The masters of death and decay spread diseases and summon undead servants.
If you’ve always wanted to confront your enemies with plagues and undeath in its purest form, the Unholy Death Knight is the place to go. You can also deal powerful damage with the Frost Death Knight or slip into the tank role as the Blood Death Knight.
The most important changes
The former honor talents Antimagic Field and Lich Knight are now available to you as normal abilities. Sacrificial Pact is a new ability that you learn at level 54. It allows you to sacrifice your ghoul to inflict shadow damage on eight nearby enemies and heal yourself.
There are new rune enchantments for your weapons: Rune of Eternal Thirst (level 20, for PvP), Rune of Sanguination (level 32, increases damage from Deathblow), Rune of Apocalypse (level 44, your ghoul inflicts debuff on target), Rune of Hysteria (level 48, increases Rune Power and Rune Power generation), and Rune of Spell Protection (level 48, deflects magic damage and gives an absorption shield).
Your Dread Blade mastery no longer only increases the damage of your damage abilities, but also the damage of your minions. Dark Transformation now initially deals Shadow damage to up to five enemies.
The cost of Army of the Dead has been reduced from three runes to one rune. The area effect of Scourge Strike in your Death and Decay now favors targets with a festering wound. The duration of Virulent Plague has been increased from 21 to 27 seconds.
The level 50 talent Unholy Frenzy has been revised and is now called Unholy Assault. The level 25 talent Unholy Contamination causes your minions to deal higher damage to affected targets and also applies Virulent Plague. The level 35 talent Soul Harvester has received an overhaul.
How to play the Unholy Death Knight
The attribute priority for the Unholy Death Knight is as follows:
- Strength
- Mastery
- Speed
- Critical hit chance
- Versatility
| Stage | Talent | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 15 | Infected Claws | When your ghoul uses Claw, there is a 30% chance that the target will suffer a Festering Wound. |
| 25 | Unholy Blight | Surround yourself for six seconds with a foul swarm of insects that sting all nearby enemies and infect them with Virulent Contagion, dealing 427 damage over 14 seconds, stacking up to four times. Your minions deal 3% more damage per stack to enemies infected with Unholy Contagion. |
| 30 | Asphyxiate | Lifts the enemy target off the ground, chokes it with dark energy, and stuns it for four seconds. |
| 35 | Soul Reaper | Inflicts 456 Shadow damage and Soul Harvester on an enemy. If the target is at less than 35% health after five seconds, this effect explodes and deals 2,160 additional Shadow damage. If an enemy dies while Soul Harvester is on them, you gain Rune Corruption. |
| 40 | Wraith Walk | You take the power of the Shadowlands, removing all movement incapacity effects and increasing your speed by 70% for four seconds. When you perform actions, the effect is canceled. While this effect is active, your speed cannot be reduced below 170%. |
| 45 | Unholy Pact | Dark Transformation makes an unholy pact between you and your servant, igniting burning chains. These inflict 3,173 Shadow damage over 15 seconds to enemies between you. While the effect is active, your Strength is increased by 5%. |
| 50 | Unholy Assault | Strikes the target, dealing 1,339 Shadow damage and infecting them with four Festering Wounds. Makes you fall into Unholy Frenzy, which increases your speed by 20% for twelve seconds. |
Cast Outbreak on the target to infect it with Virulent Plague. Always use Dark Transformation when it is available. Use Unholy Attack followed by Apocalypse if the target has four or more Festering Wounds.
If this leaves you with multiple active minions, you should activate Unholy Contamination, as your minions will deal more damage. With Festering Blast, you apply festering wounds to the target.
Scourge Strike is cast when there is at least one stack of Festering Wound on the target. Use Soul Harvester when the target has low health. Use Procs of Dawning Doom with Death Mantle.
Against multiple targets, use Outbreak on the primary target and then spread the Virulent Plague with Epidemic. Set your Death and Decay ability among the group. Use Scourge Strike while you are in the effect area of Death and Decay.
Apply Festering Wounds to the target with Festering Strike, and use Scourge Strike if there is at least one Festering Wound. For offensive cooldowns, you can use Army of the Dead.
