Warlock vs Dragon Soul [4.3 GUIDE]

[Sparkuggz]

Welcome to the Warlock guide for Dragon Soul Since the most confusing part about raiding is what to spec and play these days, i have tried to softly go through each boss and the most optimal spec. I hope it will help you to decide what to spec for progress / farm, and maybe you can use some of the tips given. As the content is rather new, new things might pop up or things might change. With 3 specs, 3 diffrent playstyles, it's very hard to cover it all, and as a warlock im sure you found that out by now. Please ask any questions you have about Warlocks, may it be PM's, here or ingame. Im always up for helping or discussing about the best and most fun class in the game. Hope you enjoy it!

Summary This fight can differ a lot from guild to guild, and some guilds make you able to multi dot a little during the encounter. If that’s the case, affliction will reign supreme. But for us that’s stuck with Morchok in China and Kochrom in Africa, destruction gives you some good movement DPS and with a cherry on top, you can use Bane of Havoc. Tips Bane of Havoc the opposite boss when they split. (Multi dot before you move out) Place your portal before the fight starts on the side you will be at (optimize less movement during Black Blood of the Earth phase) Time and optimize your movement with Conflagrate, Corruption, Shadowflame and Bane of Doom renewal. Use the crystal timers to see if you can delay running. During the Black Blood phase, there is “gaps” in the blood where you can stand still and continue DPS. Your pet might stop attacking after you get pulled in, put it on aggressive or remember to make it attack again

Summary This fight is really nice for affliction, especially if you can get a nice spot in the black phase where you can reach the boss from. Keeping haunt plus all dots on the boss while you soul swap to flail / eye’s / claw, will maximize your DPS by a lot. Issue with this boss is that if you spread out on specific positions, there are a lot of places where you won’t reach the boss, but if it isn’t too far away, you should run to keep dots on boss as he take increased damage. If you aren’t able to keep dots on the boss at all times, destruction is a nice way for you to multi dot, yet obtain high single target damage during black phase. You can also keep Bane of Havoc on the boss during black phase. Demonology is really not worth it, too little utilities, bad multi dotting and single target DPS without having all CD's up. The only “high” DPS demonology warlocks on this boss have +90% damage on the boss, which is impossible without being a real life ninja. Tips Optimizing your personal DPS requires you to keep your pet, haunt and all dots on the boss during the black phase. Soul swap to flail / eye’s / claw. Dot dot dot! You can either put your portal at your black phase spot, or simply put it in the middle so you don’t have to run back after black phase. Let your pet stay on the boss at all times, as he will take increased damage As destruction, bane of havoc the boss during black phase while you multi dot.

MACRO #1 /cast Haunt /petattack

Summary A really boring fight, as the more AOE classes your raid has, the more coffee you should drink during this encounter. I prefer to go affliction for this fight as it gives you a nice soul swap for the blobs, and with some nice portal placement you can utilize the movement with minimum downtime. Destruction is the most useful for killing blobs while you can keep Bane of Havoc on the boss. The only thing is your meter epeen will go down the drain as you have absolutely no AOE to compete. The way to do high DPS on this encounter is obviously to AOE, even though Demonology is the highest DPS spec, it all depends on a few things. The less fire mages, druids and AOE (Cunning) trinkets your raid has, the better for you. The top demonology warlock simply pops 2x Infernals instead of 2x Doomguards. They often save Meta + CD’s for AOE as well. The decision is yours! Tips It's important that you really use your portal good on this fight. Place it under the boss, so you can always portal back after killing the blob Save your Soulburn for Seed of Corruption during AOE You can use Fel Flame while you run to increase your UA timer up on the boss and renew the instant dots while running

Summary This is most likely the most useless encounter in Dragon Souls. There is really not much to say about it. You know what phase is incoming next by looking at his weapons (Lightning vs. Frozen weapons). You can handle this encounter in different ways too, so there is only a small amount of general tips. Tips Smart portal placement can be used on this encounter (Either put in middle or at the side where the crystal you run to spawn. You can also put it on your lightning spot if you are chaining, but only if you easily forget where to stand!) Remember the first 20 seconds after a phase ends and the boss engages he takes extra damage. Save some CD’s to burst here. Save a Soul burn + Seed of Corruption for the Ice Tombs to spread corruption. As destruction you can Bane of Havoc the last crystal your raid will be killing, to gain extra damage.

Summary The Baleroc encounter of Dragon Soul Purely single target DPS fight and I would recommend you to spec what is optimal for your gear and trinkets. Often times before you have WoU + Cunning/Corrupted it’s not worth it to spec affliction or destruction for this fight. I would go Demonology with the 3/3 in Corruption instead of 3/3 Bane. It’s important to do a good opener on this encounter, and as Demonology you want to boost that doomguard fully. I like to do a felguard into felhunter opener, to get my felguards demon soul during heroism. Demonology Opener Pre Pull 1-2 seconds before pull, use /use Demon Soul /use Volcanic Potion /use Moonwell Chalice Follow this by popping Metamorphosis (Do not macro it together) - Moonwell Challice won't register the mastery proc on your Metamorphosis, so you will loose 22% damage Pulled Felstorm as fast as possible and once your felstorm is over, summon your Felhunter. - This will give you the 10% SP (T13 4 setbonus) and 10 stacks of WoA trinket Pop Doomguard - be sure everything is up (Power torrent, trinkets, anything proc related) Continue your normal rotation in between these steps Any lack of power torrents, trinket procs and what not can significantly reduce your doomguards damage. If you don’t like to do the petswaps after the pull, you can use a macro that 1 second before countdown pops DS, pot, MWC and summons a felhunter in, so you still get the felguards demon soul. Use this if you feel less safe in managing the opener. Tips With Moonwell Challice: you want to save your Metamorphosis until your MWC comes off CD. If the fight lasts 6 minutes, you should be able to get 4 metamorphosis (3 with trinket) if you get some good RNG on resetting your Meta CD. The faster your kill this, the more risk you won’t make the 4 and then just save 3x Meta with MWC trinket. Without MWC: you will not need to worry about saving metamorphosis and just pray to the RNG gods that he exists! Use the felguard for Demon Soul during heroism on pull and instant summon a felhunter after Felstorm Track all your procs for maximum doomguard damage. Don’t pop it until you have _everything_.

MACRO #1 /cast Demon Soul /use Moonwell Chalice MACRO #2 /use Demon Soul /cast Soulburn /cast Summon Felhunter /use Volcanic Potion /use Moonwell Chalice

Summary Dot dot dot, multi dot dot dot. This fight is obviously hugely affliction and destruction depended. Even in 10 man, I would recommend to skip the 4% SP and spec affliction or destruction instead. If you want the easy way out, destruction is a really neat spec for this fight as you don’t have to worry about controlling your felhunter around. The ranged imp can hit anything without going nuts. Affliction reigns supreme on world of logs, but it mainly involves topping your damage on the melee mobs, and not the assault drakes which is the important part to kill. If you want to get the maximum out of affliction from this fight, you should always be sure to have haunt + all dots on the target with your felhunter. Track your Soul Swap CD and try to be sure to get all dots on the drakes as they fly above your head. Use the target macro, as it will become hard to avoid charges and fire during this encounter while optimizing dotting and controlling your pet around. Tips You can put Bane of Havoc on Goriana in the start of the fight if you stand on the ledge of the ship where she spawns. You can sometimes hit your Shadowfury on the sapper during stealth, thus making it not move before it becomes visible. Be sure to use your portal on this encounter, it can save you much running in phase 1 and you can easily get out of shockwaves in p2. Avoid having your felhunter on aggressive when you multi dot, stick it on the haunt target for optimal shadow bites (You can do a Haunt + Pet Attack macro) Avoid wasting Bane of Agony’s on targets that will die fast The fight is over 7 minutes long, so make use of 2x Doomguards

MACRO #1 /target Twilight Assault Drake

Summary This encounter is all about Burning Tendon damage. You will have to choose either to be useful on tendons or overall damage. After several hours of wipes and different tactics, most guilds have found 2 openings to be the best option, which isn’t exactly our cup of tea. You want to stack a shit ton of mages, rogues and the only reason to bring us is to give 8% SP on target, healthstones amongst other services. There are plenty of better options, as we have horrible 19 seconds DPS burst. The only spec that can compete in 19 seconds is demonology, and even then we have issues as you won’t have everything for every tendon. But when everything is ready, you should be up there close to the mages. Help to optimize your Burning Tendons damage Trinkets (Moonwell Challice + Will of Unbinding) You want a static and a on use trinket for maximum DPS during the opener. There is a few options, but Moonwell Challice will give you 22% more damage on your metamorphosis, so it's hard to avoid using it. Options for trinkets Static (Will of Unbinding, Insignia of the Corrupted Mind, Cunning of the Cruel, Variable Pulse Lightning Capacitor) On use (Moonwell Challice, Bottled Wishes, Rune of Zeth) Full mastery I would go full mastery to buff your demonform damage, and your Shadow Bites will hit harder too. Switch Glyphs Switch your Glyph of Metamorphosis with Glyph of Corruption, as you won't need the extra 6 seconds on metamorphosis. Burning Tendons opener (YouTube Guide)

MACRO #1 /targetexact Burning Tendons /cast [target=target, exists] Immolate MACRO #2 /cancelaura Parachute MACRO #3 /use Soulburn /cast Summon Felhunter

Summary This fight is really good for an affliction warlock. We have multiple targets during most of the encounter and we can somewhat keep up with AOE due to the fact we can proc spell weave off multi dotting the bloods. I would recommend switching your [Glyph of Unstable Affliction] out for the [Glyph of Bane of Agony], as there is no reason to go under GCD with UA. You want to do a lot of soul swapping, so don’t bother with Bane of Doom unless it’s on the Arms. Save your soul swap for Parasites or Elementium bolt. If your raid has too much melee, I would recommend to soul swap to the Elementium bolts, and if you don’t, save it for the parasites. Elementium Bolt Normally just put UA + Corruption on the Elementium Bolt and shadowbolt it down Parasites Get UA on every blood and Soulburn a Seed of Corruption to spread corruption on everything. You will have 2 dots ticking on all the bloods, while you soul swap the parasite as it spawns and put your pet on it. Start Rain of Fire after and you will proc endless amount of spellweave on everything. Rain of fire will proc more spell weave then Seed of Corruption, as it ticks faster. This will be more single target DPS to the parasites then fully nuking it with shadow bolts. The trinket Cunning of the Cruel is a must have if you want to be “competitive” on this fight. The more you whore bloods the more damage you do, so don’t feel bad for not topping meters if you aren’t spamming bloods. Tips Fight lasts over 14 minutes, so you should be able to use 2-3x Doomguards Rain of Fire ticks faster then Seed of Corruption for proccing spellweave (Some report hellfire not proccing it properly) Soulburn + Seed of Corruption the adds before parasite spawn Shadowflame ticks insanely fast (Procs spellweave like crazy, so try to get in melee for Parasites + Bloods) The parasite explosion can kill your pet, so remember to keep it safe

MACRO #1 /target Elementium Bolt MACRO #2 /target Corrupting Parasite MACRO #3 /cast !Rain of Fire

[Asayu]

Really awesome, and I can clearly see that you have put alot of time into this guide. Really good and solid guide!

[Tsun]

OMFG, really nice guide

[Fals]

Hellfire seemed to proc more spellweave than rain of fire.
I have no numbers to back this up though.

[Sparkuggz]

"Rain of Fire ticks faster then Seed of Corruption for proccing spellweave "

"Some report hellfire not proccing it properly"

I know Fals, all it says is that Rain > Seed, and that some have said hellfire won't proc it properly, which as you said have no numbers to back it up. I didn't get to test it properly, but there is also things like range with hellfire, having to move on top of it etc.

[Sparkuggz]

Added a new POV, Warlord Zon'ozz!

[Stopdotnrole]

Thanks so much for this great guide it has been really helpful. Reviewing the logs I am seeing two preferences on trinket choice/usage.

1) Moonwell and Bottled Wishes
-MWC is used 20-30 seconds before the tendon will spawn
-While MWC is up Meta is used to harness the mastery
-As the tendon spawns MWC has expired at which point you pop all CD's as you describe in your video and begin the burn

The above allows you to get almost both poppers at once.

2) Use a static and MWC as you suggest.
-Pop MWC and Meta in a cast sequence as described in your video

Could you comment on either of these two strategies? Which would you prefer? One nice thing about Bottled Wishes is it available for every tendon but MWC only every other.

Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

[Sparkuggz]

Thanks for the great words, but on to the question.

It's impossible to calculate the right profit of each version as you can't calculate the worth of the MWC mastery during the tendons DPS (pet damage etc.), but having 22% more damage on demon form and have 2290 SP during the tendon is obviously strong. A few concerns i see with this is;

1 ) Timing: I don't know how some guilds run it, but most of the time it hits around the "same" time, but ANY delay can fuck everything up badly. It will complicate your preparation so badly if the slightest delay happens. I'm not sure the risk is worth the reward if you have a trinket like HC WoU (900+ intellect)...

2 ) With the 15% + 5% nerf, i woudln't personally bother complicating things up with the risks involved doing this set up

WOU + MWC
990 Intellect
340 Intellect
22% Metamorphosis damage
1700 Mastery

2nd opening
990 Intellect
340 Intellect

MWC + BW
340 Intellect
22% Metamorphosis damage
2290 Spell Power
183 Mastery
275 Haste

2nd opening
340 Intellect
2290 Spell Power
183 Mastery
275 Haste

If you feel safe on the fight and you got the timers completly down, BW + Moonwell should bring more dips!

[mads3001]

Hello.
It's a really nice guide you have made, but i just some fast questions.
What is your mainly spec in DS?
What spec do you fine the best for almost all of the bosses?
Thank you alot! ;) ;)

[Sparkuggz]

Main spec in DS

Due to the fact that i have H: IOTC and H: WoU i choose to go Destruction for 1-6 and i normally respec Demonology for spine and Affliction for madness. Though last reset i went with a 1-6 @ Destruction and 7+8 @ Affliction.

If you have H: Cunning of the Cruel, you should probably go Affliction or Demonology for all bosses, but mainly play what you like! I'm personally getting really tired of Demonology, so im trying to avoid it as much as possible.