Unholy Death Knight DPS Pre-Raid BiS Gear - MoP Classic

This list represents the best gear available strictly from Heroic dungeons in Phase 3 of Mists of Pandaria Classic, although it is very important to remember that because other gear may be obtained at a higher item level from raids, crafting, World Bosses, etc., it is not a true "best in slot" list, but instead more of a rough guideline, and players should sim the gear they actually have available to them in order to determine their best combination of stats and effects.

MAKE SURE YOU CHANGE ALL COLORS TO YOUR CLASS COLOR AS LISTED HERE
c1 Warrior
c2 Paladin
c3 Hunter
c4 Rogue
c5 Priest
c6 Death Knight
c7 Shaman
c8 Mage
c9 Warlock
c10 Monk
c11 Druid

Item Slot	Name	Source
Helm	Meteoric Greathelm	Trial of the King
Neck	Helios, Durand's Soul of Purity	High Inquisitor Whitemane
Shoulders	Acid-Scarred Spaulders	Striker Ga'dok
Cloak	Drape of the Screeching Swarm	Raigonn
Chest	Hateshatter Chestplate	Taran Zhu
Bracers	Commanding Bracers	Houndmaster Braun
Gloves	Dark Blaze Gauntlets	Lilian Voss
Belt	Grenadier's Belt	Saboteur Kip'tilak
Legs	Grenadier's Belt	Flameweaver Koegler
Boots	Anchoring Sabatons	Wing Leader Ner'onok
Ring	Firefinger Ring	Brother Korloff
Ring	Blade Trap Signet	Xin the Weaponmaster
Trinket	Carbonic Carbuncle	Yan-Zhu the Uncasked
Trinket	Lessons of the Darkmaster	Darkmaster Gandling
Weapon	Mogu'Dar, Blade of the Thousand Slaves	Xin the Weaponmaster

Best World Drop Items for Unholy Death Knights

Mists of Pandaria brings with it a whole lot of world content with the chance to get powerful gear. This includes Rare Mobs, like Morgrinn Crackfang, but also World Bosses, such as Sha of Anger.

Oondasta

Oondasta is the T15-equivalent of Galleon, offering a wide range of rare epic items, as well as a very small chance of dropping the mount Reins of the Cobalt Primordial Direhorn. You should aim to kill the boss every single week for the chance of items such as Tyrant King Battleplate, Belt of the Tyrannotitan, Carnotaur Battlegloves, Overcompensating Chain of the Alpha Male, and Ring of King Kangrom. Should you be fortunate enough to obtain one of these items, they will outperform their Celestial Dungeon-equivalent. Make sure to gear around these.

Nalak

Nalak is also worth attempting every single week. They have the chance of dropping PvP gear, as well as T15 Gloves Gauntlets of the All-Consuming Maw and Legs Greaves of the All-Consuming Maw. Furthermore, they have a very small chance of dropping the rare mount Reins of the Thundering Cobalt Cloud Serpent.

Galleon and Salyis' Warband

Salyis' Warband, also commonly referred to as "Galleon", has a very small chance of dropping a random item level 496 piece. None of these are pre-raid BiS at this point, but there are still a handful of powerful items, such as Cord of Crazed Strength and Signet of the Bandit Lord, making a weekly trip to Valley of the Four Winds worth your time.

Sha of Anger

Sha of Anger is notable in that it drops ilvl-496 Tier 14 legs and gloves, as well as various ilvl-483 Malevolent Gladiator's pieces. This is a great way to get a head start on your tier set, if you get lucky.

The first time you kill the Sha of Anger, it will also drop Claw of Anger. This can be turned in for Angerforged Stompers, a decent early pair of boots.

Rare Mobs

There are tons of Rare mobs scattered around Pandaria, and each one has their own unique drop. Most of these are toys, cosmetics, or similar items, but a small handful can drop strong equipment. None of these items are likely to last you until raiding, but they can be a great stepping stone when gearing in pre-raid content.

Morgrinn Crackfang drops Fangcracker Battlemace, an ilvl-420 weapon.
Qu'nas drops Qu'nas' Apocryphal Legplates, ilvl-440 leg armor.
Torik-Ethis drops Torik-Ethis' Bloodied Legguards, ilvl-440 leg armor.

Reputation for Unholy Death Knights in Phase 3

Reputation gear can be very strong, especially in earlier stages of gearing. While many of these items are mostly relevant in the earliest stages of the game, the introduction of Shado-Pan Assault does yield some useful items when gearing up for Phase 3 raiding. Remember to get your Reputation with The Black Prince done as well, as this yields powerful Gems.

The Black Prince

Reputation	Item	Price
Honored	Crystallized Terror
Revered	Eye of the Black Prince
Exalted	Capacitive Primal Diamond

Shado-Pan Assault

Reputation	Item	Price
Neutral	Striker's Battletags	1250 Valor Points
Friendly	Bonecrusher Bracers Band of the Shado-Pan Assault Brutal Talisman of the Shado-Pan Assault	1250 Valor Points 1250 Valor Points 1750 Valor Points
Honored	Spikeshard Greatcloak Bloodstained Skullsqueezers Vaultbreaker Greaves	1250 Valor Points 1750 Valor Points 2250 Valor Points
Revered	Gianttooth Chestplate Swordhook Slingbelt	2250 Valor Points 1750 Valor Points
Exalted	Sightblinder Shoulderguards

Kirin Tor Offensive and Sunreaver Onslaught

Reputation	Item	Price
Honored	Thunder Caressed Waistguard / Thunder Caressed Waistguard
Revered	Shan'ze Partisan's Greatcloak / Shan'ze Partisan's Greatcloak
Exalted	Refurbished Seal of Jin / Refurbished Seal of Jin Reins of the Golden Primal Direhorn / Reins of the Crimson Primal Direhorn

Operation: Shieldwall and The Dominance Offensive

Reputation	Item	Price
Neutral	Dominator's Knightly Badge / Knightly Badge of the Shieldwall	1750 Justice Points
Honored	Dominator's Circle / Circle of the Shieldwall	937 Valor Points
Revered	Cragchewer Sollerets / Sea-Soaked Sollerets Kwon's Crushing Girdle / Girdle of Crushing Strength Skullrender Medallion / Helmbreaker Medallion	1312 Valor Points 1312 Valor Points 1312 Valor Points
Exalted	Grand Armored Wyvern / Grand Gryphon

The Klaxxi

Reputation	Item	Price
Honored	Restorative Amber Plans: Living Steel Belt Buckle Plans: Ghost Reaver's Breastplate Plans: Ghost Reaver's Gauntlets Bloodseeker's Solitaire Klaxxi Lash of the Rescinder	20 Kyparite 20 Kyparite 20 Kyparite 625 Valor Points 875 Valor Points
Revered	Grand Commendation of the Klaxxi Legguards of the Unscathed	1125 Valor Points
Exalted	Reins of the Amber Scorpion Amber Flammard of Klaxxi'vess Klaxxi Tabard

Shado-Pan

Reputation	Item	Price
Honored	Cloak of the Dark Disciple Iron Belly Wok	625 Valor Points 875 Valor Points
Revered	Grand Commendation of the Shado-Pan Voice Amplyifying Greathelm	1125 Valor Points
Exalted	Reins of the Blue Shado-Pan Riding Tiger Reins of the Green Shado-Pan Riding Tiger Reins of the Red Shado-Pan Riding Tiger Shado-Pan Tabard

Golden Lotus

Reputation	Item	Price
Honored	Stonetoe Spaulders Ring of the Golden Stair	875 Valor Points 625 Valor Points
Revered	Grand Commendation of the Golden Lotus Dawnblade's Chestguard	1125 Valor Points
Exalted	Reins of the Azure Riding Crane Reins of the Regal Riding Crane Reins of the Golden Riding Crane Golden Lotus Tabard

Best Crafted & Profession Gear for Unholy Death Knights

Mists of Pandaria offers a handful of powerful crafted items that you should look out for early on. Some is faction specific, while other items are BoE and therefore available on the Auction House. Some of these items will only see use for a short while, while others have much greater longevity and will essentially be used for the entirety of the phase.

Haunted Steel Greathelm is a great option to boost your item level. It also has large amount of stats, making it a great option for your Helm-slot.
Relic of Xuen is a good trinket option, allowing you to focus on other item slots early on. It is likely cheap at this point and worth spending some gold on.
Bloodforged Warfists is also a great stop-gap piece allowing you to quickly boost your item level.
Haunted Steel Warboots - As with the other options, these are a great chance to boost your item level and pick up some easy stats.

Best Pre-Raid Unholy Death Knights Trinkets

As an Unholy Death Knight, you generally want trinkets that yield the highest amount of Strength as possible, as this is your most precious Stat, due to multiple modifiers.

Best Trinkets
Unholy Death Knights typically want two passive trinkets as they can be used in conjunction with Synapse Springs, granting the highest amount of Strength as possible.

Active Trinkets

Skullrender Medallion is not the greatest trinket but is still a powerful early option and has the added bonus of only costing Valor Points. It has a high amount of passive Strength, which is nice. The on-use Crit is not ideal, but decent enough. Note that it is locked behind a lengthy reputation grind which is likely not worth doing.

Passive Trinkets

Primordius' Talisman of Rage will last you all the way until you obtain raid trinkets. It works great with your entire kit due to the large amount of Strength.
Fabled Feather of Ji-Kun will also last the entire way into raiding, whether you replace it in T14 content or T15 depends on your luck. It will however be replaced by any Heroic-quality trinket.
Relic of Xuen is generally the best passive trinket prior to obtaining any loot from Celestial Dungeons or Raids. It has great longevity and might still see some use on specific bosses.

Reaching Hit and Expertise Cap for Unholy Death Knights

In Mists of Pandaria, your Hit cap is 7.5% Hit or 2550 Hit Rating and 7.5% Expertise or 2550 Expertise Rating. Keep in mind that some abilities, such as the Draenei racial Heroic Presence, will contribute to your overall Hit and/or Expertise needed.

Hit Rating

At 7.5% Hit, your special (yellow damage) hits will no longer be able to miss raid bosses. This effectively means your abilities will never miss, though your regular swings still might.

It is even more important to be Hit capped as a Pet class like Unholy Death Knight, since both your Ghoul and Gargoyle inherit your Hit chance and will miss if not capped.

Expertise Rating

At 7.5% Expertise, raid bosses will no longer be able to dodge your attacks. They will however still be able to parry them. For the vast majority of raid bosses, you will be positioned behind them, and enemies cannot parry attacks from behind.

Expertise also grants Spell Hit in Mists of Pandaria, making it much more important than earlier. Since a large part of your kit is spell based, not missing is essential.

Gemming for Unholy Death Knights

Death Knight has always been a class that feels better with gear. The more you Crit and the more Haste you have, the more fun your character is to play. Gems are also a great place to grab any Hit and Expertise that we may be missing. This can be especially useful when aiming for Socket Bonuses, as Etched Imperial Amethyst is typically the only good way to utilize a Blue Socket if we want the bonus.

Meta Gem: Capacitive Primal Diamond / Reverberating Primal Diamond
Red Gem: Bold Primordial Ruby
Orange Gem: Inscribed Vermilion Onyx
Purple Gem: Etched Imperial Amethyst
Green Gems: Piercing Wild Jade
Engineering Gems: Precise Tinker's Gear & Rigid Tinker's Gear

Our Unholy Death Knight guides are always updated with the latest information from in-game experience, simulations, and logs; make sure to check our changelog to this page by clicking on View Changelog at the top of the page.

Feedback

Thanks for reading our class guides! If you have any feedback about the guides, feel free to leave a comment in the section below, and we will reply as quickly as possible. If you'd like to talk with any of our writers directly, you can do so by joining our Discord Server and finding them there!

Unholy Death Knight DPS Pre-Raid BiS Gear - MoP Classic

Contribute