Brutallus
Legend
Last updated patch 4.2.
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Meteor Slash: The Guide to Unholy Specced Death Knights at 70
By Brutallus of Korgath US, Main death knight DPS of former Epoch
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Credit duely given and plenty of information taken by Consider, Illidasta, Rune, Jigs and Myself
Thank you to Justhealme for numerous corrections needed on the original post
Abstract: Intended purpose is to give general insight and information into the playstyle of a DK
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Table of Contents (Navigate guide through Ctrl+F to Find things)
Section 1: The Introduction
Basic Information
1.1 Introduction to Unholy 4.0.6
1.2 Why should I pick Unholy? What defines me?
1.3 Difficulty?
1.4 Contact Information and Background Information
Section 2: Everything you need to know to kill Brutallus (PvE)
DPSing as Unholy
2.1 The Spec and glyphs
2.2 WHAT ROTATION?
2.2.1 Death Coil: Runic Corruption
2.2.2 Dark Transformation and your Pet
2.2.3 Gargoyle and Trinket + Unholy Frenzy Use
2.2.4 AoE Rotation (by Consider)
2.3 Gemming / Enchanting
2.4 Gear / Professions
2.5 Flasks / Potions
2.6 Advanced knowledge
2.6.1 Anti Magic Shell
2.6.2 Horn of Winter and Potential Idling
2.6.3 Icebound Fortitude
2.6.4 Why Death and Decay when you can?
2.6.5 Dual Wield Unholy
2.6.6 Acceptable Racism
Section 3: PvP As a Death Knight - General Tips
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Section 1: The Introduction
Background information
1.1: Introduction
Times have changed and death knights are better than ever really. Blood has been cast off as the “most viable” DPS specialization at 70, and has been reserved specifically for tanking at all levels. Welcome death knights, to a world of higher numbers, ridiculous scaling and in the hands of a master, a ridiculous amount of DPS going out with recent buffs to frost and unholy. The focus of the guide is to put into light, the concept of an Unholy Death Knight and a death knight in general, considering that Unholy is one of the most difficult specializations in the game to fully master, and when that is achieved, you too can Meteor Slash up the battleground boards or the DPS charts, to the discretion of your muse.
1.2: Why Unholy? What defines me?
The beauty of a death knight is the fact that we both have magical and physical damage sources; death coil, diseases and scourge strike’s second portion being your main magical damage sources and everything else, including your pet, being the physical portion. What does an unholy death knight bring to a raid or PvP that is unique? The answer is Ebon Plaguebringer. Ebon Plaguebringer is both an increase of 30% damage from all disease damage, and an 8% magical damage increase from all sources that you deal. It is an additional disease applied in addition to when you apply one of your main diseases: Frost Fever from Icy touch and Blood Plague from Plague Strike.
Unholy death knights also have the benefit of a flat 5% strength bonus and the talent Runic Corruption, which will be discussed later on. One of the more significant traits of an unholy death knight is a permanent pet that can transform into a hulking monstrosity, capable of immense amounts of damage. Normally, your ghoul is just casted every two minutes, while you have full buffs + procs up, because it takes a screenshot of your stats to benefit off of and lasts for one minute. Of course, that also brings along a certain skill in micromanaging and observation to YOUR list of characteristics. Believe me, unholy death knights are no walk in the park if you want to maximize your abilities. As unholy, you get to reap the full benefits of unholy presence, which reduces your Global Cooldown by 0.5 secs, which allows you to spam your abilities. Once you get the hang of things though, everything will be in one continuous flow. The spec requires a certain amount of dexterity, observation and micromanaging. So what really defines an unholy death knight? The long, continuous flow of spells and physical damage in conjunction with a superpowered pet, like a vicious cycle capable of gargantuan amounts of damage.
1.3: Difficulty
Both specializations: Frost and Unholy don’t run off of a rotation but more of a static priority system. The difference between frost is that the priority system is essentially “set in stone” where as one can argue Unholy’s is too but you have to take into account more factors, such as Sudden Doom, Dark Transformation, which runes you have up at a given moment and you have to manage a certain balance, which will be discussed later when I discuss the “vicious cycle” and runic corruption. As mentioned before, there is a lot of dexterity, observation, micromanagement and adaptation involved in Unholy. As with many specs: it is easy to play, but a challenge to master.
1.4: Background Information and Contact Information
My name is Brutallus on Korgath US, my character is named after a boss in Sunwell Plateau and I used to play on Laughing Skull (Vindication BG – US). Some of you know me as that one death knight with the Zulian Tiger. I am fully best in slot, and I have been around since Day 1 of Wrath of the Lich King and I did take part in the beta testing of the death knight class. I collect weapons and hats, thats my cool story, hit me up. My DPS usually hovers in the 6.5k Range, capping on Teron Gorefiend at 8.2k.
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Section 2: Everything you need to know to kill Brutallus (PvE)
2.1 Spec and Glyphs
Now were getting into business. Speccing is pretty simple in general, that’s the philosophy of Catcalysm. You only have 31 points to work with at 70 anyways! The question is what to place them in. Here, in these URLs are the most “optimal” unholy specs at 70, glyphs included!
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft (PvE)
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft (PvP)
As a note, once again, Ill restate we only have 31 talent points to work with, so you’re probably looking at the PvE Talent tree and going “err, whats with the 1 point in resilient infection” or the PvP Talent tree and going “why no improved unholy presence”. For starters, if I had a few more points to work with, I would max out Magic Suppression in PvE, and move the point in resilient infection to Desecration and max it out too. We do not have that luxury, so I went with the “best option” because a 25% snare AoE isn’t very effective in comparison with chains of ice. That’s a different story with 2/2 Desecration and an AoE 50% slow. Desecration is usually a good choice being a passive snare and all on some fights (Heroic Lich King for example). It’s easy to apply, but its annoying for tanks to have mobs run through it while they’re trying to pull as well. Nonetheless, its still a nice talent, provided you have 2/2 in it so I went with resilient infection. Secondly, in the PvP talent tree, I left out Imp. Unholy Presence because you will still retain the 0.5 seconds off of your Global Cooldown but you miss out of 5% haste in Unholy Presence. You shouldn’t be switching between presences a lot anyways in PvP, so the second portion of the talent is “virtually useless”. The only time where one pops out of presence is to switch to blood presence if you can anticipate a rogue (best example is a rogue, a warrior is a poor example because you should still be in Unholy Presence) is going to try and blow you up, but during any other time, it isn’t necessary to switch presences. There is no resilient infection in my Unholy Spec because Unholy Blight takes care of that portion by making your diseases undispellable. Finally, 1/3 Magic Suppression is all it takes to reach a sufficient Damage:RP conversion ratio, hence, why theres 1/3 magic suppression as opposed to 2/2 desecration or resilient infection.
Glyph-wise, you should always have the Anti Magic Shell glyph and Raise Dead glyph because its amazing. In PvE, the scourge strike glyph is better. It provides a bonus of 30% damage to the shadow damage portion of Scourge Strike, which is the brunt of your damage with a 2h. You’re going to be spamming the spell anyways, and it hits harder in PvE, taking up most of the time the 1st and 4th slots on the pie chart, which divides your DPS on recount. For Dual wield unholy, the death coil glyph is superior. Basically, which glyph you use dpeends on your weapons and as 2h Unholy, its more preferential to use the Scourge Strike glyph. In PvP, its more preferential to use the Death Coil glyph in my opinion. The other notable difference between my PVP and PVE glyph setups are the major and minor glyphs. In terms of major glyphs, I use Pestilence in PvE and Strangulate in PvP while in termsof minor glyphs, I have Path of Frost in PvE and Resilient Grip in PvP. Death’s embrace is a constant glyph. The reason why is because the glyph is very powerful for healing your ghoul (over 6k straight healing to your ghoul, should the healer choose to ignore healing the ghoul) and it refunds 20 runic power. Finally, some of you are wondering why I don’t use the horn of winter glyph. The reason why is because I am pretty good at constantly having it up in PvE when there is forced idling every 1.5 minutes or so and in PvP, I can still keep it up. Either way, a hunter, warrior or shaman is going to have their individual buffs up anyways, which covers the same effect.
2.2 WHAT ROTATION? (Credit to Consider)
There is no rotation anymore. Death to the fixed rotations of the past, and welcome to the priority-based playstyle that Cataclysm has brought for us to enjoy! Lets take a look at the list of priorities, based from Elitistjerks.com.
Long Version
Diseases > Dark Transformation > Death and Decay (if possible) or Scourge Strike if BOTH Unholy Runes and / or all Death Runes are up > Festering Strike if BOTH pairs of Blood and Frost Runes are up > Death Coil if 1. Sudden Doom is up or 2. You have 100 Runic Power or 3. If Runic Corruption isn’t up or 4. If you will overcap on runic power with your next ability > Death and Decay (if possible) / Scourge Strike (1 Unholy Rune and / or 1 Death Rune is / are up) > Festering Strike (1 pair of Blood + Frost runes are up) > Death Coil Dump > Horn of Winter
Short Version
Diseases > DT > DnD / SS if both UH and / or Death Runes are up > FeS if both pairs of B + F runes are up > DC if SD is up or 100 RP / RP overcap will occur or RC isn’t up > DnD / SS > FeS > DC Dump > HoW
Keeping up diseases is, as it’s always been, the most important thing, less so for their relatively mediocre damage these days and primarily for the boost they provide to everything else. While diseases last 33 seconds, Festering Strike will increase the duration of your diseases by 6 seconds, making it so you will rarely have to resort to Icy Touch or Plague Strike in regular play on a single target, I say rarely because we, as 70 twinks, do not have Outbreak.
Then comes Dark Transformation, whose uptime needs to be maximized for optimal DPS. Dark Transform boosts your Ghoul’s damage by a truckload – a straight up 100% buff overall, plus a 25% Claw specific boost, on top of Claw then cleaving two additional targets. The second you can DT, you do – no exceptions unless, of course, your ghoul is unable to attack the boss at the time.
You never want to waste runes, which is why Scourge Strike and Festering Strike when both of their respective rune costs are up comes next. The reason why one death and decays when possible is explained later on.
Just as you don’t want to waste runes, you don’t want to waste potential Sudden Doom procs (by having it just override a yet-to-be-used current one). You never really want to hit 100 runic power, or potential Runic Corruption (by having back-to-back procs), which is why you prioritize Death Coil here.
After all of the above is factored away you simply Scourge Strike, Festering Strike, and Death Coil. The order doesn’t actually particularly matter unless the mob’s death is imminent – in which case you go in that order. If you can, you want to try and avoid back-to-back Death Coils, due to the aforementioned potential loss of Runic Corruption uptime, but sometimes it can be helped, and sometimes it's better if it will let you get Dark Transformation up significantly sooner. This will be mentioned again when I bring the concept of Full Circle up.
2.2.1 Death Coil and Runic Corruption
Death Coil was once known as your Runic Power dump only. Not anymore. Now, Blizzard has changed it so Death Coil has a whole slew of new procs. For starters, the once blood-specific talent Sudden Doom is now part of the second-to-last tier of Unholy. With good reason of course! Now, it has a 15% percent chance to proc off auto attacks, up from 10%. Maximize its use, as mentioned before.
Runic Corruption is a talent on the third tier of talent points for Unholy Death Knights. What it does is it changes the effect of Runic Empowerment (a death knight passive ability that causes your Death Coil, Frost Strike, or Rune Strike ability to have a 45% chance to activate a random fully depleted rune) to instead increase your RUNE REGENERATION rate by 100% for 3 seconds. It is one of the key talents to an unholy death knight. You want to maintain this buff up to spam more scourge strikes and Festering strikes to turn your blood and frost runes into death runes and to keep up your diseases! It is crucial because in turn of spamming your rune-costing abilities, you build up more runic power to Death coil again, ensuing a cycle that will some full circle for maximum DPS.
Finally, shadow infusion is a stacking buff applied on your ghoul. It increases its size and damage by 10% per application, stacking up to 5 times. At 5 stacks, you can transform your ghoul into a hulking monstrosity, increasing its damage by 100% and giving it a slew of new abilities. It is important to maximize the use of Dark Transform as well.
In conclusion, it is fairly easy to see that Death Coil is now one of, if not THE most important spell that holds this spec together. It creates a continuous cycle of Death coils to keep up runic corruption and power up your ghoul and then in turn, allows you to make use of that reduced Global Cooldown and spam Scourge Strike and go through Blood and Frost runes to change them into Death Runes whilst keeping your diseases up.
2.2.2 Dark Transformation (as Editted by Consideration from Justhealme)
One of the benefits to unholy is the permanent ghoul you receive. Your ghoul takes benefit from your haste, strength, stamina, resilience, etc. thus, it is pretty much a pet powerhouse and is responsible for a large chunk of your DPS. When you get stronger, your ghoul in turn, gets stronger with you. However, you cannot single buff the ghoul with horn of winter for example. But it does benefit from certain auras. The single buffs that the ghoul “gets” are merely based off a potential percentage of the bonus the single buffs casted have given you. This percentage is increased by the prime glyph “Glyph of Raise Dead”. The ghoul benefits from 100% of your stats but can be potentially increased to add an additional 40%. As you already know, as previously mentioned, I wrote that Dark Transformation is usable when you obtain 5 stacks of shadow infusion from death coils on your ghoul and its use should be maximized (i.e. use immediately when you can). It is important that your ghoul always stays alive; otherwise you might be stuck without a ghoul, lowering your DPS heavily! Keep it up with a death coil if your healers aren’t paying attention (it still stacks shadow infusion). Huddle it, do something to keep it up. Its on a two minute cooldown now, as opposed to 30 seconds, but you can recast raise dead right away after your ghoul dies now. So, besides increasing the ghoul’s damage by 100% and transforming it into a gargantuan goddamned beast, its normal moves are enhanced as well.
- Claw, which is normally a single target 125% weapon damage ability, with Dark Transformation becomes a CLEAVE, for 150% weapon damage and hits 2 additional targets
- Gnaw, your light damage, three second stun from your ghoul that is the greatest thing since sliced bread becomes a FOUR SECOND stun and does 125% weapon damage (single target)
- Leap, which just leaps behind the enemy target with velocity / travel time, unlike shadowstep becomes a CHARGE, which immobilizes and interrupts spellcasting from a particular school for two seconds
- Huddle, a normally channeled, 50% damage reduction for 10 seconds on your ghoul remains a 50% damage reduction for 10 seconds, but isn’t channeled anymore.
Cooldowns on all these particular abilities have no changed, nor have their energy costs. The ghoul still benefits from YOUR haste, strength, stamina, resilience, etc. while under the effects of dark transformation.
2.2.3 Gargoyle and Trinket / Unholy Frenzy Usage Like the ghoul when your not unholy spec, the gargoyle takes a “screenshot” of your stats to benefit from. These stats include attack power, taken from strength and haste. The gargoyle is meant to be used when you have a lot, if not all your cooldowns popped, including your Rune of the Fallen Crusader + Trinket procs and Unholy Frenzy. The gargoyle proceeds to bombard the target you cast it on with Gargoyle Strikes, dealing nature damage modified by your attack power. I would HIGHLY recommend you use a gargoyle while your ghoul is transformed and you have full procs, buffs, unholy frenzy, potion(s) and trinket(s) popped. Of course, some trinkets have 2 minute cooldowns while the gargoyle has a 3 minute cooldown. Try as best as possible to have as many buffs as possible on you before you use your gargoyle. *Do not attempt to use UF with Bloodlust/Heroism or you will drop under GCD Cap.
2.2.4 AoE Rotation, Taken from Consider
The AoE rotation isn’t terribly different from the single target one:
Diseases > Dark Transformation > Death and Decay > SS if both Unholy and/or all Death runes are up > BB + IT if both pairs of Blood and Frost runes are up >
DC if SD, 100 RP, will overcap RP with anything else or if RC isn’t up > SS > BB + IT > DC > HoW.
Differences to note:
Whenever you apply diseases, you also want to then spread them with Pestilence. As long as there’s at least one mob up who will survive for their full duration (or, of course, more mobs who may live for less), Pestilence is worth it.
Blood Boil use, for Unholy, always results in a leftover Frost rune which one has no choice but to use for Icy Touch. The two, in combination, replace Festering Strike in your rotation.
As long as there are three or more mobs present, BB + IT is worth using in place of FeS.
When AoEing, you should always switch to Frost Presence for 10% increased damage
2.3 Gemming and Enchanting(noted Contradiction in original post)
Hit 8% hit first to cap you on special attacks and spell hit (due to runic focus passive, you gain 9% spell hit), which is 17% spell hit. Capping hit is important, like always. In PvP, for yellow sockets, use strength / resilience gems for more resilience. For blue sockets, hit 85 Spell Penetration with two blue gems for 25 Spell Penetration each in two blue sockets (the other 35 comes from the cloak enchant), then stack strength gems. Its important to get spell penetration. Its also important you stack a bit of resilience with the way casters + Engineers are nowadays (i.e. Tazik Shockers, Bolt Guns). The best way to socket the spell pen is in the Guardian's bracers + belt while you have the option to throw str/resil gems into your PvP Set Yellow Sockets to give you a bit more survivability.
Hit to cap > Strength > Haste > Crit > Expertise to cap > Mastery > Agility
(note that you can run with around 5.3% hit and then use a Snapper Extreme to obtain hit cap)
Anyone with half a brain can understand strength = attack power on a 2.31 to 1 ratio (2 x 110% due to Unholy Might passive 5% bonus, another 5% from plate specialization and these numbers exclude another 15% from rune of the fallen crusader). It’s your most important stat and you already know strength gems go in red sockets. Haste increases your rune regeneration rate and attack speed to get procs out, thus, it is the third most important stat and your GEAR should have haste on it! Haste has a “reduced effect” or it doesn’t benefit you as much after 35% haste (including Unholy Presence with a free 15% while Improved)! My gear alone personally gives me 18.09%. Critical strike isn’t as important as haste for unholy and expertise isn’t worth it because our global cooldown is so fast and a lot of our damage cant be dodged or parried anyways, thus, it isn’t worth it. Agility and mastery are terrible, along with the fact you cant get mastery until 80 (you can’t benefit from it).
Chaotic Skyflares Requirements have been changed to only requiring 3 red gem sockets, thus, you do not even need a nightmare's tear. Instead, just socket full 20 str Bold Cardinal Rubies, as it is the most optimal gem for a death knight (BC socket bonuses are utterly terrible). If you’re a Jewelcrafter, make sure you use Bold Dragon’s Eyes! I would recommend socketing your Felfury’s with them.
Enchanting is fairly straightforward:
- Arcanum of Ferocity (34 AP / 17 Hit) for PvE or Arcanum of the Gladiator (18 stm / 20 resil) for PvP helm enchants from Cenarion Expedition and Shattered Sun Offensive Revered Status respectively
- Aldor or Scryer Attack Power / Crit Shoulder Enchant for PvE and the Gladiator Shoulder Enchant (30 stm / 15 resil) for PvP
- 23 Haste to Cloak (PvE) or 35 Spell Pen (PvP) for the back
- 10 stats to Chest (PvE), 20 Resil (PvP)
- Either the Leatherworker’s 130 AP for PvE or the 102 Stamina for PvP. Otherwise just throw 50 Attack Power for PvE and 40 stm for PvP
- For Gloves, you can use 15 str to gloves because it benefits the ghoul and rune of the fallen crusader proc, albeit it gives a bit less attack power compared to Crusher. This is for both PvE and PvP. For Engineers, be sure to tinker on the Synapse Springs (480 Str on use for 10 secs).
- For legs, the nerubian leg armor (55 AP / 15 crit) for non-LW whereas Leatherworkers get 75 AP, 22 Crit
- For boots, I run with 32 Attack Power on both PvE and PvP boots, although alternatives include 22 stm and 12 Hit / Crit
- For my weapon, I run with Rune of the Fallen Crusader w/ Apolyon for both PvE and PvP while sometimes I swap out to my Brutal Bonegrinder (2h), enchanted with swordbreaking (reduces disarm duration by 60% and increases parry rating by 4%), if I’m fighting someone who can disarm. I often swap it on and off in anticipation for the disarm. In PvE, always run with a Rune of the Fallen Crusader.
2.4 Gear / Professions
http://www.twinkinfo.com/forums/70-79-bracket/20017-compilation-best-slot-gear-lists-pve.html
Credit goes to Justhealme (Satina-EU) for this in-depth list and compendium on various BIS gear choices
Depending on how much resilience you feel comfortably running, you can change out the red gems in yellow sockets for str/resil gems and the shoulder/helm enchants to the PVP Versions. Another idea is utilizing a destructive skyflare diamond for 25crit/1% spell reflect. Other than that, both sets should be set and ready in terms of itemization and it is to your discretion how you want to alter that
In terms of professions, Engineering and Jewelcrafting is by far the best combination: Synapse Springs for a ridiculous amount of haste, Tazik shocker for immense burst, Healing Injector as a lay on hands or even Hyperspeed Accelerators from the old days put Engy over the top. Coupled with Jewelcrafting for the biggest bonuses to Strength out of any profession, this is the ideal choice. Another choice is LW which would grant you the Icescale counterpart + Bracer enchant but still doesn’t compare I took LW actually to provide people with a ton of recipes, but 75-55=20 between both leg enchants + 80 extra AP from the bracer enchant difference means 100 AP bonus, compared to JC which is 34-20=14x3 = 42 x 1.1 = 46.2 x 2 = 92.4AP from JC without regarding ROTFC, thus LW is still better in this aspect, but the AP isnt generated from STR and with ROTFC up, Jewelcrafting comes out superior anyways.
HOWEVER: Blacksmithing does provide an individual with significant benefit: extra sockets for more 20str gems, as well as access to a Hard Khorium Breastplate. As well, Jewelcrafter allows access to Hard Khorium Choker. Engy requires a certain amount of RNG for synapse springs / tazik.
2.5 Flasks and Potions
Like enchanting, its also very straightforward. In Burning Crusade raids, and PvE in general, its cheaper to run around with Shattrath Flasks of Relentless Assault for 120 AP for 1 hr persisting through death. In reality though, the Elixirs of Mighty Strength, which give 50 strength are better. They give 5 less attack power but like my gloves, I would rather strength to benefit my rune of the fallen crusader weapon enchant and my ghoul. Since it counts as a battle elixir, you can use a guardian elixir of your choice, if any guardian elixir whatsoever. This option is of course, more expensive.
In terms of potions, hands down, go with Potions of Speed with 500 haste rating for 15 seconds. Other sub-optimal options include Elixirs of Wild Magic (200 critical strike rating), and Insane Strength Potions.
Food-wise, I run with Snappter Extreme (40 hit rating/stm) in PvE gear to be 0.02% to hit cap, unless I wear my 8% hit gear setup, in which case I use Dragonfin Filet (40 str/stm)
2.6 Advanced Knowledge
Hey look, there’s still more stuff to be learned. You have various defensive mechanisms as a death knight. I’ll keep it brief.
2.6.1 Anti Magic Shell
Anti Magic Shell is an instant cast, 45 second cooldown spell that places a bubble around you, absorbing, with my spec, 83% of all spell damage taken and preventing the application of harmful magical effects on you. Also, for all the spell damage you take, based on a sufficient ratio of damage : runic power, it will convert the damage you take into runic power. Basically here are some examples of potential uses of Anti Magic Shell.
- Running into fire on the ground (don’t ever do this anytime else) to build up runic power for death coils
- (I used to do this a lot) If targeted by Encapsulate on Felmyst, before you get thrown up in the air, Anti Magic Shell to nullify that particular Encapsulate, so melee doesn’t have to run out and you still gain some runic power
- Pissing off a shadow priest trying to dot you up and fear you
- Screwing over a hot streak from a fire mage
Now, healers have more mana to work with, but higher spell costs for healing, so they sometimes can’t spare the mana, thus, limit this sometimes. This is cataclysm.
2.6.2 Horn of Winter and Potential Idling
Sometimes, your “flow” and cycle from your rotation might break simply because we need to renew diseases, you run out of procs and momentum (rarely) and / or you have to run away. It happens, you might break rotation and idle. Essentially, this is the time to horn of winter for 10 runic power and to renew it.
2.6.3 Icebound Fortitude
On some fights and on trash, there’s the potential for getting stunned. My human racial Every Man for Himself can remedy that… and Icebound Fortitude, which makes you immune to stuns and allows you to keep on DPSing. Some fights, such as Kaz’Rogal in Hyjal have an AoE stun effect that lasts a whopping 5 seconds (ironically, with a DR sometimes), so just anticipate the stun in advance and icebound fortitude, it only costs 20 runic power.
2.6.4 Why Death and Decay when you can? (Information provided by Consider)
Consider from ElitistJerks also pointed out that death and decay has a hidden eleventh tick in a 10 second duration, which is true. It has a 30 second cooldown, so it would be up roughly 1/3 of the time. Death and decay is now a one Unholy Rune ability, along with scourge strike. Does one death and decay single target do more damage than one scourge strike?
Unbuffed, with Ebon Plaguebringer on the level 70 training dummy, my death and decay hits for 341 per tick x 11 = ~3751 Damage, without any crits on the death and decay ticks. My scourge strike on average does ~2780 damage without any crits on either portion. So yes, in fact, every time you can, you should use death and decay in place of a scourge strike. There is a concern I would like to raise though, despite the fact I still do use death and decay single target: you need to train yourself to aim it quickly enough that you can still hit your next global cooldown. Other than that, it is better in place of one scourge strike.
2.6.5 Dual Wield Unholy (Additional Information would be nice)
The question of Dual Wield Unholy is a new frontier that has begun due to cataclysm. There have been a variety of changes that have occurred that can make this specialization as, or even more viable than the regular 2H build. At level 85, tests have shown that DW unholy is more optimal than 2H Unholy. However these days are now over: sudden Doom has changed so that it only procs off main-hand weapon strikes, thus, the glory days of Warglaives + DW UH are now over and two-handers are thriving again.
The three changes which allow for the playstyle of DW Unholy:
- Glaives now usable by Death Knights
- The change of sudden doom into the Unholy Tree
- DW specialization moved to tier one in the Frost tree
While we cannot pick up DW Specialization at 70, we can still pick up sudden doom and we can acquire two glaives now. Due to the fact that DW specialization is not obtainable at 70, it means that in terms of weapons, a slow weapon in the main hand and a fast weapon in the off hand is the most optimal way to proceed. I.E., both glaives fit that bill, and they have that delicious 450 haste for 10 secs proc! If you do not have glaives, the better main hands you can acquire include: the brutal slicer, the Syphon of the Nathrezim and Muramasa while off hands include Blade of Savagery, Dragon-Encrusted Longblade and the Brutal Gladiator’s Quickblade.
Dual Wield Unholy has the perk of being able to death coil a tremendous amount more, which accounts for its lack of main-hand damage and essentially, lower damage dealt from your rune attacks, like scourge strike. Due to the speed of these weapons, and the fact that you have two weapons now in conjunction with haste and unholy presence, it allows you to fire off many more death coils to obtain a stable “cycle”. Thus, the DPS now equates out to roughly the same. For dual wield unholy, death knights opt to swap out the scourge strike glyph (30% more damage on the shadow portion), which is better for 2H, and change it to Glyph of Death Coil (15% more damage and healing) because you’ll be firing off an almost equal amount of death coils to scourge strikes whereas with a two-hander, you’ll be swinging plenty more scourge strikes.
Which runes to use? Personally, I would argue that one Rune of the Fallen Crusader on your off-hand and one Rune of Cinderglaicer on your main-hand would be superior, based on my knowledge that the Rune of the Fallen Crusader
a) Doesn’t Stack
b) The proc chance for it is heightened based on logic, but experimentally, the proc chance isn’t increased high enough. It has no internal cooldown anyways.
By the way, the rotation is the same anyways, do not worry about that part.
2.6.6 Acceptable Racism
This portion is included last for the reason that in the end, your subjective opinion on the appearance of your character should outrule the fact that some races are harder, better, faster and stronger (not neccessarily harder) than other races in your chosen faction.
ALLIANCE:Alliance:
1. Worgen
2. Draenei
3. Human
4. Dwarf
5. Gnome
6. Night Elf
Worgen are by far, the best race for Death Knights in non-Unholy circumstances, orcs being even greater for Unholy (5% Pet Damage bonus compared to 1% passive crit, your call). With a passive 1% crit and an on use 40% Sprint for utility (i.e. Felmyst for example), Worgen outclass essentially every other available race, and are not dependant on certain weapon types. I much prefer 1% crit over 1% hit rating considering its actually fairly easy to obtain the Hit Cap in any accord.
Draenei have Heroic Presence, a 1% passive bonus to hit, which is an excellent self-racial to have, debatably better than 1% crit. Gift of the Naaru is also a nifty little Heal over Time but doesnt compare to an on-demand sprint. Both Draenei and Worgen are extremely close and could tie for first place based on passive racials but in the end, the on-demand sprint places worgen in the top spot.
Humans get an extra trinket slot, due to their racial being a PVP trinket (with a 2min CD), which is excellent were it not for the fact that Resilience scales so well in this bracket. It's actually a legitimatly good idea to carry around a PvP trinket for a bonus of 45 resilience. Humans receive 3 Expertise if they use a sword or mace, which isnt the greatest thing since sliced bread. In short, humans have an extra trinket slot if you want to run with a Battlemaster + PvE trinket in PvP but it has its catches.
Dwarves get Stoneform which clears poison, disease and bleed effects as well as providing the imbimber with a 10% damage reduction for 8 secs. Other than that, if you use a mace, you gain 5 expertise, but thats extremely limited.
Gnomes have escape artist, 1.75min Cooldown snare/immobolize removal on use. The problem with Gnomes is that it is only really a good choice if you use 1h Swords, otherwise theyre worthless for 2hs due to Racials
Night Elves: No, shadowmeld is terrible, threat is returned to you after you break it and its situationally worthwhile in PvP, its a poor choice in this accord
HORDE:Horde:
1. Orc
2. Goblin
3. Troll
4. Blood Elf
5. Undead
6. Tauren
Orcs have an on-use Attack Power bonus that doesnt increase in value as your gear increases, its just flat. Orcs however, are the best Unholy Death Knight race for Horde but not the best Death Knight race available. The reason why is because orcs have a 5% pet damage bonus, which applies to your ghoul, your perk. It’s a stellar passive racial! Orcs are THE excellent choice for Unholy Death Knights but for other specs, I would recommend Goblin for horde.
Goblins have 1% cast/attack speed boosts as well as a free on-demand nuke rocket or a blink with a 2min CD, which is excellent for PVP. Horde in general do not compare well for Death Knight races considering Alliance has the best racials in this contest. But the blink does prove to be useful in many situations (escaping and getting LoS)
Trolls have Berserking which is 20% haste for 10 secs. Pretty decent racial, but not comparable to the other racials. Its a huge step down.
Blood Elves have Arcane Torrent, which is an incredible AoE Silence and I would say its the Second-Best Horde Race for PvP but in terms of PvE value, its lacking.
Forsaken/Undead have Will of the Forsaken to break fear, charm and sleep effects. Hardly that incredible
Tauren are almost as bad as Night Elves. All they have is War Stomp, an AoE Stun for a marginal amount of time
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Meteor Slash: The Guide to Unholy Specced Death Knights at 70
By Brutallus of Korgath US, Main death knight DPS of former Epoch
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Credit duely given and plenty of information taken by Consider, Illidasta, Rune, Jigs and Myself
Thank you to Justhealme for numerous corrections needed on the original post
Abstract: Intended purpose is to give general insight and information into the playstyle of a DK
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Table of Contents (Navigate guide through Ctrl+F to Find things)
Section 1: The Introduction
Basic Information
1.1 Introduction to Unholy 4.0.6
1.2 Why should I pick Unholy? What defines me?
1.3 Difficulty?
1.4 Contact Information and Background Information
Section 2: Everything you need to know to kill Brutallus (PvE)
DPSing as Unholy
2.1 The Spec and glyphs
2.2 WHAT ROTATION?
2.2.1 Death Coil: Runic Corruption
2.2.2 Dark Transformation and your Pet
2.2.3 Gargoyle and Trinket + Unholy Frenzy Use
2.2.4 AoE Rotation (by Consider)
2.3 Gemming / Enchanting
2.4 Gear / Professions
2.5 Flasks / Potions
2.6 Advanced knowledge
2.6.1 Anti Magic Shell
2.6.2 Horn of Winter and Potential Idling
2.6.3 Icebound Fortitude
2.6.4 Why Death and Decay when you can?
2.6.5 Dual Wield Unholy
2.6.6 Acceptable Racism
Section 3: PvP As a Death Knight - General Tips
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Section 1: The Introduction
Background information
1.1: Introduction
Times have changed and death knights are better than ever really. Blood has been cast off as the “most viable” DPS specialization at 70, and has been reserved specifically for tanking at all levels. Welcome death knights, to a world of higher numbers, ridiculous scaling and in the hands of a master, a ridiculous amount of DPS going out with recent buffs to frost and unholy. The focus of the guide is to put into light, the concept of an Unholy Death Knight and a death knight in general, considering that Unholy is one of the most difficult specializations in the game to fully master, and when that is achieved, you too can Meteor Slash up the battleground boards or the DPS charts, to the discretion of your muse.
1.2: Why Unholy? What defines me?
The beauty of a death knight is the fact that we both have magical and physical damage sources; death coil, diseases and scourge strike’s second portion being your main magical damage sources and everything else, including your pet, being the physical portion. What does an unholy death knight bring to a raid or PvP that is unique? The answer is Ebon Plaguebringer. Ebon Plaguebringer is both an increase of 30% damage from all disease damage, and an 8% magical damage increase from all sources that you deal. It is an additional disease applied in addition to when you apply one of your main diseases: Frost Fever from Icy touch and Blood Plague from Plague Strike.
Unholy death knights also have the benefit of a flat 5% strength bonus and the talent Runic Corruption, which will be discussed later on. One of the more significant traits of an unholy death knight is a permanent pet that can transform into a hulking monstrosity, capable of immense amounts of damage. Normally, your ghoul is just casted every two minutes, while you have full buffs + procs up, because it takes a screenshot of your stats to benefit off of and lasts for one minute. Of course, that also brings along a certain skill in micromanaging and observation to YOUR list of characteristics. Believe me, unholy death knights are no walk in the park if you want to maximize your abilities. As unholy, you get to reap the full benefits of unholy presence, which reduces your Global Cooldown by 0.5 secs, which allows you to spam your abilities. Once you get the hang of things though, everything will be in one continuous flow. The spec requires a certain amount of dexterity, observation and micromanaging. So what really defines an unholy death knight? The long, continuous flow of spells and physical damage in conjunction with a superpowered pet, like a vicious cycle capable of gargantuan amounts of damage.
1.3: Difficulty
Both specializations: Frost and Unholy don’t run off of a rotation but more of a static priority system. The difference between frost is that the priority system is essentially “set in stone” where as one can argue Unholy’s is too but you have to take into account more factors, such as Sudden Doom, Dark Transformation, which runes you have up at a given moment and you have to manage a certain balance, which will be discussed later when I discuss the “vicious cycle” and runic corruption. As mentioned before, there is a lot of dexterity, observation, micromanagement and adaptation involved in Unholy. As with many specs: it is easy to play, but a challenge to master.
1.4: Background Information and Contact Information
My name is Brutallus on Korgath US, my character is named after a boss in Sunwell Plateau and I used to play on Laughing Skull (Vindication BG – US). Some of you know me as that one death knight with the Zulian Tiger. I am fully best in slot, and I have been around since Day 1 of Wrath of the Lich King and I did take part in the beta testing of the death knight class. I collect weapons and hats, thats my cool story, hit me up. My DPS usually hovers in the 6.5k Range, capping on Teron Gorefiend at 8.2k.
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Section 2: Everything you need to know to kill Brutallus (PvE)
2.1 Spec and Glyphs
Now were getting into business. Speccing is pretty simple in general, that’s the philosophy of Catcalysm. You only have 31 points to work with at 70 anyways! The question is what to place them in. Here, in these URLs are the most “optimal” unholy specs at 70, glyphs included!
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft (PvE)
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft (PvP)
As a note, once again, Ill restate we only have 31 talent points to work with, so you’re probably looking at the PvE Talent tree and going “err, whats with the 1 point in resilient infection” or the PvP Talent tree and going “why no improved unholy presence”. For starters, if I had a few more points to work with, I would max out Magic Suppression in PvE, and move the point in resilient infection to Desecration and max it out too. We do not have that luxury, so I went with the “best option” because a 25% snare AoE isn’t very effective in comparison with chains of ice. That’s a different story with 2/2 Desecration and an AoE 50% slow. Desecration is usually a good choice being a passive snare and all on some fights (Heroic Lich King for example). It’s easy to apply, but its annoying for tanks to have mobs run through it while they’re trying to pull as well. Nonetheless, its still a nice talent, provided you have 2/2 in it so I went with resilient infection. Secondly, in the PvP talent tree, I left out Imp. Unholy Presence because you will still retain the 0.5 seconds off of your Global Cooldown but you miss out of 5% haste in Unholy Presence. You shouldn’t be switching between presences a lot anyways in PvP, so the second portion of the talent is “virtually useless”. The only time where one pops out of presence is to switch to blood presence if you can anticipate a rogue (best example is a rogue, a warrior is a poor example because you should still be in Unholy Presence) is going to try and blow you up, but during any other time, it isn’t necessary to switch presences. There is no resilient infection in my Unholy Spec because Unholy Blight takes care of that portion by making your diseases undispellable. Finally, 1/3 Magic Suppression is all it takes to reach a sufficient Damage:RP conversion ratio, hence, why theres 1/3 magic suppression as opposed to 2/2 desecration or resilient infection.
Glyph-wise, you should always have the Anti Magic Shell glyph and Raise Dead glyph because its amazing. In PvE, the scourge strike glyph is better. It provides a bonus of 30% damage to the shadow damage portion of Scourge Strike, which is the brunt of your damage with a 2h. You’re going to be spamming the spell anyways, and it hits harder in PvE, taking up most of the time the 1st and 4th slots on the pie chart, which divides your DPS on recount. For Dual wield unholy, the death coil glyph is superior. Basically, which glyph you use dpeends on your weapons and as 2h Unholy, its more preferential to use the Scourge Strike glyph. In PvP, its more preferential to use the Death Coil glyph in my opinion. The other notable difference between my PVP and PVE glyph setups are the major and minor glyphs. In terms of major glyphs, I use Pestilence in PvE and Strangulate in PvP while in termsof minor glyphs, I have Path of Frost in PvE and Resilient Grip in PvP. Death’s embrace is a constant glyph. The reason why is because the glyph is very powerful for healing your ghoul (over 6k straight healing to your ghoul, should the healer choose to ignore healing the ghoul) and it refunds 20 runic power. Finally, some of you are wondering why I don’t use the horn of winter glyph. The reason why is because I am pretty good at constantly having it up in PvE when there is forced idling every 1.5 minutes or so and in PvP, I can still keep it up. Either way, a hunter, warrior or shaman is going to have their individual buffs up anyways, which covers the same effect.
2.2 WHAT ROTATION? (Credit to Consider)
There is no rotation anymore. Death to the fixed rotations of the past, and welcome to the priority-based playstyle that Cataclysm has brought for us to enjoy! Lets take a look at the list of priorities, based from Elitistjerks.com.
Long Version
Diseases > Dark Transformation > Death and Decay (if possible) or Scourge Strike if BOTH Unholy Runes and / or all Death Runes are up > Festering Strike if BOTH pairs of Blood and Frost Runes are up > Death Coil if 1. Sudden Doom is up or 2. You have 100 Runic Power or 3. If Runic Corruption isn’t up or 4. If you will overcap on runic power with your next ability > Death and Decay (if possible) / Scourge Strike (1 Unholy Rune and / or 1 Death Rune is / are up) > Festering Strike (1 pair of Blood + Frost runes are up) > Death Coil Dump > Horn of Winter
Short Version
Diseases > DT > DnD / SS if both UH and / or Death Runes are up > FeS if both pairs of B + F runes are up > DC if SD is up or 100 RP / RP overcap will occur or RC isn’t up > DnD / SS > FeS > DC Dump > HoW
Keeping up diseases is, as it’s always been, the most important thing, less so for their relatively mediocre damage these days and primarily for the boost they provide to everything else. While diseases last 33 seconds, Festering Strike will increase the duration of your diseases by 6 seconds, making it so you will rarely have to resort to Icy Touch or Plague Strike in regular play on a single target, I say rarely because we, as 70 twinks, do not have Outbreak.
Then comes Dark Transformation, whose uptime needs to be maximized for optimal DPS. Dark Transform boosts your Ghoul’s damage by a truckload – a straight up 100% buff overall, plus a 25% Claw specific boost, on top of Claw then cleaving two additional targets. The second you can DT, you do – no exceptions unless, of course, your ghoul is unable to attack the boss at the time.
You never want to waste runes, which is why Scourge Strike and Festering Strike when both of their respective rune costs are up comes next. The reason why one death and decays when possible is explained later on.
Just as you don’t want to waste runes, you don’t want to waste potential Sudden Doom procs (by having it just override a yet-to-be-used current one). You never really want to hit 100 runic power, or potential Runic Corruption (by having back-to-back procs), which is why you prioritize Death Coil here.
After all of the above is factored away you simply Scourge Strike, Festering Strike, and Death Coil. The order doesn’t actually particularly matter unless the mob’s death is imminent – in which case you go in that order. If you can, you want to try and avoid back-to-back Death Coils, due to the aforementioned potential loss of Runic Corruption uptime, but sometimes it can be helped, and sometimes it's better if it will let you get Dark Transformation up significantly sooner. This will be mentioned again when I bring the concept of Full Circle up.
2.2.1 Death Coil and Runic Corruption
Death Coil was once known as your Runic Power dump only. Not anymore. Now, Blizzard has changed it so Death Coil has a whole slew of new procs. For starters, the once blood-specific talent Sudden Doom is now part of the second-to-last tier of Unholy. With good reason of course! Now, it has a 15% percent chance to proc off auto attacks, up from 10%. Maximize its use, as mentioned before.
Runic Corruption is a talent on the third tier of talent points for Unholy Death Knights. What it does is it changes the effect of Runic Empowerment (a death knight passive ability that causes your Death Coil, Frost Strike, or Rune Strike ability to have a 45% chance to activate a random fully depleted rune) to instead increase your RUNE REGENERATION rate by 100% for 3 seconds. It is one of the key talents to an unholy death knight. You want to maintain this buff up to spam more scourge strikes and Festering strikes to turn your blood and frost runes into death runes and to keep up your diseases! It is crucial because in turn of spamming your rune-costing abilities, you build up more runic power to Death coil again, ensuing a cycle that will some full circle for maximum DPS.
Finally, shadow infusion is a stacking buff applied on your ghoul. It increases its size and damage by 10% per application, stacking up to 5 times. At 5 stacks, you can transform your ghoul into a hulking monstrosity, increasing its damage by 100% and giving it a slew of new abilities. It is important to maximize the use of Dark Transform as well.
In conclusion, it is fairly easy to see that Death Coil is now one of, if not THE most important spell that holds this spec together. It creates a continuous cycle of Death coils to keep up runic corruption and power up your ghoul and then in turn, allows you to make use of that reduced Global Cooldown and spam Scourge Strike and go through Blood and Frost runes to change them into Death Runes whilst keeping your diseases up.
2.2.2 Dark Transformation (as Editted by Consideration from Justhealme)
One of the benefits to unholy is the permanent ghoul you receive. Your ghoul takes benefit from your haste, strength, stamina, resilience, etc. thus, it is pretty much a pet powerhouse and is responsible for a large chunk of your DPS. When you get stronger, your ghoul in turn, gets stronger with you. However, you cannot single buff the ghoul with horn of winter for example. But it does benefit from certain auras. The single buffs that the ghoul “gets” are merely based off a potential percentage of the bonus the single buffs casted have given you. This percentage is increased by the prime glyph “Glyph of Raise Dead”. The ghoul benefits from 100% of your stats but can be potentially increased to add an additional 40%. As you already know, as previously mentioned, I wrote that Dark Transformation is usable when you obtain 5 stacks of shadow infusion from death coils on your ghoul and its use should be maximized (i.e. use immediately when you can). It is important that your ghoul always stays alive; otherwise you might be stuck without a ghoul, lowering your DPS heavily! Keep it up with a death coil if your healers aren’t paying attention (it still stacks shadow infusion). Huddle it, do something to keep it up. Its on a two minute cooldown now, as opposed to 30 seconds, but you can recast raise dead right away after your ghoul dies now. So, besides increasing the ghoul’s damage by 100% and transforming it into a gargantuan goddamned beast, its normal moves are enhanced as well.
- Claw, which is normally a single target 125% weapon damage ability, with Dark Transformation becomes a CLEAVE, for 150% weapon damage and hits 2 additional targets
- Gnaw, your light damage, three second stun from your ghoul that is the greatest thing since sliced bread becomes a FOUR SECOND stun and does 125% weapon damage (single target)
- Leap, which just leaps behind the enemy target with velocity / travel time, unlike shadowstep becomes a CHARGE, which immobilizes and interrupts spellcasting from a particular school for two seconds
- Huddle, a normally channeled, 50% damage reduction for 10 seconds on your ghoul remains a 50% damage reduction for 10 seconds, but isn’t channeled anymore.
Cooldowns on all these particular abilities have no changed, nor have their energy costs. The ghoul still benefits from YOUR haste, strength, stamina, resilience, etc. while under the effects of dark transformation.
2.2.3 Gargoyle and Trinket / Unholy Frenzy Usage Like the ghoul when your not unholy spec, the gargoyle takes a “screenshot” of your stats to benefit from. These stats include attack power, taken from strength and haste. The gargoyle is meant to be used when you have a lot, if not all your cooldowns popped, including your Rune of the Fallen Crusader + Trinket procs and Unholy Frenzy. The gargoyle proceeds to bombard the target you cast it on with Gargoyle Strikes, dealing nature damage modified by your attack power. I would HIGHLY recommend you use a gargoyle while your ghoul is transformed and you have full procs, buffs, unholy frenzy, potion(s) and trinket(s) popped. Of course, some trinkets have 2 minute cooldowns while the gargoyle has a 3 minute cooldown. Try as best as possible to have as many buffs as possible on you before you use your gargoyle. *Do not attempt to use UF with Bloodlust/Heroism or you will drop under GCD Cap.
2.2.4 AoE Rotation, Taken from Consider
The AoE rotation isn’t terribly different from the single target one:
Diseases > Dark Transformation > Death and Decay > SS if both Unholy and/or all Death runes are up > BB + IT if both pairs of Blood and Frost runes are up >
DC if SD, 100 RP, will overcap RP with anything else or if RC isn’t up > SS > BB + IT > DC > HoW.
Differences to note:
Whenever you apply diseases, you also want to then spread them with Pestilence. As long as there’s at least one mob up who will survive for their full duration (or, of course, more mobs who may live for less), Pestilence is worth it.
Blood Boil use, for Unholy, always results in a leftover Frost rune which one has no choice but to use for Icy Touch. The two, in combination, replace Festering Strike in your rotation.
As long as there are three or more mobs present, BB + IT is worth using in place of FeS.
When AoEing, you should always switch to Frost Presence for 10% increased damage
2.3 Gemming and Enchanting(noted Contradiction in original post)
Hit 8% hit first to cap you on special attacks and spell hit (due to runic focus passive, you gain 9% spell hit), which is 17% spell hit. Capping hit is important, like always. In PvP, for yellow sockets, use strength / resilience gems for more resilience. For blue sockets, hit 85 Spell Penetration with two blue gems for 25 Spell Penetration each in two blue sockets (the other 35 comes from the cloak enchant), then stack strength gems. Its important to get spell penetration. Its also important you stack a bit of resilience with the way casters + Engineers are nowadays (i.e. Tazik Shockers, Bolt Guns). The best way to socket the spell pen is in the Guardian's bracers + belt while you have the option to throw str/resil gems into your PvP Set Yellow Sockets to give you a bit more survivability.
Hit to cap > Strength > Haste > Crit > Expertise to cap > Mastery > Agility
(note that you can run with around 5.3% hit and then use a Snapper Extreme to obtain hit cap)
Anyone with half a brain can understand strength = attack power on a 2.31 to 1 ratio (2 x 110% due to Unholy Might passive 5% bonus, another 5% from plate specialization and these numbers exclude another 15% from rune of the fallen crusader). It’s your most important stat and you already know strength gems go in red sockets. Haste increases your rune regeneration rate and attack speed to get procs out, thus, it is the third most important stat and your GEAR should have haste on it! Haste has a “reduced effect” or it doesn’t benefit you as much after 35% haste (including Unholy Presence with a free 15% while Improved)! My gear alone personally gives me 18.09%. Critical strike isn’t as important as haste for unholy and expertise isn’t worth it because our global cooldown is so fast and a lot of our damage cant be dodged or parried anyways, thus, it isn’t worth it. Agility and mastery are terrible, along with the fact you cant get mastery until 80 (you can’t benefit from it).
Chaotic Skyflares Requirements have been changed to only requiring 3 red gem sockets, thus, you do not even need a nightmare's tear. Instead, just socket full 20 str Bold Cardinal Rubies, as it is the most optimal gem for a death knight (BC socket bonuses are utterly terrible). If you’re a Jewelcrafter, make sure you use Bold Dragon’s Eyes! I would recommend socketing your Felfury’s with them.
Enchanting is fairly straightforward:
- Arcanum of Ferocity (34 AP / 17 Hit) for PvE or Arcanum of the Gladiator (18 stm / 20 resil) for PvP helm enchants from Cenarion Expedition and Shattered Sun Offensive Revered Status respectively
- Aldor or Scryer Attack Power / Crit Shoulder Enchant for PvE and the Gladiator Shoulder Enchant (30 stm / 15 resil) for PvP
- 23 Haste to Cloak (PvE) or 35 Spell Pen (PvP) for the back
- 10 stats to Chest (PvE), 20 Resil (PvP)
- Either the Leatherworker’s 130 AP for PvE or the 102 Stamina for PvP. Otherwise just throw 50 Attack Power for PvE and 40 stm for PvP
- For Gloves, you can use 15 str to gloves because it benefits the ghoul and rune of the fallen crusader proc, albeit it gives a bit less attack power compared to Crusher. This is for both PvE and PvP. For Engineers, be sure to tinker on the Synapse Springs (480 Str on use for 10 secs).
- For legs, the nerubian leg armor (55 AP / 15 crit) for non-LW whereas Leatherworkers get 75 AP, 22 Crit
- For boots, I run with 32 Attack Power on both PvE and PvP boots, although alternatives include 22 stm and 12 Hit / Crit
- For my weapon, I run with Rune of the Fallen Crusader w/ Apolyon for both PvE and PvP while sometimes I swap out to my Brutal Bonegrinder (2h), enchanted with swordbreaking (reduces disarm duration by 60% and increases parry rating by 4%), if I’m fighting someone who can disarm. I often swap it on and off in anticipation for the disarm. In PvE, always run with a Rune of the Fallen Crusader.
2.4 Gear / Professions
http://www.twinkinfo.com/forums/70-79-bracket/20017-compilation-best-slot-gear-lists-pve.html
Credit goes to Justhealme (Satina-EU) for this in-depth list and compendium on various BIS gear choices
Depending on how much resilience you feel comfortably running, you can change out the red gems in yellow sockets for str/resil gems and the shoulder/helm enchants to the PVP Versions. Another idea is utilizing a destructive skyflare diamond for 25crit/1% spell reflect. Other than that, both sets should be set and ready in terms of itemization and it is to your discretion how you want to alter that
In terms of professions, Engineering and Jewelcrafting is by far the best combination: Synapse Springs for a ridiculous amount of haste, Tazik shocker for immense burst, Healing Injector as a lay on hands or even Hyperspeed Accelerators from the old days put Engy over the top. Coupled with Jewelcrafting for the biggest bonuses to Strength out of any profession, this is the ideal choice. Another choice is LW which would grant you the Icescale counterpart + Bracer enchant but still doesn’t compare I took LW actually to provide people with a ton of recipes, but 75-55=20 between both leg enchants + 80 extra AP from the bracer enchant difference means 100 AP bonus, compared to JC which is 34-20=14x3 = 42 x 1.1 = 46.2 x 2 = 92.4AP from JC without regarding ROTFC, thus LW is still better in this aspect, but the AP isnt generated from STR and with ROTFC up, Jewelcrafting comes out superior anyways.
HOWEVER: Blacksmithing does provide an individual with significant benefit: extra sockets for more 20str gems, as well as access to a Hard Khorium Breastplate. As well, Jewelcrafter allows access to Hard Khorium Choker. Engy requires a certain amount of RNG for synapse springs / tazik.
2.5 Flasks and Potions
Like enchanting, its also very straightforward. In Burning Crusade raids, and PvE in general, its cheaper to run around with Shattrath Flasks of Relentless Assault for 120 AP for 1 hr persisting through death. In reality though, the Elixirs of Mighty Strength, which give 50 strength are better. They give 5 less attack power but like my gloves, I would rather strength to benefit my rune of the fallen crusader weapon enchant and my ghoul. Since it counts as a battle elixir, you can use a guardian elixir of your choice, if any guardian elixir whatsoever. This option is of course, more expensive.
In terms of potions, hands down, go with Potions of Speed with 500 haste rating for 15 seconds. Other sub-optimal options include Elixirs of Wild Magic (200 critical strike rating), and Insane Strength Potions.
Food-wise, I run with Snappter Extreme (40 hit rating/stm) in PvE gear to be 0.02% to hit cap, unless I wear my 8% hit gear setup, in which case I use Dragonfin Filet (40 str/stm)
2.6 Advanced Knowledge
Hey look, there’s still more stuff to be learned. You have various defensive mechanisms as a death knight. I’ll keep it brief.
2.6.1 Anti Magic Shell
Anti Magic Shell is an instant cast, 45 second cooldown spell that places a bubble around you, absorbing, with my spec, 83% of all spell damage taken and preventing the application of harmful magical effects on you. Also, for all the spell damage you take, based on a sufficient ratio of damage : runic power, it will convert the damage you take into runic power. Basically here are some examples of potential uses of Anti Magic Shell.
- Running into fire on the ground (don’t ever do this anytime else) to build up runic power for death coils
- (I used to do this a lot) If targeted by Encapsulate on Felmyst, before you get thrown up in the air, Anti Magic Shell to nullify that particular Encapsulate, so melee doesn’t have to run out and you still gain some runic power
- Pissing off a shadow priest trying to dot you up and fear you
- Screwing over a hot streak from a fire mage
Now, healers have more mana to work with, but higher spell costs for healing, so they sometimes can’t spare the mana, thus, limit this sometimes. This is cataclysm.
2.6.2 Horn of Winter and Potential Idling
Sometimes, your “flow” and cycle from your rotation might break simply because we need to renew diseases, you run out of procs and momentum (rarely) and / or you have to run away. It happens, you might break rotation and idle. Essentially, this is the time to horn of winter for 10 runic power and to renew it.
2.6.3 Icebound Fortitude
On some fights and on trash, there’s the potential for getting stunned. My human racial Every Man for Himself can remedy that… and Icebound Fortitude, which makes you immune to stuns and allows you to keep on DPSing. Some fights, such as Kaz’Rogal in Hyjal have an AoE stun effect that lasts a whopping 5 seconds (ironically, with a DR sometimes), so just anticipate the stun in advance and icebound fortitude, it only costs 20 runic power.
2.6.4 Why Death and Decay when you can? (Information provided by Consider)
Consider from ElitistJerks also pointed out that death and decay has a hidden eleventh tick in a 10 second duration, which is true. It has a 30 second cooldown, so it would be up roughly 1/3 of the time. Death and decay is now a one Unholy Rune ability, along with scourge strike. Does one death and decay single target do more damage than one scourge strike?
Unbuffed, with Ebon Plaguebringer on the level 70 training dummy, my death and decay hits for 341 per tick x 11 = ~3751 Damage, without any crits on the death and decay ticks. My scourge strike on average does ~2780 damage without any crits on either portion. So yes, in fact, every time you can, you should use death and decay in place of a scourge strike. There is a concern I would like to raise though, despite the fact I still do use death and decay single target: you need to train yourself to aim it quickly enough that you can still hit your next global cooldown. Other than that, it is better in place of one scourge strike.
2.6.5 Dual Wield Unholy (Additional Information would be nice)
The question of Dual Wield Unholy is a new frontier that has begun due to cataclysm. There have been a variety of changes that have occurred that can make this specialization as, or even more viable than the regular 2H build. At level 85, tests have shown that DW unholy is more optimal than 2H Unholy. However these days are now over: sudden Doom has changed so that it only procs off main-hand weapon strikes, thus, the glory days of Warglaives + DW UH are now over and two-handers are thriving again.
The three changes which allow for the playstyle of DW Unholy:
- Glaives now usable by Death Knights
- The change of sudden doom into the Unholy Tree
- DW specialization moved to tier one in the Frost tree
While we cannot pick up DW Specialization at 70, we can still pick up sudden doom and we can acquire two glaives now. Due to the fact that DW specialization is not obtainable at 70, it means that in terms of weapons, a slow weapon in the main hand and a fast weapon in the off hand is the most optimal way to proceed. I.E., both glaives fit that bill, and they have that delicious 450 haste for 10 secs proc! If you do not have glaives, the better main hands you can acquire include: the brutal slicer, the Syphon of the Nathrezim and Muramasa while off hands include Blade of Savagery, Dragon-Encrusted Longblade and the Brutal Gladiator’s Quickblade.
Dual Wield Unholy has the perk of being able to death coil a tremendous amount more, which accounts for its lack of main-hand damage and essentially, lower damage dealt from your rune attacks, like scourge strike. Due to the speed of these weapons, and the fact that you have two weapons now in conjunction with haste and unholy presence, it allows you to fire off many more death coils to obtain a stable “cycle”. Thus, the DPS now equates out to roughly the same. For dual wield unholy, death knights opt to swap out the scourge strike glyph (30% more damage on the shadow portion), which is better for 2H, and change it to Glyph of Death Coil (15% more damage and healing) because you’ll be firing off an almost equal amount of death coils to scourge strikes whereas with a two-hander, you’ll be swinging plenty more scourge strikes.
Which runes to use? Personally, I would argue that one Rune of the Fallen Crusader on your off-hand and one Rune of Cinderglaicer on your main-hand would be superior, based on my knowledge that the Rune of the Fallen Crusader
a) Doesn’t Stack
b) The proc chance for it is heightened based on logic, but experimentally, the proc chance isn’t increased high enough. It has no internal cooldown anyways.
By the way, the rotation is the same anyways, do not worry about that part.
2.6.6 Acceptable Racism
This portion is included last for the reason that in the end, your subjective opinion on the appearance of your character should outrule the fact that some races are harder, better, faster and stronger (not neccessarily harder) than other races in your chosen faction.
ALLIANCE:Alliance:
1. Worgen
2. Draenei
3. Human
4. Dwarf
5. Gnome
6. Night Elf
Worgen are by far, the best race for Death Knights in non-Unholy circumstances, orcs being even greater for Unholy (5% Pet Damage bonus compared to 1% passive crit, your call). With a passive 1% crit and an on use 40% Sprint for utility (i.e. Felmyst for example), Worgen outclass essentially every other available race, and are not dependant on certain weapon types. I much prefer 1% crit over 1% hit rating considering its actually fairly easy to obtain the Hit Cap in any accord.
Draenei have Heroic Presence, a 1% passive bonus to hit, which is an excellent self-racial to have, debatably better than 1% crit. Gift of the Naaru is also a nifty little Heal over Time but doesnt compare to an on-demand sprint. Both Draenei and Worgen are extremely close and could tie for first place based on passive racials but in the end, the on-demand sprint places worgen in the top spot.
Humans get an extra trinket slot, due to their racial being a PVP trinket (with a 2min CD), which is excellent were it not for the fact that Resilience scales so well in this bracket. It's actually a legitimatly good idea to carry around a PvP trinket for a bonus of 45 resilience. Humans receive 3 Expertise if they use a sword or mace, which isnt the greatest thing since sliced bread. In short, humans have an extra trinket slot if you want to run with a Battlemaster + PvE trinket in PvP but it has its catches.
Dwarves get Stoneform which clears poison, disease and bleed effects as well as providing the imbimber with a 10% damage reduction for 8 secs. Other than that, if you use a mace, you gain 5 expertise, but thats extremely limited.
Gnomes have escape artist, 1.75min Cooldown snare/immobolize removal on use. The problem with Gnomes is that it is only really a good choice if you use 1h Swords, otherwise theyre worthless for 2hs due to Racials
Night Elves: No, shadowmeld is terrible, threat is returned to you after you break it and its situationally worthwhile in PvP, its a poor choice in this accord
HORDE:Horde:
1. Orc
2. Goblin
3. Troll
4. Blood Elf
5. Undead
6. Tauren
Orcs have an on-use Attack Power bonus that doesnt increase in value as your gear increases, its just flat. Orcs however, are the best Unholy Death Knight race for Horde but not the best Death Knight race available. The reason why is because orcs have a 5% pet damage bonus, which applies to your ghoul, your perk. It’s a stellar passive racial! Orcs are THE excellent choice for Unholy Death Knights but for other specs, I would recommend Goblin for horde.
Goblins have 1% cast/attack speed boosts as well as a free on-demand nuke rocket or a blink with a 2min CD, which is excellent for PVP. Horde in general do not compare well for Death Knight races considering Alliance has the best racials in this contest. But the blink does prove to be useful in many situations (escaping and getting LoS)
Trolls have Berserking which is 20% haste for 10 secs. Pretty decent racial, but not comparable to the other racials. Its a huge step down.
Blood Elves have Arcane Torrent, which is an incredible AoE Silence and I would say its the Second-Best Horde Race for PvP but in terms of PvE value, its lacking.
Forsaken/Undead have Will of the Forsaken to break fear, charm and sleep effects. Hardly that incredible
Tauren are almost as bad as Night Elves. All they have is War Stomp, an AoE Stun for a marginal amount of time
, and my original statement was correct but I still love you. 
