Level 80 Unholy Death Knight 17/0/54 DPS Talent Spec

The death knight is the new hero class. Being a hero class does not make you powerful. You need a good talent spec to put with you shiny new armor. This unholy death knight dps spec goes deed into unholy to get all the tasty talents and dips into blood to get the attack power and crit and a small amount of runic power regeneration. This stacks up to be a deadly 2 hander build. All you need is a ok 2 hander and death knight armor. This 17/0/54 spec will give you the rest. You main attack will be scourge strike. This build is great for raid and any other dps, including burst.

The first blood death knight dps talent you will get is 2/2 butchery. This is a great grinding talent but offers little to raid environment. The only reason to get this talent is to be a filler point. The 2 runic power every 5 seconds will amount to .7% dps increase at best.

The second blood death knight dps talent you will get is 3/3 subversion. This is a must have talent because of the threat reduction. You don't want to a BC fury warrior do you? Also, you will use blood strike to convert the blood runes twice every 20 seconds, so this is a 1.4 % dps increase, and a little more with good gear. This is a great death knight raid talent.

The third blood death knight dps talent you will get is 5/5 bladed armor. Most of the death knights dps comes from attack power. You have a lot of armor. Put this together and you get bladed armor. This talent should give 300 to 500 ap. This is great for this low in the tree. We are not even to unholy tree yet. There are really no filler points for death knights, all of the points have meaning.

The fourth blood death knight dps talent you will get is 2/2 two handed weapon specialization. This is great for plague strike and scourge strike. This is a little over 1% dps increase per point, make is little better than average.

The fifth blood death knight dps talent you will get is 5/5 dark conviction. Everyone ( even death knights) love crit. Yay, free crit. Get this talent and move on to Unholy Tree.

The first unholy death knight dps talent you will get is 2/2 vicious strikes. This is a great talent that has a bit of synergy. This make Scourge strike great burst too. I love this talent and is great for first tier death knight talents.

The second unholy death knight dps talent you will get is 1/1 morbidity. This talent is an average talent. Death and decay is good aoe and Death coil will be your main runic power dump after gargoyle. This is about 1% per point damage increase and gives you death knight some range umph.

The third unholy death knight dps talent you will get is 2/2 epidemic. You NEVER want you diseases to run dry. Get this and you will have more room for mistakes in your rotation, you will also be warlock-like. This is a great talent.

The fourth unholy death knight dps talent you will get is 3/3 virulence. This is a great pvp talent and an average pve talent. The 3% spell hit is nice because using a 2 hander u need 9% hit, spell hit is above 11%. This closes the gap so you can hit cap you 2 hander and be good with spells too.

The fifth unholy death knight dps talent you will get is 3/3 ravenous dead. The 3% strength is great and the ghouls stamina and strength is great for your dps and pet survivability. This is a great talent and all unholy death knight should invest in it.

The sixth unholy death knight dps talent you will get is 3/3 outbreak. You will be using plague strike a lot for desecrated ground. This is actually a nice talent and will make your plague strike hit descent. If you wish, this can be replaced.

The seventh unholy death knight dps talent you will get is 4/5 necrosis. This talent use to not be worth the investment, but now the effect has been doubled. This is now on par at 1.2% dps increase per point. This is not a small bit above average.

The eighth unholy death knight dps talent you will get is /3 blood-caked blades. This talent was great before the buff. After the buff it is INSANE. We are talking about 1/3 of the time you will get a 112.5% attack for FREE. Wow, i cant say enough that this passive damage is awesome. This burst, sustained, damage talent is probably my favorite talent. Listen close, this 3, (yes only 3 ) talent pointer gives you a Whopping 13% damage increase. MORE than 3% per point. I think this is close to the best around. GET IT.

The ninth unholy death knight dps talent you will get is 1/1 shadow of death. This is a great point. Who cares about the rezzing as a ghoul. The stamina AND strength is great. Health and attack power in one point. And you get a cool little teaser at the end, cool i guess.

The tenth unholy death knight dps talent you will get is 1/1 summon gargoyle. This talent has been nerfed, but is still good. The effective dps has been cut by half. This is still a good 7% increase over death coil spamming. In aoe friendly fights i would say yes. If it will die in 30 sec or less, then let the CD stay in the bank.

The eleventh unholy death knight dps talent you will get is 5/5 impurity. This is great for death coil and you dots. This should give you 1.5% increase per point. This is very worth getting. I would say a good death knight will appreciate this.

The twelfth unholy death knight dps talent you will get is 3/3 reaping. This is great. It gives you no upfront dps increase, but it means you will be able to get more solid scourge strike rotations and this in itself will increase your dps by 10 or 20%. Great talent and even a MUST have.

The thirteenth unholy death knight dps talent you will get is 1/1 master of ghouls. You want this. You get gnaw :P. Everyone loves free stuns. Not kidding this is a good talent.

The fourteenth unholy death knight dps talent you will get is 5/5 desecration. This will give you 5% damage increase and is great fun for pvp. This is a great dps talent, I would say get this and never look at glyph of scourge strike.

The fifteenth unholy death knight dps talent you will get is 2/2 night of the dead. This is a must have if you want you pet to live. I would say you pet could pull 15% of your damage. So staying alive is good, no?

The sixteenth unholy death knight dps talent you will get is 3/3 crypt fever. This is a good talent in itself. Now throw in the fact that it(well not it, but you have to get it to get ebon) counts for your 3rd disease. This makes it easily a 6 to 8 % damage increase. This is a must have and you will notice the difference at once.

The seventeenth unholy death knight dps talent you will get is 1/1 bone shield. The once overpowered bone shield is now just a very above average talent. This is no kidding still great. 2% damage and mitigation is a win. Get it and love the swirling bones.

The eighteenth unholy death knight dps talent you will get is 3/3 ebon plaguebringer. 3% crit, 13% spell damage to the raid, and stacking disease. I'd say get it, no? Yes. Just get it and enjoy.

The nineteenth unholy death knight dps talent you will get is 1/1 scourge strike. Scourge strike is just awesome. Get it and you will love it. It gives you burst, sustained, and wtfijustcrit10k damage. This is a great talent.

The twentieth and final unholy death knight dps talent you will get is 5/5 rage of rivendare. 10% more damage with specials. That's 10% on 66% of your damage. This is 7 to 8% damage increase, no to mention the expertise. This is a great talent and a must have.

That wraps up my unholy death knight dps talent spec. Look around at some of the other specs.

-Brandon c.