Unholy Death Knight DPS Stat Priority — Dragonflight 10.0.7
On this page, you will find out the optimal stat priority for your Unholy Death Knight. We first present the stat priority, before delving into more complex explanations. Our content is updated for World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.0.7.
The Basics of Stats for Unholy Death Knight
The most common stat priority you will find in your sims for Unholy Death Knights is as follows:
- Haste
- Mastery
- Critical Strike
- Versatility
Notably, Summon Gargoyle introduces Haste breakpoints to aim for.
Gaining an extra attack from this summon is a big dps increase, thus creating
points where your haste becomes extra valuable. This happens every 9% haste, meaning
9%, 18%, 27% etc. The best way of targeting these is to simulate your character
as the simulation engine accurately synthesises the behavior. This means that
you will sometimes prioritse Haste more than any other stat.
For AoE, it changes slightly with Mastery and Critical Strike coming on top of Haste:
- Mastery
- Critical Strike
- Haste
- Versatility
Usually a higher item level piece of gear will be a bigger upgrade than a lower item level piece of gear even with better stats. We highly recommend you sim your character to find the stat weights that work best for you.
These statistics have been obtained by combining common sense, in-game testing, and simulations using SimulationCraft.
Getting a Better Understanding of Unholy Death Knight Stats
Statistics Explanation
Strength is your primary statistic. You should look for it in all of your upgrades. It provides you with Attack Power, which determines the damage your abilities do.
Mastery, through Mastery: Dreadblade, increases your
Shadow and minion damage. Shadow and minion damage makes up a majority of your
total damage. The first strict diminishing return starts at 68.4% Mastery.
Haste will increase your attack speed and Rune regeneration rate. It also reduces your Global Cooldown.
Critical Strike increases your chance to critically hit with all spells and abilities.
Versatility increases all your damage and healing done, and decreases all damage taken.
For Unholy, your pets and minions inherit your stats. Increasing your Haste will make them hit faster and regenerate Energy faster. Critical strike will increase their Critical Strike chance, etc. Stats are dynamically updated for the pets, meaning a new buff you receive will then also be applied to any pets you currently have. This means that you do not need to worry about applying buffs before summoning any minions!
Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
The gems, enchants, and consumables that you choose are directly affected by your stat priority. To find the best mix of these, we do recommend that you simulate yourself using a program like Raidbots or Simulationcraft, however, we have a page linked below that will give you advice on this topic.
Changelog
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 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.
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