You would be correct DS becomes the filler spell sub 25%, and I have had SE fall off because haunt has a really slow travel time and I cut it too close every now and then. It only happens if I’m the only aff lock because if you run 2 of them both locks SB and Hanut spells refresh SE.

But from what I understand, only 1 warlock benefits from SE?

was that confirmed or not? We have run 2 and we arnt close enough in DPS for me to say YES 10% difference only 1 of us gets SE.

Honestly, I don't know. I guess the nay-sayer in us all has kept this "fact" alive. That plus the various other debuffs (in other classes) that also have a similar issue.

Unless somebody can beat me to it, I'll try to do a couple tests tonight if I have some time:

A) Do 2 Warlocks benefit from SE?
B) If they do not, can a 2nd Down-ranked SE be applied?

I tested on a target dummy with a fellow guild warlock a week or two ago. It seems that at least on target dummies, Shadow Embrace was only applying to the person who first applies the debuff.

Ok so I like DSing below 25% but i find it very cumbersome. Mostly that if you aren't pulling it off correctly it would be a dps loss versus SB spam. That is to say, mob drops below 25% and you cast DS wait 3 seconds (lets use unhasted numbers here) and you get a DS tick. Up until now we've seen a DPS increase over SB spam. The problem becomes lets say you have 2 seconds left on your UA and it is the only dot needing refreshing. Well you could wait another 3 seconds to get your next DS tick before refreshing UA or cast it right away clipping UA and getting the next DS casted .5 seconds sooner or sit there and wait .5 seconds before refreshing UA to avoid the clip.

So I am nit picking here so I'll ask a useful question. Does anyone have a good addon or maybe chat solution that can flash your DS ticks across the screen/chatbox for you the second they hit? SCT is ok but sometimes range and camera angles prevent you from really looking at numbers spamming above a boss' head. KNowing exactly when your ticks are going to happen can save you losing 1-2 seconds of DS progress when you stop to refresh buffs.

Also someone mentioned above that DS doesn't benefit from haunt? Can this be confirmed? Not that it would matter a whole lot because you still want it up full time but good to know regardless.

Regarding drain soul below 25%, has anyone tested to see if the modifiers from Soul Siphon are applied at the start of the channel and remain constant, or if the channel ticks change as DoTs fall off? What about trinket procs or on use effects?

I have two somewhat random ideas about this. The first is that it may be beneficial to allow the lower damage DoTs to fall off if the individual channel ticks aren't and only apply after Drain Soul is finished. The second is the potential viability of swapping from CoA to CoD below 25% to allow for more filler time. That should be determined by CoAs contribution to your DPS below 25% vs. how many additional DS ticks you could get with fewer spells to refresh, but I haven't done enough research to start calculating that. Any ideas?

The only problem with switching to CoD below 25% is if it doesn't go off. Plus you are going to be missing out on the 12% shadow increase from Death's Embrace.

I've done some testing in live raids with Drain Soul as the filler before 25% and I'm not impressed. I'm waiting on the WWS to be posted but I think missing out the constant Shadow's Embrace refresh is hurting dps.

just curious, is the 25% DS the secret to 5k dps on patchwerk?

I'm wondering how to reliably control DS ticks...

Usual scrolling combat text is not too comfortable to track. I can't find an option to separate DS ticks from other damage sources.

A plug-in for Quartz that cuts the channelling cast bar into small parts representing each tick would be godsend!

How do YOU handle it?

I modified MSBT to only show drain soul ticks, there's no reason to see all the other damage anyway.

Sombody told me that there is a bluepost about the Shadow Embrace Bug, and that they arfe going to fix this with the nex patch. Could somebody confirm that or even better give me a link to this post?

No but it helps, Gear, skill (perfecting the rotation) and raid comp are more important. There is like a 600 DPS difference between having an ele shaman/OOMKin and not having them.

The only fight where DS might not be as good is Lotheb, if you have a high enough crit rate and Haste you can actually out DPS drain soul with SB spam

I did that and also associated an audible ding when the drain soul ticks. Hear the ding.. time to refresh DoTs. Also along these same lines I created a trigger that notifies me when the target's health is below 25% and pops a message to begin Drain Soul. Those two things made my use of DS below 25% stellar.

Khar

I apologize for not responding sooner, but I became a father last Thursday, so I've been absent. That said, I think I'm going to be making a few changes thus far:


-Initial rotation can vary depending on the "type" of pull being done on the boss.
-Mention using DS over shadowbolt as filler below 25%

I'm not going to mention the SE bug, because it's something that should be fixed hopefully in the next patch.


Anything else major I should change or that I missed?

The SE bug is that SE only affects the first warlock who put the debuff up, correct?

How do you modify msbt to show the DS ticks?

Main Event:
Periodic Skill Damage (DoT)
Event Conditions:
Source Unit Affiliation - Is Equal To - You
Skill Name - Is Equal To - Drain Soul

notification if the mob is below 25% health:

Main Event:
Health Change
Event Conditions:
Unit ID - Is Equal To - Target
Threshold - Is Less Than - 25
Unit Reaction - Is Equal To - Hostile

I think someone mentioned it before, but how exactly do you modify your Quartz casting bar to add notches or lines to when the DS is going to tick?

I dont think anyone mentioned how, just how good it would be if you could

Is there a way to do it with msbt?

Also thanks for the hints senomar!

I'm trying to set up a similar audible/visual thing with Power Auras. I have a poweraura now that lets me know when a mob is under 25%, but I'm not sure how to go about making it work when an ability does damage, because drain soul is a channeled ability, I dunno if it can do it. Anyone else use powerauras?