The Naked Warlock

In light of all the releases of the new character models I am reminded of a short chapter in my WoW history that I'd like to share with everyone. I think I can look past my embarrassment now sufficiently to do it justice. It's not a long story but it is humorous.

I had never had a chance to see my character without any armor on and can say, up until this particular point in time, never had any inclination to do so. I'm not quite sure what made me want to do it when I did.

Zab was level 30 or so and was questing through Darkshire when all of a sudden I wondered what my character would look like without clothes on. Did she have underwear? Was she naked? Would Blizzard put naked characters in the game? Did she look like a Barbie doll?! Up to this point in my short WoW career I had never been witness to the night elf female dancing mailbox phenomena that I've heard tell about many times, and had never seen any character running around naked. At least not that I had noticed. Who knows. A drove of naked somethings could have ridden by me on the road in Stormwind, and so intent was I in my early WoW playing to find and complete quests, that I surely wouldn't have noticed a bit.

Anyways...I am getting off on a tangent. So I'm running around in Duskwood, literally. This was when you didn't get a mount until level 40, and I decided I really wanted to know just what was under my characters robes. I was at the bottom of the large graveyard just off the road, you know where you get give the jittery guy his ghoul giblets (the place that now has a worgen camp), and I stopped. I turned my character around to see if anyone else was lurking nearby. Oh my god I cannot just stand here in the road and strip down in front of other people can I! There was no one else around but for some reason that was just not good enough. If you're familiar with the area there are a couple of shacks just off the road there that are empty. So to stave off any possible embarrassing situations I took my toon into one of those huts. That, my friends, was where I was brave enough to strip my human female warlock of her robes and take a peek. I felt very weird about this at the time.

Afterwards, with my curiosity satisfied, I put all her armor back on her, and came out of the little house. I felt just a little silly that I needed to go into a hut to strip my assemblage of pixels of her clothing. When I think back on it now it makes me giggle at how silly the situation was, and how funny it is that I felt it was indecent to just strip my toon out in public.

So there you have it. My little naked warlock story. :)
By the way, I still don't care to run her around in public without clothes on.

Changing Yet Again....Spec #3

So here I am again. I was running Demonology until my first raid. With another Lock in my raid running Affliction I couldn't help but be impressed by the numbers he was generating. Nearly twice what I was doing. That could mean I just sucked but who knows.

After serious consideration I have changed yet again. If you listen to Twisted Nether you'll know that I was talking to Hydra about it and had respecced while she was in town here in Orlando.

I decided no holds barred I was going to just close my eyes and jump. I changed everything. My Destro is now gone (/mourn). It has been replaced with full-fledged, totally committed, Affliction. I have reforged, regemmed and torn apart my bars to move items into their correct rotational situational position (hehe). I have modified macro's and learned new skills.

After running it now for 2 weeks I am still not sure if I feel like it's me yet but I'm working on it. I am still figuring the more subtle things such as when to use Drain Soul to get the most damage. Those sorts of small things that mean more than just hitting buttons.

What I do know is this:
I enjoy the dot juggling, it's very similar to what I was doing with destro except the filler is different. Instead of Incinerate I'm channeling Malefic Grasp. 
I miss having something to hurl at the enemy. With Affliction there is no Chaos Bolt or Shadow Bolt. It is totally dot dot dot dash(channel). I can throw the occasional Haunt which is a lot of fun but doesn't feel as ominous to me. It's not the I'm gonna blast your ass away, it's more the I'm gonna sneak up on you and cut it off when you're not looking kinda thing. Surprise! You're dead! That works for me.
When I can get the Soulburn & Soul Swap going whew boy! Now THAT is good times. If you manage it right you can take a mob down in a hot second. It works beautifully for two or three at once.

I plan to keep working on this and playing with the glyphs and talents as I go. I'll try to keep you posted since I've started talking about this more, and let you all know how it's going.

Lock Options - Changing Spec for Mists

I have been a die-hard destro lock since I began playing WoW. I have always found the spec challenging and have enjoyed blowing things up.
 For those of you who might retort I'm a fire mage in warlocks clothing, I say you must have never played them. I find warlocks quite different from mages so don't go there. 
For those of you who might ask why play destro when there were many times over the past 7 years where they were just the pits in dps. Even compared to other warlock specs. In fact most of the time compared to other warlock specs. Yes, trust me I know.
As I said. Die-hard destro.

This expansion has forced me to branch out. I was incredibly disappointed with destro this time around. It feels as if it has been reduced to 3 buttons with a couple of CD's. I have to have a little complication. Perhaps that is why I am drawn to the lock in the first place. There is a lot to track. Or was. I was usually tracking several cool-downs at one time, I believe it was about 8 all together. Now those 8 have been drastically changed and reduced.

Since I wasn't enjoying it very much I thought this would be a perfect time to explore all the other specs for the first time in my WoW history. I rolled a 2nd warlock to level just before Mists dropped and between my main and my alt I am running all three specs regularly. I have to say I'm having a great time. I'm learning something new, learning more about my class, and becoming a more well rounded warlock in general.

So which spec have I gravitated to you might ask? Demonology! I really like the wild imps and REALLY like running around with an army of minions. It is just so much fun! I think that is also one of the reasons I'm very attracted to DK's as well. Love the unholy thing, the pets, the bad-ass spells and evil intent and the minions. I think I'm in love with warlocks now more than I have ever been. If you don't have one you should get one. I highly recommend. :)

4.0.1 Random Thoughts

Some of it is awesome some of it I just don't understand. 4.0.1 has turned a lot of things upside down. My lock is full of awesome fiery goodness. I love feeling like I'm burning the hell out of things again! My warrior is totally weird. I've had some conversations with another prot warrior about stats and such and I'm trying to re-tune my brain to the new stats and it's just not sinking in. I think I'm just over tanking. Speaking of, I have had a lot of asshole tanks lately. I don't know what it is. Perhaps they think they can ramrod through instances still, I don't know. Perhaps it's because the toons I'm taking into instances lately are not tier 10 geared like most of these folks are. Either way its been pretty fucking annoying.

My poor new 80 healer is still trying to catch up. I'm just starting to figure out disc again by the way. Very weird concept of damage=healing and mana regen. It works but I'm still working out rotational stuff. I am doing this blind. I know what's going on, but I am not looking up rotation info anywhere so I'm making it up. Seems to be coming along, albeit slowly. I am enjoying the challenge for the most part but my husband has had to listen to me yell at tanks a lot more these last few days. I'm taking the hard road I know, don't tell me please :p

Let's see...what else is up with this patch? The glyphs are pretty cool, though I have found there can just be a tremendous amount of choices. That is good and bad. I wonder if I'm picking the "right" one. I'm sure some asshole will tell me eventually what the "right" one is.
Talent choices in some trees seem limited and in some others don't. For example, my warrior seems to have a lot of choices in fury or arms trees that would help with prot. My warlock does not seem to have as many cool things for destro in other trees. She also doesn't seem to have as many cool glyph choices as say my priest. I think it's more difficult to get diversity out of the pure dps classes then it is the hybrids or partial hybrids. Warlocks, mages, hunters and rogues are going to find they are more limited in, as Ghostcrawler says, "cool choices" to make.
All in all I am excited about the patch. With the changes to threat reduction talents in dps and the promise of CC down the line, I can't wait to get my claws into some new instances.

PTR and Guild, Warlock & UI Changes, Some Interesting POI.

I'm going to go ahead and post this and then hopefully get some screenshots inserted so you can see what I'm referring to.
I was having a meltdown about warlock changes. That combined with what seemed to me to be a lack of warlock info coming out of the beta, I decided to download the PTR. This was purely to satisfy my neurosis that I would never be able to play my lock again and WoW would be forever dead to me. Something I dread actually.

2 attempts, exceptional band-width hogging (which my husband was NOT happy about), 25 hours of downloading and a video card driver update later I was finally on.
     **by the way I highly recommend that you update your drivers before Cataclysm**


I appeared in Feralas right next to Thousand Needles. From my Dire Maul farming (see previous post). Immediately the first earthquake hit. I was excited and terrified at the same time. I am standing at the spot that is supposed to be flooding! Holy Shit! I have to get out of here! Back in reality my brain processed the info and realized that there are no land changes going on here. After that the earthquakes were just really cool to experience :)

I took the long way and trotted my ass to Theramore to take the boat. My goal was IF and a target dummy.

First, no add-ons. Arranging my screen to be a little closer to my normal button mashing skills became first priority. I understand you can copy your add-on folder to the PTR folder, but after all the hassle I had gone through just to get this thing going I'm not worried about it.

Feeling Up Your 'Lock
Finally in IF. Second was training. Discovering what I had and what I needed. Warlock training and profession training.
After that target dummy practice. I got a feel for the spells I still had, and the new ones I had acquired. I am not a theorycrafter. I don't crunch numbers. I'm sorry I can't give you any specifics regarding spell mechanics and all the ins and outs of what's going to be great and what's going to suck. I can throw out a few things here though.
My second night on the PTR I did hit an instance. It was nice and calm and was probably the longest H Nex I've run in a long time. That was perfectly ok with me. I think we were all just feeling it out. Soulburn; using a shard to impact a spell. I didn't use this much. I think I'm still used to being shard-conservative. At 80-81 the number of spells you can affect is actually pretty small. I think there were 3 uses for it, none of which I found very useful right off the bat. Soul Harvest; The spell you cast to get shards back, looks and acts just like mage evocate. Bane of Havoc was OK. You cast it on one target then hit others. Kinda interesting, but because it's working on another target I didn't get a "feel" for it. It was off working its magic while I was doing other things. I hope this will get more fun as I get used to it. The thing I really got a kick out of was the proc for Soul Fire. Being Destro I don't use it much. I have no proc for it and the cast time and use of a shard have kept it out of my rotation. It was cool to be able to use it again. Along with that comes a Power Aura type screen flash. There was also one for Backdraft. I found the graphics for both to be unobtrusive and kinda cool looking. All fiery and stuff. So I'm happy. It will not replace your Power Aura though. All in all I found that my rotation did not change considerably and the feel is still quite similar. That was what I had set out to do. The only thing I was not happy with was the loss of spell power conversion on the Glyph of Life Tap. The new glyph lowers the cool down. There is no more spell power gain. Booo!

UI
So I texted a friend I knew was on the PTR and asked him to come play. He gave me his toon names and I hit "O". Nothing. Hmm ok how do I get the social up, the friends list, all that jazz. I finally typed /who and the box came up. I still don't know what letter is supposed to bring that up. When he came on I did a shift-click to see where he was and got this with his name "Hunters". So I say what's that? Are you more than one? He says that's my guild. Oh Guild!! Yes gotta get me one of those. I joined the "Warlock" guild, local 357 I'm sure :) and hit shift-G. Nothing. WTF how do I get my guild social up now...grrr. I find it on my bar and upon mouse over discover that it is "J" not "G". What? Weird but ok, random alphabet choices. As I recollect you can still hit "P" for your professions and your spell book,"N" for talents and glyphs, and "C" for your character sheet. I told you I was a professional button masher.

The Guild UI is now a separate entity. It is no longer connected to your friends and raid tabs as it is now. It has 2 tabs currently, one for guild members and one for MoTD and other information. There is also a handy sort to sort by professions and other things. All very useful. I am hoping to speak to the "Warlock" GL about some of the guild leader options as well as the calendar and event options. I don't know how much is currently implemented.

Guild Interface (Achievement, Professions & MoTD)

The Social now only has friends, chat, raid listed...and no button to bring it up yet lol. Yes this stuck with me. I don't know how many times I pushed the button to try and get the window up and nothing happened.
(edit: You can pull this up using "O")

Social (Friends, Who, Chat & Raid tabs)

The Character sheet I found to be really cool. It now has a box that slides open to the side with all your stats. Each stat section can be moved up or down the line depending on what you want to see, or can be closed down if you don't want to see it at all. Pets and mounts are no longer here. I missed getting this pic for you :(


The Profession sheet or spell book I found the most confusing. It now contains tabs for your professions, mounts, pets and other miscellaneous things. It seems to be the place to put things that don't go anywhere else. The professions tab was a bit confusing at first, but I attribute that to the fact that while it said I had them they were not available to use until the second night I got on. Then I had to re-train all my cloth and enchantments to make them active. Time consuming and something I hope we will not have to do with Cataclysm. It was also a huge money sink, so I wouldn't expect so. It was probably just a PTR thing. The button to open my enchanting book was there. It is no longer located on the first page of the spellbook. I did find it handy that all my professions, including secondaries, were all on the one tab by themselves.

Spellbook (Spells, Profs, Pets, Mounts & Companion Pets)

All in all I found my time on the PTR to be worth the headache of the download. I assuaged my warlock fears and found that the majority of the changes coming are very clean and useful. I also found that the changes were not so drastic that I couldn't figure it out fairly easily. The jump from the current UI to the new will seem minimal. I think we will all be happily plodding along in Cataclysm in no time.

It's All About the Damage Baby

Maximizing your DPS
There are a few things I have learned relatively recently that I'd like to share. Some of these will have a decidedly warlock twist but you'll just have to put up with it.

CLIPPING -
Clipping DoT's is the term for casting a damage over time (DoT) spell or ability onto your target before the previous one has finished its complete damage cycle. I was amazed at the change I saw in my dps when I started paying attention to my ticks. A tick is how often a DoT does damage or when a DoT does damage. Not allowing your spells to fully complete a cycle on your target wastes your time and mana, and stops that spell from getting that last bit of damage out. It can also take valuable time away from casting other spells or abilities in the interim, or stacking on what you've just started.
Optimally you want to place your DoT back on the target just as it's wearing off. I am using a mod called in-line auras along with the built in bar timers that come with Bartender, and can see how much longer (in nice large easy to read numbers) each spell has left on it. The number displays right over the spell on my bar along with the GCD timer. Taking into consideration casting time, I will begin casting my next spell as the one that's on my target reaches 2 or 1 second left. For instant cast the time will differ of course. That will insure I get all the ticks out of my DoT and, if done correctly, will keep the damage flowing without missing a beat.

ROTATION
I had always heard about and looked at rotations and tended to follow one myself. Lately, while investigating more in-depth, I have seen a lot of information that leans more toward priorities rather than rotations. I first encountered this when I was looking for prot warrior information.
Since then I have seen it quite a bit and have come to believe that everyone functions on this system. Based on your spec, glyphs and what you may be wearing at any given time, spells and abilities change and fluctuate. Every change in gear can mean your timing changes. Perhaps you have more haste than hit or vice versa. That can make a big difference in how your rotation FEELS. And that is the key. Have an understanding of your spells enough to be able to make those subtle changes as you adapt to changes in your gear or your environment. This is where priority comes in. Priority becomes important when you get into the maintenance phase of your dps. What I mean by that is you're in the middle of a boss fight. You have applied your openers and are now in a state in which you maintain and increase your dps for the remainder of the fight. As DoT's end and fall off you are re-applying and then using some sort of maintenance spell in between your DoT's and your major abilities while they are on cool down. You make that decision based on what ability becomes available next and if more than one does, what priority those need to be re-applied in. Basically, your rotation is your opener. Your priority will determine your maintenance during the fight. This is of course barring other elements occurring during the fight such as moving out of the goo on the floor. Those elements will cause you to reevaluate your priorities during the fight.


RACK 'EM, STACK 'EM AND PACK 'EM
This is twofold. First, if you have spells or abilities which benefit from each other you should know what those are and how they work. It is like buffing your spells. As an example this is my opening rotation for my lock.
Life Tap
Hit my trinket
Corruption
Curse of Doom
Immolate
Conflagrate
And then I begin my maintenance with Incinerate
I have Glyph of Life Tap
Looking at all these elements you can see how they stack on top of each other. Life tap with the glyph converts spirit and buffs my spell power followed by popping the trink which adds even more. I then cast my DoT's which will tick with a greater intensity and CoD will time out with more damage. This will also boost my Immolate. Conflag damage will then get a boost off my Immolate. I have Glyph of Conflagrate which allows my Immolate to keep ticking, while the Conflag itself gives me burst damage and causes Backdraft to start. Backdraft gives me a haste boost going into the beginning of my maintenance phase. Basic priority then becomes which of these come up first, but stacking them correctly as they time out is what makes the difference. Usually this specific casting list comes up in my rotation every 2-2.5 minutes (taking into account reaction time), when my trinket goes off CD. In the mean time it is balancing which of these elements becomes available and stacking them appropriately. Life Tap is kept up continuously, as well as Immolate and Corruption (no clipping). In between is Conflag, Incinerate and Chaos Bolt when it becomes available. In that order to get the most from each spell.

The second part of this is the finish. If you've run in any kind of raid or large group and have been on vent you may have heard your Raid Leader suddenly shout out "Blow all Cool Downs!!". For the longest time I would look down at my spells and think "what cool downs, I'm in the middle of them all already.". For the most part this is true but I have begun potion stacking during the more intense portions of a boss fight or towards the end when your raid partners are dieing and you are racing against an enrage timer.
Once that call is made, as soon as I can I begin the above rotation again with the intention of maximizing everything available. This time along with the Life Tap and trinket I will also pop one of these potions; Wild Magic or Speed. I carry both with me. I also have begun stacking in Flame Cap. Since you can only pop one potion per fight I try my best not to use Health or Mana potions and when in a bind go for my Healthstone first. A Warlock should NEVER be without one.
Throwing in all 4 of my spell buffs; LT, Trink, Pot and Flame Cap followed by the additional haste and damage bonus with Conflag can be awesome. If you can time it on top of Shammy Heroism/Bloodlust you have a winning combination.
The "trick" is to get all the boosting items you can that will stack on top of each other. Flame Cap is a BC herb that I used to use but had dropped a long time ago thinking it was outdated. Truth is it still offers an additional 80SP that I didn't have before. Considering that my large damage spells are all flame based this was an obvious choice to include. It probably would not help anyone else except a Pyro Mage or possibly Elemental Shaman. In addition it is good for 1 minute and can be used again during a single fight after the CD. I can pump out a lot of spells in 1 minute :)

How do I do this?
Regardless of your dps class or spec these tips will help you get more out of your abilities. The first thing to do is to look at your talent trees. Read up on what tree you would like to pursue, then do some research on what talents will help you get the best out of that spec. I have always enjoyed Destro so I had to go out and find the best way to talent and play that spec.
A helpful beginner site is WoW Poplar. This site not only provides the most popular specs but the most popular glyphs, enchants and gems for each one. If you want to get into the number crunching try Elitist Jerks (EJ). If you want more class specific websites go to WoW Wiki. In the search box type in your class/spec such as Arcane Mage or Combat Rogue and down at the bottom of the page is usually a list of websites dedicated to that class or spec. I use The Warlock's Den to get into more class specific discussions.
Second, open up your talent tree. Mouse over and read what your talents do. Moreover, have an understanding of them. So often these days we race to 80, grab a spec that works and then expect to just play it. Without a basic knowledge of what you're doing and how each ability works and is applied you will fail. Case in point, I am horrible on my ret pally. Why? Because I have not taken the time to understand what I'm doing, I just hit buttons. Yes, I admit it. That's her off-spec so I don't pay much attention where I should.
Third, understand your rotation and priorities and why. You have to know what ability benefits from another before you can apply them correctly. Again, refer to my ret button-mashing mentioned above.

I know some of this is basic information, and perhaps common sense. I am one of those people that has to understand the pieces to see the whole picture so it took me a while to really get it. I only hope that some of the knowledge I've gleaned can help someone else along the way.

Ain't I Pretty? Gemming your Destro Lock

I put this together because I was losing track of what I had and what I needed. It started as a rather strange looking outline lol.
This is by no means the end all be all of gemming, but I have found this works for me. It's a little clunky in this format but it works well enough.
As with anything WoW, as your gear changes you will have to re-evaluate all your gem choices and slots seeking the best combination.
While Hit is normally my #1 priority followed closely by Haste and Spell Power, I have found I'm giving up some Hit for Spell Power lately. I guess it's all about the burn ;)


This will of course change when Cataclysm comes out. But until then...happy gemming!

For Meta socket --> Chaotic Skyflare Diamond

               START

Warlock Preview - Cataclysm....The Wait and See Approach

All right... so being a warlock I feel like I should have something to say about the preview that was posted. (click the header for direct link to the forum post) Albeit a bit late.
Truth is, I don't have much to say.

Let's see....
New spells;
Fel Flame, looks kinda cool. I love the fire ;)
Dark Intent, sounds similar to the focus a mage has. Might be interesting and another proc to work off of. I've always been interested in contributing more to a group in terms of buffs so this might be something to play with.
Demon Soul...ok I have a beef with this. First, the Demon Soul was an item in many of the WoW books that the orcs used to control the red dragonflight and Alexstraza. It was created by Deathwing himself to take over and rid the land of all but the blacks. Seems like a terrible waste of a name for a class spell. Second, the explanation doesn't make much sense to me. I guess until they release what demon will provide what type of "self burst cool down" (whatever that means), we will just have to wait and see.

Soul Shard Overhaul.  Pfft. Until I see it and exactly how they implement it I really have no idea. Right now it sounds like a version of the DK runic system. This makes me unhappy. So I'm going to pretend I don't know anything and wait and see.

Curses turned to Banes?? Ok yea I guess.
Demon mechanic changes; Sounds like that combined with the dev chat from last night means more CC. I'm good with that and hope it's interesting.
New Talents; some interesting stuff but nothing great. Shortening CoD would be pretty cool since I use it during all large boss fights.
Mastery; nothing more than I expected.
Fire Direct Damage Increased. Sounds good to me.


Really, in case you couldn't tell, I'm just gonna see how it turns out. All I wanted was stacked soul shards and they're changing the whole damn system around! How happy I am with it will depend on how it changes my game play. I am really worried about being a mage with a pet. I want it to continue to have it's own distinct class feel and all I can do is hope that Blizz will make the right choices.
Only having seen bits of info here and there I hesitate to make any guesses about how it will all work out.

Who Left My Lock Out in the Rain?

I have never really bitched about my class before. I am not one to QQ a lot. I believe that Blizzard is always trying to do the best they can with class balance and believe that eventually it will all even out. What is a nerf for you today will be a nerf for me tomorrow and that sort of thing.

However, this has gone on far too long and I've something to say about it!

Back during BC I noticed this trend. For some reason people decided that warlocks were just too OP. Fears and DoTs were just too much for everyone else to handle I guess and the complaining began. I guess those rogues in AV just couldn't stand it any longer. Hah!
Thus the steady decline of the warlock began.

Now I look around and I don't see very many of us. All hail the mighty paladin, the cunning rogue and the ever lurking shadow priests.
Alas, where did all the warlocks go I ask?

So let me share with you my little story from this past week that has led to this verbose and exasperated post...
With the ready availability of tier gear I had decided that now was the time to truly delve into my evil destructive lockiness and really attempt to pull some higher dps.
I began to really read up on stats, gems and enchants.
Hit vs Haste. Haste vs Crit. Int or Spir. How much spell power is enough?! (ad infinitum actually)
After all this research I went out and applied my knowledge. I ground my little warlock ass off and procured a tier 9 set of my own. I laid out gold by the hundreds for the right gems, the right enchants...the right food for god's sake!
And I tweaked! I read some more, and tweaked some more til I my head was full of visions of warlock goodness and my eyes were full of the grand numbers my crits would be throwing up on my screen!
Do you know what? It sucked. I stopped. I stopped for a week or so and thought. Then I went back to reading. Back to hit caps and spirit. Back to trinkets and gear and 4 piece set bonuses. Until at last I thought I had it figured out....again.
But no.  Oh FUCK! (and lots of other cuss words...oh and some stomping and desk pounding in for good measure)
I backed up to step one. Visiting videos for new warlocks. Pouring over my spec point by point. Believing that if I really understood what each talent point gave me I would be better for it. And really I was, there is always something new to learn...but...FUCK!
The only thing I have not done at this point is start theorycrafting and crunching numbers. Frankly I hate numbers and it's not going to happen. I rely on those of you that have the patience for that to help us poor misguided math losers. Oh, and I haven't done anything like plug into a SimulationCraft. (article about said program here)

Ok so...after all this munching and crunching and chewing on information I went back and looked over my toon. I realized some basic things that were a little off and again replaced gems. Some gem guy on my server has made a ton of $$ off me. Though some I have been able to make myself on my warrior. Luckily the enchants are free huh?
2 days ago I went to Exodar and found the practice dummies. It is nice and quiet there and I don't have to worry about some random warrior coming along and standing in front of me.
I'm working here, shove off!
I pulled up the stopwatch, added my normal fel armor, a firestone, and a food buff, and turned off recount so I would focus. Then I proceeded to wail away on this dummy for 2:30 sec. Enough time for my CoD to proc twice. Then I stopped. I waited for it to finish its 3rd kaboom...so we're talking 3 minutes and a bit here. Then checked the numbers.  (thinking back I should have recorded my number right then or finished up the 3 minutes completely)
I was devastated. Barely 3k! So I'm standing there pouting in guild chat, and thinking I've had it! I can't believe I can't produce decent numbers, and what the fuck are all these people talking about with 4-6k dps? WHAT IS GOING ON?! I just must be a totally crappy player! Against a target dummy!
If I have followed all the recommendations and all the proper this and thats. If all my attention to every fucking detail was not paying off then it must be me...it has to be right? I am one of those people that Blizzard doesn't think you should be playing with.... oh god nooooo! Not after all this time, and all this MONEY! Are you kidding me? All that stuff about you can lead a camel to water....and isn't there some saying about a thoroughbred or show dog or something? I don't know.  /sigh

In the mean time....

There were other wheels turning. I had listened to an episode of  The Instance, where they talked about this.

This is a chart that Blizzard created showing an average of dps during the Festergut fight in ICC. I don't know if it is 10 or 25 but I'm going to assume 25 because of the numbers.



16th!! Would that make YOU happy? Surely not.

Now, I don't think that I can reasonably expect to be doing that kind of dps in a 5 man heroic, but apparently I can't reasonably expect to be anywhere near the top in any raid situation either. I should expect that 15 other specs will beat me out. So in a 25 man I might come in before the tanks. If they're not pallys that is.

In the mean time back at the target dummy fuming....
I begin to solicit my guildmates help.
"Please" I beg. "You must help me figure out what is going on!!" I am reviewed. My armory data is scrutinized. The result is there is no reason why I should not be putting out wonderful stupendous flames of dps goodness, and thoroughly burning the shit out of anything in my path. So again it must be me right?

Actually...somewhat is the answer.

*First, I learned that I clipped my DoTs and that doing that is very very bad. And I did it a lot! Not allowing that extra tic is tre importante. (No I don't speak French or Spanish but it worked in my head so let it go)
*Second, I never set recount to merge me and my pets dps. In my head it seemed logical to keep my imps info separate. I guess that is not right. The end numbers did show a difference worth mentioning.
*Third, I wander. My fingers wander, my mind wanders, my toon wanders. I do not always keep everything flying at a steady rate. When I need to be there I am, but in the mean time I might miss cast something, clip something etc.
These things do add up to a significant portion of missed dps, but when you're flying through a heroic it doesn't much matter. When I spend the majority of my time in 5 mans I am not as regimented as perhaps I could be. Am I a lousy player? I say nay nay. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely.

So what does all this rambling add up to? In the end, I think that my class as a whole is just not able to generate the numbers that come so easily for a few others. I think Blizz has some work to do and I want, no I DEMAND! some Warlock love.

I hear wonderful snippets of promise coming from Blizz about this for Cataclysm. I am hopeful and afraid at the same time. The complete overhaul of the shard system has me shaking in my demon booties. I do not want to be a Death Knight in cloth. I really really hope this system doesn't turn into a runic type one similar to DK's. But OMG I will be so thankful to get rid of a bag of purple things. Really would love to have a bag back, gee wouldn't that be nice. /sigh

Please please Blizz, make me a blazing bad-ass again that everyone thinks is OP and everyone wants to be! I really do miss the days of "oh shit its a warlock".