Warning for Gilgrissom: 6. Do not post unless you have something new and worthwhile to say.

• bartolimu · 09/27/11, 10:00 AM

Post: Demonology in Cataclysm (4.2 Release)
User: Gilgrissom
Infraction: 6. Do not post unless you have something new and worthwhile to say.
Points: 0

Administrative Note:

Message to User:

Speculation on one set bonus connected that isn't even on the PTR yet seems a bit premature, don't you think?

Original Post:

As many of you have probably noticed, the T13 set bonuses have been announced (see mmo-champion) and at a first glance, the 2 piece bonus seems rather imba for demonology. Even with current gear, the Doomguard deals about 1.1m to 1.3m damage in the 65 seconds it is active (allthough it usually has an uptime of around 60 seconds). Adding another 45 seconds to the duration would add about 900k damage (45/65 * 1.3m). Over a 6 minute fight (or the six minutes till the next doomguard) that is about 6.1k DPS, while the Doomguard without the bonus is at about 3.6k. As a rough estimate, I would say that the 2 piece set bonus is worth 3k DPS for a 6 minute fight, and closer to 4k DPS for fights between 6 and 10 minutes*.

This seems a rather big DPS gain, and I would assume they are going to nerf the Doomguard (probably by finaly adjusting the way it seems to benefit from mastery about 3 times). Then again, the T12 2-piece bonus for Elemental Shamans gave them a permenanent Fire Elemental which is worth around 3k DPS. So maybe, MAYBE we finally get a set bonus that is worth more than a couple hundred DPS.

On the other hand, the 4-piece bonus seems rather weak for all Warlock specs. Without getting additional Soulshards, the uptime can't exceed 30 seconds in the whole fight. But even assuming an endless supply of Shards, we will end up at 10/45 = 22% Uptime of a 10% damage buff, equalling to 2.2% increased damage. This is obviously not entirely correct if you can line up the Soulburn with another cooldown/proc/bloodlust (and especially DOOMGUARD!), but even then I would be suprised if the damage boost will exceed 1-2% in practice. That would be around 500-1000 DPS, and actually seems pretty much in line with all the 4pc bonuses we have gotten so far.

*This is actually harder to calculate, because the second Doomguard most likely will not benefit from all the buffs the first Doomguard did benefit from. With the current 65 second uptime, the Doomguard is at about 2.1k DPS for a 10 minute fight, so assuming a bit less than a 4k DPS gain seems reasonable.