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PTR
10.2.5
PTR
10.2.0
Unholy Death Knight Artifact Weapon: Apocalypse – Legion 7.3.5
By Veissdrachen
Last Updated:
2018/06/28
Changelog
Patch: 10.2.5
Table of Contents
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This section of the Unholy Death Knight guide explains the best possible choices for the Netherlight Crucible, important traits and relic bonuses, and how to progress through your artifact weapon Apocalypse. This guide is currently updated and maintained by
Veiss Versa
, who has been a raider in various DPS capacities for 9 years, and is currently 4/9M in Tomb of Sargeras. You can also find him on
YouTube
and
Twitch
.
This guide was originally written by
Miniaug
from
Midwinter on Sargeras-US
. You can learn more about him on his
Twitch Stream
.
For more DK discussion, visit the Death Knight
Class Discord
, the
Unholiest
Discord, or ask our guide writers questions on
Wowhead's Discord.
For additional class and community Discord links
visit our Discord Servers page
.
Artifacts in Battle for Azeroth
As of June 26th, completing the quest
The Power in Our Hands
will further empower your Artifact Weapon, enabling all traits and at least
Concordance of the Legionfall
level 75, further increasing in power over time until the Battle for Azeroth pre-expansion patch.
Therefore, only the Netherlight Crucible recommendations are relevant on this guide page leading up to BFA, as you already receive all Artifact Traits by default. This makes content easier to complete, especially some
content going away
such as
Ahead of the Curve
and
Mage Tower Challenges
.
In the
BFA pre-patch
, your Artifact Traits will be removed, and relics will simply increase the item level of your artifact weapon. However, many artifact traits are returning as talents or azerite powers in Battle for Azeroth and we have a compiled a
full list you can read here
.
Moving forward in Battle for Azeroth, you will still be able to acquire the Artifact Weapon which will mainly interest transmog collectors for the appearances. Learn how to unlock all appearances in BFA with our
Artifact Appearance Guide
.
Active Ability
Equipping Apocalypse grants you the ability
Apocalypse
, which causes you to strike your enemy and bursting your
Festering Wound
s on the target. Each burst summons one member from your
Army of the Dead
.
Netherlight Crucible
The
Netherlight Crucible
is a new system added in Patch 7.3. The Crucible allows you further empower your Unholy DK Artifact Weapon, by specializing and increasing the power from your relics. With it, each relic receives a small talent tree that you can select new traits from, depending how many traits your weapon has. Do not worry, however, because with the changes to
Artifact Knowledge
, unlocking the full power of the Crucible won't take long. Learn everything about this new system in the
Netherlight Crucible Guide
. With the opening of
Antorus, the Burning Throne
, it is now possible to obtain
Insignia of the Grand Army
, which increases the potency of your Tier 2 Crucible traits by 50%. It might be a really strong legendary if you are lucky with Netherlight Crucible rolls!
Unholy DK has a unique relationship with the Crucible, as the second tier of traits is a choice between Shadow damage or Holy damage in many cases. As our Mastery revolves around Shadow damage, we are in a position to benefit greatly from the Shadow portion of the Crucible's trait tree, especially as we begin to more easily reach values of greater than 100% Mastery.
Trait
Similar increase to
Torment the Weak
+13 ilevel
Shadowbind
+12 ilevel
Chaotic Darkness
+11 ilevel
Master of Shadows
+10 ilevel
Secure in the Light
+9 ilevel
Shocklight
+9 ilevel
Infusion of Light
+8 ilevel
Murderous Intent
+8 ilevel
Light Speed
+6 ilevel
Dark Sorrows
+4 ilevel
Other Tier 2 Crucible Traits
+0 ilevel
Relics
When it comes to relics, in general you want the highest item level relic you can get for the Unholy DK Artifact. However, the two best traits in the list,
The Darkest Crusade
&
Plaguebearer
, can be quite a bit better, can be a large increase over any of the other trait options, even if the item level is slightly lower, due to how well they scale.
Trait
Similar increase to
The Darkest Crusade
+7 i-level
Plaguebearer
+7 i-level
Deadliest Coil
+6 i-level
Lash of Shadows
+3 i-level
Rotten Touch
+3 i-level
Runic Tattoos
+3 i-level
Scourge the Unbeliever
+2 i-level
Eternal Agony
0 i-level
Other Tier 2 Traits
+0 ilevel
Artifact Path
With the advent of automatic Artifact Knowledge in 7.3, most of the following is of much lesser consequence to most players, as you can nearly fill your entire Unholy DK artifact to Concordance rather quickly. That said, it's here in case anyone is wondering.
1/1
Feast of Souls
3/3
Eternal Agony
3/3
The Darkest Crusade
1/1
Portal to the Underworld
1/1
Scourge of Worlds
The first major trait you go to is
Scourge of Worlds
. It has no effect on your rotation and is generally regarded as a passive damage increase. Coupled with the traits before it, it is simply the strongest starting path you can take.
After getting the previously mentioned traits, you go for the following:
3/3
Scourge the Unbeliever
3/3
Unholy Endurance
1/1
The Shambler
1/1
Armies of the Damned
3/3
Plaguebearer
These 20 core traits have the highest impact on your damage and add the most to how you play the spec.
Armies of the Damned
and
Portal to the Underworld
significantly impact the power of your artifact ability,
Apocalypse
.
Scourge the Unbeliever
and
Plaguebearer
increase your ability to deal AoE damage immensely and are very important to our rotation.This is the best possible path that we can take and gives us the most damage as well as a nice survivability boost.
From here, all DPS increases from Traits are mostly marginal, and you can raise them in order of your preference. Deadliest Coil will be slightly better than Rotten Touch, as it scales well with Mastery.
3/3
Deadly Durability
1/1
Double Doom
3/3
Deadliest Coil
3/3
Rotten Touch
3/3
Runic Tattoos
These traits give a limited amount of damage and utility. Due to this, they simply fall last on the points you want to take before getting your 35th trait.
1/1
Cunning of the Ebon Blade
4/4
The Darkest Crusade
4/4
Plaguebearer
4/4
Deadliest Coil
4/4
Lash of Shadows
1/1
Death's Harbinger
1/1
Black Claws
In 7.2, 4 new traits were added and you can now get 4/4 in all previous 3/3 traits. Due to these new traits being somewhat mediocre, you take points in some of the old 3/3's and make them 4/4 first. You can cherrypick the 4/4 traits and do not need to go in any particular order to raise these traits.
4/4
Eternal Agony
4/4
Rotten Touch
4/4
Scourge the Unbeliever
4/4
Runic Tattoos
After getting the new traits this is the order you should max out the old 3/3 damage traits in to new 4/4 traits.
4/4
Unholy Endurance
4/4
Deadly Durability
After that the only real choice comes down to utility ones where you take the order listed above, then you unlock the new trait,
Concordance of the Legionfall
.
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