So in regards to AA's, I was attempting to follow yours, but I had a few questions. Don't flame, this isn't me being arrogant. I'm not going to use names of players that I looked up, because it doesn't matter. Keep it respectful, and helpful, I'm looking for advice, so feel free to leave feedback, just be respectful about it. Sorcerer Tree: 1. Catalyst, why not go with catalyst? Is the 25% potency 25% of your potency, or is it just another 25% on top of the potency you already have. Example: I have 4000 pot. 25% would be 1000, making my potency 5000. OR I have 4000 potency, 25% would make it 4025 potency. 2. Brainstorm, why don't people have this one selected, but it increases the base damage of all of your spells by 4%. I think that would be better than the 1 point in static discharge, and the full 7 points in Battlemages Fervor, right? 3. Freehand Sorcery, most people only have 1 point here, which is a 10% increase, but if you put 10, you get nearly a 30% increase, and if you're using Negative Void>Absolution, that's a BIG increase to that spell, or better yet, Thunderclap (which is a quick cast that would get a 30% boost for shorter fights). *EDIT* 4. Why go with Spellshaping, Spellshifting, and Mental Recovery? I have cap on casting/reuse/recovery from gear and that's what I am often times reforging out (reuse/recovery). Isn't there a better way to spend those 30 points or so? Warlock Tree: 1. Enhance: Dark Pyre AND Dark Thoughts: Enhance reduces duration, and Thoughts increases duration, don't they kind of cancel each other out? 2. Volatility VS. Aftershock: I know Aftershock has a small chance to proc, but on the Dragon Tree you have Reaction, which increases all trigger percentages, whereas Volatility adds a little bit of range for a small duration. HEROIC Tree 1. I see most people take Ethermere Chains, which is a great de-aggro, and a quick spell, with good damage, BUT, wouldn't Sanguine Sacrifice be more favorable? It boost your potency of all spells following it by 200+ or even Mystical Field, allowing you to cast on a joust or while being knocked around by AE's. ALSO, I have been looking at AA specs of a lot of Warlocks, some well known ones, and it seems that the common trend is to spend an absurd amount of points into de-aggro. Why? When I say an absurd amount, I'm talking about 50 points into reducing hate or picking up de-aggro abilities and spells through AA. I have Concussive, Nullify, and Boon of the Damned. If need be, I could grab Kinetic Avoidance and Concussive blast OR Arcane Bewilderment, but is it really necessary to put THAT many points into hate reduction and de-aggro abilities? ***EDIT #2*** Also, I'm having trouble deciding on what to do with the Prestige line. I want Freeze Soul, that is a MASSIVE nuke for when the target is lower than 30% HP, but I can't get Caustic Detonation if I get Freeze Soul. Should I ignore freeze soul and go for the Caustic Det?
Catalyst is only 25 more potency. You have better things to spend your points on. Brainstorm is 4% more potency. I know it reads base damage, but I do not think it is pre-numbers but acts just like potency. Max Freehand. I also max enhance FH. The whole Agility line could probably be spec'd out of but I like the 12% reuse so I can reforge into other more important things. The reason people spend points in the sorc tree is to get blast of dev which is pretty nice. The whole Dark pyre thing. One reduces the amount of time that each tick hits and the other increases the time that the ticks run. You want both for maximum impact. If you spec Aftershock, you dont have to hit anymore buttons. Volatile is really only useful if you are trying to increase range. Most fights in ToT and beyond require you to be in range anyway so kinda worthless. Take the free damage of Aftershocks. Take chains AND Sanguine. There is some argument to dump Sanguine and take mystical field. Most of those arguments are centered around a Hammer so if you dont have one, dont bother. Chains is a positional deagro and hits for a ton. Sanguine increase potency based on your INT. Here is the secret to all Warlock DPS: The faster you can build increments of Toxic Aura for either the single target Toxic Assault or Caustic Detonation, the more times you can discharge those increments for a TON of damage. The rule of thumb is for 1-3 targets use Toxic and for 4 or more use Caustic. That leads me into the deagro piece you were talking about. I spec Caustic Det for 2 reasons. Reason #1 is because it builds increments of Toxic Aura much faster especially on AOE fights. Reason #2 is that during a full burn, warlocks generate a LOT of agro and it is a 2 position deagro in an area effect. Very handy. Lastly I will leave you with my thoughts on the prestige tree. Take the right side and leave the left side alone. With the MASSIVE amounts of potency, left side cannot compete with the right.
Thanks, that helps A LOT. I thought the damage increase was 4% base damage, I thought Catalyst was 25% of your potency, I don't spec into the Agility line and my reuse it like 106% and I'm constantly reforging out of that one to keep it under 100% As for INT line in the sorc tree, I can see that being a good one to have, but there's no need to have anymore points in de-aggro other than chains right? Like Bewilderment, it's a good de-aggro, but I'm not geared to steal aggro, and little things like that are a waste. Also, what about static discharge? That seems like a horrible 4 target AoE, why do people spec for that? Because of the 25% resist-ability? I don't understand that one.
There may come a point, if you have current gear with massive potency, where you are just going to take agro. Your damage output will be greater than the tanks ability to keep it off you. In this scenario you have 3 options: 1. Die 2. Pop a positional de-agro (concussive blast, bewilderment, chains) 3. Rely on the tank to hit a snap because you took agro. I dont like to die especially if it is my damage that does it. I like massive damage spikes so I KNOW that I am going to grab agro at some point. So I usually rotate Chains or Bewilderment in my casting rotation for massive spikes to deagro a bit and use concussive in AOE fights. These tools are not just useful to build stacks, they are also essential for maximum damage output while not stealing agro. Some tanks are really good and are equipped to keep agro. Some are better than others and some are worse. I believe it is my job as the DPS to understand what tools the tank has to keep agro AND to understand the fight so I can burst as necessary. I have never speced static discharge ever.
Aftershock is completely useless. The % of the parse that it contributes to is laughable. I personally like volatility, it has a lot of situational value. Some people like the free dps of aftershock but it's only like 500k so if I can pick something up that holds some kind of value (volatility) I will take it. The increase in potency that sanguine sacrifice brings is going to be a very small % increase to that multiplier when given the amount of potency that is currently maintained. I find mystical field to parse well on ae fights and also has decent situational value, I was spec'd for mystical field even before I got the hammer. I have 1 aa in static discharge because that ability gives increments and lets face it everything in that whole tree is useless, so why not. I don't use static discharge much if even at all because I have the reset rune and hammer but if I didn't have them I could see casting static discharge when nothing better was up for increment purposes.
Thank you! I'm on the same boat! I HATE when I see tanks get dogged on because they couldn't hold aggro from a really well gear BL who is blowing their load on the pull... As the DPS, you have to know when to hold back, that's probably the best phrase I've ever heard..lol "I believe it is my job as the DPS to understand what tools the tank has to keep agro AND to understand the fight so I can burst as necessary." As for Static Discharge...again..thank you. I keep seeing it on everyone else's spec and keep thinking how stupid it is..it hits 4 targets, while in melee range, for low damage, on a slow reuse time...I can't see any situation for STD to be useful (Yeah, I could have just called it SD, but STD makes me smile more, and it still fits). As for these MASSIVE spikes you're talking about, what does your rotation look like? I cast debuffs/DoTs first, starting with the longest lasting ones (so I don't have to recast when I'm done applying to rest), burn through some DD spells, like Flames, and Thunderclap, and maybe hit Unda and Concussive (just because they are instant cast times. Re-apply my debuffs/DoTs, recycle my DD spells, look for an instant cast on apoc or rift, and recycle. Rarely do I deviate from that, other than using my self buffs once the fight is established, I have my stacks, and my debuffs are active...but even still, I don't seem my DPS go up, it just kind of sits still the whole time.
I don't play warlock but I'm just gonna tell you that that casting dots first because they last long is not a good enough reason in of itself to prioritize them.
I don't cast them BECAUSE they last long. I cast them to keep them running for constant damage. I prioritize the ones that last longer though so that I can cast more spells before having to start my DoTs over again.. Since I shouldn't be casting DoTs first, what SHOULD I cast? The point of a warlock is AE AND Damage of Time..On the parse, my highest parsing abilities are my DoTs..I have more DoTs than anything else, 4 or 5 single target, and 3 AE, am I mistaken here, isn't playing a Warlock about keeping your DoTs running? Actually though, I did come back to see if anyone had tips on casting order for long fights and for short fights. Currently I try to keep Gift, Netherealm, and the other buff up at all times, a keep my dots running, and use DD in between resetting DoTs. Short Fights: I keep my buffs on, I don't debuff, the only DoT I use typically is PB, the rest of the time I use DD. Long Fightss/Bosses: I open with noxious debuffs, self buffs, DoTs, rotate to DD until my DoTs need to be reapplied. Of course regardless, once u build stacks, I use a pic and rift with a 0 second cast speed, then clear my stacks. Other than that, I'm open to any and all feedback.
It won't let me "edit" "Of course regardless, once I build stacks I use apoc and rift..." Sorry, doing this from my phone, apparently my phone is more illiterate than I am..lol
You should be pressing the buttons that give you the highest damage per time spent casting. That may or may not be a dot at any particular instant. Deviate from this if... 1. You are pressing a button to build increments quickly. 2. Saving a big hitter for a temp that's coming soon. 3. You are pressing a button to decrease you current hate position. There may be more but that's all I can think of at this moment. So press the button that gives you the highest damage output per time spent casting unless one of the 3 situations above presents itself.
Always go by your priority order/increment building ability. Never cast netherealm, it's upgraded by eternal damnation. Eternal damnation should only be used on ae fights with the exception of using it pre-pull, even then I wouldn't recommend using it on a single target pre-pull because there is so many charms etc to click before name pulls. I keep vacuum field maintained on name unless its a really short fight, I know I don't need to but I'm so use to doing it from when debuffs actually mattered. For the most part I keep volatility running, I won't go into detail why, but I like it.
It is not too late to run Ethereal quests to get the reset rune. It is almost mandatory if you want to have good dps. As Yards said, your priority is to build increments. This is how your damage rotation will put out the most damage. Some increment building tips: 1. Dark Siphoning (with myth buff OFF) single or AE fights. This builds 6 increments per group member AND pet as long as they are in range of the spell. 2. Quick hitting spells like Thunderclap, Arcane bewilderment, Acid, Dark Pyre, Dark infestation build 6 increments per cast. Effective on single target with limited AE effectiveness. 3. High hitters like PB and Chains for fillers waiting for short spells or increment spells to refresh. If PB and Chains are not up and you run out of spells, maybe cast Flames or toss in Aura (doesnt build increments but does damage) 3. AE fights add in Cataclysm, Skull focii detonation, and concussive blast. With the reset rune you can build stacks, have the resets go off, go through a massive FC (focus casting) rotation, and have concussive blast, skull focii, and dark siphoning rebuild your stacks in a couple of seconds to discharge it again during high burst damage. To Yards: Sanguine is 450 potency with my INT but I have considered mystical. Thank you for the tip.
450 potency is still going to be a very low % to the potency multiplier, around 3 to 4% depending on what buffs are running and is only up 50% of the time. Mystical field does around 30 to 50 million dps on something like psionist. On psionist it will be 2 to 3% of my total parse and gives the added benefit of casting on the run and ae avoid which comes in handy for certain situations. But that's just my personal preference as it isn't going to make a difference which one you get, it just fits better with my play style. Int is staying relatively the same where as potency keeps going up so the more potency you have the less effective sanguine sacrifice becomes. I didn't see anything said about blast of devastation for ae fights but it should be high in priority order because it hits extremely hard and gives increments. I rarely if every cast flames of velious and aura isn't even on my hotbar but these are just filler spells and don't make much of difference what is cast at that point.
Volatility is nice because it helps make sure your Dark Siphoning heals don't miss any group members. Of course it gets resisted way too much. Also I spilled a can of Rockstar on my computer. So unless I get a gofundme sponsored computer, I'm stuck with Pogo4life
