The Help My DPS Thread

[Liquidsteel 279]

What situation is there with a raid group that is great at ST burns but having issues with adds on this fight? I'm no expert on this fight; I don't even like it and I'm still learning the fight. But everything I've read is that adds overwhelm only because ST fails.

My guess is that weaker groups who have poor single target focus will get overwhelmed by adds, and will assume the adds are the problem and begin directing attention there.

[spikeysquad 50]

Yeah I have only done 5 attempts (and one kill) on heroic and normal was too long ago so I don't know the fight well enough to be able to say the adds are never a problem on any difficulty for all groups. Perhaps they are never never are and hence my comment is wrong but I did say "if".  

 

On a couple of tries we had add problems killing the tanks but yes that was more due to bad transitions. Once we sorted that the tanks stopped falling over. In between each primal we also had a clean up of adds. Our group had a lot of cleave and AoE and we majorly majorly overgeared it when we got to the kill so it's hard knowing what other groups struggle with. So you get an idea we had 2 Unholy DKs, 2 Boomys, Enhancement Shamen, 2 Fire mages, 2 Demo Locks, 3 Hunters etc so you probably get the picture. So yes if anything we had not so much ST even though each primal was down in one (maybe one took 2 or that was the try before I cannot remember now) and that's what matters most I think.  However, saying this I still do think each group benefits from a certain amount of AoE/free cleave or you will not get anywhere fast and heat still grows. Like I said I am no expert and maybe it is a very strange set up where you don't have enough of that. Ultimately it is about what your group needs or what you are told to do

 

P.S Yes perhaps certain classes would have been better with other specs but, for heroic at least, we are a casual guild with a non-spec forcing policy. 

Edited April 20, 2015 by spikeysquad

[Lamborguineapig 0]

Hello, I'm new to raiding and to the Demonology spec. So far I could only sustain 19k to early 20k. 

Here my armorya: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/ursin/Dolorossa/advanced

my Warcraft log of my recent raid its BRF: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/GJdvmC4PnATkrcDj#type=damage-done&boss=-2&source=33

[spikeysquad 50]

Welcome Lamborguineapig,

 

First off you are missing 3 enchants so shooting yourself in the foot to begin. Do you find your fury regeneration is a little low? If so look out for more haste orientated gear in the future (with mastery) as opposed to crit though I guess that comes from being Destro first. Do you like pvp? You can get a 660 piece pretty quick from just doing Ashran (though it got a nerf again).

 

Log 1 Gruul:

 

Why are you playing Demonbolt (DB)? For higher and definitely more consistant dps especially whilst moving I would suggest going DemServ+GoServ (staying as Destro is more than fine too though guessing you probably wanted Demo practice). If you are playing DB then I believe the correct talent choice is GoSyn though I see no Synergy buffs nor any GoServ so I assume that you were playing GoSup?

 

Not that experienced at DB logs as I never play it now but here we go. Hopefully someone else will check over as well. 

 

Opener could be slightly improved as your SF cast (or SB cast if you're all modern) should be pre-pull and then you had 3 SBs pre-meta and personally I only ever did the one. It's a balance of having enough fury but getting into meta and sending off your DBsX2 before the 10 second DS and trinkies expire. Keep an eye on what's happening so you can make the best use of your procs. See if you can do 2 casts between your HoGs as you do not want to miss any of the DoT uptime. I tend to think that you send off your Doomguard especially (and possibly Wrathguard as well) too late missing out on a lot of opening buffs. For me personally my Doomy is my first cast in combat (not saying that is correct though!). 

 

Are you aware if you use a potion pre-combat then you can use one again later in the fight? That gives a nice boost to us. If you do forget though then either use your potion a bit earlier than you did (your potion is 25 secs and DS only 10) to fully cover DS and all the nice opening buffs or save for a nuke phase or in execute. It will depend on the fight really. Gruul doesn't have a nuke phase so the start makes sense I think as you had BL/Hero/TW. 

 

All SF casts in caster good. Doom uptime 94% and Corruption 91% so these need more attention. Number of Wrathstorm casts good. Number of DS casts good.

 

You casted 5 CWs. As you do not have the 4 set and it seems fury generation was an issue I really would suggest using stacked HoGs instead. Speaking of which your stacked HoGs apart from the opener are non-existent. You want to wait for about 5 seconds to the second charge. Hog, caster ability, caster ability, HoG then you will have a sexy 2 stack. Do not let HoG stacks cap (unless you are in Meta) and do not throw out single HoGs. If you had more fury generation you would have been able to have another DB dump during the fight. 

 

DBs during DS ok but be a little careful of timings. Your 3rd dump had 2 DB casts pre-DS and your 4th dump one. Also you had just finished a DB dump then went straight back into DS with no fury. Perhaps a misclick but this was a severe waste of damage. On your 4th dump you only had 3 DB casts. Did you run out of fury? 

 

You finished the fight on 800+ fury. So you perhaps should have done another DB dump at the end. You had a little bit of time after the debuff had gone though you were only on 3 DB debuffs anyhow. The other option would have been SF spam in meta when you know the boss is going to die soon. (Maybe someone else can confirm the best course of action as can't really remember DB play!). 

 

Not sure if you did or didn't but remember to dump all MC procs pre 25% and then under this no more SBs. 

 

Need a break not but will have another look later at a different. I looked through and saw that you played DB on every single fight. DB has been nerfed by 25% I think it was back in 6.1. While it may have some uses for quick burst for priority targets on certain fights it is definitely letting you down. Have you ever played Demo Cata?

Edited April 24, 2015 by spikeysquad

[Lamborguineapig 0]

Thank you for the analysis! I do pre-pot before the fight but there's I part I don't understand quite well is using it earlier and pre-cast on pre-pull mean exactly? I havent tried Cata yet, pointers on that for specific would be nice.

[spikeysquad 50]

Hopefully your raid group does a pull timer which counts down and when it hits 0 the tanks should hit it. If your raid does this then you can take advantage and pre-potion and pre-cast to get more fury and damage on the opener. So the traditional example would be:

 

On 4 seconds on countdown use intellect potion

On 3 start caster SF cast 

 

However, to complicate things recently there has been a slight change in advice. I do not know if you have noticed but if you go a bit earlier and time things really well so the cast is finished before combat and it actually hits after then you can get double procs of trinkets in your opener and have even more insane burst. Another way to do this is to start your pet casting (I mean when playing DemServ) or the Felguard running in slightly pre-combat as well. Now personally I find the above rather tricky to accomplish as we either have a ninja pull or our tanks though sometimes go on time often seem to be late as well. So even though my timing is great rather than pull before the tanks (again!) I tend to err on the side of caution. So I guess my message is be careful so you don't get in trouble/ruin other peoples' prepots and see how your raid does stuff first. 

 

So now you have used your potion pre-combat you will be able to use another one in 60 seconds. I am not suggesting to do that though as you should keep it for a nuke phase. 

[Msa 1]

Hey guys, 

 

Our guild's got a player who prefer to play destruction warlock on most fights. I was wondering if you are able to help me analyse his single target rotation on Gruul. ST patchwerk simulations show that he should be around 42k, but is pulling somewhat less than that and we inda need every1 around 40k for our mythic progress on Gruul. 

 

Armory: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/kilrogg/Xandrathi/simple

Log: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/PckvhtfYazCJxBFR#fight=1&type=damage-done&source=11

 

Would really like to help my guildie out and hope you are able to identify if there are some fundamental errors in rotation or build that we can fix.

[KKillroyV2 0]

Hey guys was wondering if I could get some advice on my Rotation/Build/allround warlockiness

 

This is a link to my current armoury 

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/tarren-mill/Delecroix/advanced

 

My logs (not sure if it lets you view more than one fight

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/CGRcwpy2DFQbXxdP#fight=7

 

So far I've noticed Some things I've improved on and some things I really need to fix by myself I've only recently started Pre potting at around 4s and Casting Soulfire at 3s (I usually do it a second or so later on bosses like Gruul/Oregorger where our Guild strategies really require no ninja pulling. 

 

One of the main things I don't understand is Am I supposed to save Molten core procs for Meta or not? as I tend to throw them out Often especially when HoG weaving as I tend to have just enough time to Hog - MC soul fire - 2x Shadow bolt - HoG and still keep it stacked

 

Any advice would be appreciated and just in case there is anything that can be advised I have posted a screenshot of my UI

http://i.imgur.com/Jg5tUSV.jpg

 

Would consider extra addons if need be (though I cannot for the life of me get Weak auras to work)

 

Thanks in advance for the help guys 

[DravenCarey 3]

I'll use this as a placeholder so I don't forget to give this a go when I get back to my home PC. Is there any fight in particular you're looking for help on or any particular aspect of play you would like us to look at?

[KKillroyV2 0]

Not sure if your post was about me or not Draven but if it was Right now since I'm still learning Demonology (always been an aff/destro lock) I'd just like some starter tips really as I'm out dpsing people often but It's getting to the point where Im sure there are so many things I could be improving on its getting me a little Flustered 

[DravenCarey 3]

Yea sorry for not being more clear, but yes I was trying to refer to you lol. So you're just looking for some starter tips then? Nothing too in depth? Or should I be as thorough as I can be (within reason)?

[KKillroyV2 0]

Well starter tips would be nice... but feel free to give me whatever you can to work with for now bud any advice at all would be appreciated as I keep getting mixed info on when to do what and think I have too many bad habits as it is

[DravenCarey 3]

Alright no problem, give me a list of things you think you do wrong (or things you think you've already picked up from looking at the logs). It'll kind of help me when I write up an analysis for ya.

[KKillroyV2 0]

Sorry for the late reply ( been trying out weakauras)

 

So far All I know that I do wrong for sure is:

1. My general fury usage with ToC and MC soulfire procs seems to be Sinful

2. my Cooldown management etc isnt great from what I can see of my logs (though as I said thats from an untrained eye)

3. I tend to struggle with Dot uptime on Iron maidens (not sure if thats just be being a noob or a demo thing on that fight)

4. Everything else I do? Can't really point out any of my flaws that I can think of right now aside from general awfulness

[Drkdragon 9]

Really disappointed with my current mastery rating. Thinking of replacing a couple pieces of my gear with crafted stuff but was curious what the best items would be to replace?

 

Current Gear http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/icecrown/Lewstelamon/simple

 

Anything that just doesn't have a good upgrade in current tier that would be better to replace than others?

 

Thanks for any input.

[spikeysquad 50]

Well hard to say what bosses you may have access to DKdragon. If you will you be raiding mythic soon for example as you can get some very nice upgrades from the easier bosses. Just out of curiousity you seem a bit haste light as well; compared to me anyhow. Do you notice that or is it fine? As this may also impact which way you go. 

 

Just having a quick look I'd say that your current worst pieces of gear are your legs and/or ring (assuming that you may want a little haste over crit). You may decide though to actually swap out the tier hands for Ore's Toothbreaker Grips if they drop and get tier legs or the legs from the Maidens. Your neck isn't the best but Gruul is one of the easier ones to farm if you have the coins and you possibly still want his staff as well (thought not entirely sure as your OH has a socket).

 

P.S. To clarify this post is written with Demo in mind only.

Edited May 14, 2015 by spikeysquad

[DravenCarey 3]

Looking at Gruul:

- Your openner looks good. More or less everything is where it should be (you might want to consider throwing out a chaos wave after applying doom and prior to casting soul fire depending on how demonic fury you have and which buffs are active) - but otherwise it looks about right. Your DoT uptimes are pretty good (95% and 98% give or take). But as you've mentioned - how you spend your fury is a big problem! You've got 40 casts of ToC and only 18 casts of Soul Fire (while in meta form). Based on how often your SF outside of Meta I can presume you can potentially have more stacks available (if you let them build up). So, to fix this problem simlpy stop casting Soul Fire outside of Meta unless you're getting 7+ stacks of Molten Core or unless the boss is nearing 25% (if he's at 30% and you've got 5 stacks, start using them because at 25% its perma spam Soul Fire anywyas). (https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/CGRcwpy2DFQbXxdP#fight=11&type=casts&pins=0%24Separate%24%23244F4B%24auras-gained%241%240.0.0.Any%2497328619.0.0.Warlock%24true%2476877.0.0.Boss%24false%2447960&source=37)

 

- Your CD management wasn't terrible. You got 3 of the possible 4 Dark Souls in during the duration of the fight, however, WHEN you cast it was a poor choice. Your second Dark Soul (at 2:07 into the fight) was lined up well with your Grimoire HOWEVER you didn't follow it up with a Meta fury dump. This means the only benefit you really got from that Dark Soul was a strong demon. If you'd have saved up 7-8 Molten Core procs and about 800 Demonic Fury, you could have had a pretty fantastic fury dump right there! Also, you chose to follow it with a second charge of Dark Soul followed big a big ToC fury dump (which as mentioned is far inferior to SF). You then don't get to use any other Dark Souls for the duration of the fight. If you'd had used that second charge earlier in the fight you could have given it time to recharge and thus gotten a 4th cast of Dark Soul (someone correct me if I'm wrong there). That 4th charge (or even saving that 3rd charge) would have been perfect for the 25% burn phase when you're spamming Soul Fire over and over (while in Meta when possible). Additionally, saving that 2nd Grimoire for the final 20% of the fight would give it an extra 20% damage which is always nice. (https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/CGRcwpy2DFQbXxdP#fight=11&type=casts&source=37&pins=0%24Main%24%23DF5353%24auras-gained%240%240.0.0.Any%240.0.0.Any%24true%2497328619.0.0.Warlock%24false%24103958%5E0%24Main%24rgb(78%25,+61%25,+43%25)%24auras-gained%240%240.0.0.Any%240.0.0.Any%24true%2497328619.0.0.Warlock%24false%24113861)

 

- Looking at the Hand of Gul'dan casts you do a pretty good job of clipping your Shadowflame Debuffs (you only missed the stacking debuff twice, and casted HoG with only one charge three other times, with a total of 17 casts). So try to not cast it if you don't have atleast 2 stacks, and if you do have the two stacks make sure you clip them properly. (https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/CGRcwpy2DFQbXxdP#fight=11&type=auras&hostility=1&source=107&pins=0%24Separate%24%23244F4B%24auras-gained%241%240.0.0.Any%2497328619.0.0.Warlock%24true%2476877.0.0.Boss%24false%2447960&spells=debuffs&target=37)

 

Looking at Oregorger:

 

- Your opener here had a lot more troubles that it did on Gruul. You can see that you "prepotted" after the fight began (definitely a big no no, if you miss the prepot then you have to give up on getting that buff, save the potion for later int he fight). I think that threw you off in general because as you went about your rotation you forgot to use Doom until 16 seconds into the fight (almost certainly using at least 1 tick since you had your haste trinket proc and Heroism/Bloodlust up) so make sure you get that doom out quickly. Additionally, you used two Soul Fires outside of Meta prior to applying that doom. You'd have been better off going into Meta, casting doom, then getting two buffed Soul Fires. (https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/CGRcwpy2DFQbXxdP#fight=15&type=casts&source=37&pins=0%24Main%24%23DF5353%24auras-gained%240%240.0.0.Any%240.0.0.Any%24true%2497328619.0.0.Warlock%24false%24103958%5E0%24Main%24rgb(78%25,+61%25,+43%25)%24auras-gained%240%240.0.0.Any%240.0.0.Any%24true%2497328619.0.0.Warlock%24false%24113861&start=6696102&end=6746443&view=events)

 

-Your Doom uptime is pretty good (93%) but your corruption uptime fell off quite a bit - likely during the roll phases (88%). You can remedy this by placing corruption on multiple Ore Crates will continually paying attention to where the boss is during the roll and quickly targeting him and refreshing your DoTs as he rolls past on a nearby lane. 

 

- Once again though, you've been hasty with your Dark Soul and as such you didn't pair it with a Meta fury dump. You seem to be casting DS, then once its duration falls off you're going into Meta as if to try and "chain" these CDs when they're much better "stacked" together. Try to be aware of that and pair them together - followed by a big Soul Fire fury dump! Additionally, try to avoid casting Soul Fire outside of Meta form in almost all situations (unless the boss is less than or almost equal to 25% health) - you had 20 such casts where you used Soul Fire outside of Meta form (while the boss was above 25% health). Instead of blowing these charges of Molten Core, instead just jump into Meta form and dump any available Demonic Fury on them (but ONLY if you have either a trinket buff or Dark Soul active, dont cast them just for the sake of casting them). (https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/CGRcwpy2DFQbXxdP#fight=15&type=casts&source=37&pins=0%24Main%24%23DF5353%24auras-gained%240%240.0.0.Any%240.0.0.Any%24true%2497328619.0.0.Warlock%24false%24103958%5E0%24Main%24rgb(78%25,+61%25,+43%25)%24auras-gained%240%240.0.0.Any%240.0.0.Any%24true%2497328619.0.0.Warlock%24false%24113861%5E0%24Separate%24%23a04D8A%24casts%240%240.0.0.Any%2497328619.0.0.Warlock%24true%240.0.0.Any%24false%246353)

 

- Looking at HoG shadowflame stacking: you tried to stack the debuff 9 times and missed three of those. Additionally, you cast 5 HoG's when you only had 1 stack. I'd suggest being a bit more aware of the debuff timer when you're trying to stack your shadowflame and try not to cast rogue Hand of Gul'dans unless you have atleast two stacks . (https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/CGRcwpy2DFQbXxdP#fight=15&type=auras&spells=debuffs&hostility=1&target=37&source=117&pins=0%24Separate%24%23244F4B%24auras-gained%241%240.0.0.Any%2497328619.0.0.Warlock%24true%2477182.0.0.Boss%24false%2447960)

 

- Something I didn't address with Gruul is how you spend your casts during trinket procs. The link at the end of this section will show you the periods of time where you had either Dark Soul, Instability, or Howling Soul active and which casts (the important ones anyways) you did during these periods. You can see that during the times of your strongest buffs (mostly refering to trinkets) you are rarely casting your hardest hitting abilities (Soul Fire). If you're not currently doing it, you should be tracking the when your trinkets proc (an addon like Weak Auras will make this quite easy). (https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/CGRcwpy2DFQbXxdP#fight=15&type=casts&source=37&pins=0%24Main%24rgb(78%25,+61%25,+43%25)%24auras-gained%240%240.0.0.Any%240.0.0.Any%24true%2497328619.0.0.Warlock%24false%24113861%5E0%24Main%24%2341db53%24auras-gained%240%240.0.0.Any%240.0.0.Any%24true%2497328619.0.0.Warlock%24false%24177046%5E0%24Main%24%2354cede%24auras-gained%240%240.0.0.Any%240.0.0.Any%24true%2497328619.0.0.Warlock%24false%24177051)

 

Looking at Iron Maiden:

 

- As you've already mentioned your DoT uptimes are hurting you horrendously - and no it's not just a warlock thing. Many high end raiders can manage to maintain 97+% uptime on this fight and there's one thing that'll make this vastly easier: Cataclysm. On a fight like this where you can cleave so much Cataclysm will be both a HUGE DPS boost and an incredible assistant in helping you maintain Doom on all three targets. While you can't cleave all three bosses EVERY time its available you can hit atleast two (often times one will be on the boat). Under these circumstances you can then just manually apply Doom to the one that comes off the boat. If done correctly you really only have to manage Corruption (which is quite doable if you simply go through all three of them and Corruption each one in sequence (an addon like Shadowed Unit Frames - after enough setup - will make this quite easy). Additionally, Chaos Wave is your friend! Unless you need focused damage on one guy specifically (meaning you need some Soul Fires into him) you're best off spending your Hand of Gul'dan charges on Chaos Waving the group of bosses (preferably with Dark Soul/Trinket procs up). I personally take Glyph of Dark Soul for thsi fight and make sure I use DS every time I Cataclysm and as many times as possible when I dump three CW's into them.

 

- That's largely the biggest tip I can suggest for you to improve VASTLY on Iron Maidens. As far as how you should probably open on them I personally do the following (and it works VERY well): Prepot and precast Soul Fire on one of the bosses, once combat begins manually apply corruption to all three bosses, immediately go into Meta form and cast Dark Soul (and any other CDs) followed by a Cataclysm under all three bosses, finish it up with as many Chaos Waves you have available (since you've got the 3p t17 bonus and you shouldnt have casted any HoG yet you should have three CW's). Then sit back and lol at how high you bursted. From there on its doing the other things right . I haven't made my video guide to that fight yet but it should be up within the next week or so (links to my other guides in my sig).

 

Hopefully this all helps (Sorry for the delay as well)

[Liquidsteel 279]

Most of what Draven said is good advice, except the information about Cataclysm on Iron Maidens.

 

In my experience, Cataclysm isn't that much further ahead of Demonic Servitude. I've tried both builds including glyphed vs unglyphed Cata and the DPS difference was only marginally in favour of Cataclysm. Telling him he will improve VASTLY due to one talent change is going to give him false expectations. Using DS glyph also hurts your damage in the final 20% so it depends if you are more bothered about max DPS vs fight execution.

[Drkdragon 9]

Well hard to say what bosses you may have access to DKdragon. If you will you be raiding mythic soon for example as you can get some very nice upgrades from the easier bosses. Just out of curiousity you seem a bit haste light as well; compared to me anyhow. Do you notice that or is it fine? As this may also impact which way you go. 

 

Just having a quick look I'd say that your current worst pieces of gear are your legs and/or ring (assuming that you may want a little haste over crit). You may decide though to actually swap out the tier hands for Ore's Toothbreaker Grips if they drop and get tier legs or the legs from the Maidens. Your neck isn't the best but Gruul is one of the easier ones to farm if you have the coins and you possibly still want his staff as well (thought not entirely sure as your OH has a socket).

 

P.S. To clarify this post is written with Demo in mind only.

Mainly focused on Demo but really would like to move to destruction when it will work. It might be the better option in 6.2 Guild is currently downing 7/10H on BRF right now. We only have about 11 constant raiders with a flex of about 4 part timers so Mythic is not really an option. 

 

I can get 2 shadow bolts between HoG so I think my haste is ok. A little more would be a nice but Mastery is my big concern right now.

[DravenCarey 3]

Most of what Draven said is good advice, except the information about Cataclysm on Iron Maidens.

 

In my experience, Cataclysm isn't that much further ahead of Demonic Servitude. I've tried both builds including glyphed vs unglyphed Cata and the DPS difference was only marginally in favour of Cataclysm. Telling him he will improve VASTLY due to one talent change is going to give him false expectations. Using DS glyph also hurts your damage in the final 20% so it depends if you are more bothered about max DPS vs fight execution.

 

I'm gonna have to disagree with you here man, there's a good reason every warlock in the top 30 on heroic uses cataclysm (if I had more time I'd check to see if anyone in the top 100 bothers to use Serv/Serv). It's simply better, by far. I'd have to see your logs to suggest reasons why they're parsing similarly but just like Cata was a DPS boost on Twin Ogren and every other cleave fight there's a darn good reason its top dog here too. If you find that Serv/Serv is being strongly competative I'd argue that you may be missing opportunities to use Cata, not cleaving all three when possible, or there may be some other factor at play. KKilroyV2 I'd simply suggest that you try it out and see how it works for you. As far as taking Glyph of Dark Soul Liquid is absolutely correct in that you're sub 20% (well for us 25%) damage is going to suffer HOWEVER assuming you're killing it on a fairly regular basis (aka it's farm content) I'm going to figure that the sub 20% isn't as much of an issue as it was on progression, and as such, you should have the freedom to boost your DPS throughout the fight (providing higher overall DPS) and taking the glyph. Mess around with it and see how it plays out for you personally :)

[Liquidsteel 279]

I hold rank 11 on Mythic from a few weeks ago as Demo at 65k (was top 10). Week before I think I did 64k. Similar period I did 62k with Serv/Serv (still good enough for top 50 a month later) and could likely push that higher as the 65k parse was about 2 ilvl higher than the 62k.

 

I know how to play the fight, and agree that Cataclysm with DS Glyph can put out high numbers with good RNG, but my point was that trying to say that Cataclysm is a VASTLY superior and a HUGE DPS boost is simply a gross over-exaggeration. Looking at the top 10 Heroic ranks is hilarious because it's filled with a bunch of Mythic guilds going for ranks. The timings on these kills means they likely have a single boat phase which is over incredibly quickly anyway, leading to a higher uptime on 3 targets. Finally, Ranks in general can often be a bit misleading as to the average performance of a spec. Something like Fire is a prime example where your DPS between pulls can swing massively based on when stuff procs and how many crits you get. Demo Cata is the same whereas Serv/Serv is more consistent. This is why Cata Demo parses higher and looks better amongst tens of thousands of parses. The reality is the two specs are close assuming normal circumstances on this fight (two to three boat phases, medium to long kill time).

 

Yes, Cataclysm is better; I never said it wasn't. However it is not light years ahead like you are trying to imply.

[DravenCarey 3]

Not trying to step on toes here lol, just giving my suggestions as they've worked for me. I refer to Heroic because that is what this individual is playing at. Comparing to Mythic is less fair given that mechanics have changed (particularly so depending on if you're the one soaking the tornadoes etc) and placing Cataclysm effectively can be a bit of a task (depending on group strategy). But it becomes word play at that point lol. I guess I should have been a bit more careful with my words on that one.

[Alkeir 1]

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/wZG9mgcNWj4RQ2pf#view=rankings

 

I'd appreciate if anyone could help me figure out what is going wrong with my destruction parses. IDK what I'm doing so wrong with this spec to do such obscenely low damage. I mained Destro in 5.4 but CR is a little different, idk if I'm not adjusting properly or what...

[DravenCarey 3]

Alkeir, before we take a swing at it is there anything in particular you want us to look for/at? Any given fight (AoE vs ST)? Have you taken a look and noticed anything already (aka are you aware of any mistakes you're currently making/working on)?

 

Edit: so to make sure I understand it correctly (I'll properly try to analyze in the morning) but you're running Destro on AoE heavy fights (Kromog, Thogar, Beastlord, and Blast Furnace) correct? Is it mostly that you're looking for help in optimizing your AoE damage?

Edited May 15, 2015 by DravenCarey

[DravenCarey 3]

Beastlord:

 

- You only used Havoc 10 times out of a potential 25 times (if you used it on CD). That alone is a lot of missed shadowburns and chaos bolts! 

 

- Of the 30 Heavy Spears you only Immolated 14 of them, Shadowburned 11 of them, and Chaos Bolted 6 of them. You should be looking to immolate and Shadowburn each of them and only chaos bolt the ones that have people pinned down. They provide a fantastic source of free embers (and havoc shadowburn cleave)!

 

Now here are the biggest changes that you should make to up your overall DPS here: how you're dealing with the Pack Beast.

 

- Presently you're barely getting any damage in on these guys and most of the time it's just a shadowburn and a Fire and Brimstone (F&B) conflag. The way you can boost this damage (immensely) is to go into each dog phase with 4 ember (this is very easy with all the spears and if you're using CR). Cast F&B before they come out, as soon as you see them (provided your tanks are nearby to pick them up) start casting Chaos Bolt. Follow it up with a conflag and immediately cast the 3x Backdraft buffed Chaos Bolt. If done quickly you'll get two rounds of chaos bolts out (at least) every time. If your group is slow enough you can even try to conflag again and get a 3rd round out. But once you notice them getting low enough cast Havoc on the boss and proceed to shadowburn as many of them as you can! This alone will immensely boost your DPS.

 

Kromog:

 

- This will show your damage output on the Grasping Earth hands (https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/wZG9mgcNWj4RQ2pf#fight=11&type=damage-done&source=22&target=115) and I can immediately tell that this is why your DPS is so low. The same thing applies to what I told you on Darmac. As soon as there are a decent number of hands up in the middle of the room have F&B active, cast Dark Soul, put Immolate on the middle pack (for free 4p procs) and use a combination of conflagrate and chaos bolt back to back to get some crazy high damage out. When the adds are so low on HP that you don't think you'll get to finish another chaos bolt cast you can havoc either the boss (or a hand that still has abnormally high health) and start shadowburning!

 

Thogar: 

 

- Thogar is a similar situation. You managed to pop off a total of seven casts of F&B Chaos Bolt on this fight which isn't bad (https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/wZG9mgcNWj4RQ2pf#fight=22&type=casts&source=22&pins=0%24Main%24%23ff7a05%24auras-gained%240%240.0.0.Any%240.0.0.Any%24true%24165157749.0.0.Warlock%24false%24108683) You can likely get a few more off depending on how fast your group kills if you chain chaos bolts with conflags and then more chaos bolts. If they don't die remarkably quickly you can also throw immolate on them. Being quicker about casting your Chaos Bolt cleave is going to be crucial to dealing huge aoe damage with Destro.

 

- Additionally, you had two charges of Dark Soul available for the last huge set of adds (@ about the 4:20 mark) and you forgot to use it there - instead you used it to burn the boss. If boss damage isn't a problem for your group try to line up DS with periods of large add AoE cleave!

 

Blast Furnace:

 

- Blast Furnace is a bit of a trickier fight. You did pretty well on damaging the Primal Elementalist but much like the last fight you're underutilizing havoc. Cast Havoc on the Primal and use it to cleave shadowburns off nearby adds. Also use Havoc to help deal with pesky adds that keep sticking around. When there are multiple mobs stacked up that you need to get down F&B+CB is the way to go. Immolate them with F&B, then continually drop CB into them while building embers with Incinerate and Conflag. Other than that get as many havoc shadowburns as possible.

 

Sorry for the lack of in-depth analysis lol, with four fights to go on I decided I'd just touch on the biggest things that need fixing to get an overall boost in ur damage. In a nutshell, F&B Chaos Bolt more frequently (you can boost the cast speed by casting conflag before CB), do your F&B CB's with DS up if you can. Havoc more frequently. Shadowburn more frequently.