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  1. #1

    Help our Warlock

    A while back I bit the pride bullet myself and came to MMO champion to get help as an enhance shammy, and it helped. A lot. Now it's coming to a point where we're going to start heroics and our warlock...can't be carried anymore. He says his problem is mearly gear related and I'm (guild master) calling bullshit. While I acknowledge that part of his problem is gear, I'm worried most of it is skill based.

    So I ask you, users of MMO-champion, help my warlock. All of the officers like him, he transfered with us to a new server and is a good guy and we want him around, but we can't carry him all the time.

    http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-men7ruqfp4evr4yb/ Our logs from last night

    http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...githany/simple His armory.

    Please see if there is anything that can be improved on or, if it really is, a lack of gear.

  2. #2
    3 soul burns on garalon tells me he isnt using soul burn soul swap as a form of his "instant burst"

  3. #3
    Thanks, is there anything else you notice? I tried looking at his uptimes for fights and some of them seem decent while others seem low. Then again I'm clueless about locks.

  4. #4
    Deleted
    Gameplay-wise The main thing I can see is that he isnt using Drain Soul for execute phases. When an Enemy is below 20% HP he should be using drainsoul and always refresh dots with SB + SS and keep haunt up all the time (due to very hgh soulshard regen during this time).

    Other than that his dot uptimes seem totally ok for your level of skill and progression and most of his lack of damage is due to his gear. Get him a good Weapon, a not-useless trinket (Quilen Statuette) and at least the 2pc set bonus and you shouls already see a big improvement in his dps. Also all the blues in general hurt his dps, with ilvl 470 he just cant pull much more than 50-60k. His gemming is not consequent, also. Tell him to use simcraft (there are several guides how to use it here in mmoc forums and on youtube) and gem/reforge accoringly. Probably it will tell him to swap some mastery into haste.

  5. #5
    Stood in the Fire Conzar's Avatar
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    Gotta side with your lock to a certain extent. Gear is way low for going into Heroics. It looks like he just needs a farm or LFR night (or two) to go his way. Not reaching the 4717 Haste
    point (that better geared locks can get to) hurts quite a bit.

    +900 static Mastery trinket isn't useless for an affliction warlock (Mastery sims out above half of Int at my lock's gear level not sure about this low), but there are better ones available especially with execute/Dark Soul phases.

    If up times are genuinely an issue (can't check logs at work), the add on Nugrunning ( http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/nugrunning ) might help. I switched from Dotimer to this, and it's dynamic support of Pandemic (refreshing Dots when less than 50%) is great, especially when dotting up multiple targets.
    Last edited by Conzar; 2013-01-04 at 11:37 AM.

  6. #6
    Deleted
    It kinda is gear related, you (guild leader)are 12 ilvls higher than him, you can't expect him to do equal or close to your numbers. what schaendwich also mentioned are the gems, they help alot. Tell him do to more dailies/get valor points for gear, you can replace nearly all of the blues with valor gear (instead of wasting it on upgrading his head piece)

  7. #7
    Deleted
    The Quilen Statuette doesnt provide "0" dps, but compared to other options (even the one available in 5s heroics) It just falls behind very far. The best and easiest thing to do is to get him the Darkmoon Trinket instead.

    http://www.maxdps.com/warlock/affliction.php

  8. #8
    Would just like to say that I really like the name of the guild. Nice reference.

  9. #9
    Deleted
    Tell him to get:

    A onehander and the BOE offhand from AH
    Relic of Yu'lon
    Conquest Point PVP Ring (Upgraded 2/2)
    Conquest Point Amulet (Upgraded 2/2)

    Tell him to upgrade all of his justice gear.

    Tell him to keep his dots up <.<. Looking at your Imperial Vizier Zorlock logs, his uptime on UA is 84%. He's also not casting enough Malefic Grasp / Drain Soul. He seems to be a bad player in general, sorry to say.

    If you really want to push your guild to the next level, this guy has to shape up or he has to go.

    His two trinkets are probably the worst trinkets in the game.

    Tell him to get AffDots (addon) and ReforgeLite (addon). As far as I can tell he's far above the caster hit cap. He's got 14.94% hit from hit and then another 0.95% from Expertise.

    If he puts a minimal effort into getting gear, like Relic of Yu'lon, his gear is easily enough for Stone Guards and Feng hc.
    Last edited by mmoce7431826d4; 2013-01-04 at 01:05 PM.

  10. #10
    Stood in the Fire
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    If hes not comfortable with affliction, destro might suit him better, its a no brainer spec that pulls impressive damage with little effort, if he screws that up too, it might be time to find another guy.

    Also, if he leaves any GCD without casting spells they really do rack up, its like the golden rule for dpsers.

  11. #11
    another thing i noticed that no one else has commented on. if he's purely raiding as aff he needs to drop the pure int gems. if he's comfortable with it he could afford to drop a little hit. i agree with the majority here too. some of it is gear. not having set bonuses hurts dps esp when the lock ones are so amazing.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by koekai View Post
    It kinda is gear related, you (guild leader)are 12 ilvls higher than him, you can't expect him to do equal or close to your numbers. what schaendwich also mentioned are the gems, they help alot. Tell him do to more dailies/get valor points for gear, you can replace nearly all of the blues with valor gear (instead of wasting it on upgrading his head piece)
    I'm not comparing him to myself, I was comparing him to another warlock who has ilvl 470 and still doing 55-60k dps. But alright, that's good to know that it's a hearty chunk of gear problems.

    Quote Originally Posted by Conzar View Post
    Gotta side with your lock to a certain extent. Gear is way low for going into Heroics. It looks like he just needs a farm or LFR night (or two) to go his way. Not reaching the 4717 Haste
    point (that better geared locks can get to) hurts quite a bit.

    +900 static Mastery trinket isn't useless for an affliction warlock (Mastery sims out above half of Int at my lock's gear level not sure about this low), but there are better ones available especially with execute/Dark Soul phases.

    If up times are genuinely an issue (can't check logs at work), the add on Nugrunning ( http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/nugrunning ) might help. I switched from Dotimer to this, and it's dynamic support of Pandemic (refreshing Dots when less than 50%) is great, especially when dotting up multiple targets.
    I'll let him know, thanks!

    Quote Originally Posted by Shagina View Post
    Would just like to say that I really like the name of the guild. Nice reference.
    Thanks, not so many guilds with this name. Feels good when people get the reference.

    Thanks for all the tips, I'll relay them and see how he does next raid. We took him to Hof and elite protectors hoping to see some improvement from the last time we brought him and was a bit discouraged about his performance. Hopefully things pick up so we can keep him in the rotation.

  13. #13
    Mind if I roll need? xskarma's Avatar
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    Since this thread has grown rather large to be merged I'll leave it open, but please next time use the Help! Fix my DPS - thread instead for problems with DPS and gearing of warlocks.

  14. #14
    Sorry, I read the first post and it seemed like my, "his dps is bad help me" was not the kind of post that was wanted in that thread.

  15. #15
    Here's a query from World of Logs I've used on more than one occasion (and I've written about it as well): http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/r...1%3D+TYPE_HEAL

    This was his opener on Protectors:
    [21:58:32.549] Githany casts Curse of the Elements on Elder Regail
    [21:58:33.009] Githany casts Soulburn
    [21:58:33.549] Githany casts Soul Swap on Elder Regail
    [21:58:35.089] Githany casts Dark Soul: Misery
    [21:58:35.319] Githany casts Potion of the Jade Serpent
    [21:58:35.679] Githany gains Lightweave from Githany
    [21:58:35.759] Githany begins to cast Haunt
    [21:58:36.789] Githany begins to cast Unstable Affliction
    [21:58:37.289] Githany gains Predation from Githany
    [21:58:37.809] Githany casts Corruption on Elder Regail
    [21:58:38.819] Githany casts Agony on Elder Regail
    He essentially puts up his DoTs, gets all his buffs (but it's not a pre-pot), Haunts, then puts up DoTs again. That is not the way to play Affliction.

    It's a lot to get into what he should do, but he can use that query on other players logs and just straight emulate their play. Here's a bit of shameless promotion of a post I wrote about this specific way to improve: http://darkcontent.wordpress.com/201...o-top-players/
    http://darkcontent.wordpress.com/ - blog (updated Oct. 8, 2013). Latest post: T16H Affliction Trinket Rankings in Combination, done in SimC 540-4.

  16. #16
    Awesome, Thank you for that! Posting this on my guilds forum.

  17. #17
    Old God -aiko-'s Avatar
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    Here's what I notice, this may be a bit of a long post, maybe not, I'm only starting it after all!

    Gear: With that gear level I think she/he (hereon referred to as she) can hit the 4717 haste plateau. It's a real convenience and dps booster. If she needs help reforging I recommend the ReforgeLite addon. It's the only one I know of that takes expertise into consideration for hit cap. And although I feel dirty reforging into expertise, I'm able to better optimize myself with it. I wish I wasn't at work or I'd load up simulation craft, but in most situations for that level of gear the priority should be Hit (debatable where to cap, I aim for 12%) > Haste (to 4717) > Mastery > Haste.

    The trinkets definitely hurt...if she has any gold at all to invest I would highly recommend she gets Relic. It's really a good trinket, fully upgraded it competes with heroic trinkets. Or, if you as her guild master are willing to pull in some guild resources I'd definitely consider picking up a relic for her. It's worth it. I hate using myself as a comparison, but around 480 I was still able to do around 75k+. That is a bit low for heroics perhaps, so gear is definitely an issue but she can still perform better.

    I don't think re-gemming will be a significant DPS increase but other posters are right in that generally Int is less favorable than secondary stats. SimulationCraft can confirm/deny this if the int is less than 2x mastery or haste when looking at weights.

    Rotation/execution: Sadly WoL appears to be blocked on my work network. Damn jerks. Going off of other posts, opening can be a big deal. She should be pre-potting and using Dark Soul before soul swapping so the DoTs are empowered. Then get up haunt ASAP, MG and stick with the normal rotation. When she knows for sure DoTs are empowered in some way she should not refresh early, as refreshing will remove the buff to the DoTs. But since on some fights she apparently isn't refreshing at all, refreshing in general should be something she should work on. All DoTs should be up at all times. The only time she needs to refresh right before they expire is if they're empowered, else she can refresh any time the duration is <50%. MG uptime should be as high as possible but refreshing early to get DoTs lined up for higher Haunt uptime can make the rotation feel smoother as well as increase DPS.

    Edit: Oh, I've not really read/heard much about this but I always try to time my Doomguard for when it will have max uptime <20% as it gets a damage buff. And on the subject of execution phase, Haunt should be as close to 100% uptime during that as possible, using soul swap for refreshing dots.

    That's all I've got. If you want more advice I can use simulationcraft and look at the logs more closely when I'm off work. I don't claim to be a master at affliction but I've been in her spot and have done everything I could to help my raid.
    Last edited by -aiko-; 2013-01-04 at 05:29 PM.

  18. #18
    Great post aikoyamamato! From what I can tell, they picked up the serpents deck last night or the night before last so they'll be getting relic on Sunday. Hopefully the trinket and these tips will do the trick.

  19. #19
    Deleted
    His gear, while certainly a hindrance, isn't the root of his problem - just looked back at my guilds first Vizier kill (which took an embarrassingly long 9mins), I was wearing absolute garbage at that point - HOF LFR wasn't out and I'd had a grand total of 1 drops in MV iirc. I was still able to pull 70k dps, and wasn't happy with that. Blaming dps on gear is a pretty lame attitude, since you can always play better.

    Not sure how much advice I can give, since it's hard to gauge how "hardcore" you're being, if you're ready to move onto heroic progression that's good, but then I look at your warlocks armory and see a complete lack of effort grinding rep factions, and likewise a complete lack of running LFR - he's only cleared the first wing of HOF once and only killed Elegon 3 times in LFR yet complains about gear? Hard to know if suggestions like "buy the darkmoon trinket" are something your guild is serious enough to ask of someone, or if it's a more laid back atmosphere, or maybe it's just the warlock not putting in the effort the rest of your guild does.

    Right, now that's over - some actual advice.

    That quillen trinket is dreadful - Darkmoon trinket would be a huge upgrades, if that's too big of an investment then getting him to run more dungeons / lfr wouldn't hurt, if he's going to blame his gear for his dps then he should be trying to improve it.

    His haste is dreadfully low, you don't stack to 6k mastery with only 3.6k haste - I'm not sure where he's being told that's a good idea, but but reforging 1.2k mastery into 1.2k haste sounds about right, I've not time to be simming it up, but haste and mastery tend to work best when close to each others value, since they scale in synergy with each other - he at least wants to be getting the 47xx haste plateau.

    I'm not sure what he's doing with his soul shards, he only has 12 haunts and 2 SSs, that seems pretty low.
    Likewise his MG cast time is really low, I'm not sure how much of that boils down to his dreadfully low haste, but unless I'm an idiot, that shouldn't effect uptime, just the number of ticks. His uptime is drastically lower than mine, and I have no idea what he's doing in that none-mg cast time.

    He also, at least on Grand Vizier, doesn't seem to be using portals. With the Demonic Gateway and Demonic Portal he should spend zero time in the gas running between platforms - he can just portal between them. While this isn't going to be the killer of all damage, it does show he isn't really doing things that, I at least, would consider pretty obvious uses of his classes toolset - which makes me worry he might just be bad and not know what he's doing.

    Last night I killed Vizier on normal so I can link my logs - I have a pretty large gear advantage over him, but I'm not sure if it might be some use to compare them - our fights happened to be the same duration, so while the numbers are hard to compare due to gear - uptime is a pretty apt comparison.

    Him: http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/r...s=2756&e=3060#
    Me : http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/r...?s=5359&e=5664

    Comparing them you can see that his top 3 damage causers are his dots, whereas mine go dot / mg ghost ticks from that dot, dot / mg ghost ticks from that dot etc.
    He has, on a same duration fight, a whole 1 minute less uptime on MG - I have no idea what he's doing instead of this.

  20. #20
    Deleted
    I think most of the issues have been covered but I do have one thing to add regarding trinkets.

    Firstly - Relic of Yu'lon has already been mentioned, which fully upgraded is BiS until you can clear Sha of Fear on heroic, and I believe the Darkmoon Faire is right around the corner so now is the time to get it.
    Also - Flashfrozen Resin Globule is a fantastic trinket which drops from the first boss in Siege of Niuzao Temple. It provides passive hit, and has a large on-use intellect buff which is great for setting up opening dps. It does not show up in the dungeon journal when filtered for warlocks so s/he probably wasn't aware it existed, I didn't know about it until a couple of weeks after entering MSV!

    Ideally she wants to pick up both the trinkets I mentioned, as the Quilen Statuette is pretty bad, and the proc on Vision of the Predator is pretty worthless to an affliction lock too.

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