Here's a mod question (because I'm considering writing it myself if I can't find something like this)...

My current gear is solely heroic/badge (working on 10- and 25- loot). I have some room for improvement on my 5-man gear, but I can definitely hit-cap myself through talents and gear, even if I don't have any raid buffs. What I have difficulty with, from PUG group to PUG group, is determining what level of +hit I *should* have, as I take the +damage hit you'd expect from stacking.

My first attempt at this was to use Power Auras to drop some overlays on my HUD to let me know what buffs/debuffs were on targets. I'd have one set of arcs for +damage buffs (Ebon Plague/Earth and Moon/CoE), another for +hit buffs (Improved FF, Misery), and a third to let me know if I had a shaman in my party (Heroic Presence). This works to some extent, but PA doesn't check talents, so the IFF check isn't foolproof. It also doesn't take my own talents into account, as I plan to start trading out talent points.

What I'm looking for is a simple informational mod which will scan a mob's +hit debuffs (and the talents of the players putting them up) and display the 'hit rating to cap' value (and percentage). This can range freely anywhere from 17% down to 10%, so having something that calculates it cleanly and with a minimum of user interaction would be best. If nothing like this exists, I'll have to dust off my frame-building skills and take a stab at it myself, I guess--or just keep eyeballing with Power Auras and set up ItemRack sets for every hit% between 10 and 17...

You've probably got this question a million times but just for clarification: Does or does not Imp. Shadow Bolt increase the damage of your shadow DoTs? And how much would you rank it between for example putting points into MC and Cataclysm?

If you are going for a destruction build 2/13/56 or a hybrid that uses MC...Since you are casting dots to keep MC up, would you recommend ignoring Destructive Reach? If you are not going to be at max range because you have to be at 30 yds to keep Agony up, per say, then why take it at all? and would that justify losing the threat reduction?

There's no point in taking it other than for the threat reduction, but threat shouldn't be an issue except for on malygos anyway. If you find something better to spend it on, do it.
The range talents are a big flaw in our trees. In my opinion they should bake it into Bane which every build uses.

Supplicum: The tooltip clearly says "increases your shadow damage" not "increases your non-period damage". However, you are correct about it not increasing DOT damage.

Should you cast Haunt everyone time it's off CD?
Ignoring talents like Imp SB and Ruin, I get these stats:

Haunt

((645 + 753) / 2) + (2 100 * 0,4729) = 1 692

1692 / 1.5 = 1128

Shadow Bolt

((690 + 770) / 2) + (2 100 * 0,8571) = 2 530

2530 / 2.5 = 1012

With Ruin, I'd say they would be even in terms of DPCT. (Imp SB affects Haunt aswell). It would be useless to cast Haunt prematurely when you reach GCD cap (Bloodlust etc).
I've seen it discussed to little detail in the beginning of this thread, but I don't think I saw any math which concluded that SB was the best choice?

One more question: Does Haunt have 150% crit bonus, and SB 100% with Ruin? If so, that would make Haunt even more powerfull.

No, Haunt crits do 150% damage, SB does 200% with Ruin. SB is significantly better DPCT than Haunt, especially at higher gear levels, but I wouldn't necessarily say the difference is enough that you should risk Haunt falling off in order to cast an extra SB.

No, it doesn't.

It doesn't stack with Earth & Moon or Ebon Plaguebringer either.

If you have two Locks, the second should use CoA.

Lovely. our lock was convinced we should bring 2 because it "Dose" stack.
Thanks to you guys for sorting it out.

I am just wondering if pandemic is still shit. From what I have seen it does very little dmg (4% usually)

Also could some one link me what they would consider the perfect raid Aff Spec? I think I have it, but there is a bit of an arguement going with the other locks in my guild.

Lastly, if you are specced Aff (but not specced imp fel hunter) what pet is better? (I don't spec imp fel hunter b./c I never use the mana from my pet.)

Oh also, is there any definitive answer to whether or not an aff. lock should be using Immolate or not? Is it situational, use it always?

Dots and you: The Affliction Warlock Thread

Forget Suppression and IMO Eradication as well. If you're going with the imp a lot, Demonic Power or Imp. Imp could be a valid choice, otherwise Molten Core is another option.

There is some good discussion on the Dots and You thread.

When I run simulationcraft Molten Core is richly rewarded with one or two points. It doesn't "decay" in value the same way Eradication does, and Immolate should almost always be cast.

apologies if this is somewhere, I could not find it:

for 0/41/30, what's roughly the difference in DPS for using COE vs COA? Most of the posts I read said to use COA in the rotation as it can cause MC every 2s, but I raid many times as the only warlock and feel I should probably use COE. In my recount tests on patchwerk, I seem to do a bit better with COE, but that seems to go against what I read here.

I've been using a felguard, and my rotation has been COE/corr/immo/incin spam

I'm wondering if I should be doing CoA/immo/incin spam? Or maybe something else?

Any comments are appreciated.

1. If I have a demonic sacrifice buff up, would I lose it if I summon a doomguard or inferno?
2. Based on these two scenarios, which would you assume would yield more dps?

A: Imp with an additional 65% bonus increase to his damage. OR
B. An additional passive 10% bonus increase to your fire damage; with no imp.

(What I mean by passive is that it's always there, it doesn't depend on having MC procced, or anything like that.)

You'll do more damage personally if you're using Corruption, CoA, Immolate, and Incinerates.

You will have to find out if the damage you do with CoA is less than or more than the increase in raid DPS by having up CoE. You can even model that exact scenario in Simulation Craft with the other DPS casters and see what impact it has. Due to group composition, gear levels, and spec, it isn't a question you answer with a flat "yes/no" or "if you have two casters do this," since there are a lot of variables in play.

Glyphed CoA is better than Corruption for Molten Core uptime. Both is better still. Don't forget the value of individual DPS and don't be afraid to change mid-fight. If you're flying solo as a Warlock you'll possibly have occasion to change your curses now and then depending on what is currently available. If you lose your armor reduction debuffer, CoR may be a better curse than the any of them. CoE for caster-heavy groups without an Unholy DK or Boomkin/Shadow Priest.

Well, the true answer to this question comes from first answering this question:

Do you have any unholy DKs or balance druids in your raid? It seems like your guild has the DKs (this is a far more common scenario than the balance druid, usually); if so, then you shouldn't be using CoE, as that damage bonus is being taken care of for you. You don't have to worry about the DPS ramifications.

If you don't have either of these, then (as mentioned) you have to consider the raid DPS bonus versus personal DPS bonus from CoA. CoE wins this contest pretty handily if you have any reasonable amount of caster DPS to boost by 13%.

EDIT: Might as well ballpark why:

You say you want CoA in order to proc Molten Core more quickly, but all that does is give you 250-odd DPS from the curse and 10% more fire damage 75%-100% of the time. Let's say that's another 400DPS, so going CoA/destro would raise your personal DPS by about 650.

If you used CoE and Corruption instead, you'd be taking a hit on more refreshes, but your total DPS would be boosted by 10% (assuming your normal rotation is 4000DPS, that's 400DPS already) *and* you get the MC procs. In reality, your personal DPS would go down slightly from more Corruption casts, but if you have even one other caster in your raid, the bonus their DPS gets from your curse makes the raid benefit clearly superior.

EDIT 2: 13%? Destruction warlock is destruction. Oopsie.

Does anyone know the exact scaling of Life Tap from spirit?

This should answer your question : Life Tap - Spell - World of Warcraft.

Alright as a fresh 80, I'm going to test out my luck with the 0/41/30 build. Just wondering, but what stat should I primarily focus on (eg. Crit, Pure spell power, haste)? I'm already assuming Hit > All until capped, but I'm not sure where to go after that.

And does anyone have any good "benchmarks" that I should try to reach by the time I start Naxx-10 using this build?

spellpower, haste, crit. in that order, unless mr.leulier's spreadsheet or simcraft claims otherwise. Grats on the ding!

Hi there. I currently raid with another affliction lock (with similar gear, I actually slightly outgear him by stats), we use the same rotation, but I am consistently getting destroyed by him in DPS every single fight. I cannot figure out for the life of me what I'm doing wrong or not doing right...

He is ahead of me in DPS 400-900 DPS per fight.
For an example, patchwerk. I (fully flasked, all out, food, etc) hit around 4000 DPS... He was closer to 5000. I use a DoT timer and to my knowledge, my dots hardly ever have downtime and stay up for their full duration.

What could explain such a gap in our DPS? My DPS isn't bad by any means, but the other lock is proof that I'm not doing something to the best of my ability.

Spec: 54/0/17
Glyphs: SL, Immolate, CoA
Rotation: SB, Haunt, UA, Immolate, CoA, Corruption, SL, SB, Haunt, SB, SB, UA, Immolate, etc, etc (soul drain <25% as filler)
Stats (completely unbuffed, no self buffs at all): 1730 sp dmg, 11.53% crit, 12.39% hit, 14.55% haste

Edit: I use felhunter and 2pc