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 (11.1.7).

Single Target

Ensure Virulent Plague is active before engaging.

• Soul ReaperView detailsUse if target is below 35% health.
• OutbreakView detailsMaintain Virulent Plague on the target.
• Death CoilView detailsUse at 80+ Runic Power or with Sudden Doom procs.
• Festering StrikeView detailsApply Festering Wound if target has 2 or fewer stacks.
• Scourge StrikeView detailsBurst Festering Wound stacks.

Maintain Virulent Plague with Outbreak, use Soul Reaper during execute, and manage Festering Wound stacks with Festering Strike and Scourge Strike. Spend Runic Power with Death Coil efficiently.

AoE

Ensure Virulent Plague is applied to all targets.

• Raise AbominationView detailsUse at the start of the pull.
• DefileView detailsEnable cleave and deal AoE damage.
• Vile ContagionView detailsSpread Festering Wound to nearby enemies.
• Scourge StrikeView detailsBurst Festering Wound stacks in Defile.
• EpidemicView detailsSpend Runic Power on 3+ targets.

Start with Raise Abomination and Defile, spread Festering Wound with Vile Contagion, and burst them with Scourge Strike. Use Epidemic to spend Runic Power on multiple targets.

Cooldowns

• Army Of The DeadView detailsUse as you engage the boss.
• Dark TransformationView detailsUse on cooldown for cleave and pet damage.
• Unholy AssaultView detailsUse on cooldown, ideally with other CDs.
• Summon GargoyleView detailsUse on cooldown and prioritize Death Coil during its duration.
• ApocalypseView detailsUse on cooldown, ideally with 4 Festering Wound stacks.
• Vile ContagionView detailsUse in AoE to spread Festering Wound.

Use Army Of The Dead and Dark Transformation early, align Unholy Assault and Apocalypse with other cooldowns, and prioritize Death Coil during Summon Gargoyle.

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.