5.4 Destruction Tips and Quirks

[Vipples 5]

Well, we were having issues with some adds running up to our Prot pally who was on the other boss far far away before we had our pally healer put on righteous fury. Our ooze boss tank usually never touched the adds, he just placed 'em and went back on boss. Maybe we should just have him do the little circle trick, that seems like it'd keep the adds tight enough. I typically use Shadowfury on cooldown on them, and I dont have much trouble killing them, Its just that i wanted to try to find more of an efficient strategy for placing them/dealing with them so that I can get more dps time on the actual boss since I'm the only one dpsing the adds.

 

And to be clear, we DO have our only melee dps on the NON ooze boss (Haromm). The Ooze boss(Kardis) group is Druid (Tank), Pally (healer), Mage, Hunter, myself. We stay at range and we're always tightly grouped together. 

 

Thanks again for the tips and suggestions.

[Omaric 246]

You might want to have your druid tank spamming some AoE when the oozes are spawning.

[Belloc 6]

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

We do exactly this and storms will still spawn on the tank, just like the other guy is suggesting. It doesn't always happen, but it happens regularly enough. Our group, however, prefers it when it happens, because it means we don't have to move.

 

So, to recap: group split in half. 1 tank, 3 ranged dps, and 1 healer (paladin) on Wavebinder. Tank is the only person even remotely close to the boss and storms still spawn on him.

 

Anyway, I agree with the above poster that mentioned running them out a bit and circling back so that the last adds spawn where the first adds were.

Edited December 4, 2013 by Belloc

[MallBall 2]

I was in a Lock Mumble chat thing a few weeks ago, and it was mentioned that after a certain ilevel, haste becomes a priority over mastery.  I can't remember what that level was!  Can someone please refresh my memory?  More importantly, does that still hold true?

[Lockybalboa 618]

I was in a Lock Mumble chat thing a few weeks ago, and it was mentioned that after a certain ilevel, haste becomes a priority over mastery.  I can't remember what that level was!  Can someone please refresh my memory?  More importantly, does that still hold true?

 

Never. Never ever ever ever.

[Zagam 1,982]

I was in a Lock Mumble chat thing a few weeks ago, and it was mentioned that after a certain ilevel, haste becomes a priority over mastery.  I can't remember what that level was!  Can someone please refresh my memory?  More importantly, does that still hold true?

No one has ever said that in my Mumble.

[MallBall 2]

Really?!  Was it crit then?  There was another female in there and she was talking about how she went a different build, and you, Zagam, said it was too low of an ilvl to try that.   I may be going crazy then.

[Zagam 1,982]

Yes, it was Crit.  Most Destruction Warlocks were still in the Haste/Mastery build and I was playing Crit/Mastery.  She was asking if it was better, and I said once you hit a certain item level, you could dump Haste and see a marginal improvement because Haste is mostly wasted as Destruction.  She saw big improvements going into Mastery/Crit, but I'd never steer someone into Haste as Destruction.

[Kazistrasz 216]

Honestly, I found an increase even before the item level you suggested, too. It's just getting that much better now.

[Padlok 0]

Few quick questions.

 

For the opener, when should I be popping my Doomguard? Straight after darksoul or after my second CB? (PBoI/WFC) trinkets.

 

Note that because of the exponential scaling of secondary statistics versus primary statistics, Intellect now has such a low value that Keen Vermilion Onyx gems are a DPS gain at any level above 550. The caveat being that you have to be able to reforge out of enough Hit Rating on your gear to use the gems. Ideally you want as little Hit Rating on your gear as possible so you can use as many Keen Vermilion Onyx gems as needed.

 

 

I don't see a lot of high level locks with Keen gems. How viable is this gemming strategy?

 

Last question, What's the range on Glyph of the Elements?

 

Thanks guys.

 

< 554 lock

 

 

[Lockybalboa 618]

Few quick questions.

 

A few slow answers:

 

 

For the opener, when should I be popping my Doomguard? Straight after darksoul or after my second CB? (PBoI/WFC) trinkets.

 

Doesn't matter. I've seen some people say that DG snap shots with INT and INT only and I 90% believe that is true, but the bastard does such piss poor DPS that it doesn't matter. At all. Ever. I think the most the SoB ever did for me was 1.5mil. So, he's a free CB that takes 1 min to finish. IF he is on the right target, and that's always hit or miss.

 

 

I don't see a lot of high level locks with Keen gems. How viable is this gemming strategy?

 

Lot of upper end warlocks do it, lock of us don't. IMO, it's not as good as people say it is. If you have really low hit gear, it's useful. If you're 570+ then you're almost assured to not have this problem and so the value of the gems goes way down. You can ONLY gain crit or haste by using them, crit is meh and haste is shit. Int is always good clean DPS. No RNG, no guessing, just damage.

 

If your gear is so low ilvl or so badly itemized that you're having to reforge out of MASTERY in order to get your hit cap, then exp/mastery gems are useful. Other wise, no.

 

Int/mastery >>>>>>> any other type of 180/180 gem imo.

 

 

Last question, What's the range on Glyph of the Elements?

 

 

I don't have numbers but it's around melee. So 6-8 yards. 

 

 

Thanks guys.

 

You're welcome.

[Khaos 5]

I'm getting genuinely confused in my new 25m guild , i see the other locks aren't using shadowburn at all on single target , is that a "thing" now? O_o

[Lockybalboa 618]

I'm getting genuinely confused in my new 25m guild , i see the other locks aren't using shadowburn at all on single target , is that a "thing" now? O_o

 

It's not new, bads have been doing that since SB was added.

[Severan 0]

Lot of upper end warlocks do it, lock of us don't. IMO, it's not as good as people say it is. If you have really low hit gear, it's useful. If you're 570+ then you're almost assured to not have this problem and so the value of the gems goes way down. You can ONLY gain crit or haste by using them, crit is meh and haste is shit. Int is always good clean DPS. No RNG, no guessing, just damage.

 

If your gear is so low ilvl or so badly itemized that you're having to reforge out of MASTERY in order to get your hit cap, then exp/mastery gems are useful. Other wise, no.

 

Int/mastery >>>>>>> any other type of 180/180 gem imo.

 

I'm not sure how else to measure this. Using toons ranging from 560-574 ilvl I'm having trouble finding a case in simcraft where 1 int > 2 mast/crit/haste. For the most part it seems that if you can convert 160 hit to mast/hast/crit then it's worth using a 160exp-160mast gem.

[Liquidsteel 279]

Using expertise gems to get 2 points of crit or haste elsewhere is still better than 1 point of intellect.

 

It's up to the individual if they choose to believe it or not, but all our secondaries are better than intellect seeing as we gain double from gems.

 

The only time I wouldn't use them is if for some reason I had an abundance of hit, and even after reforging completely out of hit I was still above the cap.

[Kazistrasz 216]

I did the math for keen vs. artful for myself the other day. It worked out to an extra 1200 crit and a negligible amount of haste if I went with keen versus 970 spell power if I went with artful. I much prefer 970 spell power to 1200 crit. Like Locky said, if I was getting a couple hundred mastery out of it I'd definitely go with keen. It's really personal preference.

[Khaos 5]

It's not new, bads have been doing that since SB was added.

 

Yes but it's not "bads" or at least they're not that bad, we're 12/14 hc and stuff , it just threw me off.

[Oldtrout 7]

I heard somewhere (maybe here) that with certain haste procs / buffs / rating a chaos bolt is more valuable than a shadowburn. Being alliance and always running low haste I've never really thought this could ever apply to me so haven't even bothered testing.

[JvChequer 43]

I heard somewhere (maybe here) that with certain haste procs / buffs / rating a chaos bolt is more valuable than a shadowburn. Being alliance and always running low haste I've never really thought this could ever apply to me so haven't even bothered testing.

 

IF CB it's next to GCD or at GCD it's more worthy drop it than Shadowburn.

[Nytemare 2]

Other day on Garrosh, I had this DK whisper me telling me I need to hit the hate break point (Destro) so I can cast faster and get more embers.

 

What I do is Garrosh gets pulled, I FNB+ Immolate him and all adds, then keep ROF down until star comes and adds die, While ROF is going I not stop spam CB as time I get one off I have that ember plus more back. Once I to the point I not getting ember back by the time I finish CB, I go back to single target (as I waiting for new set of add), then new set comes and rinse and repeat. I use Havoc + three Shadowburn (mouse over) to nail almost dead adds that still alive and boss. My group gets him to one before P2 starts (So wish he would just die at that point).

 

So question is do I need to get more haste? You can see my armor link below

Edited December 12, 2013 by Nytemare

[Drafty53 17]

Haste vs. Crit after Mastery is honestly a preference/convenience thing. Whether you go full haste or full crit or an even mix, the dps you get will not be THAT big of a difference.  I know a lot of people on these forums say crit.  I know a lot of the locks in the top 20 guilds go haste. It really does not matter.  With more crit, you get higher CBs, better ember generation in single target fights, higher average SB damage.  Full haste brings faster cast time on non-haste buffed casts (Valuable for Heroic fights where movement can be VERY high) which can be beneficial in AoE and Single target.  It also allows you to switch to one of the other specs A LOT easier as Affliction and Demo both prefer Haste in pretty high numbers.

 

In the end, maximizing your rotation and priorities will make the most difference, whether you go haste or crit is negligible at this point.  I've seen top notch warlocks parse very high with crit builds and others with haste builds...Your play style is the ultimate decider.

[Typecast 16]

Yes but it's not "bads" or at least they're not that bad, we're 12/14 hc and stuff , it just threw me off.

 

There are only a few reasons why you wouldn't shadowburn a sub-20% target.

• Target is immune, reflecting, or heavily negating the dmg.
• Target is not a boss and doesn't return embers on death. Unsure if it still returns the 15% mana.
• You are about to die with no defensive cooldowns, and all you can do is drain life and clench.  In this case, I would probably still YOLO the boss and shadowburn.

Edited December 13, 2013 by Typecast

[JvChequer 43]

 

There are only a few reasons why you wouldn't shadowburn a sub-20% target.

• Target is immune, reflecting, or heavily negating the dmg.
• Target is not a boss and doesn't return embers on death. Unsure if it still returns the 15% mana.
• You are about to die with no defensive cooldowns, and all you can do is drain life and clench.  In this case, I would probably still YOLO the boss and shadowburn.

 

 

4. You have high haste and low crit chance and your CB it's at GCD a.k.a 1sec cast.

 

CB does more dmg than SB average, if u SB crits, SB it's better, if it don't, CB it's better, at this scenario.

[Typecast 16]

4. You have high haste and low crit chance and your CB it's at GCD a.k.a 1sec cast.

 

CB does more dmg than SB average, if u SB crits, SB it's better, if it don't, CB it's better, at this scenario.

Pretty sure it doesn't need to be a 1s cast if your goal is to have the DPET of CB be better than the AvgDPET of shadowburn. I calculated it before and found I needed roughly 120% haste (1.38s cast) for the DPET of CB to be equal to the AvgDPET of Shadowburn. The MaxDPET is impossible to reach since the 280% haste required resulted in a 0.788s cast.

Edited December 13, 2013 by Typecast

[raz27 0]

When we discust abou CB and SB on a target bellow 20%health and very prbly that target will die we have to consider that SB gives you 2 embers bck , so embers reg is another reason to SB , if it crits is a bonus if not thx for my 2 embers