The Warlocks Den - WoW Warlock Discussions

In this thread Im going to post my experience with the different endgame raiding specs for warlock. I will write about the pros and cons and all that. Going to start with one/two different spec for each talent trees.

Affliction:

Shadow Mastery/ Ruin (In-Depth)
40 - 0 - 21

This build is made for damagesupport. The lock casts three dots and keep the up while spamming shadowbolts. The dots which mainly be up is Corruption, Curse of Agony and Siphon Life. If you have putten points into Malediction you might get asked to put up different damage boosting curses, which will help the mages and shadowpriests to deal more damage.

My experience with this build:
This build is all about damage, when I used this I was almost top five on the damage meters at any raid. With points in Ruin you gain the critbonus, but since the damageoutput mainly is from dots: This build benefits more from Spelldamage than crit, but if you balance the two stats you'll be imbah!

Pros - Deals _massive_ damage over time!
Cons - Lacks survivability and stamina from demonology talents.

Unstable Affliction / Destructive Reach (In-Depth)
44 - 0 - 17

The heavy affliction build doesnt deal as much damage as the other afflictionbuild. But this build is more about other aspects. For example, in the Vasjh fight (or however you spell it) you have to tank a felstrider, this build is insane for this as all you need to do is cast Curse of Extausion and run like hell.

My experience with this build:
I didnt like this build at all, all your time goes into renewing dots, and trash isnt worth the time of throwing all the dots. This build is only worth it in PVP or bossfights (fights that lasts longer than a minute). It does "ok" damage, but warlocks is best at tanking/kiting in this spec.

Pros - Good for tanking situations deals "ok" damage over time. Fair for PVP aswell.
Cons - Doesnt deal as much damage as other affliction builds and you dont get critbonus from Ruin.

Demonology

Felguard raid build (In-Depth)
7 - 44 - 10

This is the build for you if you want challenging fights and prefection. This build uses the Felguard as mainpet. Since you use a pet, its much advisable that you have at least Void Star Talisman (Solarian-drop) or two pieces of Tier 5 to use this build. In battles you send your pet on the mob, put up two dots and spam shadowbolts.

My experience with this build:
I'm a fan of challenge, and that makes this build the best for me. You have to keep a constant eye on your pet, make sure it doesnt die and you have to turn on and off petabilities. You also have to consider every fight to whether you should use the Felguard or sacrifice it for selfbuffs. It deals moderate to high damage and is fairly nice to play after you have gotten some time with it.

Pros - Deals acceptable damage. Most bosses has become petfriendly as some abilities doesnt affect pet.
Cons - Needs time to get used to the build, lots of micromanagement.

Demonic Tactics / Ruin (In-Depth)
0 - 40 - 21

This is the mean littlebrother of the 0 - 21 - 40 destruction build. This builds concept is basicly the same. It's mostly keeping Curse of Agony up and spamming shadowbolts (and having the pet you find useful at that particular fight). The big pros of this spec is that if you keep improved imp up you give your group about 92 points of Stam, and you get 20% aggro reduction. Aswell as passive +spelldamage. You get all kinds of selfbuffs with demonology talents. If you have more +crit than +damage, this build is for you. You benefit more from crit with this spec, and with ruin you can do massive burstdamage.

My experience with this build:
The pros for this build is massive. You get more aggromanagement as you can get up to 70% aggroreduce if they have a shaman in their group. Nice burstdamage, not very manaefficient, but indeed a nice build if you have +hit and +crit!

Pros - Nice selfbuffs and survivability from demonology talents, freedom to choose which selfbuff you want (aggroreduce, 10% damage increase etc etc).
Cons - Gets boring as its the same old thing over and over again.

Destruction

Demonic Sacrifice / Shadow and Flame
0 - 21 - 40

This build is the best you can get if you're looking for a pure damage build. This combines the critbonuses you get from destruction with survivability and
stamina you get from demonology. You need certain stats to use this build as this is a heavy build.

My experience with this build:
I tried this build once in my early days. This was indeed a devastating spec to use in raids. As far as I experienced you would be in the top of the damage meter if something isnt terribly wrong, or someone isnt using the 40 - 0 - 21 build (which can actually do almost the same amount of damage).

Pros - Deals insane damage.
Cons - Gets boring after a while since all you do is Curse of Elements and Shadowbolts.

October 09, 2008, 07:49 AM	#1 (permalink)
Shienna Character Info Shienna 80 Human Warlock Zenedar Euro PvP Guild: Contaminated Talent Spec: 0/56/15	[In-Depth] Shadow Mastery/ Ruin (40/0/21) Talent numbers : 40 / 0 / 21 Talent link : Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft This build is basicly made for the purpose of chewing a mob to death. It's not huge numbers that appear on your screen, but a rather huge wall of numbers appearing every three seconds. The point of the build is increasing the damage from your dots, and get the critbonus from destruction. My experience with the build is that it's viable for Arena aswell as PVE. Its more used in PVE due to the high damageoutput and the lack of survivability.. Affliction also have one buff which will help the tanks migitate more damage - Shadow Embrace - Which decreases physical damage taken by 5%. Must have talents: Ruin - 1 point - 100% more critbonus from shadowbolts Shadow Mastery - 5 points - Massivly increases dot and bolt damage Shadow Embrace - 5 points - Helps tank in raid, rather useful. Optional changes: There are some alternatives for this build. You might have noticed that I didnt put the 20th point in Shadowburn, and thats is because I personally hate that spell with every fiber in my body (due to some unpleasent arena encounters meeting a warriors spellreflect) but you are free to put that point in there! No further information at this point

October 09, 2008, 08:15 AM	#2 (permalink)
Shienna Character Info Shienna 80 Human Warlock Zenedar Euro PvP Guild: Contaminated Talent Spec: 0/56/15	[In-Depth] Unstable Affliction / Destructive Reach (44/0/17) Talent numbers : 40 / 21 / 0 Talent link : Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft As said in the summary thread, this build will is not about doing extreme damage, but this is a nice build for those warlocks who is in a raid or PVE situation where they have to be pure utilitylocks. One of the purposes of this build is for example the Lady Vasjh fight, where a warlock (or hunter) has to tank a Stryder around in circles. The easiest way is to actually.. Well. Run around while casting instantspells. Dots are superior in this way of combat. Must have talents: Amplify Curse - 1 point - Leads to Curse of Exhaustion, which is essensial for this build. Curse of Exhaustion - 1 point - Slows down a target by 30% (50% if amplified) Optional changes: If you are not the kiter of this fight, you can change from Amplify Curse and Curse of Exhaustion into malediction to boost other useful curses. No more information at this point

October 09, 2008, 08:29 AM	#3 (permalink)
Shienna Character Info Shienna 80 Human Warlock Zenedar Euro PvP Guild: Contaminated Talent Spec: 0/56/15	[In-Depth] Felguard Raid Build (7/44/10) Talent numbers : 7/44/10 Talent link : Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft Many denies the fact that demonology is viable in PVE circumstances, and many I met in instances raised eyebrows to why I was "PVP-specced". They eventually were quite surprised when I outdpsed them.. Demonology (felguard in general) is capable of outdpsing most characters. I did felguardraiding all the way through Karazhan and up to Black Temple before Sacrifice was better for me. Must have talents: Improved Life Tap - 2 points - Combined with Mana Feed, this talent provides enough manaregen for the felguard to rarely go oom. Demonic Tactics - 5 points - Increases damage done by felguard by a large amount. Soul Link, Demonic Knowledge, Master Demonologist - Top these talents - Those talents provides selfbuffs which increases damage and survivability. Summon Felguard - 1 point - Well. Naturally you will need a felguard to raid with. Optional changes: Not much to change in this build, but when it comes to Healthstones you can add and withdraw points from Improved Healthfunnel as you please. - It takes time getting used to this build. - Once gotten used to it can surpass most warlockbuilds in Pre-Mount Hyjal raids. - Can be used in Arenas and farming with great success.

October 09, 2008, 08:38 AM	#4 (permalink)
Shienna Character Info Shienna 80 Human Warlock Zenedar Euro PvP Guild: Contaminated Talent Spec: 0/56/15	[In-Depth] Demonic Tactics / Ruin (0/40/21) Talent numbers : 0 / 40 / 21 Talent link : Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft If you are into large numbers and running around with your incredibly sexy Succubus. Well, here you go! A viable raiding build which is based upong buffing yourself with the passive buffs from Demonology aswell as getting the critbonus from Destruction. Must have talents: Demonic Tactics - 5 points - Increases damage done by Succubus by a large amount. Soul Link, Demonic Knowledge, Master Demonologist - Top these talents - Those talents provides selfbuffs which increases damage and survivability. Optional changes: Not much to change in this build, but when it comes to Healthstones you can add and withdraw points from Improved Healthfunnel as you please. Very nice raiding build which has moderate DPS. Is mostly used (and most effective) between Karazhan and Serpentshrine Cavern.