Post by zengras on Jul 24, 2009 8:29:48 GMT -5
Taken from Elitest Jerks
The Mage Equivalent: The Destruction Warlock
Note:
This thread is still a WIP and has been greatly edited due to patch 3.0.8. More updates will come. Thread consists of:
General info
Talent specs and why
Playing style/rotations
Gear/gem/enchant choices
Destruction in PvP
This thread will mostly focus on PvE (raiding) @ 80. If I miss something/you want to contribute (just like the Affliction/Demonology threads), write away! If you have some math to back it all up, even better.
Try to keep this thread as clean as possible with using correct English such as ”I” (not ”i” for the word) and if you're unsure about anything take a quick peek at the forum rules to avoid unnecessary infractions. Also make sure you've read the entire thread before asking any (silly) questions.
General:
Destruction warlock is a more "direct damage"-based spec as opposed to the Affliction one which supports more heaving hitting nukes rather than "damage over time"-effects. The Destruction warlock was in TBC end-game the most OP spec of them all: by pressing one button you could achieve high numbers due to immense scaling that Shadow Bolt had.
In WOTLK however, Shadow-based Destruction is now mostly a thing of the past (because of the big nerf to Imp. Shadow Bolt), and Fire has become the new element with the Imp next to you as a "living machine gun" to help your DPS as well as buffing the caster. The rotation has as well become more interesting involving more DoTs than just the extra curse.
A Destruction warlock will use Life Tap frequently because of the high mana-cost that the spells have, as opposed to Affliction which is pretty much self-sustaining (Life Drain + Haunt returns life that you've lost). We do have Soul Leech, but it's not nearly as effective.
Destruction has many tricks up it's sleeve such as more instants and more AE options and might therefor be the choice for the warlock who wanted to play a Mage, but with a twist.
Abbreviations:
AE = Area effect (Shadowfury, Rain of Fire etc.)
BD = Backdraft
CB = Chaos Bolt
CF = Conflagrate
CoA = Curse of Agony
CD = Cooldown
CR = Corruption
DD = Direct damage (Incinerate, Chaos Bolt etc.)
DS = Demonic Sacrifice
DOT = Damage-over-time (Curse of Agony, Corruption etc.)
DPCT = Damage-per-cast-time (how much damage the spell does per second of it's cast time)
F&B = Fire and Brimstone
GCD = Global Cooldown
LT = Life Tap
IM = Immolate
IN = Incinerate
MC = Molten Core
SL & ISL = Soul Leech and Improved Soul Leech respectively
Specs:
Common specs right now are the following:
0/13/52+6 – Standard "Deep Destro" with 6 extra points for different choices such as: Imp. CoA, Shadowfury, Imp. Soul Leech, Unholy Power etc.
0/28/43 – Demonology-hybrid more focusing on strengthening the Imp.
What are the important talents?
Improved Imp – What makes your Imp the powerhouse it can be together with Empowered Imp.
Bane – Makes your number one DOT and nuke have faster casts and opens up for Soul Fire spamming during Backdraft.
Molten Core – Your own personal buff which makes the spec very strong. Both Shadow-based DOTs and nukes can proc this.
Ruin – Makes your crits harder. No-brainer.
Demonic Power – Makes the Imp fire faster. Pew pew!
Devastation – 5% crit for one talent. Also no-brainer.
Emberstorm – Buffs pretty much every main spell you have and shortens cast time of your filler.
Backlash – Mostly taken for 3% extra crit.
Shadow and Flame – Gives a higher spell bonus co-efficient to your primary nukes.
Conflagrate/Backdraft – Backdraft gives you a 30% faster cast speed on all Destruction-spells. Great potential for fast casts.
Empowered Imp – See Improved Imp.
Chaos Bolt – Your strongest nuke.
Why not these?
Improved Life Tap – To reach LT you have to take fillers such as Improved Corruption making it very expensive and LT scales with spirit which can be found on most spell caster gear anyways.
Improved Corruption – Too high talent costs to buff one spell (that's mostly just there to proc MC anyway).
Well, fine, but what about these?
Demonic Aegis – Is often featured in Destruction specs but have been debated if it is really that good. It adds a flat 54 extra spell power from armor and makes your spirit worth 0.39 spell power per point instead of .30.
Cataclysm – Increases your hit chance of Destruction spells but will probably go away as gear gets better.
Shadowfury – Gives an extra AE spell but has limited use.
Destructive Reach – Threat reduction is nice, but due to CoA the range won't make much use and threat isn't mostly an issue.
Pyroclasm – More utility to Rain of Fire and CF but also has limited use.
Improved Curse of Agony – Makes your CoA have a higher DPCT than Curse of Doom and is a cheap upgrade for 2p and your best candidate for proccing MC, but still, an Affliction spell.
Soul Leech – Pretty bad seeing how much points you put in it. Noteworthy is though that ISL is actually pretty decent and what you should aim for if going here.
Fire and Brimstone – Because of the new changes to Glyph of Conflagrate (look below) this is debateable if good or not.
No Demonic Sacrifice?
DS was very common in TBC but the Imp itself can be seriously buffed on it's own providing high dps as well as buffing the caster whenever it crits. On average the Imp counts for 10-15% of your total damage. ISL helps keeping the Imps mana up and could be a choice for long fights.
DS has its uses though for fights where the pet is hard to keep alive (Sapphiron for instance).
Playing style/rotations:
"Rotation" is a very common term for damage dealers, but since warlocks rotations have become more and more complicated, most people will start to think in priorities instead, because it's much easier to keep track of and will generally give a better outcome when it comes to pure DPS.
As a standard 0/13/52+6-spec, your priorities should be:
IM – high uptime for increased overall DPS and INs and opens up for CF.
CF – to proc Backdraft.
CB – strongest nuke.
CoA – to proc MC and increasing overall DPS.
CR – As above but on a lesser scale. More info below on this spell.
IN – when DoTs are up and CB is on CD, this is your "filler".
CB is your hardest nuke and should be cast as often as possible. CoA and IM should be up as often as possible as it increases your overall DPS. IN is your filler, but never cast it unless an IM is up on your target. Note that it doesn't matter if you or another warlock has IM up, just as long as it's there.
When to Backdraft?
Assuming you have Glyph of Conflagrate, you want to cast CF as often as possible (which requires high uptime on IM) to proc BD.
Without it, you only want to CF when IM has lower than 3 seconds left. That way, you only lose the last tick and still gain the crit % bonus from F&B.
Should I cast Soul Fire during Backdraft?
In a theoretical world: Yes.
In a real raid: No. Casting SF during BD will give an overall increase in DPS but will burn through your shards like golden rain does to snow. It's just not viable to dig through 20+ shards on one boss, especially as it can be hard between some bosses to get them back (and then I haven't even mentioned if you happen to wipe!). A viable choice here is cast it only during BD+Bloodlust/Heroism to maximize shorter cast time.
Instead try to cast only CB and IN during BD since the two benefits the most of the haste increase. As stated above, if IM is already on the target, then no need to cast it, otherwise always cast IM before any IN as it increases your overall DPS.
And to clarify: It's okay to refresh CoA and CR during BD as long as the buff doesn't run out and you waste charges. But remember that above priority still stands! CoA and CR comes before filler time, not CB.
Should I use Corruption or not?
Yes and no. CoA is mostly used for MC uptime since MC can proc on every tick of a shadow-based DoT and CoA has faster ticks (every 2 sec) as compared to other DoTs (every 3 sec). Also it has a long duration (24 sec without glyph) which opens up for more IN.
CR should however be used depending on if you have 2T7 or not. If you have, then use it since not only will it increase your MC uptime but also the T7-bonus which give an overall increase. If you don't have it, then it's probably best left out since it will make your life easier to have one less DoT to keep track of. Note that the priority of CR is rather low; it should be last on your list just before filler time.
Glyphs:
[Glyph of Conflagrate]
This received a huge buff in 3.0.8 (old: Reduces mana cost by 20%) which now makes it a sure take if you have CF (which is strongly recommended together with BD). With it, the rotation becomes a bit cumbersome, but more rewarding, casting CF as soon as it's CD is up to proc as many BD's as possible.
This of course makes F&B questionable since the critical % bonus it applies is not always used.
[Glyph of Immolate]
The glyph might seem like a two-pointed sword but that fact is that the net outcome is higher than expected. Also the glyph scales quite well.
[Glyph of Curse of Agony]
Adds 2 extra more ticks at the end which gets stronger than the previous 2. It is now an increase in DPS and saves you a GCD every 168 sec.
[Glyph of Imp]
Makes your Imp stronger. With all the Imp-improving talents, this little fella' becomes a real powerhouse.
If you're going with a typical deep Destruction-spec then the best glyphs as of now are CF, Imp and IM or CoA. The last two are pretty much equal in DPS increase as of now, but Immolate scales better than CoA and will probably be stronger at better gear. CoA will however make your rotations a lil' bit easier which could improve your performance. This is mostly a matter of preference at this stage though.
The rest (Searing Pain, Shadowburn, Shadow Bolt) are awful for PvE. Stay far, far away.
Gear/gem/enchants:
As shown in various threads here on EJ, the following priorities when picking stats should be:
Hit rating
Spell power
Haste rating
Critical rating
Spirit
Intellect
With some concrete numbers (provided by supplicium):
Spell Power = 1.0
Hit = 1.6-2.2 Spell Power (depending on how far away from hit starting at BC hit cap)
Haste = 0.65-0.75 (depending on gear)
Critical rating and Spirit are almost equal when specced into 3/3 Demonic Aegis from 0.4-0.5 else w/o DA it's around 0.35-0.45 for Spirit
On a sidenote:
Shadow damage is like 0.2 or 0.3 damage.
Fire is 0.8 dmg or so.
Note that hit rating is only the best stat until you're hit capped. You need 17% to be capped and you gain 3% from 3/3 Cataclysm and 3% from a Shadow Priest or Moonkin in the raid. If you're Alliance and grouped with a Draenei, there's another 1% which gives 11% from gear for Horde (289 rating) and 10% for Alliance (263).
Wait a minute! Cataclysm only gives hit to Destruction, what about my Affliction-spells?
After you're capped with Destruction-spells, hit rating takes serious dive and excess points for that tree becomes worthless. For Affliction-spells however, 1 hit rating becomes equivalent to a value of 0.2-0.3 spell power. Therefor, it's better to spend these points on pretty much anything else. Confirmation needed.
As a side note: With above hit rating and talents you won't be capped either for Soulshatter, but just like Affliction; from a pure DPS standpoint, it's just not worth it.
What are the best possible enchants?
If you use Wowhead you can find them easily, you lazy bum, but since I'm such a nice guy, here they are.
Head: [Arcanum of Burning Mysteries] (Revered with Kirin Tor)
Shoulders: [Greater Inscription of the Storm ] (Exalted with Sons of Hodir), [Master's Inscription of the Storm] (Inscription only)
Back: [Formula: Enchant Cloak - Greater Speed], [Lightweave Embroidery] (Tailoring only)
Chest: [Scroll of Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats], [Enchant Chest - Major Spirit] (pre-TBC)
Wrists: [Scroll of Enchant Bracer - Superior Spellpower], [Socket Bracer] (Blacksmithing only, stacks with enchants), [Fur Lining - Spell Power] (Leatherworking only)
Gloves: [Scroll of Enchant Gloves - Exceptional Spellpower], [Scroll of Enchant Gloves - Precision], [Socket Gloves] (Blacksmithing only, stacks with enchants), [Hyperspeed Accelerators] (Engineering only)
Waist: [Eternal Belt Buckle]
Legs: [Brilliant Spellthread], [Sanctified Spellthread] (Tailoring only)
Feet: [Scroll of Enchant Boots - Icewalker]
Fingers: [Enchant Ring - Greater Spellpower] (Enchanting only)
Weapon: [Scroll of Enchant Weapon - Mighty Spellpower]
Thanks! What about gems?
Lazy f... here they are.
Meta: [Chaotic Skyflare Diamond]
Red: [Runed Scarlet Ruby]
Yellow: [Reckless Monarch Topaz], [Veiled Monarch Topaz], [Rigid Autumn's Glow]
Blue: [Purified Twilight Opal]
Before putting in gems, don't forget to calculate with the gem bonus what the overall will be. For example, a [Runed Scarlet Ruby] is better than a [Reckless Monarch Topaz] with a gem bonus of +8 critical rating.
Firestone or Spellstone on weapon?
Firestone, but it's only by a very, very small margin. If you're playing some kind of heavy Demonology-hybrid you might be better off with Spellstone.
The Mage Equivalent: The Destruction Warlock
Note:
This thread is still a WIP and has been greatly edited due to patch 3.0.8. More updates will come. Thread consists of:
General info
Talent specs and why
Playing style/rotations
Gear/gem/enchant choices
Destruction in PvP
This thread will mostly focus on PvE (raiding) @ 80. If I miss something/you want to contribute (just like the Affliction/Demonology threads), write away! If you have some math to back it all up, even better.
Try to keep this thread as clean as possible with using correct English such as ”I” (not ”i” for the word) and if you're unsure about anything take a quick peek at the forum rules to avoid unnecessary infractions. Also make sure you've read the entire thread before asking any (silly) questions.
General:
Destruction warlock is a more "direct damage"-based spec as opposed to the Affliction one which supports more heaving hitting nukes rather than "damage over time"-effects. The Destruction warlock was in TBC end-game the most OP spec of them all: by pressing one button you could achieve high numbers due to immense scaling that Shadow Bolt had.
In WOTLK however, Shadow-based Destruction is now mostly a thing of the past (because of the big nerf to Imp. Shadow Bolt), and Fire has become the new element with the Imp next to you as a "living machine gun" to help your DPS as well as buffing the caster. The rotation has as well become more interesting involving more DoTs than just the extra curse.
A Destruction warlock will use Life Tap frequently because of the high mana-cost that the spells have, as opposed to Affliction which is pretty much self-sustaining (Life Drain + Haunt returns life that you've lost). We do have Soul Leech, but it's not nearly as effective.
Destruction has many tricks up it's sleeve such as more instants and more AE options and might therefor be the choice for the warlock who wanted to play a Mage, but with a twist.
Abbreviations:
AE = Area effect (Shadowfury, Rain of Fire etc.)
BD = Backdraft
CB = Chaos Bolt
CF = Conflagrate
CoA = Curse of Agony
CD = Cooldown
CR = Corruption
DD = Direct damage (Incinerate, Chaos Bolt etc.)
DS = Demonic Sacrifice
DOT = Damage-over-time (Curse of Agony, Corruption etc.)
DPCT = Damage-per-cast-time (how much damage the spell does per second of it's cast time)
F&B = Fire and Brimstone
GCD = Global Cooldown
LT = Life Tap
IM = Immolate
IN = Incinerate
MC = Molten Core
SL & ISL = Soul Leech and Improved Soul Leech respectively
Specs:
Common specs right now are the following:
0/13/52+6 – Standard "Deep Destro" with 6 extra points for different choices such as: Imp. CoA, Shadowfury, Imp. Soul Leech, Unholy Power etc.
0/28/43 – Demonology-hybrid more focusing on strengthening the Imp.
What are the important talents?
Improved Imp – What makes your Imp the powerhouse it can be together with Empowered Imp.
Bane – Makes your number one DOT and nuke have faster casts and opens up for Soul Fire spamming during Backdraft.
Molten Core – Your own personal buff which makes the spec very strong. Both Shadow-based DOTs and nukes can proc this.
Ruin – Makes your crits harder. No-brainer.
Demonic Power – Makes the Imp fire faster. Pew pew!
Devastation – 5% crit for one talent. Also no-brainer.
Emberstorm – Buffs pretty much every main spell you have and shortens cast time of your filler.
Backlash – Mostly taken for 3% extra crit.
Shadow and Flame – Gives a higher spell bonus co-efficient to your primary nukes.
Conflagrate/Backdraft – Backdraft gives you a 30% faster cast speed on all Destruction-spells. Great potential for fast casts.
Empowered Imp – See Improved Imp.
Chaos Bolt – Your strongest nuke.
Why not these?
Improved Life Tap – To reach LT you have to take fillers such as Improved Corruption making it very expensive and LT scales with spirit which can be found on most spell caster gear anyways.
Improved Corruption – Too high talent costs to buff one spell (that's mostly just there to proc MC anyway).
Well, fine, but what about these?
Demonic Aegis – Is often featured in Destruction specs but have been debated if it is really that good. It adds a flat 54 extra spell power from armor and makes your spirit worth 0.39 spell power per point instead of .30.
Cataclysm – Increases your hit chance of Destruction spells but will probably go away as gear gets better.
Shadowfury – Gives an extra AE spell but has limited use.
Destructive Reach – Threat reduction is nice, but due to CoA the range won't make much use and threat isn't mostly an issue.
Pyroclasm – More utility to Rain of Fire and CF but also has limited use.
Improved Curse of Agony – Makes your CoA have a higher DPCT than Curse of Doom and is a cheap upgrade for 2p and your best candidate for proccing MC, but still, an Affliction spell.
Soul Leech – Pretty bad seeing how much points you put in it. Noteworthy is though that ISL is actually pretty decent and what you should aim for if going here.
Fire and Brimstone – Because of the new changes to Glyph of Conflagrate (look below) this is debateable if good or not.
No Demonic Sacrifice?
DS was very common in TBC but the Imp itself can be seriously buffed on it's own providing high dps as well as buffing the caster whenever it crits. On average the Imp counts for 10-15% of your total damage. ISL helps keeping the Imps mana up and could be a choice for long fights.
DS has its uses though for fights where the pet is hard to keep alive (Sapphiron for instance).
Playing style/rotations:
"Rotation" is a very common term for damage dealers, but since warlocks rotations have become more and more complicated, most people will start to think in priorities instead, because it's much easier to keep track of and will generally give a better outcome when it comes to pure DPS.
As a standard 0/13/52+6-spec, your priorities should be:
IM – high uptime for increased overall DPS and INs and opens up for CF.
CF – to proc Backdraft.
CB – strongest nuke.
CoA – to proc MC and increasing overall DPS.
CR – As above but on a lesser scale. More info below on this spell.
IN – when DoTs are up and CB is on CD, this is your "filler".
CB is your hardest nuke and should be cast as often as possible. CoA and IM should be up as often as possible as it increases your overall DPS. IN is your filler, but never cast it unless an IM is up on your target. Note that it doesn't matter if you or another warlock has IM up, just as long as it's there.
When to Backdraft?
Assuming you have Glyph of Conflagrate, you want to cast CF as often as possible (which requires high uptime on IM) to proc BD.
Without it, you only want to CF when IM has lower than 3 seconds left. That way, you only lose the last tick and still gain the crit % bonus from F&B.
Should I cast Soul Fire during Backdraft?
In a theoretical world: Yes.
In a real raid: No. Casting SF during BD will give an overall increase in DPS but will burn through your shards like golden rain does to snow. It's just not viable to dig through 20+ shards on one boss, especially as it can be hard between some bosses to get them back (and then I haven't even mentioned if you happen to wipe!). A viable choice here is cast it only during BD+Bloodlust/Heroism to maximize shorter cast time.
Instead try to cast only CB and IN during BD since the two benefits the most of the haste increase. As stated above, if IM is already on the target, then no need to cast it, otherwise always cast IM before any IN as it increases your overall DPS.
And to clarify: It's okay to refresh CoA and CR during BD as long as the buff doesn't run out and you waste charges. But remember that above priority still stands! CoA and CR comes before filler time, not CB.
Should I use Corruption or not?
Yes and no. CoA is mostly used for MC uptime since MC can proc on every tick of a shadow-based DoT and CoA has faster ticks (every 2 sec) as compared to other DoTs (every 3 sec). Also it has a long duration (24 sec without glyph) which opens up for more IN.
CR should however be used depending on if you have 2T7 or not. If you have, then use it since not only will it increase your MC uptime but also the T7-bonus which give an overall increase. If you don't have it, then it's probably best left out since it will make your life easier to have one less DoT to keep track of. Note that the priority of CR is rather low; it should be last on your list just before filler time.
Glyphs:
[Glyph of Conflagrate]
This received a huge buff in 3.0.8 (old: Reduces mana cost by 20%) which now makes it a sure take if you have CF (which is strongly recommended together with BD). With it, the rotation becomes a bit cumbersome, but more rewarding, casting CF as soon as it's CD is up to proc as many BD's as possible.
This of course makes F&B questionable since the critical % bonus it applies is not always used.
[Glyph of Immolate]
The glyph might seem like a two-pointed sword but that fact is that the net outcome is higher than expected. Also the glyph scales quite well.
[Glyph of Curse of Agony]
Adds 2 extra more ticks at the end which gets stronger than the previous 2. It is now an increase in DPS and saves you a GCD every 168 sec.
[Glyph of Imp]
Makes your Imp stronger. With all the Imp-improving talents, this little fella' becomes a real powerhouse.
If you're going with a typical deep Destruction-spec then the best glyphs as of now are CF, Imp and IM or CoA. The last two are pretty much equal in DPS increase as of now, but Immolate scales better than CoA and will probably be stronger at better gear. CoA will however make your rotations a lil' bit easier which could improve your performance. This is mostly a matter of preference at this stage though.
The rest (Searing Pain, Shadowburn, Shadow Bolt) are awful for PvE. Stay far, far away.
Gear/gem/enchants:
As shown in various threads here on EJ, the following priorities when picking stats should be:
Hit rating
Spell power
Haste rating
Critical rating
Spirit
Intellect
With some concrete numbers (provided by supplicium):
Spell Power = 1.0
Hit = 1.6-2.2 Spell Power (depending on how far away from hit starting at BC hit cap)
Haste = 0.65-0.75 (depending on gear)
Critical rating and Spirit are almost equal when specced into 3/3 Demonic Aegis from 0.4-0.5 else w/o DA it's around 0.35-0.45 for Spirit
On a sidenote:
Shadow damage is like 0.2 or 0.3 damage.
Fire is 0.8 dmg or so.
Note that hit rating is only the best stat until you're hit capped. You need 17% to be capped and you gain 3% from 3/3 Cataclysm and 3% from a Shadow Priest or Moonkin in the raid. If you're Alliance and grouped with a Draenei, there's another 1% which gives 11% from gear for Horde (289 rating) and 10% for Alliance (263).
Wait a minute! Cataclysm only gives hit to Destruction, what about my Affliction-spells?
After you're capped with Destruction-spells, hit rating takes serious dive and excess points for that tree becomes worthless. For Affliction-spells however, 1 hit rating becomes equivalent to a value of 0.2-0.3 spell power. Therefor, it's better to spend these points on pretty much anything else. Confirmation needed.
As a side note: With above hit rating and talents you won't be capped either for Soulshatter, but just like Affliction; from a pure DPS standpoint, it's just not worth it.
What are the best possible enchants?
If you use Wowhead you can find them easily, you lazy bum, but since I'm such a nice guy, here they are.
Head: [Arcanum of Burning Mysteries] (Revered with Kirin Tor)
Shoulders: [Greater Inscription of the Storm ] (Exalted with Sons of Hodir), [Master's Inscription of the Storm] (Inscription only)
Back: [Formula: Enchant Cloak - Greater Speed], [Lightweave Embroidery] (Tailoring only)
Chest: [Scroll of Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats], [Enchant Chest - Major Spirit] (pre-TBC)
Wrists: [Scroll of Enchant Bracer - Superior Spellpower], [Socket Bracer] (Blacksmithing only, stacks with enchants), [Fur Lining - Spell Power] (Leatherworking only)
Gloves: [Scroll of Enchant Gloves - Exceptional Spellpower], [Scroll of Enchant Gloves - Precision], [Socket Gloves] (Blacksmithing only, stacks with enchants), [Hyperspeed Accelerators] (Engineering only)
Waist: [Eternal Belt Buckle]
Legs: [Brilliant Spellthread], [Sanctified Spellthread] (Tailoring only)
Feet: [Scroll of Enchant Boots - Icewalker]
Fingers: [Enchant Ring - Greater Spellpower] (Enchanting only)
Weapon: [Scroll of Enchant Weapon - Mighty Spellpower]
Thanks! What about gems?
Lazy f... here they are.
Meta: [Chaotic Skyflare Diamond]
Red: [Runed Scarlet Ruby]
Yellow: [Reckless Monarch Topaz], [Veiled Monarch Topaz], [Rigid Autumn's Glow]
Blue: [Purified Twilight Opal]
Before putting in gems, don't forget to calculate with the gem bonus what the overall will be. For example, a [Runed Scarlet Ruby] is better than a [Reckless Monarch Topaz] with a gem bonus of +8 critical rating.
Firestone or Spellstone on weapon?
Firestone, but it's only by a very, very small margin. If you're playing some kind of heavy Demonology-hybrid you might be better off with Spellstone.