Death Knight Unholy Rotation & Opener

First ~12 casts of actual top-ranked kills. Trinkets and racials vary by setup; the skill order is what to copy.

1 Outbreak 2 Festering Strike 3 Festering Scythe 4 Dark TransformationOff-GCD 5 Voracious Heart of Ula'tek 6 Army of the DeadOff-GCD 7 Putrefy 8 Necrotic Coil 9 Soul Reaper 10 Necrotic Coil 11 Putrefy 12 Necrotic Coil 13 Scourge Strike 14 Necrotic Coil 15 Scourge Strike

1 Death ChargeOff-GCD 2 Outbreak 3 Festering Strike 4 Festering Scythe 5 Voracious Heart of Ula'tek 6 Army of the DeadOff-GCD 7 Dark TransformationOff-GCD 8 Necrotic Coil 9 Putrefy 10 Putrefy 11 Necrotic Coil 12 Scourge Strike 13 Scourge Strike 14 Scourge Strike 15 Necrotic Coil

1 Outbreak 2 Festering Strike 3 Festering Scythe 4 Army of the DeadOff-GCD 5 Dark TransformationOff-GCD 6 Voracious Heart of Ula'tek 7 Putrefy 8 Putrefy 9 Necrotic Coil 10 Necrotic Coil 11 Necrotic Coil 12 Soul Reaper 13 Scourge Strike 14 Scourge Strike 15 Scourge Strike

#showtooltip Outbreak
/use 13
/use 14
/cast Dark Transformation
/cast Army of the Dead
/cast Outbreak

Ability	Top-player CPM
Scourge Strike	18.6
Death Coil	10.7
Necrotic Coil	8.0
Festering Strike	3.0
Festering Scythe	2.9
Putrefy	2.5
Soul Reaper	2.2
Dark TransformationOff-GCD	1.3
Death ChargeOff-GCD	1.0
Anti-Magic ShellOff-GCD	1.0
Outbreak	0.9
Voracious Heart of Ula'tek	0.7
Army of the DeadOff-GCD	0.7

CPM = median casts per minute across the sampled top kills. If you're far below on a core ability, that's usually the first thing to fix.

First ~12 casts after the pull starts, taken from actual top key runs: the AoE opener is the first pack of the run, the single-target opener is the first boss. Trinkets and racials vary by setup; the skill order is what to copy.

1 Death's AdvanceOff-GCD 2 Outbreak 3 Scourge Strike 4 Graveyard 5 Vampiric Strike 6 Scourge Strike 7 Graveyard 8 Festering Strike 9 Festering Scythe 10 Scourge Strike 11 Graveyard 12 Graveyard 13 Scourge Strike 14 Scourge Strike 15 Outbreak

1 Death's AdvanceOff-GCD 2 Outbreak 3 Festering Strike 4 Festering Scythe 5 Graveyard 6 Scourge Strike 7 Scourge Strike 8 Graveyard 9 Graveyard 10 Scourge Strike 11 Graveyard 12 Outbreak 13 Outbreak 14 Epidemic 15 Vampiric Strike

1 Outbreak 2 Death's AdvanceOff-GCD 3 Festering Strike 4 Festering Scythe 5 Scourge Strike 6 Graveyard 7 Scourge Strike 8 LichborneOff-GCD 9 Voracious Heart of Ula'tek 10 Army of the DeadOff-GCD 11 Dark TransformationOff-GCD 12 Putrefy 13 Vampiric Strike 14 Death and Decay 15 Death Grip

#showtooltip Outbreak
/use 13
/use 14
/cast Outbreak

Collected from public Patch 12.1 guides and checked for this patch. Spell names follow the language you selected on this site and must match your game client. If a macro does not work on your client, report it with the button on the card.

#showtooltip Raise Ally
/cast [@mouseover,help][@target]Raise Ally

#showtooltip Mind Freeze
/cast [@focus,harm,nodead][] Mind Freeze

#showtooltip Outbreak
/cast [target=mouseover,exists] Outbreak; Outbreak

#showtooltip Death Grip
/cast [target=mouseover,exists] Death Grip; Death Grip

#showtooltip Death and Decay
/cast [@cursor] Death and Decay

#showtooltip Anti-Magic Zone
/cast [@cursor] Anti-Magic Zone

/cast [@focus,exists,nodead][@mouseover,exists,nodead][] Mind Freeze

/focus [@mouseover]

/script PetDismiss()
/cast [nopet] Raise Dead
/petfollow

#showtooltip Control Undead
/target pet
/script PetDismiss()
/cast Control Undead

Keybinds are personal — this is not a layout to copy wholesale. What it does say is which abilities you press most, measured from the same top parses above: the more often an ability is cast, the less effort its key should take. Interrupts, defensives and movement are deliberately left out; they barely register in cast data yet must always be within reach, so choose those yourself.

Rows marked Passive are not pressed at all — they fire on their own (auto-attacks, procs) and get no key, even though they top the casts-per-minute table.

Key	Ability	Top-player CPM
1	Scourge Strike	18.6
2	Vampiric Strike	13.5
3	Death Coil	10.7
4	Necrotic Coil	8.0
5	Epidemic	5.2
Z	Putrefy	3.2
X	Graveyard	3.1
C	Festering Strike	3.0
V	Festering Scythe	2.9
R	Soul Reaper	2.2
F	Death and Decay	1.4
T	Dark TransformationOff-GCD	1.3
G	Death ChargeOff-GCD	1.0
Shift+1	Anti-Magic ShellOff-GCD	1.0
Shift+2	Outbreak	0.9
Shift+3	Death's AdvanceOff-GCD	0.8
Shift+4	Voracious Heart of Ula'tek	0.7
Shift+5	Army of the DeadOff-GCD	0.7