Or: Why I think DS/Ruin is a situational Warlock spec.
So I posted an article related to Threat in the General Discussion subforum, here, that uses the 3 Warlock specs from my raiding days in Vanilla as examples of threat and DPS.
Now, there's already a nice PvE guide for warlocks here, so won't bother going too in depth. Except to say that I personally recommend going Improved Soul Link over Pyroclasm. 50% of normal mana regeneration while casting is superior to a stun chance any day, especially considering some trash is immune anyway. And more mana for you means more mana and time for the healers. But I digress.
This post is to reintroduce an old Vanilla warlock spec that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere else in a long time. The Never-Aggro-Lock spec (or a minor variation thereof) that I posted in General Discussion, and personally believe any semi-serious raiding guild should have at least 1.
So why MD/ruin?
Because, as I explained in the other post, max damage output is not necessarily optimal. Also, when thinking in terms of raid composition, having a warlock with Improved Blood Pact for your main tank group is a big deal. Basically it's always worth sacrificing a small amount of dps to increase your main tanks HP.
That being said, there are certain items and bonuses in Vanilla WoW that makes one of the three warlock raiding specs a lot more appealing. (The 3 being DS/ruin, SM/ruin and MD/ruin).
And that is either 8 pieces of Nemesis, or one of the following; Fetish of the Sand Reaver or Eye of Diminution.
In my old Vanilla raiding guild, attaining any one of these 3 threat reductions was a pass to respecc DS/Ruin. Because threat was already a serious issue for SM/Ruin locks, the increased damage output from DS/Ruin was usually negligible compared to more groups with Blood Pact buff. However, with a serious threat decrease that DS/Ruin spec looked real nice and juicy. Basically doing more damage with less threat, hooray! This was also the reason that full Nemesis was seen as a viable gear choice on the warlock forums back then, compared to stacking Spell/Shadow Damage with items like Ebony Flame Gloves and Fel Infused Leggings. Hit% was also an issue of course, but that's a discussion in and of itself, and from AQ40 it started showing up in most caster gear anyway. And you could always save up for a Tear of course.
And, according to my personal experience. If you do manage to get a hold of Fetish and respec DS/Ruin you'll leave all other dps so far behind it'll cause balance whinning on the guild forum for days. Except of course for DPS-warriors, because nothing scales like they do. But you'll be a proud 2nd on the meters with only the dead dps warrior above you who just overaggroed, and died. Can't really ask for much more in Vanilla.
So I posted an article related to Threat in the General Discussion subforum, here, that uses the 3 Warlock specs from my raiding days in Vanilla as examples of threat and DPS.
Now, there's already a nice PvE guide for warlocks here, so won't bother going too in depth. Except to say that I personally recommend going Improved Soul Link over Pyroclasm. 50% of normal mana regeneration while casting is superior to a stun chance any day, especially considering some trash is immune anyway. And more mana for you means more mana and time for the healers. But I digress.
This post is to reintroduce an old Vanilla warlock spec that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere else in a long time. The Never-Aggro-Lock spec (or a minor variation thereof) that I posted in General Discussion, and personally believe any semi-serious raiding guild should have at least 1.
So why MD/ruin?
Because, as I explained in the other post, max damage output is not necessarily optimal. Also, when thinking in terms of raid composition, having a warlock with Improved Blood Pact for your main tank group is a big deal. Basically it's always worth sacrificing a small amount of dps to increase your main tanks HP.
That being said, there are certain items and bonuses in Vanilla WoW that makes one of the three warlock raiding specs a lot more appealing. (The 3 being DS/ruin, SM/ruin and MD/ruin).
And that is either 8 pieces of Nemesis, or one of the following; Fetish of the Sand Reaver or Eye of Diminution.
In my old Vanilla raiding guild, attaining any one of these 3 threat reductions was a pass to respecc DS/Ruin. Because threat was already a serious issue for SM/Ruin locks, the increased damage output from DS/Ruin was usually negligible compared to more groups with Blood Pact buff. However, with a serious threat decrease that DS/Ruin spec looked real nice and juicy. Basically doing more damage with less threat, hooray! This was also the reason that full Nemesis was seen as a viable gear choice on the warlock forums back then, compared to stacking Spell/Shadow Damage with items like Ebony Flame Gloves and Fel Infused Leggings. Hit% was also an issue of course, but that's a discussion in and of itself, and from AQ40 it started showing up in most caster gear anyway. And you could always save up for a Tear of course.
And, according to my personal experience. If you do manage to get a hold of Fetish and respec DS/Ruin you'll leave all other dps so far behind it'll cause balance whinning on the guild forum for days. Except of course for DPS-warriors, because nothing scales like they do. But you'll be a proud 2nd on the meters with only the dead dps warrior above you who just overaggroed, and died. Can't really ask for much more in Vanilla.