Help me please

[Pipa]

Here is my link http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Scarlet+Crusade&n=Pipa

I am working on replacing my other gems for to hit ones. (Darn things cost an arm and leg) I also am saving my tokens from Kara for my cloak.

I PVP and I Raid and Arena

Pvp issues I am having is those darn rogues I am getting eaten alive with them they seem to follow me around not just one but two or sometimes more, then the warrior joins in and I can’t do anything but sit there. I think rogues are Gnome haters.

Raid- I suck at this I have macros and bind keys and my damage trinkets up and with buffs I have about 1200-shadow damage when I have the wench out, and I still come in 5th place. I have two trinkets you see one that I have on then I also have the one that gives me plus 174 damage. I do not understand what I am doing wrong here. I am just about ready to kill this lock, I use to have so much fun before Burning Crusade with her and now I am not having so much fun.

I am working on getting two sets of different armor one for PVP one for Raiding but this is all I have atm.

I have tried every spec but just can’t find one that is working for me (600 gold on respects so far).

Please any suggestion on a spec that I will enjoy and not get grieved on over and over about my damage?

Any other useful macros beside the ones that are on wikki and wow sight?

Or am I doomed and should just hang up the towel?

[Marsyx]

Just a few comments, take them as they help.

Gearwise I think you're doing alright. FSW set, spellstrike pants, holo-gogs are all good. Going for the badge cloak is a good idea, but I would suggest trying for the Handwraps of Flowing Thought off Attumen or the Studious Wraps badge item. Try for a new trinket to replace the Violet Badge (dam is always helpful) like the Icon of the Silver Cresent or something similar. You may actually have something but your armory is showing the Violet Badge.

I won't give suggestions on gems since I am no expert, but your build I think I might be able to help with. I think the one I see now is probably your PvP build (17/34/10). I'm new to PvP so I can't help there, but raidwise I can help.

Affliction or destruction own in raiding (demonology only if you know how to micromanage your pet). For my raids I use a 42/0/19 malediction spec which works pretty well for me. Check out my profile if you're interested. For raids you should stack hit...you getting 5th on that list may have something to do with resists...55 hit means monstrous resist rates in any raid. If you want to go pewpew destruction....well, I shall leave that to others more informed than I (only specced destruction once...hated it).

Your shadow damage is actually very good, so that isn't the problem...spell rotation really doesn't matter much, but I always go Imm, UA, Corr, Curse of Agony/CoS/CoD, SL, SB spam...rinse and repeat. As aff I macro my trinkets to my dots and SB which gives me a boost of damage. Simple /use 13 /use 14 (I can post them if you want). Also, stopcasting macros and quartz (or some other cast bar) work wonders for lag issues.

Trying to do raid and PvP is quite the balancing act and I'm trying my hand in it as well. I would suggest affliction and run with it for a while then try out destruction and run with it for a while. Personally I love affliction because it gives the raid the boost in dam, cc when necessary, and the mobility that many fights are required to have. Plus, I usually rock first or second on the damage list which is always a bonus.

[Absalom]

From what I can tell you seem to have ok gear though I have a couple suggestions. First, if you aren't focusing on destruction, i'd probably replace the spell crit with spell hit or damage. Your hit rating is fairly low for raiding (per threads I've read all over these forums on this very topic) so I would likely work on that first. I see you have imp shadow bolt, however, with your hit rating lower as well as the crit rating.. you will likely not be getting the damage you are looking for provided the spell isnt resisted in the first place. You could try moving the points from imp shadow bolt to suppression in the affliction tree (this wont help for the shadow bolt but will help on your other dots).

As for rogues in PvP.. what pet (minion for those that want to be picky) do you have out? I run with the felhunter in BG's so that I can not only get a jump on rogues but so that I can counterspell/silence (spell lock) casters. Your felhunter will help you find the rogue before he finds you. When going into a BG, have a trinket on you (which you can get for honor marks) that can help you get out of movement impairing effects. Also, there are addons that might help you out with the rogue as it will be more apparent when they use things like kidney shot, cheap shot, or cloak of shadows. This way.. you can time when to strike back (i.e. know when the effects of the ability will wear off and when you will have a chance to do anything). If you see cloak of shadows come up.. dont bother with casting as you are just waisting mana and adding to the rogue's enjoyment.

These are just some suggestions. Others will likely have similar or completely different ideas. I wouldn't throw in the towel. Just take some time and go back to your studies. Watch what other locks (check their armory page if you want to see talent or gear setup) are doing in raids or BG's and if needed, make adjustments to your own game.

/salute.

[Pipa]

Marsyx thank you so much I will try that and I did find the macro's for the trinkets and will try that also. I do not know though what you mean by this though "As aff I macro my trinkets to my dots and SB which gives me a boost of damage. Simple /use 13 /use 14 (I can post them if you want). Also, stopcasting macros and quartz (or some other cast bar) work wonders for lag issues."

Stopcasting macros?

Quartz?

And no to destruction is to slow in PVP, the darn rogues eat me now and if I went with destruction I will never have a speckle of hope. I have tried Demo (which helps out tons with rogues but gets banished at all times ) SL/SL (which is not good in raid) but I am going to try the spec you suggest
tonight .

Ya I forgot I need a new trinket to I will look up the ones you suggest.

To Absalom oh you are awesome I will look for some of those now and your right I will work on those pesky rogues some more, I do have my trinket for that but what happens is they usually gank up on me so I pop it and get out of it and start to go (mind you very slowly ) my fel is eating away at them to no avail and then boom his buddy saps my happy self . But I think once I figure out the trinket thing I will make some more useful engineer stuff to help me get out.

[Marsyx]

Stopcasting macros are basically something I use to speed up my dps. Quartz is a cast bar addon that I use to also help boost dps. Basically what happens is quartz gives me a visual of my cast time. Its kind of hard to explain, but I will try my best.

When I cast a spell (i.e. SB), I get a cast bar like normal with one small addition. Quartz automatically builds in for latency and tells me when it is safe to cast my next spell. At the end of my cast bar will be a small red section, when the bar reaches that point it becomes safe to cast another spell. This is basically because my ui hasn't recognized that I have finished casting, while the server has. Stopcasting works on the same principle. If I just cast a SB and wait, I lose some time in my next cast because there would be a delay between my screen telling me a cast was successful and the server knowing that the spell was successful. Stopcasting stops the cast of the last spell and begins to cast the next spell.

For example, I use this macro for my SB casting:

#showtooltip Shadow Bolt
/use 13
/stopcasting
/use 14
/stopcasting
/cast Shadow Bolt

I'm no expert in macros, but this one works for me. When I use this macro, my first trinket will pop off giving me a dam boost (assuming I have the right trinket in place), if that trinket is unavailable it will try the next. The /stopcasting command is for things without any global cooldown (which is always assumed my macros). Using Quartz, once my cast bar reaches the red section, I click the macro again. That stops my last cast (which was already successful because of the latency monitor in quartz) and begins the next cast. Less time between casts means more DPS.

I tie my trinkets into my dots the same way:

#showtooltip Corruption
#show Corruption
/use 13
/stopcasting
/use 14
/stopcasting
/cast Corruption

I do this with all my dots (inefficient maybe, but I'm no expert in macros). Corruption, UA, and Curse of Agony/CoD are all tied the same way as my SB (Curse of Agony/CoD are also tied into amplify curse). Using the /stopcasting command and quartz has improved my dps, plus allowing the extra spell dam to apply to my dots is quite helpful.

That may or may not have made any sense...I hope it did. Here's the link for the quartz addon:
Quartz | World of Warcraft @ Curse.com

Read around some of the comments there, they can explain it better. Or just install it and try it out yourself. Once you see it you'll know what I'm talking about. Just make sure you don't click the macro until you've reached the red or the spell will just be overridden. In other words, this technique is not for those who just button mash SB.

I'm pretty happy with affliction for PvP and do fairly well. I get slaughtered in arena, but that may have more to do with my noobness there than anything else. I would never use destruction in PvP, much more of a raiding spec. Aff gives you lots of flexibility for both raids and PvP as well as demonology. But like I said before....demonology in a raid requires a lot of micromanagement (which I hate to do in raids, I'm more of the jump around and dot things while laughing hysterically to myself).

I usually don't check the forums this often, but I try to check in at least a few times a day. If you need clarification or if anyone else knows more efficient ways, please feel free to comment. Helpful criticism is always....um, helpful. Plus, I'm heavy into Kara and ZA and any criticism would be helpful to my raid group.

Anyway, that got way too long for a message. Hope it helps.

[maiko]

Great post Marsyx Thanks for posting!

And I too am a huge fan of Quartz.

[Absalom]

I do have my trinket for that but what happens is they usually gank up on me so I pop it and get out of it

Yeah, rogues are pretty tough to deal with at times. The felhunter is normally pretty good about seeing the little stealthed monsters, and the paranoia buff helps out as well. Basically, keep in mind that the stealth detection is relative to the felhunter. I say keep this in mind because if you sick the felpup on, say, a mage and your felpup is no longer close enough to you.. this could open up a chance for a rogue (or catform druid) to sneak up on you.
Should this happen, what I do (which may not be the best tactic) is fire a death coil on the rogue (when the chance comes) followed by fear. I am destruction specced so I will likely also try shadowfury->fear. As affliction, be sure to get siphon life up then throw out your other dots. Stay mobile. On your first fear, they will likely pop their trinket, this is the time for your next fear. They may try cloak of shadows at this point. This is where being demo specced with a felguard would help since anything you cast is a waste of mana. Intercept and cleave dont care about his cloak of shadows ;)

I am no expert, but hopefully that gives you something to try... There are a ton of threads on "how to survive a rogue attack" around here so feel free to search.

[Pipa]

Thanks again guys at lunch I went home and spec affliction (see if armory updated) and DL quartz and started re-programing my macros and also grabed some gems (put one in the wrong spot but will fix when I get home), then tonight I will head to Kara and see how it goes.

I did not lose that much in Shadow Damage as I thought, I am still over 1k.

You both are awesome thank you again.

And yes your explaination of quartz was perfect.

[Marsyx]

Awesome! Glad I could help Pipa and good luck tonight in Kara. I'm running one myself tonight (cleared it last night and hoping to do it again tonight). Let me know how it goes.

[Turmeric]

One minor point to counter something said previously. Every Warlock who raids should have 5/5 improved Shadow Bolt.

Everyone. The proc increases all shadow damage and is probably the best endgame tier 1 talent in any tree of any class.

You need suppression sure, but steal from within the aff tree. 5/5 bane is a must too.