Warlock: Simple Questions/Simple Answers - Page 137

Vonsid · 11/09/10, 3:39 AM

Hello, i have a question that will prolly look easy for experienced theorycrafters but not obvious for me who's just back into wow after a long break. I'm currently picking my jobs for Cata and i'd like to know what would you recommend between Jewelry (that leads to a +40 INT Bonus) or Sewing (+580SP for 15 sec, 45 sec CD) I'm only speaking here about DPS, not the money you can make with those jobs. Which one of those bonuses look more appealing to you ? I'm a destro warlock. Thanks.

Edit : Seems the SP proc provided byt the cloack enchant (tailoring) is 590. For the INT jewelry bonus, 40 seems to be the WOTLK valor, i don't have the Cata one.

Danyosh · 11/10/10, 3:00 AM

Is there a way to figure out how many caster dps you need in a raid to make the demonic pact buff necessary? My ele shaman tends to miss a lot of raids, but I honestly suck as demo so my personal dps goes up by quite a bit being destro (talking about 25 man by the way). There have been times when I was the only caster dps in the raid, so it made sense to stay destro, but I was curious if there was a set number to make the extra 4% spell power worth it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

marano · 11/10/10, 5:34 AM

Originally Posted by tscolari

I'm not sure if this is a simple quest, but for pve, what would be the best race/racial in the horde for a warlock in cataclysm (goblin and troll included)?
Does the orc's 5% pet dmg count on the demons summoned by the Bane of Doom?
goblin have the 1% haste, and that fire belt rocket (does it benefit from spell dmg/cataclysm fire bonus?)

Interesting question. I know the pet racial counts for regular minions, but does it also count for your temporary minions (infernal, doomguard and ebon imp)?

Personally I would lover to change races. I hate having to be a muscular caster just because the racials are relatively overpowered.

drmoberg · 11/10/10, 5:47 AM

Originally Posted by Danyosh

Is there a way to figure out how many caster dps you need in a raid to make the demonic pact buff necessary? My ele shaman tends to miss a lot of raids, but I honestly suck as demo so my personal dps goes up by quite a bit being destro (talking about 25 man by the way). There have been times when I was the only caster dps in the raid, so it made sense to stay destro, but I was curious if there was a set number to make the extra 4% spell power worth it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

As of 4.0.1 Totemic Wrath and Demonic Pact is +10% Spell Power and does not stack.
So when ever there is a ele shaman in the raid you can go destro.

Otherwise i would go demo since you also buff the healers..

Saufsoldat · 11/10/10, 11:58 AM

Originally Posted by drmoberg

As of 4.0.1 Totemic Wrath and Demonic Pact is +10% Spell Power and does not stack.
So when ever there is a ele shaman in the raid you can go destro.

Otherwise i would go demo since you also buff the healers..

As long as there's a flametongue totem or a mage in your raid, you'll at least have +6% Spell Power, so it might still be worth staying destro/affliction depending on your raid composition, if for example your raid lacks replenishment without a destruction warlock.

Danyosh · 11/10/10, 9:46 PM

Originally Posted by Saufsoldat

As long as there's a flametongue totem or a mage in your raid, you'll at least have +6% Spell Power, so it might still be worth staying destro/affliction depending on your raid composition, if for example your raid lacks replenishment without a destruction warlock.

Thanks for the responses. My raid always has a ret and a shadow priest, so repelenishment is not a problem. My only concern would be covering that 4% spell power, hence my initial question. None of the content is worth buffing the healers (they're bored enough with their current healing abilities lol), so I'm still wondering how many dps casters are needed to make that 4% spell power worth it?

Bahlshaab · 11/11/10, 1:10 PM

Originally Posted by Danyosh

Thanks for the responses. My raid always has a ret and a shadow priest, so repelenishment is not a problem. My only concern would be covering that 4% spell power, hence my initial question. None of the content is worth buffing the healers (they're bored enough with their current healing abilities lol), so I'm still wondering how many dps casters are needed to make that 4% spell power worth it?

For an accurate number you would need the SP scale factors for each caster in your raid. In lieu of that, a very rough estimate could be done using some warlock scale factors (these are Level 80 with BiS gear from the SimC OP).

Destro would have either 10% buff or 6% buff, the difference being 4% so:
(0.04)*(3.1634) = 0.1265 dps/SP gained or lost

Demo would have either 10% buff or would switch to Destro with 6% buff so:
Demo (1.1)*(2.5606) = 2.8167 dps/SP
Destro (1.06)*(3.1634) = 3.3532 dps/SP

So if you run as Demo you lose 0.5365 dps/SP while each Destro lock in the party gains 0.1265 dps/SP.

Then:
(0.5365 / 0.1265) = 4.2 ====> 5

So it would take 5 Destro locks *in addition* to the Demo lock to come out ahead in raid DPS.

Reeshet · 11/17/10, 2:13 PM

Lifeblood says in tooltip that it gives 240 haste rating for 20 seconds.

But when I use it on my warlock at 1406 haste rating, I go up to 1752 (+346).

I thought this was curious so I tried it naked and with some small amounts of haste and it appears Lifeblood scales with amount of haste you currently have, but NOT linearly and certainly does NOT provide 240 haste rating.

0 haste, +267 haste rating
150 haste, +274 haste rating
305 haste, +274 haste rating
507 haste, +288 haste rating
1406 haste, +346 haste rating

Edit: Added emphasis to the two tests with same + haste rating. From some very *preliminary* testing, it appears that the haste scaling from lifeblood is based on Stamina. The two tests where the haste rating stayed the same were when I added +155 haste from DFO which added 0 stamina. I'll have to rerun the tests and note how much stamina is added and removed. I didn't pay any attention to stamina when I ran initial tests.

tr0tsky · 11/18/10, 1:54 PM

Originally Posted by Reeshet

Edit: Added emphasis to the two tests with same + haste rating. From some very *preliminary* testing, it appears that the haste scaling from lifeblood is based on Stamina. The two tests where the haste rating stayed the same were when I added +155 haste from DFO which added 0 stamina. I'll have to rerun the tests and note how much stamina is added and removed. I didn't pay any attention to stamina when I ran initial tests.

it scales on max hp, not stamina. Just like the heal does. Not sure if it's intended or not.

Anthropology · 11/20/10, 6:05 PM

My question:

Is using /cast [@pettarget] macros not a DPS increase for pets besides the Imp? Would /cast [@pettarget] Lash of Pain, or Shadow Bite not also help?

Primal · 11/22/10, 8:03 PM

Anthropology, I would assume that a FG demo build is the best leveling spec, as pet specs generally allow one to blow through group quests and etc with ease. Since SL/FG isn't an option anymore, 0/31/5 is probably your best bet.

My question is kind of a silly one: is the chaos bolt glyph viable now? I currently use conflag, imp, and immolate; I'm considering dropping immolate to make room for CB, but I am not sure its ideal.

Cangiz · 11/23/10, 2:54 AM

Originally Posted by Primal

Anthropology, I would assume that a FG demo build is the best leveling spec, as pet specs generally allow one to blow through group quests and etc with ease. Since SL/FG isn't an option anymore, 0/31/5 is probably your best bet.

My question is kind of a silly one: is the chaos bolt glyph viable now? I currently use conflag, imp, and immolate; I'm considering dropping immolate to make room for CB, but I am not sure its ideal.

From a PVE Standpoint no. The DPCT of Chaos Bolt is only slightly higher than incinerate and furthermore at high haste levels, casting Chaos Bolt through backdraft procs futher reduces that as the cast time is lower than the GCD. In high haste circumstances it is actually better to cast incinerate over chaos bolt during backdraft therefore reducing the value that a cooldown reducing glyph would have.

Anthropology · 11/24/10, 10:01 AM

Originally Posted by Primal

Anthropology, I would assume that a FG demo build is the best leveling spec, as pet specs generally allow one to blow through group quests and etc with ease. Since SL/FG isn't an option anymore, 0/31/5 is probably your best bet.

My question is kind of a silly one: is the chaos bolt glyph viable now? I currently use conflag, imp, and immolate; I'm considering dropping immolate to make room for CB, but I am not sure its ideal.

That was someone else who asked about leveling specs. I posted:

My question:

Is using /cast [@pettarget] macros not a DPS increase for pets besides the Imp? Would /cast [@pettarget] Lash of Pain, or Shadow Bite not also help?

I've been thinking this over and I can't imagine why using this type of macro wouldn't benefit the non-imp pets as well. It seems that the objective of the macro is to maximize globals, and while it might be more effective with imps because of the cast time of Firebolt, wouldn't it still be worth using with the other pets?

Nokwar · 11/24/10, 5:28 PM

Originally Posted by Anthropology

My question:

Is using /cast [@pettarget] macros not a DPS increase for pets besides the Imp? Would /cast [@pettarget] Lash of Pain, or Shadow Bite not also help?

All i found concerning this is a bit old but most likely still true
Dots and you: The Affliction Warlock Thread

A 6 sec CD and 200ms latency would result in a Shadowbite roughly every 6.2 sec and erasing that latency caused delay in a gain of 1 Shadowbite every 180 sec if the macro hits the exact time the CD runs out. If you're not button mashing it's most likely somewhere between the CD and the CD+latency resulting in even less effect.

Anthropology · 11/24/10, 8:29 PM

Originally Posted by Nokwar

All i found concerning this is a bit old but most likely still true
Dots and you: The Affliction Warlock Thread

A 6 sec CD and 200ms latency would result in a Shadowbite roughly every 6.2 sec and erasing that latency caused delay in a gain of 1 Shadowbite every 180 sec if the macro hits the exact time the CD runs out. If you're not button mashing it's most likely somewhere between the CD and the CD+latency resulting in even less effect.

Thanks. Looking through that link:

Leaving Shadow Bite on Autocast would still be best. Autocast ensures that it will be used every time it's up while your macro has the potential to delay the cast when you are casting a spell with a cast time or channel time.

Is this correct? Other macro functions not restricted to the GCD seem to go off at the same time as a GCD-restricted one in the same macro.

So, I guess my new question is, if the macro does provide some benefit, is it outweighed by the input lag? Is there a way to quantify how much input lag the /cast [@pettarget] macro line causes?