let me start by saying i love unholy. it is a very cool spec, and some of the things i think they’ve done right are things like the 45 second dark transformation/apocalypse/unholy blight cooldown windows, the damage of the minions feels non-trivial, and it fulfills that hybrid magic/melee fantasy pretty well like a necromancer version of enhancement shaman.
but unholy is full of pain in the butt mechanics and unsatisfying buttons that are cluttering its gameplay and make it many degrees less satisfying and more complicated than it needs to be.
pustules are, simply put, a pain. they create nightmares when it comes to target switching wasting all your setup, demand a 2 button apply and pop strike rotation that leaves the strikes themselves feeling like a tepid afterthought, and create yet another debuff to track on the target in a spec that is already full of debuffs to track.
death coil. death coil is possibly the most unsatisfying damaging spell to push in the game. it costs very little runic power, and between its low cost and sudden doom procs you can easily end up overcapped on deathcoil resources in seconds, so it begs you to push this button often. the problem is, its damage ratio, even fully talented, is pitiful, its less than a ghouls auto attack most of the time. you can barely tell you’ve pushed a button at all by how little the enemy health bar moves, and the spec is asking you to push this button often to keep the wheels of the spec turning. such a thematic ability but it feels sad and limp to push.
the strikes. this kind of ties in with the pustule issue, but festering strike and scourge strike both feel very clunky. with festering strike being your “setup” strike but also the high damage strike, it makes the following single rune scourge strike feel weak and low damage, even when it pops a pustule. it feels like you are running on a treadmill pushing buttons for little payoff in a way that frosts obliterate just doesnt. when obliterate hits, you know it. big number, big sound effect, it feels worth the runes invested.
so, what could be done about all of this? i imagine there are many creative solutions, both big and small, that could be done. condensing festering strike and scourge strike into a single button would be a good start. make scourge strike 2 runes, and give it festering strikes pustule application, then move the pustule popping trigger over to death coil/epidemic or ghouls attacks or something. that might make death coil feel a bit more useful to push as well. you could also rework the rotten touch talent to instead just increase death coils damage by that much when it gets a sudden doom proc, this makes sudden doom feel exciting to get instead of a chore to have to clear out, and gives death coil a little more oomph.
i dont know the final answer, ultimately that is up to the game design team to decide, but unholy is so close, soooo close to being the coolest and most fun spec in the game, and it just misses the mark because of how many chores and unsatisfying buttons are built into its core rotation. i want to stress that i think the cooldowns, pets, and diseases are in a great spot, i just think its the main rotational buttons that feel awful to push.