Death Knight of the specialization Unholy relies on using dark magic and diseases, all of this combined with their mastery of two-handed weapons in Melee. As assisting force, there are Skeletons, Ghouls, Abominations. Gargoyles and even a Val’kyra.
Introduction
Like any other Death Knight spec, Unholy uses 2 resources: Runes and Runic Power (hereinafter – RP). Runes are always ready out of combat. After a Rune is used, it starts to restore. Only 3 Runes can be restoring simultaneously. Rune restoring speed depends on the speed rating, traits and whether you have Runic Corruption. The RP is somewhat like Fury – you can earn it and then spend it.
Let’s take a closer look at the strong and the weak points of this specialization:
Advantages:
- Depending on the selected talents, it can show remarkable results on single-target, and nice results on cleave and AoE.
- It has several defensive abilities
Disadvantages:
- Low mobility.
- To do AoE damage, time for speeding up is needed.
Glossary
Show Spoiler
AoE (Area of Effect) is basically the area where this of that effect is actuated regardless of whether its damage or healing. This command is usually used to act in a team/raid on several targets. It is also used to describe any ability of a Boss with the aforementioned effect.
Buff stands for any positive effect. Always reflected to the left of the mini-map, by its upper edge.
Burst is an ability to do – in multiple ways – massive damage within a short period of time.=
GCD (Global Cooldown) is the overall ability recovery time.
Debuff stands for negative effect. By default, it’ reflected to the left of the mini-map by its lower edge.
DoT stands for Damage over Time.
DPS (Damage per Second) is a measure that reflects the damage done within one second.
Cleave is an ability to damage secondary targets through damaging the main one with no (or minor) loss in the damage done to the main target.
Cooldown (often CD) primarily refers to the ability recovery time. Can be often applied to bursts and various protective abilities.
Melee and Range. Melee is the close-range combat zone, also used in the titles of all the classes and specs that do effective damage in this zone. Range usually refers to a zone that is not a close-range one and is used, respectfully, in the titles of all classes and specs that do effective damage remotely.
Trait is a name for the ‘talents’ your azerite armor has.
Main abilities
Festeing Wound is a debuff on a target which, when bursting, does minor Dark Magic damage and generates 3 RP. One taget can bear no more than 6 of these. Stays on the victim for 30 secs. Fester breaks either when the target dies, or when certain abilities or various passive effects are used. Scourge Strike demands 1 Rune, generates 10 RP. It is comprised of two damage components – physical and dark magic. And the last but not least here is that it bursts one Festering Wound. Outbreak applies a debuff on the target for 6 secs; at also infects them and all the nearby targets with Virulent Plague. Demands 1 Rune, active radius – 30 m. * Virulent Plague is a dark magic DoT doing substantial damage; each tick has a 30% chance to do minor additional dark magic damage distributed among all the enemies hit. This effect also kicks in when the infected targets die. Death Coil is your main RP spender. Allows to hit an enemy within 30 yards for 45 RP with shadow magic reducing by 1 sec for each Dark transformation tick. Sometimes due to your passive ability Sudden Doom, you get to utilize Death Coil for free. Death and Decay. Select an area in which, within the next 10 secs, a minor dark magic damage will be placed. This ability’s main peculiarity is that while you’re in the zone of its action, your Scourge Strike starts hitting all the enemies around your target which allows to burst Festering Wounds on several targets at a time. Used on AoE.Offensive
Festering Strike demands 2 Runes and creates 20+ RP applying 2 to 3 Festeing Wounds.
You have the default ability of Raise Dead which allows you to summon an under-control Ghoul. This ability has a 1 min CD. There is also Dark Transformation in your arsenal. It transforms your pet and empowers or modifies their ability. Briefly, your pet can do the following: Gnaw provides a 1 sec stun with a 1.5 min CD. In Dark Transformation the damage of this ability is increased, and the stun is cast for 2 secs. Leap jumps you behind your enemy’s back. In Dark Transformation, it interrupts your enemy while casting the spell and stuns them for 2 secs. Huddle halves your incoming damage down for 10 secs and prevents your enemy from doing anything for that time. In Dark Transformation the effect is the same but a Ghoul can act. Claw is your Ghoul’s main attack. When Dark transformation is active deals less damage but hits all targets in front of it dealing dark magic damage.Pet
Apocalypse Does nice instant physical damage and bursts 4 Festering Wounds. It also summons a member of your Army of the Dead for 15 secs per Wound. Army of the Dead is a powerful CD summoning a bunch of various undead within a 4-sec period. The warriors of the Army will fight for 30 secs. Demands 3 Runes. CD 10 min. There are two important traits that empower the Army. Sudden Doom. Auto-attacks have a certain probability that the next Death Coil will come in without spending any Runes. Runic Corruption. For each RP spent you get a 1.4% chance that you’ll receive a 3-sec buff increasing the restoring speed for your Runes by 100%.Bursts, important CDs and passive effects
Anti-Magic Shell (often referred to as AMS) covers you with a shield for 5 secs for 30% of your total HP (increasing the value of Versatility) making you resistant to magical effects. The consumed damage generates RP. CD 1 min. Icebound Fortitude decreases the incoming damage by 30% and makes you stun-resistant. CD 3 min.Deffensive abilities
Wraith Walk cancels all the movement-limiting effects and increases your running speed by 70%. And you can’t go slower than 170%. Active for 3 secs, CD 45 secs. Raise Ally is a combat resurrection. It has a mechanics quite similar to that of other spells of the kind from other classes. Outside a raid combat, CD 10 min. Inside a raid, the restoring speed depends on the number of players on the raid (90/x – CD per res, where x is the number of raiders). Death Gate is your teleport to Acherus – your class Hold. CD 1 min. RuneForging is an important thing many forget about because in this addition to the game, they didn’t care to remind the gamers that they can apply various runic empowerments on their weapons. Basically, we’re interested in only one Rune – Rune of the Fallen Crusader. Just don’t forget to apply it to your artifact, and then you can forget you had this ability again. Mind Freeze interrupts your enemy while they are casting a spell and keep them from casting a different spell from the same school for 3 more secs. CD 15 secs, action radius 15m. Chains of Ice for 1 Rune allows you to slow down your enemy’s running speed by 70% for 8 secs. Action area – 30 m. Path of Frost allows you and your allies within the 50m radius run on water surface for 10 min. Receiving damage cancels the effect. Control Undead allows you to control an Undead enemy no higher than 121 lvl for 5 min. Costs 1 Rune, is applied one every 1.5 secs, action radius – 30 m. Dark Command is your taunt making the target attack you within 3 secs. Death Strike, for 35 RP, does minor physical damage and restores 40% of the damage done to you over the last 5 secs, but no less than 10% of max HP. After the enemy is killed, Dark Succor kicks in allowing you to apply the Death Strike within the next 20 secs for free, and its restoring effectiveness will grow by 100%. Death Grip helps you drag an enemy within a 30 m radius towards you. CD 25 secs. On a Pale Horse is a passive effect increasing your riding speed by 20%.Utility abilities
Talents
General information. On achieving several new levels you’ll get access to new talent ‘Tiers’. Talents may have different effect on abilities: add new features, replace old ones, modify passively different effects and spells. Talents can be changed in Sanctuaries or any recreational zones. However, if you don’t have any of those places nearby you can use the Codex of the Tranquil Mind which allows you to switch channels within a minute. You can’t change talents in combat. You can’t change a talent if the talent you’ve picked in the last Tier is on Cooldown. You’ll have to wait until it’s restored first.
Tier 1. Lvl 56
- Infected claws. Your ghoul’s ability Claw has 30% chance to cause Festering wound on the target. This effect will apply to all the targets hit by your pet when Dark transformation is active. This is the best Aoe choice because it allows to gain Festering wound on your targets faster.
- All will serve. Your Raise dead spell summons an additional skeleton minion that deals damage to your target. The best choice in this tier for a single target fight.
- Clawing shadows. Replaces Scourge strike and deals shadow magic damage within 30 yards bursting one Festering wound.
Tier 2. Lvl 57
- Bursting sores. Bursting Festering wound deals 25 % more damage, and deals shadow damage to all nearby targets within 8 yards. The best bursting aoe talent.
- Ebon fever. Virulent plague deals 15% more damage over time in half duration.
- Unholy blight. Surrounds Death knight with a a vile swarm of insects for 6 sec, stinging all nearby enemies and infecting them for with a low damage disease for 14 sec
Tier 3. Lvl 58
- Grip of the dead. Death and decay reduces the movement speed of enemies within its area by 90%, decaying by 10% every sec. A good talent for mythic + or raid where a boss fight requires movement reduce
- Death’s reach. Increases the range of Death grip by 10 yards. Killing an enemy resets the cooldown.
- Asphyxiate is a single-target stun for 4 secs. Action radius – 20m, CD 45 secs. If you need a stun in your encounter, this talent could be of use.
Tier 4. Lvl 60
- Pestilent pustules. Bursting a Festering wound has 10% to grant you runic corruption.
- Harbinger of doom. Sudden doom triggers 15% more often and can accumulate up to 2 charges.
- Soul reaper. Dots an enemy for 8 sec dealing shadow damage and restoring 2 runes. If the enemy dies you gain 10% haste for 8 sec. Cooldown is 45 sec. This is the best talent in the tier because of the damage and regeneration.
Tier 5. Lvl 75
- Spell Eater empowers the Anti-Magic Shell by 30% and prolongs its action by 5 secs.
- Wraith walk. Removes all root effects increasing your movement by 70%. While active your speed cannot be reduced below 170%. Taking any action cancels the effect. Lasts 4 sec, has 60 sec cd.
- Death pact. Heals you for 50% of your maximum health but absorbs incoming healing equal to 30% of your max health for 15 sec. A situational talent.
*The choice is up to you, take what is required for a fight but the standard choice in the tier is Spell eater.
Tier 6. Lvl 90
- Pestilence. Death and decay damage has 10% chance to apply Festering wound to the enemy.
- Defile. Replaces Death and decay using the same mechanic but dealing more damage and growing in size if atleast one enemy stands in Defile.
- Epidemic. Causes each of your Virulent Plagues to flare up dealing shadow damage to the infected enemy and an additional minor damage to all enemies nearby. The best aoe talent.
*Talents in this tier do not increase single target damage so the standard choice would be Epidemic for Aoe potential.
Tier 7. Lvl 100
- Army of the dead. Death coil and Epidemic. reduce the cooldown of Apocalypse by 1 sec and Army of the dead by 5 sec.
- Unholy frenzy. Incites you into killing frenzy for 12 sec increasing haste by 20% and causing you auto attacks to infect the target with Festering wound. The best choice for single target fight and for Aoe.
- Summon gargoyle. Summon a gargoyle for 30 sec to attack your target. The gargoyle gains 1% increased dmg for every 2 rp you spend. A weak talent that attaches you to the target for 30 sec.
As a result, we could mock up 2 builds intended for meeting absolutely different objectives.
- Single target:
- AoE and M+:
Azerite traits
Sets in BFA were removed and azerite armor took their place. Now any chest, shoulder and helm has a few rings to choose a talent.
- Festermight. Bursting a festering wound grants you additional strength for 20 sec stacking up. Stacking this effect does not extend its duration. The best trait you definitely need to obtain in amount of 3. It is actively used for AOE and single target fights.
- Magus of the dead. Apocalypse and army of the damned additionally summon a Magus of the dead for 20 sec who attack your enemies. Also a good trait that is preferably to have in amount of 1-2.
- Harrowing decay. Death coil infects the target with DOT that deals shadow damage for 4 sec. The best talent in case you don’t have options to obtain others.
*SInce there are a lot of azerite traits in the game, it would be a good thing to check optimal variants on raidbots.com and also see the best currently traits on herodamage.com.
( AzeritePowerWeights:2:"herodamage.com - Stacks_1T_T24":6:252: 575=10, 199=9.86, 526=9.46, 522=9.40, 193=8.79, 562=8.24, 82=7.80, 196=7.75, 109=7.67, 479=6.47, 488=6.36, 494=6.36, 501=6.31, 157=6.27, 192=6.06, 504=5.95, 244=5.86, 478=5.81, 483=5.58, 485=5.52, 486=5.50, 492=5.50, 142=5.40, 482=5.28, 30=5.27, 495=5.27, 489=5.27, 505=5.24, 195=5.22, 523=5.18, 480=5.13, 194=5.12, 521=4.97, 481=4.69, 561=4.62, 498=4.07, 350=3.98, 156=3.57, 576=3.42, 500=3.16, 459=3.16, 351=3.05, 31=3.04, 22=2.89, 560=2.75, 21=2.75, 487=2.69, 493=2.69, 20=2.52, 499=2.41, 18=1.99, 497=1.97, 491=1.97, 461=1.97, 541=1.96, 496=1.89, 490=1.89, 462=1.81, 140=0.12: )
Essences
MAJOR
- Blood of the enemy (Source: Honor farm) – versatile choice for any type of the combat
- Condensed Life-force (Source: Eternal Palace drop) – great option to increase you burst potential on single target
- The Crucible of Flame (Source: Heart of Azeroth level) – becomes a great tool for additional dps increse, especially at level 3
- Essence of the Focusing Iris (Source: Mythic+ dungeons) – strong option for aoe encounters
MINOR
- The Crucible of Flame (Source: Heart of Azeroth level) – nice extra damage during the fight
- Memory of Lucid Dreams (Source: Nazjatar questing) – good minor essence in any case because of extra resource regeneration
- Essence of the Focusing Iris (Source: Mythic+ dungeons) – cool option, if you can keep stacks of haste from main target
Rotation
As it was mentioned in the previous sections, even in one type of combat, various talents and even trinkets can be used. That’s why some of the important things will change.
To begin with, let’s take a look at the default priorities regardless of the aforementioned factors.
Single target
- Virulent Plague should always be on the target.
- Dark Transformation per CD.
- Festering Strike, if there are no Festering Wounds on your target, or there are no more than 2 of them.
- Apocalypse, if not on CD and on targets with 4 Festering Wounds.
- Scourge strike / Clawing shadows if there are 4+ Festering wounds, Festering strike if there is 2 or fewer wounds
- Death Coil, if the RP is on max or close to it
- Unholy frenzy per CD
- Soul reaper (to restore runes)
Opener
- Army of the dead 5-6 sec before pull
- Prepot 1-2 seconds before the fight
- Outbreak
- Dark transformation
- Festering strike x2
- Apocalypse (only of there are 4 wounds on the target)
- Unholy frenzy
- Soul reaper
AoE and Mythic+
- Remember to drink prepots before packs
- Outbreak
- Dark transformation (using it like this will allow you to get wounds stacks faster on all targets)
- Unholy frenzy
- Festering strike x2
- Apocalypse (when there are 4 wounds on the target)
- Do not hold runes (3 runes always have to recharge at the same time)
- Death and decay
- Scourge strike at least with 1 wound up
- Spend rp on Epidemic
- Death coil when procs
On bosses and other single targets
- Army of the dead 5 sec before the pull
- Prepot 1-2 sec before the fight
- Outbreak
- Dark transformation
- Festering strike x2
- Apocalypse
- Unholy frenzy
- Soul reaper (to restore runes)
Stats
The default characteristics priority is as follows:
Haste> Strength> Crit = Versatility> Mastery
Considering the information above and your own results after checking your character you can decide what gems, chants and pots you need for raiding. It is better to check your character on raidbots.com after every new piece of gear.
Based on the aforementioned characteristics and results of your character’s own simulation results, you can draw conclusions on Gems, Chants and Raid Chemicals.
Gems
- Leviathan’s Eye of Strength. Can be used only once in gear
- Quick Sand Spinel a default choice
Enchantments
- Rings: Accord of Haste – a default choice
- Don’t forget to chant Rune of the fallen crusader on your weapon.
Food
- Baked Port Tato for 70 haste
Flasks and pots
- Greater Flask of the Undertow 360 strength for h
- Potion of Unbridled Fury for single target
- Potion of Empowered Proximity against 4+ targets
Macros
Kick with a modifier, with the Shift key held, the ability is applied on a remembered target, without – on the current one.
/cast [mod:shift,@focus][] Mind Freeze
Combat resurrection by cursor’s position:
#showtooltip Raise Ally /cast [target=mouseover] Raise Ally
An outbreak by cursor’s position:
/cast [target=mouseover] Outbreak
An extremely useful macro for Mythic+ – dismiss the pet:
/petdismiss
Death Grip on cursor position; if there’s no target under your cursor, the Grip is applied to the current one:
#showtooltip Death Grip /cast [target=mouseover, exists] Death Grip; Death Grip
A similar macro for the Abomination:
#showtooltip Hook /cast [target=mouseover, exists] Hook; Hook
If you want your pet to constantly attack your current target without getting distracted for other buttons:
#showtooltip Festeing Strike /cast Festering Strike /cast Claw /cast Cleaver
#Showtooltip
/cast Scourge Strike
/cast Clawing Shadows
/cast Claw
/cast Cleaver
* Keep in mind that with these macros, if you want your pet to grip a target outside the reaching zone, your pet will have to make a run for it. When you actuate your macro, the pet cancels that command and goes back to hitting your target (if you’ve actuated the macro after you’ve sent it to grip a target, of course).
What’s next?
- Leveling. If your character has been inactive since the previous expansions, the best option to level up it is by Timewalking dungeons. You will gain a lot of experience, but there is one big disadvantage of leveling this way. Timewalks are available only for one week during a month, but Overgear is always here.
- Equipment. At high level, the most important thing for you will become your gear. WoW is a multiplayer game, that’s why we recommend for you to play it with your friends, or to find a new friends for mythic+ runs. If you have any trouble with it – Overgear may help you to find not just friends for a run, but a complete well geared and experienced group that also will be glad to trade all the loot you need.
- Raids. Raids are the top-tier PvE content in the game. That’s why the equipment’s base ilvl is higher than anywhere else. These dungeons require knowing all the tactics and have a good gear to kill the bosses. The possibilities of Overgear might let you skip those criteria.
Azerite. It is also not the best idea to forget about the Heart of Azeroth and not to feed it with more Azerite. Ignoring this won’t make your character stronger. The easiest way to do it – just complete all the world quests with Azerite rewards everyday. You can get extra azerite from Island Expeditions. Companions can be found at Overgear.
