Unholy PVE Guide (4.3)

[:1]Content Current to 4.3

Corrections & Updates
If you find any inaccurate, incomplete or omitted material, I would very much appreciate a polite reply so that I can make the necessary corrections. It's entirely possible for me to mistype or forget to include something. It would never be my intention to knowingly confuse or misinform people. I appreciate suggestions and hope this can be a springboard for better play, comprehension, and discusssion.

I will make updates and additions as is feasible and desired. If changes in between a patch affects the core material, I will make the necessary updates. Otherwise, I believe patch-to-patch should be sufficient.

Special Thanks
The information in this guide is gathered from a multitude of sources: personal experience (both the good & laughable), posts on the WoW forums, discussion at EJ/#Acherus, information from Simulation Craft, Wowhead, and other community sites. I have cited these helpful sources where specifics are lended.

Out of all the game and wide web, I would first like to thank Consider for his sagely and invaluable contribution in educating us all. Without his guides and blog I would have gone down dark and dangerous alleys or have been death gripped into a suspicious looking ice cream truck. He kept us on the path to good DPS and made me personally appreciate the value of research, testing, and thinking about this game critically.

Thanks to Verelyse for inspiration on making organized multi-posts. No other guide on the WoW forums uses her format, and it is easily the cleanest and most professional I've seen. Also, being a rogue, she pulled a quarter out of my ear which was very cool. I am, however, now missing my wallet.


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C O N T E N T S
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I. Introduction
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2140270241?page=1#2

II. Talents
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2140270241?page=1#3

• Spec
• Glyphs

III. Priority/Play
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2140270241?page=1#5

• Presence
• Runeforge
• Priority
  • Single Target
  • Aoe Targets
• Ghoul
• Survival
• Interrupts
• Buffs

IV. Gear Optimization
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2140270241?page=1#8

• Stat Priorities
• Reforging
• Gems
• Enchants
• BiS

V. Mods
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2140270241?page=1#10

VI. Macros
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2140270241?page=1#11

VII. Resources
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2140270241?page=1#12


[Change Log]
3/1/2011 - Created
3/26/2011 - Added BiS, gems, and enchants tables
4/8/2011 - Added new macro
4/26/2011 - Updated for 4.1.0
4/29/2011 - Updated BiS lists for 4.1.0
6/23/2011 - Updated for 4.2.0
7/6/2011 - Updated BiS
8/25/2011 - Updated intro to include transferred armory
10/11/2011 - Fixed errors in BiS list
11/29/2011 - Updated for 4.3.0
11/30/2011 - Updated BiS, included the currently working item tooltips
12/14/2011 - Updated BiS
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I . I N T R O D U C T I O N
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To quote the professor, "Good news, everyone!".

We have several updates and fixes in this patch aimed directly at our spec. Firstly, Unholy has received a scaling adjustment with the addition of +5% to Unholy Might. It's an easy way to throttle damage for us from a development standpoint and it's certainly a boon. The most applaudable update from Blizzard though is in regards to our minions.

At BlizzCon 2011's 'Classes, Items, and Professions Q&A', I posed a two-part question asking why our pets have not been inheriting stats (notably crit) and whether the Gargoyle's AI would be changed for more effective use of his ranged ability. My friend and fellow Death Knight, Magdalena of Darkspear-US, began a follow-up thread ( http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3424465781?page=1 ) directly after the convention to foster even further discussion and attention to these issues. Within a week of Blizzcon, the thread received a Community Manager response from Kaivax stating that the patch and its notes were being updated to specifically address and correct the problems we had brought to their attention.

As listed in the 4.3 patch notes, Death Knight pets now properly inherit their master’s crit/spell penetration stats and our Gargoyle should exclusively use its ranged attack regardless of range to the target.

The standard caveat remains: DW Unholy is dead and buried with a paper weight placed on top of its grave for good measure. The only people who should be dual wielding are Frost DKs, simple as that.

Back to Table of Contents
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2140270241?page=1#1
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I I . T A L E N T S
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"My Friend of Misery" | 5/0/32 + 4

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#jbhZZshcdfzuMRu:Vks0sm0zM
S p e c
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No adjustments have been made here. This build continues to take all the key damage abilities to make you, your trusted 2H, and Timmy the Ghoul a force of (un)nature. You will have 1 point to spend in a pre-requisite talent early on and 3 points to spend at the build’s completion as you wish. Your final choices can have some marginal bearing on your DPS.

Your first choice comes at the cusp of tier 3 in Unholy to fulfill the base point requirement:

• Unholy Command
  Unholy Command can be useful if you frequently use Death Grip to reel-in mobs or want a pre-requisite talent that does not impose a snare. Unless you are speccing for add control, this talent would carry the most recommendation.
• Desecration
  Desecration is an AoE snare applied via Plague Strikes, Scourge Strikes and Necrotic Strikes to non-immune targets. Several encounters benefit from slowing effects and having a snare in melee can be a boon to keep the mobs localized. The downside of Desecration is that it can be a deterrant where mobility is required. There is no 'off' button for Desecrate so it can cause control issues where adds must be relocated quickly.
• Resilient Infection
  If there were bosses that dispelled themselves, this might actually be worthwhile in PvE. Pass.

From here, continue assigning the suggested points in the Unholy tree. 1/3 Magic Suppression is the bare minimum allocation (as suggested by the 32 point investment in the tree). 2/3 points is highly recommended for the purposes of survivability and as a DPS boost from added RP generation. If you want to max the effect or spec into Anti-Magic Zone for your party/raid, you can certainly return to this talent in a moment.

After the necessities in Unholy are taken care of, assign the 5 points as suggested in Blood talents.
Now we come to the final 3 points. These last talent points can be spent at your discretion amongst the following abilities:

Blood Options

• Improved Blood Tap
  Extra runes equal more DPS. The caveat associated with IBT is whether it will be available when you both need the runes and have the GCD to make use of them. Talents reduce its cooldown by 15s/point.
• Scent of Blood
  Boss AoE’s rarely qualify for Scent of Blood so this talent is lackluster if not masochistic.
• Blade Barrier
  If you really want to enhance the frugality of your healer, you can pick this talent up for some added damage reduction, but our standard cooldowns are sufficient.
• Scarlet Fever
  This provides an amazing debuff but it’s one that should already be supplied by your tanks. Also note that Scarlet Fever does not apply a disease that would synergize with Scourge Strike.
• Hand of Doom
  This talent reduces the cooldown of Strangulate to 1 min. This is more provisional for PvP but providing more reliable cast control, and a ranged one at that, can allow for the occasional 'clinch' interrupt.

Frost Options

• Runic Power Mastery
  Since Runic Corruption procs no longer override each other (they stack 3 second extensions to the buff) we can Death Coil without fear of wasting rune regeneration. RPM will allow you to collect more total RP and successively Death Coil to reach Dark Transformation faster. 1/3 Runic Power Mastery is definitely recommended and all that’s required. More investment in this talent provides diminished benefits. Your gains and expenditures of RP (besides sudden AMS pops) will have you below 100 for a majority of the time anyway.

Unholy Options

• Desecration
  If you didn’t choose it as your 1st utility, you could assign some points here now. See above to read the details on this talent. It is beneficial in many pre-raid encounters but has potential minuses you will also want to consider.
• Resilient Infection
  If you didn’t choose it as your 1st utility, you could assign some points here now but again this is very lackluster considering its lack of PvE application.
• Death’s Advance
  Not just for PVP, this talent would be nice for any fights that are snare heavy.
• Magic Suppression
  2/3 of Magic Suppression is an excellent choice based on the frequency of this spell’s use. You could also go back and finish 3/3 for even more survivability and healer friendliness. It provides situational enhancements to your RP generation which translates into some DPS.
  • Optional: Anti-Magic Zone
    If you decided to finish 3/3 of the previous talent, you could take your magic protection a step further. AMZ has a 2 minute cooldown which can be of benefit for stationary phase events.

G l y p h s
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Prime Glyph of Death Coil
Glyph of Scourge Strike
Glyph of Raise Dead
Major Glyph of Anti-Magic Shell
Glyph of Pestilence
Glyph of Blood Boil
Minor Glyph of Death's Embrace
Glyph of Blood Tap
Glyph of Horn of Winter


Back to Table of Contents
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I I I . P R I O R I T Y / P L A Y
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Playing 2H Unholy means maintaining a challenging & fun priority system while artfully commanding Timmy to do your bidding. Fixed rotations are long gone and we’re better for it.

P r e s e n c e
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Unholy (unless otherwise noted)

R u n e f o r g e
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Rune of the Fallen Crusader

P r i o r i t y S y s t e m
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Single Target Priority

Diseases
> Dark Transformation
> Death and Decay/Scourge Strike (Unholy|Unholy or Death Runes are up)
> Festering Strike (Blood|Blood and Frost|Frost are up)
> Death Coil (Sudden Doom, high RP)
> Death and Decay/Scourge Strike
> Festering Strike
> Horn of Winter
Diseases
From the start of combat, cast Outbreak to apply your diseases quickly. If Outbreak is unavailable for whatever reason, apply diseases individually via Icy Touch and Plague Strike. The ticking damage from our diseases is minor, but the synergy that they provide is paramount. When you cast Icy Touch/Plague Strike/Outbreak, Ebon Plague will also be applied. Ebon Plague weakens your target to all magical damage by an additional 8% and represents an important party/raid debuff. Also, for each disease you apply to a target, your Scourge Strike will deal an additional 18% of the physical damage done as shadow damage.

Dark Transformation
Your Death Coils, asides damaging your target, will apply a Shadow Infusion buff on your Ghoul which is capable of stacking up to 5 times. The player can consume the 5 charges of Shadow Infusions on the Ghoul to transform it into a powerful monstrosity for 30 seconds. A huge factor in your overall DPS is maximizing DT uptime (see the Mods section for suggestions about monitoring DT and Shadow Infusion). It is key that you super-size Timmy as often and as quickly as you can. If your runes are cooling down while you have 5 x Shadow Infusion, remember that Blood Tap is a Death Rune activator that may enable you to DT faster (read more on BT below). One can also reserve RP during an active Transformation for quick reapplication of Shadow Infusion stacks the moment Timmy returns to normal. As a general rule, you will want to 'throttle' your non-Sudden Doom Death Coils so that you approach the RP cap just as DT fades.

Death and Decay/Scourge Strike
Death and Decay is a solid tick that requires minor effort to place and it is *still* a DPS gain to use even on single target. Astute observation of the current fight's mechanics will be key to maximizing the damage. The most frustrating and unfortunate situation is when you have just cast Death and Decay and the mob moves or the dynamics of the fight shifts. Whenever possible, plan ahead to avoid losing potential DnD damage.

Scourge Strike is our hard hitter and is similarly high in priority. SS will replace DnD when it is on cooldown.

Festering Strike
Amidst utilizing our runes and managing cooldowns, supplement your priority with Festering Strike. With Reaping (from our Unholy specialization), the runes consumed by Festering Strike will become death runes when they reactivate. Also, Festering Strike serves the very important purpose of adding 6 seconds to your diseases. Mechanics allowing, our diseases should nearly always auto-renew themselves. It’s like watering a plant of doom.

Death Coil
Similar to rune efficiency, we want to capitalize on Sudden Doom procs. With Runic Corruption’s mechanic revamped in past patches, we no longer have to worry about overriding our rune regeneration. Death Coil may be done freely to make use of Sudden Doom procs, to build Shadow Infusion stacks quickly, and to avoid the RP cap.

Death and Decay/Scourge Strike and Festering Strike
This is your ‘rinse and repeat’ in order when you have runes (and cooldown) available.

Horn of Winter
When all else fails, you can toot your horn for RP and buffing. It’s a step above twiddling your thumbs if you have a vacant GCD that cannot be filled with Engineering bombs.
AoE Target Priority

Diseases + Pestilence
> Dark Transformation
> Death and Decay/Scourge Strike (Unholy|Unholy or Death Runes are up)
> Blood Boil (Blood|Blood and Frost|Frost are up)
> Death Coil (Sudden Doom, high RP)
> Icy Touch

AoE fight does not just mean multiple targets. For your standard dungeon pull, you would still use the ‘Single Target’ strategy. This AOE priority is written for the cultist packs in Bastion, minion patrols, and other mass pulls. In these cases, you will want to switch momentarily to Frost Presence.

Diseases
If any of the mobs will survive for more than a few seconds, use Pestilence. One caveat on this: do not Pestilence if it will pull an adjoining group or if there is a CC nearby. This is particularly noteworthy if you are glyphed for extended range on Pestilence. Mages get really frustrated when their sheep spasms with cooties and comes to cough in their face.

Dark Transformation
DT is still highly important, same as with single target priority.

Death and Decay/Scourge Strike
Same as with single target priority.

Blood Boil
Blood Boil is effective damage and results in a leftover Frost rune which can only be used offensively for Icy Touch.

Death Coil
Same as with single target priority.

Icy Touch
If no other attacks are available, make use of leftover Frost runes.

G H O U L ( T I M M Y )
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All pets had their Aggressive pet stance removed and replaced with the Assist stance back in 4.2. Assist causes the pet to attack the player's target and the pet will not change targets unless the master attacks a new target for a few seconds. Defensive stance, on the other hand, requires that the player or pet be attacked prior to the pet taking action. Assist will remain the standard command stance for Timmy.

For extra control, bind his Attack/Follow/Stay & Huddle commands to keys/buttons you can access quickly. Timmy is also a pretty resilient pet. He has an unspoken 90% AoE damage reduction and can be healed by your Death Coil (discounted w/ Glyph of Death’s Embrace). Rather than putting your pet on cruise control, it's far better to have an awareness of him and his actions. It will greatly help survivability, group tactics, and your DPS.

S U R V I V A L
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Raise Ally
Raise Ally is instant cast, costs 50 Runic Power, and has a 10-minute cooldown. The requisite RP means you must be in the midst of combat and temporarily forgo your personal DPS to return a player to life. It shares the same global battle rez cap with other players, so like Druids and Warlocks, talking with the party/raid before and during an encounter is required. Only 1 manner of rez is allowed in a 5-man/10-man and 3 within a 25-man fight (excluding self-rez) so there is stressed value in using it wisely. Also be aware that Raise Ally brings the player back with just 20% health and mana so if another rezzer has a superior % benefit, defer to them. Rezzes have group saving potential so don't waste it by selecting the wrong person or watching someone accept prematurely. Macros/Ventrilo are both fine ways to warn the recipient to take their rez with discretion.

Anti-Magic Shell
Using Anti-Magic Shell wisely is one of the key aspects that separates the ‘good’ Death Knights from the ‘great’ ones. AMS provides a two-fold benefit and understanding it well will optimize your play.

Firstly, AMS is a powerful defensive ability that absorbs 75% (83%/91%/100% Magic Suppression) of the damage dealt by harmful spells up to 50% of your total health and prevents the application of harmful magical effects. In heavy damage situations, this is a lifesaver and aids on healing resources. For reoccurring damage, plan AMS to correlate with the boss timers.

Secondly, and often underutilized, is AMS’s DPS boon. Damage absorption (via Magic Suppression) will cause you to become ‘energized’ and generate a substantial amount of Runic Power. If you can anticipate AMS usage a few seconds ahead of time, make sure to have very low RP so that you do not cap while energizing. There are even instances where you choose to intentionally suffer magic damage in order to generate a flood of AMS RP. Provided you are conscious of your health, it is an amazing way to build your Shadow Infusion stacks extremely fast. A quick romp through evil goo and flames never felt so good. Just note that I can't be held responsible if you become a Kentucky Fried Lich. Mmm... KFL.
Other Resources
Don't forget that you have Icebound Fortitude (which now breaks stuns), Death Strike, Death Pact, and Army of the Dead (i.e. as aggro fodder) at your disposal. Death Strike consumes a valuable rune and Death Pact is a last resort, but these can sometimes make the difference between a dead boss and a dead you.

I N T E R R U P T S
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Since Death Knights don’t have any reliable form of CC other than beating a mob into a red smear, I think we should always look for additional ways to pull our weight. Interrupts, therefore, are a valuable utility we can readily provide to groups. Effectively used interrupts will reduce healer mana expenditure, player damage or death, and status effects. As they say, "Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver"...

Mind Freeze
This is our primary interrupt with just a 20RP cost and 10 second cool down.

Strangulate
The big daddy: both an interrupt and one of the strongest silences in the game. Its cool down is lengthy unless you spec Hand of Doom (reduces to 1 min in that case) but it’s a powerful tool in your DK box regardless.

Dark Simulacrum
I know it isn’t actually an interrupt, but I think it’s related enough to mention here. If you can’t outright stop the spell, Dark Simulacrum is an enticing option.

B U F F S
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Unholy Frenzy & Gargoyle
Unholy Frenzy can be a potent enrage cast in exchange for a small expenditure of health. Unholy Frenzy and Heroism/Time Warp/Bloodlust do not stack, hence the former should be saved until the latter has worn off.

It should be noted, however, that Unholy Frenzy's benefit will become more variable in this patch due to increasing haste figures on gear. Depending on your personal stat values, you will encounter at least one, or possibly two, haste breakpoints in this tier. The first breakpoint, valued at ~1600 personal haste, will provide the Gargoyle an attack speed that exceeds its own global cooldown of 1.5 seconds. Effectively, any inherited haste beyond this point can have no effect for him: the Gargoyle is GCD locked. The second possible breakpoint in this tier occurs for the player at ~2600 haste. Not to be confused with a hard cap, this benchmark merely represents when rune regeneration rates create diminishing returns via rune capping. The easiest test for determining when/if you want to use Unholy Frenzy on yourself is whether you become GCD locked, simple as that.

Blood Tap
Blood Tap activates a Blood Rune and converts it to a Death Rune. The cost is a tithe of health (6%) or free if you glyph for it. Its relatively short cool down will allow you use it frequently provided you aren’t capped for GCD or ‘global cooldown’. Meaning: if you are in a GCD capped situation where your actions are limited, don’t bother activating runes you can’t use anyways.

Empower Rune Weapon
A potent reset button to activate all your runes and generate 25 runic power. With a 5 minute cool down this will generally equate to a 1/boss fight use. This is best paired when you have Unholy Frenzy, Bloodlust, or Time Warp up and have expended your runes. Absolutely great for burst DPS.

Army of the Dead
Bit of a long channel so it's best to cast either just before the pull, during a phase change, or when things go south. Army Ghouls will taunt adds and normal mobs in combat so have that in mind before using. You might be screaming "No, no, no!" and all they hear is "Who wants cake? Who wants cake!?". Let me tell you something: They all do. They all want cake.

Back to Table of Contents
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I V . G E A R - O P T I M I Z A T I O N
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Gearing, like your play choices, is also based upon a priority system.
Understanding the stat priority will help you make decisions on gear in general. Keep in mind that all these stats contribute to your DPS, but they become less and less desirable the further down the priority you go.

S T A T S
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Stat Weights

Strength 3.65
Hit (to cap) 3.00
Haste 1.89
Crit 1.85
Mastery 1.55
Expertise 0.99

Stat Priority

Strength > Hit to Cap > Haste > Crit > Mastery > Expertise to Cap > Agility
Hit
Hit to cap is extremely important. If you miss a lot, that’s 0 damage on a frequent basis. Meters don’t discriminate whether you lost damage because of low hit rating or because you were too busy watching Fresh Prince reruns to pay attention to the boss (the latter is slightly more acceptable).

Standard Races Draenei
Hit Cap for Raid Bosses 961 841
Hit Cap for Heroic Bosses 721 601

At approximately 120.11 hit rating per 1% hit, it takes 961 hit rating to become hit soft-capped [1] for a raid boss (841 for Draenei). At the very least, become hit capped for lvl 87 mobs if you are still gearing in heroics (remember heroic bosses are NOT the ‘skull’ in your character’s worksheet). There is a certain leniency for being slightly over or slightly under, but you still want to negotiate this carefully.

Note: Do NOT gem expressly for hit. Always accomplish this through reforging (discussed further down) because you never want to lose out on potential Strength.

Haste
Your GCD is affected by various factors such as expertise, Heroism/Bloodlust, Runic Corruption, connection speed and so forth. To repeat what was said earlier, a softcap occurs for the player around ~2600 haste. Not to be confused with a hard cap, this benchmark merely represents when rune regeneration rates create diminishing returns via rune capping. The best way to approach haste itemization is whether or not you personally experience GCD locks. If you have no trouble expending resources, haste remains highly favored, simple as that.

Crit
Naturally, the fixes applied to minion stat inheritance has modified our stat priority selection. Crit will now overtake mastery as a preferred stat.

Mastery
It's not that mastery has slid or gotten worse, merely, other stats have changed or remained better.

Expertise
At approximately 30.0272 rating per point, the 'soft cap' equates to 781 rating (i.e. 26 expertise). However, this means little to us as expertise is so low in value. Conventional wisdom? Don't bother at all with reaching the soft cap. In fact, you will reforge most of your expertise away.

R E F O R G I N G
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In regards to reforging your gear, start with the hit cap and manage your DPS stat priority as above. Haste is top shelf with the others trailing sequentially in conversion to damage. I’d recommend taking a look at Wow Reforge [2] to help you make your reforging decisions outside of the game.

When using Wow Reforge, expertise does not need to be set but you will need to specify your hit rating for 'close to' 961 (or 841 Draenei). It may be that your optimum reforge puts you exactly at hit cap or it could put you a point over or under because the DPS is rated best for the minuscule miss/overage in hit. It will simply depend on your race and assortment of gear.

Reforge calculators require a lot of complicated math so always double check your results for accuracy. Report any anomalies to the site owner to improve the reliability of the tool.

Tips for Reforging:

• Your first calculation for reforging should be for your hit rating. Sometimes you will want to reforge away hit on one item only to add it back on another. Ex: forging hit to haste on Item A and forging crit to hit on Item B where haste already exists.
• Reforge unnecessary hit, mastery, and expertise into haste and crit at every available opportunity.

G E M S
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Standard
Red Bold Queen's Garnet
Yellow Fierce Lava Coral
Blue Etched Shadow Spinel
You will defer to the red gem unless the socket bonus would provide more strength or an important secondary stat. For example, let's say you had a piece of gear with a red socket, a yellow socket, and a +20 strength socket bonus. If you ignored the socket bonus and gemmed 2x Bold Queen's Garnet, you would have a straightforward gain of 100 strength. On the other hand, if you gemmed 1x Bold Queen's Garnet and 1x Fierce Lava Coral, you would gain 95 strength (75+ 20 from the bonus) and 25 haste. Applying our stat weights, it's easy to see that it's an upgrade to follow the socket bonus (by about ~30dps).

Never gem expressly for hit, even if you are under the cap. Given the stat priority discussed earlier, it is a greater DPS sin to miss out on potential strength. Reforging is the best and most flexible method to negotiate the proper hit rating.

Meta
Reverberating Shadowspirit Diamond
Pretty much a no-brainer. The requirement is effortless to fulfill as your gear will have an abundance of Red gems.

Chimera
Bold Chimera's Eye
The best and clear choice for those with Jewelcrafting as a tradeskill. There is, unfortunately, no new Chimera in 4.3.

E N C H A N T S
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Shoulders Greater Inscription of Jagged Stone or
[] Lionsmane Inscription (INS only)
Back Enchant Cloak - Greater Critical Strike
Chest Enchant Chest - Peerless Stats
Wrist Enchant Bracer - Major Strength or
[] Draconic Embossment - Strength (LW only)
Hands Enchant Gloves - Mighty Strength and
[] Synapse Springs (ENGI only)
Waist Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
Legs Dragonscale Leg Armor
Feet Enchant Boots - Haste or
Enchant Boots - Precision
Ring 1 [] Enchant Ring - Strength (ENCH only)
Ring 2 [] Enchant Ring - Strength (ENCH only)
Weapon [] Rune of the Fallen Crusader

B I S
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Rated by their DPS value, here are the BiS ('Best in Slot') items for Unholy Death Knights at T13.

Pre-Hardmodes: Pre-DW 6/8 and (*) Deathwing Included 7/8+
Head Visage of Petrification
Neck Necklace of Black Dragon's Teeth
Shoulders Necrotic Boneplate Pauldrons
Back Dreamcrusher D#*!!
Chest Necrotic Boneplate Breastplate
Wrist Bracers of Destructive Strength
Hands Necrotic Boneplate Gauntlets
Waist Runescriven Demon Collar
Legs Necrotic Boneplate Greaves
Feet Kneebreaker Boots
Ring 1 Breathstealer Band
Ring 2 Curled Twilight Claw
Trinket 1 Eye of Unmaking
Trinket 2 Bone-Link Fetish
Weapon Gurthalak, Voice of the Deeps
(*) Gurthalak, Voice of the Deeps
Relic Gutripper Shard
Hardmodes: Pre-DW 6/8 and (*) Deathwing Included 7/8+
Head Necrotic Boneplate Helmet
Neck Necklace of Black Dragon's Teeth
Shoulders Necrotic Boneplate Pauldrons
(*) Backbreaker Spaulders
Back Dreamcrusher D#*!!
Chest Necrotic Boneplate Breastplate
Wrist Rockhide Bracers
Hands Necrotic Boneplate Gauntlets
Waist Runescriven Demon Collar
Legs Necrotic Boneplate Greaves
Feet Treads of Crushed Flesh
Ring 1 Breathstealer Band
Ring 2 Curled Twilight Claw
Trinket 1 Creche of the Final Dragon
(*) Eye of Unmaking
Trinket 2 Bone-Link Fetish
Weapon Ataraxis, Cudgel of the Warmaster
(*) Gurthalak, Voice of the Deeps
Relic Gutripper Shard


[1] http://elitistjerks.com/f15/t29453-combat_ratings_level_85_cataclysm/
[2] http://wowreforge.com/

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V . M O D S
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Some people are content with the out-of-the-box game experience, but others feel like they can play and monitor their character better with additional tools.

DDR | Doc's Debug Runes
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/docsdebugrunes.aspx
A combined rune, runic power, disease, proc, Dark Transformation, Runic Empowerment, Runic Corruption, Blood Shield and Death Strike heal display.

Visually simple but very effective, DDR uses short bars to display runes, diseases, power and specific procs.

CLCDK
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/clc-dk.aspx
Class HUD featuring Disease durations, GCD timer, ability timers, runic power, runes, optional suggestion box.

What this mod should do...
is show you Runic Power, special cool downs (Gargoyle/Army), Runes, and Disease Timers in 1 add on.

What this mod should NOT do...
is replace your brain. Blindly mimicking its suggestions will produce ignorant, lazy play. After all, we’re trying to break the negative stereotype of our class, not reinforce it.
Used properly, the suggestion box can serve as a friendly reminder for when diseases reach low time or a cool down is ready. That’s a fine and reasonable use of a tool, just don’t confuse what it says you CAN do with what you actually SHOULD. You can also completely turn off the suggestion box if you don't like it or if you'd prefer more space.

Magic Runes
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/magicrunes.aspx
Magic Runes is a graphical display for rune cool downs.

If you don't like CLCDK's features or want a more specific rune UI, Magic Runes also provides a really nice, customizable view of your runes with several chart type variations. It's very straightforward and graphically clean. It does not show your procs or special cool downs (for better or worse), so you will need to set up other mods if you prefer having those features.

Acherus Runes
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/acherus.aspx
Acherus is a Death Knight addon providing displays for runes, procs, runic power, and diseases. A great effort has been put in to make all features customizable. Animations are provided to make it very easy to see when things become available and unavailable.

NeedtoKnow
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/need-to-know.aspx
NeedToKnow lets you monitor specific buffs, debuffs, and totems as timer bars that always appear in a consistent place on your screen. You can track yourself, others, your target, your pet, and much more.

This mod is fantastic to let you watch your Shadow Infusion stacks, Dark Transformation timers, and Runic Corruption uptime. You can set colors, scaling, and different groups of bars. Very customizable and user friendly.

Deadly Boss Mods
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/deadly-boss-mods.aspx
Deadly Boss Mods is a boss alert mod. It consists of many individual "boss modules", mini addons that are designed to trigger alert messages and timer bars for one specific raid boss each. Instance modules will be loaded and enabled when you enter the corresponding instance.

If you don’t already have this, get it yesterday. I have glowing recommendations for all its included features.

Recount
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/recount.aspx
Recount is a graphical combat log meter complete with damage, healing, and more.

This is the ‘How’s My Driving?’ equivalent of your DPS performance. Everyone has a job and ours is to put up big numbers. Hold yourself accountable by knowing your output and surpassing the expectations of others. I consider this mod another 'must have'.

Power Auras
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/powerauras-classic.aspx
This addon was created to provide visual cues (auras) when you gain buffs, debuffs and many more. Very useful for shorts buffs or debuffs, it allows you to draw in the center of the screen, or around your character, very customizable visual effects, rather than having to look at or mouseover buff/debuff icons/actionbars.

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Macros expand your ability to customize and automate certain actions via sequences of slash commands. If you are unfamiliar with how to make macros, I recommend reading WoWWiki’s ‘Making a Macro’ guide [1]. Don’t let the involvement of code deter you from macros. They’re generally very simple to write or, even better, just copy and paste ones that have already been created (as below).

Revised Attacks Macro
If you lack the runes to use an ability, this mod will clear the red error text on the top of your screen and your auto-attack will still begin. I use this macro for each of my major melee abilties where ‘Name’ is the spell/ability.
#showtooltip Name
/startattack
/cast Name
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear();

Ghoul Claw
If you still experience problems with Timmy hoarding energy, then this macro will prove of use.
#showtooltip Scourge Strike
/cast [target=pettarget,harm,nodead][] Claw
/cast Scourge Strike

Death Coil Pet Heal Toggle
By using modifier keys, you can toggle between a self heal, pet heal, or damage a target as normal.
#showtooltip
/cast [mod:ctrl, @pet][] Death Coil

Max Camera Distance
This isn't so much of a macro as it is a one-time slash command. The following script will increase the allowable threshold of your camera's distance. This is wonderful for fights like Al'Akir where there are large scale effects and far away enemies. Just type the script into your chat window and scroll your wheel to experience the amazing new birds-eye view. [2]
/script SetCVar("cameraDistanceMax",30)

[1] http://www.wowwiki.com/Making_a_macro
[2] http://www.arenajunkies.com/topic/29851-macro-max-camera-distance/

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To further your individual research about the class, play, and so forth, I also have a list of online resources to recommend:

Son of a Lich - My DK blog plus the extended version of this guide in HTML & mobile friendly form.
http://sonofalich.com
Death Knights Forum at Elitist Jerks - Theorycrafting, advanced spec discussion, BiS/gemming lists, etc. An advanced version of this thread is also available on their site.
http://elitistjerks.com/f72/
MMO Champion - Breaking news, updates, and sneak peeks.
www.mmo-champion.com/
Wow Reforge Calculator - Excellent optimize feature and calculator.
http://wowreforge.com
Ask Mr. Robot - World of Warcraft gear optimization and theorycraft website.
http://www.askmrrobot.com
Lichborne by WowInsider - DK oriented articles and news.
http://wow.joystiq.com/category/death-knight-lichborne/
Simulation Craft - DPS simulation code project (Remember: sims are estimation tools, not actual gameplay results).
http://code.google.com/p/simulationcraft/
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-Reserved-

Desecration is easier to apply than ever (Scourge Strike & Festering Strike)

Only error I noticed. Pretty sure Desecration only procs from Plague Strike, Scourge Strike and Necrotic Strike.

Otherwise, nice guide.
You are absolutely right, sir. I just made the correction. Thanks a bunch!
AMG! I've been looking for a guide like this for the longest time!! TY SOO MUCH!! THUMBS UP FOR STICKY!!!
This guide makes me want to pick up my alt again... thank you for posting something that's long been needed on this forum.

Voted for sticky.
Thanks so much. good job.
bump

Very excellent write up combining lots of good sources.

Voted for sticky.

j