS. All our content is updated for World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.2.5.
Unholy Death Knight Rotation
Welcome to our Rotation page for Unholy Death Knights. Here, we will go over everything you will need to know in order to optimally play your spec for Raiding and Mythic+ scenarios.
Mythic+ Rotation
Unholy is a very interesting Mythic+ spec because it has fantastic single-target and AoE burst potential. For more information about Mythic+ as an Unholy Death Knight, please check out our Mythic+ guide linked below.
Easy Mode
Unholy can be a very complicated spec. If these rotations seem fairly complicated, then you may want to check out our Easy Mode page, which gives you a much more simplistic build and rotation to play.
PvP
The guides on this page are for PvE content, so if you are looking for a PvP rotation guide, then please visit our PvP page linked below.
Single-Target Opener for Unholy Death Knights
I have opted to include the core rotation in these sections, leaving everything that is considered a cooldown to be explained seperately further down!
Unholy Assault Talented
Unholy Blight Talented
Summon Gargoyle Talented
- Use
Outbreak.
- Use
Army of the Dead.
- Use
Festering Strike.
- Use
Festering Strike + Potion + Trinket.
- Use
Dark Transformation.
- Use
Apocalypse.
- Use
Blood Fury (if Orc),
Berserking (if Troll).
- Use Covenant Ability.
Single-Target Rotation for Unholy Death Knights
Soul Reaper Talented
- Cast
Outbreak or
Unholy Blight to apply
Virulent Plague on the target. There is no need to use
Outbreak on pure single target if you have
Unholy Blight talented.
- Use
Death Coil when you have 80+ Runic Power or a
Sudden Doom proc.
- Use
Festering Strike to apply
Festering Wounds on the target. Do this if the target has 3 or fewer
Festering Wounds.
- Use
Scourge Strike when there is at least 1
Festering Wound on the target.
- Use
Death Coil.
Now, we will take this priority list and put it into a more wordy description!
- Cast
Soul Reaper whenever you can make the secondary effect trigger. In execute, Soul Reaper is your highest priority and you should save Runes so that you can use it as much as possible! With the
Unholy DK 4-Piece tier set bonus, it is also worthwhile to cast Soul Reaper on mobs that die before it explodes!
- Ensure sufficient
Virulent Plague uptime with
Outbreak or
Unholy Blight. We pretty much always run Blight in raid which means we rarely care about this; we simply press Blight on cooldown and that is it. For adds that show up outside of our Blight windows, it is worthwhile to apply our DoT with
Outbreak. Usually though, Outbreak is rarely used!
- Use
Deadliest Coil to avoid capping Runic Power. Managing your resources properly is crucial for maximising your DPS. Any Runic Power you generate that brings you above your max is wasted, which means wasted DPS!
- Use
Festering Strike to build up
Festering Wounds on the target. We want to aim for 3+ wounds at all times! This means casting Festering Strike whenever you dip below 4 wounds, but never when above 3! If you use Festering Strike at 4+ wounds, you risk going above the ceiling of 6, wasting resources! We stay high on wounds to help setup for our
Apocalypse naturally. If you sit at a low wound count you risk starving before your CDs come up, forcing you to delay them (we do not want that!).
- Use
Scourge Strike/
Clawing Shadows to burst your wounds. This is used in sync with
Festering Strike to keep your wound count at a healthy level. You go up to 4+, and then use Scourge Strike/ Clawing Shadows to drop down to 3 again. You do want to go down to 0 if a mob is close to dying!
- Use
Death Coil as your filler spell when you have nothing else to do!
Multiple Target Rotation for Unholy Death Knights
The multiple target rotation is essentially the same as the single target
rotation, with one important change. When facing 3 or more targets, you should
use Death and Decay, and while Death and Decay is active, you should
use
Scourge Strike/
Clawing Shadows as much as possible, while
also spending Runic Power and
Sudden Doom procs on
Epidemic.
For multi-target on packs that will last fairly long, you may have the option
to use Festering Strike once on a few of the targets before using
Death and Decay and
Scourge Strike, since you will then have more
wounds to pop on the targets. You will have to decide when it is worth doing this based
on the number of enemies you are facing.
Scourge Strike/
Clawing Shadows cleave while you are standing
in your own
Death and Decay. If you are using Clawing Shadows (which has a
30-yard range), you can drop
Death and Decay/
Defile at your feet
and cleave adds that are within 30 yards of your position, as long as you are
standing on top of
Death and Decay/
Defile.
To make it easier to understand, this is a simplified version of what your multiple target opener should look like.
- Use
Outbreak or
Unholy Blight to apply
Virulent Plague on all targets.
- Use
Festering Strike up to two times. If pack dies very fast, use 0.
- Use
Apocalypse on the target with the most
Festering Wounds (ideally 4).
- Use
Dark Transformation.
- Spam
Epidemic until you are out of Runic Power.
- Use
Death and Decay.
- Spam
Scourge Strike and use
Epidemic if you are about to cap on Runic Power.
- After
Death and Decay finishes, go to single target rotation with
Epidemic instead of
Death Coil.
Keeping Track of your Resources
Since Death Knights have multiple resources that they need to track, it is very helpful to customize your UI, in order to easily track your resources. Unholy Death Knights have a very clunky opener, so being able to easily focus on your rotation and resources can really help you maximize your damage and positioning.
Cooldown Usage for Unholy Death Knights
As an Unholy Death Knight, you have a total of 4 core DPS cooldowns and 4 Talented DPS Cooldowns. Below, we explain how they are best used.
Apocalypse (Core)
Apocalypse summons a member of the
Army of the Dead for
each stack of
Festering Wounds, up to 4. At Level 58,
Apocalypse
Rank 3 makes it so your
Apocalypse generates 2 Runes.
Apocalypse should be used when you have at least 4 stacks of
Festering Wounds. It will only consume 4 stacks, even when you have
5 or 6.
Apocalypse gains a lot of value when paired with
Unholy Blight,
but it is not worth wasting a cast to line them up.
When you have Convocation of the Dead and the talent
Army of the Damned,
you will want to start syncing
Apocalypse with
Dark Transformation
and
Unholy Blight. When you are timing these abilities, use
Apocalypse
last. If you happen to desync your
Apocalypse (more than 10 seconds left
when
Unholy Blight and
Dark Transformation are up), simply start
using it on cooldown.
Army of the Dead (Core)
Army of the Dead summons a number of ghouls to fight at your side for
a short while. It costs 1 Rune and also deals a lot of damage. You can use it
before the pull, however since it now only costs 1 Rune, it is better used
right as you reach the boss to maximize the duration of the ghouls. It has an
8-minute cooldown. With
Army of the Damned and
Deadliest Coil, it
gets reduced to approximately a 4-minute cooldown. There are many instances
when you will use this ability more than once in a boss fight. Always make sure
to time it with
Unholy Blight,
Dark Transformation, and
trinkets if this is the case! If you only get to use it once, always use it
with
Bloodlust/
Heroism.
When using it with other cooldowns, cast it at least 5 seconds before everything else.
The ghouls take multiple seconds to crawl out of the ground, making any buffs you
apply to them early wasted. Trinkets, Unholy Blight,
Dark Transformation,
Potion, they all have to come at least 5 seconds after you press the button!
Dark Transformation (Core)
Dark Transformation transforms your ghoul for 15 seconds, causing
its
Claw to cleave all enemies near your pet. This cooldown is reduced
by 1 second each time you cast
Death Coil. The conduit
Eternal Hunger extends this duration to 18 seconds.
Deadliest Coil causes your
Death Coil to extend the duration of
Dark Transformation by 1 second each time it is cast. Always time
this ability with
Unholy Blight if you are running this talent. This
means holding
Unholy Blight for a couple of seconds every time.
Sacrificial Pact (Core)
Sacrificial Pact sacrifices your ghoul to deal Shadow damage to 8
nearby enemies while also healing you for 25% of your maximum health. Never use
this ability while
Dark Transformation is up, since it will waste the
remaining duration of
Dark Transformation. This ability is not used in
single-target situations. Generally just use it to save yourself from
dying.
Unholy Blight (Talented)
Unholy Blight applies a 14-second DoT to all targets around you
every second for 6 seconds. It also applies
Virulent Plague. The
Unholy Blight-DoT stacks up to 4 times, increasing both its damage as
well as increasing your minion damage against the infected targets. This
cooldown synergises very well with our other cooldowns, specifically
Army of the Dead,
Dark Transformation,
Apocalypse, and
Summon Gargoyle.
- Always use
Unholy Blight with
Dark Transformation, holding it for the 0-5 seconds required to do so.
- Ensure to use
Army of the Dead 5-10 seconds before
Unholy Blight.
- Use
Apocalypse after
Unholy Blight unless you need to wait more than 10 seconds to do so.
- Use
Summon Gargoyle 10 seconds before
Unholy Blight.
Unholy Assault (Talented)
Unholy Assault deals a decent chunk of damage, applying 4
Festering Wounds and providing 20% haste for 12 seconds. Use this
ability right after
Apocalypse on single target. For AoE, use it at
the start of engaging a new pack.
Summon Gargoyle (Talented)
Summon Gargoyle calls down a Gargoyle to hit your target for 30
seconds. Every 2 Runic Power spent when this cooldown is active increases its
damage by 1%. Use this ability 10 seconds before you intend to use
Unholy Blight and generally try to pool up Runic Power before using it
(does not apply to the opener). Once it is active, prioritise spending Runic
Power.
It is very important to note that even Death Coils that benefit
from
Sudden Doom procs (and which, therefore, do not consume Runic
Power) increase the damage of the Gargoyle, so it is important to make sure to
use these procs right away during Summon Gargoyle and not have them wasted.
Soul Reaper (Talented)
Soul Reaper initially strikes the target for ~70% of a naked
Scourge Strike. After 5 seconds, if the target is below 35% health, it
hits against for 3.5
Scourge Strikes worth of damage. It is crucial as
an Unholy Death Knight to trigger as many of these extra hits as possible. Use
Soul Reaper whenever your target will reach 35% HP within the next 5
seconds. This means using it at ~36% Raid Boss HP. For adds, it generally means
using it earlier. Timing it properly is very rewarding!
Once you acquire the Unholy DK 4-Piece bonus, your
Soul Reaper
usage changes. Usually, it is not worthwhile to cast Soul Reaper on an enemy that
dies before the secondary effect triggers. You get a proc of
Runic Corruption, but it only really pays for the cost of Soul Reaper.
With the 4-set, you will gain a 25% damage increase to your pet damage even if
the enemy dies with your Soul Reaper effect! You do still want to aim for
achieving the explosion, but it is now worthwhile to cast Soul Reaper even when
enemies die!
Abomination Limb (Necrolord)
Abomination Limb summons arms around you for 8 seconds, pulling targets
toward you, dealing heavy AoE damage and generates 3 procs of
Runic Corruption.
This should be used on cooldown, ideally timing it with your other cooldowns.
Specifically, if you are running the Plague Deviser Marileth Soulbind or the
Abomination's Frenzy Legendary, you want to
make sure you time your second use of
Army of the Dead with your third use
of
Abomination Limb.
Fleshcraft (Necrolord)
Fleshcraft channels for four seconds, decreasing damage taken by 20%
and creating a shield around you for up to 40% of you maximum health, scaling with
channeled duration. It is a beast when it comes to defensive cooldowns, allowing you
to survive most things a scenario can throw at you!
You always cast Fleshcraft fully before you pull any boss!
Fleshcraft is sometimes used in an offensive manner, when you are running
Emeni or Plague Deviser Marileth. For Emeni, you channel it to full on cooldown.
For Marileth, you tap the ability to get the buff from
Volatile Solvent.
Death's Due (Night Fae)
Death's Due replaces your
Death and Decay ability, retaining all
its functionality. In addition, any
Scourge Strike/
Clawing Shadows
you use when standing in your Death's Due will give you a stacking buff, increasing
your Strength. It also decreases the damage you take from the enemies you hit.
Each target gives you one stack, and you can gain 4 stacks maximum with 8%
Strength gain total.
For AoE, you use Death's Due like you would use Death and Decay, no change there. For single-target though, Death's Due is a DPS increase to cast (unlike Death and Decay). The Strength gain is worth it even if the ability itself does little damage.
One notable use for single-target is when you combine this ability with
Rampant Transference,
Defile, and
Death's Certainty. The
effective CD is then reduced to below 15 seconds or so, allowing you to reapply
the Death's Due buff before it runs out. You want to make sure to use
Scourge Strike /
Clawing Shadows at the end of your Death's Due
window, and then pop down Death's Due quickly again to refresh your stacks. You
have tons of space to do so with this setup though, making it somewhat easy!
Shackle the Unworthy (Kyrian)
Shackle the Unworthy applies a 14-second, hasted DoT on your target.
Any direct ability that costs Runes will spread this DoT to an additional target,
using the current remaining duration as the new DoT's duration. It can only ever spread
to one target at a time!
We use this on cooldown in single-target and before your Death and Decay
window in AoE
Swarming Mist (Venthyr)
Swarming Mist summons a mist around you for 8 seconds, dealing damage
and generating 3 Runic Power per target hit, per tick, and up to 15 Runic Power
per tick. It is a great source of Runic Power in AoE that allows us to spam
Epidemic!
We use this ability on cooldown in single -arget, not caring to line it up
with anything. In AoE, we use it before our Death and Decay window and
follow up with
Epidemic spam before we then move into the Death and Decay
window once we deplete our Runic Power.
Optional Read: Mastering Your Unholy Death Knight
To help you better understand how to play the Unholy specialization, we will explain some concepts in more detail below.
Runes and Runic Power
Death Knights use a dual resource system of runes and Runic Power. While it is quite straightforward in how it works, we will explain it here for the sake of completion.
Runes
You have a total of 6 Runes, which are available by default. Some of your abilities have Rune costs, and whenever you use an ability that consumes one or more Runes, those Runes will immediately begin recharging. The exact amount of time it takes a Rune to recharge depends on how much Haste you have.
Whenever a Rune is consumed, you gain 10 Runic Power (more on that below).
At most, 3 of your runes can be charging up at the same time. It is therefore optimal to keep at least 3 runes on cooldown in order to maximise the recharge rate over the course of the fight.
Runic Power
Runic Power is a resource that resembles Rage, in the sense that it decays when out of combat, but does not decay during combat. As mentioned above, consuming Runes generates 10 Runic Power per Rune spent, and this is the primary means of generating Runic Power, although some abilities also help with this. You can have a maximum of 100 Runic Power.
In general, spending Runic Power should only be done when 3 Runes or more
are charging up, or when you are about to cap Runic Power. This is not the
case when Summon Gargoyle is active (when using this talent), during
which time you should try to maximize your Runic Power expenditure.
Runic Corruption
Runic Corruption has a chance of proccing whenever we spend Runic Power.
It can also proc when we consume
Sudden Doom and
Dark Succor.
The proc will always return a total of 0.9 Runes, regardless of haste. The
proc also stacks on itself, adding any new duration to the previous remaining one.
All this means you do not need to pay attention to this proc.
Virulent Plague
Virulent Plague is a Shadow damage DoT that is applied to targets
using
Outbreak or
Unholy Blight. If the target dies while
afflicted with
Virulent Plague, it erupts for Shadow damage to all
nearby enemies. If you are talented into
Unholy Blight, this will be
the only method of applying
Virulent Plague in a single-target
encounter.
Festering Wounds
Each time you use Festering Strike, between 2 and 3 stacks of a
debuff called
Festering Wound is applied to the target. The debuff
lasts for 30 seconds (and each added stack refreshes its duration), and does
nothing if left alone. However, using
Scourge Strike/
Clawing Shadows on a target that has
Festering Wounds on them consumes a stack, causing the target to take
Shadow damage, and also granting you 3 Runic Power. All of the stacks are
consumed if the target dies.
The ideal number of stacks at which to spend Festering Wounds is 4+.
If you have 3 or fewer stacks, you should instead generate some more using
Festering Strike.
Anti-Magic Shell Usage
Anti-Magic Shell absorbs 100% of all magic damage taken, up to 30%
of your maximum health, for 5 seconds and grants you Runic Power based on the
amount of damage that it absorbs.
While this ability has amazing survivability benefits, allowing you to often taken practically no damage from various raid-damaging mechanics, it also has great benefits for your DPS.
Indeed, the amount of Runic Power you gain if you absorb a lot of magic damage is far from negligible. Therefore, you should always try to make use of Anti-Magic Shell to boost your Runic Power generation throughout the fight. The best way to do it is to know when a raid-damaging attack is coming, and to have Anti Magic Shell up for that time. Then, simply enjoy the extra Runic Power (and do not forget to spend it).
That said, for progression content, we fully recommend first and foremost
saving Anti-Magic Shell to mitigate magic damage, before you consider
how to use it to increase your DPS.
Changelog
- 31 May 2022: Page reviewed for Patch 9.2.5.
- 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 reviewed and updated for Patch 9.1.
- 10 May 2021: Reviewed and expanded on multiple topics.
- 09 Mar. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 23 Feb. 2021: Added rotation switches for the single target rotation.
- 19 Jan. 2021: Guide reviewed and completely updated.
- 08 Jan. 2021: Fixed the description for Soul Reaper.
- 14 Dec. 2020: Fixed the disclaimer for the single target rotation.
- 28 Nov. 2020: Fixed the Unholy single-target opener.
- 23 Nov. 2020: Updated the rotation priority and guide 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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