question regarding dps in kara

[Farbauti]

hi

thank you for dropping by and trying to answer my question

without further due. my guild has been doing kara for a while according to all warlocks out there it seems they are always in no1 or very close to it. it dont give a rats *** about being no1 but either im doing something terribly wrong or the rumour about warlock (affliction) dps in kara is wrong.

to be more specific
im always about 7-10% behind two hunters in our guild except when it comes to bosses where i can dps full out without having other duties (i.e. prince), in these cases im about 5% behind. they are normally doing 25% of the damage while im around 16% or in the case with bosses around 20%


my spec and gear: The World of Warcraft Armory

one of the hunetrs specc and gear: The World of Warcraft Armory

in 90-95% of the cases i finish each mob with shadowburn
i use dots depending on how fast trash dies. it varies between just corruption and full dot cycle
i always cast shadowbolt when dots are up

i now my gear is lacking

so my question is: is the difference in contributed dps depending on gear
or something else

all help is appriciated

[Debuff]

When you say you are 7-10% behind the hunters are you recording damage ONLY on the boss fights? They will destroy you on trash and you talk about using shadowburn which suggest you have the damage meters running on trash.

[Valcoris]

Your hunter is pretty well geared for kara and definitely has his spec down. Assuming he has a great shot rotation down as well his dps as long as he can use that pet is going to be a nice challenge for you.

One of my suggestions is put 17-18 points in destro instead of just 11. The extra points gets you to destructive reach which gives you the range and threat reduction. That threat reduction means you won't threat cap as quickly.

Your hunter out gears you pretty well. Also he has taken the time and spent the money to get all of his gear enchanted. The FSW pieces the Voidheart Pieces and maybe even the Spellblade should have top grade enchants on them. You looking at somewhere around 100 SP just there. Also grab either the spellfire pants or the trial-fire trousers and put that nice epic spellthread on there. Idk if at honored you can do the blue spellthread but if you can even on the pants you have now the normal spellthread is worth it. It's only 5 primal mana which doesn't take long to grind.

The other thing to point out is that the hunter simply doesn't have the utility that you do. No stam buff, no healthstone, no synergy curses. They can trap things... for a really short period of time unless they are an amazing hunter that can kite trap something (those kind are few and far between).

Wish I could look at a few hunters I've played with to give you a better idea but armory broke duskwood so.

Best of luck and a BM hunter is a challenge to surpass but give yourself some time to get some gear and what not and you can do it.

Just read the post above me and can't speak for the OP but damage meters like Recount record both overall and fight specific data so it is possible they are doing both.

[Theleb]

Hunters are a challenge, no doubt - and if that Hunter out-gears you then I don't think there's any shame in losing out by 5%

Gearing up and ensuring said gear is absolutely top-notch is one option (I'm guessing that you have to rotations down and obviously know your class) but I raid with a BM hunter and even in equal gear I can never guarantee I'll beat them - there's not much in it either way but BM DPS is quite frankly, insane as long as he can use his pet.

I don't think that the generalisation that Affliction Warlock DPS in Karazhan is inaccurate - If anything little problems like this aren't by any means common so its more indicative of that particular Hunter outgearing you - you can and will catch up.

[Farbauti]

thank you for taking the time to answering my questions

Originally Posted by Valcoris

When you say you are 7-10% behind the hunters are you recording damage ONLY on the boss fights?

as i said. 7-10% on trash and 5% on bosses like prince

Originally Posted by Debuff

The FSW pieces the Voidheart Pieces and maybe even the Spellblade should have top grade enchants on them......

yup i know. im in the process of grinding cash and materials for them.

Originally Posted by Debuff

One of my suggestions is put 17-18 points in destro instead of just 11. The extra points gets you to destructive reach which gives you the range and threat reduction. That threat reduction means you won't threat cap as quickly.

do you still think i should but the points in destuction if never have thread problems or range problems???
THREAT. we have always a paladin with us and therefore i always have BoS which is probably the cause of never having agro.
i have grown accostumed to the range so thats no big issue.

[Valcoris]

It's a tough call. As your gear improves you may find yourself threat capped on boss fights even with the pally buff but you may also want to wait till then to make the talent change and see. The difference of 1-2% crit and 200-300 damage may not seem like a lot but it is huge.

When you say you aren't having any aggro problems you mean your never threat capped and doing nothing or you mean you never have to soul shatter?

The talent point move may be worth it if you are soul shattering as it will allow you to use it a little later allowing you to gain more benefit from it and to do a little more dps but that's just in my head so I can't back the theory up.

You may be getting lucky but with low spell hit the chances of a resisted soul shatter are killer and you sit for a long time doing nothing so that extra 10% threat reduction is helpful.

Also, ignore trash dps. It's not our niche so let the hunters have it. Focus only on your boss dps and what you can do there to improve it.

[Edwidget]

Are you in the hunter's group? If he is BM then the Ferocious Inspiration buff is awesome and affects you as well. You want as many DPSers as possible in a group with BM hunters to maximize that FI buff. Not saying this will make all the difference, but FI put me over the top for my biggest hits, including a 9.5k shadowbolt crit on Vashj.

[Debuff]

Originally Posted by Edwidget

Are you in the hunter's group? If he is BM then the Ferocious Inspiration buff is awesome and affects you as well. You want as many DPSers as possible in a group with BM hunters to maximize that FI buff. Not saying this will make all the difference, but FI put me over the top for my biggest hits, including a 9.5k shadowbolt crit on Vashj.

I'm pretty sure he is in 10 mans. You don't really get as much flexibilty with grouping in 10 mans as you do in 25 mans.


Basically there isn't a whole lot we can tell you unless we see a WWS parse or better yet a video of you playing. He outgears you right now so you are at a big disadvantage.

[Hordelock]

I'm not a Kara regular but have run it 3 or 4 times. I ran this week with guildies and I got smoked by a frost mage in the group by about 300K damage and by a hunter by about 70K damage. TBH I personally don't care because we did well with only one wipe (on Curartor) which is partially my fault because I screwed up the timing on two of my CoDs.

And....I went in as sl/sl (no time to re-spec)

So unless not being tops on the damage meters is keeping you up at night or it is threatening your standing in the guild I wouldn't worry about it at all.

[maiko]

Living>Dying, that is very true.

But if you aren't pulling your weight or if you feel you could be doing better, then it's great to want to find out more info.

And IMO, gear plays a huge part in your issue here Far. Work on getting yourself enchants/leg kits/upgraded gear and I think you will be sittin' pretty