5.4 Destruction Tips and Quirks

[PhilColins 9]

Heroic Thok progression:

 

This might be a little late but for what it's worth.

 

I'm running destro for the bats and I'm having a lot of fun with it. In p1, we have 2 groups roughly 10 yards apart, one near his face but not in front and the other near his feet. We take the stacks to 27-28 then stack up, take it to 29 then phase.

During p1, I glyphed Unending Resolve so it's on the 2min CD. I pop it usually around 12 stacks or when I get good procs (KTT + anything else) so I can dump my CB's really quick and it'll be back up for bats later. I recommend to set up a WA string or TMW to let you know just how much time you have. Because of latency issues, I'm using backdraft to get CB's off in time so I don't cap embers as I Incererate weave.

P2 is the same as P1, just don't stand in front of him. I personally stay close to the jailer and use burning rush to keep Thok in range. Immolate the jailer and pay close attention to his health. As soon as he drops 20%, cleave some SB's on Thok with Havoc. This is an easy 3M damage (usually DS/PBI is proc'ing here) to cleave onto him.

 

Back to p1 means back to Incinerate weaving. I'm assigned to stun first for the bats, so as soon as a DK grips them, I toss out Shadowburn -> Fire and Brimstone + Pot (macro'd) -> conflag x2 -> Unending Resolve -> Inc spam. They're usually around 20% when I'm just finishing my backdrafted Incinerates. Havoc Thok and SB cleave your hearts out. We usually phase with 1 or 2 up that are almost dead. Phase usually happens around 9 or 10 screeches.

 

Back to p2 normal stuff except I'm on the opposite side cleaving SB off jailer onto Thok. When p2 is over, we stack back up and repeat p1 stuff. Tossing out Unending Resolve around 12 stacks again with procs and such.

 

Phasing into p2 from the third p3, the Yeti seems to always come from behind me, so make sure you're really sticking close to the walls when you're tunneling Thok. When p2 is over, we stack up in the bottom left corner on a marker and move when fire is under us. Usually phases pretty quick.

 

Lowest % is 11% and this is when the majority of top DPS were dead going into "stack up for fire" phase.

 

This is coming from a 25m perspective with only 2 locks in the group at the moment and 3 pallys (thanks Devo aura!)

 

Hope this helps.

[Annoroth 5]

If I'm coming into a boss (Immerseus P1, Norushen after test realm etc.) with 2 charges of conflag, no immo up and 40 emberbits, what's my priority there?

 

I've been torn between launching a Chaos Bolt, then throwing up Immo and using conflag, but the basic priority is Immo -> no conflag capping -> CB. What should I do?

[Omaric 246]

I'd launch a CB first, buffs or no buffs.  Don't waste Emberbits.

[Annoroth 5]

I'd launch a CB first, buffs or no buffs.  Don't waste Emberbits.

 

Thanks for the tip. Honestly, it's a bit weird to read about people you interact with here co-RLing on another blog. But as an outsider, it's a really interesting recollection of events. 

[Zagam 1,982]

I've been torn between launching a Chaos Bolt, then throwing up Immo and using conflag, but the basic priority is Immo -> no conflag capping -> CB. What should I do?

Don't let yourself get that many Embers.  Best solution.  I can't see a reason why you'd ever get to 4 Embers and be in that situation unless you just got done unloading a barrage of Shadowburns.  Through normal rotation, you should never be in this situation.

[Oldtrout 7]

I'm almost always at 4 embers when Immerseus P1 restarts and coming out of the Norushen test realm (and Galakras P2, Nazgrim coming out of defensive - heck, there are a lot of situations it occurs). Unless I really need to keep moving to get in range of a healer / out of the blind hatred, I'll sit there and first cast a chaos bolt, then immolate, then conflag and carry on with normal.

 

Don't know what you guys think but I reckon being at 4 embers is worse than not having immo up, or having 2 charges of conflag just sitting there. But maybe conflag should be used ahead of immo?

Edited November 22, 2013 by Oldtrout

[Annoroth 5]

Don't let yourself get that many Embers.  Best solution.  I can't see a reason why you'd ever get to 4 Embers and be in that situation unless you just got done unloading a barrage of Shadowburns.  Through normal rotation, you should never be in this situation.

 

Usually when it happens, it's when I'm coming out of Norushen's test realm (and shadowburning like crazy) or going into a two-drake pack on Galakras, (also shadowburning hard). It's a rare occurence, but when it happens, I just wanted to be sure.

 

I'll launch the CB before doing a conflag -> immo -> incinerate chain. 

Edited November 25, 2013 by Annoroth

[ertai 0]

About embers management;

What's your open on specific encounters like galakras Heroic or shamans?

For galakras i preshot rain of fire on the spot where there will be placed then use my ember with fire and brinstom to apply immolate on all target with one spell but i have no ember left to spam incinerate with fire and brinstone.

So i have to wait a few seconds before an ember fills and to be able to spam incinerate under fire and brinstone effect.

 

Is there an optimal open for these types of fight?

Is rain of fire really necessary on galakras heroic?

Do you have tips for this encounter? (for trying to rank)

Edited November 25, 2013 by ertai

[Zagam 1,982]

About embers management;

What's your open on specific encounters like galakras Heroic or shamans?

For galakras i preshot rain of fire on the spot where there will be placed then use my ember with fire and brinstom to apply immolate on all target with one spell but i have no ember left to spam incinerate with fire and brinstone.

So i have to wait a few seconds before an ember fills and to be able to spam incinerate under fire and brinstone effect.

 

Is there an optimal open for these types of fight?

Is rain of fire really necessary on galakras heroic?

Do you have tips for this encounter? (for trying to rank)

I think I've voiced my opinion that you should never apply FnB:Immolate if you have less than two embers.  This drops you out of your AoE.  Your first shot with FnB should be Conflagrate x2 to get your Embers built up.  Then FnB Immolate and Incinerate spam.

 

I don't encourage tactics for trying to rank.  Those are for you to figure out on your own or network with other top parsing Warlocks.  Ranking typically comes from incredibly good RNG and favorable raid conditions such as no one else using their execute or switching to adds so you can Shadowburn snipe.  This is in general for all fights.  The emphasis on these forums is to help you understand how to maximize your Warlock to defeat encounters.

[ertai 0]

What about rain if fire? Is it a valuable dps gain to keep it up all the time of shamans encounter or galakras P1?

How do you manage to maximise shadowburn? It is sometimes hard to find and target a low hp mob when there is a lot of them gathered.

I actually spam tab when i see that some life becomes low ( thanks to tidy plate)

[Zagam 1,982]

Rain of Fire is always a gain with 2 targets able to be in it.  This is mentioned in the guide.

 

Hard to find targets should never be an issue.  If you're looking to pad on trash mobs, you need a name plate recognition pattern.  For me, ElvUI turns the nameplates red when they are sub 20%.  In your case, with lots of them around, you're mostly looking to SB trash mobs that are irrelevant.  Most of your damage from SB here is overkill damage which looks good on meters but is mostly inefficient and worthless.  Spamming Tab isn't the most methodical way of doing this.  You'll want to either use a mouseover or be prepared to click targets and hit your SB button.

[PhilColins 9]

Most of your damage from SB here is overkill damage which looks good on meters but is mostly inefficient and worthless. 

Tell my raid leader this. He seems to think since the other warlock does this, that he is better. This may or may not be true.

[Twinkielock 15]

Rain of Fire is always a gain with 2 targets able to be in it.  This is mentioned in the guide.

 

Hard to find targets should never be an issue.  If you're looking to pad on trash mobs, you need a name plate recognition pattern.  For me, ElvUI turns the nameplates red when they are sub 20%.  In your case, with lots of them around, you're mostly looking to SB trash mobs that are irrelevant.  Most of your damage from SB here is overkill damage which looks good on meters but is mostly inefficient and worthless.  Spamming Tab isn't the most methodical way of doing this.  You'll want to either use a mouseover or be prepared to click targets and hit your SB button.

How can you configure this in ELVUI? (The turning red part)

Also I know it was mentioned in another thread (but not this one, that I could find) If you have both PBI and KTT, what should your opener be?

[Zagam 1,982]

ElvUI did it for me automatically.  Opener doesn't change at all.  You follow protocol - get off as many Chaos Bolts under the effects of cooldowns as possible.  Opener changes based on number of crits delivered.

[Oldtrout 7]

Tell my raid leader this. He seems to think since the other warlock does this, that he is better. This may or may not be true.

It's only true if the SB gains you embers which you can then use in non-padding situations, or obviously if havocing onto a bigger mob. If you're at 3.5-4 embers and have no havoc, shadowburning a mob that isn't #1 kill priority and will die in a matter of seconds anyway is completely padding.

 

You should just tell your raid leader that you know how to play your class better than he does so butt out. Too many people are quick to criticize a DPS's numbers without actually looking into how much worthwhile damage they're contributing.

Edited November 25, 2013 by Oldtrout

[Kazistrasz 216]

You should just tell your raid leader that you know how to play your class better than he does so butt out. Too many people are quick to criticize a DPS's numbers without actually looking into how much worthwhile damage they're contributing.

 

I strongly advise against doing that, unless you've been in your guild for so unbelievably long that you can get away with it. If your RL seems to think that other lock is doing better, odds are pretty good you're not in a position like that. If I said something to a DPS about their performance and getting their numbers up only to have them respond like that, they'd be looking for a new guild before the night was over (I've done it before).

 

The proper response to your RL here is to explain that the other lock is padding while you're contributing meaningful damage to the fight. Open logs and find his average SB and compare it to 20% of the health a mob has. My girlfriend goes "oh look, I beat you on the opener," and I go, "oh look, I had three times your damage to the boss because I wasn't sitting on adds."

[Omaric 246]

Real talk.

[Oldtrout 7]

I strongly advise against doing that, unless you've been in your guild for so unbelievably long that you can get away with it. If your RL seems to think that other lock is doing better, odds are pretty good you're not in a position like that. If I said something to a DPS about their performance and getting their numbers up only to have them respond like that, they'd be looking for a new guild before the night was over (I've done it before).

I'm talking the specific situation, where the raid leader is telling him he isn't playing as well as the padding lock. That is pretty much proof the raid leader doesn't have a clue about how warlocks dps, and that he's the kind of guy who'll throw out criticism without all the facts.

Edited November 26, 2013 by Oldtrout

[Omaric 246]

I'm going to start removing comments that are related to raid leading if this continues.

[Vipples 5]

Hey all, long time reader, first time poster! Mucho respect for all the locks here for putting together all of this amazing information. I had some questions about 10 man heroic Dark Shamans as destro. We've downed them twice now, but each time we barely squeak by the enrage timer. We use the two team split method, with me, frost mage, surv hunter on Kardis (bear tank). I'm basically on ADD duty from 65% on, and I was wondering what you guys do in order to kill these in the most efficient way. We've got a holy pally healing our group, and she puts on Righteous fury so the adds come to us rather than the Haromm group, or our Kardis tank. Once the adds start spawning, I seem to barely have time to dps Kardis other than the occasional Chaos Bolt or immolate refresh. I've asked our tank to try to attempt to position their spawn so that they move through Kardis, that way I can just FnB spam Kardis. Unfortunately, due to the chaotic nature of the storms/tornadoes, he can't always position them ideally and there are times where they're just all lined up perpendicular to our groups position. Our hunter always puts down a trap, and both hunter/mage help me out if I call for it, but we try to keep them 100% on Kardis just in order to get enough dps on boss.

 

I was just wondering if any others that have done this fight in 10 man, have seen more efficient ways to place the adds, or to deal with them. There were some spawns that the adds all grouped up perfectly and I was able to blow them up in no time, and immediately get back on the boss. But with all the movement and planning my CDs for iron prison, I'm usually just in 100% panic mode trying to kill adds before they get to our healer/ranged group. I suppose mannoroth's fury could help destroy the adds, but then I'd lose out on being able to run around with FnB incinerates. 

 

We start on Malk tonight, so hopefully that goes swimmingly. Thanks in advance for any advice/help!

[Zagam 1,982]

No tornadoes should ever be near the tank.  Sounds like your ranged and healers lack spatial recognition.  Tornadoes will never spawn on a tank, so the tank should have room to work with.  If he's able to get them centrally focused around the boss, FnB makes this job easy.  If they're spread out, forget about it.  Manno's won't help you kill the adds faster because Rain of Fire doesn't hit that hard.  Remember, the adds can be knocked back and stunned, so Shadowfury should help.  Also, your Hunter should be dropping a Frost Trap to keep them localized in a point you can AoE them with ease.  He also should be using Glaive Toss to snare them an additional time.  The Slimes should be melted by your group.  Don't use a Holy Paladin to get them to move.  They should be slowed and stunned as much as possible, not being allowed to move freely.

[Omaric 246]

Yeah I was basically going to say what Zag said about the oozes.  Make sure your tank pops a baby CD for every Geyser and just have him stay around the boss so your group can AoE them down.  In that scenario your F&B will hit all the oozes if the boss is targeted.  Again like Zag said, use those Shadowfury's liberally to help offset tank damage due to them not kiting.  I generally call out a few people for a stun rotation, but it sounds like you're in a 10 man so you may not have access to as many AoE stuns.

[Vipples 5]

Toxic storm has been spawning on our tank very often, is that because we don't have 5 ranged? our 4th dps is a frost DK and is 100% on haromm. I guess I don't understand how the tornadoes move, I thought once they spawned, they just moved in a random direction and continued on that trajectory for a few seconds. 

[Zagam 1,982]

If you're separating the bosses, send melee with the other boss.  Problem solved.  Only ranged and healers should be with the ooze boss.

[Soulzar 42]

What our tank does for them is he will run out away from boss when they start spawning, do a small circle back to boss.  This way the last ones spawning spawn on top of the first ones and it keeps them all grouped up.

 

I am unsure what AoE threat Bear tanks have, we have a monk so he spams his barrels of easy mode while they are spawning.  IMO, having your healer bait them with RFury is probably the primary cause of them being all over the place.

 

I think I've stunned them...like never...

Edited December 4, 2013 by Soulzar