What can I do to improve my Destruction Warlock

[shishigami 0]

Hi,

 

I'm looking for any advice to improve my Warlock play. I'm positive that I could do more damage for one. I recorded my play from Immerseus to Sha (partially NHC and partially HC), on log and VoD. I played Destruction exclusively.

 

Armory: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/antonidas/L%C3%ACss%C3%A0ndra/advanced

Warcraft Logs: http://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/B6gQbakZCJwd9MnP

World of Logs: http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-3unhs2pao3lje69x/

VoD: http://www.twitch.tv/kapuzimo/b/557733422

 

I think I should align Dark Soul and potion better with trinket procs (although I didn't utilize trinket procs very well in the first place). One thing I'm not sure about is how I should utilize the Black Blood proc, I tend to delay CBs until the end but I'm not sure if that's the right thing to do.

 

I'd highly appreciate any advice.

 

Best regards

 

-- Edit

 

I tried my hands at Affliction and managed to get 460k DPS at protectors (http://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/M7wPhQy1X6NgHrVG/). It's much better than Destruction but I think I could do more. I tried doing the trick to extend the DoT duration but I think I lost track of the DoTs because of that. I'd highly appreciate any advice. (I did not use a potion on purpose)

Edited August 15, 2014 by shishigami

[Recklessfear 33]

Get your 4pc ASAP

BBoY is fine for destro, KTT is better in practice.

got a couple of hit/haste pieces, but try to prioritize gear with mastery on it.

You have...A LOT of haste as destro, why? GCD cap?

 

 

--Logs--

 

Look at This graph

 

You're not using CBs along with your trinket procs very well at all.

 

You're also not using PBI and DS together, and they have great synergy since they work together well with a CD of 2 minutes

 

Only 2 havocs, should be havocing every single big add, or Sha and spamming SB from little adds to sha.

 

You capped embers 7 times, although all but 3 of them were very short durations you sat at cap. Work on that

 

GET MORE RIFTS, you only hit 3 for 46% uptime. Do the mechanics, then worry about damage.

 

You got gift 5 times, but only power 3 times? Make sure your raid is using that debuff, it's huge damage.

 

 

--Video--

 

of 2:27 in before your sha attempt.

 

No prepot, or pre cast

Your opener seems very clunky

You're missing a DS buffed immolate in the opener which hurts initial ember generation

Burning rush around the room! Then get back to the good ol healing rain/titan buff

You mis-clicked SS 3 times before you actually used (maybe it's me, but your keybinds seem really odd and clunky. FnB is a pretty situaltional ability and it's 1 for you? Shift F is immolate, yet F is SS. How many times do you use SS in an encounter vs immolate?)

Your weakauras seem to be very out of place and hard to look at.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[shishigami 0]

Thanks a lot for your response!

 

As for my UI, I completely redid it and am very comfortable with it. Proccs are now in the middle of the screen, right next to my character.

 

For my keybindings, I mainly use sh.E for Immolate, E for incinerate 3 for Conflagrate and 2 for Chaosbolt since those keys are the easiest for me to hit. I'm having no problems whatsoever with execution. What you mentioned about me failing SS was a communication issue. I was going to resurrect the healer at first but I was told not to because he should just resurrect himself. I was then told that it was on cooldown.

 

Sha of Pride HC is still a pretty new encounter to me which is probably partially the reason my Burning Ember management and Procc usage is so off. I think my biggest problem is the timing at which I choose to close rifts, I missed out on several of the Havoc opportunities that you mentioned because I was somewhere off in the room, going towards a rift. Do you have a set timing/phase which you use to close rifts or do you just go whenever you don't have the debuff?

 

As for my gear, I use Askmrrobot to reforge and at this point it's telling me to get even more Haste and drop Mastery (no matter which profile I choose). Should I not use Askmrrobot? I configured it as explained in Sparkuggz video: 

 

About the opener, I looked up the right opening and will be using it from now on.. I have problems fitting in Curse of the Elements though. When is the best time to use it? Again, thanks a lot for your help.

[Recklessfear 33]

Opener:

 

Pre pot

Pre cast incinerate

CoE

DS

immolate

Conflagx2

Incinerate till 2 embers

CBx2

immolate

 

As far as AMR, try resetting your weights to this:

 

 

That will put you at 10k and you'll gain a fair amount of mastery in the process.

 

AMR is a good tool if you understand how to use it. And 14k haste for destro progression is not ideal

[shishigami 0]

Thanks a lot for the quick response. I edited AMR with these weights which translates to the following:

 

 

I'll be trying this out

Edited August 17, 2014 by shishigami

[shishigami 0]

Thanks a lot for the quick response. I edited AMR with these weights which translates to the following:

 

 

I'll be trying this out

 

-- Edit:

 

Upped my DPS by 70k at protectors (280k -> 350k), even though I didn't play that very well and didn't pot / flask. Thanks a lot!

Edited August 17, 2014 by shishigami

[Astynax 24]

Get your 4pc ASAP

BBoY is fine for destro, KTT is better in practice.

got a couple of hit/haste pieces, but try to prioritize gear with mastery on it.

You have...A LOT of haste as destro, why? GCD cap?

 

He's running the high haste destro build. It's not really a DPS difference from the crit one, and depends mostly on how you play it instead of the crit build. I know several locks that run it, and do just fine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As for the longs, Reckless covered most of it. Two things he missed:

 

 

63% immo uptime- You're a DoT class. You REALLY need to maintain at least 85% DoT uptime in every fight, and good locks will be looking at hitting 98. (and if I'm not mistaken, actual Immo uptime on sha is even lower.)

 

3 shadowburns? Man.... That's a lot of missed damage. If you're not spamming shadowburn every chance you get, you're doing it wrong. lol. I've seen trash pulls where I cast maybe 3 spells above the 20% mark, and then top the meters because my shadowburn does almost 8% of all the damage done during the combat. It's a metric shitton of damage, and you should get used to casting it at every step. I recommend grabbing the macro and using tidyplates so you can just do it on mouseover.

[Zilthy 36]

And copy those shadowburns on to something else with havoc whenever possible.

 

And just for convenience, if going with a mouseover macro for shadowburn as Astynax mentioned it will need to look like this:

 

#showtooltip

/stopcasting

/cleartarget [@mouseover,harm,nodead]

/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead] [] Shadowburn

/targetlasttarget [@mouseover,harm,nodead]

 

The stopcasting is not required and a matter of preference, but the cleartarget and targetlasttarget is.

Edited August 21, 2014 by Zilthy

[JuanJuany 2]

Recklessfear - > why 10k cap for haste?

[Liquidsteel 279]

I feel like if you're going to hit 10,124, you may aswell go for 10437, which is a breakpoint with 30% haste (meta gem or bloodlust).

 

Considering you can guarantee a 4pc proc during meta gem, it makes sense to grab the extra 300 haste.

Edited August 24, 2014 by Liquidsteel

[Zilthy 36]

Recklessfear - > why 10k cap for haste?

 

There is no real reason to cap at 10k haste other than playstyle. Hitting that breakpoint is not a huge deal.  After Mastery being most important, choose:

 

High Haste:  pew pew pew pew pew

High Crit: Boom      Boom

Balanced:  Finding your comfort zone between them

 

All of the choices will end up around the same dps, just find what suits you best.

Edited August 24, 2014 by Zilthy

[JuanJuany 2]

@Liquid i mean is there a real benefit to hit it?

 

@Zilthy that's what I thought

[Liquidsteel 279]

It's what me and a buddy settled on for a 'mixed' build. Not too much haste, and can still retain a decent amount of crit.

 

The benefit is that hitting those breakpoints puts your immolate at full duration (I believe 23 seconds or so with full pandemic). This gives you a few extra seconds in which Immolate can be refreshed under the effects of 4pc, allowing you on average to get off an extra incinerate or two before you have to refresh, although this is kind of subjective on when 4pc procs and how long is left until the next time it is up.

[Astynax 24]

I feel like if you're going to hit 10,124, you may aswell go for 10437, which is a breakpoint with 30% haste (meta gem or bloodlust).

 

Considering you can guarantee a 4pc proc during meta gem, it makes sense to grab the extra 300 haste.

 

While it's a mediocre difference in principle, I feel like the efficacy of this approach reduces significantly as your ping increases. I already run into problems with ping-capping my spells when at 10124, and I only play with 70 or so on average.

 

Also, can I PM you? I have a question, and I feel that you're best qualified to direct me. lol. 

 

There is no real reason to cap at 10k haste other than playstyle. Hitting that breakpoint is not a huge deal.  After Mastery being most important, choose:

 

High Haste:  pew pew pew pew pew

High Crit: Boom      Boom

Balanced:  Finding your comfort zone between them

 

All of the choices will end up around the same dps, just find what suits you best.

 

 

This. Single target v multi target. But it's more for feel. The omission here is that you should attempt to play at a haste breakpoint, or a situational one, like liquid mentioned. If you don't, you're essentially wasting DPS, and not applying your ilvl efficiently, which can become a problem.

 

 

Recklessfear - > why 10k cap for haste?

 

10124 haste is an extra tick on Immo under normal duration. It's a "soft cap" in that another exists farther off, but there's no point in wasting that much haste rating to push that far and end up GCD clipping yourself.

[Liquidsteel 279]

Sure go ahead. I might fall asleep soon but will respond asap.

[Zilthy 36]

This. Single target v multi target. But it's more for feel. The omission here is that you should attempt to play at a haste breakpoint, or a situational one, like liquid mentioned. If you don't, you're essentially wasting DPS, and not applying your ilvl efficiently, which can become a problem.

 

 

For grins and giggles, I just sim'd my current settings (high haste) vs the breakpoint.  Know what the difference was?

 

343 dps.  Less than 0.1%

 

Even though optimal play will yield different results than simming, the bottom line is that it just plain does not matter.  Not one bit.

 

The playstyle that feels better for a person will matter a *whole* lot more.

[Astynax 24]

For grins and giggles, I just sim'd my current settings (high haste) vs the breakpoint.  Know what the difference was?

 

343 dps.  Less than 0.1%

 

Even though optimal play will yield different results than simming, the bottom line is that it just plain does not matter.  Not one bit.

 

The playstyle that feels better for a person will matter a *whole* lot more.

 

 

Well yeah... Every bit of item optimization we talk about on this forum is pretty much this. The "issue" I mention is basically for cases where you have like.... say, 7k haste (ESP if it could be dumped into mastery) and are somewhat wasting those extra 4k in stats. Ultimately any equivalent ilvl exchange, unless you're losing mastery, is pointless in doing the math on. The differences will be expressed as how you play it, or what your team needs. More haste = slightly higher AOE damage. More crit = slightly better ember generation. But all of that is just really minute min/maxing attempts on our parts. I don't see the point in continually splitting these hairs. lol.