I feel like it’s a little too complicated to play, and I’m speaking about unholy. I don’t really like frost. Unholy though, the concept, the lore, the spells it all seems really fun. I really need a pve toon. I main this spriest and I love it for PvP, but for pve my priest just isn’t cutting it for me. It feels clunky with mind sear/ searing nightmare spam for aoe.
So I guess my question is, is the learning curve very steep? I mained a WW monk in BFA and found that to be easy to play. So comparatively speaking difficulty wise is it on the same level as that?
If you can play a WW well, I think you can handle the complexities of UH. All it really takes is a little practice at managing the runic power/runes/wounds, the pet (which is easy), and the cooldowns (which there are a lot of). With a good ui and some weak auras, it is easy to learn
3 Likes
Unholy has a lot to keep track of. That doesn’t really mean it’s complicated. Mastering it is a whole different ballpark.
There is a difference between a good Unholy DK and a great Unholy DK.
But the fundamentals of Unholy is not hard. You use Festering Strike to apply Festering Wounds. You use Scourge Strike to pop it. You keep track of Festering Wound for each mob (Kinda like a Rogue CP or Monk Chi on EACH mob with only ONE Finishing Move). You summon your pets. You manage your cooldowns of them and yourself. So on and so fourth.
I have not played WW monk for a very long time to make comparisons but Dks do have a lot of toolkits to synergize with each other. I believe you have what it takes to figure out the big picture that is Unholy as a spec as a whole. 
EDIT: Forgot about Virulent Plague DoT (From Outbreak). That’s important too!
2 Likes
I think what’s intimidating to me is the rune system, managing CDs and and cds for pets I think I’m good at. The rune system though, it scares me lol.
I mained WW for a bit, maining UH dk right now. I will say, WW rotation is more fun imo, it flows very nicely, and has a rhythm to it. UH DK isn’t hard to play, there is a decent amount to manage, but in the end its just which button at which time, nothing complicated.
You mentioned your priest feeling clunky and not liking it, My want to do a trial of an UH DK for a bit first and see what you think. Currently its a little clunky, but fun to play.
2 Likes
Oh yea, the rune system!
It’s much more streamlined and intuitive than you think.
You have two separate types of abilities: one that cost runes to generate RP (Festering Strike, Scourge Strike) and one that consumes RP to regenerate your runes depending on your spec (Death Coil, Death Strike, Epidemic).
You have 6 runes, each rune you consume generates 10 runic power (RP for short). 3 Runes are recharged at a time that scales with haste. The more haste you have, the faster the runes are recharged and be available for use. If you spend your Runic Power, it has a bonus that replenish your runes depending on your spec such as Runic Empowerment for Frost (Recharging your furthest and latest rune in queue, runes are FIFO) and Runic Corruption for Unholy (Recharging your runes quick).
Before Legion, it was much less intuitive. There used to be 2 runes for EACH spec: Blood, Frost, Unholy and Death rune. Each ability used to cost very specific runes with Death Runes being the wild card. Those were the good old days.
But now, abilities cost runes just uses 6 of your available runes and abilities that cost RP replenish your runes. If you win the odds anyway. 
2 Likes
The best way to know is to play as one!
I used to be scared of UH too cause I thought they just had too many buttons and I was going to be overwhelmed.
But now it just reminds me of like cooking, there’s a lot of ingredients (Buttons) but if you know the recipe (rotation) it’ll be like second hand nature.
2 Likes
I like this analogy, yea I’ve leveled mine to 20 and I’m taking my time with it. Thanks for all the responses this really helps me a lot.
I agree with Nievy’s sentiment. Play your DK.
You can use my post above as a fundamental reference.
It actually takes practice too. Something I really need a couple of times. :L
Unholy is very straight forward with just 1 more key press in your core rotation than frost.
Like anything, practice it a bit and it become second nature. It’s a very simple and almost impossible to mess up.
I’ve actually been playing it a bit today and I’m really enjoying it. I’m wondering about macros actually.
I’m wondering if there is a way to have one keybind for both unholy blight and outbreak. It would act like this if unholy blight is on CD it will cast outbreak, if unholy blight is up, it will cast unholy blight instead.
Not even sure if it’s possible, I’m not the best at creating macros that complicated.
/castsequence reset = 45 Unholy Blight, Outbreak
I think that should work?
Try it out.
I would however strongly recomend using a modifier key though as there will be times in M+ where you don’t want to pop unholy blight but will want to put your dot up.