Patch 3.0.2 primer for Warlocks - The Warlocks Den

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October 14, 2008, 09:39 PM	#1 (permalink)
Midnight	Patch 3.0.2 primer for Warlocks Written by Zach Yonzon for WoWInsider, but I figured a copy here would be helpful to us all. I couldn't figure out how to contact him via WoWInsider to tell him it's here (or that he should be writting for us!), if anyone can tell me how to, that would he great. TY. Original copy: Patch 3.0.2 primer for Warlocks - WOW Insider ******** First things first. Things will be changing this Tuesday for all of us. One sobering fact that we must all face is that from that day forward, we're going to be just a little bit squishier. Demonology, in particular, has taken some hits in survivability with the rework to Demonic Embrace (Stamina increase reduced to 10% from 15%, but Spirit penalty removed) and Soul Link (15% damage transfer, down from 20%). General homogenization of cloth items also means that we will no longer be getting more Stamina than other squishies in gear past Level 70. Stamina stacking from gear is about as good as it gets at Level 70, so enjoy it while it lasts. On a good note, Soul Link has been moved up to an 11-point talent, giving us some very interesting choices to make when considering going deep into Affliction or Destruction. In fact, out of all the 11-point talents, Soul Link is the only one that should give us any pause for thought. Considering that for about a month, we can only allocate up to 10 points in another tree if we choose to get a 51-point talent. Anyway, Patch 3.0.2. What's in store for Warlocks? An overview of the talent trees after the jump. Affliction** Of all the trees, Affliction got the most love from the developers. It is, in my humble opinion, the most fun and dynamic tree right now, if somewhat complicated as full Affliction Warlocks will have to work in more spells into an already complicated cycle. On the first tier we've got Improved Curse of Agony, which was pulled up from Tier 3 for the exact same points and effect. That's an incredibly good deal -- if you use Curse of Agony a lot. The truth is, the original version was too deep in the tree to begin with. If you mostly PvP, you can skip this talent since your staple curses are Tongues and Exhaustion. If you mostly raid, you can consider this a cheap DPS boost. With the move away from resistance mechanics, Suppression was reworked to give 3% hit instead for three points as well as reduce the cost of Affliction spells by 6%. That's pretty darn good for a mere three points and is about the best talent in tier one. We should also celebrate the fact that instant Corruption was made baseline, merely one of the wonderful things to happen to Warlocks in Patch 3.0.2. Of course, this means Improved Corruption was reworked -- buffed, actually -- to grant 10% more damage to Corruption and 5% more crit to Seed of Corruption. I'd normally say max it out, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Tier two is pretty much unchanged with the exception of Frailty, the renamed and reworked Improved Curse of Weakness. It now also removes the attack power bonus of Curse of Recklessness. It's still not a talent I'd take despite the buff, but can be useful for raids because the armor reduction of Curse of Recklessness stacks with Sunder or Expose Armor. Everything else on this tier is pretty much status quo, which means you should invest 2 points in Improved Life Tap. On tier three we have the new talent Improved Fear, which takes the spot vacated by Improved Curse of Agony. The spell essentially makes Fear a snare effect, which is extremely handy for PvP since you'll be casting Fear a lot, anyway. It's not so hot for PvE, although it can be fun to juggle with Fear and Curse of Recklessness. Fel Concentration was buffed to a three point talent, down from five, and now reduces the amount of pushback received. This is due to the change in pushback mechanics, which really should help us get that Fear off while some filthy Rogue is pummeling us with his stupid maces. This makes Fear castable within 1.8 seconds at its longest (versus 2.5 without the talent). Max it out for PvP, completely optional for PvE. I know I said Affliction got lots of love, but there's something seriously mind-boggling about the new Amplify Curse, which now passively reduces the global cooldown of Curses by .5 seconds. 11-point talents are supposed to be definitive, but this is just definitively retarded. Conceptually, a reduction in GCD should be cause for celebration. But curses? I really hope this talent gets changed soon because right now, it's about the worst talent in the game. Unfortunately, it's required for Curse of Exhaustion, so you're just going to have to waste one point here. There are virtually no changes to the fourth tier, merely a clearer wording on Empowered Corruption. For most DPS builds, this is a decent 3-point investment because Corruption is pretty much the one spell that's always on a target. The unchanged Grim Reach and Nightfall are pretty much standard investments, as well. On the fifth tier, we get the deliciously reworked Shadow Embrace. Old hybrid builds picked up only one point here just to pad the debuffs, but it now also gimps heal-over-time effects on the target by 30%, sort of like a Mortal Strike for HoTs. Not only that, it also increases periodic damage dealt by up to 10%. The downside? It forces the use of Shadow Bolt and the 51-point talent Haunt, making it more difficult to apply. If you're going all the way up to Haunt, however, maxing this out is pretty much required. Sitting on the same tier is Siphon Life and Curse of Exhaustion, two of the best 1-point investments you can make and almost good enough to make up for the suck of Amplify Curse. Almost. But Amplify Curse sucks so bad it makes babies cry. An unchanged Shadow Mastery sits on the sixth tier. It's still an awesome DPS boost, but now it has a friend sitting beside it -- the brand new Improved Felhunter. If you're committed to Affliction, the Felhunter is the pet for you, it's just that simple. Only fools will laugh at us for bringing out our puppies in a raid or 5-man because not only does it now bring a raidwide buff, it's also designed to deal DPS that scales with number of DoTs you have on the target. Sure, it's still squishy and can be one-shot by a boss, but it's a good start. Getting overwhelmed? Don't, because we only just got started. Contagion on tier seven is the same old spell you've always picked up on the way to Unstable Affliction. If you're this deep, 5 points in Contagion is mandatory. Dark Pact was unchanged, too, buffed to a 200% return and is an awesome 1-point talent. In fact, you can now use Felhunters as a mana battery instead of the Imp, thanks to the mana replenishment provided by Improved Felhunter. The same tier also sees the new Eradication, which should seriously contend for three precious points because we all love haste. 20% haste is pretty amazing, especially with an endlessly refreshing Corruption. The haste allows us to better work in Shadow Bolts and Haunts in our rotations. In PvP, who doesn't love a 1.2 second cast Fear? We want this talent. On tier eight, we have an unchanged Improved Howl of Terror and a more appealing Malediction. This one's easy. If you PvP and you've crazily pursued deep Affliction, pick up Improved Howl of Terror. If you're a raider, you probably already know that Curse of the Elements now rightfully applies to all schools of magic, with Curse of Shadow rolled in. Malediction also improves spell damage by 3%, so pick it up for PvE. Tier nine is where it gets a little tight. There's the duration-nerfed Unstable Affliction, of course. If you're this deep, pick it up. This opens up the phenomenal Pandemic, so put points in those, too. Pandemic is the brilliant method by which Affliction will scale with crit gear and is a good investment because it lets us use all that Destruction gear we have tucked away and lets us legitimately roll on the crit gear we'll be sharing with those smelly Mages. So that's four points in tier nine. It gets worse. You'll want to put in points in Death's Embrace, which is essentially our version of a Rogue's Dirty Deeds. It works at 35%, which is going to be mind-blowingly good for bosses and actually usable against trash and enemy players. The best part is that it's passive. DoTs and direct damage Shadow spells will simply scale up as soon as our targets start to buckle. If they're already dying, Death's Embrace makes them die faster. On tier ten sits Everlasting Affliction, which should ease our spell rotations by allowing Haunt and Drain Life to reset Corruption. I wasn't able to test this extensively because it was bugged for a while and I used my remaining time in Beta testing Demonology, but the idea I get is that -- more than Corruption refresh -- it scales up DPS exponentially with each tick. In which case we actually want Corruption to tick for as long as possible before refreshing it and resetting the scaling. You'll want 5 points here, too. Finally, we get to Haunt, which you should pick up once you get this deep into Affliction. You'll need to squeeze in as many points into the tree in order to maximize it anyway, so don't even bother looking at Soul Link. In order to get the most out of Haunt, you'll need it to land, so make sure you're hit capped. The 10 second cooldown means there's little room for error. If it lands, though, your DPS jumps up significantly. The direct damage component also means it can fill in for Shadow Bolt in a rotation. Haunt isn't as great for PvP because of the long cooldown, but the healing component is a sweet bonus. Affliction is a somewhat bloated tree. If you're going deep into it, be prepared to spend at least 56 points so you can get the most bang for your buck. This leaves you with 5 points which you can throw into Bane, Demonic Embrace, or even Shadow Mastery. I know it feels scary to commit so much into one tree, but until we get ten more levels, it's not entirely unwise in Patch 3.0.2 to go whole hog Affliction and DoT everything in sight. Demonology Let's now take a look at the Demonology tree. Out of all the trees, Demonology has always been about utility. Obviously the most pet-centric spec, Patch 3.0.2 brings interesting synergies with the pet and Warlock that also brings significant gains in DPS. It's also still a great PvP spec, although Warlocks who choose to pursue SL/SL take a hit from the survivability nerfs in Demonology and miss out on some cool 51-point toys. On the first tier, we already discussed the nerf to Demonic Embrace, which now only grants 10% total Stamina instead of 15%. The Spirit penalty was removed, however, and it actually matters because we actually get spell power gains from Spirit through Fel Armor. Five points here is mandatory. There's also Improved Imp, which we'll skip because we won't be using the Imp much as a Demonologist, anyway. And then there's Improved Healthstone, which I highly recommend whether you raid or PvP. It's notable that when I tested it in Beta, players are no longer allowed to possess more than one Healthstone, regardless of rank. Because of this change, you might as well have the best one. Your raid or team will thank you for it. On the second tier we'll find Improved Health Funnel, which was buffed to grant a mitigation mechanic while our pet is under the effect of Health Funnel. I'd normally say take it, but we'll have our hands full with other talents later on. If you use your pet to tank a lot, this talent helps. Otherwise, you can skip it. On the other hand, you have to put three points in Fel Vitality, which rolls Fel Intellect and Stamina together. This one is a no-brainer. Demonic Brutality is a tougher choice. This is the buffed Improved Voidwalker which also increases the DPS of our Felguard. This is about as close as we'll get to an Improved Felguard for now, so it just might be worth investing in. Improved Succubus in tier three has been reworked to a more usable form by making Seduction instant cast, which is awesome. It's not like we ever used her for Lash of Pain or Soothing Kiss, anyway. If you really want pure utility, pick this up as it will also situationally be handy in PvP. Despite the improvement, though, I'd much rather spend three points in Demonic Aegis on the same tier for the spell power bonus to Fel Armor. Two key talents are also on the third tier -- the weaker but more accessible Soul Link and life-saving Fel Domination. Take them. Speaking of key talents, max out all the talents in tier four. Unholy Power opens up three different talents and Master Summoner is necessary to make Fel Domination absolutely worth it. The good news is that Demonic Sacrifice is now completely optional. If you're a fan of demon-less raiding, which I admittedly am not, then pick this up to go along with a hybrid Destruction spec. Otherwise you can skip this talent and Master Conjuror, both on the fifth tier. It's important to note, however, that Firestones and Spellstones have been reworked to be weapon buffs like Mana Oils. They no longer need to be equipped but instead are a 5-charge consumable item that grants significant bonuses to direct damage spells or DoTs. Mana Feed on the sixth tier is a good investment, particularly because Felguards eat through their mana extremely fast. Master Demonologist is another vital talent not only for the passive benefits but because it's required for Demonic Empowerment. That's about eight talents spent on this tier, so it's good that we can skip the underwhelming Improved Enslave Demon completely. Tier seven is a mixed bag. If you're heavy into PvP, you should probably max out Demonic Reslience, specially with the weaker Soul Link. Otherwise, you can skip it and invest in the more DPS-oriented Demonic Knowledge, which should do wonders for you in PvE. Also on this tier is the utility spell Demonic Empowerment, which I've enthused about. I like it. I have it hotkeyed. I hope you like it, too. Past the seventh tier we will be foregoing hybridization and should be committing to full Demonology. It's also where all these master and demon synergies start falling into place. Demonic Tactics on tier nine is a flat out DPS boost that should be maxed out. We'll also need it for another cool talent on the next tier. If we plan on sending our pet into the fray -- which we should, really -- Fel Synergy will help keep it alive. The more damage we deal, the more our demons stay up. How cool is that? Improved Demonic Tactics is on the ninth tier and gives our demons that necessary punch for Demonic Empathy. The DPS boost is moderate at 3%, but is virtually guaranteed to be up for either the Warlock or her pet at all times. It's pretty weak for something so deep in the tree, however, so I recommend skipping it. What we're not skipping, however, is Summon Felguard. No, really. Improved Demonic Tactics will come in handy for Demonic Pact, which grants a raidwide buff whenever our pet crits. If you're a raider, you'll want this. It won't stack with Shaman totems, though, so it's only good if you have considerable spell power. If you mostly PvP, you can skip it. Finally, we have Metamorphosis. I wanted to do a Skill Mastery on this talent because it really needs to be discussed. First of all, I honestly don't think it's a finished spell. At its best, it's a 30 second DPS boost every three minutes and a perfect panic button for PvP. It boosts a Demonology Warlock's survivability to the stratosphere because of the 600% armor bonus and snare and stun duration reductions. It's very nearly a Warlock's version of The Beast Within. Be warned, however, that the associated abilities in demon form are situational and even downright silly. Shadow Cleave gives you a low-damage melee strike... that also hits allies. I mean, if you have 30 seconds in this godly, er, demonic form, why would you waste your GCD on a silly melee strike? Then there's Challenging Howl, an AoE taunt for those Warlocks who've always dreamed of being Tankadins. Of course, the only thing vaguely tank-ish about a Warlock in demon form is the armor, and it's not even that high. Oh, and once 30 seconds are up, you're quite certain to die. Immolation Aura is great, though. It scales very well with spell damage and is there to teach those big, bad Warriors a lesson for picking on us. It lasts 15 seconds, so if you can't get out of melee range within that span of time, at least you're dealing some hurt. It's pretty much the best demon form ability, although you'll rarely use it while raiding. There's also Demon Charge, which is like a Warrior's Intercept. The trouble is, it works from a minimum of 8 yards, meaning you'll actually have to get close to someone you're already far away from to begin with. [CLARIFICATION: That statement was supposed to mean "you're already 8 yards away, why the hell would I charge to my opponent?"] I don't know about you, but I was fairly certain that our strategy was to kite things, not to tank things. Pretty much everything about Metamorphosis is counter-intuitive. That said, the ability does have its uses, and can be considered a boost to DPS when raiding. Hopefully it'll still get fixed at some point and, for the love of demons, it should get a female form. Even if you go deep into Demonology, you're completely excused if you skip Metamorphosis. Destruction Long considered the most efficient raiding spec throughout the Burning Crusade, Destruction will get a run for its money with the new and improved Affliction. It also remains to be seen if Blizzard's efforts at steering the spec clear of mindless Shadow Bolt spamming will prove successful. Certainly, there's more emphasis on Fire spells this time around, which we'll see deeper into the tree. If you do spec deep Destruction, do tell me how it goes. Send me a postcard from Naxxramas. Change is felt right off on the first tier as the popular Bane is moved up here. It's exactly the same, so getting it a tier earlier is a definite buff. Improved Shadow Bolt is unchanged, but I'd hold off on putting points here. Unless you're determined to pursue a Shadow Bolt spam spec, there're a good bunch of talents deeper in the tree to spend your points on. Cataclysm swapped places with Bane but was buffed in a sense because it now just costs 3 points for a 3% cost reduction but now grants crucial +Hit. We'll need it as we level up and re-gear in Northrend. Three points here is mandatory. In more point-saving generosity, Aftermath was reduced to a 2-point talent for the same effect. Does it make the talent any better? No, it still sucks. But now it sucks for three points less. On tier two we also see Molten Core, a new talent introduced to mix things up a little for Destruction. Molten Core encourages the use of DoTs, which are likely to proc it more than Shadow Bolts. This is great talent for Destruction Warlocks looking to specialize in Fire spells, as well as low enough in the tree for other specs such as Demonology, to pick up. If we want to diversify our play style, we should put three points here. If you're only branching out to Destruction from another tree, you might be faced with the decision of choosing between tier three's Shadowburn and a 51-point talent. I'll say it right off that you should skip Shadowburn. On the other hand, if you're moving deeper into Destruction, pick it up because you'll be sure to find a use for it. Five points in the more accessible Ruin is mandatory, as well. We can skip Demonic Power, which is essentially Improved Lash of Pain and Improved Firebolt rolled together. [EDIT: Sephirah correctly reminds me that Demonic Power ups DPS directly because we're going to have our Imp attack, anyway. So, score some points for Demonic Power!] The unchanged Destructive Reach on tier four is mandatory while the other talents are completely optional. If we're looking to PvP as Destruction -- why not? -- we should pick up Intensity not just for the pushback protection but because it's a prerequisite for a stun effect. We'll save points by skipping Improved Searing Pain. No, really. We're going to skip it. Devastation was moved to tier five, swapping places with Ruin. Now it's one talent point for a 5% crit, which is one of the best single point investments we can make in any tree. We'll also want to get Improved Immolate because aside from the fact that it's been buffed from 25% to 30% for two talent points less, we'll need it to get something really cool deeper in the tree. Besides, Blizzard really wants us to use Immolate. Pyroclasm is entirely optional, even for PvP considering the only spell we'll really use that can proc it is Conflagrate. We want Emberstorm. It's that simple. 10% more damage from Fire spells and a faster Incinerate is sweet. Also on tier six is the reworked Nether Protection, which now procs off any spell. It no longer grants immunity, but a damage reduction from any school. In some ways it's a buff since it can protect against Frost or Holy, for example, but it also no longer confers immunities to Silence or other Shadow spells (which probably wasn't intended to begin with). Unless we want more mitigation in PvP, we can skip that. Tier seven is where it begins to get a bit tight. We want Conflagrate, since it's an excellent one point investment. If we're raiding, we can actually skip Soul Leech since we really should be healed, anyway. If we solo or PvP, it's a great talent to have. It also opens up opportunities for our pet on the next tier. Backlash is another PvP talent for those time when Rogues or Warriors are being mean to us, but because there's a 3% crit bonus, I'd say we pick it up. Up next is Shadow and Flame in tier eight, which we'll max out because it scales Shadow Bolt insanely and tempt us to just spam the thing. Fortunately it also affects Chaos Bolt and Incinerate, so we may steer clear of the evil path of mindless Shadow Bolt spam. Since we skipped Soul Leech, we're obviously locked out from Improved Soul Leech. But feel free to pick it up for pet loving if you have points to spare. On tier nine, I'm skipping Shadowfury only because we've been moving away from PvP-centric talents in this post. I know, I know, some of you insist that Shadowfury is awesome for PvE, so you can very well spend that talent point there. It's just one point, anyway. What I'm really interested in is Backdraft. Didn't I say Improved Immolate would lead to something cool? Well this is it. It's a mini-Bloodlust or Heroism for three spells. Because Destruction is all about cast times, 30% haste is gold. Then we get Empowered Imp on the same tier. Check out that icon. That's one badass Imp. If little Rupjub crits, I crit. Well, almost. I get 20% more crit on my next spell, which is pretty darned good. The idea is to get the Imp into the action by spending talents to make it hit hard enough. He'll crit eventually. Here's where we can revisit Improved Soul Leech to keep the little guy topped up. See, I told you to hold off on getting Improved Shadow Bolt. If you find spamming direct damage spells a little mind numbing, you can invest some points into Fire and Brimstone. Didn't I tell you that Blizzard wants us to use Immolate? Well, here you go. Immolate will hit hard with this talent. The cool -- or uncool, depending on how you look at it -- is having to watch Immolate's duration hit the 5 second mark before throwing out a Conflagrate. Yes, I know this screws our timing up, but someone's bound to make an AddOn to tell us when to cast Conflagrate. Right? Anyone? Bueller? And then there's Chaos Bolt. It's a 51-point spell on a 12 second timer. Sure, it pierces through absorption effects and all that stuff... but 12 seconds? I mean, I can't kill a Pally with it anymore and I can only cast it every 12 seconds. Well, we're getting it anyway. We've gotten this deep, right? Besides, it deals whopper damage and it's great for teaching those Shadow Cloaked Rogues a lesson. It's a pretty decent one point investment and can do wonders once we figure out how to work it into our newly confusing and complex (but fun!) rotations. Well, that's the last of our Warlock talents primer for 3.0.2. I hope that helped you decide which direction you want to take your Warlock when the realms go up. I'm leaning towards a hybrid myself, but Haunt is so deliciously sexy...

October 14, 2008, 10:28 PM	#3 (permalink)
TheAkrab Character Info Akrab 80 Undead Warlock Sunstrider Euro PvP Guild: Frenzy Profile: Blizzard Armory Talent Spec: 54/17/0	Re: Patch 3.0.2 primer for Warlocks Also, fear is not affected by Fel Concentration. __________________ Pizjub for President!

October 14, 2008, 11:37 PM	#4 (permalink)
Koldfeat Character Info Koldfeat 80 Undead Warlock Draenor US PvE Guild: Trouble Talent Spec: Spec?	Re: Patch 3.0.2 primer for Warlocks Enjoyed reading it, I like it. One thing, you say Improved Shadow Bolt is unchanged. It has been changed (nerfed) a ton from what it was in Burning Crusade. 10% less damage bonus, no longer applies to dots, no longer a debuff to the mob, but rather a buff to the caster, meaning only you and not the raid will reap it's newly weak benefits. I think it's worth mentioning in your guide these significant changes to ISB. Another minor thing I noticed is that Bane is not quite exactly the same, it addionally reduces the cast time of Chaos Bolt, although someone speccing into the Destruction Tree and not taking Bane as their first 5 points borders on the inconceivable, so its a moot point.