Warlock Simple Questions Thread: Cataclysm Edition - Page 12

Nfariessence · 01/24/11, 11:04 AM

What exactly changed from 4.0.3 to 4.0.6 that has made the Imp the de facto pet for all 3 warlock specs now? I see the change from Demon Soul: Imp moving from 60% Crit Damage to 30% Crit Chance for 20 seconds, but surely that can't make up for the delta in DPS from an Succubus vs. the Imp without Burning Embers for Demo and Affliction, right?

I ask because there are alot of odd numbers coming from the PTR test dummies right now, so many of the combat samples being taken from them are suspect.

Wyked · 01/24/11, 1:34 PM

Originally Posted by Nfariessence

What exactly changed from 4.0.3 to 4.0.6 that has made the Imp the de facto pet for all 3 warlock specs now? I see the change from Demon Soul: Imp moving from 60% Crit Damage to 30% Crit Chance for 20 seconds, but surely that can't make up for the delta in DPS from an Succubus vs. the Imp without Burning Embers for Demo and Affliction, right?

I ask because there are alot of odd numbers coming from the PTR test dummies right now, so many of the combat samples being taken from them are suspect.

It was the incorrect modelling of the succubus, notably the crit rate and it's interaction with Mana Feed, that led to the succubus being though of as best. The reason the imp is best now, is almost all specs get Mana Feed, his damage is retardedly good with the glyph, and his crit chance scales correctly, allowing Mana Feed to be a significant amount of mana returned.

Nfariessence · 01/24/11, 2:50 PM

Originally Posted by Wyked

The reason the imp is best now, is almost all specs get Mana Feed, his damage is retardedly good with the glyph, and his crit chance scales correctly, allowing Mana Feed to be a significant amount of mana returned.

I see what you're talking about with regards to the Crit chance of LoP vs. Firebolt, but do we have any kind of indicator how the Crit should be modeled? I.e., is this a bug that the Succubus' crit rate is so low, or is it pretty much set individually for each type of pet in the game and the speculation is this might be intended by Blizzard?

Also, since Affliction isn't able to get Mana Feed, (31/4/6 being as deep as they can go without giving up crucial Shadow Bolt enhancing talents), would the same reasoning occur? In parses, it looks like the glyphed Imps appear to be within ~50 dps of glyphed Succubi (excluding Burning Embers of course).

jeehad · 01/24/11, 6:35 PM

So I know how haste calcs at the end of your immo cast but how about things like int or mastery. I'm useing the volcano trink and the one from valonia say there is like 2 secs left on them should I try to refresh immo right before they drop or when the buffs fade from me will they also fade from the dots?

Thanks

Blotorch · 01/24/11, 7:06 PM

Quick query: What is the best AoE dps rotation on Maloriak adds for Affliction?

Options as I see it are:
- SB-SoC, then SoC spam
- SB-SoC, then UA spam
- SB-SoC, then RoF spam

Demonfire · 01/25/11, 1:50 AM

For Maloriak adds you want to try to stand near the spot where the adds will be tanked, that way you can also use Shadowflame after SB-SoC (and after that on cooldown). If it's above the filler for single-target although it can hit multiple targets, it can't be wrong for aoe. Other than that, SoC should be the most beneficial.

P51mus · 01/26/11, 8:27 PM

This won't matter next patch but, the improved soulfire buff doesn't increase the attack speed/cast speed of pets, correct?

Mitear · 01/27/11, 6:55 AM

Haven't seen anyone post any updates on this issue and I did a search sweep on the forums here and couldn't find any posts regarding the fix, so here we go:

Basically the sollution is pretty simple. You can't have the actuall spell "Soul Swap" from your spellbook on any of your bars. ONLY in macros.

For example, this macro below will work just fine.

/cast [nomod] Soul Swap
/cast [mod:shift, @focus][] Soul Swap

Don't use the #showtooltip tag in your Soul Swap macro either. This can cause the same problem as before, for some people.

This macro wont change icons when you inhale dots from a target, but ofcourse, it will still display the cooldown (if glyphed, obviously).

The same macro can be used for mouseover.

Copola · 01/28/11, 11:29 AM

Originally Posted by getajob92

Demo lock. A few questions.

1. Are buffs for cast-time DoTs snapshotted at the start of the cast or the end of the cast? Because I always throw out a SF at the beginning of a fight and then immediately begin to cast Immolate before the bolt has hit the target (assuming I'm not running in) and I'm never sure if the ISF buff is taken into account (as the bolt normally hits before the Immo cast is done).

2. Why do affliction and destruction (according to the threads) use Infernal for both AoE and single-target? Why is Demo any different in that respect?

The buff comes into effect when the spell actually lands. So the answer is neither since you have to account for travel time. I might suggest casting SF at the start followed by BoD to give your ISF time to land.

I was not aware that Demo is using the Doomguard, I believe the infernal is the guardian of choice Demo too. The reason why Infernal is the preferred choice is because he hits for nearly as hard and has his aura. The doomguard does hit harder but suffers from the same casting latency issues as the imp, meaning he wont start casting his next attack until the previous one is finished. These things combined cause the infernal to be the better choice.

Cochice · 01/29/11, 5:27 AM

I usually play an Enhance shaman, however I might be playing my lock as Affliction for heroic Omnotron, and I had a couple questions.

I know that on most fights, SB filler is better, and ideally I'd want to open with felhunter, Soulburn a Succy after Demon Soul and then Soulburn another felpup for 25%. However this is assuming a relatively short fight and SB filler. So here's my train of thought and my resulting questions:

-Since heroic ODS is pretty healing intensive, I'd like to play drain over bolt spam.
-Using Felpup's Demon Soul in Arcanotron puddles and multi-dotting effectively, should provide a significant boost.
-The fight is extremely long (no enrage till 4.0.6) compared to most and as such, would waste 3 or more Demon Souls swapping to Succy for the bulk of the fight.

So, knowing that it will sacrifice some dps for extra self healing, assuming that I am not swapping to Succy at all in the fight, and knowing that I'm doing only DL filler (except on Nightfall procs of course):

-Is Dark Arts going to be beneficial? If so, 2 or 3 points (2 for 1 point in emberstorm)?
-If so I assume that glyph of BoA should replace Lash of Pain?
-Am I being retarded and should I use succy anyway even though the fight will likely be 12+ minutes.

I've read through all the Aff stuff, and I don't see much discussion on heroic ODS, so I'm not sure how to value Arcanotron's puddles. All I know is that our dot classes are performing exceedingly well with them, and so I feel like felpup's DS might be worth it.

Copola · 01/29/11, 5:23 PM

Originally Posted by Cochice

I usually play an Enhance shaman, however I might be playing my lock as Affliction for heroic Omnotron, and I had a couple questions.

I know that on most fights, SB filler is better, and ideally I'd want to open with felhunter, Soulburn a Succy after Demon Soul and then Soulburn another felpup for 25%. However this is assuming a relatively short fight and SB filler. So here's my train of thought and my resulting questions:

-Since heroic ODS is pretty healing intensive, I'd like to play drain over bolt spam.
-Using Felpup's Demon Soul in Arcanotron puddles and multi-dotting effectively, should provide a significant boost.
-The fight is extremely long (no enrage till 4.0.6) compared to most and as such, would waste 3 or more Demon Souls swapping to Succy for the bulk of the fight.

So, knowing that it will sacrifice some dps for extra self healing, assuming that I am not swapping to Succy at all in the fight, and knowing that I'm doing only DL filler (except on Nightfall procs of course):

-Is Dark Arts going to be beneficial? If so, 2 or 3 points (2 for 1 point in emberstorm)?
-If so I assume that glyph of BoA should replace Lash of Pain?
-Am I being retarded and should I use succy anyway even though the fight will likely be 12+ minutes.

I've read through all the Aff stuff, and I don't see much discussion on heroic ODS, so I'm not sure how to value Arcanotron's puddles. All I know is that our dot classes are performing exceedingly well with them, and so I feel like felpup's DS might be worth it.

Without the lash of pain glyph I'm pretty sure the succubus would not be worth while swapping out for and wasting soul shards on. I would suggest just sticking with one pet or the other and using your soul shards to limit the amount of times you have to hard cast Soul Fire. SB filler and succubus has proven to be the better of the two choices as far as dps goes but if your healers are having difficulties keeping everyone alive on the fight then I would say Felhunter/drain would be good too.

Chaley · 01/31/11, 7:53 PM

I have a question about the affliction glyph choice. May I ask why Glyph of Corruption is chosen over Glyph of Bane of Agony? With the 4% proc rate on nightfall with Glyph of Corruption, the average warlock would get a instant cast SB once every 50 seconds or so which gives you close to a free GCD with the proc. Glyph of Bane of Agony however is not proc related (in case RNG hates you) and provides much stronger ticks at the end while also allowing you to cast more abilities instead of having to refresh BoA. I assume that the Glyph of Bane of Agony > Glyph of Corruption, but would defer to others here if the math proves me wrong.

• Zakalwe · 02/01/11, 1:50 AM

It takes well over 2 minutes to get a free GCD from the BoA glyph. All you're gaining beyond that is the difference between an average tick and the slightly stronger ticks at the end, but since the damage variation in BoA ticks doesn't scale with spell power the benefit from that is tiny.

Dwimmerlaik · 02/01/11, 6:56 PM

Originally Posted by Saufsoldat

I need some help with a macro. I'm trying to make my Imp always attack my own target, but when I just add "/petattack [@target]" in my Incinerate macro, the imp will interrupt and then start his cast all over every time I press the button.

It's actually in the Destruction thread:

#showtooltip SPELLNAME
/cast [@pettarget, exists] Firebolt
/cast SPELLNAME

CaseyTheRetard · 02/02/11, 12:07 PM

Originally Posted by Dwimmerlaik

It's actually in the Destruction thread:

That macro causes the Imp to cast Firebolt at its current target - it does not cause the Imp to attack the warlock's target. An Imp on passive with no target will take no action at all in response to that macro. When the warlock changes target this macro does not cause the Imp to change targets as requested.