Destruction Lock - RAID DPS Advice

[DerpmanCometh 0]

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/proudmoore/Heimydinger/simple

 

I read somewhere the Sandman's Pouch   ( http://us.battle.net/wow/en/item/112320 )  is good for destro. I am waiting for the price to go down a bit. Will I replace it with something from Highmaul? What other trinkets would you recommend?

 

What else could i do to improve my Gear?

 

 

 

Ko'ragh Normal    Combat Logs  =  My Worst DPS 

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/FCwm9RGZbnQxDz1Y#fight=3

 

Kargath Normal    Combat Logs  = My Best DPS

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/FCwm9RGZbnQxDz1Y#fight=5

 

 

What should I do to improve my Raid DPS performance (mechanically speaking)?

Edited January 10, 2015 by DerpmanCometh

[Stunlocked 8]

Sandman's Pouch is very nice for Destruction, especially once you upgrade it. The internal cooldown lines up nicely with Dark Soul.

 

Shards of Nothing drops from Twin Ogron.  It's a Haste on-use trinket - but it will be better than either of your trinkets.

Quiescent Runestone is a 'stat stick' (no on-use effect or proc) that drops from Imperator Mar'gok.  
Copeland's Clarity is a BoE world drop (it drops from Highmaul Trash) : it's a great trinket for Destruction.  If you're checking out the auction house for the Pouch, keep an eye on it as well.

There's a 645 trinket that is available from follower missions, and a 640 trinket that drops in LFR (I forget which boss).  Either of those would probably be an upgrade for you until you get one of the others.

I'm no good at reading logs - but check out the Destruction guide, the Help my DPS post (you may want to post there), and the Highmaul guide: all are sticky posts. 

[Paracel 165]

@Derpmancometh,

Regarding your trinket questions.
You have probably the best trinkets from heroic dungeons. They are quite strong and can be easily treated as their analogs - Sandman=Blood and Shards=Meathook. However, only for mechanical purposes.
Check single cards from AH, it can be cheaper than a full deck.
 

Main Destro Guideline, probably worth of quoting.
1)Immolate uptime high as possible.
2)Synchronize your procs and your cooldowns. Macro on-use trinkets and Dark Soul.
2a)Learn to track proc cooldowns and bank embers to this point. Custom ICD weakauras, counting aloud - anything. Sandman's proc, for example, is 115 ICD. DS is 120 cd. Easy to track Sandman just by DS' CD.
3)Soulburn everything.
4)Havoc eveything. 

5)Soulburn everything with Havoc.

Now, to logs.

Koragh .
Can't see no Darksoul casts neither second pot. And trinket haste use. Dont eschew those, especially pot. DS not showing can be Warcraftlogs' issue.
82%immo uptime = not good either. Keep it up.

Kargath.
Weird Bloodlust timer. Mash in on pull, but thats none of my business, actually
Immo uptime. 82%. Again, keep it up.
You didn't used DS on pull, when your proc and prepot were active.
 

I hope my advices ain't wrong,
Goodluck!

Edited January 10, 2015 by Paracel

[DerpmanCometh 0]

So (for DESTRO) should I get a SANDMAN'S trink with a COPELANDS trinks? ...or SANDMANS and SHARDS?

Edited January 16, 2015 by DerpmanCometh

[Paracel 165]

So should I get a SANDMAN'S trink with a COPELANDS trinks? ...or SANDMANS and SHARDS?

Haste proc is a very controversal thing for Destro.

Copelands with all that SPD is just ridiculously good for all 3 specs.

Sandman+Copelands should be your guess.

Edited January 16, 2015 by Paracel

[Hybrex 1]

Black rock foundry is out soon. Don't go spending tons and tons of gold. Just wait and use what you can get from Highmaul

[DerpmanCometh 0]

For destro... SANDMANS and COPELANDS

 

Most recent Butcher Logs - LOW PERFORMANCE

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/2nqk89GBTNJ7dZzC#fight=12

 

armory page  -  http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/proudmoore/Heimydinger/simple

 

I heard Affliction Warlocks are keeping up with most DPS classes averaged from Highmaul. My raid leader says that I need to boost my DPS to ~20k on every single fight to stay in Team 1.

 

*Should I switch to AFF  ? 

*What trinkets wold be optimal to get started with AFF ?

[DerpmanCometh 0]

Black rock foundry is out soon. Don't go spending tons and tons of gold. Just wait and use what you can get from Highmaul

I already bought Sandmans. I am not worried about gold. I make enough. The problem is that I won't get any gear if people won't keep me around. I need better performance or I will keep getting booted for low DPS.

 

Some fights (ko'ragh) I only do like 13k max.... I know I suck at the moment.... Which is why I'm here... Asking questions

[Paracel 165]

Booting means serious business.

I'm on the case.

Butcher is some trouble that is hard to address for Destro, really.
You are missing your second Dark Soul from Archimonde's Darkness.

I also think your opener is weak.

This is the one I use.
1)prepot and precast Dark Soul. You don't use it - And your opening spells ain't benefiting from it,really.
2)Precast Incinerate
3)(Fight begins)Immolate
4)Double Conflagrate
5)Inci until 2 Embers.
6)2 CB fitting into duration of pot+DS

Get. Rid. Of. That. Dark Soul. Glyph.
Sandman's inner cooldown is 115 seconds, which is ridiculously close to DS' CD of 120 seconds. Check out WA thread for ICD WA tracking.
DS glyph makes no sense outside of Demo spec. Not enough embers to spam into those 10 second windows each 60 seconds.

For Koragh - get rid of that ugly Havoc glyph aswell. 
Jam as much shadowburns into adds as you can.
Havoc as much of those as you can.
And hardly ever think about using Fire and Brimstone outta there. It's very weak right now, regardless of situation.

Thinking about Aff - it's actually easier (for me) than Destro. Generally because of being a bit harder to mess up and no real feints forced into gameplay.(talking about Havoc shenanigans)
I'm keeping up a very good competition as Aff, and absolutely dominating Twins and Tectus. Guildies ain't no scrubs, geared well and playing well.

Trinkets don't really matter, as you are undergeared for a wide margin. Everything would do.
Copelando - №1 Best trinket(huehuehue). Shards of Nothing in any edition are very strong aswell.
Sandman has some weird interactions, but ends up to be just fine.

Edited January 16, 2015 by Paracel

[Paracel 165]

Arrrrrrrrrr, been writing log analysis and closed the tab. Shame on me.

Hit it once over again.

Butcher Log # 1.

3 things worried me

1)Opener resulted in delayed DS - much far from being in the pot range - and you cast only 1 CB in it.
Your strongest cooldown + proc are essentially wasted because of this.
Screw waiting for the proc in your opener. It is really bitchy sometimes. Pot effect + DS effect = still a ton of damage.

2)First DS. 0:17.
Second DS. 2:23. 2 minutes and 6 seconds later.
Third DS. 4:26. 13 seconds later than Time Warp and 2 minutes 3 seconds later than a previous DS.

Given the nature of DS cooldown being 2 minutes, I will question only one thing.
Where is your 4th DS from Archimonde's Darkness?
You either forgot or somehow wasted your best cooldown.
Don't do that.

Butcher #2.
Immo Uptime comes into play.
Keep. It. Up.
Same DS issues that were pointed above by me.
Also, you neither reacted to your Heroism with any of your buffs. The most wise idea in this scenario would be pop The Lost Dark Soul, from your AD talent.

Koragh is just uhhh, can't unsee RoF and FnB usages of this much.
Shadowburn.
Havoc.
Havoc the Shadowburns.
Your AoE is like a noodle slaps to those adds. Let other DPS players hit them, then capitalize on low-hp ones.

You know the issues now.
Know the source.
And what is most important - know how to address them.

Hope that helps and I won't see you in the Booted Bootcamp.
Remember, game is hard.
Good luck!
 

Edited January 16, 2015 by Paracel

[Liquidsteel 279]

I disagree with your opener, Paracel. Casting DS that early means you don't have time to get a 3rd Chaos Bolt off under procs.

I use DS plus CC before double conflag which gains about 3 seconds.

[Paracel 165]

I disagree with your opener, Paracel. Casting DS that early means you don't have time to get a 3rd Chaos Bolt off under procs.

I use DS plus CC before double conflag which gains about 3 seconds.

You are probably right.

The thing is, I'm not getting close to 3 embers during opening rotation. Probably generation issues from lack of haste/crit. Dunno,really.

Thanks for the advice. I'll try to adjust my opener and see if anything gets better.

Sorry for any misleading advice given. That's just how I see and how I play this game.

[Bitemeplease 1]

Might not be the best person to analyze logs as I'm quite new myself but for Kargath (taking logs from your best attempt) with your gear probably you should hit 18~19k i feel?

 

 

 

1. Your opener is wrong, you tried to build 4 embers before dumping and using your darksoul (losing out on potion buff initially)

 

Correct opener is like this ->

prepot -> precast incinerate

immolate

DARK SOUL + whatever racial cooldowns->  Conflag x2 

Probably spend about 4x -6x incinerates to build 2 embers then dump 2x Chaos Bolts while still having DS buff while probably refreshing immolate somewhere in between (Use a tracker to see when your DS ends, prioritizing casting maximum amount of Chaos bolts before DS ends)

 

 

2. You overlapped WAYYY too many immolates (e.g casting them 5 secs apart from each other), probably due to panic? Use weak auras to track your immolate debuff

 

3. Kinda weird dark soul usage (probably get rid of your glyph like others have mentioned), try to use Darksoul ideally when you have 3.5-4 embers to dump chaos bolts

 

4. Once you have sandman's, WAIT for sandmans to proc before DS-ing and dumping chaos bolts. A huge part of your damage will come from buffed chaos bolts  (my damage spikes up a few thousand whenever I dump chaos bolts so that's prolly a good indicator whether you're doing it right or wrong)

[Mikedawg 4]

Sandman's will only proc every two minutes. If your Sandman's timer isn't synced with your Dark Soul cooldown for some reason, do not delay your Dark Soul a significantly long amount of time waiting on the Sandman's pouch timer. 

 

Your cooldowns are your damage. Do not sit on them -- in almost every case, every class has their cooldowns cooling down 95+% of the time because leaving them available but not using them is a dps loss.

 

Use a proper opener with Dark Soul + trinkets and 2-3 chaos bolts from above and then do the following:

 

Generate embers for 2 minutes, keeping as many embers as possible without capping embers

Dump as many chaos bolts as possible with Dark Soul + procs

Repeat

 

Here is my 650 ilvl Heroic Butcher Kill:

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/KtmXHzMGayQWc1vp#fight=18&type=damage-done

 

Damn I was going to link that to compare, because I did line up my procs (potion+DS+Sandman's) but it really wasn't played well. I did 21k with the same gear as you, so I guess it could be a somewhat helpful to compare them. Don't Shadowburn when you can Chaos Bolt instead. 

Edited January 17, 2015 by Mikedawg

[Mikedawg 4]

I'll double comment here for Ko'ragh help: Do the same rotation that I said from above: 

Use a proper opener with Dark Soul + trinkets and 2-3 chaos bolts from above and then do the following:

 

Generate embers for 2 minutes, keeping as many embers as possible without capping embers

Dump as many chaos bolts as possible with Dark Soul + procs

Repeat

 

Don't try so hard to AOE -- Destro lock AOE sucks the nuts against a small number of dying targets. ROF is awful and FnB is hard to sustain. Focus mainly on the single target rotation without wasting time with movement and target switches, land a good shadowfury stunning adds inside the silencing field, and FnB when there are 5 (6?) or more targets. 

 

Then comes the only thing that is fun about destro: Shadowburn. When the adds get low, toss a Havoc on Ko'ragh and Shadowburn at least 3 adds. A simple macro (/cast [@mouseover] Shadowburn) means you won't even have to untarget Ko'ragh -- just dps him and mouseover shadowburn what's in front of you for crazy damage (maybe get a nameplate addon? Make sure you have nameplates for this). This is an awesome tactic that increases your damage *significantly* for fights such as Imperator, Ko'ragh, and Brackenspore. Once you get the timing right with Shadowburn, try to put some Chaos Bolts to your main target in between the Shadowburns so you don't cap your embers. Shadowburn also provides valuable embers that let you get more FnB casts off if you get an early kill during the AOE phase. Make sure you always keep an ember available if you think you'll be Shadowburning soon!

 

Good luck and I hope you don't get the boot -- make sure you come back with more logs and more questions if you have trouble, everyone wants to help out!

Edited January 17, 2015 by Mikedawg

[Liquidsteel 279]

When the adds get low, toss a Havoc on Ko'ragh and Shadowburn at least 3 adds.

Why stop there? Toss a Havoc on the boss around 8-10 seconds before the adds get low. Snipe 3 when you can, and Havoc should pretty much be usable again, so reapply it and snipe 3 more.

[DerpmanCometh 0]

Great Comments!  Thanks for all the help. Sorry I didn't get back sooner.

[DerpmanCometh 0]

Get. Rid. Of. That. Dark Soul. Glyph.

...DS glyph makes no sense outside of Demo spec.

...For Koragh - get rid of that ugly Havoc glyph aswell...

 

What glyphs should I be using?

Edited February 5, 2015 by DerpmanCometh

[DerpmanCometh 0]

...A simple macro (/cast [@mouseover] Shadowburn)...for crazy damage (maybe get a nameplate addon? Make sure you have nameplates for this)...

 

Thanks for the macro. By nameplate addon, do you mean Tidyplates?

[Paracel 165]

Tidyplates is a good example of nameplate addon. If you have a personal preference - go for it instead.

Glyphs don't really matter now. Healthstone is a clear winner, real benefit at the price of one glyph slot.
Soulstone glyph also comes in handy.
Third one can be Siphon Life or Eternal Resolve. Pick what you find decent.

[DerpmanCometh 0]

Thanks again for all the suggestions!

 

***Does anyone know where I could find some trustworthy weak auras strings for Dark soul, trinket procs, etc?

 

I just started using Weak Auras recently (I have been using TMW strings designed for MoP from Sparkuggz's UI setup until this point)

 

I still use AFFdots and Galvin unit bars. Curse says I have 107 addons installed. If you have any recommendations I will gladly try any new addons.

Edited February 5, 2015 by DerpmanCometh