Unholy Death Knight DPS Spell Summary — Shadowlands 9.2
On this page, we present you with all spells and procs that you need to understand as an Unholy Death Knight in World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.2.
Introduction
If you are new to Unholy, this is a great place to start to get an understanding of how the spec works. On this page we will discuss what abilities you have, what they are used for within the specialisation, how they interact with each other and also with important cooldowns. If you already have experience with Unholy and are comfortable with it in the current expansion, it is recommended you skip this section and move on to the rest of the guide.
Main Resources of Unholy Death Knights
Runic Power and Runes are your two resources. Throughout the fight, you will look to spend as many Runes as possible and generate as much Runic Power as you can, which you will then use to help you deal more damage.
Unlocking Abilities
Spells and passive abilities are unlocked as you level up, but this page simply lists everything you have available to you at max level. Linked below is our Leveling page, which has all the detailed information of when you unlock these abilities.
Unholy Death Knight Basic Abilities
These are your core skills that are available regardless of talents, and form the core game play of the specialization.
Virulent Plague is a Shadow damage DoT that erupts when the
target dies, dealing damage divided among all enemies. It is applied using
Outbreak.
Outbreak costs 1 Rune and applies
Virulent Plague to all
nearby targets.
Festering Strike costs 2 Runes, dealing Physical damage to the
target and infecting them with 2-3 stacks of
Festering Wound.
Each Festering Wound stack deals damage to the target and grants you 3 Runic
Power when burst by using
Scourge Strike.
Scourge Strike costs 1 Rune and deals Physical and Shadow
damage to the target, also bursting 1
Festering Wound stack.
Death Coil costs 40 Runic Power to cast dealing Shadow damage to
the target, reduces the cooldown of your
Dark Transformation by 1
second.
Death and Decay costs 1 Rune and places a damaging area at the
target location, which persists for 10 seconds. While you are inside your own
Death and Decay,
Scourge Strike/
Clawing Shadows will damage all
enemies near to your target.
Dark Transformation has a 1-minute cooldown and transforms your
ghoul into a more powerful version of itself for 15 seconds while also granting
them 100% Energy. The cooldown is reduced by 1 second every time you use
Death Coil.
Death's Advance when activated increases your movement speed by
35% and prevents you from being slowed below 100% of your movement speed for 10
seconds. It also grants you immunity from knockbacks. It has a passive ability
that prevents your movement speed from being reduced below 70%
Anti-Magic Shell absorbs up to 30% of your maximum health in magic
damage over 5 seconds, and generates Runic Power based on the damage absorbed.
This should be used to mitigate magic damage throughout the fight, while the
added Runic Power will help increase your DPS.
Anti-Magic Zone places a zone on the ground that reduces magic damage
taken by 20% for 10 seconds. The maximum amount that can be absorbed is equal to
1.5 times your Maximum Health, increased by your Versatility.
Epidemic is a baseline AoE spender and is affected by
Sudden Doom procs.
Sacrificial Pact sacrifices your permanent ghoul to heal yourself
and deal AoE damage.
Unholy has a lot of abilities, so for more detailed information on how these abilities are used in your rotation, please read our rotation page linked below.
Important Procs for Unholy Death Knights
Sudden Doom grants your auto-attacks a chance to make your next
Death Coil or
Epidemic cost no Runic Power.
Cooldowns for Unholy Death Knights
Unholy Death Knights have 3 Core DPS cooldowns.
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.
Apocalypse summons a member of the
Army of the Dead for each stack of
Festering Wounds, up to 4.
Dark Transformation empowers your ghoul for 15 seconds. Your empowered ghoul attacks in a frontal cone providing a single target DPS boost as well as an AoE mechanic for your pet.
Talent Abilities and Cooldowns
Unholy Blight stacks up to 4 times and increases your minions damage they
deal to targets by 3% per stack for the duration of Unholy Blight. This is incredibly
powerful and has synergy with the Unholy toolkit. It should always be paired
with
Dark Transformation.
Soul Reaper is an execute that deals damage, but also explodes after
5 seconds, dealing a large amount of Shadow damage to the target, if it is
under 35% health. If the target dies while under the affect of Soul Reaper, you
gain
Runic Corruption.
Unholy Assault strikes the target and infects them with 4
Festering Wounds, while also increasing your Haste by 20% for 12
seconds.
Summon Gargoyle summons a gargoyle to attack your enemy for 30
seconds. Every 2 Runic Power used increases the damage of the gargoyle by
1%.
Changelog
- 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: Added Sacrificial Pact and Summon Gargoyle.
- 09 Mar. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 19 Jan. 2021: Guide reviewed and completely updated.
- 19 Dec. 2020: Updated Death's Advance description.
- 14 Dec. 2020: Updated the description for Outbreak.
- 23 Nov. 2020: Page updated for Shadowlands release.
- 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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