Unholy Death Knight DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities (Legion 7.3.5)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.3 Changes for Unholy Death Knights
  • 3. Patch 7.2.5 Changes for Unholy Death Knights
  • 4. Patch 7.2 Changes for Unholy Death Knights
  • 5. Unholy Death Knight Strengths
  • 6. Unholy Death Knight Weaknesses
  • 7. Contents
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics of Unholy Death Knights
  • 2. Talent Choice for Unholy Death Knights
  • 3. Stat Choice for Unholy Death Knights
  • 4. Basic Rotation for Unholy Death Knights
  • 5. Cooldowns for Unholy Death Knights
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Main Resources of Unholy Death Knights
  • 3. Unholy Death Knight Basic Abilities
  • 4. Important Procs for Unholy Death Knights
  • 5. Cooldowns for Unholy Death Knights
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Tier 1 (Level 56) Talents for Unholy Death Knights
  • 3. Tier 2 (Level 57) Talents for Unholy Death Knights
  • 4. Tier 3 (Level 58) Talents for Unholy Death Knights
  • 5. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents for Unholy Death Knights
  • 6. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents for Unholy Death Knights
  • 7. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents for Unholy Death Knights
  • 8. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents for Unholy Death Knights
  • 9. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression for Unholy Death Knights
  • 2. Relic Choice for Unholy Death Knights
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths
  • 1. General Optimization Advice for Unholy Death Knights
  • 2. Tier 2 Upgrade Priority for Unholy Death Knights
  • 3. Tier 3 Upgrade Priority for Unholy Death Knights
  • 4. ChangeLog
• ×Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Single Target Rotation for Unholy Death Knights
  • 2. Multiple Target Rotation for Unholy Death Knights
  • 3. Dark Arbiter Opening Rotation
  • 4. Cooldown Usage for Unholy Death Knights
    • 4.1. Apocalypse
    • 4.2. Summon Gargoyle
    • 4.3. Army of the Dead
  • 5. Optional Read: Mastering Your Unholy Death Knight
    • 5.1. Runes and Runic Power
      • 5.1.1. Runes
      • 5.1.2. Runic Power
    • 5.2. Virulent Plague
    • 5.3. Festering Wounds
    • 5.4. Anti-Magic Shell Usage
    • 5.5. Abilities and Cooldowns from Talents
      • 5.5.1. Tier 2 Talents
      • 5.5.2. Tier 6 Talents
      • 5.5.3. Tier 7 Talents
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding of Unholy Death Knight Stats
    • 2.1. Statistics Priority
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. 26% Haste Breakpoint
  • 2. Gems for Unholy Death Knights
  • 3. Enchants for Unholy Death Knights
  • 4. Consumables for Unholy Death Knights
  • 5. 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. Corpse Shield
      • 1.2.3. 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. mRunes
      • 1.3.8. Omen Threat Meter
      • 1.3.9. TellMeWhen
      • 1.3.10. Grid and GridClickSets (Optional)
    • 1.4. Specific Addons for Unholy Death Knights
  • 2. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Tier 21 Set Bonuses for Unholy Death Knights
  • 2. Legendary Items for Unholy Death Knights
  • 3. Loot Competition for Unholy Death Knights
  • 4. ChangeLog

General Information

On this page, we list your Unholy Death Knight core abilities and how they should be used together (rotation) in World of Warcraft Legion 7.3.5. We also explain when to use your various cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtleties that you will need to know if you want to excel at playing an Unholy Death Knight.

The other pages of our Unholy Death Knight guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Reviewer

This guide has been reviewed and approved by JaceDK, long-time Death Knight theorycrafter and moderator on the Death Knight Discord. You can also catch him on his stream or on his YouTube channel. He also raids in WHATEVER WERE AWESOME, a top guild.

1. Single Target Rotation for Unholy Death Knights

1. Maintain Virulent Plague on the target, using Outbreak to refresh it when it is about to expire.
2. If you have the Cold Heart legendary item, use Chains of Ice.
3. Cast Dark Transformation.
4. Cast Festering Strike.
   • This applies 2-4 stacks of the Festering Wound debuff, which caps at 8 stacks. Do not use Festering Strike if you are at maximum stacks, and ideally avoid wasting any potential stacks unless Apocalypse is available or will be available shortly (so try not to cast it when you have 5 or more stacks).
5. Cast Apocalypse when you have 6 stacks of Festering Wounds.
6. Cast Scourge Strike (or Clawing Shadows, if you have taken this talent), if there are 3+ Festering Wounds on the target.
   • If there are fewer than 3 Festering Wounds on the target, use Festering Strike.
   • If you have the The Instructor's Fourth Lesson legendary, cast Festering Strike with 4 or fewer Festering Wounds, and Scourge Strike with 5+ Festering Wounds.
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.
   • You should also avoid capping Sudden Doom procs, so if you reach 2 procs of this buff, you should immediately use Death Coil.

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 and Summon Gargoyle, so that they can benefit from the buffs.

Note that if you have the The Instructor's Fourth Lesson legendary bracers, you should use Scourge Strike with as many Festering Wounds up as possible on the target. You should still be careful not to overcap Festering Wounds by using Festering Strike when you have too many active, though.

2. 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 Clawing Shadows as much as possible.

Stacking Festering Wound on a target should ideally be done before the additional adds start, so that you can benefit from the stacks during your AoE phase. In any case, you should only be casting Festering Strike during your AoE rotation if both Death and Decay/ Defile and Epidemic are on cooldown.

It is important to note that, when using Scourge Strike/ Clawing Shadows while you are standing on top of your own Death and Decay/ Defile, these abilities cleave everything in range of your primary target. 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 rotation should look like.

• Use Outbreak to apply Virulent Plague to all targets that are not currently infected.
• Use Dark Transformation (use Apocalypse before casting Dark Transformation if you have the legendary Tak'theritrix's Shoulderpads shoulders).
• Cast Death and Decay.
• Use Scourge Strike (while standing in Death and Decay, so Scourge Strike will hit all nearby targets; if using the Bursting Sores talent, make sure the target you are using Scourge Strike on has Festering Wounds for extra cleave).
• Use Festering Strike with 4 or fewer Festering Wounds on the target (3 or fewer if using the Infected Claws talent).
• Use Scourge Strike with at least 1 Festering Wound.
• Use Death Coil.

3. Dark Arbiter Opening Rotation

1. Cast Army of the Dead 4-6 seconds before the pull.
2. Cast Chains of Ice (only if you have the Cold Heart legendary).
3. Cast Outbreak.
4. Use Festering Strike twice to apply Festering Wounds.
5. Cast Apocalypse.
6. Use Festering Strike.
7. Cast Dark Arbiter (if you have the legendary Tak'theritrix's Shoulderpads shoulders, then use Dark Transformation before casting Dark Arbiter in order to prevent wasting a non-Runic Power generating global cooldown during Dark Arbiter).
8. Cast Death Coil.
9. Use Dark Transformation (with the Tak'theritrix's Shoulderpadsshoulders equipped, your Dark Arbiter will gain the damage buff when Dark Transformation is cast).

4. Cooldown Usage for Unholy Death Knights

As an Unholy Death Knight, you have a total of 2 DPS cooldowns, and you gain another from your Artifact weapon. Below, we explain how they are best used. Your talents can provide you with a few other important abilities. We cover them in a subsequent section.

4.1. Apocalypse

Apocalypse is your Artifact ability. It summons a member of the Army of the Dead for each stack of Festering Wounds, up to 6. Those ghouls deal decent damage, and they also interact with other Artifact traits like Portal to the Underworld and Armies of the Damned, which causes them to explode when they die.

Apocalypse should be used when you have 6 stacks of Festering Wounds. It will only consume 6 stacks even when you have 7 or 8.

4.2. Summon Gargoyle

Summon Gargoyle is a very powerful cooldown that is free of cost. You generally want to use it 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.

Dark Arbiter replaces Summon Gargoyle when using the the Tier 7 talent. This is a very powerful talent that also has some strong synergies, mainly with the legendary Tak'theritrix's Shoulderpads shoulders, which increase its damage by 40%, and with the Unholy Frenzy talent, which increases attack speed thus giving you more Sudden Doom procs. These procs, while not directly spending Runic Power, still buff Dark Arbiter for the same amount as a normal Death Coil. Dark Arbiter' s attack speed scales with your Haste, so using it during Heroism/ Bloodlust can lead to an extra few casts.

4.3. Army of the Dead

Army of the Dead summons a number of ghouls to fight at your side for a short while. It has a high Rune cost, but it also deals a lot of damage. You can use it before the pull, but if you require high burst damage during the fight it is perfectly acceptable to channel it during combat.

5. Optional Read: Mastering Your Unholy Death Knight

To help you better understand how to play the Unholy specialisation, we will explain some concepts in more detail below.

5.1. 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.

5.1.1. 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.

5.1.2. 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 Dark Arbiter is active, during which time you should try to maximise your Runic Power expenditure.

5.2. Virulent Plague

Virulent Plague is a Shadow damage DoT that is applied to targets using Outbreak. Outbreak places a 5-second debuff on the target that causes it and any nearby enemies to have Virulent Plague applied to them.

When the target affected by Virulent Plague dies, the plague explodes dealing Shadow damage split between all nearby enemies. It also has a 30% chance to explode each time it deals damage (this does not remove the DoT).

5.3. Festering Wounds

Each time you use Festering Strike, between 2 and 4 stacks of a debuff called Festering Wound is applied to the target. The debuff lasts for 23 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 3. If you have fewer than 3 stacks, you should instead generate some more using Festering Strike.

In Mythic+ if you are using the Soul of the Deathlord legendary ring, you can stack up Festering Wounds on a target about to die and they will all do their burst damage to surrounding targets. The same goes for Unholy Frenzy, where you will gain seconds to your frenzy if a target dies with Festering Wounds active.

5.4. 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.

As an Unholy Death Knight, you can boost the power of Anti-Magic Shell using the Spell Eater talent. The Acherus Drapes legendary further boosts Anti-Magic Shell, increasing its potency and duration.

5.5. Abilities and Cooldowns from Talents

5.5.1. Tier 2 Talents

Epidemic could be used before the pull in order to generate Runic Power to feed Dark Arbiter, or while dealing AoE damage, in case the targets are spread out or while they are stacked but Death and Decay/ Defile is on cooldown.

Note that you cannot start a dungeon or raid boss encounter with more than 20 Runic Power.

5.5.2. Tier 6 Talents

If you are using Necrosis, optimising it boils down to getting as many uses out of it as possible, so not chaining Death Coils whenever possible, and instead using up the procs on Scourge Strike/ Clawing Shadows. That said, if you do not have any wounds on the target for you to use Clawing Shadows, it is acceptable to chain Death Coils. In the same vein, if you do not have enough Runic Power to use Death Coil, it is acceptable to use Clawing Shadows without having used Death Coil first.

5.5.3. Tier 7 Talents

Dark Arbiter requires preparation to use correctly. Before you activate it, you should have saved up 100 Runic Power (or very close to it), as well as 3 Runes. While Dark Arbiter is active, you should follow a priority system to optimise the damage of this talent.

Your priority during Dark Arbiter is as follows.

1. Use Death Coil (spending Runic Power during Dark Arbiter increases its damage, and Death Coil is the best ability to spend Runic Power on in order to buff Dark Arbiter).
2. Use Outbreak to maintain Virulent Plague, if it is about to fall off.
3. Use Apocalypse with at least 6 Festering Wound stacks.
4. Use Chains of Ice with 20 stacks (only if you have the Cold Heart legendary equipped).
5. Use Scourge Strike (with at least 1 Festering Wound on the target).
6. Use Festering Strike with 4 or fewer Festering Wounds on the target (3 or fewer if using the Infected Claws talent).

Your priority outside of Dark Arbiter is as follows.

1. Use Outbreak to maintain Virulent Plague, if it is about to fall off.
2. Use Chains of Ice with 20 stacks (only if you have the Cold Heart legendary equipped).
3. Use Dark Transformation (you will usually get one of these between Dark Arbiter casts).
4. Use Apocalypse with at least 6 Festering Wounds.
5. Use Death Coil with 75+ Runic Power (this will keep you from overcapping and wasting your Runic Power).
6. Use Scourge Strike with at least 1 Festering Wound.
7. Use Festering Strike with 4 or fewer Festering Wounds on the target (3 or fewer if using the Infected Claws talent).
8. Use Death Coil.

Regarding Dark Transformation, if you are using Convergence of Fates and Shadow Infusion, then you should use Dark Transformation only after Apocalypse and Dark Arbiter have been used, so that all pets are buffed by it. Once you have used it, you can use it freely while Dark Arbiter is on cooldown, but just make sure to save it in preparation for your next Dark Arbiter cast.

If you are not using Convergence of Fates (and therefore not Shadow Infusion either), you should just use Dark Transformation after Dark Arbiter, but you can use Apocalypse freely, as it is not worth trying to tie its timing to that of Dark Arbiter.

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 Dark Arbiter, so it is important to make sure to use these procs right away during Dark Arbiter and not have them wasted.

If you are pooling Runic Power pre-fight, make sure not to target the boss, and dismiss your pet and then summon it again so you do not accidentally pull.

You can use the following macro to bind your Dark Arbiter to your on-use trinkets.

• #showtooltip
• /cast Dark Arbiter
• /use 13
• /use 14

6. ChangeLog

• 25 May 2018: Updated Dark Arbiter section and added an opening rotation.
• 29 Jan. 2018: Added another mention about Sudden Doom procs on the page.
• 28 Aug. 2017: Updated/improved Dark Arbiter rotation.
• 25 Jul. 2017: Removed Soul Reaper from the rotation since it is no longer recommended as a talent choice.
• 12 Jun. 2017: Added a recommendation for using Necrosis.
• 24 Apr. 2017: Removed a redundant sentence.
• 27 Mar. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 11 Mar. 2017: Updated multiple target playstyle.
• 10 Jan. 2017: Made updates to the existing rotations to bring them in line with Patch 7.1.5 changes.
• 12 Dec. 2016: Updated the guide to reflect that Soul Reaper is now the only viable tier 7 talent.
• 16 Oct. 2016: Added a mention about how the The Instructor's Fourth Lesson legendary bracers affect the single target rotation.
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 22 Jul. 2016: Made a clarification not to target the boss while building Runic Power before the pull for Dark Arbiter.
• 21 Jul. 2016: Removed mentions of a single target rotation using Defile (since this talent should never be taken), and added Death Coil to all the rotations.
• 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.

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