Post by Kurse on Dec 17, 2008 15:28:44 GMT 1
I think the dust has settled and the cookie cutter specs have basicly emerged now. The theorycraft is still not that advanced and certain questions haven't been fully answered but here is my round-up and review of the major contenders for raid-viable specs. Minor variations are possible and I will try to point these out.
General points :
1) The hit cap is now 17% on bosses. Talents (supression and cataclysm) will reduce this to 14% and Misery/Improved Faerie Fire (from shadow priest and moonkin respectively) further reduce this to 11%.
2) Soulshatter doesn't benefit from either hit talent but personally I wouldn't chase either 14% or 17% since threat is rarely a problem at present
3) +hit up to the 11% cap is still the most economical way to increase dps for all specs, however its worth is relatively reduced in relation to +spell power compared to the situation in tBC. Broadly speaking the gearing priorities are +hit to cap > +spell power >> +haste > +crit >> +spirit > +stamina
4) At entry level in my experience there isn't a vast deal of difference between the various specs.
5) For glyphs CoA and Unstable affliction are poor for any spec. Immolate is good for any spec.
6) Imps and felhunters are currently said to be bugged. Imp mana regen is supposed to be about 3x more than it should be and felhunter currently bugs out and won't attack more than your average pet.
7) Regarding CoE you shouldn't have to use it often as Unholy Death Knights and Moonkins have an equivalent effect as part of their standard spec/playstyle (Ebon Plaguebringer and Earth and Moon respectively). These talents are equivalent to Full Malediction CoE. CoE does have the additional effect of lowering resistances but no Bosses are thought to have any resistances currently.
8) Your aoe of choice is now Rain of Fire for any spec that includes emberstorm.
Affliction
Example Spec
Overall : Strong on bosses, very weak on trash. More or less self-sustaining in terms of mana use. Fairly demanding in terms of attention required. Will scale pretty well.
As ever, good dps relies on micromanaging dots so that you refresh them immediately without clipping. Absolutely key is never allowing Haunt to fall off. Shadowbolt is still the filler when theres nothing else to do. Gets a major boost at less than 25% health when supercharged soul drain comes into play - at this point dots should still be refreshed as they fall off - best to wait untill just after a SD tick before breaking the channeling to refresh dots. Immolate is still worth using but shouldn't be refreshed sub 25% health.
Note that Improved felhunter and dark pact are pretty worthless as DP scales poorly and haunt will make your lifetaps self sustaining. DP has some situational use in high raid-damage fights.There isn't a huge difference in dps between imp and felhunter and imp will survive better. Arguably the points in improved shadowbolt are better spent in molten core and/or 2 more points in erradication. Erradication itself is not that great and one point in it provides a much bigger boost than points 2 and 3.
Glyphs of choice : Corruption (does stack with nightfall), Soul Siphon, Immolate. Imp glyph is also a good choice if you plan to use the imp.
Demonology
Example Spec
Overall: Lower personal Dps than other builds, brings a somewhat unique raid buff. Very simple dot and shadowbolt style. Going demon form is fun and brings some nice burst and aoe capability which is an advantage in some fights.
The "unique" raid buff comes from Demonic Pact. This doesn't stack with an elemental shaman's totem of wrath but can outscale it at the point where you reach 2800 spell power (all raid buffs except totem of wrath and demonic pact itself count toward that total.)
Threat is not a problem at all since about a third of your dps will come from your pimped-out felguard.
Points to consider in varying the above spec : Demonic Empathy is not that great and one point in mana feed is probably enough. Suggested talents to replace them are cataclysm for the hit and demonic sacrifice for fights where felguard is going to die whatever you do.
Glyphs of choice: Felguard, Corruption and either shadowbolt or immolate.
Destruction
Example spec
Common variant without backdraft
Overall : Pretty intense cooldown-watching style, will scale well. Very mana-intensive.
The next patch will adress the current problem with this build which is that Backdraft will reduce cast times of immolate and even incinerate below the GCD making backdraft less worthwhile than it might look at first glance at the moment. Most people keep both CoA and corruption up for molten core and glyph procs. Consensus is that after conflagerate he best dps is to recast immolate --> chaos bolt (if available) ---> incinerate. If you have soulshards in abundance Soulfire x3 is even better. Note that you can conflagerate a shadowflame as well as immolate. Not sure if shadowflame boosts incinerate like immolate does.
Variations would include dropping Fire and Brimstone for being utterly sucky and taking more utility talents perhaps soul leech or nether protection. Some people also fit in improved corruption and improved Lifetap.
Glyphs of choice: Imp, Immolate, Corruption
Demonology/Destruction Hybrids
A bunch of possibilities arise in this category, and the spec that will do best will depend on your gear - much like the difference between 40/21 and 21/40 in tBC. At earlier gear levels the static bonuses of Demonic Knowledge are very powerfull, later on Shadow and Flame will outscale it. I don't know the exact break-points for this but it seems to occur relatively early from what I can tell.
The advantages of these specs are that they incorporate the real powerhouse talents of both Destruction (Emberstorm and Shadow and Flame) and Demonology (Demonic Tactics, Master Demonologist and Demonic Knowledge) in varying combinations, but have a relatively simple playstyle compared with either deep affliction or deep destro. And simple = more dps for the average player.
a) Felguard/Emberstorm Build
Good build at entry level, benefiting from very high crit, emberstorm, static spell power boost from demonic knowledge and the dps of the felguard itself. Only problem is keeping felguard alive without Fel Synergy - points can be moved there from demonic tactics if its a major problem. Playstyle is moderately simple - keep up CoA and corruption then immolate and incinerate away. Use demonic empowerment when its up.
Glyphs of choice: Felguard, Immolate and Corruption.
b) Imp/Emberstorm Build
A variant of the previous build that drops felguard and pimps out the imp instead. Didn't try this one but I presume the rationale is that it scales sligtly better with the Master Demonologist bonus for imp and with Demonic empowerment for imp being significantly better than the felguard version - My guess is that at some point this outscales the relatively static dps benefits of felguard itsellf.
Glyphs of Choice: Imp, Immolate and Corruption.
c) Master Demonologist/Shadow and Flame
The end point for this spectrum of builds - technically I suspect theres a point at which 3/3 Demonic knowlege and 3/5 shadow and flame will do better as a precurser to this. Probably in the long run deep destro will outscale this especially with the incoming changes to Chaos Bolt and Backdraft.
Glyphs: Imp, Immolate and Corruption.
Feel free to comment/point out errors.
General points :
1) The hit cap is now 17% on bosses. Talents (supression and cataclysm) will reduce this to 14% and Misery/Improved Faerie Fire (from shadow priest and moonkin respectively) further reduce this to 11%.
2) Soulshatter doesn't benefit from either hit talent but personally I wouldn't chase either 14% or 17% since threat is rarely a problem at present
3) +hit up to the 11% cap is still the most economical way to increase dps for all specs, however its worth is relatively reduced in relation to +spell power compared to the situation in tBC. Broadly speaking the gearing priorities are +hit to cap > +spell power >> +haste > +crit >> +spirit > +stamina
4) At entry level in my experience there isn't a vast deal of difference between the various specs.
5) For glyphs CoA and Unstable affliction are poor for any spec. Immolate is good for any spec.
6) Imps and felhunters are currently said to be bugged. Imp mana regen is supposed to be about 3x more than it should be and felhunter currently bugs out and won't attack more than your average pet.
7) Regarding CoE you shouldn't have to use it often as Unholy Death Knights and Moonkins have an equivalent effect as part of their standard spec/playstyle (Ebon Plaguebringer and Earth and Moon respectively). These talents are equivalent to Full Malediction CoE. CoE does have the additional effect of lowering resistances but no Bosses are thought to have any resistances currently.
8) Your aoe of choice is now Rain of Fire for any spec that includes emberstorm.
Affliction
Example Spec
Overall : Strong on bosses, very weak on trash. More or less self-sustaining in terms of mana use. Fairly demanding in terms of attention required. Will scale pretty well.
As ever, good dps relies on micromanaging dots so that you refresh them immediately without clipping. Absolutely key is never allowing Haunt to fall off. Shadowbolt is still the filler when theres nothing else to do. Gets a major boost at less than 25% health when supercharged soul drain comes into play - at this point dots should still be refreshed as they fall off - best to wait untill just after a SD tick before breaking the channeling to refresh dots. Immolate is still worth using but shouldn't be refreshed sub 25% health.
Note that Improved felhunter and dark pact are pretty worthless as DP scales poorly and haunt will make your lifetaps self sustaining. DP has some situational use in high raid-damage fights.There isn't a huge difference in dps between imp and felhunter and imp will survive better. Arguably the points in improved shadowbolt are better spent in molten core and/or 2 more points in erradication. Erradication itself is not that great and one point in it provides a much bigger boost than points 2 and 3.
Glyphs of choice : Corruption (does stack with nightfall), Soul Siphon, Immolate. Imp glyph is also a good choice if you plan to use the imp.
Demonology
Example Spec
Overall: Lower personal Dps than other builds, brings a somewhat unique raid buff. Very simple dot and shadowbolt style. Going demon form is fun and brings some nice burst and aoe capability which is an advantage in some fights.
The "unique" raid buff comes from Demonic Pact. This doesn't stack with an elemental shaman's totem of wrath but can outscale it at the point where you reach 2800 spell power (all raid buffs except totem of wrath and demonic pact itself count toward that total.)
Threat is not a problem at all since about a third of your dps will come from your pimped-out felguard.
Points to consider in varying the above spec : Demonic Empathy is not that great and one point in mana feed is probably enough. Suggested talents to replace them are cataclysm for the hit and demonic sacrifice for fights where felguard is going to die whatever you do.
Glyphs of choice: Felguard, Corruption and either shadowbolt or immolate.
Destruction
Example spec
Common variant without backdraft
Overall : Pretty intense cooldown-watching style, will scale well. Very mana-intensive.
The next patch will adress the current problem with this build which is that Backdraft will reduce cast times of immolate and even incinerate below the GCD making backdraft less worthwhile than it might look at first glance at the moment. Most people keep both CoA and corruption up for molten core and glyph procs. Consensus is that after conflagerate he best dps is to recast immolate --> chaos bolt (if available) ---> incinerate. If you have soulshards in abundance Soulfire x3 is even better. Note that you can conflagerate a shadowflame as well as immolate. Not sure if shadowflame boosts incinerate like immolate does.
Variations would include dropping Fire and Brimstone for being utterly sucky and taking more utility talents perhaps soul leech or nether protection. Some people also fit in improved corruption and improved Lifetap.
Glyphs of choice: Imp, Immolate, Corruption
Demonology/Destruction Hybrids
A bunch of possibilities arise in this category, and the spec that will do best will depend on your gear - much like the difference between 40/21 and 21/40 in tBC. At earlier gear levels the static bonuses of Demonic Knowledge are very powerfull, later on Shadow and Flame will outscale it. I don't know the exact break-points for this but it seems to occur relatively early from what I can tell.
The advantages of these specs are that they incorporate the real powerhouse talents of both Destruction (Emberstorm and Shadow and Flame) and Demonology (Demonic Tactics, Master Demonologist and Demonic Knowledge) in varying combinations, but have a relatively simple playstyle compared with either deep affliction or deep destro. And simple = more dps for the average player.
a) Felguard/Emberstorm Build
Good build at entry level, benefiting from very high crit, emberstorm, static spell power boost from demonic knowledge and the dps of the felguard itself. Only problem is keeping felguard alive without Fel Synergy - points can be moved there from demonic tactics if its a major problem. Playstyle is moderately simple - keep up CoA and corruption then immolate and incinerate away. Use demonic empowerment when its up.
Glyphs of choice: Felguard, Immolate and Corruption.
b) Imp/Emberstorm Build
A variant of the previous build that drops felguard and pimps out the imp instead. Didn't try this one but I presume the rationale is that it scales sligtly better with the Master Demonologist bonus for imp and with Demonic empowerment for imp being significantly better than the felguard version - My guess is that at some point this outscales the relatively static dps benefits of felguard itsellf.
Glyphs of Choice: Imp, Immolate and Corruption.
c) Master Demonologist/Shadow and Flame
The end point for this spectrum of builds - technically I suspect theres a point at which 3/3 Demonic knowlege and 3/5 shadow and flame will do better as a precurser to this. Probably in the long run deep destro will outscale this especially with the incoming changes to Chaos Bolt and Backdraft.
Glyphs: Imp, Immolate and Corruption.
Feel free to comment/point out errors.