Grim/Destructive Reach

[Newfrontier]

Hello everyone.

I've been reading these forums a lot lately, mainly to gather other peoples insight into talent builds and one thing i've noticed in most builds is that many of them are marked with grim/destructive reach as mandatory spells. I have to admit that after TBC was released I became a lot more inactive then i had been before so i haven't really gotten to know the lvl 70 PvE endgame at all. Personally i would like to spend those 4 extra points somewhere else, but what i wanted to know are 1) Are these spells really mandatory and 2) If so, why? Are there some encounters where you need to stay further away from the boss/mob then you could do without grim/destructive reach?

Hope to see some replies

Newfrontier

[Dylobäm]

the threat reduction on destructive reach is great about grim reach, don't know, in ssc it was always better to be far away from the green swamp lords...

[Dismas]

In addition to the problem of needing both for Affliction, there is the problem with Blood Pact and Fel Intelligence...Blizz wants our pets to be more active in damage yet the buffs are only 20 yards...40 yards would not be unreasonable.

[Spuck]

Well yes, the Swamp Lords in SSC (as said), but also a boss in Hyjal requires >30yrd range. There's plenty of encounters that are a lot easier when you can stay at a range of over 30 yards.

If you're Affliction (and you raid with say 2 or 3 other locks), you might just wanna stick to DrainLife if the encounter requires the extra range. (The extra DoTs from other locks will boost your DrainLife by a lot.) That way you don't need to go very deep in to the Destruction tree.

[Varithorn1]

If you're Affliction (and you raid with say 2 or 3 other locks), you might just wanna stick to DrainLife if the encounter requires the extra range. (The extra DoTs from other locks will boost your DrainLife by a lot.) That way you don't need to go very deep in to the Destruction tree.

Never ever ever use drain life as your main source of damage. Also, any serious affliction raider will go at least 15 points in destro for BANE, ISB, and RUIN. Personally I'd go for destructive reach for the lower threat, but not grim reach simply because of all the bloating going on in deep affliction, there is no room for it.