Felguard Mana Issues, Help?

[Cynic]

Yeah, save intercept for a click-to-cast. I use it mostly to get my felguard back into melee range during movement fights, not for the stun component but simply for the 25 yards he doesn't have to run before he's swinging again.

[RomaGoth]

Originally Posted by RomaGoth

I respecced to demonology last week. I have one point in mana feed and havent really ran into mana problems with the felguard (heh, his name is Hattom, lol). I find myself low on mana quite often though and life tapping ftw!!

Anyway, turn off his abilities and manually use them. It is good practice for raiding/instances too and it saves tons of mana. Pretty much what the others here have already said. I just feel the need to be involved in conversation

Heh, his name is actually spelled Hatuum. If anyone cares.

*** Information added 4 Minutes and 45 Seconds later... ***

We ran part of BRD last night and I originally had my Imp out for the stamina buff (obviously). However, 4-manning it like we always do required an off-tank, and the intercept ability of the felguard even in PVE is incredibly useful. Numerous times it helped in interrupting casters. I didn't really have any problems with mana either, except when I spammed SB's.....ftw!!!

[Demones]

Hello all,

I am new to WoW, been ingame for about 2 months now. I am currently a level 64 Warlock and have specced so far 1/44/10, my armory link is:

The World of Warcraft Armory

I started out Affliction, but then around 56 went to FG and really love this spec. My FG puts out decent damage, holds aggro pretty well and I can still toss a DoT or 2 and spam Shadowbolt. Mobs that I am killing for quests etc.. up to 1 or 2 levels above me, I don't even normally apply a DoT; as it is dead in 2 or 3 SB's at most.

The thing is while I really love this spec and I personally never have issues with health or mana management, my poor Felguard does. I will start grinding and typically after 10 mobs or so, my FG is out of mana and therefore cannot intercept or hold aggro worth a darn.

I can lifetap to give him mana but it is marginal at best and I end up just resummoning a new FG as it seems to be quicker.

What I was wanting to know is the last 6 points I will be getting I was intending to finish up Improved Corruption and then 2 points into Lifetap. Would I be better off downtime wise in putting 1 of the LT points into Mana feed, thereby giving Felguard a 66% return on the mana I get from LT?

Sorry for the longwinded post...


Demones

[Oliselia]

Have a look at mana feed, current set at 1/3. Not sure if you will be able to get iTap and MF to 3/3 without some mucking around.

-Oli

[Demones]

Originally Posted by Oliselia

Have a look at mana feed, current set at 1/3. Not sure if you will be able to get iTap and MF to 3/3 without some mucking around.

-Oli

Aye, I am not trying to get mana feed to 3/3. It is currently at 1/3. My question was, would I benefit more by have Mana Feed at 2/3(66% return to FG) and having only 1/2 in LT, or should I stick with going LT 2/2 and leaving MF at 1/3.

In a nutshell, the thing that tends to slow my grinding down the most is keeping my FG's mana supply up. I seem to have to stop more for him than I do myself.

[Oliselia]

I think it might be best to up your MF, the FG would theoretically get more bang for the buck.

Lets say you LT for 1k, with a MF of 1/3 your FG should get ~330 mana with MF of 2/3 that would be ~660. Now lets say you do LT 2/3 and get ~1300 from a LT, at MF 1/3 that would be ~429 mana.

Also keep in my that MF works with DM (Drain Mana) so you could use both LT and DM to fill up your pet.

[Medaho]

Having 2/3 in Mana Feed definately helps the Felguard mana.
When I'm on a good mob-killing tear, I normally drain soul during each fight to keep the Felguards mana up, then Health Funnel every 3rd or 4th mob to regen the Felguard health.

Using this strategy, I have almost no downtime .

[Pergal]

Well at that level and spec you are relying more on the felguard holding agro and doing damage than anything else so droping iLT to 0/2 and raising Mana Feed to 2/3 and spending a point else where won't hurt you.

At that level I had a similar talent build and noticed that my Felgaurd kept running out of mana as well. One thing I did (taking my +(S)pell (P)ower into consideration) was turning off autocleave and left on his autotaunt. As my +SP went up I changed specs (you get enough money from the quests, go ahead and do it) and gave my felgaurd 2/3 Mana feed and found that when I lifetapped I was topping him off way before myself. After this I was able to leave his auto-taunt/cleave on all the time and rarely had issues with aggro until 69+ where it was better to just go Affliction and drain tank again.

That said, I switched between the imp and the voidwalker (level 69+) depending on what mobs I was facing until my +SP got high enough where just using the imp for mana was a more useful / faster way of killing (pulling 4 mobs at once and health remaining damn near full, mana at about 75% with dark pact).

P.S. I might remember "those days" slightly off but I did find switching back to affliction a lot more useful and easier to gain the last level (to 70) and gear up with the increasing SP, Health & Mana. I also used ye' olde SM/Ruin build just because I occasionally liked to throw in some shadow bolts and didn't like my possible crits getting interrupted a lot (w/ the imp out).

[Demones]

Thanks for the feedback guys, much appreciated. I will go ahead and go the MF 2/3 route and see how that works.

As far as changing back to Affliction at 69+, I keep hearing how Affliction is more efficient, but I just feel almost naked without my Felguard.

I guess I have relied on him to keep mobs off of me so I can dot and nuke away. I have tried the VW for the heck of it recently and compared to FG he pales significantly. He does seem to soak up a bit more damage, but he cannot hold aggro off of me to save his soul shard.....

Once I hit 69 or so, I will try out Affliction again and play the drain tank role for a while and see how it goes.

One thing about FG though, I have had almost no problems taking on Elites and Bosses solo with him. I usually send in FG, put up CoDoom, Corruption, Immolate and toggle between Shadow Bolts and Health Funneling and refreshing DoTs as needed.

CoD is awesome, I don't know how many times I was taking on a Named elite and it was a close fight, my FG died and Named came for me, was immune to fear and I thought I was a goner, then BOOM, CoD goes off and drops him to the ground.

[Dunwich]

Good choice. If you're speced Demo I really recommend at least 2/3 MF not only does it keep the felguard grinding it can be a life saver on those long seduces in HF Citadel. Not keeping the demon's mana up contributes to the percieved weakness of warlock CC.