The Unholy Death Knight Guide: Updated for 6.1

[Nangz]

The amount of downtime you have will depend on your haste ( obviously) but in general, necroblight does have slightly more downtime because you end up spending 2 death runes on a festering strike ( taking 1 global) rather than on two scourge strikes ( taking two globals).

You shouldn't always festering strike on death runes, in general you should festering strike only on blood and frost runes. However, it takes a total of 10 festering strikes between unholy blight casts to maintain it. The amount you can get naturally depends on haste, bloodlust, erw usage etc. I find I end up using between 0 and 3 festering strikes on death runes depending on these factors.

I have no idea where to ask this in here so il just put it in guide thread..

got my hands on Horn last night but cant get weakauras to work with it for some reason. anyone sitting on a export i can snitch?
(pref with trinket icon, uptime and icd in one spot)..

Horn is an RPPM trinket, it doesn't have an ICD out its ICD that prevents it from overwriting itself as far as I know. Here is one I currently use.

dWYRbaGlP02KcZLqMTe3ws7uQSx0UbTFkPFcu9xr1VPyOaPgSOy4aCqGIJruNdizHarlMawUspukQNQ6Xc9CbtLutMsnDOlR46K0MjX2jqFMiFhO0HfzyIsJMGmEGWjb0TiOonvNxQAzeQxlfzAuIPm18jQ5FCNu1HswZCa(6yGhieNvjfhraJgyqeyeWlo2N38ojuDNCqB8GbMNTbr(aV4w52STY8vEBEBQ57bxrjmi7e2I4wlI5X1LKMLAEyQobQzNm)J7KQouYAMdWxhdejYxmjBQ5TDffpQwWEQ5RQf0PMir(1ugQ5RQf0PMirEmvgisnFvTGo1ejYVP4qnFvTGo1ejsKFhj3a19agEpAG8rJPyBalKGKpPIgkaVBZ)4oPQdLSM5a81Xapiaxrjmi7e2swq12GhQw1RljnBGDY82Eaqj1dmAG8aH4SkP4icy0adICOG5vpeZX1HnnydJluUqMfktKxq2jBrSmrsa

[Raikh]

Not really clear if you do it really that way but never sit on resources, if you have RP and no runes, fire away, as we get procs to return our runes faster which speeds the whole thing up, same for runes, if you don't need runes for a special burn phase/BoS never sit on runes.
If you don't need a special duration of NP like for instance kromog to get in on hands and not expire while sitting in one try to use the extra FeS as late as possible, if you use SS on death runes you will eventually have to use FeS anyway, especially with RC where you have clear cycles of runes, practice a bit, get a proper view on NP duration to measure when to FeS and when not to.
Also don't sit on runes just to expire NP. If you have runes for FeS its free extension, its no loss to delay UB at that point. Its absolutely not crucial to use UB on CD, you should just try to get as close as manageable and boss mechanics allow to.

You will have of course some more down time as you don't have PL, while haste is not bad you also neither want to stack it drastically and have to use a few more FeS than normally. On most bosses you have plenty of occasions to soak RP with ams, which can fill quite some gaps. Otherwise overusing FeS causes quite a bit of additional down time which you can avoid if you optimize that.

For trinket procs and FeS, it is basically better to use your additional FeS while no procs of any sort a re up, so you can use more SS when procs are up. But that requires you to already play the part with FeS usage optimally. If you overuse/underuse FeS due to trying to get SS uses on procs the gain form that is easily lost again by using to many FeS or dropping NP before UB is back.
Its minmaxing which you can practice if you want to push a little more and you're already pretty comfortable with your FeS usage for NP, but its definitiely nothing really important or essential to do.

[Deleted]

So should I ever fully deplete my runes or should I use SS/FS just when one set of runes is coming off cooldown?

[Raikh]

Always use resources as soon as possible, you gain nothing from waiting mechanic wise.

[Deleted]

Alright, thanks for the help, just one more question.
When playing necroblight, is it better to use BT or RC? Or is it the same as any other spec, and BT pulls ahead when used properly?

[Nangz]

Alright, thanks for the help, just one more question.
When playing necroblight, is it better to use BT or RC? Or is it the same as any other spec, and BT pulls ahead when used properly?

Its pretty much the same as any other build, BT pulls ahead when used properly.

[Apanonar]

Yes, if you're used to Plague Leech, necroblight will have a lot of downtime for you.
You should open with Army>prepot>death's advance>gargoyle>outbreak if still running>UB>blood fury>FS>SS>FS>SS
Use FS on death runes only near the end of NP duration. Otherwise you will extend NP way too much and lose quite a bit of DPS. But obviously you will want to overextend NP on some bosses like Kromog, Flamebender and Darmac.
Also I personally prefer not to pool RP for DT and just use DC when there's nothing else to do.

[Arctagon]

Is it worth holding off on DT if there is an incoming add phase? Thinking of something à la Thogar.

[Nangz]

Probably depends on the length of the add phase and the length of holding it. Thogar's adds you're realistically only going to get 1-2 cleaves so as long as you have it up for some of it its probably fine.

[Sunnydee]

97sec downtime on a 450sec fight patchwerk /w BT/UB/NP feels an awful lot. but when i think of it i just stand there watching me fall on dmg meter sometimes while i cant do jackshit.. anyway to lower this amount? or is he only way stacking haste like a mofo and using PL which isnt worth it dmg wise..

[Arctagon]

97sec downtime on a 450sec fight patchwerk /w BT/UB/NP feels an awful lot. but when i think of it i just stand there watching me fall on dmg meter sometimes while i cant do jackshit.. anyway to lower this amount? or is he only way stacking haste like a mofo and using PL which isnt worth it dmg wise..

Why wouldn't PL be worth it?

HI quick question is there a lightweight Add-on which adds timer on your Unholy Transfusion so you see a 30seconds "cooldown" when casting it?

If you're already using WeakAuras, you can track that there.

[Sunnydee]

Why wouldn't PL be worth it?

Well on ST with np/UB i have nothing that can spread the 15 stacks if i use PL on a target.

Therefor i either a) gotta wait anyways to get outbreak of off cd, or b) waste a rune on Plague strike. which feels like it's purpose was lost.
But i could be wrong. so feel free to correct me, just what i feel is going on in that scenario

[Arctagon]

I haven't tried playing with NP before, so I'm not entirely sure how it works, but PL activates two runes, while Plague Strikes only consumes one.

[Sunnydee]

Which means you are only gaining one rune due to being forced to use Pstrike if outbreak is on cd.
The downtime is just so... dull, i wanna bash buttons>.<

[Raikh]

Well for ST/cleave you could simply play PL/BoS over NP/UB and have less down time and atleast for ST deal also more dmg if you don't totally mess up BoS.^^

NP/UB is the slower DoT playstyle, can't really change much about it, more FeS usage on top of no PL surely makes an impact and PL is simply not worth it for unholy if you use NP, even on AoE fights I'm quite uncertain, the amount of runes invested into FeS is greatly reduced per UB (5 to be precise) and the trade-off of restacking it that fast isn't really big either, so the dmg gain from those UB should still be in favor of UB or atleast pretty similar while UB has more room for errors in keeping NP up as a drop with PL is more punishing than restacking it fast every 90ish seconds.

[Sunnydee]

Yeah just as i thought.. And well, i hate BoS with a passion so fiery it could turn the northpole into a tropiczone.. i dont know why but i just cant stand that ability haha

[Raikh]

Yeah just as i thought.. And well, i hate BoS with a passion so fiery it could turn the northpole into a tropiczone.. i dont know why but i just cant stand that ability haha

Would be interested in why that is. I personally always really liked fast paced unholy like in ToT for instance and also really enjoy BoS as it supports that pretty well. You have a short period of ramp up for BoS but during BoS you're basically more or less a machine gun and can generally start normally again shortly after BoS. Might be just a matter of taste, still interested though.

[Sunnydee]

It's more that i don't like major cd's that depends on others playing proper. Like SoB, Mage crystal, EQ, Etc..
Since the people i raid with seems to not always care much about progress it feels, then i wont bother with using a good cd that becomes shit when someone in raid decides to randomly moves the boss, or i dont get enough healing so i die or w/e.

Basically if it's a cd longer than 1min and it relies on others than me> it's a no go from me..

Maybe if I had people in the raidgroup that was consistent in kills. might change my mind but as of now. Nop. hate it.

[Jijek]

Currently using

Heroic Warforged Tectus' Beating Heart
Normal Horn of Screaming Spirits with Socket (50 Multi)

Should I replace beating heart with a scabbard or stone of fire?
Or neither?

[Nangz]

I would suggest you sim your options using the guide in this thread.


My gut says Horn + Stone of Fire but i'm not really sure if stone is better than tectus' beating heart. I have not looked into trinkets much since the ilvl increase.