The Help My DPS Thread

[spikeysquad 50]

Yeah that sounds fine Fox but I am not sure that I will still be here as I am probably in the process of quitting WoW. If I am gone then some fresh eyes should be able to help you further. As to whether I stay on these kind of forums I am really not sure yet. I will probably return for Legion so may be staying around to keep informed and help where I can at least until I find a good game to get my teeth stuck into. 

[Drdyne 0]

Hi, I'm not sure but I seem to fail at playing destruction. Is it a trinket problem? When I'm affliction I manage to do OK damage. Maybe someone can give me some tips. I would appreciate it. Here some logs. https://www.askmrrobot.com/wow/combatlog/7aa22173-20e0-4a75-b71d-85352b4f4f21/overviewand https://www.warcraftlogs.com/rankings/character/9318541/latest/

[GorakhEU 0]

Hi, I have returned to the game for about 2 months now and decided to reroll warlock (from being fury warrior since vanilla) it's a class I've always felt wanting to play warlock and with a free lvl 90 boost token I just needed to lvl it 10 lvls.

Now..I joined up with an old guild I was raiding with as friend rank at first but decided to take a trial rank to work my way up to raider if they prefered it cause lack of players and especially warlocks. I raided a few weeks now and got the gear I need to be able to do up to pair with my fellow guildmembers though I just see I'm waay behind on dps compared to them.. maybe it's just me but I never had such a problem on my warrior.. so it must be my rotation and focus on targets, etc.

I can't really say I have a certain rotation except for prepotting, pre-casting incinerate and then immolate, during the fight trying to make most advantage of 1 of 2 DS charges so I still have the other charge ready to line up with trinkets, BL/heroism and pot. I have both Goren Soul and the class trinket so I can rotate between the 2 as I see fit.

My armory link: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/talnivarr/Gorakh/simple

Warcraftlogs: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/YM1Q3LyvJh8dNtR6

(It's from last thursday, but from whole raid instead of a specific fight. Because all of my fights I just end up just above or below the tanks...

I am kicking myself to the head because I've spent hours at practice dummies and it just doesn't pay off.. I feel melee dps (except some rogue specc) is soo much more user friendly.

Would be frateful for any help/tips, etc.!

Best regards Gorakh

[Lockybalboa 618]

Right off the bat, ring. Warlocks scale (arguable) the best with the legendary ring and without it you are going to be MASSIVELY handicapped compared to the raiders that do have it. That said, lets look at the logs and see what we can fix.

 

 

Take A Look At This Top two bars are your casts of CB and SB, bottom bar is the number of Burning Embers you had. You sat at 4 embers for no reason a LOT of times. Every second you're capped on embers is MASSIVE wasted DPS. You want to generally sit at about 2.5-3 embers at any time, that way you have enough to dump on procs but you're not in danger of capping either. This changes a little bit with the situation but that is the general rule. Over arching rule though - DONT CAP.

 

Look At This Colored sections are buffs such as Dark Star or Dark Soul, vert lines are CB/SB casts, long bar line is Embers. You HAD embers to spend but didn't spend them during procs! Good procs! 3+ embers and you just sat on them during procs.

 

When you get procs, DUMP CB! Good procs, not sissy procs like weapon buff or racial buff. Trinkets and DS and lust, dump!

 

Flamelicked was only 83% uptime, need to be better about that. Any time it drops it is another 5 casts to get it back up and that is a lot of wasted time/damage when you're letting it drop multiple times on a stand still and DPS fight.

 

Immolate had good uptime.

 

You forgot to second pot.

 

Fel Lord was the only fight I looked at, but by looking at your damage on other fights and you're gear level I would bet dollars to donuts that the problems listed on Fel Lord are basically the same problems that you're going to find on the other fights. Fix these and you're damage should be on par with what you should be doing.

[GorakhEU 0]

Right off the bat, ring. Warlocks scale (arguable) the best with the legendary ring and without it you are going to be MASSIVELY handicapped compared to the raiders that do have it. That said, lets look at the logs and see what we can fix.

 

 

Take A Look At This Top two bars are your casts of CB and SB, bottom bar is the number of Burning Embers you had. You sat at 4 embers for no reason a LOT of times. Every second you're capped on embers is MASSIVE wasted DPS. You want to generally sit at about 2.5-3 embers at any time, that way you have enough to dump on procs but you're not in danger of capping either. This changes a little bit with the situation but that is the general rule. Over arching rule though - DONT CAP.

 

Look At This Colored sections are buffs such as Dark Star or Dark Soul, vert lines are CB/SB casts, long bar line is Embers. You HAD embers to spend but didn't spend them during procs! Good procs! 3+ embers and you just sat on them during procs.

 

When you get procs, DUMP CB! Good procs, not sissy procs like weapon buff or racial buff. Trinkets and DS and lust, dump!

 

Flamelicked was only 83% uptime, need to be better about that. Any time it drops it is another 5 casts to get it back up and that is a lot of wasted time/damage when you're letting it drop multiple times on a stand still and DPS fight.

 

Immolate had good uptime.

 

You forgot to second pot.

 

Fel Lord was the only fight I looked at, but by looking at your damage on other fights and you're gear level I would bet dollars to donuts that the problems listed on Fel Lord are basically the same problems that you're going to find on the other fights. Fix these and you're damage should be on par with what you should be doing.

Alright, tonight we're gonna clear up on HFC HC I think and/or go Mythic so I'm gonna test things out! Cheers for the feedback! Also what about the ring buff? That's a minor buff same as racial and weapon? (Since ring is ilvl 690)

[GorakhEU 0]

Ohh I am wondering, do you or does anyone know what dps would be acceptable for my gear lvl on average?

And.. is weak auras an add-on I should be looking into to make a warlock's life a little easier?

[spikeysquad 50]

Well so many aspects effect DPS especially fight length, trinkets, ring, weapon and so on. However, 50th percentile for Destro on Zakuun is about 43k for your item level bracket. If you check out the rankings for each fight you can see your performance for your item level. Best person to compare yourself with though is yourself.

 

Oh and if you played Affliction you would probably do a lot better on a fight like that.

Edited October 4, 2015 by spikeysquad

[Liarparadox 5]

Yeah, comparing yourself to others is inevitable, and can be quite profitable; but the more you change about the raiding environment, the more difficult it is to interpret the data in a useful way; not that it's impossible or crazy harder, but harder. For example, even raid comp goes a long way to impacting dps. So comparing yourself week to week, all gear being the same, if your comp is different you may find your dps greatly differs, even with similar uptimes and use of procs; fight length, add survival time, execute time, and so on will all be impacted by raid comp, that will have a big impact on locks picking off adds or having to target swap and so on.

 

Weak auras may be the single best add on in the entire game. No joke. I can't, off the top of my head, think of anything that would be better for dps. it's an extremely powerful add on that is a complete game changer. Use it ASAP. 

[Drkdragon 9]

Played Demo last night on Hellfire Assault, Kormrok, and Kilrogg. Hoping anyone can supply some input on things I could do better since I have not played Demo for awhile and not sure how to optimize the new tier set.

 

Warcraft Logs

 

Thank you.

[Nagratz 0]

Ok, I'm clearly not managing chaos bolts well.  I'm having a problem on Mannoroth and Xhul.

 

Here's a parse: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/AYLkNfhmy62aM3t1

 

How do you other destro locks manage to fire off so many chaos bolts (When I pug with other locks, I'm firing almost half as they are).  I'm trying to use havoc on cd.  Should I be trying for more F&B CBs?

[Curinir 4]

Hello Nagratz! I noticed a couple things and I hope this helps.

 

Try getting more Shadowburn snipes off, because that will automatically regenerate two embers.

 

Also, your Immolate uptime could be considerably higher. Make sure you are refreshing that in Pandemic range, as critical Immo ticks generate embers.

 

I noticed were that you have less conflagrate casts than you could have. Capping these is not a good idea, as they give you the backdraft buff. This buff decreases the cast time of either Incinerate or Chaos Bolt. Chaos Bolt takes three charges of the buff while Incinerate only takes one. So make sure while you have the buff you use it on your Incinerates to generate embers more quickly.

[Curinir 4]

For Drkdragon,

 

Do you currently have the class trinket? If so I would highly recommend using that as the imps it spawns will generate more fury and help you keep your Demon Rush buff up longer.

 

Your Corruption and Doom uptimes should be close to 90% (once again, more Fury)

 

Also, save your Doomguard/Second pot for when you come up from the Visions on Kilrogg. 

 

If you play Demonbolt, I'd suggest taking Glyph of Dark Soul and popping it every time you have a DB dump.

 

As far as Kormrok goes, your Cataclysm damage is everything. Make sure you precast it on the hands so the damn Warriors don't Brostorm them to death.

[Drkdragon 9]

As far as Kormrok goes, your Cataclysm damage is everything. Make sure you precast it on the hands so the damn Warriors don't Brostorm them to death.

 

I love this line lol. I did not have my class trinket then but I just got it so hopefully that will help some this week. I think most of it is I am just very rusty on the spec and hopefully it will come back to me. Just wanted to make sure there where no new tips and tricks with the new gear.

 

Thank you for your reply. I will work on those points!

 

-Drk

[Nagratz 0]

Hello Nagratz! I noticed a couple things and I hope this helps.

 

Try getting more Shadowburn snipes off, because that will automatically regenerate two embers.

 

Also, your Immolate uptime could be considerably higher. Make sure you are refreshing that in Pandemic range, as critical Immo ticks generate embers.

 

I noticed were that you have less conflagrate casts than you could have. Capping these is not a good idea, as they give you the backdraft buff. This buff decreases the cast time of either Incinerate or Chaos Bolt. Chaos Bolt takes three charges of the buff while Incinerate only takes one. So make sure while you have the buff you use it on your Incinerates to generate embers more quickly.

 

Thanks!  I'll try those things.  Who do you keep Immolate up on?  Just Mannoroth / Xhul?  Or do you bother with adds (they die so fast).  Also, do you ever use F&B on the Mannorth fight?

[Curinir 4]

I think most of it is I am just very rusty on the spec and hopefully it will come back to me. Just wanted to make sure there where no new tips and tricks with the new gear.

 

I actually haven't played Demo in a few months and I plan on using it for a couple early Mythic bosses this week just as a refresher. If I stumble across any other tricks, I'll let ya know!

Edited October 12, 2015 by Curinir

[Curinir 4]

No clue why that post looks completely white to me. What was meant to be said is: I actually haven't played Demo in a few months and I plan on using it for a couple early Mythic bosses this week just as a refresher. If I stumble across any other tricks, I'll let ya know!"

[Curinir 4]

For Nagratz,

 

I just keep Immo up on the boss. On Xhul if either Akkelion or Omnus is up, I Immolate them, too.

 

As far as FnB goes on Mannoroth, I do not use it simply due to my guild's disgusting ability to cleave like gods. (3 Hunters, 2 Warriors, and 2 Rogues will make you sick) If I were in a different group comp I would definitely FnB on the imps.

[Twinkielock 15]

Could someone please take a look at Xhul'horac and see why I suck so bad?  (For destro)

 

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/Y491AKgaWVzLrNkH/#

 

Thanks

[Drkdragon 9]

Could someone please take a look at Xhul'horac and see why I suck so bad?  (For destro)

 

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/Y491AKgaWVzLrNkH/#

 

Thanks

I think one of the things you can work on is your FnB usage. For example you had 41 casts of FnB Incinerate but only 118 hits. Now assuming that some of those casts hit 4 to 5 enemies that means that quite a few of those casts only hit 1 or 2. This is throwing away embers that could be used for regular and Havoc'd Chaos Bolts.

 

You Chaos Bolt count over all is really low actually. You had 4 casts and 4 hits while the other lock in your group had 25 casts with 30 hits. It's nice to see that burst dps from FnB but don't forget your big bolt of death and the damage it can do, specially with Havoc.

[Lamborguineapig 0]

Hello, I've got the hang of my rotation but still somehow I lack in dps and usually I hit around 35k on average and the lowest will get to is 30k. I need some help to increase my damage output. Here's my recent raid log: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/jtKfpLAPNXBk263Z#fight=9&type=damage-done&source=65

[Axxym 2]

Hello, I've got the hang of my rotation but still somehow I lack in dps and usually I hit around 35k on average and the lowest will get to is 30k. I need some help to increase my damage output. Here's my recent raid log: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/jtKfpLAPNXBk263Z#fight=9&type=damage-done&source=65

Hey Dolorossa,

 

I looked quick at Iskar.

 

Compared you to the other Warlock in your group.  I know he's got higher iLvl, but just look at the casts/actions:

 

Judabee:  52 CB casts for 53 hits; 10 FnB CB casts for 56 hits; 11 SB casts for 13 hits; 4 Havoc casts

Dolorossa:  24 CB casts for 24 hits; 9 FnB CB casts for 41 hits; 9 SB casts for 9 hits; 3 Havoc casts

 

For some reason you're not copying any spells with Havoc - perhaps you continue to hit the same target or you're staying in FnB while Havoc is up.  But either way, one of the main differences is copied CBs and SBs.  The main difference though is obviously the number of CB - he casts twice as many as you, which seems to be an ember generation/management issue.  Maybe it's the difference between T18 4pc and not, I don't know.  But you do seem to sit on 4 embers quite a bit, so remember not to cap.  Feel free to cast CB when you get to 3.5 embers and as many as you can under important procs.  

 

You should also try to line up your Doomguard with Timewarp and your 2nd potion.  

 

And as a side note, you should think about using Glyph of Eternal Resolve with Soul Link instead of Sacrifical Pact.  Overall this will make it easeir on your healers and is recommended for every encounter unless there's something specific you have to soak.  

[Twinkielock 15]

Another week.   A bit under the weather plus my dog was bouncing off the walls.   Could I please get a review on this fight?

 

Thanks

 

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/LvqwgKxbQpm7DTBP/#fight=11

[Axxym 2]

Another week.   A bit under the weather plus my dog was bouncing off the walls.   Could I please get a review on this fight?

 

Thanks

 

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/LvqwgKxbQpm7DTBP/#fight=11

 

The main difference between you and Sargiean is he gets a lot more out of F&B CB.  (18 casts for 92 hits vs. your 11 casts for 53 hits).  He's also getting good use out of the class trinket on this fight - probably one of the only encounters in this instance where you'd play destruction AND use the class trinket.  I see he's using F&B Incinerate quite a bit whereas you're not using it at all.  So he's basically building up Flamelicked stacks on the AoE packs, and launching F&B CB into them when he has 3+ embers, which are doing more damage because of the increased crit. Then the increased crit helps him build more embers faster to continue his F&B CB onslaught.  

[Curinir 4]

Another week.   A bit under the weather plus my dog was bouncing off the walls.   Could I please get a review on this fight?

 

Thanks

 

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/LvqwgKxbQpm7DTBP/#fight=11

 

To add to what Axxym said, PoF and UGS are not good trinkets to use on this fight (or ever with Destruction). You should definitely invest some time into obtaining a Desecrated Shadowmoon Insignia and a Mythic Goren Soul Repository. Also, as Axxym said, Class Trinket is great on this fight.

 

If you are having trouble with the Fire and Brimstone rotation there is a decent guide to it on this website in the Destruction Warlock tab. Also, here is a very good video guide to FnB recently put out by Pyromancer.

[Twinkielock 15]

I must have missed your responses and I was still using the old bad trinkets.  I've since changed them.   The class trinket still evades me. 

 

That being said I think I might want to go back to my old staple which is affliction.  What are the best trinkets for that? (besides the class trinket)

 

Thanks