Neckface

For those who are NOT using rune mods, I highly recommend something like MagicRunes. I position it right below my ClassTimers so I can see timer bars for diseases and rune cooldowns (and runic power) all in the same place. Made my cycles a lot easier, and as a result (as previous posters have also said) I don't use rotations as much as a priority system.

 

level12wizard

Trinkets are really confusing the hell out of me thanks to the way Gargoyle currently works, and the fact that it can't live through certain fights. I've already finished my Nobles deck, and the [Darkmoon Card: Greatness] is clearly awesome, but I can't figure out the second slot.

[Bandit's Insignia] is noted in Xyrm's new first post. The passive AP bonus is nice, Gargoyle doesn't benefit from the passive crit on other trinkets, but the fact that Gargoyle goes by your AP when it's summoned makes it questionable. The proc appears to be a roughly 1PPM that is also based on spell hit, which isn't that great.

[Loatheb's Shadow] is pretty nice, and can be easily lined up with Rune of the Fallen Crusader and Greatness procs for a beefier Gargoyle. Only drops in 10man Naxx if you tend to only do 25 mans.

[Mirror of Truth]Roughly similar uptime to Loatheb's, gives more AP, but harder to line up with other procs for a Gargoyle. Also really easy to acquire, basically everyone has this by now.

[Fury of the Five Flights] is awesome on fights where it can be kept up, but is also a lot better suited for other classes. They can keep it up with a ranged weapon, and do many stacks at once with physical AoEs. Probably something to get down the line and swap in and out based on what boss is next.

/headspin

 

jokeyrhyme

I'm too much of a noob to handle on-use trinkets. I definitely prefer the random-proc variety.

Tanking is my main spec, but if no-one else in the guild-run wants them, I'll be going for [Bandit's Insignia] and . I doubt I'll be getting the Extract for a long long time, considering how awesome it is for all DoT classes.

 

Fugazor

Quite possibly combo of [Fury of the Five Flights] and [Bandit's Insignia] for second slot would be best depending on fight type.

 

Nahela

I'm currently using a Bandit's Insignia and I love it. It does an impressive amount of damage for a damage proc trinket, using contributing 2-3% of my overall DPS. It scales with a variety of % increasers, so it often does significantly more damage than listed. Highest proc I've gotten so far was about 4300.

 

Applejuiced

currently I'm using and its making up about 2 to 2.5% of my overall dps, I'd love to get my hands on a [Bandit's Insignia] and use it in conjunction with the extract.

 

• Zurm

I already showed that [Fury of the Five Flights] is sub-par for a unholy 2H DK.

 

Ommar

I agree with this especially when more than a few bosses force it to reset e.g. Noth,Heigan,globbulus(if poisoned)..etc
It's great with 32/39 dw spec but for 2h unholy I am seeking to replace it asap.

 

• Zerack

I'd like to continue the gear discussion from a few pages back (Page 29 if I recall correctly) if I may. In regards to optimal gearing, someone (Zurm perhaps?) commented that it was unsatisfactory to continue this odd gear juggling we're doing in lieu of a proper optimization from Rawr, etc. While I completely agree, while waiting on the Rawr updates that are coming in the next week or so, I made a quick and dirty spreadsheet that utilizes the most recent weights from Method's posts.

This was very much a 'for personal use' endeavour, but I figured I could at least share what I arrived at. To reiterate, I used the Unholy stat weights from a few pages ago along with the corrected value of hit after cap (~.91) to give me lootrank style scores for entire gearsets. I also used the values for strength and haste with ghoul factored in, resulting in a higher value for these 2 stats. I realize that all of this is inherently inaccurate, but it's the best I've come up with right now. You'll notice that my optimal set has a fairly major difference from the previously posted ones. As is the general consensus, I maintained 4 piece T7.25 as a requirement for all sets I tested. Instead of using [Breastplate of Frozen Pain], I instead went for [Undiminished Battleplate] to see if I could create a set with this. My reasoning here was that it is, point for point, the piece with the largest difference between itself and the same tier piece. I know it's difficult to make a set with as it overflows with already plentiful hit and expertise, but I figured I'd go ahead.

It is likely that there is a better set out there, but in a situation judged purely by attack power equivalence, this set is quite excellent. I did not bother with trinkets here as the effect that they have is not directly influenced by the balance of hit and expertise on the rest of our gear, as none of our best in slot trinkets (regardless of what you believe them to be at the moment) have hit or expertise. Additionally, I have not calculated enchants in the totals for stats because they are a zero change item over any given gearset. The crit rating / increased crit damage meta is assumed as well, requiring 2 blue sockets. As a final note, I am an Orc, so I assumed the expertise racial in these calculations because of [Betrayer of Humanity].

Anyway, on with the set. My best attempt resulted in:

Helm: [Valorous Scourgeborne Helmet] with [Balanced Twilight Opal]x1
Neck: [Favor of the Dragon Queen] with [Bold Scarlet Ruby]x1
Shoulders: [Valorous Scourgeborne Shoulderplates] with [Balanced Twilight Opal]x1
Cloak: [Drape of the Deadly Foe]
Chest: [Undiminished Battleplate]
Wrists: [Bracers of Unrelenting Attack] with [Bold Scarlet Ruby] x1
Hands: [Valorous Scourgeborne Gauntlets] with [Bold Scarlet Ruby]x1
Waist: [Girdle of Razuvious] with [Bold Scarlet Ruby]x1 (Belt Buckle)
Legs: [Valorous Scourgeborne Legplates] with [Bold Scarlet Ruby]x2
Feet: [Melancholy Sabatons]
Ring 1: [Circle of Death]
Ring 2: [Ruthlessness]
Weapon: [Betrayer of Humanity]

With this set, the totals (including gems) are:
840 Strength
494 Attack Power
740 Crit Rating
262 Hit Rating
154 Expertise Rating
150 Agility
115 Armor Pen Rating
154 Haste Rating

With weights from Method, this set has a total value of 6248.64621. This accounts for zero value from the extra expertise. The single point of hit can be made up rather easily if desired by using a [Vivid Forest Emerald] rather than a [Balanced Twilight Opal] in the helm or shoulders. This results in a small loss in score less than 10 total points. As a point of comparison, the best score than I can come up with (including gems) on the set tedv posted on page 29 is 6165.14801. His set as a reminder has 272 hit and 141 expertise, so it is also capped.

That's what I arrived at on my spreadsheet. I was unable to build a set that was at (or 1 short, in this case) hit cap and also expertise cap with a higher score. As a note, switching in [Surge Needle Ring] for [Circle of Death] seems like a good call despite dropping below the expertise cap if you put less stock in the ghoul weights. The overall score is significantly higher than the listed ring combination with player-only stat weights. From here you could gem expertise if you wanted (at a point for point loss to strength, however). If we assume the ghoul weights are close, the listed ring combo is inferior by less than 2 points out of over 6000 (a score of 6249.90831 is gained with the Malygos ring and ghoul weights), so the elimination of dodges and flubbed rotations is worth it in my book.

All this said I'm sure I've made an error somewhere, so if someone sees it and can point the folly of my ways, I'll gladly fix my values. Hope this sparks some discussion again.

 

vtspth

Hi, I haven't seen a lot of posts or discussion in regards to the new patch content. Is it to be assumed that this spec....

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...h=211203040605

is to be the new cookie cutter 17/0/54 Unholy DPS? Glyphs assumed too. I remember reading on the blood thread that blood strike glyph now works in conjunction with Mage's Frostfire Bolt (unsure whether or not it was confirmed to work on bosses). Also possibly the 1 point in Corpse explosion could be moved elsewhere.

Your thoughts?

 

Broseph

SS glyph over BS and two points from virulence into necrosis, but yeah, that's the gist of it.

 

kamiu

Small intervention regarding the way this discussion is heading: what's with the obsession with single target damage output? There are plenty of fights in the game where aoe damage, or at least multi target dps, is as important as your ability to nuke a single target (boss). Think about Sartharion with ads, several naxx fights, etc.

I am asking this because there is so much multi target damage potential in the unholy tree but we only seem to optimizing ourselves to win the dps meter on Patchwork.

 

Darston

ok so i have a quick question, whats better for a 17/0/54 Unholy DPS spec...

1 point in Virulence?

1 point in, outbreak?

1 point in desecration?

 

Afabar

From my point of view, here is the list of boss regarding the AOE needed
Arachnid Quarter
* Anub'Rekhan: Minor aoe
* Grand Widow Faerlina: Minor aoe
* Maexxna: Minor aoe

Plague Quarter
* Noth the Plaguebringer: Minor/usefull aoe depending of your methods
* Heigan the Unclean: None
* Loatheb: None

Military Quarter
* Instructor Razuvious: None
* Gothik the Harvester: Minor
* The Four Horsemen: None

Construct Quarter
* Patchwerk: None
* Grobbulus: Minor
* Gluth: Usefull
* Thaddius: None

Frostwyrm Lair
* Sapphiron : None
* Kel'Thuzad : None

Sartharion 3D: Usefull

Malygos : None

I don't believe it need to optimized except your are working on a specific encouter.

Anyway, the keys talent for AOE are Wandering plague, Virulence and UB that you would already have if your are spec properly in a single dps build.

 

Faithplusone

Anyone having the same problem as me? I sometime notice that when I dps, I do about 800 dps less then I should. I then relogg and the problem is fixed. Now this could just be recount bugging like hell, but I do less damage according to my guildies recounts too. That makes me wonder if the game itself is bugged or something else cause I sometimes notice that when I use Scourge Strike, the damage doesn't show. I just simply hit the target but no numbers are shown.

 

Prikky

As to optimal gearing, I was wondering if it would be useful to calculate an ideal set based on items from 5/10 mans (raid) instances and badges?

 

Narcoma

I also noticed that. It happens quite often to be honest.

 

level12wizard

Our AoE is great but there isn't a lot to say about it. Drop DnD, spread diseases, be in a position to hit everything with UB, and if there's a ton of mobs use Blood Boil.

I tend to top meters for trash and fights like Faerlina (assuming I don't get chain silenced...) just because of how ridiculous our AoE is, but it's hardly surprising. Sometimes it's not worth using a Blood Rune (that doesn't convert to a Death Rune) when AoE mobs are going to die very quickly, but you still need to be doing single target DPS.

AoE is certainly important on Sartharion+3. Death and Decay can make void zones really confusing for some people, but turning spell detail to minimum makes DnD not show up, while the void zones still do.


Haven't seen any issues with Scourge Strike not dealing damage, but I'm sure it exists for one reason or another. Between the general buginess with rune cooldowns on all skills and the poor performance/memory leaks supposedly caused by DnD and Desecration, I'm sure there's worse.

 

kamiu

I noticed both ss's not reporting and a considerable dps loss during a (heavily lagging) VOA 25 raid and a COT timed run last night. I also noticed my runes not refreshing on time, leaving me with huge downtime because i could not do a single move. I am guessing it has something to do with client - server packet loss making moves not register or something.

Annoying.

 

Alistra

A simple question - what do you do when your guilds DK tank decides he wants to tank unholy....


Is unholy the DPS build? - Would an Unholy tank be more of a priority?

 

shed

Unholy is currently the best tanking spec for DKs and even over other classes for 3 drake Sarth. If you're going to be DPS'ing as unholy, you will need to work things out between the tank DK on who will have Ebon Plague, the other will simply get Crypt Fever.

Assuming he's the MT and always on the boss, its usually beneficial for him to have Ebon Plague to make sure its always up for casters. One thing I'm not sure of is how Crypt Fever stacks with Ebon Plague, will the DK with only Crypt Fever get extra disease damage?

 

Zurai

Crypt Fever and Ebon Plague currently stack fully. All DKs in the raid will get +91% damage on their diseases (30% crypt fever, 30% ebon plague, 13% magic vulnerability from ebon plague) while both are on the target.

Don't expect that to last once they get it fixed so multiple DKs can have CF/EP up at the same time.

 

Skulli

2x +30% and not +60% as it was in the beta.

 

Zurai

Sorry, I keep making that same mistake. I'll correct the post.

 

Alistra

The Dk Tank has only just specced Unholy, we currently have 2 unholy DK's one blood, and the Tank who was frost. This was perfect, with me and one other unholy DK taking it in turns in raids. Now both DPS unholy DK's might need a respec, and a glyph change.

Isn't frost better after the BA nerf anyway?