Curious about Destruction (Warlock)

[Dotzie]

Howdy all, first time caller, long time listener.



I'm curious about trying out a Destruction build and was wondering if anyone could chime in with their armory and some basic play tips.



Some of the things I'm concerned about is losing Curse of Exhaustion and having to stand and cast. Right now, post nerf, my bolts hit for about 580. Crits are rare and I'm wondering if they will become more "reliable". What kind of crit % should I expect to attain? I'm also wondering what average crit damage would be.



thanks in advance

 

[Xailter]

I tried it out pre-3.1 with out much success... however this will have changed for a couple of reasons:



a ) Backlash is now available and adds in instant shadowbolts and more crit.

b ) Succubus has been buffed up a bit in the health department

c ) [item]Glyph of Succubus[/item] has a cool effect now. Slap on Corruption (with the glyph) and you can spam some shadowbolts around - but if need be you can still seduce your target if he gets too close for your liking.



I went more stam based than other locks and I had shadowbolt crits of about 920 - 950 which isn't bad when combo'd with 700 shadowburn crits!



-X

 

[Alteffour]

well the other bonuses for destro now is 6% damage mitigation and giant spell resistances now from nether prot...



Totally different style of play from affliction, but seems viable now more than ever.

 

[2ndchance]

well the other bonuses for destro now is 6% damage mitigation and giant spell resistances now from nether prot...



Totally different style of play from affliction, but seems viable now more than ever.

I have been slowly leveling a Lock, though i've planned out all of his gear and stats very thouroughly. And after 3.1:



SP around 220, and crit is at 20% unbuffed (firestone) with searing pain talent, thats 30% crit with searing pain, with glyph its 36% unbuffed. After shadow bolt thats 41% chance to crit with searing pain and 25% Shadow bolts. With the backlash talent and Corruption glyph theres crazy nukage and alot CC/survivability with Seduce.



I might finish my lock.

 

[valyus]

thats cool and all untill



HoJ>judge seal of command> exorcism> bomb> another judge...



the usual CS>KS...



i want a lock so bad but the idea of being a skilled player and losing because of class mechanics seems overly flawed to me =\

 

[Dotzie]

My curiousity has ended. Did about 25 games (BG's not Arena) as Destruction. It pretty much blows chunks. Some of the talents are probably great in smaller scale battles like arena or with a strong healer behind you. I had a few 2v1 battles that were pretty fun keeping one CC'd while blasting 1k crits at the other. I also seemed to be more powerful vs. Preists which usually "LOL" at me. But small scale fights rarely happen in BG's and you just get roflstomped trying to do any damage. The only chance you have is if they leave you alone so you can spam bolts. Not gonna happen... I seem to be pretty popular on the 1st to kill lists around here.



I probably would have fared much better with a pocket healer but Horde healers are few and far between in Vengeance. Nether protection works against Holy damage (lol Pallies). Backlash is nice with pets chomping on you but still pretty worthless vs. Rogues. Without Siphon Life and Curse of Exhaustion, you don't stand much of a chance. I spent a LOT of time drinking which was a disappointment (and getting ganked while trying to drink).



The kiting and self heals are sooooo important! I think my non crit bolts hit a bit harder as affliction, which I thought was strange considering the bonus damage talents. They went down from 560-580 to 540-560. My crits were only slightly higher going from the 900's to 1k+. I also really missed the +hit talents. Several times I had 3 or 4 misses in a row. On the upside, I had a couple fights with back to back 1.3k zerker crits. 2 shots are always great fun!



Affliction is, by far IMO, the superior BG spec.



Edit: Oh yah, forgot to mention the huge loss in shards due to shadowburn and my target dying at the exact same time. Plus Shadowburn dmg is pretty weak. I think I had a few crits around 300. But I may have missed training the upgraded ranks.

 

[Xailter]

Edit: Oh yah, forgot to mention the huge loss in shards due to shadowburn and my target dying at the exact same time. Plus Shadowburn dmg is pretty weak. I think I had a few crits around 300. But I may have missed training the upgraded ranks.

Seeing as I had consistant 700 crits with Shadowburn... yeah go get the higher ranks >.<



Strength of Destruction for me is Curse of Elements -> Seduce -> Shadowbolt -> Searing Pain/Instant Shadowbolt -> Shadowburn - if they aren't nearly dead by then, re-seduce and another Shadowbolt.



Palas are bastards though...



-X

 

[Alteffour]

holy resist from nether protection should help a lot vs pallys now compared to trying to play a destruction lock before the patch..



that said pallys are stupid OP now so maybe it wont matter.