Unholy Death Knight DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Shadowlands 9.0.2
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 9.0.2.
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
- Use
Army of the Dead.
- Use
Festering Strike.
- Use
Unholy Blight.
- Use
Dark Transformation.
- Use
Abomination Limb (If Necrolord + Emeni soulbind).
- Use
Festering Strike.
- Use
Apocalypse.
- Use
Blood Fury (if Orc),
Berserking (if Troll).
Single-Target Rotation for Unholy Death Knights
- Maintain
Virulent Plague on the target, using
Outbreak or
Unholy Blight to refresh it when it is about to expire.
- Cast
Death Coil to avoid capping Runic Power (80+ Runic Power) OR if you have a proc of
Sudden Doom.
- Cast
Scourge Strike (or
Clawing Shadows, if you have taken this talent), if there are 1+
Festering Wounds on the target.
- If there are 0
Festering Wounds on the target, use
Festering Strike.
- Cast
Death Coil.
For Dark Transformation usage, pair it with
Unholy Blight
even if you have to hold one for the other.
This single target rotation assumes you have taken the tier 7 talent
Army of the Damned.
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 rotation should look like.
- Use
Outbreak to apply
Virulent Plague to all targets that are not currently infected (
Unholy Blight if talented instead).
- Use
Epidemic if you are about to cap Runic Power (80+) or have a
Sudden Doom proc.
- Use
Death and Decay (
Defile if you have taken this talent).
- Use
Scourge Strike/
Clawing Shadows (while standing in
Death and Decay, so
Scourge Strike/
Clawing Shadows will hit all nearby targets; if using the
Bursting Sores talent, make sure the target you are using
Scourge Strike/
Clawing Shadows on has
Festering Wounds for extra cleave).
- Use
Epidemic (if using the legendary
Deadliest Coil then use
Death Coil at 3 or less targets).
- Use
Scourge Strike (
Clawing Shadows if you have taken this talent) with at least 1
Festering Wound.
- Use
Festering Strike with 0
Festering Wounds on the target.
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 baseline DPS cooldowns. 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.
Apocalypse
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. Since
Eternal Hunger is such a strong conduit,
this will only become an issue when you unlock your second potency conduit.
Army of the Dead
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 during combat 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.
Dark Transformation
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 casted.
Sacrificial Pact
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.
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.
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
1. If you have 0 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.
Abilities and Cooldowns from Talents
Tier 4 Talents
Soul Reaper should be used off cooldown when the target
is below 35% and can be applied above 35% as long as the target will be
35% or lower when the debuff expires.
Tier 7 Talents
Summon Gargoyle requires preparation to use correctly. Before you
activate it, you should have saved up to at least 65 Runic Power. While the
Gargoyle is active, you should follow a priority system to optimize the damage
of this talent.
Your priority during Summon Gargoyle is as follows.
- Use
Death Coil (spending Runic Power during
Summon Gargoyle increases its damage, and
Death Coil is the best ability to spend Runic Power on in order to buff the Gargoyle).
- Use
Death Strike with the
Dark Succor proc.
- Use
Outbreak to maintain
Virulent Plague, if it is about to fall off (
Unholy Blight if talented).
- Use
Scourge Strike/
Clawing Shadows (with at least 1
Festering Wound on the target).
- Use
Festering Strike with 0
Festering Wounds on the target.
Your priority outside of Summon Gargoyle is as follows.
- Use
Outbreak to maintain
Virulent Plague, if it is about to fall off (
Unholy Blight if talented).
- Use
Death Coil with 80+ Runic Power or a proc of
Sudden Doom (this will keep you from over-capping and wasting your Runic Power).
- Use
Scourge Strike/
Clawing Shadows with at least 1
Festering Wound.
- Use
Festering Strike with 0
Festering Wounds on the target.
- Use
Death Coil.
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.
Changelog
- 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
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This guide has been written by Abyssalwave, a top level Death Knight player. He is a former US #2 hardcore raider who currently raids with didnt ask. You can also check out his YouTube channel.
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