Upping my dps, any advice?

[thyes 0]

Hi! So here's the thing; I recently came back to WoW after a 5 year long "break". 

I lvled my priest and hunter from 80 to 90, and with the free expansion boost I decided to start a lock. I've always wanted to try this class, and I found it very fun to play.

 

It's now my main, and I currently have an ilvl of 627 if I recall correctly. 

I play destruction, usually when doing heroics with my pals I'm on first or second on the dps meter. 

But one of my friends play hunter, and I have no chance of getting anywhere near his dps, it's so sick! 

 

I guess it's easy to just label them OP, but I know that I haven't mastered my rotation. 

I have tried finding guides on how to optimize dps rotation, but I still haven't quite cracked the code, if you will. 

 

Can anyone help me? On some packs/fights where I have to move around alot I can even fall down to around 7k dps, which is really bad. If things go smoothly I can be steady at around 11-13k - whereas the hunter I was talking about is usually at around 17k. Wtf? What can I do maximize my damage output? 

 

And yes, I am a noob lock. This character was boosted, so I think we already established that ;) 

[Orthios 271]

Hi! So here's the thing; I recently came back to WoW after a 5 year long "break". 

I lvled my priest and hunter from 80 to 90, and with the free expansion boost I decided to start a lock. I've always wanted to try this class, and I found it very fun to play.

 

It's now my main, and I currently have an ilvl of 627 if I recall correctly. 

I play destruction, usually when doing heroics with my pals I'm on first or second on the dps meter. 

But one of my friends play hunter, and I have no chance of getting anywhere near his dps, it's so sick! 

 

I guess it's easy to just label them OP, but I know that I haven't mastered my rotation. 

I have tried finding guides on how to optimize dps rotation, but I still haven't quite cracked the code, if you will. 

 

Can anyone help me? On some packs/fights where I have to move around alot I can even fall down to around 7k dps, which is really bad. If things go smoothly I can be steady at around 11-13k - whereas the hunter I was talking about is usually at around 17k. Wtf? What can I do maximize my damage output? 

 

And yes, I am a noob lock. This character was boosted, so I think we already established that

Well, to be honest, there's not a lot we can do right now, except to say to follow the guides written here.  Without raids being open for good looks at longer fights (and dungeon bosses lasting fairly shortly and not giving the best picture at what you did good/not good), we don't have a lot of options at looking at a log.  If you do want someone here to review a dungeon log, go ahead and log one (idk which would be best to do so).  As for your hunter friend doing more DPS, hunters are in a pretty good position right now (with marksman close to the top in Sim-C (take that however you want)) so it's not entirely surprising that (s)he is doing better than you.

[Liquidsteel 279]

On trash packs you should use Havoc on the healthiest mob then copy 3x shadowburn from surrounding low hp mobs. 

 

Make sure you have a nameplate addon that sets enemy nameplates to change colour to red when they are under 20% HP.

 

I guarantee you aren't abusing Shadowburn like you should be.

[thyes 0]

Ding ding! That's what I'm talking about, thank you!

If anyone have other tips/tricks, however basic they may be, please share. There's definetely alot of stuff I haven't implemented.

Thanks to the both og you for the replies.

[Soulzar 42]

Generally for trash or more Add type situation I have been running with Grim of Sacrifice (lots of Embers generated, lots of CB and SB's can be cast), Mannoroths Fury, and Cataclysm.  This is built around AoE and Cleave, weaker Single target.

 

Havoc is now a 20s cooldown so first thing you should work on is using it on cooldown.  Having a mouse over macro to quickly put it on a target without changing your own is key.  Do not Glyph it.

 

Something along the lines of:  This one casts Havoc on your Focus Target, or your Mouse over if no focus.  Focusing the boss can make it easy to quickly Havoc it for sniping adds without having to change your targets or mouse over.

 

#showtooltip
/cast [@focus,exists] [@mouseover,exists] Havoc

 

Don't Fizzle Out!  Always make sure you save an ember in situations where you can cleave adds.  Nothing stops you dead in your tracks faster than having multiple adds ready to shadowburn and being at half an ember.  Cant Shadowburn, cant generate more embers.

 

When going into a trash pull I will Cataclysm > Havoc+CB > CB my focused target again, and it should be close to ready for Shadowburn execute.  Get that Shadowburn off to start the Shadowburn Ember generation cycle and funnel as many CBs as you can while holding back that one ember for your execute.  With our current crit levels, I don't bother F&B AoEing if its just 3 targets, even 4 feels a bit weak right now compared to just single target nuking with Havoc cleave.

 

For Single target I have been using Grim of Supremacy, AD or MF, and Servitude with Doomguard.  Doomguard is pumping out the deeps.  Anything single target or with movement, he'll keep your dpss going.  Service is supposed to be marginally better, but it is an additional cooldown to track and time.  I would start with Sup and explore Service later.

 

Specifically for 5 mans, the AoE build probably works best all round.  Many bosses so far have AoE add waves and the trash between is a Cataclysm Wet Dream.  Shadowfury can be an effective way to make sure Adds don't stray from your Cataclysm cast location.  

 

If your the Sac build, don't forget to use your Doomguard once or twice per run.  Usually first and last boss.  He will be a significant boost on those fights.  Try to save 4 embers and Darksoul on trash pack leading to a boss so you can unload 4 CB on pull.

Edited November 25, 2014 by Soulzar

[Furyio 3]

On trash packs you should use Havoc on the healthiest mob then copy 3x shadowburn from surrounding low hp mobs. 

 

Make sure you have a nameplate addon that sets enemy nameplates to change colour to red when they are under 20% HP.

 

I guarantee you aren't abusing Shadowburn like you should be.

 

Wow, I havn't been doing this either. 

 

I've typically being burning MF, then keeping ROF up and using Fire and Brimstone. I use HAvoc as well on Cd.

Definitly havn't been spamming Shadowburn in that way. Will definitly try remember this one :)

 

I use tidyplates and Shadow unit frames, both set to change to RED when target reaches X percent health, highly recommended. I also added a TellMeWhen trigger over the weekend to let me know when the target I'm on is susceptible to Shadowburn