1
Aug

PTR 3.2 Unholy DK Specs

   Posted by: Skeleton Jack   in PTR, Specs

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Heya guys!!  So it’s time for a new spec update from 3.2!!  And well, Unholy is looking weird atm so I do expect to see even further changes coming.  Some people tend to think that 3.2 will go live on Tuesday because they don’t intend for the current Arena season to end yet.  Blizzard gives 2 weeks notice before an Arena season ends for those who did know.

But the other line of thinking is that it is going live this Tuesday, and that the Arena season is just being extended.  Which has happened in BC before.  The main counter to that however is the new Arena gear for the next season and all of the updates on Arena changes. 

Unholy 3.2 Builds

The big reason to expect upcoming changes to Unholy is because Blizzard’s “design goal” for DK’s is that there should be one major strike for every tree’s rotation.  Blood has Death Strike, Frost has Obliterate, and Unholy has Scourge Strike.  However Unholy will be scaling the best with OB over SS in the current 3.2 PTR version.  Which leads me to believe that we should expect some kind of a change to come.

 

2H Unholy SS Build - 0/10/61

Rotations

PS – IT - BS - BS - SS - RP  //  SS - SS - SS – RP

Priority System:  Diseases (BP > FF) > MaxRP-Dump > SS > BS > DC.  It is important to understand that Rune abilities always take priority over RP abilities.  The one exception to Rune > RP  is if you will go over your RP cap, then immediately fire off a RP ability.  Always keep the 2SR in mind however, as you will want to fire off DC’s and HoW between GCD’s when possible.  Don’t just RP dump at the end of a rotation.

Anytime your diseases are not refreshed by SS Glyph, make sure you refresh them yourself.  So long as your diseases have 2+ seconds on their duration firing off SS’s is fine.  Just be aware of your Rune CD’s and the duration left on your diseases at all times.  BP and FF diseases take priority over all other attacks.  Otherwise you can spam SS and BS, ignoring IT and PS as long as the SS Glyph is proc’ing.

Runeforge:  FC

Weapon Speeds:  Slow

Presence:  Blood

 

2H Unholy Oblit Build – 0/17/54

Rotations

PS – IT –  BS – BS – OB – RP  //  OB – OB – OB – RP

Priority System:  Diseases (BP > FF) > MaxRP-Dump > OB > BS > DC.  It is important to understand that Rune abilities always take priority over RP abilities.  The one exception to Rune > RP  is if you will go over your RP cap, then immediately fire off a RP ability.  Always keep the 2SR in mind however, as you will want to fire off DC’s and HoW between GCD’s when possible.  Don’t just RP dump at the end of a rotation.

Runeforge:  FC

Weapon Speeds:  Slow

Presence:  Blood

Notes:  This spec requires 20%+ Armor Penetration in order for it to outscale a SS Unholy build.

-Suffer Well Brothers and Sisters.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, August 1st, 2009 at 11:21 pm and is filed under PTR, Specs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

30 comments so far

Dyna
 1 

Now, are these builds going to scale better with any particular gear itemization or will they be across the board for both T7 and T8?

Also, just how important will the Ghoul Frenzy be in the SS build and where will it fall in your rotation? It has a 30 sec duration but will you just keep it up whenever your Blood Tap is available or (dumb question) spam it every 30 sec?

One more question, where is Armor Pen going to fall for the OB Build beyond the 20%? Do we need to just keep it around that range or do we need to pick Armor Pen over say Crit (Keeping in mind the gear that drops in Ulduar)? With this question I’m just trying to figure where the chips are falling for DKs from this patch for this particular build.

Thanks, Jack

August 1st, 2009 at 11:49 pm
Skeleton Jack
 2 

The more Armor Pen you get, the better the spec gets. But as always you want Strength more than anything, you want to be melee hit capped minimum, and a solid bit of Expertise is always a good thing. GF is used once a minute on Blood Tap, but never forget you can lead in any fight with one by activating roughly 5-10 seconds before the pull (30 sec duration).

August 2nd, 2009 at 3:08 am
Tarragon
 3 

Isn’t Blood’s “Special Strike” Heart strike?
How much worse will the Obliterate build be with little to no armor pen?

August 2nd, 2009 at 3:46 am
Skeleton Jack
 4 

Nope. Your same arguement would then accentuate Frost Strike and Unholy Blight possibly as well.

Each Spec has a primary strike that is fueled by F/U runes, and Blizzard stated when Death Strike was redesigned for Blood (replacing OB), that they wanted each spec to have a signature F/U strike.

Blood: Death Strike
Frost: Obliterate
Unholy: Scourge Strike

The BIGGEST reason for that was that Annihilation is mandatory for an OB spec and they did not want to funnel every single OB dependent spec into Frost no matter what.

August 2nd, 2009 at 6:31 am
Vaden
 5 

So for the 20% ArPen should we just wear gear with ArPen on it or can we get by with using a Grim Toll or Mjolnir Runestone?

August 2nd, 2009 at 11:11 am
Dyna
 6 

You probably don’t want to really on a trinket to proc to get your 20%, but as Jack already stated, “The more Armor Pen you get, the better the spec gets.”

August 2nd, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Danthalas
 7 

Hi SJ,

Can you please explain why you drop the extra points in DnD on the 0/10/61 build? I thought the whole point of this build was to take advantage of the extra Shadow damage. Dropping the extra 10% for Death Coil, on top of the glyph just doesn’t make much sense to me. Why not take points out of BcB or Necrosis to fill in for DnD?

August 3rd, 2009 at 9:06 am
Skeleton Jack
 8 

First I recommend reading all of the Things You Didn’t Know About WoW posts (http://www.skeletonjack.com/category/things-you-didnt-know-about-wow/).

Particularly the post about how much dps Unholy talents actually give you: http://www.skeletonjack.com/2009/07/30/unholy-talents-how-much-dps-do-they-really-give-you/

GF is the only thing you could maybe drop for 1 more point in Morbidity. I never compared those two.

As to Armor Pen, I am talking static Apr. If you don’t have a static 20%+, then OB builds will be subpar. Trinkets are not part of the equation.

August 3rd, 2009 at 9:15 am
Danthalas
 9 

Thanks, SJ.

I went back and reread those posts, plus went and looked up the WoW meters, as mentioned. Most of the top DPSers seemd to be Blood, but those who were Unholy (that I checked, and by no means did I Armory all of them), had a 0/10/61 that had 3/3 in Morbidity, forsaking Ghoul Frenzy and having only 2/3 in BcB. My current spec follows that same vein.

My thoughts on it were that with a 2H weapon, we don’t rely on auto attacks so much as a DW build and therefore, the points in BcB weren’t as much of a help as Morbidity’s extra damage for Death Coil.

My ArPen, ATM is only about 15%, so I won’t be trying the OB build any time soon, but look forward to seeing some live results.

Thanks for a great site. Your information has been invaluable in improving my performance.

August 3rd, 2009 at 10:18 am
ODk
 10 

I Reread the posts as well and still feel that the Morbidity and Glyph would be a superior way to go, i myself would have taken the points out of Necrosis, but its cause last i read necrosis was worth less point for point than BCB but im not sure if thats changed sense….

seems we have quite a few people interested in a breakdown of that area of the spec if you would be up to it, my assumption is that DC being as high damage as possible giving the additional UB damage….i would also assume the glyph of dark death would be far superior to glyph of UB, then ghoul and SS take up glyph 2 and 3….

but everything else you wrote is about my exact use of my DK on your unholy SS build allready, the only change will be fireing off DC instead of UB, which i would assume would be a pretty decent single target improvement with the new UB ontop of the extra DC and the rest of the DC, hopeing its more than the old UB on atleast one target….

would be sick if they considered it a disease tho, extra death strike healing? tho i assume its not… too good to be true hehe…

August 3rd, 2009 at 11:13 am
Murloc
 11 

Hey, Jack
Thanks for coming back and workin hard to keep us updated and on top of our raid groups. The talent specs are a godsend, I can’t thank you enough!
One thing I saw in the Unholy DW spec – Shouldn’t the extra talent point you threw into Morbidity go towards a point in Icy Talons? Ice Talons would help constantly in fights while Morbidity would just help in the not -so-often times we use DnD.
Thanks!
-Murloc

August 3rd, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Danthalas
 12 

Morbidity isn’t just for DnD, it also increases the damage from your Death Coil by 5% per point spent on the talent. So for 3 points, you get an extra 15% damage from your Death Coils.

August 3rd, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Skeleton Jack
 13 

Ghoul Frenzy is an up in the air ability. I cannot for a fact say that it is “the way to go” as I’ve not seen anyone break down on it, nor have I. But it’s fairly simple. I plan to come back to this point. However the main reason why *most* raiders skip this talent is not because of the dps gain, but because it takes real work to learn how to use it properly. Keep that in mind when looking up people’s specs. Is it due to laziness or efficiency?

If you guys read my post about Unholy talents in Things You Didn’t Know About WoW, then you’d know that DC’s tend to not be all that much of your DPS. It’s less than your white damage (for Necrosis comparison) usually ranging around the 12% margin, boss fights can vary of course.

Morbidity is not “All that, *and* a bag of chips!” From a utility perspective it is the bomb. From a pure dps perspective, it is not as solid as it appears to be. Point for point, you get more bang for your buck from BCB and Necrosis asuming two facts: You have picked the proper gear and all of your gear is roughly equal (meaning if you have T8 gear you’re using a T8 weapon as well). And you are on top of your game playing properly.

The flip side? The dps difference is actually so marginal it’s easy to argue for Morbidity for trash packs. Personal preference is the better decision maker there imo.

August 3rd, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Murloc
 14 

Oh you’re right Danthalas, I missed that.
And thanks SJ, I see what you mean. So as of now, would you reccommend an Unholy 2H spec over the Frost DW, if, say, someone has a much better 2H than the DW weapons? Or is the benefits from DW greater than the 2H Unholy spec if the DW weapons are from Ulduar as well?

August 3rd, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Nix
 15 

Dear SJ,

First of all thanks for the great articles! They are very informative!

Secondly, I wish to ask something about the 0/10/61 build. In order for this build to be effective do you need items of ilvls 226+? Because currently all my gear is ilvl 213.

Should I go 10/0/61 in order to spec in Bladed armour?

Thanks in advance, keep up the good work!

August 4th, 2009 at 3:31 am
ODk
 16 

Im also curious if your better of with a 2H Spec with a 232 2H or a dual wield spec with 219’s or better…. useing any spec with either weapons… which being the best?

my assumptions are gona be unholy 2h with 232 weapon or frost dw with 223 or better maby?

Or does unholy 2h hold up to the new DW on the ptr so far? anyone know? believe SJ said he didnt have the 1h weapons to test with very well…?

(ive heard dual wield was higher dps atm by about 500 for some people, but i dont know where the line is drawn on weapon quality droppin the dps below a 2H build)

thx.

August 4th, 2009 at 5:45 am
Ellviraa
 17 

I was wondering, it says that Improved Icy Talons would not really be used since we would use pestilence to keep diseases up. Now would that 1 point be worth being put into Killing Machine, or does the 5% perm haste it gives stack with the 20% from Icy Talons (since frost fever will keep being refreshed).

August 4th, 2009 at 8:22 am
Ellviraa
 18 

Nm on above post, i realized i clicked the wrong link. My apologizes

August 4th, 2009 at 8:25 am
Tsubotae
 19 

So with the 2h oblit spec, I am just wondering the point in having talent points in diseases? I would imagine that obliterating like made is gonna pretty much negate disease ticks and won’t it also remove ebon plague bringer? just a question?

August 4th, 2009 at 9:54 am
Qemyst
 20 

OB will deal it’s damage without consuming diseases with that spec.

August 4th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Theprodigy
 21 

Is there any way you can sort out the links to the specs here please? I am trying to see the unholy SS and Oblit builds but the link take me to a 0/10/37 build. Thanks

August 5th, 2009 at 3:44 am
Deathahl Darksorrow Eu
 22 

Hey, ive since 3.2 came live iv’e been testing and testing frost DW vs the normal 51/0/20 blood specc and i find them doing about the exact ammount of damage, also, i have like 23% arpen in my gear but as frost specced i have only 19.2% crit wich feels very low, should i change some of my arpen / hit gear for abit more crit while rolling frost for more dps or not? I cant see why i have such low crit becaus i currently use 4 tier 8 and much ulduar gear with crit on =S

August 6th, 2009 at 12:54 am
Deathahl Darksorrow Eu
 23 

lol my typing was fail, havent slept since yesterday morning. hope you can still read what i wrote xD T_T

August 6th, 2009 at 12:55 am
Vonblack
 24 

The frost DW spec states the following rotation…
IT ? PS ? BS – Pest ? OB ? RP // OB ? OB ? OB ? RP (Set up rotation)

OB – BS – Pest ? OB ? RP // OB ? OB ? OB ? RP (Future rotations once diseases are applied)

Im extreamly new to frost DPS does the “setup rotation” mean I use it only once during a whole fight and (if im getting it right) and pestulance will refreash all my dieseases?

Sorry to look like a noob.

August 6th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Stew
 25 

Hi SJ, i was curious if you would take a look at a spec for me and tell me what u think http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight=0000000000000000000000000000320050003000000000000000000002302303050032152003150203133051&glyph=081827040506&version=10192 . the reason i have removed 4 from frost is that while doin some hcs last night i found obliterate only given my 5 extra rp from the expected 10 and indeed icy touch would give me an extra 5 but im only usin that every 20secs or so, any thoughts wud be gr8 ty :)

August 7th, 2009 at 2:47 am
Alex
 26 

At the Obliterate Unholy 2h spec why don’t you take 3 points in Subversion? 9% crit with BS and Obli should be great and 25% reducing threat so you wont get the agro..
Im currently using 0/10/61 and i have to much agro, but i wanna try the Obli spec since i have to much armor penetration .. 23%

August 8th, 2009 at 7:22 am
Alex
 27 

Dear Deathahl ..
I believe your crit chance may be that low because you don’t have 400/400 with your main-hand weapon? That could be the reason

August 8th, 2009 at 7:27 am
Stew
 28 

to Alex ive been running the obli spec since patch day and i never seem to have an aggro issue, as long as u have a half decent tank :) in mention of the crit im unsure, tbh i always found unholy specs as not really crit orientated, mainly cos it really gives us no extra bonuses unlike blood

August 8th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
unkilla
 29 

hello i have a question
i just tested the 3.3 unholy specc with 4 points in necrosis.and after ik did 650k dmg necrosis only did 500 dmg is it something with reccount or do i just have 2 take the 4% crit.

greets unkilla

January 9th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Dennis
 30 

PS ? IT ? BS ? BS ? OB ? RP // OB ? OB ? OB ? RP. What is the RP stand for?

March 21st, 2010 at 12:05 am

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