A few questions about Unholy PvP

[Deleted]

Hi there guys,
I specced Unholy for my guild RBG team and i'm going to learn to play it in arena too so I can fit both play styles (Drain - UH, Burst - Frost).
My questions are:
How can I increase my survivability? I went into a few random BGs to learn UH prior to the RBGs in the evening and if a group encountered me I would die very quickly without my 80% Heal macro (Glyph of empowerment + Death pact) and of course a healer to back me up, where if I was frost I could sustain a little longer.
What is the best level 100 talent? I used Necrotic plague for RBGs and was 2nd/third on the damage meter for most if not all battlegrounds, so it was doing the damage fine, however i'm finding if I use Breath of sindragosa and plain DoTs, I will have more instant DoT damage and once my ghoul has hit Dark trans I will have a lot of RP to dump, so this will give me a bigger burst.
How do I keep my pet on my target and use his stuns on my focus target instantly? I found in RBGs that I couldn't mount up as my ghoul was chasing a target that was left so I was still in combat, once a fight is over do i need to put him on 'passive' and then swap him back to 'assist' or is there an easier alternative, same for keeping him on my target do I need to keep manually clicking 'attack' on the target I'm on to keep him on my target or is there also an alternative setting? To get my ghoul to use his stun on my focus unless the healer is quite close to me he doesn't seem to use the stun even if I spam it, the macro i'm using is '#showtooltip Gnaw /cast [@Focus] Gnaw', so help on that?
Finally, Chillblains or asphyxiate? I've found it gives me more CC if I go with chillblains as I get a root, a stun and a silence, is that the best option?
If you actually took the time to read this and give me advice it is VERY apreciated!

[Beefkow]

How can I increase my survivability?

Your best bet is to spec into death pact because conversion cosumes too much RP and death siphon is a dead talent, not sure if it will ever be viable even with the buff in 6.1. And don't be afraid to sit blood presence, it doesn't really impact your damage too much.

What is the best level 100 talent?

Np, does decent damage and isn't much of a hassle to keep both diseases up at once, defile sucks and not rly viable in pvp, and breath is decent if you time your burst and start pooling runic power.

How do I keep my pet on my target and use his stuns on my focus target instantly?

I am a noob unholy, but all i can say is that you can get a focus gnaw macro from arenajunkies.com i believe.

Finally, Chillblains or asphyxiate?

They're all viable talents, i am surprised you didn't mention death's advance, but it just depends on what comp you're running and who you're facing. Most of the time i got for death's advance so that way i can chase resto druids.

[GodEmperor]

What is the best level 100 talent?

Right now I don't like Necrotic Plague for unholy since the ramp up time is too much and it spreads on its own and breaks traps from my hunter partner. It is also really bad against targets that can dispel diseases. However, if you get it at 15 stacks and fester it with CDs up, it starts doing really good damage, almost the same damage as your Melee attacks every 2 seconds. Problem is you will always have a hard time doing that in arena since you get stuck in too many roots and snares.

Unholy also lacks the instant burst which every other melee class has and if you're going to do Arena 2s, it's harder to deal with double hybrids and hunter teams without that burst. So, I usually take Breath of Sindragosa for the burst damage. Popped with Dark Transformation and Gargoyle in a full stun, it usually kills stuff.

Personally, I miss Necrotic Strike which I feel was unique and something unholy needs now to be equal to frost which is currently middle of the pack in 3s.

How can I increase my survivability?

If you have a healer, Death Pact. But without, I usually run with Death Siphon. My BM hunter partner runs with a spirit beast which gives mastery and I get 81% mastery in PvP which makes my Death Siphon heals pretty strong. If you're good at managing Death Runes, then definitely run with Death Siphon. Also, learn to Dark Sim heals and Defensive CDs from enemies. If you can't predict stuff, just use Glyphed Dark sim every 30 seconds on the enemy healer or a caster that you have stunned and you're bound to get good defensive spells.

How do I keep my pet on my target and use his stuns on my focus target instantly?

You can instantly stun a target with a focus or arena target Leap Gnaw Macro but it will take time to run back to your current target. I usually don't do it this way since I like to save the Pet leap for Interrupting and Rooting rather than getting to a target to stun.

Finally, Chillblains or asphyxiate?

Personally can't even do arenas properly without Asphyx. Stuns are too good. I guess chillblains when you have a partner with lot of stuns or you're facing double melee that can't remove roots like other DKs, warriors. Chillblains is also apparently good against hunters but I haven't tried it against them. Also good against mages.



DARK sim is the best thing about DKs currently and it's the only thing still making me do Unholy PvP. I have huge casting bars of targets and focus targets on my sceen and use Dark Sim when they cast CCs. This is very fun and the my favorite part of Death Knights. Also have Gladiatorlossa addon which although not recommended by top arena players, has helped a lot since there's only so much you can see at one time.

BTW, I'm only 1700 right now in 2s and yet to find a 3s team to do serious 3s, so I might be wrong with some of the stuff.

[Deleted]

Thanks for the feedback guys, one last question, Is Unholy gear viable with frost? Ive tried playing unholy in arena and it doesnt really work at all so I'd like to play frost in arena, however I'd like to focus on gearing for unholy as it would be the best spec for my RBG team and my RBG team is around 1800 rating and RBGs in my guild only occur 2 evenings a week, where in arena I'm still focussing on getting to 1750 and that's what I do in the time when RBGs arnt on.
I understand that as unholy I need to stack mastery for increased DoT damage, but as frost I need to work on more versatility and multistrike.
Feedback is appreciated as usual