Why is my DPS so bad?

[Soisoisoi]

I'd probably stick with Frost if I were you, it's a lot easier (at least last I played - Cata) and mostly better for most fights due to the short ramp-up time and high burst in both single-target and AoE. However if you want to play it Icy Veins should get you started.

[TwentyTwelve]

Well tbh it depends what you want to play OP
Frost (all my own opinions) is easier
Unholy is easy but complex, understanding it may make it sound soooo much more harder, but you'll pick up on it after an hour of playing.

if you want to try unholy, heres a few basics.

UH only uses 2h weapons (never duel weild)
Always have your ghoul out 100%
Keep diseases up 100% (DnD must be near a 100% uptime even on single target!)

Reason: Unholys damage all comes from diseases unlike frost, DnD is buffed in unholy spec too.

Each death coil grants your pet a stacking buff, giving 6% str increase, at 5 it can be transformed via "Dark transformation" (spell), (This allows your ghoul to do 60% more dmg AND his claw or whatever cleaves so this is big aoe / big single increase anyway)
to refresh diseases you use Festering strike
Gargoyal is your MAJOR cooldown, other than AoTD, you must time your cooldowns right to get max dps, by this i mean:
- Gargoyal screenshots your stats, if you do this: Gargoyal -> Mogu power potion (4k str) the gargoyal will not benefit from the str potion, (same goes for trinkets/procs like unholy str from weapon rune)
- The right way, is just to wait till you get unholy str weapon enchant proc, use Unholy frenzy (new UH spell), and any cooldowns like trinkets/racial, THEN gargoyal.

Simple rotation for single:
Army of the dead-> Outbreak -> dnd -> scourge strike -> Death coil, AT 35% hp start using soul reaper off cooldown

Of course there is more to it than that, but you just stop using scourge strike to death coil at 80-100 runic to prevent loss of runic power, and if your diseases are going to fall off, use festering strike,

Priority
1. Diseases
2. Ghoul transformation

Sorry if any of this information isnt accurate such as the % of str stacks give etc, typing in a rush as i'm not supplying a professional guide, just enough info to get you to test unholy and i'm trying to lvl :P.

Again, this WILL most likely confuse you when you try add this all together, i'd recommend looking a guide up if you do get confused, and give the play style an hour or 2 to set in. It becomes easy to remember.

[Acry]

1. Get behind the dummy
2. Use army as an opener at all possible opportunities.
3. Do not use DND in non aoe situations.
4. Use POF every CD. Do not hesitate on using it. Raise ghoul right after POF is used.
5. Use horn of winter during any downtime. Bind it, asap. Get used to using it, all the time
6. no more clicking at all!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pwCORKhHMg

I made a video of an solid opener. Made some mistakes myself, but idc. Hope it helps. Sorry the view is terrible, alliance dummies are next to a wall, and cant zoom out afaik. Also didn't use army, didn't hit record when I did use it. lol

[Pieterman]

Rotation pointers
Don't use Death and Decay
Pool runes for killing machine procs
Prioritize Rime procs over Frost Strike and Obliterate (unless you're about to clip Killing Machine)
Use Horn of Winter on cooldown, it's a priority move(not even kidding)
Outbreak > Plague Strike
Never clip Blood Plague, Rime or Killing Machine

Cooldown pointers
Pop your ghoul with unholy strength, trinkets and procs, Pillar of Frost, preferably even with heroism. Use it on cooldown.
Use Empower Rune Weapon when you see you're gonna be RP/Rune/HoW starved for ~3 seconds. Preferably with Pillar of Frost up
Prepull army of the dead, preferable with soul reaper up
Prepot before army
Use Anti-Magic Shell as a DPS cooldown, not as a defensive cooldown(essentially the same thing, but it's about the mindset)

'Rotation' summed up
Outbreak > Howling blast(no FF) > Plague Strike(no BP) > Obliterate(multiple runes of the same type off CD) > Obliterate(KM) > Howling Blast(Rime) > Frost Strike(KM) > Frost Strike (RP cap) > Horn of winter > Frost Strike


This is all out of the top of my head, please correct me if I missed something/am wrong about something.

[Valthios]

Want to really tighten up your rotation? Download DKOne (http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/dkone). It even changes your rotation for aoe situations as well. It's a good way to better understand what you're doing wrong and fix it.

[obscurede]

Yep, that's the one.

Thank you

[Saphyron]

Okay a few things I could see was wrong

No "army" from start
No "ghoul" from start
No "piller" from start
Did not refresh "horn" on CD
Attacked the dummy from front
wait too long with howling blast.

msot likely a few more things but all those drag down your dps big time.

[Soisoisoi]

Did not refresh "horn" on CD

You shouldn't be using HoW on CD, but you should be using it either when the buff isn't up, or when there is nothing else to do to fill a spare GCD.

[Raziael]

Stand behind the target?