Eradication uptime(assuming you're putting up all three dots):

(1-.85^8) = 72.7%

Not sure how to scale it for the 10s cooldown...multiply by .8? Seems that would throw an artificial wrench in the mix that you can't really model mathematically. Probably can assume an average of 10% haste all the time.

Basically all chance-per-second procs with fixed cooldowns can be reasonably modeled by the Exponential distribution shifted by the cooldown time, it is still fairly easy to model but you have to use an integral.

I believe Decimate will lead to some fantastic burst finishers by Destro locks, perhaps to the point where a pure nuke based destro lock build will be arena viable. (though there will still be the issue of survivability).

Decimate opens up really cool and interesting combos which could potentially change an existing step and/or strat in arenas. For example, we all know when dealing with classes like paladins and mages (immunities) that it is a gated step in flushing out the trinket and the immunity so that the paladin can be open to CC and/or more burst. With Decimate, this dynamic could change. No longer will we have to wait out the immunity (secs are worth thousands of gold in arena, and the fact that you have to essentially 'wait out' the immunity could mean all the difference when in an arena match). Previously, you were heavily dependent on a priest to mass dispel the immunity to be able to continue a burst.

But with Decimate, you can assure a successful burst on an opponent, depending on, naturally, when the paladin decides to bubble. If he bubbles too late (i.e his health is less than the damage done by, say, Soulfire) then you are guaranteed a successful burn, if he bubbles too early, then we are back to square one. Either way, it will force pally/mage teams to really think clearly about when/why they are bubbling during a focus burn, hence, dividing the skilled pallies from the non-skilled ones, even further.

Furthermore, it also adds an interesting dynamic to the warlock. Do you decimate cast a soulfire and have your shadow tree still available for fears and stuff? Or do you decimate cast a shadowbolt, effectively knocking out your shadow tree for the next 3 secs (hence, no fear, no deathcoil etc), but have the shadowbolt perhaps do more damage due to the benifits it gets through talents, curses, saccing pets etc (assuming a decimated sbolt will still get the extra benifits, even though its chaos damage).

Add to this the pew pew factor of a backlash procced insta sbolt, followed by insta soulfire. Its like burst on crack!

Seduce > sbolt > immo (while sbolt is on its way) > shadowfury > searing pain (during the stun) > shadowflame > conflag > shadowburn > decimated soulfire

Can you say "ouch!"? And imagine if you get lucky and have taken pyroclasm (26% chance to stun on soulfire for 3 secs, NB, even impact specced fire mages have less of a chance to stun!)

We're looking at some serious...destruction!

Bah at the cooldown on Decimate. 0/21/50 it is until they change things.

It definitely does look like they're trying to push Destruction away from being so reliant on Life Tap. You'll be choosing between 26% more effective healing or 240 Spell Damage and 39% mana regen while casting. Even without the mana regen, I think most Destruction Warlocks would choose the latter.

I was hoping Affliction got a 51 pointer makes us want not to get Ruin, just like the fresh start of TBC, 41/0/20 or any variants involving UA.

Seems in wotlk it all boils down to this : to Ruin or not to Ruin
Just like what other have said, 21 destruction is too damn powerful not to spec into. ( now with +hit talents )
If Atrocity is the 51 affliction pointer, Ruin has already won.
Metamorphosis, datamined as a 45sec buff with a 5min cd, hopefully works as a lock's "execution time".

Talents aside, I am very interested in the new possible spirit changes. Lifetap was always included in any rotation, reducing the amounts needed to lifetap = more time to dps.

Either the imp can dps in phase shift mode or some other change, I can't see Empowered talents working with an imp that will get 1shotted due to any aoe/splash damage. I doubt Blizzard will change their aoe damage in raid environment just to have an imp on 100% dps time duty :P

PS : Don't nerf Ruin, buff the other trees

Demology + ruin looks interesting, but now that we can get both a felguard and ruin it doesnt make much sense to have your imp as a dps pet. Unless the imp gets some huge survivability buff (from the demon trainer) I dont see how we're suppose to keep it alive. The 2pt5 talent is great, and the extra amor and stamina, but I doubt that will be enough to avoid 1-shots on aoe abilities. With the added group buff I also think we'll get "doomed" to using this pet. But again.. dead pets cant buff. I find it all a bit strange.

I used an 8s window to see how many dot ticks there would be, which is where I got the exponential, 8.

Are you saying I should have used a 10s window instead?


BTW, an eradication/Empowered Imp build might be fun. More burst than you can shake a mage at.

How could you get 10 ticks in 8s? it would take 3 dots 9 seconds just to get 9.

Curse of Agony ticks every 2 seconds.

0 CoA ticks, Corruption ticks, Siphon ticks, 2 CoA ticks, 3 Cor/Siph tick, 4 CoA ticks, 6 All three tick, 8 CoA ticks. 11 in exactly 8 seconds actually.

Heh, shows how much I use that spell. I would still just average it out a typical 8s period

1 - 0.85*(16/3+4) = 78%

Though, I don't get why people are saying it's overpowered. With the 10s cooldown, you can assume it's around 12% haste over time.

For a fire destro build, I would say emberstorm is better than that.

Empowerment is 15 second duration (so 25% uptime) I updated it in the post... It may not even be worth using if it triggers your global cooldown, I think it's main purpose is for the anti-stun/slow.