Unholy Death Knight

The priority

1. Outbreak — when dread plague is missing
2. Festering Strike — as festering scythe
3. Festering Strike — before your cooldowns, with no lesser ghouls ready
4. Army of the Dead — when it is ready
5. Dark Transformation — when it is ready
6. Soul Reaper — during dark transformation or below 35% health
7. Putrefy — during dark transformation
8. Death Coil — with sudden doom, or at 90+ runic power
9. Scourge Strike — as vampiric strike (proc)
10. Death Coil — during dark transformation or forbidden knowledge
11. Scourge Strike — with lesser ghouls ready, or as vampiric strike
12. Death Coil — at 50+ runic power
13. Festering Strike — with no lesser ghouls ready
14. Death Coil — to spend runic power
15. Scourge Strike — as a filler

Common mistakes

• Sitting on Sudden Doom until it expires.
• Using Putrefy outside Dark Transformation on a single target.
• Pressing Festering Strike while Lesser Ghoul charges are still waiting.
• Letting Runic Power reach 100 while Runes recharge.

What’s simplified

• Each turn is one decision (about one global cooldown). Cooldowns and buff durations are converted to turns, so timing is approximate.
• Priority order follows SimulationCraft’s default priority list for this build, simplified to the abilities modeled here. Costs, cooldowns and effects come from Blizzard’s spell data. Rule wording is our own.
• Runes regenerate 1 every 2 turns. Runic Corruption is simplified to a 40% chance for a Runic Power spender to refund a Rune.
• Dark Transformation lasts 16 turns (talents can extend it further in game) and Gift of the San’layn lasts as long.
• Putrefy has 2 charges and a 12-turn recharge, an approximation of its talented recharge. Spell data lists 1 charge before talents.
• Sudden Doom is a 28% chance per turn while Dread Plague is up (an approximation, so it shows up every few turns). It saves 10 Runic Power.
• Vampiric Strike outside Dark Transformation is a 25% chance per Runic Power spender. Essence of the Blood Queen haste, Blightfall, Graveyard and Death and Decay are not modeled.
• Festering Strike gives 2 or 3 Lesser Ghoul charges and 20 Runic Power (the Runic Power value is an approximation).

Sources

• SimulationCraft: Default action priority list (Oct 20, 2026)
• SimulationCraft: Spell data dump, build 12.1.5.70391 (Oct 16, 2026)
• Blizzard Entertainment: Spell tooltips and Game Data API (spells) (Oct 13, 2026)
• Warcraft Secrets: Patch 12.1.5 content update notes (class changes) (Oct 13, 2026)

San’layn with Festering Scythe, Forbidden Knowledge and Putrefy: the build this module teaches. Rider of the Apocalypse is not modeled. Reviewed Oct 20, 2026. A training aid, not a damage simulator.