Is anyone still running empowered imp?

[Raks]

Intially there were alot of builds out there people were trying and as usual some are better than others, and/or easier. Haunt was popular as well as some hybrids with or without felguard. I just havent heard much about heavy destro lately. I run 0/41/30 I like it and was dominating when we first rolled into 25 man naxx, but now I have fallen behind as other classes start to gear up. I am not wild about haunt, and am certainly not convinced that it has the best single target dps, and never found a destro build I was that comfortable with. Is anyone out there running heavy destro with empowered imp, and doing well in a real raid group? Not to sound like a jerk but if you haven't killed kelthuzad and malygos on 25 man than this thread is really not for you.

[interlude]

Im in the same boat as you! :O(

[Refreshment]

Did you just say that elemental shaman dps is good compared to warlock dps?

[ikud]

ive raided as destro (0-13-58) and affliction (53-0-18) and i havent seen many problems for dps

affliction has generally been higher for bosses (4800 dps usually for me) and destro at around 4500-4600

yes affliction sucks for trash but trash doesnt matter anyway...bosses drop the gear

the best rotation ive found for affliction on trash is just hit shadow bolt, haunt, and corruption

destro seems to be a little behind lately but isnt that how its been for every expansion? affliction starts better and as better gear comes out destro slowly gets better

[Morganskunk]

I am leveling my warlock but played him in Vanilla and BC - My guild currently has naxx and malygos on Farm (we did a 20man malygos last night)

This is an interesting thread but reminds me of BC - Even Vanilla wow with warlocks.

Warlocks are a funny class, once they are geared there is usualy only 1, maybe 2 specs you can go to get the best rotation dps.

Sadly this is not the case in WOTLK - warlocks have not been nerfed, they just stopped getting buffed!

[neonanaski]

destro seems to be a little behind lately but isnt that how its been for every expansion? affliction starts better and as better gear comes out destro slowly gets better

I think this is pretty accurate. Once you get 2 locks in full 25s gear, Destro and Affliction, I think their DPS will be very close. I think Affliction will still come out on top for bosses, simply because of Death's Embrace combined with a stronger Drain Soul.

To answer OP's question, our Destro lock runs with emp. imp and typically averages 3800 dps

[Deox]

I use Emp Imp as heavy destro, it would be silly not too. The imp contributes to 17% or more of my dps plus he add's to my crit. I only sit at 25% crit raid buffed, but between emp Imp and the 2 piece bonus I get up to 57% crit rating by the end of a fight off incinerate

[Offsprngr]

I think this is pretty accurate. Once you get 2 locks in full 25s gear, Destro and Affliction, I think their DPS will be very close. I think Affliction will still come out on top for bosses, simply because of Death's Embrace combined with a stronger Drain Soul.

To answer OP's question, our Destro lock runs with emp. imp and typically averages 3800 dps

However, our abilities scale less well with crit and haste which end-game become more apparent, which is why destro saw it's exponential growth in TBC with T6.

[skymaster]

Not that Ive leveled my warlock or anything but the idea of aff being only a starting raid build and then moving on to destruction once you get gear wont really apply in WOTLK.

Blizz tried to make it so that so that aff would be just as viable as destruction later on. So in my opinion if destro DPS is lacking now against people with similar gear. Its going to keep sucking until blizz buffs it up.

[Coronius]

Is anyone still running Warlock?

[nocturnus]

That's a good thing. Let them all continue on their DK's and paladins while the good Warlocks rape the damage meters.

I've basically tried all specs. The only spec I've broken the 5k dps barrier with more than once is Haunt/Ruin. I'll stick to that for now.

[Shamb]

I am leveling my warlock but played him in Vanilla and BC - My guild currently has naxx and malygos on Farm (we did a 20man malygos last night)

This is an interesting thread but reminds me of BC - Even Vanilla wow with warlocks.

Warlocks are a funny class, once they are geared there is usualy only 1, maybe 2 specs you can go to get the best rotation dps.

Sadly this is not the case in WOTLK - warlocks have not been nerfed, they just stopped getting buffed!

Warlocks have been nerfed a lot mate... But they needed it. Gives us our 20% imp sb, our 15% buff to shadow dmg from sacrifice and destro lock sb spam would do 7k dps EASY.
Which is a bit retarded indeed... which is why they nerfed it.
We would crit for around 20k on sb lol.

No one can honestly say locks were not nerfed... but you CAN and should say that for game balance's sake in pve they needed the nerf.

Now on the current subject : Deep destro with imp does work for raids and yes ppl still use it I've raided with warlocks who had that very specc and did very good dps. (3.4k dps in 10-man without ele sham. and not all epic gear at all yet)

[Jashin]

Not that Ive leveled my warlock or anything but the idea of aff being only a starting raid build and then moving on to destruction once you get gear wont really apply in WOTLK.

Blizz tried to make it so that so that aff would be just as viable as destruction later on. So in my opinion if destro DPS is lacking now against people with similar gear. Its going to keep sucking until blizz buffs it up.

so how will affliction benefit more from end-game over abundance of haste, hit and crit than destruction exactly?

dots don't scale as well as direct damage

unless they change the mechanics of every affliction spell to benefit from Pandemic and haste (even then) I don't see it happening

dots don't scale as well as direct damage

[Offsprngr]

Well as far as it goes haste could be better for affliction but in the general problems that affliction has it's fine as is, shortened DoT rotations also will most likely screw up your rotation.

Crit however should be way more benefiting, ALL DoTs should be critting at base, not talents or hotfixes or anything just crit. Crittable DoTs is hardly any problem in PvP since DoTs are just our white damage and auto-attacks can crit so DoTs should too.

In PVE it might imply that we might be topping the meters LIKE WE SHOULD, we put in the most effort to DPS, therefor it must be AT LEAST as rewarding as other pure dps classes.