Why is SB the least efficient single target spell?

[Malphass]

Gherkin said:

"Shadow bolt is the least efficient single-target spell in the game. (This is intentional but I won't explain why as it requires another post by itself)."

Why is this?

[gherkin]

Life tap. Warlocks are by design mana inefficient. The lore is that we got upset by the restrictions placed upon us by the Kirin Tor and started doing our own thing. This includes doing things recklessly and dangerous, such as using much more mana than is required for the spell.

Warlocks have a higher base mana than most other classes, so that when you see "22% of base mana" on a mage and a warlock spell, the warlock spell costs a lot more. This is backed up by Life Tap, which gets your mana back much easier than any other class in the game, for the least dps cost. (Enh Shamans and Ret Paladins that piggy back the mana system don't count).

Our costs are higher to make us life tap more, as a sort of limiter on our potential. You use up the mana fast and have to tap, but tapping at the wrong time is a bad idea in both PVE and PVP.

Shadow Bolt is specifically the most inefficient spell in the game because it's Affliction's filler spell and has a very low spell power to spell damage coefficient. Affliction has +life tap talents and massive self heals and can easily afford to life tap more. When you are leveling, you don't have the talents to prop this spell up so you shouldn't cast it. In raids, you do have the talents (specifically 15 points in Destruction) which makes it worth casting.

Demonolgy uses Shadow Bolt but switches to Soul Fire (most efficient spell in the game, for the damage it does) and Incinerate (Average efficiency) so it balances out. Destruction doesn't use the spell unless leveling, and even then it has the +coefficient talents to make it worth casting while doing so.

[zoarial]

Since we're talking about SB's.. This is something I've always wondered.. My guild mostly raids 10-man, and we almost never have 5% spell crit.. which is why I specced to the shadowbolt debuff (4/5) instead of the +3% crit from backlash.. does that make me a bad panda ? My calculation is that 5% crit for the whole raid is better than 3% for just me.. (dont have intensity either)

[adynn]

Since we're talking about SB's.. This is something I've always wondered.. My guild mostly raids 10-man, and we almost never have 5% spell crit.. which is why I specced to the shadowbolt debuff (4/5) instead of the +3% crit from backlash.. does that make me a bad panda ? My calculation is that 5% crit for the whole raid is better than 3% for just me.. (dont have intensity either)

I'd recomend changing specs to either demo or affliction to be honest, although destro does bring replenishment. Your normal raid makeup would be nice to know, as replenishment is usually fairly easy to get. Also, having to cast shadowbolt once every 30 seconds will lower your damage even further as destro. If there's no ele shammy, I'd suggest going demo, however it doesn't matter too much in 10's.

OT: Our tradeoff for close to unlimited mana is having to spend the most time replenishing it in pve.

[zoarial]

I've never managed to get my DPS as high in affl as I have in destro TBH.. then again it's a long time since I've tried..

I usually cast SB when I've got the confl haste and the CD on confl or duration of immo isnt long enough for 2 incinerates.. trying to keep the dps loss to a minimum..

So you'd recommend going demo and having a dual spec destro ready for when the retri pallies, surv hunters, frost mages etc are (s)lacking ?

Edit: I've tried demo and it still doesnt do it for me.. back to the question at hand..

SB 5% crit to the whole raid but a solo dps loss or 3% crit to yourself ?

[Kashii]

Since we're talking about SB's.. This is something I've always wondered.. My guild mostly raids 10-man, and we almost never have 5% spell crit.. which is why I specced to the shadowbolt debuff (4/5) instead of the +3% crit from backlash.. does that make me a bad panda ? My calculation is that 5% crit for the whole raid is better than 3% for just me.. (dont have intensity either)

IDK what your raid makeup is exactly, but ISB is 5% Spell Crit...doesn't effect melee. That should figure into your calculations.

If you really need to bring ISB then you are better off going straight up Affliction or Demo (which provides even more of a buff to casters than ISB alone). With a decent DoT timer, the rotations aren't that difficult. Destro is nice with replinishment though - again, depends on your raid makeup.

Weird hybrid specs typically don't end up contributing as much as the player intends.

[Phovos]

In layman's terms:

SB benefits less from your spellpower (Main scaling stat) than other spells.

Gherkin will know the exact coefficients.

[zoarial]

With a decent DoT timer, the rotations aren't that difficult

Mehh I hate to depend on aura / timer / proc / etc addons

I guess I'll never do as much dps as I could then.. gonna have to live with that

Still didnt get an answer to my +5% crit to the whole spellcasting raid but a minor dps loss or 3% crit and no pushback though

*maybe I shouldnt hi-jack a thread but make one of my own*

[Deleted]

Mehh I hate to depend on aura / timer / proc / etc addons

I guess I'll never do as much dps as I could then.. gonna have to live with that

Still didnt get an answer to my +5% crit to the whole spellcasting raid but a minor dps loss or 3% crit and no pushback though

*maybe I shouldnt hi-jack a thread but make one of my own*

It isn't that hard really , 5 % crit for all spellcasters > 3 % crit from yourself.
You will however suffer some dps by pushback , but I doubt that loss is higher as the gain you get from giving your raid 5 % crit.
hope this helps.

[Deleted]

http://www.wowwiki.com/Spell_power_coefficient

[gherkin]

Replenishment > 5% Raid Crit > 3% Self Crit. Spec accordingly for your guild. Note that due to there being no cooldown or requirement on a Destruction Warlock's replenishment, 1 Destro lock is equal to two Rets, Shadow Priests, or Survival Hunters in terms of mana regeneration.

Casting a shadow bolt now and then to get the buff up is not a huge dps loss for Destruction due to Shadow and Flame and Bane talents that you take anyways.