Win A Little Swag And See Your Toon Enshrined On DYS
You may have noticed that we are updating our class pages to link to all the specs we’ve been posting. In the interest of making things look a little better around here what we really need is a few good pictures of each class in action.
Now, Law could go and do them all (at least one level 80 of every class, except Lock and Rogue) but we know how picky you guys can be. It just wouldn’t do to have pics of, say, my pathetic little Paladin in crud gear posing as Dominating. But we know that not only do our regular readers have some seriously geared toons, they also have a good eye for the artistic.
A while back during the Midsummer festival event we had a little screenshot contest: Screenshot Contest, The Votes Are In. First place went to the lovely Fran Molina who submitted the fantastic shot below. Boy, does 18 months seem like a really long time ago. We’ve come a long way at DYS since then, but one thing hasn’t changed, our readers still Dominate.
It’s time to show off your skills once again. We need you to get on your mains and snag some killer screenies of your toon in action. We’ll all vote on the best of the best and your screenshot will be featured on our class pages. The grand prize will be a $50.00 gift certificate to J!nx, where you can get some killer swag for your sweetie (or yourself if you’re like that) for Valentine’s day (if everyone hurries). Second and third place will get WoW time cards so you can play free for a while.
Maybe it’s a pic of you doing the Captain Morgan leg-up on Arthas. Perhaps it’s your toon in Mimiron’s head or some other wicked flying mount you bagged. Anything and everything we’ll put up for a vote. But one thing is for sure, we need some truly Dominating pics for each class. Voting begins when we have at least one screenshot of each class (so hurry up) and then we’ll post them all for voting.
So get those screenshots submitted in the next few days and we’ll find out who gets to have their toon be the spokesperson for their class right here at DYS.
Send your screenshots to editor@dominateyourserver.com with the subject line “class screenshot”
Although all three trees for Warlocks have good DPS builds (over 10k DPS) the following Affliction build is between 250-500 higher than the rest in patch 3.3. As with all of these builds, remember that they come from the Wowikki Simulationcraft engine, so any anger can be taken out on the engine itself – we are just the messenger. With that being said, you might find that this build definately helps your DPS.
Remember, at this point in patch 3.3 we have yet to see all of ICC and there are no heroic modes open yet. So best-in-slot is still a mix of ToC, T9 and T10 gear. Once ICC opens completely and heroic modes are available, you can expect plenty of changes to the gear you see above.
Remember, the list above is NOT a rotation, it is a priority list, which means that you will use whatever is the highest on the list whenever it is available (not on cool-down) with certain conditionals, of course. Master affliction locks will help you out in the thread below for more insight into rotations.
Damage Sources
You may also have noticed that the best-in-slot gear is min/maxxed with Tailoring and Enchanting. That combo of professions is almost impossible to beat for caster DPS toons. You will also note that while you may never see most of the gear from 25 heroic ToC (until it is not best-in-slot any longer) you can get a good idea about which pieces of Tier set pieces to use and what should be off set. In the case of this lock, you can feel comfortable using all five set pieces.
Dominate Your Server Launches Alliance Faction Guild In Two Flavors
You’ve been asking about it for a while now, and Dominate Your Server is always listening. Last October we launched the Dominate Horde guild on the Fenris realm, and now it’s time we did the same for Alliance.
We’ve been getting ready in advance this time, and have a couple of options for all of you ally freaks out there. First of all, we took a little flak for the horde guild being on a pansy-wansy PvE server. None of that this time. Our Alliance guild is on a full out warfare PvP server.
Our experience with the Horde guild also taught us that we needed to be pretty certain that we picked the right time zone so that both late night and early raiders can all get in on the action, so the new server is Pacific Time to ensure that those folks on the East Coast have a good shot at getting their fill of raiding at peak server pop times.
Next, we also wanted to make sure that everyone got the experience they needed from the guild. We have a lot of casual players in Dominate, but also a group of pretty serious folks who really want to kick some butt and take some names. To make sure that everyone has a place without rubbing each other the wrong way, we’re not just announcing one Alliance guild – but two.
For the casual player who just wants to hang out with folks and have a good time with people who have their WoW screwed on straight, thee is the DYS guild. DYS will be the nub and learning friendly place to come hang out and get geared up or hone your skills until you are ready to join a much more elite group of raiding folks.
From the very top of the Dominate guild, a group of our senior officers have agreed to defect to Alliance and have formed a sister guild – Dyssention. Dyssention is a hard core raiding team with one goal in mind – clear content now and let Arthas beware. These guys will be raiding all the time, I kid you not, and will have some of the best players we’ve ever seen. You’ll need to apply for Dyssention and you can get details for that during the first live DYS guild meeting.
The meeting will be this Friday at 6pm server time, which (in case you missed it) is pacific. That means 9pm on the east coast. If you’re out of the country you’ll need to figure it out on your own, but I’m sure you’re used to that by now. We’ll meet right outside the front gate of Stormwind to sign everyone up. So come and join the fun, or come to find out more about Dyssention. Either way, DYS wants to give fair and equal treatment to both sides in the Horde vs. Alliance debate.
And even though Law and Gavin are snowed under with an exciting new project these days, you’ll be able to catch them sneaking about the Ally guilds in the coming weeks as Dyssention clears content like a bunch of crazed dogs. So come meet the crew, and make some new friends with DYS and Dyssention this Friday at 6pm server time on the Kalecgos realm. Whether you already DOminate, or want to learn how, you’re sure to find a place in DYS. See everyone Friday!
We’ve been talking bout it for some time, and it really seemed that it would take a lot longer than it has for this to take effect. But this afternoon Blizzard released the news that the faction chnge service has gone live. Since it’s big news, but there isn’t a LOT of news, we’ve borrowed from the official Faction Change FAQ page since it represents the most up-to-date and complete information available.
What is the Faction Change service?
Our Faction Change service is designed to allow existing characters the opportunity to change their designated faction (from Horde to Alliance or Alliance to Horde).
How do I begin the Faction Change process?
To begin the Faction Change process, please visit the Account Management page, select the Faction Change option, and carefully follow the instructions provided.
How much does this service cost?
Each Faction Change costs $30.00 USD (not including applicable taxes). This covers a single Faction Change for a single character.
Is this service taxed? If so, how can I tell if my purchase will be taxed?
Players in select states in the U.S. may be subject to taxation when using our Faction Change service. This list includes, but is not limited to: - New Mexico - Texas
Can I change multiple characters’ factions at once?
No. The Faction Change service only allows one change per transaction. If you would like to change multiple characters’ factions, you will need to pay for each one separately.
At what level can I change a character’s faction?
Characters level 10 and above are eligible for a Faction Change. Death Knights will be unable to change their faction until level 60.
Will PvP realm restrictions prevent me from changing a character’s faction?
No. PvP realms no longer possess any faction-based restrictions. You may now play Horde and Alliance characters on any realm you wish.
Will this service allow me to customize a character and select a different name once its faction has been changed?
Yes. Each Faction Change purchase will also provide the target character with an included re-customization and optional name change.
When I change factions, can I select any race for the character?
You may select any race of the new faction provided that it is available for the character’s class.
Does that mean I can use this service to change the character back to its original faction?
Absolutely; however, this will require purchasing another Faction Change.
When I change a character back to its original faction, can I select any new race?
Yes. As noted previously, though, you will only be able to select a race that is available to the character’s class.
Will I be able to select Cataclysm races and class combinations for a character once they’re available in game?
Details are not available at this time. As development continues, though, we hope to provide more information.
How often can I change a character’s faction?
You may change a character’s faction every 60 days.
What happens after I initiate a Faction Change?
Once your payment has processed and after you have remained logged out of the game for at least 30 minutes, you will see a new button to the left of the character’s name upon next login. Clicking on this button will allow you to select the character’s new faction and race, as well as customize the character’s look and name. These steps will greatly resemble the character creation process.
To complete the Faction Change, press the button labeled “Click to change your character’s faction” and confirm your selections. If you do not wish to change the character’s faction immediately, you may do so at a later time.
What will happen to the character’s old name?
If you opt to change the character’s name, the name will be locked from use on the realm for 90 days. You are not required to change the character’s name, though; this is simply an option we provide included with the Faction Change.
What will happen to the character’s equipment when I change its faction?
Equipment which is not considered faction-specific will remain unchanged by this process. Faction-specific equipment, however, will be automatically exchanged for a cross-faction equivalent. You can view a full list of faction-specific equipment and their cross-faction equivalents here.
**Please note that neither enchants nor socketed gems will be affected by an exchange.**
Will the rest of the inventory (materials, alternate currency, etc) be affected in any way?
As with equipment, items which are not considered faction-specific will remain unchanged by this process. Faction-specific items will be exchanged for a cross-faction equivalent. You can view a full list of faction-specific items here.
What will happen to the character’s mounts when I change its faction?
Mounts which are not considered faction-specific will remain unchanged by this process. Faction-specific mounts will be exchanged for a cross-faction equivalent. You can view a full list of faction-specific mounts and their equivalents here.
What will happen to the character’s non-combat pets when I change its faction?
Non-combat pets will not be affected by this process and will be available once the character’s faction change completes. This even includes faction-specific non-combat pets.
What will happen to the character’s achievements when I change its faction?
Achievements which are not considered faction-specific will remain unchanged by this process. Faction-specific achievements will be exchanged for a cross-faction equivalent. You can view a full list of faction-specific achievements and their equivalents here. Please note that all achievements relating to the Argent Tournament will be reset.
What will happen to the character’s titles when I change its faction?
Titles which are not considered faction-specific will remain unchanged by this process. Faction-specific titles will be exchanged for a cross-faction equivalent. You can view a full list of faction-specific titles and their equivalents here. Please note that all titles relating to the Argent Tournament will be reset.
What will happen to the character’s reputation levels when I change its faction?
Upon changing factions, the reputation level associated with the character’s previous race will become the reputation level of the new race. All other racial reputations will be converted according to the following chart:
Orc (Orgrimmar) ↔ Human (Stormwind) Tauren (Thunder Bluff) ↔ Gnome (Gnomeregan Exiles) Undead (The Undercity) ↔ Night Elf (Darnassus) Troll (Sen’jin) ↔ Dwarf (Ironforge) Blood Elf (Silvermoon) ↔ Draenei (The Exodar)
Additional faction-specific reputations will be converted into their cross-faction equivalents (if a cross-faction equivalent exists). You can view a full list of qualifying faction-specific reputations and their equivalents here.
Faction neutral reputations will not be affected by this process, and faction-specific reputations which do not possess an equivalent will be lost.
What will happen to the character’s quests when I change its faction?
Quests which are active in the character’s log at the time of the Faction Change will be cleared and all quest items associated with these quests will be destroyed.
With this, completed quests that are considered faction-specific will be removed from the list of completed quests and no longer count towards any running “quests completed” totals. Should you ever elect to change back to the original faction, the original list of completed quests will be restored. Completed quests that are considered faction-neutral or possess a cross-faction equivalent will be unaffected or automatically exchanged without any detriment to the quest completed totals.
What will happen to the character’s flight paths when I change its faction?
All flight points associated with the character will be reset and you will receive a new list of flight points which are appropriate for the level and new faction. Please note that as the Dun Niffelem, Shadow Vault, and Crusader’s Pinnacle flight points are associated with faction-specific quest lines, they will not be automatically provided. To regain these flight points, the character will need to re-complete the appropriate quests.
What will happen to the character’s “Friends” and “Ignore” lists when I change its faction?
The character’s “Friends” and “Ignore” lists will be reset following a Faction Change.
What will happen to the character’s Guild and Arena team(s)?
The character will not be affiliated with any Guild or Arena team following a Faction Change. Guild and Arena team tabards will be removed and Arena team ratings will be reset as a result. If the character is a Guild Master, you will not be able to perform a Faction Change.
What will happen to the character’s honor and Arena points?
Any honor points, Marks of Honor, and lifetime honorable kills will not be affected by this process. Earned Arena points will carry over, as well; however, any pending Arena points accrued after the last maintenance period, but before your Faction Change is initiated, may be lost.
What will happen to the character’s mail and auctions?
Active mail and auction items will prevent a character from Faction Changing, so please be sure to pull all mail from the mailbox and take down any auction items prior to initiating the Faction Change process. These items will be handled as normal inventory.
Is there a gold limit for Faction Changes?
Yes. Characters possessing too much gold for their designated level bracket will not be eligible for a Faction Change. Please use the following table as reference.
Level 10 to 30: 300 gold Level 31 to 50: 1000 gold Level 51 to 69: 5000 gold Level 70 to 80: 20000 gold
Where will the character be located after the Faction Change is complete?
Once the Faction Change is complete, the character will be moved to the capital city of its new race.
What will happen to the character’s Armory profile?
Once you have completed the Faction Change process, the character’s Armory profile will be updated to reflect any faction, racial, gender, or name changes. Please note that our Armory system is still in beta at this time, so the character’s profile may not immediately display the updated information.
Will this service share a cooldown with the Character Transfer, Character Name Change, or Character Re-Customization services?
No. The Faction Change service will not share its cooldown with any of these services.
Can I use this service to change race on my existing faction?
No. We will be releasing a Race Change service in the near future for this purpose.
Will this service share a cooldown with the Race Change service?
Yes.
Can I purchase a Faction Change for a character that has a pending Name Change or Re-Customization or is in the process of being transferred?
No. Before you may initiate a Faction Change for a character, please complete any pending Name Changes, Re-Customizations, or Transfers. These pending transactions will prevent you from initiating a Faction Change.
When will I be charged for the character’s Faction Change?
You will be charged immediately upon pressing the confirmation button on the Faction Change page.
Is there any way to cancel a Faction Change while the process is pending?
Because your payment method will be charged immediately upon confirmation, you will be unable to cancel the process once you have pressed the confirmation button and the Faction Change process is underway.
Is there any way to reverse a Faction Change once it’s completed?
No. Once a Faction Change is done, it is permanent. You may, however, purchase another Faction Change to switch back to the original faction once the service cooldown time has elapsed.
Part 1 Of Our Coverage Of The New WoW Expansion: Cataclysm
All of the information regarding the upcoming expansion to WoW is going to blow your socks off. It’s so good that WoW is going to be like a whole new game, and that’s and understatement of the highest order. When Cataclysm comes out, your whole WoW experience will be rejuvenated. So many things are changing it’s a little tough to know where to start, but we drew from a hat and came up with something.
The new races look even better than we expected. For the Alliance there are the Worgen. The mysteries locked behind the Greymane wall in southern Silverpine are revealed as the great gate is torn down to reveal the human kingdom of Gilneas – but the humans are not merely human any more. This new starting zone will run from level 1 to 15 and the graphics are fantastic.
For the Horde (sorry about that) we get the goblins of Khazan who have been shipwrecked on the Lost Islands between Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. The zone looks an awful lot like Stranglethorn Vale, but you’ll get a big dose of the new water rendering all around the islands – and it is truly awesome.
So while we’re on the subject of the new races you should also know that every race in the game will get new class combinations. There are some odd entries in the list – to be sure. Dwarf Druid anyone? How about a Tauren Paladin? Combine all of that with the upcoming faction change service and there’s a pretty good likelihood that you might consider changing at least one of your alts to the other faction just to grab one of the new races without having to go from 1-85 (that’s right, the level cap is being raised – but more on that another time), although we recommend you not take shortcuts since Cataclysm will change almost everything about the entire world.
Here is the complete race/class matrix for your viewing pleasure:
When you find out just how much the entire game is going to change there is a good bet you’ll want to start all over from the very beginning and go from 1-85 on one of the new races. The whole game is getting an overhaul from the ground up and nothing will be like it was pre-BC. And that’s what we’ll talk about tomorrow. Until then, just know that Cataclysm is certainly going to Dominate!
Abilities and How to rotate them in for maximum effectiveness.
Welcome back to the 5th article in this series dedicated to the tanking paladin. Today we’ll cover the rest of your abilities, how to use them as well as a more in-depth theory about rotation.
First, let’s go over some formalities: Seals, Judgments and Blessings. These abilities and combat mechanics define the Paladin class.
Blessings: Kings, Might, Wisdom, Sanctuary: you’ve had them since early levels and should know by now what each class needs from you. Obviously if you have more then one paladin you should share the work load. PallyPower is great for that. It allows the raid leader/assist to assign specific buffs to specific paladins. (Holy palys will end up using Wisdom, Ret palys will use Might and Prot palys can use Sanctuary)
Warrior: Might is overwritten by Battle shout so use: Kings
Hunter: Kings or Might
Warlock: Kings to benefit from 10% to spirit
Priest: Usually Kings for DPS, Wisdom for Holy.
Shaman: Might for Enhance, Kings for Elemental and Wis for Resto
Death Knight: Kings or Might
Paladin: — You should be able to figure this one out by now —
Druid: Kings for Moonkin and Tree, Might for Kitty, Kings for Bear
Rogue: Might
Mage: Kings or Wisdom
Seals: Seal of Vengeance/Corruption should be your only option while tanking anything serious. You can always get fancy and seal shift for special occasions, Wisdom to get mana back quick, Justice to stun non-boss type creatures, Light to get Health and untill 3.2 is released you can still use Blood for more DPS, assuming that your healers can keep up.
Judgments: These are the most situational and really depend on a few things. We covered them in the last article but they are worth going over again. Always coordinate with the other palys in the group so ensure that at the very least, Wisdom and Light are being judged. Justice can be added in for good measure while tanking adds but I have never really used it
Rotation:
Depending what encounter you are about to enter and your function during that encounter, your rotation is subject to change. Let’s cover the standard rotation for a single target first.
Exorcism works really well but will not be worth much after 3.2 since it will have a cast time. So avenger’s shield is still your best pulling move, when you get in range you can then Judge whatever you want since it’s the next longest range ability (10 yds) and as soon as you’re in melee range you want to really grab and hold aggro you need to get your Shield of Righteousness off as soon as possible. From that point on, just rotate your abilities: Hammer of the Righteous, Holy Shield , and Consecrate. Once that’s done ShoR, Judge etc.
The basic concept is 96969. 9sec cd, 6sec cd, 9, 6, 9 etc.
By the time you’ve gone through your rotation once, the whole point is to always have an ability to use when your global cool down is up. Even though it may seem like a good idea at first to pop all your 9 sec abilities first to get them to come back faster after your second rotation, you’ll be looking for things to do while your longer ones come off cool down. 9 sec cd = 6 global cool downs while a 6 sec ability only requires 4 so you need to interlace them or your threat will get real skippy while you wait for abilities to become ready again or you will loose out on your potential maximum if they are ready and you’re not using them.
Generating threat should never be an issue for a paladin except early on when he’s under-geared, has no hit rating or expertise and is in a group with much better geared DPS that doesn’t look at their threat meters. It can also become an issue later on in Ulduar when the well-geared DPS can just sit there and prefect their rotation while the Paladin has to take time to move the mob/boss around or avoid bad/deadly things on the ground, but at that point the DPS should know what to do to prevent that. All in all, on single target, threat is a non-issue if you know your rotation.
Essentially your rotation could look like this:
Judgment (9sec)
Shield of Righteousness (6sec)
Holy Shield (9sec)
Hammer of Righteousness(6sec)
Consecrate (9sec)
If you do the math and lay it out on paper you’ll see that the 6 sec CDs are up so you have to rotate them in differently on a first come first serve basis from that point on. After 18 seconds (12 Global Cool Downs) you will start all over from square 1.
This may not seem obvious at first but I assure you there is a pattern if you look closely enough. Of course, you can, and should refresh your Sacred Shield every 30 or 60 seconds; pop Divine plea if it’s gone and taunt the mob that’s beating on your healer. The whole rotation is far from cast in stone and any tank should have enough awareness to see the big picture of the fight. Rotate your camera, zoom in, zoom out, do whatever it takes to keep an eye on your surroundings.
For multi-mob tanking, consider reversing your rotation so that your AoEs go off first, Avenger’s shield to pull them, Consecrate when they pull to you, Hammer of the Righteous when the first few are in range, Holy shield to boost the ones that hit you for the first time, then Judge and Shield of Righteousness whoever you have least threat on and tab target to build stacking Seal DoTs on every mob.
Now let’s go over your abilities and how to use them appropriately. If you’re new to the Paladin class these sound incredibly similar but I assure you that Holy Shield, Divine Shield and Divine Protection are not the same at all. In our last article we saw the “Bread and Butter” of threat generation along with DPS. Now you get the menu, the appetizer, all the trimmings as well as coffee and desert: Eat your heart out!
Before the pull:
Sacred Shield: Use this ability every single time – preferably BEFORE the pull since it will cost you 1 Global Cool Down (GCD) in your rotation. Having every hit reduced by 500 (600 with Divine Guardian Talent) makes this extremely useful and one of the reasons why paladins get Add Duty all the time. You can just sit there and chill with the mobs for a while before you need help or start taxing your healer’s mana pools. Not a bad idea to refresh between pull as well, just in case.
Seal of Vengeance/Corruption: This is your premiere tanking seal. It does less damage on a single target than Seal of the Martyr/Blood, but when you tab-target mobs to hold aggro, those stacks will build up and the DoT component will keep ticking. If you’re keeping more than one mob busy this is the seal for you and you should always change targets during your GCD, since most of your abilities affect more than one target anyway. After 3.2 this becomes your best seal.
Divine Plea: This is the very last ability you use before the pull. Put it on right after you do Sacred shield. It will generate quite a bit of your mana back and an OOM tank usually means a wipe. Since you’ve only got White melee swings that don’t require mana will not benefit from Righteous Fury, it makes them meaningless for threat generation. Also note that unlike Warriors, paladins generate no threat from Dodge, Parry or Block (DP&B).
With those two abilities up you’re good to go. Divine Plea is also the reason why paladins have this overwhelming urge to pull … pull now! It’s like a drug, and 45 seconds left on the cool down will feel like an eternity if it expires.
Defensive and Utility abilities include:
Hammer of Justice: This is your Primary Stun/Interrupt, this is the one that will work on Kel’Thuzad’s frost bolts and get you the Less-Rabi achievement. Although the stun component of this ability will not work on bosses the interrupt portion definitely will. You want to keep an eye out on the cast bar of those targets and interrupt whenever possible.
Hand of Salvation: Aggro reduction = 20%. Every tank should have Omen loaded and working all the time. As a tank it’s far more important than DPS meters like Recount because a tank is all about Threat. If you see someone catching up to you in threat you can ask them to use their threat reducing abilities first (Warlocks: SoulShatter, Hunters: Misdirection, Rogues: Tricks of the trade etc.) But when all else fails, this ability will greatly help out. Just remember, since it’s % based, it has more impact later on in the fight than it does early on.
Divine Sacrifice: Warn your healers before you pop this one and use at your own risk. It may not save a healer caught in a void zone, but it just may allow some silly DPS to live through some of the more lethal AoE.
Righteous Defense: A last ditch effort to save your healer or some other silly DPS that pulled aggro, but can be useful in a bind. Make sure to hit the mobs with something more sustainable like Hammer of Righteousness or Avenger’s shield for longer lasting threat.
Finally the Paladin also has this fine array of “Oh $H!T” buttons that can/should be used if things go sideways and can really make the difference:
Oh $H1T buttons:
Lay on Hands: (15 minute CD with Glyph) Will restore you to full health. Every tank should keep an eye out on their health bar and be ready to pop this if they are losing health faster then the healers can bring it up.
Divine Protection: (2 min CD) Is the Paladin’s answer to a Warrior’s Shield Wall. This ability should be used at the end of boss fights when they enrage Patchwork, Maexna or Razorscale to give the second tank more time to taunt him off when you can’t move to help your healers keep up. It can also be used as a starter on heavy pulls, like Grand Widow Faerelina with only 1 tank, achievement style or Emalon the storm watcher if you’re tanking the adds.
Divine Shield: (5 min CD) Commonly referred to as “The Bubble”, this is your final effort at staying alive. It’s an aggro wipe while it’s up, so people will die if you use this at the wrong time. Just know that it can canceled by right clicking on it in your buff box. It gives you time for 2-3 Holy Light on yourself, a Healing Pot, and that’s about it. It can come in quite handy in PvP.
Divine Intervention: (20 min CD) When everything else has failed, when it’s a wipe and you have at least one person still alive that can rez the group, this will kill you but save everyone a run back into the instance.
This covers the majority of what should be on your action bars or at least within easy reach should the situation call for it. Remember, that as a tank, the life of the raid is (mostly) in your hands and the hands that heal you. Keeping them happy and alive long enough to loot the bosses should be a priority for you.
This quick run down should give you a reasonable good idea of what you are capable of in a given circumstance. Now get out there and DOMINATE!
So, some people have decided to go start playing allies. “Ok,” said I, “I shall make a Priest!”
Not only that, I will level as Discipline spec! Off to a new server, soon I gave birth to Compy, the level 22 human priest. I thought it would be fun to heal my way to 80 in instances and simultaneously prove my theory that allies are dumb. Boy, was I right.
Today, I was invited into a group for The Deadmines. The group consisted of 2 paladins, a hunter, a warlock and me.
The paladin who was “tanking” was level 22 but thought he was level 74. He ran around pulling as many of the non-elite peasants and elite guys as he could. He also did so in quick succession with no regard for my (or anyone else’s, including his own) mana pool. Did I mention he was using a 2-Handed Sword? At least he knew enough to use Righteous Fury. Let’s call him Tankzilla.
The other paladin in the group was also using a 2-Hander because he was “DPS.” Oh, but that didn’t stop him from using Righteous Fury too! In fact, that was the only spell he cast the entire time. His mana was locked at 100% and didn’t budge. I’m not an expert on paladins, but don’t they get more than Retribution Aura and Righteous Fury by level 20? Maybe he didn’t want to pay the gold to train all those other useless abilities.
Before we even got into the instance, the EPIC LEWTS started a-droppin’, and by EPIC LEWTS I mean Weighted Sap and Medicine Staff of the Wolf. Predictably, the level 16 Hunter in the group NEEDED every green, much to the dismay of the poor level 17 warlock who flooded party chat with threats to leave if “that $#%@ hunter wont stop needing!!!” Eventually, the hunter started passing and that made the warlock happy. So happy that he would disenchant what he won in the middle of battle.
Due to my epic healing skill, we defeated Rhahk’Zor, the first boss. We stood around for the patrol to come, killed it, and then Tankzilla the Zealous pulled the entire next room. After all that, the final roll for Rhahk’Zor’s Hammer came in. It was the hunter. He needed. I mean, look at those epic hunter stats!
Then, the Hunter left the group and hearthed. The Warlock was so pissed.
Shortly afterward, we wiped, and I get a whisper from Tankzilla:
To [Compy]: can u rez at all?
To [Tankzilla]: I can run back to my body and rez
To [Compy]: kk do that
To [Tankzilla]: How old are you?
To [Compy]: 13, why?
Ok, so not everything can be a big bad serious tip. As a matter of fact, we’re kind of twiddling our thumbs around here waiting for all the tasty changes coming in 3.2. But in the meantime, we thought a little levity might be in order – at least for one day.
We’re all fans of WoW, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading DYS in the first place. Most of you know that beyond the game itself we’re also fans to some degree or another of some other WoW fan sites. We’re not the only game in town by a long shot, and sites like elitistjerks and Wowhead and others do what they do extremely well.
There is another genre which I appreciate, mostly because I can’t do it. We do what might be described as a rather original take on the WoW podcast with the Domination podcast, but despite a certain amount of ability to do audio broadcasting – video is something we’ll just never do. It’s not that it’s impossible, it’s just outside of our current skill set.
But, almost because I find the process of producing video a little like soloing Naxx, I do appreciate those who obviously have a knack for doing great machinima. And that’s what this post is about. We’ve posted a link to one of our all-time favorites – ROFLMAO before. That one was done by Oxhorn and he’s got a great little collection of funny stuff.
IF you’re an old fart like me you might appreciate an honorable mention like the parody music videos from Nhym such as Pretty Fly For A Dranei, Just Loot It or Ni Hao. But Oxhorn and Myndflame have to take the cake in our book.
The first music style video I remember from Oxhorn was The Great Kodo. Later, you get to Drunken Kodo Riding which is even funnier if you watch ROFLMAO and Inventing Swear Words first. But my favorite so far has to be the Anti Elf Anthem, which you can watch below.
After Oxhorn, I also like the Illegal Danish stuff from Myndflame. Illegal Danish Started with the film Super Snacks and then moved on to Escape from Orgrimmar (another all time favorite). If you watched those you’ll see that Myndflame is really good. But his latest offering is a parody of the new Starcraft Trailer movie. You just have to check it out-
Now we’ll get back to working on more ways for you to Dominate so completely people accuse you of uber l337 hax, but laughing for a while never hurt either.
Well, in Part 1, we talked a little about the ‘machinery’ of an Affliction Warlock covering spec, gear, and glyphs. Here in Part 2, we’ll talk about how to drive your newly specced toon to the nearest mob then watch them die horribly as you BWHAHAHA (doing your best Vincent Price imitation).
Affliction Locks do a large portion of their damage using Damage Over Time (DOT) spells. As a result, we’ll talk first about how DOTs work. Then we’ll cover a particular group of spells called Curses. Finally, we’ll cover a typical ‘rotation’ for Affliction and try to talk about when to cast what.
The Care and Feeding of DOTs
So how do DOTs work? When a DOT is applied, a time counter starts. The spell deals damage in time increments, called “ticks”. The duration of the time between ticks depends on the spell, but it is usually 1, 2, or 3 seconds. The duration between the ticks is also affected by the Haste on your gear. The more haste you have, the faster your DOTs tick and the more Damage per Second (DPS) you do.
There is a limit to how fast you can cast even with Haste and instant cast DOTs however. There is a Global cooldown (GCD) that nothing can take you below. For Locks it is generally 1.5 seconds, but the curse GCD can be lowered to 1 second with Amplify Curse. Haste can lower your Global cooldown as well to a minimum of 1 cast per second. In other words, I can, generally speaking, only cast once per second (and usually not that fast) regardless of how much Haste I stack.
Because of the way DOTs work, recasting a DOT before it completely runs out is rarely a good idea. For example, Corruption ticks every 3 seconds (ignoring Haste). That means that 3 seconds after I cast, the DOT ticks dealing its first damage. In total it will tick 6 times if not cast again (or the mob dying).
Now, if I let it tick 5 times then recast immediately after the 5th tick, I don’t really lose anything, right? Well, actually you do. If you had cast something else and left it alone you would have gotten the damage from that extra spell; in addition, you lose a ~1 second global cooldown casting something you didn’t really need to cast yet. Even worse, if you recast Corruption one second after the 5th tick, you will cause there to be 5 seconds between ticks, you will miss casting something else, and you initiate the global cooldown before your next cast. You get the idea. Its better to have the DOT fall off while your getting in an extra Shadow Bolt than to “clip the DOT” by re-casting before it runs out.
To some extent, channeled spells like Drain Life (DL) and Drain Soul (DS) work similar to a DOT, only unlike a DOT you have to interrupt the channeled spell to cast anything else, losing its damage until you begin to channel again. However, DL and DS still “tick” while being cast, causing damage every 1 or 3 seconds respectively before considering Haste.
Cursing for Fun and Profit
The disadvantage of Affliction is that it takes some time to get into the rotation and get all the DOTs working on the mob. Our DPS tends to start slowly, increasing until we get into the second rotation. It often then levels out. Simulations (Zakalwe at ElitistJerks.com) place the different builds for Warlocks at not terribly different DPS numbers.
Using best-in-slot Ulduar gear for example, Warlock DPS ranged from 7089-7931 for simulations on eight different builds. The magnitude, 842 DPS, is nothing to sneeze at. On the other hand, with ideal gear under ideal conditions it varies over a 10% range for the different common builds…not a ton.
The 10% difference isn’t enough that, in my opinion, you should fret about it if you’re a casual player or even semi-serious. You should play the spec you enjoy. However, if you’re interested, Deep Affliction (53/0/18) was the second highest DPS spec in the simulations behind Deep Destro (0/13/58) by 8 DPS, about 0.1% of the estimated damage. Deep Demonology brings up the rear in personal DPS but can buff the raid a great deal, e.g. Demonic Pact.
An advantage to Affliction is that the DOTs continue to do damage after we quit casting. I find that when I play a different class now I have to remind myself to keep attacking until the mob (or other player in PvP) is dead. In Affliction, I often put up my DOTs and move on to the next mob if their health bar is low. (They’re dead already; they just don’t know it yet!) This is an advantage in fights where the boss disappears or becomes difficult to hit for a while during the fight then returns, and there are a surprisingly large number of those like Noth, Heigan, Gothik, Razorscale, and others.
So what does an Affliction Lock rotation look like in a raid. Well, that can change a bit from raid to raid depending on make-up. The main change that can happen to your rotation is which curse you’ll use. Blizzard gives us only one “Curse” on any target at anytime. Casting another Curse by the same Warlock removes any previous curses. This group of spells isn’t hard to figure out; they’re all named “Curse of” something, e.g., Curse of Agony, Curse of Elements, and Curse of Weakness. So when do you use which?
Curse of Elements is a boss debuff. It or a similar spell should always be up in a group. Yes, if you’re the one who casts it your personal DPS will be lower than it might be otherwise. However, the main thing is to get bosses down and have fun. Wiping on bosses, well, its not that much fun. If you need to cast it, do it! Afterwards, feel free to /slap anyone who says your DPS isn’t what it usually is, because you’re probably improving the DPS of the annoying person you just had to /slap. DPS meters are a nice tool but don’t always tell the whole story about the utility of a player even for a pure DPS class.
If you have a Balance Druid, they should be applying Earth and Moon, which is a “debuff” cast on the boss to increase spell damage by 13% on the boss. This debuff is similar and in some ways better than the Warlock’s Curse of Elements (CoE), and it will knock off CoE if both are cast. In the end, it doesn’t hurt the Druid’s DPS to cast it. In fact, they don’t really cast it; it just gets applied when they use either Wrath or Starfire. It does hurt your DPS to cast CoE, so its better for the group if you to use CoA if there is a Boomkin (Giant Battle Chicken) with you.
The other debuff that might be useful for the group is Curse of Weakness, which reduces the boss’ melee attack power and armor by 5%. This is one that might be useful for melee bosses when you have a lot of melee DPS or in cases where the boss hits like a Mack truck. It can be increased with talents but not very many Locks put talent points there - due to its situational use.
It does not stack with a Druid Bear’s Demoralizing Roar or with a Warrior’s Demoralizing Shout, which are both better/equivalent unless the lock specs into the Curse. Again, CoW being cast decreases the Lock’s output. On the other hand, Demoralizing Roar/Shout doesn’t decrease the ability of the tank to do its job, which generally speaking is to hold agro, position the boss, and survive the beating. So, the raid has to decide if the Lock casting CoW is the best thing for the group. Keep in mind, this only reduces “melee attack power” so using it on caster bosses like Kel’Thuzad would be seriously noob-tastic. Okay, you reduce their armor by 5% but still…noob.
Curse of Agony is the highest personal DPS curse, which is what should be used unless the situation calls for CoE or, on the rare occasion, CoW.
Affliction “Rotation”
The terminology is down. What do you do? Well, let’s talk about what to cast and when.
So what is a “rotation”? Well, to start with, it’s a misnomer. You probably won’t cast this list of spells again in the same order during the fight, so “rotation” is kind of a dumb name for it. In any event, this is a reasonable way to start the encounter:
After this you keep up all the DOTs without clipping them. You need to keep cast times in mind when casting, which depends somewhat on your Haste. SB whenever you don’t need to reapply a DOT.
Life Tap is a good way to start because of how Spirit plays into a Lock’s abilities. Spirit increases spell power through things like Glyph of Life Tap. Glyph of Life Tap converts 20% of your spirit into Spell Power for 20 seconds after casting Life Tap. This can increase, depending on your gear, your Spell Bonus Damage by over 100. This can be cast on the run. I generally Life Tap as the tank is running in to pull or right after the pull to give the tank a few seconds to get agro.
Then the damaging spells begin, and the rotation shown does a few things, like get two stacks of Shadow Embrace on the target. So why is Shadow Bolt (SB) at the beginning? Well, it’s a long cast relative to the others so I usually start with it because it gives the tank that extra bit of time to get agro before I whack the target. In addition, it puts up the first stack of Shadow Embrace. Haunt and SB apply Shadow Embrace, which has to be specced into. It increases periodic damage by 5% and reduces healing done to the target by 15%. It can stack up to 2 times, and 10% extra damage = 100% goodness.
This rotation also puts the most important DOT you have on the mob early in the fight. OK, it isn’t exactly a DOT; its Haunt. Haunt, after its initial whack to the target, which isn’t that big relatively speaking, causes your real DOTs (Corruption, CoA, and UA) to tick for 20% more damage, 23% more with Glyph of Haunt. As a consequence, you never ever want a DOT to tick while Haunt isn’t on the target if you can avoid it. Its just too much to give up.
After that apply the instant cast DOTs first followed by Unstable Affliction.
Life Tap could be cast every 20 seconds to regain the Spell Bonus Damage from the Glyph. However, Life Tapping this often is sometimes not a good idea. I generally will re-proc the Glyph whenever all of my DOTs are up, the Spell Power bonus from the previous Life Tap has fallen off, and I’m replacing nothing but part of a Shadow Bolt cast.
So that’s it while the boss has 100% to 25% of its life. Refresh DOTs when they fall off. Spam SB when you have nothing else to do with the occasional Life Tap.
Things change slightly, but for the better, when the boss reaches 25% of its life remaining. At 25% with the build given, SB is no longer the best filler spell. Instead, Drain Soul becomes much better. In fact, Aff Locks have their DPS jump at the end of a long fight because of Drain Soul. Drain Soul causes 4 times its normal damage when the target is below 25% health. I’ve seen, with my less than perfect gear, Drain Soul tick for about 15,000. That, plus the DOTs is a whole lot of damage.
Should you bother to keep up your DOTs during Drain Soul? Absolutely! Right after DS ticks refresh any DOTs including Haunt. Then restart DS. Never clip DS before it ticks…that’s a waste even if 2 DOTs fall off. Just refresh the DOTs after the next tick.
One really important note about how Drain Soul works: DS checks the boss’ health once and that’s at the beginning of the cast. You only get the 4x multiplier if the boss is below 25% when you cast. If the boss goes below 25% while channeling you don’t get the extra damage. In other words, you’ll get 4 times less damage off of DS if you cast while the boss is at 25.1% than you would if you did one more shadow bolt or whatever and cast DS while the boss is at 24.9%.
So you’re saying, “Dude, it sounds hard. How do I know when the boss is definitely below 25%? How do I know when DS ticks so I can refresh my DOTs? Affliction is the most harder-est thing ever.” I’m so glad you asked, and its not hard when using an Add-on called Drain Soul Timer. This little Add-on makes a really annoying “QUAD-DAMAGE” sound when something you have selected is below 25% health, and it make a big electronic “tick” whenever DS…well ticks. As a result you know when to start DS, and you know the best time to refresh your DOTs, right after a DS tick. No Aff Lock should run without this one.
You’ll also want an Add-on to help time your casts. Buttontimers and Timerbuttons are two popular ones. I actually use the spell timer that comes with ForteXorcist by Xus.
A Couple of Additional Tips
Tick times are important. If you’re killing something without a lot of health, use spells with faster tick times like Drain Life and Curse of Agony. For the lesser trash of Naxx, like the skeletons in KT’s chamber, those may be all you need. For bigger trash (stuff with more health) you can use your full rotation. Dying trash is the best place to refill your shard bag as well. (BTW, find you friendly neighborhood tailor with the Abyssal Bag recipe and get it if you’re a neat freak like me about your bags. With 32 shards on hand at the beginning of a raid, I’ve never run out.)
If there are a lot of mobs, you have two Area of Effect choices. One is Rain of Fire (RoF), which…well rains stuff that looks like fire on them. The second is Seed of Corruption. If the mobs aren’t moving, RoF is fine, and it tends to generate less agro. Seed of Corruption (SoC) is in the same school as Corruption, and many of the talent point choices we made buff this spell. Basically SoC injects, in a really disturbing looking graphic, a small red seed into the victim that does damage over time then explodes doing damage to all the mobs around. As a result, the “Seed” moves along with the mobs. So if your tank is still moving around picking up bad guys, it travels with them. It can do a ton of damage when it explodes, but it is much more of an agro hog than RoF.
Well, the above will get you started kicking Demon buttocks (provided that particular demon has a buttock) and taking names (well loot). Casting with movement, especially in Ulduar, is the name of the game. Any instant cast spell like Life Tap, Corruption, and Curse of Agony, you can cast while running, being thrown in the air, etc. Other things you’ll have to cast then move to keep up on the target. Like most things, you’ll get better with practice. So dust off that Lock and go Dominate. I mean, who do you think the Lich King is going to be more afraid of, that Pally in her bright shiny “say-no-evil” T8 armor or this crazy SOB Lock?
Affliction 101 For Patch 3.1 Gear & Spec For Raiding
Warlock’s motto: “We’ve been to Hell and back. While we were there, we stole their cookies.”
Warlocks are a pure Damage per Second class. We can’t heal anybody but ourselves, and we only do that by hurting others. Makes me chuckle every time I think about it. In fact, as an Affliction Lock I’m sometimes near the top of the charts on over-healing, and its all healing I do to myself by killing mobs. (I run with good healers…and its always good to give props to the guys watching your back.)
Some folks don’t like Affliction, often citing it as having a more complex rotation than other specs. To that let me say, “pffft”! An affliction Lock does have different tools at his disposal than Destruction Warlocks, Mages, and Hunters, for example. While these DPS classes generally rely on big hitting spells for burst damage, Affliction Warlocks kill mobs in a more insidious manner, by putting up a series of Damage Over Time spells (DOTs). However, this is far from death-by-inches. A well-geared Affliction Lock can often lead the DPS ratings in boss fights and buff the entire raid in several ways at the same time.
Think Affliction if complicated? Well here’s all the highlights in two columns written with the assumption you’ve never played a Warlock before. Hopefully, there’s plenty in here for the nooby and maybe a nugget or two for experienced Locks who haven’t tried Affliction yet. This is meant as a primer…there’s always more to learn. In the remainder of this one, we’ll take a look at a common Affliction talent assignment (“spec”), picking gear, and what glyphs to use. In the next column, I’ll make fun of people that think Affliction is complicated some more and discuss the rotation.
After hitting level 80, here is a fairly standard looking Affliction spec as of the 3.1 patch. There is some amount of play in the talent tree now for Affliction that allows you to put points where you like without seriously nerfing your DPS.
Before I go through the tree, here are the abilities we’ll be buffing and a brief description. Virtually all of the Affliction Lock abilities do Shadow damage now (since in patch 3.1 they took immolate away. Another nerf…sigh). Cast times are with no Haste figured in, but I’ll show you how to calculate them with the Haste included a little later. In parentheses are abbreviations I’ll use occasionally below.
Corruption (Corr)- This spell should always be up on the bad guys. It is instant cast and ticks every 3 seconds.
Curse of Agony (CoA) – Important DOT that is instant cast and ticks every 2 seconds.
Unstable Affliction (UA) – Another DOT that has a 1.5 sec cast time and ticks every 3 seconds.
Haunt (H) – This one has a base 1.5 sec cast time and does some damage when it hits the target. Then, more importantly, it buffs your DOTs 20% or more (the more coming with Glyph of Haunt) for 12 sec. As a result, you always want this one up as well.
Life Tap (LT) – This is instant cast and trades Health for Mana. On the surface, that may sound like a bad trade. However, if you go Out-of-Mana (OOM) while fighting mobs you’re probably good as dead anyway. In addition, you have a lot of ways of healing yourself as I mentioned above.
Shadow Bolt (SB) – This is basically a big nuke with a relatively long cast time of 3 sec. It is also shadow damage, but you buff it in the Destruction tree.
Drain Soul (DS) – This a major damage spell when the mob goes below 25% with a 3 sec tick time. Soul Shards get generated as a by-product.
Here are where the points are assigned and why in the spec above.
Affliction Tree
Improved Curse of Agony (2/2)– Increases damage by this DOT by 10%.
Suppression (3/3 or less depending on gear and raid make-up) – Increases hit chance on spells by 3%.
Improved Corruption (5/5) – 10% more damage by one of your most important DOTs. This also buffs Seed of Corr, which we’ll talk about a little in the next article.
Improved Life Tap (2/2) – Makes regenerating mana easier. Depending on your play you could pull 1 or even 2 points out of this one. It just depends on how likely you are to go OOM with your play on long boss fights.
Soul Siphon (2/2) – Buffs an import spell for regenerating health (Drain Life) and knocking down mobs (DS). Its based on number of DOTs on the mob.
Amplify Curse (1/1) – Lowers the global cooldown on curses. This ones debatable, but I think its worth its point.
Nightfall (1/1) – Corr and Drain Life occasionally give you an instant cast SB. Not a huge boost in DPS, but it’s a boost.
Empowered Corruption (3/3) – Another buff to Corr. This one’s based on your Bonus Spell Damage (Spell Power) directly.
Shadow Embrace (5/5) – Add a debuff to the target increasing damage and decrease its ability to be healed. Automatically placed on target with SB and H…this ones a no-brainer even at 5 talent points.
Siphon Life (1/1) – Another increase for Corr and also for UA. Also heals the caster a little. Definitely worth its 1 point.
Shadow Mastery (5/5) – Another 15% on all shadow damage…oh yeah.
Eradication (3/3) – Corruption has a chance to increase your cast speed.
Contagion (5/5) – Increases damage by CoA and Corruption again.
Malediction (3/3) – Increases your spell damage slightly and increases the crit chance of Corr and UA.
Death’s Embrace (3/3) – Increases your Siphon Life effectiveness when you need it most and increases your damage to the target when their low on life. Like I said, insidious.
Unstable Affliction (1/1) – Gives you this DOT.
Pandemic (1/1) – Lets Corr and UA crit for 100% more damage…sweet
Everlasting Affliction (5/5) – Increases Corr and UA scaling with your Spell Damage. It also resets Corr automatically when you cast H simplifying the rotation. Even at 5 talent points it a bargain in my opinion.
Haunt (1/1) – The must have spell for an Affliction lock. It does it all. It does a little damage directly, heals you, and it makes your DOTs tick a lot harder.
Destruction Tree
Improved Shadow Bolt (5/5) – Increases damage by Shadow Bolt and also increases Spell critical strike chance on the target. It also adds a debuff to the target increasing the crit chance of every caster in the raid. Mages will /love you for it.
Bane (5/5) – Decreases the cast time of Shadow Bolt by 0.5 to 2.5 seconds base cast time.
Ruin (5/5) – Doubles your critical strike bonus damage on Shadow bolt.
In this spec there are 3 points left. Personally, I would put 2 of them in Demonic Power and run with the Succubus as a pet (tier 3 of Destruction tree). Succubus does slightly more damage than the Felhunter. I also find her annoying, but my game sound is usually pretty low anyway.
The last point could go in Fel Synergy to increase your pet’s survivability, Demonic Embrace or Improved Healthstone to increase your survivability (your raid-mates get better cookies too), Fel Concentration to reduce cast times when your being hit, Grim Reach to increase the range of your Affliction spells, or other places really depending on your preference. None of these will increase your DPS directly but may improve your game play depending on your play style and the situation.
Glyphs
Glyphs for the Affliction Lock are pretty obvious. To maximize DPS there are at most four realistic choices for major Glyphs. In order of importance they are Glyph of Life Tap, Glyph of Haunt, Glyph of Curse of Agony, and Glyph of Corruption. In fact Glyph of Life Tap and Glyph of Haunt are so obvious for the Affliction Lock you should wonder about the sanity of any Aff Lock using anything else. Glyph of Curse of Agony increases the duration of this DOT. If you usually use CoA, this is the glyph you should have. If you are usually the one putting up Curse of Elements (discussed in Part 2) on your runs, Glyph of Corruption is the best choice for you, which gives the extra occasional instant cast SB.
Picking Gear
There are great websites, forums, articles, etc. for this. My favorite at the moment, which is also a great general Affliction Warlock thread, is at elitistjerks.com by Namnalia. The short version is:
Hit Rating > Spell Power > Haste Rating > Crit Rating ~ Spirit > Intellect
The numbers below are approximate, especially in ‘real’ raid fights, but they give you a point of reference for choosing gear. These are the numbers from Namnalia, and they are pretty consistent with what I’ve seen since the last major patch. They may come out a bit high for you due to his assumptions (perfect execution and zero lag). In a 25 man raid, in other words with the buffs assumed in the calculation, my DPS is pretty much the calculated ±5%, okay mostly minus, in a tank-and-spank fight involving few interruptions and moves, e.g., Patchwerk. Neither my lag nor probably my execution is ever “perfect”, so being somewhat lower is to be expected. Again, the main point is you can use these to decide which gear and enchants are for you.
Also, Spirit may be overestimated in importance a bit. You get additional Spell Power from LT based on Spirit with Glyph of LT. This buff lasts for 20 seconds currently. However, unless you need the mana, it isn’t an overall DPS boost to LT every 20 seconds. As a result, I just LT when I’m replacing nothing but part of a SB and need the mana boost, and the Glyph buff is not always up. Spirit is devalued somewhat as a consequence, I suspect because the usually assumption in the calculations is that the Glyph buff is always up. (However, the rumor is that in the next patch the Glyph buff will increase to 40 seconds, which will likely make Spirit scale as below and probably as intended.)
1 Hit rating point = 1.6 DPS
1 Spell Power = 1.4 DPS
1 Haste rating point = 0.9 DPS
1 Crit Rating point = 0.7 DPS
1 Spirit = 0.7 DPS
1 Intellect = 0.2 DPS
Hit rating is the most important stat on gear up until your character is “hit capped”. No matter how much you may want to or how much your gym teacher tells you to give 110%, you can’t hit something 110% of the time, so don’t go over 100% anymore than you have to. In Burning Crusade days, you could only get to 99%, but the great and powerful Blizz changed that so that you can make sure you hit with every cast. If at all possible you should.
On bosses, which are considered to be 3 levels higher than you are, you need 17% hit to reach the cap. A Gear Hit Rating of 26.23 is equal to 1% additional chance to hit a target. So, for bosses you need a hit rating of 445.91 from somewhere.
You get 3% from the talent tree listed through the tier 1 Affliction talent Suppression. So, you need 14% more, a rating of 367.22, not counting any of the various buffs/debuffs that may or may not be flying around in a particular raid that affect spell hit.
The most common Hit buff, if you’re alliance, is a 1% additional hit from having a Draenai within 30 yards, Heroic Presence. Consequently, as alliance you’ll only ever really need 13%, a rating of 340.99, with 3/3 in Suppression…there are plenty of Draenei around.
If you have choices in gear on the spot with respect to hit, you can ask your raid what hit related debuffs they are casting. If you have a Battle Chicken (Balance Druid) in the group, they will likely be putting up Improved Faerie Fire, which will give an additional 3% Hit on the target. As a result, you could swap out +hit gear for more Spell Power, Spirit, etc. gear if you have it. Just keep the priorities above in mind. After you get to the “hit cap”, whatever you decide that is for your situation, gear for as much Spell Power, then Haste, then Crit, etc. as possible.
Haste increases the speed that your spells cast. A Haste Rating of 32.78 decreases your cast time by 1%, and it makes your DOTs tick faster by the same 1%. To calculate your cast times with added Haste Rating, the formula is below.
In other words, if your Haste Rating = 500 from your gear, then a Haunt cast (base cast time = 1.5 sec) will take the time as shown below.
A Critical Strike (Crit) dramatically increases the damage done by a spell. With the spec above, many of your spells have a chance to Crit, including SB, Corr, UA, and Haunt. These DOTs have a chance to Crit on every tick. A Critical Chance Rating of 45.91 is equal to an additional 1% chance to Crit. Intellect also increases your Crit Chance slightly.
When choosing between Haste Rating and Crit Rating, Haste is slightly better, but Crit Rating is definitely a good thing for an Affliction Lock as well.
The easiest time, from personal experience, to identify yourself as a noob is during the loot handout. If it doesn’t say “Cloth” at the top right and has stats in white other than Stamina, Intellect, and Spirit its not for you. The secondary stats like spell power, hit rating, haste, etc. are generally near the bottom on the item.
One secondary stat that really doesn’t help Warlocks much is Mana Per 5 Seconds (MP5). There is no best-in-slot gear for Warlocks with MP5 on it, and since Ulduar was released there may not be many top 20 items for Locks with MP5. Personally if a Lock with a green or blue item in that slot wants to roll on the epic with a bunch more Spell Power but also some MP5, I have no problem with it. The item would be a big upgrade for them. If you already have an iLevel 200 or more item in that slot, let the healers fight over it. Naturally, that’s up to the leaders for your raid.
Follow the above and you’ll be dressed and specced for Dominating success as an Affliction Lock. Next time we’ll talk about killing stuff.
A Critical Chance Rating of 45.91 is equal to an additional 1% chance to Crit. Intellect also increases your Crit Chance slightly.
