6 ways to increase your warlock's DPS
by Tyler Caraway 
Jan 23rd 2012 at 7:00PM
As a warlock, I can name no fewer than six methods that the amateur demonologist can use in order to up his worth to a raid. Oh, while I could easily write out an entire Homer-esque adventure exclusively on what fledgling casters can do for their damage, brevity is oft the soul of wit -- so I will merely keep to the upped ante of six, to demonstrate that warlocks shall not have themselves outdone by trite magelings. After all, a mage really is useful for nothing more than a light snack and easy travel.
1. Know your spec. Unlike those wretched creatures that shall not be named, warlocks are blessed with multiple viable specs that they can use for raiding. I know that this is a topic I have blathered on about time and time again, but for a pure DPS class, it's rather important. Unlike my counterpart balance druid, there is no rigidity in spec choice. A balance druid will always be a balance druid, regardless of how strong their spec is in relation to feral or other DPS classes in the game. Warlocks and other pures are given that luxury.
Want to play affliction or destruction? Too bad -- if demonology is the reigning champion of damage, then that is the spec you will be expected to play. It's a sad situation and one I really wish we could gravitate away from, but such as it is. This, however, is a topic for another time. No matter which spec is the leading contender, there is currently always a proper way of setting it up (and despite what Blizzard has currently stated, I'm quite certain the same will hold true for many of MoP's talent choices as well).
Right now, though, your best resources to be had for finding the best spec rightly on hand is usually the WoW warlock forums. While you can jump into the discussion or see the detailed explanations over on Elitist Jerks (which is great about putting information right at the top of the post), I find the WoW forum stickies to be slightly more better organized. No offense to our EJ counterparts -- I love what they do, but such as it is.
For the moment, here are the currently accepted setups for each spec:
Remember, there usually is some slight variation in how you spec some of your points, and no one is saying that this is absolutely how you must spec. These are merely the most commonly accepted (because of accuracy) specs for the highest DPS.
2. Perfect practice makes perfect. There is nothing more important than learning your rotation. For all of the gearing, all of the fretting over talents or glyphs that we do, none it matters quite as much as the actual doing. Missed spells or slightly mistimed priority steps are generally your largest loss of DPS on any given encounter, and you must strive to mitigate that as much as you feasibly can. Nothing does this better than going over and over and over your rotation again and again.
Practice makes perfect, or as I used to be told, perfect practice makes perfect. Nothing does that better than sitting out at a training dummy to see what you're capable of. No, it may not be the most exciting thing in the world, but committing every action to memory goes a long way in not only increasing DPS but also your effectiveness as a raider overall. The less time you have to spend staring at your actions bars or keys is more time you can spend watching the environment around you. That's what being a solid raider is all about.
3. Reforge for optimal performance. While reforging usually only lends a minor increase in effectiveness, every little bit counts. This is why we splurge a little more to spring for the higher-end enchants or gems instead of always settling for the lesser, cheaper alternatives. While Blizzard somehow thought that the introduction of reforging would make the concept of hit juggling easier, nothing could really be farther from the truth. Managing hit now is worse than it has ever been and frankly is a headache I wish we could get rid of.
Or is it? While the concept of reforging is excessively annoying to the degree that no sane human could possibly keep up with the best way to go about it all, this is why we have computers. Addons such as Reforgelite are a godsend that will do all of the work for you, quite literally. Reforgelite will automatically select the proper stat priority for your spec, formulate the best combinations, and then do all of the reforging for you.
If you are looking for the more speculative side as to which items you should be picking up, I suggest popping over to Ask Mr. Robot for a spell. You can also use Rawr, which is a great little application as well, but AMR is my option of choice. Up to you.
4. Spruce up your UI. Speaking of addons, there are a plethora of useful additions that you can use for WoW. The ability to customize your UI or plug in certain capabilities really sells the game. It's about far more than making things easier for you to manage -- it's about assisting you in making the most out of what you have. Pushing your limits, that's what it's all about!
TidyPlates is an amazing choice to assist with multiple target selecting and DoT tracking across them all. Power Auras is another, although it requires a decent amount of setup. Despite the effort, it well pays off with the ability to use easier to notice, large icons for DoTs, procs, and cooldowns, while also allowing for sound notification, which is amazing. You can react super-quickly to sounds, plus they don't eat away at your already strained eye time.
The #1 rule with addons is to keep it simple. Too much clutter is an easy pit to fall into, and it's hell to climb out of.
5. Learn the encounters. There is a saying that goes that the best defense is the ability to know what your opponent is going to do before they do it -- at least I think that's a saying, and if it isn't, then I'm saying it now, which makes it one. Anyway, knowing what to expect is the best method of improving not only your combat performance, but also your ability to stay alive throughout an encounter.
Every fight is different, or at least slightly so, and each one requires its own amount of planning and forward thinking in order to accurately predict what is coming. I know, I know, it all sounds a lot like work, but reading up on encounters before going into them is the best method of reaching toward your top performance. You can catch strategies here on Ready Check, or swing on over to Lrn2Raid.
Putting in a little extra effort for a raid really isn't as bad as it seems, and watching videos is perhaps one of the perfect ways to prepare yourself. They generally take 10 minutes tops, and show you not only the encounter but how players actively deal with everything that's thrown at them. Watch a video, please; it will help you far more than you realize.
6. Relearn your ABCs. The last bit of advice that I want to give you is a basic one that so many casters forget. You learned in once in grade school, and now it's time to review it once again -- "it" being your ABCs. A better way of putting it might be: Always Be Casting. Always, always, always, always, always. It doesn't matter what you're doing -- unless you are directly prevented from damaging something, anything, you should always be casting something.
Refresh a DoT, use Fel Flames -- something, anything, it doesn't matter. Getting your rotation down flawlessly is the perfect solution, but barring that, always casting something is good enough. It's even more true when moving, which is often when people lose their focus. They put too much of their attention on the moving itself and forget that they could be doing damage during that time. Don't forget! Remember your ABCs!
Blood Pact is a weekly column detailing DoTs, demons and all the dastardly deeds done by warlocks. We'll coach you in the fine art of staying alive, help pick the best target for Dark Intent, and steer you through encounters such as Blackwing Descent and The Bastion of Twilight.Filed under: Warlock, (Warlock) Blood Pact
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Imnick Jan 23rd 2012 7:01PM
don't forget "do more damage, faster"
mtsadowski Jan 23rd 2012 9:17PM
Faster, more intense
Duts Jan 25th 2012 3:04PM
and always turn CAPS LOCK ON...spells hit harder.
Average Joe Jan 23rd 2012 7:27PM
7. Roll a mage.
Samuel Jan 23rd 2012 7:33PM
Master Caraway,
I have recently begun educating myself in the Dark Arts, after having a revelation saving me from the dreaded pit of magery.
Now, I have encountered a problem. I've spent many hours cooking mages alive in cauldrons of their own tears, but no recipe I've tried has succeeding in bringing out that tangy arcane flavor. What seasoning do you suggest for cooking mages?
Shadows watch over you,
Margum, Level 17 Orc Warlock
Shade Jan 23rd 2012 7:52PM
your mistake is cooking us in our own tears, which are infused with arcane energies, hence the arcane flavor. Location also makes a difference - if you were to cook us in the Dragon Soul raid, for example, it'd taste all Blood of the Old Gods-y.
Personally I recommend you bring a warrior and a paladin along to do the grill work. Have the warrior spell reflect one of our massive Pyroblast! procs which will give a nice sear, and make sure we're standing on Consecration to prevent any nasty bacteria/oozes from getting in.
WoWie Zowie Jan 23rd 2012 9:31PM
you will need to make smart use of your CC abilities.
-you have a silence from the felhound. use it.
-you have death coil. think of this as another short fear that does not have diminishing returns.
-you have howl of terror. use it.
-you have fear. use it.
Kite the mage. You will be able to damage him while keeping yourself either a safe distance away or while he is running around. Keep haunt up on him. Remember, you can heal yourself, the mage cannot unless he uses a very vulnerable cooldown (evocate). Use demonic circle for a quick getaway.
Mages, like all classes, have a certain set of predictability when it comes to cc. Just learn the common tendencies that you can expect and counter them. Your pet and your dots will actually end up doing most of the damage for you. Your job is to keep that mage from casting something on you.
Shade Jan 23rd 2012 7:46PM
a) Warlocks need six ways to improve their dps - mages only need five
b) "Warlocks are blessed with multiple viable specs" ... "[demo] is the spec you will be expected to play" PS there's an arc mage in my 25-man who pulls his weight just fine :O
c) You hate pancakes but eat mages (c.f. "a mage is ... a light snack")
If it makes you feel better though, Mr. Reforge comes up with "an error unique to you" that renders it unable to load my character.
Many rum-loaded beverages and lessthanthrees (I think actually typing it will break the comment system, yes?)
--@SyntheticAether
Tyler Caraway Jan 23rd 2012 9:15PM
1) Mages need far more assistance than you could get from the self-help section at Barnes and Nobles.
2) I do believe that was me merely pointing out how pure classes operate, however, destruction is currently the overall preferred spec with demonology being better in certain encounters. All depends on which you're doing and what your specific issue is -- Demo is better AoE and burst, destruction is slightly better sustained and better survivability.
3) I have nothing against pancakes, I love pancakes. You can find many a references to my pancake consumption. I do not like going to IHOP three times a week for the sake of sating Fox's absurd obsession with that place. There's a difference.
Tommy Jan 23rd 2012 8:15PM
Reroll as a Shadow Priest?
locken Jan 23rd 2012 8:16PM
Bit of a nothing article. This whole column could have any dps class/spec put in the title, have a couple hyperlinks to specs changed and you'd be fine.
You don't explain any of the choices people will make with regards to speccing. You don't give any examples of what the accepted priority lists are for any of the specs. You don't give any information about what stats each spec should be reforging to, or even a link to information on haste break points.
The point about researching fights seems so redundant. If someone has reached the point where they care about their dps enough to research their class, they are going to research a fight too. Even the ABC point, as useful as it is, doesn't apply to warlocks in a specific manner.
Was this meant to be a beginners guide? Or something for people who already raid? You give either too little information or the wrong kind of information. If you're trying to turn each of these points into a seperate article, fair enough. Perhaps give us more than three articles in 35 days if that's the case.
rgalbraith83 Jan 23rd 2012 10:40PM
If he went into all the details, you would then whine and moan Tl;DR. I come to wowinsider for basic information and fun personalities. I go to the WoW forums and EJ for specific information. This article would be miles long to fully discuss every Warlock spec. Tyler points out using other sources, which some people may not have known about. It's a step in the right direction.
locken Jan 24th 2012 2:03AM
If he added information that I asked for, why would I cry about it? He hasn't written a warlock column, he's written a basic How To Play guide.
I stated in my post that if he was going to go in depth about prioritisation, reforging, gemming and spec understanding that would be fine. He should have started with one of those and said at the start of the article he would be doing in-depth analysis of aspects of warlock play over the next few weeks. What we got instead was basically a compilation of the tips you get on a loading screen.
Xayíde Jan 24th 2012 10:57AM
Plus, the presented builds are not optimal. And don't get me started on the Demo glyphs...
Mill Jan 23rd 2012 8:26PM
This came at a perfect time. I've been having problems with DPS lately and then this article shows up.
arkhan Jan 23rd 2012 10:59PM
Wow, the warlock column is getting even more useless. "Practice, get some addons and read up on encounters!" Gee, thank you Mr. Caraway, where would I be without your valuable advice? Did you miss your deadline, steal a WoW Rookie article and put some warlock references in?
Xayíde Jan 24th 2012 11:09AM
Not just the warlock column but WoW Insider in general. It seems to me I'm getting less and less useful information from this blog as time goes by.
It seems like a casual player wave has come by and swept away anything interesting for someone mildly hardcore (as incoherent as this expression may sound...). If you pay attention, all the opinions are focused on that now. A recent attempt in the opposite direction was the difficult encounter article.
And I'm not one of those that usually complains about how casuals are ruining the game, I'm just saying WoW Insider is too biased.
Apart from some of the more veteran class columnists, it's just bland or repeated gibberish.
And the Warlock column has unfortunately been going downhill for quite some time now... I'm not sure Tyler plays his Warlock anymore or if he enjoys it at all, because it doesn't seem like it. Most recent columns seem to have been written in a rush like this one.
Sindarren Jan 24th 2012 12:45AM
I've looked over the lock rotations and there seems to be no real set rotation its all about using whats up. Is this the case or is there a better place to find a solid lock rotation?
Erebos Jan 24th 2012 10:59AM
The rotation system is basically out the window. Now most classes just have a priority, where if a certain ability/talent/proc/CD is up, you use it, and then move down the priority list to the next most important.
Ags Jan 24th 2012 1:35AM
Tyler please give up the lock column. You ramble, and state the oblivious. Mean while there are 2 other lock specs Demo is not the only one. Some day, some day wow insider is going to give us a good lock column.