51 atm. It’s kinda nice having extra 1500 mana, but having to tap 10 times is a bit annoying. And overall that build offers… well, nothing. Just juggling hp and mana, never drink and having mediocre damage and no def options. Slow, stable, infinite mob after mob.
So it’s obviously not a dungeon grind build. And i will need to drop it eventually.
The options are
51: where i can get DS and RUIN, but without imroved corruption and life tap
56/58 with those two above
Or just use it until real 60 and some +shadow/mana gear to support shadowbolt spam?
I will need to start spamming BRD soon, since 50+ leveling on big pvp server is not very fun even as horde.
you should never choose an option that you dont have improved corruption and life tap, they are the most needed talents for a lock
this is not raid loggin, you will be just fine doing DGs as a drain tanking or you can drop it and take till SM on affliction tree and start the destruction tree
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I can honestly say I went 1-57 so far never having drain tanked…
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You can make it work with just DS/Ruin for dungeons. However you will be spamming shadowbolts because mobs just don’t live long enough for dots (even worse without imp corruption).
The only point you’ll really switch off from a drain build is when you start raiding. You should always prioritize +damage gear and never get any +mana gear, +damage gear is +mana gear for a lock.
I recommend a build similar to:
https://www.bobo-talents.com/?c=warlock&t=BSBTBUBVBWCGCHBNBOBPBQBRByBzBACfCgCJCKCyCzCABBBCCNCOCPCQCRCSBIBJBKBLBMBDBEBFBGBHB3CrCsCtCuCvBtBuBvBwCc
It’s a good multi-purpose build that can be used for farming, dungeons, and not terrible for raid DPS. The main problem with raiding is that the damage can be very spiky and pull aggro. You depend on the Nightfall procs to generate more damage and if you get a couple in a row and a few crits your threat goes through the roof.
It’s for that reason most people recommend going DS/Ruin or MS/Ruin for raiding, the threat levels are more even. DS/Ruin is probably a bit more DPS too, depending on how you’re geared.
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You can go 3/5 improved corruption and get all the benefits of 5/5 except the casting on the move. Other than that, yeah both Imp. Corruption and Imp. Lifetap are very big talents to get.
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is 4% mana reduction really that much better than intensity+destructive reach?
My 43 warlock has gone 21 into Aff and then into Demo for better VW tanking. I’ve also never felt drain tanking was mandatory, but YMMV. I do feel like I need to respec to correct talents a hair, but otherwise totally happy putting my VW on a mob while I take on another one, and even three if I really want to with fear juggling so I’ll probably never bother using the drain tank build.
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It’s a judgement call.
Intensity really isn’t that great, you’ll rarely run into circumstances where it significantly helps. You won’t stop stuff from beating on you and you will get pushback no matter what. It’s not like mages who can Blizzard and never get hit. If you need to AOE then sac a VW first.
The extra reach can help but, again, it’s pretty situational. There’s a very few instances where that couple of extra yards makes a difference. Most times good positioning is plenty.
Now, the extra mana is very useful on boss fights. It means less Lifetaps and therefore less time on global cooldown when you could be Shadowbolting. On longer fights it’s pretty much a pure DPS increase.
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honestly, nightfall proc is so rare and random that sometimes it doesn’t proc even when i put corruption on 3 mobs and lifedrain one of them.
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I almost never run with a VW, I’d rather have a succubus out for the damage and utility. She can tank a bit too and if you’re good you can juggle aggro between yourself and her.
The Demo talents are good in places but most of them are terrible for dungeons and raids. Most people go up to Demonic Sacrifice and then sac their pet, wasting many talents in the Demo tree.
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I see enough of them to be worth the 2 talent points. The best thing about them is being able to Shadowbolt on the fly. Each one also basically doubles the DPS of Shadowbolt because it changes a 3 second cast into a 1.5 second global.
is not rare, if it doesnt procc often to you is just unlucky of your part
demo is just useful on pvp because of soul link but is useless on raiding
Well, of course Demo is king for PVP. But really the only good talents in Demo for raiding is Imp. Healthstone, Imp. Imp, Demonic Sacrifice, or Master Demonologist. The rest are really wasted in a raid.
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i ran demo on mine until i started raiding, with imp tap, 3/5 cor, and other fillers. didnt have any problems in dungeons because of +dam gear and succubus gave 10% dam bonus, and questing farming was easier with the use of big blue. i would’ve stayed this all around spec if it wasn’t for raiding where you have to be the cookie cutter build.
I’ve been considering retrying out the Succy, I didn’t like her at low level because she was squishy. I know succy is popular, I just haven’t minded the VW play. I also like VW because Sacrifice (and with imp VW) is a great way out of a bind. It’s really not bad for PvP either, solid shield to deal with people who try to get the jump on you. Actually what I really like doing is saccing my VW and dance with 60s trying to gank. Super funny against the healers who can’t DPS through it very well and if I’m really feeling it I’ll try to fear them around so they waste their time.
I went DS/Ruin for raiding and it was great in a raid but terrible if I was out farming. So I went to a SM/Ruin build and can now farm. I still do very good DPS in raids but it’s a bit more random, depending on Nightfall procs to get a boost in DPS – and I have to carefully watch my threat when I get a string of them.
There’s some good tricks too, throwing up Corruption on the extra mobs in fights to draw out Nightfall procs. You have to do it carefully so you don’t mess up tanking but it helps a lot if you can do it.
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yeah, i tinkered around with it going demo and the pts in destro as an aoe spec, but the survival/less downtime was always with afl. it really just depends on what your endgame is.
The VW is very strong but really doesn’t help you kill stuff. A succubus is great in PVP and does plenty of damage. With a drain tank build you let her take the initial hit or two and then pull off her with your damage/healing and drain tank the mob to death.
It’s much faster killing and you still end up with nearly full health and mana.
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While leveling a dark pact build cant be beat, use succy, turn off autocast of all her abilities, drain her mana between pulls, then respec at 60 to your final raid build