Raiding warlocks have a very specific role - dealing damage. As we progress further in the high end-raiding game, one thing becomes more and more apparent. Our much-envied range of playstyles diminishes and we seem to be shoehorned, like other classes, into pretty much a single cookie-cutter spec.
The spec in question is destruction or 0/21/40 specifically. This spec capitalizes on the wonderful scalability of shadow bolt and consistently outperforms affliction when good spell hit and crit gear becomes available. For a detailed look at the 0/21/40 build, check out my "A Warlock's descent into Destruction" article.
I've recently respecced back to an affliction spec (40/0/21) just to revisit the good ol' days of mobility (instant DoTs) and an "unending" mana pool (Dark Pact). I know we tend to look back on the past with rose-colored glasses, and true enough, my experience with affliction again was ... less than satisfying. Why the difference?
One possible reason is the greater availability of spell hit for other DPS caster classes. This has gradually negated the DPS advantage gained by affliction locks through Suppression. In other words, the spell hit granted by Suppression to affliction locks in early raid instances like Karazhan is really "ahead of its time", contributing to the build's stellar performance in those instances.
All three warlock talent trees get along well with our DPS role really, with different strengths in each spec. We are one of the lucky classes to get three different playstyles to do essentially the same job. The Demonology tree is well known for its survivability element - ever gone up against an SL/SL lock? Some demonologists can deliver serious hurt as well, as seen from some interesting statistics below.
Destruction banks on high shadow bolt burst damage and is often coined the "shadow mage" spec. Affliction is the king of sustained damage, with a full range of DoTs at an affliction lock's disposal. The interesting thing about these two trees is that their playstyles are probably as different as night and day. The destro lock is essentially a "one-trick pony", spending most of their time pushing a single button for shadow bolts. Since most of them will sacrifice their pet for buffs, pet management is also taken out of the equation. Affliction locks, on the other hand, generally have at least four, or even five spells in their rotation.
Less spells in the rotation means less micro-management. This gives destro locks more situational awareness in an encounter, which is essential for survival in raids where there is a lot of environmental damage. On the other hand, affliction locks have more to juggle, more decisions to make and are generally "busier" in a fight.
Many warlocks have leveled as affliction locks due to the excellent sustainability of the build. We are used to making snap decisions about DoTs on the fly and we enjoy the versatility warlocks have with respect to killing stuff: fear-kiting, drain-tanking and so on. Hence it is understandable if some affliction players complain that the destro playstyle is "boring" or a "no-brainer" - since the active interaction with what's happening on screen is cut down significantly.
Blizzard also seems to want most of us to become shadow bolt spammers in the end, as Warlock tier 6 gear favors shadow bolting locks. "Why is Blizzard not making gear tailored to our favorite build?" is the question asked by many affliction warlocks.
It is however interesting to note that on the WWS Scoreboard, a neat ranking chart based on raid data pulled from WoW Web Stats, just 10 of 15 top Warlock DPSers are 0/21/40. Out of the five who aren't destro locks, two are demonology, one is affliction and two have hybrid demo/destro builds - building for Soul Link probably.
These numbers suggest that while 0/21/40 is the favored build, it doesn't seem to the runaway cookie-cutter build yet. Just as we have various outfits for various situations, there might be reasons to dip into supposedly less DPS-oriented trees to gain certain key talents, particularly for greater survivability during some encounters.
In light of this, raid leaders should keep an open mind about warlock builds and not insist on the "standard" build for warlocks under their charge. On the other hand, affliction locks who are fretting over the simplicity of the destro build should also look for a build and playstyle that really works for both themselves and their guilds. Yes, 0/21/40 is a popular endgame build, but it is not the only way to play your Warlock.
In terms of gear, while other classes may have multiple sets of gear meant for different roles within a tier, like shamans or druids - I don't think that our trees are diverse enough to warrant three different sets of tier 5 or tier 6. In the words of a wise DPSer, "Less QQ and more pew pew!"
V'Ming still spends his time laughing ominously, but in the hallways of Tempest Keep and depths of Serpentshrine Caverns now. He is also looking forward to tanking Leotheras the Blind in the near future.
Read up on past Blood Pact articles and find out exactly how much hurt warlocks can dish out. Roleplay an evil Warlock if you will and find out what locks think of Mage QQ, or if you're considering making a move to the dark side, check out my reasons for rolling one on 'Why we Lock' and our WoW Insider Warlock Guides.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
4-17-2008 @ 2:12PM
Koll A said...
i usually don't like your articles. but this one is good. I will refer it to my Lock friend.
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4-17-2008 @ 2:16PM
jtrain said...
I was a 40/0/21 lock for most of my late leveling and early 70's, and loved it. The first few times I was in Kara, Gruul's and Mag, I noticed I just wasn't DPS'ing like I expected. I was convinced to try the famed 0/21/40 build, and I instantly shot up the DPS charts.
The versatility of an affliction lock during leveling and even 5-mans is second to none. However, I don't really buy the fact that affliction specs are viable in end game raids. The pure DPS just isn't there.
Dunno, maybe I wasn't doing something right, but my shadow bolts are critting for 6k-7k now, and my DOT's can't touch that.
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4-17-2008 @ 9:04PM
Lars said...
My experience has been completely opposite. I leveled as Demo till around 40, then switched to Dest. I liked Dest a lot but then I found myself often farming in the mid-50's to lvl 60 and I *hated* it. Damage was great, but downtime sucked, I often overkilled stuff/wasted mana, and all the drinking was eating into my wallet as well. So I tried the Afflic spec to make my DoTs more powerful and mana gaining abilities available/more viable. All of a sudden farming was great fun! Completely different play style, for sure.
I had planned on switching back sometime, for raiding and such, but just never did. To my surprise I found myself still usually out-damaging everyone in dungeons. Plus it's really valuable to be able to heal myself so well. So I kept the spec. At the point I'm at now, my DoTs are overkill for even-con mobs so I still waste mana unless fighting elites, but DoTs are cheap, and I can get mana back easily. I may do slightly less damage than a Destlock, but it's not significant. What is significant is how flexible I am now. Fear-kiting is powerful too, and much easier with good DoTs.
My guild had a tough time in Magister's Terrace, but I joined and fear-cc'd plus fear-kite and we waltzed through the place (fear only gets adds with inexperienced players). The only complaint I have with the spec is that my DPS starts slowly, then builds to a frenzy. It would be nice if I had a spell that applied all my DoTs at once, because even though most are instant, there's still the global cooldown between each cast.
4-17-2008 @ 2:18PM
Lab Monkey said...
Any chance you could hunt down those high DPS demo/destro builds for us?
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4-17-2008 @ 2:27PM
Tran said...
I know that its pretty much considered a taboo due to SB having higher spell damage coefficients and ISB > all and all that jazz, but with the addition of haste in a lot of gear and the new emberstorm buff makes a firey 0/21/40 spec viable these days. I've used this spec since before 2.4 and imo I don't think it makes much difference between the 20% extra shadow damage proc (which could well just disappear before you can strike again since anyone and their dear aunt sally can use up the charges), and the 10% flat rate of Emberstorm. Just my 2 cents mind...
4-17-2008 @ 2:27PM
TonyMotorola said...
http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-talents.xml?r=Area+52&n=Iriemon
Is my 21/40 spec. I was tanking Illidan last night, hense imp imp, imp pain and no Nether Protection.
The demo side has a few interchangeable talents. You'll want to spec into the imp HS that other locks in your raid don't have.
4-17-2008 @ 2:24PM
Mikejl said...
As I enjoy five man over larger content .. So I will happily stick with my SL/SL (improved Void and IMP) spec.
I hate to see any class pigeon holed .. good article.
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4-17-2008 @ 2:26PM
Alyviel said...
I've actually been thinking about this a lot lately. I have an affliction warlock who I have a great deal of fun on. As a character who spends her time doing dailys and sometimes Karazhan, she's pretty much perfect to be riding high on the damage meters.
The 25-man raiding I do is on my resto druid, but there's the potential to be able to do some of it on my warlock at some point. So over the last few days I've been looking at the gear and weighing up how I can keep my beloved affliction build and still be viable as damage as well as support.
I think it hinges on your choice of gear as much as playstyle. If you look at the tier 5 and 6 gear, the increasing amount of spell crit on it is obviously skewed more towards destruction as a build, seeing as DoTs get no benefit from crit rating. By focusing just on the tier gear, it's made fairly easy for a destruction warlock to gear up.
However. If you look at the arena season sets in comparison, you'll notice something - there's two different sets. One has spell crit, one doesn't.
What I ask myself is why this hasn't been done for the PVE tier gear? This would easily solve the problem of there being just the one popular spec at endgame, the one where lots of crit = fat numbers = lots of damage. If there was another tier set with the crit taken out or at least reduced considerably and the points spent elsewhere, we might see more affliction 'locks hanging out in Sunwell. There doesn't have to be three sets - just two.
Until then, I think that by spending a little more time looking closely at gear, affliction warlocks can still keep their damage high. Perhaps not going for a full tier set but mixing it with PVP pieces still (seeing as you can swap tier tokens for it now) and with badge pieces. It's true that the spellhit/damage items also have spirit on, but they're still superior to the items with crit on for certain specs.
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4-17-2008 @ 2:43PM
jtrain said...
Very good point alyviel. My initial gear-up was through the welfare pvp epics, and as an affliction spec i took all the +dmg gear over the +crit. I agree whole-heartedly that two sets of tier gear would make the affliction lock viable in 25-mans.
4-17-2008 @ 2:37PM
icer said...
i have a lvl 70 loc and i absolutely love my felguarg i've had him since i hit 50 ( he still makes me giggle when he charges) and if i was to respec i'd miss him so much, but i don't raid or even do 5 man instances lately i've been pvping it seem to work for me the way i'm speced
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4-17-2008 @ 2:42PM
darian said...
As was noted by another, not all 0/21/40 Warlocks stick to Shadowbolt. Post-2.4 Incinerate has become equally viable, and it ultimately which is better boils down to your raid makeup.
However, I will note that it is a foolish Destro-lock that ignores their DoTs. However much Spell Damage you have, you'll get more Damage Per Seconds Spent Casting from Corruption and Immolate than you will another Shadowbolt, whatever pet you've sacrificed.
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4-17-2008 @ 3:23PM
hellshire said...
Actually no you wont. The coefficients on warlock dots are laughably bad and scale horribly. Chain casting shadow bolts and utility curses (especially when you have bloodlust/drums) is the only way to go as it keeps up ISB and is overall more dps. If your wasting time casting a dot when you could be spamming shadow bolt, you're doing it wrong.
4-17-2008 @ 3:42PM
TonyMotorola said...
You absolutely won't get more DPS casting DoTs.
4-17-2008 @ 6:13PM
darian said...
After reviewing my math, I must accept that the circumstances under which using DoTs as a Destro Lock are favorable are generally surpassed by the time Destro Locks become the favored raid spec (somewhere around T5).
The only notable exception being Immolate and Fire Destro. Beyond the direct benefit Immolate gives to Incinerate, Immolate itself will do more damage per time spent casting than Incinerate.
Curse of Doom is an obvious exception as well, but the circumstances in which it is favorable for its use over a utility curse are not common.
4-17-2008 @ 2:44PM
Derek said...
SL/Ruin is also a good DPS spec that adds some versatility. 21/40 only increases the SB damage potential, while SL/Ruin increases all damage output. My SBs drop from hitting around 2060 to 1950 with the spec, but I gain insta Corruption and my SoC hits harder. Not to mention my surviability goes up... and if the fight allows my succy will provide a little bit extra on damage. Just recently I was in Gruuls and hit 3rd on the dps charts, wasn't trying all that hard... and half my gear for PVE is PVP gear still.
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4-17-2008 @ 2:58PM
Ryan said...
"My SBs drop from hitting around 2060 to 1950 with the spec"
You must be doing something very, very wrong.
4-17-2008 @ 5:56PM
Derek said...
(+/-50 dmg or so)
What exactly am I doing wrong? These are white damage SBs with no modifiers or crit value. I have 1244 spell damage if you think they should be hitting harder with a 5/35/21 spec tell me how?
Keep in mind... non-crits... non-modifier SBs... no bullshit E-PEEN numbers either.
4-18-2008 @ 1:00PM
Ryan said...
Well, if you have the S&F talent, your SB's get an extra 20% of your spell damage, so they should be doing at minimum ~200-250 more damage with 0/21/40 than 40/0/21 (without taking SM or sac into account). Factoring in the extra 5% from demonic sacrifice over shadow mastery, that would up that differential even further. What you could be doing wrong is not sacrificing your succubus, which would lead to those low numbers for destro shadowbolts.
On a side note, 40/0/21 is inferior dps-wise than any 41/x/10+ build you could choose. If you want big shadowbolt numbers, spec destro, if you want dots spec full affliction (and pick up shadow embrace, malediction and improved imp). If your raid members are happy with 1% wipes that's different, but you should out of consideration for other people spec to maximize dps.
4-18-2008 @ 2:35PM
Derek said...
You didn't read my comment very carefully did you Ryan?
I said... no modifiers... white damage SBs only. 20% imp is a modifier... and only if the SB prior was a crit.
Also I'm not talking about 40/0/21, I'm talking about Sl/Ruin which is 5/35/21... and if I were to sac my pet in that spec... it would completely gimp the damage output. If you ever see this... I HOPE YOU READ EVERYTHING CAREFULLY...
4-17-2008 @ 2:49PM
patrick said...
Also interesting read for me as my lock is about to venture into 25 man content. I've comfortably ruled the damage meters as 41/0/20 for quite a while in 5 mans through 10 and am sporting 1300 unbuffed spell damage and 201 spell hit. I'm currently trying to acquire a few items with more crit on them to see if I can viably bring up my crit without lowering my damage too much. I don't know, I'm not truly excited about the prospect of being a shadow mage. I really love being affliction. I guess we'll just have to see how it goes.
As far as suppression, I really wish warlock articles would just quit with its value, maybe it had some leveling in bc or in the first kara runs after bc opened but there is absolutely no excuse to use it even with affliction. 40 percent of your damage should be coming from shadow bolt and and the last thing you need is resisted shadowbolts, soulshatters, banishes, etc. The only way it would work is if drain life was taken over shadowbolt which has been show to be less damage, can't crit and still doesn't cover things like soulshatter, banishes, fears. Shadow priests have a viable talent for including spell hit in their spec, we really do not.
Also, UA consistently outdamages ruin so if you're not running it that way, you can't directly consider it a max damage affliction build. The same can be said of switching back from crit gear to affliciton, your gear isn't set up for it. It's crit heavy and damage lite, though I'm sure it works just fine in 5 mans for the burst damage.
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