Unholy Death Knight Class Guide - MoP Classic

Welcome to our Mists of Pandaria Classic (MoP Classic) Unholy Death Knight Class Guide for Phase 1, it focuses on getting you up to speed with the Spec for PvE content, Dungeons and Raiding. The guide includes key information for what has changed going into MoP, the best Talent builds, Major Glyphs, your Rotation, Gearing and Consumables for Unholy Death Knight.

Table of Content:

• Changes from Cataclysm to MoP
• Talents
• Rotation & Abilities
• Gearing & Consumables

What’s New for Unholy Death Knight in Mists of Pandaria Classic

Being a Death Knight in World of Warcraft has always been good since its release. Always strong, with a lot of good build options, and a unique play style loved by a lot of players. Will that change in Mists of Pandaria? No. Death Knights in MoP go through a few changes, but most of them are quality of life changes. Your rotation will be slightly altered, but it will still be pretty close to what you knew in Cataclysm. Here are the main changes:

• Anti-Magic Zone has been reworked: you can now place it wherever you want, but it lasts 3 seconds.
• Our Global Cooldown is set to 1 second.
• Icebound Fortitude, Dancing Rune Weapon, Mind freeze, Bone Shield have no resource cost anymore.
• Plagues will now last 30 seconds.
• Horn of Winter now increases attack power.
• Unholy Presence increases haste but no longer increase attack speed.
• Scent of Blood has been reworked.

Is Unholy Death Knight Good?

Unholy DKs are great going into Mists of Pandaria. You have a few more things to consider in your rotation, but your rotation isn’t really different from Cataclysm, but your utility is better. You have more options, are more durable, and your life is a bit better. Regarding damage output, you are one of the best DPS during the first few phases in the game.

Best Talents & Glyphs for Unholy Death Knight in MoP Classic

The new talent system gives us a lot of utility options. In this guide, we will provide you with 2 default talent builds for Raids and Dungeons, but always consider changing your talent choices depending on the specific raid encounter or Dungeon.

Unholy Death Knight Raiding Talent Build

For DPS Death Knights, the talent set up is very similar between Frost and Unholy. In raid, you will mostly take the same talents. There are a few changes you can make and a few talents we need to talk about. Consider these changes:

• If you need a bit more AoE, you can take Roiling Blood in place of Plague Leech.
• Purgatory can be swapped with Anti-Magic Zone if you need a strong defensive cooldown for your whole raid.
• Remorseless Winter can be picked if you don’t need the mass grip from Gorefiend’s Grasp.

The only talent you can swap depending on your own preference is Blood Tap vs Runic Corruption. The first one sims a bit better and is the best DPS option, but if you don’t really understand how to use Blood Tap, Runic Corruption will be better as it’s easier to use.

Best Unholy Death Knight Raid Glyphs

Regarding Major Glyphs, you will want to obtain Glyph of Loud Horn, Glyph of Anti-Magic Shell, Glyph of Regenerative Magic.

Other choices might be Glyph of Pestilence for AoE, Glyph of Festering Blood for AoE Damage and Glyph of Dark Simulacrum.

Minor Glyphs aren’t that great, so take whatever you want.

Unholy Death Knight Dungeons & Challenge Mode Talent Build

For the Dungeon Build, Roiling Blood is a better choice than Plague Leech. We would recommend taking Runic Corruption in Dungeons as it’s easier to use and there are a lot of things happening in dungeons, but if you are an experienced Unholy Death Knight, Blood Tap is better.

Regarding utility, the reasoning is the same as the raid build.

Best Unholy Death Knight Dungeon Glyphs

Regarding Major Glyphs, you will want to obtain Glyph of Pestilence, Glyph of Anti-Magic Shell, Glyph of Regenerative Magic.

Other choices might be Glyph of Loud Horn, Glyph of Outbreak if you want to play with Plague Leech, Glyph of Festering Blood for AoE Damage and Glyph of Dark Simulacrum.

Minor Glyphs aren’t that great, so take whatever you want.

Rotation for Unholy Death Knight in MoP Classic

Unholy Death Knights use two resources: Runes and Runic Power. Depending on what resource you have available, your rotation will change a lot.

Single Target Rotation & Priority

1. Stay in Unholy Presence.
2. Maintain Horn of Winter if assigned.
3. Maintain your diseases, Blood Plague and Frost Fever, on your target.
4. Use Raise Dead on Cooldown.
5. Use Army of the Dead on Cooldown, only outside of combat (before pull).
6. Use Summon Gargoyle on Cooldown.
7. Use Unholy Frenzy on Cooldown.
8. Use Empower Rune Weapon with no Runes available.
9. Use Plague Leech with Outbreak available. Plague Leech into Outbreak (only when you have at least 2 runes unavailable).
10. Use Blood Tap as soon as you have 10 charges and at least 1 Rune unavailable.
11. Use Dark Transformation as often as possible.
12. Use Death Coil to spend Runic Power when Dark Transformation isn’t active.
13. Use Death Coil with Sudden Doom.
14. Use Death and Decay on Cooldown.
15. Use Scourge Strike on Cooldown.
16. Use Festering Strike when you have nothing to do.
17. Spend Runic Power on Death Coil when you have more than 90 runic Power. Don’t overcap your Runic Power.

Unholy Death Knight Opener

Regarding openers, you need to first summon the dead: cast Army of the Dead, Raise dead, Horn of Winter. Then you want to get your Dark Transformation by spamming Death coils. Use Dark Transformation and use Unholy Frenzy on your ghoul. Use Outbreak, Death and Decay, Festering Strike, Scourge Strike and Summon Gargoyle while building your Shadow Infusion.

AoE Rotation & Priority

1. Use Pestilence to maintain diseases on all targets. If you have Roiling Blood, use Blood Boil.
2. Death and Decay is a higher priority.
3. Use Festering Strike as much as possible to get more Death Runes.
4. Use Blood Boil as much as possible.

After that, continue with Single Target priority.

Best Gear & Stats for Unholy Death Knight in MoP Classic

Best in Slot (BiS Gear) aren’t as big in Mists of Pandaria Classic. Reforging is the new hype, so you can tailor your gear better than before.

The gear you should aim for are: Trinkets, Tier Sets and Weapons.

Unholy Death Knight Best in Slot (BiS) Gear in MoP Classic (Pre-Raid)

The best pre-raid weapons you can find in the first phase are:

• Mogu'Dar, Blade of the Thousand Slaves, Xin the Weaponmaster, Mogu'Shan Palace.
• Masterwork Spiritblade Decimator, Blacksmithing.

The best pre-raid trinkets for Unholy DK are:

• Relic of Xuen from Inscription.
• Lessons of the Darkmaster from Scholomance, Darkmaster Gandling.
• Mogu Rune of Paralysis, Justice points.
• Ghost Iron Dragonling, from Engineering.

Unholy Death Knight Best in Slot (BiS) Gear in MoP Classic (Tier 14)

Upgrading your character with the best gear is an important part of increasing your damage, healing and tanking.

Below is a BiS Gear List containing your theoretical Best in Slot (BiS) Gear for Unholy Death Knight. This information is based on the MoP original release and PTR data, and so is subject to change. But this list should give you a good target for gearing.

There can be some key stat breakpoints and targets that you need to hit for maximum performance. You can find those in the Stats Section below, and use reforging to adjust your gear stats to achieve them.

MoP Classic Unholy Death Knight Stat Priority

Reach your Hit cap, so 7.5% and then your Expertise cap, also around 7.5%. Then, Strength is your best stats.

Regarding the other stats, you want to get a lot of Critical Strike Chance, then Mastery, and finally Haste, in that order.

Best Consumables, Enchants & Gems for Unholy Death Knight in MoP Classic

The following tables outline the recommended Consumables, Enchants and Gems for Unholy Death Knight in Raiding and Dungeon content.

Consumables

Enchants

Gems

We hope this guide helped you improve your Unholy Death Knight Gameplay and better understand the spec. To check out all of our MoP Classic content, such as Class Guides, Tier Lists and more, you can browse our full library of MoP Classic Guides.