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Dark Transformation

Dark Transformation

1 Unholy	100 yd range

Instant
Requires Death Knight (Unholy)
Requires level 70

Consume 5 charges of Shadow Infusion on your Ghoul to transform it into a powerful undead monstrosity for 30 sec. The Ghoul's abilities are empowered and take on new functions while the transformation is active.

Enhanced Dark Transformation (Level 92+)
Dark Transformation no longer costs any runes.

Buff

Dark Transformation

Transformed into an undead monstrosity.
Damage dealt increased by 100%.
30 seconds remaining

Spell Details

Duration

30 seconds

School

Shadow

Mechanic

n/a

Dispel type

n/a

GCD category

Normal

Cost

1 Unholy

Range

100 yards (Vision)

Cast time

Instant

Cooldown

n/a

GCD

1 second

Effect #1

Apply Aura: Mod Damage Done % (Arcane, Fire, Frost, Holy, Nature, Physical, Shadow)
Value: 100%

Effect #2

Apply Aura: Change Model (Hulking Horror)

Effect #3

Apply Aura: Mod Size %

Flags

Cannot be Spellstolen

Guides

Death Knight DPS Guide
(Frost/Unholy)

Unholy Death Knight
PvP Guide (Gearing
up, Pressure and Utility)

Comments

Comment by CowHammer

This talent wasn't mentioned in the patch notes. Did I miss something? It looks like it shoved master of ghouls up and Shadow of Death was removed.

Assuming you hit it every time the CD is up, it gives a 12.5% increase to the ghoul's overall damage, which isn't terrible.

Comment by hoylematt

this talent is in fact NOT useless.

In regards to Ghoul Frenzy:
You'll want to keep Ghoul Frenzy up at all times, you can do this several ways - After an SS pop blood tap and Ghoul Frenzy in order to keep yourself with your rotations while increasing your pet's haste by 25%.

When blood tap is down utilize the death runes in your rotation to cast ghoul frenzy and your strongest single rune nuke (I believe Plague Strike) this will make up for the DPS loss of a Scourge Strike.

Here's a simple macro to streamline ghoul frenzy into your rotation at least when blood tap is up:

#showtooltip Ghoul Frenzy
/cast Blood Tap
/cast Ghoul Frenzy

Comment by pepsidrinkr

I've found that the best use for me with this is utilizing it for low level enemies, the kind seem to group up on you. it much rather continue on what im doing (mainly herbalism) and use one unholy rune instead of one of each kind for death and decay.

Comment by Staberinde

Ghoul Frenzy generates 10RP per cast and be spammed out of combat making it handy for quickly building/maintaining high RP between pools or while waiting on a boss.

Jury still seems to be out on wether or not this is a dps increase in a non sandbox setting given that you are losing a SS (plus the RP and potential disease refresh that comes with it) unless you time GF perfectly with a blood tap just after youve used up 2x death runes and no frost/unholy runes available (i.e. very situational).

Comment by Samuriel

It bugged for me in SotA, I could spam it without having to waste Unholy runes

Comment by mark211175

I would say Ghoul frenzy can be best used on PVP based
I love this spell in a situation like Alterac Valley when Full horde group meets full Ally group
Going in by your self mostly means suicide, so i keep my distance and spell Death and Decay with pet attack on my pet
When Ally are focused on my pet, i put it on passive so he comes back, sometimes you lure some Ally into horde group with means bad news for them

Comment by HandofDeath

in cataclysm you must get this for it increases your ghouls damage by 10%

Comment by Sethirothx

reminds me of left for dead, your zombie turns into a tank and pwns everything in sight

Comment by Isavella

The looks of this talent seems awesome . My little ghoul turned into a big bad lumbering beast ? Yes please ! Buffed up like a true big bad lumbering beast ? Yes please ! " Trigger " through Death Coil casts ( not clear if it works for dps or minion healing situations or ... ) or at least consume Shadow Infusion stacks ? Uhm ... I'll prefer to wait further updates and the Cataclysm official skill itself . But looks great for the fun ! Army Of The Dead , Gargoyle , Ghoul pet and now this ? My own personal army ! Hooraaaah !

Comment by loik

Oh my god a deformed undead, a gargoyle and an entire legion of ghouls, and that deformed undead is obtained through Death Coil (with Runic Corruption), sounds pretty good :D!

Comment by Surethas

Question, once active, can you still gain more charges of shadow infusion, or do you have to wait till the buff falls off to start collecting again? Big difference especially in raids, because if you CAN still get charges while pet is transformed, perma transform would be awesome for unholy dps.

Comment by loik

I don't think so, it would be a little overpowered, 100% damage increased plus 50%? I hope yes, but you know, there is something called Blizzard...

Comment by Sanjian

The abilities this provides are:

Claw replacement - Sweeping Claws
Gnaw replacement - Monstrous Blow
Leap replacement - Shambling Rush
Huddle replacement - Putrid Bulwark

Comment by Malghanis

Sweeping claws! Whoop whoop even more insane Unholy AoE Damage. Yes Please!

Comment by Sheffi

I described this talent to a friend and they said "so unholy gets their own pocket warrior?" I looked at the abilities again then said "yes. Yes they do."

Comment by SaltyScurge

I was personally hoping for a small version of rotface, as the icon suggests, but I guess we all have to compromise.

Comment by Taercenn

Roxanne casts Dark Transformation.
Roxanne hops on Earthsmasher's back.
Earthsmasher begins to cast poison nova!

Comment by Stievn

how to obtain 5 CHARGE?

Comment by loik

Summon Gargoyle now costs 1 Unholy and 1 Frost rune, so all is well.
Is that sarcasm? Are you joking? Or are you saying this seriously?

Comment by loik

Uf, I thought we were screwed, 1 frost and 1 unholy rune for a gargoyle... it doesn't make sense :P. And yes, Dark transformation + Gargoyle + Army of the Dead = pure pwnage

Comment by xtclink

who do i go to in the game to learn this spell

Comment by Nnyco

the animations of the transformed ghoul are funny he sometime lose his arm and it walks around or it rips his arm off and scratch his back with it

Comment by Asbeel

When Dark Transformation is casted, the pet refresh all the CDs? And how many energy/focus have when the Dark Transfurmation is complete (100/100, 0/100 or the same amount which Ghoul had)?

PS: I am not so good in English ._.

Comment by Crazyrussian97

Very good pve spell, however i see dk's speccing this for pvp. why? Its a huge pain to get the stacks in pvp unless u have the glyph that refunds rp to heal ur ghoul and quickly build up charges. That would spend death coil dmg, just for this move. I have a question for unholy dk's, does the ghoul even contribut 10% of ur dmg in pvp? I know its good for pve, gives improved aoe, but seems sorta useless for pvp.

Comment by Phamine14

They spec into DT because of the interrupt, major damage and the good stun, and since unholy is about burst damage and some survivability along with it anyway, it is a fair addition, and to answer your question, during even WITHOUT dark transformation, the ghoul is about 30% of your damage.

Comment by Hrenyo

I'm having a weird bug with this: the 30s duration was replaced with 20 days, and now I have 19 days remaining. Which is pretty awesome. I also strongly suspect this to be a one-time bug, so I probably won't report it. Though I may. I don't know. Then my ghoul died and the buff went away. W
Whatever.

Comment by Unstopebble

Dark transformation + Gargoyle + Army of the Dead = You as the Lich King
.
But, you might aggro too mobs in PvE like that.

Comment by sylancer

Shadow Infusion can be considered as the resources for Unholy Death Knight, each stacks of Shadow Infusion increase raised Ghoul's damage dealt by 10%; one can have 5 stacks of Shadow Infusion max.
it generate by:

Death Coil (+1; usable on all allies with Glyph of Death Coil; Shadow Infusion proc from both damage & heal; Auto Attack has a chance to make it free (Sudden Doom))

when and only when Death Knight have 5 stacks of Shadow Infusion, this spell can be cast to consume all stacks of Shadow Infusion:

Dark Transformation (empower raised Ghoul abilities for 30 sec:

Claw to Sweeping Claws (deal 50% more damage and damage 2 more targets),
Gnaw to Monstrous Blow (deal 25% more damage and stun target for 1 more sec),
Leap to Shambling Rush (interrupt spell casting and root target for 2 sec),
Huddle to Putrid Bulwark (remove the action restriction to allow action during the duration))

Comment by Celellach

I was trying to find a list of all the minions and guardians available to players through spells, talents and glpyhs (not from items) and ended up creating one.
Hope this is useful for others as well.

Death Knight:
Ghoul - Available at level 55.
Geist - Minor glyph that changes the appearance of the Ghoul to that of a Geist.
Skeleton - Minor glyph that changes the appearance of the Ghoul to that of a Skeleton.
Undead Monstrosity - Available at level 70. Transforms the Ghoul into an Undead Monstrosity.
Gargoyle - Available at level 74.
Legion of Ghouls - Available at level 80.
Various undead - Minor glyph that changes the appearances of the Ghouls of the Army of the Dead into various undead minions.

Druid:
Treants - Available at level 60. Four different versions: Balance, Feral, Gaurdian and Restoration.

Mage:
Water Elemental - Available at level 10.
Unbound Elemental - Minor glyph that changes the appearance of the Water Elemental to that of an Unbound Elemental.

Monk:
Xuen, the White Tiger - Available at level 90.

Paladin:
Guardian of Ancient Kings - Available at level 75. Three different versions: Holy, Protection and Retribution.

Priest:
Shadowfiend - Available at level 42.
Mindbender - Available at level 45.
Sha Beast - Minor glyph that changes the appearance of the Mindbender to that of a Sha Beast.

Shaman:
Earth Elemental - Available at level 58.
Fire Elemental - Available at level 66.
Spirit Wolves - Available at level 60.
Spirit Raptors - Minor glyph that changes the appearances of the Spirit Wolves to that of Spirit Raptors.

Warlock:
Imp - Available at level 1.
Fel Imp - Available at level 75 upon learning Grimoire of Supremacy. Changes the appearance of the Imp to that of a Fel Imp.
Voidwalker - Available at level 8.
Voidlord - Available at level 75 upon learning Grimoire of Supremacy. Changes the appearance of the Voidwalker to that of a Voidlord.
Succubus - Available at level 20.
Shivarra - Available at level 75 upon learning Grimoire of Supremacy. Changes the appearance of the Succubus to that of a Shivarra.
Felhunter - Available at level 29.
Observer - Available at level 75 upon learning Grimoire of Supremacy. Changes the appearance of the Felhunter to that of an Observer.
Felguard - Available at level 42.
Wrathguard - Available at level 75 upon learning Grimoire of Supremacy. Changes the appearance of the Felguard to that of a Wrathguard.
Infernal - Available at level 49.
Abyssal - Available at level 75 upon learning Grimoire of Supremacy. Changes the appearance of the Infernal to that of an Abyssal.
Doomguard - Available at level 58.
Terrorguard - Available at level 75 upon learning Grimoire of Supremacy. Changes the appearance of the Doomguard to that of a Terrorguard.
Eye of Kilrogg - Available at level 22.

Dark Transformation

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