Death Knight Tricks of the Trade

Unholy: In addition to all the attention-hogging aspects already present as playing a DK DPS'er, pet control is another aspect you will want to become competent in. In order to maximize your DPS, you will want to make sure that you are controlling your ghoul properly and that you are not letting it die to completely avoidable situations (My ghoul pet does 250+ DPS on its own on raid bosses minimum with my current full 10 man/some 25 man DPS gear level, usually a little more). If you have had extensive experience playing a hunter, then you're in luck because your experiences with pet control will apply for unholy DK playstyles. Here are some things I have found useful:

- Bind your pet's attack/hold/return commands. I also bind my ghoul's stun in case I need another interrupt for heroic mobs. I personally use the F1-F4 keys to do so (F1 being attack, F2 being call back, etc), and find that when switching mobs I will usually just switch then press F1 to focus all my DPS on my new target. I find this to be very intuitive to use, but your mileage may vary.
- In some cases, it is better to keep your pet out and only throw it on a boss if you KNOW that it will not die from some sort of massive AoE. One of my personal wishes was that the unholy ghoul pet could receive some sort of AoE-mitigation passive ability (Besides huddle), but the next best thing is to simply use your pet cautiously. Losing the ghoul pet does not hinder the unholy DK as it would a beastmaster hunter, but it is still something you want to avoid.
- One thing DK's can forget quite often is that using the raise dead ability when a dead player is nearby will cause that dead player to be a ghoul, so you (And your newly raised party member) may be both surprised when this suddenly happens. Call out if you are going to raise someone so that they know to be ready to throw in their extra DPS, no matter how little it may be. Also make sure not to do it when you know battle resses/ankhs are going to be burnt in a fight.
- This is not a fully controllable pet, but the gargoyle bears special mention. You will usually be unable to use most of your RP for death coils or unholy blight's when the gargoyle begins to drain from your RP pool. If you are wearing the 4 piece T7 bonus, then you can probably sneak in a death coil every so often as long as you hit 70+ RP, even when the gargoyle is active. You WILL want to keep the gargoyle up for its maximum duration, as its DPS will trash anything you can do with your RP otherwise (With my gear level, it does easily 900+ DPS on raid bosses, usually much more with raid buffs). If you feel unsure as to whether or not you can do anything else with your RP when the gargoyle is up, don't risk it. Use your rune moves and keep your RP high.