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:
Affliction
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.
Blood Pact is a weekly column detailing DoTs, demons, and all the dastardly deeds done by Warlocks. If you're curious about what's new with Locks since the last patch, check out the Patch 3.2 Warlock Guide or find out what's upcoming in Cataclysm from the BlizzCon 2009: Class Discussion Panel.
Filed under: Warlock, Patches, How-tos, Raiding, Guides, Talents, (Warlock) Blood Pact
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
Ballerina of Doom Nov 17th 2009 10:22AM
1) Last PTR build I saw had reduced Molten Core to a 2 point talent and just a 4/8% chance to proc the incinerates. The biggest damage increase from this talent is the 3 additional ticks of Immolate and additional Shadow bolts you will be launching (0/56/15) while NOT refreshing Immolate. You may want to double check that.
2) Affliction has no burst or decent AoE, still. In fact, Destro's AoE is terrible, too, as the hybrid builds will simply have more crit due to MD's Imp buff in 0/40/31 and Demonic Tactics+Backlash in 0/41/30 as well. It's a real shame how poorly SoC scales thus far in Wrath. The spell that carried Hyjal runs is nigh-useless. Affliction, due to Haunt's CD and necessary uptime also is the least-mobile build.
3) Arcane Mages are simply better DPS right now. And Shadow Priests will be as well. Better than Affliction, Destruction, or Demonology. Warlocks are going to be relegated to buff-bot roles, similar to how most of us are now in high-end raid guilds.
4) Some sort of PVP concession would be nice for Demonology. Or move Demonic Resilience higher up the tree and make it reduce melee damage. It's a real shame. The tree has the most survival tools between Master Demonologist with Voidy, Felhunter, or the Felguard out, Demonic Embrace, Demonic Resilience, and of course, being defense capped as Meta, but you give up nearly all offensive instants, a secondary form of control (Curse of Exhaustion or Shadowfury), pushback resistance, Conflag's Daze (and "shatter combo") and are more pigeonholed to a particular pet worse than both other builds. To further compound this, 10% crit is a resilience killer (Demonic Tactics) but your nukes are too long to cast. It's really a shame. It seems that Blizz is starting to understand the fundamental flaw of Warlocks: Cloth-tanks are a bad design. Nemesis should affect Demonic Teleport, lowering its CD to 15 seconds. Meta/Demonic Empowerment should make you immune to all CC and Meta should be useable when stunned (as should Demon Armor across all builds).
Good write-up Dominic. Just make sure to double check if Molten Core is a 2 or 3 point talent on the PTR right now.
Ballerina of Doom Nov 17th 2009 10:25AM
Oh, and last build took the crit bonus on Shadow Bite off Pandemic.
Docseuzz Nov 17th 2009 11:20AM
your build links are pointing to www.wowhead.com - they should be to ptr.wowhead.com....
thebvp Nov 17th 2009 12:36PM
I think it should be mentioned that this doesn’t necessarily mean that demo is the “worst” dps spec.
I think demo may have way too many variables that just can’t be quantified in a study like that. Every fight plays somewhat differently as demo, given cooldowns, timings, and all that, and it simply cannot be put into numbers. For example, timing meta with BL, charging in for immo aura, porting back out to max range, etc etc. Being spatially aware is huge in demo, and can reap huge rewards if done properly, but not so much with the other trees. I think many players go for raid demo because it is a finesse spec and a wonderful change from the ghetto mages of destro.
I’d also be very interested in seeing those numbers with raid dps taken into account for demo. Something like: assume an even population for casters/melee, add the SP bonus to each from demo pact less a totem of wrath buff. Not to mention, your mages don’t need to include scorch in their rotation anymore. Good luck quantifying all of that.
And finally, demo scales extremely well with SP. Depending on the stats for T10, it could pull ahead.
At any rate, I think it needs to be mentioned that Demo really is the dark horse on this. In a generic raid environment, with generic spell rotations, as a generic spell caster, yes, it will lag behind in personal dps. But if you’re playing at such, you’re doing it all wrong, anyway, and should probably just go back to destro.
duffry Nov 17th 2009 2:28PM
You might be interested in having a look at / play with the Warlock DPS Spreadsheet. It's another product of the EJ forums. In there I added a Demonic Pact calculator to measure the raid damage with DP for comparisons to the other builds.
http://dmz-gaming.com/site/wiki/index.php?title=Warlock_DPS_Spreadsheet
Bharat Nov 17th 2009 6:35PM
fantastic update review and spec guide for 3.3 seriously informative and something I was defiantly looking for thanks so much for outlining all of this. Please keep this up for all future major patches. Perhaps a 3.3 warlock pvp guide as well. Also I'm very excited about finally being able to go back to playing affliction in raids, my favorite spec that I hold near and dear to my heart.
disastro Nov 17th 2009 8:34PM
more mage hate please
mordenov Nov 18th 2009 10:07AM
I love raiding affliction even though i understand that it is inferior to destro. As such, on my server i am in the top 5 best geared affliction locks, i am just curious to see how far my ranking drops in 3.3 when a bunch of people switch over.
PuffY Nov 19th 2009 11:51AM
Couple oif things. Someone please explain how the glyph of conflagrate will work in the new patch. Also will it be worth going on to affliction spec if you use the 2 piece set bonus from Tier 9? I'm guessing that particular set bonus won't be that great for affliction in the new patch as your not gonna be using the imp.
Celess Nov 27th 2009 5:33AM
No, but it still affects the Felhunter, thus it's worth having 2-set (if not the 4-set T9 for the boost to 2 of your DOTs).
What we're basically seeing here is the return of the warlocks best factor: choice. At the moment, if you want to be competitive, you have to be Destruction. Else, you can drop to Demonology for a raid buffing slot (which when you do the math, and account for the extra damage and heals others are doing because of DP and add that to your own personal DPS (ie, Personal DPS + Combined Increase in DPS of All Raid Casters + Additional Healing) comes out FAR on top - ie, Destro may be 2k above Demonology on personal DPS, but adds maybe 7-10k to the raid?).
In 3.3, we see the return of choice. Statistically, Affliction is higher DPS, yes, BUT that's on paper. In practice, you'll likely not see much of a difference between Affliction and Destruction. If you can play Affliction, do so, you'll do well. If not, then stick with 4-button EZMode "Couldn't-be-bothered-to-reroll-mage" Destruction.
Personally, I'll be changing my Secondary Spec from Destruction to Affliction, and play a spec I enjoy and can do well and is actually remotely challenging to play. Primary is still Demonology, simply because I can value that I may not be top of the DPS, but I am providing more DPS on the boss than any other DPS there. As I said, there's a good 7-10k extra DPS on the boss because of me, though that won't show as me on the meters :)
Magnyss Dec 7th 2009 9:56PM
What many of you arent taking into account, when against the dummies, ect. is the fact that when your target goes below 35%, your dps gains 12% increase, and another 10% lower, you can start using Drain Soul, which when correctly buffed and with dots out, can tick for 16,000 damage. This increases your dps by almost 3/4th's for an entire fraction of the fight. Also, imagine fights like Anub arak. He burrows, and you just stick Corruption on everything you see while Instant shadowbolts are proccing faster then you can possibly use them. Also, with the new AoE cap altered, one-shot spammable AoE's are heavily in favor to Channeled AoE's. Also, theres the pure fact that, in fights like icehowl, when you get knocked back against wall. Nobody will be dealing damage. except for your DoTs, ticking away, giving you tens of thousands of damage worth concerning mobility.
Mike Dec 11th 2009 5:39PM
How does 'survivability' factor into all this.
How would a spec like this do in the simulator: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Deathwing&cn=Rassclot&gn=Disciples+of+War
Damien Dec 12th 2009 5:23AM
Im currently Destruction spec 0/13/58 and in raids, heroics and even the dummy in IF will consistently pull 4.5K DPS (in T9 gear). So after reading this, thought id brush off the affliction spec i had as a secondary. Tweaked it to the "top DPS spec" as per the chart.
Against a dummy in IF with fel hunter out: duration before oom was 128 seconds, 3.3K DPS.
Affliction with Imp out: 118 seconds and 3.1K DPS average.
Swapped back to Destruction. Didnt oom but stopped test at 168 seconds, 4.4K DPS average.
Affliction needs some time to build up (as the DoTs tick) and so is/was useful in raid boss fights as they are longer. Affliction seems useless in heroics, especially when a heroic boss dies in under 45 seconds typically.
Ive found in ToTC, Ony 25 etc, that as destruction i never run out of mana, and consistently pull decent DPS. However, have noticed the change in conflag, it hits for a hell of a lot less for me (used to be 14K now its about 7.5K) and the ticking damage is negligable.
Just my two cents. Gonna research some more into this so called uber affliction spec. But for the meantime will stick with destruction.