Thought the first:

I am Beeesmastar! I don’t mind being dependent on my pet!

“We don’t want to buff the pet damage for BM any more for a couple of reasons. One is that it puts too much dependence on the pet.“

You guys (Blizz) spent the better part of all of BC convincing us that that was, indeed, the intent, design, and raison d’etre of the entire Beastmaster spec! Now is hardly the time to say that you didn’t really mean it.  Fer Mog’s sake, ya gave us Exotic pets on top of everything else!  This screams out dependent on the pet, don’t you think?

Yes! Yes, I do want to be dependent on my pet, a thousand and one times yes.  It’s what sets us apart from MM and SV¹.  I think I’m safe speaking for the Demon warlocks that they, too, are just dandy with the idea of coupling their DPS to the demon².

Listen, I want to improve my DPS contribution as much as the next huntard. But I don’t want to do it if that means being the same thing as MM or SV with just a different shot rotation. That’s boring.

BM I am, and BM I be, and I don’t care if I don’t see the inside of another raid dungeon because of it.  BM is the heart and soul of the class. It deserves to be treated at least equally with the others, and on its terms, not theirs³.

Thing the Second:

Patch 3.3.3:

• I dunno, sounds almost like I could toss AuctionLite completely.
• Regarding hunter changes: not much to say, but they didn’t have much to say, either.
• I wonder if the multilevel instance map thing will work for old instances. Five gold says it won’t.
• I have nothing to say about the BG changes, though I suspect the hardcore PvPers do.

1. Aside from the disparity in the contribution to any raid we may wish to attend [↩]
2. Heck, the whole talent tree was shaken up drastically in 3.0 for that very reason – e.g. the oddity of a DEMON warlock sacrificing his or her demon to get moar DPS. Remember that? Wasn’t that odd? Didn’t it make sense to couple the Demonology warlock’s abilities more tightly to the idea of having a pet that was alive? [↩]
3. Come to think of it, why is SV more or less a clone of MM with a different rotation? I tried SV prior to 3.0 and it was a blast, but with a very distinct and fun playstyle. It’s my alternate spec, now, and I have to say that I’m not impressed with the play-style, numbers be damned. [↩]

Grimm noticed this first, but it’s hit me, too.  The Apothecary bosses are just horrible on pets. Grimm at least has a HoT heal for his (that also cleanses). Phil the Phelguard doesn’t have a chance. I was able to recover slightly by bringing out Iggy the Imp and, as long as he followed me, keep him alive.

What this fight does is highlight what someone else was saying elsewhere; Blizz is making it hard on our pets, and for those of us for which pets are significant (hello, BM Hunters and Demon Warlocks!), this causes a major drop in our usefulness to the team.

So much for “Avoidance is the answer”.

Moving on.

I’d like to introduce you to Squicky, isn’t he the cutest lil thing? His hobbies include eating rats, moles, mice, small cats, and beagles when he’s really hungry (and really big).  I like hanging out in the tram station with him just to watch him chase the rats.

Fai reported something she saw in Zangarmarsh, and I’m at a loss of words.

A melee Warlock.

Some Orc, Demon spec, level 68 (in a 62 questing area) with his trusty felguard. He’d pull with his wand, his felguard would attack, and then he’d start stabbing with his blade.

I just can’t wrap my head around that. It’s like watching a Mage tank with her face. There are no words.

So Jas ran Grimm’s sweetie’s alt through Uldaman last night. Overheard in party chat:

“I swear, there’s no doubt you’re Floramel’s sister.”

I’m so proud, I’m almost misty over here.

Almost.

DoTs are DoTs are DoTs, sister.

While Jas has been Miss Popularity in raiding circles and Grimm has been our soft and cuddly front man, I’ve been working the numbers and the gear to be all I can be. Now, I might be blowing smoke here, but I really think that coming within a few percentage points of our GM’s fire mage is reason to believe that I might just be able to hold my own in a raid.  Our only other raiding warlock usually comes in far below her on the charts, so if I can manage to stay alive¹, then maybe I have a chance in raids.

Of course, that means I would have to actually, you know, raid. Jasra’s got that slot all sewed up at the moment. Our GM’s making noise about getting her priest up to raiding speed, though, so we’re trying to come up with some sort of DPS plan.

Grimm does love his BM spec, but without the end-all BM pet (Spirit Beast), BM is pretty gimped. He has as of yet resisted shifting to Survival, and thus is self-gimping. Additionally, his to-hit is pretty ugly compared to mine due to gearing. This is not deliberate, but as luck (i.e. the RNG) would have it, Grimm’s gotten little of the good gear compared to what I have at this point.

What it comes down to is who gets to fly the Clan Grimmtooth flag if Jasra isn’t in the raid.  Our emotional decision is that we find a way to gear Grimm up and find a way to get past the BM gimping, such as dual spec. The pragmatic decision is that I go in for the team since I’m closest to ready for the venue.  Right now that is the direction that we are all leaning, at least until our other raiding Hunter quits coming.

So. Let’s talk theory.

Currently I’m running Dual Spec with Demon / Emberstorm as my main and Destro as my alternate. Demon/Ember basically is a fire spec, and feeds on the synthesis of Immolate + Incinerate with Decimate kicking in at 30% on the mob’s health. Heroic-buffed that means I see close to 7K crits on my main nuke and 11K on the heavies.

I have heard a lot about Demon / Meta, and seen evidence of what a T7 geared ‘lock can achieve when Decimate kicks in. I am at this point sorely tempted to chuck Destro as my secondary and replace it with Demon/Meta so I can play around with it a bit. The raw numbers say I should see another 10% improvement which translates to close to 3K DPS in heroics, without a single scrap of Naxx gear, if theorycraft translates to reality.

This is one of those moral quandaries that Warlocks hate.  On the one hand, our old raiding favorite, Destruction, is slowly being walked out to the old folks’ home. On the other hand, our most favorite spec of all, Demonology, now offers two effective specs for raiding.

I’ve had worse decisions to make in my life.

Further research is clearly indicated.

1. A feat he rarely manages. [↩]

In the comments for a blog article about the new Warlock mechanics in WoWCAT¹, some person commented that the changes might “make them dust off my level 70 lock again!”

Well. Isn’t that special?

Listen, if soul shard mechanics were make or break for them, they have other issues to deal with. If a change to how our spells work changed their  outlook on the entire class, they’re still probably not going to do so well.

There are a number of warlock bloggers that have stuck with the class for the last year; they have researched, toiled, practiced, and succeeded where Mister Dusty Level70 Warlock could not. They have the advantage in that they were willing to learn the class and excel with it. It just turns out that all those changes that made Warlocks look so gimped with the 3.0 patch were just misunderstood, and once understanding was achieved, the class is doing just fine, thanks, without the magical shard redo thingy.

So if they couldn’t keep up then, what makes them think they will be able to in the future?

They should stick with Death Knight. Better for all concerned, I suspect. Kill off that dusty ‘lock and roll up a Goblin Mage or something.

Don’t mistake my tone for dislike of the new system. First, it’s far from done. Second, I never said I didn’t like it. I am neutral until I see it in action. It’s just the way some people bail at the first sign of difficulty annoys me to no end.

Good luck with that DK.

1. I want a quarter everytime someone says that! [↩]

Now that we have that bit of drama all cleared out, some random observations.

• Hellfire is always a crowd-pleaser, but only if you either have a pocket healer, or keep a close eye on your health bar.
• In honor of the above, Illume has drawn on her past experience as an alchemist to create a new drink called the “Flaming Flo.” Privately, I love it. It’s almost as good as The Slaughtered Lamb’s signature drink, “Dark Desires.”  Publicly, all I can say is it’s a good thing I owe her a few favors. Otherwise I’d properly illustrate the meaning of “Frostfire”, if you take my meaning.
• Two-man groups are unable to summon a doomguard. Flora is a sad panda.
• I am king of the Ogres. Who wants to be first to say it?  I have plenty of soulshards.
• Patch 3.2 dropped today. Rocks fall, everybody dies.

On twitter, a mage friend was musing how she’ll often Ice Block if she knows a particular person is right behind her on the aggro table, especially if she just pulled aggro. She claims that she doesn’t have it in her to play a warlock. I think this illustrates that she does, in fact, have it in her.

She just needs to go back to that special place, the groove she was in when she was “handing off aggro”.

It’s The Zone.

Just what is The Zone? Jong expresses it pretty well HERE and later HERE. Apparently a Belf Ret Pally’s happy place involves flipping out. In that regard, we have much in common. That happy place is The Zone.

In our case, for a moment, we let go of everything that keeps our seething hatred of everything in check. We let that hatred flow out through our fingers as pure rivulets of pain and suffering and broken dreams. For a brief moment, we are not the base flesh that we regard in the mirror, but rather we are beings of pure shadow or fire or agony. We become these things, and we visit them upon our enemies. That is The Zone.

Consider the ending of Return of the Jedi. Palpatine was clearly a Warlock. When he starts to fry Luke’s innards, his teeth are clenched in a grimace of pure hatred, and that lightning might as well have been coming out of his eyes.

He was in the Zone. That is the Warlock’s special place. When you’re wondering where your DPS went, invite Palpatine to help out, and it will all come back to you.

I am led to understand that the basic ennui of being a Shadow priest fuels DPS in a similar way. They have The Zone, too.

Find the Zone. Live in the Zone. BE the Zone.

… with Affliction, of course. What, am I stupid? Don’t answer that.

Following advice given by the esteemed Nibuca and Fulguralis, I’ve been able to eke out a 10-15% improvement in my effectiveness. We ran two instances last night, one with a fellow Afflic lock (level 80) and the other with two level 80 mages (1 frost, 1 fire). I was 100 dps ahead of the other lock, and the fire mage by around 50-75.   I went basically from around 800-900 range to a steady hover around 1000 dps. Not bad for someone geared as poorly as myself.

I crossed over from 77 to 78 in HoS, which according to the forum rats means I have even more right to an opinion than I did 5 minutes before. (har har lol lol)  But seriously, I’m 78 and I haven’t even started Grizzly Hills or Zul’Drak. Awsome.

I think I’ve mastered the 1-2 trash mobs rotation, as well as the general process for groups of trash. I still need to work on boss / omgbiggie rotations and arrange my bars for optimal rotation in all cases.

Up next: reexamine my spec, make sure I’m not missing anything. Memorize the most desirable traits in armor and weaponry (I’m actually not too far off) and configure Rating Buster to help. Work on getting enchants together, and at 80 develop a gear plan.

Check it out, having fun. Who knew?

Unexpected call to arms tonight to assist in DK. Grimm could have gone but it seemed like a good opportunity to (a) get some XP, and (b) try out my shiny new Afflic build.

I had a feeling … so last night, before Illume claimed the CPU, I ran over to Ironforge and got a respec, and set up my bars, and so forth. So I was ready.

So what’s the verdict? I got around 50 dps more than running through A-N and OK the other night with my Demon/Destro build. Fel Pup was out, and I maximized my DoTs as much as possible. I need to pop over to Nibuca’s and search around, I seem to remember a decent post on rotations for trash versus boss over there.

Conclusion: none. My inherent noobishness on the Afflic build will obscure any real numbers for a while until I get a handle on it. But I am encouraged.

Of course, with the changes in 3.1? Well, it’s a never-ending quest for knowledge, right?

Well, I just finished a couple of intensive days of working the ol’ Demon/Destro spec in instances and grinding. Oddly, I think I learned more about Affliction spec tricks than anything.  Getting the hang of the pet functions – and getting away from Demonic Sacrifice¹ – is helping me explore my class in greater detail.

So, yesterday, I was able to hold my own with a contemporary Boomkin. We were both running around the same DPS, swapping out the lead a few times.  Roughly speaking, at 77 we were both pulling between 900 and 950 DPS. While this is nothing compared to our GL’s 2100 DPS frost mage or Grimm’s 1700 BM Hunter, it is a solid improvement over the 800 DPS I was pulling two weeks ago at 75. Call me a newb but I’ll take an improvement now and again. That’s how I roll.

Something I have overlooked in Affliction that has me interested is how the Fel Puppy works. With a bonus attack for every DoT you have up on the target, this makes the Puppy the ideal companion to the Afflic lock. I don’t know if this was added in 3.0 or not. The sad thing is that one of our DoTs (Syphon Life) will be going away in 3.1, and I don’t know if the Pup’s skills will compensate.

Still, it has me getting excited for Afflic again. So we’ll see what comes of that. There are a few fine blogs that point out the highlights of that spec, and I aspire to be so good as them. The spec is extremely viable in skilled hands. Maybe I can work it up to at least adequate.

1. It’s going away completely in 3.1 [↩]

OK, I caved.

I’ve been hanging on to my Demon/Afflic build far longer than intended, hoping that some twist of fate would make the spec work like, well, magic. What’s that classic definition of insanity again? Yeah.

So, I’m 76 now. Going by how a forum rat thinks, that makes me smarter and more relevant. O RLY?

:: strains ::

Nope, still can’t make rocks fly through the air using my brain. Well, maybe that comes at 77.

Anyway.

When I popped 76, I traipsed off to Ironforge to train and respec. Why Ironforge? Might have something to do with the fact that the Stormwind teleportal is 100 feet in the air and the Warlock trainer is 100 feet down in the basement, in the most obscure corner of the city. I’m all for homeland loyalty, but the Dwarves of Ironforge know how to build a city. Teleportal on the ground. Warlock trainer in the next chamber over, also on the ground. Bank and AH just around the bend in the other direction. Trainers close at hand. It is close to a perfect design, and King Wrynn should get one built.

Only this time, pay them, ‘kay hon?  Thanks so much.

I digress. Again.

So, the point that I started with.  My new build is heavy on the Destro, and I’m sliding into Demon for a few things as well, though I may eventually go heavier into Destro.

The rotation, as you may suspect, has changed. I don’t even use my shadow spells now. Looks like this:

<Curse of Elements> – <Immolate> – <Chaos Bolt> – <Incinerate * 2> – <Conflagrate> …

… then start back at Immolate. That’s right. For realsies, I kill ‘em with fire now. Beats dressing warmly.

So far with trash mobs I’m not getting past the 2nd Incinerate. It is serviceable, and they go down faster than with the Demon build, but the real test will be my next instance run.  Demon spec was posting 800-900 dps with lots of misses.  We’ll see what I can do with this one.

I plan on getting a glyph to boost Booberry’s stamina even more. If only I could find a way to boost his aggro. Further research is indicated.

I’m not even going to worry about Demonic Sacrifice. It’s gone in the next patch, so best develop methods using other tools now.

Hydra sometimes makes me want to go back to Affliction. “Nothing says love more for your healer like a soulstone made from another player.” Lawl, and, Rawr. You go, little sister. Time for an EVIL CHECK? Possibly.

Under the new rotation regime, I get two nights in a row, so I’m hitting Illume up for some glyphs and getting back into the game tonight. Might get an instance, might not. It’s nice to be back in the saddle, regardless.

Well, lookie here, boys and girls, we haz talents and stuff.

Since 3.0 hit, we as a class have been struggling. Rugged and durable, we can weather a lot of damage in the field, but in a raid situation, even Destruction is lackluster, with Affliction having real problems in some situations¹.

Let us not forget, I was highly excited by the 3.0 changes when they first came out. I was so wrong as to make Wrong look right by comparison. Mostly, I think I failed to take into account the stellar boosts many other classes got. Suddenly, we’re not the belle of the ball, are we?

But first, a word about dual specs

Before I get into all that talent stuff, a quick word about the new dual spec thing coming out.

I don’t like it.

I’ve never liked the concept, for two reasons.

1. It relieves Blizzard from having to focus on making all trees viable for each class – a formidable task, but one that is far less compelling if they can simply throw up their hands and go “Oh, just go dual spec” rather than tackle that task.
2. It relieves players of the task of learning the class well enough to play the appropriate talent tree well.  Granted, that is currently impossible given some of the spec builds, but it ties in to the possibility that Blizzard will now no longer have much motivation to make it possible.

There, I’ve said it, and if anyone ever reads it, I’ll get to be a shadoweave-clad pinata for those More Enlightened By Level than I.

All right. Let’s look at specs, and see how badly I can screw up this time.

Affliction

Affliction got the most love in the 3.0 patch, and I was all over it back then. It’s still a great tree, but takes a lot of work to use, and doesn’t deliver the amazing damage in comparison with others at this time. It does in some situations.

My overall impression here is that they are pushing Corruption as the foundation spell from which to drive the spec. SL drives off this, and several talents enhance it (Pandemic, Eradication, Shadow Embrace).

Suppression now applies to all spell types, at least for +hit. This is a good thing.

Demonology

This talent tree seemed to get some love in 3.0, but it turned out not to be all that. I still vainly try to eke out good damage with this build, to no avail. Damage output is barely above BC levels.

In 3.1, there are two major changes.

• Demonic Sacrifice is gone. In 2.4, this would have been major, but my feeling is that it’s become the red-headed stepchild in the WotLK world. Previously, a Destro lock would drill down far enough into the Demon tree to get this, and then boost damage or enhance Mana regen, depending on the demon. But lately I’ve seen Destro locks go so much deeper into the Destro tree that they can’t get to this talent, anyway.
• Master Conjourer now grants 150/300% boost to the Firestone / Spellstone effects.  This is an amazing improvement, and I still feel like it might be a typo.

They are also moving one talent over from Destro, and that makes little sense to me.

There are quite a few improvement for even the Afflic and Destro types to enjoy, and quite a few improvments to pet performance and management. Not a huge improvement, though.

Destruction

Pre-3.0, this spec was the Hotness for raiding. It got a marginal boost in 3.0, but nothing like other classes got, and the other builds did not help to compensate. In fact, 3.0 made this build less survivable, even.

Now, all the talents are pointing me towards fire if I want to go Destro. See: Conflagrate, Pyroclasm, Improved Immolate, Aftermath, and Cataclysm. Well, OK, Cataclysm still applies to Shadowbolt. Doesn’t it?

The only big change that gave love to Shadow, really, is Improved Shadowbolt – which appears to now convey an effect similar to a BM Hunter’s Ferocious Inspiration.

Wrap Up

So, anyway, there you have it. Destro still appears to be the Fire branch, Afflic Shadow, and Demon … profoundly changed.

I’m expecting incremental improvements here, not profound, else we end up with a Paladin-like nerf that will just upset more people. Given that people are prone to cry bitter, bitter tears about not getting candy hearts, we wouldn’t want that, would we?

The game for warlocks is changing, though. The question is: to what?

1. Trash mobs, anyone? [↩]

Well, isn’t this a fine kettle of fish?

Warlock (Skills List / Talent + Glyph Calc.)

• Curse of Tongues: Now increases the casting time of all spells by 25% (Rank 1) and 30% (Rank 2), down from 50% and 60%.

I’m glad that the one and only change to Warlocks just happens to be a nerf. It helps me keep the right attitude about things.

/sigh

I’m not sure Blizzard even knows what it wants to do with Warlocks quite yet, and the initial 3.1 patch notes somewhat confirm it.

Improved Shadow Bolt – this talent now provides a 5% spell critical strike buff (similar to Improved Scorch).

Well, this is nice (I think they meant debuff but We Get It). One complaint I have heard is that Warlocks are being forced into a fire spec. More on that in a bit, but any boost to SB is fine by me.

Improved Soul Leech – this talent now provides Replenishment (similar to shadow priests)

The problem is not that there is no MP5 gear or that priests burn through it too fast, the problem is obviously that there aren’t enough mana battery bishes running around the place.

/rollseyes

I can burn it and make it myself, why can’t others?

Drain Soul now has a chance to produce Soul Shards even if the target doesn’t die.

Interesting. I wonder if you can get more than one shard from one body? If not, it seems like just another sop to the poor suckers that can’t count to 10 without a primer, and really I’m tired of rubbing elbows with them. They can go play DKs and we’ll all be happy.

Siphon Life no longer as an active ability but the talent grants the old Siphon Life effect to Corruption.

This is interesting. I have to say I’m a little glad to have room freed up on the cast bar, though again I have to disagree with the whole “dumbing down the warlock” attitude over there.

Curse of Recklessness and Curse of Weakness have been combined into one spell

Lulwut – does anyone use either outside of PvP anyway? Please tell me this doesn’t count as one whole change all by itself.

Several other warlock talents have had their ranks reduced, their effects changed or removed. This list includes but is not limited to Demonic Empathy, Shadow Embrace, Eradication, Suppression, and Pandemic.

Enter the Weasel. Basically, while five are listed (I actually liked Pandemic), the final number could be more or less, and we’re not telling just now. Weasel weasel weasel MUSHROOM.

Additional new talents have been added.

Sigh. Thanks. That was helpful.

OK, so what do we know is being done to make Warlock more viable?  Well, not a whole heck of a lot. My initial assessment of 3.1 is “Sorry, Warlocks, you’ll have to wait for 3.2 to be considered for raids again, except you won’t since you won’t have Naxx gear to take there.”  If this is the extent of the changes they have planned for my class, I’m going to have to get used to sitting out a lot of raids some more, that’s all there is to it. It’s not like I’m quitting, going home, and being a librarian or anything. But it would be oh so nice to be part of the action.

Sigh. I guess I’ll just hang out and relive the glory of my first Illhoof kill, and hope that there’s a whole lot of hidden substance yet to come.