I am leveling a Warlock for TBC. I’m confused about the Pawn addon recommendations. According to Pawn, stamina is more important for Affliction than Intellect. This doesn’t seem right to me. Is stamina really better than intellect for Affliction? Are the Pawn default scales reliable or should I customize my scales? Am I missing something? Any advice is appreciated.
Yes. Due to Life Tap, stamina is mana for warlocks (affliction trades health for mana with Life Tap then uses Life Drain to get the health back.)
The more stamina you have the more often you can Life Tap. Stamina is your most important base stat (but always take gear that gives plus shadow damage first and foremost).
At around level 45 you want to get a tailor to make you the cheap and easy Shadoweave set. That will give you a total of +144 shadow damage at level 45. Mobs will melt with ease.
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Pawn is wrong.
On a conventional caster, Intellect limits the amount of mana you’ll have for the fight. On a Warlock, due to Life Tap, this limitation is not particularly meaningful. As a result, Warlocks do not gear for Intellect (except as they’re forced to take it incidentally because it appears on caster dps gear).
However, Warlocks don’t gear for Stamina either. Stamina has no impact whatsoever on your mana. It is purely a survival stat for Warlocks just like for anyone else.
While you can theorycraft specific values for Intellect and Stamina, they’re so far below spellpower, spell hit, spell critical and spell haste that you can just consider them ‘0’ and it’s unlikely you’ll run across situations where you’re selecting the wrong gear.
I also think pawn is wrong. Looking at my shadow priest, stamina again is highly over valued, valued much higher than spirit or intellect.
Arkane is on the money here. I’d just like to add that none of the spells you cast as affliction can crit except the occasional shadowbolt you throw out with nightfall. Int is only providing you mana where as stam provides both mana (through life tap) and survivability.
Loryn, you are correct that stam isn’t geared for at max level but it is one of the best stats while leveling which is what the OP is asking about.
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Stat weights are not an accurate measure for dps. I’m hopping that a simming option for TBC comes out soon for at least most classes.
Generally speaking you should be able to find some spreadsheets to help you breakdown gear dps. Those spreadsheets will typically be more accurate than just stat weights.
And to answer the original question… Don’t worry about stamina or intellect specific stacking. Intellect is still a higher value than stamina because of Crit and manapool size before wasting a GCD on life tap.
Just get hit capped and then stack as much spell power as you can. Get some solid Crit too. You’ll need it for the shadowbolt spam.
Shoot for Bloodvine set and then rush the frozen shadoweave set in TBC.
I went with “of the eagle” whenever possible, then stam plus whatever when leveling. Until later levels when sp gear became available.
Guys, he’s wanting leveling input, not endgame lol.
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Stamina is decent endgame too. You can survive most things that other casters and medium armor classes cannot. You don’t need to stack it but having a high health pool is important.
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that was your first mistake
Is there a better addon than pawn? Do I need to run simulations for pawn to be accurate?
Assuming you’re specifically looking for leveling gear / input, stam is far more beneficial to affliction locks than int is while leveling. Assuming that you are playing as the “Drain tank” spec. Lifetap allows you to turn said hp into mana, serving both roles. It keeps you alive while also serving as your mana as needed.
That said, shadow damage increase is you best stat while leveling.
You do want SOME int as you do want an ok sized base mana pool but personally i’d aim for like 2/1 stam to int on gear.
Again, this is leveling advice.
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Oh, and get the shadowweave set arkane mentioned. You WILL notice the difference.
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He was asking as someone who is leveling a warlock in classic to get ready for TBC though.
While leveling, intellect most certainly is not what he wants to stack first. He is not going to find anything with spell crit while leveling and he is almost never going to cast shadowbolt in the first place.
Most of the garbage gear he will get while leveling is going to have spirit which is practically useless for an affliction warlock who is leveling.
Stamina has a much higher value than intellect for a leveling affliction lock.
Also, he is affliction, so he is already going to be hit capped for leveling with his tier 1 talent (and only needs 2 points in it at that). He is also not going to find any +hit gear while leveling until around 55+
If he has more intellect than stamina he is not going to able to drain tank without dying in the first place. Stamina >>>Intellect
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If the topic is gearing while leveling, then why does it matter? A warlock should be able to solo almost everything while leveling with just questing greens.
If he truly cares so much just wear whatever increases your stat budget overall.
If you wear an item because it has 7+ overall stats but has 5+ stam, you wouldn’t wear it over an item with 2-3+ stam and 10+ overall stats.
Again incorrect if some of those stats are spirit, which most quest greens are.
Wouldn’t Affliction take Dark Pact anyway? Unless you’re able to micro manage you 500 hp imp, keeping it safe in Phase Shift and using it as a mana battery seems to be the play.
Are you actually dumb or?
Stats while leveling do not matter as a warlock. Gear helps, you can solo most elites in this game while questing without them even touching you. If you actually think a few points of spirit are going to ruin your leveling experience by any actual margin you’re just an idiot.
He is not getting dark pact until level 40 and even then he will use the succubus with all abilities turned off because she does a lot of dps and has the same mana as the imp.
Oh I misunderstood the thread, they’re currently leveling one not theorycrafting a level 70.
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He cares about stats and your information is misleading. Might want to be careful with the insults, that will earn you a forum vacation.
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