Unholy Death Knight DPS Rotation & Cooldowns

DPS Rotation & Cooldowns

This rotation offers a general priority list for Unholy Death Knight abilities, along with key cooldowns at the bottom. It's based on a standard build and is here to help while we work on a smarter, build-aware system. If you are very new to the game or this class, we added info on the new assisted rotation features at the bottom of this guide. Updated for the latest patch in World of Warcraft: The War Within (11.2.5).

Single Target

Ensure Virulent Plague is active before engaging.

Use if target is below 35% health.
Use if target has Chains Of Ice from Trollbane.
Use if target has Chains Of Ice from Trollbane.
Maintain Virulent Plague on target.
Use when it procs.
Use at 80+ Runic Power or with Sudden Doom proc.
Use if Plaguebringer buff is about to expire.
Use if Plaguebringer buff is about to expire.
Apply Festering Wound if target has 2 or fewer.
Use if target has at least 1 Festering Wound.
Use if target has at least 1 Festering Wound.
Use as filler.

Maintain Virulent Plague and prioritize Soul Reaper during execute phases. Use Festering Strike to apply wounds and Scourge Strike or Clawing Shadows to burst them. Spend Runic Power with Death Coil to avoid capping.

AoE

Use Death And Decay or Defile to enable cleave.

Use as you approach the pack.
Use at the start of the pull.
Apply wounds if Apocalypse is ready.
Use to burst wounds.
Use to empower your ghoul.
Use to boost damage and apply wounds.
Use for AoE damage and wound application.
Maintain Cleaving Strikes buff.
Maintain Cleaving Strikes buff.
Use when it procs.
Spend Runic Power on AoE.
Burst wounds during Death And Decay.
Burst wounds during Death And Decay.

Start with Army Of The Dead and Raise Abomination, then apply wounds with Festering Strike and burst them with Apocalypse. Use Death And Decay or Defile to enable cleave and spend Runic Power on Epidemic.

Cooldowns

Use on cooldown, align with other major cooldowns.
Use on cooldown, align with burst phases.
Use for AoE or to fish for Vampiric Strike procs.
Use with 4 Festering Wounds for max value.
Use on cooldown, align with other CDs.
Use when target is below 35% health.
Use with full Runic Power and align with other CDs.
Use on cooldown, align with other CDs.
Use before engaging, align with other CDs.

Align major cooldowns like Dark Transformation, Summon Gargoyle, and Army Of The Dead for burst phases. Use Soul Reaper during execute and Defile for AoE or procs.

New to Class? Try Assisted Rotation

Patch 11.1.7 introduced new features that make it eaiser to pick and play new characters. These new settings can be enabled from settings » gameplay enhancements:

Single-Button Assistant
Assisted Highlight
Cooldown Manager

If you are new to World of Warcraft or a certain class, enabling Assisted Highlight and Cooldown Manager can help you learn which abilities to prioritize and use.

While the Single-Button Assistant can be a much easier and more accessible way to play the game, it does come with a slight performance hit due to a small GCD penalty, as you will have to wait 25% longer in between spells and abilities.

To see which specs are best with the Single-Button Assistant feature, you can check out our DPS Rankings which uses SimC to sim every class using this feature.