PVE Warlocks: A Guide to 3.1 Spex and Rotations

[Phantasos]

Phantsos:

I want to make a correction to "Get Hit Capped" this does not apply to all specs of warlock. Deep dest and demonology will do more dps with less hit when comparing gear stats due to random generation of the game. I have actually stated this on several forums and pointed out why before running across a discussion about the same thing on elitistjerks.com that support this. Please make a note in your 'guide' along that effect. Not to state that and make a generalization with hit misleads the readers. Being 3% short of hit in for a dest or hybrid in exchange greater haste,sp,crit will increase their dps most of the time.

Could you link the EJ thread for this, supporting your evidence? I know the information I am providing with the EJ simcraft is assuming all the spex are hit capped via talents and what not, so I suggested hit being the first stat to aim for via that as well as "generally" the stat to cap out first whether it be including raid buffs/aura or excluding.

and yes, everything that affects immolate buffs conflagrate, thats why some of them were nerfed recently (t8 bonus, glyph)

Actually not EVERYTHING does. A few things do but I do not have open in front of me what does and doesn't. I'll find this information and clarify it soon.

[vaeevictiss]

Phantsos:

I want to make a correction to "Get Hit Capped" this does not apply to all specs of warlock. Deep dest and demonology will do more dps with less hit when comparing gear stats due to random generation of the game. I have actually stated this on several forums and pointed out why before running across a discussion about the same thing on elitistjerks.com that support this. Please make a note in your 'guide' along that effect. Not to state that and make a generalization with hit misleads the readers. Being 3% short of hit in for a dest or hybrid in exchange greater haste,sp,crit will increase their dps most of the time.

I think you are overlooking one big thing...raid buffs. I dont know where you got the idea that not being hit capped is a DPS increase but that is just absolutely wrong. There are a lot of things now that increase your hit anyway in a raid envroment in wrath. If you build a raid correctly, you yourself do not need to be hit capped, meaning you can take other talents or gear. But point for point it has been mathimatically driven to the ground that untill you are hit capped, no other stat will increase your DPS more than hit.

Like phant said, all of EJs simcrafts and "best in slot" gear lists are based on the notion that you are already hit capped, and actually with exactally 17% hit, no less, no more. The reason they do this...is because it is a given that if you are a serious raider, capping your hit is your primary focus.

In 3.1 I will have no suppression, and instead take Fel Concentration due to the nature of the fights and there being a lot of AoE and raid damage. I am already at 15.5% hit on my own just from gear, and that is still more than i need. I always have a Draenei in party, and we always raid with either a shadow priest or Boomkin, often times both.

[Sentai]

At 35% we enter Decimation range and at this point we drop CORRUPTION ONLY from the rotation. We still CoA for MC (Tick every 2 seconds > Tick ever 3 seconds), still Immo, still Conflag.

what is Decimation range?
what is Tick?

I am new in game and my Eng. is not my first language.

[Phantasos]

what is Decimation range?
what is Tick?

Sorry for the delay in response to you, I have been really busy.

"Decimation Range" refers to the talent named Decimation in the demonology tree. It allows for quick alternating Soul Fire and Sbolt/Incinerate once the boss/mob is at 35% health. That 35% is what I'm calling Decimation Range.

"Ticking" refers to when a DoT (damage over time) deals damage such as Corruption or Curse of Agony. They don't deal damage ever single second. Corruption deals damage every 3 where as Curse of Agony deals damage ever 2 seconds. Essentially it is "ticking" down like a clock and the tick is when it deals damage.

The reference I'm making is because of Molten Core prox of shadow damage dots like Corruption and CoA. But since CoS ticks every 2 seconds whereas Corruption does every 3, CoA has a higher chance at proccing Molten Core since it "ticks" more.

I hope this answered your questions.

[skalaja]

To Phantasos,
Your first spec with affliction is pretty much the same as mine. However, I have not heard about using the succi over the felpuppy. Also, I think a better rotation would be SB>Haunt>Corruption>UA>Curse. Corruption after Haunt because thats the real money-maker and you don't have to refresh it (unless you miss a haunt). I am curious about the succi though.

Edit: Oh yes, and doesn't the Drain Soul spam start at 25% not 20%?

[Impurath]

Yeah DS starts at 25% (or actually 24% to miss the marginal error). And about Succubus: According to ElitistJerks Succubus deals more DPS (with Demonic Power talent in Destro tree) than Felhunter. In raids Fel intelligence gets overwritten by Divine Spirit and Arcane Intellect so it is better to use Succubus with Affliction spec than Felhunter.

[Phantasos]

I thought I had changed/updated the main thread to show 25% but apparently not. My mistake.

[kintarooe]

According to Elitistjerks.com, who can show you the actual math and the tests on PTR...many things that affect immolate DO NOT affect conflag.

i have tryed it too on ptr.
conflagrate dmg with glyph of immo or not, is different.
i have saw this... Ej say that glyph don't change confla dmg.
for the test i have do (home made test), any talent/buff on immolate, take confla dmg up.
my 2 cent.

if anyother test this, pls report.

[skalaja]

To Impurath,
So as raid spec Affliction, the Succi does more dps than the Felhunter? Even with Shadowbite? Or does the Succi do more dps when specd into Succi?
Thanks =D

[Phantasos]

You have to be specc'd into it. If you look at the Affliction specc on the first thread of the page it'll show you the build.

[jjam6217]

Might note for the new affliction spec, you can drop that 1 point out of reduced mana costs in destruction for 1pt in Fel Synergy for pet heals. Seeing as your using the succubus which has a habit of dying from my experience.

[Gaxar]

I believe as far as my reading on EJ jas gone, spellstone is superior to firestone for all specs.

I appreciate what your saying about being careful with destro and haste, however the only time you are in danger of clipping spells is during bloodlust/heroism, at which point you should be switching to soulfire so as not to clip your incins.

i run with around 18% haste from gear and stone, and with the extra 9% from boomkin and totem before heroism there is no chance of clipping any spell under backdraft, except immolate, which ofc u should avoid.

[zuxia]

http://elitistjerks.com/f80/t37780-s...it_discussion/

Is the area of discussion supporting the information I have stated about being less than hit can increase your dps more than just getting hit capped. I personally did this in BC and beat the pants off all the locks who were hit capped, granted this is wotlk but the mechanics are still the same.

[skalaja]

You may be able to beat the pants off of any other warlock who is hit capped, but I don't believe you could do it consistantly. I also don't know what spec you are talking about; I will assume destruction seeing as you mentioned tbc, and every raiding warlock was destruction- mostly. With all the new rotations our class has to go through, even destruction now, missing an Immolate in your rotation will cause massive dps loss, thus massive overall damage in a boss fight. Miss a conflagerate, oops. Personaly, I have always thought hiy cap was the way to go, mostly because I play as affliction, but I could see your argument for not fully hit capped. Let us not forget the new talent for Suppression. It now grants up to 3% hit rating for all warlock spells and the Dreini buff too, which grants 1% hit rating. So the burden of gemming for hit has gone down alot opening up room for other stats.

[zuxia]

You may be able to beat the pants off of any other warlock who is hit capped, but I don't believe you could do it consistantly. I also don't know what spec you are talking about; I will assume destruction seeing as you mentioned tbc, and every raiding warlock was destruction- mostly. With all the new rotations our class has to go through, even destruction now, missing an Immolate in your rotation will cause massive dps loss, thus massive overall damage in a boss fight. Miss a conflagerate, oops. Personaly, I have always thought hiy cap was the way to go, mostly because I play as affliction, but I could see your argument for not fully hit capped. Let us not forget the new talent for Suppression. It now grants up to 3% hit rating for all warlock spells and the Dreini buff too, which grants 1% hit rating. So the burden of gemming for hit has gone down alot opening up room for other stats.

Beating them all the time no...90 plus percent of the time...yes. During that 90% of the time it would be a fairly significant difference.

[Nightcrowler_Gr]

As a deep destruction lock i have been thinking the whole haste thingy a little. I mean with my current gear if i equip spellstone, backdraft AND bloodlust my incinerate fires at 0.92 secs. With 220+ latency that i am used to play this means nothing. IF ulduar gear has more haste than naxx gear (which should do tbh) when in bloodlust and backdraft i will spam soulfires and not incinerates, which believe me will be a dps boost if you ask me. Haste for destruction owns crit any time, since tbc, imagine now that we get a free 10-20% in total destro spells from imp. That's the spec i am going to use for destruction, till we get crazy hit gear so that we don't need suppresion so that we go to SL + Imp SL . What i keep wondering is if the glyph of immolate is giving more damage to conflagrate but still the 10% + immolate damage > 1 more chaos bolt in 1 minute i think. I will have to try ofc the different glyphs but i believe conflagrate, immolate, incinerate are the best combination at the moment. Still though i see that decimate talent and i am drooling.... (so destro talent dammit >.>)

[skalaja]

Beating them all the time no...90 plus percent of the time...yes. During that 90% of the time it would be a fairly significant difference.

Would you mind linking me your armory? I am curious to see your gear spec.

[Exclusive]

Okey first of all, my lock is still 45 and I've never had a 80 lock before ^^ I do plan to level it to a serious alt or new main tho, that's why I read this forum and why I'm interested by these threads.

Right, I don't understand something about the switch to DS when the target is at 35%.
I do see the talent where both DL and DS do extra damage for each debuff. I do read the tooltip on death's embrace.

But I really can't understand why you would want to switch to DS at 35%. I mean it say's "increases shadow damage done while your target is at or below 35%"

What's the difference then between the normal rotation and DS? To take simple numbers, a 10k shadowbolt will do 12500 damage, a drain soul with a total damage of 10k will also do 12500. Or is it somekind of combination between 9% extra damage from soul siphon being boosted again by death't embrace so DS gets double pumped so to say?
(and then I assume DS does more damage than DL in all cases by the way)

Don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely not trying to say it's not true (how could I if I'm not even 80 yet haha), but I would just like to understand why it's true as I don't see the difference.

[Exclusive]

Oowww I found my answer allready

Drains the soul of the target, causing 710 Shadow damage over 15 sec. If the target is at or below 25% health, Drain Soul causes four times the normal damage. If the target dies while being drained, and yields experience or honor, the caster gains a Soul Shard. Each time the Drain Soul damages the target, it also has a chance to generate a Soul Shard. Soul Shards are required for other spells.

Okey I never noticed this before.. rofl I feel stupid Now I also understand the fuzz about 20% 25% 30% 35% etc.

Ok it completely makes sense to me now, the 4x damage plus the extra damage from the talent makes it go crazy... okey thanks

[Iceblade]

Nice guide m8.
One question though. I play as affli (the same spec as you advise) however unless I missed something I don't get how you plan on getting the doomguard out 50% of the time...
You want to stop the raid every half hour for one minute so the lock can summon his Doomguard and potentially kill someone? Or do we have to wait for a lucky Curse of Doom tick? Plus the fact that if you lose enslave on the Doomguard midfight this guy can do some serious dmg.

Hope you can help me out with that.