Mixed: Kara & BG Affliction Lock

joeyfeets · July 08, 2008, 07:55 AM

Beginning Raid & PvP Gear
Character Name: Sashivna
Armory Link: The World of Warcraft Armory
Talent Build: The World of Warcraft Armory
42/2/17

Quick Info
Health: 8410
Mana: 8020
+Damage: 668/696 (no fel armor)
+Hit: 33 (sux, I know)
+Crit: 9%
Resi: 234

Have you read the gearing guide? Yes

Items/Slots in need of immediate upgrade:

*Trinkets
*Bracers
*Feet
*Wand
*5-piece set

Background:
Im in a newer guild. We recently decided to get organized now that we have enough 70s to start raiding together. I do like PvP and we do premades but Im not into Arena at all (yet) & PvP isn't a priority. We are running Kara on the 23rd of this month so I'm trying to gear up before then so I can do well. I saw the Kara prep guide and I meet the minimum stats but want to pull my weight.

I normally get on and do the BG dailies and try to get in the heroic daily. I'm not in sunwell alot, so I don't have alot of cash but I do make some money selling stuff from the dungeons (Fel Armaments go for 35g on my server). Starting to catch up on my profession to make some money off that too.

Purpose:
Right now I'm just trying to get into all purples. Tell me if Im wrong, but Ive been working around my D3 set to avoid breaking it up. I know my hit is horrible, I hope to one day have two different armor sets, one for PvP and the other for raiding. Im trying to get a "hybrid" set now that can at least make me somewhat effective at both until I can get a 5-piece Merciless Gladiator Set (going to mix fel/dread weave for stacked resi bonus) for PvP and like a voidheart set (or other raiding).

Build:
I want to stay affliction for now. I might try the other side a little later but I do well in DPS within my guild and PUGs I run with. I could re-organize my points better maybe, I do get resisted alot due to the lack of supression and my low hit rating. Any advice on the build is appreciated as well. I went into destro to get the fire range & threat reduction, dont really need the pet points but I sometimes use imp/succ to attack on trash (or in PvP but often felpuppy is out).

I read the post for Sashivna (& she happens to be on my server, lol). It helped alot. Thanks in advance for any advice...

Sashivna · July 09, 2008, 09:04 AM

I can't speak for PvP stuff, since I don't do that at all.

However, a couple of things that would be easy to get to help you start building your raiding set.

Trinket -- Scryer's Bloodgem. It's pretty easy to get to revered from honored w/ Scryers and it's well worth the small price for the 32 spell hit.
Trinket -- Xiri's gift. You have the rep for it now. Although crit bonuses aren't as useful for us affliction types, we do cast a lot of SBs on raids.

Neck -- Shattered Sun Pendant of Acumen (if you wanted to grind faction w/ SSO. It's pretty easy with all of the dailies available and a lot of them have you killing BEs to get signets and arcane tomes for Scryer faction).

Wand -- Carved Witch Doctor's Stick. It's cheap (25 badges) and you don't have to worry about whether or not it's going to drop for you.

Waist -- Belt of Blasting. If you grind faction with dailies, the cash for the mats won't be that bad and there are quite a few folks on our server with the pattern. I had mine made and I'm digging it. You'll probably end up using something with better stamina on it for your PvP, but this is an awesome raiding belt.

Back -- Hope for the Ruby Drape of the Mysticant off of Prince. (I hate him because he never drops it for me.) I've been using the Sethekk Oracle cloak which I haven't given up because of the +hit. If you like running Sethekk, you might want to give that another try or two.

Gems -- you should put a glowing nightseye in your shoulders rather than the other healy gem you have. I'd also swap out your crit gems for hit and/or hit/damage gems when you build your raiding set.

Talents -- One thing that I would suggest (primarily because your spell hit is so low) is to move the two points in improved healthstone to suppression. This will help you out a lot with resists on affliction spells. When you get closer to cap, you can spec out of it.

Edit:

Enchants -- You need some. Grind for some mats. I'm an enchanter, so if you get the mats and see I'm on, hit me up. I'll be happy to help out a fellow afflock.

Play around in the sandbox on warcrafter: Stygia Silver Hand

joeyfeets · July 09, 2008, 09:47 AM

Thanks for the great advice! I might have to take you up on that enchanting offer. I got a guy in the guild with high enchanting but I dont think he has alot of the recipes (?) to enchant like 40 spellpower and stuff.

Trinket -- I forgot to mention I'm about halfway in rep to get "Battlemaster's Audacity". I was going to grab that and likely go grab the shat'ar trinket now. I forgot I dinged revered in Mech the other day, thx for noticing.

One question, do most people use two trinkets that have cooldowns? I've been doing a kinda "1&1" where I have a cooldown trinket and one for just straight spell damage. Potentially, if I keep my existing trinket and replace the Auchenai with the Battlemasters, I will have more permanent spell damage. Although I will lose that big damage boost given by the cooldown trinket. Any opinions on that?

Neck -- Yea, Ive been slacking off on dailies but thats a neat neckpiece. I've ran MgT a few times but never had a PUG that got far. I was planning on just grabbing "Guardian's Pendant Of Dominance" from PvP for now but I will definitely start grinding in sunwell.

Wand -- I was planning on getting that. I have about 13 badges now, but I am torn between spending te 25 on that or saving to use 60 badges for a cloak. I'll probably get impatient and get the wand.

Waist -- Belt of Blasting. That belt is awesome. I'm gonna start saving for that. I will keep the Guardian's belt I have now for a PvP set but I probably wont be able to get this soon.

Back -- You know, I think I had the Oracle Cloak before! I'm not sure what I did with it but I'll go get it back. Sethekk was the heroic daily past 2 days straight, maybe the streak will continue. I'll watch for that drop if we make it all the way to Curator.

Gems -- All my gems are cheap crap I got from the inn in honor hold. Im really dumb about gems and don't know where else to get them. Only place I went other than honor hold was to Allerian for the Meta from Spirit Sage Zran.

Talents -- Yea, I used to have suppresion filled when I was lvling but once I started grouping my people wanted the slightly better healthstones. I do notice way more resists than before, which sucks on long casts.

Thanks again for the advice, I now have a direction to start going in to get a good raid set and rotate my PvP stuff into a separate set.

Demonbruen · July 09, 2008, 10:20 AM

You've gotten some great advice already, but I would add that since you enjoy pvp, you might look to get the Vindicator's Silk Cuffs. They only cost 20 WSG marks and about 10k honor, if I remember correctly.

As was mentioned before, the scryer trinket is great for your +hit, but this one is an easy quest reward that could hold you over until you get it.

And everyone here will tell you this (because they're right), but get someone to make the spellstrike set for you (or just buy it off the ah). It's absolutely worth whatever it takes to get it.

Oh, also - gems! since you aren't a miner, the best way to get them is just to buy them off the ah. You can usually get someone to cut them for about 5g (at least on my server), so use that to decide whether or not it's better to buy cut / uncut gems. The only other real option is to buy epic gems (15 badges each) from the vendor on sunwell isle.

Amsiroth · July 09, 2008, 10:21 AM

-Get Spellstrike Hood and Pants crafted for you. The mats are a little tedious to gather, but in the end its worth it, especially if you want to raid.

-Get the Belt of Blasting crafted, as already mentioned. Its a really great belt, no doubt about it.

-For your bracers, I'd go with the Vindicator's Silk Cuffs, as they are the best DPS bracers that I can think of that don't require an arena rating or a raid to acquire. Socket them with a great dawnstone (+8 hit).

-Get Exalted with the Scryer's. At Revered, you can buy the Scryer's Bloodgem, which adds 32 hit which will help alot in raids. At Exalted, you can get the Greater Inscription of the Orb on your shoulders which adds 15 crit and 12 damage.

-Get the Glyph of Power put on your headpiece. Its 90 gold or so, purchaseable from the Sha'tar faction vendor and adds 22 spell damage and 14 hit so its a great investment.

-Get Exalted with Cenarion Expedition so you can get Ashyen's Gift, which has 21 spell hit (can't remember exactly, but its good).

-For your robes, I'd say save up and get either of the 100 badge robes from the heroic vendor. Or, you can get the Scarlet Sin'Dorei Robes that drop off of Kael in Heroic Magister's Terrace.

-Gloves, either the ones that drop off of Kael in normal MGT or the Enslaved Doomguard Soulgrips.

-Boots, Boots of Incantations from the Badge Vendor.

-For your wand, either the Badge Wand or the Black Stalk from Heroic UB.

-Trinkets, Scryer's Bloodgem (as already mentioned) and either Icon of the Silver Crescent or the Darkmoon Card: Crusade.

You need to enchant your gear as well. This will help boost your damage output. The big ones you're lacking at the moment are your head, weapon, wrists, and gloves. Enchants alone would add 99 spell damage.

For gems, go to the auction house and try to get rare-level gems. If you don't know what you're looking for, just bring up the jewel menu in the AH and search by color. The ones you'll probably want are Great Dawnstone (8 spell hit), Veiled Noble Topaz (4 hit 5 damage) and Runed Living Ruby (9 spell damage).

For your desired playstyle, I'd try something like this talent wise:http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IEMr0RfkqtbobZxx0tM

It gives full suppression which you need to raid, improved healthstones, adds in Devastation (5% increased crit on destro spells) which will improve your dps some, and removes the virtually useless Succubus and Imp talents. You still have iHoT for PvP as well as CoEx. There's never a perfect build that does both PvP and PvE equally, but hopefully this will suit your needs.

As far as holding up your end of the raid, that's kinda relative to the rest of the raid. If people are on your gear level and you play affliction well, you'll keep up without problems. If they're above you, it can be frustrating. My first Kara experience I only had about 650 spell damage--lowest DPSer. At the same time, if the tank can't generate enough threat, you get gimped in the end. The important part in raiding is downing bosses (and having fun!), which means you know your part and don't make any stupid mistakes (like pull aggro, forgetting to CC if needed, etc).

Have fun and good luck with the suggestions.

Sashivna · July 09, 2008, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joeyfeets

One question, do most people use two trinkets that have cooldowns? I've been doing a kinda "1&1" where I have a cooldown trinket and one for just straight spell damage. Potentially, if I keep my existing trinket and replace the Auchenai with the Battlemasters, I will have more permanent spell damage. Although I will lose that big damage boost given by the cooldown trinket. Any opinions on that?

Amsiroth had some great advice too -- I almost forgot about the Spellstrike set.

As for your question. I'm currently equipping Scryer's Bloodgem (for the +32 spellhit) and Icon of the Silver Crescent (for the passive damage). Personally, I like the +damage cooldown of the Icon more than the +HP on Battlemasters, but I also don't PvP.

joeyfeets · July 14, 2008, 11:21 AM

Thanks all. I did respec to take those minion points out. I grabbed the trinket, replaced some gems and got a few rep enchants. I'm still working on the battlemasters to replace my non-cooldown trinket (47dmg vs 29mg) but may just give up & use the points for bracer or feet. 700+ unbuffed (no fel armor) now with better hit.

Shammies are going with us so I can count on at least fel armor plus their Wrath of Air totem for an extra 201 damage (100 + 101), so i'll be 900+ before any wizard oil or other extras.

spicycurry · July 15, 2008, 02:50 PM

ok. dont get the carved with doctor wand, it is overrated. Get the wand from heroic underbog. Its very easy to get and its the 4th best wand in the game. for bracers just get the badge bracers because there isnt really anything else to get. the attumen ones are very bad so stay away (so is his ring) for robes get 100 badge ones, the kael ones are hard to get. not really much option for gloves, the t4 is pretty bad, i still have vengeful from when i did pvp

joeyfeets · July 15, 2008, 05:35 PM

Yea, I did heroic UB yesterday and it was very easy as far as heroics go. Straightforward pulls, and lots of opportunity to skip trash. The Stalk didn't drop though. I'm going to try so more of course but I heard from other guildies and the PUG I ran with that they've never seen it drop. I'm going to keep trying though because you can't beat a free item and saving precious badges.

July 08, 2008, 07:55 AM	#1 (permalink)
joeyfeets Registered Character Info Stygia 70 Human Warlock Silver Hand US RP Guild: Envy Profile: Talent Spec: 42/2/17	Kara & BG Affliction Lock Beginning Raid & PvP Gear Character Name: Sashivna Armory Link: The World of Warcraft Armory Talent Build: The World of Warcraft Armory 42/2/17 Quick Info Health: 8410 Mana: 8020 +Damage: 668/696 (no fel armor) +Hit: 33 (sux, I know) +Crit: 9% Resi: 234 Have you read the gearing guide? Yes Items/Slots in need of immediate upgrade: Trinkets Bracers Feet Wand *5-piece set Background: Im in a newer guild. We recently decided to get organized now that we have enough 70s to start raiding together. I do like PvP and we do premades but Im not into Arena at all (yet) & PvP isn't a priority. We are running Kara on the 23rd of this month so I'm trying to gear up before then so I can do well. I saw the Kara prep guide and I meet the minimum stats but want to pull my weight. I normally get on and do the BG dailies and try to get in the heroic daily. I'm not in sunwell alot, so I don't have alot of cash but I do make some money selling stuff from the dungeons (Fel Armaments go for 35g on my server). Starting to catch up on my profession to make some money off that too. Purpose: Right now I'm just trying to get into all purples. Tell me if Im wrong, but Ive been working around my D3 set to avoid breaking it up. I know my hit is horrible, I hope to one day have two different armor sets, one for PvP and the other for raiding. Im trying to get a "hybrid" set now that can at least make me somewhat effective at both until I can get a 5-piece Merciless Gladiator Set (going to mix fel/dread weave for stacked resi bonus) for PvP and like a voidheart set (or other raiding). Build: I want to stay affliction for now. I might try the other side a little later but I do well in DPS within my guild and PUGs I run with. I could re-organize my points better maybe, I do get resisted alot due to the lack of supression and my low hit rating. Any advice on the build is appreciated as well. I went into destro to get the fire range & threat reduction, dont really need the pet points but I sometimes use imp/succ to attack on trash (or in PvP but often felpuppy is out). I read the post for Sashivna (& she happens to be on my server, lol). It helped alot. Thanks in advance for any advice...

July 09, 2008, 09:04 AM	#2 (permalink)
Sashivna Registered Character Info Sashivna 70 Human Warlock Silver Hand US RP PvE Guild: Razor's Edge Talent Spec: 42/10/9	Re: Kara & BG Affliction Lock I can't speak for PvP stuff, since I don't do that at all. However, a couple of things that would be easy to get to help you start building your raiding set. Trinket -- Scryer's Bloodgem. It's pretty easy to get to revered from honored w/ Scryers and it's well worth the small price for the 32 spell hit. Trinket -- Xiri's gift. You have the rep for it now. Although crit bonuses aren't as useful for us affliction types, we do cast a lot of SBs on raids. Neck -- Shattered Sun Pendant of Acumen (if you wanted to grind faction w/ SSO. It's pretty easy with all of the dailies available and a lot of them have you killing BEs to get signets and arcane tomes for Scryer faction). Wand -- Carved Witch Doctor's Stick. It's cheap (25 badges) and you don't have to worry about whether or not it's going to drop for you. Waist -- Belt of Blasting. If you grind faction with dailies, the cash for the mats won't be that bad and there are quite a few folks on our server with the pattern. I had mine made and I'm digging it. You'll probably end up using something with better stamina on it for your PvP, but this is an awesome raiding belt. Back -- Hope for the Ruby Drape of the Mysticant off of Prince. (I hate him because he never drops it for me.) I've been using the Sethekk Oracle cloak which I haven't given up because of the +hit. If you like running Sethekk, you might want to give that another try or two. Gems -- you should put a glowing nightseye in your shoulders rather than the other healy gem you have. I'd also swap out your crit gems for hit and/or hit/damage gems when you build your raiding set. Talents -- One thing that I would suggest (primarily because your spell hit is so low) is to move the two points in improved healthstone to suppression. This will help you out a lot with resists on affliction spells. When you get closer to cap, you can spec out of it. Edit: Enchants -- You need some. Grind for some mats. I'm an enchanter, so if you get the mats and see I'm on, hit me up. I'll be happy to help out a fellow afflock. Play around in the sandbox on warcrafter: Stygia Silver Hand Last edited by Sashivna; July 09, 2008 at 09:17 AM.

July 09, 2008, 09:47 AM	#3 (permalink)
joeyfeets Registered Character Info Stygia 70 Human Warlock Silver Hand US RP Guild: Envy Profile: Talent Spec: 42/2/17	Re: Kara & BG Affliction Lock Thanks for the great advice! I might have to take you up on that enchanting offer. I got a guy in the guild with high enchanting but I dont think he has alot of the recipes (?) to enchant like 40 spellpower and stuff. Trinket -- I forgot to mention I'm about halfway in rep to get "Battlemaster's Audacity". I was going to grab that and likely go grab the shat'ar trinket now. I forgot I dinged revered in Mech the other day, thx for noticing. One question, do most people use two trinkets that have cooldowns? I've been doing a kinda "1&1" where I have a cooldown trinket and one for just straight spell damage. Potentially, if I keep my existing trinket and replace the Auchenai with the Battlemasters, I will have more permanent spell damage. Although I will lose that big damage boost given by the cooldown trinket. Any opinions on that? Neck -- Yea, Ive been slacking off on dailies but thats a neat neckpiece. I've ran MgT a few times but never had a PUG that got far. I was planning on just grabbing "Guardian's Pendant Of Dominance" from PvP for now but I will definitely start grinding in sunwell. Wand -- I was planning on getting that. I have about 13 badges now, but I am torn between spending te 25 on that or saving to use 60 badges for a cloak. I'll probably get impatient and get the wand. Waist -- Belt of Blasting. That belt is awesome. I'm gonna start saving for that. I will keep the Guardian's belt I have now for a PvP set but I probably wont be able to get this soon. Back -- You know, I think I had the Oracle Cloak before! I'm not sure what I did with it but I'll go get it back. Sethekk was the heroic daily past 2 days straight, maybe the streak will continue. I'll watch for that drop if we make it all the way to Curator. Gems -- All my gems are cheap crap I got from the inn in honor hold. Im really dumb about gems and don't know where else to get them. Only place I went other than honor hold was to Allerian for the Meta from Spirit Sage Zran. Talents -- Yea, I used to have suppresion filled when I was lvling but once I started grouping my people wanted the slightly better healthstones. I do notice way more resists than before, which sucks on long casts. Thanks again for the advice, I now have a direction to start going in to get a good raid set and rotate my PvP stuff into a separate set.

July 09, 2008, 10:20 AM	#4 (permalink)
Demonbruen Registered Character Info Demonbruen 70 Gnome Warlock Eldre'Thalas US PvE Guild: ATC Profile: Blizzard Armory Talent Spec: 51/5/5	Re: Kara & BG Affliction Lock You've gotten some great advice already, but I would add that since you enjoy pvp, you might look to get the Vindicator's Silk Cuffs. They only cost 20 WSG marks and about 10k honor, if I remember correctly. As was mentioned before, the scryer trinket is great for your +hit, but this one is an easy quest reward that could hold you over until you get it. And everyone here will tell you this (because they're right), but get someone to make the spellstrike set for you (or just buy it off the ah). It's absolutely worth whatever it takes to get it. Oh, also - gems! since you aren't a miner, the best way to get them is just to buy them off the ah. You can usually get someone to cut them for about 5g (at least on my server), so use that to decide whether or not it's better to buy cut / uncut gems. The only other real option is to buy epic gems (15 badges each) from the vendor on sunwell isle.

July 09, 2008, 10:21 AM	#5 (permalink)
Amsiroth Member Character Info Amsiroth 70 Human Warlock Malfurion US PvE Guild: Anathema Profile: Blizzard Armory Talent Spec: 41/0/20	Re: Kara & BG Affliction Lock -Get Spellstrike Hood and Pants crafted for you. The mats are a little tedious to gather, but in the end its worth it, especially if you want to raid. -Get the Belt of Blasting crafted, as already mentioned. Its a really great belt, no doubt about it. -For your bracers, I'd go with the Vindicator's Silk Cuffs, as they are the best DPS bracers that I can think of that don't require an arena rating or a raid to acquire. Socket them with a great dawnstone (+8 hit). -Get Exalted with the Scryer's. At Revered, you can buy the Scryer's Bloodgem, which adds 32 hit which will help alot in raids. At Exalted, you can get the Greater Inscription of the Orb on your shoulders which adds 15 crit and 12 damage. -Get the Glyph of Power put on your headpiece. Its 90 gold or so, purchaseable from the Sha'tar faction vendor and adds 22 spell damage and 14 hit so its a great investment. -Get Exalted with Cenarion Expedition so you can get Ashyen's Gift, which has 21 spell hit (can't remember exactly, but its good). -For your robes, I'd say save up and get either of the 100 badge robes from the heroic vendor. Or, you can get the Scarlet Sin'Dorei Robes that drop off of Kael in Heroic Magister's Terrace. -Gloves, either the ones that drop off of Kael in normal MGT or the Enslaved Doomguard Soulgrips. -Boots, Boots of Incantations from the Badge Vendor. -For your wand, either the Badge Wand or the Black Stalk from Heroic UB. -Trinkets, Scryer's Bloodgem (as already mentioned) and either Icon of the Silver Crescent or the Darkmoon Card: Crusade. You need to enchant your gear as well. This will help boost your damage output. The big ones you're lacking at the moment are your head, weapon, wrists, and gloves. Enchants alone would add 99 spell damage. For gems, go to the auction house and try to get rare-level gems. If you don't know what you're looking for, just bring up the jewel menu in the AH and search by color. The ones you'll probably want are Great Dawnstone (8 spell hit), Veiled Noble Topaz (4 hit 5 damage) and Runed Living Ruby (9 spell damage). For your desired playstyle, I'd try something like this talent wise:http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IEMr0RfkqtbobZxx0tM It gives full suppression which you need to raid, improved healthstones, adds in Devastation (5% increased crit on destro spells) which will improve your dps some, and removes the virtually useless Succubus and Imp talents. You still have iHoT for PvP as well as CoEx. There's never a perfect build that does both PvP and PvE equally, but hopefully this will suit your needs. As far as holding up your end of the raid, that's kinda relative to the rest of the raid. If people are on your gear level and you play affliction well, you'll keep up without problems. If they're above you, it can be frustrating. My first Kara experience I only had about 650 spell damage--lowest DPSer. At the same time, if the tank can't generate enough threat, you get gimped in the end. The important part in raiding is downing bosses (and having fun!), which means you know your part and don't make any stupid mistakes (like pull aggro, forgetting to CC if needed, etc). Have fun and good luck with the suggestions.

July 14, 2008, 11:21 AM	#7 (permalink)
joeyfeets Registered Character Info Stygia 70 Human Warlock Silver Hand US RP Guild: Envy Profile: Talent Spec: 42/2/17	Re: Kara & BG Affliction Lock Thanks all. I did respec to take those minion points out. I grabbed the trinket, replaced some gems and got a few rep enchants. I'm still working on the battlemasters to replace my non-cooldown trinket (47dmg vs 29mg) but may just give up & use the points for bracer or feet. 700+ unbuffed (no fel armor) now with better hit. Shammies are going with us so I can count on at least fel armor plus their Wrath of Air totem for an extra 201 damage (100 + 101), so i'll be 900+ before any wizard oil or other extras.

July 15, 2008, 02:50 PM	#8 (permalink)
spicycurry Lurker Character Info spicycurry 70 Human Warlock norgannon US PvE Talent Spec: 0/21/40	Re: Kara & BG Affliction Lock ok. dont get the carved with doctor wand, it is overrated. Get the wand from heroic underbog. Its very easy to get and its the 4th best wand in the game. for bracers just get the badge bracers because there isnt really anything else to get. the attumen ones are very bad so stay away (so is his ring) for robes get 100 badge ones, the kael ones are hard to get. not really much option for gloves, the t4 is pretty bad, i still have vengeful from when i did pvp

July 15, 2008, 05:35 PM	#9 (permalink)
joeyfeets Registered Character Info Stygia 70 Human Warlock Silver Hand US RP Guild: Envy Profile: Talent Spec: 42/2/17	Re: Kara & BG Affliction Lock Yea, I did heroic UB yesterday and it was very easy as far as heroics go. Straightforward pulls, and lots of opportunity to skip trash. The Stalk didn't drop though. I'm going to try so more of course but I heard from other guildies and the PUG I ran with that they've never seen it drop. I'm going to keep trying though because you can't beat a free item and saving precious badges.