The Help My DPS Thread

[Twinkielock 15]

Hello all,

Looking for tips on the two single target fights.   I know I had issues with the AOE fights (didn't have time to respec)

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/x8KWJZtCwhPG13yD#fight=22
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/x8KWJZtCwhPG13yD#fight=31

Ranking about 50th percentile.  Trying to up that. 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks

 

[Lockybalboa 618]

Nyth (from start to death):

Casts are in general low. 17 HoG, Imps did 755 casts, 10 Dreadstalkers, 4 TKC. For comparison last night in the same fight length I had 21 HoG, my imps cast 996 times, 12 Dreadstalkers, and 5 TKC.

You had 85% uptime on Doom, that is very bad. #1 it means you're not getting enough HoG out and #2 it is a huge DPS loss from lack of DoT being up. If you're running around or something and can't get a HoG to refresh it, hard cast Doom.

You're not capping on SS so my guess would be that you are leaving down time between each cast or that you are moving an excessive amount.

 

Ursoc (start to 3:20 because 3:20 is what my fight time was):

Same story basically, imps did 457 casts, 10 casts of Dreadstalkers, 4 TKC, 14 HoG, 88% Doom. I had 999 Imps, 11 Dreadstalker, 21 HoG, 96% Doom.

 

Also, why are you taking Shadowy Inspiration? Demonic Calling is a good bit better.

[Twinkielock 15]

5 minutes ago, Lockybalboa said:

 

Also, why are you taking Shadowy Inspiration? Demonic Calling is a good bit better.

 

I thought Inspiration was better due to the insta Shadow/Demon bolt which gives you the free shard.   Did this change when we received our buff or starting with 3 shards?

 

[Lockybalboa 618]

Scales with haste, 20% per DB cast to get basically 2 free shards is amazing once you get enough haste. I don't remember the math off the top of my head but I think it is around 20-25% haste Demonic Calling pulls way ahead unless you are in a very high movement fight. And tbh if you're in a high movement fight you likely shouldn't be playing Demo anyways unless you don't have another option.

[Twinkielock 15]

Last time I looked with the 300 food I'm sitting at about 36-37% haste. 

If it procs does it reset the CD on Dreadstalkers?

 

 

Edited October 19, 2016 by Twinkielock

[Lockybalboa 618]

No, it makes it so that Dreadstalker doesn't cost shards.

[Thomeg 0]

Hi guys, I want to improve my DPS, but I dont really get the clue why I dont deal the damage that some other warlocks seem to easily dish out.

Here is a "good" Nythendra HC fight log:

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/38ZvadrG64cJTmVQ#fight=1&type=damage-done&source=24

And a another fight against Cenarius:

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/38ZvadrG64cJTmVQ#type=summary&fight=17&source=24

 

My Equip atm: http://eu.battle.net/wow/de/character/alleria/Thomeg/simple

 

I hope you can give me some advice on how I can improve my play

Thomeg

 

[Lockybalboa 618]

Right off, I don't speak German (right, these are in German? I've audited a lot of German logs but its been about a year since I did one) so I might be off on a couple of things.

On your armory two things stand out - one being your haste is low (if Tempo means haste) and that means your gear isn't very well itemized. 10% haste makes a big difference. The other is that you're spec'd into Shadowy Inspiration and thats really just a crappy talent in 99% of cases. Go with Demonic Calling.

Outside of that...tbh your log is very good. Demonic Empowerment was 100%, Doom was 99%, good Hand of Guldan casts, good Dreadstalkers, very solid log. In fact, if you look at the rankings for your ilvl it is actually a 93% parse and that is very good esp considering your poor itemization. Even looking at over all it is still a 70% parse, quite solid for DPSing and doing mechanics.

 

That Cen log is another story though:

Doom uptime is low

Hand of Gul'dan casts are low

Dreadstalkers are close but a couple short

TKC you missed 2 casts

Also, I wouldn't really recommend Demo on Cen unless you can sit on the boss the whole time. Add swapping as demo is cancer, destro is much better at that.

Still, all of that said it was another 93% for ilvl and 70% over all. Very strong parse and a very strong log.

 

[Demoss 1]

Hello,

Long time reader/viewer first time posting.  I am concerned about my dps and I just wanted to make sure it wasn't my gear or talent choices for fights.  I felt like I was doing okay until I saw my Ilvl% on logs and I now feel like I must be doing something terribly wrong.  I try to maintain the rotation stated here on Icy-veins.  Here is a post of my log:

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/nDaYVJzdALTb98wN#fight=1&type=damage-done&source=4

and my armory:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/illidan/Fearohshima/simple

My stats seem right, I dont see a huge issue with my talents.  Any advice?

Thank you for your time.

[Thomeg 0]

Thank you for the quick response Locky, I will try out Shadowy Insp. and see whether this helps and try to get some more haste on my items.(I heard from some friends something like a soft cap of 30% so I have not  taken more haste) What would you say is the best haste value? 35% 40% 50% 

 

[spikeysquad 50]

Hi Demoss,

Part of the issue at the moment is the OP legendaries. It is hard to compete with people who have the the best ones however there are some issues as well with your gameplay which is a good thing as that is something you have control over.

Just out of interest do you ever sim yourself? You're very crit heavy compared to most at your item level and I think could do with a bit more haste to help shard generation amongst other things.

Firstly, Immolate uptime. Overall: 85%, on Xavius: 80%, on Corruption Horror: about 92%. This is so important for shard gen to get more CBs to get higher Eradication uptime and more CBs back.

Roaring Blaze: This is only better DPS if you use it optimally and very punishing if you do not. I think you would get more from BD at the moment and/or you just need to practice RB a LOT. Have a read of the guide over on MMO-Champion if you haven't yet.  

Conflag: Perhaps missed a couple of casts (this is harder to determine as recharge time is decided by haste). At one point no Conflag for 24 seconds so this is probably too long as my recharge is under 18 seconds for 2. With RB don't cast it on the little adds unless they really need to die and/or you have Havoc and Immolate on Xavius or you waste a possible buffed Immolate.

Pets: 2 missed Summon Doomguard.

Cleaving: Only 8 CBs with Havoc that actually hit both targets (this is really really low). With the little adds I personally Havoc Xavius and then hit the ones with the most HP only. You possibly casted a lot more that didn't hit anything at all. You let Havoc drop off when the big add was up. 

Rifts: Possibly some missed casts. Can't really tell with the Ripper trait. Empty before leaving the dream and before the end of the fight.

CBs: Unless you are on 4 SS don't spam them together on the boss as you miss possible Eradication uptime. 

Lots of gaps in casting. Go the Casts tab and just above the graph click on each spell name. Some times it will not be possible, especially when you get unlucky with debuffs/mechanics, but those gaps you want to minimise. Think about good positioning before each fight. 

Good luck and hope this helps

Disclaimer: Always may be errors

P.S Thinking back some things that I missed. Firstly, supposedly dotting enough but not too many tentacles so you have a steady stream of CBs into Xavius is a DPS increase. Now, on all but one attempt of mine I have seen a slight increase in boss DPS and a lot more CBs casted at this stage but a lot of it is padding as well and RLs tend to not like that!

Secondly, on the rankings thing you will be competing with people who have free rein to do whatever here in terms of DPS. Lastly, if you get enough corruption in the dream then you also get a large DPS boost. I really struggle to get this now though unless I go and deliberately stand in the bad and our hunters cover the pools in the second stage.  

Edited November 3, 2016 by spikeysquad

[Demoss 1]

Spikeysquad,

Very fair points, it looks like I still have a lot of things to work on and hopefully my next legendary will be good.

Thank you for your time Spikey!

[Tsukigato 0]

Hey there guys.  Thanks in advance for all the help you guys do for us trying to optimize our DPS.  I recently leveled my warlock up and hit 110 last week, so my AK is only 2, however I have swapped from my hunter to lock to even out our mythic comp.  I'm still a bit new to destro, and haven't played a lock since Wrath, so I was hoping I could get some pointers to improve my DPS, as well as a couple questions answered for me.

My armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/character/spinebreaker/Tidalious/

Log one: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/2Gamp8tNHJVBRkWq/#type=damage-done&boss=-2&source=4

Log Two: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/rg94RyPpFkHDJfb8/#type=casts&boss=-2&source=18

 

The first log is our mythic clearing, and as a note I had just decided to switch from Roaring Blaze to BD minutes before we started. I didn't have WeakAuras set up yet.  I tried to optimize my talents per fight with tomes, however I feel like my ST damage should be a bit higher, but I was starting to get better hang of it/using havoc on our dragons attempts and first kill in the second log.  I do have the bracers (and I also have the cloak as I can't wear both for another 37 days, and felt the bracers were the stronger option, plus I haven't had any bracers and had an okay cloak).

 

A couple questions as well outside of these logs:  I also feel like I can't get anything going in lower mythic+ dungeons as things just die too fast and get AoE'd down/chain pulled and rain of fire just.. feels lacking.  Should I try some sort of demo implosion spec or something for lower mythic+?  I feel like the higher ones should be just fine with the amount of cleave havoc brings.  Also, at this point in time with raiding, is demo or aff a better offspec for learning for those fights that destro might be weak at? I like what I've seen of both specs, but have been leaning towards demo (because my gear is currently a little more suited to it than aff) and just was hoping for input.

 

Thanks again for the help!

Edited November 4, 2016 by Tsukigato

[Lockybalboa 618]

16 minutes ago, Tsukigato said:

A couple questions as well outside of these logs:  I also feel like I can't get anything going in lower mythic+ dungeons as things just die too fast and get AoE'd down/chain pulled and rain of fire just.. feels lacking.  Should I try some sort of demo implosion spec or something for lower mythic+?  I feel like the higher ones should be just fine with the amount of cleave havoc brings.  Also, at this point in time with raiding, is demo or aff a better offspec for learning for those fights that destro might be weak at? I like what I've seen of both specs, but have been leaning towards demo (because my gear is currently a little more suited to it than aff) and just was hoping for input.

 

Thanks again for the help!

Im at blizzcon and only have my phone with me so I can't look at logs for a week. Your questions however I can answer.

 

For low mythic+ (2-6 being what I consider low) I rarely use RoF since things don't live long enough/tank moves them/other. Havoc spam and CV blasting works best.

ImpExplo Demo works, but it has ramp up time to start with and requires a new group of mobs to be pulled within about 6-10 seconds of the last group dying or you redo the ramp up. This can work, but it depends on your group/run/affixes.

Demo is hands down the better off spec for... everything. Aff is trash tier single target damage and is highly skill/group/luck requirement for high mythic+ while being basically useless in low mythic+.

[Tsukigato 0]

1 hour ago, Lockybalboa said:

Im at blizzcon and only have my phone with me so I can't look at logs for a week. Your questions however I can answer.

 

For low mythic+ (2-6 being what I consider low) I rarely use RoF since things don't live long enough/tank moves them/other. Havoc spam and CV blasting works best.

ImpExplo Demo works, but it has ramp up time to start with and requires a new group of mobs to be pulled within about 6-10 seconds of the last group dying or you redo the ramp up. This can work, but it depends on your group/run/affixes.

Demo is hands down the better off spec for... everything. Aff is trash tier single target damage and is highly skill/group/luck requirement for high mythic+ while being basically useless in low mythic+.

Thanks for the answers!  Yeah, for example the +6 Maw we did earlier was just a frustrating experience.  Since it was with guild members, they pretty much were constantly moving and pulling numbers pack together, and having 5-8+ mobs on them, and due to the others being melee (enhance and feral) they just kept plowing through so I was frequently below the tank on all but the bosses.  if we were carrying one dps I'd probably have gotten to do more, but they instead of course used my spot for the carries for their AP farming (though I am badly needing more than 16 in my scepter).

Edited November 4, 2016 by Tsukigato

[spikeysquad 50]

Immolate all and then Havoc is a Destro lock's best friend. Eradication/F&B is more of a personal choice and can depend on group set up. Most Melee/Fire Mages etc will probably beat you on AoE but once you get 2 and even up to 4 targets we can rock. Certain dungeons/Affixes work for us or against us as well.

As to logs:

ST: I only use GoServ (some people even do the GoSup now but he is not so good at moving and atm that guy is huge to everyone else) on ST (I class Nyth as ST but I will touch on this more later). A full time pet especially helps if you have to move. Your Dem Power damage was weak compared to an Imp and 2 Grimoire casts.

Immolate; 89% uptime. Some casts too close together.

Eradication: 47%

Wasted SS: 3

Conflag: A lot of missed casts. This can just be a lack of practice or your poor UI.

RoF: Complete waste of time in my opinion on Nyth unless you have been directly told to help break people out. I blink and they're usually already back usually with our melee. So many lost SS-CBs-Erad uptime-Soulsnatcher chances. Oh going back to the mythic + thing, just in case you are not aware,  RoF I believe is only better damage if 5+ targets will stay in it for the full duration.

CBs: Severe lack but that is explained by the RoF. Sometimes casted too close together when you do not seem to be on 4 or 5 SS.

Rifts: Missing 1-2 casts I believe. At one point nothing for over 3 minutes. Pretty sure you would have had to move during that stage. 

Opener: A little weak but you were setting up movement stuff here as well.

Last pot a little late. Didn't combine with Doomguard

Only 1 use of Gateway and Circle.

A lot of casting gaps (though sure it's better to take less damage on this fight it is something to be aware of on all fights).

Be prepared though to do poor on ST fights compared to most other specs. Like Locky says this is where Demo shines more.

Dragons: Whatever I have said already will count again (espec Rifts, Conflags, early or late Immolate refreshes). Nearly everyone always makes the same mistakes on each fight.

Again with RoF, did 5 targets stay in it for the full 8 seconds? I haven't got to Dragons on mythic so I may be way off base. RoF only did 0.77% of your damage and like I said above you miss out on a lot by using it though being instant it can be handy occasionally if you have to move.

Havoc: Too many casts for the time so think carefully where is the best target for it. A couple of times you casted it and within 6 seconds put it somewhere else or just refreshed too early (though maybe the dragon was flying away).

2 casts of Infernal.

Otherwise nothing much to add beyond the previous points. 

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Disclaimer: Always may be errors.

[Tsukigato 0]

Yeah, definitely some good points here and thank you.  The RoF on Nythendra were just due to poor sleep phases/rots making a majority of our heavy AoE being MC'd, I know at least the last cast had something like 10 people in it for over half the duration.  Otherwise I normally wouldn't bother.  

The reason I went with Grim Sac was simply because what little other experience I'd had so far, my imp has a habit of not staying alive (however wasn't raid situations, just the dungeons previous, since this was my first raid on my lock).  

My UI was definitely a limiting factor (I didn't have my weakauras set and if I wasn't targetting my Havoc target I had no way to know the duration left if it was over 40yd away so I couldn't see its nameplate, namely throwing it on the current dragon as it's swapped sides).  There were a few times I'd put it up, then higher priority adds would spawn, and I would throw it on an add and burn both of them and just getting a feel for trying to keep havoc up on something as much as possible within reason.

I do need to pool SS more (in regards to back to back CB with not being at 4-5), and feel like I have no generation even with 2-3 immo up sometimes, but I figure that'll get better with at least 1 immo crit relic, and leveling my weapon to actually have soulsnatcher.

Thanks again for the analysis, I think between it and having my WeakAuras set up I should do a lot better next week!

[Thistlebloom 0]

I'm brand new to warlock as I've played a boomkin since launch. I have been using this site and other resources to tweak my build/rotation and was improving but just can't get up to the level i need to be. I would love any help i can get. I have attached my last raid log below... the only thing is I forgot my flask for the first 2 fights, but otherwise it should be pretty representative of my playstyle and whatnot. 

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/gtRTHFGCzm2xMd13/#boss=-2&source=12

 

Edited November 4, 2016 by Thistlebloom

[spikeysquad 50]

Thanks for the reply Tsukigato.

I have never had my Imp or Felguard die in a raid fight yet (though I have only seen 3 mythic fights but tried most heroic fights with a pet). In dungeons it happened I think a couple of times at the start but it has been ages since I can remember it happening (though saying that I pretty much only run Destro with GoSac now so I wouldn't actually know if they were still squishy). It may be worth tracking its HP then as the funnel is really strong now days though perhaps re-summoning back to full is just quicker. 

Aye, I think that an effective UI will help you a lot and as well just learning the fights as a lock. Good luck! 

[allpb 0]

Hello my friend is an demonology warlock,

I simulated some DPS for him and its always higher than his actual DPS,

 

thats him : http://www.wowprogress.com/character/eu/aegwynn/nylén

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/7a4KCTtN2QRcGHZy#fight=19&type=damage-done&source=11

 

anyone have some advice?

[spikeysquad 50]

It's very hard to beat Demo sims. Especially if you are simming something like Patchwerk and trying to compare that to say Nythendra.

Your friend is actually playing extremely well compared to other locks though they have a crazy amount of haste (a very good thing) for their item level. They don't have either of the top legendaries that will also give them a significant boost.

I am not going to look into the logs too deeply as the things I am able to spot in Demo logs are probably not issues here. 

One thing I would say though is for your friend to reconsider use of Shadowflame. The MMO-Champion now says it is the worst talent on the row (unless say you have to move a lot) but your friend is far from stacking it properly anyhow and I believe would get a lot more out of DC (or even SI). On igher movement it could be useful but you have to stack a LOT better if you want proper damage from it.

On Spider/Bird boss (this was definitely the messier of the 2, as Ursoc was played extremely well, but still an excellent result):

Doom uptime is a little spotty so needs watching. 

Couple of missed Dreads. Couple of Missed TKCs

Again Shadowflame is not your friend unless you stack to 3 each time.

Learn to Demonwrath

Do you really have add issues? Implosion seems a strange choice to me

Lower HoG casts compared to many other logs and a lot lower damage (though this is partly due to Implosion on this fight anyhow) so it's something to work on. 

Good luck

Disclaimer: Always may be errors.

Edited November 8, 2016 by spikeysquad

[Grixxis 0]

I feel like my dps is lower than it should be but can't really figure out what it is I'm doing wrong.  As far as I can guess, it's either something I'm doing wrong in my rotation or I'm just positioning myself poorly and moving more than other warlocks.

Things I need to work on from my own analysis:  I forgot flask on Nyth, played pretty sloppy on Ursoc, resulting in a bit more movement than I probably needed and dying near the end of the fight, need better awareness juggling havoc on dragons.

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/Q9JbLv6B3tKZMGXh#fight=1&type=damage-done&source=10

[Lockybalboa 618]

Your DPS isn't lower than it should be. Your DPS is solid. Anything in the 80+ range on heroic at your gear level is good, more than that takes cheesing and luck.

[Grixxis 0]

It's in the 80+ range overall but for my ilvl i'm parsing in the 40s-60s should that just be attributed to lower sample size?

[Lockybalboa 618]

Basically yes, DPS for ilvl is more useful information at low ilvls than it is at high ilvl. Once you get to higher ilvl you are generally in the class of players that are farming content, the higher up you go the more cheesed the rankings are to eek out each little bit of DPS or to flat out inflate the numbers to a level that is simply wrong.

For example on Mythic Dragons the number 1 Aff parse is almost 8min long kill doing 660k DPS. Is this warlock god's gift to WoW? Does he know something about Aff the rest of us don't? ...no. Hes just a cheesing kid in a cheesing guild. #1 DPS target is Dead Horror and he did 144 mil damage to them. In contrast, last night my whole GUILD did 122mil damage to Dread horrors. What the aff lock's guild did was ignore flowers, let the adds spawn and stack, and then let him/some other DPS AoE them all down for mad crazy huge numbers.

Granted, this doesn't happen for every top parse or on every boss. But it does happen enough that it can throw off the stats. That combined with the fact that there just isn't many parses above 875ish ilvl and things get...complex.