Felguard/Emberstorm, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Big Dummy

I have currently settled into a pair of specs for raiding that I've found to be very beneficial for my raid group. They are Metamorphosis/Ruin and Felguard/Emberstorm.

They have two very different roles to play, and I'll get to the Metamorph build another time because it will really be better than it is today when 3.1 drops and the changes to Improved Shadow Bolt go live.

Back to Felguard/Emberstorm however, because it really shines compared to other specs in terms of raw output and ease of play. Since I'm not only playing, but also organizing and running Heroic raiding for our guild, I need something pretty simple to play that synergizes with our hugely stacked physical DPS.

I glyph Immolate, CoA, and Felguard. I use spelldamage food, Flask of the Frost Wyrm, and Kibbler's Bits for my Felguard. If I'm doing a 10-man I may just use Elixirs, I usually use Spellpower Elixir and Elixir of Mighty Thoughts, but I'll use whatever is handy and cheap for such things. I'll usually start an evening Flasked at the first boss and then switch out to Elixirs at the end of the night.

The WotLK food for pets is much more expensive as it requires Northern Spices. Just find a Hunter that can make Kibblers Bits and go farm your ass some Buzzard Meat in Terrokar Forest outside the Ruins. There is a big hill where a lot of them spawn, and you can happily run around DoTing things up and collecting the meat. I think I got 3 stacks of Buzzard meat in about an hour, which isn't great, I realize.

But from The Spreadsheet you can derive almost anything you need to know about gearing/gemming/enchanting, and what it can't tell you, SimulationCraft can. The tools to get the most performance you can from your toon are available and well worth using.

Since we run with all that Physical DPS (one dedicated Feral cat, 3-4 Hunters (Marks/Surv/BM), a HAT rogue, two Fury warriors, an Arms warrior, an Enhancement Shaman) it made a lot of sense to really align myself with them as much as I can. We don't have any FFB/Frost mages, we usually have a Boomkin, and we usually have a Shadow Priest -- we're a casual guild, so you get the idea. Our composition can be pretty different week in and week out.

Felguard/Emberstorm is a great build with great burst. CoA and Corruption are going to give you at least 80% uptime on Molten Core, giving your Immolate and Incinerates a big buff. I've cleared 5k DPS on Patchwerk and we've only cleared the place three times now on Heroic, so overall I'm pretty impressed with this build mainly because it allows me to easily split my attention (I'm not playing Affliction Guitar Hero for example) between my job, and making sure everyone else is doing their job too.

While it is true that Affliction will give me another 1000 DPS on paper, my attention is spread around and I can't give Affliction the focus it needs to really shine. People like to downplay it, and maybe I'm just that big of an idiot, but the simplicity of this spec has allowed me to really maximize my individual contribution on raid nights.

I keep 3/3 Improved Imp for melee-hostile encounters or fights where Blood Pact is more valuable than the additional ~800dps that Felguard gives over the Imp. I rarely use DS except on Sartharian if things are getting too out of control. I've managed to keep my Felguard alive through Sapphiron and even KT via Fel Synergy 1/2 and the occasional Health Funnel. Do be mindful of void zones and pull your big dummy out if he's standing in the middle of one. He's not smart like you.

I'm pleased with the performance of this spec and find that it gives me the flexibility I need and compliments my groups well. It is pretty simple to play, and doesn't leave much to chance. The only real cooldown juggling you'll do is Demonic Empowerment and non-passive trinkets.