A final screen shot before logging out for good.

As you have hopefully noticed, I haven’t been posting very much recently. That’s because I finally bit the bullet and decided to take a break from WoW.

Playing arena throughout TBC was some of the most fun I’ve ever had in a video game. And despite not agreeing with many of the changes that Blizzard has made in WotLK, I still  had a ton of fun in arena at level 80.

With that said, if you comment I would like you to share your most memorable arena match. Here’s mine:

In the very beginning of season 6 I played Affliction with a Disc priest. We flew to 1950 rating pretty quickly, but got stuck there for a week or so because of all the warrior teams queueing. After a few more days of playing we finally got up to 1990 and decided to queue for one more game.

We were matched up against a Rogue/Priest team and the match was incredibly intense. They couldn’t get a sap off because of the pet/soul link bug at the time, but we charged straight in anyways. The rogue put out tremendous pressure on my while the enemy priest kept trying to fear –> mana burn my priest. I had to juke the rogue while putting my pet on stay momentarily whenever the enemy priest ran in to fear (so my pet wouldn’t get feared). Dispelling fear with my pet and keeping CoEx on the enemy priest kept my priest in the clear, but there were about three or four times when I dipped down to 1k or 2k health and just barely teleported out alive.

Kiting a rogue with Teleport+CoEx, while at 2k health, is a heart pounding experience. Especially when your healer is CCed. Eventually, their trinkets were down and we got the enemy priest in a spell-lock –> fear –> MC –> fear CC chain and the rogue went down. Bam, 2k rating and furious shoulders.

Looking back, 2k isn’t even considered high anymore, but being the first warlock on the server to get furious shoulders was incredibly cool. He wore those shoulders throughout the rest of season 6 and ended up being retired in them.

I’ll miss you guys. Have a good one.

Post from: Yet Another Warlock Nerf.

Goodbye WoW

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By Gabe, of Penny Arcade infamy.

I was originally going to write a long, angry rant about the state of warlocks (pet resilience change did nothing, etc). I’ve changed my mind, however.

One of the biggest changes in the upcoming season is the change to the 2v2 bracket (no longer awards titles, weapons, or shoulders). Let’s talk about that.

So with the 2v2 bracket obsolete, 3v3 will become the de-facto bracket for WoW arena players. What does this mean for warlocks? Luckily, we have several very viable 3v3 comps. Let’s run down a few of the more viable/popular:

Rogue/Warlock/Shaman (RLS)

This is a comp that makes things go boom! Your primary role for this comp is to bring “mad burst.” Between bloodlust, resto shaman burst, rogue burst and CC, and chaos+conflag crits this comp can put out a tremendous amount of hurt in a very short period of time.

A key for this comp is to stay offensive. Go into this comp with the mindset of playing double dps. That is to say, aim for getting a very strong opener and making quick switches where possible. Force cooldowns and punish the enemy team for wasting any amount of their resources in the beginning of the game. Shadowfury an enemy healer in the middle of a cast into a blind=>hex=>death coil=>spell lock chain (or any long CC chain) is game breaking.

Another important thing to remember is that destro burst is very susceptible to dispellers. For this reason, make it a priority to either CC the enemy healer or put out so much pressure that the healer doesn’t have time to dispel.

Also, rogues become very fragile creatures once their cooldowns have been used up. It should be your goal, therefore, to pop cooldowns quickly and score a fast kill.

Mage/Warlock/Shaman (MLS)

This comp can put out a lot of burst, but it does it in a different way. The key here is the synergy between destroy warlocks and frost mages. Frost mages control melee classes beautifully… while destroy warlocks do not.

To succeed at this comp you need to have very good communication between yourself and the mage, since he needs to control your foes and be ready to pull out his burst when called for.

The shaman is the ideal healer for this comp once again because of bloodlust and his own individual burst (which is the highest of the healers).

Warrior/Warlock/Druid (WLD)

This is comp is viable again not because of any specific buffs warlocks have gotten recently (because we really haven’t gotten any… QQ). Warriors and druids, on the other hand, are extremely strong in the current arena environment.
The amount of damage a warrior can put out is simply ridiculous, especially against a cloth class. Add in MS, the pressure of an affliction warlock (that’s you), and druid CC and you can see why this comp is strong.

Your role in this comp is mainly support. You must spread your DOTs around to create pressure and use fear extremely often and well. Every member of this team needs to peel for the others to succeed. If you are getting train your warrior can hamstring one, the druid can root or cycle the other, while you run away/port to freedom. Conversely, fear also is a great peel if your druid is getting trained. If your warrior gets trained… I guess peel. You could also /lol.

Death Knight/Warlock/Druid (DKLD)

This comp is similar to WLD, except it doesn’t have MS. You also have more CC thanks to death knights having strangulate… mind freeze… ghoul stun… death grip… chains of ice… you get the idea. Since you don’t have MS your role will be to create as much pressure as you can (you’re affliction here) so that when the DK unloads his burst something dies.

Peels are also the name of the game here.

Shadow Priest/Warlock/Shaman (Shadowplay)

This comp is very, very strong right now. Shadow priests now have a mini MS which, along with recent shaman buffs, put this comp from retarded bad to amazing overnight.

You will of course be affliction. As before, you need to create as much pressure as possible (I’m sounding like a broken record). In case there is any doubt how to do that, always put up UA first against teams with dispel. If your opponents have no dispellers put up haunt first, then UA. After your casted DOTs are up on your primary target put up instant DOTs, then spread DOTs in the same order to the other players.

Your other major job is to kite, kite, kite. This is always something you should do on any comp, but it is more important here because you don’t have hax warrior or DK peels to help you out. Because of this, I strongly recommend using the Shadowflame glyph. If you can land a shadowflame slow on your melee train and then port away that will give you some breathing room.

That’s all for now. I apologize for the long delay in updates. I have recently moved, so I had to get everything squared away there. Rest assured, I have not left and I will continue posting updates in the coming weeks.

Post from: Yet Another Warlock Nerf.

The number of the week is 3

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I'm sure you must have one.

The WoW developers are posting a thread on several of the class forums asking for concerns from the community. They even posted one of these threads on the warlock forum (probably because of our insanely OP performance in PVP)!

I suggest you all head over there right now and voice your opinion. Just in case you forgot what your opinion should be, let me remind you:

* Pet survivability
* Affliction damage and CC dilemma (DOTed target = fear lasts 2 seconds)
* OPness of melee against us
* Dispel protection on immolate

Now go, go, go!

Post from: Yet Another Warlock Nerf.

Devs ask for Warlock QQuestions

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Scientists have proven that this is what ret paladins see when presented with the images of a warlock, a beautiful women, and a pile of gold.

Warlock pet survivability is currently laughably low. Due to this significant weakness it is more important than ever that you properly manage your pet in arena matches. When playing Warlock/Healer, especially, knowing when to pull your pet back and when to send it in is a necessary skill for success.

There are several comps that are going to give you more headaches re: pets than others. These are: Ret paladin/Healer and Death Knight/Healer. In general, however, if you face melee/healer there is a high chance they are just going to tunnel your pet the entire game.

Before I talk about how to handle this “strategy” it is helpful to analyze why an opposing teams constantly roflpwn pets rather than go after you or your healer.

1) Pets have fewer defenses than you or your healer. This allows melee to pump our more DPS when hitting your pet than they would against another target that has resilience, the ability to teleport, etc.
2) Attacking a pet is a win/win situation. If your healer tries to keep your pet up he will go OOM. If you health funnel your pet (necessary to prevent instant death), then you are CCing yourself. If you let it die and run off to resummon then you are CCing yourself.
3) Pet gibs happen in 3 or 4 seconds (often less against ret paladins). This is virtually a cost free way of completely shutting you down.

As you can see, by tunneling your pet melee do more damage and either crowd control you (DOTs fall off and your offensive pressure goes down) or deny you the resources you need to win (25% damage redirection, spell lock, etc). The sad fact of arena right now is that there is very little reason for melees to not to attack your pet. Or is there?

I drew this by hand.

The case example I’m going to use to illustrate what you should do is Warlock/Healer vs. Ret/Healer (since rets will give you the most trouble) on Nagrand arena. At the beginning of the match, you should put your pet on stay towards the center of the arena (see picture). Once this is done, stand away from your pet (but still in range of it).

This accomplishes several things. Firstly, it will be obvious who the ret is going to go after because you will be far apart. Secondly, if he ever does decide to switch to your pet he will have to run over to it.

If the ret decides to go for you then congradulations, you’ve probably won the match! If he decides to run for the pet toss a UA, and ONLY a UA, on him then quickly fear. If he trinkets, then make sure to quickly reapply fear. Hopefully he will run towards your healer and away from his. Either way, while the ret is feared run to his healer and pull him off the pillar with an instant howl of terror. At the same time send your pet after the enemy healer to maximize its distance from the ret paladin.

Use this opportunity to load up the healer with DOTs. It is a good idea to cast UA first, followed by haunt, and then your two instant DOTs as haunt is in the air.

By now fear will have ended and you should make your way back towards the center of the arena. Keep full DOTs on the ret and his healer as much as possible. If at any point you see the ret head back towards his healer (which your pet is attacking) then pull your pet back to you, throw a health funnel on it, and then send it back in. This is the tricky part. Because ret paladins kill pets so quickly you will have a very small window after you stop casting health funnel to land a fear on the paladin or your pet will be dead. If the paladin does kill your pet, just resummon.

A useful trick after putting your pet on stay is to use the passive command (Ctrl+0 by default I believe). This will cause your pet to run back to the original “stay” location. Your goal is basically to have your pet kite the paladin by running back and forth between this location and the enemy healer, while keeping the enemy healer in combat as much as possible.

I hope this brief outline was helpful! As always, let me know if you have any questions.

Post from: Yet Another Warlock Nerf.

P.E.T.S. - Pathetically Easy Targets for Slaughter

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1) You can no longer reliably keep fear up on a target that is DOTed.
2) You are no longer allowed to use immolate on targets with UA.
3) Affliction has lower single target and multi-target damage.

I’m going to try to not make this a QQ rant. This won’t be a “Warlocks are no longer viable, buffs plz” post. Instead, I’m going to talk about how to make the most from the situation we are in.

The big question is: should I go destruction for arena? The answer to this is complicated. Personally, I do not like destruction’s play style at all. If I have the option I will always play affliction (which I am doing now). I understand, however, that there are some warlocks out there who enjoy destruction and now there seems to be more viable destro comps than ever before.

Affliction

Assuming you want to stay affliction, your options are somewhat limited. In the 2s bracket, HPally/Warlock is no longer a viable comp (despite being the best Healer/Lock combo in 3.0). The two major problems that affliction will have to deal with is pet survivability and complete lack of single target dps. I am being totally serious when I say that retribution paladins can two shot warlock pets. I know that term gets thrown around a lot, almost always in hyperbole, so I really need to emphasis this point. Pet survivability is complete crap right now, and if you don’t find a way to adapt it will lose you quite a few games.

Due to the fear and damage nerf it is impossible to kill healers without significantly out-skilling them (this is the very definition of not viable, being unable to kill someone unless they are terribad compared to you). Furthermore, paladins do not offer enough CC and burst to assist in kill attempts (not to mention the changes to paladins in 3.1 make them weaker than before). Paladins are OK at keeping your pet up compared to other classes, but this is mostly a moot point.

So what healer should you take? Druids offer quite a bit of CC, which can help compensate for your inability to burst anything down. Cyclone has tremendous synergy with the affliction play style, which is all about creating enough pressure to put healers behind. However, druids are probably the worst at keeping your pet up compared to the other healers. Bottom line is that this comp will do better than HPally/Lock but it will still be very frustrating.

That leaves shaman and priest. Shamans are in general good healers now, except that they are very easy to gib. Priests have received several significant buffs, and are my healer of choice for the patch. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, priests can keep your pet up just about as well as any other healer (no one can keep it up against a ret). Secondly, priests have incredibly offensive pressure. This makes up for your lack of single target DPS. Priests can also mana burn, which offers another road to victory against Healer/X matches if you are having trouble killing the DPS.

Destruction

Destruction really only works in double dps comps. I wouldn’t try anything else in the 2s bracket and expect to be competitive. Due to immolate lacking dispel protection (LOL), you must put out enough burst to make spam dispelling fatal.
The two most common choices are mages and rogues. Of the two, the rogue is the superior choice. Mage/Lock had some “press” since it was played so well by Torment last season. In the current arena environment, however, Lock/Rogue is superior. I don’t like destruction, so I haven’t played either of these comps in depth. The information I’m relaying to you is garnished from reading other sites.

Destruction seems to shine more in 3s, where as affliction suffers even more. One of the only semi-viable 3s comps for affliction is shadowplay. Destruction, on the other hand, has so much burst you can pair it with a lot of things. Mage/Lock/Shaman seems to be gaining popularity, but has problems with double healer teams. Rogue/Lock/Druid also seems to have great potential. Experiment and find what works for you, but most comps with a healer and a rogue (or any class that can keep a target rooted/stunned) should work out well.

Post from: Yet Another Warlock Nerf.

Decisions, decisions – The 3.1 Warlockian Dilemma

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We already discussed the various ways warlocks can be evil. It’s in our nature, and even those of us who aren’t on RP servers must crave for world domination. There are many of us out there who pride themselves in spreading hatred and causing rage attacks on fellow players, but how to you measure one’s true evilness? Well, yours truly came up with a cunning solution: Evil Points^TM.

There’s a list of evil achievements below which should be completed by every self-respecting warlock, so grab a pen and paper, open your armory profile and show the world how evil you really are!

1. Bad example

EP: 20

Requirements: Eat the sweets while your orphan is watching.

Taking candy from children will give you ten bonus evil points. What’s better than seeing a young innocent orphan cry like a mage? If he ever asks you to bring him to see the Dark Portal again, summon him on top of it, kick him where the sun don’t shine and tell him to grow the hell up! When you do, make sure you also complete…

2. Home alone

EP: 10

Requirements: Use your Hearthstone while your orphan is with you.

Just leave the little prick and let him find his way back alone, okay?

3. Capture the flag

EP: 10

Requirements: Personally carry and capture the flag in Warsong Gulch.

Seeing a squishy clothie making a break for it and contributing to a win always brings a smile on my face, but don’t do it too often! Helping others out is really not our style. It’s not the most evil thing you can do, but it really annoys fellow players and that’s our agenda, ain’t it?

4. Deathcharger’s Reins

EP: 20

Requirements: Obtain the Deathcharger’s Reins from Baron Rivendare in Stratholme.

Even though this task is nearly impossible, you shouldn’t miss the chance of getting one of the coolest mounts in game. The drop rate was increased but it still might take a couple hundred Stratholme runs to get the reins. When you do get it, you’ll become the object of loathing and the entire server — possibly even the whole battlegroup, will hate you for it! How could you possibly resist?

5. Fiery Warhorse’s Reins

EP: 20

Requirements: Obtain the Fiery Warhorse’s Reins from Attumen the Huntsman in Karazhan.

If deathchargers are not your thing, this Fiery Warhorse just might be the mount you’re looking for. It has a much higher drop rate and your chances of getting it will mostly depend on how lucky your rolls will be, which reminds me…

6. Needy

EP: 10 (possibly 20, read on!)

Requirements: Win a need roll on a superior or better item above level 185 by rolling 100.

It ain’t as hard as it looks, you’ll win points for this eventually. But the beauty is in the extra ten you get for ninjaing an item you don’t even need. Be a greedy bastard like you’re supposed to and show those ho’s not to mess with masterminds such as yourself!

7. Friend or fowl

EP: 10

Requirements: Slay 15 turkeys in 3 minutes.

Not that you’d ever need an incentive for slaying harmless critters, but you’ll get another ten points for this malevolent misdeed as well. Killing 15 unsuspecting moonkin does indeed count, but no cheating!

8. Defeat Onyxia

EP: 10

Requirements: Defeat Onyxia.

Note that you must kill the bad dwagon all by yourself. If mages can do it, so can you! Don’t mind the fact that Onyxia is actually evil: a true villain must show no mercy even for other evil-doers. Do it I say, do it!

9. Out with it

EP: 10

Requirements: Eat so many Tricky Treats that you get an upset tummy.

You can eat all the candy you want and not worry about your weight. Believe it or not, puking is quite fun when you’re doing it in a game. Bonus points if you do it at a family reunion or celebration while everybody’s watching you: let those pixels come out and spread some love with them (or hate, depends who you ask). If  it’s not too much for you to handle, try to figure out a way and do it with achievement number one, Bad Example.

10. Storming Stormwind

EP: 10

Requirements: Kill King Varian Wrynn.

Do I even have to explain why? Is it not obvious already we do not like children, especially the annoying ones who pretend to be kings? If you’re alliance (which honestly, ain’t the most evil faction), go grab a snowball and throw it in his face repeatedly, however do note it only counts if you’re on a RP server.

11. The snows of Northrend

EP: 20

Requirements: Complete all of Hemet Nesingwary quests in Northrend

For this one you’ll have to kill dozens and dozens of creatures, but in addition to EP the dude will actually reward you with gold, experience and even items — you being a greedy bastard won’t pass on this opportunity now will you. Not that you’d ever miss a chance to kill those monsters anyway, right? In fact, killing as many random monsters as you can is a reward in itself so go knock yourself out. Wipe out the entire freakin’ Northrend population if you wish, Outland was more fun anyway!

12. Warglaives of Azzinoth

EP: 50

Requirements: Owner of a set of Warglaives of Azzinoth.

Undoubtedly the ultimate act of evil doing, depriving some melee douchebag of these two beauties will make sure you never again get invited to all those pointless raids and boring guilds.  There’s enough room only for you and you alone in the plans for world domination, so the sooner you get rid of all your friends the better! If you can do this achievement in the same time as number 6 (Needy), more power to you. Even today the Warglaives are without a doubt the coolest looking weapons in game, therefore a warlock should have them. I simply can’t stress that enough!

–

So I must admit I’m far from being the most evil warlock out there. Even though I’m not a big fan of achievements, I did my share of evil deeds but out of possible 210 evil points I only have 70. Now take an honest look at your armory profile and tell me, how evil are you?

Post from: Yet Another Warlock Nerf.

12 Achievements Every Self-Respecting Warlock Must Complete

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Unfortunately, no gnome mages were harmed while making this screenshot!

As many of you know, there is often the misconception that a warlock will sit down, bind all his keys to one particular spell, and then proceed to face roll the entire rest of the night.  We’ve been accused of being an overpowered easy mode class that requires absolutely no skill to play.  However, nothing can be further from the truth - have you actually TRIED face rolling?  It hurts.  I’ve wound up with bruises on my eye the day after a particularly grueling Naxx run.  So really, face rolling just doesn’t make sense at all - you need to actually use the keyboard.  And sometimes that hurts too - your hands and fingers get tired.

How do you overcome this you might ask?  Well, you can practice finger exercises for starters.  Also, before every raid, can do some simple finger stretches - that way you can be limber and ready to respond to whatever may happen.    However, possibly the most important thing that will allow you to hit your rotation most efficiently is knowing when to take breaks.  I know I personally have had a problem with this in the past - never knowing exactly when I can take a breather and give my fingers a quick rest.   In between pulls I’ve often been found to be running around using critter bites on maggots or making my tiger do the moonwalk - I never just settle down and relax some.

But today all of that has changed!  Thanks to locksucks and the fine crew there, whenever there is a lull in the pulls I pop out my picnic basket and sit back and give myself a break.  I’ve found that this leaves me more prepared for those long boss fights, increasing my overall DPS by nearly 10%!  Thanks again locksucks for directly improving my performance.

Post from: Yet Another Warlock Nerf.

Maximizing Warlock DPS Part 2: Not just face rolling

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Nerfed to the ground.

Blizzard just announced here that they hotfix nerfed Conflagration, so it does 70% in place of 100% damage of Immolate in an instant cast. As seen below, this has severely nerfed the previously powerful 0/40/31 destruction spec that warlocks were flocking to. The spec’s number one damage dealer was conflagrate, and a nerf has basically destroyed the spec. For those who complained here, your prayers have been answered.

Below are damage breakdowns and DPS rankings before and after the hotfix.

This is the damage breakdown for a 0/40/31 Warlock before the hotfix:

And now post-hotfix:

And in relation to all other specs:

Pre-hotfix:

Post-hotfix:

Blizzard’s reason for this was that Warlock burst damage in PVP had gotten out of hand. Blizzard said this was a problem, because it allowed two casts (Immolate, Conflagrate or Shadowflame, Conflagrate) to do a great deal of combined damage for geared warlocks. For reasons that will always be beyond my comprehension, Blizzard thinks its a bad thing to two shot mages. However, I think Blizzard implemented the wrong solution. Blizzard should have just removed the ability to consume a Shadow Flame.

Destruction has been nerfed to the ground, no longer making it a viable PVE spec at the least. Long live 0/41/30, the inbred felguard demo-destro hybrid spec.

Also, I’ve only been able to get a couple hours in on the realms since they went up, but has anyone else had a really hard time getting soul shards since the patch? That change was supposed to fix the problem…

Edit: Oops. Seems that shards in your bank count towards the 32 shard limit.

note:  This post on gearing based on talent spec will soon be updated with this current information taken into account. Until then, that info is outdated.

Post from: Yet Another Warlock Nerf.

Destruction Gets Nerfed

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In light of the recent PTR, Affliction has been gutted roadkill. Admittedly, I saw it coming. I have seen the DPS numbers Affliction was putting out, and with overpowered classes having been nerfed, I knew we would rise up again because of our spammable CC. There was no way Blizzard would let it sit where it was. So, they did what they always do–nerf things. Under the guise of “rotation simplification,” they turned Affliction in the the most mind-numbing playstyle ever. There’s essentially four buttons to cast now: Unstable Affliction, Haunt, and Corruption, and Curse of Agony. Part of the fun of playing Affliction was feeling like you were weighing down on your opponent over time. Now factor in resilience and the loss of Siphon Life, coupled with the Fear nerf, and you’ve got a skeleton of a playstyle. You know what, though? I’m not upset about it at all. However, I am upset that the seesaw tipped in Destruction’s favor. As a result, we’re going to experience something I’ve dubbed “The Great Destruction Migration.”

New Toys

Destruction had many issues in PvP, most of which involved survivability–and that’s what made it fun to play. It needed some new toys, but it didn’t need to shop at FAO Shwartz.

• Aftermath - Increases the periodic damage done by your Immolate by 6%, and your Conflagrate has a 100% chance to daze the target for 5 sec.

This is what Destruction needed–a snare. The 10% chance to daze on all spells was nice, but it was unreliable. It’s nice to see that we now have a reliable snare and a more definitive control tool. Overall, this is an excellent change because Destruction Warlocks are notoriously squishy.

• Molten Skin - Reduces all damage taken by 6%.

Okay, so this isn’t terrible. The assumption is that Destruction Warlocks will have picked up Soul Link, so another 6% reduction, and another possible 5% from the Glyph of Soul Link make Destruction feel significantly less squishy.

• Conflagrate - Consumes an Immolate or Shadowflame effect on the enemy target to instantly deal damage equal to 15 sec of your Immolate or 8 sec of your Shadowflame.

This is absurd. I know Conflagrate and Shadowburn needed some more damage scaling, but I feel this is a somewhat ridiculous. However, I understand this is how Blizzard plans to scale Destruction in PvE, but it’s going to scale too well in PvP.

• Chaos Bolt - Damage increased about 15%.

This is a great change. While most Warlocks feel it is still not enough, it is not a bad spell. I enjoy casting it, and it’s great for eating DKs who think they’re safe in their shields.

Now, this is all well and good, and I understand Blizzard made a clear effort to make Destruction better in PvP, but it put all the strength into Conflagrate. Allow me to explain: Conflagrate is hitting hard. We’re talking very hard. While Destruction needed some more power, it doesn’t need an instant cast nuke. We’ve seen what’s happened to those (read: Arcane Barrage). Granted this one is dependent on your Immolate’s bonuses, that you actually cast Immolate, and it has a 10 second cooldown, but it’s just going to cause people to get pissed off. The forums are already filling up now with “NERF CONFLAG” threads. Blizzard, we don’t need this. All you needed to do was up Conflagrate and Shadowburn’s damage somewhat. Conflagrate didn’t need to be the nuke. It’s already the playmaker because you’re not going to get a cast off in PvP without Backdraft procs.

Please, Blizzard, don’t let Conflagrate go live.

What This Means for Destruction

1). Everyone and their mother is going to spec Destruction.

Stay the hell away from my spec. I’ve been playing Destruction since Vanilla in PvP. I’ve seen it change many, many times. I played it in BC too when it was considered unplayable. I have always loved Destruction. I don’t want every Goddamn noob playing my spec. Part of the fun of Destruction was the skill required to play it effectively, but now that Conflag hits like a truck full of bowling balls, everyone’s going want to drive.

2). Nether Protection will be nerfed.

One of the best defensive spells in the game, Nether Protection gives Destruction Warlocks the edge against other casters. Note that it doesn’t shut other casters down, however. It is easily dispelled. The only caster against which this is most effective Moonkins because they can’t dispel/Spellsteal the buff. Despite how easy it is to work around, people will still complain when they see their Frostbolts, Lightning Bolts, and Starfires hit for around 1500. Spell damage reduction aside, there’s still the 6% reduction from Molten Skin, 20% from Soul Link, 5% from the glyph that will keep Warlocks from getting chunked (note that it’s not a flat reduction and that Soul Link is an absorbtion effect; in other words, the numbers are multiplicative). I feel Destruction Warlocks will be too good against other casters. Expect the 60% reduction to go to like 30%.

3). Shadowfury will be nerfed.

I’ve been feeling this one for a long time. Part of the reason Shadowfury got buffed several times throughout beta was because Destruction was lacking as a whole. Shadowfury is Destruction’s primary defensive spell. It can stop groups of attackers, giving you the breathing room to Fear a target, cast a nuke, or Conflag someone’s face. People will already be pissed that Conflagrate will hit very hard, now imagine how they’ll feel when they are hit very hard while stunned.

4). Conflagrate will be nerfed along with Nether Protection and Shadowfury.

This one is obvious. But if it isn’t nerfed before it goes live, then we’ll get a bunch more nerfs. Because of Conflag’s strength, people will begin to scrutinize the spec as a whole. Right now it’s not taken seriously, but with Conflagrate people rise up with their torches and pitchforks.

5). Oh yeah, everyone and their mother is going to spec Destruction.

Seriously folks, stop it. My spec. Leave it alone. I don’t want Destruction to go the ways of Affliction. I don’t want the migration to happen.

Alternate Solutions

Don’t buff Conflagrate. Instead, give a damage bonus multiplier to spells cast while under the Backdraft buff. It makes more sense. The strength of Destruction should not be in its instant casts (that’s why Affliction was nerfed), it should be in the nukes. A Backdrafted Chaos Bolt should be something to be afraid of–it requires the Immolate setup as well as the Conflagrate. It makes way too much sense.

Seriously Blizzard, all we needed was the snare on Conflagrate. Now leave the spec alone.

You too, reader. Leave my spec alone. I don’t need your flavor of the month antics screwing up what I love most about my class.

Post from: Yet Another Warlock Nerf.

The Great Destro Migration

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The post with the highest number of votes is I’d tap that by Iseefnords: he’s getting the sweet Imp in a Ball. The second best post is Maximizing Warlock DPS by Infynite, who shall receive the Picnic Basket, and the third is Basic Addon Training by (drill instructor) Fangorus, who’s soon going to be walking around in Tabard of Flame.

Shelly, the author of the fourth post will get a small consolation prize. Don’t forget to stop by her blog and say hello!

And while we’re at blogs, please visit the following fantastic sites who helped spread the word about our contest:

• Critical QQ
• Destructive Reach
• I Sheep Things
• Mystic Chicanery
• Out of Mana

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to everyone for participating!

Post from: Yet Another Warlock Nerf.

TCG Contest Results

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If you want to read them again, here are the links:

• Should you buy Blizzard’s new line of foot warmers?
• Basic Addon Training
• Maximizing Warlock DPS - not just a numbers game
• I’d Tap That (Lifetap, the 4t7 bonus and you)

The poll will close in 24 hours, at which time we’ll know who the winner(s) are and send out the loot.

Post from: Yet Another Warlock Nerf.

TCG Contest: Vote for the Winners

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For 4 long & arduous moths, brave heroes have journeyed across the frozen wastes of northrend, seeking a thermostat for their epic flying mounts. Especially those decked out in armor of tissue paper, who desperately needs a warm pair of soles beneath their feet.

In their infinite wisdom, Blizzard has invented shoes that no longer magically glue to your feet! Nope, now you can purchase them from your favorite neighborhood stores, Naxx’r'us and eoeBay.Malygos.com.

Their stock currently holds Boots of Impetuous Ideals and Arcanic Tramplers respectively. After a bit of ogling and window shopping, should you purchase these beauties from the AH or trade channel?

Let us look at the quality of the footwear! Taking the most popular spec 0/41/30 from http://www.talentchic.com/Warlock and using the data from Simulation craft,
we get the following loot tables for:

Feet slots with hit

• http://www.lootrank.com/

Feet Slots without hit

• http://www.lootrank.com/

Clearly, both boots are the best in slot in their respective category! Both by margins of about 10% dps points over the next in slot. Did I mention that Arcanic Tramplers are the only BoE ilvl 226 items in the game at the moment?

Having established that they are good, what about the price? Well, both are drops from the 25 man versions of the dungeons. Arcanic tramplers drop at a 6% rate from EoE25, and Boots from naxx bosses. In my experience, Boots of impetuous ideas seem to go for a 1000 gold more than the tramplers however, but both prices hover from 2k to 5k. It is a bit steep, the cost of an epic mount, but if you can afford it or have nothing else to spend on or find it on the cheap, either of the two boots isn’t a bad buy…

But with Ulduar coming in a few weeks, will they last the test of time?

This time we’ll slot in 3.1 ulduar items into lootrank:

w/o hit:

• http://www.lootrank.com/

w hit:

• http://www.lootrank.com/

As you can see the boots hold up pretty well against their ulduar counterparts, and you might wish to keep in mind that Ulduar BoE boots from tailoring will actually require 6 runed orbs and do not present that big an upgrade, each of which will require 15 emblems of conquest. I would say each runed orb will go for about the same price as hearts of darkness or sunmotes where when t6 and t6.5 just came out, which would be a few hundred per orb. If you can get the patch 3.09 boots early at a cheap price, then you might be saving yourself quite a bit of gold as you either work towards your ilvl 239 boots, or spend your gold on some new bauble.
If however the footwear goes for obscene amounts of gold on your server, then perhaps waiting for ulduar will be your best bet!

Finally, we come to the definitive question for warlocks: Is it evil?

arcanic TRAMPLERS +warlock = Dead gnome rogue
Trampled by fire and brimstone

Post from: Yet Another Warlock Nerf.

Should you buy Blizzard’s new line of foot warmers?

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So you just started your first ‘NoobLock, and you want to be like the big, bad raiders with their big bad addons. Stupid noobs, GET OFF MAH LAWN! So you think addons can replace the Beast within? Back in Ought 6 we didn’t have addons. We had Cosmos. AND WE LIKED IT! It doesn’t matter if you’re good or not, as long as you have the latest and greatest toys, right? Ohhhh, you know so much about WoW, now do you? WHERE’S MAH CANE? You Nooblocks need to be beaten into shape, or else someone will own you so fast your Succubus will get jealous. We’re going to show you the difference between your Addons and your Interface, so you can stop muttering like a ghoul.

[/whiny voice on] WTF? How’z I gonna do that, Sgt Fangorus? What’s I do, Sgt Fangorus? WTF? WTF? [/whiny voice off]

STOP DROOLIN’! By walking you through installing, setting up, and using Power Auras Classic, that’s how. It can alert you to just about anything YOU choose, with conditions YOU set. Okay, okay, so it has big flashy thingies so even a NoobLock like yourself can react and possibly survive instead of shamblin’ back from the cematery. If you stick with me, this addon could be yours. It can help you. Otherwise, go back to staring at your WTF folder.

STEP 1 - Installing Addons

Step lively, NoobLock! To begin, let’s download Power Auras Classic. You can find it on several sites, but try WoWInterface.com (http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info8579-PowerAurasClassic.html) This is a decent site to find addons, and just addons as well as their updates. We’re going to do this the old-fashioned way so you know where your crap is. I could walk you through installing automatically from CurseGaming, but then you wouldn’t know anything. Click the Download link on the right, and save it to your desktop. Or whereever your ADD-rattled brain has a chance of remembering where it is.

Good. Now I assume your mommas taught you some computer basics, and that you can unzip a file. But what she didn’t show you was where to put it. WHAT’S SO FUNNY? STOP DROOLIN’! Now, from your main WoW folder, find the Interface folder. Open it. You got a single new folder called AddOns here. Open it. This, gentleman, is the key to the kingdom. For future reference, this should be at: C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Interface\AddOns. Know it, love it, shortcut it.

Copy the PowerAura folder from the PowerAuras-2.X.X.XXXX.zip to your AddOns folder. You are done installing Power Auras Classic. Think you NoobLocks can handle that? Almost all WoW addons go here, with few exceptions. Now we’re going to setup some basic NoobLock leveling auras to help keep you from dyin’ so fast. Let’s run WoW. You can switch from WoW to this page using Alt-Tab, or your windows key.

Step 2 - Power Auras Classic Setup

WAKE UP! Setup time. First, a quick primer on how to turn your addons on and off. Let’s log in to our realm. Click your AddOns button.

In this screen you can enable and disable addons, per character, or all at once. This is helpful in case an addon stops working, or if you try to login to Dalaran and keep getting timed out. Addons use additional RAM on top of WoW. Some addons can be too mcuh for your computer, so this screen can come in handy to narrow down your issue. TIME TO LOGIN!

Now, to setup Power Auras Classic, hit enter and type /powa. No, this is not your ‘I Win’ button, but it can make your ‘I Win’ button better. Once the PA screen pops up, go ahead and hit ‘New’.

Now your shooting with napalm. First, move your windows so you can see both of ‘em, as well as yourself. Use the title bars to move them. Once set, you can now add powa to your NoobLock. You can change the visual texture with the texture slider, as well as the color box. Let’s set it to something bluish, for mana. We’ll get to animations in a minute. Let’s setup a basic Power Aura for low mana. To do this, click on the drop down tab that says ‘buff’ in the lower section. Click on ‘mana’. A new slider should appear right below ‘mana’. Let’s set that to 10%. IMPORTANT! Also check ‘Only if in combat’ below. Raiders and more experienced ‘locks will adjust this to taste and gear, but let’s keep it at 10%. When this aura goes off you know it’s time to either kill your enemy RIGHT NOW, or you need to escape RIGHT NOW. Not 2 seconds later, not 10 seconds, RIGHT NOW. You’ll stop making the same mistake after your 5th trip from the graveyard for your corpse. You NoobLocks are all alike, but even YOU will learn with Power Auras.

Now, you could close this and Power Auras Classic would work right there. STOP DROOLIN’! Let’s say you need a different visual to get your attention back from playing PSP or Nintendogs. NoobLock Nintendog Nancyboy, PUT THAT AWAY! What are you, 2?! Now click on your ‘Animations’ tab, to the right of our current ‘Activation’ tab. Next, click on the ‘Main Animation’ drop down and choose ‘pulse’. What, distracted again? That fast? Fine, change it to whatever holds your attention longer than 5 seconds. . . good. You can also adjust the size of the aura with the, say it with me, ’size’ slider. There. Now we have our first aura. It let’s us know when our boom-boom spells are out of boom. You can also do the same aura for low health.

Now obviously even you NoobLocks can see the flexibility of this system. This can work for any class. It can work for any spell or ability. But it is especially helpful for visually-challenged casters. And you can set your visual reminders to something appropriate. Yes Nancyboy, there’s probably even something for Nintendogs. That boy ain’t right.

SO IN REVIEW!

Step 1 Reference

• Power Auras Classic download: http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info8579-PowerAurasClassic.html
• Default AddOn Folder Location: C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Interface\AddOns

Step 2 Reference

1. Type /powa
2. Click on ‘New’ to create a new aura
3. Choose the texture to apply to the effect, the position, the size, etc
4. Choose your animation

Other Suggested Addons:

• QuestHelper - This can help ANY noob level faster. Just look at your world map from time to time. Does take some memory.
• DoT Timer - Even raiders use this. So should you, or something like it. Does what it says, shows you DoT and HoT timers.
• DM MiniCoords - Need to know where your are? This is a basic, low memory addon. Others have more bells and whistles, but use more RAM.
• VendorBait - Tells you which quest reward fetches the highest vendor sale price. Also mostly low memory.

What, you want links to those too? TOO BAD! Google it! NOW GET OFF MAH LAWN!

Post from: Yet Another Warlock Nerf.

Basic Addon Training

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If you were to stop by most of the warlock communities, you’d be sure to find a variety of discussions on how to maximize your dps while raiding.  There would be the usual suspects:  What spec should I be, what rotation should I be using, and what gear should I be shooting for.  These topics are all essential to consider however most of the time it’s done in a vacuum - stats are calculated most often for ideal situations (eg, a Patchwerk style fight).  What happens when you’re in a less than ideal situation?  Do the same truths that were calculated out in a spreadsheet still apply? The answer will probably depend on the encounter on a case by case basis.  As such, let’s take a look at a couple of bosses from Naxxramas and see how we can maximize damage on a case by case basis.

Heigan the Unclean

Heigan is quite possibly the lowest DPS encounter in Naxx due to there being so much movement involved.  While the melee is dancing, you should be able to put out your normal amount of damage, but as soon as phase 2 hits your DPS falls to the floor, right?  Not really, no.  For a fight like this, having a large haste set, a minor run speed enchantment (if no unholy aura), and the Bane talent really shines.  First, make sure to refresh your instant dots while actually moving - especially corruption, as you might get a nightfall proc.  Past that however, you need a good understanding of zone lines.  You should be able to land an immolate or shadow bolt every other zone, if you stop just over the zone line and begin casting immediately.  Make sure to get moving the moment your spell finishes casting, otherwise you’ll end up getting hit and possibly dying.  Chances are, you’ll come out of the encounter with the rest of the DPS wondering how you were so far ahead.

Grobbulus

Grobbulus is another movement intensive fight that could make it difficult to maintain your rotation.  In this case however, the strategy you should employ isn’t one of just what to do while moving, but more where to stand and when to move.  Chances are, your tank will be pulling him slowly around the outside of the room.  Most of the time the ranged damage dealers I’ve seen will move up a few feet, fire off a few shots, move up another few feet, fire off some more shots, and just repeat that cycle endlessly.  This is the absolute worst thing you can do.  Sure, you’ll need to move but when you do so you should cover as much ground as possible.  You should get ahead of Grobbulus (but not in the 45 degree arc that will cause you to get hit with slime spray!), so that you can re-establish your rotations and keep from having to move as long as possible.  Use the add spawning as a marker of when you need to move - toss your instants on it, life tap if needed, and then re-establish your rotation on Grobbulus once you’re in place.  You shouldn’t ever need to move outside of that which allows for maximum time to get all of your rotation in.   If you happen to get mutating injection, make sure to drop your summoning circle to teleport back closer to the fight after it falls off.

Almost every encounter in Naxx has some mechanic that is going to prevent you from hitting ideal performance - your goal should be figuring out what those mechanics are and minimizing their impact on you.

Post from: Yet Another Warlock Nerf.

Maximizing Warlock DPS - not just a numbers game

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Blizzard said some time ago that each class should have unique things it can do. Class homogenisation has to some degree lessened this, as tanking classes have their specialties removed or made less important, debuffs and buffs stack less and the whole host of changes that “Bring the Player, not the Class” heralded.

Warlocks, however, still feel decidedly different. We still sacrifice our minions for our own gain (until the Minion Rights Act of 3.1 comes along), we still capture the souls of our fallen foes, and we still have Life Tap.

A passing note on Dark Pact - it’s next to useless. In a class that stresses efficient use of what we have, Dark Pact returns half the mana of a life tap, drains our pet of mana it could be DPSing with, and still takes the same single GCD as a life tap. The end result is that you have to DP twice as often as you Lifetap, and that means you have less time to spend throwing pain at ugly monsters.

Life Tap makes warlocks very different from any other mana-based class. We go from fighting a losing battle against Mp5 to managing our health-to-mana balance, and it’s a style of play I much prefer to the Mage’s game of “What mana regen cooldowns do I have remaining?”. Life Tap now scales with Spirit, which is present on most Warlock gear now; this doesn’t mean you should gear specifically for X amount of spirit to gain the “ideal” life tap – life tap is generally best when it’s biggest. The exact amount is 1490 plus three times your spirit. This means that if you use the 4t7 bonus, your second lifetap within a 10 second window is 900 bigger in both directions. Depending on your spec and the individual encounter, lifetapping twice in succession is either acceptable or a sign you’ve forgotten to manage your mana properly. Elitist Jerks has confirmed what we’ve known for some time about the warlock specs and their mana “regen”; Affliction can keep itself going almost indefinitely, while demo and destro require a few life taps in quick succession now and then (with the aid of a healer). I primarily raid as Affliction, so I’ve come to love the self-heal that Haunt provides. Haunt is refreshed every 10 seconds or so – this is also the amount of time the 4t7 bonus is up, but tapping every 10 seconds will end up wasting both converted mana and a global cooldown which might be needed to refresh a DoT or to start casting a filler spell.

The Glyph of Lifetap coming in 3.1 gives a 20 second buff to spellpower equal to 20% of your spirit. This should work out to around 100 spellpower in a mix of naxx25 and ulduar gear. Keeping this up is a much more achievable goal for lifetap frequency, and for Affliction is almost the perfect lifetap timer. The question of when in your casting sequence to lifetap is also rather easy for the Afflock – just after you cast Haunt. The travel time on Haunt, as well as the travel time on the returning heal, means that you’ll lifetap and almost immediately be healed for most of the damage you took. The addon Renew Alert plays a sound every time you get a HoT; the default file is over nine thousand a bit unusual, but can be changed by dropping a new wave file into the addon’s subfolder. I also use VisualHeal for its incoming heal bar. This displays a small health bar just above my cast bar which appears when a heal is being cast on me, indicating my current health as one coloured bar and the incoming heal as a second one, which sticks out over the edge of my total health frame if there will be overhealing. Seeing a greater heal headed my way because a healer has panicked (Say, you lifetapped during a boss where AoE damage is common) allows me to lifetap pre-emptively and make the most of the heal.

Talking to your healers is also important. Let them know if you change specs, and what this means for your lifetap frequency. If you’re going to be lifetapping every 15-20 seconds and healing most of the damage yourself, let them know that a renew or single lifebloom will do. If you’re going Destro and showing the mages a thing or two about nukes, inform your friendly neighbourhood raid-healer (don’t bother the MH!) that yes, you will be tapping several times when you hit a certain amount of mana, and that you would appreciate a full on heal, complete with cast time and a side of fries. Ask the raid leader to put all the ‘locks in one group, so you appear on Grid as a single column which can be expected to life tap. Of course, pester that raid leader further for a Draenei to go in the group with you for the delicious Hit buff.

Finally, a little cheat. We all remember the now-dead tradition of downranked casts, but there are two spells in our arsenal that still benefit from Downranking. Both Life Tap and Health Funnel have lower costs and well as lower benefits, and both can work wonders when cast just before the pull. If you are lucky enough to own an Illustration of the Dragon Soul, the wonderful OS25 caster trinket, fire off nine Health Funnel rank 1 in quick succession, then a life tap rank 1. This will give you ten stacks of the IODS and a Spirits of the Damned right from the get-go, and a single tick of Fel Armour will heal you back up to full. If you don’t own an IODS, you can of course make do with a single lifetap rank 1. Just remember that channelling Health Funnel turns you towards your demon; you’ll only run in the wrong direction once before you learn this, just don’t make it be on Sartharion.

Post from: Yet Another Warlock Nerf.

I’d Tap That (Lifetap, the 4t7 bonus and you)

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