Maxim Warlock DPS

[saori]

Hello guys,
 
I had been pushing hard for the last 2 months to max my DPS and to be at the same level of the other top locks of the guild in raiding status, and even if I had catchup quite a lot, i'm still behind for about 500dps.
 
This thread is targeting the DPS ranged class leaders (Gjis, Mztolf) but please, feel free to add your opinions and feedback, as anything that can help me to cover that last bit to be at the same level will be more than appreciated.
 
First of all, here you have my build and current gear: http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Aszune&n=Saori
 
In the last 3 weeks I managed to make a speed run to gear further (with all the heroics that I could possibly do) and had added to my items using emblems the following items:
 
- Emblems of the conquest exchanged for:
[ITEM]Conqueror's Deathbringer Hood[/ITEM]
 
- Emblems of the triumph exchanged for:
[ITEM]Kel'Thuzad's Gloves of Conquest[/ITEM]
 
- Emblems of the heroism / valor exchanged for:
[ITEM]Band of Channeled Magic[/ITEM]
 
- Items that I got from heroics in the last 2 weeks:
[ITEM]Symbol of Redemption[/ITEM]
 
and [ITEM]47560[/ITEM]
 
 
 
All of my gear is enchanted and gemmed with +23sp and +19sp (the ones with +19sp is because im waiting to upgrade them to socket +23sp)
 
Ok, so, now to the numbers, these are my stats (unbuffed):
 
Destruction build: 0/14/57
 
- Bonus damage: 2236
- Bonus healing: 2236
- Hit rating: 358 - 13.65%
- Critical chance: 21.24%
- Haste rating: 222
- Mana Regen: 355
 
If I compare with Vanguish build I see that he has (following the armory, which is certainly surprising as he is much better geared than me):
 
- Bonus damage: 2075
- Bonus healing: 2075
- Hit rating: 473 - 18.03%
- Critical chance: 27.00%
- Haste rating: 275
- Mana Regen: 282
 
So, I have (in theory) more +SP and he has more +hit and +crit, and in the end i'm usually behind him by about 500DPS!! :g:(my latency is not great, around 300ms steady, but the toon and interface respond pretty good to the clicks and I dont have any lag, even my framerate is good and I play in low detail to even make it better)
 
Now, were do I think that I can improve:
 
Enchants:
 
I'm wearing some old enchantss that have better / more powerful versions, but that as they are plenty of expensive I'm saving to aply them in at least ULD25 gear level (225) These will be:
 
- Shoulders: (not necesarily to apply in a better item for this slot, is just that im slacking behind getting the exalted with Sons of Hodir, the moment I have it, I will enchant it of course)
 
- Main Hand weapon: currently im wearing +50ps, when I can put there up to +63sp. I have the maths, i'm just saving for a better weapon (i had been 12 times already in ToC5 HC in the last 2 weeks, and still no luck with the [ITEM]Spectral Kris[/ITEM] from the Black Knight, neither I seem to have luck whenever a cool weapon drops in ULD25 [ITEM]Polished Azuresong Mageblade[/ITEM], Onyxia [ITEM]Runescribed Blade[/ITEM]or anyother instance, my main improvement should be a better dice!)
 
- Chest: not really sure if there is more than +8 to all stats enchant there, but if there is something better let me know please.
 
Gems:
- All the gems that I have of +19sp should be replaced by +23, which I'm doing progresively and in better quality items. But my question is, do I have to go for only +23sp? I saw several casters that usually chose a combination of +sp & +crit or +sp & +hit . So not really sure if i'm doing the correct focusing only on +sp.
 
Basically I think i'm way below the 17% cap rate for casters in hit raiting. I guess that this can be solved purely replacing the old epics im wearing with improved one with +hit, any suggestions here?
 
I had read and read again the elitejerks website about tactics / specialization for locks, and I think than I'm compliant with those.
 
For my rotations I use: Inmolate, Conflagrate, Chaos Bolt and CoD, with Incinerate as a filler, and depending I will cast instead of CoD, CoA and Corruption (in cases the mobs are likely to die in less than 1 minute)
 
Anything wrong with this rotation? Anything that I can do better to push more DPS? I dont use any macros, so it's everythig quite manual, anything that I can automate to ensure that I don't loose time with it? (like for example automating Conflagrate and Chaos Bolt whenever they are free of cooldown?) I have the feeling that if I miss a hit or a cooldown, my DPS start droping. :eyebrow:
 
I think that I have a problem of gear and that I need to replace several Items (main hand, off hand, shoulders, bracers and the trinkets!) so I expect a good improvement if I manage to replace soon the dagger, the off hand and the shoulderpads (hope so!) which is in the progress with my heroic runs everyday. Now, for all the rest, im fairly lost in calculations on what is better, so any help I can get, really appreciate it.
 
Thanks,
 
Sao
 
Any input that you guys can give me, recomendation, suggestion, etc, will be more than welcome.

[JonnyAppleSeed]

My lock has always been at the low end of dps so im not the best to comment but i will anyway :narnar:

Chest enchant +10 all stats is an option and +30 on wrists i think

Regarding missing cooldowns, what sort of timers or triggers are you using to monitor them. I use one called button timers. I have a macro to apply the first rotation then follow my timer to avoid clipping

Again somone else can confirm this but the lifetap glyph maybe somthing to look into. I know it helps me tho im not a deep destro spec

[Carr0t]

Basically I think i'm way below the 17% cap rate for casters in hit raiting. I guess that this can be solved purely replacing the old epics im wearing with improved one with +hit, any suggestions here?

I've never played a Warlock, but for any dps class out there, hit > all. If you don't hit the mob it doesn't matter how much crit or spelldamage you have, you're not going to hurt it. When my mage first hit 80 I was having to use a good whack of my gems and nearly all my enchants to reach the hitcap, but I was doing significantly more dps than the other mages who levelled at about the same time as me and immediately gemmed/enchanted  for spelldamage. Reach the hitcap first, any way you can, then worry about other stats. It's also why I held on to the blue trinket that gave 80odd hit for so long. Meant I didn't have to keep hit gems and enchants so much.

Don't forget that the cap is 17% for level 83 (i.e. raid bosses) but if there's a dranny in the raid you'll get 1% hit from them, and locks have a first level 3 point Aff talent that boosts their hit with all spells by 1% per talent point you put into it. As you're not talented for that, you need to get 16% hit (I'm assuming you always have at least 1 dranny raiding with you, which is what Blizz do these days when working this stuff out), so you need to increase your hit rating by 60-70ish.

[Azunai]

One macro I always like to use is weaving trinkets and other 'medium' cooldowns in with primary nuke spells, as I find I am not using these trinkets enough or often even forgetting to use such cooldowns entirely. I do this with all my classes. I don't know what the lock's main spell is but the macro would look something like this (taking Frostbolt as example here but replace with your own spell):

Code Select Expand



#showtooltip Frostbolt
/use Trinket of Uber Painful Doom
/use Trinket of Whipped Cream
/cast Buff of Win
/cast Frostbolt



For optimal results you can have the sound and display of error message being removed but I'll have to look in game for the precise syntax as I don't know it off the top of my head. This will prevent the game from spamming your screen and sound with "This spell isn't ready yet" warnings.

The above macro works with all trinkets/CDs that do not trigger a Global Cooldown. Not only does it mean the trinkets/CDs are used whenever you can, but you also optimalize their uptime as you trigger the (buffed) spellcast with the same button press as the trinkets/CDs.

[saori]

Regarding missing cooldowns, what sort of timers or triggers are you using to monitor them. I use one called button timers. I have a macro to apply the first rotation then follow my timer to avoid clipping

I don't use any, I do it manual with my little fingers, problem is that sometimes push the wrong keys! :doh: What is this button timers about? do you have a link?

[saori]

for any dps class out there, hit > all. If you don't hit the mob it doesn't matter how much crit or spelldamage you have, you're not going to hurt it.

Will it be a good idea for example to replace the 4 +19 gems I still have for +hit gems? Which one is the biggest gem out there with +hit? is there any that has a mix of +sp and +hit?
 
Also, I was actually thinking on adding those 3 points in the Affliction for the 3% bonus in the hit rating, is something I read about in elitejerks and actually I was curious to see if it really work well, I will give it a try for the next raid.

[saori]

Code Select Expand


#showtooltip Frostbolt
/use Trinket of Uber Painful Doom
/use Trinket of Whipped Cream
/cast Buff of Win
/cast Frostbolt
 

 

Thanks for the macro Garrit. One noobish question, I believe that the instructions are casted in sequential mode, from the first to the last, right? they aren't casted (in the example above) the 4 at the same time, right? Do you know if there is any macro tool assistant that I can use to try some code? (myself i'm a programmer, but I had never the time / need / bother to code any scripts for wow! and certainly is an unexplored area that I think can have it's benefits)

[sheepy]

saori - definatly dont put more hit in!!!

im not 100 certian for locks but i would have thought your hit cap will be something like 10% raid buffed. it may be worth ditching any hit gems you have for spell power or haste

[Azunai]

They are all cast at the same time, that's why you can only use it with trinkets, and abilities that do not trigger a Global Cooldown. I think pretty much no trinket with a Use property triggers GCD, and abilities like (for a mage) Icy Veins don't either. Some abilities that buff you over a few seconds do though, and those cannot be used (like the shammy's Shamanistic Rage).

Basically what happens when you press the above macro is the following:

Trinket of Uber Painful Doom is activated
Buff of Win is activated
You start casting Frostbolt

Note that it won't trigger both trinkets at once since trinkets have a shared activation cooldown of about 10 seconds I think. Once you press the button again 10 seconds later the 2nd trinket will activate. If you make this button your primary nuke it will use the trinkets whenever they're off CD, making sure you use them optimally.

Only consideration is that a trinket may work really well with an ability, but they may both have different CDs meaning they won't always be used together (only on the times they are both off CD together). Not sure if you need to get thát indepth in the numbers though...

[Azunai]

saori - definatly dont put more hit in!!!

im not 100 certian for locks but i would have thought your hit cap will be something like 10% raid buffed. it may be worth ditching any hit gems you have for spell power or haste

Wrong according to some websearching, it is indeed 17% raw hit rating that you need as a lock =) That's not counting talents though. Some explanation:

The New Hit Cap:


* What is the new hit cap at level 80?

o Blizzard removed the 99% max resist cap (finally). So the hit cap is 17%.

"Also, note that with the wotlk patch you can completely eliminate resist chance through hit chance (you can overcome that final 1% resist chance)."

Source: Kalgan:
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/1/9679398983-upcoming-racial-ability-changes.html


o At 80, 1% = 26.23199272 +Hit Rating.
Source: http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t29453-combat_ratings_level_80_a


A) 17% Hit
B) 14% Hit (Suppression & Cataclysm, OR Misery or Faerie Fire (Shadow Priest/Moonkin))
C) 11% Hit (Suppression & Cataclysm, AND Misery or Faerie Fire (Shadow Priest/Moonkin))

A) 17% = 446 +Hit Rating
B) 14% = 367 +Hit Rating
C) 11% = 289 +Hit Rating

(Subtract another 26.2 Hit if you're raiding with a Draenei.)

[Bellanie]

This might help if you can sift through it

http://www.mmo-champion.com/class-warlock/warlock-raiding-compendium/

[TeaLeaf]

To confirm, Saori is pretty much hit capped now with 13.65% hit (no 3% from talents) so the raid debuff and a spacegoat bring the needed hit down to 13%, 14% if you do not want to rely on being in a spacegoat group.

[Bellanie]

if you do not want to rely on being in a spacegoat group.

I'm not a space goat i'm a Dwarf shaman really!:roflmao:

[Azunai]

Spacegoat! :roflmao:

[Bellanie]

Spacegoat! :roflmao:

please dont try to milk me!:roflmao: