New 49 warlock demo/fire spec

[Justhealme]

I got this idea from Recuperate (Warlock in my BG) while playing on my 49 pala this weekend. The basic idea is to use Immolate, Searing Pain and your Imp as primary damage sources (Corruption, CoA and Drains are still used, also to proc MC). This is the build (Searing Pain Glyph is optional, Soul Link is good among others):



http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IZcG0hkidiosx:bd



You get a 96% boost to your Imps Firebolt, and a 15% permanent crit boost, in addition to 20% half of the time (Demonic Empowerment). He also gives a 350 HP boost to everybody in your vicinity. He rarely goes OOM due to Mana Feed.



You get 7,6% crit from your Firestone, and 15% from other talents. With ordinary twink gear, Demonic Knowledge is around 70 spell power from an Imp at 49. You have up to 25% damage reduction through SL, and you can keep your Imp up fairly easy through Fel Synery. Should he die, a new Imp is only 0.5 seconds away. With an Imp out, and good gear + 375 mining, you can keep yourself above 4000 HP and 300 spell damage, as well as ≈30% fire crit (Immolates periodic damage can crit now). Your fire spells get damage boosts through Molten Core and Master Demonologist.



It's a very good BG spec, can handle a lot of classes 1v1, and is an excellent flag carrier. It does not have the same burst as a Conflag spec, but you'd be surprised how much damage you can dish out with this, and it has much higher survivability than Destro specs.



It's just an idea that I thought would be fun compared to the standard SL/SL or Conflag pewpew specs. Any input is appreciated, as long as it remains constructive

 

[nosoup4crr]

if you don't have a felhunter out, you're just cannon fodder.

 

[zem]

i do miss felhunter tbh , felhunter glyph <3

paladins and afflcition locks are alot easier with felhunter out

i was just trying mix things up a bit i tried a SL/Destruction build out for few days and had some success vs paladins (via nether protection procs).



i just noticed one day glyph of imp and thought it might be funny to give old impy a whirl



glyph of soul link is still about 150g on my realm but as soon as it drops a wee bit i'll pick one up , my gear is pretty weak but i come out with around 300 spellpower,3k hp, 29% crit to fire spells (professions engi/jc)



my usual rotation is corruption,CoE,demon empowerment,immolate -> searing pain spam (i tend to use CoE alot moee than CoA these days in group situations since well theres so many paldisn about might aswell buff there insane dmg innit? )



fel synergy makes pets a lot less fragile and tbh im usually oom a long time before my imp so its nice he can keep pumping out the dmg when i switch to drains/ lifetap+bandage



when we all get free respecs tommorow i might give 40 destruction a whirl



ive managed win quite a few 1vs1's against twink rogues with me basically being in stunlock and my imp killing the rogue which is kidna funny

 

[Taitaih]

I'm intrigued, I put together a demo spec in 3.1 but never really saw through with it. I can see why this would be really high DPS, with a slight loss of survivability... although playing destro is kinda the same thing. Lack of felpuppy will hurt, but I mostly play against hunters so unless they keep marking me or trapping me, I don't have anything to dispel anyway.



I succeeded with destro with my succy rather than my felpuppy. This was mainly because I always had 2+ people jumping me and I need an extra CC. Looks like conflag is getting the nerfbat, but it still will hit harder than it used to.



This spec might work if your DPS is high enough. You're basically a glorfied mage here, with an Imp pet rather than a water elemental .

 

[Justhealme]

I know it sucks without an interrupt and dispel, but the Imp can do some serious damage (I doubt it can kill a rogue during two stuns, but it certainly will hurt him). The rotation mentioned above (Corruption -> CoE -> Immolate -> SP spam) is very good.



I found this out on the forums, but don't know if it's still correct:

Firebolt has a 15% base crit chance

It recieves 45% of the Imps spell damage



Adding 96% damage from Glyphs/talents, making it 111% with CoE on the target, and up to 35% crit if DE is up (making for a 50% crit chance), we're talking serious business



Some people may argue that a crit heavy spec like this one sucks without Ruin, and though SL/SL or insta-pwn Destruction may look better on paper, this is something that has to be tried.



You can use pretty much any gear set you want, but generally Stam > +dmg > crit. As a holy paladin, I can say that it's a great pleasure playing with a lock like this. The damage output is higher than SL/SL and lower than Destruction, but a Destruction lock is too squishy to heal. Soul Link + (improved) Demon Armor + up to 4k HP (the lock I played with only had 3.3k with Blood Pact, no mining buff and so-so gear) makes you really hard to kill.



That being said, you are in no way dependent on a healer to kill stuff. If you didn't have anything special in mind, I would suggest trying it out with the free respec tomorrow.

 

[zem]

You can use pretty much any gear set you want, but generally Stam > +dmg > crit. As a holy paladin, I can say that it's a great pleasure playing with a lock like this. The damage output is higher than SL/SL and lower than Destruction, but a Destruction lock is too squishy to heal. Soul Link + (improved) Demon Armor + up to 4k HP (the lock I played with only had 3.3k with Blood Pact, no mining buff and so-so gear) makes you really hard to kill.



That being said, you are in no way dependent on a healer to kill stuff. If you didn't have anything special in mind, I would suggest trying it out with the free respec tomorrow.

yeah recuperate is my warlock his gear is AH/crafted gear, but this spec still feels very powerful, it can be a bit sad though when your imp crits for 380 and your searing pain doesnt crit and only does like 290 dmg though lol



if i could get better gear i would definately go for more stats that spellpower/crit something like every extra 15stam i get converts into 1 spellpower and think its every extra 19 for int. it kinda how a BM hunter would gear i guess, i have a GBS(+40sp) im tempted to use,



i wonder if any of my hit rating converts to my imp though? i tend to run with 15 hit on gloves, hit capping might be an idea to boost dps



wtb glyph of soul link



glyph of imp tends to be a steal on most realms aswell picked mine up for 80s

 

[Taitaih]

I'm going to give it a shot just solo queueing tonight. I have 3.6k health with SL/SL so i'm interested to see what it's going to be.



*edit - I feel very much like a BM hunter right now without any utility from silences etc. I'm sitting at around +350 fire damage, 3803 health and 4000 mana, and +28-29% crit. The damage I pump out is tremendous, but I lack the silence/heals from the felpuppy. The Imp provides me great damage buffs and does great damage himself as well (around 80 DPS).

 

[Justhealme]

Recuperate, a good alternative to your staves would be my sword + an offhand of your choice (Umbral Crystal, Enthralled Sphere, Drakestone). Also, get the Flashlight and remove the 15 hit on gloves, get some spell power



Actually, with Fire Shield up and some good Imp nukage, a rogue could be as good as dead if you manage to pop a dot/curse or Demonic Empowerment between the stuns (if you don't trinket).



BTW, can all DOT's crit now? I tested my 70 ele shamans Flame Shock forever, never got one crit on the periodic damage, so I'm in doubt as to whether Immolate actually can crit.

 

[zem]

yeah i have a pair of gloves with 20 spell dmg i can swicth in, tbh you know with all the crazy stuff about 3.1 i totally forgot about that new trinket lol



ive joined a twink guild on Defias (think only 4 49's so far) so hopefully i can get some runs for some BoP gear, i think i'll try and aim for with imp out around 4k hp(with glyped SL it'll basically be like i have 5k health ) ,350 fire dmg 30% crit.



this spec puts out alot more dmg than SL/SL and dps doesnt drop so much if you are vs heavy dispelling/cleansing/decursing



also i get an extra bonus because im orc



Command (Damage done by Hunter and Warlock Pets increased by 5%)

 

[Justhealme]

Ah yes, 5% pet damage is awesome for this spec. What does your Imp crit btw?



Ok, I made a mockup on Chardev, to give an idea of what stats you're looking at:

Eye of Flame (I'm not sure if Green Lens of Healing would better)

Lifeblood Amulet (Pulsating Crystalline Shard is also an option if you want more +dmg)

Kentic Amice

Featherskin Cape (120 armor)

Grimlok's Tribal Vestments (150 HP)

Dryad's Wrist Bindings (15 spell power)

Ata'lai Gloves of the Eagle (20 spell power)

Ban'thok Sash

Blighted Leggings (40 armor)

Defiler's Cloth Boots (12 stamina)

Underworld Band

Underworld Band

High-powered Flashlight

Rune of Perfection



Arbiters Blade (40 spell power)

Drakestone of the Eagle

Noxious Shooter



375 mining and skinning



This (with above linked spec) and an Imp out gives 4000 HP, 3500 mana, 30% fire crit, 28% armor, 350 spell power, 5% spell hit.



YES PLEASE =D

 

[zem]

with CoE up it crits for 380ish

 

[Taitaih]

I tested the spec out last night fairly extensively.



It's definitely a "DPS race" spec. Without your felhunter, you lose out on a lot of your core healing and silence abilities. Therefore against most other DPS, you are trying to race them down. Healers... forget about it.



Class by class breakdown (from my experience last night):



Warrior:: WIN - I can outpace their burst DPS with my pure damage (I mean, when I have fort/kings/rum I'm over 5000 health, 350 fire, 30% fire crit).



Hunters:: WIN - same as warriors, although I have to keep them in range. CC their pet and proceed to blow up the hunter.



Rogues:: 50/50 - I'm not going to give this one a win until I get them in a 1v1 situation instead of a let's jump Taitiiya at 30% situation. Otherwise, when I have all of my CDs, it's a win.



Paladins:: Holy Paladins, there's no real way that I can kill them consistantly. Ret Paladins are 50/50. Without exorcism their damage has gone down, however without my felhunter, I cannot keep HoJ/Rep off of me, nor can I heal myself. The fight ends up being like against a Warrior, it just lasts longer.



Shamans:: 50/50 Once again, resto shamans will be impossible to kill. Elemental is fairly easy and Enhancement is like fighting a warrior once again.



Warlocks:: ??? For some reason, none of the locks in my BG play SL/SL, and that's what I really want to test it against. This spec is solid against full affliction with your massive health and your constant damage outpaces their DoTs if you CC correctly. Same story against destro.



Priests:: LOSE No silence against Disc.Holy priests, Shadow priests can take a lot of damage while putting out a lot of pressure and cc/silence/dispel against us.



Mage:: WIN They tend not to have a lot of health, we have an imp, ourselves, and 2 spell trees so they can't ever completely lock out our damage (and in my case, I can still avoid many shatters)



Druid:: 50/50 Resto Druids you will have a hard time killing. Boomkins you can outDPS, but save your CCs for the heal. Same with ferals.



I went back to SL/SL later last night. Demo spec was fun to play, but in terms of utility, it's just not there. The damage is "pea-shooter" like. Kinda like you're just loading up a bunch of dots, and firing off more dots at a rapid pace.

 

[Justhealme]

Well, hardly any lock spec can kill a twinked holy Pala if they know how to play, and if you don't have macros for pets to kill Grounding/Tremor, you're screwed vs shammies anyway



Still nice of you to try it out and reporting back. I'm actually lvl'ing my lock this way (26 atm), and I can solo some serious group quests. Try doing King of the Foulweald as a 26 Destruction or Affliction Warlock

 

[Taitaih]

The paladin that I queue with kinda looked at me like WTF?! when I joined as Demo. I mean seriously, how many locks do you see running around with 5.2k health? With 25% damage reduction and a lot of damage output, I could see this spec becoming a great flag holding spec. Not carrying across field, but hold it at the base.



And as PvE, yea I can see this spec just pumping out tons of damage against a single target as you level. On the Theremore target dummies, I was pushing the upper 350 DPS range.

 

[Krymore]

Well, hardly any lock spec can kill a twinked holy Pala if they know how to play, and if you don't have macros for pets to kill Grounding/Tremor, you're screwed vs shammies anyway



Still nice of you to try it out and reporting back. I'm actually lvl'ing my lock this way (26 atm), and I can solo some serious group quests. Try doing King of the Foulweald as a 26 Destruction or Affliction Warlock

Shamans are cannon fodder easy to kill as a warlock. If your losing to a shaman there is something wrong. The ONLY time you should ever lose is if an enhancement Shaman manages to sneak up on you and get lucky lol crits off the bat, other than that there is no exscuse for losing to a shaman of any spec 1v1 as a warlock.

 

[Rapt0R]

And as PvE, yea I can see this spec just pumping out tons of damage against a single target as you level. On the Theremore target dummies, I was pushing the upper 350 DPS range.

Was this at lvl 29? Or it is on 49? :E

 

[Taitaih]

Shamans are cannon fodder easy to kill as a warlock. If your losing to a shaman there is something wrong. The ONLY time you should ever lose is if an enhancement Shaman manages to sneak up on you and get lucky lol crits off the bat, other than that there is no exscuse for losing to a shaman of any spec 1v1 as a warlock.

Yea, I mean I can kill resto shamans with this spec, it just takes a long time . Enhancement and Elemental are easysause. Imps suck at totem stomping as compared to my felpuppy. I think I'll just use this spec to carry flags when I have a healbot



But still... SL/SL is still the win for me.

 

[Krymore]

Yea, I mean I can kill resto shamans with this spec, it just takes a long time . Enhancement and Elemental are easysause. Imps suck at totem stomping as compared to my felpuppy. I think I'll just use this spec to carry flags when I have a healbot



But still... SL/SL is still the win for me.

Ohh I am positive you can...

I was addressing Justhealme's statement, thats why I quoted him.

 

[Taitaih]

<--- fail at looking closely at quotes



How are you liking 3.1 so far? I almost want to say that I'm happier with my warlock now than I was before.

 

[Taitaih]

I kinda retract what I said about this spec...



Gave 0/11/29 a shot today (shadowbolt spam destro) and the DPS is higher... as well as survivability with the glyph of soul link and felhunter.



*edit - my respec bill has been at 50g and duel spec isn't helping!??! hehe