Unholy Death Knight DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Dragonflight 10.2
On this page, you will find out the best talents for each tier for your Unholy Death Knight in World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2. We also have default talent lists for various types of content, such as raiding or Mythic+. If you play with Warmode on, we have your PvP talents covered as well.
Best Dragonflight Talents for Unholy Death Knight
Note that these builds are generic recommendations for various content. For more specific recommendations for the Raid and Mythic+, check out the dedicated pages below.
Best Talents for Unholy Death Knight
Best Raid Talents for Unholy Death Knight
This build is optimal for the majority of raid encounters, providing the
best balance between raw Single-target damage and flexibility. For the spec
tree, there are not that many options, primarily presenting themselves in the choice
between Rotten Touch and
Unholy Pact. Picking
Unholy Pact
is a minor DPS downgrade (0.5% or so) with a nice AoE boost.
For the class tree, there's a lot more realistic choice. We are generally locked
into Anti-Magic Barrier,
Anti-Magic Zone and
Assimilation
on any encounter with some magic damage (very rare that there's no magic damage).
In the case where there isn't any magic damage, these points can be allocated to
March of Darkness,
Improved Death Strike and
Acclimation.
Another flex point we have is
Permafrost, which can be allocated to
Coldthirst or
Blinding Sleet. Still, it's rare to do this
since the defensive value of
Permafrost is so nice. Swapping
Unholy Endurance for
Death's Reach or
Grip of the Dead
provides some nice utility at the loss of a solid defensive, only do it
if your raid need that extra utility!
The bottom of the tree presents some more choice. Insidious Chill is
a nice defensive boost for your tank, and
Will of the Necropolis is a huge
personal defensive buff. However, to take these talents, we need to give up
Death's Echo, which is a 0.5% DPS downgrade, and
Blood Draw, but
that does not matter too much. It's generally a solid choice
for progression, but it's important to weigh the defensive benefits from the DPS disadvantage.
Finally, we pick up Abomination Limb whenever we can get value from
the grip part of the ability. It's also better in AoE scenarios, but it's a
questionable swap due to the good priority damage from
Soul Reaper.
Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game!
The recommended talents do not account for specific raid encounters (but you can just run it everywhere and be completely fine), which can require a specific talent or build. For a boss-by-boss breakdown of the talent choices for specific encounters, you should check out our dedicated raid page.
Alternative Raid Talents for Unholy Death Knight
This build is very similar to our default raid talents with the primary exception
of picking up Defile. This is actually more raw Single Target in
static scenarios, beating the default build by 1% or so. Furthermore, it scales
significantly better in AoE, outperforming the default build at 3+ targets due
to the AoE from
Epidemic,
Unholy Blight and the raw damage
plus added cleave from
Defile!
The reason this build isn't the default recommended one is because of the liability
of Defile. This spell requires both the boss and you to stand in it
to gain full value, making any boss movement diminish its value. Furthermore,
it is completely terrible when it comes to covering up mechanics. Be
careful as soon as you choose it, as you will not
see what is going on around the boss!
When it comes to spec tree choices here, Unholy Pact can be picked
up instead of
Rotten Touch for a small 0.5% Single Target sacrifice
and a nice AoE gain.
The class tree has similar choices compared to the default build at the start
of the tree. Permafrost for
Coldthirst or
Blinding Sleet.
If you need faster interrupt or hard CC.
Acclimation,
Improved Death Strike and
March of Darkness
when you can spec out of
Anti-Magic Zone,
Assimilation, and
Anti-Magic Barrier.
Death's Reach and
Grip of the Dead
as an alternative to
Unholy Endurance.
At the bottom of the tree, things are different compared to the default build. Death's Echo
synergises really well with
Defile, allowing us to use it back-to-back
for an extended Mastery buff during our
Apocalypse windows. You end up
having to choose between
Rune Mastery or
Death's Echo at around
2% DPS loss from either. This in addition to
Blood Draw allows you to
allocate the points to
Insidious Chill and
Will of the Necropolis.
Generally too steep of a loss for me personally and makes more sense to run
the default build if you need to swap these talents.
Finally, you can allocate the Soul Reaper point to
Abomination Limb
whenever you can get value from the grip utility.
Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Best Mythic+ Talents for Unholy Death Knight
This is our recommended build for Mythic+. It works really well for all weeks and all affixes!
This is your go-to Mythic+ build for all dungeons and affixes. It
leverages disease damage via Superstrain,
Ebon Fever, and
Plaguebringer, spamming of
Epidemic, as well as almost
constant cleave via
Defile to do damage.
There is not much choice in the spec tree, primarily that of Ghoulish Frenzy
instead of
Morbidity. The difference between these talents is not huge
, but
Morbidity is generally just better in all scenarios. You can also
swap the
Morbidity points to
Pestilence for more passive
Festering Wounds, or
Reaping and
Summon Gargoyle for
more Single Target burst. However, neither of these choices is very common
, and I do not recommend them as a general rule.
For the class tree, we are pretty locked for the most part. Blinding Sleet
is great Mythic+ utility, and
Permafrost,
Improved Death Strike
and
Anti-Magic Barrier are defensives we do not want to give up. The true
choice comes at the bottom of the tree where we can give up
Blood Draw
and the one point in
Death's Echo to spec into
Insidious Chill
and
Will of the Necropolis. This is a 1-2% damage loss for a significant
defensive gain! Still, with perfect play, you are unlikely to actually need
this extra defensive power, but that does not stop me from running it most of the time!
Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Alternative Mythic+ Talents for Unholy Death Knight
The alternative to the Disease build in the previous tab comes in the form of
the Wound Build. This build focuses on Festering Wounds in combination
with the
Bursting Sores talent. We leverage talents such as
Infected Claws,
Vile Contagion and
Pestilence to build a large number of Wounds
on our target, bursting them in droves with cleaving
Scourge Strike in
Defile. This build embodies the "Quadratic Scaling" that Unholy
is famous for, dealing insane amounts of damage in big pulls.
The choice in the spec tree comes down to Pestilence being allocated
elsewhere. Both
Morbidity and
Ghoulish Frenzy helps your
Single Target at the expense of slightly lower
Festering Wounds generation.
The class tree choice is again about Will of the Necropolis. You can
sacrifice one point of
Unholy Bond and two points of
Blood Draw
to pick up
Insidious Chill and
Will of the Necropolis. 1-2% DPS
loss for significant defensive boost.
Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Rotation
Talents can and usually do, change your rotation or add new abilities to your priority. For a more detailed breakdown of how your rotation will look with optimal talents, check out our rotation page linked below.
PvP Talents (War Mode)
In this section, we will rank the PvP talents that are best for leveling and doing open-world content.
- PvP talents enabled in the outdoor world.
- 10% increase in World Quest rewards at maximum level.
- 10% more experience gained while leveling.
- Earn Conquest Points, which can reward gear every week.
With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended enabling the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at maximum level. However, you will make yourself available for open-world PvP, and the possibility of being "ganked" while leveling or doing World Quests exists.
Unholy Death Knight War Mode Talents
In this section, we will rank the PvP talents best for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. Below is a ranking of Unholy Death Knight PvP talents.
Unholy Death Knight PvP Talents
Necrotic Aura causes all enemies within 8 yards to take 4% increased magical damage. This has good synergy with Unholy's damage kit and also helps increase your damage as a group if you are doing content with other players.
Doomburst causes your
Death Coils that consume
Sudden Doom to burst up to 2
Festering Wounds on the target, slowing them by 45% per wound burst for 3 seconds. Solid DPS gain in PvE.
Bloodforged Armor provides 3 seconds of 20% physical damage reduction whenever you press
Death Strike. Solid defensive gain!
Spellwarden lowers the cooldown of
Anti-Magic Shell by 10 seconds and allows you to use it on allies. It's just a nice defensive gain due to allowing more AMS usage.
Strangulate silences your target for 4 seconds. Somewhat useful in PvE as you fight against casters.
Reanimation reanimates a nearby corpse, summoning a zombie with 5 health for 20 seconds, which slowly moves towards the target. If it reaches your target, it explodes, stunning all enemies within 6 yards for 3 seconds and dealing 10% of the enemy's health in Shadow damage. This ability costs 1 Rune. This can be a powerful talent for both open-world questing and leveling; however, it is difficult to use in World PvP.
Dark Simulacrum places a debuff on your enemy, activating when they cast a spell that uses mana. It allows you to use that same spell for some time. Not useful in PvE content.
Necromancer's Bargain reduces the cooldown of your of your Apocalypse by 15 seconds; however, your Apocalypse does not summon ghouls but instead applies Crypt Fever to the target. Crypt fever deals up to 8% of the target's maximum health as Shadow damage over 4 seconds. Healing spells cast on the target refresh the duration of Crypt Fever. This is a strong choice for World PvP.
Rot and Wither adds an absorption shield to any target hit by
Death and Decay for 100% of the damage amount. Useless pretty much.
Necrotic Wound your
Festering Wounds now apply a healing absorption when they burst, absorbing a stacking 5% of healing for 15 seconds. Good for PvP but not usable in PvE content.
Necrotic Aura is by far the best PvP talent in PvE content. 4% gain
to a solid proportion of our overall damage throughput!
Doomburst is the second solid choice due to its
nice DPS gain, helping you to consume
Festering Wounds. No other talent
does much for us in PvE, and are primarily PvP choices. For a third option,
we don't have much to choose from.
Bloodforged Armor is generally
best due to providing a solid defensive gain in PvE!
Changelog
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed and updated for Patch 10.1.7.
- 31 Aug. 2023: Reviewed and updated for Patch 10.1.7.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
- 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
- 29 Apr. 2023: Reviewed and Updated for Patch 10.1.
- 12 Apr. 2023: Updated talents after 10.0.7 buffs.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Updated talents for 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
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.
- New Love is in the Air Armor Sets in Patch 10.2.5
- Icy Veins Launches Genshin Impact Guides Section
- Dragonflight Season 3 Mythic+ DPS Log Rankings: Week 2
- Full Trading Post Rotation for December 2023
- New Returning Items Tab for Trading Post Items in Patch 10.2.5
- Will Sylvanas Return in Patch 10.2.5?
- Night Elf Paladin NPC Spotted in Patch 10.2.5
- New Trading Post Mount in Patch 10.2.5 - Savage Blue Battle Turtle