January 21, 2009, 09:43 AM
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#4 (permalink)
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Character Info
Eritha
80 Human Warlock
Azjol-Nerub
Euro
PvE
Guild: Peace and Quiet
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Re: I need help with my DPS - Thread #2 (Post Patch 3.0.8)
Hey McGee,
Some reading for you:
Spec recommendations for all - The Warlocks Den Forums
Outline of current most popular raid specs - The Warlocks Den Forums
Bear in mind that backdraft and some glyphs are changed as of today making some older justifications invalid.
TLDR: play the way you want to, know your talent strengths, know where your damage is coming from, buff those places.
On with the show ...
I think the key to any good spec is understanding the underpinnings of the spec. What key talents/spells make it all come together in one glorious demonic explosion.
One of the things about deep destro is that it's fire-centric. Emberstorm is basically the deciding factor there, so every point you've got in a shadow spell is (imho) a point wasted on a deep destro spec. Also, the more spells you talent up for "standard" rotation casting, the harder you'll struggle to making the best use of all of those points. Affliction is the classic example where exemplary play doesn't always reflect exemplary damage output. I suppose I could've said "know your strengths" 
There are many destro specs around, but your key talents for deep destro (in order of appearance):
* Molten Core
* Demonic Power
* Ruin/Devastation
* Emberstorm
* Conflag/Backdraft
* Backlash
* Emp Imp
* Chaos Bolt
So a sort of raw base for deep destro would be 0/13/51:
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Those extra 7 points can be placed where you fancy, depending on how you like to play, and likewise those 51 points can be jiggled around. That 1 point in soul leech, for example, is probably wasted there, better to fill soul lech up to 3/3 or move the point to somewhere you'd actually use it.
Take the following with a pinch of salt, but I would:
* Use Rain of Fire instead of SoC for your staple aoe. You can use Shadowfury to proc MC just before you cast Rain of Fire.
* Glyph for Imp (more imp output), Conflag (no immolate consumption as of todaya) and either Immolate (less burst damage, but more tick damage) or CoAgony (longer run time)
Some spell rules to follow then would be:
* Keep CB on cooldown. Everytime it's off CD cast it like you would an incinerate.
* Keep Curse of Agony and Immo up. Usual dot rules apply - don't let them clip.
* Conflag when it's off cooldown, once at the start of immolate (for the extra burst) and once as it's in those 5s of immolate (for the extra crit if you have Fire & Brimstone).
* Run with the imp out, just watch his positioning on some fights.
Some whys:
* Curse of Agony is up to proc Molten Core. If you're in the middle of a backdraft and Curse of Agony runs out with MC up, you've got time to reapply Curse of Agony.
* Corruption ticks every 3s, Curse of Agony ticks every 2 and needs to be reapplied less, that's why we use Curse of Agony not Corruption (see post above yours).
* A CB not on cooldown is a wasted talent point.
As you know warlocks rarely have a guarenteed "rotation", we work more on spell priorities. But a basic set up rotation would be (for me):
Curse of Agony > Immo > Conflag > CB > Inc (filler) > Conflag
Now you're into priority territory. How many Incinerates can you get off before immo runs out? Conflag doesn't align precisely with immolate, so it'll be shifting around.
Keep immo & Curse of Agony up while keeping conflag and CB (on cool)down, fill with incinerate! Roast marshmellows on the fiery corpse of your enemy.
Fwiw with heroics, I recommend stacking a fair whack of haste (not difficult in wrath) and bringing lots of water. Against these melee guys, long cast times don't show up well on trash, especially, but a chunk of haste really narrows that gap. You will eat mana like it's going out of fashion, however, so putting points in soul leech for the longer fights might be worthwhile.
G'lock (see what I did there?),
- Eritha.
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