4.x talent build for Warlock

[Vitandus]

Affliction build for Nemhain:

http://wowtal.com/#k=1kbzTXT.a5o.warlock.-aZV0d

Destruction:

http://wowtal.com/#k=-kGiVIMU.a5o.warlock.iSa8f (WIP)

[Raelthorn]

Why shadow and flame over bane? 

[Vitandus]

Current builds:

Destruction

Affliction

[Vitandus]

Why shadow and flame over bane?

If you're talking about the original Affliction build, it was because at one point Life Drain as a filler was more effective than Shadow Bolt.

[Kotodama]

My current builds:

Destruction

Affliction


Not going to be much different, if at all from Pat's because well....there isn't much room for individuality in the new talent trees IMO.

Since you use glyphs and what-not to customize more so now than talents, my glyphs I'm using/going to be using are as follows:

Destruction - (Prime)Glyph of Conflagrate, Glyph of Imp, Glyph of Incinerate. (Major)Glyph of Shadowflame, Glyph of Healthstone, Glyph of Lifetap, (Minor) Glyph of Enslave Demon, Glyph of Drain Soul, Glyph of Unending Breath

The Major Glyph selection for destruction sucks, I don't know how this compares with other classes/builds but it was just horrible for destro.

Affliction - I haven't really gone over the glyphs I want yet, Pat would know better than I.  I do seem to remember there being alot more good choices than with Destruction.



I haven't had the chance to play with Demonology yet.  I don't expect I will anytime too soon.

[Raelthorn]

If you're talking about the original Affliction build, it was because at one point Life Drain as a filler was more effective than Shadow Bolt.

Yup, thats what I referring to. 

Mine are slightly different:  Affliction.. put the one into soulburn seed of corruption, instead of hightfall.  Not really anything crazy in terms of DPS, but I find the added utility of the SoC super useful with Adds and such. 

And I've been fiddling with Demo and here's what I currently have: Demonology.  I'm thinking I need to modify a bit with the destro talents moving all away from Bane and into the other 2 since Incinerate is the main DPS spell, and Hand of Guldan refreshes Immolate. 

Affliction Glyphs are pretty decent!  The Major glyph of soul swap is so worth it!  And at this point doesn't reduce the time to 10 seconds, but I imagine that'll be fixed.  And Felhunter isn't bad, but otherwise its pretty generic warlock stuff.  I use Soul Link now to keep survivability up and demon health worth something. 

[Vitandus]

Soulburn SoC is a blast in PVP and heroics but points are better spent elsewhere if you are focused in raid boss damage.

[Raelthorn]

Soulburn SoC is a blast in PVP and heroics but points are better spent elsewhere if you are focused in raid boss damage.

Truth!
I don't raid too much, and its fun for the single point.  Compared to spending it on 2% shadow trance...  not a big hit in single target for tons of fun! 

[Kotodama]

You forget that SB is your filler as Affl and also applies/refreshes it's own buff which increases the dmg everything else does (this is still the case if you grab Shadow and Flame, even though it may not be as effective as it used to be pre-4.0.1)... Free casts are always...amazing.  Of course you could forgo the Nightfall talent and grab the glyph instead, but I'd rather have the other glyphs and grab the talent......more goodies that way.  Added with the soul swap glyph you could actually do some real damage when you've got multiple high hp mobs...have them all dotted up in no time.  Of course I haven't done any raiding with the new talents yet, but I am enjoying the changes in heroics.  I haven't really found a good use for Soul Burn + SoC, except for giggles in battlegrounds.  I imagine it might be useful in a boss fight with lots of higher hp mobs.  The problem is that the mobs have to have enough hp's that they live long enough for the corruption to actually be useful, otherwise it's no different than a normal SoC.  Also you have to remember that if you keep casting SoC as I'm want to do with a large group of mobs...all of those nice little corruption dot's you got for free go bye bye.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is my two cents as they stand right now.

[Raelthorn]

I understand that Shadow bolt is better... i just find Soulburn enough fun to warrant the extra point.  Besides there isn't THAT much to spend soul shards on as Aff.  Demo & Destro really can make use of the Soulburn, but its less effective Aff...  I think the corruption glyph (Which activates shadow trance) works simultaneousky with the talents. (Please correct me if I am wrong!!!).  Like you have 2 4% chances to proc a shadowbolt. 

I REALLY like Soulburn: SoC in heroics, especially in the pre-ICC stuff, HoR in particular.  But specing for that is sort of silly.  The only one who drops corruption is the initial person you recast SoC on.  You start with SB:SoC then spam SoCs.  The rest still have the corruption and are also taking SoC AoE damage.  You just have to only cast SoC on one mob. 

Soul Swap is kind of marginal without the glyph and amazing with it!  But I've come to really appreciate it. 

Also side note: Moving around with hellfire in demo spec is also super fun!  But I thought they were taking of self-dmg on hellfire.

[Kotodama]

I agree there isn't much benefit to Soul Burn as Affl.  Except for Drain Life which can be boosted up to 18% with the Soul Siphon Talent, I haven't tried it too much yet but imagine getting all of your dots up, then soul burn + drain life for some quick bam bam bam damage.  Not sure how effective it is, but it's an idea.

The Nightfall talent and glyph used to stack...IIRC.  I do not know if this is still the case.  However there is no real benefit to having both IMO as there are other better glyphs.

As far as spamming SoC on a single mob...it's not very effective because you have to wait until SoC bursts before you can cast another one on that mob, or else you reset the debuff.  However, ALL damage to that mob contributes towards SoC's "total damage to target" requirement so if you're not the only one doing AoE it's possible you could spam on a single target.  It just seems silly to enforce that kind of restriction on yourself.  You can drop a group of mobs much quicker by just spamming SoC on all of them.

[Raelthorn]

As far as spamming SoC on a single mob...it's not very effective because you have to wait until SoC bursts before you can cast another one on that mob, or else you reset the debuff.  However, ALL damage to that mob contributes towards SoC's "total damage to target" requirement so if you're not the only one doing AoE it's possible you could spam on a single target.  It just seems silly to enforce that kind of restriction on yourself.  You can drop a group of mobs much quicker by just spamming SoC on all of them.

I have found that 95% of the time that cast time for SoC is enough time for it to go off, especially if there is other AoE or one person single targeting it. 

I totally forgot about Drain Life.... 

Also the glyphs I found to replace corruption are BoA, Haunt, or Unstable Affliction.  Currently I don't have BoA... which I was wondering about.  How does the the increasing amount of damage work out when it is longer?  Before like half the damage was on the last tick... is lengthening it a good idea?  One would think so as its a Prime glyph, but....  how do those mechanics work for BoA?

[Vitandus]

Destruction priority chart for you.