Few Spec questions - Unholy

Post by Senalgon

To start out with, I've been unholy since I made my DK. Just liked the look of it, haven't played with any of the others, don't intend to. Stubborn like that, I guess : P. But, after hitting 80, I've been toying with the idea of a few things, and wanted a little bit more info on them before I spend all my cash constantly respeccing.
Before I ask, though, a note on my playstyle. I don't group much, don't instance at all. Prefer sticking to myself and seeing what I can do (As well as my computer tends to lag up at random, so I don't trust it with groups). I prefer AE fighting, not patient enough to burn down mobs one at a time, so I pull them in mass, instead. I tend to base my decisions on speccing around this, and have ended up with most of the "tanking" spec stuff on my list. (Can't AE if the act of pulling gets you killed..)
Essentially, my questions are based around Outbreak, Corpse Explosion, Summon Gargoyle, and Night of the Dead.

Outbreak - What kind of damage is this actually giving me? Mentioned it to a friend and he seemed to think it was a bad idea, so I got curious whether or not I was gaining much out of this. Mainly picked it up because I figured "Hey, it is hitting 6-10+ things at once, any extra damage it does is good, right?"

Corpse Explosion - I've read it really isn't much damage, and when I first played with it, I figured much the same. But I read you can blow up your pet, as well? What kind of damage does this do? Is it AE? Could potentially be useful if the damage on that is high and AE. Kind of a free burst of damage to everything in range if I'm about to die..

Summon gargoyle - Again, not sure on what kind of damage this does. Had it in my first spec, specced out of it because I always forgot it was there. Curious whether or not it would be worth picking up, since I have Unholy Blight. Combining two abilities with high RP consumptions seems like it might be a bit difficult, as well as pointless in some cases (By the time I had the RP for both, I'm thinking most of the mobs would be dead already)

Night of the Dead - Mostly curious about this for use if Corpse Explosion does anything good with blowing up my pet. Seems like having a shortened pet summon + ability to blow it up or sac it for health would be a nice benefit. Not sure if it is worth spending 2 points in though. AotD shortened could be nice (as I tend to use it while fighting elites that I'm not sure about.. and if I lose a "close" fight, having to wait 20 minutes to try again isn't fun)

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=j0xZ0xZfghh0boxcq0ssut
Is the spec I'm playing around with, minus the points that would be put into abilities listed above and a few others I haven't decided with yet. One point dropped into NotD so I could progress

Think I included everything in there, sorry if it has been asked numerous times
Thanks for any help

Post by GenXCub

Well, Outbreak is 30% more for your plague strike, which you're using often. I think the Pestilence part is being removed with this next patch. What other talent were you thinking of besides outbreak? It's a great soloing talent. The reason many people can skip it is that it's less useful when you're not using blood boil all the time (in groups, sometimes you can't afford to disease every target).

Corpse Explosion, currently, is crap.

However, in the 3.0.8 patch, it's getting a big damage boost and being moved to be 40 runic power instead of an unholy rune. This change will definitely put it back on my build. It's going to be like the same dilemma that aoe unholy DK's have with their blood runes... you either blood strike or blood boil depending on how many targets you're fighting. It will be the same between Death coil and Corpse Explosion.

Summon Gargoyle. I love this skill, but it's pretty much for boss fights. The problem here is that it gets better as the fight goes longer, you don't have to waste global cooldowns on Death Coil, your damage is being done, you just concentrate on keeping your RP up to keep the gargoyle around. Most solo grinding fights are too short for it to be of much use.

Night of the dead. Good talent, I currently do not take it. I find Rune Tap to be more worth my time to spend points in. You may disagree.

In the 3.0.8 patch, that talent will also add passive AoE damage mitigation for your ghoul, so it's getting a nice buff.

Post by skribs

Plague Strike is such a weak attack that 10% per point isn't going to increase your DPS by that much. It's basically 30% of an auto-attack every 20 seconds (the attack itself). Outbreak is a very weak upgrade to single-target damage, but is actually pretty good for AoE damage.

Gargoyle deals 40% of your AP as damage every 2 seconds, so for the duration adds 20% of your AP as DPS. If you have Ebon Plague, this is incredible.

NOTD is nice if you need to resummon your pet a lot, which AoE in general will make you do (regardless of whether or not you blow it up yourself.

As to CE, I skipped it originally, but I may put a point off of filler and into it in the future since it's RP and buffed in 3.0.8.

Post by Kurtosis

My DK is 74 now, I've been UH AoE leveling/tanking too. Slightly diff spec though. At 72 I had 15/5/43 on the way toward 17/5/46+3.

The goal is to buff AoE, Armor, and Crit as much as possible. I actually run around in Frost Presence. Not as high dmg as Blood Presence, but the loss of 15% dmg is mitigated somewhat by Bladed Armor.

Lots of crit makes a big diff, especially on Death Strike crits when solo'ing the occasional elites. At 74 my base crit is a little over 20%. Dark Conviction + Ebon Plague bring that up 28%, and Vicious Strikes gets it to 34% for SS & DS.

Of course the tradeoff for that is Wandering Plague and Unholy Blight. Or, more elite-solo'ing ability at the cost of less AoE dmg. I'm also on a PvP realm, and DK AoE is pretty weak against other players who just stay out of it.

Post by Senalgon

Okay then.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jbxZ0xZfghIzboxcq0fsut is what I've come up with so far with playing around. Have one point left, not sure what to take.
Leaning between Dirge, Two Handed Wep spec, and Bladed Armor..
Seems like for one point, the one that'd get me the most benefit would be two handed.
Though a quick question about that.. Is it like paladin's one handed wep spec, where it increases ALL damage done while wielding a Xhanded weapon, or is it purely melee hits / strikes?
Either way, if it includes strikes, it'd probly be best boost for me, I'm thinking.
Any suggestions otherwise?

Oh, and as far as gear goes, I've just been picking up tank gear mostly. More hp/ armor /defense wins it for me, so my crit rating has been shot. And as far as PVP goes.. I mostly PVP when I'm extremely bored (and that has been happening fewer and fewer times, as I like AV, and AV on my server is generally 15 alliance vs. 40 horde >_>)

Thanks again

Few Spec questions - Unholy

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