Ah the joys of leveling a new alt. Soon after you begin your new journey you find yourself at level 10 and with it comes that very first talent point. Deciding in which talent tree this point will go is a very important decision for most people just starting out, but for me and my new lock this was a no brainer. My first talent point went into Improved Corruption and so I began my trip down the Affliction tree.

From the moment I created my Warlock, I knew her spec was going to be Affliction. The whole reason I created the character, aside from Warlocks being awesomesauce, was because I was intrigued by play style of the class. Warlock’s are the masters of DoT’s and having played a class that was all about straight up nuking its target into oblivion, I was looking forward to the change of pace. After doing a bit of research and running down the talent trees, it was obvious to me that Affliction was the tree that was most focused on managing DoT’s and would be the tree to give me the Warlock experience I was looking for.

Outside of game play reasons, Affliction appealed to me for another reason. I have a tendency to RP my characters in my head. Each of my characters has their own distinct personality and reasons for doing the things they do. Faelican, my druid, is a tree hugging nature worshiper concerned with returning balance to Azeroth by forcefully removing those who are upsetting said balance. My Death Knight Athena is solely focused on exacting her vengeance from Arthas for turning her into the monster she has become. I am well aware that this may be a tad over done in most RP circles but quite frankly my dears, I don’t give a damn. Gingerlei is border line psychotic and delights in pain. She delights in the pain of others or her own, she is not picky. The slower, more excruciating the pain, the more she savors it. The ability to use multiple spells to prolong her victims demise to the point where death is a welcome release from the suffering she is inflicting upon them made the Affliction tree perfectly suitable to her sick little desires.

Currently, her recipe for a well prepared enemy is as follows. Apply liberal helpings of Corruption and Curse of Agony. Immolate for crispy shell and to seal in all the juicy flavors. Sprinkle on Shadow Bolts to taste and serve. Works great with all varieties of monsters and gnomes. So now my dear readers, I’d like to hear about what drew you to the Warlock class and your particular spec in general. Was it strictly a game play decision or are you a closet RP nerd like me? Look forward to seeing your comments.

And that is possibly the longest post title ever.

I know the talents aren’t finished.  I know you have to work on them a lot more.  Thank bloody goodness for that, because, as they stand, they are a pile of crap.

When you get around to editing them, think of poor little Fluffy sitting there in the corner.  So small and cute and cuddly and utterly defenceless.

And remember… I’m waiting.

<3 Sar

P.S.  Don’t even ask how my Druid feels about the Restoration tree.  Let’s just not go there.

Tags: Beta, Talents

I’ll be honest: Destruction Locks nowadays are few and far between.  With the majority of raiding Warlocks going for the Destro/Demo hybrid build, and many of those who aren’t going Demon or Aff, well… we are a dying breed.  Unfortunately, this makes us a dying breed that seems to have very little idea of how to spec!  There is not a great deal of discussion of the spec, and as I am a total slouch at theorycrafting, this is kinda based upon what I think.  If I had endless pots of gold (note: I want a leprechaun for Christmas!), I’d respec more often and test stuff out.  Unfortunately, I am but a poor struggling Warlock with mouths to feed (damn hungry minions!)

Part A:  The Spec

Now, my spec is not the optimal raid spec.  The Hybrid Specs are the most effective for damage output, but when you are a die hard Destro spec lover like myself, you just need to deal with feeling a little gimped and move on.  If I can’t get to the last talent in the tree, well… I just don’t feel right.  Strange but true.

I will admit, there are a couple of… interesting choices in that spec.  Don’t get me wrong, i know it is far from perfect!  However, I’ll discuss these shortcomings as we go.  I don’t want to talk about every talent – if I view it as a bit of a ‘no brainer’, I probably won’t mention it.

1.  The Destruction Tree

i) Yeses!

Improved Shadow Bolt: While I don’t throw Shadow Bolts like I used to, having ISB means that I save the mages the effort of keeping stacks of Scorch up for much less effort than what it takes them.  Sure, I lose a little bit of DPS, but utility is a wonderfully awesome thing that should never be underestimated.  DPS can be found most anywhere: utility and versatility can not.  Please note – if you regularly run with more than one Warlock, co-ordinate your Shadow Bolting.  If more than one person casts it, it cancels out the previous one.  Don’t waste raid DPS by having every lock cast it!  Also remember to let your Mages know they don’t need to Scorch (I forgot that myself today, whoops!)

Aftermath:  Ignore the daze effect – it’s not that important – and focus on the increase to your Immolate.  An additional 6% to your always up (it is always up, isn’t it??) DoT is awesome.

Demonic Power:  The faster your Imp can cast, the more likely Empowered Imp will proc.

Intensity: Utterly useless within itself, but essential for ->

Backlash: An additional 3% to your spell crit rating!  You might not get too many instant cast procs off it, since you wont often be being hit (I hope), but that 3% crit makes it all worth while

Pyroclasm: I find that Conflagrate crits a LOT.  That increase to spell damage after a crit is always nice, especially since that’s when I unleash the big guns in my rotation

Conflagrate/Backdraft: I never used to have Conflagrate and Backdraft.  I found keeping Conflag in my rotation made it feel really clunky and awkward thanks to the annoying GCD.  However, I have recently fallen in love with Backdraft, so I have learned to live with the GCD and it’s clunkiness.

Chaos Bolt: This for me tends to hit reasonably hard, especially for a short cast.  It also times well with the rest of my rotation – it comes up just as I am ready to cast Conflag, which makes me happy.

ii)Nos!

Cataclysm:  Mana Schmana… sure, it’s nice to not Life Tap as often, but I don’t think the savings work out to enough DPS to warrant it

Shadowburn:  Too annoying to work into a rotation, especially when you are throwing Soul Fires

Destructive Reach:  I currently have no real threat issues, and the range is a moot point when my CoA won’t reach anyway

Improved Searing Pain: unexciting damage, definitely unexciting threat generation… save it for the tanking, kiddies

Nether Protection:  Highly situational, I haven’t found much of a use for it personally.  Heck, I didn’t even have it in BC when a lot of Warlocks had it!

Soul Leech/Imp Soul Leech:  OK, so Imp Soul Leech has raid utility… I really ummed and ahhed over this one.  I might let you have it, I suppose, if you can find somewhere better to lose the points from.

2.  The Demonology Tree

Improved Imp: Imp Imp is a wonderful talent for a spec that is so pet dependent to work

Improved Healthstone: Not really required, but the raid appreciates nice cookies, and the points have to go somewhere to get further down.

Fel Synergy:  My Imp has a nasty habit of occasionally getting hurt a bit, and this is an attempt to balance it out.  I felt the 1/2 was more beneficial than the 2/2 personally, but really, this isn’t an essential.

Demonic Embrace: While extra stamina is always nice (especially in Ulduar I hear), I didn’t want to invest points in this personally that I could spend elsewhere.  The one point is a filler point to get me further down the tree

Fel Vitality:  Makes you and your pet’s hardier and gives you more mana.  Intellect also adds a small small SMALL bit of crit to your Imp

Demonic Aegis:  I really like having the best type of Fel Armor.  Every bit of extra damage counts!

3.  The Affliction Tree

Suppression:  I am WAY off hit capped, so I need this talent.  If I was hit capped I would consider investing these points into Improved Corruption or within the Demonology tree.

Improved Curse of Agony:  This really is a dead point that should be somewhere else – I am too cheap to replace my old Glyph of CoA, so I still cast this to make me feel a little less like I am wasting a glyph slot.

Part B.  Spell Rotation

a) Trash/Bosses when you are low on shards

Shadow Bolt – CotE– Immolate – Incinerate (until 5 seconds left on Immol) – Conflagrate – Chaos Bolt – Immolate etc etc

# Refresh ISB and CoA where necessary

# Feel free to use CoD on bosses if someone else is covering CotE – it doesn’t stack!

#Communicate with other locks to see who else has and is casting ISB – if someone else is covering it, don’t bother with it!

b) Boss Fights

Shadow Bolt – CoD– Immolate – Incinerate (until 5 seconds left on Immol) – Conflagrate – Chaos Bolt – Soul Fire – Soul Fire – Immolate etc etc

I have dropped Corruption from my rotation – I know it’s recommended to use it, but I got more DPS out of a slightly cleaner rotation.  Realistically, it isn’t a very difficult spell to keep up, I am just rather lazy.  If you have trouble with your rotation, consider dropping Corruption or CoA.  Keeping ISB up is a little tiresome, but it helps the raid in the long run.  The reason why I put my two Soul Fires there is because Backdraft reduces their cast time by 30%, making it a much more efficient spell than it usually is.

As I said – this is not the optimal raid spec.  However, unless you are in a guild which expects you to be optimal spec, I see no reason why you can’t spec Deep Destruction and still do decent damage.  Not to mention, we all know Destruction is more fun!

I am not a believer in gear lists.  There, I said it.  I know that ‘Gearing for Heroics’, ‘Gearing for ‘Insert Raid Here’ lists and the like are very popular with people, but quite frankly, I find them to be very irritating to read.  I will admit I have looked at one before (specifically for my druid, since I know diddly squat about tanking), but I have never felt the need to use one for my Warlock.  We only have one cap that we really NEED to worry about, and then gearing is (relatively) simple if we keep in mind a couple of basic principles.  Of course, these rules aren’t necessarily set in stone, and sometimes breaking them a little bit will give you better results.  Not to mention people always disagree on what should be aimed for!

1.  Hit -> Haste <-> Damage -> Crit.

Hit will always be the most important stat.  Point for point hit is more valuable than any other stat, and all the damage or crit in the world wont help you when your spells resist.  The hit cap at level 80 is as follows:

Untalented Hit Cap: 446

Talented (Suppression and/or Cataclysm): 368

Talented and Grouped with Draenei: 342

For the purposes of being hit capped, I would aim for the 368 mark rather than banking on the Heroic Presence buff.  This is of course assuming you have put talents in Cataclysm!

Haste is highly beneficial for Fire Destruction as it maximises the already slightly shorter cast times of fire spells, and allows you to cast more Incinerates during the duration of an Immolate.  This allows you to take advantage of the ‘deals more damage while the target has Immolate’ mechanic.  Keep in mind the GCD on instant casts (Curses, Corruption, Conflagrate and Shadowflame) can only be reduced to one second.

1% increase in cast speed: 32.78998947 Haste.

The reasoning behind having Haste and Damage being somewhat equal is that they both need to be balanced.  Clearly having a heap of haste but little damage isn’t going to help you, and vice versa.  My usual tactic where possible here is to aim for small chunks of both stats at a time.  In BC, I would aim to increase my Crit in 5% increments, then my damage by 100-200.  Might not be the best approach, but I found that I felt less ‘gimped’ on a stat working that way.  I will probably adopt a similar approach with Haste and Damage in Wrath.

2.  Spi <-> Sta -> Int.

To be honest, I am still really umming and ahhing over this.  Stamina has always been a primary stat for Warlocks, but with Spirit now having an impact on Spell Damage (thanks to Fel Armor) and directly affecting Life Tap, I would say they are equally important.  Intellect is overrated (in my opinion), providing a minor increase in spell crit rating and increasing your mana pool.  While a large mana pool is nice, it is not essential.  One overlooked benefit of Intellect is that it will also increase your Imp’s critical strike rating, which gives you those shiny Empowered Imp buffs!

166.6666709 Intellect = 1% Crit

30% of your Spirit = Spell Power WHILE Fel Armor is active

Life Tap (Rank 8): Converts (1490+Spi*3) Health into (1490+Spi*3) Mana.

So, my basic rule when looking at upgrades?  Don’t focus on too high above your current content level, look at what is to be had and compare it to your current gear.  If it drops and you think it is better (keeping these things in mind), go for it.  Remember you will be competing with ALL cloth wearers for drops, and try to remember that what is good for you may be good for someone else as well! 

Credit must be given where due!  Now, we all know I am horrible at maths.  Most numbers stolen from Whitetooth’s post on the EJ forums (Thanks!!)

First things first – I haven’t played every possible spec that there is for Warlocks in the beta.  I have had a VERY small tinker with Demonology to look at Metamorphosis, and have spent the rest of my time levelling as Destruction.  These are comments based upon my own and other people’s research and experiences.

Affliction will be the PvE king.

At the moment in beta Affliction is the most powerful Warlock spec by far.  Affliction Warlocks are currently topping the damage meters in Naxx pushing approximately 5200DPS, and are beating out the other two specs by large amounts.  Destruction is a mid range DPS spec with approximately 4500 DPS, and Demonology is down the bottom unfortunately with approximately 3900 DPS (see post on Elitist Jerks for tables).  Of course, this is also dependent on gear scaling as to whether it will hold true for later raids.  If Wrath is similar to BC, Affliction is very viable in entry level raiding and peters out further into progression.  Conversely, Destruction was rather weak at entry level raiding and grew stronger as people gathered the gear to support it. 

Destruction will swap to being a fire based tree.

This is based on the buffs that we received to our fire spells and the chance of a Molten Core proc.  Improved Shadow Bolt has been slightly nerfed, which has greatly reduced the strength of Shadow Bolt.   With Corruption becoming an instant cast spell untalented, Destruction Warlocks will keep Corruption up and running while casting Immolate, Incinerate and Conflagrate.  I am anticipating heavy theory crafting about the usefulness of keeping Curse of Agony up and running (GCD versus extra chance of Molten Core proc).  With CoA running rather than CotE, I had approximately 200 more DPS.

What spec and spell rotation will be best for Destruction PvE locks?

To be honest, I can’t guarantee that the spec which I have been using is the best possible spec.  However, I think that I have maximised the damage that I can deal through my talent choices, which aim for the highest DPS.  The points in ISB could easily be moved, as the spell rotation that I found to be most effective on test dummies did not have Shadow Bolt within it.  I merely put them there to advance further down the tree.

I was practicing on a ‘Heroic Training Dummy’ (which is a level 83 dummy), so there were some misses involved.  My stats can clearly be seen in the image to the left.  My hit rating is clearly very poor, which would allow for some of the lost DPS.  I am also trying to be realistic – not everyone will be hit capped at level 80.  I was not hit capped until after I finished with Kara myself.

I experimented with 3 basic Destruction spell rotations, allowing for some basic principles:

1.  Corruption had to be up at all times to try and get Molten Core to proc

2.  Immolate also had to be up at all times

3.  Every Immolate had to be finished with a Conflagrate to proc Backdraft.

4.  My Imp was DPSing to try and proc Empowered Imp

5.  Only buff I had running was Fel Armor.

Unfortunately, Backdraft makes it difficult to have a stable ‘spell rotation’  I still have not maximised my spell rotation yet, as my two DoTs also finish ticking quite when Backdraft is up, which means that I am wasting the valuable time that I could be casting Destruction spells in.  I could have also been casting Shadow Bolts rather than constant Incinerates to try and force a Molten Core proc, but Shadow Bolt is a weaker spell now with the nerf to Improved Shadow Bolt (which had previously made it so strong).

Ultimately the strongest spell rotation I could work out was the following (please note this is not necessarily the best one, and I will keep testing):

Corruption, Curse of Agony, Immolate, Incinerate x 4, Chaos Bolt, Corruption, Conflagrate. 

After that point however, things became somewhat chaotic as I tried to maximise the value of Backdraft, keep Corruption up at all times, and keep Curse of Agony up WITHOUT cutting the end off the spell (because we all know that is bad!).  I could stick to the same basic pattern, but occasionally had to refresh my DoTs half way through the rotation.  Managing it would be much simpler if you were assigned to CotE in a raid however.  I also noticed that you suck mana like nothing else – at least some things never change!

Actual numbers for those who enjoy maths!

Please note – I have not done any calculations.  To be honest, I wouldn’t even know where to start.  These are probably the most accurate numbers from my many, many, MANY tests on the test dummy.  The image is the graph from my most successful testing, although I do have many more of the other spell rotations.  Feel free to email me if you are curious about any of the others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Individual Spell Stats (Boss Dummy, 5/14/52 Spec)

Spell Name	Hit  (Avg)	Crit (Avg)	Tick (Avg)
Incinerate	2597	5536	-
Immolate	1249	2523	484
Corruption	-	-	474
Curse of Agony**	-	-	304
Chaos Bolt	3177	-	-
Conflagrate	1451	2641	-
Shadow Bolt***	2441	5092	-

 

**  First tick of CoA at approximately 200, final tick at approximately 400.

*** Not from above test, but the numbers may be useful.  With CoA up as well, not CotE.  Spell rotation as above, with Immolate replaced by Shadow Bolt.