Barely any crit chance for locks

[Qadash]

looking at the plagueheart garb for locks, we only have 2 pieces that give us crit chances. our casting counterparts, mages and boomkins have 4 pieces that give crit chance. How are we suppose to compete for DPS against that kind of crit difference?

[Darkrobinson]

It's the T4 of northrend, what did you expect?

T4 has 3 pieces with crit, that's one more, but the latest state of locks means that we benefit from spirit aswell, which u can find on 2 pieces of T7.

And I won't even bother with spell haste, which was non-existant in the t4 days.

Other than that, unless you're planning on some sb spam build, you don't rly need crit as a warlock. At the current state of things, hit, spell power, stamina, intellect and spirit will be your main concerns on the start. Later spell haste and only then spell crit.

And don't get fooled into thinking that because dot's can in a way crit now (Pandemic), that you should get all crit gear. Spell power still vastly outranks crit in afflicton.

[Qadash]

very true, i got hung up a while back on blizz's statement that they wanted to make Locks more like mages, needing spirit, having a dmg rotation etc, and i see the numbers mages are pumping out now, obviously it will scale, but if i do have to stand and spam showdowbolt, the lack of crit is gonna suck...... i see what ur saying though, i just havent played affliction in a while

[ascote]

My problem with that gear is that it has to much haste. Haste that doesn't scale well with affliction at all.

[Einzweidrei]

My problem with that gear is that it has to much haste. Haste that doesn't scale well with affliction at all.

This is my complaint, as well.

With the way destruction makes use of instants and DoTs for such a large chunk of its damage now, compared to the shadowbolt spam of TBC, haste is far from a stellar stat even for destro locks (though not as bad as it is for affliction).

Freaking demo is the best spec for haste now, since a demo spec with devastation will spend 80+% of its DPS time casting shadowbolt.


I really want to know how it can be said that itemization for locks is remotely balanced relative to that of other casting DPSers. I'm sure that haste takes up just as much of an item's budget for an affliction lock's gear as it does on a mage's gear, and yet the mage gets MUCH more bang for his buck from it than the affliction lock does.

[Lambu]

My problem with that gear is that it has to much haste. Haste that doesn't scale well with affliction at all.

all thought this was my first thought as well, blizzard must have thought something out don't think it will be any problem

[MortuariusBC]

all thought this was my first thought as well, blizzard must have thought something out don't think it will be any problem

Dont expect any quick fixes

I havent seen anything in naxx on beta that leads me to believe that affliction locks are underpowered due to set imbalances

[ascote]

Frigging 4 pieces have haste and 2 have crit.

[lrs078]

At 70 anyhow haste is good for afflocks in so far it makes the "rotation" (priority actually) much easier to keep up for starters. Second, w' enough (around 220'ish) you start being able to sneak in extra shadowbolts which is where the dps gains start.

From an itemization standpoint I see demo locks being the new "stack nothing but dmg" since they get lots of crit from skills, haste does nothing for a demon (but does help nuking), but their value in a raid is demo pact buff so w' raid crit buffs you'll have it up quite a bit and the more dmg you can stack the better the buff.

Pandemic gives UA/Corr benefit from crit but until it applies to other dots its secondary. Of course, ruin will change this somewhat but w/o SnF I'm not sure how big a crits (proportionately speaking) we'll be throwing as an afflock.

Destro....meh...mothball it till T8 or if for some reason you have more than 2 locks in a raid.

[Gaeldar]

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IZbxIzsgMV0sxzAZE0hVM0z Should be a good spec that scales with haste,crit and spell damage very well. It also buffs the raid with around 300 spell damage. I will be using it on my warlock at level 80.

[Ofmanv]

I don't know how Blizzard justifies the difference in itemization melee get compared to casters. Making spirit eat up our itemization only makes the gap even wider. The dps meters definately confirm locks are a league below rogues/hunters/warriors now.

[lsfreak]

http://code.google.com/p/simulationc...i/SampleOutput
Haste is better than crit for all warlock specs in rough Naxx10 gear. Well, there's that non-DS'ing warlock, but he doesn't count imo.
Spell power adds ~1.45dps
Spell crit adds ~0.65dps
Spell haste adds ~0.95dps

Also, it's "T4." Not itemized particularly well. Don't like it, pick up offspec pieces like the rest of us.

[Harajuku]

look at t4 set bonus
they wanted warlocks to be affliction. longer dots.

look at the t5 set bonus
they wanted warlocks to be demonology. healing your pet

look at the t6 set bonus
they wanted us to be destro. 6% on incinerate/shadowbolt

it's obvious.

they don't just pull numbers out of nowhere, they have a reason for it.
so think about it.
look at all the destro talents that give crit.
i'm at 20% crit completely unbuffed, in a raid i pull about 50-60% crit.

[stupid11]

If you want high crit respec to Demo. You'll be doing your raid a favor with demonic pact too.

This is my end game all around pvp/pve spec that works in raids and pvp.

Meh, screw that. I'm going with 0/41/30:

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?warl...11500035001000

[DressdtoKill]

i'm at 20% crit completely unbuffed, in a raid i pull about 50-60% crit.

50-60%!? Wtf kind of buffs do you get?

[Mysmere]

yeah....think of it as kara gear...not gonna be perfect...

[lsfreak]

50-60%!? Wtf kind of buffs do you get?

1% - Firestones (as demo/destro)
1%-2% - Kings, Mark, AI
3% - Elem Shammy/Ret Pally/Mut Rogue
5% - Moonkin
10% - Mage
And possibly another 3% from a mage's Focus Magic, but the mage would be better off putting it on someone besides a lock.

If he's including talents, add:
5% - Devastation
3% (Destro) - Backlash
10% (Demo) - Demonic Tactics
15-20% (Destro) - Empowered Imp (at 80, lower at 70 I believe)

[volunthas]

i dont get why you think affliction doesnt scale with haste o:O maybe not that good, but keeping the rotation up easier and get some extra shadowbolts out sounds really nice. of course for that you need a certain amount.

[valcrist]

I think haste is huge for afflic locks, esp if you dont have bane!! the faster you can get haunt, unstable afflic, and shadow bolts off the better you are going to be in raids and PVP.. I currently have like 155 haste with spell stone, and im getting close to a 1 sec haunt, fear, and unstable afflic, and with the 30% boost from that talent, I am under 1 sec, and it really helps in PVP when you gotta get this crap off against rouges ect.. As for crits, it depends on what spec you are, Im 14% with afflic non raid buffed and that works for me, if i speced def and changed my gear around im sure it will be just as high as mages.

[Dashiva]

My problem with that gear is that it has to much haste. Haste that doesn't scale well with affliction at all.

It does. Haste lowers your GCD a bit, don't forget about that. When debuffing an opponent with instant spells the only thing that delays you is gcd.