The Shadow of Death: Aldonis's Guide to Warlock Raiding

I'm posting this after seeing Destiny's small post about raiding requirements. I thought i'd take my knowledge of my class and use to to expand on what she said, and explain more about what a warlock should consider before raiding. Everything here is not 100% set in stone, there are always situations where some things won't work, or are not as efficent, but this is still a general outline of what you should know.

Hit Cap:

If your having difficulty getting hit capped, hit up Aldonis or another tailor for the spell strike set. Good amount of +hit, and a nice set bonus if you are a tailor. If your scryer, their Bloodgem is a definite bonus to help...and don't forgot about gemming for some hit if you can. Unlike other classes, spell hit scales the best with DPS vs. raid bosses. Once your spell hit capped (202 as destiny said above) go for crit and spell power. In her numbers, you should be:

202 hit capped (16%, which means your fighting the natural 1% chance resist that can't be taken out)
1k+ spell damage unbuffed (This means no fel armor. Most likely only in shadow with kara/craftable gear)
20% crit (before talents preferably, but this is not always achievable. Consider losing spell damage gems for more crit gems)

As destiny said, your typical build will be a 0/21/40 build...meaing Demonic Sacrifice your Succi and spam Shadowbolts. Yes, its not the most fun, and blizzard really screwed up allowing out class to achieve such high DPS by using one spell. This build is almost essential for when we start the 25mans on a regular basis, as we need to squeeze out the max DPS we can on new content. ISB (Improved Shadow Bolt) is out greatest friend...stack as much crit as you can while still being able to control your aggro. A 30% crit chance means nothing if you pull off the tank and die 1 minute into the fight.

Curse usage:

If I'm in a raid, I will always be using Curse of Elements unless we have someone who is spec'd into Maeldiction (i.e. Affliction, which is not common come SSC/TK). This means you are free to use either Curse of Doom or Curse of Agony. My suggestion is Curse of Doom, which will do more damage in a 60 second time lapse then 2 Curse of Agonies (which take 70 seconds). Do not reapply Curse of Doom prematurely, as it will reset the timer and we will miss out on the 6k damage that it would normally do.

Other curses such as Weakness, Recklessness, Tongues, etc. will only be considered for specific encounters. Additionally, you'll find that Curse of Doom is not needed for most trash pulls, and Curse of Agony (or another curse) should be used to better the DPS or control of the mobs. I will still throw Curse of Elements up no matter what, as it will increase the spell damage no matter when, so again, feel free to go for a damaging curse.

What should we expect from our party/raid?

In an ideal setup, our party will consist of an Elemental Shammie, a Shadow Priest, and if we're lucky or fortunate (unfortunate?) a Balance Druid in Moonkin form. This group setup allows us to achieve maximum raid bonus damage, from the Wrath of Air totem, to the extra crit chance from the Moonkin, to the mana and health regeneration from the Priest.

Depending on the number of paladins, you will be asking for/ having these Blessings, usually in this order.

1) Blessing of Salvation
2) Blessing of Wisdom
3) Blessing of Kings

So if we have 3 pallys and only 1-2 pally buffs, say something in Raid chat. There is no excuse for going into a boss fight without all buffs if we have the paladins.



What should the party/raid expect from us?

Healthstones should be dropped everytime before a boss fight. While warlocks tend to have one of the highest turn outs of every class, make sure your spec'd 2/2 improved healthstone so the entire raid can get the best one available. Since a soulwell only gives out 10, it is more benefical for everyone to have a 2/2 healtstone, then some with 2 healthstones, others with 1 weaker stone, and others with none at all.

DPS. Pre-TBC, we were only invited to raids because of our utility and CC over elementals/demons (which were few). Mages had their time as top DPSers, now its our turn. The party/raid should expect you to be doing the most damage you can possibly do, while still keeping an eye on your aggro meter. Omen can be set to alert you when you've reached a certain level (usually a percentage of the main tank's) threat. If you hit or exceed 130% of the Main tanks aggro, you will pull off the tank. IF you need too, use Soul Shatter to wipe aggro BEFORE the actual pull takes place. This prevents any kind of panic or loss of concentration by the raid.

Control your life-tapping. Do not go all out on DPS and expect a healer to heal you up because you ran out of mana while life-tapping. Like all casters, utilize your mana pots...when you've spent about 3k worth of mana on spells, pop a Super Mana Potion and then every time it's Cooldown is available. With Fel Armor up, even a simple renew can restore a lot of health, which can be turned into mana if used wisely. Drain life is another spell you can use if you accidentally life tap to much, as you can possibly restore enough health to save one healer from healing you (meaning that heal goes to the tank)

Soulstones! Depending on the number of healers and number of warlocks, we should only have 1-2 soulstones up at a time, ensuring that at each boss attempt, a healer can either return to battle, or start the rez cycle if we wipe. This should usually be setup well before the raid starts, and Soulstones should only be used prior to a boss encounter. There is no real reason why we should be wiping on trash...if we do, we all deserve to walk back!

Knowledge of Class mechanics. Can you tell me what creatures can be banished or enslaved? Only demons and elementals. What about fear though? Humaniods, Elementals, Critters, Beasts, Dragonkins...pratically everything, but most Undead are either greatly resistance or completely immune! Did you know that applying Curse of Elements won't generate aggro, and can help mages keep their targets sheeped for longer then their normal duration? Same goes for enslavement...if we curse them with Curse of Elements, our enslave will last longer then 5 minutes (although it won't tell us how much longer). A 25 man raid is a strong chain, but a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. For the sake of arguement, a raids weakness should always be its healing ability...i.e. we should never come across a DPS problem (unless a raid boss is a DPS check) and as warlocks, we should know what our highest DPS spells, rotations, and abilities are. We should also know how to help

Knowledge of Boss fights. Some fights require warlock tanks...when those come up, we need to know what to do in the event your chosen to be that tank. Searing Pain produces a lot of threat, which is good when it comes to tanking. Other times, boss fights require us to progress through phases...we should know what that next phase entails, and if we need to stop DPS to better adjust, we shouldn't' have our DOTs accidentally taking us the rest of the way. This is a pretty basic requirement for raiding in general, but please, PLEASE, know what you should and should NOT be doing.

[/u]What do I need to bring to a raid?[/u]

All purchasable consumable buffs should be brought on all new content raids. This typically means either:

1 Flask
1 Food buff
1 Weapon coating/oil

or

1 Battle Elixir
1 Guardian Elixir
1 Food buff
1 Weapon coating/oil

If you decide to bring elixers, bring enough to refresh them when they expire or after wipes. I suggest flasks due to the fact that they remain active even upon death and since they last 2 hours, usually no more then 2 will be used per raid. If you need any of these (money problems, AH availability) please contact an officer or a known alchemist/enchanter/cook to get the stuff. Sometimes they have extras on hand, or even the mats to make them for a small cost. I personally never charge guild mates for any Enchants, Oils, or Tailored items when asked, and if I have the mats, I usually just request them refunded at the earliest availability.

Conclusion

Pew Pew Pew. Come to raids prepared, Manage your aggro, and know what you need to do. If you can do all those, we should have little to no trouble in downing new content once we truely begin to learn the encounters.

* Will update parts/add new articles at the request of others, or if i think its pertinent. Thanks for your time

just quickly skimmed over your post
thanks for all the effort you obviously put into it
a few quick notes:

adding immolate into you spell rotation is almost always an improvement in dps untill you get to a very high gear level or unless you have a shadowpreist.

curse of doom cannot crit =p

curse of recklessness should be up in almost all fights as it does increase overall raid dps more than doom/agony unless the boss has a strange damage modifier eg grull.



when i get time ill try look up the stats for immolate vs shadowbolt and put them up =)

arci wrote:

just quickly skimmed over your post
thanks for all the effort you obviously put into it
a few quick notes:

adding immolate into you spell rotation is almost always an improvement in dps untill you get to a very high gear level or unless you have a shadowpreist.

curse of doom cannot crit =p

curse of recklessness should be up in almost all fights as it does increase overall raid dps more than doom/agony unless the boss has a strange damage modifier eg grull.



when i get time ill try look up the stats for immolate vs shadowbolt and put them up =)

1) Made the changes to CoDoom critting

2) Immolate is only beneficial in a warlocks rotation if the shadow damage difference is not great with that of the rest of your spells. Currently, my Shadow damage is 1162 and Fire 932 (Self buffed with FSW and many +shadow damage only items). Assuming i'm also sacrificing my succi, i'm doing more than a 300 (or even more) bonus damage difference. In my case, there is no advantage to placing immolation in my rotation...i will be able to get more damage from the extra cast of a shadowbolt. Furthermore, ISB has the potential to be kept up more often.

Likewise, a warlock with similar (if not identical) bonus damage would benefit from throwing immolation up, due to the faster cast time and DOT that is applied. I will make note of that in the post.

3) Yes, recklessness will effect/increase all physical damage done to the boss, in turn, the boss hits harder on the tank. If we have an appropriate counter to this ability (either another lock throwing up curse of weakness or a OT using 3/5 imp Demo Shout) then we can consider using it. This is why I said it would be encounter specific

Thanks for input. Try to get me that info on immolate roataion DPS increase, but i'm sure i've addressed it just now.