by Daniel Whitcomb

1. What is unholy DPS?

Unholy DPS is one of the biggest roller coasters you can step on as a death knight DPSer, in that almost every major patch has bought huge changes to the tree, sometimes making it totally overpowered, sometimes slamming it down into the dirt, sometimes making a basic unholy spec look like a convoluted Escherian nightmare. In Patch 3.3, it’s leveled off into a solid, dominant powerhouse that combines stronger diseases and physical damage with the added bonuses of a cool pet and a very powerful magical debuff. It’s essentially the choice for any death knight DPSer who wants to maximize their DPS.

2. Unholy DPS benefits

• Ebon Plague, which counts as a 3rd disease and makes your diseases and the magical damage of your group and raid members hit for much more. It’s also superior to the warlock and moonkin versions in that it can easily be spread to other targets via Pestilence
• Since Patch 3.3, unholy offers competitive single target damage to blood, if not outright superior damage at high gear levels.
• Superior sustained AoE DPS. Despite the loss of the AoE version of Unholy Blight, unholy still brings enough toys that it easily out paces the other trees and many other classes to deal superior AoE damage.
• Permanent ghoul pet
• Bone Shield provides both DPS and survivability if you accidentally pull aggro

3. Unholy DPS drawbacks

• You may have to respec multiple times depending on your gear level and other factors to maximize your DPS.
• Slightly more complicated damage rotation as compared to blood.
• Unholy continues to be the most volatile and changeable of the death knight talent trees, and may see further adjustments in future patches, if only to put blood or frost in better competition DPS wise.

4. Stats to look for

These stats are listed in order of general purpose. It doesn’t always hold true, of course, and things do switch up a bit depending on whether you are using a Reaping spec or not, but as a general rule of thumb, these are how you should prioritize while gearing.

• Weapon DPS: You will need a big, slow, high damage 2 handed weapon to get the most out of your spec, since you’ll be doing most of your damage from weapon strikes. Dual wielding did used to work for unholy DPS to a limited degree, but since patch 3.3, two-handed DPS is far and away the better path to take.
• Hit Rating to 8%: At 8% hit rating, all your two-handed damage and weapon strikes will hit. Since most of your damage will come from weapon strikes and auto attacks, it’s a good idea to make sure they never miss. You’ll also want to get all 8% hit from gear if you can (That’s about 263 hit rating), since that will also grant additional combat stats to your ghoul that the draenei aura won’t. While hit rating past that 8% will still technically benefit you, since it will give a better chance to hit to spell-like effects like Death Coil, the benefit will be so low that it will be far better if you get other stats instead. You’ll make up most of the gap with Virulence and (if available in your group or raid) Misery anyway.
• Strength: This stat buffs all of your damage, both physical and spell-based. You’ll get 2 attack power per a point of strength, and an extra 3% strength buff from Ravenous Dead. This is the stat you want to stack for more damage.
• Armor Penetration: Now that Scourge Strike does a portion of its damage as physical, Armor Penetration has become a very attractive stat for us. Strength still wins out point for point, but armor penetration is very attractive, especially after you have 2-piece Tier 10, which offers a substantial boost to Scourge Strike damage. It’s slightly less useful before then, but still more than worth taking.
• Critical Strike Rating: This stat is, if nothing else, valuable for Wandering Plague procs, as well as 4-piece tier 9wearing death knights. It performs deceptively well overall in most unholy DPS theory crafting, though not as well as it once did now that the shadow portion of Scourge Strike cannot crit.
• Expertise: Surprisingly, this isn’t as valuable as you’d think. Unholy currently has a very loose rotation with a few free global cool downs, so it’s not the end of the world if the enemy dodges your strike. You can probably hold off on getting the 26 expertise you need to prevent dodges until you’re in raid gear.
• Haste: Once the crown jewel of unholy DPS, this stat has fallen out of favor. Now that our damage rotation is looser and a bit more forgiving, you don’t need haste to force in all your abilities before your diseases drop, and you can focus more on strength and armor penetration again. It is worth noting that ghouls do receive 100% of your haste rating as well.

5. Stats of marginal benefit

Much like in our blood DPS guide, these stats here are not exactly worthless, but it is far, far better to get one of the above stats. Again, if a stat isn’t listed here, you can pretty much assume it’s more or less worthless for unholy DPS.

• Agility: Agility will at least give you some melee critical strike, but you really want critical strike rating for that, especially since raw critical strike rating will also apply to spell-like stuff like Death Coil. Leave the agility jewelry and capes to the rogues and hunters.
• Attack Power: Sure, we do get some benefit from attack power. It does make us hit harder. But strength, again, gives you more bang for your buck, especially since strength can be directly buffed by Ravenous Dead. Again, leave the attack power jewelry and capes to the hunters and rogues
• Armor: You probably want to wear plate armor just to get more use out of Bladed Armor (and to avoid the ill effects of the Cataclysm itemization change somewhere down the road), but don’t go overboard with it either. The benefit is marginal compared to more straight up strength.
• Stamina: Stamina certainly isn’t a bad stat, it keeps you alive. But chances are getting straight up DPS gear will give you enough stamina to survive, at least at the raid and heroic dungeon levels. Let the stamina come to you, don’t go to it.

6. Typical PvE talent builds
This is where things get a bit complicated. Essentially, DPS figures suggest that while Scourge Strike is once again king, Reaping still doesn’t become truly effective until you’re in tier 10 armor, namely until you have the 2 piece tier 10 bonus. Below that, you’re better off just firing off two extra Blood Strikes every round. Also, with Unholy Blight nerfed yet again, Morbidity is no longer amazing for single-target DPS, but is still very useful for AoE damage, which means that some unholy DPSers will actually keep two DPS specs, one for AoE and one for single target fights.

To start, here’s a base talent build that doesn’t use reaping. Once you have your 2 piece tier 10, you can go ahead and swap 3 points of out of a talent for Reaping. Dark Conviction is probably the smartest place to take those points. If you’d prefer to do more AE damage, use the build linked above, but take 2 points out of Necrosis (which is much stronger for single-target damage) and put them in Morbidity. That will allow you to fit Death and Decay into your rotation more often.

It’s also worth noting that blood is currently the best secondary tree for an unholy build. Since Scourge Strike now does much of its damage physically, you’ll find even Black Ice just doesn’t buff unholy as much as blood talents do.

7. Talent overview

This section will cover everything in the talent build linked above, as well as the optional “switch out” talents for maximizing your DPS at various gear levels and roles.

Unholy

Tier 1

Vicious Strikes – This ups the damage potential on your main strike considerably. Take it.

Virulence – While you don’t do as much magical damage as you once did as unholy, this still helps make sure stuff like Icy Touch and Death Coil consistently hit. Take it.

Tier 2

Epidemic – This is one of the cornerstone skills of the unholy death knight. Whether you have reaping or not, you’ll need this skill for the most efficient rotations possible, especially since losing diseases is especially catastrophic for unholy damage and utility.

Ravenous Dead – Not only does this buff your ghoul, but the extra strength helps you as well. This is a very considerable damage buff, and not to be missed.

Morbidity – This is actually pretty lackluster for single target damage, or at least not as good as other options, but if you’re doing AoE damage on relatively long lasting AoE fights, a couple points here allows for you to fit Death and Decay into your rotation that much more easily.

Tier 3

Outbreak – This is a major damage buff to your main attack. It’s a no brainer

Necrosis – Necrosis is a passable single target damage ability, and certainly better than most other stuff you could spend the points on, but it’s also less potent than it appears to be, as it generally does not get any extra bonuses to its damage from talents, skills, or debuffs. When you get to AoE damage potential, it’s a no brainer to take points from here and put them into Morbidity.

Tier 4

Blood-Caked Blade – This proc ends up doing quite a decent amount of damage when it hits, especially with 3 diseases. It’s well worth the points.

Night of the Dead – You’ll need this talent to get your perma-ghoul, which is one of the cornerstones of an unholy death knight. Even if you didn’t, that 90% AoE damage reduction makes the whole idea of a perma-ghoul viable. Grab it.

Tier 5

Unholy Blight – Poor neglected Unholy Blight is a shadow of its once great glory as an AoE 4th disease runic power dump, but it’s still worth taking, since it’s a decent 1 point damage boost for your runic power dump. Still, if any talent gets a full revamp in Cataclysm, I hope it’s this one. It just doesn’t feel flashy enough to be a 21 pointer.

Impurity – This offers a pretty sizable damage boost to spells and diseases alike. It’s definitely worth the points for any unholy DPSer.

Dirge – If you’re bringing your A game, you’ll need this talent to fire off as many Death Coils as possible. Don’t let your runic power sit unused or consistently sit at 100 though, or you’ll essentially be wasting these talent points.

Tier 6

Master of Ghouls – One of the signature abilities of an unholy death knight, this is another no brainer. You get some extra utility and damage out of your ghoul, as well as the ability to pull him out of sticky situations.

Reaping – One of the roller coaster talents of the unholy tree, this has been alternately essential or a waste of points, depending on the current status of Scourge Strike. Right now, it’s sort of in the middle. DPS testing suggests that it’s non-essential for tier 9 and lower DPS, but once you’re in tier 10 gear, it becomes better again. If you have 2 piece tier 10, or if you just want to take Reaping now so you don’t have to respec later, the best place to grab the points is from Dark Conviction.

Tier 7

Desolation – This is a nice 5% additional damage, but it’s also a bit of a pain in the neck since it means you have to be tight enough with your rotations to be hitting a Blood Strike every 20 seconds. Still, if you’re bringing your A game, this is a powerful talent.

Tier 8

Crypt Fever – Not only does this give your diseases a hell of an extra kick, it’s a 3rd disease, so it’s pretty much mandatory. Take it.

Bone Shield – Not only is it a quick 2% damage boost for one talent point, but if you do draw aggro, it makes you much more likely to survive until the tank can peel the mob back off of you. Take it and remember to keep it up at all times. Whenever you have some downtime and Bone Shield is off cool down, recast it.

Tier 9

Scourge Strike – Scourge Strike has had a bumpy road, but in Patch 3.3, it is back to dominance in PvE DPS. Take it, use it, love it.

Ebon Plaguebringer – This is a large part of the raison d’etre of an unholy death knight. It’s an amazing, near essential buff for any raid group, and it’s better than the warlock and moonkin equivalents because it can be so easily spread to multiple targets. Combine that with the fact that it buffs your own spell damage, and its a no brainer to take it.

Wandering Plague – This is a very nice contributor to unholy’s legendary AoE damage, but it’s also very useful for single target builds since it also adds extra damage to the original target, thus giving your diseases the effective ability to crit. Thus, it’s essential for just about any unholy DPS build.

Tier 10

Rage of Rivendare – Not only does this ability supply you with a nice chunk of expertise, bringing the amount you need from gear down to 21, but it provides a ton of extra damage on targets with Blood Plague. It’s incredibly essential for damage.

Tier 11

Summon Gargoyle – The Gargoyle is the runic power dump that was so powerful, it had to be switched from 21 points to 51 points. It certainly does provide a lot of extra DPS when used often and properly. It takes a snapshot of your stats when its summoned and uses those for its own stats, so make sure you’re as buffed as possible when you summon it, including temporary stat buffs from trinkets and Heroism/Bloodlust. Of course, temper that with the knowledge that if you wait for the perfect moment to summon every single time, your DPS will suffer as the gargoyle stays locked away.

Blood talents

Tier 1

Butchery – This talent can be good for getting enough extra runic power for a Death Coil or gargoyle every so often, especially if you’re chain pulling.

Subversion – Not only does this keep you from pulling aggro, the critical strike chance applies to Scourge Strike. It’s worth the points.

Tier 2

Bladed Armor - It’s very rare that you’ll be wearing anything but plate armor, so this talent ends up giving you a lot of extra attack power, which will boost all of your damage.

Two-Handed Weapon Specialization – As unholy, you will be using a two-hander. 4% extra damage from everything you do with that two-hander adds up.

Tier 3

Dark Conviction – This does add a pretty decent amount of damage for an unholy death knight. It’s more useful for AoE in that it allows more triggering of Wandering Plague. If you need to pick up Reaping to maximize your single target damage, this is the best place to take points though.

8. Leveling as unholy

Unholy is certainly a more than viable leveling tree. It doesn’t have quite as much self-healing or ability to solo elite quests as blood, but it has that superior AoE ability, as well as some fun tools such as Bone Shield and the perma-ghoul. Talent wise, just go ahead and work up the unholy tree first, as none of the secondary talents over in blood are strictly needful for solo leveling.

9. PvE damage rotations

Before you go into doing damage, it’s a good idea to confirm that, yes, Blood Presence is the DPS presence for unholy as well. While in previous patches you could technically use Unholy Presence for certain specs, currently the extra damage offered by Blood Presence will far outweigh the haste of Unholy Presence in all situations.

Single Target Damage

The main thing to remember about unholy damage rotations is that they’re more about priority, that is, knowing the optimal attack to use next depending on what runes are off cool down and what debuffs are already on your target. That’s essentially going to go down like this:

I. Make sure your diseases are up. A lot of unholy’s damage comes from having all 3 diseases up. Blood Plague is more important than Frost Fever thanks to Rage of Rivendare.
II. Make sure Desolation is up via Blood Strikes.
III. Fire off your Scourge Strike (or, if you have Reaping, multiple Scourge Strikes on every other rotation).
IV. Dump your runic power. That’s usually in the form of a Death Coil. You can also use Gargoyle. As we mentioned before, be aware that Gargoyle takes a snapshot of your stats when you summon it, so it’s optimal to summon it while Heroism (or Bloodlust) is active and while any buff procs you have are up. However, don’t hold off summon your Gargoyle too much, or you may lose more DPS than you gain.
V. If you have a free global cool down before your runes refresh and not enough runic power for another Death Coil, this is a good time to refresh Horn of Winter. You may need the runic power later anyway.

For a non Reaping build, a common “rotation,” assuming no hiccups, will look something like this in theory crafting shorthand:

PS->IT->BS->BS->SS->Dump->SS->BS->SS->BS->Dump

For a build with reaping, it will look more like this:

PS->IT->BS->BS->SS->Dump->SS->SS->SS->Dump

Note that if you’re building up excess runic power, it may be a good idea to dump it off before you start using Scourge Strikes. Make sure Desolation and your diseases are still up, though. That is key.

AoE Damage

For AoE Damage, your priority changes a bit. Here’s the breakdown for that:

I. Make sure your diseases are up. The same principles apply as in single target damage, you’ll get more damage out of Ebon Plaguebringer and Rage of Rivendare
II. Make sure your diseases are refreshed and spread via Pestilence. When refreshing via Pestilence, it’s a good idea to have either Glyph of Disease or use Pestilence on a secondary target so that you refresh the diseases on your initial target as well.
III. Get Death and Decay down. You definitely want to wait to put down Death and Decay until the first two conditions are met. Not only will the diseases debuffs give you more damage, but you’ll give the tank time to establish aggro.
IV. Make sure Desolation is up.
V. If DnD is on cool down and Desolation and your diseases are up, use Scourge Strikes, Blood Boil, and Death Coils. If everything is on cool down and you don’t have runic power, use Horn of Winter.

That will look something like this in theory crafting shorthand:

Initial throwdown: PS->IT->Pestilence->DnD->Dump

Continuing: BS->BB->SS->Dump->Pestilence->SS->DnD->Dump

Again, on all of the above, it’s based on a priority system, so make sure you keep close watch over your abilities and use what works to give you maximum DPS. Above all, make sure diseases and Desolation are up at all times.

10. Glyphs

For single target damage, you’ll probably want to go with Glyph of the Ghoul, Glyph of Dark Death, and Glyph of Icy Touch. Glyph of the Ghoul is definitely mandatory. Your ghoul is a significant part of your damage as unholy, so increasing its damage and survivability is a no brainer. The other two glyphs are honestly there as much because there’s none that are any better for damage as any special utility they provide for unholy. They’re both good, solid damage causing glyphs. Glyph of Icy Touch is deceptively powerful once you factor in the extra disease damage granted by Ebon Plaguebringer.

If you’re focused on AoE Damage, swap out Ghoul and Dark Death for Glyph of Disease and Glyph of Death and Decay. Your single target DPS will suffer, but these will allow you to keep your diseases up with a minimum of work and rune usage, and will provide some extra damage to your most powerful AoE spell.

For minor glyphs, there’s none that are specifically useful, but I’d recommend getting Glyph of Raise Dead for those times when even your buffed up ghoul can’t quite survive an AE or attacks the wrong mob, Glyph of Pestilence to make sure you hit as many mobs as possible in those massive AoE battles, and Glyph of Blood Tap is handy in case you need an emergency reapplication of Bone Shield.

11. Gems

For the most part, you can get away with gemming for Bold Cardinal Rubies in every slot. If you still haven’t hit 8% hit, you’ll probably want to use a Rigid King’s Amber or an Etched Ametrine instead to help meet those goals. In any case, you’ll also want to stick one Nightmare Tear in your gear in order to meet the blue gem requirement for the Relentless Earthsiege Diamond. Technically the agility on that meta gem is less than optimal, but it still has the easiest to meet meta gem requirements on any relatively useful PvE DPS meta gem for death knights. If you try to use another meta gem, chances are you’ll give up too many useful stats trying to gem to activate it.

12. End-game enchants

Be aware that this list does not take into account any profession-specific enchants or kits you may have access to.

• Weapon: Rune of the Fallen Crusader
• Head: Arcanum of Torment
• Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Axe
• Gloves: Enchant Gloves – Major Strength or Enchant Gloves – Precision if you need more hit rating.
• Bracers: Enchant Bracers – Greater Assault
• Chest: Enchant Chest – Powerful Stats
• Cloak: Enchant Cloak – Greater Speed
• Belt: Eternal Belt Buckle (Not an enchant, technically, but remember to grab it)
• Legs: Icescale Leg Armor
• Boots: Enchant Boots – Icewalker. You may also want to consider Tuskarr’s Vitality if you already have 8% Hit.

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