Unholy Tanking Spec & Click Macro - updated for 3.3

**DISCLAIMER** - This spec & rotation are primarily deisgned for heroic tanking. For raiding, Blood and Frost tanking specs produce approximate 3-5% more threat (not saying you can't raid with Unholy, just that other specs produce more threat ;) )

The spec / rotation that was viable for 3.22 has changed for 3.3

New spec looks like this:

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...W,dpReO-,11159

Note - I have gone for a non-Reping spec (i.e. no Death Runes). If you want Reaping, I would suggest this spec:
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...Z,Yp3eO-,10676
Please note this has a different single target rotation (the 2nd round of Blood Strikes get replaced with a sinlge Scourge Strike).

Rotations have changed since 3.2.2 as we now take Epidemic, making diseases last another 6 secs - in other words you only need to refresh diseases every 20 secs (every 2nd rune seqence).

Links for additional info:
Elitist Jerks - http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t72364-u...t_you_want_me/
Note - it's a DPS thread, but still useful info for Unholy tanks
Gravity's Blog - http://pwnwear.com/2009/11/02/unholy-tank-in-3-3/
Gravity is a very knowledgeable DK tank and regular contirbutor to Maintankadin / EJ / Deathknight.info

Here are the macros...

Single Target:

1.
#showtooltip Icy Touch
/castsequence reset=10 Icy Touch,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

2.
#showtooltip Plague Strike
/castsequence reset=10 Plague Strike,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
3.
#showtooltip Blood Strike
/castsequence reset=10 Blood Strike, Blood Strike,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,

4.
#showtooltip Scourge Strike
/castsequence reset=10 Scourge Strike, Death Coil,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,

5.
#showtooltip Scourge Strike
/castsequence reset=10 Scourge Strike, Scourge Strike, Death Coil,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,

This gives you a rotation that looks like this:

IT — PS – BS — BS — SS — DC
SS — BS — BS — SS — DC

Extra runic power is used on Rune Strikes and IBF.


Multiple Target:

** assumes you open with Death & Decay **

1.
#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=10 Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Pestilence, null

2.
#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=10 Scourge Strike, Blood Boil, Scourge Strike, Blood Boil,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

3.
#showtooltip Icy Touch
/castsequence reset=10 Icy Touch,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

4.
#showtooltip Plague Strike
/castsequence reset=10 Plague Strike,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

5.
#showtooltip Pestilence
/castsequence reset=10 Pestilence,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

This gives you a rotation that looks like:
DnD (opener only)
IT – PS – Pest
SS – BB (or BS) – SS – BB

You may need to add or remove commas depending on how quickly you mash the keys. http://www.dual-boxing.com//images/smilies/smile.gif

Hope this helps...

Cheers,
S.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Stealthy

**DISCLAIMER** - This spec & rotation are primarily deisgned for heroic tanking. For raiding, Blood and Frost tanking specs produce approximate 3-5% more threat (not saying you can't raid with Unholy, just that other specs produce more threat ;) )

The spec / rotation that was viable for 3.22 has changed for 3.3

New spec looks like this:

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...W,dpReO-,11159

Note - I have gone for a non-Reping spec (i.e. no Death Runes). If you want Reaping, I would suggest this spec:
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...Z,Yp3eO-,10676
Please note this has a different single target rotation (the 2nd round of Blood Strikes get replaced with a sinlge Scourge Strike).

Rotations have changed since 3.2.2 as we now take Epidemic, making diseases last another 6 secs - in other words you only need to refresh diseases every 20 secs (every 2nd rune seqence).

Links for additional info:
Elitist Jerks - http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t72364-u...t_you_want_me/
Note - it's a DPS thread, but still useful info for Unholy tanks
Gravity's Blog - http://pwnwear.com/2009/11/02/unholy-tank-in-3-3/
Gravity is a very knowledgeable DK tank and regular contirbutor to Maintankadin / EJ / Deathknight.info

Here are the macros...

Single Target:

1.
#showtooltip Icy Touch
/castsequence reset=10 Icy Touch,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

2.
#showtooltip Plague Strike
/castsequence reset=10 Plague Strike,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
3.
#showtooltip Blood Strike
/castsequence reset=10 Blood Strike, Blood Strike,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,

4.
#showtooltip Scourge Strike
/castsequence reset=10 Scourge Strike, Death Coil,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,

5.
#showtooltip Scourge Strike
/castsequence reset=10 Scourge Strike, Scourge Strike, Death Coil,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,

This gives you a rotation that looks like this:

IT — PS – BS — BS — SS — DC
SS — BS — BS — SS — DC

Extra runic power is used on Rune Strikes and IBF.


Multiple Target:

** assumes you open with Death & Decay **

1.
#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=10 Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Pestilence, null

2.
#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=10 Scourge Strike, Blood Boil, Scourge Strike, Blood Boil,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

3.
#showtooltip Icy Touch
/castsequence reset=10 Icy Touch,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

4.
#showtooltip Plague Strike
/castsequence reset=10 Plague Strike,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

5.
#showtooltip Pestilence
/castsequence reset=10 Pestilence,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

This gives you a rotation that looks like:
DnD (opener only)
IT – PS – Pest
SS – BB (or BS) – SS – BB

You may need to add or remove commas depending on how quickly you mash the keys. http://www.dual-boxing.com//images/smilies/smile.gif

Hope this helps...

Cheers,
S.

---

n1 one dude, im using the older spec posted up at the moment for my 3 unholy dk's. but with single target dps spec.

i'l compare my setup with this and make any changes that will improve dps. were only 60+ at the moment but intend to be 80 soon.

BTW this setup works very very well, im using one from 3.22? from compendium thread which links off to other sources.

Thanks for the update.

Yep, I was the one who posted the 3.2.2 rotation as well. ;)

Scourge Strike got a significant buff in 3.3 - previously it was 100% shadow damage. Now it's 50% physical & 50% shadow. This means it now scales with buffs like Horn of Winter, Blessing of Might, etc...

So becuase of the SS buff, the rotations have changed as well - 2 points now go into Epidemic, which increases the duration of your diseases by 6 seconds (from 15 to 21 secs). This in turn means that we don't have to re-apply diseases until every 2nd rune cooldown, and allows an extra SS into the rotation.

To clarify - there is nothing wrong with the 3.2.2 rotation. Thanks to the SS buff, the 3.2.2. rotation is even better in 3.3. If you're happy using it, by all means keep using it. This new rotation should offer a bit better DPS (and from that a bit better threat)

When I get a chance, I'll run some numbers from both specs and post the results.

Cheers,
S.

A quick question - your commas are based on a spam speed of how many clicks per second?

I click about 4.5 per second so in 10 seconds I do about 45 or less commas. I just made some adjustments to the commas and it looks like everything is flowing. Disease are applying just before they expire. I just need to figure out where to put bone shield, icebound fort and rune strike in the clicks.

Almost forgot. What should the reset be? Leave them all at 10 or combat?

My macros are based on 5 clicks per second - so you may need to adjust for yourself as Pinot did. :)

Regarding Rune Strike, Incebound Fort & Bone Shield:

Rune Strike - I have this bound to its own key, although would be easy enough to macro it in since it's a 'next melee' attack. Probably have something like /cast !Rune Strike in each of the above macros.

Icebound Fort - I also have this bound to its own key - because it has a long (2 mintue) cooldown, I like to choose when pop it - either as an 'oh shit' button or proactively to when you know you've got a big hit (or stun) incoming.

Bone Shield - Short cooldown (1 minute) but costs an unholy rune, so I have it bound to my buff macro (which I use before combat). During combat I have another macro that uses blood tap:

/cast Blood Tap
/cancelaura Blood Tap
/cast Boneshield

Blood tap activates a blood rune and converts it to a death rune (which supplies the rune you need for Bone shield). Note - you only want to pop this when both blood runes are on cooldown, otherwise it will screw up your rotation.

So for a prolonged mitigation buff you can do something like - Bone Shield (wait for cooldown to finish, then start combat) -> pop dodge trinket when Bone Shield drops -> pop 2nd Bone Shield when trinket effect drops -> pop Icebound Fort.

Cheers,
S.

I was reading in other forums that you should put Diseases up before your DnD? Something like IT adds threat to DnD? Maybe I got things backwards, I will find a link if there is a need.

This is important if you are unholy dps and you are supplying Ebon Plague to the raid. As a tank I think it is more important to get DnD down as soon as possible so you can frontload threat. If you are after maximum dps then definitely ebon plague is the priority, but you will develop threat slightly more slowly due to the delay in DnD. After your first rotation everything will equalise anyway.

just an update, my dk's are now 70+ and its working very well, even with unholy presence with gcd and unholy presence its highly effective, cant be blood presence through.

thumbs up, well done for such a good clickmacro unholy

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Stealthy

**DISCLAIMER** - This spec & rotation are primarily deisgned for heroic tanking. For raiding, Blood and Frost tanking specs produce approximate 3-5% more threat (not saying you can't raid with Unholy, just that other specs produce more threat ;) )

The spec / rotation that was viable for 3.22 has changed for 3.3

New spec looks like this:

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...W,dpReO-,11159

Note - I have gone for a non-Reping spec (i.e. no Death Runes). If you want Reaping, I would suggest this spec:
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...Z,Yp3eO-,10676
Please note this has a different single target rotation (the 2nd round of Blood Strikes get replaced with a sinlge Scourge Strike).

Rotations have changed since 3.2.2 as we now take Epidemic, making diseases last another 6 secs - in other words you only need to refresh diseases every 20 secs (every 2nd rune seqence).

Links for additional info:
Elitist Jerks - http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t72364-u...t_you_want_me/
Note - it's a DPS thread, but still useful info for Unholy tanks
Gravity's Blog - http://pwnwear.com/2009/11/02/unholy-tank-in-3-3/
Gravity is a very knowledgeable DK tank and regular contirbutor to Maintankadin / EJ / Deathknight.info

Here are the macros...

Single Target:

1.
#showtooltip Icy Touch
/castsequence reset=10 Icy Touch,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

2.
#showtooltip Plague Strike
/castsequence reset=10 Plague Strike,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
3.
#showtooltip Blood Strike
/castsequence reset=10 Blood Strike, Blood Strike,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,

4.
#showtooltip Scourge Strike
/castsequence reset=10 Scourge Strike, Death Coil,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,

5.
#showtooltip Scourge Strike
/castsequence reset=10 Scourge Strike, Scourge Strike, Death Coil,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,

This gives you a rotation that looks like this:

IT — PS – BS — BS — SS — DC
SS — BS — BS — SS — DC

Extra runic power is used on Rune Strikes and IBF.


Multiple Target:

** assumes you open with Death & Decay **

1.
#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=10 Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Pestilence, null

2.
#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=10 Scourge Strike, Blood Boil, Scourge Strike, Blood Boil,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

3.
#showtooltip Icy Touch
/castsequence reset=10 Icy Touch,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

4.
#showtooltip Plague Strike
/castsequence reset=10 Plague Strike,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

5.
#showtooltip Pestilence
/castsequence reset=10 Pestilence,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

This gives you a rotation that looks like:
DnD (opener only)
IT – PS – Pest
SS – BB (or BS) – SS – BB

You may need to add or remove commas depending on how quickly you mash the keys. http://www.dual-boxing.com//images/smilies/smile.gif

Hope this helps...

Cheers,
S.

---

So what have your dps macro buttons changed to, not sure im getting how you've set it up :(

Basically there are two click macros, which call the other castsequences.
One is a single target click, the other is multiple targets.

If you have a single target, spam the first.
If there are several targets, spam the second.
Have your dps click castsequences on both keys.
The DPS will assist the tank for targeting etc.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ualaa

Basically there are two click macros, which call the other castsequences.
One is a single target click, the other is multiple targets.

If you have a single target, spam the first.
If there are several targets, spam the second.
Have your dps click castsequences on both keys.
The DPS will assist the tank for targeting etc.

---

yeah i get that bit, but do the button positions change and also the Spam button macros should change, shouldn't they?

The single target one i used previously was this

/run SetCVar("Sound_EnableSFX","0")
/click MultiBarLeftButton1
/click MultiBarLeftButton2
/click MultiBarLeftButton3
/click MultiBarLeftButton4
/click MultiBarLeftButton7
/run SetCVar("Sound_EnableSFX","1")

I'm thinking of the one posted to the wiki.
Where there are 8 castsequences... and one click macro calls something like 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 for single targets, while the other calls 7, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, or something similar to that.

It would be easiest if you had a single castsequence for each move type you were to use.
And then spammed a master macro which called each in its appropriate sequence.