Unholy Death Knight WotLK Guide
Unholy Death Knight DPS guide for WotLK 3.3.5a: rotation, cooldowns, the 0/17/54 talent build, glyphs, stat priority and BiS gear for ICC and Ruby Sanctum.
Unholy is the Death Knight with a pet, strong diseases, and the best multi-target damage of the three specs. It brings a raid debuff through Ebon Plaguebringer, it has the Summon Gargoyle burst, and it plays with either two-handed or dual-wield weapons depending on the build.
This guide covers the rotation, the cooldowns and how to time the Gargoyle, the talents and glyphs we run, the stats to reach and the mistakes that cost the most. It is written for Icecrown Citadel 25 and Ruby Sanctum on 3.3.5a. The short overview is in the class guide.
1.How the Unholy Death Knight plays
The most important rule of the rotation is the same as for Frost: always spend your runes before your runic power. Scourge Strike and Blood Strike are your main rune buttons, and Death Coil is the runic power button that keeps damage flowing between them.
Your diseases are a large part of your damage, so you keep Frost Fever and Blood Plague up with Icy Touch and Plague Strike, and never let them fall off. With two or more targets, Death and Decay beats an individual melee strike, and you use it as often as it is ready.
2.Rotation and priorities
- Icy Touch and Plague StrikeBoth diseases on the target, and keep them up. They are a large part of your damage.
- Scourge StrikeWith your Frost and Unholy runes, on cooldown.
- Blood StrikeWith your Blood runes, to keep your runes in step.
- Death CoilTo spend runic power. Never let runic power sit at the cap.
- Death and DecayOn two or more targets, on cooldown. It does more damage than an individual strike there.
Neglecting disease uptime is the biggest loss in this spec. Keep an eye on both diseases, and use Pestilence if you have to refresh them on more than one target.
3.Cooldowns and raid utility
Unholy has one large burst cooldown and a few tools to keep the runes flowing.
Your burst cooldown. The Gargoyle keeps the attack power and haste you had when you cast it, so line it up with proc buffs, trinkets and Bloodlust.
Gives you all your runes back. A good opener for burst damage, once per fight.
Gives you an extra rune when you need one, at a small cost in health. Use it when a Blood rune is not ready and a strike is waiting.
Reduces the damage you take while the bones last. Refresh it when the stacks fall low.
Absorbs spell damage. Use it on the fights that need it.
Gives the raid strength and agility, and gives you runic power.
4.Talents and glyphs
Our recommended Unholy build is the 0/17/54 two-hander in the calculator, and there are variants for dual wield, for Scourge Strike-heavy play and for AoE. The talents that define the spec are Summon Gargoyle, Ebon Plaguebringer, Wandering Plague, Scourge Strike, Bone Shield and Rage of Rivendare.
A useful choice is Blood-Caked Blade over Morbidity for single-target damage, and Dirge, which gives you runic power on each hit and makes it easier to keep Death Coil going. The glyphs are Dark Death, Icy Touch and the Ghoul, with Disease as an alternative. Note that the Glyph of Disease reduces your runic power generation, so it is not for every build.
60 Runic Power. 30 yd range. Instant. 3 min cooldown. A Gargoyle flies into the area and bombards the target with Nature damage modified by the Death Knight's attack power. Persists for 30 sec.
Your Crypt Fever morphs into Ebon Plague, which increases magic damage taken by 13% in addition to increasing disease damage taken. Improves your critical strike chance with weapons and spells by 3% at all times.
When your diseases damage an enemy, there is a chance equal to your melee critical strike chance that they will cause 100% additional damage to the target and all enemies within 8 yards. Ignores any target under the effect of a spell that is cancelled by taking damage.
1 Unholy 1 Frost. Melee range. Instant. Requires Melee Weapon. An unholy strike that deals 70% of weapon damage as Physical damage plus 238. In addition, for each of your diseases on your target, you deal an additional 12% of the Physical damage done as Shadow damage.
1 Unholy. Instant. 1 min cooldown. The Death Knight is surrounded by 3 whirling bones. While at least 1 bone remains, he takes 20% less damage from all sources and deals 2% more damage with all attacks, spells and abilities. Each damaging attack that lands consumes 1 bone. Lasts 5 min.
Your spells and abilities deal 10% more damage to targets infected with Blood Plague. Also increases your expertise by 5.
Increases the damage or healing done by Death Coil by 15%.
Your Frost Fever disease deals 20% additional damage.
Your Ghoul receives an additional 40% of your Strength and 40% of your Stamina.
Swap options if the fight asks for them: Glyph of Disease.
5.Stats, gems and gear
The priority is strength, then hit, then expertise, then haste, then critical strike, and armor penetration only if it helps. The hit cap is about 262 rating and the expertise cap is 26. Humans and Orcs get the best DPS racials for the spec.
Unholy wants strength gear, and the BiS list shows the two-hand and the dual-wield sets. See the list below.
- Hit
- Expertise
- Armor Penetration
- Strength
~289 rating (263 with Draenei)
17% spell cap minus 3% Virulence minus a 3% raid debuff (Misery/Improved Faerie Fire) = 11% needed from gear.
26 expertise (214 rating base)
Tundra Stalker reduces the actual gear requirement.
1400 rating (theoretical cap)
Blood Fury, and if you run an axe, +5 expertise from Axe Specialization. Expertise is a priority stat for every DK spec, so racial expertise is worth a lot of gear budget.
Sword / Mace Specialization covers 2H sword and mace users with +3 expertise; Every Man for Himself for utility.
Shadowmourne
Sigil of the Hanged Man
Sharpened Twilight Scale
Deathbringer's Will
Sanctified Scourgelord Helmet
Sanctified Scourgelord Battleplate
6.Common mistakes
• Letting a disease fall off.
• Not being at the hit and expertise caps, and losing damage to misses, dodges and parries.
• Not using Death and Decay on multi-target fights.
• Casting Summon Gargoyle without lining it up with your buffs, since it keeps the stats you had at the moment of the cast.
• Attacking from the front on bosses that parry.
7.On the bosses
A few notes for Icecrown and Ruby Sanctum:
Stand behind the boss to avoid parry haste. Use Death and Decay during the Valkyr and add phases, and keep your focus on the boss during transitions.
The adds are a great place for Death and Decay and Pestilence.
Keep your diseases up on the target you are assigned, and use the movement phases well.
Attack from the side or the back, and use Anti-Magic Shell if the raid asks for it.
8.Questions people ask
Yes. It brings a debuff to the raid, the strongest multi-target damage of the three Death Knight specs, and a burst with the Gargoyle.
Both work. The two-hander is the simpler build, and the dual-wield variants change how you spend your runes.
When your buffs are up, because the Gargoyle keeps your stats from the moment of the cast. Line it up with Bloodlust and a trinket proc.
On two or more targets, yes, on cooldown. On a single target it is not part of the rotation.