Since 3.1 content is still very relevant and I don't want to shit up other thread pouring in data etc etc I'm making this thread.

What this thread is: A place to discuss ongoing and forthcoming changes to the warlock class, be it talents rotations game play new items etc.

What this thread isn't
An all inclusive pve guide to raiding in 3.2 as a warlock, this front post, most likely won't be updated period. It's not a raiding compendium, don't ask for help here, just discuss things.

Start things off

Here is immo UA and Corruption data comparing near = spellpower gear between t8 set and a t9 (245lvl) set.

t8
1415 spellpower
Immo hits 808
ticks ticks 518

corr ticks 455


full 13-58
immo hits 1139
ticks 739

53-0-18
with haunt

ua
1101
corr
1170


t9
1414 SP
Immolate hits
hits 817
ticks 528

Corr ticks 509


full 13-58
immo hits 1152
ticks 752

53-0-18
with haunt
UA
1039
Corr
1228

My guess? This set isn't finished yet, as the current bonus provides such a small difference between immo output.

Yeah, it's pretty clear just from the wording of the 4pc bonus that it is nowhere near done yet. The 2pc bonus is very nice though at least for destro. It's essentially a straight 10% crit increase. It would be like BC all over again if they made each set bonus only good for 1 spec and different ones at that.

I don't mean to come off dickish but that's clearly not what the set bonus does.

Lets look at Kel'Thuzad's Gloves of Conquest and break it down, and phrequency I don't mean to single you out here, this isn't really directed at you, more the 15-20 whispers I get a day asking me what I think of the set bonus, hopefully this will trim down some of that.

Any ways as we can see the first bonus is this:

"(2) Set: Increases your pet's critical strike chance with its abilities by 10%."

Based on the change to Empowered Imp specifically the upping of the benefit to us as copola stated it's basically an increased chance for us to crit of just under 10%. It's under for two reasons 1) do to the fact that it can double proc and you can essentially, and 2) because there is a chance (based on your crit that you would have crit any ways and there by the buff means nothing, Either way it IS in fact a large increase to crit. Assuming your pet crits roughly 13% as is in raid which would roughly yeild, I believe I saw from my last simcraft run a 10% increased critical chance, then this would be about a 7-8% chance to crit increase on top of the meaning your pet increases your crit% by 17% and that the 2 pc bonus is effectively 2% better than our current 4 pc for destro ONLY. It's still pretty terrible for affliction though it is a DPS increase.

Now lets look at the 2nd set bonus.

"(4) Set: Increases the damage done by your Immolate, Corruption, and Unstable Affliction spells by 0.011 sec."

Ok so this set bonus clearly increased damage done by your spell by what % is hard to tell from the bonus, and the time thing is in error, they've made mistakes like this in past ptr's and it's just something you have to over look. Essentially your 4pc though will do x amount more dmg than you would have with out it.

Corruption ticked for 509 with t9 and 455 with out. IE it ticks about 11% harder with the new set bonus. Thats pretty hefty increase to both aff and destro, though I'm not sure if it will make Corr worth using for destro it certainly levels out the 2 specs.

At a bare minimum it will make filling the Immolate dead zone with Corruption more attractive. Nenad has posted some numbers showing this strategy to be an approximate 20 DPS increase (without T9), but I find that it's a DPS loss in practice, perhaps due to latency.

I doubt improved imp pact will gain much traction. DPact uptime with Felguard is already easily upwards of 90%, and using imp instead of guard is a major sacrifice in personal dps relative to a spec which already sacrifices personal dps.

Yes but if your imp is critting at 50% or over, then it doesn't matter, it'll be up 90% too, and the imp is much more favorable than the FG as far as pet control and other things. Now the imp will do a lot less dmg than the FG, but it may increase YOUR damage enough.

My worries are there are no fire talents in the destro tree except for aftermath, and while good, is not amazing at all.

Is this taking into account the higher pyroclasm uptime since the crit increase will effect all destro spells instead of just incinerate from current 4 piece?

That is extremely unlikely to happen. As conflag is an instant cast you will ALWAYS be casting it after something else. Unless you're on Vezax or something or overloaded with haste there will be no time in between your previous cast and the conflagrate.

The 4 piece set bonus looks more like everlasting affliction. 0.011 increased coefficient/second of spell, 0.033/tick. 20% more spellpower scaling for corruption, 16.5% for UA and Immo.
Makes having both set bonuses about equal dps boost for any spec.

4pc has been updated.
Faction-Change Service in the Works, PTR Build 10048

Do remember to note that Imp's firebolt is 2seconds with talents, and only goes down to 1.8ish in a raid. The warlock's main spells are much faster than this in nearly all circumstances.. therefore this it does not follow for imp's 10% crit being a 10% crit buff for the warlock.

Oh sure incinerate might be 1.8ish with a lot of haste from gear, but it's going down 30% with backdraft. Chaos bolt is faster to begin with, as is immolate.

I know they've made notes about pets gaining more from hit, expertise, and spell penetration -- but I have yet to say they're gaining haste. Thus while it's a nice buff, it is probably going to come out to something like a 5 - 6% crit buff at best for destro.