So I just recently picked up Unholy DK as its one of the only classes I’ve never really played at any decent lvl in pvp. The fantasy is cool and all but the gameplay was hard to get a grasp on in the past.
Honestly after a couple days of qing I feel I got a good handle on it and it’s actually become one of my favorite specs to play. But holy crap I am struggling to maintain rating on it in shuffle. I’m proudly a career duelist and normally play between 1800-2200 depending on class/spec and inflation. I’ve been 2100 this season in shuffle on Disc, Rsham, and Ret. 1800 sets on a few more classes. I pushed up to 2074 on my DK but the past few q sessions I’ve tanked all the way down to below 1900.
Obviously I have room to improve, but I’m having a lot harder time getting rating on this compared to multiple other classes. I get the standard grip>blind>strang combo with cds. Use weakauras to trade defensives on enemy cds. Pet management macros. Mind Freeze 123 macros. Grip melee off my ranged partners (normally they’re back on target .5 seconds again after). I feel I have all the basics down. I can do big dam if I can get triple blind goes with cds, but it falls off a lot if I get kited/pillared by ranged which seems to happen a lot. Also struggle in melee/hunter lobbies where I get shredded like paper.
It’s a fun spec but I just feel like a worse Ret without big team cds like BoP/spell BoP/Sanc/LoH to carry games. I know it’s getting changed next xpac but the builder spender Wounds rotation mechanic makes it feel hard to swap targets and I find myself inclined to tunnel one target. If I swap around I feel I fall behind in damage instead of pveing one target. Also I kind of feel like just a damage bot and don’t have a ton of impact on the game like I do as a Ret with their utility.
No BS, any tips? It’s a really fun spec but it definitely feels harder to push than other classes and I feel like I’m doing mostly everything right but want to improve my gameplay.
People can put me on a cross for saying this but I think unholy dk is exceptionally at the mercy of the other players in the shuffle lobby and sometimes you just lose.
If you wanna add me on discord (name is just amatox) we can chat dk and if you wanna record some games I can take a look.
Glad ur having fun on it tho. It’s the only spec in the game I have fun on win or lose
Feels like that a lot. A lot of lobbies I genuinely can play a lot better than the other players in my lobby and just get griefed because they wanna not use cds on my team or whatever and I can’t really do anything about it
Not the best dk but one really important thing is spellwarden. Using that to prevent cc on your healers or save teamates against magic damage specs is really important.
Also a lot of the time asphyxiate can feel a lot better to use over strang, especially in low shuffle lobbies.
General play style outside of your goes the important stuff is dot uptime + just being really annoying. You can make a lot of casters and immobile melees lives hell. Also don’t get super held up on going for the triple go. It’s fine to just blind the healer for extra cc.
I mained Spriest from the end of WoD until the start of this xpac. I rerolled DK the week they nerfed them to the ground in season 1 and giga buffed SP the same tuning pass.
I haven’t consistently played the entire time subscription wise but, I will never main anything but DK again. I had sunken cost fallacy on my SP for years. Realized I quit the game often because SP isn’t as fun as it used to be and I lost my touch on it anyway.
So I went all in on DK, first time I’ve PvEd since BfA, bought a year subscription for the first time ever, have more time in game this xpac than I’ve had the last 3 xpac combined, not hyperbole. (Also not proud but I’m having fun lmao). First time I’ve done the leap frog rating thing with an alt DK. Hoping to get my first glad since BFA this season and also the first on my DK.
Waiting for a little more inflation though because I don’t think I’m quite good enough yet to get it now but hoping later on in the season.
I See you post here often and wanted to tell you my life story lmao.
You’re definitely right. I can constantly be peeling for my team mates and interrupting the right spells and cc’ing at the right times and doing the most damage in the lobby but if I have to rely on a bunch of apes it can be a 6 round head on desk experience.
One of the main reasons I play frost instead. I prefer unholy gameplay by a mile, but gave up fast when I realized FDK (although squishier) has higher kill potential and burst. I don’t like relying on other players to win in SS. The tradeoff is the predictability of the burst
You nailed the analogy its a worse ret paladin . our spec is does alot of damage and thats where it really shines . having the ocasional go by timing your CDs with your CCs specially if your team mates dont know whAT A cc EVEN IS . but yes I main DK , and I decided to level a RET JUST out of curiosity and I was astounded how similar , and how Easy it was to get 1800 as ret a class I only played for a week vs DK which i;ve been playing on and off since wrath .
Now as for your problem . My experience is this … OUR BIGGEST weakness is surviving , specially when we dont have a great healer . we basically flop and have no immunities so learning to survive is the biggest issue . if we are the target . make sure you Death strike every 5 seconds or so . use your PVP talents , and your regular talents and change them out depending on the comp this is an absolute requirement . specially in the lower brackets because DPSing and burst is so high and alot of healers cant keep up .
The trick is being able to put out good damage while getting focused in those situations .
if your team mate is getting focus make sure you use Team shell on them as well if you are up against a spell comp .
I think this can be said of most melee specs tbh, but unholy is definitely up there.
Unholy CAN make gamewinning plays with good teamshells, dark sims, or grip+blinds and its overwhelming damage.
However, unholy has the least CC options out of every spec in the game and, while it’s damage IS incredible, it’s not unhealable until late in dampening and UHDK doesn’t have the same tools to setup its damage and cc on the healer that other specs like feral, dh, casters, etc do.
