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Blackrock Foundry Warlock Style - Normal, Heroic, & Mythic

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Blackrock Foundry- Warlock Specific Tips and Tricks by Encounter

 

Just as was done with Tier 15 and 16, below is a Warlock specific guide on how to approach each encounter in Blackrock Foundry.

 

For Warlock style tips and tricks in Highmaul CLICK HERE

 

Gruul

 

Recommended Spec: All 3 specs can handle their own, however Demonology is the most popular / parsing the highest.

Recommended Talents: Standard Single Target set up of Demonic Servitude with Grimoire of Service, using unglyphed Dark Soul and Archimonde's Darkness. Line up Grimoire: Doomguard with Dark Soul every 2 minutes. As Service lasts 25s now, make sure you summon the additional Doomguard BEFORE you hit Dark Soul, so you don't waste the GCD. For Destruction in higher ilvl, Chaotic Resources with Grimoire of Sacrifice is your go to for every encounter.

Tips: Spread out with /range 8 in your assigned third of the room, drop portal to minimise slam downtime. 

Changes for Mythic: None.

 

Oregorger

 


Recommended Spec: Demonology or Destruction.

Recommended Talents: Standard Single Target set up of Serv/Serv for Demonology, same as above for Destruction (Servitude for low ilvl, CR/Sac for higher).

Tips: Place your portal on one of the outside lanes. During the rolling phase just DoT / Nuke the boxes as you run, and don't forget to maintain DoTs on the boss!

Changes for Mythic: None.


 

Beastlord Darmac

 


Recommended Spec: Demonology.

Recommended Talents: Serv/Serv for progression, Cata with Synergy and Glyph of Dark Soul for padding on adds.

Tips: DoT up every spear with Corruption and Doom. Bank charges of HoG for when adds come. Make a judgement call of whether you should HoG or CW them.

Changes for Mythic: Save second potion and Doomguard for after you kill Faultline, as this is where you need to lust and burn the boss.


 

Flamebender Ka'graz

 


Recommended Spec: Demonology hands down.

Recommended Talents: Standard Single Target set up of Serv/Serv for Normal / Heroic, Cataclysm for Mythic.

Tips: Place portal in Melee using Eye of Kilrogg, so if you get fixated you can port in with 1 second left to minimise movement. DoT up the Cinder Wolves and try to bank charges of HoG for when they spawn and land by the boss; getting splash on them is really nice.

Changes for Mythic: You get 4 wolves instead of 2. Take Cataclysm but don't glyph Dark Soul. You can Cata on pull and hit Aknor, then it's up for the Wolves. Use it again without Dark Soul in between next pack of Wolves. When Wolves spawn, manually corruption them all, then hit meta and Dark Soul with potion and get a cata to hit all 5 enemies. Finish with Chaos Wave spam. Be careful not to run too close to melee due to Lava Slash proximity.


 

Hanz'gar and Franzok

 


Recommended Spec: Demonology.

Recommended Talents: Serv/Serv or Cata/Synergy, both do fine.

Tips: When the plates are moving past you can stay in between the belts and inch either side to avoid them. For the stamping phase you should build up Fury beforehand to allow for high Meta uptime and spam ToC.

Changes for Mythic: Depending on strat, Demonic Gateway can be used to aid your raid during vertical movement. Place portal in one of the locations that allows you to only move a few steps from stampers.


 

Operator Thogar

 

Recommended Spec: Demonology.

Recommended Talents: Cataclysm with Synergy and Glyph of Dark Soul.

Tips: Depending on how quickly the adds die you can choose to HoG or CW them. A few ticks of HoG will max your Fury Molten Core stacks, and is very worthwhile. I like to have my pet on passive and glue him to the boss. During the split, make sure to bank 3 charges of HoG.

Changes for Mythic: Demonic Gateway should be used to allow your raid to quickly pass through a Deforester. Your personal Demonic Portal can be place over on the right hand side, and allows your to completely bypass two Deforesters. Overall pay extra attention to Man at Arms.

 

The Blast Furnance

 

Recommended Spec: Demonology or Destruction.

Recommended Talents: You can play Cata/GoSyn or Serv/Serv as Demonology, for Destruction take CR/GoSac. I personally do not Glyph Dark Soul.

Tips: This fight revolves completely around burning down the Primal Elementalists as soon as possible, much akin to the Burning Tendons on the Spine of Deathwing Encounter. Make sure you save cooldowns and bank resources for each Shields Down.

Changes for Mythic: Bellows need to be bursted asap to 50%. Otherwise fight is the same. With 20s Dark Soul you can use it on pull for first Bellows, use Doomguard on second, and Dark Soul again on third. Don't use cooldowns during the mass AoE phase as your transition into p2, and you will have one DS available for each Primal Elementalist. 

 

Kromog

 


Recommended Spec: Demonology or Destruction.

Recommended Talents: For Demonology you can spec Serv/Serv Cataclysm, depending on if you need more damage on the hands or not. For Destruction, Chaotic Resources with Grimoire of Sacrifice seems to be very effective. Glyph of Havoc works well for Destruction.

Tips: The hitbox of the Grasping Hands is actually HUGE. If you AoE one you will hit like 8 around it. If hands die too fast you can HoG them, otherwise Dark Soul + CW will clean up nicely.

Changes for Mythic: New mechanic in Runes of Trembling Earth (Stone Pillars). Destruction just go to town with Havoc. For Demonology be wary of wasting Fury by casting Doom. I glyph DS as Demonology and have one up for each phase. Stack HoG if you can, otherwise nuke with Chaos Wave / Soul Fire / ToC. You should have Foxes in this phase. With Cataclysm use it ASAP on pull. It will be up for each Grasping Hands phase (use in Caster Form), as well as second Stone Pillar phase.


 

Iron Maidens

 

Recommended Spec: Demonology.

Recommended Talents: For Demonology I prefer Cataclysm.

Tips: Place your portal over to the side where you drop the Blood Ritual away from the raid. With Cataclysm you can probably still Glyph Dark Soul, and prioritise CW over HoG.

Changes for Mythic: This fight you get the bitch job. You will be soaking the Blade Dash, so Demonology will enjoy spamming a lot of ToC. I choose the passive reduction build of Soul Link / Soul Leech / Glyph of Eternal Resolve, and have the Disc Priest keep me topped and Shielded. You will need external cooldowns in final burn phase. I advise to keep Dark Soul unglyphed, as the only hard part of the fight is when you bloodlust and need to nuke Marak and Turrets. Make sure you go into this phase with Potion / Doomguard / Catalcysm and 2x Dark Soul available. 

 

Blackhand

 

Recommended Spec: Demonology or Destruction.

Recommended Talents: Standard Single Target set up of Serv/Serv for Demonology, or CR/GoSac for Destruction.

Tips: DoT up the Siegemaker in p2. In P3 Drop your portal if you get targeted by Marked for Death (and don't forget to move out), and after the Massive Smash point yourself in the right direction and use Demonic Leap.

Changes for Mythic: Not many. Warlocks can use Demonic Leap to clear out first wave of Balcony adds as you fall down to p2. They spawn clumped up do just zerg them with 3x Chaos Wave. 

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EDIT:  Dated. My post was prior to 6.1

 

To get the discussion rolling.  I'll add Mythic notes as I beat or work on the encounters.

I need to clear up formating abit.

 

Heroic/Normal

 

Gruul - GoSyn, AD(Glyphed), DemonBolt


Nothing Warlock specific.  Its very patchwerk.  The Slash has a huge range, you can be near the back of room and still get hit.  Depending on your guilds stacking requirements, you can give yourself more room from others so you never have to move for Shatter, as example.


 


Oregorger (George) - GoSyn, AD(Glyphed), DemonBolt

Place gateway from a central location to an outer edge.  Mine is placed to allow me to quickly gate to a far outer area where I unload DB's into a box.  Port is setup in the central "safe zone".  Key to phase two is knowing where you can be and for how long.  Pick your spot and always go to the same location.  You will then be able to know based on where the boss is how much time you can be in the danger area.  Unless your hall is "on deck" you know you have at least two rolls before he could possibly put you at danger.  Phase change timing generally has me transitioning with a fury pool to DB nuke a crate in the back quickly.


 

Beastlord Darmac - GoSyn, AD(Glyphed), DemonBolt

Every raid should have enough AoE to burst the add waves down in time to never require us to spec into AoE talents.  You should have enough fury to use CW fairly liberally, and most def will if you have the 4p.  Teleport off the the edge of the room can get you out of the one mounts flame breath instantly if you get caught in a bad location.  Given how fast you die on mythic by this mechanic, could be important.


 

Hans-n-Frans - GoSyn, AD(Glyphed), DemonBolt

Stand on one of the gaps between belts to stand n plant turret.  Place portal on one of these spots to allow you to quickly get onto solid ground if stamps get you out of sorts.  The only time I have found I need to get on belts is during stamps.  Poptarts phase so long as you are on the opposite edge of the stationary ground strip to the lava, you will not be hit by it.  If you have to, use some ToC for stamp phase and drop a 3db cycle the following dump instead.


 

Thogar (Trains!) - GoSyn/GoServ, AD(Glyphed), DemonBolt

I think there is a good argument for any of our Grimoires on this fight, but more specifically Service.  Service lines up perfectly with the first Train split and is a nice way to get a bit more burst AoE for that portion of the fight without gimping your Single Target by speccing into Cataclysm.  Without seeing Mythic, Cataclysm is overkill on this fight, but man if there was ever a fight where mechanic timings lined up for our AoE cooldowns... this is it.    Melt the Man with Demobolts, melt the boss with Demonbolts. AoE is fun but we can crush boss dmg on this fight with Demonbolt.


 

Kromog - GoSyn, AD(Glyphed), DemonBolt

DemonBolt really frustrates me on this fight because the frequent movement can really mess your cycle timing up if you get out of sync.  Avoiding balls, big hands, smashy ground thing.. can make building fury difficult.  DemonBolt also feel very weak during the small hands phase of the fight. That said, While Cataclysm felt better to play and did comparable total dmg, my boss dmg was a few mil behind our DB lock when I tested it out, cant ignore that much boss dmg differential. 


 

Flamebender - GoSyn, AD(Glyphed), DemonBolt

We take the Circle that needs to be soaked to Melee.. with this strat preplacing your port behind the boss before pull allows us to instantly port to melee when we get picked. You can stand directly in line with a previous fire line to cause any new fire lines cast on you to overlap, rather than shit all over a new part of the room. Fairly straight forward fight, not much else lock specific or even tips


 

Blast Furnace - GoSyn, AD(Glyphed), DemonBolt ..... GoSyn, AD(No Glyph), Cataclysm

Here is a more taboo view, but Cataclysm is really good on this fight.  My choice on spec here comes down to your raid.  DemonBolt is important to nuke down the timed high priority Elementalists... however your ability to do passive AoE to the Clusterfuck of adds is greatly diminished. Every time I try to go DB on this fight we seem to fall too far behind on adds in phase 1...Our strat has all adds stacked which works well for Cata with range taking out the far side bellows operator.  Our elementalists were dieing in time, our phase 1 adds were not.  Cata worked better for me in our situation.  Cata is superior for Phase 1 mechanics, DB is superior in phase 2 and 3.  Spec according to what your raid needs most IMO.


 

Iron Maidens - GoSyn, AD(No Glyph), Cataclysm ... GoSyn, AD(Glyphed), DemonBolt

My personal preference on this boss is Cataclysm.  My only dislike for DemonBolt on this fights is the bomb dance can fuck with your cycle timing greatly, be it building fury or trying to plant to dump it.  ToC is a huge QoL during that phase for me.  Cata on pull with all procs is yummy, and second boat I am assigned to has multiple adds to drop it on as well.  With T17 4p, liberal use of CW with cata is producing some great parses.  DB still has the burst single target advantage for mechanics like Flame Turrets that need melted.


 

Blackhand - GoSyn, AD(Glyphed), DemonBolt

I use Eternal Resolve Glyph and Soul Link for a passive 30% damage reduction.  While Sac Pact can be amazing to absorb spike dmg on mechanics like Demo's in phase 1, the damage in this fight on average is very constant and too frequent for Sac pact to be super effective later on.  You can mitigate a significant amount more dmg with the passive reduction.  Phase 1 when first Demo happens we have fox popped.  When fox drops I have 2 stacks of HoG ready to go with Corruption refresh and a lifetap.  Those 4 instants allow me to not lose any cast time while moving for the Demo.  With no reactive DR's available in UR or Sac Pact I use Dark Regen if I fall below 50% on either of the phase 1 demos.  Save Doomguard for phase 3, short fight only allows one use.  Dropping Port in stack location or Leap can be used to counter any of the knockbacks in phase 3

 

 

And above all the golden lock rule... when a progression kill is looking to be a 17 dead, 3 people alive squeeker.... make sure you shatter early so you are the last to get slapped by the boss tongue.png

Edited by Soulzar
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First of all: Hi, I've been reading and profiting here for years, and was even reading in times I didn't play WoW. I used to write some guides for the german WL-Community back in TBC. Now I think I got something to share others could profit from.

My English isn't perfect, but I'm sure it's quite understandable.

 

We got 4 Warlocks in our Mythicroster, for raidsynergy one is Aff/Demo, one Demo/Destro, one Demo/Aff and one is Destro/Demo. And that's me, so I experienced most of the encounters as Destrolock.

All of us were world top 50 players in the past.

 

If anything else mentioned, all talents are "standard".

 

Gruul: (Normal/HC and Mythic)

-All Specs were performing well, movement is not that much, so even Destro got it's place here. You can spec totally what you want.

 

Oregorger: (Normal/HC and Mythic)

-Affliction was totally outperforming the other specs, Demo was top either way. Due to constant movement Destro did not really well. I'm going to spec Demo here in the future.

 

Darmac: (Normal/HC an Mythic)

-Demo is absolutly on top of the tables here. If there weren't any Moonkins at least. Get your Chaos Waves ready for those packs he's calling.

-Affli did fine as well

-Forget about Destro. Even with SB-sniping on everything that's going to die there's just to much movement. Will be playing Demo here in future.

 

Ka'graz: (Normal/HC)

-Demo and Affli doing very well. Setbonusses will get Affli to rock this encounter.

-Destro is also okay if you are lucky enough to get not too much movement. I'm going to offspec in the future.

 

Hans'gar and Franzok: (Normal/HC)

-SB: Haunt Affli wins. Demo and Destro performing well.

-I will be playing Demo in Mythic cause movement will have a much higher impact.

 

Thogar: (Normal/HC)

-Demo+HoG (or Chaos Wave, depening on how long those addpacks will be up)=Win

-Our Affli wasn't in the setup in any of our kills, so I don't know how he would've performed

-Destro doing okay. Cataclysm was pretty useless, as was Glyph of Havoc.

 

Blast Furnace: (Normal/HC)

-Just get your Demospec ready for this one. Absolutly outstanding. At least in our tactics. Nevertheless Destructions' burst was very nice to get those Elementalists burned down, but in fact useless for the rest of the fight.

- SB: Haunt Affliction doing also very well.

 

Kromog: (Normal/HC)

-That one's the Destro encounter. Bring Glyph of Havoc. I managed to outperform the outher specs in this fight.

-Nevertheless Affli and Demo were doing just fine.

 

Iron Maidens: (Normal/HC)

-Again Demo and SB:H Affli doing fine.

-Destro with GoServ (have it ready for movement)+Doomguard with Havoc on CD was okay, but far away from the other specs. Too much damageloss in movement phases. I'm going to play Demo in the future once again.

 

Blackhand: (Normal/HC)

-Demo and Affli doing very well.

-Destro was so bad on this fight that I switched to Demo while HC progress and pulled 5-7k more DPS averagly even with messing up the rotation quite often, compared to a nearly perfectly played Destrospec.

 

 

That are just my impressions and thoughs on BRF, maybe there are other opinions.

 

P.S.:

Destro needs a buff or a spell to cast while moving - or at least old RoF back.

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Thanks for starting up the thread and for taking the time to reply Neca.

 

Yeah I understand that you have 4 locks Neca and probably are refering to mythic rather than heroic kills but from what I can see the fight doesn't really change that much so that  https://www.warcraftlogs.com/statistics/7#sample=7&aggregate=amount&dataset=90&boss=1691&difficulty=4 is no longer valid. Yes sure it can be argued the best players are not posting logs but a selection of 15k parses is enough to show the trend in my opinion. On heroic there is a difefrence of 5k and 9k between Affliction/Destro and Demo respectively and therefore in my opinion only one spec is performing well and should be used during progression at least. 

 

So yeah that is one example above and I have to say the majority of your personal experiences Neca are not the same as what the logs are saying overall for a much larger sample. There is a huge difference between the 3 specs on most fights. Yes it can be argued that perhaps not all of the dps is effective damage but again Demo is reported as top on fights such as Gruul and Hans & Franz by quite a large margin and it's not possible to "fluff" there (at least on heroic, mythic granted may be different). 

Edited by spikeysquad

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You're absolutly right spikeysquad. Demo is outperforming the other specs on nearly each encounter. I should've mentioned, that our Affli is one of the best in EU and we are an average Mythic guild around World 900. But as I also mentioned, I'm going to play Demo on most encounters as well, because Destro is underperforming in most Situations.  

As you take a look at the setbonusses Demo and Affli will profit very much, while Destro needs a lot of luck for procs in the right situations.

So my main Destructionspec will be mostly Demonology with wrong gems&enchants :(

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And above all the golden lock rule... when a progression kill is looking to be a 17 dead, 3 people alive squeeker.... make sure you shatter early so you are the last to get slapped by the boss tongue.png

 

 

YES! The how-to-kill-Butcher-in-a-pug tactic.

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Thanks for all of this. I'm wondering what my priority is in terms of targets during blast furnace (H). Also, because there are lots of adds in that fight, is it worth the effort to dot as many as I can? I'll be seeing it for the first time tomorrow and I'm a little nervous tbh.

Edit: going as demo obviously.

Edited by KoragonArt

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Hardest part about the fight is getting the Primal Elementalist's down ASAP, and the final burn on the boss.

 

DoT the adds with Doom and Corruption, and chunk Demonbolts into the priority targets. 

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Is this thread up to date? Still demo owns on most of the fights?

 

No, it is not currently updated for 6.1 changes.

 

Demo is still the dominant spec.

 

For pure single target, you will want to go GoService with Servitude doomguard and use 2min darksoul.  Fights such as Gruul, Oregorger, Blackhand

 

Multi target you want GoSyn with Cataclysm, 1 minute dark soul.  Fights include, basically everything.

 

Some fights still have a choice, like Flamebender which is primarily a single target fight, but does have Multi target portions that line up with Cataclsym, or Trains where on Mythic even Nerfed DB can be the best option as its is still out best burst talent for priority targets like cannons and man at arms.  

 

GoSac and Chaotic Resources Destro is theoretically highest pure ST spec, but I think that is only at BIS levels, I cant touch demo still with any other spec.

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Regarding Iron Maidens.

 

I've been trying this fight as Affli SB:H, Demo Serv/Cata and Demo Supr/Cata all with more or less equal results.

One thing I'm not sure about tho is what I should focus on as Affliction.

 

It feels like I'm constantly refreshing the dots on all targets and end up hardly casting Drain Soul. With a 3 target fight I am still pretty shard starved. Should I just focus on the assigned target and maybe only keep Agony up on the other bosses in order to keep DS up for shards?

 

Thanks!

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You should still maintain DoT's on all 3 targets.

 

This is the unfortunate side effect of Soul Swap and Pandemic nerfs.

 

Affliction really shines on 2 targets such as Twin Ogron, but is manageable on 3.

 

Any more and you just lose out to the passive cleave of Demonology.

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Hello,

With my guild we are progressing with Mythic Gruul right now. I have looked up alot of sites and videos, checking what talents should be used for this fight.

I would like to ask what is considered the goto build after 6.1?

GoServ/AD/Serv or GoSyn/AD/Doombolt?

 

Thank you.

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DB is still good if you are lucky enough and good with it. Just saying.

 

I used DB on Mythic Kromog to Zerg the Pillars.  Worked quite well.

 

Gotta say, may not be a popular opinion, but 6 Mythic bosses in I've used all 3 of our lvl 100 talents. Which is think is really cool....

Edited by Soulzar

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So going to get my First pulls in on Mythic Trains tonight.  Liquid, Are you using DB for burst on the Cannons... Servitude and having pet tunnel boss, or Cata and melting everything?

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I just went destro on that fight and topped pillar damage all the time. Pretty fun to have 4set proc with havoc. Cannons are really not an issue on Thogar. I always went cata on that fight. 

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So going to get my First pulls in on Mythic Trains tonight.  Liquid, Are you using DB for burst on the Cannons... Servitude and having pet tunnel boss, or Cata and melting everything?

Cata. Pet just sits on boss the whole time. Cannons are pretty much a non factor as long as people switch.

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Updated the OP with tips for all 10 bosses on Mythic.

 

As a bonus, here's me killing Blast Furnace as Destruction, despite people claiming it to be a dead spec.

 

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