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Malfestor

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re: LEVEL 80 PVE Warlock Builds

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A couple of suggested builds.

Demonology / Destruction Hybrid
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IZcxczsgMqZVcGVr0uVzA
This is what I was running and it performed pretty well. Keep Immolate and Curse of Agony up at all times and spam your Incinerates. Very simple to maintain and great for learning fights. You may switch points between Imp Healthstone or Master Conjuror as appropriate.

54/0/17 Affliction
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IfxMbzMAoVi0IstZEzoV

Original Post by Fallenman
http://wowmb.net/forums/blogs/fallenman/248-raiding_spec_roundup_part_2_5_54_0_17.html

Switched to affliction this week and figured I would share this build with my warlock buddies. Why I like this build? It is the least reliant on pets for DPS. That's right, I'm hating on the pets. Bliz has done quite a bit to increase the chances my demons are going to live through a boss fight but... well my demons are ticking me off. "Stay out of the god damn fire!" <smack smack>

I suggest you read the linked post (and previous posts) to maximize the effectiveness of this build. We learn about affliction being concerned with damage per cast time and the dreaded "soul execute". Sounds like something they might scream out during an anime...


Last edited by Malfestor on 2009/01/30 14:08; edited 1 time in total


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Crissy5313

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re: Builds

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I just want you to know Malf...you are my bestest friend ever!!!


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Malfestor

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re: Sevlana Spec Recommendations

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Original post by Sevlana at the Warlocks Den
I do not claim this as my own material. But I will say it is a great guide.
http://wowmb.net/forums/f80/31074-spec_recommendations_all/

Hello, I've been a den member for approximately 3 years, but this is barely my 3rd post. I tend not to say much unless I have something I think is (i) not being said, (ii) not being discussed fairly. A bit about me, I have played a warlock for three years and avidly theory craft. I also have put out consistently high dps in medium gear, which is indicative that I have a good understanding of how to milk DPS based on what gear you are in. Pre 3.0, my guild was starting sunwell, and when Wrath of the Lich King rolled around, we had slowed down at felmyst. Currently we have three groups clearing 10 naxx, and we just finished thaddeus in 25 man. We are an average fun and family guild with 3 raid nights, but we are all pretty solid players with a good handle on the theory craft. So, here we go. Let's talk talents.

Specs. Everybody wants the best one. I made a post a week ago which pretty much said that while a spec is important, the magical 'best spec' is not an absolute. Consider that each player has a particular play style, and each encounter gives different rotations an edge (or lack thereof). As well, specs scale according to whom you are grouped with, or which roll you are filling. Take your mind OUT of the box and consider that the best players are not the ones which can get the biggest dps number on patchwerk. The best players are the most informed, most adaptable, and most consistent players.

That being said, there seems to be a wave of individuals that think affliction far outranks other specs. Affliction is a great way to go; however, let's not poo poo some other hybrid specs or deep destro specs. In the last week, I've specced into 6 different classic raiding specs and here is my take on each of them. From least favorite to favorite:


0/56/15 - Metamorph+Felguard
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?warlock=550000050000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000005033011352022500135231351&glyph=000000000000
Metamorph was a fun talent to run with. It is great for soloing and has excellent utility in both PvE an PvP. This spec really reminded me of the old school 0/21/40, mostly because you get to spam shadow bolts for huge stacking crits. The only difference is you are given a felguard who puts up competetive damage, and keeps up buffs/debuffs for a raid. Personally, I found that once I became a serious raider again, I had trouble with managing my felguard, and metamorph was only slightly better than trinketting on bosses. If you are good at timing it (aka find those moment where your DPS is exponentially increased, then ramp it up even further with the 20% SD bonus for 30s) it can be a lot of fun, but personally I found it a bit unwieldly. If you are the only demo lock in a spell casting raid, it can be quite handy for the debuffs alone. Notable, until last week, Hams from Ensidia was running this spec as the only demo (of 4 locks) in the guild.


0/41/30 - Felguard, DT, Emberstorm
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?warlock=050330152200310500000000000000000000000000000000000000203033011352021500133201000&glyph=120700000000#
This spec takes the awesomeness (or lose) of the felguard and pairs it up with deeper destruction. Drawing from the mana efficiency of fire (more so than shadow without the glyph), this rotation is only slightly harder; you need an immolate up as often as possible or your dps drops. your spell power will scale nicely with greater gear, and though you discard your metamorph pop and stacking SB crits, you gain back the scaling through emberstorm and molten core. Just be sure to keep corruption up (which may warrant the glyph of corruption for a glyph) and Curse of Agony (if you're not on CoE) for maximum molten core proc time. I have a personal vendetta against the felguard simply because I suck at using it, but if you excel in that area, this spec may be good for you and your end game.


0/31/40 - DE Imp + S&F
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?warlock=050332052200310510350000000000000000000000000000000000233003011352020500100000000&glyph=120413000000
So you appreciate destro, but your gear is not all there. You are mostly doing heroics and you don't care much about trash, but your focus target dps is important to you (boss fights!). You are hoping to break the 2k dps barrier as you start 10 man naxx with your guild. You suck at rotations, and your pet management is even worse. This spec is perfect for you. It's a good easy rotation - just dump Curse of Agony, corruption, immolate, then spam incinerate. pop your imp's demonic empowerment for 700 damage firebolts at a moderate rate. The point doesn't really have anywhere better to go unless you want shadowfury (which I love and miss) as a stun for when you mistakenly pull aggro with your faceripping single target dps. Not much to say, except this is a good raid spec if you have medium gear and DK isn't really worth it for you yet. It also is great if you don't like timing backlash, but you still want a little finisher that doesn't eat up your soul shards (conflag).


0/13/51+7 - Chaos Bolt, D.Aegis
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?warlock=050332052200310511350013510000000000000000000000000000232003011350000000000000000&glyph=000000000000
If you love the bang and efficiency of chaos bolt, take it. If it makes you feel hawt that you can see a 8-10k crit with midrange gear, take it. I used this spec when I first dung 80. I loved it. It has great utility with shadowfury and chaos bolt, and it frontloads a great amount of burst that keeps you from feeling outclassed during the crazy trash-rolling in Wrath of the Lich King. use chaos bolt and corruption in tandem privy to immolate so that you can maximize its up time with incinerate spams. You will have roughly 1900 dps and a high amount of utility in raid-entry gear. I didn't like backlash because it clipped my immolate and chaos bolt, which to me was a waste of talent points. This spec really appealed to me because it ripped faces in PvP and was very PvE viable. You can easily lock up and kite a character with shadowfury, fear and deathcoil, and you still hit very hard, especially with chaos bolt. For me, I placed the 7 points in my imp and pet utility because alone he would generate about 3-400 dps. If you prefer more defensive thinking (or if you pvp a lot) consider nether protection. Interesting, but when ensidia cleared all Wrath of the Lich King content, this was the spec that Buzzkill and Damia used. Great leg in, especially if you are trotting BT/Sunwell gear.


53/0/18 - Deep affliction
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?warlock=550030050000000000000000002350022001023510051500331351000000000000000000000000000&glyph=030400000000
Deep affliction talents get tossed around quite a bit. It all depends on your MT's threat gen (imp drain soul), other warlocks in the group (malediction), your hit (suppression, cataclysm), and whether or not you like including immolate in your rotation (molten core, often taken from 1 point in cataclysm). The details of this spec will switch and swotch, so this here is just an example of deep affliction - the one I chose. I had a lot of fun with this particular spec; unfortunately it was very heavy on my ability to count and play consistently. If you are considering this spec, here are a few tips: You NEED to be able to estimate how fast a mob is going down and adjust your rotation accordingly. You NEED to know how much threat your spells place on mobs so that you can stack dots on MULTIPLE mobs or you will feel utterly defeated on trash both in heroics and raids. You NEED to have high hit on bosses, or your haunt drops off, and so does your dps - much like a Demonic knowledge warlock having their pet killed. This spec will only be worth it if you are highly raid aware, because if you die, your DPS is ZERO funtil you are brought up again. I used a plethora of dot timers and warnings through my scrolling text, and though I could get good dps, I hated staring at bars. I play a healing druid as well, and I found the experience to be much like that. I was so busy trying to manage my timers that I didn't even look at the boss. It was mostly where am I standing, and which hotkey should I press next. The big plus though, is that this spec lets you drain-soul-execute very effectively. Nothing is more fun than seeing drain soul ticking for upward of 10k. The largest I got was 11k, but I hear it is about 13k for 4 piece wearers who know how to time lifetap and trinket pop (I use the egg and compass, so no timing for me). In this spec, spell power = spell hit > spell crit > spell haste. And yes, I as an aside, I personally believe spell power is greater than spell hit because the rating cost has gone through the roof. It makes sense to me both through theory crafting and through testing. To an extent of course. So back on topic, if you are a very good micromanager and you enjoy TIMING TIMING TIMING, give this spec a shot. You no longer need to worry about the debuff cap. Go hog wild.


0/40/31 - Imp DK + Emberstorm
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?warlock=050332052200310500000000000000000000000000000000000000232003011352121500135000000&glyph=120413000000
My favorite spec at the moment. On patchwerk, I hit 4000 DPS in 3 piece T7 today. I still need to reitemize gems and slap on a shoulder enchant, so I would be surprised if this can break the 4k barrier without consumables. But before you get to excited, this is fully buffed and flasked, so don't let the number decide for you. This is an excellent single target spec, but it loses on utility. Your pet MUST stay alive, and you must have high haste and hit to really milk the damage. On fights like Loatheb, you will not measure up to others because the 50% crit does not scale as well past a certain point. (I was at 89% crit after talents and buff, and it did not push me up as much dps as when I was 0/13/51+7 with the same). This spec brags _almost_ even dps as deep affliction; for specific players and styles, I would say this is superior to it. It sure matched me. The deep demo spells will help your dps scale better with gear than chaos bolt and backlash (deep destro). True, S&F will scale slightly, but it does not give you as much spell damage back for the raid buffs you receive in 25 man instances. Fully buffed, I was at 30% crit, 2600 spell damage, and 400 haste, hit capped. Thank you for buffing my imp. I have not yet adjusted my spec to grab demonic sacrifice, but I recommend it for fights where your imp doesn't get important buffs you do. For example, on thaddeus, your imp does not get a charge, therefore he does not receive the buff. sacrifice him for 10% more damage; he couldn't make the jump anyway ;). Improved stones is only a minor increase, so some don't take it. As well, late game, you may not need all three points in cataclysm, so get rid of the 1% mana back (if you're hit capped for 2/3 in the 300 range hit - much easier for alliance with your dranei friends) and grab 1% crit from backlash. A final plug, this is buzzkill's current spec (from ensidia). Damia was more a pioneer with a slightly altered version. But now, three of the four locks run with this. Hams even got off his deep-demo debuff raid utility spec and picked up a variant of this bad boy. Use it and don't let deep affliction look down on other specs. This nailed me second (my meter said 1st... gr...) on patchwerk on my most recent WWS log with 4096 dps. Affliction lock with almost even gear (one less T7, non-set breaking) was only 10,000 damage behind in 4th place with 4064 dps. So the summary of this spec is that it works very well if you are getting geared (I began once I had all the heroic drops I wanted - This was at about the 190 badge mark), and you hope to do a lot of 25 man raids and are great about letting your imp eat buffs (I keep him un phase shifted all the time).


So there you have it. Several specs to play around with. The honest truth is that when you know your game, these key specs often only give hairline splits between dps according to meters. It is more valuable that you choose a fun spec that you can understand, and learn to milk your dps. Meters don't tell you who is the most valuable damage dealing raid member; They only tell you who knows how to push DPS. And this is only useful in certain contexts. It's like asking a healer what their HPS is. It's not always how much healing they can pump out, it's when they apply it and who to. Hope these descriptions and links give you all a chance to try something new, and I look forward to seeing the warlock community continue to grow and challenge the stereotypes which have been cast upon us for the past few years. We do have flavor, and we do know how to play. Feel free to post comments and I'll do my best to respond amidst my exams.


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AkhorahilDK



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re: LEVEL 80 PVE Warlock Builds

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Switched to affliction this week and figured I would share this build with my warlock buddies. Why I like this build? It is the least reliant on pets for DPS. That's right, I'm hating on the pets. Bliz has done quite a bit to increase the chances my demons are going to live through a boss fight but... well my demons are ticking me off. "Stay out of the god damn fire!" <smack smack>


Yeah Malf, but fire heals you...duh. You're pet seems to have the right idea. twisted
Malfestor

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re: LEVEL 80 PVE Warlock Builds

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AkhorahilDK wrote:
Yeah Malf, but fire heals you...duh. You're pet seems to have the right idea. twisted


A DK trolling a warlock thread... feels just like the official Blizzard forums. Oh snap! tongue out


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Vitol

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re: LEVEL 80 PVE Warlock Builds

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wall of text crits you for 2689005 dmg. you are now blind.
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