After a serving a short stint with the intern babes - involving tape and piñatas - V'Ming returns to laughing ominously in AV, tanking Olm with his own minions and pondering troll fashion from Zul'Aman. He's rocking SSC and TK with his 0/21/40 build and still bragging about consecutive 8k shadow bolts.Your comments in my previous Badge loot shopping article got me thinking about warlocks having multiple outfits, just like tanks and hybrids. Warlocks usually serve a single role - DPS - so our outfits aren't generally as dramatically diverse as what a druid, for instance, might pack.
After accumulating a bunch of epics with varying stats, most of us have moved beyond the "one outfit for everything" situation. In fact, I'd say we're spoilt for choice now and can afford to use the right gear for the right situation.
Resistances obviously play a part in dressing up, especially in specific encounters where warlocks need to go toe-to-toe with certain mobs. Notable examples include arcane resistance for the Curator (if you're "soaking"), fire resistance for Leotheras the Blind and shadow resistance for Illidan.
In most other situations however, Warlock gear choices are dictated by some important numbers:
Spell Hit
The key stat for Warlock DPS, and other than our tier 6 pieces, spell hit traditionally comes on gear that lack spell crit or haste. As a result, most raiding warlocks would dedicate an outfit to maximize spell hit. Ideally, you'd want to enter level 73 boss fights with a spell hit rating of 202 (76 for affliction spells, with Suppression talent). For trash mobs who are generally between levels 69 - 71, a spell hit of 202 is simply excessive. You only need 63 spell hit to be capped out against a level 72 mob. Most warlocks trade out spell hit to optimize the other stats below for non-boss encounters.
Spell Damage
This stat is pretty much ubiquitous amongst caster DPS gear, so it really is a secondary consideration when it comes to developing outfits. That said, affliction locks will still want to prioritize this stat over crit or haste, after meeting the spell hit "requirement".
Spell Haste & Crit
Without delving into hair-splitting theorycrafting, spell haste seems to be gaining more prominence over spell crit after patch 2.4, particularly for destruction locks. Like spell hit, spell haste is an "exclusive" stat; most haste gear do not come with hit or crit. Given that they are also relatively new to the market and almost always associated with high end content, many destruction warlocks will be hard-pressed to forego crit for haste at the moment. I can also imagine that spell crit will continue to have greater utility in shorter encounters.
Stamina & Resilience
In PvE encounters where random environmental damage is prevalent, I prefer to put on stamina-heavy "survival" gear. Survival gear is also useful in providing a wider margin of error when you are new to an encounter. To quote a Mage guildie, "dead DPS is no DPS" - it's better to survive a 10-minute fight than to deliver stellar DPS for 20 seconds. In many respects, PvP gear is ideal for this purpose, packing loads of Stamina but sacrificing some raw PvE firepower. Other than swapping out some PvP-specific trinkets, most PvP outfits will double up nicely as PvE stam outfits.
For my outfitting needs, I use Ace's Wardrobe2. Outfitter does a fine job too. Switching entire sets of gear outside of combat is as easy as selecting an outfit from the dropdown list, provided you've spent the time setting them up. Based on the discussion above, I would recommend building the following basic sets, as soon as you've accumulated sufficient gear:
- "Boss" outfit: maximized Hit and balanced spell damage, crit and haste, for boss fights
- "DPS" outfit: optimized crit, haste and spell damage, depending on your spec, for all general killing purposes (including the battlegrounds, but this is strictly personal choice)
- "PvP" or "Arena" outfit: a whole load of Stamina and Resilience, the PvP trinkets, and perhaps 38 spell hit to avoid missing your level 70 opponents.
- "Stam" outfit: maximize Stamina - the objective of this outfit is to provide survivability without sacrificing too much firepower.
As an extension to my badge loot article, I'd like to take a look at drops out of heroic Magisters' Terrace. Outside of badge loot, they are probably the most readily obtainable gear from the new patch:
Fel-tinged Mantle from Vexallus
This is essentially a non-raid version of our T4 shoulders, nothing much to write home about especially if you've already wrangled the Voidheart shoulder from High King Maulgar in Gruul's Lair. Looks-wise, it's a recolored Spaulders of Oblivion.
Jaded Crystal Dagger from Selin Fireheart
Another non-raid item that is comparable to raid loot; are we seeing a trend here? This dagger, almost a short sword in terms of length, comes with spell haste, instead of crit on the comparable Nathrezim Mindblade and Bloodmaw Magus-Blade. It is a good addition to the arsenal of a destruction lock building spell haste, as there are only three other Warlock weapons with spell haste currently. Relative to the 150-badge Scryer's Blade of Focus, it definitely packs less firepower - but the Scryer's blade isn't for every Warlock either.
Scarlet Sin'dorei Robes from Kael'thas Sunstrider
Some warlocks might hold off spending 100 badges on Tormented Demonsoul Robes for this, so let's do a detailed comparison. Moving from the demonsoul robe to the Sin'dorei outfit means:
Gain red and blue socket, 3 spell damage from the socket bonus
Lose 8 Stamina, 16 Intellect, 14 spell crit, 11 spell damage
Popping in some gems, like the easily available Glowing Nightseye and Runed Living Ruby, quickly narrows the gap between the two robes. If you are low on badges, this is definitely worthy replacement. You can choose to invest the 100 badges in the pants instead.
Timbal's Focusing Crystal from Priestess Delrissa
This trinket is probably most drool-worthy in this lot. It fires off an occassional shadow bolt (that can crit, but not affected by Ruin) for any DoT-user, and guess who's the biggest DoTs slinger in game? The proc rate is a solid 10% for every DoT tick. With a reported internal cooldown of about 15 seconds, an affliction lock running a full set of DoTs can expect a free shadow bolt fairly frequently. The proc is a passive "Equip" effect, which means it happily stacks with "Use" effects of other DPS trinkets - making this trinket strictly better than the hallowed Icon of the Silver Crescent. A must-have for every lock!
Patch 2.4 sounds great, but what's in it for you? Find out on our Sunwell Isle page where we list the impact on classes, professions, PvP, Raiders and many other playstyles and interests. Looking for more great info? Check out the WoW Insider Directory for the best of our guides and analysis.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
4-10-2008 @ 11:16AM
patrick said...
Excellent write up v'ming! I'm on cloud 9 today as I just got my timbal's focusing crystal last night and I got the scryer's blade of focus on monday. I'm on Proudmoore so I had it when it opened up in all the craziness. I'm affliciton so of course I have quite a few dots available and though I was exhausted after the long slog through mgt I had to go try it out a bit and I can report it procs quite freqently and I'm delighted with it. I should have the boots this weekend thankfully they don't need much of an enchant and since it'll probably be a while i definitely intend to get the robes as soon as I can from mgt. I'm not excited about the pants. Still happy with my spellstrike until better comes my way.
Keep up the great work, and I'm glad you paid attention to the comments section and addressed our concerns so succinctly. The wardrobe idea is a great idea for any lock and the rare drop 20 satchel in heroic mgt and the easily obtainable z.a. bag should help make some room for all.
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4-10-2008 @ 11:18AM
OutlandishTrendz said...
The first time I did heroic MgT I lost the trinket to a fire mage (replaced the Icon), and I am affliction, a guildie non the less who has recently quit the game. After a day or so he went back to the Icon, 17 heroics later and still no trinket. I have yet to talk to him since then.
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4-10-2008 @ 11:40AM
Taeous said...
Nice article. Speaking from a non-lock (resto shaman to be specific) perspective, I've started to make outfits for specific boss encounters. HS and BT are raids where these truly start to appear needed. For instance, I have one set with my PVP trinket for Winterchill, one with just the neck and cloak shadow resist for Anetheron, one for a bit more SR on Kaz'rogal, etc. BT starts to introduce some fights where it's a good idea for the raid to all have 10k or greater health (Naj, RoS, etc) so there are sets for those too. The newest set I'm working on is spell-haste for trash in BT and certain bosses (Bloodboil for instance) based on my party makeup (aka, I'd better have a shadow priest in my group for bloodboil if I plan on wearing my haste set).
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4-10-2008 @ 12:01PM
Afflictor said...
I like how you didn't mention Demonology at all in the article, nice of you to get that spec recognized. Good work, as usual, writing an article that proves you know nothing about warlocks, or the game itself.
Survivability is ALWAYS > DPS. A dead warlock will always be doing 0 DPS, not to mention stamina is one of our most important stats. Especially for those Demo locks out there. You know, the ones kicking your sorry ass in damage until you get 4pcT6.
I have tanked Curator's bolts in my normal outfit, it is easy. You don't need an extra outfit for anything but Leo or Illidan. As for advocating Haste, ever, it will always be a worse stat than an equal (ilvl-wise) amount of crit for ANY raiding warlock spec, as Haste lowers ISB uptime, while crit increases it. Affliction scales poorly with haste, as does Demonology, and Destro locks like seeing 10k bolts more than they care about how fast they come, and would prefer them bigger and slower for more ISB uptime.
When you write articles like this, you are encouraging people to spec poorly, why not write about warlock DPS spreadsheets, that prove the actual DPS dealt at any given level comes with X or Y spec with A or B gear.
And Timbal's is not always greater than Icon. Don't write absolutes unless you are absolutely correct. Icon is a cooldown warlocks can burn on threat sensitive fights, Timbal's has wiped a leo attempt before, feel free to talk about the SB's travel time and threat resets. or, feel free to ask someone else to write this column for you.
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4-10-2008 @ 12:52PM
frank said...
You're an ass, fyi.
As for Spell Crit versus Spell Haste... MaxDPS.com's numbers on it are the following:
Affliction: (stat: dps)
10 Crit Rating: 1.50
10 Spell Haste: 2.43
Destruction: (stat: dps)
10 Spell Crit Rating: 4.39
10 Spell Haste Rating: 4.77
In both cases spell haste adds more dps in their theorycrafting calculations.
I know no one can ever be as smart as you are (as you do in fact know everything there is to know about warlocks) but I just wanted to let you know not everyone agrees with you.
4-10-2008 @ 3:13PM
Nick S said...
i agree about demo - demo locks melt face until the gear starts to get really, really high-quality.
i'm a mage, i raid with
4-10-2008 @ 3:14PM
Nick S said...
...and half my post is gone. whatever.
4-10-2008 @ 12:07PM
brian.hanna said...
for destruction spec.
dmg/haste > crit.
you put
crit/haste > dmg which is terribly wrong.
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4-10-2008 @ 12:34PM
Slayblaze said...
You're putting crit LAST for Destro? No you are wrong.
Actually all three are almost equal in their importance, but for Destruction if you HAD to make a choice,
Crit/Dmg > Haste
--Crit to keep ISB up at all times
--Dmg because it scales with Shadow and Flame (don't underestimate that it SCALES)
--Haste last because Destro is already mana-intensive - too much haste and you DO run out of mana often enough to hurt Damage Done while attempting to regen instead of dps'ing
4-10-2008 @ 12:11PM
Meingaree said...
and the afflictor, sorry your dead wrong about crit > haste.
also, i agree with you, where is the demo love?
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4-10-2008 @ 12:51PM
Afflictor said...
Haste is a solo dps stat that will run you oom faster, use up ISB faster, and dish out less damage than with an equal amount of crit, I don't care if you disagree, math happens to prove me right.
Even without real math, Lifetap is a GCD (assuming your mana pots are on CD), so you get more mana used per sec, for more dmg, for more time wasted in GCD's, whereas crit, you get more dmg, for no more time, and no more mana wasted, and MORE ISB uptime.
4-10-2008 @ 1:05PM
Afflictor said...
I know I'm an ass, don't worry, and MaxDPS.com is wrong. It doesn't calculate ISB Uptime to be a factor, which is why crit is so low for Affliction, nor do Crit and Haste weigh the same in ilvl (I think) so yes, ten points of each rating may provide a massively different benefit. Nor does MAXDPS provide anything but solo DPS numbers, if you wanna only go for solo DPS roll rogue, the rest of us will keep up ISB for our SP's, and through them, the rest of the raid.
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4-10-2008 @ 3:47PM
Dottard said...
In raids with 2 other warlocks:
Crit > Haste because of the additional ISB time.
In raids with 2 or less warlocks:
Haste in a DS/SnF build with both warlocks going fire should = more DPS.
Haste may mean more DPS on spreadsheets, as does UA, but the truth of the matter, in my eyes is based around ISB. The more warlocks that are critting with a Malediction lock with CoS and an Spriest with S-weaving AND misery up = more damage from more people in more classes. Lest we not forget that Malediction CoS also buffs our wonderful boomkins with that /drool worthy crit aura.
UA=lost opportunity time to launch more Sbolts, meaning less dps for the other warlocks.
OK, everybody can shred me now, but I've done tests and spreadsheets are definitely not WoW.
4-10-2008 @ 1:06PM
Arctor said...
Also, Timbal's Focusing Crystal is far better for Shadow Priests. Theorycrafting puts it as an additional 79 +dmg for locks and 103(!) +dmg for SPriests
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4-10-2008 @ 3:16PM
Nick S said...
interesting - what is it for fire mages? (i know the answer depends on crit, but you seem to have found a good source for the info.)
4-10-2008 @ 3:33PM
Arctor said...
No idea, just look at the comments on the wowhead page
4-10-2008 @ 1:10PM
Faldrath said...
Haste/crit comparisons depend entirely on factors like gear, raid composition (number of shadow users), lag, etc. There is no rule of thumb - haste may generate more personal DPS, or not, crit may generate more raid DPS, or not (since if you stack crit you're still making yourself hostage of a random stat - raise your hand if you've never had a WWS in which your crit rate was much lower or much higher than expected).
So stop making general statements (even if you believe that "math" backs you up - it might back you up sometimes, it might not), use Leulier's spreadsheet and see what works better for you and your guild.
Back to the article, I have to disagree with V'ming's assessment of Timbal's - it will not be better than Icon for a Destro lock that only casts a curse and spams shadowbolt. For Affliction, it is indeed excellent.
And it's funny how everyone forgets Mother Shahraz when discussing resistance fights.
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4-10-2008 @ 5:30PM
patrick said...
Heheh, well I'm affliction so I'm quite happily using timbal's and the icon, there are two slots and I have having two on use trinkets that kick of cooldowns. About to make sorcerer's alchemist stone as well, that 67 constant damage is appealing, will have to run some numbers to see where it falls considering it could cause less lifetap necessity by giving more bang for you buck on mad alchemist potion for continued dps. Options are always nice. I've even brought quag's eye out of retirement for a bit to play with now that the gcd can also be lowered I don't have to freak out and watch its proc to try to get off cast time spells quickly anymore.
If anyone was as unlucky as me not to get prince's robe, there's a sweet blue cloak in regular mgt with a gem slot that's within a few points of it on spell hit and damage that can be a nice place holder until better comes along. It really should be an epic considering how close it is and above many other purple cloaks.
4-10-2008 @ 6:21PM
A Man In Black said...
Haste ?= Crit ?= Spell damage ?= Spell hit
GET A SPREADSHEET.
Broad, sweeping generalizations are useless, ESPECIALLY when you're talking about an ability as complicated as Improved Shadow Bolt.
Also, Timbal's eats ISB charges. This is bad. How bad it is depends on the composition of your raid.
BTW.
Spell hit:
Pro - Most efficient DPS stat no matter your spec...
Con - ...until it caps and is either useless or sub-par (depending on if you're demo/destro or aff)
Spell damage:
Pro - Boosts everything
Con - Hard to stack on its own
Spell crit:
Pro - Ups ISB uptime, makes SB/Immo/Incin hit harder
Con - Doesn't affect DOTs, converts from rating to % inefficiently
Spell haste:
Pro - Speeds up casting, speeds up lifetaps, raises ISB uptime if your crit rate is lower than the shadowbolt crit rate of all shadow users in the raid (remember that spriests and Timbal's are eating ISB charges without a chance of refreshing ISB)
Con - DOTs tick at the same speed, lowers ISB uptime if you're below the average blah blah blah
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4-15-2008 @ 9:00PM
Draculya said...
People seem to make a huge deal out of destruction spec.
I've never even tried it out, not once. I am in LOVE with my Affliction spec.
What I would like people to do is inform me as to why Affliction isn't as popular or as respected?
My corruption ticks for 600, my curse of doom hits for 12,000, my UA does about 3,600 damage (I THINK.. I gotta look again) and my cast rotation goes like this:
Unstable Affliction > Corruption > Curse of Agony > Siphon Life (if its a boss that does random dmg) > Shadow Bolt 2-3x, repeat.
I have dark pact, which enables me to leech 3,000 mana from my imp. So my mana pool lasts for much longer than Destro locks. My siphon life returns the health I use by lifetapping. But I run with priests who are generous, they heal me whenever I lifetap. THey know me really well though, they know my lifetap routines on each and every boss. I love my healers, although they really should not be wasting mana on me. I keep yelling at them, "I drain life it back! Don't waste time on me, please."
"Don't worry dude... my mp5 is abnormal. I never run out." is what they'd say.
Anyway... wheres the afflicition and demonology love?
Affliction does way more sustained damage, seeing I do 915 dps, i hit 950 on a good night.
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