Lamaros

Hellfire everything and you will win. Never cast anything else.

 

Constants

I pump out about 940ish dps on Gruul, 870+~ on average for other fights. I am 0/21/40.

As above mentioned, regardless of spec, dot tracking is key to top dps as a warlock. Now, for affliction, put your dots up and when they run low repeat, during their duration, spam shadow bolt. Destruction spec, as I am, I immolate, spam incinerate, and then after the last tick of my immolate, I hit conflagrate.

Each warlock has their preference for their dps, whether you are told to spec a certain way or not can also affect your dps. Having demonic sacrifice is an incredible dps boost. If you don't mind one of your warlocks (or more) not having malediction, I'd recommend 0/21/40 hands down.

For an affliction spec warlock, I reccomend 40/0/21. In most situations I've found ruin greatly outdamages the damage you'd get from having unstable affliction. (Another dot, and it has a cast time).

In conclusion having a dot timer, whether it be DoTimer, DarkCandy, Chronometer, they should be keeping an eye on their durations, reapplying them when they run out, and or conflagging when immolate runs out, and having a solid spec will greatly increase their damage output.

 

• frmorrison

Considering conflag (which consumes Immolate DoT), how are you able to cast the spell without losing the last tic? I thought DoTs did their last tic and then faded.

 

Moghedian

you do lose the last tick. Its impossible not to.

He also mentioned an extra 50% crit instead of another DOT.

Do not get ruin over UA. another DoT is better than a tiny bit bigger crits.

 

Constants

Ah yes, I'm sorry I worded that incorrectly. Before the dot fades, when its at 3 secs last, I hit conflag at 2. Sorry for not clarifying!

 

Constants

For me, personally (of course this varies raid to raid), I've found I've done much more damage not only from my crits, but we push the debuff limit greatly, and have found our dots getting bumped off.

It really depends on your preference. Having more dots is great for soulsiphon, but not too often should you be spamming drain life.

 

Kullulu

UA does more damage that ruin will for affliction. This is not a function of soul siphon or drain life. There's a lot of misinformation that's starting to float here, I think we should reexamine the theorycraft thread of lock dps at 70. Maybe we should have linked that to begin with instead of posting our one liners .

 

Moghedian

Well, I should clarify too. On single target tank-n-spank, if you have about 25%+ or more crit, I will agree. With less crit, I would have to go find my math on it. If anyone has a link to how much crit it takes to make Ruin better than UA on a single target, please post it.

When theres a raid environment which causes you to move, ever, then you have to include that in to ruin. Ruin only works when your standing still, UA is trivial to keep up in mobile fights. Also, on trash pulls, theres always more than 1 target. Even some boss fight (Mag, for example) where theres more than 1 target. Any time theres a mobile fight or a several target situation, UA will surpass ruin unless you have gear thats just not available to anyone but EJ, ot DNT, ect.

Basicaly, UA beats out ruin in the real world, while on paper ruin looks very good.

 

Lamaros

You mean only the guys in EJ and DNT are allowed to craft FSW? How did I get mine then? Nerf!!

There are really long threads with better warlock info already around, no need to restart those discussions in here.

Hellfire everything.

 

Demi9OD

http://www.leulier.com/

With maxed hit (almost unattainable with well balanced gear till hit gems arrive) and reasonable spell damage it takes roughly 25.8% crit for Ruin to beat UA. If you have less than 16% hit, it will of course take more crit to make Ruin exceed UA. I do not see anyone attaining 16% hit and 25% crit while maintaining "reasonable" spell damage any time soon.

One positive note for Ruin that I've not seen many people mention... You can /stopcasting your Shadowbolts to gain additional performance from them, but you cannot /stopcasting your UA due to universal cooldown. I actually switched to a destro build recently to test how much of an effect stopcasting has on my DPS, since with enough spell damage the only thing you cast as Shadow/Destro is COD/SB, and you are getting the full benefit of /stopcasting on nearly every cast, rather than just partially with an affliction build. No numbers yet unfortunately since I am out of town

 

◊ Kyth

I'd be interested in that data, Demi9OD, when you get it. Please post.


I think there's value in threads explaining the basics of a class to players not of that class -- I know I got a lot from the hunter thread of the same vein.

 

Merin

i got the solution to your problem:

1. Make all the warlocks spec heavy affliction (yes, UA>Ruin) and dl DoTimer (addon)
2. Tell them to read this thread: [Warlock] Affliction cast-rotation
3. Slap them and tell them to be on their toes

just my 5 quid...

 

Merin

i hope you use elixir of major shadowpower aswell...

 

Lorelai

Ideally if we could see some WWS from your Gruul fights or whatever, we could maybe provide some more direct hints =)

But as others have pointed out allready, DPSing as a Warlock is pretty basic but requires alot of focus. Keeping track of all your dots and Shadowbolting in between is easy in a static fight but the real challenge comes from keeping all that up while dodging shatters, cave ins, loose adds, banish mobs, fearing mobs and what not.

My normal cycle is UA > Immo > Corr > Siphon, then a DP/LT and do two or three bolts depending on fight, then start the cycle again since all the three first dots run out at aprox the same time when cast in that order. And yes, every number I've ever come across agrees that UA > Ruin with obtainable levels of crit%.

Specwise i'm running a 43/0/18 spec atm to get destructive reach... Annoyed me to have different max range on dots and bolts. Cheating abit with 3/5 shadow embrace but...

 

Mondragon

Just a little addition from me :

I try and think ahead about what the 'dance steps' of the fight entail. I apply my dots and refresh accordingly.

if for some reason I am unable to reapply my casting DOTs, I just put up instants ( for example when water tombed on Morogrim) .

If you take into account what actions/movement is required of you, you cna lifetap/DP at the most appropiate time. For me, I DP when my Imp is a) at full mana b) I need it

I lifetap when a) I am safe for the forseeable future ( I dont have to jump into water for lurker)

b) I know I have siphon/shadowmend to be safe.

Doing dps while killing yourself is fun

My DOT rule for perfect conditions is Cast DOT then instant DOT, imo it maximises use of GCD. with the longest DOT last..siphon normally.

 

clavarnway

Yup you should. =) If you check how much damage the spells are doing for how much time you spent casting them, which is really what we need to look at to see if it's worth it, Immolate obliterates Shadow Bolt.

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f5...spellfacts.jpg

As you can see Immolate is about 30% higher. Definitely worth it.

 

Kobal

Maybe you also have some tips for a 0/21/40 shadow destro, besides respeccing to 41/0/20?
Hmm, with decent gear, and even with Frozen Shadoweave pieces and a sacrficed Sukkubus according to Leulier's spreadsheet the damage/cast time of my Immolate still exceeds that of Shadow Bolt by a noteable margin (while adding Corruption to my cycle will do basically nothing to my DPS either way).

 

Quixotic

#1) http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IzZbxcucizzxsLxxMtM0z

Highest DPS spec a warlock can have, provided the fight is succubus friendly (doesn't get one shotted). With buffs fights that are succubus friendly that I've used this spec on are Gruul, Magtheridon, Hydross, Lurker (have to be very careful and ready to sac if unlucky with geyser), and Morogrim Tidewalker. It is also usable on Leotheras, but I tank on him so that point is moot. This build requires a shadow priest on any encounter with AE, and works well with a shaman, as WoA double dips with you and your succubus.

#2) http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=AzZdxczIbzZxx0tr0tVum

Better all around build on the fights where you don't get a shadow priest, or pet unfriendly encounters. It provides shadow and flame, when 1/39/21 would have to DS the succubus and lose demonic knowledge. Also provides the ability to switch to a fire based nuke if no shadow priests are on, and you have fire mages in the raid to apply imp. scorch. Also has intensity for AE encounters.

#3) http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=AAMrbRfkqtboZxx0tr

Useful if you want to provide imp for your party, while being generally self-suffcient.

#I help the raid) http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IyMr0RftqtcofZxx0z

Malediction/Shadow Embrace/Improved HS/Improved Imp. Obviously this spec should go to your most undergeared warlock, as it's more utility, they are going to be stuck in MT's group, and CoS instead of CoA/CoD.

 

Mondragon

Anything without DOT focus gets smashed on movement fights. Throw in the extra raid utility Afflicion has/self sustained dps..and its a clear winner imo. We raid in the real (virtual) world ..how often do we ge to stand still for 10 mins and constantly nuke, while putting marked stress on healers.

 

Kobal

Well, that is true for the first two Warlocks in the raid, no doubt.

But in our Raid we noticed that we already are using up all the 40 debuff slots on fights like Gruul, so rather than have another UA/Affliction lock that needs another 4 debuff slots to be fully operational, we now have a 0/21/40 destro lock (Me ).

Besides the reduced need for debuff slots this spec has other advantages:

- A shadow-destro lock can provide a much better ISB-proc uptime than any Affliction lock.
- If some adds need to die fast, Destro is the way to go. Noone touches my top spot on the damage meter when fighting the Curator, and Destro is very useful to quickly burn down Nightbane adds (the only part of the fight where DPS really matters) or the first two of Maulgar's adds.

We have not progressed beyond Gruul yet, so things may change in the future.

 

Mondragon

Well the dancing required on Leotheras/Lurker makes me love Affliction. See our first kill here...DOTs ticking away while everyone else is messing about :p

http://files.filefront.com/Lurker_Ki.../fileinfo.html

I have been specced 21/0/40 and 0/21/40 though both have merits but dont touch affliction. Now we are starting to bring 4 locks to raids and the debuff limit is affecting us, I would only consider going destro when I have better gear / More T5 though.

 

Altima

Our most recent Gruul kill

In practice, I make sure UA and Corruption are up at all times, with CoA and SL taking lower priority. Ideally, I would include immolate in my rotation, and I did until we somehow got 6 raiding warlocks and 2 raiding shadow priests (the other shadow priest, Evilde, was a friend we brought along), making debuff real estate a huge concern. This is also the reason why I'm not using Amped, trinketed CoD, because I know that if CoD gets pushed off (and trust me, with 6 warlocks and 3 shadow priests it will), I lose a huge chunk of damage. In a situation where the warlock is not constrained by debuff limits, definitely use CoD on cooldown and Immolate in your rotation.

I typically cast UA/Corruption/(Immolate) back to back, when there is between 1 to 2 seconds left on the UA timer. Then, I chain cast Shadow Bolt until the UA timer begins to run low. If I finish the Shadow Bolt cast with ~2 seconds left on the UA timer, I pause briefly before refreshing the DoTs. If I finish the Shadow Bolt cast with 3 to 4 seconds left on the UA timer, I generally take that time to cast CoA, SL, Dark Pact, or Life Tap. CoA and SL are up most of the time, but I do not forego casting a Shadow Bolt when CoA or SL have 2 seconds or less left.

If you look at spell details, SL does a great job healing you up and basically lets you Life Tap intelligently without putting any strain on the healers.

I hope these little more specific tidbits help.

 

niska

Use Debuff Filter to judge whether dotting is worthwhile where other warlocks and spriests are cramping your style. If you're at 37+, you may be better off bolting more. If you aren't breaking 30, dot up that mug.
http://wow-en.curse-gaming.com/downl...debuff-filter/

 

• frmorrison

Pitbull can also show up to 40 debuffs on a target; DoT tracking is important for dps in 25 man as well as in AV when up to 40 people can be fighting together, and you know there are other Warlocks around.

 

Mordekhuul

I keep noting 0/21/40 destruction locks that are geared for fire damage. I hear you on it being superior if there is an improved scorch mage around (quite common), but if you also have a shadowpriest around, doesn't shadowbolt spam with a sac'd succubus again become superior DPS?