[EN] Dreadblade's Unholy DK PvP Guide (4.3.4)

[Dreadblade]

Table of Contents
Protip: Use your browser's Search Function (Ctrl+F) and type # followed by the section's corresponding number to jump to that section.

1. Intro

2. Resource System Explained

3. Races

3.1 Alliance Races

3.2 Horde Races

4. Unholy Benefits, Talents and Explanations

4.1 Benefits

4.2 Talents and Glyphs

4.3 Important Talents Explained

5. Basic Abilities

5.1 Offensive Abilities

5.2 Utility Spells

6. The Ghoul

7. Macros

8. Gear

8.1 Stat Priority

8.2 Off-Parts and Weapons

8.3 PvE Gear

8.4 Reforging

8.5 Gems

8.6 Enchants

8.7 Best Professions for Unholy

9. Rotation

10. Dueling Tips

10.1 Death Knight
10.2 Paladin
10.3 Priest
10.4 Warrior
10.5 Shaman
10.6 Druid
10.7 Hunter
10.8 Warlock
10.9 Rogue
10.10 Mage

11. Arena 2v2 and 3v3 setups

11.1 2v2 setups

11.2 3v3 setups

12. Recommended Addons

13. Closing Remarks



#1. Intro

Unholy Death Knights are definitely one of the strongest classes in PvP... if played correctly. They have a very large set of tools to enhance their mobility, survivability and damage when needed. Because of this, I can say that Death Knights don't have any anticlass.

I have been playing Death Knights for roughly 6 years, since 2008, in patch 3.0.8 (when I also started playing World of Warcraft). I have 5 years experience of playing Unholy Death Knight in both PvE and PvP, but mostly PvP. I managed to achieve 2400 rating in 3v3 on AT (with Vanguards Cleave) and 2700 in 2v2 (with Retribution Paladin), during the Ruthless season. On Freakz my highest 2v2 rating was 2868, and my highest 3v3 rating was 2200, which was recently achieved.

A few things you should keep in mind while reading this guide :
- It was built for both people that have never played Death Knights before and for people that already have some knowledge about DKs, but they want to expand it.
- Some of the info found here might also be useful in PvE.
- This guide requires some basic understanding of English... although I have tried to explain things in a way that everyone will understand it.
- This guide refers EXCLUSIVELY to Unholy Death Knights. Most abilities were explained from an Unholy Death Knight's point of view.
- I will NOT include links for items, since their tooltips are from Mists of Pandaria and their stats differ.
- Reading this guide will not instantly turn you into a Gladiator.
- As you can see, this guide has reached epic proportions... surely you can read only the sections you want (that's why I added the table of contents) but I recommend you to read all of it, you can learn something new even if you have some experience with DKs.


#2. Resource System Explained

Death Knights have a unique resource system: Runes, and Runic Power. Some abilities use one, two or three runes, other abilities use Runic Power.
There are 6 Runes in total, with two of each type : 2 Blood Runes (red), 2 Frost Runes (blue), 2 Unholy Runes (green). When you use an ability that requires a Rune, the respective Rune will have a cooldown of 10 seconds. If again you use an ability that requires the same type of Rune, that second rune will start its cooldown after the first Rune finished its own cooldown. For example, if you use two abilities that require Unholy Runes one after another, the second Unholy Rune will start its cooldown after the first Rune finished its own cooldown.

In this picture, you can see the first Unholy Rune halfway across finishing its cooldown, and the second Rune is waiting for it.



In this picture, you can see that after the first UnholyRune finished its cooldown (and is available to use again) the second Rune also started its cooldown.



Normally, a Rune's Cooldown is 10 seconds. This can be lowered by Haste. For example. a Death Knight with 1600 Haste (roughly 13% haste) will have a cooldown of about 8.85 seconds. Unholy Presence further reduces Rune cooldown by adding 15% haste, resulting in roughly 7.80 seconds cooldown. Other buffs such as Unholy Frenzy or Bloodlust / Heroism / Timewarp also reduce rune cooldown. Rune cooldown is calculated using a special formula, so having 30% haste doesn't mean your cooldown will be reduced by 3 seconds.

There is also a fourth, special type of Rune called Death Rune (purple). Basically, they are normal Runes which have been converted by an ability, and they can be used as any type of Rune. Death Runes can only be used once, after which they will return to their normal state (except for Frost Death Knights, they have 2 permanent Death Runes instead of Blood Runes).

Using one Rune of any type will generate 10 Runic Power (with some exceptions). So abilities that cost 1 Rune will generate 10 Runic Power, abilities that cost 2 Runes will generate 20 Runic Power and so on.

Exceptions from this rule are:
Chains of Ice - generates 20 runic power due to the Hands bonus from the PvP set.
Blood Boil - only generates Runic Power if it actually hits something.
Anti-Magic Zone - uses 1 Unholy Rune but it does not generate any Runic Power at all.
Aside from this there are also some abilities that do not require Runes, yet they generate Runic Power, such as Horn of Winter, or Empower Rune Weapon.



#3. Races and their benefits which are relevant to Death Knights

#3.1 Alliance Races



Human

Simply the best Race for PvP, due to their Racial - Every Man for Himself - which allows you to equip a second trinket of your choice. I would recommend going for Cataclysmic Insignia of Victory. They also have Mace / Sword Specialization, which grants you 3 bonus expertise when wearing weapons of that type.

Dwarf

Dwarves have Stoneform, which removes and makes you immune to all poison, disease and bleed effects and reduces damage taken by 10% for the next 8 seconds. It is an excellent defensive spell against Rogues and Feral Druids. They also specialize in Maces, granting 3 bonus expertise when wearing them.

Draenei

Draeneis passively have 1% Hit Rating. They also have Gift of the Naaru, a spell that heals you or your friendly target for 20% of their health over 15 seconds.

Night Elf

Night Elves have Shadowmeld, a spell that makes you invisible as long as you stand still. It is good for avoiding projectile spells such as Frostbolt, for example if you are about to get hit by a Frostbolt that was already casted by the Mage, use Shadowmeld and you will evade it. Also, Nigh Elves have Quickness, which makes them 2% harder to hit.

Worgen

Worgens have 1% increased Critical Strike chance and they can increase their movement speed by 40% for 10 seconds.

Gnome

They can remove all movement impairing effects (slows, roots) every 1.5 minutes.

#3.2 Horde Races



Orc

Best horde race for Death Knights. Orcs have increased Pet Damage, Reduced Stun Duration, and an ability that increases Attack Power when used. They also have Axe Specialization, which grants you 3 bonus expertise when wearing axes.

Troll

Trolls have Berserking, an ability that increases haste by 20%. As you will see later in this guide, Haste is an important stat for Unholy Death Knights. In addition, movement impairing effects last 15% less against Trolls.

Goblin

Goblins have 1% increased attack speed. They can also fire a rocket which deals Fire damage, or jump forwards for a few yards, allowing you to get closer to your target, or to kite them.

Tauren

Tauren's War Stomp can make up for Death Knight's lack of stuns, and is good against Rogues, or when you want to interrupt a cast which cannot be normally interrupted.

Blood Elf

Blood Elf's Arcane Torrent, which silences all nearby enemies for 2 seconds and grants 15 Runic Power can also be quite good, although it generates Diminishing Returns on your Strangulate (if you silence someone with Arcane Torrent first, and then follow up immedately with Strangulate, your Strangulate will only last for 2.5 seconds).

Undead

Will of the Forsaken is an ability similar to Lichborne. When used, it removes all Fear, Charm and Sleep effects, but it does not make you immune to them for a limited duration. It also shares a 30 second cooldown with your PvP Trinket.


#4. Unholy Benefits, Talents and Explanation of Important Abilities

#4.1 Benefits

- An ability called Scourge Strike

- Your Strength is increased by 25% at all times

- Reaping - a passive ability that causes your Pestilence, Blood Strike and Festering Strike to generate Death Runes

- Mastery: Dreadblade - increases all Shadow damage

- Master of Ghouls - gives you the ability to control your Ghoul, and makes it permanent. Also reduces the cooldown on Raise Dead by 60 seconds.

#4.2 Talents and Glyphs

Basic, Multi-purpose Spec



Multi purpose PvP spec. Viable for 2s, 3s, BGs, world PvP. Good for all types of gear. You can trade 1 point in Sudden Doom for Ebon Plaguebringer if you want.

3v3 Spec



Spec suited for playing 3v3, maximizes Necrotic Strike absorption via Bladed Armor. Recommended for players with very good gear - a 410 ilvl weapon would be ideal since you give up on Rage of Rivendare.

My own spec



This is my spec of choice, I play with it in all PvP situations. I dropped 1 point from Rage of Rivendare and added it to Sudden Doom. The reason I did this is because in patch 4.0.6, Rage of Rivendare gave 12% extra damage per rank, up to 36%; in 4.3.4, it gives 15% extra damage per rank, therefore at rank 2/3 I get 30% extra damage. Unholy Might was buffed as well, granting 20% more strength than before. I also prefer more Death Coils over more Disease damage.

Glyphs

Prime

Glyph of Raise Dead - greatly improves your Ghoul's damage and survivability
Glyph of Death Coil - more damage and healing
Glyph of Scourge Strike - more Shadow Damage for Scourge Strike
Glyph of Icy Touch - more Frost Fever damage. Use this if you're not using Scourge Strike at all.

Major

Glyph of Strangulate - if you use Strangulate on cast, it will be 2 seconds longer
Glyph of Anti-Magic Shell - increases its duration by 2 seconds, essential for your survival
Glyph of Death Grip - increases its range by 5 yards

Minor

Glyph of Death's Embrace - gives you 20 Runic Power back if you use Death Coil to heal any friendly Undead Minion.
Glyph of Blood Tap - Blood tap no longer damages you
Glyph of Resilient Grip - Death Grip's cooldown is reset if your target is immune (Divine Shield, Ice Block)
Glyph of Horn of Winter - increases the duration of your Horn of Winter by 1 minute, use this if you often forget to refresh it.



#4.3 Important Talents Explained

- Runic Corruption - a buff that has a 45% chance to be activated by a damaging Death Coil. It doubles your Rune regeneration speed for 3 seconds. If you already have Runic Corruption and it procs again, its duration will be extended by an additional 3 seconds.

- Death's Advance - When both of your Unholy Runes are on cooldown, your minimum movement speed is set to 75%. Basically, this means that your movement speed cannot go below 75% even if you get slowed by an effect that reduces your movement speed by 70%, such as Crippling Poison.
Tips: If you find yourself getting kited, and one or both of your Unholy Runes are available, you can proc Death's Advance by using Death and Decay and Anti-Magic Zone - obviously at the cost of wasting Anti-Magic Zone. Alternatively you can use Dark Transformation if your pet has 5 Shadow Infusion stacks.

- Unholy Blight - your Death Coils place a debuff on your enemy that lasts for 10 seconds, and makes all your diseases impossible to dispel. Also deals damage every second for 10 seconds, which equals 10% of your Death Coil's damage.

- Ebon Plaguebringer - a disease only available to Unholy Death Knights. While it doesn't do any damage, it increases all magic damage taken by that target by 8% (not just your magic damage, but other's as well) and increases the damage of your Diseases by 15 / 30% (depending on how many points you spent in the talent). Applied by all abilities that apply Blood Plague or Frost Fever (Chains of Ice, Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Outbreak)


#5. Basic Abilities

#5.1 Offensive Abilities

Frost Fever

A disease that slows the attack speed of your enemies by 20%, and deals Frost damage every 3 seconds for 21 seconds. Applied by Outbreak, Frost Fever or Icy Touch.
Tip: Glyph of Icy Touch increases Frost Fever damage by 20%


Blood Plague

A disease that deals Shadow Damage every 3 seconds for 21 seconds. Applied by Outbreak and Plague Strike.
Tip: Virulence increases Blood Plague and Frost Fever damage by 10 / 20 / 30%


Plague Strike

An ability that costs 1 Unholy Rune. Deals 100% Physical weapon damage and applies Blood Plague.
Tips: Use it ONLY to apply Blood Plague.
Rage of Rivendare increases its damage to 115 / 130 / 145%


Icy Touch

Weak damaging ability that costs 1 Frost Rune. Deals low amounts of Frost Damage and applies Frost Fever. Rarely used. If you want to apply Frost Fever, use Chains of Ice instead.
Tips: Use it to finish off someone at range that has like 5k HP left (although using Chains of Ice then Death Coil would be a much better choice) or to destroy Shaman Totems at a long range.


Death Coil

Strong damaging ability that costs 34 Runic Power (only for Unholy DKs, for Blood / Frost DKs it costs 40 Runic Power). Deals good amounts of Shadow Damage, or heals a friendly Undead target for even more. In addition, when you deal damage with Death Coil, you have a 45% chance to trigger Runic Corruption, a buff that doubles your Rune regeneration speed for 3 seconds.
Tips: Death Coil can be used to heal yourself in combination with Lichborne, since it makes you Undead.
Also, Death Coil can heal ALL friendly Undead targets - that includes Ghouls, Gargoyles, Army of the Dead Ghouls, or even other DKs with Lichborne on them.
Using Glyph of Death's Embrace will give you back 20 runic power whenever you heal a friendly Undead Non-Player Character (NPC). This is a good method of stacking Shadow Infusion faster.
Tip: Glyph of Death Coil and Morbidity increase damage and healing by 15% each.


Necrotic Strike

The bread and butter of Death Knight PvP. Costs 1 Unholy Rune. Deals 100% Physical weapon damage and for the next 10 seconds it puts a healing absorption debuff on your target, which stacks. The debuff absorbs healing equal to 70% of your Attack Power, minus the target's Resilience. For example, if you have 10000 Attack Power, and your target has 2000 resilience, your Necrotic Strike will absorb 7000 - 2000 = 5000 healing. The healing absorption debuff also slows your target's cast time by 30% until it expires or gets removed via healing.
Tips: What makes Necrotic Strike so overpowered is the fact that the absorption component ignores ALL damage reduction effects (except Resillience). For example, if your target has Pain Suppresion and you use Necrotic Strike, the applied debuff will absorb the same amount of healing; your Necrotic Strike will still absorb 5000 healing - it doesn't matter if your target has Pain Suppresion or not.
Also, Necrotic Strike absorbs ALL kinds of healing. That includes Fire Mage's Cauterize, Marksmanship Hunter's Chimera Shot, Warrior's Rune of Spellshattering, Rogue's Recuperate and so on.
Note: Might cause a significant amount of QQ.


Scourge Strike

Melee attack that costs 1 Unholy Rune. Deals 100% weapon Physical damage and for each of your diseases on your current target, it deals an additional 18% Shadow damage, based on the Physical damage. As unholy, you can have up to 3 diseases on your target, so the Shadow damage portion can reach a maximum of 54%. Simply put, if you have 3 diseases on your target and your Scourge Strike hits for 10000 Physical damage, it will deal an additional 5400 Shadow damage.
Tips: Ebon Plague (or any other buff that increases magic damage by 8%) and Mastery further increases the Shadow damage portion. Also, Glyph of Scourge Strike increases it's Shadow Damage portion by 30%.
Rage of Rivendare increases the physical damage of this ability to 115 / 130 / 145%, which also results in higher Shadow Damage.
Only use Scourge Strike when you have a decent amount of Necrotic Strike stacked on your target, or when you really want to land a killing blow.


Festering Strike

Strong melee attack that costs 1 Frost Rune and 1 Blood Rune. Despite it's relatively high cost, this is an important ability, as it deals a good amount of Physical damage, which equals 150% of your weapon damage, and increases the duration of your Chains of Ice and all of your Diseases on your target by 6 seconds - even above their normal duration. It also converts the runes which have been used into Death Runes.
Tips: This ability basicly replaces Blood Strike. Never use Blood Strike as Unholy, unless you know you're really going to need 1 Death Rune later.
Rage of Rivendare increases the damage of this ability to 173 / 195 / 218% weapon damage.


Death and Decay

An ability that costs 1 Unholy Rune. It can target a specific location. Targets in that location will start taking Shadow Damage for the next 10 seconds.
Tips: Use it to get Rogues / Ferals out of stealth, or Mages out of Invisibility.
Can also be used to stop Healers from drinking in Arenas at a long range, since it puts them in Combat.


Blood Boil

Weak AoE damaging ability that costs 1 Blood Rune. Deals low Shadow damage, which is increased for every disease present on the targets.
Tips: Use it to get rogues or ferals out of Stealth, or Mages out of Invisibility.


Death Strike

An ability that costs 1 Unholy Rune and 1 Frost Rune. Deals 150% Physical weapon damage and heals you for 7% of your maximum health.
Tips: Even if Death Strike gets dodged or parried, it will still consume the 2 Runes to heal you. Sometimes it can be a good way of getting Death's Advance versus Rogues or Ferals.


#5.2 Utility Spells

Chains of Ice

A spell that costs 1 Frost Rune and slows down your target's movement speed by 60%. Also applies Frost Fever. If you have the PvP Hands equipped it generates 10 additional Runic Power.


Blood Tap

Instantly finishes the cooldown on one of your Blood Runes and converts it into a Death Rune for 20 seconds. Very useful if you want to use Strangulate, Dark Transformation, Anti-Magic Zone or to refresh the duration of your Necrotic Strike.


Empower Rune Weapon

Powerful ability that instantly finishes the cooldown on all of your Runes, and grants you 25 Runic Power. Only use it when you know for certain that you can land a kill - you can only use it every 5 minutes.


Pestilence

An ability that costs 1 Blood Rune and spreads the existing diseases on your target to all other enemies 10 yards around you (not around your target - so positioning yourself properly will have better results). Diseases spread via Pestilence deal 50% of their normal damage.


Anti-Magic Zone (AMZ)

A defensive spell that costs 1 Unholy Rune. It creates an area which is about 8 yards wide and lasts for 10 seconds, or until the absorb limit is reached. Allies which stay inside this area take 75% less magic damage. Anti-Magic Zone can only absorb a limited amount of damage, equal to 10000 + 2 x Attack Power. So if you have 10000 Attack Power, Anti-Magic Zone will absorb up to 30000 damage.
Note: AMZ doesn't absorb 30000 damage(in this case) for each player separately. So if you have multiple Allies in the Zone taking damage at the same time, it will expire much sooner, sometimes even instantly.
Also, if, for instance, you take 60000 spell damage in a single hit, AMZ is intantly removed but it will absorb damage above the limit of 30000, in this case 45000 damage.
Buffs that increase your Attack Power / Strength will also increase the amount of damage absorbed by AMZ.


Death Pact

Kills one of your Undead Minions to heal you for 25% of your maximum health. This can be used on any of your Minions, including Gargoyle, Ghoul, and even Army of the Dead Ghoul. Costs 40 Runic Power.


Anti-Magic Shell (AMS)

Very powerful defensive ability that also has an offensive component. It absorbs 100% of spell damage (up to a maximum which equals 50% of your health) and prevents the application of all Magic Debuffs. That includes poisons. Every time you absorb magic damage you gain Runic Power - so AMS can be used offensively, but that is often risky.


Icebound Fortitude

Defensive spell that costs 20 Runic Power. For the next 12 seconds, you take 20% less damage (doesn't matter if it's Physical or Magic damage) and makes you immune to Stuns. Also, it can be used while already Stunned, removing such effects.


Dark Simulacrum

A tricky spell that costs 20 Runic Power. Applies a debuff on your target for 8 seconds, and copies the next spell cast by your target, allowing you to use it within the next 20 seconds. It can only copy spells that require Mana - so, for example, it cannot copy Word of Glory. Also it cannot copy Pets.
Tip: You can use Dark Simulacrum on an enemy Death Knight that has already copied something, and when he uses his copied spell, you will also get it.
Dark Simulacrum can be applied through Immunities, and it cannot be grounded.
Often it has no effect against Non-Player Characters. There are very few spells or abilities which can be copied from mobs / bosses (such as Hagara's Shattered Ice)


Unholy Frenzy

An ability that can be used on yourself or any friendly target. It increases melee and ranged haste by 20% for 30 seconds, at the cost of loosing 2% of their maximum health every 3 seconds (in the end they will loose 20% of their health).
Tips: You can use Unholy Frenzy on your partner to prevent CC that breaks from damage such as Sap, Polymorph, Freezing Trap, Blind.


Summon Gargoyle

Gladiator spell that costs 60 Runic Power. Summons a Gargoyle which is going to attack your target for the next 30 seconds. Gargoyle's damage "Snapshots" your Attack Power, which means it's damage will be influenced by the amount of Attack Power you have in the moment of summoning, and for the next 30 seconds it will remain the same even if your Attack Power gets lower or higher in the meantime. So it's best used when you have all attack power buffs and procs, and after you've used your Strength Trinket.
The Gargoyle normally has a cast time of 2 seconds, which can be lowered via Haste, although a cast time lower than 1.5 seconds would be useless since the Gargoyle himself has a Global Cooldown of 1.5 seconds (it cannot cast spells more often than once every 1.5 seconds).


Lichborne

An ability that turns the Death Knight into an Undead for the next 10 seconds. This grants him immunity to Fear, Charm, and Sleep effects, but also makes him vulnerable to Paladin's Turn Evil, Holy Wrath, and Exorcism, or Priest's Shackle Undead.
Tips: You can heal yourself with Death Coil while Lichborne is active.
Lichborne also removes Fear and Charm effects (Seduction, Mind Control) when used.
If used preventively, it can also make you immune to Sap, Repentance and Polymorph. It cannot remove such effects.


Strangulate

A spell that silences your target for 5 seconds. Costs 1 Blood Rune.
Tips: It's always good to have 1 free Blood Rune when you want to Strangulate a Healer so you can land a kill, or at least keep Blood tap for it.
With Glyph of Strangulate, the duration is increased to 7 seconds if you manage to interrupt a spellcast with it.


Outbreak

An ability with no cost that applies all Diseases.


Unholy Presence

Your main Presence. Increases your Haste by 10% and Movement Speed by 15%, and reduces your Global Cooldown by 0.5 seconds. You will want to sit in this presence most of the time.
Tip: Improved Unholy Presence gives an additional 5% haste and allows you to keep 15% increased Movement Speed while on other presences.


Frost Presence

Mostly useless for unholy. Increases all damage and Runic Power generation by 10%, but that would eventually translate into less damage since you loose the Haste and GCD reduction.


Blood Presence

Defensive Presence that increases your armor by 55%, Stamina by 8%, and reduces all damage taken by 8%. Very useful against Rogues and Ferals. Use it when you're the main target and you have a hard time surviving.


Horn of Winter

An ability that generates 10 runic power when used, and increases your and your allies' Strength and Agility by 549 for 2 minutes. Use it to refresh its duration, or to generate runic power when in need.


Death Grip

Death Knight's signature ability that pulls a target close to you. Can also be used to interrupt casts which cannot be interrupted with conventional methods (such as when a Paladin uses Aura Mastery, or even a Warrior's Shattering Throw)


Mind Freeze

This ability interrupts spellcasts. Proper usage of this ability requires a bit of practice as most casters will try to "fakecast", which basically means they stop their cast right before you interrupt them, and you end up wasting it.
Tips: Mind Freeze is considered a spell, so you can interrupt spellcasts on targets that have Hand of Protection on them. You can also use it against warrior's Spell Reflection without causing any harm to yourself.


Raise Dead

Summons your Ghoul, which will be discussed in the next section.


#6. The Ghoul
Unlike Frost or Blood Death Knights, Unholy Death Knights have a permanent Ghoul which you can control. Most of the times the Ghoul is underrated, when in fact it represents roughly 35% of your damage, and it has an incredible amount of utility (until it gets stuck inside pillars, of course). Learning to control your Ghoul is essential for PvP.

First, I will explain the Transformation System.

Shadow Infusion

Each of your Death Coils, whether it's used for damage or healing, adds one stack of Shadow Infusion, which increases damage by 6% (it also increases the Ghoul's size). Shadow Infusion can stack up to 5 times (30% damage). When it reaches 5 stacks, Dark Transformation becomes available. Dark Transformation is an ability which costs 1 Unholy Rune and transforms your pet into an Undead Monstrosity, increasing all of its damage by 60% and improving it's abilities. Following is a list of Ghoul Abilities and their Transformed versions.

Claw
Melee attack that does 125% damage. Costs 40 energy.


Sweeping Claws (Transformed Claw)
Melee attack that does 150% damage to 3 targets. Costs 40 energy.


Gnaw
Deals low damage and stuns the target for 3 seconds. Costs 30 energy.


Monstrous Blow (Transformed Gnaw)
Deals 125% damage and stuns the target for 4 seconds. Costs 30 energy.


Leap
Charges the ghoul towards your target. Costs 10 energy.


Shambling Rush (Transformed Leap)
Charges the ghoul towards your target, immobilizing it for 2 seconds, and interrupts spellcasting for 2 seconds. Costs 10 energy.


Huddle
Reduces all damage taken by 50%, but the ghoul needs to remain in place to channel the spell for 10 seconds. Costs 10 energy.


Putrid Bulwark (Transformed Huddle)
Reduces all damage taken by 50% without affecting the Ghoul's mobility. Costs 10 energy.

As you can see, keeping your Ghoul transformed for as long as possible becomes an important task, as he is technically like a mini warrior in your pocket.
To generate Shadow Infusion stacks quicker, heal your Ghoul while having Glyph of Death's Embrace. Also, if you heal your Ghoul with a Death Coil from a Sudden Doom proc, you will generate 20 runic power.

Learning to control your Ghoul is also important. Having keybinds for Pet Attack, Pet Follow and Pet Move To is crucial for his mobility. Personally, I have Pet Attack bound on T, Pet Follow bound on S, and Pet Move To bound on Shift-S.
As you can see, your Ghoul's Leap, Gnaw and Claw have an autocast option. Never leave autocast turned on! You are going to need a keybind at least for Leap and Gnaw. For Claw you have several options: put a keybind on it, macro it together with Scourge Strike (and spam that macro when you have Global Cooldown) or use an autocast macro, which you are going to turn off when you want to use Leap or Gnaw. DO NOT put it in macro with Necrotic Strike, it will have the same result as leaving autocast turned on. For the macros, see the next section.

Other facts about your Ghoul
- Their energy regeneration rate and melee attack speed is influenced by your Haste
- They inherit your crit chance
- They gain expertise from your Hit Rating
- Their damage and Attack Power scales dynamically with yours. When you use trinkets that increase your Strength, your Ghoul's damage will increase as well.
- Glyph of Raise Dead increases the amount of Strength and Stamina he gains from you by 40%

#7. Macros
Tips for macros:
"/use" and "/cast" are basically the same thing. Same goes for "@focus" and "target=focus". The only difference between these two is that they use fewer characters, and one macro can have a maximum of 255 characters. In my opinion it's best to use the shorter version ("/use" and "@focus", "@party1" etc.) because this will allow you to add more commands to your macro should you wish to expand their utility. Optionally you can and "#showtooltip" at the beginning of each macro to display the tooltip and icon of the spell.

Leap and Gnaw

Quote:

/use Leap /use Gnaw

If the pet is in melee range, he will use Gnaw. If your target is at least 5 yards away, your pet will Leap first.

Focus Leap and Gnaw

Quote:

/use [@focus] Leap /use [@focus] Gnaw

Scourge Strike and Claw

Quote:

/use Scourge Strike /use Claw

Pet Autocast Claw on/off

Quote:

/petautocasttoggle Claw

Pet Follow

Quote:

/petfollow

Pet Attack

Quote:

/petattack

Pet Move To

Quote:

/petmoveto

Switch from Unholy Presence to Blood Presence, then from Blood Presence to Unholy Presence

Quote:

/castsequence Blood Presence, Unholy Presence

Raise Dead and Dark Transformation

Quote:

/use [nopet] Raise Dead; !Dark Transformation

Lichborne

Quote:

/cancelaura Lichborne /use Lichborne

Press this macro to cast Lichborne. Press it again to remove it. Useful against Priests / Paladins.
IMPORTANT NOTE: I strongly recommend putting "/cancelaura Lichborne" on a separate keybind. If you spam click this Macro you will end up instantly removing your Lichborne... which is very bad if you wanted to heal.

Burst Macro

Quote:

/use X /use Summon Gargoyle

Replace X with the number of your Trinket Slot (13 or 14), where you keep your Strength-on-activate Trinket. Number 13 is your upper trinket slot, number 14 is the lower trinket slot. Alternatively, you can just put the Trinket's name in there (Cataclysmic Gladiator's Badge of Victory), but using numbers instead of names gives you the advantage of not having to change the name in the macro every time you change your trinket, provided you keep it in the same slot.
Tip: For Engineers - slot number 10 are your Hands (Synapse Springs), number 6 your Belt, and number 15 your Cloak. Therefore:

Quote:

/use 10

will activate your Synapse Springs, if you have the enchant.

Unholy Frenzy on your Partner (macro 1)

Quote:

/use [@party1] Unholy Frenzy

Unholy Frenzy on your Partner (macro 2)

Quote:

/use [target=playername] Unholy Frenzy

Replace "playername" with the name of your cat, obviously.
Using the first macro, you won't have to change the player's name every time you change your partner. However, it does have the disadvantage, when playing 3v3, of not knowing which of your teammates is party1 or party2. You can always test with "/target party1".

Death Coil Self Heal

Quote:

/use [@player] Death Coil

Death Coil Pet Heal

Quote:

/use [@pet] Death Coil

Focus Macros
You will have to create Focus Macros for the following spells: Death Grip, Strangulate, Mind Freeze, Dark Simulacrum, Chains of Ice.
Focus Macro template:

Quote:

/use [@focus] spellname

Example:

Quote:

/use [@focus] Death Grip

Examples of combining Macros
Macros can be combined to save space on your Action Bars and to save Keybinds.
Here's what my own Scourge Strike Macro looks like:

Quote:

#showtooltip /use [nomod] Scourge Strike /use [nomod] Claw /use [mod:shift] Leap /use [mod:alt, @focus] Leap /use [mod:alt, @focus] Gnaw

In this macro I have put together Scourge Strike, Claw, Leap, and Focus Leap and Focus Gnaw. When I press the macro, I will cast Scourge Strike and my pet will use Claw at the same time. If I keep Shift pressed, my pet will Leap on my current Target. If I keep Alt pressed, my pet will use Leap, or Gnaw if my Focus Target is in melee range.
Here's how my Death Coil Macro looks like:

Quote:

#showtooltip /use [nomod] Death Coil /use [mod:shift, @pet] Death Coil /use [mod:alt, @player] Death Coil

In this macro I have put together Death Coil, Death Coil Pet Heal, and Death Coil Self Heal.

My Chains of Ice Macro:

Quote:

#showtooltip /use [nomod] Chains of Ice /use [mod:alt, @focus] Chains of Ice /use [mod:shift] Icy Touch

When I use this Macro, it will cast Chains of Ice. If I keep Alt pressed, it will use Chains of Ice on my Focus Target. If I keep Shift pressed, it will use Icy Touch.

#8. Gear

#8.1 Stat Priority

5% Hit Chance (600 hit rating) > 195 Spell Penetration > Strength > Haste > Mastery > Crit > Expertise
Stat Priority Explained
When gearing up, one of the first things you need to be concerned about is Hit Rating. If you do not have the minimum required for PvP, you will miss with your abilities.

Spell Penetration is important for Unholy DKs, since a good portion of your damage is Shadow. Spell Resistance reduces the damage of your spells. Also your spells have a chance to be completely resisted (they have absolutely no effect). That's why you need at least 195 Spell Penetration - basicly it cancels whatever Resistances your target has. A number of classes can bring buffs which add Spell Resistance - Priests, with their Shadow Resistance buff, Paladins with their Resistance Aura or Blessing of Kings and Druids with Mark of the Wild. The best ways to obtain a proper amount of Spell Penetration will be explained later in this section.

Each point of Strength grants you 2 Attack Power and increases your Parry Chance by a small amount. Attack Power is essential for all offensive abilities.

Haste is the best secondary stat for Unholy DKs. It provides a wide variety of benefits:
- Increases your Rune regeneration speed. This allows you to use your Rune-costing abilities more often (more Necrotic Strikes, in a nutshell) which results in faster Runic Power regeneration. Also this scales very well with Runic Corruption - the lower your Rune cooldown is, the faster Runic Corruption
- Increases your Ghoul's attack speed and energy regeneration rate
- Reduces your Gargoyle's cast time
- Increases your Weapon Attack Speed (which also results in more [url=https://www.wow-freakz.com/spells.php?spell=49530&name=sudden-doom]Sudden Doom[/url] and weapon enchant procs)

Mastery for Unholy Death Knights increases all of your Shadow damage. While that is not a bad thing, it doesn't provide nearly as many benefits as Haste.

Crit is the worst stat for Death Knights in PvP. It doesn't do anything else but provide a rather low chance for your abilities to deal double damage.

Expertise is completely useless. If a melee attack which costs Runes gets Dodged or Parried, those Runes will be refunded to you.

Resilience is essential in PvP. Death Knights require about 4800-5000 resilience in this patch.


#8.2 Off-Parts and Weapons

Since there is only one Main Set, the best off-parts for an Unholy DK are the following:

Neck - Cataclysmic Gladiator's Choker of Accuracy - Hit Rating

Back - Cataclysmic Gladiator's Cloak of Alacrity - Haste

Bracer - Cataclysmic Gladiator's Armplates of Alacrity - Haste

Belt - Cataclysmic Gladiator's Girdle of Prowess - Mastery

Boots - Cataclysmic Gladiator's Warboots of Alacrity - Haste

Unholy Death Knights always use Two-Handed Axes, Maces or Swords. Never use One-Handed Weapons or Polearms for Unholy. Also make sure you get an Axe if you are Orc, or a Sword or Mace if you are Human. Their racial grants you 3 bonus Expertise when using those weapons.

#8.3 PvE Gear
There aren't many good PvE pieces for Death Knights. The only viable PvE items would be Gurthalak, Voice of the Deeps and Eye of Unmaking. Gurthalak has a chance of summoning a Tentacle that deals high amount of Shadow damage (which is increased by your Mastery). The 2-Part bonus granted by Tier 13 Gear is not worth over loosing ~550 Resilience.

#8.4 Reforging
According to the priority system, when reforging, the first thing you need to get is 5% Hit Chance, or 600 Hit Rating. After that, you simply need to reforge everything else to Haste.
In Cataclysmic gear, it is possible to obtain almost perfect Hit Rating numbers by reforging like this:

Shoulders - reforge Expertise to Hit Rating

Neck - reforge Hit Rating to Haste

Relic - reforge Critical Strike Rating to Hit Rating

Ring - reforge Hit Rating to Haste

The result is 601 Hit Rating (605 if you have Elite Gear).
After this, proceed to reforge everything that's left to Haste.

#8.5 Proper Gemming

Red / Prismatic Socket - Bold Inferno Ruby - 50 Strength

Yellow Socket - Fierce Lava Coral - 25 Strength and 25 Haste / Resplendent Lava Coral - 25 Strength and 25 Resilience

Blue Socket - here I will explain the best methods of obtaining a proper amount of Spell Penetration

Method 1: 2 x Stormy Deepholm Iolite (63 Spell Pen) + Enchant Cloak - Spell Piercing (70 Spell Pen) = 196 Spell Penetration. As close as you can get. Also, this method leaves 1 Blue Socket free, in which you can put 1x Sovereign Shadow Spinel. The downside of this method is that it doesn't allow you to use any different back enchant - that includes the Tailoring enchant, Swordguard Embroidery.

Method 2: 4x Stormy Ocean Sapphire (50 Spell Pen) = 200 Spell Penetration. This method uses up all your Blue Sockets and your Relic's Prismatic Socket as well, but allows you to use whatever back enchant you wish.

Method 3: 2x Stormy Ocean Sapphire (50 Spell Pen), 1x Vivid Dream Emerald (25 Spell Pen, 20 Resilience) + Enchant Cloak - Spell Piercing (70 Spell Pen) = 195 Spell Penetration. This method uses 3 blue sockets (leaving your Relic socket free) gives you a small amount of extra resilience, but doesn't allow you to use a different Back enchant.

#8.6 Proper Enchanting

Head - Arcanum of Vicious Strength - 60 Strength and 35 Resilience

Shoulder - Greater Inscription of Vicious Strength - 50 Strength and 25 Resilience

Back - Tailoring - Swordguard Embroidery - 1000 attack power proc for 15 seconds / Enchant Cloak - Spell Piercing - 70 Spell Penetration

Bracer - Enchant Bracer - Major Strength - 50 Strength

Hands - Enchant Gloves - Mighty Strength - 50 Strength

Belt - Ebonsteel Belt Buckle (+1 extra socket)

Legs - Dragonscale Leg Armor - 190 Attack Power and 55 Critical Strike Rating

Boots - Enchant Boots - Haste - 50 Haste Rating; Death Knights do not need movement speed enchants due to Unholy Presence.

Weapon - Rune of the Fallen Crusader; in specific situations you can use Rune of Swordshattering or Rune of Spellshattering

#8.7 Best Professions for Unholy
These are Blacksmithing, Engineering, Tailoring.
Blacksmithing allows you to add 1 extra socket to your Bracer and 1 extra socket to your Hands. You should socket these with Bold Inferno Ruby - 50 Strength, resulting in 100 extra Strength
Engineering allows you to enchant your hands with Synapse Springs. This enchant stacks with other enchants, and when activated, it grants you 480 Strength for 10 seconds. The buff does not stack with trinkets that give you Strength.
Tailoring allows you to enchant your Back with Swordguard Embroidery. Whenever you deal damage, you have a chance to gain 1000 additional Attack Power for 15 seconds. The enchant does not stack with other enchants. Instead, the buff stacks with other similar effects.

#9. Rotation
THERE IS NO ROTATION IN PvP.

... there is an opener, though.

NOTE: This opener cannot be applied in every single situation (they will be discussed in the next section). I made this so you can get a general idea on how to open on your target.

First of all, NEVER open with Outbreak or Death Grip. There's a good chance you'll be needing them later.

So here's the "Normal Opener" (as it will be named in the following section - Dueling Tips. So if you can't remember what the "Normal Opener" is, come back to this section to read about it.)

Chains of Ice -> Plague Strike -> Necrotic Strike -> Death Coil (optional) -> Festering Strike -> Festering Strike

The first thing you need to do is Slow your enemy and apply Diseases. That can be done by using Chains of Ice and Plague Strike. Apply 1 Necrotic Strike to trigger Death's Advance, prevent any potential healing, and slow down your target's cast time (if he is a caster of course). Next, you need to make your diseases undispellable with Death Coil (Optional / Situational. Only use it against classes which can dispel your Diseases: Priest, Paladin). Then you need to generate Death Runes and extend the duration of your Diseases and Chains of Ice. Use two Festering Strikes in a row (yes you need to wait for your Frost Rune to finish its cooldown so that you can use the second Festering).

After this opener, continue to use your abilities according to your situation. After you've stacked a decent amount of Necrotic Strike (around 20-50k... depends) you can start using Scourge Strikes, with 1 Necrotic Strike every 6-7 seconds to refresh its duration. Use Festering Strike to generate Death Runes. Don't use it to increase the duration of your Diseases. Use Outbreak when your Diseases are about to expire. Use Death Coil whenever you have 60 Runic Power or more (it's a good practice to keep at least 20 Runic Power available for when you need Icebound Fortitude or Dark Simulacrum... although in many cases you can just use Chains of Ice to instantly generate 20 Runic Power). Keep refreshing the duration of your Chains of Ice. Use your Gargoyle when you're confident enough that you can land a kill.

#10. Dueling Tips
In this section I will discuss the usage of cooldowns and abilities versus each class.

#10.1 Death Knights

Frost

Frost Death Knights are quite easy to beat as Unholy. Start with the normal opener. You should stack a decent amount of Necrotic Strike, about 20-30k. After that, use keep using Scourge Strike and Death Coil for damage (don't let your Necrotic stack expire!). You can summon your Gargoyle after he used Anti-Magic Shell. If he tries to cast Hungering Cold, use Mind Freeze. Sometimes using Unholy Frenzy on your Gargoyle would be a better choice to prevent him from getting frozen with Hungering Cold. If the DK uses Strangulate, you can safely trinket it. When he uses his burst (Trinket + Pillar of Frost[/url[) use your [url=https://www.wow-freakz.com/spells.php?spell=48707&name=anti-magic-shell]Anti-Magic Shell, and when it's over you can use Icebound Fortitude if you want. Use Strangulate when he pops Lichborne to heal himself - if he doesn't have Anti-Magic Shell, else it will have no effect. If he has Anti-Magic Shell and no Icebound Fortitude, use your Pet Stun. Anyway the Necrotics you've stacked should absorb a good portion, if not all of his heals. Frost DK's Anti-Magic Shell generates no Runic Power when it absorbs Magic Damage, and their Death Coil heals far less.


Unholy

Duels versus Unholy can be tricky at times, and the outcome is mostly determined by Gear and experience. The most annoying thing about same-class-same-spec duels is that both of you often end up mirroring each other's abilities.

Some Unholy DKs will open with Gnaw. I would not recommend using Icebound Fortitude or PvP Trinket as you're going to need both of them later.

Use the normal opener. After this, you have 2 choices. One, stack large amounts of Necrotics. Two, use Scourge Strike, without any Necrotics at all (while the enemy DK still uses Necrotics).

1. If you choose to stack Necrotics, you're going to need a very large stack (~70k). That is because 90% of good Unholy DKs will use Anti-Magic Shell and Lichborne at the same time, generating large amounts of Runic Power to often heal themselves to full. Even if you stack about 70k healing absorption he will still heal around 20k or even more. You can either use your Gargoyle as soon as you get 60 Runic Power, or after the DK's Anti-Magic Shell wears off, but you will need your Strength Trinket to stack large amounts of Necrotic.

2. Using Scourge Strike instead of Necrotic Strike aims at forcing the DK's Lichborne sooner than he forces your own. This implies using your Gargoyle very early in the duel (most will do the same anyway). This strategy is useful if the enemy DK has better gear. If your gear is quite low, that means that your Necrotic Strike Physical damage won't be strong enough to force his Anti-Magic Shell + Lichborne in useful time, and you end up using your defensive cooldowns before he does.

Strategies and tips that apply to both cases:

Save your Anti-Magic Shell for when you're low on health(35-40%). Use it in combination with Lichborne, generating high amounts of Runic Power (since the enemy Gargoyle keeps attacking you; you will also generate from Disease / Death Coil damage). For as long as you have Lichborne, use every single bit of Runic Power, every single Death Coil to heal yourself. After Anti-Magic Shell is down you can use Anti-Magic Zone to further mitigate damage coming from the Gargoyle (you could also use it right after he summons his Gargoyle). Using your Strength Trinket greatly increases the amount healed by Death Coil.

You can use Mind Freeze on the enemy Gargoyle to stop some of his damage.

After his Anti-Magic Shell wears off, you can use Strangulate to prevent further Lichborne healing (just don't do it if he's already at full health... ), although often he will trinket it. Follow up with Pet Stun if he doesn't have Icebound Fortitude.

If, for some reason, the DK doesn't use Anti-Magic Shell and Lichborne at the same time, (Blood tap if you don't have Runes and) Strangulate him immediately. If he trinkets, follow up with Pet Stun.

If he uses Anti-Magic Shell at or near the start of the duel, summon your Gargoyle as soon as it wears off and burst the DK down.

When the enemy DK uses Anti-Magic Zone, try to Death Grip him out of it.

After the enemy DK's Lichborne expires, keep up a small stack of Necrotic (10-15k) to prevent Death Strike healing and absorb some of Death Pact healing.

If you didn't use Strangulate, you can use it as your last line of defense to prevent Death Coil damage - you should probably kite him as well.

After using Lichborne, use Death Pact if you're getting low on health.

The DK will often try to Gnaw you a second time (especially when you're low on health). Save Icebound Fortitude for that, as you need your PvP Trinket for when he Strangulates you.


Blood

Since there's an unbelievable amount of Blood Death Knights around, I decided to write this as well...

Use the normal opener. Stack as many Necrotics as possible, use your Gargoyle early in the fight, kite him when possible, especially when he summons Dancing Rune Weapon. Use Strangulate when he pops Lichborne. The key to beating Blood DKs is not allowing them to heal and using as much Magic damage as possible.


#10.2 Paladin

Holy

Holy Paladins are quite hard to beat. Their high armor combined with their big instant heals makes them one of the most challenging to beat healers. It's not impossible though. The trick is to force their cooldowns without using any major offensive cooldowns of your own.

Tip : In this fight, Synapse Springs and Swordguard Embroidery are extremely useful.

The paladin is going to use Turn Evil on your Ghoul / Gargoyle, and there is nothing you can do about it... although you can keep your Dark Transformation for when your Ghoul has Diminishing Returns on Turn Evil (the more often the paladin uses Turn Evil, the lower duration it will have every time - Transform your Ghoul when you see that a newly applied Turn Evil lasts for only 4 or 2 seconds)

Start with the normal opener. Use only Necrotics. After you've generated some Death Runes, use your Synapse Springs, preferably at the same time when Swordguard Embroidery (and Surge of Victory from Cataclysmic Gladiator's Insignia of Victory, if you're Human) procs. Use Death Coils often. Pet Stun at 60-70% health (you might want to keep it for Aura Mastery; tip - when the paladin uses Aura Mastery, see if he's using Concentration Aura. If he's not, you can interrupt his casts!). Keep stacking Necrotics, use Death Coils, deal damage with your Ghoul, especially when he's Transformed, interrupt when he tries to cast something (he will rarely do it though) - keep repeating until the Paladin gradually uses his cooldowns - he will most likely start with Avenging Wrath, followed by Aura Mastery, Guardian of Ancient Kings and Divine Shield. Only after Divine Shield can you finally use your burst - use your Strength Trinket, Unholy Frenzy, Gargoyle, stack as many Necrotics as possible, use Strangulate and finish him off. Fights versus Holy Paladins can often be very long, ranging from 3 to 20 minutes.


Retribution

Retribution Paladins can deal high amounts of damage and healing in a very short time.

Start with the normal opener. Use Unholy Frenzy early in the duel to prevent Repentance. Stack a good amount of Necrotics (about 50 - 60k, Ret paladins can heal up to 80k with Word of Glory). When he uses Avenging Wrath, pop your Anti-Magic Shell or Anti-Magic Zone and summon your Gargoyle. When the paladin's health reaches 35%, Sacred Shield will pop. At this time he will attempt to heal. Your Necrotics should absorb most of that healing, but you can also use Strangulate to prevent Word of Glory (he will most likely trinket it - follow up immediately with Pet Stun. At this point he will use Divine Shield).
Tip: if the ret paladin's PvP Trinket is on cooldown, you can Strangulate him when he's low on health and use Dark Simulacrum at the same time - a good strategy if you want to copy Divine Shield, since he won't be able to use any other spell while silenced. When you're low on health, heal yourself with Lichborne - but watch out for Turn Evil. You can either use Anti-Magic Shell to prevent it, or simply trinket it, but then you're going to need Icebound Fortitude for his Hammer of Justice. When Divine Shield is down, keep a small stack of Necrotic on him, and finish him off with Scourge Strikes and Death Coils.

#10.3 Priest

Shadow

Use the normal opener. When you get near the Priest, he will attempt to Fear you. Do not trinket or use Lichborne for the first Fear, just sit trough it. While Feared, try to interrupt Vampiric Touch with your Pet Stun. After the Fear effect is over, proceed to stack Necrotics (~30k) - at some point he will attempt to heal. Summon your Gargoyle as soon as possible. Use Anti-Magic Shell against Mind Blast, or when he summons his Shadow Fiend. Trinket his Psychic Horror and use Lichborne against the second Fear. When he uses dispersion, keep stacking Necrotics. Tip: Usually after Dispersion the shadow Priest will try to Fear you. You can either Pet Stun him or Strangulate 1 second before Dispersion expires and follow up with Dark Simulacrum to copy his Fear. However, if you find yourself Feared and got nothing else to remove it, use your Pet Stun to interrupt his casts, or Shambling Rush (Transformed Leap) if he's Transformed. Save Anti-Magic Zone for Mind Blast, it deals a lot of damage. Finish him off with Scourge Strikes.


Discipline

Discipline priests are quite easy to beat. Start with the normal opener. Stack as many Necrotics as possible. Summon your Gargoyle early in the fight - watch out for Shackle Undead, though you can just interrupt it with Mind Freeze. Try to anticipate when he will use Psychic Scream and use Anti-Magic Shell. Trinket the first Psychic Scream, Lichborne against the second one - again watch out for Shackle Undead; you can either interrupt it or remove your Lichborne. When he activates Inner Focus, use your Pet Stun, it also makes him immune to Interrupt / Silence.

When he tries to Mind Control you, you have 3 options:
1. Use Anti-Magic Shell - although he will try to Mind Control you again later
2. Interrupt it - but after that he will be able to freely cast heals, since it will only lock his Shadow Spells
3. Pet Stun - but after that he will be able to freely cast when he has Inner Focus.
If you put enough pressure on the priest, he will be too busy healing himself and won't have time to use Mind Control.


#10.4 Warrior

Arms

Tip: Rune of Swordshattering might be useful for this fight.

Warriors can deal good amounts of damage. If you don't time your defensive cooldowns properly you can lose against them.

Start with the normal opener. You will have to stack about 40-50k healing absorption on the warrior, since he will use Rallying Cry and Enraged Regeneration to heal himself. Always keep 20 Runic Power availalble, so that you can use Icebound Fortitude against Throwdown. You will need your trinket for Disarm (unless you have Rune of Swordshattering). Summon your Gargoyle as soon as you get 80 Runic Power. After that, keep using Necrotics, but save all of your Runic Power - you're going to need it to heal yourself with Death Coil and Lichborne (in this case you cannot use Anti-Magic Shell to generate Runic Power as the warrior has no Magic damage at all). The Gargoyle itself should do enough damage to finish him anyway. When the warrior uses Spell Reflection, you can safely use Mind Freeze to remove it. When he uses [url=https://www.wow-freakz.com/spells.php?spell=6544&name=heroic-leapHeroic Leap[/url], and if your Pet is Transformed, you can use Shambling Rush (Transformed Leap) to root him, then Stun him, preventing him from charging you. Else, you can use your Pet Stun at pretty much any point during the fight - just don't use it during Bladestorm. Tip: Strangulate can prevent all Warrior Shouts.

#10.5 Shaman

Enhancement

An easy fight but sometimes they can surprise you with huge amounts of damage in a short amount of time.

Start with the normal opener. Stack about 40k healing absorption. Use Anti-Magic Shell early in the fight preferably when you have 5 stacks of Searing Flames, and summon your Gargoyle as soon as possible. When Anti-Magic Shell is over, use Anti-Magic Zone. When the Shaman summons his Spirit Wolves, use Icebound Fortitude, as his wolves are going to stun you. If he starts kiting you, he will most likely try to heal himself - use Strangulate to prevent that. Watch out for Grounding Totem though, if he uses it, remove it with Icy Touch. If he trinkets Strangulate, Pet Stun him. Save your own Trinket for Hex. You can also try to anticipate it and copy it with Dark Simulacrum (enhancement Shamans can instantly cast it). At some point during the fight you might have to Lichborne heal yourself.


Elemental

Avoid [url=https://www.wow-freakz.com/spells.php?spell=51505&name=lava-burst]Lava Burst, win the fight... pretty easy.

Don't use the normal opener. Start with Chains of Ice. When you get near the shaman, try to use at least 1 Necrotic Strike to slow down his cast, Plague Strike too if possible - in most cases the Shaman will use Earthbind Totem when you get near him, rooting you for 4 seconds. You can use Anti-Magic Shell to prevent that. Continue as normal, and summon your Gargoyle as soon as you can. When Anti-Magic Shell is over, Strangulate the Shaman. When you see the shaman using Elemental Mastery, use Anti-Magic Zone (or Anti-Magic Shell if you didn't use it in the start) as soon as possible - it makes his Lava Burst instant. Save your Trinket for Hex. You can also try to copy it with Dark Simulacrum. Use your Pet Stun when you're rooted again - it's best to use it as soon as he summons Earthbind Totem (in fact you can also start the duel like this). Only use Death Grip after he used Thunderstorm. Try to interrupt spells when you're near him. Interrupting Lava Burst would be a bad idea though... that will only lock his Fire spells, leaving him free to cast Nature Spells (Healing spells, Chain Lightning, [url]=https://www.wow-freakz.com/spells.php?spell=403&name=lightning-bolt]Lightning Bolt[/url]).


Restoration

Resto Shamans can be quite annoying. They have big instant heals, their maximum health increases every time they heal, they have Heal over Time effects, and the lower their health, the bigger their heals... so they can go from 20% to 100% in a single heal. They run out of mana pretty fast though.

Start with the normal opener. Only use Necrotic Strikes. Try to destroy Earthbind Totem every time he summons it; Destroying Healing Stream Totem would be a good idea as well. I prefer using my pet to do it. Keep Chains of Ice up all the time. Try to interrupt every time, don't let yourself get fakecasted - the key to that is interrupting a spell as late as you can. Save trinket for Hex, or use Anti-Magic Shell against it. You can also try to copy it with Dark Simulacrum. Destroy Mana Tide Totem when he summons it. You can use your burst after the shaman used Nature's Swiftness. Try to Strangulate on Cast, and then follow up with Pet Stun, and try to finish him off.

#10.6 Druid

Feral

Feral Druids have high amounts of damage, and a good portion of it comes from their bleeds. They will also try to root you and kite you.

They will open on you with Pounce, stunning you for 4 seconds. When the Stun has 1 second left, use your Pet Stun on the druid. After that, continue as normal. Stack about 40k healing absorption and summon your Gargoyle early. When he uses Berserk, use Icebound Fortitude. When you see Predator's Swiftness on the druid, pop Anti-Magic Shell as he will likely attempt to either Root or Cyclone you. When he goes into Bear Form to heal himself, keep stacking Necrotics, they will be consumed pretty quickly. You will have to save your Trinket for either Cyclone or Bash, your choice, but at some point you're going to have to sit through either one of them anyway. Always keep your pet on the Druid, so if he runs away he won't be able to re-stealth. When your Pet Stun comes off cooldown, try to use it to help you finish him off.
Tip: If you successfully copied Cyclone and the Druid starts using Lifebloom, you can Cyclone the Druid when Lifebloom has about 1 second left - that will prevent the healing burst of Lifebloom.


Balance

Balance Druids will open on you with https://www.wow-freakz.com/spells.php?spell=9005&&name=pounce%5DPounce. Only use Pet Stun if you see them casting Entangling Roots. Then continue as normal. Use your burst early. Use Anti-Magic Shell when he pops Starfall. Save your Icebound Fortitude for Bash. Save your Trinket for Cyclone, or for the moment when he manages to use Roots + Solar Beam (you can also try to anticipate it and use Anti-Magic Zone. It will not prevent the silence but at least you will take far less damage). When he uses Nature's Grasp, use Anti-Magic Shell if it's not on cooldown. Alternatively, you can use Pet Stun as soon as you get rooted. Death Grip him after Typhoon, or when you're rooted and he manages to go far away. Stack a few Necrotics when he starts healing. Finish him off with Scourge Strikes.


Restoration

Resto druids are probably the weakest PvP healers. Even so, good resto druids will survive you for 5 minutes or more in Duels, simply because they have Tree of Life. You're going to have to force Tree of Life without using any major offensive cooldowns, similar to how you force Divine Shield on Paladins.

Start with the normal opener. Stack as many Necrotics as you can. When he uses Nature's Grasp, pop Anti-Magic Shell. When he uses Bash, he will most likely try to Cyclone you afterwards. You can either Icebound Fortitude/ Trinket the Bash then immediately interrupt Cyclone (or Death Grip if he's far away), or trinket Cyclone directly. When he uses Tree of Life, and if he's really low on health, and you're absolutely certain you can kill him, then you can Strangulate, Gnaw and quickly burst him down. That rarely works though, so it's better to wait 25 seconds until Tree of Life is over, then burst the druid down with Gargoyle.


#10.7 Hunter

Hunters can keep you permanently slowed and have many tools to get away from you. You need to play aggresively versus Hunters.


Marksmanship

Do not use the normal opener. In this fight you will have to open with Death Grip. The Hunter will Disengange. Immediately Pet Stun the hunter when he uses Disengage, as it will prevent him from getting too far away from you, and use Necrotic Strike and Plague Strike to generate Death's Advance, then use Chains of Ice and put Unholy Frenzy on yourself. After the stun, the hunter will most likely use Master's Call, making him immune to slows. Use Anti-Magic Shell and summon your Gargoyle. Use Icebound Fortitude when he pops Rapid Fire. Use Chains of Ice as soon as Master's Call fades from him. You will have to keep both of your Unholy Runes on cooldown for Death's Advance. Use Death and Decay or Anti-Magic Zone as soon as one Unholy Rune becomes available. You'll have to save some of your Runic Power to Lichborne heal yourself. Keep dealing damage with your pet, keep him slowed with Chains of Ice, use Scourge Strike and Festering Strike when you get close, Death Grip after he Disengages. Be careful, he might use Deterrence to counter your Death Grip.
Tips: You can use Anti-Magic Shell against his traps, it will make you immune to their root effect.
You can use Strangulate against the Hunter, it won't allow him to put any traps.
When the hunter uses Deterrence, you can use Death Strike to heal yourself and to generate Death's Advance.
If his pet is close to you, you can attack him with Plague Strike / Necrotic Strike to generate Death's Advance.


Beast Mastery

Pretty much the same fight as Marksmanship Hunter. Use Icebound Fortitude when he uses Bestial Wrath / Rapid Fire. Try to slow his pet with Chains of Ice whenever he doesn't have Bestial Wrath. Save Runic Power / Anti-Magic Shell for Lichborne healing.


#10.8 Warlock
Warlocks are the easiest class to defeat in a duel as a Death Knight.

Try to memorize the location of their Teleporting Circle.

Destruction

Start with the normal opener. Use Icebound Fortitude as soon as he uses Shadowfury. If you don't have Runic Power you can just Trinket it. Use Anti-Magic Shell after Icebound Fortitude / Trinket. Use your burst early. After Anti-Magic Shell is down, use Strangulate. When Strangulate wears off or if he trinkets it, follow up with Pet Stun. Save your Death Grip for when he teleports. Use Lichborne against Fear / Seduction. You can also try to copy Fear with Dark Simulacrum. Always keep Chains of Ice and 1 Necrotic Strike up to slow down his cast. Finish him off with Scourge Strike.


Affliction

Start with the normal opener. When you get close, use Anti-Magic Shell as he will try to Fear you with Howl of Terror (which is instant for affliction locks). Just like with Destruction Warlocks, you're going to have to use Anti-Magic Shell - Strangulate - Gnaw one after another. Again, save your Death Grip for when he teleports, use Lichborne against Fear, use Death Coils to heal if necesarry. Try to copy Fear or Howl of Terror with Dark Simulacrum. Always keep Chains of Ice and 1 Necrotic Strike up to slow down his cast. Finish him off with Scourge Strike.


#10.9 Rogue

Subtelty

Since Rogues deal ridicolous amounts of damage and they have a ridicolous amount of Stuns, Disarms, and Silences, they are the hardest class to beat in a duel as a Death Knight.

Tip: Rune of Swordshattering or Rune of Spellshattering might be very useful in this fight.

Some rogues will open on you with Cheap Shot, others will open with Garrote (silences you for 3 seconds).

If the rogue opens with Cheap Shot, use Pet Stun when Cheap Shot has ~1 second left. If he opens with Garrote, immediately try to use Necrotic Strike and Plague Strike to slow him and to generate Death's Advance, then kite the rogue until the Silence effect wears off. Keep the rogue slowed at all times, kite him when possible, keep some Necrotics on him to prevent Recuperate healing, damage him with Death Coils and Scourge Strikes. When you see Shadow Dance, you know you are going to take huge amounts of damage, so do everything you can to avoid it (kite the rogue, use Death Strikes, Pet Stun him... maybe even use Icebound Fortitude). Summon your Gargoyle when he uses Evasion (he might also use Cloak of Shadows at the same time, you'll have to wait for it to wear off). Save both your Trinket and Icebound Fortitude for Kidney Shot. That's why using either Rune of Swordshattering or Rune of Spellshattering will help you greatly, so you won't have to Trinket Dismantle or Silence. Save Runic Power for Lichborne healing - when you pop Lichborne, be careful, as he will try to Silence / Blind / Stun you. Use Anti-Magic Shell when Crippling Poison has about 4 seconds left. It] makes you immune to Poisons. This is useful especially when you want to kite the rogue.

Many Rogues will just Vanish when you summon your Gargoyle... so most of the times you'll have to kill him without its help.


#10.10 Mage

The trick against mages is to put as much pressure on them as you can, although they have many tools to prevent you from doing that.

Tip: Rune of Spellshattering is extremely useful against mages, since they are going to Silence you often.

Fire
Against Fire Mages, you're going to have to save either Anti-Magic Shell or Anti-Magic Zone for Combustion. They will try to Silence you so you can't use either of those - you can either Trinket it or use Rune of Spellshattering.
Start with Chains of Ice. When you get near the Mage, he will use Dragon's Breath. Stun him with your pet if he attempts to cast Pyroblast. Summon your Gargoyle early in the fight. Keep the mage slowed at all times. Death Grip him back after he uses Blink. Try not to get caught in Ring of Frost. You can either use Scourge Strikes and bring him down quickly, or stack a high amount of Necrotics (about 50k) and when his Cauterize procs, it will heal him for nothing and he will die. However, if his Cauterize does heal him, apply Dark Simulacrum immediately and you will copy his Ice Block. You can use it against his instant Pyroblast or Dragon's Breath, your choice.

When the Mage uses Combustion, you're going to take huge amounts of damage. You're going to need Anti-Magic Shell or Anti-Magic Zone to survive, preferably Anti-Magic Shell. Although sometimes the Fire Mage can bring you down even without Combustion. In that case you're going to have to use Anti-Magic Shell and Lichborne Heal yourself.

Against Evocation, I would recommend saving your Strangulate, or even better, your Pet Stun, or Shambling Rush (Transformed Leap).

Frost
Basically, against Frost Mages, all you have to do is avoid getting shattered as much as possible. You're going to have to save both Icebound Fortitude and your PvP Trinket for Deep Freeze.

Start with Chains of Ice to get a bit of Runic Power. Frost Mages will most likely freeze you into place as soon as the duel starts. I would recommend using Death Grip and following up with Pet Stun and Dark Simulacrum immediately. It is likely that you will copy his Blink, or he will just sit trough the stun. If you do copy Blink, use it immediately to close the gap between you and the mage and start doing some damage. From now on you can only use Death Grip after the mage uses Blink, at least until Gnaw and Dark Simulacrum are off cooldown. Keep both diseases up, keep one Necrotic Strike up to slow down his cast. Against Ring of Frost, you have several options: use Anti-Magic Shell and you can freely move trough it (careful though, your pet will still get frozen, and the Ring lasts 12 seconds while your AMS lasts 7 seconds), or if you find yourself trapped inside (or on the freezing edge of the ring) pop Anti-Magic Zone, though this will allow the mage to get some distance from you. When the mage uses Ice Block, you can kill his pet, or use Death Strike on it for some healing. When Ice Block is down, burst the mage, summon your Gargoyle, and he should go down pretty fast. I prefer saving Strangulate for Evocation, although in some cases you won't be able to use it (either because you're silenced, frozen etc.), but you can still interrupt Evocation with Gnaw, or if your pet is transformed, with Shambling Rush. However, make sure your pet doesn't get frozen - you can do that by moving him away from you, using the Pet Move To command. You can also use it to interrupt Evocation if the mage is out of Line of Sight. If you find yourself low on health, heal up with Lichborne and Death Coil, and use Anti-Magic Shell too if it's not on cooldown.

Arcane
You have to kill Arcane Mages faster than they kill you. Play aggresively against them. Use your burst early, keep them slowed, try to anticipate Ice Block and copy it with Dark Simulacrum. Death Grip after Blink and Pet Stun them. Use Anti-Magic Shell at any time in the duel, even in the start. Use Anti-Magic Zone when he summons Mirror Images.

#11. Arena 2v2 and 3v3 setups
For those who don't know: Peel = helping your partner survive by CC-ing (slowing, rooting, stunning etc.) or damaging the enemy that's attacking him.

#11.1 The most viable 2v2 comps and their pros and cons

Unholy Death Knight + Holy Paladin

+ Big instant heals, he rarely has to cast
+ Denounce - his Exorcism reduce's his target's critical strike chance to zero (not all Holy Paladins use this)
+ Hand of Protection - very useful spell, can save your life in many situations; it can also be used to remove physical debuffs, such as Dismantle, Blind and all non-magical Stuns.
+ Hand of Freedom - removes all roots and slows
+ Hand of Sacrifice - transfers some of the damage you take to the Paladin, reducing damage done to you. Also the paladin can use it to prevent breakable CC's, like Blind, Scatter Shot, Polymorph, Freezing Trap.
+ Rebuke - good Holy Paladins will attempt to interrupt casts with this
+ Hammer of Justice - stuns for 5 seconds
- Vulnerable against casters
- Sometimes vulnerable against CC, has to LoS a lot


Unholy Death Knight + Discipline Priest

+ Good heals and many damage absorption shields
+ Leap of Faith (also known as Life Grip) - useful when you're in trouble, as he can pull you away from the enemy and heal you
+ Psychic Scream - Fears all the enemies around the priest for 8 seconds
+ Harder to CC - the priest can use Shadow Word: Death against breakable CC's, and he also has Fear Ward
+ Pain Suppression - reduces damage taken by 40% and can be used while stunned
+ More resilient versus casters
+ Can dispel immunities and buffs
- Extremely vulnerable against melee classes


Unholy Death Knight + Restoration Shaman

+ Big heals
+ Grounding Totem - the next spell cast against you or the shaman will target the Totem instead
+ Spirit Link Totem - a life saver when you're low on health; it balances the health between all Players sitting near it
+ Hex - Prevents a target from attacking or casting spells for 8 seconds; can only be dispelled by Shamans, Druids or Mages
+ Wind Shear - can briefly interrupt casts from a distance
+ Spiritwalker's Grace - allows him to move and cast at the same time for a brief amount of time
+ Can dispel buffs
- Has to cast very often, more vulnerable against interrupts
- Runs out of mana pretty fast

Unholy Death Knight + Retribution Paladins

+ this comp can quickly kill a target, mostly healers
+ Retribution Paladin's Word of Glory heals for an amount between 20k and 90k
+ Repentance - CC's a target for 5 seconds, but it can be broken by damage
+ Hand of Protection, Hand of Freedom, Hand of Sacrifice, Rebuke, Hammer of Justice
- requires a lot of coordination and synergy
- vulnerable against CC's, especially Fears
- if you don't manage to kill a target within 30 seconds of your burst cooldowns, it's likely that you'll loose the match


#11.2 Viable 3v3 comps:

UDK + Shadow Priest + Holy Paladin / Resto Shaman (a.k.a. Unholyplay)

+ Hard to CC since both the Priest and Healer can dispel
+ Has good amount of CCs
+ Priest can offheal if necesarry
+ Priest can Mass Dispel immunity effects
+ Good amount of peels
- Priest cannot do much damage if he's the main target
- Priest can die quickly if he's not careful
- Strangulate and Silence share DR


UDK + Affliction Warlock + Holy Paladin / Resto Shaman (a.k.a. Shadowcleave)

+ Immense pressure since the lock can put his DoTs on 2 targets
+ Good amount of CCs
+ Many peels
- Warlock will most likely be the main target, and that will force him to play defensively


UDK + Retribution Paladin + Resto Shaman / Discipline Priest (a.k.a Vanguard Cleave)

+ Large amounts of damage
+ The Retribution Paladin can offheal with Word of Glory
- Low amounts of CC
- The comp doesn't have many peels
- The Ret Pally becomes vulnerable to damage and CC's after he uses Divine Shield


UDK + Feral Druid + Discipline Priest / Resto Shaman (a.k.a. Ebola Cleave)

+ Large amounts of damage
+ Feral Druid has many tools to peel his partners
+ Good amount of CCs
- Feral might find himself needed to peel or play defensively most of the time, or until his cooldowns come back
- Vulnerable against spellcleaves


UDK + Marksmanship Hunter + Resto Shaman / Holy Paladin (a.k.a. PHD)

+ Good damage and CC
+ Good comp for fighting against spellcleaves
- This comp can hardly kill healers
- Hunter is vulnerable against DoTs, often he might have to LoS to avoid damage
- Hunter might need many peels


UDK + Subtelty Rogue + Discipline Priest / Resto Shaman (a.k.a. Smokebomb Cleave)

+ Large amounts of damage, good CC
+ Mainly evolves around landing a kill using Smoke Bomb and Necrotic Strikes
- Similarly to Ferals, they might have to peel a lot, or play defensively until their cooldowns come back


UDK + Fire / Frost Mage + Discipline Priest / Holy Paladin (a.k.a. Lady Gaga Cleave)

+ Good amount of CC, damage and pressure
+ The mage has many abilities for peeling
- Mage can't do much damage if he has to play defensively


UDK + FDK + Holy Paladin / Resto Shaman (a.k.a. Stalin Cleave)

+ Insane amount of Necrotics
+ Good amounts of damage
- Little amounts of CC's and peels


#12. Recommended Addons
- Tell Me When
- Gladius
- Juked
- Gladiatorlossa (or SpellAlerter)
- LoseControl
- NecroticTrack
- Tidy Plates


#13. Closing remarks
In the end I would like to say a few things: putting the theory into practice is in fact quite hard. You're going to have to practice a lot to become good. Keep doing Battlegrounds, Duels, Arenas, play around with your spec, change your partners and see which playstyle is best for you. It took me 5 years to reach this level, and I have to say that I still have many things to learn. Nobody's born a good player, it takes time, practice and dedication.

Also some of the information found in the Dueling section might not apply to every duel. There are better players, and there are worse players. That section gives you a general idea on how most good players will react. One of the most important things in PvP is knowing your enemy - knowing how he's going to react in different situations gives you a great advantage. That's why it might take a few duels before you actually beat someone.

Constructive criticism and suggestions are welcome. I would also appreciate letting me know if I wrote something incorrect in the guide. You can ask questions in the thread, and I will answer them whenever I can.

[ryangg]

That's an awesome Death knight pvp guide ,the best I ever seen so far , It even makes me to play again dk unholy in pvp

[grindelwald]

GG, there is a lot of good stuff here.


[4.3]Blood DK PVE Guide
[4.3]Unholy DK PVE Guide

[Wintz]

sexy. +100

[bayern]

Good guide, but i don`t agree using Unholy blight in spec. Why? because no one, never will try to dispell your diseases, is just a waste of mana.

[Dreadblade]

bayern wrote:

Good guide, but i don`t agree using Unholy blight in spec. Why? because no one, never will try to dispell your diseases, is just a waste of mana.

If healers know how to manage their mana, they will still try to dispel your diseases, especially Ebon Plague, and they know you will waste your runes trying to reapply diseases instead of using Necrotic Strikes.

Ret Pallies will also try to cleanse your chains of ice (even if there's desecration around them since chains is a more powerful slow) and when they do, they will also dispel one of your diseases.

Unholy Blight also has more utility than just making your diseases immune. It's damage ticks really quick compared to your other DOTs, so in specific situations it can be good against stealth classes. I've seen many night elf ferals failing their shadowmeld -> pounce because unholy blight immediately got them out of shadowmeld.

All in all, you can go without unholy blight if you really want to spend that point somewhere else, but I'd rather not find myself needed to reapply diseases more often than usual. Disease dispel immunity > anything you would spend that 1 talent point into.

[deadbite]

I completely don't understand and dislike this spec (refering to Unholy in general, not the one you use), but i got to say, this is one of the best guides i ever seen. Vastly detailed, explained with examples... Magnificent.


World of Lorecraft

[Dreadblade]

Thanks for the feedback!

[MIGHTY NELLY]

Dreadblade wrote:

Frost Frost Mages have many abilities that slow or root you. You're going to have to use your cooldowns to avoid getting rooted all the time. Start with Anti-Magic Shell, follow up with Chains of Ice. When you get near the mage, he will use Ice Block or Blink. Use Dark Simulacrum to copy it. Keep the mage slowed all the time, use Scourge Strikes and one Necrotic to slow his cast, also keep both Diseases up. Summon your Gargoyle after he uses Ice Block. If you copied Ice Block or Blink, use it against Deep Freeze. For the next Deep Freezes you're going to have to save your Icebound Fortitude and PvP Trinket. Use Unholy Frenzy on yourself if he tries to use Polymorph. Anti-Magic Shell and Lichborne Heal if you're low on health. Use Anti-Magic Zone if you find yourself rooted and you're about to get frozen in Ring of Frost. You can force the Mage's Blink by stunning him.

No shit=)) And after ams you die?

First if you are close use plague and after this chains, chains again or use boil for rp (to summon gargoyle and amz), grip+gnaw+simulacrum ( if he use the trinket you hate full strangulate after and if he blinks you have his blink), stay close as you can, keep one necrotic and use festering for runes and scourge and coil for damage (don't use full rp for coil because maybe you need for icebound or amz). Use icebound when you take the first shatter and trinket after the second one. Use ams+lichborne to heal if you are low hp, low rp and a fb come to you for rp. Keep the spellshattering enchant vs mage(you need to have 3 weapons with dodge+disarm/spell+silence/crusader). Best race vs mage is the mighty gnome ofc.
You can't kill a good mage with your tactic ever.

[Dreadblade]

No. After AMS you use Ice Block. 90% of mages I dueled use Ice Block during my AMS.

MIGHTY NELLY wrote:

First if you are close use plague

What mage starts a duel in melee range?

MIGHTY NELLY wrote:

use boil for rp (to summon gargoyle and amz)

Assuming he or his pet is in close range, Blood Boil got fixed and no longer generates RP if it doesn't hit anything.

MIGHTY NELLY wrote:

grip+gnaw+simulacrum ( if he use the trinket you hate full strangulate after and if he blinks you have his blink)

Full Strangulate? No. He can Iceblock it.

Anyway thanks for your feedback and while I admit that my strat is a little risky (each with his own playstyle), I wouldn't go as far as to say that you can never defeat a good mage with it.

[MIGHTY NELLY]

Iceblock after ams? who's so idiot?

Dreadblade wrote:

Full Strangulate? No. He can Iceblock it.

HE CAN USE ICEBLOCK, AND AFTER THIS IS DEAD.THAT WAS MY POINT TO USE TRINKET/BLINK OR ICEBLOCK.

vs Hunter

Dreadblade wrote:

Use Anti-Magic Shell and summon your Gargoyle Tips: You can use Anti-Magic Shell against his traps, it will make you immune to their root effect.

Use anti-magic shell for activate magic suppression for runic power from the nature dmg received and heal with lichborne. Use amz when the hunter use full burst.Same vs retri use amz when the paladin use wings and ams+lichborne to heal and rp from the holy dmg; remove the lichborne after ams. Use spellshattering enchant vs hunter.

[bayern]

bro, what about tsg at 3v3 comps? it`s better than "stalin cleave" and you didn`t mention a word about it

[Dreadblade]

bayern wrote:

bro, what about tsg at 3v3 comps? it`s better than "stalin cleave" and you didn`t mention a word about it

I decided not to include TSG (Warr / DK / Hpala) since warriors in this patch are extremely squishy and DKs don't have enough peels for them. There are also many spellcleaves and most of them can easily counter TSG. In 3s, warriors are better off playing with classes that can peel a lot (rogue, feral, hunter)
In any case, I can only see some viability in TSG if the warrior is very experienced and preferably has Gurthalak or T2 Weapon... Warriors that meet both requirements are quite rare on Freakz. Personally I haven't seen many of them.

[Dreadblade]

Fixed some links that displayed "Frost Fever" instead of "Chains of Ice".

[Incarnate]

This topic could have gotten more views in the Tutorials / English section.