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Talent Builds
In this section, I will give a comprehensive overview of talent builds for Raiding and Mythic Plus, as well as highlighting specific talents and their strengths/synergies.
These talent builds can be altered depending on your scenario, primarily being adapted based on what utility/defensive talents you may need/require to get the most out of the class.
[Raid] Riders Single Target
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The Riders Single Target build mostly focuses on summoning and buffing all of our undead minions. The main talents for this build are Reanimation, which lets us summon an army of Magus’, Outnumber, which significantly buffs both our main ghoul and lesser ghouls, and Commander of the Dead, which buffs almost every minion we summon (the exceptions are Risen Skulker, Riders of the Apocalypse, and our main ghoul).
Rotationally, this build will spend most of its time summoning Lesser Ghouls with Scourge Strike, spending Runic Power and Sudden Doom procs with Death Coil, maintaining buff stacks, and debuffs with Festering Strike and Festering Scythe. It is vital for you to never use Scourge Strike without any stacks of Lesser Ghoul (the buff provided by Festering Strike and Festering Scythe). So if you do not have Runes available to press Festering Strike, and have no Lesser Ghoul stacks, default to pressing Death Coil instead.
The cooldown sequence in this build tends to be quite simple, with Dark Transformation being off the global cooldown. This means you can macro it in with Army of the Dead to ensure that they are always used together, and consistently overlap the Commander of the Dead buffs with all of our summons. Aside from this, we need to spend our first Putrefy quickly after pull, so we aren't wasting cooldown time, and apply our Diseases with Outbreak. That's all there really is to the opener priority, a far cry from previous iterations of Unholy requiring nuclear launch sequences.
[Raid/Mythic+] Riders AoE/Cleave
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The Riders AoE build mostly focuses on summoning and buffing all of our undead minions. The main talents for this build are Reanimation, which lets us summon an army of Magus’ synergizing with Menacing Magus to allow them to cleave, Outnumber which significantly buffs both our main ghoul, and lesser ghouls while also allowing them to cast Sweeping Claws to AoE, and Commander of the Dead which buffs almost every minion we summon (the exceptions are Risen Skulker, Riders of the Apocalypse, and our main ghoul).
Rotationally, this build will spend most of its time summoning Lesser Ghouls with Scourge Strike, spending Runic Power and Sudden Doom procs with Epidemic, and maintaining buff stacks and debuffs with Festering Strike and Festering Scythe. It is vital for you to never use Scourge Strike without any stacks of Lesser Ghoul (the buff provided by Festering Strike and Festering Scythe). So if you do not have Runes available to press Festering Strike, and have no Lesser Ghoul stacks, default to pressing Epidemic instead.
There is a short ramp-up time to be able to do any respectable AoE damage due to Clawing Shadows needing to stack before Scourge Strike can do AoE damage. As such, you should aim to try to maintain these buff stacks between packs of enemies in Mythic+.
The target counts required to swap between Death Coil and Epidemic in Midnight have been simplified pretty massively, leading to a recommendation to use Death Coil at 2 or fewer targets, and Epidemic at 3 or more targets. During Forbidden Knowledge windows, this increases to 4 or fewer targets to Necrotic Coil, and 5+ for Graveyard.
The cooldown sequence in this build tends to be quite simple, with Dark Transformation being off the global cooldown. This means you can macro it in with Army of the Dead to ensure that they are always used together, and consistently overlap the Commander of the Dead buffs with all of our summons. Aside from this, we need to spend our first Putrefy quickly after pull, so we aren't wasting cooldown time, and apply our Diseases with Outbreak. That's all there really is to the opener priority, a far cry from previous iterations of Unholy requiring nuclear launch sequences.
Situational Adjustments
Mythic Plus often requires different forms of utility depending on your comp and which key you are doing, so you can give up talents such as Wraith Walk, Grip of the Dead, Coldthirst, etc for others such as Anti-Magic Zone, Asphyxiate, Vestigial Shell, Control Undead, etc.
[Raid AoE/Mythic+] San’layn Pestilence
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The San’layn Pestilence build is very focused on applying and extending our Diseases as much as is humanly possible before consuming them with Pestilence. This synergizes incredibly well with San’layn due to Infliction of Sorrow allowing Vampiric Strike to extend our diseases by 3 seconds, instead of only being able to extend with Blightburst, and Death Coil/Epidemic.
When deciding when to consume your Pestilence charge, it should ideally fall into one or two categories. The first category is likely the most common. The group of enemies you're fighting is fairly close to dying. If they are about to die, consume your Pestilence to finish them off. Otherwise, it's best to save your Pestilence charge for the end of Dark Transformation due to that likely being when you have the highest Virulent Plague duration available to you. Outside of Dark Transformation windows, we often drop a bit in Virulent Plague duration, more so in large packs of enemies where Vampiric Strike can not hit everything.
Rotationally, this build will spend most of its time summoning Lesser Ghouls with Scourge Strike/Vampiric Strike, spending Runic Power and Sudden Doom procs with Epidemic, and maintaining buff stacks and debuffs with Festering Strike and Festering Scythe. It is vital for you to never use Scourge Strike or Vampiric Strike without any stacks of Lesser Ghoul (the buff provided by Festering Strike and Festering Scythe). So if you do not have Runes available to press Festering Strike, and have no Lesser Ghoul stacks, default to pressing Epidemic instead.
There is a short ramp-up time to be able to do any respectable AoE damage due to Clawing Shadows needing to stack before Scourge Strike can do AoE damage. As such, you should aim to try to maintain these buff stacks between packs of enemies in Mythic+.
The target counts required to swap between Death Coil and Epidemic in Midnight have been simplified pretty massively, leading to a recommendation to use Death Coil at 2 or fewer targets, and Epidemic at 3 or more targets. During Forbidden Knowledge windows, this increases to 4 or fewer targets to Necrotic Coil, and 5+ for Graveyard.
The cooldown sequence in this build tends to be quite simple, with Dark Transformation being off the global cooldown. This means you can macro it in with Army of the Dead to ensure that they are always used together, and consistently overlap the Commander of the Dead buffs with all of our summons. Aside from this, we need to spend our first Putrefy quickly after pull, so we aren't wasting cooldown time, and apply our Diseases with Outbreak. That's all there really is to the opener priority, a far cry from previous iterations of Unholy requiring nuclear launch sequences.
Situational Adjustments
Mythic Plus often requires different forms of utility depending on your comp and which key you are doing, so you can give up talents such as Wraith Walk, Grip of the Dead, Coldthirst, etc for others such as Anti-Magic Zone, Asphyxiate, Vestigial Shell, Control Undead, etc.
Class Talents
Unholy Bond - Easily the most important DPS talent in the tree, as this increases the effectiveness of all our Runeforges, including the free Razorice applications from Glacial Advance.
Unholy Momentum - While just a flat % Haste buff, free stats are free stats. Since there are very few DPS increasing nodes in the class tree, this one is a must take.
Brittle - A random proc off our Frost Fever DoT which increases the damage that a target will take from us for a few seconds. While not the biggest DPS increase, it's one of the few DPS nodes in the tree.
Gloom Ward - Increases the value of all absorb shields we receive, including from AMS. This substantially buffs our best defensive cooldown, making it a must take.
Deaths Echo - Doubles the charges of Death's Advance, Death And Decay, and Death Grip. In most content, you will never be using Death and Decay, but the extra charges for Death's Advance and Death Grip can be a lifesaver in any group content.
Anti-Magic Zone - A magic damage reduction for the entire raid/group. A must take in all group content to help keep everyone alive.
Spec Talents
Army of the Dead - Our core, and most powerful cooldown. When using Rider of the Apocalypse and our Apex Talent, this is required to trigger their effects.
Raise Abomination - An additional summon with every Army of the Dead cast. While not as powerful as the Army itself, it does significant damage and increases the damage of all of our pets while it's active, becoming a vital talent for any build with a focus on pets.
Harbinger of Doom - Increases the proc rate of Sudden Doom, significantly increasing the damage Death Coil and Epidemic do. In addition to that very potent effect, this also reduces the cooldown of Putrefy whenever you consume a Lesser Ghoul stack. This makes this talent absolutely vital to always be able to cast more Putrefys.
Outnumber - Allows our Lesser Ghouls to cleave during Dark Transformation, alongside empowering our main ghoul (Timmy).
Reanimation - Causes Putrefy casts to summon a Magus of the Dead, including the random procs from the Apex talent. When combined with Menacing Magus, it can allow for significant passive cleave.
Pestilence - Replaces Outbreak after casting Dark Transformation. This action replacement has no duration and can be held for as long as you want. When used, it will consume all active diseases within 40 yards of you, dealing all of the damage they would have dealt over time instantly. An incredibly potent AoE cooldown if you can extend Virulent Plague’s duration enough on a large number of targets.
Festering Scythe - While it doesn't look like much on paper, just a 35% increase in disease tick rate, this talent is absolutely vital to any Unholy Death Knights due to the Scythe itself costing no Runes. Which massively lowers the resource pressure we have from stacking up Lesser Ghoul stacks. Without this talent, you will spend a significant amount of time AFK waiting for resources.
Apex Talents
The new Apex Talents for Unholy Death Knight are:
First Point: Forbidden Knowledge - Replaces Death Coil and Epidemic with Necrotic Coil and Graveyard, respectively, for 30 seconds after casting Army of the Dead.
Second & Third Point: Forbidden Knowledge - Casting Putrefy grants you 1 stack of Lesser Ghoul, as well as grants you 3/6% mastery for 12 seconds.
Final Point: Forbidden Knowledge - Causes each active Magus of the Dead you have to increase the damage of Necrotic Coil and Graveyard by 8% per Magus. Additionally, Dread Plague has a 20% chance to trigger a free Putrefy (does not cost charges), which does everything a normal Putrefy would do at 60% effectiveness.
The effectiveness of the Final Point of Forbidden Knowledge reduces; The duration of Reanimation Magus, the Duration extension of Blightburst, and the damage the Putrefy would do.
Aside from that minor footnote, the Apex talents themselves are entirely passive and don't really interact with the rotation at all. The only consideration there is that during the Forbidden Knowledge window, Necrotic Coil will hit up to 3 targets, rather than Death Coil's 1 target. This will mean you will swap from pressing Necrotic Coil to Graveyard at 5 stacked targets, rather than the usual 3 targets for Coil versus Epidemic.
Hero Talents
Hero talents are a new system in The War Within that gives you additional talents, specializing and enhancing specific themes/aspects of the class. Unholy has a choice between Rider of the Apocalypse or San’Layn.
Rider of the Apocalypse
This hero talent tree is themed around the 4 horsemen, giving you a chance to summon a horseman to assist you for 10 seconds. Each horseman has unique abilities that they will use to deal damage and also increase their damage.
Mograine - When summoned, he will have a Death and Decay around him; this will always follow him wherever he goes. While standing inside it, you gain all of the effects you would get in your own Death and Decay, such as Cleaving Strikes and Mograine’s Might.
Nazgrim - While active, he will give you a 3% strength buff, which is increased by either nearby enemies dying (3%) or spending a rune (1%).
Whitemane - She will cast a DoT called Undeath onto her target, which deals damage over 24 seconds (this cannot be extended). Undeath applies an additional stack every 3 seconds, and can be stacked up further by using Scourge Strike on the afflicted target (up to 15 stacks total). Scourge Strike will also spread Undeath to nearby enemies.
Trollbane - When summoned, Trollbane will cast Chains of Ice on the target, which slows and increases the damage you deal to them by 5% for 8 seconds. He will keep applying this debuff to the target while he is active. This talent scales in both aoe and single target because of Trollbane’s Icy Fury, so you will want to Scourge Strike the target affected by Trollbane’s Chains of Ice for some additional cleave/aoe damage.
Apocalypse Now - This hero talent tree is very burst oriented with Apocalypse Now, which makes Army of the Dead and Raise Abomination even stronger. This particularly favors Raise Abomination as it allows you to trigger Apocalypse Now twice as often as you can with Army of the Dead due to its 1.5min cooldown.
Rider of the Apocalypse excels best in single target, but also has some strong cases for being used in AOE/cleave encounters, mainly due to Trollbane’s Icy Fury, Mawsworn Menace and A Feast of Souls. Most talent points in this tree give a benefit to both multi-target and single-target, but these are the big hitters.
Defense/Utility Talents:
Defense and mobility capabilities are also greatly enhanced with this hero tree, with Death Charge being one of the most powerful movement talents in the game. Death’s Advance is already a very strong ability when used properly, and Death Charge makes Death Knight super fast and immune to displacement effects.
You can also get a 5% damage reduction for each Rider that is active (which is a 20% damage reduction during Apocalypse Now) via Pact of the Apocalypse, or a lot of additional magic damage prevention/mitigation with Horsemen’s Aid.
What does Rider of the Apocalypse do for Unholy’s rotation/gameplay?
This hero talent specialization does alter the way you play based on which rider is currently active. The most noticeable gameplay changes come when you summon Trollbane or Mograine. Trollbane applies Trollbane’s Icy Fury to your target and this debuff is a high priority to consume, as he cannot apply another one if the target is already afflicted.
The other is Mograine, which has a Death and Decay around him, which will save you a charge of your own Death and Decay if you need to cleave with Cleaving Strikes. You will also want to stand in his Death and Decay to benefit from the buff, Mograine’s Might.
Lastly, to trigger Apocalypse Now, you need to have the talent Army of the Dead, and as it is such a strong hero talent, it also encourages taking Raise Abomination or Legion of Souls so you can trigger Apocalypse Now twice as often.
San’layn
San’layn focuses more around diseases, and your gameplay will completely revolve around extending and ramping your diseases during Dark Transformation, and then popping them right after (If you have Pestilence talented.) It also has a lot of self-healing capabilities and changes your rotation/priorities quite a bit.
Vampiric Strike - When you use Dark Transformation your Scourge Strike will become Vampiric Strike. Each use of Vampiric Strike will increase your haste by 1% (up to a total of 7%, this haste bonus is doubled during Dark Transformation), and extend/amplify Virulent Plague via Infliction of Sorrow. Outside of Dark Transformation, your runic power spending abilities (Death Coil, Epidemic & Death Strike) will have a 25% chance to make your next Scourge Strike a Vampiric Strike, potentially extending the Essence of the Blood Queen haste buff.
Defense/Utility Talents
As mentioned before, Vampiric Strike provides a lot of self-healing, and San’layn has some additional talents that benefit you in mitigation, utility, and mobility.
Two of these talents are party-wide effects that can be utilized in group content like Mythic+ and Delves, increasing your party's movement speed with Vampiric Speed and giving your party 4% leech during Lichborne with Vampiric Aura.
For Raiding, you have two other talents instead, which make your Raise Ally restore your allies to max health and also give you both a shield for 20% of your max health with Newly Turned, or increased Icebound Fortitude mitigation based on your missing health with Bloody Fortitude.
What does San’layn do for Unholy’s rotation/gameplay?
San’layn does not significantly alter Unholy’s gameplay loop currently. The only major benefit San’layn can bring synergistically with the base talent tree is when using Infliction of Sorrow in conjunction with Pestilence in order to get incredibly long disease durations to consume with Pestilence.