Unholy Death Knight

San'layn

Reliable ⓘPatched ⓘ

With the Single-Button Assistant and its cooldowns, Unholy Death Knight (San'layn) deals 71% of perfect manual play in M+ dungeons (rank 48 of 51) and 73% of perfect manual play on a raid boss (rank 45 of 51). In M+, the best build we found for the button deals 22.1% more than SimulationCraft's.

At a glance

4-piece set · SimulationCraft's talents · share of manual DPS kept

Fight	Manual DPS	SBA + cooldown	SBA alone	Assisted Highlight	Rank (SBA + cooldown)
M+ dungeon	377,458	71.4%−28.61%	62.0%−37.97%	83.8%−16.24%	48 of 51
Raid boss	253,827	73.1%−26.89%	64.7%−35.28%	84.0%−16.03%	45 of 51

Against real +15 players

Real dungeons · data from 7 Nov 2026

−16%damage with the button and cooldowns, simulated on real +15 routes, against typical Unholy Death Knight (San'layn) players, from 607 real runs.

All specs against real players, and how it is measured

Fight

Tier set

Talents

Change spec

What the assistant costs

M+ dungeon · 4-piece set · Best talents for the button · data as of 2026-11-11 08:07 UTC

81%of manual DPS with SBA + cooldown. SBA alone reaches 70%, Assisted Highlight 93%.

Manual407.8Kreference
SBA + cooldown329.1K81% of manual
SBA alone284.6K70% of manual
Assisted Highlight378.4K93% of manual

The assistant uses Epidemic 63% less.Epidemic: 118.2 casts in manual play (3.3% of its damage), 44.2 with SBA + cooldown. This is a real loss of the assistant: the figure stands.

Patched: SimulationCraft needs a fix to play Blizzard's list for this spec.Patch 0013-deathknight-unholy-lesser-ghoul-counter-without-outnumber. SimulationCraft only tracked the Lesser Ghoul aura for players with the Outnumber talent, so Blizzard's list never pressed Putrefy for builds without it. In the game every Unholy has the aura: Warcraft Logs shows it in all 169 sampled +15 runs without Outnumber (2026-10-11). The patch tracks it for every Unholy build; the manual rotation does not change. Since 25 Oct 2026, with Blightfall talented, the button's step "Outbreak while Blightfall is ready" fires once per Blightfall. As Blizzard ships it, Outbreak has no cooldown, so the simulated button kept pressing it: about 7 a minute. A real button player's Warcraft Logs show about 2. Once per Blightfall gives about 2.7, close to the real player. Without the fix (SimulationCraft as published, or Raidbots) the assistant's figures differ; manual play is not affected.

Best Mythic+ talents for the button

For one-button play in M+, import this build: +22.1% damage with SBA + cooldown over SimulationCraft's build.

Best of 12 builds tested with the button (SimulationCraft's and the top 10 Mythic+ players' on murlok.io, plus a talent search), 2026-10-03: a talent search for the button, one talent swap at a time from the build of the #8 M+ player on murlok.io.

One-button damage (SBA + cooldown DPS), M+ dungeon, 4-piece

Best M+ build for the buttonRecommended329,088+22.1%
SimulationCraft's build269,476

Best M+ build for the button: talent string Recommended for one-button

CwPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYmhZMGDz2MzMTz2MzYmZMAAAAAAAAMzwYAwywMzmZGzMjBGYGbassBYbiNMgZAYegZmxMYmBDjB

SimulationCraft's build: talent string

CwPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAwMjZMDDz2MzMTjZmxYGDAAAAAAAAzDMMGAsMDzsZmxMzYgBmxiGLbA2mYDAzAYmZmZMDmZwMzYA

In game, open the talent window, choose Import and paste it. The best build we found for the button. Every figure on this page uses it.

Best raid talents for the button

SimulationCraft's raid build is already the best we found for one-button play on a raid boss.

Talent search for the button on the raid boss, 4-piece set (2026-11-10): it starts from SimulationCraft's raid build, tries every legal single talent swap, keeps the ones that add damage and repeats, never touching a defensive talent; a build wins only when it beats SimulationCraft's raid build by more than 0.2 %. Perfect manual play keeps SimulationCraft's raid build, so the Ranking compares the button on its best talents with the best manual build.

SimulationCraft's raid build (best on the raid boss for the button): talent string Recommended for one-button

CwPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAwMjZMDDz2MzMTjZmxYGDAAAAAAAAzDMMGAsMDzsZmxMzYgBmxiGLbA2mYDAzAYmZmZMDmZwMzYA

In game, open the talent window, choose Import and paste it.

Where the damage comes from

M+ dungeon · 4-piece set · Best talents for the button · data as of 2026-11-11 08:07 UTC

Compare manual play with

Damage per second and casts per ability, averaged over the simulated fights. Pets and summons show their own name in brackets.

Ability	Manual	SBA + cooldown	SBA + cooldown vs manual
Necrotic Bolt	75.3K19.9% · 242.1 casts	61.0K20.2% · 220.2 casts	−14.3K
The Blood is Life	27.1K7.2% · 8.2 casts	23.2K7.7% · 8.1 casts	−3,886
Vampiric Strike	25.6K6.8% · 103 casts	19.9K6.6% · 77.9 casts	−5,660
Graveyard (AoE)	23.8K6.3% · 110.5 casts	13.2K4.4% · 66.3 casts	−10.6K
Corrupted Blood	18.9K5.0% · 24.7 casts	17.9K5.9% · 24.6 casts	−1,013
Putrefy (AoE)	16.2K4.3% · 63.1 casts	12.4K4.1% · 60 casts	−3,757
Epidemic (AoE)	13.4K3.5% · 118.2 casts	6,1892.0% · 44.2 casts	−7,187
Sweeping Claws (AoE)	12.6K3.3% · 140.9 casts	9,8963.3% · 110.9 casts	−2,720
Perfected Guillotine	11.8K3.1% · 27.4 casts	11.3K3.7% · 26.5 casts	−476
Epidemic Order	10.1K2.7% · 229.6 casts	7,8402.6% · 180.4 casts	−2,230
Pestilence	9,0362.4% · 1176.1 casts	8,4572.8% · 984.2 casts	−579
Virulent Plague	9,0322.4% · 33 casts	7,8702.6% · 23.5 casts	−1,162
Graveyard (Main)	8,8562.3% · 110.5 casts	4,8581.6% · 66.3 casts	−3,998
Virulent Plague (Erupt)	8,7292.3% · 529.3 casts	7,1262.4% · 462.3 casts	−1,603
Sweeping Claws	8,5752.3% · 140.9 casts	6,5832.2% · 110.9 casts	−1,992
Auto Attack (Main Hand)	8,1802.2% · 383.4 casts	6,6232.2% · 364.4 casts	−1,557
Disease Cloud	7,7832.1% · 65.2 casts	7,4972.5% · 65.2 casts	−286
Dread Plague (Erupt)	7,7022.0% · 190.9 casts	6,3962.1% · 178 casts	−1,306
Putrefy (ST)	7,5492.0% · 63.1 casts	6,5972.2% · 60 casts	−952
Dread Plague	7,5222.0% · 20.2 casts	7,0612.3% · 19.9 casts	−461
Epidemic (Main)	7,2181.9% · 118.2 casts	2,9521.0% · 44.2 casts	−4,266
Death Order	6,9391.8% · 392.7 casts	5,2781.7% · 320.9 casts	−1,661
Necrotic Coil (Shadowstrike)	6,7951.8% · 31.6 casts	6,0992.0% · 28 casts	−696
Death Coil	5,5411.5% · 41.8 casts	4,1401.4% · 28 casts	−1,401
Ruptured Viscera	4,6211.2% · 149 casts	4,1191.4% · 137.5 casts	−502
Dread Plague (Death)	4,3171.1% · 11.1 casts	4,1061.4% · 11.2 casts	−211
Coil of Devastation	4,2451.1%	3,3001.1%	−945
Withering Grasp	4,1731.1% · 121.2 casts	4,0071.3% · 121.2 casts	−166
Scourge Strike	3,4690.9% · 143.7 casts	3,9481.3% · 122.5 casts	+479
Venomfang Burst	2,6940.7% · 81.6 casts	2,5550.8% · 78.9 casts	−139
Devour Morsel	2,3130.6% · 47.1 casts	2,1630.7% · 44.3 casts	−150
Necrotic Coil (Shadow)	2,0960.6% · 31.6 casts	1,8920.6% · 28 casts	−204
Venomfang	1,9630.5% · 85.5 casts	1,8760.6% · 82.7 casts	−87
Festering Scythe	1,7970.5% · 17.3 casts	1,2850.4% · 12.1 casts	−512
Rune of Unleashed Fire	9450.2% · 54.5 casts	9300.3% · 53.7 casts	−15
Claw	6240.2% · 349.8 casts	7830.3% · 396.6 casts	+159
Festering Strike	5240.1% · 17.9 casts	4180.1% · 14.1 casts	−106
Rune of Lingering	2850.1% · 54.5 casts	2800.1% · 53.7 casts	−5
Blood Draw	1690.0% · 3.5 casts	1690.1% · 3.5 casts	+0
Gnaw	10.0% · 4.5 casts	10.0% · 4.5 casts	+0
Total	378.4K	302.2K	−76.2K

A dash means the ability was never used in that mode. Damage is attributed the way SimulationCraft reports it, so a pet's damage appears under the pet.

Questions about Unholy Death Knight (San'layn)

What are the best Mythic+ talents for Unholy Death Knight (San'layn) with the one-button rotation?

The best build we found for the Single-Button Assistant in Mythic+ deals 22.1% more damage with the button than SimulationCraft's build. It was the best of 12 builds tested (SimulationCraft's and the top 10 Mythic+ players' on murlok.io), plus a talent search for the button. Its talent string is on this page, ready to import. The raid build is searched separately.

How much DPS does Unholy Death Knight (San'layn) lose with the Single-Button Assistant?

Related builds

Other hero talents of Unholy Death Knight

Unholy Death Knight · Rider of the ApocalypseM+ −21.62% · raid −18.94%

Other Death Knight specs

DPS lost with SBA + cooldown, 4-piece set, SimulationCraft's talents (a top player's build for the hero talents SimulationCraft has no profile for). All specs · Ranking

How it's measured, and its limits

SBA + cooldown is a best case: the simulator never misplays. It is always better to sim your own character.
Manual play is SimulationCraft's own rotation executed perfectly, so it is an upper bound for what a person can do, not a typical player.
Assisted Highlight assumes every suggestion is seen and pressed at once, which is generous for a player reading the highlight.
The M+ dungeon is SimulationCraft's own DungeonSlice fight style, its approximation of Mythic+ pulls, not a specific dungeon route.
Best talents for the button: of SimulationCraft's build, the top 10 Mythic+ players' builds on murlok.io and a talent search for the button, the one that deals the most with SBA + cooldown in the M+ dungeon. Gear and rotation are unchanged.
SimulationCraft ships no profile for some hero talents (9 here). Those use SimulationCraft's gear with a top player's build: a top Mythic+ player's build on murlok.io in M+, and on the raid boss the most played build in top raid kills on Warcraft Logs when there are any, otherwise SimulationCraft's raid talents with that Mythic+ build's hero talents (or the Mythic+ build itself where it deals more). No talent search for the button has been run for them yet.
SimulationCraft ships no profile at all for Devastation Evoker and Balance Druid. Those use the median gear of real +15 players, raised to the item level of SimulationCraft's profiles, with the build most real players use (or a top player's build where too few play that hero talent), and a talent search for the button.

Full method, reliability rule and patches: Sources · Simulated with SimulationCraft 1210-01 (WoW 12.1.5.70575) 710c240 +16 patches, 10,000 iterations per figure.