New Destro Lock Here!

[SS07 0]

Greetings everyone! I am brand new to both the forums, and the Warlock class in general. I have been with my same Warrior since TBC, so obviously I am saying goodbye to a long lasting relationship, with my preceding character. I have become incredibly bored with the class as a whole, and I have always wanted to be a Warlock, when I decided I wanted to officially change.

 

I have read the guides on here, and I am doing everything I can to understand the class, spells, and rotation in detail. I was simply wondering if there is any common, or essential advice you could all share with me, about the class, and spec specifically.

 

I am willing to put in all the work required to become a great Warlock, and understand my class. Any sort of help would be much appreciated from my end!

 

 

[Twinkielock 15]

Teach yourself destro.  Get a GS around 490-500 or so (Not higher) and do the green fire quest. 

 

That would be a great learning tool.  

[Zagam 1,982]

Read, practice, re-read, practice some more.  Improve every single time.  Adopt new strategies and tricks.  Understand that gameplay > secondary stats when it comes to doing DPS.  Practice.  Re-read.  Ask complex questions.  Re-read. 

[Kazistrasz 216]

Log yourself. Even if it's just doing LFR, you can still go through the same motions. Look at Zag's guides for self-assessing via logs and give yourself an accurate rating. Once you feel you have the core down, go through and at least do Proving Grounds gold. You'll get a feel for some of the ways to adjust in actual scenarios of moving and bursting.

 

Then go log yourself some more. And some more. And some more.

[mediocregatsby 18]

practice and play a LOT. even after a long time of farming 14/14H i am still finding better ways to do some bosses. even though destro is "simple" there's just so much shit you can do on every attempt of the same boss that the skill cap can be quite high.

[Guest garmeth06]

I'm not sure how that destro is simple bullshit dogma even came to surface. I think the spec is pretty complex at least on multi target fights.

 

But then again I played mainly in wrath of the lich king where it truly was extremely simple.

Edited April 3, 2014 by garmeth06

[mediocregatsby 18]

probably because we only press like 6 buttons

[Guest garmeth06]

probably because we only press like 6 buttons

Is any classes rotation mechanically difficult to execute in WoW? Even pacteh in method said the game is easy to play button-pressing wise.

 

I just feel like destro you have to make decisions with your buffs that throws a lot of people astray. 

[Kazistrasz 216]

Pacteh is a moonkin, who have even less buttons to push than destro with a super simple spec-mechanic. Go play demo to a high level; you'll see how complicated just a lock can be. Then go play feral, and thank Illidan that you don't play it.

[Lockybalboa 618]

Then go play feral, and thank Illidan that you don't play it.

 

 

This. Cat druid is by a good bit the hardest spec to play to the max atm

[Zagam 1,982]

Once you learn Destruction, it is simple.  There's no argument about it.  The twist is that EVERYTHING is 'simple' once you learn it.  Those declaring Destruction is simple are often those who don't have Warlocks and are embarrassed that they're having their asses handed to them by Warlocks.  When a spec is good, everyone else becomes haters. 

 

Master a specialization and then you start to see things in encounters that you can do better, like Gatsby is saying.  There's only so much you can do with the spec.  When you add elements of an encounter, possibilities open up everywhere.

[Kazistrasz 216]

I find there to be three levels to people playing destruction:

 

People who just push buttons on cooldown in LFR and flex that do about 80k to 100k DPS in 540 gear.

 

People who understand the core rotation and can use Chaos Bolt with their trinkets, doing about 325k single target in 575 gear.

 

People who can really play the nuances of the spec and can play it to its fullest.

 

The first two levels are, indeed, very simple. There hardest thing about them is minimizing using Chaos Bolt outside of your two trinket procs. It's when you leave this that it gets complicated - even when you're familiar with it you still have to pay attention to it.

[Guest garmeth06]

Would you all say Demo or Feral is harder to be in the 95th percentile compared to destro when demo was used frequently? Locky explicitly said yes, at least to feral, but what about others?

 

I mean I would agree objectively that destro is easier just to deal the baseline damage and be at about the 60th percentile than both by far.

Edited April 3, 2014 by garmeth06

[Kazistrasz 216]

There is no harder spec than feral to play to a high level, period.

[Liquidsteel 279]

Demo is far easier to hit 95th percentile.

 

This is because nobody plays it. 

 

I gave it a run on a few bosses in 10 man 2-3 weeks ago and got 98th percentile on raid bots for it. I made so many mistakes but the bar is so low that it didn't matter.

[Guest garmeth06]

Well I'm curious now. Once summer comes I'm spending 90 boost on a druid and am going to play feral.

[mediocregatsby 18]

i actually wouldn't say demo is that much harder to play to 95th percentile even when demo+UVLS was godmode and everyone played it over aff/destro. i actually did that in the first 2 weeks of SOO before demo+UVLS got nerfed to oblivion. if perfect destro play is about proc management, havoc usage, and shadowburn sniping, then perfect demo play was about proc management, metamorphosis uptime, and devotion to RNGesus. 

 

if UVLS didn't exist i'm sure the spec would have been much easier to play too.

[Liquidsteel 279]

The spec is harder to play now than in ToT/UVLS, IMO.

 

You don't have an unlimited stream of Molten Core procs and Fury to play around with and need to make sure you spend your fury well. UVLS made it very easy to play.

 

It's very similar to Destro in that you dump all your resources when stuff procs.

[mediocregatsby 18]

hmm that makes sense. i remember much raging when UVLS didnt proc and losing 70k DPS -_-

[Zagam 1,982]

Demo is VERY complex to min max.  There are TONS of decisions to make with every single cast.  Having to make the right decision between Soul Fire and Shadowbolt/Touch of Chaos on nearly every cast makes it very prone to mistakes.  Imps are tied to RNG and Molten Core can be finicky with RNG. 

 

Feral is a fucking cluster fuck of a spec.  It has DoTs you must maintain (2 of them I believe), an energy bar, combo points, and a melee positioning requirement.  Compare that to Destruction where you have to worry about only Embers (mana doesn't matter).  Demonology worries about mana and Demonic Fury along with 1 DoT (the other is maintained with proper play).  Imagine if you have to spend 200 DF to apply Doom every 20 seconds.  But only if you had 5 combo points by using Shadowbolt and Soul Fire the correct number of times.  Anyone who has mastered Feral earns my respect instantly.  Anyone who says it is easy either has no idea what they're talking about or has mastered it so much, they no longer respect the difficulty.

[Guest garmeth06]

lol can't wait.

[Renly 0]

Teach yourself destro.  Get a GS around 490-500 or so (Not higher) and do the green fire quest. 

 

That would be a great learning tool.  

 

Kind of? 

 

One of the reasons this fight is so hard is because it requires a skill set and coordination that isn't needed anywhere else in the game. 

 

- The fight is really about micromanaging the pit lord, which is a pet you'll never use again. 

- This is a solo scenario; In any raid setting, you won't have to survive without a healer for 7 minutes, nor will you have aggro (i.e. chaos bolts to LoS), and you won't be responsible for decursing yourself constantly

- Related to the point above, you probably won't be using Grimoire of Sacrifice in raids*, so without a Pit Lord (...) or the Imp ability, you won't even be able to

- Neither raids or heroics as presently constituted require any sort of cc, so you won't be using enslave demon or banish outside of this

 

This scenario is excellent and unique because it forces you to use spells in the warlock spellbook that never get used (enslave, banish, eye of kilrogg,etc). 

 

You should do it because green fire is awesome, and you will be learning, but in my opinion you will be learning a mostly useless skill set. My personal recommendation would be to learn it in LFR due to lack of pressure. 

 

*as I understand it, the Better Demons Grimoire is widely agreed to be best for destro? 

[Liquidsteel 279]

GoSac is the best once you get good gear, but GoSup is better with low gear/poor trinkets. This is a basic explanation.

 

I think the solo scenario is good practice though.

 

Lots to keep track of whilst still needing to maximise dps. 

 

Need to position well. Need to keybind stuff well and not be a shitty clicker. 

 

Good for learning mechanics. Same as proving grounds.

[Belloc 6]

The Green Fire boss fight teaches you personal responsibility on a level that you won't really find anywhere else. It's not awesome rotation/priority practice, but it is awesome practice for keeping yourself alive in a wide variety of raid situations. The lessons might not translate directly, but the experience WILL make you a better warlock.

[Kazistrasz 216]

Kind of? 

 

One of the reasons this fight is so hard is because it requires a skill set and coordination that isn't needed anywhere else in the game. 

 

- The fight is really about micromanaging the pit lord, which is a pet you'll never use again. 

- This is a solo scenario; In any raid setting, you won't have to survive without a healer for 7 minutes, nor will you have aggro (i.e. chaos bolts to LoS), and you won't be responsible for decursing yourself constantly

- Related to the point above, you probably won't be using Grimoire of Sacrifice in raids*, so without a Pit Lord (...) or the Imp ability, you won't even be able to

- Neither raids or heroics as presently constituted require any sort of cc, so you won't be using enslave demon or banish outside of this

 

This scenario is excellent and unique because it forces you to use spells in the warlock spellbook that never get used (enslave, banish, eye of kilrogg,etc). 

 

You should do it because green fire is awesome, and you will be learning, but in my opinion you will be learning a mostly useless skill set. My personal recommendation would be to learn it in LFR due to lack of pressure. 

 

*as I understand it, the Better Demons Grimoire is widely agreed to be best for destro? 

 

Micromanaging your pet is a basic skill required of warlocks. If you want to be a decent warlock, you need these skills. 

 

False. False false. False false falsity false false. FALSE. As a raider, you are just as responsible for your own survival as your healers. If Locky or Zag die, they don't look at me and ask, "where were my heals!?" It's usually, "<expletive>! I got caught in the wrong spot," or "we ran out of cooldowns." It is your responsibility to be using your healthstone, using UR, using Sac Pact, etc. to keep yourself alive. When the chips are really down, burning and ember on ember tap is a better use of your time than getting halfway through a Chaos Bolt and dying. If you're not pulling aggro and needing to hit Soul Shatter from time to time, you're not going hard enough.

 

You absolutely are using GoSac in raids once you get a KTT. Find out who told you that you wouldn't use it and punch them where it hurts.

 

Another false assertion. If you're actually playing like a pro, you'll be fearing Parasites on Paragons, dropping Shadowfury all day every day, and doing anything else you can to make adds more manageable on many heroic fights.

 

LFR is no the place to learn skill quality skill sets. A no pressure environment doesn't penalize you for screwing up. You can literally stand in almost every single mechanic in LFR and not die. You can put your pet on the boss and only hit Incinerate and still beat at least one other DPS. This is not a learning environment.

 

Target dummy for your rotation, then proving grounds to get used to pushing more out of your class to manage bursting, manage embers, etc., and the green fire quest at a significantly low ilvl (I completed it at 483; people have done it under 470 wearing nothing but blues and greens) places a similar demand on you as heroic raiding. There's nothing worse than getting 8 minutes into a fight, having the boss at 5%, and wiping when you botch one mechanic. It drives you to have to focus for long periods of time while executing a strategy and using your class mechanics and skill set.