TheWoWDBApocalpyse has the following 4 possible affects from your ghoul's attacks:
War - increases damage taken by the death knight's attacks by 1%
Famine - reduces damage dealt to the death knight by 2%
Death - reduces healing by 1%
Pestilence -Slows the target by 30% and inflicts a damage over time debuff.These debuffs all last for 6 seconds, and the damage of Pestilence is likely based on your character's level and current stats, rather than a set amount of damage for your character's level
Please note that these debuffs can, and will stack with one another on your target, so having multiple debuffs active is a possibility - including multiple stacks of the same debuff. I have seen at least Pestilence, War and Death stack multiple times. The highest multiple of a single debuff I have seen was War at 3% (3 stacks) and the highest number of total stacks has been 4. The average appears to be 2-3 on the target.
Spell
Rune of the Apocalypse
Physical
The highest voted Wowhead comments for this page. They are community notes, not TheWoWDB comments.
I don't know why they bothered to add this if they aren't even gonna buff it? It wasn't exactly spectacular in Legion and now it's even worse since it only affects your main pet.
As of 12/13/2025 On the midnight beta, Rune of APOC now effects lesser ghouls! This makes this actually better for UH dk while simming if playing pet spec. *And for pvp this is super dope to have our own MS on top of necrotic wound healing absorb.
Tooltip
Engrave your weapon with a rune that gives your ghoul's attacks a chance to apply one of the following debuffs to the target, Death: Healing Reduction, War: Increases damage taken from the Death Knight, Famine: Reduces damage dealt to the Death Knight, Pestilence: Slows the target and deals damage over time.
Modifying your rune requires a Runeforge in Ebon Hold.
Spell facts
Datamined from the current retail build. Numbers that scale with level or stats are shown at their base value.
More Runeforging spells
Related
Community notes from Wowhead · 6 comments
Top 3 shown above · 3 more hereThe comments below were written by Wowhead users. They are community notes, not TheWoWDB comments. See them in context on Wowhead.
(Current as of 11/19/2025 while using Unholy Bond) How it works: Your permanent ghoul's basic attacks DO NOT have any proc chance, however your permanent ghoul's "Claw" ability has a 100% proc chance. Each proc lasts 6 seconds.
Death: Reduces healing done by 6%
War: Increases damage taken by the DK by 4.8%. Unlike some other sources, this includes ALL damage you do including both minion AND disease damage.
Famine: Reduces damage dealt to the player by 6%. Unknown if it also reduces the damage done to your summons
Pestilence: Deals shadow damage over 6 seconds, the damage is equal to about 1 "Festering Strike". Also reduces movement speed by 18%.Debuffs stack additively up to 3 times, and when a debuff stacks the duration of all stacks are reset. Pestilence is included in this, when it has 2 stacks each tick deals double damage.
It takes your ghoul 10 seconds to regenerate it's energy to 100 with 0% haste, this speeds up with haste. 20% haste = 8 seconds for 100 energy. Using "Dark Transformation" refunds your energy. The claw attack costs 40 energy. With like 50% haste you could realistically have 2-3 debuffs up at a time
Seems like a lot has changed since the last comment. It probably isn't as good as Rune of the Fallen Crusader, but it's probably viable now even if it takes more management.
It says ghouls, when you burst wounds using Apoc, all ghouls msut apply one of these
It says "ghoul's" not "ghouls" so Iunno about that