Just created my first DK, I have been leveling my Ret pally but am possibly looking for a change. I read good things about Unholy but I’ve never played a DK before, but I’m also a little hesitant because Ret is really easy to play.
Just curious what people’s thoughts/opinions are - thank you!
It’s fairly easy. Frost I’d say is the easier of the two to pick up and learn but once you learn the rotation Unholy is easy. Off the top of my head (been awhile) but makes me think of how ret plays a bit.
Unholy takes time to get used to with timing cds and certain abilities. Screw up even a little bit and your performance would suffer quite a lot. To get into is easy, but going from there you’ll find that it’s easy to mess up.
B1cepspump on YouTube (and twitch) has guides on it.
For me. Easy to hard:
Frost < Blood < Unholy
And I don’t like managing pets. Just my preference
unholy is very easy to pick up but also has lots of depth in many different areas of the game, so you can spend a lot of time just playing with even a single talent.
Thanks for all the responses! I have been reading the Wowhead and Icy-Veins guides to try and get a sense of what to expect - I’ll also take a look at B1cepspump’s videos.
Unholy has a lot to keep track of. Biceps’ videos and guides can and will teach you the fundamentals of Death Knights and its specs.
I don’t agree with him in certain things in advanced level though but I still respect the guy.
Its not hard but you wont get the max of it right from the bat like you would on a spec like frost or bm hunter
Not too bad at all. It has more damage cooldowns than most dps specs, most of which are on very short (1-1.3 minutes) cds. That’s the “complex” aspect of it. Otherwise, the gameplay is: Apply diseases > apply and burst wounds > spend your RP. I don’t think any class in this game is particularly complicated.
Thanks again for all of the comments!
So I 've been doing some light questing, and so far I actually really enjoy what I “think” is the playstyle - love the mix of melee & minions. I’ve definitely noticed some difficulties I’m having so far:
Keeping track of Festering Wound stacks can be difficult - does anyone have a suggestion for an addon or UI tip to help track that? I know it’s important when deciding when to use Apocalypse.
Keeping track of Runic Power, which is important to determine when to use Death Coil. Again, there’s probably an addon or UI tip to help.
Survivability looks to be an interesting challenge - on the one hand, I assume minions help mitigate some of the attention, but on the other hand, it doesn’t seem as if DKs have as much dmg mitigation or healing that Ret Pallys do (which makes total sense).
All in all, though, I can definitely already tell the damage is there - having run my pally through the Maw recently and now doing so with my DK, the difference in kill speed is night and day. Makes me really excited to watch some videos and learn as much as I can.
I agree with those above recommending bicepspump’s videos, was very helpful for me.
If you’re leveling and questing, mobs won’t live long enough for you to really get an accurate feel for your abilities I’ve found though. mostly because unholy’s “rotation” and strengths come from a bit of ‘setting up’ so by the time you group up enough mobs and set up, they’re dead.
That said, I recommend doing some dungeons and following a bit of what the bicep’s videos suggest. Once you do enough of these I think that you’ll probably get a better idea of which cool downs to use and when, which will also in turn help with your questing and leveling out in the world.
Good luck and enjoy!
Regarding the concerns you have,
I don’t use any addons other than details for meters and deadly boss mods, so I’m afraid I can’t give much insight there other than having enemy nameplates shown above their heads which will display debuffs allowing you to see wounds and diseases.
I wouldn’t worry too much about this past just looking to see if the mob that you’re on has wounds on them; if it has 0, use festering strike unless it’s about to die. If you want to festercleave, use fester strike on one mob, tab to another, use again then pop death and decay and scourgestrike. A lot of times it’s worth just using scourge strike during death and decay even if the mob you’re targeting has no wounds. If you want to use apocalypse, notice whether the mob has 4 wounds, if it doesn’t, put four wounds on it then use apoc.
For monitoring runic power, I don’t use addons for this in particular but you might find some helpful. You’ll likely start to get a feel for whether or not you have enough rp to death coil or epidemic (use epidemic for 3+ mobs instead of death coil), by simply just knowing that you had just spent runes on fester strike or scourge strike which give rp. Death coil is expensive so if you’ve just used two in a row, you don’t have enough for another unless somewhere in there you have a sudden doom proc.
For survivability, you can use death strike instead of death coil as you see fit, death strike is wonderful when you’ve just killed a mob and gotten the proc for death strike. Don’t forget to use your defensive cds like icebound fort, anti magic shell, anti magic zone. Chains of ice and kite to allow your pet to deal dmg while you’re safely far enough and waiting for cds to come back up. Lichborne allows you to target yourself with death coil to heal yourself which is great when you’re kiting and trying to stay out of range and can’t death strike. Don’t assume your pet will hold aggro btw, it won’t.
Stay safe buddy.
Use WA to keep track of your CD. Is much much easier
Just play and practice . Its the only way IMO to get better . UH seems like alot to take in at first. But the more you play it and get used to it its fine.
Thanks everyone!
So I’ve been playing Unholy more and more, and overall I have to say I’m really enjoying it - it’s a big step up in terms of challenge from Ret, which I’m finding pretty refreshing. I’ve watched a few of bicepspump’s videos, then realized he also wrote the Wowhead DK guides, so those have been very helpful.
Here are the issues I’m still struggling with:
Definitely really enjoying the spec/class so far - as I mentioned before, the damage difference between this and Ret is HUGE, and that doesn’t even take into account using Army of the Damned or Apocalypse. Thanks again for all the helpful tips and suggestions - it’s really made a difference to a noob DK like me!
You’re wasting a rune on Outbreak if you’re using it with Unholy Blight, those already apply VP enemies near you. A rune can make or break your rotation.
In PvE content, Death Strike is your friend. It heals you based on the damage you’ve taken. It really does help to identify what makes you take a lot of damage and heal off from it, absorbs are included such as AMS. AMS is only really good against magic damage dealers and debuff appliances. It can sometimes ignore mechanics like Nalthor’s Frozen Binds in Necrotic Wake (if he casts it on you).
Oh and I STRONGLY recommend getting Undertaker’s Crown in Torghast if opportunity present. It will turn your Lichborne a very powerful offensive, defensive and utility CD that damage, heals and restore your runes like nobody’s business as long as it is up. 
EDIT: I think you’ll get there. It seems like you’re learning the spec well.
this is also a really difficult habit to break
Don’t you mean "difficult habit to OUTBREAK?"
buh dum tss
Ya especially when outbreak falls off and there’s only 2s left for uh blight to be off cd. You wanna press it so bad.
As a new reroller from ret can you explain why the rune is being wasted? I am still learning and only 52 on the DK