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Death and Decay

Death and Decay

1 Unholy	30 yd range

Instant	30 sec cooldown

Requires Death Knight
Requires level 60

Corrupts the ground targeted by the Death Knight, causing [(10% of Attack power) * 10] Shadow damage over 10 sec to targets within the area.

Buff

Spell Details

Duration

10 seconds

School

Shadow

Mechanic

n/a

Dispel type

n/a

GCD category

Normal

Cost

1 Unholy

Range

30 yards (Medium)

Cast time

Instant

Cooldown

n/a

GCD

1 second

Effect #1

Dummy
Radius: 10 yards
Server-side script

Effect #2

Persistent Area Aura: Dummy
Value: 26
Radius: 10 yards
Server-side script

Effect #3

Apply Aura: Periodic Dummy
Interval: 1 second

Flags

Guides

Blood Death Knight Guide

Death Knight DPS Guide
(Frost/Unholy)

Warlords of Draenor Death
Knight Changes

Comments

Comment by synack

This is cast by Sunseeker Gene-Splicers in The Botanica. Priests be sure to Mind Control them to use this. It is brutal.

Comment by DrEdgeworth

Seeing as Death Knights are receiving this spell, I've looked at it to be the "alter-ego" of a consecrate. :)

Comment by d3nyd

This actually does a very good amount of damage, not to mention the chance fear effect. This used to be 1 of each rune, but it was changed to 2 Unholy. A good change, IMO.

Comment by Thenoc

But it is anoying is the fear will take the victim out of the AOE radius. And the fear should never break from the dammage of Death and Decay it self or the disease inflicted by Death and Decay.

Comment by wolf

Death and Decay returns from Warcraft III, used by the Lich hero unit http://classic.battle.net/war3/undead/units/lich.shtml

I am wrong, the origin ties with the Death Knight unit from Warcraft II

Comment by Commissar

I was wondering if the disease effect refreshes every time the aoe dot effect goes off. In other words will the disease persist for the duration of death and decay as well as 6 seconds after.

Comment by somizi

lul, works a lot like a paladin's consecration :D too bad the cooldown is 30 sec, but i guess that's the trade-off for more intital damage.

Comment by DkDabura

normally if you got WC3 youle know the power already but a TOTTALY other effect ;)

Comment by amaroyui

Unholy version of consecrate.

nuff said

Comment by VoodooShade

I was sort of hoping for this spell to be a bit more powerful.

But I guess it's more of an aggro spell than a damage spell now.
Does it still have to be chanelled?

Comment by Pirwzy

This is a good spell for Frost Death Knights for AoE pulls. Do this, then hit Howling Blast, and it'll take some good AoE DPS to get stuff off of you.

Comment by ZettaSlow

This #$%^ing crits.

I've seen it. O.O

Comment by rivern

Is it possible to write a macro so that it goes off right where the DK is standing ... so that it works like consecration? I have been trying but no luck so far. I want to avoid pointing on the ground and clicking like a bomb drop, saves me some time.

Comment by 7598462153

Something useful I noticed: the damage this rank does is just enough to kill most of the trash in the AV mines. Makes it quite a bit easier to take a mine, since you just have to run in, get out of LOS to pull the casters close, then drop this and use some diseases and Death Strike to get your health back up.

Comment by EvilElpay

This is great for any spec (even if it is not part of your natural rotation) to get aoe threat from a distance. In a gaunlet I drop this where incoming adds will spawn and it force them to come into my aoe melee threat range instead of my healer who was 40 yards back. Of course I had to break my natural rotation from time to time but it is still great when multiple adds spawn and you are netted.

Then again, maybe I need to learn how to tank better, I am used to shapeshifting and swipe tanking on my old bear.

Comment by Soulrend720

I miss the old Death and Decay animation. It displayed the intensity of this spell in Warcraft 3, and the legacy would have carried on.

If some of you are unfamiliar with it, the old animation was Black/purple smoke with minor explosions in the AoE of this chaos.

Blizzard removed this because of latency issues. But if that was the case, why can't people just turn down their spell detail?

Damn you Blizzard, I wish the old animation was back...

Comment by Ingolfur

I guess some of us have had a similar experience to this;
"OK, Death and Decay on melee. Melee move out. Melee, move out!... MELEE GET THE ^&*! OUT!:@"

Good ol' Rage...
Those were the days.

Comment by Aerxas

Many people get huge FPS drops when this spell is cast. The reason is the talent: Morbidity

It's been confirmed by several people that Morbidity is the reason why you might get insane FPS problems and maybe even screen freezing.

http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=6915212201&postId=73122735948&sid=1#68

Comment by kaktuzz

In patch, 3.0.2 I think it was (date 09-01-09) I coudln't find the pile without giving him his treat I walked around the inn multiple times and it wasn't there, then I bought him the treat and he walked me around to some places and then he got behind the inn and digged in the ground and there the pile was :)

Comment by pidois

Not to mention the fact that it has one of the coolest animations out there IMO.

Comment by Snortingbear

Does anyone have any solid info on how much aggro this spell generates?

Comment by KainDarkfire

If you want to go that far for in-game apperences, even these guys use Death and Decay, and they're level 34!

And Haste was so awesome back on WC2, made Death Knights the perfect taskmasters.

Comment by Biowaffle

This here should be a well known spell by now (See Warcraft III)

Comment by Nordigo

Comment by dezetio

This may seem like a dumb question, but does spell power increase the threat of Death and Decay? Seeing as it is Shadow damage...

Comment by Marrenus

Anyone else disappointed by the fact the animation isn't original D&D from WC2 and some of the rare necromancer mobs in WoW?

Comment by melloncollieowl

This a waste of runes for DPS unless there is literally 10+ mobs.
It's really a flat terrible spell for DPS, but it's great for tanking...

Using this to DPS is the equivalent of:
A Warlock spamming Searing pain.
An arms Warrior prioritizing Heroic strike over Mortal Strike, Execute, Rend, Bladestorm, and overpower
A fury Warrior prioritizing Heroic Strike over Bloodthrist, Whirlwind, and Slam.

Tanking move has tanking description.

Here's the rule of thumb, if you see a DPS DK drop this with less than 10+ mobs, it's a sure sign that they are terrible.
If they drop it under a single target, they are REALLY REALLY bad.

Comment by eyeh8ewe

I just have to wonder why this is a directed spell, since it's clearly an AoE tanking spell with the high-threat component and lousy damage; I'd imagine it would work much like Paladin's Consecration, coming straight from the caster. It's only a minor inconvenience to slap it on the ground, sure, but an annoyance is an annoyance nevertheless. ;)

I see really no use for this to be slapped on anywhere far, so it begs the question.. Why?

same reason why pestilence has to be used within melee range and pallys have avenger shield. somewhat comparable abilities with different ranges. we pull with dnd and you pull with avenger shield.

Comment by KaPPoX

Cauld it would be posible to make a macro, that spelled once, would respell automaticly every 3 min. for 5 10 30 or even 100 times before disturbed?
If not, could any addon wauld help?

Comment by Vilefor

I'm very disappointed with this spell's image in WoW.

In Warcraft 2 it had the visual appearance and sounded like hooves dancing/running in the dust, which was quite demonic, badass and death knightish, as you can see @ 2:33 on this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z191ACJ0gVM.

In WoW it has devoluted to a circle of something that has the color of a wine stain on the carpet, makes bubbles (?) and sounds like a toilet flush.

Comment by icritmypants

So far in cata its cost has been reduced to 1 unholy rune, but its damage has also been decreased.

Comment by loik

It has been buffed, not nerfed, just look this:
Corrupts the ground targeted by the Death Knight, causing 26 Shadow damage every sec that targets remain in the area for 10 sec. This ability produces a high amount of threat.
Wotlk version level 80.
Corrupts the ground targeted by the Death Knight, causing (41 46 + (AP * 0.064)) Shadow damage every sec that targets remain in the area for 10 sec. This ability produces a high amount of threat.
Cataclysm version level 80.
26 shadow damage (Wotlk version)
At 5000 AP, it causes 41 46 + 320 shadow damage (Cataclysm version)
26 shadow damage vs ~~361~~ 366 shadow damage. Really, do you think this is a nerf?
Note that base damage scales with attack power too.
Base damage has been almost duplicated, and they added a % amount of Attack power as damage, and it has a glyph to increase its duration by 50% (5 seconds).
This buff is because this spell in Cata has a 30 second cooldown and it can't be reduced with talents or glyphs.

Edit: Cata base damage, I think it was buffed, or it was my mistake.

Comment by Ragnarok23

Just to point out something obvious first: Many of the previous comments are outdated as of patch 4.0.1 and onward.

Anybody know if the new haste mechanics cause DnD to tic more, and if so whether or not supplies a significant increase of dps/ threat? If so, it'll probably be powered by Unholy's new haste-heavy setup. As a blood tank I don't see myself ever gemming or reforging into haste, but I've been playing with the idea in my head.

Comment by loik

Comment by pyrofrenzy

Key AoE Ability for Death knights.

When using the duel wield unholy spec, this spell replaces Scourge Strike in single target DPS

Comment by JASP01

Question:
As an Unholy DPS DK, is it safe to use D&D w/o risking too many aggro issues? Thanks!

Comment by jaay81

can kill friendlys apparently... how pleasent made a new human... 85 DK worgen killed me with it WTF!

Comment by flcl92

Is there a way to macro this as target=mouseover? i tried

/cast death and decay

but that didn't work, i thought it wouldn't seeing as target=mouseover only works if it's a player or npc, not a ground area...

so does anyone know some kind of macro command to make this usable with one button press to where your mouse is? instead of pressing it then clicking where you want it to go

Comment by seahen

This needs to be available at level 58. When I first finished the starter quest chain on my DK, I was asked to tank a random almost right away, but since all I had to hold aggro on groups was Blood Boil, I was also asked to leave almost right away.

Comment by YuriBarber

did they change the sprite for this from the start to just red on the ground? or is that someting to do with graphics settings

Comment by Gyrwym

The animation looks like a transmutation circle from Full Metal Alchemist.

Comment by Sidmalicious

Is the cooldown of DnD being removed in Mists? Or is that just a database error?

Comment by rodalpho

The devs clarified Death and Decay's usage and number of ticks in MoP at the link below.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/5889309137?page=55#1095

I'm pasting it here in case they retire the beta forums after release.

Yes, it’s fine to be in a single target rotation, and the bug where it only ticks 8 times instead of 11 will be fixed.

Comment by Taraezor

Presently, only a Dual Wield DK would consider this in a single target rotation. I know that Icy Veins does not support this but other authoritative sources such as Elitist Jerks have ranked D&D very high in the rotation.

(It is not purely for maxing DPS numbers appearing on the screen from the D&D but more from the aspect of "gaming" your Unholy runes so that indirectly you are maxing your DPS. In other words, it is not an obviously intuitive thing to add to your rotation and you would need to test for yourself over at least several lots of 15 minutes on a *single* target dummy, with and without D&D, to see if it works for you).

(Your dummy testing could include: if (D&D off CD) and (you have 2 Unholy Runes) and (you took Runic Empowerment) then DON'T use D&D, otherwise use it)

I personally don't like abilities such as this *for single target* because I need to "place" the spell and I always feel like I am slowing my rotation down a bit while I do this, and if rapidly moving around then choosing a good place also chews into my time as well.

While on DW single target, I wouldn't use the Charred Glyph as DKs, unlike most classes, actually have some nice choices for major glyphs, and this glyph is obviously wasted on bosses. Assuming you aren't constantly redoing your setup between bosses and mob pulls.

For a 2H rotation, just stick to AoE when laying down your D&D. No way for a single target.

Death and Decay

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