Introduction to DKs and UNHOLY AOE Grinding

[Dankone]

One of the biggest selling points of WotLK is the Death Knight hero class. Although not overpowered, it's supposed to have a "heroic" feel to it, and Blizzard's held true to their word. Using a dual spell resource system, it's a hard class to get used to. Reacting quickly takes practice, practice, and some more practice. Micromanagement and efficiency is the name of the game for Death Knights, with many 1 minute cooldowns and three different types of runes to look after.

Ultimately, I think Blood will be your thing if you want to take an easy pace with your DK. I am told that you're pretty much unkillable as Blood, which I don't doubt. However, if you actually want to try, Unholy is your spec. First, though, some basic FAQ:

Q:What are runes?
A:Runes are carved into the Death Knight's rune weapon, and when consumed by a spell, they go on cooldown for 10 seconds. Rune-consuming abilities that are missed will refund the affiliated runes.

Q:What is runic power?
A:Runic power is similar to a warrior's rage resource. It deteriorates when out of combat, but unlike rage it is only generated through most rune based abilities, and not being struck and auto swings. Some abilities may use both runes and runic power.

Q:Can I modify what kind of runes I have on my blade?
A:No, except for death runes, which I'll talk about next. Every DK has two blood, two unholy, and two frost runes.

Q:What are death runes?
A:Certain abilities and talents can cause certain runes to be turned into death runes, which can be consumed as if they were any type of rune.

Q:What can my Death Knight use?
A:Plate, Two-Handed Swords, Two-Handed Axes, Polearms, One-Handed Swords, One-Handed Axes, Two-Handed Maces, One-Handed Maces. They can also Dual Wield.

Q:When should I dual wield?
A:Frankly, I don't see space anywhere in the Death Knight talent trees where DWing would be viable. The miss rate is vastly increased when you DW, and so you will be generating less damage, and less threat if you are tanking. In addition, so many of our strikes are based off of weapon damage, and one handed weapons do not give as much as their two-handed counterparts.

Q:Should I stack Spellpower?
A: Absolutely not. Everything is based off of Attack Power.

Q:What are all the trees good for?
A: Supposedly, all the trees can tank or DPS, a philosophy Blizzard's trying to work into classes from now on. However, it's generally accepted that Unholy emphasizes AoE, Blood single target DPS and self healing, and Frost, frost damage and mitigation.

Q:What should I gear for?
A:Strive for Strength, Stamina, and crit first, with some hit thrown in. Note that I said Strength, and not AP in general. Many talents and abilities scale with strength specifically. Keep this in mind when considering replacing an item.

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|||Leveling with Unholy|||
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Some people will tell you that Blood is the one and only way. Their self healing, they claim, makes the tree worth it. I, however, disagree. You get insane healing, yes, and lots of damage. However, much of that damage is focused around single targets. Look at Unholy's 51 pointer: it's an AOE ability that uses runic power. And Blood's? A weapon that attacks a single target. As for the self healing argument, you should survive using Icebound Fortitude and Death Strike.

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|||The Spec|||
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Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

This is my spec of choice. I'll spell everything out for you. Everything seen below should be taken in order.



2/2 Butchery- This should always be gotten, regardless of spec. All that runic power adds up, very quickly.
3/3 Morbidity- Essential once you get Death and Decay. Halving the cooldown down to 15 seconds will make you kill things much quicker.
2/2 Vicious Strikes- I really only took this for Death Strike, because of the substantial healing it grants you.
2/2 Epidemic- More duration means less runes spent on reapplying diseases and then using pestilence. A must have.
3/3 Virulence- Spell hit should not be underestimated. Pestilence and Blood Boil need to be hitting as much as possible.
1/1 Corpse Explosion- A key part of the strategy I will post below. It gives you a considerable boost in the grand scheme of things, even though some people may argue it's not worth the point spent.
3/3 Outbreak- Am I in heaven? The 30% increase in damage by Pestilence and BB especially makes this talent worth it.
1/3 Ravenous Dead-It's important that you make your ghoul strong. However, since he's not in the picture yet (Permaghoul is a deep Unholy talent), you only need 1 point in this in order to advance.
1/1 Shadow of Death-Situationally, this can be very useful. The times when I almost get an elite down come to mind. Get this for permanent ghoul.
2/2 On A Pale Horse- While not contributing much to your AOE capacity, the 20% increase in speed will make your grinding go that much faster.
2/3 Blood-caked Blade- This will be essential, just like Vicious Strikes, to our strategy which I will elaborate on.
5/5 Impurity-This gives a HUGE increase to ALL of our spells. Take it.
1/1 Master of Ghouls- Your ghoul is a VERY powerful tool. This is one of the cornerstones of UH grinding.
3/3 Ravenous Dead- Now that you have your ghoul, max this out.
2/2 Dirge- More RP is never a bad thing. Take it.
1/1 Summon Gargoyle- Although you'll hardly ever use this, it's worth spending a point on. It might be the saving grace for you one day when you take on an elite. ALSO: Once you get Death Pact, you can use it on your gargoyle, restoring 20% of your total health. This is good if you're low and you have tons of RP to spend.
3/3 Blood-caked Blade- Finishing this off.
3/3 Reaping- I seriously doubted the utility of this the first time I saw it, but an extra Death Strike after using two Blood Strikes could save you.
1/1 Bone Shield- Excellent for absorbing the first few blows, or when you're low on health. It's mediocre, but still worth a point.
3/3 Crypt Fever- 30% more from diseases? Yes please.
1/2 Night of the Dead- I spent one point in here to move along to the antepenultimate (That's quite a word, isn't it?) UH talent tier. I imagine it could be very powerful once you get Army of the Dead, but even without it's useful. It's a pain when your ghoul is on cooldown, and this will help you get it back quick.
1/1 Scourge Strike- This is what allows Unholy to hold its own against Blood in single target DPS, at least somewhat. This deals SHADOW damage, meaning it 100% ignore the target's armor, on top of an already ridiculous scale. You won't regret this. This will replace Obliterate for you as your primary "nuke".
3/3 Ebon Plaguebringer-Are you reading this? 13% to spells and 3% to all crit. Take it.
3/3 Wandering Plague- The power of this in large groups is what makes an Unholy Death Knight such a beast. You'll want this maxed out.
3/5 Rage of Rivendare- A flat spell damage increase. Only three points for now.
1/1 Unholy Blight- A whole different spell with NO cooldown, it's pretty much a second Death and Decay that you can sustain 100% of the time, and gives you something to spend RP on besides Death Coil.
5/5 Rage of Rivendare- Max this out, and you're done with Unholy for the moment.
3/5 Blade Barrier- A great asset for any DK. 6% parry that's up almost all the time is great for only 3 points.
5/5 Bladed Armor- Extra AP is extra damage from spells. This will bring you even more damage from diseases.
5/5 Blade Barrier- Go back and fill in Blade Barrier, now that we have all we want from Blood.
5/5 Toughness- This will scale Bladed Armor beautifully, on top of that extra damage reduction.
2/2 Night of the Dead- Now that you're 80, this will unlock Army of the Dead, making this talent even more worthy.

What I DIDN'T choose and WHY:

Necrosis-It's pretty expensive when weighted against the benefits. I'd look into it if it was 10% shadow damage from all melee attacks, such as strikes, but five points for a 10% increase in auto attacks doesn't seem worth it in my mind.
Desecration- This talent made my original build, but I cut it out for other things. 5% damage isn't all that good for the TP cost, and the 50% movement speed reduction is really only made useful in PvP.
Magic Suppression/Anti-Magic Zone- This should only be considered for raiding, and even then it would be very situational. Almost all the mobs you face while leveling will be melee attackers.
Unholy Command- This is a PvP talent. You really don't need death grip more than once every 35 seconds, although it is very fun to use it.
Anticipation- Originally I took this over toughness, but I reconsidered what Toughness would do for me with Bladed Armor.
Unholy Aura- Useless for soloing.



**********************
*The Strategy: AoE Pulling*
**********************

This is the main method you will be using, and it's especially profitable in dense areas such as Hellfire Peninsula orc encampments.

--The Pull--

         X            G
                  <-----------
   M     M     M       M     M     
                                /              *****KEY******
  ^ DK                     /              DK= Death Knight
  |    ___________|                S=Start point
  |   / G                                    G=Ghoul
  |  /                                        M=Melee enemy
  |/ S                                       X=Caster

As you can see in the generalized diagram above, you'll be pulling 6 or 7 mobs a pull (This might decrease or increase, depending on the strength of your enemies and the quality of your gear).

The Death Knight will run into the left side of the group, and the ghoul will be sent to the extreme right. The Ghoul will then hook back to the Death Knight's target, bringing the rest of the group with him. If there is a caster, the Death Knight death grips him. (HINT: You can use CTRL+num to control your ghoul's pet bar. EG, CTRL+1 would be your ghoul's "Attack" command, CTRL+2 his "Follow" command, etc.)

The Death Knight applies diseases (Plague Strike, Icy Touch) immediately to his first target. Once all the mobs are there, pestilence is fired, and then Death and Decay is placed. (OPTIONAL: Use Icebound Fortitude to reduce damage done to you by 1/2 for 12 seconds.) At this point, he should have 60 runic power, and he activates Unholy Blight in the targeted area. (OPTIONAL: You might use blood tap (Blood Tap - Spell - World of Warcraft) to get off a blood boil after or before a Death and Decay. I recommend investing in a Glyph of Blood Tap to remove the damage taken from activating it. It's a minor glyph, and therefore well worth it.)

At this point, with AOE damage laid out, the Death Knight focuses down his original target. He either Death Strikes if he's low on health, or Scourge Strikes if his health is in good shape. He then does blood strikes and death coils until the first mob is dead. Corpse explosion is then used on the carcass of the first one to die, and the Death Knight chooses a mob to Death Strike while casting Blood Boil at every opportunity until all enemies have died.


You may wish to take liberties in designing your own strategy, but this is the one that has worked for me.

*********************
*Rolling Disease Strategy*
*********************
In some places, it may be difficult or impossible to pull large groups.

You can solve this by continually moving from mob to mob, and using pestilence when your original target is dead to save from wasting a frost and unholy rune when you could use a blood rune.

IE: I take a mob down to 15% or so, diseases still up. I have been moving towards an enemy the whole fight. I hit Pestilence to apply disease to the newest target, and switch over to him once the original target dies.

You can keep this going indefinitely, and you'll hardly notice a dip in your health with Death Strike taking the place of Scourge Strike whenever you are low in health.


-------Final Notes-------
Icebound Fortitude should be used every AOE pull if you can afford it. 1/2 damage is nothing to scoff at.
Bone Shield should be used before any AOE pull. Damage reduction is damage reduction.
Unholy Presence should be used, always. A 1 second Global Cooldown, with the added bonus of 15% melee haste is invaluable in applying everything in an orderly manner.

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|||CONCLUSION|||
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Ultimately, Unholy is the talent spec for the competitive player. There's a positive correlation between skill (or grams of caffeine in your body) and experience/hr with an unholy build. Unholy puts emphasis on the Death Knight's AOE capabilities, which makes it ideal for leveling.

I wrote all of the above. I hope you learned something!

-Dankone

[Ginchy]

nice guide, thanks

[lxlshadelxl]

Very nice guide, i think imma try it out,, just need to find AoE places now and this will be perfect

[Dankone]

nice guide, thanks

Thanks.


Keep the comments rolling, folks, I just typed this in about 20 or 30 minutes. I'm sure I was unclear or made a mistake somewhere.

[roehama]

Amazing guide. Love the detail
Have a rep cookie

[p3nguin]

Nice guide, i prefer going deeper into blood over some of your unholy spec choices though

I would drop Night of the Dead and Summon Gargoyle, as well as 3 points in Toughness to go deep enough in blood to get Vendetta and Rune Tap, they make AOE grinding a lot easier with the health return, definitely more valuable than 9% armor you would lose while doing so

[awgher]

Nice guide but I agree with penguin. You're investing too many points in bad unholy talents.

[Henessy]

Giant wall of text!

[vngage]

nice guide, but i go 4 blood anyway, more dps quick kill is best for me

[LordDarkling]

Hmm penguin's idea is good. The loss of 9% armor and the gargoyle doesn't really phase me compared to the blood health return taents.

[Taiki00]

THIS IS A REPOST!!!

from heaven =]

Thank you so much +rep

[Zeraux]

You can also go to: How to AoE with a Death Knight | World of Warcraft Pro
Has a really great video on how to AoE with a DK + a really good spec

[Dankone]

Nice guide, i prefer going deeper into blood over some of your unholy spec choices though

I would drop Night of the Dead and Summon Gargoyle, as well as 3 points in Toughness to go deep enough in blood to get Vendetta and Rune Tap, they make AOE grinding a lot easier with the health return, definitely more valuable than 9% armor you would lose while doing so

As for dropping Night of the Dead and Summon Gargoyle, I can see why some people would choose not to take those. I play on a PvP server, and it's a bitch when I get killed over and over and have a timer on my ghoul. As for Summon Gargoyle, there are at least two or so group quests at every quest hub, and Gargoyle makes it a much easier time.

Rune Tap, in my experience, is a waste of a point. I considered getting RT and Vendetta, but ultimately fell out of them. I shed RT because our two big AOE abilities, Pestilence and Blood Boil, use blood runes; besides, Death Strike should heal you well enough. Vendetta I lost because I was needing to spend too much in Blood for, in my opinion, a run of the mill talent. Death Strike is really all the healing you need, and with just DS you'll end the fight with about 50% or so health. I just used a bandage to get back to full; with Vendetta, you're really just paying for convenience of not having to eat/bandage after a fight, because the healing only occurs after a death, and most of your mobs will be dying at the same time.

edit: Just to make sure, in case you only looked at the spec link, I took one point in Night of the Dead and then maxed it out at 80; I didn't get it all at once.

[Dankone]

OP has been colored to make it a bit more readable.

[nathanbrain]

fail snail