PvE Warlock [gear question]

[locknoob]

I haven't tried any raids yet (not even Kara) with my warlock. I believe I'm too undergeared to even try for Kara...
Stats in what PvE gear I have (for some reason Armory doesn't work w/ my character):
43/7/11 [ http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IE0riRfkVt0obxZxx0z ]
873 Shadow Damage
21 hit rating
7.6% Crit Chance
10k health, 8k mana


Now to my understanding, my hit rating has to be at 76 to cap for DoTs (with 5/5 Suppression), but shadowbolts will still have ~10% resistivity. I'm shooting to get to 76 and getting my shadow damage to 900, without losing other beneficial stats, before I even start Kara. Once my hit rating goes higher, I'll start reducing the points in Suppression to none until it gets to 202 (doubt it'll ever reach that high). Is this a good idea? Or am I decently equipped for Kara?

As for my gear question:
I have the Frozen Shadoweave set. I understand Affliction is best for undergeared (i.e. <1000 spell damage and <20% Spell Crit), and that the 0/21/40 destro raid spec will out damage an Aff warlock once the stats match. Does this mean that once I do get T5+ equivalent gear, I'm not going to be using the Frozen Shadoweave set? Will I have to unlearn Shadoweave Tailoring and craft the Spellfire set, or will T5 gears do it enough to warrant better DPS/Damage then an Affliction Warlock?

Seems like I wasted so much time and effort in crafting my Frozen Shadoweave Set if this is the case...

P.S. I realized 0/21/40 has 2 different type specs; 1 for shadow, 1 for fire. Shadow, if running with shadow priests, and fire, if running with fire mages. I don't understand how shadow's gonna work; DoTs are severely crippled and b/c of 40 points in Destro, only DDs will help. The DDs are fire-type though... SB Spam seems so mana inefficient.

P.P.S. If I do spec 0/21/40, how do I explain to a PuG that I sacrificed my demon for the 15% fire/shadow damage buff? Seems like most PuGs won't understand.

[thenoss]

I would say you do not do affliction. Start going for destruction/fire. Check out my characters build and you will understand. I am always #1 dps for raids i go to and 5 man instances, etc. All you need is haste rating, and damage as well as hit rating. Your best bet would be to start doing pvp. All classes start by doing pvp because the epics you get are a major upgrade from the blues you can see and they are so easy to get. By doing daily pvp quests and constantly doing AV runs, you can get full epic gear in a week or two, depending on how much time you spend on it. But affliction is not good anymore because of boss fights. You need to focus on one target so affliction doesnt help a lot since you cannot multi target people to stack up your damage. I am currently at 1150 spell damage, 18(+5) spell crit, 124 haste rating, 157 hit rating. I hardly ever miss, even in black temple and I pull off about 5.2k crit hits with incinerate. Give it a shot and i promise you, you will like it.

[Aerandirus]

Without seeing your armory or at least a be.imba link its hard to say if your undergeared for Karazhan.


From what you say, your hit cap is too low. But don't let that stop you. If you can get a free ride with some better geared people through Karazhan then they will help take the slack. And you'll get better geared. Check out Canadianpimps guide of pre-raiding to help gear better =)

Very much doubt that spellfire is any good, maybe you mean spellstrike? ;)

Don't worry too much about thinking your wasting your time with gear, you may not have the chance to update them for awhile. FSW is still used by some people in SSC/TK.

Destro Shadow is how it'll be, I've never come a cross a Fire 'lock.

As long as you have a CoS up and a Spriest, you damage will be high, and mana will be plenty. Don't forget you have life tap! Most healers won't mind keeping your mana topped up with HoT's. Shadowbolt spam is basically all you do as 21/40.

If your PuG group moans, then they have really gotten a clue about 'locks.

Your going to get -15% damage with an imp out, explain that to them. If they really need an imp, tell them to gear better. .

In all honesty I haven't had a PuG tell me to pull an imp out while being destro.

As an affliction lock, you should DoT up every mob that is being tanked.

Yes, even the cross etc thats being off-tanked.




@thenoss

Sorry thenoss, but your wrong. Affliction will do more damage when your uncapped because of suppression. It will also be a much better option in fights like Voidreaver.

Why hasn't your class leader moaned at you for not being hit capped, your in BT! Move some of that haste into Crit and Hit.

[SavageBT]

I wouldn't worry about Destruction at the moment, and your gear is fine for kara. Remember Kara was tuned for people in the dungeon-3 blue set, you don't need full pvp epics or 1k spell damage to enter it. Sure your damage will be lower than those who have been farming it but you should catch up as you get drops from there. The unfortunate trend of late seems to be that the accepted gear level for entering a raid instance is that which you would gain from farming it.

Shadow and Fire destruction are of similar quality - mid T4 to early T6 fire does a little more damage but shadow buffs the shadow priests and they are considered of roughly equal raid damage, with a min of 2 shadow destro being desirable to keep ISB up for the spriests. Shadow tends to pull ahead later T6 but don't worry about that now.

You expressed concern about FSW vs Spellfire. Definitely make your FSW + SpellSTRIKE sets, they can last you right up to Illidan - I have seen a lot of kills with locks still wearing those sets using shadow destruction or an affliction support build. In short they will last you until completely obsolete for whatever spec you choose. Easy hit upgrades are the CE rep ring, badge ring (I would use your badges on something else for now) and the scryer's bloodgem trinket. with Spellstrike set, proper gemming and one or two of these items you should be way over the affliction hit cap. Please don't feel that you need any of these items to start Kara though.

Yes it's possible to be better geared before entering kara, but that's no reason not to run it. Spec a decent UA/Bane support build and you will do fine.

P.S. Slightly off-topic but I have seen someone gear up their lock alt with 1300+ shadow, 20% crit and hit cap with 1 raid drop1 (badges/crafted + ritssyns) then walk into BT/Sunwell and destroy 3/4 the raid on the meters. Just because you can do this doesn't mean you SHOULD do it just to run Kara. Grab what you can and get in there, get a feel for the run and have fun. your gear is fine, by all means keep working on it between raids but don't stress about it.

[Diev]

Go Sl/Sl , get some PVP items, then get some crafted blues/epix , and do heroics [nice drops in there], and then you can go in Kara. With each of my chars, after getting to 70, my gears improved a lot in 2 weeks or so, it's really easy in the beginning. When you get to +15% crit, +750 spell damage, about 75 HR, you are good to go if you know what you have to do in there.

After you get some better gears if you wanna raid, go 41/20 untill you get a few things from there [there are easy bosses drop useful things], then you can choose any spec you like. aff locks are fine for raids, especially for some of them when you have more locks [EG:2 shadow, 1 aff, 1 fire] but under geared they won't be of to much use.

Good luck , shouldn't take you to long

[Rekarra]

I have not raided as and Aff. lock but I entered Kara as "Fire lock" with around 490 without Fel armor over all bonus damage, and about 45 hit rating. I was in a mix of quest greens and boss drop/rep set blues that I gemed out and around 9k health without Imp and about 8k mana. I was never the top of the damage charts but I held my own. If you go in all epic'ed out, there won't be much of anything in Kara for you to use. I also ran it with my guild and a fair bit of us were "under geared" but we took out Prince the first night we fought him. I'm still sitting in a few boss blues and rep blues but we're about to start getting Grulls going. There are a few things to let ya know... Wow-wiki and this site are your best friend. Wow-wiki listed the the min +spell damage for a caster is 500 and it has some great lock builds. Also if you don't want to spec Destro, don't. If you don't like the build, you won't want to play it and just end up respec'ing back to what you were. That's the best I can offer though it isn't much. Just what my experience has been. Hope this helps in even a small way, but remember that this is just a game so have fun!

On a side note... Are there other lock's that your running with? If so, staying Aff. my work in your favor.

[locknoob]

So how does a 0/21/40 shadow fight?

Summon succ, demonic sacrifice, curse of shadows, Corruption, and SB spam? nothing else?

P.S. Just found:
Raiding Builds - 0 / 21 / 40 (Draft 1) - The Warlocks Den Forums

Thanks for all the help! =D