Updated Warlock Guides Patch 9.0.5!

Classes Warlock
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Back again with Updated Warlock Guides this time for the latest Patch 9.0.5, will update this thread when the rest get released, have done two threads similar before for pre patch to Shadowlands as well as Patch 9.0.2.

Just wanted to share them here in the Warlock Forums, I have learned a lot from the first set and second set to what I need to now include in the next variation/update when time comes in a later patch if needed. Hope these help whether you are looking for clarifications, additional help on each specc (switching speccs), or just simply new to the class.

I plan on creating more helpful videos that will be better put together each and every time I learn something new during the creation and editing process’.

Demonology Complete Guide- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyZovDoUt60

Destruction Complete Guide- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YscSLBejZQ

Affliction Complete Guide- https://youtu.be/GqZIWTQgMc8

Covenant Complete Guide- TBA

Soulbind Complete Guide- TBA

Conduit Complete Guide- TBA

Legendaries Complete Guide- TBA

These are to me the 7 standard videos that will cover everything in Shadowlands and will update the links once released as of this moment I know for a fact Destruction will be released 3/15 and Affliction 3/16 and I am working on the rest as well. Lastly, specific guides for Arenas, Mythic Keys, Duels, etc will also be released once these are out that will go into deeper details on each catagory so stay tuned.

Thanks everyone, let us Warlocks pwn the meters and never doubt the specc!

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Nether portal? Plz don’t use anything but decon for St. It lines up so much better with everything.

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Watch whole video please before saying anything, what you stated is discussed… And yes Nether Portal is a very viable build.

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It is really not unless you are engaged in a fight with almost no mechanics.

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5

Wouldn’t recommend using NP tbh, it’s a liability in most fights currently.

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NP is just so underpowered… I like it a lot but it’s just doesn’t last long enough to be useful. That’s one of the problems with Demos is all our best spells don’t last long enough while being too hard to setup.

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I hear you I said Viable not the best talent setup, it is better than the other setups when usable and it is stated within the vid that the NP build is very RNG as well.

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Just released Destruction!

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Like, don’t get me wrong, I love me some NP, but CN bosses just rarely support it with how it’s designed. which is a shame

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I gotchu, still a viable specc :stuck_out_tongue: the above guide is to show what can be played, now what should be played in Raids, Keystones, etc will be explained in a more specific video. TY though for feedback.

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I know you really like RoC but I really can’t stress enough how Roaring Blaze is better in the vast majority of content right now. You said in the video it’s close single target, but if I throw it into my own sims, it’s around 260 dps lower single target and still around 25 dps lower when bringing a 2nd target into the mix that happens to live the full 30 second Infernal duration. Esp with the Conflag leggo being ‘meta’ for Destro, I just don’t see how RoC would be used outside of very specific edge-case builds (like using RoC because your group really sucks at the gauntlet in SD).

Minor point: As a whole, I’d recommend Haste > Mastery > Crit > Vers for PvE Destro due to consistency (Mastery is pure RNG) and Haste translating to slightly more mobility (faster casting). That said, they’re all super close right now and your priority can vary wildly depending on trinkets used. You aren’t ‘wrong’ with your described stat weights, I just think people should generally check something like raid bots themselves and go from there.

Here’s mine pulled from a raid bots check (and I know these are flawed):
Intellect - 3.24
Critical Strike - 1.37
Haste - 1.35
Mastery - 1.34
Versatility - 1.33

For reference, my current secondary stats are:
Crit - 19%
Haste - 23%
Mastery - 46%
Vers - 6%

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The problem with NP is twofold. Well, threefold, really.

  1. It actually does some really good dps, it can even beat out Demonic Consumption, BUT… Its on a much longer cooldown than Tyrant, especially if you use Wilfreds. This makes it line up with a lot less damage windows than Tyrant, and by extension, Consumption.

  2. It is extremely reliant on turreting. Much more so than Demo already is. Once you drop the portal, ANY movement translates into a big dps loss. This is fine in lower end content where you can often enough ignore mechanics, but the higher up you go, the more mechanics forces you to move and the less casting windows you have. This alone immediately negates how competitive it can be with Consumption, which isn’t quite as impacted by movement as Nether Portal.

  3. It’s awkward as heck to use! For some illogical reason it summons a demon per shard consuming spell rather than per shard. That 3 shard hog only summons 1 demon, not 3. This means Nether Portal incentives you into spamming 1 shard hogs, which you otherwise should never be doing. It also has anti synergies with Demonbolt because of this, and i think Demonic Calling procs works against it too.

In a perfect world it does a lot of damage, but the fact is you put in a lot more effort for a very small dps increase, and you are forever at risk of tanking your dps because of mechanics and rotational flaws. It’s just not worth it.

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I agree Mastery is more RNG than Haste, depending on how much Haste/Mastery you have Mastery if in your favor is better than Haste and when not Haste is over Mastery, and like you said people should sim to see where they should be however they are very close.

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Who is your target audience for these videos, exactly? If your video is for beginners, then… is there really enough new information in 9.0.5 to justify a whole new 20+ minute video? I expect the vast majority of players who care enough about a warlock specialization to watch a lengthy video about it are interested in something more advanced or specific to a particular form of gameplay (e.g. a guide for M+, or raiding).

I play Destruction, so that’s the video I watched, and my comments are all made in reference to that video.

I think the order you’re presenting information in is strange. If the guide is for beginners, information on the rotation and playstyle should come first, followed by talents, and information on enchants and consumables should be last. New players aren’t going to be wondering what food buff they should get before learning which spells to cast and when. Frankly most players don’t need to worry about enchants and consumables at all unless they’re pushing M+ content, rated PVP, or raiding… which you say you will cover in a separate video.

I also think it’s a huge mistake to leave out information on legendary items. Legendary items are spec-defining in Shadowlands, and it’s important for any player to have an idea of which legendaries they should be aiming for.

On the topic of stat weights, enchants, and consumables: potions of Phantom Fire out-perform the intellect potions if combined with Shadowcore Oil. I would also echo Mannimarco’s comments and recommend Haste over Mastery… and if people care for more detailed information, they should be simming their characters directly.

Regarding talents: You often allude to “situations” where different talents from the ones you recommend perform well… but you don’t tell us what those situations actually are, so that’s not very helpful to anyone. Soul Fire and Internal Combustion, for instance, do have some valid uses. If I were suggesting a “general” talent build for open-world content I might recommend Internal Combustion since it’s powerful when mobs aren’t going to live through a single Immolate’s duration, and that describes a lot of non-instanced PvE content in this game.

I know you’re trying to offer a “general” guide here, but covering a few different builds might be valuable—e.g. the Soul Conduit, Inferno, Rain of Chaos build that goes with Wilfred’s, etc.—and explaining why you’d want to use different talents in different scenarios.

Rotation section: “Pet of choice is going to be the imp…” in which situations? The imp should only be used for PvE raiding, and that’s because its ranged attack means it can potentially keep a higher uptime than the melee pets. You suggest that the Felhunter is only for PvP, but it should be your main choice in almost all dungeon content, where an interrupt is much more valuable than a dispel.

Rain of Fire doesn’t outperform Chaos Bolt until at least 4 targets—and in multi-target scenarios you don’t mention the (extreme) importance of using Havoc on cooldown to maximize your soul shard generation.

For what it’s worth, the G in “conflagrate” is a hard G, not a soft G, and “utilize” is not the same word as “use” (and is never the correct choice in this video), though that’s mostly just a personal pet peeve.

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I got that far in your comment and gonna ignore the rest similar to how you did in the video lol, Legendaries if you see all of my other guides or watched the Destruction video as you claimed I said Covenants, Soul binds, Legendries and also Conduits will be discussed in a separate video otherwise this one would be an hr long. As for order of content… I believe it’s perfectly fine, want to skip a portion? Use the timestamps then. If this video isn’t for you and you don’t like it cool, move on, as everything I quoted you are incorrect on saying any of it, and because of that I cannot read the rest of your post due to you not watching the video.

Yes most people watching a video would want something more advances, watch the video and I explain more advanced gameplay specific guides are to come as these 3 are just overviews and the basics. However sadly to say to you, noobs, people that are new, etc do watch basic guides and due to the timestamps included in mine help them bypass and just watch what they want.

Not being rude…

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Flagged for spam, this isn’t the place for you to advertise your rather bad youtube videos.

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I watched the entire video, aside from the PVP talent section (I don’t have enough experience to comment on PvP) and the outro. If you bothered to take all of three minutes to read my post you would have seen that I make very specific comments about what you have to say—pretty clear evidence that I watched your video. If you’re expecting us to spend (waste) 20 minutes watching your “basic” video, the least you could do is have the respect to actually read what we’re going to say if you’re interested in feedback. Otherwise you’re just posting here to spam your video as clickbait.

I know you said that. My point is that legendary items are so core to the spec that they ought to be included in any “basic” guide.

The fact that I said you should have included legendary items doesn’t mean I didn’t hear you. It means I disagree with you.

That’s fine. That doesn’t justify the existence of this video, however. Even if you want to do more videos later, this video has to stand on its own, and, frankly, it doesn’t.

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This post doesn’t violate the COC.

Spamming or Trolling

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Oddly enough, abusing the report feature is against the COC. Ironic huh?

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His post is non-beneficial and only posted to generate views. He is dismissing feedback broadly and not looking for discussion in here at all, purely just looking to get people to click.

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A look at your warcraftlogs and raider.io pages makes me question how qualified you are to be making “advanced” videos anyway.

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