Warlock Simple Questions Thread: Mists Edition - Page 6

Amirawr · 10/30/12, 4:13 PM

Thank you for the information i'll have to try this out and see where my dps is at. Another question for the Elegon fight if we're out of shards should we still apply dots on the sparks or just use MG to try to down it as soon as possible? For the 10man fight it seems like my dots aren't really doing anything if i have to manually apply all 3 dots before using MG.

Solipsist · 10/30/12, 5:13 PM

I have a question regarding spell hit. I have been talking with a fellow Warlock in my guild, and he has recommended that I reforge my spell hit below 15.00%, since Pandemic provides a much larger refresh window, allowing for more time to react to misses. Even in the case of Unstable Affliction, a Warlock has approximately 7 seconds to react to a miss, assuming the missed spell is cast with the intent of landing right at the edge of Pandemic's refresh window. His assertion is that the additional secondary stats gained by reforging below raid boss spell hit cap offsets the extra GCD required to re-cast a spell in the event of a miss, since worrying about the DoT actually falling off is now essentially a thing of the past.

This seems to make sense to me, however I asked a few high-end raiding Warlocks about this, and they all disagreed and insisted that I should go for spell hit cap (not including Will of the Emperor, of course). Now I know in the past that spell hit cap was somewhat a matter of preference, but with the addition of Pandemic, it seems that in order to min/max your dps, you should be going below spell hit cap for those extra secondary stats.

So: should I go for spell hit cap, or should I reforge below it? Is there even a definitive answer to this question yet, or is it still a matter of preference? Thanks in advance for any advice.

Vondem · 10/30/12, 5:52 PM

Just wondering: when renewing agony, is it better to clip the dot with about 1 second left to maintain the 10 stacks? And should I let Corruption run off before renewing it, as well as timing my UA cast to hit as soon as it runs off in order to avoid dot clipping?

EDIT: As I read the previous post, I feel that I am missing something about the new pandemic mechanic... would refreshing the dot halfway through its duration still prevent dot clipping?

Seems like an obvious answer of yes to maintain the higher damage, but just wanna make sure.

Also, some people say that reforging/gemming for the hit cap (15% or ~5100 rating) is actually a DPS LOSS as opposed to reforging/gemming for mastery. I understand that this is the beginning of the expansion and that once I start snagging more 489/496 pieces I shouldn't have much of a problem reaching the cap, therefore freeing up some room for increasing mastery.

Thanks all! Look forward to hearing what you guys have to say.

Balzakius · 10/31/12, 10:46 AM

Originally Posted by Amirawr

Thank you for the information i'll have to try this out and see where my dps is at. Another question for the Elegon fight if we're out of shards should we still apply dots on the sparks or just use MG to try to down it as soon as possible? For the 10man fight it seems like my dots aren't really doing anything if i have to manually apply all 3 dots before using MG.

First off, the best thing you can do on sparks is help everyone kill their own. Doing this perfectly takes some decent timing, but you can at least get half of it right every time.

Take the talents Mannoroth's Fury and Harvest Life. Before the sparks come out, refresh your DoTs on Elegon, then cast SoC, then immediately cast SS:SoC (it won't overwrite it). Once the sparks are out, cast HL on Elegon. Your two SoCs will burst and damage all the sparks and spread Corruption on them. At the same time, your Harvest Life will be damaging all the sparks and the boss.

It really helps bring them down. Just have a tank or another ranged DPS work on your own and help him clean it up. Corruption should be on it, so you can MG or Fel Flame if it's about to drop.

Another nice thing about this is you're getting SS from all the Corruption ticks.

To answer your question specifically, it depends on how much time is left on it and if anyone is helping you. I haven't really spent much time working on just one spark. I would try to avoid wasting any SS on it until you are close to not being able to drop one.

Balzakius · 10/31/12, 11:03 AM

Originally Posted by Solipsist

So: should I go for spell hit cap, or should I reforge below it? Is there even a definitive answer to this question yet, or is it still a matter of preference? Thanks in advance for any advice.

The technically correct answer, according to simcraft, is that Haste and Mastery are worth more than Hit. You will gain more DPS by putting points in Haste and Mastery than in Hit.

However, simcraft comes to this conclusion by parsing thousands attempts and telling you what's better overall. You will see more RNG this way. One attempt you may not miss and have high DPS, next attempt you might have several.

And while a little swing in your DPS isn't a huge problem (but it is frustrating), if you're missing at a key phase of the fight, like missing a couple Haunts during a burn phase, you are really hurting your chances at bringing down the boss and progressing, which is really the whole point, not just pushing big numbers.

I think it comes down to personal preference. I try to get it close to capped, but as long as I'm over 14%, I'm happy.

Balzakius · 10/31/12, 11:06 AM

Originally Posted by Vondem

Just wondering: when renewing agony, is it better to clip the dot with about 1 second left to maintain the 10 stacks? And should I let Corruption run off before renewing it, as well as timing my UA cast to hit as soon as it runs off in order to avoid dot clipping?

Never let Agony drop off, as you want to keep it stacked at 10. As long as the DoT is under half it's normal duration, you can refresh it and you won't be clipping it. The remaining duration will added to the DoT, thanks to the Pandemic talent.

Nagassh · 10/31/12, 12:39 PM

Originally Posted by Vondem

Just wondering: when renewing agony, is it better to clip the dot with about 1 second left to maintain the 10 stacks? And should I let Corruption run off before renewing it, as well as timing my UA cast to hit as soon as it runs off in order to avoid dot clipping?

Dot clipping under normal circumstances doesn't really exist anymore, and iirc hasn't existed since some time during Cata (correct me if I'm wrong - I believe dots were made to add the last few tick if refreshed shortly before dropping off, hence COD with above 1min duration etc), pandemic has made the situation even more lax.

Agony should never be allowed to fall off, ever. Having to let it ramp up to 10 again is a dps loss.

The only time other dots (corruption and unstable affliction) are potentially worth letting drop off is if they were cast with large buffs up (trinket procs etc), thus refreshing it early would make the ticks weaker. Likewise refreshing it earlier with huge buffs can be a dps gain.

When it's ideal to refresh dots is impossible to give a static answer to, it's entirely dependent upon what buffs you had when the last application was cast, and what buffs you have when casting the current application, but letting them drop off is rarely the correct answer, and never in the case of agony.

ax222 · 11/01/12, 8:59 AM

Take the talents Mannoroth's Fury and Harvest Life. Before the sparks come out, refresh your DoTs on Elegon, then cast SoC, then immediately cast SS:SoC (it won't overwrite it). Once the sparks are out, cast HL on Elegon. Your two SoCs will burst and damage all the sparks and spread Corruption on them. At the same time, your Harvest Life will be damaging all the sparks and the boss.

Sorry, didn't understand, Why will Corruption spread on sparks after their spawning?
May be, you meant damage from detonation?

Turboteckel · 11/01/12, 10:11 AM

Because of Soul Burn: Seed of Corruption. If you use it just before Draw Power is ending the explosion should happen when the Sparks are in their starting positions, putting Corruption on each Spark. Similarly to spreading DK diseases etc.

Also a regular Seed of Corruption and a soulburned one don't overwrite eachother.

turturin · 11/01/12, 6:34 PM

Originally Posted by Balzakius

Take the talents Mannoroth's Fury and Harvest Life.

No. Harvest life is a waste. Your seeds are going to explode almost instantly due to the dmg increase provided by the bubble. You should have dark regeneration for this fight, it's particularly good for soaking total annihilation in heroic (in combo with dark bargain)

For Charges
1. Keep dots rolling
2. Soulburn: Seed of corruption with about 2.5 seconds on the draw power cast bar.
3. Spam seeds into Elegon until the sparks are dead (reset your stacks according to your guild's timing/strat of course).
4. Refresh dots and repeat for next set of adds.

Turboteckel · 11/02/12, 7:09 PM

Can someone tell me how Corruption's damage is calculated?

If I have no gear on and no buffs / debuffs, with only the Relic of Yu'lon equipped then according to the character screen I have:

1188 SP
24.80% Mastery
0% haste
2.17% crit

The ingame tooltip says that Corruption then does 5076 damage

According to wowhead Corruption does 1926 (+ 20% SP)

The only way I can get close to that number is by doing the following.
0,2 * 1188 = 237,6
9 * 237,6 = 2138,4
1926 + 2138,4 = 4064,4
0,2480 * 4064,4 = 1007,9712
4064,4 + 1007,9712 = 5072,3712

Which is probably the wrong way of calculating it. Though the error may also lay in me not rounding off properly. Either way, I would like to have some idea on how to properly do it.

Trying to find out what's happening in this thread: Why doesn't corruption update correctly...

• Zakalwe · 11/02/12, 7:18 PM

That's basically correct, yes - the discrepancy is due to a rounding error at wowhead. The actual base damage per tick is 213.641, they're rounding that up to 214 for some reason.

)@rth · 11/04/12, 10:57 PM

I have some questions regarding optimizing Doomgaurd.
I didn't know until recently that Doomgaurd benefits from lust now and that he has an execute like us and also that you don't need to wait for all procs to summon him because he updates dynamically. This is all true, right?
So my question is, in a fight where obviously there is no weakened/burst/important phase on boss. When is the best time to use him?
A. At the start when all your CD's/procs are up, and prepot and lust(granted your lusting at the start) or
B. At the end during execute phase, when you won't have all your procs, perhaps 2nd pot and no lust.
C. Simply do it whenever your are lusting, be it at the start or in execute or if your raid needs it on some special phase.

I tried searching for this but couldn't find any answer anywhere.
Thanks in advance.

mannaroth · 11/06/12, 7:10 AM

What's the deal on Windsong vs Jade Spirit? Jade Spirit sims higher in almost all situations, yet some are claiming that Simcraft does not accurately model its uptime and that they are getting more procs, maknig Windsong better. I've noticed a few lock, including Gobuchul, switch to Windsong recently. Is there any situation where Windsong is conclusively better?

• Zakalwe · 11/06/12, 10:26 AM

I've never switched from Jade Spirit to Windsong - I switched from Power Torrent to Windsong when they introduced the new RPPM proc mechanics for Windsong. The only reason I'm not using Jade Spirit is that I'm cheap and poor and it's only a few hundred DPS better.