[Warlock] - Affliction Crit/DPS/More ?'s
 

Hello Im looking for abit of advice to once and for all peak my DPS and end my re-geming sprees.

As it stands I see myself as having a fair amount of damage/hit and the like as affliction.
While Dr. Boom is far from an ideal way to test DPS its all I have outside of raid to use. My normal now adays using UA -> Corr -> SL -> SB 4x's -> UA -> Corr -> SB 4x's is about 840-860 DPS sustained on Boom indefinatly. Using either CoA or CoS hasnt seemed to have a significant sway but if I use Immo as a second cast before applying Siphon Life I usually go up about 20 DPS or so. I prefere to not use CoA on DPS testing as chances are I wont be using it in the raid.

Heres a link to my armory if anyones interested.

http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/?#...st&n=Emolition

Everytime I make a significant change, In my spec or gearing or what not I like to spend about 10-15 minutes on Dr. Boom. Ive done him several times 100-0 and every time its comeback with my shadowbolts = between 35-50% of my total damage. 35% being a full stack of Immo - Corr - UA - SL - CoA, but my normal rotation of just UA - Corr - SL my SB usually comes in at about 45% total done.

Ive been told by numerous sources that Crit is utterly useless for a raiding Affliction lock. When my Shadowbolt comes out as such a large portion of my damage that doesnt seem right. Lately Ive been trying to make the transition (As I get PvP pieces to fill their spots) of changing all my gems from nightseye to either rubies or topaz. Im kinda aiming for something along the lines of 15% crit w/o talents - 20% with. As well as 1100 shadow.

Heres were my problem arises. I can get the 16% hit on DoTs w/o using the scryers trinket but without it Im only at 8% DD hit. If I use the scryers trinket Im put at 10.5% hit on my DD but for DPS it seems like a wasted slot, is it? Id prefere to use Mags or Quags eye for my SB's. Would 8% DD hit be sufficient for a boss mob? It doesnt seem like it but would using a scryers trinket to fill that gap lower my total DPS as opposed to an Eye. Or would using the sha'tar trinket for the 1.5% crit be better dps then the 2.5% hit for DD or again using Quags/Mags eye.

As it stands, I know I can get to 14% crit with my geming. Leaving a trinket slot free for what ever. So I guess the question comes down to, Would an affliction lock with a high SB% with capped DoT hit, 8% DD hit be better off using a gimick trinket like one of the Eyes giving 30-40+ spell damage and one of there respective stats or going back and to using scryers trinket. I know their are +spell hit gems coming out next patch but getting the crit I want wont leave any room for other gems past topaz.

Or better yet can someone look over my armory, keeping in mind my goal for 1100 shadow, capped DoT hit and as much DD hit as I can, and Aiming for 15% crit without talents. What could I change to achieve that? As I get pieces to replace them for PvP (Another Topic) Ill be putting in 6 topaz into my FSW setup. Then Depending I could possibly switch out the rubies in my helm for a hit gem, and acouple topaz. With a +dmg trinket that might very well hit my goal. But I dunno.

If you read through this long winded post I appreciate it - And look forward to any feedback I can get.

Search for the (another) warlock dps spreadsheet. The calculations are not perfect, but it is still a nice resource to see what happens as you add more crit or damage. I don't think 15% to crit is better than say more damage or more hit, and the spreadsheet should show that.

As to gearing, Soulfrost is 54 shadow damage (vs your current 40 damage). Swapping out Glowing Nightseye for Noble Topaz would increase your spell crit rating by 4 while losing 6 stamina, so you would gain 24 spell crit, using Xiri's trinket gives another 32 crit rating giving a total of 2.5% to crit, which total with new weapon enchant gives you 1104 shadow and 15.3% to crit.

Are you counting the 5% crit from the destro talent? Im at work so i cant view your build. With my gear i believe im sitting at ~12% crit which would give me 17% with the 5% from devestation. Crit isnt useless for affliction, it just wont affect your dps as much as it would a destro lock. More crit means more ISB which greatly increases your dot ticks. Sadly most locks go fire(at least the ones in my guild) when they go destro so you lose out on all their crits that would give the ISB buff.

To the first reply, thanks for the link mate that spreadsheet is sick.

To the second reply, Im trying for like 14-15% w/o talents so with devastation that would be 20% crit total. Anyways Digging through that spreadsheet, Shadow destro seems to mathmatically come out to abit more DPS. Granted shadowbolt itself is less DPM then Incin, It comes out over all to be more DPS and less MPS then Incin since your using Immo -> Conflag every 15 seconds.

Hmm anyways, Thats for the help guys appreciate it. I think Ive decided to just go with scryers trinket. And possibly give a shadow - succy sac destro build a go. It seemed to come out with higher DPS then affliction and fire destro as well. With my guild highest DPS numbers are best, we have so many shadow priests that mana efficiency isnt an issue. So just flat out going for highest DPS seems better =)

Edit: 34 shadow damage nerf has been reverted. Set will remain as is.

From what ive experienced, destro cannot compare to affliction when it comes to sustained dps. As affliction you can dps all day and almost never need a heal or pot. Destro relies heavily on having a healer to top you off. These are heals you wouldnt need if you were affliction. Heals that could have been used to top off the tank etc. Also many fights in SSC and TK are tailor made for good affliction locks. Destro is made for burst dmg. Dont get me wrong, 25mans will benefit from having a destro lock and if your guild doesnt have one then by all means spec destro. Just know that hitting the top of the dps charts will be much harder to do. You will however be able to keep ISB up much more, increasing SP damage and also your fellow locks. If you go destro though i would shoot for more crit. 25-30% isnt unreasonable with the devestation talent. Crit becomes more important if you decide to go destro. Sacrificing 100 spell dmg for 5-7% crit would probably increase your dps as destro. Im hoping someone out there can change my beliefs about destro locks. I just havent seen any on my server come close to my affiction dps. Im sure it is possible but i just havent seen it.

can you link to where you found that? i cant seem to find it.

/cry

It was bound to happen though.

As a 1/39/21 spec or a 1/21/39 spec I've consistantly topped damage meters every night. Granted you need a shadow priest, but we have 2 shadow priests so I'd have a shadow priest regardless of my being affliction or demo/destruction. Both specs are shadow demo/destruction btw.

Yeah, shadow priest is the big difference. Without one, destruction specs are mana-starved, with one they put out some really strong damage. It just depends what your raid makeup is, if you don't have enough mages to fill the shadow priest groups destruction is awesome, but if you're limited on spots in shadow priest groups, affliction benefits the raid more because it doesn't require being fed mana.

Just as an FYI, Blue posted on the US Forums a little while ago saying that the tailoring nerf will not be going live with 2.1.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...00430525&sid=1