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INDEX:
Press CTRL+F and then type index number you wish to view.
1. New Spells
2. Tips
3. Macros
4. Recommended Glyphs
5. Dark Simulacrum
6. Builds
7. Stats, Gemming, and Enchants
8. Runeforging
9. Professions
10. Team Compositions
11. Changes to note
12. General Addons
13. DK-specific Addons
14. Other DK Resources
15. UI [coming soon!]
16. Contributors
1. New Spells:
2. Tips:
Bind focus macros for the following abilities. Use /cast [@focus] spellname. Check out the macro section of this guide for alternate macros for each of the following spells.● Death Grip
● Mind Freeze
● Gnaw
● Strangulate
● Chains of Ice
● Leap
● Dark Simulacrum* (see below)
There's a lot of confusion over which spells are considered an immunity when using Glyph of Resilient Grip. Spells such as roots or a hunter's deterrence are not considered immunities. Spells that are considered immunities are:● Divine Shield
● Ice Block
● Banish
● Cyclone
● Blessing of Protection
● Pillar of Frost
Lichborne can be used for many things other than just breaking fear. Lichborne also prevents:● Seduce (Will also break this effect on use)
● Sap
● Polymorph
● Hex
● Any form of fear (Will also break this effect on use)
● Mind Control (Will also break this effect on use)
*Note: Lichborne can be used at any time during a crowd control effect. This is great for preventing back to back polymorphs which overlap and do not allow any time between each other. An example of this would be using Lichborne to prevent Warstomp -> Hexs
Your opponents will probably kill your ghoul if they are training you, or planning a quick switch for a kill on you while your Summon Ghoul is on cooldown. Keep in mind that you're able to also Death Pact your Gargoyle (see the macro section of this guide). Get comfortable with controlling your ghoul - it's underrated. Personally, I have Alt+Scroll up set to /petattack [@focus], while having Alt+Scroll down set to /petfollow me. This is great for keeping shamans in combat who are using water-shield. You're easily able to toggle your pet on and off the shaman without giving him too much mana. Death and Decay is great for interrupting healers which are out of line of sight and drinking. For example, you can be in the middle of Nagrand Arena and interrupt a healer drinking almost anywhere on the map. While Chains of Ice is effected by Cloak of Shadows, Plague Strike is not. When a rogue uses this ability it's best to reapply Plague Strike right away. Using Outbreak is also an option. Dark Simulacrum works through immunities such as Divine Shield and Ice Block. This means the debuff is guaranteed to be applied regardless of the target's state. If you cast it during a Divine Shield, it will copy either the spell casted during the Divine Shield, or the spell casted after the shield is down. I mentioned using a focus Death Grip macro in the first tip. I cannot stress enough how huge this is for interrupts. Don't just use it to close gaps. If you're running with a Warrior, Chains of Ice -> Death Grip another target into range of the Bladestorm for more pressure. Remember that both your Death Grip and Mind Freeze can be grounded. You can use an addon to show an alert for the "Grounding Totem" buff (I use Elkano's Buff Bars). If you need to use either of these abilities and there is a Grounding Totem down, just cast a quick Chains of Ice to get rid of the totem. Take note that Anti-Magic Shell not only prevents magic spells from being applied, but also poisons. Another great use for Anti-Magic Shell is preventing Nature's Grasp or traps. Bind a focus Unholy Command to your main attack(s). This will keep any healers in combat, assuming they are in range and line of sight, without using and runes or runic power. Gargoyle is affected by Unholy Presence, however Frost Presence does not provide any bonus. By using your Gargoyle in Unholy Presence, it will gain extra haste allowing 3 more casts. Also, if you're going to Bloodlust/Heroism, do it before you summon your gargoyle or it will not receive the benefit. When a Warrior is Bladestorming one of your team-mates, Death Grip it off them. When in Dalaran, Blade's Edge, and Ring of Valor, you're able to Death Grip the Warrior off a pillar or ledge during the Bladestorm, but you have to watch for a Grounding Totem and Spell Reflect. It never hurts to carry an extra weapon engraved with Swordshattering. Using this will reduce the duration of those disarms that feel like they will never end. A rogues rotation usually starts with a Cheap Shot -> Kidney Shot -> Dismantle with 1 second left. If you are able to Gnaw the rogue with 1 second left on his Cheap Shot, you can equip your Swordshattering weapon. If you notice that the priest is low on mana, has not used Hymn of Hope, and is running out of line of sight, he is most likely going to first check to see if there's a Ghoul he has to Shackle. Pulling your Ghoul off the Priest just temporarily can "juke" him into casting it when you are perfectly aware and can easily have your pet switch back to him for the Gnaw. If your diseases are about to fall off and the target Death Knight uses Anti-Magic Shell, you are still able to refresh them via Festering Strike. 5v5 Clutch Death Grips are very important in 5s, and one of the best places to do this is in Dalaran Sewers. You can grip the kill targets down to the lower area, using the wall to line of sight its healers. At each corner in Dalaran Sewers, there is a Shadowsight that spawns after 90 seconds. You are able to grip a player into this Shadow Sight, and it will increase the targets damage taken by 5% for the next 15 seconds. [Bug Fix] There's a bug where you will be in line of sight and range, not be silenced, and have enough runic power, yet Summon Gargoyle will not work. This only known fix for this is to drop your current target and re-target. Unholy Frenzy will break crowd control effects if it is active. However, it cannot be used while controlled. You are able to cast this on your partner, but it takes approximately 3 seconds for the first damage tick. The damage portion of Chains of Ice will work on a hunter with Deterence when using Glyph of Chains of Ice. However, this won't slow the hunter. When Sudden Doom procs, you are able to gain 20 runic power if you choose to use it to heal instead of doing damage. When going against a death knight, strangulate prevents the use of lichborne healing. Killing pets/mirror images will refresh the cooldown on Death Grip if you have Unholy Command talented. Also works for Shadowy Apparitions, which only have 5 HP. Although Cloak of Shadows causes Chains of Ice to resist, Outbreak bypasses it. So if you don't want the rogue to vanish, immediately use Outbreak soon as he pops Cloak of Shadows. If you're an engineer who uses Nitro Boosts, you'll notice that sometimes it will fail and cause a debuff called Rocket Fuel Leak. This causes you to lose 15% hp every 8 seconds as fire damage. If you use anti-magic shell during this debuff, you will absorb the fire damage and receive a full runic power bar from 0. Nitro Boosts are not usable in arena or rated battlegrounds, however you can use them in normal battlegrounds, Tol Barad, or other world PvP. Mind Freeze is considered a spell and thus removes spell reflect from the Warrior. Using this is situational. Dark Command has a chance to proc Unholy Strength. You can put your pet on /petstay at a distance away from you, so that when the rogue opens on you with a Cheap Shot, your ghoul will Leap behind the rogue, circumventing any problems you would have with your initial Gnaw being dodged via Evasion. You only need 80 runic power to grant 5 stacks of Shadow Infusion, assuming you use it to heal and have and have Glyph of Death's Embrace. Although you lose the death coil damage, transforming the pet and being able to take advantage of its abilities is often even more beneficial. And do your teammates and self a favor and do not whine in skype or ventrilo.3. Macros:
It's helpful to bind /startattack to as many abilities as you can for easy targeting and switches. If you really want to get the most use out of your Dark Command, then you're either going to have to avoid using the Scourge Strike macro in certain times, or just straight up not bind Focus Dark Command in the macro. If you don't have dispels or your dispeler is CC'd, you can taunt a Water Elemental, Gargoyle, or pretty much any form of pet to break a CC such as a Polymorph, anticipated Blind, etc. If you are running with a rogue, you should probably avoid using this macro because it can prevent potential saps.
#show scourge strike /startattack /cast scourge strike /cast [@focus] dark command
#show obliterate /startattack /cast obliterate /cast [@focus] dark command
Alexek has found a working macro that will both apply Dark Simulacrum to the focus target, and also use the copied spell on the focus target. This requires the Bartender4 addon in the addons section of this guide. To use this, change the "5" in the macro to whatever number keybind you have your normal Dark Simulacrum bound to in Bartender. This can be found by typing /bt, clicking Key Bindings at the top of the menu, then hovering over your buttons to display the keybind # in the tooltip.#showtooltip dark simulacrum /target focus /click BT4Button# /targetlasttargetDominos users can use /click DominosButton#
For a macro that both copies and uses Dark Simulacrum using the default UI:
#showtooltip dark simulacrum /target focus /click ActionButton# /targetlasttargetOR /click MultiBarBottomLeftButton#
OR /click MultiBarBottomRightButton#
OR /click MultiBarLeftButton#
OR /click MultiBarRightButton#
The # part of the macro should reference your non-macro Dark Transformation. To check this, type /framestack and mouse over the bind.
By default, using Death Pact will sacrifice your ghoul. If you would prefer to sacrifice your Gargoyle instead, use:/use [nopet]Raise Dead /targetexact Ebon Gargoyle /use Death Pact /stopmacro [harm] /targetlasttarget
Here is macro that allows you to control your not-so-well-designed Gargoyle, while keeping your ghoul on its current target./use Summon Gargoyle /target focus /targetlasttarget /focus pettarget /petfollow /petattack /petattack [@focus] /targetlasttarget /focus /targetlasttarget /startattack
Use a Chains of Ice macro for Shadowfiend if you have any binds available./cast [@Shadowfiend, harm, exists, nodead] chains of ice
Use a macro to Lichborne-heal yourself. As of 4.0.6, Glyph of Death's Embrace no longer refunds 20 runic power when healing yourself. This glyph now only refunds runic power when healing your pet./cast !lichborne; /cast [@player] Death CoilAnother option is this 3-in-1 modifier macro provided by Proditor that allows you to use Death Coil on your current target, your pet, and yourself.
#showtooltip death coil /cast [mod:alt,@pet][mod:shift,@player][] death coil
Remember to cancel Lichborne if you see a Priest casting Shackle or a Paladin using Turn Evil on you./cancelaura Lichborne
In order to better utilize your Ghoul, you can use a mouseover petattack macro. This macro will cause your ghoul to attack your mouseover, and if there is no mouseover, then it will attack your current target. It is great for stomping totems without switching your current target./petattack [target=mouseover,exists][exists]
Sick of using Death and Decay only to have it not work due an invalid area? You can't really spam it because it will toggle on and off. This macro will prevent it from toggling so you can spam the macro and click in your desired area simultaneously:/cast !Death and Decay
If you press Huddle more than once, then it will cancel the cast. By adding an exclamation mark before the spell name, it will not cast a spell if it's already active. Also, remember that when your ghoul is Dark Transformed it can use huddle simultaneously with it's other abilities and still move./cast !Huddle
Presence dance. (If you play in Frost Presence, just switch that with Unholy Presence)./cast Blood Presence /cast Unholy Presence
Here's a macro that allows you to summon a ghoul, and if it's already summoned, it will cast Dark Transformation./cast [nopet] raise dead; !dark transformation
Note that it can also be used on partners, so depending on the situation, you may want to cast it on your partner so they can avoid CC./cast [@PartnersName] Unholy Frenzy
Press this macro once to leap, and a second time to gnaw. This is especially useful when your ghoul is Dark Transformed and Leap causes a stun for an interrupt. It is very simple but cuts down an extra keybind./cast Leap /cast Gnaw
/cast [@focus] Leap /cast [@focus] Gnaw
Use this to cancel the following buffs that you may receive from using Dark Simulacrum./cancelaura Divine Shield /cancelaura Ice Block /cancelaura Hand of Protection
These macros will either toggle your Claw's autocast on or off. You can use them in a macro if you want. The reason for this is because Claw triggers a pet GCD, so if your Claw goes off at the same time you want to Gnaw, Gnaw will not work. It's also a pain to have to mash Claw all the time, so it's easier to just toggle it on and off as you please. You shouldn't include it in your strike macros because if you need to use them simultaneously while bursting, it will trigger a pet GCD./petautocaston Claw
/petautocastoff ClawAnd if you just want 1 bind to toggle Claw on and off:
/petautocasttoggle Claw
[2v2] The following can be performed by any class, but I will explain how a Death Knight would do so. Druids will often try and open with a Cyclone right out of Prowl. Cyclone is a 1.5 second cast, not including haste, so you will have a hard time targeting the Druid in time to interupt the opening Cyclone. Here is a macro to instantly Death Grip the druid, assuming he is the 2nd to appear in a 2v2 match. You have to use this at your own discretion. If you're going to use it, you best spam it while going heads up versus the druids partner./cast [@arena2] Death Grip4. Recommended Glyphs:
UnholyPrime
● Glyph of Death Coil - Increases the damage or healing done by Death Coil by 15%.
● Glyph of Raise Dead - Your Ghoul receives an additional 40% of your Strength and 40% of your Stamina.
● Glyph of Scourge Strike - Increases the Shadow damage portion of your Scourge Strike by 30%.
Major
● Glyph of Anti-Magic Shell - Increases the duration of your Anti-Magic Shell by 2 sec.
● Glyph of Dark Succor - Causes your Death Strike ability to always restore at least 15% of your maximum health when used while in Frost or Unholy Presence.
● Glyph of Strangulate - Increases the Silence duration of your Strangulate ability by 2 sec when used on a target who is casting a spell.
Minor
● Glyph of Horn of Winter - Increases the duration of your Horn of Winter ability by 1 min.
● Glyph of Resilient Grip - When your Death Grip ability fails because its target is immune, its cooldown is reset.
● Glyph of Death's Embrace - Your Death Coil refunds 20 runic power when used to heal.
FrostPrime
● Glyph of Obliterate - Increases the damage of your Obliterate ability by 20%.
● Glyph of Howling Blast - Your Howling Blast ability now infects your targets with Frost Fever.
● Glyph of Frost Strike - Reduces the cost of your Frost Strike by 8 Runic Power.
Major
● Glyph of Anti-Magic Shell - Increases the duration of your Anti-Magic Shell by 2 sec.
● Glyph of Hungering Cold - Your Hungering Cold ability no longer costs runic power.
● Glyph of Strangulate - Increases the Silence duration of your Strangulate ability by 2 sec when used on a target who is casting a spell.
Minor
● Glyph of Horn of Winter - Increases the duration of your Horn of Winter ability by 1 min.
● Glyph of Resilient Grip - When your Death Grip ability fails because its target is immune, its cooldown is reset.
● Glyph of Death's Embrace - Your Death Coil refunds 20 runic power when used to heal.
5. Dark Simulacrum (Author: Bashel)
The following applies to Dark Simulacrum:
The spell must cost mana. Phsyical abilities, despite using mana, do not work. You cannot copy pet summons. You can copy pet abilities. Spell power, talents, and glyphs will not be copied. When using the copied spell, it will always be an instant cast. Dark Simulacrum cannot be grounded. Dark Simulacrum can be applied through immunities. The copied spell can be grounded. Copied spells still have cooldowns. You can copy spells casted by opponent DK's Dark Simulacrum.
Can be copied:
● Cyclone
● Entangling Roots
● Solar Beam
● Star Fall
● Typhoon
● Starsurge
● Faerie Fire
● Swiftmend (requires Rejuvenation or Regrowth)
Cannot be copied:
● Shapeshifts
● Spells and attacks requiring shapeshifts.
● Nature's Grasp
Can be copied:
● Polymorph
● Mirror Images
● Dragon's Breath
● Pyroblast
● Living Bomb
● Counterspell
● Time Warp
● Ring of Frost
● Ice Block
● Blink
● Frost Nova
● Cone of Cold
● Mana Shield
● Ice Barrier
● Invisibility
● Deep freeze (requires frozen target, ex. freezing trap or hungering cold)
● Slow Fall
● Armors, Ice/Mage/Molten
Can be copied, but not applicable:
● Icy Veins
● Deep freeze (without a method of freezing the target)
Can be copied:
● Seals
● Hammer of Justice
● Divine Shield
● Divine Protection
● Hand of Protection
● Hand of Freedom
● Avenging Wrath
● Holy Wrath
● Consecration
Cannot be copied:
● Avenger's Shield
● Hammer of Wrath
● Any spell costing Holy Power (remember: requires mana to be spent)
Can be copied:
● Pain Suppression
● Power Word: Barrier
● Power Word: Shield
● Divine Hymn
● Mass Dispel
● Fear Ward
● Psychic Scream
● Psychic Horror
● Mana Burn
● Silence
● Mind Control
● Leap of Faith (aka Life Grip)
● Guardian Spirit
● Levitate
Can be copied:
● Hex
● Earth shield
Cannot be copied:
● Ghost Wolf
● Feral Spirits
● Totems
Can be copied, but not applicable:
● Spiritwalker's Gracefont
Can be copied:
● Fear
● Death Coil
● Shadowfury
● Howl of Terror
● Chaos Bolt
● Infernal
● Unstable Affliction
● Succubus' Seduction
● Felhunter's Spell Lock
● Haunt (increases the damage of your own dots)
● Drain Mana
● Drain Life
● Hellfire
● Hand of Guldan (although does not copy talents)
● Armors
Can be copied, but not applicable:
● Shadow Ward/Nether Protection
● Demonic Portal
● Spells that requires Metamorphosis
● Demonic Empowerment
● Demon Soul
● Soul Link
6. Builds
The following are builds that are popular at the moment. The code following each build can be used to automatically learn each talent. This can be done by pasting the code in the chat log, and requires a blank talent tree.
Unholy 1 - 0/8/33
/run t,p,a={3,12,23,42,63,72,81,103,112,123,133,141,151,162,171,182,191,201,1,2,13,22,51,72,}SetPreviewPrimaryTalentTree(t[1],GetActiveTalentGroup())for i=1,#t do a=t[i]if a<9 then p=a else AddPreviewTalentPoints(p,floor(a/10),a%10)end end
Unholy 2 - 0/8/33
/run t,p,a={3,12,23,42,63,72,81,103,112,123,133,141,151,162,171,181,192,201,1,2,13,22,51,72,}SetPreviewPrimaryTalentTree(t[1],GetActiveTalentGroup())for i=1,#t do a=t[i]if a<9 then p=a else AddPreviewTalentPoints(p,floor(a/10),a%10)end end
Frost 1 - 8/31/2
/run t,p,a={2,13,22,43,51,72,82,92,103,112,121,131,142,152,161,193,201,1,23,33,72,3,12,}SetPreviewPrimaryTalentTree(t[1],GetActiveTalentGroup())for i=1,#t do a=t[i]if a<9 then p=a else AddPreviewTalentPoints(p,floor(a/10),a%10)end end
7. Stats, Gemming, and Enchants
Meta:
+54 Critical Strike Rating and 1% Spell Reflect: Destructive Shadowspirit DiamondRed:
+40 Strength: Bold Infernal RubyYellow:
+40 Resilience: Mystic AmberjewelBlue:
+50 Spell Penetration: Stormy Ocean SapphireSpell Penetration:
● Reduces the target's resistance to your spells.
● The spell penetration cap is 195
● Enchant your cloak with Enchant Cloak - Greater Spell Piercing
● Spell penetration gems - Stormy Ocean Sapphire, Stormy Chimera's Eye
Hit Rating:
● The melee hit cap for 2 handed weapons is 5% (601 hit rating).
Unholy Stat Priority:
5% Hit Rating
195 Spell Penetration Resilience Strength Haste Critical Strike Mastery ExpertiseFrost Stat Priority:
5% Hit Rating
195 Spell Penetration Resilience Strength Mastery Haste Critical Strike Expertise8. Runeforging
● Rune of the Fallen Crusader is considered the best runeforge for both Unholy and Frost PvP. This affixes your rune weapon with a rune that has a chance to heal you for 3% and increase total Strength by 15% for 15 sec.
9. Professions
While professions are still debated on the forums, Jewelcrafting is widely considered a definite for the gems with additional stats. Regarding your second profession, it's up to you, but personally I recommend leather-working due to the Draconic Embossment - Strength which enchants your bracers. With jewelcrafting, you can achieve 194 spell penetration, with 195 being the cap. The difference of 1 spell penetration should not concern you.
Draconic Embossment - Strength - Emboss the pattern of dragons onto your bracers, permanently increasing Strength by 130. Embossing your bracers causes them to become soulbound. The embossment requires at least 500 skill in Leatherworking to remain active.
10. Team Compositions
Popular setups:
- PHD: Unholy/Frost, Marksmanship, Holy
- TSG: Unholy/Frost, Arms, Holy
- Shadowcleave: Unholy/Frost, Affliction, Restoration
- Shadowcleave: Unholy/Frost, Affliction, Restoration 
- Boringcleave: Unholy, Discipline, Restoration - Boringcleave: Unholy, Discipline, Holy 
- Boringcleave: Unholy, Discipline, Restoration
- Ebolacleave*: Unholy/Frost, Feral, Holy
- Untitled: Unholy/Frost, Frost, Holy
- Untitled: Unholy/Frost, Enhancement, Restoration - Untitled: Unholy/Frost, Shadow, Holy11. Changes to note:
[4.0.6 - Unnecessary now that Icebound Fortitude breaks stuns on use] When a rogue opens up on you with a Cheap Shot, use your Gnaw with 1 second left on the Cheap Shot so you're able to Chains of Ice for runic power -> Icebound Fortitude to avoid being Kidney Shot. [4.0.6 - Fixed and no longer works] To avoid being sapped, you are able to send your pet in to attack the rogues partner from any distance. Your partner can heal you, but they will still be vulnerable to sap, so technically you're not in combat. You need to spam pet attack on any visible target and rush in on foot to do this. You can no longer Leap to partners. Chains of Ice no longer works through Cloak of Shadows. This is a bug that has been fixed. There's a bug which causes your Summon Ghoul cooldown to reset to 2 minutes cooldown upon mounting. Glyph of Disease has been removed, but you are still able to refresh diseases through Anti-magic Shell via Festering Strike. Death and Decaying mirror images is no longer as effective as their hp has been increased to that of the mage. Frost Presence and Blood Presence have switched roles. Blood Presence is now the presence to use to reduce damage intake. Using Rune Strike in Blood Presence no longer requires you to dodge or parry. The bug which allowed you to stack 5x Shadow Infusion before the gates opened in arena has been fixed.12. General Addons:
Pharaunmizz has compiled both an addon FAQ and video tutorial that can be found here:
13. DK-specific Addons:
I recommend an addon called TellMeWhen. You can use it to show the number of Shadow Infusion stacks on your ghoul. I have mine set to display the duration of Shadow Infusion, the stacks, and change to the duration of Dark Transformation after it is casted. Since only 80 runic power is needed (with Glyph of Death's Embrace) to transform your ghoul, I also use Power Auras to display an texture that informs me when I have the 80 runic power.Detailed instructions below the images.
1. Download Power Auras and TellMeWhen.
2. Type /tmw to config.
3. Right click any of the transparent icons.
4. Click Choose spell/item/buff/etc.
5. Type Shadow Infusion
6. Right click the icon again and check Enable icon.
7. Go to Icon type and check Buff/Debuff.
8. Check Show timer and Show timer number.
9. Go to Unit to watch and check Pet
10. Place the icon anywheres on your screen and resize by dragging the bottom right corner of the icon.
To display the Dark Transformation icon after using it:
1. Type /tmw to config.
2. Right click any of the transparent icons.
3. Click Choose spell/item/buff/etc.
4. Type Dark Transformation
5. Right click the icon again and check Enable icon.
6. Go to Icon type and check Buff/Debuff.
7. Check Show timer and Show timer number.
8. Go to Unit to watch and check Pet.
9. Resize and position the icon to that of the Shadow Infusion icon.
To display the Power Auras icon that displays when you have 80 runic power:
1. Type /powa.
2. Click New.
3. Choose your texture, position and size.
4. Under the Activation by: dropdown menu, choose Rage/Energy/Power.
5. Set the Threshold to 60% (80/130 runic power = ~60).
6. Check the </> to set the Threshold as inverted.
7. Under the Power Type: dropdown menu, choose Runic Power.
14. Other DK Resources:
1. The Dark Simulacrum List
2. Gear/Stat Discussion (Season 9)
3. Seed's DK FAQ Thread
4. Death Knight DPS Compendium
15: UI
Coming soon!
16. Contributors:
Navarium
Agadqt
Pandarang
Fearfulbro
Jigslol
Proditor
Ukali
Yamato
Axgammar
Sýnergy
Ingvaldr
Bashel
Fallen
Оверкавай
Cyraxx
Satarrus
Ragrek
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