Cataclysm Classic Unholy Death Knight Stat Priority

The stat priority for Unholy Death Knight is as follows:

1. Strength
2. Hit Rating (to 8%)
3. Haste Rating
4. Critical Strike Rating
5. Mastery
6. Expertise Rating (26 Expertise Cap)

Strength is your primary source of Attack Power which all of your damaging abilities scale off of. We will rarely if ever have to choose between Strength and other stats as it is a Primary stat. Unholy scales incredibly with Strength as your Ghoul scales directly with your Strength and buffs that are exclusive to Death Knight like Rune of the Fallen Crusader and Unholy Might. Buffs like Blessing of Kings also scale with your Strength.

At Level 85:

• 1 Strength = 2 Attack Power

Hit Rating is crucial as a Death Knight as your Runes can at times be quite limited so making sure every attack lands is crucial. Do note that any Hit rating past the 8% cap is entirely useless as a Death Knight. If you find yourself playing Draenei be aware that your Heroic Presence racial grants an additional 1% Hit Rating passively.

At Level 85:

• 120.1 Hit Rating = 1% Hit Chance

Haste rating is our most highly sought-after secondary once we have reached our Hit cap while Summon Gargoyle is GCD capped in Cataclysm we are unlikely to be able to reach this GCD cap without Bloodlust or Unholy Frenzy so Haste is a valuable stat for any uses of our Gargoyle outside of those windows. Haste rating also causes your Runes to regenerate faster allowing us to cast more Rune spending abilities like Scourge Strike throughout the course of a fight.

At Level 85:

• 128.05 Haste Rating = 1% Haste

Critical Strike rating benefits greatly from our Runic Focus ability which causes our Critical Strikes to deal double damage, the main value found in Critical Strike Rating as Unholy is the fact your Death and Decay and diseases are able to crit, as well as our ghoul inheriting our Critical Strike chance.

At Level 85:

• 179.28 Crit Rating = 1% Crit

Mastery is the new stat added in during Cataclysm and provides a different, unique benefit for every single specialization in the game. For Unholy DeathKnights, Mastery gives Dreadblade, which increases your Shadow damage dealt based on the amount of Mastery you have. Mastery is a great stat as Unholy as it scales with most of our abilities but still falls behind Haste and Critical Strike due to the focus on our Summon Gargoyle, ghoul and the increased Rune regeneration rate. Reforge this stat into a higher priority stat like Haste or Critical Strike Rating.

At Level 85:

• 179.28 Mastery Rating = 1% Mastery

Expertise Rating reduces the chance that the target will Dodge or Parry At 26 Rating which is what we are aiming for you will have completely remove any boss level mobs ability to Dodge your attacks, while attacking from behind boss mobs will not be able to Parry so we have no real reason to add anymore Expertise past the cap of 26 as we will rarely if ever be attacking from in front of the mob. Many races have some kind of Expertise racial.

Rating	Skill	Percent	Information
30.02	1	0.25%	1 Expertise Skill
691	23	5.75%	Dodge cap on bosses when racial is active: Sword Specialization, or Mace Specialization, or Axe Specialization.
781	26	6.5%	Dodge cap on bosses without racial
1592	53	13.25%	Parry cap on bosses when racial is active: Sword Specialization, or Mace Specialization, or Axe Specialization.
1682	56	14%	Parry cap on bosses without racial