Unholy Death Knight BiS Gear in Phase 1 Cataclysm Classic

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Stat Priority And Cap Ratings

Your Stat Priority should be like this (left to right).

Strength → Haste Rating → Critical Strike Rating → Hit Rating → Mastery Rating → Expertise Rating.

Strength

Strength is the primary stat for Death Knights and is always beneficial to increase. Each point of strength provides 2 attack power before modifiers are applied.

Hit Rating

To ensure your abilities are effective, aim for a total of at least +8% chance to hit, which equates to 961 hit rating. Since there are no buffs or debuffs from your raid that influence hit rating, you’ll need to achieve this entirely through your gear.

Expertise Rating

Expertise is a less critical stat for Death Knights. It reduces the chance of your auto attacks, Scourge Strike, and Festering Strike being dodged or parried. When these attacks are dodged or parried, you get your runes refunded, so the penalty is minimal.

Secondary Stats

Attack Power, Critical Strike Rating, Mastery Rating, and Haste Rating are all desirable stats, but they have a lower value compared to Strength. Aim to improve these stats as much as possible once you’ve maximized your hit rating and strength.

Gear

Head For Unholy Death Knight DPS

Magma Plated Helmet is your best option. While it’s not the best helmet available as a standalone helmet, it still has a great bonus for gem sockets and you also get the powerful legs from Al’Akir in advance.

Best Enchant: Arcanum of the Dragonmaw.

Rank	Item	Source	Location
Best	Magma Plated Helmet	Crown of the Forlorn Vanquisher Magma Plated Helmet Helm of the Forlorn Vanquisher	Jamus’Vaz Faldren Tillsdale
Optional	Helm of Maddening Whispers	Cho’gall	The Bastion of Twilight
Pre-Raid	Reinforced Bio-Optic Killshades	BoP Crafted from Engineering	–

Shoulders for Unholy Death Knight DPS

For this slot, we want to use our tier gear. The Magma Plated Pauldrons are an excellent choice, offering great stats and a significant amount of hit rating, which is crucial for us. Additionally, they feature a valuable red socket.

The second-best option, the Pauldrons of the Great Ettin, is more inferior in terms of DPS. Much of its stat allocation is spent on Mastery, which is less desirable for us.

Best Enchant: Greater Inscription of Jagged Stone.

Rank	Item	Source	Location
Best	Magma Plated Pauldrons	Shoulders of the Forlorn Vanquisher + Magma Plated Pauldrons or Mantle of the Forlorn Vanquisher	Jamus’Vaz Faldren Tillsdale
Optional	Pauldrons of the Great Ettin	Halfus Wyrmbreaker	The Bastion of Twilight

Back For Unholy Death Knight DPS

There’s one item that stands head and shoulders above the rest: Glittering Epidermis. This item has all the stats we need, and many more.

Best Enchant: Enchant Cloak – Greater Critical Strike.

Rank	Item	Source	Location
Best	Glittering Epidermis	Elementium Monstrosity	The Bastion of Twilight
Optional	Cloudburst Cloak of the Earthfall	Al’Akir	Throne of the Four Winds
Pre-Raid	Drape of Inimitable Fate	BoE World Drop	–

Chest For Unholy Death Knight DPS

The Magma Plated Battleplate is one of our top-tier pieces. It offers all the stats we need and includes a great socket bonus worth utilizing. By using an Etched Demonseye, you can achieve the perfect hit cap without sacrificing strength, thanks to the valuable socket bonus.

Best Enchant: Enchant Chest – Peerless Stats.

Rank	Item	Source	Location
Best	Magma Plated Battleplate	Chest of the Forlorn Vanquisher + Magma Plated Battleplate or 2200 Valor Points	Jamus’Vaz Faldren Tillsdale
Optional	Battleplate of Ancient Kings	Atramedes	Blackwing Descent
Pre-Raid	Elementium Deathplate	BoE Crafted from Blacksmithing	–

Wrist For Unholy Death Knight DPS

The wrist slot choice is straightforward, with Bracers of the Mat’redor being the best option due to individual item stats. However, they are hard to obtain, as you need to defeat the bonus boss Sinestra in Bastion of Twilight on Heroic difficulty.

Best Enchant: Enchant Bracer – Major Strength.

Rank	Item	Source	Location
Best	Bracers of the Mat’redor	Sinestra	The Bastion of Twilight
Optional	Electron Inductor Coils	Magmatron	Blackwing Descent
Optional	Bracers of Impossible Strength	Halfus Wyrmbreaker	The Bastion of Twilight
Pre-Raid	Alpha Bracers	Anraphet	Halls of Origination

Hands For Unholy Death Knight DPS

The final slot for our 4-set tier comes from the gloves. Magma Plated Gauntlets may not be the best piece, but using the off-piece legs provides the most benefit. Therefore, we need to use some less optimal pieces, like the gauntlets, to accommodate this.

Best Enchant: Enchant Gloves – Mighty Strength.

Rank	Item	Source	Location
Best	Magma Plated Gauntlets	+ Magma Plated Gauntlets or Valor Points	Jamus’Vaz Faldren Tillsdale
Optional	Plated Fists of Provocation	Chimaeron	Blackwing Descent
Pre-Raid	Hematite Plate Gloves	Slabhide	The Stonecore

Waist For Unholy Death Knight DPS

For the belt slot, we have two comparable options. Sky Strider Belt with the Earthfall suffix is slightly better than the Belt of Absolute Zero, but it is also harder to obtain. There’s no difference to which one you get first, so take whichever you can acquire first and let your companion Death Knights grab the others.

Best Enchant: Ebonsteel Belt Buckle.

Rank	Item	Source	Location
Best	Sky Strider Belt of the Earthfall	Anshal	Throne of the Four Winds
Optional	Belt of Absolute Zero	Maloriak	Blackwing Descent
Pre-Raid	Elementium Girdle of Pain	BoE Crafted from Blacksmithing	–

Legs For Unholy Death Knight DPS

Similar to our BiS belt, our BiS legs, the Sky Strider Greaves, are also randomly statted, and we are specifically looking for the “of the Earthfall” version. Due to their random stats, these greaves are hard to obtain and drop from one of the more challenging bosses of the phase, Al’Akir. However, they are exceptional in every aspect and should be a top priority. Additionally, aim for the socket bonus to help boost your hit rating.

Rank	Item	Source	Location
Best	Sky Strider Greaves	Al’Akir	Throne of the Four Winds
Optional	Terrastra’s Legguards	Elementium Monstrosity	The Bastion of Twilight
Optional	Magma Plated Legplates	Leggings of the Forlorn Vanquisher + Magma Plated Legplates	Jamus’Vaz Faldren Tillsdale

Feet For Unholy Death Knight DPS

Another easy choice is the DPS boots, with the only option being the Massacre Treads at item level 372. These boots have a significantly higher stat budget and far more beneficial stats compared to any other option.

Best Enchant: Enchant Boots – Haste.

Rank	Item	Source	Location
Best	Massacre Treads	Chimaeron	Blackwing Descent
Pre-Raid	Woe Breeder’s Boots	1650 Valor Points	Jamus’Vaz Faldren Tillsdale

Jewelry

Neck for Unholy Death Knight DPS

Things get a bit tricky here because we want Caelestrasz’s Will, which is technically a tank item. However, the socket it offers is incredibly valuable for maximizing our strength. Make sure to check with your raid team before going after this item to avoid any unnecessary drama. Remember, it’s a team game!

Rank	Item	Source	Location
Best	Caelestrasz’s Will	Sinestra	The Bastion of Twilight
Optional	Cloudburst Necklace of the Earthfall	Al’Akir	Throne of the Four Winds
Optional	Rage of Ages of the Earthfall	Nefarian	Blackwing Descent
Pre-Raid	Gift of Nadun	Ramkahen Exalted	Blacksmith Abasi in Uldum

Rings For Unholy Death Knight DPS

For rings, we have three incredibly powerful options, with two of them being just slightly better than the third. However, the difference is so small that they are mostly interchangeable.

Best Enchant: Enchant Ring – Strength (Enchanters Only).

Rank	Item	Source	Location
Best	Dargonax’s Signet	Sinestra	The Bastion of Twilight
Best	Cloudburst Ring of the Earthfall	Al’Akir	Throne of the Four Winds
Optional	Ring of Rivalry	Theralion and Valiona	The Bastion of Twilight
Optional	Blauvelt’s Family Crest	BoE World Drop	–
Optional	Band of Bees	1250 Valor Points	Jamus’Vaz Faldren Tillsdale

Trinkets For Unholy Death Knight DPS

This is probably the craziest part for us. Every raid tier has some trinket or item that everyone goes crazy over. In Tier 11, it’s Heart of Rage. It’s impossible to overstate how good this trinket is. If there’s one item to get this phase, it’s this one.

Interestingly, we also want to go back to using a blue trinket, Heart of Solace, which wasn’t even pre-BiS. It works exceptionally well with snapshots, making it a better choice than License to Slay, which we spent our Valor Points on.

Keep in mind, though, that you need a large portion of the raid BiS before License to Slay becomes less valuable.

Rank	Item	Source	Location
Best	Heart of Rage	Chimaeron	Blackwing Descent
Best	Heart of Solace	Lockmaw and Augh	Lost City of the Tol’vir
Optional	Crushing Weight	Elementium Monstrosity	The Bastion of Twilight
Optional	License to Slay	1650 Valor Points	Jamus’Vaz Faldren Tillsdale
Optional	Impatience of Youth	Hellscream’s Reach Exalted or Baradin’s Wardens Exalted	Tol Barad

Weapons

Weapons For Unholy Death Knight DPS

A reskin of the legendary sword from the original Nefarian encounter has made a big impact in the game with Reclaimed Ashkandi, Greatsword of the Brotherhood. This is our preferred weapon due to its slow swing speed and massive amount of strength, making it perfect for a Death Knight.

Best Enchant: Rune of the Fallen Crusader.

Rank	Item	Source	Location
Best	Reclaimed Ashkandi, Greatsword of the Brotherhood	Nefarian	Blackwing Descent
Optional	Akirus the Worm-Breaker	Magmaw	Blackwing Descent
Optional	Shalug’doom, the Axe of Unmaking	Cho’gall	The Bastion of Twilight

Sigils For Unholy Death Knight DPS

There is really only one option for Sigils: Relic of Aggramar. No worthwhile sigil exists from raids. You will use this Sigil into Firelands, but since it’s a relatively small item, you can use Conch of Thundering Waves until you have acquired all your other items.