DPS Guide

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This is a guide of sorts to maximizing dps in raids. I'll go over talents, gear, consumables and spell casting. The last of those sections will probably be most interesting, as it, hopefully, provides suggestions to instantly and without cost improve dps.

As always all comments, corrections and additions are welcome!

Contents

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Talents

Currently there are two general ways you can spec for raiding: Affliction or Destro/Demonic Sacrifice. All things being equal, the latter will provide better personal dps. But having at least one warlock with an Affliction spec is very valuable for the added utility of Malediction. Within these two builds, there are plenty of things you can vary (Improved Healthstone, Imp Imp, Nether Protection, Curse of Exhaustion, to name a few), but they generally don't affect dps that much.

Example of an Affliction build: 44/0/17

Example of a Destruction build: 0/21/40

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Gear

Everybody will agree dps depends for a large part on gear. However, getting the most out of what is available to you is not just a matter of stacking one particular attribute (such as Spell Crit). Best results are achieved at just the right balance between Stamina, Intellect, Spell Damage, Spell Hit, Spell Crit and Spell Haste. I'll try to write down some general rules of thumb, that may or may not help when choosing what item to bid heavily on, and which to ignore. Note: this is mostly from a Destruction build point of view. Affliction locks will probably prefer a very different balance.

  1. The first rule is simple and goes for all raiding warlocks: get Spell Hit Rating capped. That means get as close to 202 hit rating as you can (or 190 when grouped with a Draenei caster). It provides a larger dps increases than any other stat. Plus there are some spells you simply never want to miss, such as Soulshatter. Socketing is the most obvious way to get closer to the cap if your gear lacks hit rating: [Great Lionseye].
  2. Raise spell (or at least shadow) damage to 1k+.
  3. Now, in an earlier version of this guide I recommended to gather around 25% Spell Crit. But having done some additional theory crafting, I changed my mind on that a bit. In terms of dps, both on a personal level and raid wide, it's better not to go out of your way to stack crit, meaning don't use crit enchants or gems, until at very high gear levels. It's better to stack Spell Damage to around 1500 (buffed) and Spell Haste to about 130. After that, a bit of Spell Crit will help maximize dps.
  4. Raise health and mana to around 10k. Now, this one depends a bit on personal preference and playstyle, but I want to point out that having a solid health and mana pool does in fact improve dps. Stacking mana, or rather intellect, has the added benefit of raising spell crit. 500 Intellect translates into 6% Spell Crit. Stamina we need both to survive incoming damage (every raid encounter has some) and to regain mana through tapping. Having a limited health pool means you'll either be putting a higher strain on the healers, or you'll simply die, which is one of the worst things you can do when trying to improve dps. It's far better to have a bit of extra reserve so you can delay tapping until it's safe, or until the encounter forces you to move. Tapping when standing still is an opportunity loss, where you could be casting bolts.
  5. Stack Spell Haste. This is another area I have changed my mind on, slightly. It's not a good idea to only stack Spell Haste. Not only does it make you oom faster, it's also just not optimal in terms of dps. You'll basically want to raise Spell Damage and Spell Haste hand in hand.

More information: Gearing up Shadow Destro 0/21/40

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Special mentions

A few special items that every lock should know about:

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Enchants

See Warlock Enchants.

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Consumables

Pretty straightforward, but for completeness here's a list of typical warlock consumables:

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Spell casting

Probably the one thing that affects actual dps the most is spell casting technique. I've learned many things about playing a warlock, and still feel like I have lots to learn and discover. Here's what I know about maxing dps:

  • Easily the most important thing to realize is that all warlocks, even affliction builds, are essentially bolt turrets. A destruction lock typically gets 75-80% from their damage from bolts, while an Affliction lock still gets 40-50%. A LOT of dps can be gained from squeezing those Shadow Bolt casts closer together. With good timing it's possible to compensate for lag, and be casting with virtually no down time. The best results come from starting the next cast before current one is fully finished. How soon before it's finished depends on your network latency. It requires practice to get just right. A very helpful addon is Quartz, which will color the part of your casting bar that represents lag red, marking the point where you should cast the next spell.
  • In our current gear (T5/6) destruction locks should not use Corruption. Spending that global cooldown (GCD) on another Shadow Bolt yields more dps. There are some exceptions, such as Supremus or other high mobility fights.
  • At even higher gear levels it can become beneficial to drop Immolate as well. But again, it depends on the encounter. Personally, I still use it on most bosses.
  • Conflagrate is great for soloing and trash, but never use it on bosses. Getting that final tick from Immo, combined with using that unspent GCD for another bolt always gives more dps.
  • Curse of Doom > Curse of agony, if you know for sure it will detonate. On Naj'entus, for example, CoD is not a good idea, unless you can time it to always hit when the shield is down. In general, never cast a dot unless it can run its full duration.
  • Time your lifetaps for those moments where you're forced to move. Use as much of your standing-still-time for bolting as you can. Also, mana potions are often better than health potions + lifetapping. The total mana gained is lower, but it frees up one or several GCD.
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