Warlock wondering about specs

[Trippy 0]

Hello guys!

I have been lurking this forum for couple months, and still have questions regarding my own simcraft's and other stuff.

My armory link http://eu.battle.net...nwaltz/advanced

As u might notice, I'm quite geared, but i haven't had luck to get the lei shen trinket to drop.

Basiclly its something that has held me back from specing to demonology on ToT.

I tried do some simcrafting for example destro vs demonology with my current gear, but destro seems to pull 4-6k more dps according to the sims?

As from 5.2 i have been kinda clueless about what spec to use, what reforges to use, and what kind of spell priority to use as an destruction/demonology.

I played 5.1 as an affliction cause got quite lucky Cosmos hc trinket drop at beginning of my MoP raiding carreer. So if someone would mind to give me couple tips, what spec to use, what kind of reforges to use and if u have some specific about my UI or something else that would be beneficial to me please help

EDIT: And thing in realy wondering, about my start burst dps, it seems realy realy low compared to some people at my guild, and usually when watching wlock videos, they are peaking top 1 atleast on start burst? My seems to be something 150k-190k MAX

Heres our HC Horridon kill from wednesday from my PoV

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk69rFMGTAU

and remember to watch fullscreen and on 1080p for nicest experience!

Edited April 19, 2013 by Trippy

[Zagam 1,982]

You're not simulating actual fights. If you're doing well enough to down heroic Horridon, you should be able to come up with your own ideas about what spec is best for each fight. Obviously, for Horridon, you want to exploit the fact that you can cleave all day and use Shadowburn on many little adds for a mega execute and tons of Embers. For Council, Destruction is by far the worst spec because you can, at most, hit two targets. I wrote a guide about what spec to play for each fight with these thoughts in mind, and many others have contributed their thoughts. You'll find some answers there.

In regards to reforging, there's no clear answer. Every fight has a different Grimoire/reforging optimal combo, and it's not logical to think you'd be bouncing back and forth between these all the time. Play what you're comfortable with and what you like the most. Generally, I stack Haste until I get to about 30% raid buffed (around 10k rating) then push Mastery. This does well for all three specs, and while it's not optimal, you optimize your DPS through proper play, not reforging.

Burst depends on your playstyle, 4pc tier availability, and trinkets. Demo's burst without Imp Swarm will usually hit 350k for me and level out around 160-180k single target. Destruction is difficult to burst because of the Ember restriction, but if you time things well, you can squeeze off 3 Chaos Bolts in the time you have all of your fight-starting buffs running live. Affliction has the best opener and burst availability.

[faragorn 2]

You're not simulating actual fights. If you're doing well enough to down heroic Horridon, you should be able to come up with your own ideas about what spec is best for each fight. Obviously, for Horridon, you want to exploit the fact that you can cleave all day and use Shadowburn on many little adds for a mega execute and tons of Embers. For Council, Destruction is by far the worst spec because you can, at most, hit two targets. I wrote a guide about what spec to play for each fight with these thoughts in mind, and many others have contributed their thoughts. You'll find some answers there.

In regards to reforging, there's no clear answer. Every fight has a different Grimoire/reforging optimal combo, and it's not logical to think you'd be bouncing back and forth between these all the time. Play what you're comfortable with and what you like the most. Generally, I stack Haste until I get to about 30% raid buffed (around 10k rating) then push Mastery. This does well for all three specs, and while it's not optimal, you optimize your DPS through proper play, not reforging.

Burst depends on your playstyle, 4pc tier availability, and trinkets. Demo's burst without Imp Swarm will usually hit 350k for me and level out around 160-180k single target. Destruction is difficult to burst because of the Ember restriction, but if you time things well, you can squeeze off 3 Chaos Bolts in the time you have all of your fight-starting buffs running live. Affliction has the best opener and burst availability.

I have a question about your Affliction advice for Council. To keep dots rolling on >2 targets seems like it will require you to mostly give up on Malefic Grasp. You just wont have the time. Is dotting up four targets still a win? If you only dot up two, is it any better than destro with Havoc?

[Zagam 1,982]

That looks like what most Warlocks on Council are doing. I've not played Aff in T15 yet, so I can't verify personally, but based on logs, I'd say the average 30-35% Malefic Grasp uptime indicates prioritizing keeping DoTs up over MG.

[obleak 10]

Yes we keep our dots rolling on all the targets up :)

I've not done this fight currently in heroic so it could change a bit, but with 4 targets keep all dots rolling pretty much 100% .. your shard proc regen will be fairly high so even keeping haunt on a few extras (during Dark Soul w/ 4 peice [12 secs uptime]) is even fairly easy :)

Destro is.. interesting if you decide to take it... play with Man. Fury for 500% area effect and keeping up rain of fire/immolates (especially with 4 piece) and BOLT BOLT BOLT BOLT.. (choas not lightning :P)

It's not going to be as great as affliction for sure, but in theory it sounds fun... right? :P

[gahhda 95]

You're not simulating actual fights. If you're doing well enough to down heroic Horridon, you should be able to come up with your own ideas about what spec is best for each fight. Obviously, for Horridon, you want to exploit the fact that you can cleave all day and use Shadowburn on many little adds for a mega execute and tons of Embers. For Council, Destruction is by far the worst spec because you can, at most, hit two targets. I wrote a guide about what spec to play for each fight with these thoughts in mind, and many others have contributed their thoughts. You'll find some answers there.

In regards to reforging, there's no clear answer. Every fight has a different Grimoire/reforging optimal combo, and it's not logical to think you'd be bouncing back and forth between these all the time. Play what you're comfortable with and what you like the most. Generally, I stack Haste until I get to about 30% raid buffed (around 10k rating) then push Mastery. This does well for all three specs, and while it's not optimal, you optimize your DPS through proper play, not reforging.

Burst depends on your playstyle, 4pc tier availability, and trinkets. Demo's burst without Imp Swarm will usually hit 350k for me and level out around 160-180k single target. Destruction is difficult to burst because of the Ember restriction, but if you time things well, you can squeeze off 3 Chaos Bolts in the time you have all of your fight-starting buffs running live. Affliction has the best opener and burst availability.

I get off 4-5 without 4pc because I delay DS by ~10 seconds at pull on most fights :3.

We actually killed normal council this week with all 4 bosses stacked, it was quite amusing:

http://worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-ed0aw4kesogxzpqn/sum/damageDone/?s=4064&e=4272

(the bad dk was an alt, playing a spec he's never played :3.)

With regards to heroic, however, destruction does suck pretty horribly. You do get to cleave to 3-4 (depending on where kazra decides to roll) during the period of time that priest is empowered, as you can stack her during that period. Otherwise you're limited to 2 + kazra rng third. Because its more spread than stacked, affli/demo pull ahead, NO ROF GRRRRRRR.

[Zagam 1,982]

LOL Void Ray being in your top 3. Stacked bosses FTW. Probably had to do zero Corruption management. My group is going to progress on Heroic Council, so I won't get to pad. I couldn't imagine trying to play Destro on Council. Even the WoL rankings show Aff and Demo DESTROYING Destro on that fight. Pretty easy to see why unless they were clumped for Rain of Fire. Optimal Council Destro padding would be getting a boss down to 20%, stacking them all together, and not letting the other DPS hit the sub 20%. Every 25 sec, you could get 6 Shadowburns off. Just an idea if you go at it that way again :)

[gahhda 95]

LOL Void Ray being in your top 3. Stacked bosses FTW. Probably had to do zero Corruption management. My group is going to progress on Heroic Council, so I won't get to pad. I couldn't imagine trying to play Destro on Council. Even the WoL rankings show Aff and Demo DESTROYING Destro on that fight. Pretty easy to see why unless they were clumped for Rain of Fire. Optimal Council Destro padding would be getting a boss down to 20%, stacking them all together, and not letting the other DPS hit the sub 20%. Every 25 sec, you could get 6 Shadowburns off. Just an idea if you go at it that way again

We're either doing h council or primo/twins this week, after we facepwn megaera that is. I've been told from rather reliable sources that meg is actually harder than all three so, hopefully we end the week with +2 bosses :D.

Yea, I'm not very good at demo right now TBH, I can do ST like a baws, but ST is easy. I think I have like 75% uptime on corruption on one of the bosses that attempt because I was too busy trying to keep up with all the shiny stuff flashing across my screen <_<. I've got all week on council to learn though :<.

Void ray > ToC anything above 2 (maybe its 3, haven't checked my math in like a month) targets, so I was just assuming it to be a gain over ToC, outside of the times I was just spamming soulfire to try to prevent capping.

[Zagam 1,982]

http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-os5kz5wv7mrd0ihh/details/4/?s=8478&e=8843

Durumu, 10 man Normal log. Average Touch of Chaos hit = 73,964. Average Touch of Chaos crit = 145,504.

Overall Report. Average Void Ray hit = 18,884. Average Void Ray crit = 37,274.

Touch of Chaos adds 6 seconds to Corruption on one target

Void Ray adds 4 seconds to Corruption for all targets

I would think once you add the maximum duration of Corruption, you'd be looking for what does more damage. It would appear that magic number is 4. However, if you need to get Corruption up to its max duration of about 28/29 seconds, you need to be doing the most efficient filler. I would think Void Ray wins at this as soon as you have three targets, but not two. I think for two targets, you weave Touch of Chaos back and forth. For 3 or more, Void Ray it up.

While we're on it, Carrion Swarm...use or ignore? I've got CS's average hit at 30,800 and average crit at 68,206. It's on a 12 second CD, but it also uses 120 Demonic Fury, which is a sizeable chunk. At what number of enemies would you consider using Carrion Swarm beneficial? I know for single target, without Dark Soul up, it costs 3x as much Demonic Fury as Soul Fire. I don't see it built into the AoE rotation, but I often find myself using it as more than an interrupt and knockback. Then again, it has so much utility, maybe I'm using it incorrectly for just damage?

[gahhda 95]

Void ray > ToC @ 4+, I meant to say >3 I think..derp.

Void ray - 11132 / 40 = 278.3 DPFPT

ToC - 40994 / 40 = 1024.85 DPFPT

Carrion - 25319 / 50 = 506.38 DPFPT

1024.85 / 506.38 = 2.0239 targets, very close to 2 for it to be a gain

1024.85 / 278.3 = 3.6825 targets, sadly we have to round up to 4

Also, I just coined a new phrase, damage per fury per target...mwahahah!

I didn't use carrion in that log because I'm a newb to demo, even though I knew it was a gain I forgot about it :3.

Edited April 22, 2013 by gahddo