Unholy Death Knight PvE

[Guest Shinyknight]

23 hours ago, Phaydre said:

On the Huntsman fight, if a Frost/Unholy DK is targeted for Sinseeker, can they prevent getting the nasty Sinseeker dot that does Shadow damage by using Anti-Magic Shell just before they get hit? The tooltip says Anti-Magic Shell will "prevent application of harmful magical effects" so I figure that qualifies. 

Yes, can confirm that it blocks the dot application.

[Abyssalwave 5]

On 12/12/2020 at 2:10 PM, Phaydre said:

On the Huntsman fight, if a Frost/Unholy DK is targeted for Sinseeker, can they prevent getting the nasty Sinseeker dot that does Shadow damage by using Anti-Magic Shell just before they get hit? The tooltip says Anti-Magic Shell will "prevent application of harmful magical effects" so I figure that qualifies. 

You absolutely can but only if you use it before you get hit! I'll add a note in the boss guides.

[Abyssalwave 5]

On 12/11/2020 at 2:11 PM, Phrozyn said:

In your guide, you mention recommended addons. mRunes hasn't been updated since 2016.
I would recommend updating this guide to mention Compact Runes and link to it instead.

https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/compact-runes

That's a great addon, I will replace the recommendation.

[Abyssalwave 5]

On 12/8/2020 at 7:17 PM, Guest Anonymous Guest said:

I'm confused how is the Sharpened Weapon enhance my combat pots??!!

 

also I don't get this 

"This single target rotation assumes you have taken the tier 7 talent  Army of the Damned. In order to maximize this talent, you should use it when you are very low on  Festering Wounds and have at least 2 Runes available to cast  Scourge Strikes after using the cooldown"

 from what I understand Apocalypse should be used if u have 4+ festering wounds on the target ... but in this guide it says use it when u are very low on wounds? how is that maximizing the use of Army of the Damned?? or are you talking about Unholy Assault??

Fixed it!

[Guest ZáknafeinTichondrius]

The legendary you have listed Pheromones is not the right one. It is, "Phearomones" with an A in the spelling. "Pheromones" is a buff that the boss Garalon in, "Heart of Fear" puts on himself in Heroic mode.

[Abyssalwave 5]

On 12/21/2020 at 6:41 AM, Guest ZáknafeinTichondrius said:

The legendary you have listed Pheromones is not the right one. It is, "Phearomones" with an A in the spelling. "Pheromones" is a buff that the boss Garalon in, "Heart of Fear" puts on himself in Heroic mode.

Good catch, thank you!

[Guest Orillion]

How come Harbinger of Doom didn't even get a comment? Is it truly that terrible? It does have some synergy with Army of the Dead.

[Everit 0]

In the Soulbind section you say Emeni for raiding, yet you have Plague Deviser Marileth's talent tree?

[Guest Stormiy]

Hi, will you be expanding the Gems, Enchants and Consumables section to include the possible enchants for gloves (i.e. +15 str), cloak (i.e. +20 stam & minor speed increase) or bracers (less so; i.e. shaded hearthing). Love the guide so far!

[Guest Metalchic]

In the section about soul reaper it's not been updated to reflect soul reaper's new purpose as an execute. It's priority in the main rotation if talented should be noted as well i think.

[Abyssalwave 5]

On 12/24/2020 at 1:36 PM, Everit said:

In the Soulbind section you say Emeni for raiding, yet you have Plague Deviser Marileth's talent tree?

I didn't even notice, thank you for letting me know!

On 12/26/2020 at 6:02 AM, Guest Stormiy said:

Hi, will you be expanding the Gems, Enchants and Consumables section to include the possible enchants for gloves (i.e. +15 str), cloak (i.e. +20 stam & minor speed increase) or bracers (less so; i.e. shaded hearthing). Love the guide so far!

I will expand it right now!

24 minutes ago, Guest Metalchic said:

In the section about soul reaper it's not been updated to reflect soul reaper's new purpose as an execute. It's priority in the main rotation if talented should be noted as well i think.

I will make sure to have that updated and included.

[Thadreon 0]

Couple things I noticed.

1. Soul Reaper explanation (7.5.1) is still as if it had the old functionality. I would assume that given the new functionality, it is now on a "use on cool-down during execute phase" kind of priority. Is that incorrect?

2. Virulent Plague explanation (7.2) is still the old functionality. Outbreak no longer provides the debuff to consistently re-apply Virulent Plague. It only applies the Plague to targets close enough on the initial cast. It also no longer has the ability to "burst" before the victim dies. It will only burst when the targets is killed.

3. In response to Phaydre, yes you can use AMS to block the application of the DoT during Huntsman. It does not block the damage of the projectile, and you do need to delay casting until close enough to being hit, as you stated.

[Phreeze 0]

On 11/27/2020 at 10:29 AM, Vlad said:

The guide is definitely updated for Shadowlands, including the stats page/priority. Maybe we missed some outdated mention by mistake; can you point out specifically what you feel is still for BfA? Thanks!

some enchants are missing e.g back

[VictorVakaras 83]

You recommend Soul Reaper in your Easy Mode section, but then don't mention it at all in your rotation. What's that about?

[Abyssalwave 5]

On 2/6/2021 at 5:56 AM, VictorVakaras said:

You recommend Soul Reaper in your Easy Mode section, but then don't mention it at all in your rotation. What's that about?

Good call! It is used off cooldown when the target is in execute as the highest priority, I will add in a note on that. Thank you!

[Guest Brechstange]

Im Really confused about my Army of the Dead.... 

everybody Use it prefight and the dmg is around 120k But everytime my ones only does around 80k.

i have compared the strength, the Mastery, all the stats are weaker at the Other dk 

please help 

[Guest Arcerite]

In the how to improve portion of the guide it mentions how gnaw should be on auto use for your pet. however when your pet is in standard form it does very little damage so wouldnt it be better to use it as a controlled stun?

[Abyssalwave 5]

18 hours ago, Guest Arcerite said:

In the how to improve portion of the guide it mentions how gnaw should be on auto use for your pet. however when your pet is in standard form it does very little damage so wouldnt it be better to use it as a controlled stun?

If you need the stun yes and also bind Gnaw to keybind! I'll add a note about that.

On 3/12/2021 at 5:31 PM, Guest Brechstange said:

Im Really confused about my Army of the Dead.... 

everybody Use it prefight and the dmg is around 120k But everytime my ones only does around 80k.

i have compared the strength, the Mastery, all the stats are weaker at the Other dk 

please help 

Army of the Dead also scales off Haste meaning Power Infusion and Bloodlust/Heroism affect its damage.

[RavenMind 0]

I feel compelled to say the "best legendaries" section has got to be the worst written article on Icy Veins. Where is the analysis? Every other Legendary page has analysis of at least a few of the better legendaries. This smacks of "just do what I say".  I don't know if all the Unholy information has been written up by the same person, but I've found that the other articles are pretty lacking in detail as well, especially as compared to every other class & spec on the site. Unfortunately it looks like I'll have to go elsewhere for more information. I really expect better from Icy Veins.

Edited July 2, 2021 by RavenMind

[LosDuervo 0]

Is there any plan to update this info for patch 9.1.5+?

Many of the souldbind builds for Death Knight haven't been modified since pre-9.1.5. They are showing with nothing for Renown >40.

Edited December 27, 2021 by LosDuervo

[Bicepspump 1]

On 12/27/2021 at 7:44 AM, LosDuervo said:

Is there any plan to update this info for patch 9.1.5+?

Many of the souldbind builds for Death Knight haven't been modified since pre-9.1.5. They are showing with nothing for Renown >40.

Hi, thank you for your comment! Could you possibly be more specific where exactly you are seeing the Renown 40 soulbind paths? I had a look at https://www.icy-veins.com/wow/frost-death-knight-best-covenants-soulbinds-and-conduits and all the soulbinds are for Renown 80 there.

[Wyr3d 1]

In the last update of the Statistics Priority, you make the statement:
 

Quote

An example stat distribution for Unholy would look something like 800 Mastery, 700 Haste, 400 Critical Strike, and 250 Versatility.

Could you explain the reasoning behind these numbers, and what would be the strength of those example in this case? I am trying to understand the values you placed on each statistic in a clearer sense than just priority order for a potential improvement for my addon.

In the case of your example DK, the listed statistics could be visualized in a pie chart in order to show relatable goals for players as follows:

800 Mastery (37.2%) 700 Haste (32.5%) 400 Critical Strike (18.6%) 250 Versatility (11.6%)

But as this example lacks the main priority, I am wondering if this would even be helpful if I were to implement it into the addon. For example, as I haven't had time to play much of Shadowlands until recently, I have blitzed my main through the storyline, equipping whatever was an ilevel, and therefore strength and stamina upgrade until reaching level 60 content.

As such, I have ended up with statistics as follows:

254 Mastery (27.6%) 184 Haste (19.8%) 300 Critical Strike (32.6%) 185 Versatility (20.1%)

(Since this is still a fresh level 60, and the BFA Azerite Gears I had equipped far outshine anything I have picked up along the way with regards to primary stats, please bare in mind that the Head, Shoulders, and Chest slots are not contributing any secondary statistics)

On checking your character in Armory, I noticed you have deviated from the given example yourself as follows:

981 Mastery (42.3%) 480 Haste (20.7%) 630 Critical Strike (27.2%) 227 Versatility (9.8%) 

Obviously you have progressed much further than myself in the storyline, and end game of the expansion, so I can only assume this deviation from the example is intentional, either due to specific preferences or some other mechanic, such as iunno Legendaries, or coventant choices or whatever.

Regardless, what I am looking for is a rough thumbnail - to which the example character given is probably to best candidate - that I can implement into my addon to provide a better insight into character building for it's users. Currently for Unholy Death Knight, the stat priorities are represented as follows:

Multi: Str > Mast > Crit > Haste > Vers
Solo: Str > Mast > Haste > Crit > Vers
PVP: Str > Vers > Mast = Haste > Crit

The example character given is built around the Solo style build, so in the case of implementing such an example into the addon, I was originally thinking something like:

Solo: Str > Mast (37.2%) > Haste (32.5%) > Crit (18.6%) > Vers (11.6%)

However, the problem here lies in the percentage values that Blizzard already associates with these statistics. Taking my fresh 60 DK as an example, the difference in percentages are as follows:

Caluclated Value: Mastery (27.6%) Haste (19.8%) Critical Strike (32.6%) Versatility (20.1%)
Blizzard Value: Mastery (27%) Haste (5%) Critial Strike (14%) Versatility (4%)

While I am aware these are a different set of percentages used for in game mechanics and not a direct calculation of the stat value, I am concerned this would cause some confusion if I included percentages into the addon.

I guess what I am in search of is some kind of universal formula that can be used, perhaps on a class by class basic that would further new help, and altoholic players (the core of my add-ons user base) to quickly assign equipment without deviating into broken builds.

An extreme example in this case would be an Unholy DK with all Mastery, and Haste equipment, foregoing Critical Strike and Versatility in favour of the percieved more valuable statisics. 

I was considering a ratio stamp, but was unsure on the validity over different build types - say for example:

UNHOLY DK (4:3:2:1)

For the solo target example character this would turn out as:

Mastery 800 Haste 600 Critical Strike 400 Versatility 200

As you can see, it's not too far off the example given, and if we include the 150 missing points it would end up as follows:

Mastery 860 Haste 645 Critical Strike 430 Versatility 215

Also not a bad deviation fro the example character.

So for the builds not given, we would end up with 

Multi: Mastery 860 Critical Strike 645 Haste 430 Versatility 215
Solo: Mastery 860 Haste 645 Critical Strike 430 Versatility 215
PVP: Versatility 860 Mastery 645 Haste 430 Critical Strike 215

PVP is something of the odd one out however, since Mastery and Haste are considered of equal value in PVP, so the ratio here would be squiff and end up as something like 4:2.5:2.5:1 as follows:

PVP: Versatility 860 Mastery 540 Haste 535 Critical Strike 215

Note that Mastery has recieved a slight favour in distribution over Haste in this case to simplify the matter.  The question on hand therefore is, would this actually work when applied to these other builds? Would these figures be viable as a example builds for those versions? Could this ratio therefore also be applies to the other specs of the DK without issue?

And furthermore, could this work as a universal  calculation for any class/spec? (assuming that class spec only has 4 secondary priorities of course. A five priority ratio would be a little more complicated in order to keep metric  - 4:2:2:1:1 for example - though this would suffer a little if the numbers were directly desending value.

Anyway, the objective was to include a little more of a guide into the addon, but I don't wanan go forward with such a venture if this simply doesn't work. It appears to do so for the DK (as a rough guide anyway) but I can't be sure for other classes since while I do play every class and spec for the sake of making sure the add-on is working as intended, I am more of a dabbler in those other classes than proficient lol 

Lemme know your thoughts. All feedback welcome.

Edited July 29, 2022 by Wyr3d

[Bicepspump 1]

Hi Wyr3d, many thanks for your post.

First of all, I wouldn't read too much into the exact stats quoted. They're an example of a best set of items. For me personally, I have more crit since the items that have dropped for me have pushed me in that direction. Generally, you want to equip whatever is an ilvl upgrade for you but also make sure your stats are well-balanced.

When it comes to valuing the different secondaries against eachother, I think a ratio approach makes sense. Aiming for the ratio I stated, one unit of mastery is worth ~ 800/700 units of haste etc. Overall though, try and not overthink stats too much. Try and have the most points in mastery, followed by haste, crit and then vers. But don't start to turn down ilvl upgrades because of it. If you want the true answer of whether something is likely to be an upgrade for you personally, I recommend using raidbots to simulate your character. That gives the most accurate answer of all.

 

Best regards,

Bicepspump

[Wyr3d 1]

Alright, thanks for the reply. Like I said I was thinking on including something along these lines into the add-on to help newer players and altoholics, but wasn't sure it it would just overcomplicate things in the long run. I guess I can give the ratio idea a shot with the provison that it's a rough guide only and se how it pans out with feedback.

Gives me something to do anyway, given there's so many class/specs available lol

[Wyr3d 1]

Hey there, I'm curious to know why you swapped out All will Serve with Clawing Shadows for multi-target. All will serve is multi-target skill too, while all Clawing Shadows does is give you a range* on Scourge Strike. As far as damage potential is concerned, surely All will Serve is better here? Especially when you can get a cleave from Scourge Strike while Death and Decay is down. Given that Clawing Shadows gives no DPS increase, surely it has no difference between Single and Multi target situations other than the stated range.

But yeah, seriously, check out your Skulker on a swarm target dummy set, and you'll see he fires multiple shots at a time, upping his damage a fair whack. You even state:

 

Quote

The skeletal minion lasts indefinitely and it uses a ranged attack against your target and cleaves 50% off all other enemies within 8 yard

*And switches out the physical for shadow damage - but this would apply to Single Target too, so and damage increase/decrease here would apply to both situations

Edited August 16, 2022 by Wyr3d
For the asterisk