doogless

Has anyone tried high-armor gear?

[Glove Reinforcements]
[Resolute Cape] with 120 armor (or the MgT cape)
[Violet Signet of the Great Protector]
[Ring of the Stalwart Protector]

put me at 4100 AC unbuffed. I lose about 110 spell damage to do it, so I'm not really sure if it ends up being more effective, but having a Warrior white hit me for 700 (before Soul Link) is pretty hilarious.

 

• Dappa

Don't forget [Badge of Tenacity]

I've seen some teams that buff the warlock like that, especially in 3v3 and 5v5 where the warlock often is the designated tank. It is viable to some extent, though not particularly effective against rogues with improved EA which reduces your armor by 3075 and can completely nullify your armor with Executioner enchant and the additional armor penetration from armor and Serrated Blades. It can really make a difference against teams that includes warrior and hunter (to some degree ret paladins).

I guess the extra armor would give you an advantage in 2v2 vs druid/warrior teams if you play with a healer. Or if you go for extreme outlasting. Works great vs double melee in 3v3 as you still have some armor after imp EA and the warrior won't have as much armor penetration a rogue. Not so great against RMP's though.

I don't have any personal experience with this kind of setup though, but I'd love to hear from someone who has tried it.

 

doogless

I'd never wear it for 2v2, I really only consider it useful when being trained by 2+ melee for an entire game. There's a decent chance in 2v2 of drawing a team with 0 physical, against which the armor is completely wasted, while in 3v3 or 5v5 that's much less likely. I wear it in 5v5, where I'm guaranteed to have at least a Warrior or Rogue on me full-time. I haven't played a 3s game in about 2 months, but I'll try it there when I get a team going again. I'm going to be playing Warlock/Hunter/Druid in that bracket soon, so PMR is a joke to begin with.

Yeah, even 4100 armor does nothing against a Rogue with Imp EA + Serrated Blades + full S3 armor pen gear (most Rogues tend not to get Executioner at this point because cloth/leather targets are already at 0 armor against them). I play with a Druid in 3v3, and the most common double melee - Warrior/Rogue/Druid - has no offensive dispel, so I still get about 3% mitigation from the armor on MotW against the Rogue, and I'll still have about 7% mitigation against the Warrior any time Executioner isn't up for him. I'm definitely not decided on whether or not it's worth it, but I'm gonna test it out next time I do 3v3s.

 

◊ Vain

I managed to find a solution to this; I found some code that demos how to hook Windows keyboard events, and I just added a couple of lines to silently eat any Escape "key up" or "key down" keyboard events if the CTRL key is currently pressed.

But you're right, hitting the side mouse button and Escape at the same time is not something that you would normally do when set up like that, and it would be pretty easy to live with the downside.

 

giameetj

I don't have a serious arena team yet, so most of my games are with friends. Since my choices for teammates are limited I'm going to be running 2v2 with a BM Hunter with MH lvl gear and about 200 res. What can I do to maximize our efforts? Would a UA,SL SL, or Felguard spec be the best? I know that MM would be better for him, but he raids like 5 nights a week so he'd rather just stay BM. What kind of strategy would be best for this kind of setup? Viper sting + mana drain on healers or just trying to go all out on dps and try to control a healer?

 

authority11

Definitely the latter. Burn and CC the healer/worst of the 2 DPS targets.

]http://armory.mmo-champion.com.nyud....20751pYaCU.png

 

toth

I agree. And to that extent going Felguard spec is probably your best bet. Higher DPS, higher burst, and much of the survivability, though you can try SL/SL...it'll work fine if you're fairly well geared.

 

giameetj

I'm trying the 6/44/11 felguard spec right now, but I don't understand how I'm supposed to any considerable dps in 2v2. From what I've experienced so far, when I get focused I'm limited to Pet, CoA, Corr, a pushed back immolate, and a pushed back searing pain. I know that I can Shadowburn and DC when they're up, but they aren't enough do depend on each time I get a melee or pet on me. At times it seems almost impossible to get a shadowbolt off at all. I didn't count fear in there because most of the time they're either interupted or just broken out of immediately.

Lately I'm been getting extremely frustrated with PvP. I've been a raider since Pre-BC and never really concentrated on PvP until recently. Everyone always claims that warlocks are easy to PvP with, but I'm just not getting that at all :/

Armory: The World of Warcraft Armory

If anyone has any advice or tricks to PvPing with this spec please share them.

 

Kambing

This one of the first mentals humps that you need to cross over as a lock in arena (espicially 2v2 where fear will typically be your only cc). People will have 2 fear breaks available on average (e.g., medallion, wotf, fear ward, berserker rage). For the first 30 seconds, it may look like fear is worthless because you'll get immunes/resists/quick breaks left and right. The point is to force your opponents to burn those outs early so you can enjoy 2-3 minutes of unprotected fears (or even better, other cc from your partner if available).

 

giameetj

So I posted this over on the WoW forums when someone there brought up going down to intensity in destro:

So in order to get intensity I'd have to do something like: WorldofWarcraft.com -> Info -> Classes -> Warlock -> Talent Calculator

Negatives:
I'd have a corruption cast (.8 sec cast? I haven't had 3/5 corruption since I was like lvl 12) - That means no more dotting on the run

lose 10% on tap - I don't know how bad this would be since I usually don't have mana problems in 2v2, since I double dps

pet would lose 3% crit - not a huge sacrifice, considering resil


Positives:
I'd gain 1% crit - again, not a big deal due to resil

70% interupt avoidance on destro spells - would be awesome for when I can stand and nuke, but is it worth losing all of the stuff above?


Considering all of the stuff above I think I'd rather keep my current spec, I might try it out for $h1t$ and giggles, but I'm not expecting much.

Has anyone ever tried something like this?

Another spec that was brought up was WorldofWarcraft.com -> Info -> Classes -> Warlock -> Talent Calculator. It doesn't seem that bad except for dropping shadowburn.

edited to fix a problem with the spec

 

EpochsEnd

Personally, that seems like a pretty huge negative. In addition to lowering your capability to damage on the run it is also just another way to get kicked/pummeled/counterspelled etc. The main drawback of being a Felguard spec is that you typically do not have any anti-push back talents. It is a trade for the burst gained with the spec. In my view it seems that losing your instant corruption would just counter balance the burst you gain as Felguard.

 

Volshebnik

I recently picked up my Warlock again after a long hiatus. I've been fortunate to be doing 2's with an excellent Holy Paladin, with myself specced 23/38 running 410 Resilience. Within another week I should be at the Resilience cap from my remaining honor and new Arena purchases.

I've learned a lot lately, but the biggest trouble we're having is Rogue/Priest by far (especially Mutilate). All other comps we've had generally excellent success with, but this one throws us both for a loop. The Rogue nearly completely locks me down, and the Priest is free to stand back and Mana Burn either of us, frequently on me. Any advice for this one?

 

clavarnway

Not sure what you meant, but it's not interrupt avoidance, only pushback. If a Rogue kicks you or a Warrior pummels you it will be interrupted and lock your school out.

http://sigs.guildlaunch.net/sig.php/1424974uXyta.png

 

giameetj

Yea I meant pushback, definately wasn't thinking it would avoid kicks or pummels. The whole idea was fun to play with but it really was a waste of time. The hunter and I were a very bad combo. Instead I 3v3 with him and a resto druid, that is a little better setup.

I found a resto druid to 2v2 with and I play SL/SL. We're still getting used to each other, but I think we will start progressing soon.

 

Kruth22

Has anyone tried a Ruin/ Soul Link build?

Currently I am Felguard running 2vs2 with a disc priest. We just started taking it seriously and are around 1630, we hope to get to 1750 next week, as a goal. I like the felguard and I cant see too many reasons to change to SL/SL. But, I know that is the build everyone seems to be using in 2's. I was hoping I could get some input from locks that are either felguard, and have high ratings, or people who have tried the ruin build.

 

doogless

The main problem with SL/Ruin is that you can't get Demonic Resilience. Without that 15% damage reduction, your 0 resilience pet goes down any time a DPS class looks at it funny.

 

toth

You can still get Demonic Resilience if you tradeoff points in Aftermath for it. Link.

It's arguable which is more worthwhile, and I'm not sure myself without giving it a try. If your pet is focused and not you it just means you have free reign to nuke the hell out of whoever is attacking your pet. And you can still fel dom another once it's dead and re-soul link. Any spec that includes destruction is not an outlast spec anyway. That said, Aftermath is just rolling the dice with each cast and hoping you get lucky enough that it will relieve some melee pressure from you.

 

doogless

Good luck with those 2 second Corruptions, I hear those work really well.

A normal SL/Ruin build looks like this: Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

If anything, I'd consider dropping Ruin for a build like Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft or Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft depending on whether you think you'll need Mana Feed or not.

 

toth

Ack, absolutely right. I somehow managed to forget all about that :/

Looking at your builds, though, I'm not sure I see the point of specing that far in to destruction without Ruin. I would think the point of an SL/Ruin build would be burst damage + a bit of survivability. Trading 100% damage increase on crits for 15% damage mitigation for your pets just doesn't make sense. I think what I said earlier still stands. This build is not meant to outlast. It would probably do best in a double DPS setup (frost mage or rogue?) and if the fight lasts longer than the death of your fel dom'd pet, you're probably going to lose anyway. Granted, the 3% chance of not being crit is some nice extra mitigation too, but once again not enough to give up Ruin.

 

doogless

The purpose of going past Shadowburn in Destruction without getting Ruin is Intensity. 70% pushback resistance on all your nukes is pretty significant.

I'm not sure why you think an SL/Ruin build would be incapable of playing outlast. Other than the lack of health regen from Siphon Life and the slightly higher mana cost of nukes, how is drastically different from SL/SL?

If you're playing double DPS, yes, by all means drop Demonic Resilience.

 

toth

For two reasons. First of all, dots are more mana efficient than nukes. The less nukes cast, the less you have to lifetap mana back, the less your healer has to heal you.

But more than that, it seems like a build with a more offensive mindset. As SL/SL, typically you dot everything up and concentrate on fearing, LoSing, etc. both to relieve pressure from your healer by mitigating damage and to provide your healer opportunities to drink. With this build, you'd dot up your opponents and then have to spend time nuking just to make up the DPS loss from not getting Improved Curse of Agony and Empowered Corruption.

If you're nuking then you're not spending time fearing and you have to stay in LoS. Because you have to stand still and cast to maintain an appreciable amount of DPS you give up a lot of mobility that is one of a Warlock's strengths.

Intensity + Shadowburn do allow for some nice controllable burst damage that an SL/SL build does not offer. What you give up is the consistent pressure awarded by affliction talents that would get your opponents in to a situation where you want that controllable burst available. I don't think that's worth it for an outlast build, but depending on your play style it might work for you.

On the other hand, having survivability with greater, controllable burst does seem ideal for a double DPS setup.

 

Jarf

Has anyone tried using the H Magister's trinket for SL/SL? I'm about to go use it, sick of having the eye of mag as my 2nd trinket and not really having anything useful other than 54 +dmg.

 

doogless

Yes, the DPS increase from Timbal's is fantastic. Especially for SL/SL, where's it's more about constant pressure than burst, I'd use it instead of Icon of the Silver Crescent (not sure if the superior stats on Hex Shrunken Head would make that more powerful). Additionally, last time I was using it, the bolts it fires will put healers back into combat/interrupt their drinking.