[Raiding] Should I be looking at a Demo build?

[pharter]

Hi

I have read through the gear and spell rotation guides in the library because I don't know what to do about my build and where to go with gear.

I am now more confused than what I was before.

I was in ZA last night and my damage was weak to say the least and I know that aint right.

Me - The World of Warcraft Armory

I am currently specced destro but I don't think my gear cuts it for that yet and I know I could be more useful to the raid than what I was last night.

I am going to regem and get my hit upto 202. Don't see any problems there because I aint that far off it now. I still have to get revered with Sha'tar to get my head enchant also.

I have just over 100 BoJs in my bank and though about getting the wrists, silver crescent and maybe the orb/fetish OH item.

AnywayZ I am not that bothered about geared as I can see what I need and what is within my grasps at the moment.

My main issue is with build. The spell rotation guide says
t4 - aff
t5 - dem
t6 - destro

I have the voidie head piece and thats it. I got my 3pc FSW and some other stuff too. Should I be looking at a Demo build at the position I am in or are there some tweaks I could make to help my destro DPS?

[Pervlock]

i would get to aff or demon indeed. Both will work properly.
Desto is best at T6. ( pure damage theorycrafting tough )

However, you can also just change yer playstyle, spell rotation etcetera a bit, might also get major differences soon enough.
Good luck and..... Have Fun.

[badkarma138]

You dont have the stats for a destro build ATM and not enough hit to pull off a demo build, even if you could keep your fel guard alive. For your build you need roughly 25% total crit, 202 spell hit and around 1k shadow damage. I would suggest that you go with affliction until you reach those stats. Also, If you logged out in your raid gear, you would do better if you made some changes. things like dropping the pure stam gems for hit or damage, and replacing the bracer enchant with +damage and the gem with +hit. you are running 11k HP at the cost of damage and hit, which is great for PvP but not so good for raiding.

Your bracers are fine for PvE, no need to replace them. You have the spellstrike pants but not the head. The head is much better than the wicked withces hat. And you should get the sha'tar head inscription, which adds damage to a head piece. Also you should enchant your dagger with either +40 spell damage or soulfrost.

[pharter]

thanks guys

I got the dagger last night so I will get soulfrost on in tonight hopefully.

We're also clearing ZA so I was thinking of waiting patiently for the head pc from the 5th boss. I just don't know if I can be bothered grinding the spellstrike hood :/

I started regemming this morning but ran out of cash on that character so I will be getting more tonight.

What stats are good for demo build?

[Medaho]

I'm demo spec'ed and was in ZA last weekend as well.
My overall damage was low as well and left me with a disappointing feeling as well.

I was in the first group so the pet of choice was automatically Yaznik the imp. The tanks love the extra STA. This means that I lose the additional damage from my Felguard but in the end that means less pet micro-management ( no real problem there )

We had a shadow priest on the raid as well which meant casting CoS on the boss mobs to help out the raid,meaning less damage from me as well.

Finally, the shadow priest, mage and rogue in the raid have all the best equipment available. One thing that I am slowly learning is that for raids, gear matters and I see a marked difference in damage that I can do vs. what my guilds top mage and rougue can do with their 'uber' gear.

I was affliction spec'ed a couple months ago and switched to Demo ( again). My damage is higher as demo, so I suspect you may see that 'burst damage' boost but depending on your raid group makeup and your role in the raid, your overall damage may not change.

A 'lock is so much more that damage

[Barkle]

I disagree with the "theorycrafting" crowd. Go destruction, you will do fine. I switchted to destruction before I hit the recommended stats, and saw my DPS jump dramatically. One thing you need, is to be hit capped.

If you can regem to get hit capped, you will do fine as Destruction.
I've got locks in Kara, running pure FIRE DESTRUCTION and they are doing just fine (650 dps with less gear than you have).

Your crit is fine. Your +damage is fine. All gems and enchants should be going to +damage or +hit. Thats it. Don't worry about socket bonuses on gear, they generally suck. Get +damage and +hit gems. Get the spell damage enchant for bracers. If you are having trouble getting to 202, re-enchant the gloves with +15 hit.

[Malevevely]

Demo raiding in T5 is a 0/40/21 build usually. This allows for various crit based talents to improve isb uptime as well as bonus damage. You should be hit capped/close to it before attempting either a destro or demo build for maximum dps. Your gems are the biggest problem.

Yellow topaz hit/damage
red topaz hit/damage
blue (only if the bonus is hit or damage) damage/stam (nightseye) otherwise topaz hit/damage

These are the only gems you should every use until hit capped in pve stam gems are a waste of dps and as a demo specced lock you will have SL and bonus health so your survivability will be fine.

minimums I would look at for this spec are 202 hit, 16%+ crit from gear, 1k shadowdmg (due to demo talents this can be a little lower) other then that I would stick to affliction as the resists/lack of crit will hurt you.

[badkarma138]

Originally Posted by Barkle

I disagree with the "theorycrafting" crowd. Go destruction, you will do fine.

He would do fine. destruction is a perfectly viable build and he will still deal out respectable damage, just not as respectable as affliction. that wa sthe whole purpose of this thread. he is destruction, with lower than recommended stats, and he is not doing much damage. with his gear, on most any given boss fights he will encounter, a well played raid based affliction build will out damage a well played raid based destro build, hands down.

[Cynic]

Demo really isn't a ZA-friendly build. Most of the bosses have periodic damage that will rape a felguard. >.<

[Sibre]

I agree with Cynic there. I was able to use my felguard effectively on bear boss, lynx boss, and that's about it. For the rest, I usually sacrificed it (luckily, no one asks me for Dark Pact). It's still not working to my maximum potential, but those bosses hate pets.