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Cataclysmic starter Compendium
Authors note on the Compendium itself
Finding, compiling, formatting and reposting all this information is a LOT of work. I'm personally thankful for any comments, useful additions and stupid questions - keeping track of it all is very time consuming. The purpose of this compendium is not to discuss raiding specs, best in slot gear or raid encounters - it is to give Warlocks a good look at Cataclysms changes to their class, suggested levelling and gearing routes and other eventually missed information. For quite a few readers a lot of this compendiums content will be familiar, but to the majority this will be quite interesting and informative. As unfinished as this may seem at any point, it all starts with one or two stones and once I have parts out of my head, I can write on others. Instances In order to queue into instances with the Dungeon Finder, you need to have 2 requirements fulfilled: a) Discovered the dungeon entrance b) Adequate average item level You can always jump into the dungeon manually, avoiding b). Following the list of required ilvl per dungeon(Patch 13117) as well as the ilvl of items that drop in them
Dungeon entrances Cataclysm Beta - 5-man Roundup and Navigation Guide Special notice: By all means get a sea horse before trying to swim down to The Throne of the Tides. Factions One of the more interesting questions is, which factions does one come across and which should one prioritize to do heroics with first with a tabard of choice. Revered items are all 346 rare, exalted items are all 359 epic. Dragonmaw Clan / Wildhammer Clan The Dragonmaw Clan is native to Twilight Highlands(so doable at 84+). You will get reputation throughout the zone with them and will get friendly after the first small quest series. Their Quartermaster is, contrary to popular believe, not located in Dragonmaw port, but in Bloodgulch(center of map). The Alliance equivalent of him is residing in Thundermar. Potential interests: [Bone Fever Gloves] [Band of Lamentation] [Yellow Smoke Pendant] The Guardians of Hyjal The keepers of Hyjal are your friends throughout the zone, takes no more than a handful quests to get friendly with them.Their Quartermaster is located inside the very first building at Nordrassil. Potential interests: [Arcanum of Hyjal] The Earthen Ring The Earthen Ring, introduced way back as keepers of nature, are now native to Vashj'ir, Deepholme and Twilight Highlands. Their Quartermaster resides at the Silver Tide Hollow in Vashj'ir. Potential interests: [Mercury-Coated Hood] [Helm of Temperance] [Cloak of Ancient Wisdom] [Flamebloom Gloves] Therazane Therazane can only be found in Deepholme. At the end of the Deepholme questlines you are left with <to be checked> honored of Therazane, while being hated with them before that. Additional rep can also be gained with daily quests. Their Quartermaster resides at Therazanes Throne. Potential interests: [Lesser Inscription of Charged Lodestone] [Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone] [Diamant's Ring of Temperance] Ramkahen Ramkahen is the faction you'll get in touch with during Uldum. After the inital quests(granted you take 1000 rep over 200gold) you will almost be friendly with them. Their Quartermaster resides in Ramkahen itself. Potential interests: [Robes of Orsis] [Desert Walker Sandals] Tol Barad Factions [Insidious Staff] [Stump of Time] Profession crafts Several early raiding items can be crafted again. Full list of WoWhead [Breeches of Mended Nightmares] / [Flame-Ascended Pantaloons] [Dreamless Belt] [Dungeoneering Guide] [Elementium Spellblade] [Darkmoon Card: Volcano] Quest rewards worth noting [Overly Intelligent Robes] [Sandals of the Courier] [True Archaeologist's Bracers] [Very Manly Staff] Gems sp00n opened a highly interesting topic in the Public Discussion regarding gems and changes. You might want to check out his detailed gem conversion overview. Blizz stated lately(granted I ever find that particular blue post of GC again I'll link it) that socket bonuses will be better in Cata. Archaeology Archaeology has only a few nice BoA items you can get, and besides chances of getting them being totally random, do not underestimate the time needed to level it. As long as it is unconfirmed whether there is a Archaeology level requirement on actually getting these rares I will go with the assumption that it's just random. Staff of Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan Ring of the Boy Emperor undecided Tyrande's Favorite Doll The staff and the trinket are fairly "easy" with being dwarf and night elf, you get those commonly and can farm them without much "overhead" in other fragments. The ring however is Tol'vir. As of right now on Wowheads data there are 6 rare Tol'vir items and it is a huge pain to gather those fragments. If you are a collector going for all and have spare time, which is unlikely in the early cata days, have a shot at it. But if you are planning on trying your luck - rather keep your hands off Archaeology till you have a decent amount of gear and time off. Video Box Please bear in mind that videos reflect the knowledge at a given time and information given might have changed from that point already. Optecs detailed Cataclysm Warlock changes guide - Date 6th October 2010 - Patch 13117 Part 1 Part 2 Contains pretty much everything that has been changed up to this point. And the more detailed guide Optec did for TotalHalibut: Destruction Demonology Affliction Random things and questions #note Points to write about: Items crafted by professions |
Something to add about glyphs. The interface is changing such that you get a list of every glyph you've ever learned available to you at all times, after you use a glyph the first time. A little pre-planning and snagging them now before everyone rushes at once to complete their collection might be a good idea. Plus, there's an achievement!
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Good start.
Will you be including anything about warlock gameplay in this? Rotations/specs/etc? Also, information about the soul shard system change might be helpful. |
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5.0 Compendium test
Let me start with a word of my own: Something done right by a few people, or a single person, can save a whole lot of people time and headaches. As much as I enjoy the thought and process of getting knowledge out of my head and down on paper to provide others with it, I do not enjoy writing hand-holding guides for the masses(even if I sometimes drift towards it). While I get that 99% of EJs readers come here to understand the basics of the class and a bare minority comes here to maximize their own(and others) performance in the process, I still stand by the believe that writing long winded essays, quoting tool-tips or stating base knowledge will, in general, not help anyone to actually enjoy playing the class nor motivate him to spend some time figuring out things for himself. Some would call writing guides selfless, I myself call my own reasons for doing so mostly selfish(though the result once again is for the community). I do these posts to also get feedback on things I haven't seen through or things I got wrong while compiling stuff, a result that helps me and others in the long run. Compendium This thread is intended to provide general information on warlocks for the start of the MoP expansion. Intentions
Not planned
Talents As everyone knows by now, MoP overhauled the talent system as a whole. As per date of writing this(29.07.2012), the 6 tiers of warlock talents only have 1 tier that generally affects your DPS(Leaving Archimonde's Vengeance aside) which is the 5th tier of Grimoires. All other talents are basically down to personal preference(!) and adjustment to each specific encounter. I do not want to "suggest" a general spec because of prior stated reasons, I would just like to use this section to point out at which encounter which talent does work better than others or, as the general consensus would be, is a necessity for being at the top of your game on the encounter. Suggested Grimoires per spec as per simcraft including respective pets: Date of change: 29.07.2012
Suggested Glyphs
Talents per encounter At this point(pre MoP) I would think that with 99% chance each and every spec will use the same talents for one particular encounter, but I'll leave it open for MoP to surprise me on this. This section intends to point out some easy to go with choices, if need by, for specific heroic encounters.
Stat priorities Thresholds and caps The hit cap for level 93 bosses has moved down to 15% which equals ...... rating Gems One of the major changes of this expansion is the shifting in gem stats. The best quote on this matter comes from Ghostcrawler himself: Quote:
Meta gem: .... .... .... Racials In order of DPS increase(and possibly values) Orc Troll Gnome Goblin Undead Worgen Human Dwarf Blood Elf Draenei Tauren Night Elf Items This time around LFR will provide a way to get some starter gear early on(with a tad of luck) but, granted you're investing some more time, quite a bit of gear can be earned from different factions early on. Seeing that Darkmoon Faire starts on the 7th of October, I've also included the caster trinket in the list. Profiler - Wowhead Now currently information on where these Quartermasters are is a bit scarce, so here's the breadcrumbs:     Crafts ..... Trinkets The first tier provides you with the following trinkets, in their respective versions. Essence of Terror - Item - World of Warcraft Light of the Cosmos - Item - World of Warcraft Jade Magistrate Figurine - Item - World of Warcraft Also for reference the other 2 more easily obtainable trinkets for the start(leaving aside the horrendous Darkmoon prices at the start ;)) Blossom of Pure Snow - Item - World of Warcraft Relic of Yu'lon - Item - World of Warcraft Boss specific infos
The Video Section Making videos on beta content is ungrateful for most, because you simply end up never being accurate in the ever changing flow of the beta updates. Sparkuggz of Method found himself a few(more like a whole lot) of hours to record and voice several as well as record most PTR fights. As a matter of courtesy: Please note that this is PTR footage and is ALWAYS suspect to change. I'm pointing this out because that's just how it is and I wouldn't want to discredit the effort put into each of these movies, just to see Blizzard completely change stuff around days later. Use these to get a feel and impression of the class, don't use them as facts. Raiding as Destruction Raiding as Demonology Raiding as Affliction Base                    |
When I lvled through pure questing, 83, 84, 85 all took aorund 3h each, I think 84-85 was the fastest taking a little less then 3h. 80-82 has been change since I did them so I wouldn't speak of it. I'd expect quest-leveling times to be around the double on live, due to limited access to completing the quests. I'll PM you a pic of dragonmaw alliance soon!
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Archaeology Instance Buffs
You can also get group buffs from Archaeology items
Stonecore - Dwarf Rune Stone - 5% physical damage reduction Lost City - -5% crit Haven't confirmed if this buff is perm or needs to be applied each time you enter. Creating Perfect green gems is back in cata as well. |
You said dungeons won't give much faction rep - Does this means that the reputation-tabards won't give us rep until we're in heroics?
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There are a few questions that come up on a regular base, some towards end-game raiding and some towards details.
I´ll add them to the initial post soonish but I´d appreciate useful feedback, logs, approved simcrafts and explained maths before I throw them up there. Please also note that for the sake of keeping this thread clean I would also appreciate if anyone wants to add questions or add hot posts if interest you can simply PM me those, but as usual no one will keep your from posting anyway. :) Questions: Does Aftermath on RoF have an ICD? Does Aftermath on RoF have a DR(diminishing return)? Does Aftermaths RoF stun share a DR with other stuns? Does Aftermaths RoF have a DR limit(aka proc 3 times, then have an ICD)? Does Shadowburn have a use in a warlocks DPS rotation? Does Searing Pain have any use in a warlocks DPS rotation? Does at any point SoC outperform RoF as AoE? When using BoH(Bane of Havoc) with a steady secondary target, should we also dot this target with Immolate/Corruption? Would it be beneficial to "twist" the imp back and forth in a situation where BoH and a steady secondary target is used? (main and focus target for simplification) What spec(+glyphs) should a warlock use for "tanking"? How does this spec compare to other classes?(ups and downs) Does SP(Searing Pain) compete with a normal DPS rotation threat and damage wise? In which cases should I use Doomguard and in which would an Infernal be better? Does the Infernal summoning stun share DR? Is it beneficial to SB a boss-add-trash-mob(granted experience gain applies) to replenish my shard count for DPS? If no class in my group/raid provides the 5% spellcrit debuff, should a Destro warlock shoot a SB every 30 seconds? As additional note, I´ll soonish merge Warlocos first off infos into this and freshen up the styling a bit(if my fat fingers manage). #edit felguard -> doomguard obviously :/ |
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My experience with shadowburn on the beta shows thats it could be worth to use it in a standard rotation with a very high priority, right after conflagrate. Its crits lied somewhat around 35-40k last couple of raids, whilst my incinerates only crit for about 28-31k. There may be a point where at high haste and especially mastery rating most of the actual common destruction casts will surpase it, but I'm not sure about it. Do you mean stacking burning embers up on max on your primary and your bane of havoc target as well by speaking of "imp twist"? If so, I guess its haste-related a lot but may squeeze out some extra dps. Didn't tested it yet. I don't know if it was already mentioned in Warlocomotifs Thread already, but I stood under the impression that the infernal is quite inferior to the doomguard when it comes to single target and the other way round in a multitarget fight. In case the doomguard does what it should do. Of course if you want to rank - the doomguard does not show up in the logs, the infernal does instead. If shadowburn is worth a GCD even above a filler (see above) and you manage to switch targets without damage loss it should be used to replenish Soulshards whenever possible. Yes, 5% crit should way outweigh a single missing incinerate in my opinion. If the Numbers SimC 4.0 pointed out are reliable, Crit should have a very high performance in the first tier of raiding anyway. |
Hello,
my experience in the beta and I'll try to make tests as soon as I'll be able to login again. Does Shadowburn have a use in a warlocks DPS rotation? Yes it should be usable, in raid tests I had crit for an average 23k and 10k not crit. When using BoH(Bane of Havoc) with a steady secondary target, should we also dot this target with Immolate/Corruption? Never tried it, I'll take a look but it'll force to manage other timers and on raid bosses I tried, I spent my time moving and trying to not take aoe damage. In which cases should I use Felguard and in which would an Infernal be better? I use doomguard on single target boss and infernal on multi-target ...meaning almost never. If no class in my group/raid provides the 5% spellcrit debuff, should a Destro warlock shoot a SB every 30 seconds? Definitively yes. Does Searing Pain have any use in a warlocks DPS rotation? No math to prove it, but the mana cost is important (12%). Hope it helps. |
So I am sitting here looking a bit into how much hit we will need for leveling.
I am not aware of what the highest lvl mob you meet while you are leveling, but I dont think its totally out of the way saying 2 levels higher, so lvl 86 in while were are in lvl 84. That means you will need 6% hit. The combat rating for this level is 78,0128. For 6% that is 468,1308. Lets say 469 Does this seem about right or has anyone met a mob higher than 2 levels higher than themselves? |
"In which cases should I use Felguard and in which would an Infernal be better?"
Wait, what? Felguard is a pet, infernal is a guardian, that isn't a choice - You can have both up. Assuming you meant the doomguard though, the sims recently showed infernal to be better on single target, so we ought to be using that. However, blizzard have stated that this isn't the design, so I would probably expect them to bring doomguard damage up or infernal down; the design is doomguard single target, infernal AoE. Another thing to take into consideration is that sometimes, a doomguard will be more practical on account of it being ranged. As for dotting secondary targets and imp twisting, in an ideal situation, these would net you more dps - You're getting to use a spell higher up in the priority list more often, or doubling the damage from imp's embers. However, the other target might not be debuffed to take extra damage, and this might reduce that spells DPSC in comparison to what spells on the main target have, and reduce the position in the priority list when it's cast on a non-main target. Probably still a DPS increase to cast, though. There are two things you should think about before you do this though. The first is, how much does the dps on that target matter? If two things both need to be DPS'd down, then great - If the second target doesn't need to go down immediately, and the primary target is something that is more likely to be an issue if it is kept up, you might find that the dps on the second target isn't worth as much as the dps on the 1st; sure, it's worth the same on the meters, but in practice, might not be worth doing. The second thing is, how practical is it? Are you going to lose dps time on boss by trying to switch imp back and forth? How many keybinding slots do you have left to make macros to swap the imp about? Not a direct answer, but my thoughts on those questions |
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So in case you dont want to break a set/loose some special item while leveling just keep random blues in your bags and ilvl should be no problem. |
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