Warlock 6.0 Transition Guide

[Zagam 1,982]

Alright Warlocks, based on the most recent build deployed, here are some observations and things to think about as you transition into 6.0, still at level 90, clearing SoO.

 

Destruction

 

• Curse of Elements is gone.  Don't sweat this debuff at all anymore.
• 2pc Tier Bonus is still worth as little as it was before, but gained a small bit due to Devastation giving us 5% more Crit.  This will invoke more of the Haste vs Crit debate and it might be worth going more into Crit.  It will, however, largely be irrelevant and will make very little difference.
• 4pc Tier Bonus has gone down in value greatly with the inability to snapshot a higher crit chance with Immolate.  Gone is the high-end Warlock maneuver of recasting Immolate on 4pc procs to gain higher Ember generation.  This will likely not impact a majority of Warlocks, but it will hit those who were executing this technique.
• With KJC modified to a temporary 8 second buff on use, moving as a Destruction Warlock will be nerfed significant.  Gameplay modification will require you to use your Conflagrate charges for moving, not using them as liberally as we've been used to.  KJC might still be of value, but the value of the talent has been nerfed to the point that AD significantly outgains it except for a few, unique situations.
• In terms of tuning, Destruction feels the smoothest of all the specs available at level 90.  Classes have been tuned to include their level 90 talent, and Destruction is hurt the least in this manner. 
• Pandemic has been reduced from 50% to 30% duration.  For Destruction, this means Immolate has a smaller window to refresh Immolate without a DPS loss.  Immolate's duration is 15 seconds, so the window to reapply goes down from 7.5 seconds to 4.5 seconds. 

 

Overall, Destruction feels somewhat like it did before - keep Immolate up, use Incinerate as filler, use Chaos Bolt with procs.  DPS will be nerfed on a relative scale due to removal of Immolate snapshot which will reduce Burning Embers which will reduce Chaos Bolt overall damage.  Not being able to move and freely cast Incinerate will hurt a noticeable amount.  Think ahead what you will be doing on fights like Iron Juggernaut, Siegecrafter, and Garrosh when you can't move and cast outside of short 8 second windows if you take KJC as a talent.

 

 

Demonology

 

• Curse of Elements is gone.  Don't worry about this debuff anymore.
• Shadowbolt damage has gone down a noticeable amount. 
• Soul Fire damage has gone down slightly. 
• Touch of Chaos damage has gone down significantly to the point that Touch of Chaos is a marginally worse decision to use in Metamorphosis than Soul Fire.  All Molten Core charges should be spent on Soul Fire in Metamorphosis.  Touch of Chaos should only be used while moving. 
• Snapshotting Doom is no longer applicable.  Using BBoY and trying to snag Doom in the 10 stack is pointless.  Just keep Doom and Corruption up 100% of the time.  Hope for syncronized trinket procs at the precise time that Doom ticks.
• Hand of Gul'dan damage has been increased.  Shadowflame damage has also been increased.  However, Hand of Gul'dan snapshotting, affectionately referred to as HoG weaving, is no longer a thing.  No longer do you have to pop into Metamorphosis to buff your Shadowflame damage.
• Mastery has been changed, slightly.  There's no longer a flat damage gain while you're in Metamorphosis.  Instead, while in Metamorphosis, certain spells are increased.  This was a way to remove the HoG snapshotting technique.  You also gain 5% more Mastery from your stats now, so expect to have slightly more Mastery when you log in the first time in 6.0. 
• Grimoire of Sacrifice has been changed to Grimoire of Synergy.  Grimoire of Synergy is essentially our current T16 2pc bonus in talent form.  Our 2pc gives us a chance to proc 20% bonus damage for us and our pets for 10 seconds.  Synergy gives 15%.  During 6.0, with the T16 2pc, you could have both effects up at the same time for a whopping 35% damage increase for a period of time.  Both of these buffs would be valuable to track without snapshotting as the 2pc T16 bonus is worth 67% of Dark Soul and Grimoire of Synergy procs are worth 50% of Dark Soul's bonus damage.  Grimoire of Synergy is coming ahead of both Service and Supremacy in my own personal tests. 
• Without Fel Flame to move, Metamorphosis will be your primary movement crutch if you don't need to Life Tap.  Keep this in mind with timings on CDs and such so that you aren't caught without a healthy supply of Demonic Fury.
• Pandemic has been reduced from 50% to 30%.  This means that both Corruption and Doom have had their maximum debuff timers reduced.  Doom's maximum duration was 90 seconds and it's threshold to refresh was 30 seconds.  Those values have been reduced to 78 seconds and 18 seconds, respectively.

 

Overall, Demonology feels empty - as if it's missing something.  This something is Demonbolt.  The spec feels balanced with Demonbolt but empty without it.  While we continue to clear SoO as Demonology, you have 4 buttons to worry about - Shadowbolt/ToC, Corruption/Doom, HoG/Chaos Wave, and Soul Fire.  With snapshotting gone, the spec's compexity goes down significantly - just keep Doom up on anything that moves without concern of when you apply it.  Same with Corruption.  Prioritize Shadowbolt in caster form unless you hit 10 Molten Core stacks.  Bleed a few off in caster form or Metamorphosis as long as you don't impact your burn phase. 

 

 

Affliction

 

• Curse of Elements is gone.  Don't worry about this debuff anymore.
• The Pandemic change affects Affliction the most.  All three DoTs will now only be able to refreshed to a lower maximum duration from their 5.4 values.  Safe refresh value for Unstable Affliction goes down from 7 seconds to 4.2 seconds.  The value for Corruption goes down from 8 seconds to 4.8 seconds, and the value for Agony goes down from 12 seconds to 7.2 seconds.  This means you'll be reapplying your DoTs approximately 20% more often.  Unstable Affliction feels like it runs its course quickly - pay attention to this one in 6.0.
• Snapshotting removal will drop Affliction from one of the most dominant specs in the game to one of the worst.  Affliction was due some buffs that it never received, so damage in 6.0 is going to be low.  Without snapshotting, there is no longer an urgency to reapply DoTs with trinket procs - simply reapply your DoTs within the safe threshold windows listed above for maximum DPS opportunities. 
• Nightfall has been reduced to accomodate the perk gained while leveling from 90-100.  Why Blizzard gives us a perk and then nerfs the ability for a net change of nearly nothing is truly confusing.  Worse is that it impacts us without the perk in a negative fashion.  Soul Shards are hard to come by in 6.0 - treat them with care.
• Drain Soul has had its Soul Shard generation effect reduced greatly.  When you kill something while using Drain Soul on it, you will regenerate a single Soul Shard, not the maximum you get in 5.4.  However, with the reduction in Nightfall, you'll want to Drain Soul "snipe" as often as possible to keep your flow of Soul Shards healthy.
• You now get 5% more Haste from your stats thanks for Eradication.  You'll have a bit more Haste in 6.0 than you did in 5.4.
• Goodbye, Soul Swap.  It was nice knowing you.  Soul Swap now costs a Soul Shard.  With the gutting of Nightfall, you can't afford to spend a Soul Shard spreading DoTs that are not empowered.  Soulburn:Soul Swap is a horrible decision that burns TWO Soul Shards.  For those of you with the bad habit of using Soulburn:Soul Swap to apply DoTs - break that habit yesterday or you'll be in a world of misery for 6.0 and WoD. 
• Affliction's 4pc bonus is now more attractive as any additional Soul Shard resource is going to be beneficial.  Consider using it.

 

Overall, Affliction feels very bad without the Soul Shards.  DoTs tickle for very little damage and Soul Shard drought leaves Haunt damage on the low end.  Without Soul Swap, DoT spreading is hurt majorly.  Fishing for Soul Shards has also been reduced.  The spec was and is still in dire need of a buff, of which we haven't received yet.  I would avoid Affliction for SoO in 6.0 until the extra perks roll in. 

 

All Specs

 

• Multistrike is a thing.  Pets can benefit from it (have proof of this in logs).  This means KTT isn't a bad option for Demonology anymore.  Until WoD, we won't see gear with Multistrike on it aside from KTT, so it's fortunate that we can provide it with Dark Intent.   
• Doomguard damage feels much better as a percentage of your damage.  It feels like a cooldown again.
• With the nerf of KJC, get really acclimated to Burning Rush.  You'll be using this ability much more often to get into position quicker, especially for things like closing Rifts on Heroic Sha of Pride or running from Mines on Siegecrafter Blackfuse.  Also, if you aren't used to it, find and learn how to use Demonic Leap.  It activates Metamorphosis, so planning is necessary, but it can be a help with movement.

 

For 6.0, I would heavily suggest Demonology or Destruction for almost every fight.  Affliction feels too heavily gutted compared to how we played it in 5.4.  Be prepared to make heavy adjustments with the notes listed above.  We will need to do a better job of planning positions with things like doing engineers on Heroic Garrosh.  Please report your findings here so that we can create a comprehensive guide for others to follow on what has changed. 

[Phenax 12]

How have you felt about Glyph of Dark Soul in each spec?

[Zilthy 36]

Nice writeup/summary, thank you Zag!

 

Even though Demo is empty/lacking without Demonbolt, I am wondering if I am wrong in thinking that it will be a better pick than destruction for any big/heavy movement fights, and just how much loss of dps there is without Demonbolt.  :/

[Zagam 1,982]

How have you felt about Glyph of Dark Soul in each spec?

Essential for Demonology.  Meh for the other two.  Demo has 60 second burst intervals which makes this glyph nice.  We will not, however, have it for 6.0 because the materials needed to craft it come from Warlords herbs which we will not have access to.

 

Nice writeup/summary, thank you Zag!

 

Even though Demo is empty/lacking without Demonbolt, I am wondering if I am wrong in thinking that it will be a better pick than destruction for any big/heavy movement fights, and just how much loss of dps there is without Demonbolt.  :/

Touch of Chaos got banged hard.  It's really lackluster hitting for less than Shadowbolt.  Even with a high Mastery build, ToC is still crap, so it's not so much a movement spec as it is just another DPS spec now.  My testing showed Demo on par with Destruction and Affliction if it was using Cataclysm of Demonic Servitude.  However, with Demonbolt, it pulled a good bit ahead.  Right now, it's just too simplistic without snapshotting.  If you keep HoG up and your DoTs, you only have three decisions - use Shadowbolt, use Soul Fire, or use Metamorphosis.  If you use Metamorphosis, you have 1 decision - use Soul Fire.  I'll know more when the first week happens and I see lots of data, but my early inclination is that Demo and Destro will be very close and Aff will be behind.

[Liquidsteel 279]

I think for 6.0 you'll be best suited to stick with the unglyphed dark soul thanks to still having PBI. I'll be pairing it with AD or MF depending on the fight for Demo, and likely AD all the way for Destro.

I won't be going anywhere near Affliction.

[Nytemare 2]

Thanks for the write up, So come 6.0 you think Destro build be more Crit > Mastery > Haste? and Demo is?

 

I just started trying to relearn Demo to see if I can get it down or 70% down before my raid this Sat/Sun

[Zagam 1,982]

I think for 6.0 you'll be best suited to stick with the unglyphed dark soul thanks to still having PBI. I'll be pairing it with AD or MF depending on the fight for Demo, and likely AD all the way for Destro.

I won't be going anywhere near Affliction.

Can't glyph it in 6.0 anyways.  I gotta make sure people see this.  YOU CANNOT GLYPH DARK SOUL FOR 6.0!!!

 

Thanks for the write up, So come 6.0 you think Destro build be more Crit > Mastery > Haste? and Demo is?

 

I just started trying to relearn Demo to see if I can get it down or 70% down before my raid this Sat/Sun

I never said Crit would overtake Mastery.  I said it might overtake Haste since you get 5% more.  Mastery should still be king regardless of spec.  I'm pretty sure you mentioned that you're still progressing - do not try to take Demonology into a progression setting, ESPECIALLY if you haven't mastered it.  You'll be hurting yourself and your raid group. 

[Nytemare 2]

Can't glyph it in 6.0 anyways.  I gotta make sure people see this.  YOU CANNOT GLYPH DARK SOUL FOR 6.0!!!

 

I never said Crit would overtake Mastery.  I said it might overtake Haste since you get 5% more.  Mastery should still be king regardless of spec.  I'm pretty sure you mentioned that you're still progressing - do not try to take Demonology into a progression setting, ESPECIALLY if you haven't mastered it.  You'll be hurting yourself and your raid group. 

 

Yeah i miss read. If I do Demo for my raid it will ONLY be on non-heroic fights that are snooze fest for us. Those fights would be all the ones after general. as first 8 bosses we do on heroic. IJ and General are the ones we have yet to beat. General we only did one pull, but we been trying to get IJ. we got the dps to push him hard, but fail on Seige mode as shock pushes and non-stop aoe damage just eats us.

[Zilthy 36]

 

Touch of Chaos got banged hard.  It's really lackluster hitting for less than Shadowbolt.  Even with a high Mastery build, ToC is still crap, so it's not so much a movement spec as it is just another DPS spec now.  My testing showed Demo on par with Destruction and Affliction if it was using Cataclysm of Demonic Servitude.  However, with Demonbolt, it pulled a good bit ahead.  Right now, it's just too simplistic without snapshotting.  If you keep HoG up and your DoTs, you only have three decisions - use Shadowbolt, use Soul Fire, or use Metamorphosis.  If you use Metamorphosis, you have 1 decision - use Soul Fire.  I'll know more when the first week happens and I see lots of data, but my early inclination is that Demo and Destro will be very close and Aff will be behind.

 

*nod* I know ToC is pretty worthless, the only extra movement I was really thinking of was Demonic Leap.  *shrug*

 

*sigh* sounds like Demo is going to need the T100 talents in order to keep up on DPS.  (I know you said that it was empty, missing something, just was really wondering how hard of a hit not having those would be on DPS).  Oh well, it is what it is.

Edited September 25, 2014 by Zilthy

[Hurtlocker 11]

Have you tested ToC on a multi target or AOE type fight (Maybe the 4 dummy one) to see if that would be better over SF due to the potential for Choas Wave procs?  Not sure if that damage will help ToC's case and Rng will be factor obviously.  

[Zagam 1,982]

Have you tested ToC on a multi target or AOE type fight (Maybe the 4 dummy one) to see if that would be better over SF due to the potential for Choas Wave procs?  Not sure if that damage will help ToC's case and Rng will be factor obviously.  

Interesting thought.  Initial feeling is no, wouldn't be worth it to fish for procs.  Here's my napkin math approximation...

 

8% proc rate is pretty low.  You're looking at 1 proc every 12.5 casts.  Knowing that Soul Fire always crits and innately hits for more, ToC would need a higher proc rate to really pull ahead.  That's going to come down to RNGeesus affecting high procs while multiple targets exist.  I could test that tonight, but my thought is that it'll be a poor decision with RNG sometimes bailing you out. 

[Janglybits 1]

So with Affliction out of the loop, would it be safe to essentially aim for Mastery>Haste=Crit for Destro and Demo?

[Liquidsteel 279]

From what I remember from seeing the SimC results on Beta, Demo will be favouring Mastery followed by Multi Strike/Crit followed by Haste. I believe the loss of snapshotting devalued Haste quite a bit, though I'm no number cruncher so feel free to correct me if that's wrong.

[Janglybits 1]

From what I remember from seeing the SimC results on Beta, Demo will be favouring Mastery followed by Multi Strike/Crit followed by Haste. I believe the loss of snapshotting devalued Haste quite a bit, though I'm no number cruncher so feel free to correct me if that's wrong.

I've seen some t17 sims, but not a lot of 6.02 t16 sims.  It's tricky right now, too, because we can't really obtain multistrike outside of Dark Intent and KTT.  Versatility will only come from a buff, for now.  I'll probably run Demo/Destro with Mastery>Crit>Haste then.

[JvChequer 43]

Besides, I'm saying goodbye to trolls and Welcome to Orcs again.

Belfs will be a good choice too.

 

Btw, with Demo, what's better single target at lvl 90 and lvl 100, Service or Supremacy ?

 

I'm Feeling Supremacy will be more attractive to single target with the Synergy stuff + 2tp

Service may pulls ahead if u can use it everytime with 2+ targets.

 

And, of course, says goodbye to BBOY and welcome to KTT for Demo.

[Eddie 16]

With the removal of snapshotting, does KTT become the preferred trinket for Demo?

[Zagam 1,982]

You can still get a real punch delivered with Soul Fire if you treat Soul Fire as if it was Chaos Bolt.  It depends on the value of Multistrike against Haste since the procs are relatively similar. 

[JvChequer 43]

You can still get a real punch delivered with Soul Fire if you treat Soul Fire as if it was Chaos Bolt.  It depends on the value of Multistrike against Haste since the procs are relatively similar. 

 

MS Looks better in aoe than Haste.

Haste looks cool in Single target since Soulfire it's better than ToC at Metaform.

[Yarv 2]

Great Summary Zag. Really will appreciate when it comes to 6.0 and the few weeks of raiding we have in it. Long live Demo!

[EvilOverlord 1]

• Hand of Gul'dan damage has been increased.  Shadowflame damage has also been increased.  However, Hand of Gul'dan snapshotting, affectionately referred to as HoG weaving, is no longer a thing.  No longer do you have to pop into Metamorphosis to buff your Shadowflame damage.

I'm assuming Shadowflame still stacks up to a max of 2?

+with the increase in damage, it's a big dps loss if you don't make it stack?

[Zagam 1,982]

I'm assuming Shadowflame still stacks up to a max of 2?

+with the increase in damage, it's a big dps loss if you don't make it stack?

You got it.  Even with the 2pc bonus when you get an additional charge, it still only stacks to 2.  Optimal use will be to maximize time spent with Shadowflame up, particularly the 2 stack.  You don't want to double cast it to get to 2 right away, but make sure you don't miss the small window to overlap stacks. 

[Zagam 1,982]

Two weeks, kids.  PvP season ending announcement out today, so all signs point to 10/14 release date to go into Mythic/6.0. 

[Berlinia 168]

Two weeks, kids.  PvP season ending announcement out today, so all signs point to 10/14 release date to go into Mythic/6.0. 

And all mage theorycrafters are busy finding ways to spread Living Bomb on MC's to kill people during raids.

[JvChequer 43]

I'm back to Demo to remember how to play it properly, 1y since 5.2 I'm sucking at some things, next two weeks will be major to be back on rails.

[Zagam 1,982]

Everyone's going to have their back to the rails as they relearn SoO with gimped abilities, removed abilities, and significantly lowered mobility in a raid designed around moderate mobility. 

 

We all will be relearning.  I'll be very busy over the next 2 months haha