What spec is best for low ilv and which spec is best for high ilv?

[xkrissi 0]

Which lock spec scales the best and which spec is better at low item level. Or are they all equal in terms of scaling?

[Lockybalboa 618]

Destro

[xkrissi 0]

alright then thanks :-)

[Cardio33 3]

For low level I would go destro till you are +560 ilevel then I would consider afflic if you have bboy + Pbi combo.

Even with that I would only roll afflic for a few fights, protectors, dark sham, gen naz, and malk.

[Liquidsteel 279]

Destro can still be played quite happily even in BiS.

With fast clears though Affliction starts to really dominate if you know how to use Soul Swap and have agreeable tanks.

On Norushen you can get 10 stacks dots up then enter the test phase and be out in 5 seconds. On spoils your tank just needs to make sure there is always one or two adds up. Thok you can wreck the boss and swap SoC plus DoTs to bats. Blackfuse you can just cream the boss and extend off of the shredder.

It really is a brokenly OP spec in close to BiS.

[Cardio33 3]

Destro can still be played quite happily even in BiS.

With fast clears though Affliction starts to really dominate if you know how to use Soul Swap and have agreeable tanks.

On Norushen you can get 10 stacks dots up then enter the test phase and be out in 5 seconds. On spoils your tank just needs to make sure there is always one or two adds up. Thok you can wreck the boss and swap SoC plus DoTs to bats. Blackfuse you can just cream the boss and extend off of the shredder.

It really is a brokenly OP spec in close to BiS.

How does that work exactly for siege? You get super dots up on the boss them swap back and forth between the shredder? How much actual empowered dot uptime can that add?

I feel like you are just spending too much time swapping and losing MG channeling uptime.

[Zagam 1,982]

No, he's using the swap mechanic to extend mega DoTs.  Since there's almost always a shredder up, he can essentially double the time of his mega DoTs.  Siegecrafter is a very short fight with super gear, so he is likely pounding the crap out of the boss.  Malefic Grasp isn't going to be big here with all the movement either, so with an extra charge of AD and Soul Swap able to be done on the move, it's perfectly reasonable here to use SS.  You can add about 2 seconds every time you swap.  It's significant.

[Drafty53 17]

No, he's using the swap mechanic to extend mega DoTs.  Since there's almost always a shredder up, he can essentially double the time of his mega DoTs.  Siegecrafter is a very short fight with super gear, so he is likely pounding the crap out of the boss.  Malefic Grasp isn't going to be big here with all the movement either, so with an extra charge of AD and Soul Swap able to be done on the move, it's perfectly reasonable here to use SS.  You can add about 2 seconds every time you swap.  It's significant.

Looking to start playing aff more now that we have full cleared a few times. I only have a few aff focused OS pieces so when I switch I'm at about 14ishK haste and 18ishK mastery. If I understand correctly on a fight like Siege the idea is to just SS continually, obviously waiting for the SS buff to use up 2 seconds, thus extending the dots, while ignoring Malefic Grasp almost completely?

[Niix 169]

Looking to start playing aff more now that we have full cleared a few times. I only have a few aff focused OS pieces so when I switch I'm at about 14ishK haste and 18ishK mastery. If I understand correctly on a fight like Siege the idea is to just SS continually, obviously waiting for the SS buff to use up 2 seconds, thus extending the dots, while ignoring Malefic Grasp almost completely?

 

The idea is to Inhale, then use Haunt, 1 Malefic Grasp tick, or Life Tap then exhale your DoTs to a new target. Obviously getting as close to 3 seconds as possible without any risk of missing your Exhale.

[Liquidsteel 279]

Ignocia made a video on youtube showing how to do the trick. There's also plenty of stream highlights from Xyronic (BL) or Lunyy (Paragon) showing how to do it.

I only recently started doing it as I fancied a change from always playing Demo or Destro.

I uploaded a video of me doing a Dark Shamans 2 tank strat in a PuG where I execute this strategy pretty well for a first attempt if you want to watch it.

[Cardio33 3]

Ignocia made a video on youtube showing how to do the trick. There's also plenty of stream highlights from Xyronic (BL) or Lunyy (Paragon) showing how to do it.

I only recently started doing it as I fancied a change from always playing Demo or Destro.

I uploaded a video of me doing a Dark Shamans 2 tank strat in a PuG where I execute this strategy pretty well for a first attempt if you want to watch it.

Liquid,

 

Thanks for sharing I definitely checked out the video a few times but I'm still struggling with afflic, specifically the afflic opener, on long term multi target fights like shaman and protectors.  I routinely rank 75% on single target fights but hoover around 50% for shamans & protectors.

 

 

It's hard to follow on your videos what's going on without video commentary. Here's my protectors opener, I feel I'm doing something wrong.

 

Souburn on 22 sec pull timer

pre-pot > haunt > DS > SS > MG for procs > SB:SS refresh > MG channel till 10 stack BBOY > SB:SS main target

 

Now I start swapping around mega dots with inhale -> haunt new target -> exhale -> inhale combo until I'm out of soul shards.

 

After that I keep inhaling and exhaling dots to all targets.  I can usually get to a 1.5 mil opener but then I trickle down to 500-600k by the end of the fight.

[Liquidsteel 279]

What's your Ilvl? And how long is the protectors fight lasting? My guild kills it in like 3 minutes 30 which is still pretty slow. We only have 1 Warlock (me) playing Affliction, in contrast to many top guilds running at least 3. Anything longer than 4-5 minutes plummets your DPS. Paragon actually runs 8 Affliction Warlocks at the moment and they kill it in like 2 minutes...

 

Also, are you a troll, and do you have Berserking macro'd into DS. If you are and you do, then you are likely having Berserking fall off before BBoY hits 10 stacks, which is a significant DPS loss.

 

Also on protectors you can swap to each target after you get your intial medium buffed DoTs up, then SB+SS one final time on the 3rd target for max duration mega DoT's. This works on shamans too as I can comfortably spread DoTs to all 4 targets before snapshotting the perfect storm of procs at 10 stacks.

 

My opener for Protectors is as follows (gaming an extra shard via 25s pull timer)

 

Prepot - Haunt - SS - MG once to proc trinkets - DS/Zerking - SB+SS refresh - SS to He - SS to Sun - SB+SS 10 stack + all procs.

 

After this point it's just a case of Inhale - Switch - Haunt - Exhale. Make sure you are spamming SS to lose as little duration as possible on your dots. You should be able to keep Agony going until DS and Bindings come off CD (i usually have it at about 4s left when they proc), but don't be afraid to use your extra charge of DS (take AD on all fights) on an early BBoY proc as it's far more powerful than bindings.

[Cardio33 3]

What's your Ilvl? And how long is the protectors fight lasting? My guild kills it in like 3 minutes 30 which is still pretty slow. We only have 1 Warlock (me) playing Affliction, in contrast to many top guilds running at least 3. Anything longer than 4-5 minutes plummets your DPS. Paragon actually runs 8 Affliction Warlocks at the moment and they kill it in like 2 minutes...

 

Also, are you a troll, and do you have Berserking macro'd into DS. If you are and you do, then you are likely having Berserking fall off before BBoY hits 10 stacks, which is a significant DPS loss.

 

Also on protectors you can swap to each target after you get your intial medium buffed DoTs up, then SB+SS one final time on the 3rd target for max duration mega DoT's. This works on shamans too as I can comfortably spread DoTs to all 4 targets before snapshotting the perfect storm of procs at 10 stacks.

 

My opener for Protectors is as follows (gaming an extra shard via 25s pull timer)

 

Prepot - Haunt - SS - MG once to proc trinkets - DS/Zerking - SB+SS refresh - SS to He - SS to Sun - SB+SS 10 stack + all procs.

 

After this point it's just a case of Inhale - Switch - Haunt - Exhale. Make sure you are spamming SS to lose as little duration as possible on your dots. You should be able to keep Agony going until DS and Bindings come off CD (i usually have it at about 4s left when they proc), but don't be afraid to use your extra charge of DS (take AD on all fights) on an early BBoY proc as it's far more powerful than bindings.

Thanks for the explanation, much more clear now.  I definitely do not inhale/exhale enough to extend the empowered dots.  Here's a log from last night,

 

http://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/zFJvMPbmDxg7RT98#fight=4

 

I just got home from work and jumped into the raid so my computer was laggy as hell (took 5-6 sec lag on opener that threw me off).  Also forgot to pop terrorguard (fail).  Blew all my shards early on haunts and ended up with a terrible sub 50% uptime.  

 

I'm 578 ilevel and the kill took us 6 min 30 sec since a lot of people died early.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/kiljaeden/Medschool/advanced

[shishigami 0]

My opener for Protectors is as follows (gaming an extra shard via 25s pull timer)

 

Prepot - Haunt - SS - MG once to proc trinkets - DS/Zerking - SB+SS refresh - SS to He - SS to Sun - SB+SS 10 stack + all procs.

 

After this point it's just a case of Inhale - Switch - Haunt - Exhale.

 

Does that mean you prioritize extending the mega dots from the opener over spreading them to the other two bosses? Or do you soul swap them to the other two bosses first

[Liquidsteel 279]

Sorry for not being clear. I will instantly swap those DoTs to the bosses before I begin extending.

 

Similarly, when Rook disappears I will instantly swap DoTs to all 3 adds before resuming the extension.