Army of the Dead
Army of the Dead 10 min cooldown 1 Blood, 1 Unholy, 1 Frost Channeled Summons an entire legion of Ghouls to fight for the Death Knight. The Ghouls will swarm the area, taunting and fighting anything they can. While channeling Army of the Dead, the Death Knight takes less damage equal to his/her Dodge plus Parry chance.
Usable by
Class	Death knight
Properties
Type	Utility
School	Shadow
Cooldown	10 min (GCD 1 sec)
Level required	80
Related buff
Army of the Dead Summoning Ghouls. Duration: 4 seconds
TCG image

• Army of the Dead
• 1 Blood, 1 Unholy, 1 Frost
• Channeled
• Summons an entire legion of Ghouls to fight for the Death Knight. The Ghouls will swarm the area, taunting and fighting anything they can. While channeling Army of the Dead, the Death Knight takes less damage equal to his/her Dodge plus Parry chance.

Army of the Dead is is a death knight ability learned at level 80. It was the first death knight ability to be announced. It is a channeled ability which summons a number of ghouls to fight for the death knight. These creatures run around and attack nearby hostile targets at random.

Unlike most other guardian pets, ghouls cannot benefit from Bloodlust/Heroism directly. However, if these spells are active on the player prior to summoning the ghouls, they will benefit from the added haste. Additionally, effects that increase damage done by a percentage, such as Blood Presence or Bone Shield will not increase their damage, however, the haste added from Unholy Presence will. Attack power effects will not aid them yet strength will. This means that while Battle Shout or Blessing of Might are useless for the ghouls, Horn of Winter or Unbreakable Armor is useful.

It is also worth noting that the adds will not taunt bosses in raids. Bosses in any 5 man dungeon or adds on raid boss encounters will be taunted by the ghouls.

Modified by

2020

• Glyph of Army of the Dead
• Item Level 25Disenchants into:
  Not disenchantable
• Minor Glyph
• Classes: Death Knight
• Requires Level 25
• Use: Permanently teaches you this glyph.
  The ghouls summoned by your Army of the Dead no longer taunt their target.
• Sell Price: 1

2020

• Glyph of Foul Menagerie
• Item Level 25Disenchants into:
  Not disenchantable
• Minor Glyph
• Classes: Death Knight
• Requires Level 25
• Use: Permanently teaches you this glyph.
  Causes your Army of the Dead spell to summon an assortment of undead minions.
• Sell Price: 1

Taunt effectiveness

Level ?? bosses are immune to the taunt effect, but that does not mean that all mobs at least three levels higher than you will be, so do not make that mistake. For example, adds on the Valithria Dreamwalker encounter are Level 83 (non-skulled) but they are still affected by taunts cast by Level 80 Army of the Dead ghouls.

Background

This is a variation of a spell type, commonly used by Death knights in previous games, called Raise Dead in Warcraft II, Animate Dead in Warcraft III, and Undead Minions in the RPG.

Patch changes

• Patch 3.3.0 (08-Dec-2009): The cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Army Ghoul damage dropped by 50%. Cannot be used in Arenas. 
  
• / Patch 3.0.2 (14-Oct-2008): Added. 
  

References

External links

• Wowhead
• Thottbot
• WoWDB