why is warlock DPS so low on trash?

[Deleted]

most times i run with a lock as a prot paladin, the lock does around 2K on bosses, but way less than that on trash. some even don't get the 1K. how come locks are so low on trash? i don't believe that low DoT uptime BS, if you have a decent tank, you can be multidotting.

[Pruxx]

If you are doing an AoE pull then locks should top the meter. If you are doing single target pulls then by the time the locks dots get on the mob the mob is dead and the dots have no chance to do any dmg. Think before you ask a question. It's not that difficult.

[GrieverXIII]

If he's afflic, its normal, dots are useless on trashes.

If he's destruction. He sucks. But melee's are better than spellcaster on trashes anyway.

[Mudkiper]

If you are doing an AoE pull then locks should top the meter. If you are doing single target pulls then by the time the locks dots get on the mob the mob is dead and the dots have no chance to do any dmg. Think before you ask a question. It's not that difficult.

Erm. Warlock's are very very rarely top on aoe pull's, priests / rogues / mages usually beat them.

[gherkin]

It's called ramp-up time. A Direct Damage class can press 2-3 buttons and be at their top dps. A DOT class has to press 3-4 buttons and wait an additional 3 seconds for everything to tick at least once. By this time, the target is almost dead and 50% of the damage output of each dot has been wasted.

If you think about it in terms of your prot pally, the new Seal of Vengeance does a lot of damage at 5 stacks, but it takes a bit to get to 5 stacks. Conversely, if you use Righteousness, you get that damage up front with no waiting. If the target dies every time you hit 5 stacks then your dps is going to be low because you spent 4 stacks doing piddly damage and didn't have a chance to really let loose.

What the Affliction lock should do is Corruption/UA 2 or 3 targets, cast Haunt on the second kill target, and just spam shadow bolt the rest of the pull, with a drain soul thrown in for shards/extra damage.

[Stieger23]

It's called ramp-up time. A Direct Damage class can press 2-3 buttons and be at their top dps. A DOT class has to press 3-4 buttons and wait an additional 3 seconds for everything to tick at least once. By this time, the target is almost dead and 50% of the damage output of each dot has been wasted.

If you think about it in terms of your prot pally, the new Seal of Vengeance does a lot of damage at 5 stacks, but it takes a bit to get to 5 stacks. Conversely, if you use Righteousness, you get that damage up front with no waiting. If the target dies every time you hit 5 stacks then your dps is going to be low because you spent 4 stacks doing piddly damage and didn't have a chance to really let loose.

What the Affliction lock should do is Corruption/UA 2 or 3 targets, cast Haunt on the second kill target, and just spam shadow bolt the rest of the pull, with a drain soul thrown in for shards/extra damage.

This is exactly right. It's true of all classes with ramp up abilities (Locks, DKs on single target, the mutilate rogue etc.) or combo points. The difference between a good rogue and bad rogue on trash is one builds combo points on targets at 10%, the other does not. Same with locks. If you're pulling 1 trash at a time? No hope. The arcane mage or combat rogue or fury warrior or ret pally is going to do VASTLY more damage.

[rimmer]

shadow priest have the same problem in instances, less than 4 mobs and its not worth aoeing but mobs dont last long enough to dot them up.

AFAIR 4 mobs is the break point for when shadowpriest aoe is higher than singletarget, possibly this is higher for locks?

[gherkin]

Locks and priests have the same aoe number - 4+ aoe, 3 or less direct damage.

Priests have a longer ramp up time by 2 seconds.
Feral Druids have the same ramp up time as affliction locks.
Elemental shamans have a 4-5 seconds ramp up time.
Unholy Death Knights have a ramp up time, but they have extremely simplistic aoe so it never looks like they do.

[Knuffelbert]

If he is Destro, as someone said already, he sucks big time.

As affliction, it's understandable if you are not playing aggressive enough. If first target dies before dots are ticking, why is he using dots on that one? Either use direct damage spells (still blows though) or just dot the second target (after the strongest dot on the first target, if you are afraid to pull aggro), and when the second target is doted, dot the third, etc. It's not that hard. Or just AoE if possible

[Kelpie]

If he is Destro, as someone said already, he sucks big time.

As affliction, it's understandable if you are not playing aggressive enough. If first target dies before dots are ticking, why is he using dots on that one? Either use direct damage spells (still blows though) or just dot the second target (after the strongest dot on the first target, if you are afraid to pull aggro), and when the second target is doted, dot the third, etc. It's not that hard. Or just AoE if possible

Locks and priests have the same aoe number - 4+ aoe, 3 or less direct damage.

Priests have a longer ramp up time by 2 seconds.
Feral Druids have the same ramp up time as affliction locks.
Elemental shamans have a 4-5 seconds ramp up time.
Unholy Death Knights have a ramp up time, but they have extremely simplistic aoe so it never looks like they do.

I'm one of the best-geared raiders in my guild, and I regularly get out-dpsed on aoe trash pulls, even if I'm channeling before a tank gets proper aggro.

Boomkin and Death knights regularly out-dps me by 4-6%

He's not a bad lock, locks just blow on trash.

[Knuffelbert]

But seriously less than 1k dps? I just dinged 80 (though did instances on the way) without any enchants whatsoever and rarely have less than 2k overall without group buffs (most I usually get is BoK). Being destruction though. I just immolate, chaosbolt, conflag, shadowfury if more than one and then normal rotation. I'm getting outdpsed sometimes (usually I don't PuGs generally have horrible DPS on my server), but not breaking 1k dps is a different matter altogether.

And I think the OT is talking about heroics, you seem to refer to raids. I haven't done any with my lock, so I can't comment on that at all.

[Drakzar]

I would agree with the DOT argument. Affliction sucks for trash. But 2k? 1k? what? he needs some help no matter what spec he is.

[Defmage]

I believe you arent specific enough. That dps in heroics? Or raids?

[delage35]

Erm. Warlock's are very very rarely top on aoe pull's, priests / rogues / mages usually beat them.

Far from it. Pugging Naxx for example where the AOE trash is plenty thick, destro locks easily out do rogues and are pretty much even with mages in similar gear. I have seen a shadowpriest pull heavier AOE dps only once but I'm not sure where his gear was in comparison to everyone else. In T7-ish gear, locks can easily get ~5k on a single pull of trash and 10k if you get a double pull. Pugging heroic 5-mans, I usually AOE if 3 or more still standing and single target ream if 1-2 left. Dps there is usually between 2500-3000 depending a lot on party buffs and how much the tank can hold. Im sure there are better geared folks that can do even more.

[Deleted]

If he's afflic, its normal, dots are useless on trashes.

If he's destruction. He sucks. But melee's are better than spellcaster on trashes anyway.

/agree

cheers
Deadly

[Andromalius]

most times i run with a lock as a prot paladin, the lock does around 2K on bosses, but way less than that on trash. some even don't get the 1K. how come locks are so low on trash? i don't believe that low DoT uptime BS, if you have a decent tank, you can be multidotting.

Dont use logic. He already stated that he does not believe in math.

[Frozentasteicles]

Because:

* Rogues are retartededly OP and easy - FoK 18k dps 1 button spam Lololololololol

* Hunter(tard) aoe is retardedly OP and easy

* DK aoe is retardedly OP and easy - don't even have to push any buttons the game auto applies their debuffs/does their moves for them

* Shadow Preist aoe is really, really good. But to be fair they don't have much else going for them.

* Mage aoe is good.

* Warlock aoe sucks wet frozen noodles and is the hardest to do out of all of them/requires the most possible "skill" if it may so be called. Both Seed of Corruption and Rain of Fire scale horribly compared to other classes aoe's and both require much more forethought, cause more aggro, do less damage, and take more time to set up/use than other aoes.

* Because blizzard has "balanced" this game to the point where if you are a 8 year old mentally handicapped trog they think it is fair that you should pump out 20bajillion dps with 1 button. Oh, and you can only do that if you also play a class that has super high survivability, because we all know that cloth wearing classes that die easily and have no defenses/have so many damn counters to their spells simply CANNOT be given better damage because then they would be super super retardedly OP ..........(like melee) ... oh wait ............

[the445566]

much of this is based around skill wise. If an equally skilled/geared rogue/spriest/warlock were to dps on a aoe trash pull the rogue should easily have more dps/damage output.

[m1.]

* Rogues are retartededly OP and easy - FoK 18k dps 1 button spam Lololololololol

maybe at trash yes, but they need much more skill to do good dmg on bosses, then most of classes.

[Pyrostemplar]

Meaningful AOE died with WotLK

Now it is easy mode press one button kind of affair :'(