muddy

Really??
I never ever use the useless imp myself. Felhunter all the way, I tank the mobs myself and just use it as a mana battery. Works great for 1-4 mobs but if I'm farming a low level instance for shards to enchant my lowbies gear I use the VW to round them up.
I just can't pass up that intel/spirit buff for some lackluster fireball and a pet that dies in one hit.
To each his own I guess.

Forgot to mention, my lock is only 76 and not raiding so maybe that's where my lack of end game exp shows. =P

 

Zasz

* Spell Disruption:

This is a 20-yard aura around Heigan the Unclean. It will increase cast times by 300%. *This was increased to 30 yards in 3.08

Source: Heigan the Unclean - WoWWiki - Your guide to the World of Warcraft

The issue here is that US client says yards, I have meters (german client). Some ppl say they can cast without range talent without getting the debuff. I doubt that the game converts yards into meters so maybe the range of the spell is a little less than 30m. Should be 27,432 meters if you convert yards into meters.

1 yard = 3 feet = 36 inches = 0,9144 Meters
30 yards * 0,9144 = 27,432 Meters

I didnt have destru range skilled until yesterday and most had the debuff most of the time since the patch.

Can anyone confirm this?

I say destroy the cosmos and ask questions later!

 

Lasthit

You can do Heigan without ranged talents, but it is a very tight positioning. I don't use any range-watchers, so I can't tell numbers, but it works.

Hint: get your tanks to move a wider circle - that has been a problem, since the casters obviously have a wall in their backs. If Heigans walks a wider circle, you should be able to (just) get in range before his debuff hits you. Requires some walking on the platform though.

 

Olla

I have not taken any range increasing talents and I find I have no problems with the debuff If I hang out at Max range on his platforms while the Melee dance.

 

rei-gouki

Heigan as had it increased. I couldn't cast for a chunk of my time with him after the patch. Our tank was highly competent from a hardcore guild with us for the social aspect. That and I run RangeFinder so I did look at it when I saw huge numbers on the cast bar. The range was 20-25 when I got hit and I was definitely safe at 30 yards. I can't confirm it yet due to the dance, but I expect that its "30 yards" is similar to the Anub'Rekhan's Locust swarm. I cast fine standing in the 28-30 yard bracket displayed by RangeFinder there. With any luck, they'll put the range back and reduce the stage size instead... but it's definitely much more work than changing one variable for a spell.

Pets, as deep Destro, I've had to go with the Imp for all groups. It started with Empowered Imp and snowballed from there. Use of other pets has been situational. Felhunter for consuming shields on mobs (HoS last boss, etc). Keeping pets alive (and sometimes actually attacking) has been a bit of a chore. I'm not that smooth with the controls on the pet but I think it's still helping up my DPS despite my stuffing around trying to call him back then send him off between casts.

For me, the group usually comes before my DPS which is why I never went Demo/Destro with sac. I would much prefer keeping the pet on passive for its utility (since it tends to die when it ventures from the warlock even with the 3.0 changes) than its DPS... but it's looking like Blizzard means to bring their original concept of warlock back rather than let it degrade further into "just another mage".

I haven't really used the Infernal or Doomguard yet. I'm starting to, though, and will shortly be looking into getting some form of "Time to Die" add on for the Infernal timing. I lucked out with King Dred yesterday when the fight finished about 5 seconds before the Infernal despawned.

 

Chinsaw

I recently saw a post where a Voids walker tanked 3d Sarth.

World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> VW tanks the hardest boss in the game

Now I would love to see Fraps of this being done. The Health Pool was amazing shown from some of the screen shots.

Anyone done this and could you explain the fight?

 

Trickykid

Using the power of the search tool, I found a thread with this post: http://elitistjerks.com/1094806-post423.html. There are other responses down the page.

 

eversilentone

Long time reader and first time poster, so thanks, all, and hey

I'm really interested in "alternative" Demo specs, and VW tanking (or off-tanking) is something I'm really interested in. I know that GC recently stated that Blizz have no intention of VW tanking to be a common thing, but that's still not put me off wanting to find out more.

Gear - seems easy, best in slot. But what is best? Obviously high +sta, but is it worth looking at other stats that you can pass on to your Voidy?

Spec - this seems to be the "common" spec, but I have no doubt we can come up with some improvements. For example, is it worth maxing out Imp Cor, and leaving Soul Siphon? I imagine that VW-tanking means that the lock is 80%+ of the time just spamming Health Funnel - so surely it makes sense to max out on the power of your DoTs whilst you're at it?

As I said, I know this may be an academic discussion depending on how much Blizz nerfs the pet health link. Also, of course, a VW is terrible at generating aggro so it's far from ideal. But as someone who a) loves demonology but is not overly enamoured of the Felguard, and b) who is in the middle of replaying WoW to see how many 5/10 mans my brother, his partner and I can 3-man each with our locks (great fun!), I'm curious.

Thanks in advance! And if anyone else is genuinely interested in some theroycraft then feel free to create a thread

ESO

 

Ghazkul

Just tanked 3D Sarth25 with a VW and had pretty good results until few unfortunate Flamewalls knocking the VW around, at which point the VW is pointed towards the raid and Sarth just breathes on everyone We ended up doing it with 2D which was no problem since I was able to figure out where exactly to place him to avoid being knocked into the raid (figures huh?)

Logged out in my VW tanking gear and spec so people can take a look/comment etc. VW had around 75k HP buffed I'm sure I can pull much more if I replace my bracers with higher stam+40 stam enchant

 

eversilentone

Thanks for the reply! Wasn't sure if anyone else was interested!

A few things:

1) I take it your spec is a more general one (i.e. you have Felguard) - what would be your VW tanking spec?
2) My lock has JC and Mining - I was hoping that the extra stamina from Mining would help. Do you think it's better to take Ench instead for the ring enchants?
3) Why the points in Destro?
4) I notice you don't have Master Summoner - is it mostly a pvp talent? Or is it that VWs are so bad at generating aggro that once they're down there's no point in resummoning one as it'll never catch up with dps?

Thanks!
ESO

 

Ghazkul

1) Honestly the spec is really only for tanking Sartharion and I only picked up necessary talents to do just that, also I thought I would be able to dps on drakes but I ended up just baby sitting the VW. I usually raid as a demo spec so this isn't a permanent thing, just more of a, "Oh wow the tank who signed up didn't show up... Oh you have a VW tanking set for 10man? Lets try that".

2) JC/Enchanting is what I have for min/maxing on actual raiding <3 Come on x3 32 spell power gem is too good .

3) So I can dps some what on trash but I don't think it really matters as long as I picked up the necessary tanking talents.

4) I didn't think it was that important of a talent when it came down to just tanking Sartharion, and if the VW dies GG raid wipes :|

I wouldn't expect the VW to tank anything else though, his threat generation is like a toddlers so I don't see it tanking anything else.

 

Kooky

An alternative meta/ruin ( 0/55/16 ) spec is sufficient for voidwalker tanking. Put in points in improved health funnel, demonic resilience ( at the expense of demonic empathy and master summoner etc ). In this way, you don't need further gimped your dps if your also raiding other instances ( unless you want to respec everytime ). You can check out my spec in the armory.

You definitely need to use a glyph of voidwalker though.

Here's the fraps - YouTube - Voidwalker tank 25man sartharion + 3 drakes

Even without improved CoW, my voidwalker never comes close to dying, except for one time where the firewall punted my voidwalker out of position and getting me and the 2 pally healers tail-lashed ( it dropped to ~20% hp ).

 

eversilentone

I was interested by this - I presumed that you'd be spamming Health Funnel the whole so not have much use for destro (and thus +crit) talents? That's why I thought going some in affliction to pick up imp CoW, suppression and whatever other dot-buffs might be useful?

Thanks for adding to this

ESO

EDIT: I was thinking something like this.

EDIT Two: Also, Glyphs: [Major] VW, Corruption and Health Funnel, [Minor] whatever!]

 

Chinsaw

Is there a good mob to practice controlling positioning of the void walker after a knock back?

I want to talk the guild into letting me tank it, before i do I want to make sure i can move him around ok.

 

Zaleiria

If you tank him from the standard location, the voidwalker seems to always get knocked away from the raid and towards the raid entrance. If your voidwalker gets thrown away from the raid in this way, it's pretty trivial to reposition: Just recall him for a second or two until he runs to where he's supposed to be standing again.

If you're really interested in VW tanking it, I really suggest watching Kooky's video above. It shows what you're asking exactly.

Edit: If for some strange reason he did knock your voidwalker towards the raid, you could run to the other side of Sartharion to reposition. Not as trivial, however, and there's probably some risk of breath on the raid. Don't think that's possible though.

 

exog

Can set up a demon portal on the other side

 

Ritzy

Does anyone know if they have or when is blizz going to hot fix the voidwalker's ability to tank sartharion?

 

• Zakalwe

They haven't. And there's been no real indication they ever will.

 

Woggle

Well, there is some indication they did not plan on the voidwalker being such a tank.

World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> Voidwalkers better sarth tanks than warriors?

So I would actually expect them to somehow nerf it, although there really is no exact answer there. Leaves some room for speculations.. It definitely has not happened yet.

 

nuibank

The wording could also mean that they plan to make encounters in the future that won't allow the VW to tank, not necessarily that they will change existing encounters or demons abilities / stats.

 

Woggle

Exactly. The thing is, none of the encounters (Illidan, Gruul, Sartharion, ...) were actually designed to be tanked by the voidwalker, it just got possible because some people were creative. I doubt Blizzard looks into every single encounter and checks if it can be tanked by a voidwalker or not. So, yeah, nobody knows yet, either interpretation is possible, I guess. Either they will hit the voidwalker with the nerfstick, or they will try to have the encounters designed such that they cannot be tanked by a voidwalker (or at least not, while it still matters - I guess no one cares now if Nefarian can be tanked by a void).

 

necrodyssee

I have trouble since a long time with the succubus... (in an affliction template)
Its Lash of pain is on a 12 sec CD and do less damage than a normal hit?

Do you have the same "problem"? is it a bug? I found it very strange...

 

Bessa

Void tanking seems to have taken a hit in 3.1, stamina scaling been reduced by 30%. dont really know how that will affect the max health of VW but it cant be good :P

 

Kooky

Yep, voidwalker hp had been nerfed in the PTR now. On live, with my stam gear ( myself having around 32K hp ), it was around 54K hp unbuff. In PTR, it dropped to around 34K.

 

Weerea

What is the VW Hp in normal gear then? unless the scaling is screwy, it sounds like the made the blueberry pretty useless again.