Unholy Death Knight DPS Spell List and Glossary — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)

If you are new to Unholy, this is a great place to start to get an understanding of how the spec works. On this page we will discuss what abilities you have, what they are used for within the specialization, how they interact with each other and also with important cooldowns. If you already have experience with Unholy and are comfortable with it in the current expansion, it is recommended you skip this section and move on to the rest of the guide.

Runic Power and Runes are your two primary resources. We have 6 Runes in total that passively generate over time, taking 10 seconds to recharge (decreased by haste). Runes cannot all recharge at the same time, you can only have a maximum of 3 recharging at any given time. Runes are the most common resource we use for our abilities, which include Festering Strike, Scourge Strike and Putrefy. Spending Runes generates 10 Runic Power per Rune used. We use Runic Power as our spender on abilities such as Death Coil and Epidemic

Spells and passive abilities are unlocked as you level up and spend talent points. This page will simply list every single ability you can obtain, not recommending any specific talent setups or rotations to use. If you want to understand which abilities are best to pick up when leveling, please follow the below link.

These are the abilities that you obtain without selecting anything in the talent trees. I have added the level that you automatically learn them as well.

Ability	Level Learned	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Death Coil	8	DC	Costs 30 Runic Power to cast, dealing Shadow damage to the target. It can be cast on an Undead ally (including yourself) to heal it. Extends the duration of your active plagues on the target by 1.5 seconds. This is your main Single Target Runic Power spender.
Death and Decay	8	DnD	Costs 1 Rune and places a damaging area at the target location, which persists for 10 seconds. Can be used as a DPS ability when combined with talents such as Desecrate and/or as a slow utility when used with Grip of the Dead.
Rune Strike	8	-	Costs 1 Rune and deals moderate damage. Is replaced once we choose a specialisation ( Festering Strike for Unholy).
Death Grip	8	-	Pulls your target towards you. It also has a shorter GCD compared to normal spells at 0.5 seconds. This means that you can quickly use another ability after gripping something.
Death Gate	8	-	Summons a gate that will teleport you to Acherus. Here you can Runeforge your weapon, practice your rotation on target dummies, and change the appearance of your Summon Gargoyle to a Valkyr. Using the Death Gate again will bring you back to your original location.
Runeforging	8	-	Allows you to apply a powerful Runeforge to your weapon, acting as a (usually) better enchant. You do this in the Acherus Hold at the Runeforges.
Death's Advance	9	DA	Death's Advance when activated, increases your movement speed by 35% and prevents you from being slowed below 100% of your movement speed for 10 seconds. It also grants you immunity from knockbacks. It also has a passive ability that prevents your movement speed from being reduced below 70%. This ability is really useful during any encounter with knockback mechanics, which happens quite frequently.
Lichborne	9	-	Turns you undead for 10 seconds. This makes you immune to charm, fear, and sleep, and grants you 10% leech. You can also activate this ability to break any of these CCs, making it a useful tool if you are accidentally hit by a mechanic that applies such a CC.
Dark Command	9	-	Taunts the targeted enemy, forcing them to attack you.
Mastery: Dreadblade	10	-	Our Mastery, increasing our Shadow and Minion damage as well as the critical strike damage of Minions and Diseases. Can be further empowered with Commander of the Dead which increases our Lesser Ghoul duration by 25% of our Mastery.
Festering Strike	10	FS	Costs 2 Runes, dealing Physical damage to the target and generating 2-3 stacks of Lesser Ghoul. Scourge Strike will consume a stack of Lesser Ghoul to summon a Lesser Ghoul.
Runic Corruption	11	RC	A passive that gives you a 1.6% chance per Runic Power spent to increase your Rune recharge rate by 100% for 3 seconds. The duration scales inversely with Haste, always granting you the same total amount of 0.9 Runes whenever it procs. Runic Power abilities that get a "free" proc, such as Dark Succor still proc this passive as if they consumed the Runic Power.
Chains of Ice	13	Chains	Costs 1 Rune and slows your target by 70% for 8 seconds. This is generally your primary way of slowing any given target. Great for when you need to kite dangerous mobs in the open-world or kill a fleeing enemy.
Anti-Magic Shell	14	AMS	Absorbs up to 30% of your maximum health in Magic damage over 5 seconds, generating Runic Power based on the damage absorbed (up to 30 Runic Power maximum). This should be used to mitigate Magic damage throughout the fight, while the added Runic Power will help increase your DPS. It also prevents any magical debuffs from being applied to you. This can be very useful to dodge mechanics!
Epidemic	18	Epi	Costs 30 Runic Power, dealing damage to any target that currently has Virulent Plague on them. Also, splashes to nearby enemies, dealing damage to up to 8 targets. Extends the duration of your active plagues on affected targets by 1.5 seconds. Your AoE Runic Power spender with a quadratic scaling component due to the splash effect.
Dark Succor	18	-	A passive that grants you a free Death Strike whenever you kill an enemy that grants honor or experience. Also increases the healing of the Death Strike by 10%. Importantly, you need to land the killing blow to retrieve the buff, meaning you will not get that many procs in Raids and Mythic+. This passive is really useful while leveling as it allows you to keep yourself healthy as you AoE down big packs of mobs.
Raise Ally	19	-	Costs 30 Runic Power and performs a battle resurrection on a targeted dead ally, bringing them back to life (even in combat).
On a Pale Horse	22	-	A passive that grants 20% mounted movement speed. Nice speed boost, especially in areas where flying is disabled.
Path of Frost	27	-	Costs 1 Rune and grants everyone in your group the ability to walk on water. Breaks on any damage taken. Has some niche use-cases and allows you to prank your party members when your group is jumping down into water...

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Icebound Fortitude	IBF	Provides a 30% damage reduction for 8 seconds, additionally making you immune to stuns. It can be used when stunned as well to break out of the CC. Primary defensive cooldown for us with the added benefit of the stun break!
Death Strike	DS	Costs 45 Runic Power (35 with Improved Death Strike) and constitutes our primary means of healing ourselves. The amount of healing increases with the damage we've taken in the last 5 seconds, making it excellent to use after you have taken a big hit. It heals for 20% of the damage taken with a minimum of 7% max hp healed every time (32% and 11.2% with Improved Death Strike).
Raise Dead	-	Summons our primary pet to help us fight our enemies. The pet has a main attack ability in the form of Claw, but can also stun enemies with Gnaw and leap to its target with Leap. The abilities are empowered during Dark Transformation with Gnaw stunning for longer, Claw turning into an AoE ability and Leap interrupting the target. The tooltip on the spells page is misleading as the ability has a 30 seconds cooldown as Unholy with an infinite duration on the pet.
Mind Freeze	-	Interrupts your target. It has a 15 yards range, a benefit over other melee interrupts that often require melee range.
Blinding Sleet	Sleet	Blinds all targets in a cone in front of you for 5 seconds. When the enemies are broken out of sleep via damage or if the duration finishes, they are slowed by 50% for 6 seconds. Great ability to stop a group of enemies from casting, as well as controlling them efficiently. Your tank will love this ability whenever they need to kite.
Wraith Walk	WW	Provides 70% movement speed for 4 seconds. Any ability used during the channel will break the effect. Useful as a movement speed increase in instances when you need to move between A and B without doing anything else.
Control Undead	-	Costs 1 Rune and controls the targeted Undead enemy for 5 minutes. This requires that the enemy is sufficiently low-level (it does not work on bosses and certain mobs in dungeons). Furthermore, it prevents you from having your primary ghoul active, resulting in a significant DPS decrease.
Death Pact	-	Heals you for 50% of your maximum health, as well as putting a healing absorption heal for 30% of your maximum health. A panic-button heal with a downside. The effective healing is only 20%, but you still find a lot of instances where this provides the required breathing room for your healers or you need to bring you back to health. Can be improved with Death Defiance which reduces the Cooldown by 30 seconds and increases the healing you receive by 50% when the healing absorb is active - a nice boost.
Anti-Magic Zone	AMZ	Places a zone on the ground that reduces magic damage taken by 15% for 6 seconds for everyone standing in it. The cooldown can be decreased to 3 minutes and the duration increased to 8 seconds via the Assimilation talent.
Asphyxiate	Asphyx	Stuns your target for 5 seconds. Simple single-target stun with a range of 20-yards.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Outbreak	OB	Costs 1 Rune and applies Virulent Plague to all enemies near your target as well as Dread Plague on your primary target.
Scourge Strike	SS	Costs 1 Rune and deals Physical and Shadow damage to the target, and consuming 1 stack of Lesser Ghoul, summoning a Lesser Ghoul for 6 seconds. It also spreads Virulent Plague to any unaffected nearby targets. It also erupts any plagues on the target, dealing damage an additional time at 35% effectiveness. Finally, with a 30 yard range, it can be effectively used at range!
Putrefy	-	Costs 1 Rune and summons a Lesser Ghoul to strike the enemy, dealing direct shadow damage and then exploding for AoE shadow damage. Has a large number of interactions with other talents making it a significant part of the core rotation.
Dark Transformation	DT	Has a 45 seconds cooldown and transforms your ghoul into a more powerful version of itself for 15 seconds while also granting them 100% Energy. The empowered ghoul deals AoE damage, has a longer stun and can interrupt with its charge ability. The Cooldown is off the GCD so can easily be macroed! Both Death Coil and Epidemic extend its duration by 1 seconds.
Army of the Dead	Aotd	Costs 1 Rune and summons several ghouls to fight at your side for 15 seconds. This is your primary Single Target burst cooldown that can be empowered via either Raise Abomination or Summon Gargoyle.
Soul Reaper	SR	Only usable on targets below 35% health, this ability deals a significant amount of damage and increases your minion and plague damage by 20% for 8 seconds. It also consumes all available charges of Putrefy when used, removing the need to press Putrefy manually in execute.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Runic Attenuation	RA	Gives your auto attacks a chance to grant you 3 Runic Power. This provides around 30 Runic Power per minute, adding a good amount of resources to our rotation.
Improved Death Strike	-	Increases the healing of Death Strike by 60% and lowers its cost by 10 Runic Power. Effectively makes Death Strike a 35 Runic Power ability that heals for a minimum of 11.2% max health, or 32% of damage taken in the last 5 seconds, whichever is greatest.
Cleaving Strikes	-	Scourge Strike and Festering Strike deal 10% increased damage. Simple passive damage increase.
Gloom Ward	GW	Increases the effectiveness of all absorbs on you by 15/30%. Big survivability increases both from empowering our abilities, such as Anti-Magic Shell, as well as any healing coming in the form of absorbs. Especially good with Disc Priests!
March of Darkness	-	Grants you an extra 25% movement speed during the first 3 seconds of activating Death's Advance.
Unholy Momentum	-	Provides 2%/4% haste passively.
Enfeeble	-	Gives your ghoul a chance to apply a debuff to its target, reducing its movement speed by 30% and making it deal 15% less damage to you. A nice passive defensive gain for us.
Coldthirst	-	Grants you 10 Runic power and reduces the cooldown of Mind Freeze whenever you successfully interrupt using the ability. A nice addition to our resource generation, as well as providing overall more interrupt opportunities in any situation.
Proliferating Chill	PC	Increases the number of targets hit by your Chains of Ice from 1 to 2. It only affects additional enemies in close proximity of your primary target and lacks many uses in PvE.
Permafrost	-	Provides a shield on yourself based on 30% of your auto attack damage. Provides a good deal of tankiness, both from passive absorption but also as prevention to one-shot mechanics.
Veteran of the Third War	VoTW/ Veteran	Increases your stamina by 12%, making you tankier overall.
Brittle	-	Grants your diseases a chance to apply a debuff to your enemy, increasing the damage you do against them by 6% for 5 seconds.
Blood Bond	-	Your primary pet sacrifices 4% of its maximum HP to heal you for 1% of yours every second when you are below 50% health. Solid self-heal gain!
Icy Talons	IT	Provides a 6% increase in attack speed for 10 seconds every time we spend Runic Power, stacking up to 3 times.
Death Notes	-	Reduces the cost of Raise Ally by 30, making it free. Nice quality of life talent that helps you react faster to player deaths when you would otherwise lack the Runic Power.
Death Defiance	-	Reduces the Cooldown of Death Pact and increases the Healing you take when the healing absorb shield is active by 50%. Significant buff to Death Pact with more frequent uses and a smaller negative effect as you effectively only need to heal up 20% of your effective health down from 30%.
Unholy Bond	-	Increases the effectiveness of our Runeforges by 20%. This includes every aspect of the Runeforge, making Rune of the Fallen Crusader both increase its healing and strength gain, for instance.
Ice Prison	-	Chains of Ice now also roots enemies for 4 sec but its cooldown is increased to 12 sec.
Death's Reach	-	Increases the range of Death Grip by 10 yards and resets its cooldown whenever you kill an enemy granting experience or honor. Useful in any situation where you need to grip adds as the extra range both helps with the distance, you can move them, as well as lowering how far you need to run yourself. The cooldown reset is mostly useful during leveling, as you need to land the killing blow to gain the effect.
Assimilation	-	Reduces the cooldown of Anti-Magic Zone by 1 minute and increases its duration by 2 seconds.
Anti-Magic Barrier	-	Lowers the cooldown of Anti-Magic Shell to 40 seconds and increases the amount absorbed by 40%. Useful for any situation with heavy magic damage or frequent magic debuff applications (that you can then ignore).
Grip of the Dead	-	Adds a 90% slow to your Death and Decay, reducing by 10% for every second. A great tool to help your tank kite and manage any trash pack. Furthermore, it helps to keep any mobs in your Death and Decay when your tank tries to pull them out of it!
Suppression	-	Passively increases your Avoidance by 3%. This is increased to 9% for 6 seconds when you suffer a loss of control effect.
Blood Scent	-	Passively increases your Leech by 3%.
Unholy Endurance	-	Adds 2 seconds to the duration of Lichborne and decreases its Cooldown by 30 seconds. A small defensive gain to the Cooldown.
Osmosis	-	Your Anti-Magic Shell also increases healing received by 15% when it is active.
Insidious Chill	-	Applies a stacking debuff with your auto attacks, reducing the enemy's attack speed by 5% per stack up to 20% at 4 stacks. Helps your tanks survive in a scenario (or yourself when doing open-world content). Stacks with similar effects such as Curse of Weakness.
Runic Protection	-	Reduces your chance to be critically struck by 3% and increases your armor by 6%. Small defensive boost.
Blood Draw	BD	Heals you for a moderate amount if you drop below 30% health. It can only occur once every 2 minutes. Also reduces damage taken by 10% and Runic Power cost of Death Strike by 10 for 8 seconds after it triggers.
Rune Mastery	-	Makes spending Runes give a chance to increase our strength by 3/6% for 8 seconds.
Subduing Grasp	-	When you pull an enemy with Death Grip, they deal 6% less damage to you for 6 seconds. Makes Death Grip a small defensive Cooldown against bosses and other enemies.
Will of the Necropolis	WotN	Reduces the damage you take below 30% by 20/35%. Big boost to our survivability since the damage we take below 30% is by far the most useful to mitigate. Effectively increases max HP by 16% against one-shots.
Null Magic	-	Reduces magic damage taken by 5% and harmful debuff duration by 35%. A really nice defensive boost against magic damage.
Unyielding Will	-	Increase the cooldown of Anti-Magic Shell by 20 seconds but makes it remove all negative debuffs on you when used. Can be incredibly powerful when dealing with various raid mechanics but requires a good use case to justify the 20 seconds cooldown increase.
Death's Echo	DE	Provides an extra charge to Death's Advance, Death and Decay and Death Grip. Nice increase in utility with the extra mobility and the additional grip.
Vestigial Shell	-	Anti-Magic Shell also applies two shields to nearby allies. These shields absorb some Magic Damage (10% of your own AMS) and reduces the duration of Magic effects by 50%. Nice defensive boost to your party, especially in Mythic+.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Virulent Plague	VP	A Shadow damage DoT that erupts when the target dies, dealing damage divided among all enemies. It is applied using Outbreak or Putrefy with Blightburst.
Dread Plague	DP	A Single-Target only disease that explodes when the target dies. Also applied with Outbreak or Putrefy with Blightburst, just like Virulent Plague.
Sudden Doom	SD	Your Dread Plague has a 35% chance to make your next Death Coil or Epidemic cost 35 less Runic Power and deal 35% more damage. This is our primary rotational proc that we play around.
Clawing Shadows	CS	Your Scourge Strike deal 25% increased damage and adds a stack of Clawing Shadows up to 6 times. Each stack makes your Scourge Strike chain to one nearby enemy, decreasing in damage by 25% for each subsequent chain. This passively provides you cleave as you do your standard rotation. With a 12 second duration buff, you are incentivised to maintain it as you move from pack to pack, ideally chaining them when possible.
Foul Infections	-	Increases your Disease damage by 10% and their chance to critically strike by 5%.
Plague Mastery	-	Critical strike damage of your Diseases is increased by 25%. This is a choice node with Grave Mastery and essentially determines if you want to run a minion build or a disease build. Also makes us scale a bit better with Crit.
Grave Mastery	-	Critical strike damage of your Minions is increased by 15%. This is a choice node with Plague Mastery and essentially determines if you want to run a minion build or a disease build. Also makes us scale a bit better with Crit.
Doomed Bidding	-	Consuming Sudden Doom summons a Lesser Ghoul for 6 seconds. Adds value to Sudden Doom and gives a good feeling when consuming the procs.
Morbidity	Morb	Increases the damage your enemies take from you by 1% for every disease you have active on them.
Festering Scythe	Scythe	Your Festering Strike turns into Festering Scythe every time you use it. Festering Scythe costs no Runes, deals shadow damage in a cone in front of you and hastens all your plagues on targets hit by 35% for 25 seconds. Strong synergy with your plagues and abilities like Sudden Doom that procs off plague hits. Also effectively reduces the cost of Festering Strike by 50% since every other use turns
Superstrain	-	Dread Plague hits an additional enemy at 50% effectiveness and has a chance to grant you 4 Runic Power. Provides some nice additional AoE value to our otherwise Single Target only plague.
March of Madness	-	Your Lesser Ghoul deal 15% increased damage. Simple and effective talent.
Magus of the Dead	Magus	Spawns a skeletal mage whenever you use Dark Transformation and Army of the Dead. This minion casts Shadowbolts and Frostbolts at your target for 20 seconds. The Frostbolts slow the target and the Shadowbolt can cleave when talented into Menacing Magus.
Infected Claws	IC	Your primary ghoul has a chance to apply a DoT to the enemy. When reapplied, any remaining damage is added to the new effect (means overlapping applications are not negative).
Ebon Fever	EF	Plagues deal 15% more damage in 75% of their duration. This speeds up their tick rate synergising with Sudden Doom.
Scythe of Decay	-	Replaces Death and Decay, instead casting Death and Decay under your feet when you use Festering Scythe. This can only occur on the same Cooldown as Death and Decay.
Coil of Devastation	-	Adds a DoT to any target hit with your Death Coil, dealing an additional 30% of its original damage. This DoT functions similarly to Mastery: Ignite where overlapping the DoT does not in any way decrease the total damage you gain from it. This is not something you need to track. Also increases damage of Death Coil by 10%.
Unholy Devotion	-	Putrefy increases your primary ghoul's attack speed and energy regen by 25% for 12 seconds. Multiple applications can overlap meaning we do not need to monitor this buff closely.
Menacing Magus	-	Magus of the Dead's Shadow Bolt's now cleave to 8 nearby targets. This is a significant AoE improvement for your pets.
Ghoulish Frenzy	GF	Provides a 5% attack speed and damage boost to you and your primary pet whenever you use Dark Transformation. The duration of this buff lasts for as long as Dark Transformation is up.
Blightfall	-	All diseases deal 5% increased damage. Simple disease synergy talent.
Harbinger of Doom	Harbinger	Makes your Sudden Doom trigger 30% more often and adds the ability to accumulate 2 charges. Good synergy with Doomed Bidding and All Will Serve that work off SD procs. Furthermore decreases the Cooldown of Putrefy by 2.5 seconds when you summon Lesser Ghouls with Scourge Strike, significantly increasing the number of times you can use the ability.
Raise Abomination	Raise Abom	Army of the Dead additionally raises an Abomination for 30 seconds. The Abomination attacks your primary target and emits a disease cloud, increasing the damage enemies take from your minions by 20%. A nice boost to our primary burst Cooldown.
Summon Gargoyle	Garg	Army of the Dead additionally summons a Gargoyle that attacks your primary target for 25 seconds. The gargoyle gains 1% increased damage for every 1 Runic Power you spend, and always critically strikes. Incentivises prioritising spending Runic Power. The guaranteed crits are to reduce the variance from the Cooldown, but also devalues Crit somewhat when talented.
Putrid Echoes	-	Putrefy deals 20% increased damage and has 1 additional charge. Adds a lot of flexibility to the ability and enables you to be a lot more efficient with the usage.
All Will Serve	AWS	Summons an archer with your Raise Dead ability. This small minion attacks your enemies at range with a single target attack. Consuming Sudden Doom will cause the archer to fire an additional attack. Epidemic additionally causes the attack to deal AoE damage.
Blightburst	-	When Putrefy explodes, your plagues on targets hit are extended by 4 seconds and deal 35% of the damage they would deal in that time immediately. Putrefy also applies your plagues to any unaffected target. This significantly reduces the need to press Outbreak, freeing up GCDs to do more meaningful damage.
Necromancer's Cunning	-	When your Lesser Ghouls expire, they explode dealing damage to nearby enemies. A decent AoE addition to your minions.
Scourging	-	Scourge Strike now causes your plagues to erupt at 50/70% effectiveness (up from 35%) and increases the max number of stacks of Clawing Shadows by 1/2. Good plague synergy and an AoE boost.
Ancient Power	-	Spending Runic Power increases your Strength by 0.15/0.3% per Runic Power spent for 20 seconds, overlapping applications. Nice passive Strength boost that incentivises prioritising spending Runic Power.
Reaping	-	Scourge Strike, Festering Strike and Death Coil deal 30% additional damage to enemies below 35% health. Furthermore, Dark Transformation reset the Cooldown of Soul Reaper and allows it to be used at a target regardless of its health. This allows you to get 20% minion and plague damage increase every time your press Dark Transformation, regardless of the targets health level.
Unholy Aura	-	Each Magus of the Dead you have active increases your Haste by 1/2%. Big synergy with other talents that increase your summoning rate of Magus like Reanimation.
Commander of the Dead	-	Increases your Lesser Ghoul, Raise Abomination and Summon Gargoyle damage by 25/50% for 30 seconds when you activate Dark Transformation. The minions do not need to be active when you use Dark Transformation and can gain the buff if summoned later (still only lasting until 30 seconds after you pressed Dark Transformation). Furthermore, increases the duration of minions by 25/50% of your Mastery, based off their base duration. If you have 30% Mastery, the standard lesser ghoul duration would be 6 x (1 + 0.3 / 2) = 6.9 seconds.
Pestilence	-	Dark Transformation upgrades your next Outbreak, causing it to consume 100% of the Plagues around you to deal 150% of their remaining damage instantly. Also gives you a charge of Putrefy, helping you to reapply your Plagues with Blightburst. Incentivises maxing out your Plague duration and then consuming them for a big burst. Good synergy with San'layn and Infliction of Sorrow.
Reanimation	-	Putrefy spawns a Magus of the Dead for 15 seconds after the initial ghoul explodes. Also increases the damage from Magus by 25%. A significant source of Magus damage and strong synergy with talents such as Menacing Magus, Harbinger of Doom and Unholy Aura.
Outnumber	-	Each Lesser Ghoul increases the damage of your main ghoul by 10%. Dark Transformation empowers your Lesser Ghouls as well, upgrading their Claw attack to the AoE Sweeping Claws attack. A nice AoE boost to your smaller pets and a significant boost to your main pet.

The apex talents are available to learn as you level up from 80 to 90.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Forbidden Knowledge		Casting Army of the Dead empowers your Death Coil and Epidemic for 30 seconds, transforming them into Necrotic Coil and Graveyard. Necrotic Coil deals about twice as much damage as Death Coil on up to three targets. Furthermore, it deals extra damage to any targets it travels through, boosting its AoE. Graveyard deals about 2x as much damage as Epidemic but is otherwise identical in behaviour. Necrotic Coil has significantly more AoE value compared to Death Coil and you will have another breakpoint in target count for Necrotic Coil vs Graveyard when compared to Death Coil vs Epidemic.
Forbidden Knowledge		Putrefy causes your next 1 Scourge Strike to summon a Lesser Ghoul (giving one stack in a similar way to how Festering Strike gives 2-3). Also increases your Mastery by 3/6% for 12 seconds (multiple application can overlap).
Forbidden Knowledge		Each Magus of the Dead active increases the damage of Necrotic Coil and Graveyard by 8%. Furthermore, Dread Plague has a 20% chance to trigger Putrefy at 60% effectiveness. Strong talent with synergy with both Ebon Fever and Festering Scythe (DoT tick speed) as well as Magus of the Dead and Reanimation (Magus summoning)

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Rider's Champion	-	Spending Runes have a chance to summon a Horsemen for 10 seconds. Randomly gets one out of four Horsemen: Mograine - Casts Death and Decay that follows his location around. Whitemane - Casts Undeath on your enemy, a stacking DoT that can also spread to nearby enemies, similar to Necrotic Plague of old times. Trollbane - Casts Chains of Ice on your target, slowing their movement speed and increasing the damage you deal to them. Trollbane's Icy Fury allows you to burst the chains, dealing heavy AoE damage. Nazgrim - Increases your strength by 3% when active. Nazgrim's Conquest can significantly increase this benefit.
On a Paler Horse	-	While outdoors, you are able to mount your Acherus Deathcharger in combat. Huge increase to the speed at which you can quest in outdoor content. Unfortunately does not work in instanced content such as Raids, Dungeons, Battlegrounds and Arenas.
Death Charge	-	Replaces your Death's Advance, increasing the movement speed you gain to 100% and mounting you for its duration. Breaks you free of any movement impairment effects when used. Furthermore, allows you to keep fighting while on the mount. Immune to knockbacks when in effect.
Whitemane's Famine	-	When Scourge Strike damages a target affected by Undeath it gains 1 stack and infects another nearby enemy. Allows for you to quickly stack and spread the debuff in conjunction with Clawing Shadows.
Hungering Thirst	-	The damage of your diseases and Death Coil are increased by 10%.
Mograine's Might	-	Your damage is increased by 5% and you gain the benefits of your Death and Decay while inside Mograines Death and Decay. Importantly, the 5% damage increase only comes from Mograine's Death and Decay, not your own so keep an out for when Mograine spawns and stand on top of him!
Nazgrim's Conquest	-	Apocalyptic Conquest's strength is increased by 3% every time an enemy dies while Nazgrim is active. Furthermore, each Rune you spend increases the Strength by 1%. Very powerful for packs of mobs where weaker ones die quickly and early.
Fury of the Horsemen	-	Every 50 Runic Power you spend extends the duration of the Horsemen currently aiding you by 1 second, up to a maximum of 5 seconds. Solid way of improving overall uptime of the Horsemen!
A Feast of Souls	-	While you have 2 or more Horsemen aiding you, Runic Power spending abilities deal 20% increased damage. Good synergy with Apocalypse Now but also have good uptime outside of our main cooldown windows.
Horsemen's Aid	-	When active, your Horsemen will occasionally cast Anti-Magic Shell on you at 80% effectiveness. Great for extra Magic immunity and absorb.
Pact of the Apocalypse	-	When you take damage, 5% is redirected to each active Horseman. Solid passive damage reduction that increases significantly during your cooldowns.
Trollbane's Icy Fury	-	Scourge Strike shatters the Chains of Ice cast by Trollbane, dealing damage to all nearby enemies and slowing them. Incentivises tracking the chains of ice so that you can react and burst them quickly.
Mawsworn Menace	-	Scourge Strike deals 15% more damage and the cooldown of your Death and Decay is reduced by 5 seconds (from 30 to 25). Provides the option of leveraging your Death and Decay significantly more often.
Ride or Die!	-	Dark Transformation summons forth Whitemane for 6 seconds.
Let Terror Reign	-	Casting Death Coil or Epidemic orders Whitemane to cast her own versions at 125% effectiveness as well.
Unholy Armaments	-	The abilities that the Horsemen cast deal 5% increased damage.
Apocalypse Now		Army of the Dead calls upon all 4 Horsemen to aid you for 20 seconds. This significantly increases the power of your main burst Cooldown.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Vampiric Strike	-	Your Death Coil, Epidemic and Death Strike has a 25% chance to make your next Scourge Strike turn into Vampiric Strike. Vampiric Strike heals you for 2% of your maximum health and grants you Essence of the Blood Queen, increasing you Haste by 1%, up to 5% for 20 sec. This ability is primarily used during your Dark Transformation window with the Gift of the San'layn talent, you can read about it further down! Significantly changes our priority during these windows, and introduces a fishing game where you try and extend your Gift of the San'layn buff between Dark Transformation windows.
Newly Turned	-	Raise Ally revives players at full health and grants you and your ally an absorb shield equal to 20% of your maximum health. Significantly improves Raise Ally which otherwise resurrects people at 60% health.
Vampiric Speed	-	Death's Advance and Wraith Walk movement speed bonuses are increased by 10%. Activating these abilities also increases 4 nearby allies movement speed by 20% for 5 sec. Useful group utility that helps your allies' movement.
Infliction of Sorrow	-	Vampiric Strike extends the duration of your Virulent Plague & Dread Plague by 2 seconds and erupts them with 30% increased effectiveness ( Scourge Strike is default 35%). Great synergy with Pestilence where you can build up a long plague duration with your Vampiric Strikes and then burst them for big damage.
Inevitable	-	Your plagues deal up to 30% more damage based on the target's missing health, adding a nice execute mechanic to them. Furthermore, Vampiric Strike instantly gives you the max stacks of Clawing Shadows, removing the ramp-up time that otherwise exists.
Blood-Soaked Ground	-	While you are in your Death and Decay, your physical damage taken is reduced by 5% and your chance to gain Vampiric Strike is increased by 5%. Increases the value of using Death and Decay in between your Dark Transformation to increase the chance of getting the Vampiric Strike buff and extend your Essence of the Blood Queen buff.
Desecrate	-	Death and Decay has a chance to collapse, dealing 300% of the remaining damage instantly. This makes Death and Decay more powerful as its overall damage is increased on average. If you do the math it is around a 40% damage increase.
Frenzied Bloodthirst	-	Essence of the Blood Queen stacks 2 additional times (up to 7) and increases the damage of your Death Coil, Epidemic and Death Strike by 5% per stack. This gives you 35% increase at max stacks doubling to 70% during Gift of the San'layn.
Incite Terror	-	Vampiric Strike and Scourge Strike cause your targets to take 1% increased Shadow damage, up to 5% for 15 sec. Vampiric Strike benefits from Incite Terror at 400% effectiveness. A maintenance buff that is generally kept up by us doing the normal rotation.
Vampiric Aura	-	Your leech is increased by 2%. While Lichborne is active, the Leech bonus of this effect is increased by 100%, and it affects 4 allies within 12 yards. Minor defensive buff as well as some group utility.
Bloody Fortitude	-	Icebound Fortitude reduces all damage you take by an additional 20% based on your missing health. Killing an enemy that yields experience or honor reduces the cooldown of Icebound Fortitude by 3 seconds. Solid defensive boost that is especially powerful during leveling.
The Blood is Life	-	Dark Transformation summons a Blood Beast to attack your enemies for 10 seconds. Every time it attacks, it stores a portion of the damage dealt, exploding for 15% of the stored damage when it despawns. This also heals you for the same amount.
Pact of the San'layn	-	You store 10% of all Shadow Damage into your Blood Beast when it is active, exploding for additional damage when it despawns. A big increase in our DPS during Dark Transformation and an effect that scales quadratically with number of targets.
Sanguine Scent	-	Your Death Coil, Epidemic and Death Strike have a 15% increased chance to trigger Vampiric Strike when damaging enemies below 35% health. Increases our execute as it triggers a lot more Vampiric Strikes when the target is low on health.
Thrill of Blood	-	Essence of the Blood Queen additionally increases your Mastery by 0.2% for each stack.
Visceral Strength	-	When Sudden Doom is consumed, you gain 8% Strength for 5 seconds. This makes Sudden Doom procs significantly stronger.
Transfusion	-	Vampiric Strike increases the damage of your Lesser Ghouls it summons by 20%.
Gift of the San'layn	-	During Dark Transformation you gain Gift of the San'layn. This increases the effectiveness of Essence of the Blood Queen by 100%, giving you significantly more Haste. Furthermore, your Scourge Strike is replaced by Vampiric Strike for the duration. Significant synergy with Infliction of Sorrow as it allows you to stack up a high Virulent Plague & Dread Plague duration, gaining a ton of extra damage from Pestilence. Also big increase to Death Coil/ Epidemic due to Frenzied Bloodthirst.