Gear
In Season 2 of Dragonflight, we will be able to acquire a new tier set! This can be obtained from raid bosses in Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible. We will also be able to craft tier pieces with the Creation Catalyst a few weeks after the season starts. You will want to get this tier set as it is an excellent bonus to your throughput!
Notable Items:
Mirror of Fractured Tomorrows - This trinket is from the brand new mega-dungeon, Dawn of the Infinite, and is essentially an Algeth’ar Puzzle Box equivalent (without the Unholy Nerfs and at a higher ilvl) with the addition of a “future self” casting spells based on your role. It's a strong alternative to Irideus Fragment if you are able to get it to proc Mastery, as it lasts 20 seconds which is the full duration of your Summon Gargoyle. You will want to make sure that Mastery is your highest secondary stat when using this trinket.
Ashkandur, Fall of the Brotherhood: Luckily this is not a very rare item, and it’s pretty good! It is the highest item level 2H strength weapon in Season 2, which has good secondary stats as well an extra damage proc (while it may not be much, you are not losing anything for the proc so free extra damage is always a big plus). So this is a big item you will want from Echo of Neltharion in the raid.
Ominous Chromatic Essense: This is a very strong and consistent trinket once you are able to have a raid that contains at least 3 of the 5 buffs. You will want to change the stats it gives you based on your current gear.
Neltharion’s Call to Suffering: This trinket can be good due to the large amount of primary stat (strength) you get once it procs, so if it procs during your cooldowns then it provides a significant boost to your throughput. However, since the nerfs to the RPPM proc rate scaling with haste, this trinket can be very hit or miss and pretty inconsistent. It is a good trinket, however I would recommend using Ominous Chromatic Essence instead for more consistency.
Vial of Animated Blood: With the return of The Underrot in Season 2, we will be able to loot the Vial of Animated Blood. This trinket plays well with Summon Gargoyle, as well as being strong in cleave/aoe builds. You will be able to use this trinket for every Summon Gargoyle window, but it will not be as big for your Summon Gargoyle as Irideus Fragment. However, it also perfectly lines up with Unholy Assault, Dark Transformation and Apocalypse so while you will be getting less value for your Summon Gargoyle, you are going to get more for your Unholy Assault windows inbetween Summon Gargoyle / Army of the Dead casts. It’s also good for having a consistent on use trinket for in Mythic Plus.
Irideus Fragment: In a similar fashion to Vial of Animated Blood, this is another on use trinket from the Season 2 dungeon pool. This trinket comes from the Halls of Infusion and will be a strong option if you want to put as much damage into your Summon Gargoyle as possible. Think of this trinket as a bigger Vial of Animated Blood on a longer cooldown (which is better for scenarios where you need a lot of front loaded damage 3 minutes apart from each other). Both have their strengths and weaknesses.
Voice of the Silent Star: This is a cloak which is a dps increase, however it’s not as good as it may seem. Unholy is a very front-loaded spec, where most of its damage comes from your Summon Gargoyle and Army of the Dead window, if this cloak effect does not proc during those cooldowns then it’s not really that much of a gain. It is of course a dps gain but you are sacrificing quite a lot of health for it (Death Knight has stamina multipliers such as Veteran of the Third War), which is definitely not worthwhile in a progress setting. I only recommend using this cloak in farm scenarios when you and your guild are comfortable with the raid and are not having any issues with survivability.
Crafted Embellishment Gear:
Crafted gear in Dragonflight allows you to get two 447 Embellished pieces. Embellishments can provide a significant damage increase so they are definitely worth picking up.
Primal Molten Sabatons (with Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch): While the Primal Molten Sabatons are nothing special on their own, by applying a Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch it makes them one of the best pieces of gear you can craft in Season 2. It is the best performing Embellishment in single target (but does not scale well in AoE) and will is an important item for raiding in Season 2.
Primal Molten Greatbelt (with Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch): Just like the Primal Molten Sabatons above, applying a Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch to these crafted boots has the same effect, making it one of the best you can craft. Wearing 2 Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch will also double the effect, so it is very strong to use this belt alongside the Primal Molten Sabatons, both embellished with Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch.
Allied Wristguard of Companionship: You will mainly want to have these ready for AoE scenarios like Mythic Plus. Mainly because the other options (except Elemental Lariat) do not scale well in AoE, and these wrists just give you raw stats which always scales well in AoE, even if its versatility (a stat which is not that great for Unholy).
Elemental Lariat: Gives you a stat proc based on the gems you have socketed in the neck piece; with it also being able to go up to 447 item level and being fully customizable stat-wise. For Unholy the effect from stacking 2 Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch embellishments outweighs the value of the additional stats provided by Elemental Lariat in single target, mainly due to the amount of Haste Unholy has in it’s cooldowns, and Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch scales with Haste. However, for AoE, this is one of the best Embellishments due to the amount of secondary stats it provides. The other embellishments (except Allied Wristguard of Companionship) are single target and do not scale as well as raw secondary stats in AoE scenarios.
Season 2 Tier Set
- 2 Set Bonus: Death Coil and Epidemic damage increased by 10%. Casting Death Coil or Epidemic grants a stack of Master of Death, up to 20. Dark Transformation consumes Master of Death and grants 1% Mastery for each stack for 25 sec.
- 4 Set Bonus: Army of the Dead grants 20 stacks of Master of Death. When Death Coil or Epidemic consumes Sudden Doom gain 1 extra stacks of Master of Death and 10% Mastery for 6 sec.
2 Set Bonus
The main bulk of the power comes with the 2 piece bonus, making your Dark Transformation timing even more important when it comes to cooldown alignment. It gives a 25 second mastery buff, the value of this buff is based on how many Death Coil/Epidemic casts you have used in between Dark Transformation casts (however, using Army of the Dead will give you 20 stacks immediately with the 4 Piece Bonus, so you will get the max value of the 2 set on the pull).
This set is pretty solid for Mythic Plus (having 20% additional mastery at the start of most mob packs during a key is very nice and gives Unholy some extra upfront damage) and decent for raiding scenarios as it lasts for the duration of Summon Gargoyle.
However, while this set bonus appears to be super strong on paper, it’s barely better than the previous Vault of Incarnates Tierset and the mastery gained from this tierset is additive, not multiplicative (so it doesn’t scale as well as you might have thought).
4 Set Bonus
This set bonus is mainly important for the immediate 20 stacks that you gain after casting Army of the Dead which is mostly important for your opener, after that it just gives you 10% Mastery and an additional stack of your 2 piece bonus when you consume Sudden Doom procs which is okay I guess, but nothing special. It’s quite rng based on Sudden Doom procs during cooldowns, but other than that it’s quite a simple 4 Piece Bonus that compliments the 2 piece bonus.
Which bosses drop tier pieces?
- Lingering Phantom’s Dreadhorns: from Magmorax
- Lingering Phantom’s Shoulderplates: from Echo of Neltharion
- Lingering Phantom’s Plackart: from The Vigilant Skeward, Zskarn
- Lingering Phantom’s Gauntlets: from The Forgotten Experiments
- Lingering Phantom’s Schynbalds: from Rashok, the Elder