Trying to improve my DPS? (Spreedsheet vs Recommendations)

[Whezia]

Hi,

I have recently resurected my Warlock and begun raiding with it. I play in a casual guild and we have progressed up to Shade in Kara, where we have been stuck for a few weeks (until last tuesday) after our first kill. We have had prince at 1% as a best try.
My gear is a Mix between lv60 PvP Epic, Crafted Items and some other....(a lot of saved money for my Druids Epic flightform has gone into my Warlock instead)

I also recently found this site and it has been of great value for me. I been reading A LOT of threads. I am an afflictionlock today and I was it when The Burning Crusade was released.
I love being affliction but it feel like the mobs die to fast which limits the value of my DoTs so I been thinking if I can improve my DPS on trash with another build.
I'm currently spending my time playing normal instances so I can get the remaining Heroic Keys, the Sword from Murmur,D3 gloves (for hit). We are playing the usual Heroics (SP/UB/Mech) so I can get the obivious/recommended items and badges to replace what needs to be replaced my gear and we are also running Kara as I said.

I looked at my armory profile and it has not been updated with my recent loot/enchants. I got the pants from the opera event yesterday and I stuck 3 veiled noble topaz in them and tonight I will put Runic spellthread on them. I also leveled my enchanting to 360 and enchanted my rings. I also got the next kara ring and I will enchant my bracers tonight.

I downloaded the spreadsheet recommended on this site and played around with the usual builds and if I entered my values correct? I found that I would get best DPS from the following builds:
1) 0/21/40
2) 43/0/18 (my build today, I wanna move a few talentpoints to improve it)
3) 0/40/21
And now to my questions, I only have like 950 shadowdmg (with Felarmor), 10% crit and about 110 hit from gear today? Recommendations on this forum has seem to be that you should have like 1100 spelldmg and 15% crit before talents. Have I entered my values wrong?
Am I correct in that a 0/21/40 build would improve my DPS on short lived trash? SB's spam rather than DoTs and SB spam.
We usually have 1 lock and 1 shadowpriest in kara, should I care in putting CoS on the trashmobs? or should I bolt direct? From what I have read on this forum I should use CoS if there are 2 shadow damage dealers in the group/raid?

//PDa (http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...ivarr&n=Whezia)

[Zoink]

As far as I can tell you aren't doing anything wrong for a lock at your current level of progress.

Being an affliction lock is a bit ungrateful on trashmobs, especially if you have a strong DPS group in your raid as - like you said - the mobs tend to drop too fast.

This is hard to ammend, and you have to sort of feel your way and asses how fast the mobs drop as to what to cast at it.

Some might only be worthy of SB spammage, while others might be worth a bit more in terms of dots. You can try popping UA as the tank charges followed by a insto corr and then SB-spam ahoy, and pop DC when you feel comfortable doing it (eg. as a finisher or on unfearable mobs and such), and be sure to utilize Shadowburn to it's fullest potential on trash.

Considering the skill of your tank or the availability of offtanks you might want to consider putting up a few curses on several mobs in a pack as well as SB spamming the MT-target.

Do not use CoS on trash. Waste IMO.

Also worthy of a note is that you mention +crit. That's a stat you shouldn't really bother with. Try thinking more towards your hit and spelldamage.

- Zoink

[badkarma138]

Originally Posted by Whezia

Am I correct in that a 0/21/40 build would improve my DPS on short lived trash? SB's spam rather than DoTs and SB spam.

yes. On trash mobs, a 0/21/40 build will out DPS a 41+x/x/11+x build. but on the fights that matter the most, boss fights, your affliction build will outpace a 0/21/40 DS build by a good bit until your stats get up to those you mentioned. (1k+damage, 202 +hit, 20% crit).

the difference here is that a level 73 boss has a base 17% chance to resist any spell you cast. 202 hit reduces that to 1%, which is the lowest that it can be in any fight (there is always a chance of a resist). now when you are fighting a level 70 trash mob, the base chance for it to resist is 1%. I believe a level 71 mob is 2% and 72 is 4%, but i may be mistaken there.

So yeah, destro will probably out DPS affliction on trash in your case, but in the grand scheme of things...so what? the higher DPS on bosses is more beneficial to the raid than higher DPS on trash would be.

[Lijkbleek]

You could try a 30/21/10 build. Still no big crits, however you do get more bang out of your shadowbolts with sacked succy and you still have siphon life.

Biggest factor for dps is your play style. Pick a build that suits you. If that's affliction, then let others burn down the trash, you will make em cry against a boss.

[zn]

Hi might i suggest a 34/6/21 build, or 40/0/21. That 21 points in destro for Ruin makes a big difference in SB damage. It's still basically the same play style as a full Affliction build, but you get more SB's off because of Bane, get +damage from Imp. SB, and you get a pretty nice finisher (for when you're already full on shards). Plus, since there's usually not enough time for UA to finish on trash, buffing your SB damage can be more helpful.

As an example, even on trash I'm usually #1 in my Kara raids, just using Curse of Agony and Corr plus SB spam. I have lower shadow damage than most afflocks but a bit more crit goes a long way for SBs.

When I get my shadow damage gear up a bit higher i might see more benefit from UA (especially on bosses), but for total damage over a night of raiding it's hard to beat the old Shadow Mastery/Ruin spec.

Just a suggestion that might suit your play style. It suits mine just fine and I don't miss UA at all.

[Debuff]

Just to be clear, you are looking at a spec that would optimize your dps in kara, right? Also, when you enter in the specs, double check that you have all the talent points right. Are you using the spreadsheet from here?

[Josslyn]

If you want a bit more punch trash while maintaining strength for Bossfights, I am a big fan of 31/9/21 or 40/0/21 Builds - both have the added Pop of Ruin(which makes stackign crit a bit more important, and takes full advantage of a boomkin if you are fortunate enough to have one in your raid.

with the 31/x build, you are typically going to play with your Imp out, and a rotation of Curse of Agony/CoD or a support curse(typically Recklessness), Siphon Life, Corruption, SB, SB, SB reapply dots as needed, Dark Pact as needed on bosses and Corruption then SB spamming for Trash.

with a 40/0/21 you are going to stack up all your DoTs, but you may provide the raid more versatility with Malediction CoS in lieu of Curse of Agony/CoD - so you will
get even more pop outta your Shadowbolt Spam.

I typically drop Immolate from my cast rotation unless mobility is critical, in which case all the DoTs get priority.

Prince is a pain in the butt for all Kara progression guilds IMHO - the luck of where the infernals drop can literally kill ya! lol

[Remorse]

UA is excellent for fights where you need to be moving around a lot (such as shade). That way, your dots can just keep on ticking while you run around avoiding blizzard.