Yep, I’ve been unfaithful.

My small, poorly specced Hunter is almost ready for Outland.  Just 2 small levels to go!  Trajan and I have been slaying Dark Iron Dwarves endlessly, chasing people who have no idea where they are going endlessly, getting lost ourselves endlessly, pulling aggro endlessly… yeah, we’ve been doing a lot of BRD, you get the point.

I’m completely embracing the ‘I have no idea what I am doing’ nature of levelling a new class.  Yep, I’m a noob and I am proud.  See, with every single one of my characters, I’ve embraced the following philosophy while levelling:

So long as shit is dying and that shit isn’t me, I’m doing OK.

I  like sitting there doing research.  I like reading.  Even more than these things though, I love discovering things for myself.  I love playing around with spells, and doing things a little more unusually than most people.  I love trying to discover a use for something that feels senseless, rather than dismissing it as boring or stupid because EJ said so.  Sure, it means my bars are cluttered.  It means I’m probably using the wrong shots.  I’m probably levelling the wrong pets.

I also don’t care!

Don’t worry too much – Sar has only been retired until Cataclysm.  Raiding is snoreworthy at the moment.  I’m tired of everything revolving around raiding or progression.  I’m having too much fun rediscovering the light side of the game – even if the light side has me running BRD for over 10 levels straight…

Tags: Hunter, Levelling

… or, more appropriately… how to not suck at Destruction.

So, you finally dusted off that Warlock and brought it up to 80.  Good for you!  Too bad you are now utterly terrified of venturing into an instance, worried about people snickering ‘lolnoob’ every time you do something.  Never fear, I am here with a few pointers.

1.  Spec it right!

As a fresh 80, I am guessing you are not hit capped.  It’s OK, honestly.  It just means that the standard cookie cutter spec just isn’t quite right for you yet.  So, we have to change things up a little.  You should be looking for something similar to this.  While you still have enough meat in the Destruction tree to do some serious carnage, you’ve sacrificed a little bit of damage to make sure that you hit the damn target. 

If you are hit capped, I run with this spec.  Now, it’s not exactly cookie cutter (I’ve modified it slightly to make it more suited to what I think our raids need: better healthstones; I dropped Replenishment because it is provided by so many people already, etc etc) but we are never afraid of modifying cookie cutter to suit ourselves, right?

As far as Glyphs go, minors all suck horribly.  For majors though, you should be looking at Glyph of Conflagrate (an absolute must) and Glyph of Incinerate.  The third glyph is problematic – some suggest Glyph of Life Tap, others suggest Glyph of Immolate.  I personally prefer Glyph of Immolate, because I am lazy and like my ‘set and forget’ things.  Not to mention that I rarely have to use Life Tap anymore!  However, if you get the 4pc set bonus in T7 (which I find highly unlikely to be honest  -are you really going to be running very much Naxx?) the Life Tap glyph is by far the superior choice.  (Oh, and my Glyphs?  Do as I say, and not as I do, as my mother used to often say to me!)

2.  Basic group stuff you should always do.

I know it sounds silly, but it is REALLY easy to forget the minor details when you start grouping.  Always soulstone a resser.  Pop up a soulwell.  If you don’t have someone to provide an equivalent/better buff (an appropriately specced Death Knight or a Boomkin) you should use Curse of the Elements.  Remember to keep the Soulshatter key close at hand. 

Oh… and make sure your Imp is on either Passive or Defensive!  (Turning off his Phase Shift is a pretty good idea too).  Dismiss him if you are planning on taking any sneaky shortcuts (i.e. – Nexus).

3.  Rotations (or lack there of)

While I strongly suspect I have posted rotations before, I can not for the life of me remember where the heck I did, and I am far too lazy to have a look.  So, I’ll repost here anyway.

Long gone are the days of Destruction having a set ‘rotation’ (and of one button spam, thank goodness!) Instead, we now have a spell priority system, where we work around cooldowns.  The following list is the order you should prioritise your spells in:

1.  Curse of the Elements (unless you don’t need to do it)

2.  Conflagrate

3.  Chaos Bolt

4.  Immolate

5.  Curse of Agony/Doom

6.  Incinerate

Always Conflagrate as soon as the cooldown allows.  Try not to clip your Immolates or CoA’s short, as tempting as it might be!  And, of course, try to cast your spells as fast as possible (which means you need to allow for latency).  Remember that your haste will be significantly higher for the three casts after Conflagrate.

4.  Warlocks are totally buff!

Make sure you keep on Fel Armor, and a Firestone (not a Spellstone!)  While Haste is infinitely more valuable than Crit, that 1% to direct damage spells is OMGeriffic. 

In terms of food buffs, if you haven’t got a Fish Feast, I like some Firecracker Salmon.  However, Hit food is also more than acceptable if you need it (and much better than a Fish Feast if you need the hit!)  When it comes to flasking, Flask of the Frost Wyrm is your only real choice.  Nom.

5.  Have fun!

Honestly… you have just hit 80 on the DPS class which is the most interesting to play.  Make sure you enjoy it!

(Be sure to keep an eye out for the upcoming companion to this post: What, Do I Just Have To Pull Gear Magically Out of My Behind At Eighty?)

Tags: Buffs, Dungeons, Glyph, Levelling, New to 80, Raiding, Rotation, Spec, Spells