pet-less Unholy - is it an option?Follow

I've been loving my DK more and more to the point where I reckon it will be the next alt I level to 80... I'm really loving the Unholy style of dps and all the whiz-bang talents and spells in the Unholy tree, but to be honest I really hate the pet.

Am I able to skip the pet talents and still put out decent dps? Or am I just wrong to think along these lines?


edit: if it is viable, that means by not spending those talent points on my pet I would be able to spend them elsewhere... if someone were able to throw up a valid pet-less unholy dps talent spec, that would be really appreciated.

Edited, May 7th 2009 10:49am by apothik

Depends on your definition of viable. Will you be the lowest dps in the raid? Probably not. Will you compete for top dps? Almost certainly not. Are you OK hovering around 10th when every other DK is top 4?

Unholy tree is based around 2 things, AoE and pets. Doing a build without it is just stupid.

If you REALLY want to go Unholy without a pet, I recommend you make two DpS specs--one boss and one AoE. You can lose the ghoul for the latter and take Black Ice or Bladed Armor (whichever you don't have) for that bonus.

Then, for single-target you can have an Unholy spec with the ghoul or another tree all-together.

Here is a sample AoE build: This.

But, even then, I don't see anything special about it. The points in Desecration will at least boost AoE damage instead of ST damage with the pet. Black Ice/Bladed Armor will boost your WP and UB damage.

But this spec will have much lower ST damage than others. So, you'll have to sacrifice the second spec for a boss one, instead of something like a PvP or Tank spec.

I just see the pet as a free dot that I never have to think about. And you don't even need to macro a pet attack with IT, its automatic as is.

[EDIT]



You should probably keep your pet on passive, to keep it from attacking things before you want it to. So, macroing it into IT has the effect of making it attack when you do, but keeping it from doing the other defensive things.

Edited, May 7th 2009 3:59pm by idiggory

What Therion said. :P

#showtooltip Raise Dead 
/cast [nopet] Raise Dead 
/clearfocus [target=focus,dead] 
/focus [target=focus,exists]player;target 
/clearfocus [target=focus,noharm] 
/petattack [target=focus,exists] 
/petfollow [target=focus,noexists]

This is a slightly modified Hunter pet macro I've been using since early Burning Crusade. What it does is basically raise your ghoul if it's not there. If your ghoul is alive and well, it will set your target as focus and have your ghoul attack it. Hitting it again will put the ghoul on follow and if your target is dead, clear focus.

Now, I'm not 100% sure if it works, because I'm not sure if the ghoul is considered a pet or not, but it works for my Warlock as well.

Edit: Has anyone tried to target their ghoul and use Corpse Explosion? I've heard rumors that it will blow up the ghoul for some pretty nice AOE damage.

Edited, May 8th 2009 3:02pm by Mazra

Thanks for all of the advice offered guys, needless to say you talked me out of it. :)

I assume the above is also true for a pet-less Unholy tanking build?



edit: PS, thanks guys for taking the time to sit me down and explain why unholy pet-less DPS was such a bad idea and not simply flaming me, it was certainly appreciated!


Edited, May 19th 2009 2:40am by apothik