[Warlock] DS/SF Raiding Guide

[oxymoron1c]

I've been raiding as a warlock for most of the game now, and have seen nearly every boss downed so I wanted to give some tidbits on what I do to be a successful raiding warlock.

Step one is to spec your warlock properly:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warlock/talents.html?0000000000000000000001250030133200100000000555000512210013030250

This is the spec that I have been raiding with since I hit 70 and I have been extremely happy with it. It is very similar to the DS/Ruin build I used back at 60.

Here is the reasoning behind picking each of my talents:

Demonology

1/2 Improved Healthstone: You want to coordinate with your fellow raiding warlocks so that if possible your raid has 3 healthstones, 0/2, 1/2, and 2/2.

2/3 Improved Imp: You put points in here just to go further down the tree, you should almost never use your imp. (These points may be placed elsewhere if you like.)

5/5 Demonic Embrace: Stamina is almost as good as mana for a warlock. The more the better, and spirit is useless for a warlock. Due to lifetap you will never be resting long enough to get the 5 seconds required to activate in combat regen.

3/3 Fel Intellect: Max mana by 3% isn't great, but every little bit helps, those bolts get expensive when you're in a 20 minute fight.

1/1 Fel Domination: Not key, but very useful on a few occasions. The best occasion being when you die and are battle rezzed, you are then able to summon an succubus and sac it quickly to continue your dps.

3/3 Fel Stamina: 3% more hp is more for lifetaps.

3/3 Demonic Aegis: +30% to Fel Armor is wonderful, the +dmg is nice but the + to healing is great since you lifetap so much. This really helps reduce the strain of healing on you and as such is always a benifit.

2/2 Master Summoner: Goes along with Fel Domination.

1/1 Demonic Sacrifice: Sac your succubus and go to town. Some fights such as Kazrogal and Mother Shrazz it is also useful to sac your felhunter. Kaz because he drains mana and Mother because your gear is gimped.

Destruction

5/5 Improved Shadow Bolt: This is a huge boost to your dps and helps the raid out as well. I believe this is getting changed in 2.4 to boost the warlock only which is a boost to warlock dps so they are reducing the %, but it may hurt the raid as a whole sadly.

5/5 Cataclysm: This is mostly filler, but every little bit helps in long fights. If you are a tanking warlock and cannot pick up Nether Protection then you wont be grabbing this. Grab Improved Immolate instead.

5/5 Bane: Reducing the cast time of your bolts does not reduce the dmg co-efficient so it is a must.

5/5 Devastation: You need to hit 25% crit so this helps a lot.

1/1 Shadowburn: Not used much for bosses but helps boost dps a bit on trash.

2/2 Intensity: This helps in a few fights to get those bolts off even when you're being hit.

2/2 Destructive Reach: Range is always nice but the threat reduction is a must.

1/3 Improved Searing Pain: Filler, you may place this wherever you like. If you're a tanking warlock and not getting Nether Protection then you will be skipping this.

1/1 Ruin: A must for any destruction spec.

3/3 Nether Protection: Helps on a few fights such as Mother. May be placed elsewhere if you like. Do not get if you plan on tanking.

3/3 Backlash: More crit is always nice. This wont proc often enough in raiding for instant cast part to be useful sadly.

2/3 Soul Leech: This is optional, and tanking warlocks will be skipping it. You may place these talents where you like.

5/5 Shadow and Flame: This will boost your overall damage by a decent amount and is one of three absolute must haves for this spec. (DS/Ruin/SF)

If you plan on tanking then the talents that you may want to get instead of Cataclysm, Improved Searing Pain, Nether Protection, and Soul Leech are:

5/5 Improved Immolate: Once you are well geared you will not be casting immolate, but in tanking gear it is a viable spell, and this helps with it's dmg.

5/5 Emberstorm: Since you will be casting things like searing pain while tanking you will want to pick this up. It is also optional to drop 3 points for Improved Searing Pain. Up to you.

1/1 Conflagrate: Good burst damage when needed, pop at the end of Immolate to grab a bit of extra aggro.

This took a good bit to type up so I will be updating it later on. I will later include gearing and finally your spell rotation. Please let me know if you have any comments or questions. I myself never tank so I don't have much experience in that variance of the spec. Hopefully this will help someone trying to get on their feet as a Destruction warlock!

[oxymoron1c]

Gearing

Now we go over the part just as important as setting up your spec. Setting up your gear! Note that with the new 2.4 gems involving haste gem choices might change.

The #1 thing to keep in ming is that +hit up to 16% is the absolute best value for gear. So get your hit capped before you do anything else. From WoWWiki:

1% spell hit chance = 12.62 spell hit

This means that you will need a total of 201.92 so let's round to 202 spell hit rating.

Because you want ISB (Improved Shadow Bolt) to proc 1 in every 4 shadow bolts, this means you need a 25% crit chance. So on your character sheet you want to see at least 20% crit rating. (Devestation is not shown on the character sheet since it's destruction spells only.)

1% crit rating = 22.08

As you can see it takes a lot more crit rating to add one crit than it does hit rating to add one hit.

Now that you're hit capped and are at or above 25% crit, it's time to work on your +dmg and your +haste. +dmg is generally more effective than +haste but it depends on your gear. With my gear setup when I reach around 100 more +dmg spell haste is more effective per point. So you need to keep this in mind. This is where a spreadsheet comes in handy.

WoW Warlock DPS Spreadsheet by Leulier

Download this and run it in excel. (I may not be able to answer all questions about it, but the author is supportive I believe.) Input your gear, your spec and your cast rotation. It will then tell you your dps. It will also tell you what 1 point of hit, haste, dmg, and crit will give your character dps wise. So from this you can see how effective hit capping is, and when to stop stacking dmg and switch to haste.

In my next installation I'll go over briefly how to perform well in raids. It's not too difficult with this spec, the gear is what matters most.

What to Cast

As a shadow destruction warlock you have a few options on what to cast.

Of course your main spell will always be Shadow Bolt.

Next you need to choose a curse, Never use Curse of Agony on a boss fight, it's useless.
Curses to choose from are: Curse of Shadows, Curse of Recklessness, and Curse of Elements.
Make sure not to be selfish in your decision, if you have 1 warlock and 1 shadow priest, CoS is a bad choice. CoR is usually the first choice as it affects hunters, rogues, warriors, and feral druids. Talk to the other locks if any in the raid and each pick a curse to keep up.

Once you hit a certain gear level (Spreadsheet will let you know, around 4pc t6) ignore the below section as anything other than shadow bolt will hurt your dps.

Now you have the option to keep Corruption up. Just watch the timer and try to let as few ticks pass without the dot applied as possible. But at the same time, applying Corruption before the last tick is worse than reapplying 1-2s afterwards. Lost ticks are lost damage, lost mana efficiency, and lost time. Always keep this in mind. 4pc t5 will make a nice boost to your dps with this as well, and when you get the Ashtoungue Talisman from Black Temple rep that can be fun and useful as well.

Once you hit a certain gear level (Spreadsheet will let you know, around 4pc t6) ignore the below section as anything other than shadow bolt and corruption will hurt your dps.

Now you have the option to keep Immolate up. This depends on two things, if you put points into fire when you were speccing, and if you're wearing all +shadow damage gear. I can't remember when I stopped using immolate so just play around with the spreadsheet and it will let you know when it's time to go shadow only. Also keep in mind the same things as you do with corruption, never override and try not to lose too many ticks without the dot applied.


When to Lifetap

On most fights you wont need to potion because it's not that much of a dps race, if it is then shame on you if you aren't. Even if you do, you're going to go oom on most fights at some point. So when should you lifetap?

Wait for an opportune time! This means when ISB is not currently active. And wait until you are almost completely oom to tap. Once you are oom or close to it spam lifetap until you are at full mana, but be careful not to waste any hp by over tapping. This is how to most effectively lifetap on boss fights where you will not be taking unexpected damage. If you will be taking damage then lifetap a bit slower (cast some damage spells in between) so you have time to get a HoT, or Healthstone if needed.

Which Consumables to Use

Super Rejuvenation Potion
To effectively use this wait for until you are missing around 5-6k mana. Then lifetap twice followed by potion. This will give you a nice 4k boost and save you 2 global cool downs.

Super Mana Potion
This one should be self explanatory, just pop if when you need some mana, if you're trying to maximize DPS the sooner you pop it the better as long as you don't waste some mana.

Destruction Potion
This is for those fights where you need as much damage as you can get and mana isn't a problem. (Aka: NOT Brutallus) For longer fights where you will go oom rejuv and mana potions are more effective. But if you're on a fight such as Teron Gorefiend where you're about to become a ghost, pop it and do as much as you can! The most fun use I've had is on Reliquary of Souls during Phase 3. Nothing like a nice 20k crit! To use to maximum effectiveness try to time it so that you can trinket and/or drums of battle/heroism at the same time. Having haste and destruction potion is really opening wide open on the DPS. Be careful though! I have easilly pulled aggro from this even through two Misdirections. If you hit it early, you're probably going to have to Soulshatter before after or during. So keep your finger on the soulshatter button and your eyes on the threat meter.

Flask of Pure Death
Pop it before the first pull then don't worry about it for another 2 hours. Very simple to use!

Oronok's Tuber of Spell Power/ Blackened Basilisk/ Poached Bluefish/ Crunchy Serpent
Doesn't matter which one, just make sure you bring at least 20 to every raid that you go to. No need to use on trash unless you're learning/having trouble with the trash. It's easy to farm just go outside Shattrath while you wait for the raid to finish forming.

Brilliant Wizard Oil or Superior Wizard Oil
The brilliant wizard oil is likely better for you though. The mats for Superior Wizard Oil are much easier to collect however if you're in a hurry or money pinch. While dmg > crit, you lose 8 dmg for 14 crit. (It's unlikely that your crit will be worth .58 or less making the superior wizard oil better.) Just apply before the first pull and reapply when it wears off. You may need to overwrite the old charge when 1min is left before a pull, so keep an eye out so that it doesn't wear off mid fight.

That's all I have for you at the moment, feel free to ask questions, point out flaws, or give me ideas for more installments!

[PuFFFF]

Great write up. I see good things coming from this. Keep it up!

[darkreve]

Do you have anything for affliction? I dont like the demo build..

thanks if you can assist.

[AcidX118]

All good warlock could know this already soo for me is nothing interesting but still nice post.

[oxymoron1c]

Thanks for the feedback, sorry I haven't updated in a while been very busy lately. I'll be adding casting rotation soon which wont be too detailed. I might try to do something for affliction but I haven't raided as aff for long.

[oxymoron1c]

I've updated the second post. Went over what to cast and when, and which consumables to use. Let me know what you think!