CW/HoG play on ST fights

[Drafty]

Hello everyone. I am looking to get a dialogue started around a topic myself and a couple other warlocks have been trying to figure out. It revolves around using CW during single target under Specific circumstances. (grimserv demserv spec)

My current approach is this on fights like Gruul, Ore, parts of Hans, etc. For most of these fights I follow the typical HoG two stack rule with one exception. I have been making sure that when Dark Soul is close to coming off CD I Will have 2 CW stacks I can cast in Meta with Dark Soul up. The results have been pretty good. On gruul I ad 6 cw casts the other night with an average hit of 106k.

The question I'm wondering is if this is the proper approach. I know since 6.1 we have a lot more freedom with fury spending so that concern is pretty non existent, especially since this spec does not glyph DS giving us a huge fury gen window.

On a smaller scale I'm wondering if using CW in the opener under all our procs would be better than using the small number of MC procs we get and finishing with ToC till we are forced out of Meta in opener.

Let me know if you guys have played around with these scenarios and please provide some feedback.

[nerdzrool]

I haven't done the math myself but reiterating what other people have said, HoG is almost always the answer over CW in single target scenarios since in addition to similar damage it also allows more fury gen. However, I believe the 4 piece changes that up a bit since HoG doesn't stack 3 times (still extends duration obviously), and since we can randomly generate charges you want to avoid capping. We still want to keep shadowflam at 2 stacks as long as possible, ideally you want it at its max length before going into the Meta/DS rotation since then the DoT itself benefits from the increased mastery damage of DS and continues to generate DF/MC. Since DS lasts 20s without the glyph you are guarenteed to generate at least 1 charge during the duration and could possibly generate another if you get lucky. If you end up with 3 charges during meta/DS you are definitely going to want to use one for a CW so you don't waste a charge.

As for the opener, I've had best success with prepot + precast SF > HoG (1) -> grimoire -> corruption -> HoG (2) -> DS/meta -> CW (3) -> SF

Spending additional time in caster for the 3rd HoG seems to waste a lot of prepot time if you want to optimize the DoT, and also runs the risk of not generating an MC charge whereas using CW early gives a guaranteed charge and a lot of damage on it's own.

Please prove me wrong.

[Drafty]

I was thinking purely from a damage perspective while you have DS up and in Meta. I am not suggesting to always use CW over HoG, I'm only trying to figure out if using CW in those DS + Meta windows is worth it over using those stacks on HoG either before or after that DS + Meta window.

Since the ST spec does not use the glyph of DS, building fury for dumping on buffed MC procs is not an issue for me honestly. I was just wondering that if over the course of a ST fight, would using CW's in the DS + Meta portions of the fight (i.e. Every 2mins + 1 additional phase with AD) prove to be a gain over just always using them on maintaining the longest possible 2 stack of HoG.

Also, I do not have the 4pc. I know that changes the equation a bit, but the number of charges should not determine whether or not using CW's for every DS + Meta phase is a gain or loss in dps over the course of a fight.

[Deleted]

this very question is being answered in the demonology guide section.