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Posts with tag affliction

Blood Pact: Destro the only way to go?

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?

Continue reading Blood Pact: Destro the only way to go?

Build Shop: Warlock 24/37/0


Every Tuesday, Chris Jahosky contributes Build Shop, which takes a look into one of the many talent specs available to players.

Ah, warlocks. Before the Burning Crusade, there was no class I hated more. Of course, my opinion of the class did a 180 once I got my own Warlock to 70. This build (and variants of it) is often called SL/SL, because it picks up both Siphon Life and Soul Link (talents in the Affliction and Demonology trees, respectively). Unlike most other Warlock builds that focus on damage output, this build is meant to help you outlast your opponents by mitigating some of the damage you take, while using Siphon Life and Drain Life to get your health back. Warlocks with this build can be annoyingly difficult to kill, and is still a popular spec in 2v2 Arena.

The downside (and there's almost always a downside, folks) is that you won't top any DPS charts when it comes to PvE -- it's just the nature of the build. If you think you can live with that, I strongly encourage you to try this build out for yourself. I'm a big fan. And if you're looking for even more info on it, Zach covered this build in-depth last week.

Continue reading Build Shop: Warlock 24/37/0

Build Shop: Warlock 43/0/18


Welcome back to another edition of Build Shop, talent fans! I've gotten a couple of emails about Warlock builds, so this week I'm going to take a look at one of the most infamous builds around -- Affliction. When people complain about Warlock DoTs, they've often just had a run in with an Affliction spec Warlock. Boasting up to 5 DoTs (Corruption / Seed of Corruption, Immolate, Curse of Agony, Siphon Life, Unstable Affliction) and a bevy of channeled drain spells, one of these warlocks can make quick work of your health bar. In addition, Affliction warlocks also sport talents that make their DoTs harder to dispel or make you think twice about trying to dispel them.

Amongst warlocks, it's a popular grinding build, able to handle multiple mobs at a time with very little downtime. Though it lacks the higher health pool and greater survivability associated with Demonology warlocks, or the pure nuking power of a Destruction warlock, Affliction is a build which performs well in many areas of the game. Let's take a look at an Affliction / Destruction build that incorporates threat reduction, DoT protection, and maximizes the damage done by DoTs.

Continue reading Build Shop: Warlock 43/0/18

Warlock soloes the Horseman

Well I sure thought it would have been "some ambitious Paladin," but nope-- turns out it was an ambitious and crafty Warlock that brought the Horseman down all by his lonesome. As you can see in the video above, Deadmasters on EU Blackmoore has gone in SM with some amazing stats, and claimed all the epics off the Horseman for himself.

So how'd he deal with tanking? Unfortunately, it seems like the whole thing is based on a pathing exploit-- the player can jump up on that ledge at the end of the fence, but the Horseman can't, so he basically "juggles" the bad guy back and forth while dotting and nuking him. The job gets harder when the pumpkins show up, but it's the same thing-- jump up and then jump back down when the Horseman gets close. If Blizzard had known about this, they probably could have fixed that pretty easily.

But I don't mean to downplay Deadmasters' achievement-- clearly he's geared up right for the fight (look at those Affliction DoTs go!), and by the outtakes at the end, you can see that juggling the mobs just right was no easy task. It'll be interesting to see if Blizzard makes changes in the encounter next year, though-- by then, we may be level 80, and who knows what horrors will lie in the SM GY?

[ via incgamers ]


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