Blood Pact: Patch 3.3 raid build roundup

Each week Dominic Hobbs brings you Blood Pact. "Oh how I love the feel of it, the way it burns your skin and weaves evil thoughts through the mind..." ~ Impsy
With patch 3.3 looking evermore imminent and the changes to warlock talents and spells seeming to have settled down, it's a good time to take a look at what we can expect from the next expansion. This isn't going to be a review of the fights and encounters in Icecrown -- though I'm sure we'll get to that at some point -- this is a look at how our various raiding builds have changed.
I've already reported on most of them as they hit the PTR in previous articles, so I'm not going to dwell on the changes themselves. You can read up on this detail here, here, here and here. I wouldn't say that lock talents are broken at the moment but it certainly seems as if we're left little option when it comes to raiding. You have destruction for damage and a demonology bi... err... buff spec. The overriding impression I have looking at the patch 3.3 changes is that there will be more choice to play the spec you like. Something we've not had for a very long time.
After the break I'll list the changes from the patch notes for reference and then we'll get down to how that shakes out.
With patch 3.3 looking evermore imminent and the changes to warlock talents and spells seeming to have settled down, it's a good time to take a look at what we can expect from the next expansion. This isn't going to be a review of the fights and encounters in Icecrown -- though I'm sure we'll get to that at some point -- this is a look at how our various raiding builds have changed.
I've already reported on most of them as they hit the PTR in previous articles, so I'm not going to dwell on the changes themselves. You can read up on this detail here, here, here and here. I wouldn't say that lock talents are broken at the moment but it certainly seems as if we're left little option when it comes to raiding. You have destruction for damage and a demonology bi... err... buff spec. The overriding impression I have looking at the patch 3.3 changes is that there will be more choice to play the spec you like. Something we've not had for a very long time.
After the break I'll list the changes from the patch notes for reference and then we'll get down to how that shakes out.
- Create Soulstone: The cooldown on this spell and duration of its buff have been lowered from 30 minutes down to 15 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
- Affliction
- Improved Felhunter: This talent now also reduces the cooldown on the felhunter's Shadow Bite ability by 2/4 seconds.
- Pandemic: This talent now also increases the critical strike damage bonus of the felhunter's Shadow Bite spell by 100%.
- Shadow Mastery: This talent now also increases the damage done by the felhunter's Shadow Bite ability by 3/6/9/12/15%.
- Demonology
- Decimation: Redesigned. When Shadow Bolt, Incinerate or Soul Fire hit a target that is at or below 35% health, the cast time of Soul Fire is reduced by 20/40% for 8 seconds. Soul Fires cast under the effect of Decimation cost no shards.
- Demonic Pact: This talent now also increases the warlock's spell damage by 1/2/3/4/5%.
- Molten Core: Redesigned. This talent now increases the duration of Immolate by 3/6/9 seconds and provides a 4/8/12% chance to gain the Molten Core effect when Corruption deals damage. The Molten Core effect empowers the next 3 Incinerate or Soul Fire spells cast within 15 seconds (Incinerate: increases damage done by 6/12/18% and reduces cast time by 10/20/30%; Soul Fire: increases damage done by 6/12/18% and increases critical strike chance by 5/10/15%). Molten Core now has a new spell effect.
- Destruction
- Conflagrate: Redesigned. This talent now consumes an Immolate or Shadowflame effect on the enemy target to instantly deal damage equal to 9 seconds of Immolate or 8 seconds of Shadowflame, and causes additional damage over 3 seconds equal to 3 seconds of Immolate or 2 seconds of Shadowflame. In addition, the periodic damage of Conflagrate is capable of critically striking the afflicted target.
- Ruin: This talent now also increases the critical strike damage bonus of the imp's Firebolt spell by 100%.
- Pets
- Avoidance (passive): Now reduces the damage your pet takes from area-of-effect damage by 90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players.
- Doomguard/Infernal: These pets now innately have Avoidance like all other warlock pets.
- Inferno: The cooldown on this summoning spell has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
- Shadow Bite: This pet ability now provides 15% increased damage for each of the warlock's damage-over-time effects on the target.
- Summon Imp: This ability is now available from the trainer for level 1 warlocks and no longer requires a quest to learn.
- Glyphs
- Glyph of Life Tap: The effect of this glyph now has a chance of activating when Dark Pact is used.
- Glyph of Quick Decay: This glyph allows for the warlock's haste to reduce the time between periodic damage effects of Corruption.
- Bug Fixes
- Curse of the Elements: Rank 4 has been increased to 11%, up from 10%.
- Drain Soul: This spell now deals 4 times the normal damage for all ranks. Previously it was only ranks 6 and above.
- Glyph of Conflagrate: Now updates the tooltip of Conflagrate to remove reference to Conflagrate removing an Immolate or Shadowflame effect on the target.
- Glyph of Siphon Life: This glyph will now modify the tooltip on Siphon Life correctly.
- Glyph of Unending Breath: Now updates the tooltip on Unending Breath to indicate it increases swim speed.
- Hellfire: Dealing damage to another player with this ability will now put the Warlock in combat.
- Improved Shadow Bolt: This talent no longer causes a bug that removes all resilience from pets.
- Suffering (Voidwalker): Ranks 5-8 had the incorrect taunt radius of 5 yards and have all been adjusted to a 10-yard radius.
So, I've grabbed the figures from the SimulationCraft output and put them all into a handy chart. This includes the ten builds simulated which accounts for the main ones used today as well as those that deliver more DPS under the patch 3.3 changes. The builds in the chart are:

A1: 55/00/16
A2: 53/00/18 using a Doomguard
A3: 53/00/18 without the Doomguard
Destruction
D1: 00/13/58
D2: 03/13/55
Demonology
d1: 00/56/15 with 3 points in Molten Core
d2: 00/56/15 with Demonic Empowerment
d3: 03/52/16
Hybrid
H1: 00/40/31
H2: 00/41/30
Each bar on the chart has two shades -- the darker being the DPS simulation result under current live mechanics and the total bar height representing the DPS with the changes for patch 3.3.
I'm sure one of the first things people will notice is that an affliction build now has the highest DPS once again. This will bring a smile to many as I believe this is a spec dear to a lot of locks. Specifically in that you will notice that using a Doomguard is no longer worthwhile. This is primarily due to that buffs that the Felhunter has received. I know a lot of people liked to have a reason to bring the big-fella along but for me the retirement of the Doomguard is great news. Builds A2 and A3 are the old style with points in Demonic Power to buff the Succubus. Both of these can be scrapped for the new (A1) build which drops these two points into Improved Felhunter instead. Obviously to go along with all that it's the Felpuppy that should be raiding along side you. The rotation remains exactly the same but the Glyph of Curse of Agony has been swapped out for the new Glyph of Quick Decay.
Fans of Destruction builds should not be downheartened by losing the top spot, frankly the difference is negligible. If you enjoy Destro more and can play it better you will perform better with it in raids. I'm not predicting a huge migration of all end-game raiders over to Affliction as we saw with Destro. The changes to Conflag were the big news for the Destro build and it seemed that all told the spec was getting both a buff and a nerf. This seems to ring true in the simulation with just a slight increase in DPS for both builds.
Demonology has seen some significant tweaking and buffing through the patch testing. This has resulted in (to my mind) some very nice changes -- if somewhat complicated mechanics. You need an instruction manual more than a tooltip to understand how Molten Core is going to work. The upshot is primarily more damage when you cast Soul Fire. It does not make Incinerate worth casting over Shadow Bolt except for the three buffed casts when MC procs. Decimation now triggers from Soul Fire and lasts for a set time. This removes the fiddly Shadow Bolt weaving now employed during the execute phase (target below 35% health).
Demonology is still looking low on personal DPS but this is to be expected. Demonic Pact is still by far the best spell power buff out there and while it has been stated that the devs want demo locks to be taken for their own DPS and not just a buff I can't see that happening until Demonic pact is reigned in somewhat. It is nice to see that the personal damage has been increased though; it did feel like it was slipping too far behind. One thing that might prove me wrong here is the spell damage bonus Demonic Pact will receive -- if this scales well through tier ten, Demo could rise up through the charts.
We see another nail being driven into the coffin lid of warlock hybrid builds in patch 3.3. Currently in live they produce DPS figures a bit below average, the changes incoming see them slip to the bottom of the table. This coupled with the almost complete lack of raid utility (in comparison) makes them pretty useless. I don't know how to feel about that. Hybrid builds are odd beasts and while I like their oddity (and certainly enjoyed playing 00/41/30 in Naxx) it always feels a shame not to be using the juicy talents lurking at the bottom of a talent tree.
On a final note:
I don't usually read Arcane Brilliance (I hear it talks about mages a lot), but I know some people that look at it from time to time. I've been told that in the last installment, Mr Belt requested pictures of mages. It seems he is having somewhat of a hard time coming up with ideas for the title image. It occurred to me that Blood Pact readers might well have quite a collection of pictures of mages and that he might appreciate seeing them. Remember, keep UI and nameplates off and send them to arcanebrilliancepics@yahoo.com, you can also copy in bloodpactpics@googlemail.com and I'll see if we can showcase some of them.

Filed under: Warlock, Patches, How-tos, Raiding, Guides, Talents, (Warlock) Blood Pact
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
mibluvr13 Nov 16th 2009 7:07PM
Does this patch mean the return of realistic endgame affliction? The theorycraft is convincing, but I'm afraid I've gotten used to destro after three years of affliction raiding.
Lokasenna Nov 16th 2009 7:57PM
My warlock has been Affliction since somewhere in Zangarmarsh, pre-Wrath, and he's always done well for himself. Right now, in mostly 219 gear with a few 200s and 226s, he puts out 3500 dps on most raid bosses.
Conclusion: I'm not sure where you think end-game Affliction went to begin with, but yes, it's back.
Jimson Nov 16th 2009 8:30PM
End-game aff went the same place in LK as it did in BC... fun with starter raid gear, but for anyone in a serious raid environment, not really feasible. 3.5k DPS is nice for a heroic UK run or something, but it'd put you at the bottom of a ToC 10 pug. I'm not trying to put you down or say that aff sucks, because I am dual-specced (aff/destro) myself, and I love slinging DoTs. But aff is hard-pressed to match the basic power of a destro build with huge conflag/CB crits and incin spam.
I am glad to see aff getting a nice boost, although I still wish siphon life was not joined with corruption. There's a perverse pleasure in maintaining several dots and keeping them all up.
noobdeluxe Nov 16th 2009 8:33PM
3500 dps on raidbosses isnt very impressive, even with 219 gear
Lokasenna Nov 16th 2009 10:35PM
The original question was "realistic Affliction raiding" - since my ten-man has cleared all of the current content aside from Yogg and Algalon with most of the DPS averaging 3500-4000, I'd say "realistic" is the right word. We're obviously not a hardcore group, Destro might be doing a fair bit more, but Aff is clearly viable for those of us who prefer it.
Sorahn Nov 16th 2009 7:07PM
I have got to say, great assessment of the warlock changes and the resulting DPS of their specs.
Keep up the good work
Lockgirl Nov 16th 2009 7:09PM
When did we gain an extra talent point, last i checked i had 70.....
Lockgirl Nov 16th 2009 7:11PM
...thinking my lock is bugged
Viper007Bond Nov 16th 2009 7:59PM
You have 71 talent points at level 80.
Crimson Nov 17th 2009 1:58AM
reading too much Faildruid did not do you good xD
http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/sillies.php?d=20091112
Cedric Nov 16th 2009 7:17PM
Incinerate may not be worth casting over shadowbolt as a main nuke (In the Molten Core/demonic pact build) but I thought it was a dps increase to cast the 3 buffed incinerates from molten core and then go back to shadowbolt as a nuke. (Before the Decimation range)
Am I mistaken?
duffry Nov 16th 2009 10:55PM
You are correct. I've just checked the latest SimulationCraft profile details and it does include a line to cast Incinerate when MC is active. I've tweaked the post to reflect this but the numbers/chart still hold true.
Thanks.
Zhanrock Nov 16th 2009 7:19PM
Can anyone test if the hybrid version of molten core is still bugged?
Its not scaling with conflag. Secondly, the tooltip on the ptrs was changed to 60% lasting time, so i think it might be still bugged, and only USING the 9 second duration.
If they were to stack, the damage would be rediculous.
Oreo Nov 16th 2009 7:26PM
Nother great article keep up the good work ^_^
Wild Colors Nov 16th 2009 7:39PM
How do those dps estimates line up with the real world? That is to say, in our 10-man raids, our destruction 'lock tends to do around 5-6k dps. She's well geared and tends to play pretty well. I realize that 25-man results in more buffs, but 3.5k dps more buffs? Are those numbers "real," or are they what you would get in a perfect world? (and what does that perfect world look like? are these the number you'd get if you were fully raid buffed and nuking a target dummy?)
Cedric Nov 16th 2009 7:51PM
Every debuff in the game on the boss, every buff on you, bloodlusted/heroism, patchwerk style fight in which you're not moving, flask of the frost wyrm, potion of wild magic, Best spellpower food buff, and appropriate stone (spellstone/firestone)
Taken from the thread itself: "These are results of 10k iterations with a fight time of 5 minutes using a Simulationcraft updated for 3.3.0 and assuming best-in-slot Coliseum gear (no T10 bonuses)."
duffry Nov 16th 2009 11:00PM
It is possible to run your own simulations with your own gear, selection of buffs and even change the rotation. You are tied to the mechanics that the code has been built to model but it's a very flexible tool. The theoretical maximums are a decent benchmark from which comparisons can be drawn but there's nothing to say that you always have to run it for optimal conditions.
Finnicks Nov 17th 2009 1:00PM
From my personal experience with both specs, as long as Destruction and Affliction are relatively evenly matched in DPS potential, Affliction takes less of a hit in high-mobility fights due to higher reliance on instant-cast spells and DoT effects.
If these theorycrafting charts are basically correct and we can assume that the two specs will be roughly equal in a stand-and-DPS Patchwerk style encounter, then it's a very safe estimation that Affliction will be significantly stronger on fights that require a lot of movement.
(Please note I'm a science major so "significantly" doesn't mean "large", it just means notable, noticable, or measurable)
duffry Nov 17th 2009 2:26PM
@Finnicks
There is an option in SimulationCraft to change the fight style from 'Patchwerk' to 'Helter Skelter'. I ran both the top aff and destro profiles through each and found they both drop to about 82% of their former DPS values. They both have their mobility features and it seems they balance. I can't tell you any detail about the 'Helter Skelter' mode though.
Derrek Nov 16th 2009 7:54PM
I realize that simulations are simulations, but it's good to know that for boss-killing purposes Conflagrate wasn't nerfed into the ground as I had previously suspected.
Nice article, lotsa great stuff. Needs more mage-bashing though.