What is the best Death Knight Unholy tank spec in 3.3? I set out to simulate the various talent choices to find the highest threat unholy DK tank build. Below is a comprehensive analysis. Updated Jan 11, 2010.

In patch 3.33, there are no changes which significantly effect Unholy, so the below remains correct.

Changes in 3.3

Firstly, some background on the 3.3 changes. The writer Consider of EJ has a very well structured OP on Unholy DPS, with notes on 3.3.

Scourge strike will change to a 50/50 physical and magical attack, from its current 100% shadow damage in 3.22. This means unholy scales with physical raid buffs in the same way as warriors and the other DK tank trees; the net effect is it scales much better in 3.3 than 3.22. Hits about 60% harder.

Update: Reaping (to create death runes) is great for flexibility but, at an i245 gear level, is a slight loss of threat because those 3 points could be spent elsewhere. You gain about 1.8% threat by using no-reaping.

Differences between DPS and Tank

One thing I found is the tank spec has different weightings on the talents, to a greater degree than usual. Most notably, in the 3.3 DPS spec you skip Necrosis, but for tanks it is still the best choice for that talent tier. We use different glyphs too.

Changes from 3.22

Epidemic is definitely back; for tanks basically we’re going to the traditional deep unholy spec. Reaping is optional.

The 3.3 Unholy tank spec

The best yet balanced threat spec I found, after pretty extensive testing is 12/8/50, with one point free.

Alternatively, with no reaping, you spec like this 13/8/50. It’s about 1.8% more threat. I put the last point into SoB.

This linked spec already has one point in wandering plague for AOE, which for ST threat isn’t as good as one in Necrosis; move it if you’re solely emphasising ST threat.

Necrosis, for ST threat is better than Desolation, for a tank, but since Desolation also helps you in AOE too, I weight it more highly.

You can put that final point into a few spots:

• rune tap (self-healing),
• corpse explosion (AOE and entertainment),
• wandering plague (AOE and 0.7% more ST threat)
• scent of blood (ST threat, about 1% but not sure)
• necrosis (ST threat with 1.1% per talent point).

I tested the spec in two gear levels, and it won in both, and talents scaled about linear in both too. My Kahorie download page has those character xml files; one’s Coliseum level (Bluedragon), the other Ulduar 10/25 (Gravity).

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