pet-less unholy pvp build (and then some)Follow

with a new patch comes new builds, and one of the things i was kinda looking forward too in this patch was trying out a "petless" unholy build. that is to say, an unholy build that doesnt get the ghoul.

heres what i came up with

my results thus far, purely in battlegrounds, have been encouraging. you get a good amount of survivability with bone shield, IBF and rune tap, plus death pact for those extra big heals. movement speed while in blood or frost presence is ALWAYS a plus, and with scourge strike applying diseases and desecration now, you can, in longer fights, rely almost entirely on it. that means the icy touch rune somewhat goes to waste, but i like it for the ability to quickly get an IBF or AMS up in a single GCD. with full buffs up (sader, trinket proc, on descerated ground with bone shield) ive gotten SS crits nearing 7k...and this is with entry-level 80 gear plus a TSD and the dps engy goggles, with pvp bracers and one or two heroic epics. consistently, crits for 5k+ arent unheard of.

pve results were likewise encouraging. solo on a raid boss target dummy i was pulling 2kish dps. buffed in a 25-man raid i topped 2300 dps. these results led me to brainstorm a "max dps" unholy build, as follows:

clicky

ghoul frenzy is actually pretty awesome. its a 30s buff that heals the ghoul for 6% of its health every 3s (60% total) and gives a 25% increase to attack speed. this means keeping your ghoul alive is WAY easier (one unholy rune every 30s) and results in a pretty big dps boost on the part of the ghoul. utilizing this build (which isnt as "maxed" as it could be considering the lack of morbidity) i pushed 3k dps in a 10 man with arguably sh*tty gear. see my profile, Alexandrax @ Anetheron, for what i was dpsing in.

scourge stike crits were, naturally, higher, topping out at about 8800 or so (this was not under ideal conditions, as crusader was not up but my AP trinket was).

quite honestly, unholy is very very sick now. the sheer damage output is insane, and teamed with another DK of similar build (even the pve one) you can REALLY tear people down fast.

thoughts?

Edited, Apr 18th 2009 8:39pm by Quor

Why do you bother with Ghoul Frenzy? Your pet will be doing way less damage than a perma one and only lasts for a minute anyway. Is using a Unholy Rune to help make it through that minute really worthwhile in a battle system where burst is (often) king?

you didnt actually *look* at the builds did you? the one that *has* the pet *has* unholy frenzy. the one that doesnt have the pet.....doesnt. besides, getting unholy frenzy is dependent on having the perma-pet anyway O.o



dont like pets for a melee class. i much prefer the power of rune tap and more crit in the blood tree over the four points id be dropping to get the pet. the gain in being able to play the way i like outweighs the loss of the pet for me.

keep in mind this is also bg-focused. i dont really give a damn about arena anymore.



for pvp its kind of a no-brainer. longer ticking diseases = more damage pressure on more targets, but you could drop the 2 points in necrosis for morbid if you want. i find that between garg, keeping UB up and utilizing AMS/IBF as needed I tend to only toss out 3-4 DC's every minute or so. naturally for pve its less of a clear-cut decision; im still not sure how to work morbidity into this build without giving up something else i really like (and i do like epidemic even for pve, but i may try dropping it to see how my results are). seeing as i can crit DC for about 3kish now, i can definetely see the gain id get from another 15% on its damage.

this was one of the harder talent choices i had to make.



i got CE mostly for the aoe fun in naxx. we'll still be running naxx every now and then to gear up alts and because ulduar kicks our casual asses past the leviathan. plus its fun if somebody random in the raid dies; then i get to make them into a pile of bones.

as for the practical usage of it, with 2/2 dirge i find im able to keep UB up and CE every now and then without too much trouble. RP gets a bit lean at times yes, but it just means less DC's thrown out (which if im using CE i generally dont want to use DC anyway).

see above for how i feel about the ghoul in bgs. it basically feels like a chore to watch it in larger-scale pvp, and thats not fun for me.



of course not, but since it procs off of scourge strike now, keeping desecration up isnt really a problem. theyll always be snared by it and its going off at least once every 3-4 seconds. it also sidesteps druid shapeshifting as a means of breaking the snare, since it functions like hunter frost trap (meaning a full-time applied effect as long as youre in the area).

its also kinda nice for some area denial. ive delayed a number of lumber mill and BS caps because i slowed down 3-4 people with desecration at the choke points. i died of course, but we capped the flag, so win overall.



the numbers i quoted were from my recount in a 25-man archavon run and a few 5-mans, as well as a 25-man OS. hitting 3k+ in arch wasnt hard, and topping 3k in OS wasnt too terribly difficult either. the rotation gets rather simplistic as long as scourge strike keeps refreshing diseases (which it almost always does before they run out, altho if youre forced to stay off a mob for a period of time like on sarth you might have to reapply them the usual way). it just becomes a matter of SSx2 + BSx2, dump RP via DC or activating UB, then 3x SS, dump RP, and repeat cycle. if garg is up, RP becomes a bit leaner so you maybe skip out on an RP dump every third rune cycle, but thats about it.

ill take some screenys of the next time i dps with it in a raid environment and post them up.

Edited, Apr 19th 2009 4:42pm by Quor

we'll chalk it up to a case of the weekend drunks.

cause i know thats where ill be in about an hour lol (friends birthday, i get to bring the beer).

nah, the gift was two metallica tickets for their concert here in LA in december, one for me and one for him.

the beer wasnt too big a hit; its worth it to get some fat tire and 1554.

Did I somehow miss the part where you got incredibly stupid?

2H spec effects -all- damage output, not just your weapon damage. Howling Blast, Icy Touch, whatever; it's all effected.

Apply Aura: Mod Dmg % (1)
Value: 4

The Warrior and Paladin versions of the same talent have the same tooltip and, for that matter, the same effect. They also increase all damage output by 6% (3/3 instead of 2/2), even things that aren't tied to weapons in any way (Bloodthirst, Thunderclap, Deep Wounds was getting this twice until it was hotfixed, Consecrate). YMMV, Clouseau.

heres some data from a recent 25 naxx run with a DK who has the same pve build that i do (corion @ anetheron). i didnt save the logs cause my game crashed before i had a chance to, but i remember the rough numbers.

over the entirety of plague and spider wing he had an average dps of 3300. this includes boss fights and trash.

on anub, his dps sat around 2900 or, placing him 5th after 3 mages and a warlock.
on faerlina we went for the achievement, so it was a full burn straight off the bat with heroism up. he pulled about 3600 or so this time, partially because of errant AoE hitting the adds (i think he tried to pad things a bit with pestilence too).
maexxna was pretty straightforward, with him getting about 3100.

plague wing saw higher dps overall due to the excessive AoE inolving heigan trash and noths adds. he nailed about 3400 dps on noth. we had a "tank malfunction" in positioning on heigan that wiped the melee dps, but while he was up he was getting about 3kish. i wont include loatheb because of the gimmick of the fight, but the numbers he was getting was making him giggle; his disease damage was almost completely doubled thanks to wandering plague and his having a 90ish crit rate raid buffed+spore.

for those unwilling or unable to check armory, this gear level is a bit better than my own. i think he has the 4-pc tier 7 bonus, as well as a TSD for weapon and a 2-3 off-set naxx pieces. he also has a greatness card and the mirror of truth.

Improved Icy Talons for PvP?

Petless unholy is like being a hunter without a pet. Taking necrosis for 3 points over the pet is one of the worst ides I have ever seen in WoW. A lot of things can be up for debate on talents, but for PvP and PvE alike, if you go deep enough in unholy, get the pet.

It may be effective in BG's, but get the pet and you are now that much more effective.

as i played more and more with the pve build, i realized that i liked having the pet along for the extra damage and utility. so i broke down and modified my pvp spec to include it:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#j0eMacZZfMRI0bdLIqRssuz:hrb

ive found it to be quite useful, so i can say im happy with the choice to include it, even if it feels awkward to play at times. i figure with enough practice ill get used to it.

the utility of the stun is, well, stunning. i knew it was good, but never really used it "right" before. ive also found the challenge of microing the ghoul to be a fun one; anyone have any sources of DK macros that involve focus targeting and ghoul commands?