Warlock Tidbit Questions

[JainaIsAMan]

Sparkuggz' site says F&B doesn't benefit from GrimSac. This has been my understanding, but warlocks all over the official forums keep stating different. Are the forum posters correct or are Spark and I crazy?

I'd rather not go Aff for Protectors or Paragons for two reasons: (1) My gear's 552 and I have the valor haste trinket instead of Black Blood. (2) Aff is kind of annoying with all the shard handling. There are times where I'm just starving for shards forever, plus RNG plays too big a part for me. With that in mind, is it worth it to go Destro following this: Immo all the things, RoF two or more near each other, Havoc on CD? And with that, is it still worth SB-sniping with Havoc at every chance even though nothing on that fight gives embers back?

With my 552 gear in mind (15,674 Mastery), on what fights is going GrimSac worth it? I'd imagine anything with two or more main targets that doesn't utilize F&B, but I don't know the exact math.

Is it better to go Demo for H-Iron Juggernaut if I find Affliction's play style too convoluted? I'd imagine Doom and Corruption are still pretty good on downtime compared to Destro's Immolate. My group gets two minutes of downtime, and it seems like having a full minute of Doom every time that phase procs is beautiful and needed damage.

H-Immerseus has highest parses using MF instead of KJ, which personally feels like the better choice to me if only due to quickly getting out of pools without being interrupted in the middle of a cast. For someone that isn't skewing their numbers just to get first on WoL, how big of a loss is it taking KJ over MF?

What's the average loss on damage when using Backdraft on CB? There are times when I have a two second window on Expanded Mind and Conflag has just given me an ember.

I never use Ember Master for CB unless I've got more than 10 seconds of Immolate left of the target. Is this correct?

Thanks for your answers.

[Deleted]

FnB and GoSac - FnB doesn't benefit from GoSac. The reason people still use GoSac in AoE scenario's is because a lot of your damage in these fights also comes from Shadow Burn and Chaos Bolt.

Destruction on Protectors - Yes, Immolate everything in sight and Havoc on cooldown. I tend to prefer to use Havoc for Chaos Bolt in this scenario where nothing returns embers, purely because Shadow Burns that don't crit are pretty underwhelming, and if you burn 3 embers you may have wasted a lot of potential damage. Use your judgment on your procs/whether its worth burning 3 embers.

When to use GoSac - I use it on everything; good use of embers with procs/cooldowns will see GoSac pull ahead. Especially considering how ember rich most encounters are in SoO. Maybe use a pet on IJ heroic if you use the knock back and hide strat.

Spec for IJ heroic - Don't go Demo for two reasons. 1) Your ilvl is still quite low, and you may find that you don't have enough secondary stats (haste/crit) to fuel you fury generation. Destro is still more than viable on this fight, and you can go with GoSup if using the knock back strat. Havoc the mines with incinerate for extra ember bits. Destro also feels the safest spec with ember tap which can help your healers in a pinch.

Immerseus - MF vs KJC - Just stick with KJC. Add damage isn't really that big of a deal, if you feel more comfortable with KJC then use KJC. It's hard to quantify a damage difference when it depends on where your comfort levels lie.

Backdrafted Chaos Bolts - Generally a bad idea. I do use it on my opener to get that first Chaos Bolt out faster. It's probably worth it in your situation as you'll likely have Dark Soul up then too, and missing those procs will be a huge chunk of that Chaos Bolt's damage. The higher haste you run the less of a negative impact this has, I think!

Ember Master and Chaos Bolt - Are you tracking the ICD of ember master so you know when it will proc. I can always refresh Immolate and get a Chaos Bolt off each time it procs. Usually Chaos Bolt > Immolate > Conflag can all be squeezed in. Again, depends on your haste.

That was a really really quick response, some stuff other people will likely disagree on.

[Brusalk]

FnB and GoSac - FnB doesn't benefit from GoSac. The reason people still use GoSac in AoE scenario's is because a lot of your damage in these fights also comes from Shadow Burn and Chaos Bolt.

Destruction on Protectors - Yes, Immolate everything in sight and Havoc on cooldown. I tend to prefer to use Havoc for Chaos Bolt in this scenario where nothing returns embers, purely because Shadow Burns that don't crit are pretty underwhelming, and if you burn 3 embers you may have wasted a lot of potential damage. Use your judgment on your procs/whether its worth burning 3 embers.

When to use GoSac - I use it on everything; good use of embers with procs/cooldowns will see GoSac pull ahead. Especially considering how ember rich most encounters are in SoO. Maybe use a pet on IJ heroic if you use the knock back and hide strat.

Spec for IJ heroic - Don't go Demo for two reasons. 1) Your ilvl is still quite low, and you may find that you don't have enough secondary stats (haste/crit) to fuel you fury generation. Destro is still more than viable on this fight, and you can go with GoSup if using the knock back strat. Havoc the mines with incinerate for extra ember bits. Destro also feels the safest spec with ember tap which can help your healers in a pinch.

Immerseus - MF vs KJC - Just stick with KJC. Add damage isn't really that big of a deal, if you feel more comfortable with KJC then use KJC. It's hard to quantify a damage difference when it depends on where your comfort levels lie.

Backdrafted Chaos Bolts - Generally a bad idea. I do use it on my opener to get that first Chaos Bolt out faster. It's probably worth it in your situation as you'll likely have Dark Soul up then too, and missing those procs will be a huge chunk of that Chaos Bolt's damage. The higher haste you run the less of a negative impact this has, I think!

Ember Master and Chaos Bolt - Are you tracking the ICD of ember master so you know when it will proc. I can always refresh Immolate and get a Chaos Bolt off each time it procs. Usually Chaos Bolt > Immolate > Conflag can all be squeezed in. Again, depends on your haste.

That was a really really quick response, some stuff other people will likely disagree on.

Nothing you said was particularly incorrect.

CB vs SB for use with Havoc on Protectors is pretty much spot on with what I like to do. I'll only SB for a Havoc CD if I have procs up at the time.

Backdrafted Chaos Bolts are a loss in that you're losing ember generation from faster Incinerates. That said, with lots of procs up it may be better to use a 3-stack on CBolt to get one more in under that ideal proc than save it for Incinerates. (I do this) Also, if you planned poorly and you'll be butting up against 2 charges of Conflag but still have to dump embers, use that one charge on a CBolt only if you wouldn't be able to cast an incinerate to get to 2 charges with enough time still left on procs to get the chaos bolt in. (This is further complicated by if you have 2 embers left, where you could potentially get 2 bolts in before the procs are up if you use a conflag charge, but only if you have to use the conflag charge to avoid capping at 2 charges of conflag. Welcome to the amazingly hidden complexity of maximizing damage as Destruction! [The reason I love this spec so much])

Only Chaos Bolt under a 4PC proc if you'll not be able to use that ember under a proc before you'll cap on embers. You basically always want to avoid casting a completely unbuffed Chaos Bolt. Most of the time this will be when you hit 3 embers, but there are situations where with high ember generation you need to be doing this at 2. An example of this might be mid-fight on Paragons where you have 4pc buffed Immolates ticking on all 3 mantid yielding lots and lots of embers.

You'll primarily want to focus on using 4PC procs to get crit-buffed Immolates out on anything that takes damage which can crit to maximize ember generation.

[JainaIsAMan]

Thank you both kindly. Wasting damage is something I always kick myself for, so knowing the answers to this is greatly appreciated.