Unholy Death Knight DPS Guide
Ranked #374 in Games, #11,865 overall
The Unholy Death Knight Guide You've Been Looking For
***UPDATED FOR LATEST BUILD FIRELANDS***
Unholy DKs did get a slight nerf from the latest patch, however from some testing it seems to be a much smaller nerf than I thought it was going to be. We are still heavy contenders for being at the top of the dps charts. I wrote this guide based upon reading other number crunching sites around the net and on my own testing and experiences. I made my own site with hopes of creating a guide that was much easier to understand and more straight forward for people looking for quick answers. If you are looking for all the number crunching math and tables behind it all, this is not the place to look. For that I suggest going to Elitist Jerks.
On this site I have covered everything from our talents to our glyphs, to our rotation and gems. Please take a vote on the poll and see what everyone else is playing! I hope you enjoy the site and learn about our favorite class!
**Please note that this guide is for an end game death knight. It does not focus on how to level a new deathknight. Also, this guide focuses on playing a DK in a PvE environment
Just bought the Razer Naga mouse...this thing is SWEEEET, check out my review and thoughts on it
Unholy DKs did get a slight nerf from the latest patch, however from some testing it seems to be a much smaller nerf than I thought it was going to be. We are still heavy contenders for being at the top of the dps charts. I wrote this guide based upon reading other number crunching sites around the net and on my own testing and experiences. I made my own site with hopes of creating a guide that was much easier to understand and more straight forward for people looking for quick answers. If you are looking for all the number crunching math and tables behind it all, this is not the place to look. For that I suggest going to Elitist Jerks.
On this site I have covered everything from our talents to our glyphs, to our rotation and gems. Please take a vote on the poll and see what everyone else is playing! I hope you enjoy the site and learn about our favorite class!
**Please note that this guide is for an end game death knight. It does not focus on how to level a new deathknight. Also, this guide focuses on playing a DK in a PvE environment
Just bought the Razer Naga mouse...this thing is SWEEEET, check out my review and thoughts on it
Table of Contents
Race
What race to choose?
Horde PvE: Orc
Horde PVP: Blood Elf, Orc, Undead
Alliance PvE: Human
Alliance PvP: Human
Choosing Your Race
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Death Knight Builds
So here's the talents for patch 4.2Glyphs are Included
For PvP build go to my newest site here!
That build is for pure dps optimization, however there are some talents you can swap around. You can take one out of Runic Power Mastery and add it into Magic Suppression for some additional survivability in magic aoe etc... type fights.
Stats and Gemming
Reforge things like Expertise, Crit and ONLY WHEN THE PREVIOUS STATS AREN'T ON THE PIECE reforge Mastery to Hit to reach your cap. If you are already hit capped then you will have to figure some things out. Refer to the Stat priority section of the page to figure out what you should reforge to what. If you are over Hit cap then reforge excess hit to Haste.
Gemming
When it comes to gemming you have some choices:
For your Meta Gem You will want Reverberating Shadowspirit Diamond.
For your Yellow sockets go with Fierce Ember Topaz for 20str/20haste.
For Blue Gems you will now want to go with Etched Demonseyes for your blues.
For Red Gems This one is fairly obvious, go with 40str gems.
Stats
Hit Rating:
When it comes to your Hit Rating, 8% hit is the cap. Adding any additional Hit Rating past this point is pretty much a waste of stats.
Expertise:
Another stat to pay attention to is your Expertise. With this stat the cap is 6.5% which is 26 Expertise. However expertise is rated very low as a stat priority for Unholy dks. So don't worry about this stat too much.
For Unholy DK's our stat priorities go as such:
Hit (until cap) > Strength > Haste > Mastery > Crit > Expertise(to cap) > Agility > Spell Hit
Haste is still ahead of Mastery, however Mastery is no longer completely useless to us. Keep this in mind when reforging your gear. But when it comes to choosing your gear, remember always that Strength is always number one.
Gear Up
With some Death Knight T-Shirts!
Enchanting
These are all the top of the line enchants, Some can be costly and others may require a certain rep.
Weapon: Rune of the Fallen Crusader
Head: Arcanum of Dragonmaw -This one is from Dragonmaw rep.
Shoulders: Greater Inscription of Jagged Stone -Therazane Rep.
Chest: 20 to all stats(can also use 15 if low on gold)
Cloak: 50 Crit
Bracer: 65 Haste
Gloves: 50Str
Legs: 190 Atk Power + 55Crit
Boots: 50 Haste
Arthas
Read about Warcrafts most famous death knight!
This is a fantastic book that I highly recommend to WoW players. It follows Arthas from when he is a young boy all the way to his "wrath" days as the lich king. One of the better reads out of the Warcraft books that are out there.
Rotation
***use Unholy Presence when using an Unholy build***
Open with:
IT > PS > SS > SS >
When possible always replace IT and PS with an Outbreak.
Then move on to priority system as follows,
Priority system: apply diseases > dark transformation(when available) > SS > FS > DC > then back to SS and FS
Also remember to use your other moves such as Blood Tap when its not on cooldown to get some extra strikes whenever possible.
So really, just keep your diseases up as priority one. So use your Icy Touch and Plague Strike, that much hasn't changed. Next in line is our Dark Transformation move. Now this move is new, essentially we can now transform our ghouls into a bigger and better ghoul temporarily. In order to do this you mus accumulate 5 Shadow Infusions on your ghoul. Which come from the 100% proc rate every time you cast a Death Coil. After that you wanna pull out your SS if you got the runes for it. Then, pull out the FS if you have the runes for it. The use up your rune power on Death Coils if you have a lot gathered up, also it's good to use these when Sudden Doom is procced, which makes your next death coil cost nothing. Then go back to another SS, then FS, then DC. That's pretty much it. It may seem like a lot but really it's not...I just like to type a lot.
**Some macros and additional move descriptions/"when to use" section being added soon**
As well as some reason why I highly recommend getting a mouse with more than just your 2 basic buttons. Check out my review and thoughts on the Razer Naga in the meantime.
The Shattering and Thrall
get It Now From Amazon!
The Shattering by far my favorite book out of all the Warcraft books that I've read. There are so many characters involved and so much interesting lore going on in this book it's nuts. If you are interested in ever reading some WoW books, this is one to pick up for sure!
Thrall is the latest release in the World of Warcraft books!
Thrall is the latest release in the World of Warcraft books!
WoW.com
WoW.com is a great World of Warcraft blog that is updated almost hourly it seems. With new content touching on everything from whats going on with blizzard and the world of Azeroth. It's the best site to keep up to date with whats happening in the World of Warcraft. I would highly recommend subscribing to their weekly podcast "The WoW Insider Show"
Heres a feed of their latest posts!
Heres a feed of their latest posts!
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byComments
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acekyle
Dec 22, 2011 @ 1:20 pm | delete
- Awesome lens!
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acekyle
Dec 22, 2011 @ 1:20 pm | delete
- Awesome lens!
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Cataclysm Scalper
Oct 5, 2011 @ 8:46 am | delete
- You guys should check out this review of a fresh new gold guide: http://cataclysmscalper-review.com
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ZygorGuideReviews
Oct 4, 2011 @ 9:41 am | delete
- great info and tips! Definitely make using the death knight a lot easier.
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Staceysk
Sep 24, 2011 @ 11:30 am | delete
- I haven't made a DK yet, but I'm thinking it will be my next toon. Nice info.
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by Vraagar
Vraagar
Well, I live in Canada, my interests are playing guitar and video games. I have been playing WoW for a long time now and am still really enjoying it.... more »
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Arthas
World of Warcraft: Arthas: Rise of the Lich King
Amazon Price: $4.88 (as of 02/14/2012)
If you love death knights or just simply love Warcraft, there is no excuse to have not already read this book. This book is a must have for any World of Warcraft fan. It uncovers tons of story and lore behind one of the biggest characters in the game. It's a New York Times Best Seller by author Christie Golden. Check it out and order your copy today straight from Amazon.
New World of Warcraft Book IS OUT!
World of Warcraft: The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm
Amazon Price: $1.98 (as of 02/14/2012)
Written by the same author that brought us Arthas, Christie Golden has done it again and is bringing out her new book The Shattering.
Deathwing T-shirt
World Of Warcraft Cataclysm Deathwing T-Shirt 2XL
Amazon Price: (as of 02/14/2012)
