Demo - What can I do better?

[Twinkielock 15]

Tried my first LFR as demo.

http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/gnyxo1vudwst5tmi/details/4/

My DPS is way too low for my liking. I know my uptime on Corruption is low. What else can I improve on?

Thanks

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/hyjal/Twinkielock/advanced

[Vestion 8]

Your Shadowflame uptime is a little low. 40% is the max you can possibly get, so around 35% is a good aim (for single target fights, that is). And yea, your DoT uptimes need to go up a lot. Aim for over 90%. To help with this, if you dont already, get a DoT timer addon. I use NeedToKnow, other people use TellMeWhen, they are all good really. I see that soulfire is your most damaging spell, which is good. Im assuming you follow the guide Zagam made on the forums? If you havnt give that a read, your dps will improve.

Lastly, probably an idea not to use chaos wave.

Edited June 19, 2013 by Vestion

[Cruzan 71]

First thing to note is that you should be running with Glyph of Everlasting Affliction. This will help you get higher uptimes on crit-Dooms. 64% of your doom ticks were crits which is pretty low. Part of that is that you didn't get a PA proc until pretty late after the boss switch happened (over a minute) so that's just RNG, but Glyph of EA will help alleviate this. The longest period you went that fight without a PA proc was almost 2 and a half minutes so not having the glyph hurt.

I'm not sure you are using the correct opener. You opened to a peak of 120k which is terribly low. You didn't even use Dark Soul for the first time until a minute in to that fight. I think you're fairly regular here so I'm sure you've looked through the 5.2 Demonology Tips & Quirks thread, but I highly recommend you read through it again. On that opener you can toss Imp Swarm in before the 2nd HoG that Zagam has listed there.

As mention by Vestion your DoT uptimes (Shadowflame and Corr) are low.

Something I noticed is that you are doing a good job of pooling Demonic Fury for Dark Soul burns so keep that up. One thing you can do though is that while DS is going and you're in Meta make sure you pay attention to your HoG stacks. I noticed that during DS you never applied Shadowflame. If you can pop out of Meta and drop 1 or 2x HoG then jump back in to Meta you'll help yourself out a lot. Meta + DS empowered 2 stack of Shadowflame hits pretty hard. I only see 7 instances of you having a 2 stacks of shadowflame rolling so try to work on the rotation of: HoG - filler - filler - HoG - Meta*. Fillers being shadowbolt or MC-soulfires. *Meta at the end is situational based on your total DF at the time and what buffs are rolling. You won't want to pop in to Meta just to empower your shadowflame then pop out, I believe. Could be wrong here though. I'm pretty sure Blizz hardwired UVLS to proc any time your CD on Meta is over 4 seconds .

About Meta uptime. As I mentioned you pooled DF and stayed in Meta for the entire DS duration which is good, but I see a lot of really short Meta periods. If you pop Meta try to commit to it for 7+ seconds. You don't want to miss the opportunity to react to a PA proc because your Meta is on CD. It's tough to tell if some of those were just low DF Metas that were reacting to PA procs, but do your best to keep a healthy amount of DF. If your procs are expiring and you've been doing a DF burn in Meta don't waste DF by staying in Meta after those procs have run out (exception being if you haven't been in for 7+ seconds yet).

This could just be that you were running LFR and didn't worry about it, but I don't see any pots being used. Even if its LFR, I'd use 2x pots + flask + food if you are running logs to get a better picture of what your actual output is like.

As far as encounter specifics, the only thing you can really do that's special is to toss a Doom on to Suen whenever she appears for Tears of the Sun, especially if you have a PA proc during that.

That's all that really sticks out to me at the moment. Hopefully that's enough to get you on the right track.

[Zagam 1,982]

Vest and Cruz pretty much delivered here. Only thing I have to add is it looks like your Soulfire usage is a little too high while your Touch of Chaos looks low. Since you're having very low Meta bursts, I would suggest using Touch of Chaos as your filler in Metamorphosis UNLESS you have Dark Soul running. Use this as a stepping stone until you're comfortable knowing when to prioritize Soul Fire over Touch of Chaos (procs, high Demonic Fury, lots of incoming DF generation through Imps, etc.) You're using Soulfire a lot draining your mana and Demonic Fury faster than it should be draining.

Also, you have a higher peak later in the fight than in your opener. I is confused. Make sure you're poppin' everything at the beginning.

[Kaboozey 16]

Vest and Cruz pretty much delivered here. Only thing I have to add is it looks like your Soulfire usage is a little too high while your Touch of Chaos looks low. Since you're having very low Meta bursts, I would suggest using Touch of Chaos as your filler in Metamorphosis UNLESS you have Dark Soul running. Use this as a stepping stone until you're comfortable knowing when to prioritize Soul Fire over Touch of Chaos (procs, high Demonic Fury, lots of incoming DF generation through Imps, etc.) You're using Soulfire a lot draining your mana and Demonic Fury faster than it should be draining.

The bolded part seems a matter of contention between you and gahhda. From his post (CLICK Here):

Demo has some oddities revolving mostly around the aoe system and soulfire vs toc. I can almost empirically say at this point that

1. Manually refreshing corruption isn't a bad thing, you should never go into meta with the SOUL purpose of refreshing corruption via ToC.

2. Soulfire > ToC during meta

3. As long as you aren't molten core capped, you should pool them for use during meta and simply spam shadowbolt outside

I tried coding Simulationcraft, but I'm not very good with doing spell priorities in it, so I have no idea if what I did worked as intended. In the end, I wonder... which method is truly correct?

[Zagam 1,982]

Soulfire starts to take over as a better spell to use with higher gear. More Haste and good Unerring RNG gives you tons of Imps and higher DF generation. You can spend your DF with Soulfire in this case.

I play with a slight rule of thumb as I go...it's basically a quick mental check order like this:

1) >600 DF and Dark Soul is > 30 sec away? Soulfire to dump to about 250-300 (3-5 casts)

2) >600 DF and Dark Soul is > 45 sec away? Soulfire until 0 DF

3) Dark Soul soon? Touch of Chaos to maintain OR drop Meta, generate some DF, and go nasty with my next Dark Soul.

The logic behind it is I really don't need to cap DF before Dark Soul. As long as I'm around 500-600, I'll be able to do nothing but cast Soulfire (thanks 2pc T15!) and not drop out of Meta during Dark Soul. This is because I ALWAYS line up Imps one global before I pop Dark Soul. They generate intense amounts of Demonic Fury enabling me to just rip stuff apart.

Outside of Dark Soul, I use my time limits. Knowing it takes me about 20-30 seconds to generate the 500-600 DF I need for Dark Soul, I balance whether I use Molten Core procs inside Meta or during caster form. If I'm low on DF and Dark Soul is soon approaching, I'll dump Soulfires to generate DF really quickly (44 per cast with 4pc T15).

Other notes are things like...does something need to die quickly? Dump Meta Soulfires into it. Fight about to end? Dump Meta Soulfires. Phase about to end with lots of downtime? ehh, hold onto your DF for next phase push.

TL;DR: There is no "Master Rule" for ToC vs Soulfire. It's a judgment call that always has to be made while playing based on circumstances.

[Twinkielock 15]

Thanks for the help all! I'm at work so I don't have the client in front of me. I have a few follow up questions

Is Chaos wave what Shadow bolt becomes in Meta form?

How come you say to cast HoG in normal form and not Meta? (or is that Chaos wave?)

Do I want to macro Imps with Dark soul, or do I want to cast imps a few seconds before DS? (or a few seconds after)

I have aff dots. I just need to train my brain that Corruption and Doom are in caster/meta form.

Thanks again for all the help! I'm looking forward to round #2 tonight.

Edit. I know for Destro 4 piece is meh. I have 4 piece, but 2 of the pieces are from LFR. Should I swap to those?

Edited June 19, 2013 by Twinkielock

[Zagam 1,982]

1) Chaos Wave is what Hand of Guldan becomes in Metamorphosis. Chaos Wave should only be prioritized when burst AoE is needed. If something will live long enough to endure the full duration of Shadowflame, HoG > Chaos Wave.

2) Touch of Chaos is what Shadowbolt becomes.

3) Your imps update dynamically with buffs. You can macro them together, but Dark Soul is off the global cooldown while Imp Swarm is a GCD-incurring ability. Personally, I pop Imps, do one ability like Shadowbolt or Soulfire, and then pop Dark Soul. I'm a crazy min/maxer, so I wait for the Imps to get 'set-up' before casting their first spell before I apply the Dark Soul buff to them. This gives me one more Dark Soul buffed Soulfire. This is an expert level type manuever, so until you're comfortable with the rotation completely, stick to macro'ing as much as you can into Dark Soul including, but not limited to, racial proc (Blood Fury, Berserking, etc), Imp Swarm, Engineering glove enchant, etc.

4) Prioritize higher item levels always over 4pc. This is the trend, but it's really a preference. I find that I didn't generate enough Demonic Fury in my opener with Supremacy, so I take the 4pc (I have all 4 heroic 543 pieces, so that helps) to help generate more Demonic Fury. I think the 4pc is slightly undervalued, but that'll come down to your preference and availability of better itemized pieces of gear.

[Twinkielock 15]

Good afternoon. Been playing with this spec for about a week now, and here is a log of a Twins kill. Someone face pulled so the opener wasn't ideal. I know I need to work on Shadowflame uptime, but corruption is much higher as is Doom.

http://worldoflogs.c.../?s=1185&e=1762

Any other tips that I can do to improve even better?

edited for typo

Edited June 28, 2013 by Twinkielock

[Zagam 1,982]

Put you as #176 in the US and EU for 25 man...I think you're on the right track.

FIFTEEN PERFECT AIM PROCS? Good lord talk about getting the grace of the RNG gods on your side. 15 procs in 9 minutes...that's absurd. Good for you.

Why is your Curse of Elements uptime only 26%? Did someone overwrite it?

Now you can start tutoring and guiding your other Warlock. 90k as Destruction is pretty bad. Help him/her become better!

[Omaric 246]

Pancakes.

Edited June 29, 2013 by Omaric

[Jenaye 9]

Zagam, what I'm about to tell you is going to anger you to no end.

So we're doing progression, N Lei Shen. I'm demo, and we have a stand-in for our other lock, which is *gasp* another lock. He's good though, and I've learned a bit from him. I digress. On the pull, the trink procs as I'm switching into meta. Good, I think, perfect timing. It proceeds to overwrite itself 7 times. THE TRINKET WAS ACTIVE FOR 25 CONSECUTIVE SECONDS. Of course, once it wore, it didn't proc for the rest of the fight.

[Zagam 1,982]

Never angers me to hear others good graces with trinkets. It angers me that such good and bad streaks exist. I never thought I'd say this, but I miss those 15 sec duration, 50 sec ICD trinkets from T14.