|
Unholy DPS | My Friend of Misery [4.3.0]
Last Updated: 12/30/2011, Content Current for Cataclysm 4.3
[top]Introduction[top]Abbreviations
[top]ChangesTo quote the professor, "Good news, everyone!". We have several updates and fixes in this patch aimed directly at our spec. Firstly, Unholy has received a scaling adjustment with the addition of +5% to Unholy Might. It's an easy way to throttle damage for us from a development standpoint and it's certainly a boon. The most applaudable update from Blizzard though is in regards to our minions. At BlizzCon 2011's 'Classes, Items, and Professions Q&A', I posed a two-part question asking why our pets have not been inheriting stats (notably crit) and whether the Gargoyle's AI would be changed for more effective use of his ranged ability. My friend and fellow Death Knight, Magdalena of Darkspear-US, began a follow-up thread directly after the convention to foster even further discussion and attention to these issues. Within a week of Blizzcon, the thread received a Community Manager response from Kaivax stating that the patch and its notes were being updated to specifically address and correct the problems we had brought to their attention. As listed in the 4.3 patch notes, Death Knight pets now properly inherit their master’s crit/spell penetration stats and our Gargoyle should exclusively use its ranged attack regardless of range to the target. [top]Talents[top]Base Spec"My Friend of Misery" - 5/0/32 + 4  No adjustments have been made here. This build continues to take all the key damage abilities to make you, your trusted 2H, and Timmy the Ghoul a force of (un)nature. [top]Spec OptionsYou will have 1 point to spend in a pre-requisite talent early on and 3 points to spend at the build’s completion as you wish. Your final choices can have some marginal bearing on your DPS. Your first choice comes at the cusp of tier 3 in Unholy to fulfill the base point requirement:
After the necessities in Unholy are taken care of, assign the 5 points as suggested in Blood talents. Now we arrive at the final 3 points. These last talent points can be spent at your discretion amongst the following abilities: Blood Options
Frost Options
[top]GlyphsPrime
Major Minor [top]Priority & PlayPlaying 2H Unholy means maintaining a challenging & fun priority system while artfully commanding Timmy to do your bidding. Fixed rotations are long gone and we’re better for it. [top]PresenceUnholy (unless otherwise noted) [top]RuneforgeRune of the Fallen Crusader [top]Single Target Priority
Diseases From the start of combat, cast Outbreak to apply your diseases quickly. If Outbreak is unavailable for whatever reason, apply diseases individually via Icy Touch and Plague Strike. The ticking damage from our diseases is minor, but the synergy that they provide is paramount. The first element of synergy is that when you cast Icy Touch/Plague Strike/Outbreak, Ebon Plague will also be applied. Ebon Plague weakens your target to all magical damage by an additional 8% and represents an important raid-wide debuff. Also, for each disease you apply to a target, your Scourge Strike will deal an additional 18% of the physical damage done as shadow damage. Dark Transformation Your Death Coils, aside from damaging your target, will apply a Shadow Infusion buff on your Ghoul which is capable of stacking up to 5 times. The player can consume the 5 charges of Shadow Infusions on the Ghoul to transform it into a powerful undead monstrosity for 30 seconds. A huge factor in your overall DPS is maximizing Dark Transformation's uptime (see the Mods section in this guide for suggestions about monitoring DT and Shadow Infusion). It is key that you super-size Timmy as often and as quickly as you can. If your runes are cooling down while you have 5 charges of Shadow Infusion, remember that Blood Tap is a Death Rune activator that may enable you to DT faster (read more on BT's mechanic below). One can also reserve Runic Power during an active Dark Transformation for quick reapplication of Shadow Infusion stacks the moment Timmy returns to normal. As a general rule, you will want to 'throttle' your non-Sudden Doom Death Coil usage so that you approach the RP cap just as DT fades. Death and Decay/Scourge Strike Death and Decay is a solid tick that requires minor effort to place. Regardless that it is an AoE, it is still a DPS gain to use it on a single target. Astute observation of the current fight's mechanics will be key to maximizing the damage. The most frustrating and unfortunate situation is when you have just cast Death and Decay and the mob moves or the dynamics of the fight shifts. Whenever possible, plan ahead to avoid losing potential DnD damage. If it means deferring DnD until the target it situated or when the timing will align with phases or periods of movement, so be it. Scourge Strike is our hard hitter and is similarly high in priority. Scourge Strike will replace Death and Decay when it is on cooldown. Festering Strike In the continued philosophy of utilizing our runes and managing cooldowns, supplement your priority with Festering Strike. With Reaping (from our Unholy specialization), the runes consumed by Festering Strike will become death runes when they reactivate. Also, Festering Strike serves the very important purpose of adding 6 seconds to your diseases. Mechanics allowing, our diseases should nearly always auto-renew themselves. It’s like watering a plant of doom. At the very least, Festering Strike bridges the gap between Outbreak cooldowns. Death Coil Similar to efficient rune expenditure, we want to capitalize on Sudden Doom procs. With Runic Corruption’s mechanic revamped in past patches, we no longer have to worry about overriding our rune regeneration. Death Coil may be done freely to make use of Sudden Doom procs, to build Shadow Infusion stacks quickly (as prioritized above in Dark Transformation), and to avoid the RP cap. Although it’s not a necessity to visually track Runic Corruption anymore, it’s still nice to see your uptime and gains (see Mods if you’re interested). Death and Decay/Scourge Strike and Festering Strike This is your ‘rinse and repeat’ in order when you have runes (and the cooldown) available. Horn of Winter When all else fails, you can toot your horn for RP and to maintain its uptime for yourself and cohorts. It’s a step above twiddling your thumbs if you have a vacant GCD that cannot be filled with Engineering bombs. [top]AoE Target Priority
By AoE fight, I do not just mean multiple targets. For your standard dungeon pull, you would still use the ‘Single Target’ as above. This AOE priority is written for the cultist packs in Bastion, the non-elite cultists before High Priestess Azil, roaming Trogg packs, minion patrols, and other mass pulls. In these cases, you will want to switch momentarily to Frost Presence. Diseases If any of the mobs will survive for more than a few seconds, it is worthwhile to Pestilence. One caveat on this: do not Pestilence if it will pull an adjoining group or if there is a CC nearby. This is particularly noteworthy if you are glyphed for extended range on Pestilence. Mages get really frustrated when their sheep spasms with cooties and comes to cough in their face. Dark Transformation Is still of equally high importance. Same as with single target priority. Death and Decay/Scourge Strike Same as with single target priority. Blood Boil Blood Boil, for Unholy DK’s, always results in a leftover Frost rune which can only be used offensively for Icy Touch. We'll capitalize on the Frost rune lowest in our priority. Death Coil Same as with single target priority. Icy Touch If no other attacks are available, make use of any leftover Frost runes. [top]GhoulTimmy is still some of your best damage so it’s wise to learn how to use him properly. As with 4.2, 'Assist' will remain the standard command stance for our pet, Timmy. For extra control, bind his Attack/Follow/Stay & Huddle commands to keys/buttons you can access quickly (I use Shift + letters, but whatever works for you). For the most part, Timmy is a resilient pet. He has an unspoken 90% AoE damage reduction and can be healed by your Death Coil (discounted healing with Glyph of Death’s Embrace). Rather than putting your pet on cruise control, it's far better to have an awareness of him and his actions (particularly given the AI's observable hiccups). It will greatly help survivability, group tactics, and your DPS. [top]SurvivalTo quote Ghostcrawler, "Dungeons are hard." Raise Ally Raise Ally is instant cast, costs 50 Runic Power, and has a 10-minute cooldown. The requisite Runic Power means you must be in the midst of combat activity and temporarily forgo your personal DPS for the benefit of returning others to the field. It shares the same global battle resurrection cap with other players, so like our Druid and Warlock rezzers, communication with the raid before and during an encounter is required. Only one manner of resurrection is allowed in a 10-man and three within a 25-man fight (excluding self-resurrections) so there is stressed value in using it wisely. Also be aware that Death Knight resurrection brings the player back with just 20% health and mana so if another rezzer has a superior resurrection effect, defer to them whenever possible. Resurrections have raid saving potential so don't waste it by selecting the wrong person or watching someone accept prematurely. Often people are so eager to be rezzed that they will immediately take their resurrection and get killed again. Macros or Ventrilo are both fine ways to warn the recipient to take their rez with discretion. Anti-Magic Shell Using Anti-Magic Shell intelligently is one of the key aspects that separates the 'good' Death Knights from the 'great' ones. AMS provides a two-fold benefit and understanding it well will optimize your play. Firstly, AMS is a powerful defensive ability that absorbs 75% (83%/91%/100% Magic Suppression) of the damage dealt by harmful spells up to 50% of your total health and prevents the application of harmful magical effects. In heavy damage situations, this is a lifesaver and aids on healing resources. Secondly, and often underutilized, is AMS's DPS boon. Damage absorption (again via Magic Suppression) will cause you to become 'energized' and generate a substantial amount of Runic Power. When you can anticipate AMS a few seconds ahead of time, make sure to have very low RP so that you do not cap while energizing. The only caveat associated with AMS is not to use it when you a required to get a magical debuff. One example of this is Elementium Monstrosity where you have to get the grounded or levitated debuff to survive. These are rare situations but worth keeping in mind. Observed offensive and defensive AMS usages are explained in greater detail within the Raid Strategies section. Other Resources Don't forget that you have a myriad of interrupts, Icebound Fortitude (which now breaks stuns), Death Strike, Death Pact, and Army of the Dead (i.e. as aggro fodder). Death Strike consumes a valuable rune and Death Pact is a last resort, but these can sometimes make the difference between a dead boss and a dead you. [top]CooldownsUnholy Frenzy & Gargoyle Unholy Frenzy can be a potent enrage cast in exchange for a small expenditure of health. Unholy Frenzy and Heroism/Time Warp/Bloodlust do not stack, hence the former should be saved until the latter has worn off. It should be noted, however, that Unholy Frenzy's benefit will become more variable in this patch due to increasing haste figures on gear. Depending on your personal stat values, you will encounter at least one, or possibly two, haste breakpoints in this tier. The first breakpoint, valued at ~1600 personal haste, will provide the Gargoyle an attack speed that exceeds its own global cooldown of 1.5 seconds. Effectively, any inherited haste beyond this point can have no effect for him: the Gargoyle is GCD locked. The second possible breakpoint in this tier occurs for the player at ~2600 haste. Not to be confused with a hard cap, this benchmark merely represents when rune regeneration rates create diminishing returns via rune capping. The easiest test for determining when/if you want to use Unholy Frenzy on yourself is whether you become GCD locked, simple as that. Blood Tap Blood Tap activates a Blood Rune and converts it to a Death Rune. The cost is a tithe of health (6%) or free if you glyph for it. Its relatively short cooldown will allow you use it frequently provided you aren’t capped for GCD or ‘global cooldown’. Meaning: if you are in a GCD capped situation where your actions are limited, don’t bother activating runes you can’t use anyways. Empower Rune Weapon A potent reset button to activate all your runes and generate 25 runic power. With a 5 minute cooldown this will generally equate to a 1/boss fight use. This is best paired when you have Unholy Frenzy, Bloodlust, or Time Warp up and have expended your runes. Absolutely great for burst DPS. Army of the Dead Bit of a long channel so it's best to cast either just before the pull, during a phase change, or when things go south. Army Ghouls will taunt adds and normal mobs in combat so have that in mind before using. You might be screaming "No, no, no!" and all they hear is "Who wants cake? Who wants cake!?". Let me tell you something: They all do. They all want cake. [top]ConsumablesSpeaking of cake, consumables can add a significant bonus to your primary DPS stat. These are must haves for optimum performance.
[top]Character Optimization[top]RaceThere are immediate and undeniable PVE performance benefits to what race you select. Each race also brings unique aesthetics and story that is a totally separate matter of opinion. For our purposes, races will be listed in the order of most optimized to least optimized within each faction. [top]Alliance
Verdict: More crit and movement increasing effects are stellar for any melee DPS class. Alliance Death Knights looking to optimize will therefore find Worgen of the most interest. 
Verdict: 1% hit will reduce the cap and allow for some more creative reforging. The free self-heal is on par with a post-kill glyphed Death Strike and operates over the course of 15 seconds. 
Verdict: The added expertise is beneficial if you conveniently happen to equip such a weapon. Asides from that potential, the ability to simulatanously run away and still be well liked gets an impressed nod. Humans will fare the best through reputation grinds. 
Verdict: Dwarves also have a potential addition to expertise and a nice ability to counteract common status effects. Stoneform is a bit less desirable than Every Man for Himself on the basis that mobility is still preferred. 
Verdict: As another form of movement restoration, Escape Artist has plenty of great PVE uses. The rest of their racials unfortunately fall short in terms of use for a Death Knight. 
Verdict: Being a Night Elf provides no tangible benefit for Death Knights, but hide-and-go-seek with Darion Mograine will have acceptable results. [top]Horde
Verdict: If you made a shopping list of the the bonuses you would want to give an Unholy DK, it would almost certainly include pet damage and attack power. Given that Orcs have both of these and, maybe even a smidge of extra expertise, they make the best Horde race for Unholy Death Knights. Orcs may also be the universal winner by a small margin (it was a very close sim between the green guys and the monocle dogs). 
Verdict: Goblin racials are rather amazing for melee DPS like Death Knights. Goblins are closely ranked with Worgen, and in Horde-only terms, are just behind Orcs. 
Verdict: A short haste bonus and a snare reduction isn't bad, but it's a downgrade in comparison to Orcs and Goblins. 
Verdict: The silence can be helpful when Mind Freeze is down or when you just want an ounce of free RP to Death Coil. Asides from that, you're basically joining this race for the hair: the superbly immaculate hair. 
Verdict: Will of the Forsaken would be impressive if charm, fear, and sleep were more common in PVE. Since they're not, sadly there's not much benefit here for Death Knights. 
Verdict: Tauren are on par with Night Elves in regards to lacking useful PVE racials. [top]ProfessionsBlacksmithing is now the top choice because the new raid gems vastly improve the worth of having 2 extra sockets. Engineering will still be a great second choice with its stackable 80 strength bonus to gloves (avg. passive) and the ability to make bombs and various craftables. Jewelcrafting has unfortunately suffered a steep decline with the lack of a new Chimera. I hope, as I'm sure many of you do, that new Chimeras, tinkers, recipes and so forth will be added later in the patch to reduce this parity. Enchanting, Alchemy, and Leatherworking therefore become great tertiary choices and are followed thereafter by Inscription, Herbalism, and Skinning.
[top]Gear Optimization[top]Stat WeightsIt has been determined that stat weights will shift if you possess [Gurthalak, Voice of the Deeps]. As such, the weights and stat priorities have been split into two categories. Standard Weights
Adjusted Weights for 4pc Tier and [Gurthalak, Voice of the Deeps]
Many thanks to Tsukiyuri of Dragonmaw-US for providing this updated Gurthalak data. Weights were determined using simulations at 50k iterations with modified stat deltas (particularly, a negative haste delta to adjust for the breakpoint). [top]Stat PriorityGearing, like your play choices, is also based upon a priority system. Included below is the order of most beneficial to least beneficial stats to help you make informed decisions about gear.
Hit Hit to cap is still as important as ever. If you miss a lot, that’s 0 damage on a frequent basis. Meters can't discriminate whether your damage suffered because of low hit rating or because you were too busy watching Fresh Prince reruns to pay attention to the boss (the latter is slightly more acceptable). Also keep in mind that your Ghoul inherits your stats (with hit rating no longer rounding down), so be a good influence on Timmy (for a note on Timmy's inheritance, see the Appendix). At approximately 120.11 hit rating per 1% hit, it takes 961 hit rating to become hit soft-capped for a raid boss (841 for Draenei). There is a certain leniency for being slightly over or slightly under, but you want to negotiate this very carefully. When in doubt, test yourself on a target dummy for extended lengths of time or run your character’s paper doll through simulations for a very general idea of how it will affect your real performance. Haste Your GCD is affected by various factors such as expertise, Heroism/Bloodlust effects, Runic Corruption, your connection speed and so forth. To repeat what was said earlier, depending on your personal stat values, you will encounter at least one or possibly two haste breakpoints in this tier. The first breakpoint, valued at ~1600 personal haste, will provide the Gargoyle an attack speed that exceeds its own global cooldown of 1.5 seconds. Effectively, any inherited haste beyond this point can have no effect for him: the Gargoyle is GCD locked. The second possible breakpoint in this tier occurs for the player at ~2600 haste. Not to be confused with a hard cap, this benchmark merely represents when rune regeneration rates create diminishing returns via rune capping. The best way to approach haste itemization is whether or not you personally experience GCD locks. If you have no trouble expending resources, haste remains highly favored, simple as that. Crit Naturally, the fixes applied to minion stat inheritance has modified our stat priority selection. Unless you specifically have Gurthalak, Crit will now overtake its other linear counterpart, mastery, quite handily as a preferred stat and something of a 'dark horse' . Mastery If you possess Gurthalak, mastery begins to edge out crit by a small margin. Otherwise, mastery will contribute less to your overall damage than crit would. Expertise At approximately 30.0272 rating per point, expertise is barely interesting as a DPS stat. It is rated rather low priority until the 'soft cap' of 781 rating (i.e. 26 expertise) whereupon it decreases even further. Plain and simple, do not be concerned with reaching any certain amount of expertise. [top]ReforgingIn regards to reforging your gear, start with the hit cap and manage your DPS stat priority as above. Haste and crit are the highest priority with the others trailing sequentially in conversion to damage. I’d recommend taking a look at Wow Reforge to help you make your reforging decisions outside of the game. When using Wow Reforge's site for Unholy, expertise is of little consequence but you will need to specify your hit rating for 'close to' 961 (or 841 Draenei). By choosing 'close to', the calculator attempts to reforge your gear to the specified hit cap number but it also considers reforges in a tight threshold around the cap. It weighs the various configurations by the stats they provide and ranks them from highest to lowest in EP value. It may be that your optimum reforge puts you exactly at hit cap or it could put you a point over or under because the DPS is rated better. It will simply depend on your race and assortment of gear. Reforge calculators require a lot of complicated math so always double check your results for accuracy. Report any anomalies to the site owner to improve the reliability of the tool. Tips for Reforging:
[top]Gems[top]Standard4.3 introduces new gems which are available through raiding. They are similarly named, beefier versions of the gems you are used to.
You will defer to the red gem unless the socket bonus would provide more strength or an important secondary stat. For example, let's say you had a piece of gear with a red socket, a yellow socket, and a +20 strength socket bonus. If you ignored the socket bonus and gemmed 2x [Bold Queen's Garnet], you would have a straightforward gain of 100 strength. On the other hand, if you gemmed 1x [Bold Queen's Garnet] and 1x [Fierce Lava Coral], you would gain 95 strength (75+ 20 from the bonus) and 25 haste. Applying our stat weights, it's easy to see that it's an upgrade to follow the socket bonus (by about ~30dps). Never gem expressly for hit, even if you are under the cap. Given the stat priority discussed earlier, it is a greater DPS sin to miss out on potential strength. Reforging is the best and most flexible method to negotiate the proper hit rating. If, however, an extra 50 rating would fit into your calculations more neatly, I have included the optional 50 hit rating to boots in the enchants section below. [top]Meta[Reverberating Shadowspirit Diamond] Our meta has not changed with 4.3 despite the other new gems. The requirements of this meta will be exceptionally easy to attain. [top]Chimera[Bold Chimera's Eye] The best and clear choice for those with Jewelcrafting as a tradeskill. Again, no change yet in 4.3. [top]Enchants
[top]Best in Slot[top]Pre-HardmodeThe above list utilizes every available gearing opportunity before stepping into Heroic Dragonsoul. [top]Hardmodes
Given the percentage of players who completed the final encounter in Tier 12, the BiS lists are divided into Pre-Deathwing and 7/8+ encounters. Essentially this is done to support a wider base of players if the Deathwing fights become exclusive due to difficulty. This will be less of a concern (if any) for non-Hardmodes, but I elected to maintain the separation in both levels of raiding for consistency's sake. In regards to gemming, all sets (Pre-Hardmodes and Hardmodes) will use the matching red, orange, or blue selections discussed earlier in order to meet the socket bonuses for each piece. Gemming is very straightforward this time. [top]T13 Set Bonuses
The values of non-tier vs. tier per slot is incredibly close in several situations (as little as ~0-1 dps) so our BiS maintains that we achieve our set bonuses despite whatever RNG may provide. [top]Trinkets ExplainedTrinket evaluation, in the most basic form, is done by calculating the estimated DPS value. Uptime will be deteriminate on an assumed internal cooldown for Proc-variety trinkets or the listed cooldown for Use-variety trinkets.
Assumptions Regarding Trinkets
[top]ModsSome people are content with the out-of-the-box game experience, but others feel like they can play and monitor their character better with additional tools. [top]DK-SpecificDoc's Debug Runes (link)  A combined rune, runic power, disease, proc, Dark Transformation, Runic Empowerment, Runic Corruption, Blood Shield and Death Strike heal display. Visually simple but very effective, DDR uses short bars to display runes, diseases, power and specific procs. Magic Runes (link)  If you want a more aesthetic minded rune watch, Magic Runes also provides a really nice view of your runes with several chart type variations. It's very straightforward and graphically clean. It does not show your procs or special cooldowns (for better or worse), so you will need to set up other mods if you prefer having those features. Death Knight Monitor (runes) (link)  DKM displays the most relevant stuff for a deathknight like runes, runic power, diseases and procs. It is inspired by RuneWatch and while being much more minimalistic, it sports a lot more features like independent positioning of every UI element, UI element sticking, rune prioritisation and a lot more. CLCDK (link)  CLCDK is a class HUD featuring disease durations, GCD timer, ability timers, runic power, runes, and an optional suggestion box. What this mod should do is show you Runic Power, special cooldowns (Gargoyle/Army), Runes, and disease timers in 1 add on. What this mod should NOT do is replace your brain. Blindly mimicking its suggestions will produce ignorant, lazy play. After all, we’re trying to break the negative stereotype of our class, not reinforce it. Used properly, the suggestion box can serve as a friendly reminder for when diseases reach low time or a cooldown is ready. That’s a fine and reasonable use of a tool, just don’t confuse what it says you CAN do with what you actually SHOULD. You can also completely turn off the suggestion box if you don't like it or if you'd prefer more space. [top]Non-SpecificNeedtoKnow (link)  NeedToKnow lets you monitor specific buffs, debuffs, and totems as timer bars that always appear in a consistent place on your screen. You can track yourself, others, your target, your pet, and much more. This mod is fantastic to let you watch your Shadow Infusion stacks, Dark Transformation timers, Anti-Magic Shell, and Runic Corruption uptime. You can set colors, scaling, and different groups of bars. Very customizable and user friendly. Deadly Boss Mods (link)  Deadly Boss Mods is a boss alert mod. It consists of many individual "boss modules", mini addons that are designed to trigger alert messages and timer bars for one specific raid boss each. Instance modules will be loaded and enabled when you enter the corresponding instance. If you don’t already have this, get it yesterday. I have glowing recommendations for all its included features. Recount (link)  Recount is a graphical combat log meter complete with damage, healing, and more. This is the ‘How’s My Driving?’ equivalent of your DPS performance. Everyone has a job and ours is to put up big numbers. Hold yourself accountable by knowing your output and surpassing the expectations of others. I consider this mod another 'must have'. ReforgeSaver (link) ReforgeSaver allows you to save and restore reforging profiles for your equipped items. Equip the items you want and reforge them as desired. When you're done, click the "Save" button on top of the Reforging frame and choose a name for your profile. You can restore your profile at any time by selecting it from the dropdown menu and clicking "Reforge". It will display how much gold the total reforge will cost and begin reforging once you confirm. This is extremely helpful if you frequently switch between specs and/or different sets of gear. Power Auras (link) This addon was created to provide visual cues (auras) when you gain buffs, debuffs and many more. Very useful for shorts buffs or debuffs, it allows you to draw in the center of the screen, or around your character, very customizable visual effects, rather than having to look at or mouseover buff/debuff icons/actionbars. Weak Auras (link) WeakAuras is a flexible framework that allows you to display customizable graphics on your screen to indicate buffs, debuffs, and a whole host of similar types of information. It was originally meant to be a lightweight replacement for Power Auras, but it now incorporates many features that Power Auras does not. [top]MacrosMacros expand your ability to customize and automate certain actions via sequences of slash commands. If you are unfamiliar with how to make macros, I recommend reading WoWWiki’s ‘Making a Macro’ guide. Don’t let the involvement of code deter you from macros. They’re generally very simple to write or, even better, just copy and paste ones that have already been created (as below). Revised Attacks Macro If you lack the runes to use an ability, this mod will clear the red error text on the top of your screen and your auto-attack will still begin. I use this macro for each of my major melee abilties where ‘Name’ is the spell/ability. Code:
#showtooltip NameIf you experience problems with Timmy hoarding energy, then this macro will still prove of use. Code:
#showtooltipBy using modifier keys, you can toggle between a self-heal, pet heal, or damage a target as normal. Code:
#showtooltipThis isn't so much of a macro as it is a one-time slash command. The following script will increase the allowable threshold of your camera's distance. This is wonderful for fights like Al'Akir where there are large scale effects and far away enemies. Just type the script into your chat window and scroll your wheel to experience the amazing new birds-eye view. (source: Arena Junkies) Code:
/script SetCVar("cameraDistanceMax",30)[top]Raid StrategiesAdditional raid strategies and tactics are always welcomed as submissions via PM. [top]Dragonsoul[top]Hagara<Shattered Ice> Hagara's Shattered Ice can be copied with Dark Simulacrum and does well over 100k damage per copy as Unholy. - Submitted by Clown of Arygos-US [top]Ultraxion<Normal Realm> If your diseases are fixing to drop off of Ultraxion and you are in the normal realm, you can use Outbreak on the boss. So, if you used Heroic Will to avoid Hour of Twilight you can still use that single ability in either realm. - Submitted by Unsoul of Vashj-US [top]Madness of Deathwing<Elementium Bolt> For any platform you don't have Nozdormu alive (and have to deal with elementium bolt), AMZ will block 75% of the brunt of the initial impact. So instead of blocking its normal ~40,000 damage it will block a lot more. Other, than elementium bolt, AMZ will get eaten up pretty quickly when the claw/wing tentacles are low on hp so it won't block as much damage. - Submitted by Meygaera of Dalaran-US [top]Legacy ContentIn the interest of space and relevance, I have condensed the previous tier of strategies into a toggled tab. Click to expand the tab for the full listing.  ← Click Here[top]Other ResourcesTo further your individual research about the class, play, and so forth, I also have a list of online resources to recommend:
[top]Appendix[top]Mechanics Tables[top]Combat Ratings
Combat Ratings are a conversion method between a stats rating and its 1%/1pt. value. (source) [top]Level 88 Boss Avoidance
*This 'hard cap' is unattractive to attain as you should be attacking from behind anyways. [top]Pet (Timmy Stats)While our Ghoul is described as inheriting 100%/140%(glyphed) strength from the player, data collection has shown a distinct variation. In observation, an unglyphed Ghoul appears to have closer to ~101% strength and a glyphed Ghoul has closer to ~143%. Linear regressions performed with samples of player data place the Ghoul's base AP at ~931. [top]Corrections and UpdatesIf you find any inaccurate, incomplete or omitted material, I would very much appreciate a PM so that I can make the necessary corrections. It's entirely possible for me to mistype or forget to include something. It would never be my intention to knowingly confuse or misinform people. I appreciate suggestions and hope this can be a springboard for better play, comprehension, and discusssion. I will make updates and additions as is feasible and desired. If changes in between a patch affects the core material, I will make the necessary updates. Otherwise, I believe patch-to-patch should be sufficient. [top]Special ThanksThe information in this guide is gathered from a multitude of sources: personal experience (both the good & laughable), my wonderful and insightful DK friends in #Acherus, private messages, posts on the WoW forums, past threads and discussion there at EJ, Twitter connections, and other community sites. I have cited these helpful sources where specifics are lended.
[top]Change Log11/29/2011 - Updated for 4.3. 11/29/2011 - Updated 'Professions'. 11/29/2011 - Updated 'Mods'. 11/30/2011 - Corrections to BiS for content and updated Wowhead item numbers. 12/02/2011 - Updated BiS, added separation to Normal listing, removed Tier 11 Raid Strategies, condensed the last tier into a new 'Legacy' section via a spoiler toggle tab, added new strategy for Dragonsoul. 12/06/2011 - Updated 'Raid Strategies'. 12/14/2011 - Updated BiS. 12/30/2011 - Updated stat weights, priorities. |
This thread is for RAID/END-GAME discussion/theorycraft ONLY. If you have a question regarding 5 mans, gear choices, or how much of a particular stat you need - USE THE SIMPLE QUESTIONS THREAD.
|
[Vessel of Acceleration] (Heroic) is not BiS for Unholys because of the low crit rate and the low stat value for crit overall. Take [Crushing Weight] instead.
See these logs: overall uptime 78%, but the uptime with 5 stacks is even lower. However, I have made some math for the BiS Trinkets for Unholy, you can see it here: http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/9...ketsheroic.jpg (The 60% VoA uptime doesn't mean only 60% uptime overall, it means 60% overall uptime of the possible 460 crit rating. / 9% AoK uptime because you could not use it with other proccs at the beginning.) I have ignored the RNG factor for HoR and Crushing Weight but it shouldn't make any difference. Also you should take the Shannox Heroic Belt [Uncrushable Belt of Fury] (Mastery to Haste reforged) as Best in Slot Belt. The Avenger of Hyjal Heroic Belt doesn't exist and according to my sim results it should be better as the Avenger Normal Belt (~100+/- DPS). |
Well, as someone relatively new to the Unholy tree (coming from Frost), I have a question about priority. At the beginning of most fights, say Rag XD, I usually toot my horn, pop army pre-pull, and then go into the priority system. This, of course, gives me a great deal of runic power on pull. I have been in a quandary as to whether to prioritize Dark Transformation or Gargoyle in this situation. I have been exploring both and feel that popping Unholy Frenzy, then getting Dark Transformation up A.S.A.P., then getting Gargoyle out before Unholy Frenzy wears off seems to be both the highest dps and the most intuitive system. Is this what others have seen? Keep in mind this only applies to the opening "rotation".
|
Quote:
The reason for this is that I would want to pop DT as fast as I can so the prepot is still up and I can pop Unholy Frenzy with DT without losing uptime on Unholy Frenzy. |
Would be better to use the RP on critters before the pull so that you don't let runes rot during the actual fight. Easier said than done given critter population in most instances and the duration of Shadow Infusion, but still.
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
P.S. I hate Rag phase 2. :*( |
sorry, double post
|
Trinket options
Why H Apparatus Khaz'goroth is worst than H Vessel of Acceleration if it gives haste instead of crit? Remember that Apparatus now gives 506 haste per stack. The reason is your low active time, 15 seconds?
|
Quote:
|
The value of crit
Crit seems to be considered so worthless for Unholy that the main post did not even include a section for it. I'm a sceptic by nature, so I made a small calculation, expecting to find crit just as worthless as assumed, but the result was somewhat surprising.
I'm including the calculation here for public scrutiny (it's not exactly high level math), feel free to skip to the bottom for the results and conclusion. I'm doing these calculations on my own DK's numbers and leave a little breathing room, I will later talk a bit about the possible error. My goal is to compare crit to mastery, first I will calculate the value of mastery, for which I need my shadow damage. These are the numbers I usually get on most boss encounters (I am generously rounding up here). 28% SS 15% DC + UB 6% BP About half of the SS damage is shadow, so about 35% of my damage is shadow, however that is already increased by my mastery (35%) and we need the "unincreased" number: 35%/1.35 ~ 26% So, one point of mastery increases my damage by 2.5% of 26%, which is ~0.65% All of my damage is affected by crit, the diseases can crit, my pets get my crit and anything that cannot crit (SS shadow part, UB) is based on damage that can crit and all crit is 200% (ignoring meta). So, we apply the same treatment, my raid buffed crit against a boss is ~8%, so 1% crit increases 100/1.08 = 92.6% of my damage by 1%, which is 0.926% Result in one sentence: Mastery increases my damage by 0.65/0.926 ~ 70% of the increase I get from crit. Now, the possible error: I did not include DnD and probably missed other small things. I intentionally chose the numbers for mastery generous and I did not include the crit meta gem, so the real numbers should (if at all) barely be on the mastery favoring side. I also checked some logs from other DKs (Firelands raid bosses), they have a higher percentage of shadow damage, likely since they have more mastery than I do, but overall the numbers I used are not too far off. So, how can that be? Crit should be significantly worse than Mastery, yet my results show the exact opposite. There are many variables at play here, including my mentioned mistakes, others are crit rating obviously (the more you have, the lower the benefit), play style, skill (or lack thereof on my part), but we're talking about a significant difference here, small variable changes in a rather stable environment would not account for such a huge discrepancy. I guess that the current value of crit has been established using simulators (which I do not use), so logic would dictate that I went wrong somewhere, I just can't figure out where. Maybe some of you guys could take a look at this, perhaps you can see what I could not. |
You're not being generous at all, much more than 15% of your damage is DC+UB, it's more around 20-21%. DnD is around 5% of your damage. With enough Mastery, the Shadow Portion of your SS is roughly tied with DC in damage at around 20%. So really 1 point of Mastery increases your DPS by 2.5% of 45%, which is 1.125%, double your calcuation.
Also your pet does not scale with crit and it hasn't scaled with crit since 4.0.6 For reference, I took this parse: World of Logs - Real Time Raid Analysis |
I took my own numbers since I know my own mastery and can put it in context, you can't just take the final number and add mastery, mastery doesn't scale with itself. Also, I included my pet, since I assumed it would scale with crit like hunter pets do - I will take your word that it does not - so that inflated my numbers a bit.
So, I have no idea how much mastery that DK has, but let's assume it's 40% increased shadow damage (he looks well geared), then that means his shadow damage without mastery would be 45/1.4 ~32%, putting mastery at 0.8%. In order to put crit that low, you'd need to have 25% crit, something no unholy DK has. Even if he has less mastery, let's say 30%, which I would consider low, you end up at 34.6% shadow damage or 0.865%. The pet not scaling with crit does put quite a dent on it's value, but to me the stats still seem too evenly matched, at best, to explain the "disdain" for crit rating. Maybe a short explanation why I do the "without mastery" thing: If you do 100 shadow damage and you already have 50% increase from mastery, then the result is 150 damage, if you put another 2.5% on that, then that is not 150 * 1.025 (102.5% of 150), it's 100 * 1.525 (152.5% of 100), which is less. Edit: You forgot BP, putting his shadow damage at ~52%, which makes mastery a lot more "equal". I also checked my own numbers and subtracted the pet and the numbers matched pretty well. So far it looks like crit rating and mastery are similar in value. |
Quote:
Aftert that you will end up at a crit value around 0.74 (assuming the ghoul at around 20% of the total damage). Mastery affects (numbers from the log) a total of 53.5% ← Click HereDrsheya @ Nazjatar - Spiel - World of Warcraft Mastery at 15 that means an increase of 37.5% ← Click Herewithout Mastery this means 38.9% Shadowdamage so 1 Mastery would increase this 38.9% by 2.5% ending up in an increase of 0.97% DPS/Mastery. Comparing the Ratings 179.28 Masteryrating for 1 Point of Mastery and the same amount of Critrating for 1% Crit. This ends up showing that Mastery is superior to Crit. (0.97 > 0.74) |
| All times are GMT -4. The time now is 1:55 PM. |
Forum Infrastructure by vBulletin 3.6.12 ©2000-2007, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.