Death Knight Hero Talents — The War Within (11.2)

This page is specifically about Hero Talents in The War Within. If you want to learn more about the best regular talents for Unholy Death Knight, check out our Talents page:

Rider of the Apocalypse is currently the best Hero-Talents in pretty much all scenarios.

Rider of the Apocalypse focuses heavily on minion damage with your riders from the Hero Talents synergising well with talents such as Unholy Aura. It has the most straight-forward rotation as the primary change revolves around reacting to procs of Trollbane's Chains of Ice which you prioritise bursting with Scourge Strike/ Clawing Shadows. Probably the primary benefit of Rider is Death Charge which significantly increases our mobility as well as running Clawing Shadows which is a super nice talent to have.

San'layn synergises well with DoT damage through Infliction of Sorrow as well as Death Coil damage via Frenzied Bloodthirst. It significantly changes your rotation as your fully de-prioritise Festering Strike and Soul Reaper during your Dark Transformation, something that ends up a rather "spammy" playstyle. Utility-wise, Sanlayn lags behind Rider purely due to Death Charge.

Rider of the Apocalypse presents a straight-forward and relatively low setup playstyle for Mythic+. Most of your damage comes from Epidemic, Bursting Sores and Magus of the Dead and you start bursting without much ramp. San'layn has slightly better scaling with high target count with Blood Beast but they are close in terms of overall throughput.

San'layn requires more setup in Mythic+ compared to rider but has multiple strengths that make it desirable. High Death Coil damage in combination with Improved Death Coil gives it excellent cleave when it chooses this route. The rotation in Mythic+ is more similar to Rider but with slightly less Death and Decay uptime since we do not have Mawsworn Menace.

2.

Best Hero Talent Builds for Unholy Death Knight

Rider of the Apocalypse Universal Build San'layn Universal Build

3.

Best Rider of the Apocalypse Build for Unholy Death Knight

Rider of the Apocalypse is very straightforward to build, with the same setup being optimal for all scenarios (only having utility options being the real choices). The Horsemen you summon deal such a large amount of damage, making Fury of the Horsemen the best pick in all scenarios. On a Paler Horse is probably the most powerful leveling talent we have, but is not useful in any Raiding or Mythic+ content. Finally, Pact of the Apocalypse provides a useful amount of raw defensive power in all situations. Horsemen's Aid is a good pick if you expect lots of magic damage and debuffs coming out in a given encounter (which happens a lot).

3.

Best San'layn Build for Unholy Death Knight

San'layn has one build that is best DPS in all scenarios, picking up Pact of the San'layn to amp up all the damage you output. For the utility choices, Newly Turned is the go-to option to help any teammate you need to battle ress. However, Vampiric Speed is also solid, giving both you and your group better mobility. For Vampiric Aura versus Bloody Fortitude, we believe Bloody Fortitude provides the best direct benefit. Making Icebound Fortitude stronger the lower health you are empowers the cooldown significantly. Still, Vampiric Aura provides some nice passive healing and also helps your group slightly.

Rider of the Apocalypse most significantly changes your rotation by introducing the Chains of Ice proc from Trollbane. This should be tracked so that you can burst the Chains as quickly as possible when they are applied (giving Trollbane the opportunity to apply them again). Furthermore, Mograine will cast Death and Decay, giving you a 5% damage buff when you stand in it. When possible, always try and stand in his Death and Decay!

San'layn alters your rotation quite significantly due to the strong feedback loop with Infliction of Sorrow as well as the maintenance of your Essence of the Blood Queen buff. During Dark Transformation, you simply ignore Festering Strike altogether (except with Festering Scythe procs) and Soul Reaper, instead spamming Vampiric Strike and Death Coil. Scourge Strike turns into Vampiric Strike during Dark Transformation (adding damage) as well as gaining a ton of damage via the Infliction of Sorrow Disease aspect, making it worthwhile to spam. Death Coil helps us generate Runes, as well as prolong the window via Eternal Agony. Furthermore, Death Coil becomes a significantly stronger ability via the Frenzied Bloodthirst talent, pushing out the use of Epidemic in AoE. We only really use Epidemic on huge pulls (7+).

Outside of your big Dark Transformation windows, you fish for procs of Vampiric Strike to extend your Essence of the Blood Queen buff. We use Death and Decay on Cooldown to leverage Blood-Soaked Ground as well as prioritising Death Coil to get a proc of Vampiric Strike and extend the Essence of the Blood Queen buff until our next Dark Transformation window.