[5.4] Demonology Warlock Guide

[Alarinth]

Just gonna support the growing consensus that as long as you have 8100 haste, it really is irrelevant / up to personal preference. I've ranked decently with all variations of haste and rest into mastery.

edit: What's your thoughts on balancing all three stats at a 33/33/33 ratio given UVLS is out of the picture, and the amplification trinket is in place? Given we can raise our stats to hit relevant haste breakpoints, wouldn't it give a lot of freedom in terms of progression spec-swapping?

[Xyronic]

At 14873 haste, in my gear, I'm sitting at 9.1k mastery. If I had the HTF Twins Staff, it would be closer to 10k mastery.

Just gonna support the growing consensus that as long as you have 8100 haste, it really is irrelevant / up to personal preference. I've ranked decently with all variations of haste and rest into mastery.

edit: What's your thoughts on balancing all three stats at a 33/33/33 ratio given UVLS is out of the picture, and the amplification trinket is in place? Given we can raise our stats to hit relevant haste breakpoints, wouldn't it give a lot of freedom in terms of progression spec-swapping?

To be fair, there is quite a large difference between ranking decently and ranking in the top 10 on multiple fights. If you want to rank on Iron Qon, for instance, you'll be hard pressed to do it without a haste-based build.

Keep in mind when it comes to UVLS - Sure, we're going to lose the on-pull proc a majority of the time. (I understand on-pull procs are super important - this is why I was going for absurd haste breakpoints such as 12891 - I'll bet noone can tell me what that is without looking at my past posts) But after the first proc, the trinket should proc exactly the same as it does on live. With the amp trinket, this still should be BiS, unfortunately. The only other build I see being viable for Demo is the crit-stacking build, but this doesnt allow for spec switching as effectively. (Or at all, for that matter)

[Zinnin]

Keep in mind when it comes to UVLS - Sure, we're going to lose the on-pull proc a majority of the time. But after the first proc, the trinket should proc exactly the same as it does on live.

The on pull proc is worth a shit ton of DPS though, it is literally the reason I'm not playing UVLS-less demo right now. I got Cha-Yes finally and was going to take a crack and not using UVLS for a week and see what was up, but upon optimizing both sims I realized just how much the pull right now is tied to UVLS. Before putting the opener into simcraft they were about 10k apart which I found to be a decent difference, but then putting the opener in that difference jumped up by 20k.

If you are getting the 100% crit 2x shadowflame, which you should if you've been out of combat long enough (or scumbag it up and not do the last trash packs) then your dps is far higher then anything you could pull off without UVLS.

On top of that you will NOT be getting 'exactly' the same procs as it on live because of the haste scaling change. If you were running a pure mastery build it might be fairly close because you had an expected amount of haste, but if you were full haste be prepared to see a marked difference in your rPPM uptimes.

UVLS will still be a very good option for Demo in 5.4, I won't argue that it will be turned worthless. However, I will argue that it has been brought in line with other trinket options with the rPPM changes and that unless the fight really supports multiple crit dooms off of a single fight (council fights) that it won't be better then more traditional trinkets.

As far as Demo goes paired with other specs, my testing over the last few days shows that as of this patch at my ilvl (550) I was getting the following stat priority on single target without UVLS: Mastery > Haste (8097) > Crit > Haste

The only time that I think crit completely overtakes mastery right now is on council fights, and I think we will be able to just use UVLS on those fights anyways.

/shrug, time will tell. WTB PTR simcraft not being completly broken for warlocks atm.

[Deleted]

With next patch removing glyph of everlasting affliction im assuming our haste desired high-gear breakpoint is going to drop from its current 14.8k?

[Xyronic]

With next patch removing glyph of everlasting affliction im assuming our haste desired high-gear breakpoint is going to drop from its current 14.8k?

Ea had nothing to do with the 14873 breakpoint. That is a shadowflame breakpoint.

[Deleted]

On top of that you will NOT be getting 'exactly' the same procs as it on live because of the haste scaling change. If you were running a pure mastery build it might be fairly close because you had an expected amount of haste, but if you were full haste be prepared to see a marked difference in your rPPM uptimes.

I think you're overestimating the role played by haste from gear when it comes to improving rPPM uptimes.

[Count Zero]

I think you're overestimating the role played by haste from gear when it comes to improving rPPM uptimes.

Well the formulas are known, it'd be pretty easy to verify just how much of a change this is for various haste levels (and haste buffs / procs / bloodlust, although I guess with the procs and lust being temporary it makes the math a bit more difficult)

[Apero]

So just for fun i was checking some logs and i realized that the initial hand of guldan damage ist not affected by meta waeving. I double checked it on a training dummy. Always the same damage, no matter if i switch instantly in meta after the cast or not. Only shadowflame gets empowered. It works with other buffs though, cast hand of guldan, use ingi gloves before it impacts, did more damage.
Chaoswave does less damage if you leave meta before it hits like always.

Can anyone confirm this? I always thought the impact damage of hand of guldan is affected by meta weaving too, not only shadowflame. Or is this a bug or something? Because this is a serious damage nerf on some aoe fights.

[Count Zero]

That reminds me -- sometimes when I try to meta weave, my second HoG is fired off as a Chaos Wave instead. This ever happen to anyone else ?

And I don't mean I accidentally hit Meta then my HoG/CW button afterward -- I mean I hit my HoG button then my Meta button, and it fires off a Chaos Wave.

I've taken to putting in just a split-second pause after HoG before Meta to prevent it. But even when I do it as fast as I can it doesn't always happen. I think latency must be involved.

[coupes]

should i drop haste for mast atm i have 14800 with raid buff but my gear is not that good tbh what do you guys think.
cant link

[Deleted]

should i drop haste for mast atm i have 14800 with raid buff but my gear is not that good tbh what do you guys think.
cant link

Read the last page or two; it's up to you and what fight you're on.

[EvreliaGaming]

I believe it's consuming charges/resources when it procs. (That includes massive fury loss and HoG charge loss when in Meta due to a Chaos Wave)

Testing this today on dummy, seems to have been fixed? Not using charges, and as far as I can tell Chaos Wave isn't using Fury either.

[Deleted]

Testing this today on dummy, seems to have been fixed? Not using charges, and as far as I can tell Chaos Wave isn't using Fury either.

But wasn't it proccing HoG instead of CW even when in Meta during the earlier builds before it got bugged?

[Woz]

But wasn't it proccing HoG instead of CW even when in Meta during the earlier builds before it got bugged?

It was indeed. Which is really a disappointment for Fury generation which is really the only appeal to the 4P.

[Xorn]

It was indeed. Which is really a disappointment for Fury generation which is really the only appeal to the 4P.

That, and you know, the extra damage and Soul Fire procs. Either it will get fully fixed to proc HoG at all times and be godly, or it will proc CW in Meta, and still be pretty damn good.

[Brusalk]

Testing this today on dummy, seems to have been fixed? Not using charges, and as far as I can tell Chaos Wave isn't using Fury either.

I think I remember it being fixed when we were testing that heroic boss with all the adds at the beginning of the fight.

Side note, holy crap is the beginning of that fight amazing. Not only was I easily able to do like 4 mil DPS at the start on those adds, but I'd end up starting the fight will full fury and 10 stacks of Molten Core.

[TyrantWave]

I think I remember it being fixed when we were testing that heroic boss with all the adds at the beginning of the fight.

Side note, holy crap is the beginning of that fight amazing. Not only was I easily able to do like 4 mil DPS at the start on those adds, but I'd end up starting the fight will full fury and 10 stacks of Molten Core.

With CW or HoG procs?

Either one I can imagine being insane.

Any chance of a vid?

[Brusalk]

With CW or HoG procs?

Either one I can imagine being insane.

Any chance of a vid?

No vid. I think I have a log somewhere on my computer.

I should note it wasn't really due to procs from what I remember; It was mostly just being Demo with pre-pull aura CoE + Felguard + Carrion Swarm.

Log of a few of our pulls: http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/a...um/damageDone/

Interestingly it looks like either the log wasn't starting till the boss was fully engaged, or WoL isn't parsing correctly.

[Xorn]

So I had the best week ever. I coin a Heroic TF Dagger off Qon, and then a trinket off Lei Shen. Really looking forward to next week.

[Bloodfire]

Concerning changes to our procs and glyphs, are we likely to replace 320 haste with 320 mastery or going pure Int instead?