Unholy Death Knight DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — The War Within (11.1.0)

This build is optimal for your pure Single Target DPS in our BiS gear. It runs the San'layn Hero Talents and has both the best Single Target, as well as the best cleave. Importantly though, it needs the season 2 4-set before it becomes better than the Rider build.

Your primary choice in the spec tree revolves around Superstrain. You can opt to go down this path to gain significant AoE potential, while losing around 2% Single Target DPS (depending on gear). In most situations, you will do this as you gain so much value from the extra cleave and AoE damage.

For the class tree, there's quite a lot more realistic choice. We have opted to pick Mind Freeze by default to reduce the risk of forgetting such a vital talent when it is needed. Death's Reach is a good situational talent that works really well on bosses where the extra grip range is useful. March of Darkness does not provide too much value due to Death Charge being so powerful and can easily be swapped out to something else, if you are looking for a talent to free up!

Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game!

The recommended talents do not account for specific raid encounters (but you can just run it everywhere and be completely fine), which can require a specific talent or build. For a boss-by-boss breakdown of the talent choices for specific encounters, you should check out our dedicated raid page.

This build is your alternative raid build used for pure Single Target fights. It is slightly behind the San'Layn build but makes up for it by being far more flexible when it comes to downtime. Whenever you risk dropping your Essence of the Blood Queen buff with San'Layn due to boss mechanics, consider this build instead. Furthermore, until we get the new tier set this will be the best Single Target build as well.

Within the Rider of the Apocalypse tree, there are three choice nodes. Two utility ones and one DPS. For the DPS node, Fury of the Horsemen wins out in all situations. The horsemen themselves deal a great deal of damage, and extending their duration helps to boost this damage significantly. For the utility nodes, we pick Death Charge due to On a Paler Horse not working in a raiding environment. Finally, Horsemen's Aid is great for any encounter with magic damage and magical debuffs vs Pact of the Apocalypse which is more about raw defensive gain.

This tree is generally our "fits-all" talent tree. We can choose to pick up some more AoE potential by swapping Ghoulish Frenzy to Ebon Fever or Menacing Magus. However, any further changes quickly reduces our Single Target by 5%+ which generally is not worthwhile.

For the class tree, there's quite a lot more realistic choice. We have opted to pick Mind Freeze by default to reduce the risk of forgetting such a vital talent when it is needed. Death's Reach is a good situational talent that works really well on bosses where the extra grip range is useful. March of Darkness does not provide too much value due to Death Charge being so powerful and can easily be swapped out to something else, if you are looking for a talent to free up!

The bottom part of the tree has a lot less choice. Blood Draw can be exchanged for Runic Protection on fights with a lot of physical damage intake. Furthermore, where you simply do not take any magic damage at all, Null Magic can be allocated to Osmosis or some place further up the tree.

Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game!

The recommended talents do not account for specific raid encounters (but you can just run it everywhere and be completely fine), which can require a specific talent or build. For a boss-by-boss breakdown of the talent choices for specific encounters, you should check out our dedicated raid page.

Our go-to Mythic+ build runs San'layn and deals incredible AoE damage. It scales extremely well with target count, as well as doing will on cleave with the big Death Coil cleave.

The choice in the spec tree primarily revolves around Apocalypse and whether or not we pick up this talent. It is quite a heavy commitment since we also need to spend two points in Improved Festering Strike which really is not a good talent. It is a 10% Single Target gain to go to Apocalypse but you lose quite a lot of AoE. The default build is the no-apoc build as it is the most straightforward to play and has a huge amount of AoE. If you want to pick Apocalypse, swap out Pestilence and Ghoulish Frenzy.

For the class tree, we are pretty locked for the most part. Both Blinding Sleet and Mind Freeze are mandatory, along with Cleaving Strikes. Anti-Magic Zone and March of Darkness can be freed up. Coldthirst, Grip of the Dead and Wraith Walk are good options.

Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game!

This is your go-to Rider Mythic+ build for all dungeons and affixes. It leverages both disease damage via Superstrain, Ebon Fever, and Plaguebringer, as well as Wounds damage with Bursting Sores.

Within the Rider of the Apocalypse tree, there are three choice nodes. Two utility ones and one DPS. For the DPS node, Fury of the Horsemen wins out in all situations. The horsemen themselves deal a great deal of damage, and extending their duration helps to boost this damage significantly. For the utility nodes, we pick Death Charge due to On a Paler Horse not working in a Mythic+ environment. Furthermore, we pick Pact of the Apocalypse for the raw defensive gain.

The primary choice in the spec tree revolves around Menacing Magus. You can change this talent for Improved Death Coil for better 2-target cleave or Vile Contagion/ Pestilence for better big AoE burst. Vile Contagion generates more Festering Wounds but requires more setup. Pestilence is just passive and easy to play, also reduces setup!

For the class tree, we are pretty locked for the most part. Both Blinding Sleet and Mind Freeze are essentially mandatory, along with Cleaving Strikes. Anti-Magic Zone and March of Darkness can be freed up. Coldthirst, Grip of the Dead and Wraith Walk are good options.

Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game!

When leveling, we prioritise slightly differently compared to our other builds. We want direct up-front damage without any setup, as well as good multi-dot capabilities. Furthermore, mobility matters a lot, which is why we want to pick up On a Paler Horse!

Delves generally does not have the same fight length as Mythic+ content. We, therefore, use a build which requires less setup to start dealing damage!