Unholy Death Knight PvP Best Arena Compositions — The War Within (11.0.5)
Team composition in 2v2 or 3v3 Arena is very important, because not all classes work well together. Here, we give you the best compositions you can have for your Unholy Death Knight (i.e., the best classes to pair with it).
This page is part of our Unholy Death Knight PvP Guide.
2v2 Arena
Unholy Death Knights perform very well in 2v2 Arena, as their toolkit and damage output perfectly synergizes with the necessary playstyle of 2s. 2v2 Arena begins at 30% dampening, which causes all healing to be reduced by 30%. Unholy has a lot of single-target bursts but also "rot" damage through diseases and minions. It is that rot damage that causes them to be so powerful. As healing gets more and more dampened, the sustained pressure of Unholy is harder to deal with and also unpeelable because using CC on every pet is impossible, and dispelling an easy-to-apply disease does not help much.
Therefore, to use your toolkit properly, you will want to prioritize the following things.
Firstly, always make sure you are using your stuns on every burst window to quickly put your enemy behind. This would be your Asphyxiate and whatever stun your healer provides.
Secondly, make sure to be keeping your disease applied from Outbreak.
Thirdly, make sure to be using your minion cooldowns as quickly as possible, such as Apocalypse and Raise Abomination, as this will provide the unpeelable pressure.
Finally, make sure to be using your disruption on the healer to cause them to fall behind, especially during your burst windows: Death Grip, Mind Freeze, Leap, and Gnaw are some of the ways Unholy can shut down enemy healers.
Here is a list of the best team compositions for 2v2:
- Unholy Death Knight + Holy Paladin
- Unholy Death Knight + Restoration Druid
- Unholy Death Knight + Mistweaver Monk
- Unholy Death Knight + Restoration Shaman
3v3 Arena
Your role in 3v3 Arena is similar to 2v2, but with the addition of another DPS on your team, you will want to use Death Grip in coordination with them to set up impactful burst windows. Generally, you will grip the enemy healer on top of the DPS target that you have been hitting, and AoE stun them or AoE CC them together, which allows you to spread pressure to multiple players at once.
Unholy has a lot of cleave but also a lot of "rot" pressure, making it very difficult to recover from successful "goes." Furthermore, you will have to use your disruption on enemy caster DPS instead of solely the healer if they are using cooldowns or if your team is in a dangerous situation. Rotating Mind Freeze with your partner can shut down Mages or Warlocks pretty well, especially with your other disruption tools mentioned above.
These comps are subject to change as the meta can be extremely volatile at the start of an expansion but some of the most powerful 3v3 Compositions for Unholy Death Knight are:
- Walking Dead (Unholy Death Knight + Windwalker Monk + Healer)
- TSG (Unholy Death Knight + Arms Warrior + Healer)
- Hero Cleave (Unholy Death Knight + Havoc Demon Hunter + Healer)
- Shadowcleave (Unholy Death Knight + Demonology Warlock + Healer)
- Spriest / DK (Unholy Death Knight + Shadow Priest + Healer)
- PHDK (Unholy Death Knight + Marksmanship Hunter + Healer)
Changelog
- 21 Oct. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.5.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Season 1.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for War Within Launch.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Reviewed for War Within Prepatch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Season 4.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2.0.
- 01 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
- 05 May 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.
- 21 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 30 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 22 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 31 Jul. 2022: Updated for Shadowlands Season 4.
- 02 Mar. 2022: Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.2.0.
- 11 Dec. 2021: Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.1.5.
- 04 Jul. 2021: Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.1.
- 05 Dec. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands Season 1.
- 14 Oct. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands pre-patch.
Other PvP Guides
Keator is a Rank 1 Death Knight and has been playing Death Knight since Wrath. After having raided in US Top 50 guilds for multiple expansions, he decided to dive into PvP where he found his passion. He also streams occasionally on Twitch.
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