~Muh DK Guide by Elitist Jerks~

The Unholy Talent Suggestion

8.3. Unholy

Unholy is the most magic-damage heavy of all the specs. As such, it is particularly adept at killing targets with high armor and mitigation. In addition, it offers the most powerful area of effect damage of any of the specs.

8.3.1. Benefits brought by an Unholy spec

Unholy’s raid buff comes in the form of Ebon Plague. With the effects of Crypt Fever built-in, it not only provides all other Death Knights with 30% more disease damage, but also provides 13% more magic damage done to all targets diseased by you. While Warlocks and Moonkin can also provide this buff, it is most easily applied (especially to multiple targets) by a Death Knight. This spec is also capable of temporarily resurrecting raid members as ghouls, providing extra damage when no battle res is available.
Unholy's token aura is Unholy Aura, which will make the run speed portion of Unholy Presence a raidwide aura (do note this is NOT linked to whether or not the Death Knight is in Unholy Presence). Some argue that it's not worth picking up, more on that below in the Talent Choices section.

Please note that you should only have one Unholy DK in the raid at a given time. Ebon Plague does not stack, and will only count as a third disease for strike damage to the DK that applied it.

8.3.2. Talent Choices

17/0/54: You may see points in this tree distributed differently, but this is my personal preference. Note that the talents you are likely to see varying amounts of points are Necrosis, Impurity, and Unholy Aura. There are a lot of misconceptions floating around about these talents, but thankfully the DPS breakdown below helped clear up many of them. Many people also argue that Unholy Aura does not directly contribute to DPS, and hence is not worthwhile. However, here is a fairly convincing post that illustrates otherwise:

Originally Posted by Zurm View Post
Let's do some napkin math, shall we? In a 25-man, let's assume we have 7 melee DPS. Now lets assume we are on a fight like KT, with approximately 10% running time with no run speed enchant, and let's also assume a personal sunstained DPS of all melee to be 4k. These are all fair numbers from what we have seen on beta, shifted slightly to make the math easier to follow. Now, without any runspeed enchant, we could expect each individual member to do:

4000 * (1-.1) = 3600 DPS, and combined: 3600 * 7 = 25200

Now, if we increase running speed by 15%, we increase the (1-.1) = .9 multiplier to 1-.087 = .913. Re-doing this:

4000 * .913 = 3652 DPS, and combined: 3652 * 7 = 25564

Or a net raid DPS increase on this fight of 364. This is also just purely the DPS benefit from a running fight. This doesn't factor in the ability to hit your WHOLE raid with a 15% boost on fights like Heigan to make it easier (while it's not needed to have this speed boost on heigen, it certainly helps, especially with the achievement where no one can die t his bursts). Also, you will most likely be near to the tanks at all times, and allowing the tanks to grab targets more easily is extremely helpful.
8.3.3. Rotation

PS = Plague Strike
IT = Icy Touch
BS = Blood Strike
SS = Scourge Strike
DC = Death Coil
UB = Unholy Blight

Note that in the “DC” section, you should continue to cast DC until you no longer can. Rotations are shown over two cool-downs per rune, with full rotations lasting approximately 20 seconds.

17/0/54:

PS -> IT -> BS -> BS -> SS -> UB
SS -> SS -> SS -> DC

8.3.4. Glyphs

8.3.4.1. Major Glyphs:

* Glyph of Plague Strike: This is actually quite good for unholy if you make sure your rotation is tight enough that the target always has one disease on them.
* Glyph of Bone Shield: Since bone shield offers a 2% increase to damage, this glyph ensures it stays up longer, hence increasing your damage. Also great on fights with lots of AoE damage.
* Glyph of Scourge Strike: This glyph isn't necessarily bad, but most DKs from beta strongly caution the use. In a typical 4x SS rotation, diseases should ALWAYS be up, and this glyph brings absolutely nothing in terms of benefit in a raiding situation unless it's a boss fight with a lot of target switching or moving and it just happens to proc before you start running. Keep in mind that even with a 25% proc rate, there is a 32% chance in any given 4x SS rotation that you will get ZERO procs. Due to how unreliable and situational this glyph is, most Unholy DKs advise against its use in a raiding situation.
* Glyph of Blood Strike: I put this glyph here because there is a common misconception about how it functions. Many assume that bosses hit with desecration will take more damage with this glyph. THIS IS WRONG. It is nothing like the warrior daze mechanic in raids, and is strictly a PVP glyph. Do not use.
* For your last major Glyph slot, there are a few choices. There is nothing simply amazing, but a few that you can chose from that provide some benefit. If you are dead-set on maximizing your DPS, then Glyph of the Ghoul is your best bet. If you want to throw in some surviveability or PVP focus since you wont get too much out of the previous glyph, Glyph of Icebound Fortitude and Glyph of Strangulate provide some nice utility.


8.3.4.2 Minor Glyphs:

* Glyph of Pestilence: An invaluable minor glyph for all PVE DKs. This allows you to more easily AoE and spread diseases with pestilence, saving you from having to re-apply diseases where you might have previously had to. This, in turn, allows you to get more powerful strikes in the during the short lifespan of trash mobs and multi-mob boss encounters. IMO, absolutely required for every raiding DK.
* Glyph of Horn of Winter: Not an amazing glyph in all raiding situations, but it has its place in 5 mans and certain raiding encounters. If you aren't able to be near an enhancement shaman, this makes the fairly steep cost of HoW cheaper, and more bearable in a raiding situation.
* As for remaining minor glyph slots, you can chose whatever you find most helpful. At the moment, the only remotely helpful minor glyphs for unholy that haven't been mentioned are Glyph of Blood Tap and Glyph of Raise Dead.

8.3.5. DPS Breakdown Per Talent Point

# Skill Rotation(20) 4x SS % per point
1 SS 19.82% exempt
2 Epidemic 8.23% 4.12%
3 EbonPlaguebringer 9.27% 3.09%
4 Bone Shield 1.96% 1.96%
5 Wandering Plague 5.83% 1.94%
6 Crypt Fever 4.90% 1.63%
7 BcB 4.77% 1.59%
8 Rage of Rivendare 6.85% 1.37%
9 Vicious Strikes 2.56% 1.28%
10 impurity 5.34% 1.07%
11 Shadow of Death 0.75% 0.75%
12 Morbidity 2.07% 0.69%
13 Necrosis 3.16% 0.63%
14 Desecration 2.77% 0.55%
15 Virulence 1.14% 0.38%
16 Ravenous Dead 1.12% 0.37%
17 Outbreak 0.46% 0.15%
Thanks to Methods for this data.