Saturday, May 3, 2008
Yes, I am a warlock
A question was asked of me recently why most of my posts seem "warlock centric". I play a warlock in a Tier 5-6 raiding guild. That means the majority of my interest is in that area. If you'd like to see specific analysis on any particular class, spec, gear, etc, feel free to drop a comment and I'll pull the numbers on it out.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Warlock Raid Curse assignments
an analysis of Curse use in a raid:
Curse of Doom - at 1000 spelldamage, this does roughly 10K damage or 250-300 DPS. With Amplify curse, this is the single most potent attack a warlock has, and INCREDIBLY mana efficient. If amplify cooldown is up and at least a minute left on the boss, ALL warlocks in the raid should be casting amplify curse of doom, as this is the highest DPS curse we have. Without amplify it is strong, but may not outweigh shadows/elements/etc.
Curse of Agony- Roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of an affliction warlocks DPS. This is the default curse any affliction lock should be using when amplify is not available for an amplified curse of doom.
Curse of shadows- 10-13% buff for all shadow users. Since this means losing curse of agony, it means about a 20% drop in DPS for the warlock using it. This is only worthwhile for affliction if there are at LEAST 4 shadow users in the raid (warlocks & shadowpriests combined). Anytime there are at least 4 total warlocks+Shadowpriests, 1 warlock should have this curse up.
As a side note, curse of agony is only worth 9% of a destro lock's damage. (an optimized destro warlock will not be using it) That means that it is ALWAYS worth it for a destro lock to cast this even without malediction. Destro locks should use Curse of shadow on any bossfight, but not trashpulls. For more information on whether or not to use talented or untalented, see my previous post: http://theorycrafter.blogspot.com/2007/12/malediction.html
Curse of Elements As with Curse of shadows, only it doesnt benefit the caster, which means you need 4 fire users (fire mages usually) for this to be worth losing your curse of agony in terms of overall raid DPS.
as before, please note that a destro lock won't normally be using curses as part of his spell rotation, so it is only a minimal DPS loss for them to cast it, and easily worth it to overall raid DPS.
Curse of tongues- Most bosses are immune, so this is rarely an issue. For the few who can be, this is critical as it helps the interrupts hit correctly. The warlock to use it should EITHER be the lowest DPS warlock (least damage sacrificed) or a destro lock (he's not losing a curse, he wasnt using one)
Curse of Weakness- Reduces attack power by 350 (29 DPS). After tank mitigation this is barely 10DPS reduction on the boss' damage. Normally this amount is small enough to not justify the loss of over 150 DPS.
Curse of Recklessness- While this reduces armor by 800, the 125 increased AP on the boss can be bad idea. Should be used to turn off badly timed fears. Most guilds would agree that the armor pen is worth the increased AP, but be sure to check with your raid/tank leader before using this curse
In summary,
Curse of Doom - at 1000 spelldamage, this does roughly 10K damage or 250-300 DPS. With Amplify curse, this is the single most potent attack a warlock has, and INCREDIBLY mana efficient. If amplify cooldown is up and at least a minute left on the boss, ALL warlocks in the raid should be casting amplify curse of doom, as this is the highest DPS curse we have. Without amplify it is strong, but may not outweigh shadows/elements/etc.
Curse of Agony- Roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of an affliction warlocks DPS. This is the default curse any affliction lock should be using when amplify is not available for an amplified curse of doom.
Curse of shadows- 10-13% buff for all shadow users. Since this means losing curse of agony, it means about a 20% drop in DPS for the warlock using it. This is only worthwhile for affliction if there are at LEAST 4 shadow users in the raid (warlocks & shadowpriests combined). Anytime there are at least 4 total warlocks+Shadowpriests, 1 warlock should have this curse up.
As a side note, curse of agony is only worth 9% of a destro lock's damage. (an optimized destro warlock will not be using it) That means that it is ALWAYS worth it for a destro lock to cast this even without malediction. Destro locks should use Curse of shadow on any bossfight, but not trashpulls. For more information on whether or not to use talented or untalented, see my previous post: http://theorycrafter.blogspot.com/2007/12/malediction.html
Curse of Elements As with Curse of shadows, only it doesnt benefit the caster, which means you need 4 fire users (fire mages usually) for this to be worth losing your curse of agony in terms of overall raid DPS.
as before, please note that a destro lock won't normally be using curses as part of his spell rotation, so it is only a minimal DPS loss for them to cast it, and easily worth it to overall raid DPS.
Curse of tongues- Most bosses are immune, so this is rarely an issue. For the few who can be, this is critical as it helps the interrupts hit correctly. The warlock to use it should EITHER be the lowest DPS warlock (least damage sacrificed) or a destro lock (he's not losing a curse, he wasnt using one)
Curse of Weakness- Reduces attack power by 350 (29 DPS). After tank mitigation this is barely 10DPS reduction on the boss' damage. Normally this amount is small enough to not justify the loss of over 150 DPS.
Curse of Recklessness- While this reduces armor by 800, the 125 increased AP on the boss can be bad idea. Should be used to turn off badly timed fears. Most guilds would agree that the armor pen is worth the increased AP, but be sure to check with your raid/tank leader before using this curse
In summary,
- affliction locks should be rotating Amp doom/agony when amp is down.
- if there are 10 total shadow/arcane, 1 malediction lock should have curse of shadows
- if there are 10 total fire/frost users, 1 malediction lock should have curse of elements
- Destro locks should pick elements or shadow and cast it
- If the tank is geared enough that the additional attack power will not get them killed, a 3rd destro lock may cast recklessness
- No other curses should be used unless specific boss requires it (curse of tongues for interrupts, etc)
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