Low DPS Affliction Raiding Lock - looking for help

[Parasite]

Character Name: Parasite

Armory Profile: The World of Warcraft Armory

Wowhead link of current build in use: Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft


PvE Play style and Requirements of build: Primarily Raiding - 5, 10 and 25 man raids

I primarily use my lock now for raiding - 5, 10 and 25 man instances. trying to get better gear and progress through the game. I do PVE but only for dailies or maybe to grind some rep. I have been told by my GL that I should be near the top of the DPS charts for the raids, but I have been mired down around 7 on 10 man raids. I recently respecced to get Malediction in the hopes that the increase in shadow damage will move me up the DPS ladder. I have read several postings on here about spell rotation and I am retraining myself to use the suggested spell rotation - UA, COS, Corr, SB (SL when needed) that is my current spell rotation. My main objective is to increase my DPS

PvP Play style and Requirements of build:

I do occasional PVP - that being BG's and I have no problems there other then f*&^%% rogues... But I think all locks have that same problem

Additional Comments:

As I mentioned earlier I have read lots of postings about spell rotation for Affliction and am working on that. I love affliction and I hope not to get out of it - though I think having Ruin may make things interesting in regards to DPS - have not tried it out yet. My guild wants to run instances and get everyone geared up so we will be ready for Wrath when it hits. I am currently grinding the mats for the + spell damage for bracers, not sure what other enchants I need to look into. I know I have the Glowing Crystal Insignia trinket - I'm looking for a replacement for it.

Looking for help , suggestions how I can get my DPS up so I am up near the top of the damage meters. Is it possible that I am just running with people who just have better gear then me? Suggestions welcome

[Devicus]

Starting with gear: You have a few items which could easily be upgraded at this point. I don't know if that's the problem, but they will help. Mostly, you need hit. If you're not hit capped, hit is always best point for point over any stat. And beats several stats at a ratio closer 4 to 1 in your spec (hint: crit is your last priority). You have a lot of pvp gear, excepting the S3 and S4 stuff, it's possible to find better items with just kara and badge loot (those two tiers, well S3 I'd say stands toe to to with badge loot and T5 and S4 sits just behind T6)

Before you even think about raid and heroic gear. Consider these 3 words heavily. Frozen. Shadow. Weave. The chest is surpassed by badge loot but not by a lot, the boots, well they beat incantations out, and the shoulders are probably on par with T4. Frozen shadow weave does not require chancy raid drops, just some gold for mats. I'd make the shoulders priority, then the chest, then the boots.

You have a lot of badge farming to do IMO

First, your ring with just spell on it, save 60 badges and get the fused nethergon band for the hit on it. Get a belt of blasting, as it's laden with hit, it's craftable and the materials will come in short of 1K gold easily. Get more +hit/+spell gems. Save 41 badges and get the icon of the silver crescent to be rid of your last green item. Finnally, the gloves. I don't like warlock tier gloves until T6, they're awful and thoroughly surpassed by badge loot. Get the demonsoul gloves, because they're very slightly better, and if you then buy epic gems using badges, you end up spending the same number of badges once you socket them as for the weaker studious wraps. I have studious but I got them as soon as 2.3 rolled out.

If you can, get either prince's or the badge caster weapon, then get the gem of infinite possibilities from netherspite.

Save up badges, quite a lot of your items can be upgraded through badges.

Your spec is pretty good for your progression, when you have more hit, spec out of supression and grab amp curse though. Imp Curse of Agony isn't that useful in my experience, and an amped curse of doom will win out in most circumstances. Because while the damage of each curse is the same over time, agony takes a LOT more time to refresh and keep up. Agony should not be touched until the boss has less than a minute to live. Save it for tough trash, multi tanked mobs, and bosses with adds who won't live a minute but aren't just normal elites (moroes, maulgar, karathess, malacrass)

[Valerine]

I don't agree with Devicus. At this point your working on T4 and Badge gear. It's not worth getting your FSW set. In kara there are a number of hit gear you can get. When it comes to locks, Kara is the prime place to get hit gear. Whether its by getting the gear, or getting the badges to get badge gear. 22 badges a week ain't to shabby.
Moroes: Brooch of Unquenchable Fury = 19
Shade: Tirisfal wand of Ascendancy = 11
Spite: Jewel of Infinite Probabilities: = 21
Prince: Ruby drape of the Mysticant: = 18
Shatar Rep: Glyph of Power: = 14

Just this increases you hit by 83 points. You can also enchant your gloves for 15 hit, and switch your gems to +8 hit, if you want to go for socket bonuses, you can use Veiled Noble Topaz or Shining Fire Opal (Heroic Mech) Since they count as yellow and red gems

If you want you can look at my spec and gear, I'm a bit of a badge gear fiend and that where majority of my hit comes from.

[Devicus]

I forgot the glyph of power. Revered shatar is worth it.

Also, I guess, honestly, I think you should consider FSW. I honestly feel it's worth at least looking at it and considering how hard it'd be to get and how long it'd last. And how fast badges rack up. By getting it you can put the boot and chest item slots to the back of the queue for upgrades, however if you're sitting on a pile of badges or running kara, gruul, maggy and several heroics a week it might not be worth it as much as someone getting mabe 16 badges from a partial kara and 5 from gruuls 3 out of 4 weeks. As it'll take several months for all the badge loot, at which point getting FSW as stopgap looks wise.

Erm, I guess I'm just saying I don't disagree with valerine, it's situational.

Also about moroes brooch, it's awesome, however keep rittasyn's. eventually you'll be able to put it back on and stay hit capped (also, trash mobs)

[Parasite]

Thanks for the replies - just so I am clear - spell hit is what I should focus on? Being Affliction I was looking at spell damage as opposed to spell hit. Getting more + spell hit gear will lower my overall spell damage output - I guess I'm looking for clarification that an increase in +spell hit with a subsequent drop in +spell damage is the right way to go . Should I look at regemming for spell hit?

[Valerine]

My first 70 end game lock officer put it to me very simply.
as affliction Spell hit>Spell damage>Crit>haste

[Devicus]

The roles of crit and haste are very much hotly debated. However both are a hugely less important priority if you're not hit capped or sitting on a mountain or spell and looking to trade for those stats very cheaply.

[Effenaye]

Get spell hit to 202 for bosses.
In order to keep damage high for trash use an outfit switching mod (Outfitter).
You should grab the S2 Spellblade for damage and hit and get +40 Spelldamage or Soulfrost on it.

[Slippt]

Originally Posted by Parasite

Thanks for the replies - just so I am clear - spell hit is what I should focus on? Being Affliction I was looking at spell damage as opposed to spell hit. Getting more + spell hit gear will lower my overall spell damage output - I guess I'm looking for clarification that an increase in +spell hit with a subsequent drop in +spell damage is the right way to go . Should I look at regemming for spell hit?

Think of it this way... if you don't hit, you don't do any damage. The more +spell hit you have, the more chance your spells hit.

[wude]

I'm pushing hard at getting hit capped myself. My understanding is similar to everyone else, but put simply (the way it was explained to me)

-Up to hit cap (202 for Warlocks) 1pt of Hit = 4pts of +damage.
-After 202 +hit becomes useless as you cannot have a 100% chance to hit anything.
-As you progress further you will find that you are not trading damage for hit, and you will be able to switch out some of the +hit gems for +damage while maintaining your 202 hit rating.

+hit lessens the chance a same level mob will resist your spell. In my case working through Mag, Gruul, and Kara I find times where I'll get back-to-back resists on SB spam (while the dots are ticking). This takes quite literally 5seconds of time where no additional damage is being applied and my DPS is falling, my mana is burning up, and I might as well be doing nothing.