Cataclysm Classic Unholy Death Knight Spell Summary

Unholy has gained many new abilities in Cataclysm. Knowing how to properly utilize them will help you maximize your personal DPS and increase your contribution to your groups' overall performance.

Unholy is consistently one of the highest DPS melee damage dealers in the game. In order to deal maximum DPS you will need a solid understanding of how your abilities function and how to best utilize them to maximize your DPS.

• Scourge Strike — an instant cast melee attack that deals Physical damage based off of your weapon damage and the amount of active diseases on the target. This ability will act as your primary spender of Unholy/Death Runes.
• Festering Strike — an instant cast meelee attack that deals damage based on your weapon damage. It also adds 6 seconds to the duration of your Blood Plague and Frost Fever diseases. This ability should be used primarily to extend the duration of your diseases.
• Icy Touch — an instant cast ranged attack that deals Frost damage based off of your Attack Power and applies the Frost Fever debuff to the target. It is crucial to keep at least one of your diseases active as Unholy at all time to keep Ebon Plaguebringer active.
• Plague Strike — an instant cast melee attack deals Shadow damage based off of your Attack Power and weapon damage. This also applies the Blood Plague debuff to the target. It is crucial to keep at least one of your diseases active as Unholy at all time to keep Ebon Plaguebringer active.
• Outbreak — instantly applies Blood Plague and Frost Fever to your current target. It is crucial tokeep at least one of your diseases active as Unholy at all time to keep Ebon Plaguebringer active.
• Death Coil — an instant cast, ranged attack that deals Shadow damage based off of your Attack Power. As Unholy this builds Shadow Infusion stacks which are necessary to cast your Dark Transformation cooldown.
• Death and Decay — summons a patch of corrupted ground dealing Shadow damage based off of your Attack Power.
• Blood Strike — an instant cast melee attack that deals physical damage based off of your weapon damage and Attack Power. This ability deals 12.5% more damage for each disease you currently have active on the target.
• Death Strike — an instant cast melee attack that deals physical damage. Death Strike also heals for 20% of the damage you have sustained in the previous five seconds with a minimum of at least 7% of your maximum health.
• Blood Boil — an instant cast AoE in a small range around the Death Knight that deals Shadow damage. This ability deals extra damage to targets effected by diseases.
• Pestilence — is an instant attack that spreads the diseases on your current target to any nearby enemies.

Unholy Death Knight has a wide array of cooldowns that will both greatly increase your DPS output but also help mitigate incoming damage. Proper utilization of these cooldowns will be the largest difference in your DPS.

• Summon Gargoyle — is a three-minute cooldown that summons a gargoyle that will attack the target for 30 seconds. This gargoyle's damage is based off of your Attack Power so always try to pair this with your potion cooldown if possible. The gargoyle also scales with effects such as Unholy Frenzy so stacking as many buffs as possible is ideal before casting your Summon Gargoyle.
• Unholy Frenzy. — is a three-minute cooldown that enrages a friendly target increasing their melee and ranged Haste by 20% for 30 seconds. This ability is typically best used on the Death Knight due to its interactions with Summon Gargoyle.
• Dark Transformation — is an instant cast that consumes 5 charges of Shadow Infusion to transform your Ghoul into a much more powerful version of itself.
• Anti-Magic Shell — is a 45 second cooldown buff that absorbs 75% of the damage dealt by harmful Magic spells and makes you immune to Magic effects for its five second duration or until 50% of the Death Knights health is taken in Magic damage.
• Army of the Dead — summons a horde of ghouls to attack any nearby enemies. These ghouls will attempt to taunt any nearby non-boss mob so be careful when using it.
• Dark Simulacrum — applies a debuff to an enemy that allows the Death Knight to duplicate the next spell cast by the enemy. This ability has some very powerful situational uses in PvE so always try to be aware of what spells can be Dark Simulacrum'd.
• Blood Tap — is a one-minute cooldown that instantly converts a Blood Rune to a Death Rune. This ability also instantly refreshes the Rune so it is best utilized when your Blood Runes are already on cooldown.
• Icebound Fortitude — is a three-minute cooldown reduces all incoming damage.
• Raise Ally — is a ten-minute cooldown that instantly resurrects a dead party/raid member. This will return them to life at 20% health and 20% mana so make sure to use this during a period of low incoming damage.
• Death Grip — is a 35-second cooldown that instantly pulls the target to the Death Knight and taunts the target for three seconds. This can be used as an impromptu interrupt as well but always be aware of the fact you will have threat on the target for at least three seconds.
• Strangulate — is a two-minute cooldown that silences the target for five seconds. This can also be used as an interrupt for targets that are immune to silencing effects.
• Empower Rune Weapon — is a five-minute cooldown that instantly resets the cooldown of all of your Runes and grants you twenty five Runic Power. This ability is best used when you have depleted most if not all of your Runes.

In addition to the many rotational abilities and cooldowns you find yourself using Death Knight has been given a number of utility based tools that you will find yourself using including the iconic Death Grip.

• Chains of Ice — slows the target by 60% for 8 seconds and afflicts the target with Frost Fever.
• Mind Freeze — is a ten-second cooldown short ranged interrupt that allows you to disrupt spell casting. Having the ability to interrupt is incredibly powerful especially in emergency situations and smaller group size content.
• Death Pact — instantly sacrifices your ghoul healing you for 25% of your maximum health.
• Horn of Winter — is an instant cast spell that generates 10 Runic Power and increases the Strength and Agility of all nearby party/raid members.
• Raise Dead — summons a ghoul that will fight by your side. As Unholy the ghoul this is a huge part of your damage and will have a pet bar that allows you to utilize a number of abilities as well as letting you better direct who it will be attacking.
• Death Gate — opens a gate that allows the Death Knight to teleport back to Ebon Hold.

One of the most iconic parts of the Death Knight toolkit is the different Presences. While greatly simplified in the Cataclysm expansion it is still important to know what Presence you should be in for each situation. You can only have one Presence active at any given time.

• Blood Presence — increases your Stamina by 8%, the armor contribution of your gear by 55%, and all incoming damage taken is reduced by 8%. This also greatly increases the amount of threat you generate. This will not be used as Unholy in any group content but is incredibly powerful when soloing content.
• Unholy Presence — increases your attack speed and Rune regeneration rate by 10% and movement speed by 15% as well as reducing the global cooldown on your abilities by 0.5 seconds. This will be your default presence as Unholy as it is the largest single target damage increase thanks to the increased Rune regeneration rate and the global cooldown reduction.
• Frost Presence — damage and Runic Power generation by 10%. While the damage and Runic Power bonuses are quite strong they are typically only better than Unholy Presence in a situation where you are consistently AoEing a large number of enemies.

Death Knight has the ability to enchant their weapons with powerful Runeforges that grant bonuses unique to the Death Knight. These take the place of traditional weapon enchants.

• Rune of Lichbane — your weapons deal 2% extra weapon damage as Fire damage or 4% against Undead enemies.
• Rune of Razorice — your weapons deal 2% extra weapon damage as Frost damage and increase the targets vulnerability to Frost Damage.
• Rune of Spellbreaking — your one-handed weapons reduce incoming Spell damage by 2% and reduce the duration of silencing effects by 50%.
• Rune of Spellshattering — your two-handed weapons reducing incoming Spell damage by 4% and reduce the duration of silencing effects by 50%.
• Rune of Swordbreaking — your one-handed weapons increase your parry rating by 2% and reduce the duration of disarming effects by 60%.
• Rune of Swordshattering — your two-handed weapons increase your parry rating by 4% and reduce the duration of disarming effects by 60%.
• Rune of the Fallen Crusader — your weapon has a chance to heal you for 3% of your total health and increase your Strength by 15% for fifteen seconds. This will be your default Rune as Unholy.
• Rune of the Nerubian Carapace — your one-handed weapons increase your armor by 2% and your total Stamina by 1%.
• Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle — your two-handed weapons increase your armor by 4% and your total Stamina by 2%.