Unholy Death Knight Leveling Guide from 8 to 90 — 12.0.5

Unholy Death Knight is a fast leveler, both being able to multi-dot and burst down large packs of enemies quickly, as well as being one of the most mobile leveling class via On a Paler Horse once you reach level 71. Furthermore, this spec has great self-sustain via procs of Dark Succor and Death Strike, staying healthy as you AoE down pack after pack.

The ideal gameplay involves using Outbreak to pull multiple enemies, setting up stacks of Lesser Ghoul with Festering Strike and then cleaving down the enemies with Scourge Strike and Epidemic.

Leveling Information

Beginner Leveling Guides

If this is your first character, or want to know more about the leveling process in Midnight, we've got you covered with these two guides!

Basic LevelingMidnight Leveling

Item level is always more important than individual stats when leveling up. Always choose the piece of gear with the highest item level. Items with Speed tertiary stats can help speed up your leveling, especially during parts of extended time spent indoors. Heirloom gear is also useful while leveling, allowing you to ignore a lot of gearing for a large part of your leveling journey.

Itemization

Leveling Heirlooms

Learn how to use Heirloom gear to level your characters as fast as possible!

Heirlooms Guide

When you get the option to Runeforge, make sure you apply Rune of the Fallen Crusader, as it speeds up the leveling process the most! You can also use Rune of Unending Thirst for some nice speed boost after killing mobs. Rune of the Apocalypse is also relevant but is primarily used at higher levels when you fight mobs for longer.

There are a couple of consumables you can use to speed up your leveling process in Midnight. Exquisitely Eviscerated Muscle is a great food that significantly increases your speed, improving your leveling process. Goblin Glider Kit deserves a mention as it can be a highly efficient means of transportation when you cannot use your flying mount.

If you are just starting your journey into Midnight, we have a Level 80 import string for you. You can follow the point-by-point allocation of the below tree once you start gaining levels in Midnight.

This section will go over the PvP talents for leveling content for Unholy Death Knights.

• Doomburst is the only PvP talent that provides extra DPS throughput.
• Bloodforged Armor gives some nice defensive benefit.

To help with understanding what changes for your spec as you level up and progress through the talent tree, use the slider below to select your current level. Each time you level up, move it along, and the section will level up with you!

Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!

Starting, you will only have two main attack abilities: Rune Strike and Death Coil.

• Rune Strike is your main Rune Spending ability.
• Army of the Dead should be used as much as possible, ideally on more difficult mobs, as the cooldown brings a lot of Single Target burst.
• Outbreak should be used to apply Virulent Plague to all targets and Dread Plague on your main target.
• Putrefy as much as possible.
• Dark Transformation can be used off cooldown. However, you should also make sure you have it available for larger packs of mobs or more difficult packs.
• Death Coil to spend your Runic Power.
• Death Coil to spend Runic Power at 1-2 targets.
• Use Epidemic when there are 3+ targets.
• Use Festering Strike to build stacks of Lesser Ghoul. Use it when you have less than 3 stacks.
• Use Scourge Strike when you have at least one stack of Lesser Ghoul.
• Use Festering Strike as your Rune spender.

There are some passive abilities that you unlock through the leveling process that can change your play style and rotation.

• Sudden Doom affects both Death Coil and Epidemic, empowering them significantly. These procs should be used quickly to ensure that you do not override your current proc!
• Dark Succor is incredible for leveling, allowing you to easily heal and stay at high health while chain-pulling packs and mobs.

• Anti-Magic Shell is a very strong magic shield that also generates Runic Power when it absorbs magic damage. This should be used whenever magic damage is present to take advantage of the Runic Power generation.
• Lichborne is a relatively powerful ability for leveling, as it provides you with a good chunk of Leech. Use this cooldown to take advantage of the healing and try to pair it with high AoE or burst combinations.
• Icebound Fortitude is an amazing defensive cooldown that should be used whenever necessary in order to keep you moving from pack to pack.
• Raise Ally cannot be used when solo leveling, however, it is fantastic in dungeon groups if you decide to level that way.
• Death's Advance is one of your only movement speed cooldowns making it incredibly useful when leveling. The secondary effects of this are not too useful in leveling scenarios, except for the passive that prevents you from being slowed past a certain point.
• Death Grip grips your target towards you, allowing you to start fighting it straight away. Really useful to speed up the leveling process.
• Mind Freeze is your interrupt which is great to use against casting mobs, significantly reducing the damage they deal to you!

Class Guides

Death Knight Class Guides

Finished leveling your character? Check out our max level guides!

All Death Knight Guides

Bicepspump

Guide Author

Follow Bicepspump

This guide has been written by Bicepspump, a semi-hardcore player raiding with Pixelbased Lifeforms on Kazzak. He is heavily involved in the DK DPS theorycrafting community, testing hyoptheses and investigating the correct priority to use. He produces guide content on YouTube and frequently streams on Twitch.