Warlocks and frozen Shadowweave...good choice?

Kevin

Kevin

New Member
I figure that a fire-based destro build wouldn't cut it, but I always loved affliction with locks. (Sorry Angie...this does mean that I might level mmFish instead of my holy pally) would it be worth going tailoring/engineering on my lock? (Lloki is tailoring/mining) I know we don't have many 70 locks (can think of John and Nick) and I'm not even sure if either of you are a tailor...anyone hear anything on this?
 
My shadow priest loves the Frozen Shadoweave set. +179 dmg with +66 stam and +44 int. Not great on stats and you don't get any +crits or +hits. But the damage alone I believe is worth it. It leaves room for the spellstrike set which will add another +92 dmg with +28 stam and +20 int along with +50 crit and +38 hit.

That is what buto is heading for. The only thing for a lock that I would stack other items with is +crit and +stam.
 
Very good choice.

As a level 70 Affliction Warlock, the Frozen Shadoweave set is equal to most of the Tier sets that I have any prayer of seeing in the reasonable future. With affliction, I don't really need much +crit, and this set provides tons of +dam. Paired with Spellstrike, you get lots more damage along with the aforementioned +hit, which is always a good thing.

I dropped engineering to pick up tailoring, and haven't regretted it for a second. I didn't really find a use for engineering with this character at higher levels, so I'd look seriously at either enchanting or a gathering skill.

But I'd seriously recommend tailoring for any cloth caster.
 
Ok, noob affliction warlock question here: Seems to me that affliction warlocks don't need all that much +crit. True they will be spamming shadow bolts in between their dot rotation, but they aren't spamming shadow bolts as much as other warlock specs right? Certainly affliction locks don't need +crit nearly as much as a mage (they spam critable spells all the time).
 
If you are a x/y/21 affliction lock, then crit is still fairly important. Imp shadow bolt increases your DoT ticks by 20%. On most encounters, as a 40 or less affliction lock you are going to be throwing only one DoT, corruption. That's 1.5 second cast time. That's leaves 16.5 seconds for you to spam shadow bolt while it is ticking away. That's 6 shadow bolts. This sort of rotation is best for mobs that last around 12-15 seconds (most trash mobs).

On bosses you will probably throw a Curse of Agony into the mix, but that's only another 1.5 seconds of cast time per 24 seconds of ticking. Still lots of time for a shadow bolt. You may choose to toss in a Siphon Life as needed, but that wont detract much from your shadow bolt spam.

Anywho, long story short, with Ruin and Imp Shadow Bolt, +crit is quite desirable, though less so than for most mages. But certainly don't discount it.

(All this applies to level 70 play with a warlock. Solo leveling gear choices should be based on mana efficient spells, not max DPS spells.)
 
That makes sense, yeah I am planning to continue leveling up towards this: leveling build 43/0/18. I find with dark pact + imp + imp life tap + siphon life = practically unlimited mana. I almost never stop to drink and I chain kill mobs only stopping to loot. With this build I am thinking of primarily focusing on +dmg gear, though now that I am starting to put points into imp shadow bolt, perhaps I should rethink this (once I hit the outlands and +crit gear is more readily available).

I plan to respec at 70. I thought I read that UA is better than ruin unless you have an insanely high crit rating (something like 40% crit?). If that's true I was thinking of skipping ruin and going for a build like this (for running instances): PvE build

BTW at the risk of derailing this thread further I have been wondering if I am using the right spell rotation to kill mobs (when solo):

shadow bolt -> UA -> corruption -> siphon life -> CoA -> fear -> life tap + dark pact as necessary

Then I go on to the next mob and do it again. I have been debating if I should put up siphon life and coa sooner because they are longer duration dots. I want to put up corruption early though because I want to get a chance to proc nightfall.
 
Unless you are doing solely 25-man content, 3x-4x/y/21 is going to give you higher DPS than 41/x/y.

My grinding spell rotation is:
CoA, Corrupt, SL, [new target], CoA, Corrupt, SL, [new target], CoA, Corrupt, SL, iHoT and then drain soul/drain life to get mana and health back up to 100%. The 3 mobs should pretty much die within a few seconds of each other.

I find SL isn't worth it unless you are drain tanking a single mob or DoTing then fearing 3-4 mobs. The mana cost vs DPS isn't that swell unless the mob lives long enough to really get some use out of it.

I would agree that throwing CoA that late in your rotation is not terribly useful unless the mob is over 2/3 health at the time you cast it. It ramps up slowly so you really don't get the big DPS from it until the last few ticks.

If you wanted to keep your current rotation i would just mix it up with:
SB, UA, CoA, Corrupt, fear (optional), and then DS or DL depending on if you need health or mana. (You can always DL and switch to DS at the last second. You might want to downrank DS to save mana.)

Really, it's no big deal though. When soloing, whatever works for you is fine. It is only in groups that you need to worry about min/maxing your spells.
 
A bit off-topic, but I read somewhere to play a warlock well all you have to do is wrap your face in bubblewrap and roll it across the keyboard and you will own everything...true?




:)
 
I'd agree regarding DOTting up multiple mobs and using iHoT to grind multiple mobs at once. That's how I leveled from 63 (when I respecced from Demo) through 70 (while killing for quests, of course). Foust, you've obviously drank the kool-aid that is an Affliction's Lock's unending stream of mana. Combine that with group farming, and it's just not fair. =)

Since I'm on a PvP server, I was a little more PvP focused with my talent choices, so decided that UA and Demonic Embrace were have-to-haves, which put Ruin out of reach. Consequently, I use UA, COA, Corr, and maybe SL before switching to the next target when multi-grinding. I almost never have any mobs get back to me after fear wears off. DS to get mana back (I only ever trained rank 1 - I don't much care about the damage, just the shard and mana return), a DP or two, and I'm off to the next group.

When going single target, I always stack my DOTs first - If I'm going to spend the mana on them, I want to get as many tics as possible. My cast order is UA, COA, Corr, SL. I rarely use Immolation, but if I do, it's usually cast last, just because I have the hotkeys for the others set in order, and just go down the line with my fingers. UA is first, just because it's the only shadow DOT with a cast time. Once that's been cast, I can do the rest on the run, and I often hit mob 1, then run towards mob 2 as I'm stacking the rest on the first. It also helps me get hit less if I'm positioned right. COA is second because of the ramping damage that Deedlyt mentioned. The longer it tics, the bigger the tics are, so I want to let it ramp as much as possible.

I'm generally in agreement with +dam taking priority over +crit. It's generally only in instances that fights last long enough to do much SB casting, so I saw much greater return from +dam while leveling up. +crit is very common on the gear you'll pick up as you go, and I found that to be generally sufficient without concentrating unduly on picking up more. More +dam, though? Yes, please.

Again, though, if I was specced as Deedlyt is, I'd agree with her take.

And Azolas, I find that bubble wrap interferes with the tactile feedback I get from my keyboard. I much prefer Saran Wrap. :p
 
Azolas said:
A bit off-topic, but I read somewhere to play a warlock well all you have to do is wrap your face in bubblewrap and roll it across the keyboard and you will own everything...true?

:)
Click to expand...

Yes, just be sure that you wrap the bubble wrap *really* tight.
 
So I am lvl 57 now on my lock, and about to head to outlands as soon as I hit 58.

Just so that I could make this frozen shadow weave set I switched to tailoring a few days ago (tailor + herb now.... already have an enchanter). I have my tailoring up to 260+ and I am trying to farm as much runecloth as I can so that I can continue to push up my tailoring skill.

I am wondering, are there some gems along the way that I can tailor that are really worth while? The netherweave set looks like it's worth getting at least two pieces of (for the spell dmg set bonus).
 
I love my (fire-based) Destruction lock, he can consistently stay in the top 3 for DPS in our Karazhan runs (and he isn't a tailor =O... ). Its all about the spec. Neighborhood 20% crit chance and 700+ damage and you'll be good.

I am wondering, are there some gems along the way that I can tailor that are really worth while? The netherweave set looks like it's worth getting at least two pieces of (for the spell dmg set bonus).
Click to expand...

You should try to get as much of that set as humanly possible. My lock isn't a tailor, but Oddbob, my Shadow Priest is. He found it very worthwhile.
 
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