Following on from my previous article on gear to collect outside of raids, we’re now going to take a look at talent builds that you may wish to consider. I’ll let it be known from the get go that I don’t have extensive experience in these specs, so what I’m really showing you are the popular ideas that are floating around the message boards. What’s more, take these ideas as just that, ideas. Use them as templates and tweak them if you feel it necessary. This seems to be the done thing from research I’ve done, and for that reason, there are many variations upon the builds I’m going to list.

Read on and let’s get down to business.

FG/Ember – 0/41/30

This my current spec and I’m enjoying it very much. I believe it is one of the highest damage dealers currently only beaten by a deeper destruction spec which uses the imp. Things you may wish to change in the Demonology tree are moving a point from Master Conjuror to Demonic Sacrifice. Even with the avoidance boost all our demons received in patch 3, they can still suffer considerably on certain fights, particularly because this spec ommits Fel Synergy. So in these situations you wish to sacrifice an imp for that extra fire damage. Come patch 3.0.8, the Glyph of Felguard should be getting buffed from 10% to 20% attack power bonus. Something I need to investigate is which is better between Glyph of Curse of Agony, or Glyph of Corruption. Currently, Glyph of Curse of Agony is not actually a dps increase, it only decreases the frequency at which you need to cast it. Come patch 3.0.8, the glyph will actually become a dps increase. I like Glyph of Corruption because you should be using both Curse of Agony and Corruption in your spell rotation to proc Molten Core. Glyph of Corruption gives you the tier 4 affliction talent Nightfall, an instant cast shadowbolt. Very nice indeed. But when the next patch comes around, it may be better to use Glyph of Curse of Agony as the dps increase should also be increased by Demonic Spellstone which I think you should be using over Demonic Firestone.

So to summarise, the spell rotation for this build will be: CoA > Corr > Immo > Incinerate and popping Demonic Empowerment whenever it’s available. When I start a fight I pop in between CoA and Corruption because it’s not connected to the global cooldown. What you’ll find with the dots is that you can renew Corruption and Immolate as a pair as they have a similar duration (something which Blizzard are considering for simplifying the Affliction tree). This pair along with CoA will fade in and out of sync with each other after only a few rotations. So it’s a simple spec to play but is still good fun and keeps you alert to things going on. Your felguard should be cleaving automatically, don’t worry about CC, it won’t break anything anymore. Anguish should of course be switched off as should Intercept imo. I save that ability for emergency situations for example in a heroic where a loose mob is running after a clothy to give the tank a chance to taunt it back. You’ll only ever want 1 point in Mana Feed in my opinion. Given the new mana regen mechanics in raids, your pet should never have a problem. Given the amount of times you’ll be life tapping if you have the 4xt7 bonus, your pet will always be topped up. And remember with patch 3.0.8, you’ll probably want to swap Glyph of Corruption with Glyph of Curse of Agony.

Meta/Ruin – 0/56/15

This spec I played for quite a while during gearing myself up through heroics. It works very well for short fights but unfortunately for raiding it doesn’t cut the mustard. Metamorphosis is too infrequent and the Demonology tree itself isn’t a good damage dealer because you don’t gain any direct spell buffs or new dots or direct damage spells. This is something Blizzard are looking into improving in the distant future (perhaps in 3.1) by increasing pet damage output. I’ve put it here though because it may something to keep an eye on for the future and is kinda cool to play if you’re still working through heroics. The spells I used were the same as above, just using Shadowbolt instead of Incinerate.

MD(Imp)/S&F – 0/31/40

I guess all the old 0/21/40 raiders of BC just couldn’t let go of Shadow and Flame because it is after all a super talent. I believe this is the current top damage dealing spec. But from what I’ve read, it’s only really noticeable until you’re geared up in the best heroic raiding gear currently available from Naxx, Malygos and Obsidian Sanctum. I shall certainly give this spec a try when I’m closer or at that point. When patch 3.0.8 arrives, it may be worth getting yourself Conflagrate and adding that into your spell rotation. The reason is, currently, Conflagrate is not working with Emberstorm. That’ll be getting fixed and also, Glyph of Conflagrate shall be getting changed to something along the lines of “Your Conflagrate spell no longer purges your Immolate spell from the target”. So you’ll want to put this in place of Glyph of Corruption. That’s is you choose to invest a point in the talent. I’m quite sure I will as I expect it will be a dps increase, but it’ll also make the build a bit more interesting to play. You’ll still want to use CoA and Corruption to proc Molten Core remember. And the Imp now has almost the same amount of health points as a Felguard which is great for survivability, providing your pet isn’t getting meleed.

Standard Destruction – 0 /20/51

This is how I would go about a full destruction build. The standard template from Elitist Jerks is this and I’ve filled in how I would do it. I haven’t considered whether to put a point in Fel Domination or not but if I did it would have to come from Unholy Power. With patch 3.0.8, I’d have to change the spec to something like this as Conflagrate and subsequently Backdraft will become very nice dps increases. You’d also want to use a Firestone instead of a Spellstone as the vast majority of your damage will be coming from direct damage spells now. You should still use CoA and Corruption however to proc Molten Core. Thrown into the mix are Immolate, Chaos Bolt and Conflagrate (post 3.0.8). I haven’t tried this spec at all yet but may well consider it in the future. It may prove really nice on fights like Patchwerk because you never have to move from your spot. So you could have it in your dual spec setup whenever that comes around.

Haunt/Ruin – 56/0/15

This is another one of the top damage dealing builds according to many theorycrafters. It’s own downfall is it is too complicated to pull of really well. You’ll be juggling lots of timers and only firing off a few Shadowbolts in between. As mentioned earlier, this is something Blizzard are addressing in possibly making dots around the same duration as each other. This would give Ruin a much better chance to come into play also. With 3.0.8, Glyph of Curse of Agony will also become a dps increase. I don’t think Glyph of Shadow Bolt will be worth it as 10% isn’t a giant amount, especially in the current form of Affliction. You also have Nightfall now, but Glyph of Corruption will stack with this talent so it may still be worth going for if you wish. That choice is up to you. There are certainly a few options when it comes to glyphs for Affliction so think it through. Perhaps when playing this spec you will discover which glyphs will be more beneficial. As for spell rotations, to me it’s too confusing right now and I won’t be trying this tree in depth until Blizzard have simplified it. If you’re running through 5 man heroics right now this spec won’t do so well because fights are too short. But for 10 and 25 mans, it’ll definitely put you up at the top of the damage meters provided you play the spec right.

Those are the builds I think are worth mentioning right now. There are many variations of these which you can find by hunting around www.wowmb.net and www.elitistjerks.com. One generalisation I make personally with specs right now is not bothering with Improved Healthstone. Pre Wrath, it was a really good idea to bring warlocks along that had varying points invested in this talent so you could carry all 3 healthstones. Now that you can only carry 1, I see them as more of an emergency button that you use to keep you on 2 feet, regardless of precisely how much health it gives you. I don’t often find myself using them nowadays.

A couple of other resources you may be interested to check out are Leulier’s Spreadsheet. This is a fan made Excel spreadsheet that is able to draw your character information from the Armory and output your expected dps, taking into account latency and human reaction times. Although it is impossible to be 100% accurate, it does give you a very good idea of what to expect. Most importantly, you can see how different talent specs compare under the same conditions and parameters. You can change gear, gems and enchants to see how much of a dps increase you’ll be getting this way too. It’s very well made and I highly recommend it. You don’t have be a hardcore theorycrafter either as it’s very user friendly. Just remember if you’re using Excel to Enable Macros when the warning comes up.

Something the more hardcore theorycrafter may interested in is SimCraft. This a modeler that shows you how different talent builds scale alongside builds from other classes. You can create a talent build on wowhead.com, obtain the direct link to it, and punch it into the input plain text file. You need to use a DOS command prompt to run the exe. The raid_80.txt file tells you what to do at the top.

Lastly, something to keep an eye on is Rawr Model Development. It’s similar to SimCraft except it is more flexible and comes with its own GUI, making it a lot more user friendly. The only annoying thing is it currently doesn’t have any models for Warlocks which is a shame. Must be coded by a Mage. So if you’re interested, keep an eye out and hopefully it’ll be added in the future.

That’s all folks, hope you had a nice new year party.

Both of these rings are crafted by Jewelcrafters and the materials for it aren’t the easiest to come by. I spent around 1200 gold overall, only on materials that I couldn’t farm. The first ring is Ring of Northern Tears and the pattern is only obtainable by Jewelcrafters doing their profession daily quest. This ring is sublime for what it’s worth. The materials are dirt cheap. If you wanted to buy them all you’d probably spend around…300 gold maybe? Of course it depends on your server and in particular what you can get Northsea Pearls for. These are only obtainable by the clam vendor in northwest Borean Tundra where all those murlocs are. However, they’re in limited supply and cost 30 Winterfin Clam each. The timer on the stock is an hour I think but you may want to check wowhead on that. I just bought them for around 50 gold each on the AH. Whether that’s good or not I don’t know, I wasn’t really concerned as I have money to burn right now. Even if you buy all the materials it certainly won’t break the bank. The hit rating is brilliant and the socket bonus is for once something you should really go for. And you may as well because a blue gem will count towards the meta gem requirement. Two birds with one stone!

The second ring is great, but, if you’re not prepared to spend a fair amount of gold on it then maybe you can pass it. That’s up to you. Like the previous ring, the pattern is obtainable by jewelcrafters doing their profession daily quest. More important however is that some of the materials required to make it are only obtainable by the same method. This makes them quite expensive. The ring is Titanium Spellshock Ring. The stats are very nice and I’ve stuck an orange hit rating gem in there to push me over the cap and get the set bonus also. The pattern is Design: Titanium Spellshock Ring. If you’ve done a fair amount of heroics chances are you’ve won a roll on a Frozen Orb by now. Eternals are really easy to farm in Wintergrasp and the Titanium Bars are cheap. The Dragon’s Eye however are very expensive. They go for around 400 gold each last time I checked the AH. I got mine off a guildy for 1200 gold. These are generally cut into uber gems which only the jewelcrafters themselves can use, part of this unique advantage Blizzard has given each profession.

So there you have it. I seriously recommend the first ring because the materials are cheap and stats are great but as for the second one, that’s up to you. I wasn’t fussed about how much it cost particularly so I went for it. You can see what I’m currently wearing on the armory. I just need some more enchants and I’m all sorted. I no longer need the hit rating food to put me above the hit rating cap which I’m happy about too. I just need a few more enchants and I’m good to go.

There you have it. Happy holidays and have a crazy new year. And for the love of god, don’t spend it in Dalaran.

I love raiding. It’s the main reason I play the game. I love running heroics (most of them) and gearing up and experiencing all the content. The guild I’m in doesn’t start raiding until January so for me, there’s plenty of time to work through heroics and gear myself up so that I’m in the best possible shape come the time that we begin. If you’ve already started raiding Naxxramas, you may still find this guide useful, as Naxx 10 pieces are only a little better than those found in heroics. In terms of item level (ilevel), 5 man heroic epics are ilvl 200, blues are ilvl 200 (in heroics) and 187 on heroic sub bosses and Naxx 10 pieces are ilvl 200 & 213. So there’s not that much in it. And it’s common knowledge that Wrath content is easy. But if you’re like me, you’ve got time to collect stuff before you get stuck in. And I’m an absolute nut when it comes to hit rating. In my opinion, hit rating is the most important stat for any caster. Spell power, critical strike rating, haste rating are all at the mercy of whether your spells actually hit the target or not.

Open it up and lets get stuck in.

If you’ve read my previous post about hit rating and the hit rating cap, you will know that for all casters, the percentage we need to reach is 17%. If you have chosen your talent to increase your hit chance by 3% then the magic number to achieve is 368. If you haven’t chosen this talent then you’ll be needing 446. If you’re lucky enough to be running with a Shadow Priest, their ‘Misery‘ spell will also increase your chance to hit with spells by 3%. If you’re running with a druid specced into ‘Improved Faerie Fire‘ you’ll also get an increase of 3% chance to hit. If you’re the luckiest person on the planet, then you’ll always be raiding with both of these and your required hit rating will be something you can calculate yourself. But to be on the safe side, aim for 446. To perform at your best in heroic 5 mans, you’ll need 6% increased hit chance which equates to 158 hit rating. That’s pretty easily obtained. When I first looked at gear from Naxx and heroics, I noticed there was so much without any hit rating on it. I wondered, “how on earth will it be possible to be hit capped with this stuff?” Well, it is in fact possible.

Here is a list of stuff to put on your shopping list in preparation for raiding. Not every piece listed has hit rating on it, because you won’t need to fill every slot with items that have the stat to reach the cap. Use this list on a character planner such as www.chardev.org to see how you can improve on what you already have to reach the hit cap and to get an idea of what kinda stats you’ll be looking at when you’re ready. The items aren’t listede in any particular order but I have put what I consider the best item at the top of each section (in most cases). This is what you should aim for. I’ve listed a fair few items from various sources. I won’t include any normal instance drops unless they warrant particular mention. Most heroic drops are mentioned.

Some drops that could be useful to a warlock aren’t mentioned because there may be plenty of other options which may be prefered. For example there are items with stats such as haste and no spirit which are in my opinion more orientated towards a mage because as far as I know, all of their damage dealing is done via spells with a cast time unlike instant cast dots that warlocks have. Also, spirit is now very useful to a warlock because of Fel Armor. However, I wouldn’t go out of your way to obtain it. It’s just in some cases I will prefer it over items with haste and no spirit.

Head

Crown of Unbridled Magic – Cache of Eregos by defeating Ley Guardian Eregos in Oculus heroic. In my opinion this is the best one to get because it has a meta gem slot, a yellow slot (for a +hit rating gem) and also Spirit which is nice for Warlocks.

Cowl of the Dire Troll – Trollgore in Drak’tharon Keep heroic.

Elder Headpiece – Elder Nadox in Ahn’kahet: The Old Kingdom heroic.

Forgotten Shadow Hood – Salramm the Fleshcrafter in The Culling of Stratholme heroic. Similar to the Crown of Unbridled Magic but only second best.

Hat of Wintry Doom – Tailoring, taught at level 425. The hit is nice so if you think you will need it then craft it. Beware it looks pretty darn stupid though.

The Argent Skullcap – A quest reward from ‘The Crusaders’ Pinnacle‘ in Icecrown. May be worth holding on to if you’re in need of the +hit.

Neck

Encircling Burnished Gold Chains – Bought with 25 Emblem of Heroism. By far the best neck piece outside of raid loot. Make it one of your first purchases.

Amulet of the Spell Flinger – Amanitar in Ahn’kahet: The Old Kingdom heroic.

Dragon Prow Amulet – BoE, trash drop in Utgarde Keep heroic.

Necklace of Taldaram – Prince Taldaram in Ahn’kahet: The Old Kingdom heroic.

Necromancer’s Amulet – Salramm the Fleshcrafter in The Culling of Stratholme heroic.

Zuramat’s Necklace – Zuramat the Obliterator in Violet Hold heroic. Not the easiest of bosses. I would know. ><

Emeline’s Locket – Quest reward from ‘The Admiral Revealed’ in Icecrown. This is particularly nice because of the +hit rating, the yellow gem slot and the bonus.

Shoulders

Runecaster’s Mantle – Trash drop in Utgarde Keep heroic. Particularly desirable due to the gem slot.

Dark Runic Mantle – Trash drop in Halls of Stone heroic.

Mantle of Deceit – Dark Runed Chest by defeating Mal’ganis in The Culling of Stratholme heroic.

Mantle of the Tribunal – Tribunal Chest by completing the ‘Tribunal of Ages(?)’ event in Halls of Stone heroic.

Cloak

Deathchill Cloak – Tailoring. The pattern is learnt by completing the Loremaster of Northrend achievement. Not the easiest thing to obtain, but it’s certainly a very nice toy.

Reanimator’s Cloak – Trash in Drak’Tharon Keep heroic. The gem slot is nice and don’t concern yourself with the socket bonus, intellect is one of the lowest priorities for a warlock.

Shroud of Moorabi – Moorabi in Gundrak heroic. This might be the extra boss you get in heroic, I forget.

Subterranean Waterfall Shroud – Jedoga Shadowseeker in Ahn’kahet: The Old Kingdom heroic.

Dark Soldier Cape – Honored with Knights of The Ebon Blade. This is easily done by quests alone so it’s worth picking up when you can.

Chest

Ebonweave Robe – Tailoring 440. It looks great and has great stats on it. If you’re a tailor, get it. If you’re not, then it’s up to you whether you’re gonna fork out a fortune on it on the AH.

Drakewing Raiments – Drakos the Interrogator in Oculus heroic. I thought it worth a mention because of the gem slots.

Egg Sac Robes – Hadronox in Azjol-Nerub heroic. Same reasoning as above.

Robes of Lightning – Quest reward from ‘Whatever it Takes’, part of the questline that takes you through Halls of Lightning normal.

Turtle-Minders Robe – Honored with The Kalu’ak.

Bracers

Azure Cloth Bindings – Cyanigosa in Violet Hold heroic. A very nice item from an instance I somewhat despise.

Cuffs of Winged Levitation – Cache of Eregos by defeating Ley Guardian Eregos in Oculus heroic.

Ancestral Sinew Wristguards – Honored with Wyrmrest Accord. Mentioned because of the gem slot.

Verdisa’s Cuffs of Dreaming – Drakkos the Interrogator in Oculus normal. Mentioned for the same reason above.

Cuffs of the Trussed Hall – Svala Sorrowgrave in Utgarde Pinnacle heroic.

Gloves

Ebonweave Gloves – Tailoring 435. *druel*

Gloves of Glistening Runes – Keristraza in The Nexus heroic. Very nice because of the gem slot and spirit.

Overlook Handguards – The Prophet Tharon’jar in Drak’Tharon Keep heroic.

Giant-Hair Woven Gloves – Volkhan in Halls of Lightening heroic. Not that great, too magey for my liking. But if they’re an upgrade, go for it.

Gloves of Distorted Time – Chrono-Lord Epoch in The Culling of Stratholme heroic. Has Spirit and a nice gem slot.

Gloves of the Crystal Gardener – Omorok the Tree-Shaper in The Nexus heroic.

There are a fair few more glove options so if you’re really interested you can see this list on Wowhead.

Waist

Girdle of Bane – King Ymiron in Utgarde Pinnacle heroic. Sublime. Get this.

Plush Sash of Guzbah – Bought with 40 Emblem of Heroism. It’s pretty nice but at that price it’s quite as good as the above. Certainly due to the effort required to obtain it also. Worth a mention if you’re not having much luck in UP. But in my opinion your emblems are best spent elsewhere.

Sash of the Servant – Anub’arak in Azjol-Nerub heroic. More of a mage item but worth a mention.

Belt of Unified Souls – Meathook in The Culling of Stratholme heroic. Great for the +hit rating until you get the Girdle of Bane.

Flowing Sash of Order – Loken in Halls of Lightning heroic. Another great option, plus it comes with a gem slot.

Sash of the Wizened Wyrm – Honored with The Wyrmrest Accord. Also very nice, just a shame it has no spirit.

Legs

Woven Bracae Leggings – Loken in Halls of Lightning heroic. More of a mage item in my opinion but I think it’s the best option for warlocks outside of raids. Plus the high spell power is very nice.

Breeches of the Caller – Ingvar the Plunderer in Utgarde Keep heroic. 2 nice gem slots.

Cyanigosa’s Leggings – Cyanigose in Violet Hold heroic.

Opposed Stasis Leggings – Trash drop in The Nexus heroic. Compare it to the ones above.

Sorrowgrave’s Breeches – Svala Sorrowgrave in Utgarde Pinnacle heroic.

Feet

Sandals of Crimson Fury – Exalted with The Wyrmrest Accord. There’s not that many great options for warlocks when it comes to shoes. I think these are probably the best you’ll get though outside of raids.

Cleric’s Linen Shoes – Trash in The Nexus heroic.

Footwraps of Teleportation – Xevozz in Violet Hold heroic. These are nice for the gem slot but they’re a right pain to obtain. You need to be fortunate (or perhaps unfortunate) enough to get this boss in the first place and then he’s probably the hardest boss there is in that place.

Fingers

Annhylde’s Ring – Ingvar the Plunderer in Utgarde Keep heroic. Another magey item but one of the better options for warlocks.

Band of Guile – Dark Runed Chest by defeating Mal’ganis in The Culling of Stratholme heroic. As above.

Signet of the Kirin Tor – Bought from a vendor in Dalaran. What is it with the Kirin Tor and their hideously expensive items? I’ve listed it here to acknowledge its existense but I don’t think anyone with less than maybe 50k gold would fork out the cash for this.

Voodoo Signet – Quest reward from ‘For Prosperity’ which involves you running Gundrak normal. Quite nice for the hit rating.

It’s pretty much all stamina, intellect, haste/crit and spell power as far as rings go so here’s the list on Wowhead.

Trinkets – there are a lot of these, so I’ll mention the ones that stand out. However I think the only 2 you should get outside of raids are the first 2 I’ve listed.

Sundial of the Exiled – Bought with 40 Emblem of Heroism.

Mark of the War Prisoner – Cyanigosa in Violet Hold heroic.

Others worth particular mention:

Rune of Infinite Power – Quest reward from ‘Mystery of the Infinite, Redux‘

Forge Ember – Sjonnir the Ironshaper in Halls of Stone heroic.

Figurine – Twilight Serpent – Requires Jewelcrafting 400.

And many others found here.

Wands

Rod of the Fallen Monarch – Anub’arak in Azjol-Nerub heroic.

Wand of Ahnkahet – Herald Volazj in Ahn’kahet: The Old Kingdom heroic. Now there’s not much between this and the one above. So I think you can settle on whichever one you come across first.

Wand of Sseratus – Slad’ran in Gundrak heroic.

Ancient Measuring Rod – Loken in Halls of Lightning normal.

Wand of the San’layn – Prince Keleseth in Utgarde Keep heroic.

Off Hand

Ward of the Violet Citadel – Bought for 25 Emblem of Heroism. Make this one of your 3 purchases with these emblems. The other 2 are the neck and trinket. This is certainly the best available outside of Naxx.

Telestra’s Journal – Grand Magus Telestra in The Nexus heroic.

Main Hand (Daggers & Swords)

Flameheart Spell Scalpel – Revered with The Kirin Tor. This is very easily obtained. You can gain reputation via ‘championing’. That means, buy the Kirin Tor tabard at Friendly and wear it through heroics to gain lots of nice rep.

Cursed Lich Blade – Novos the Summoner in Drak’tharon Keep heroic. This is almost identical to the one above. You’ll notice the only differences are the critical strike rating and spirit stats interchanged. I forgot this existed before I searched it out. So I would say settle on whatever you get first but many would prefer the first one due to it being easily obtained.

Staves – The vast majority of the time, a main hand and off hand combo will be the best choice for warlocks. There may be the rare case where something will come along that is in fact more benefitial, such as the Zhardoom staff that Illidan (who? ) drops. But largely, it’ll be the combo you’ll want. Saying that, here’s a few of the choices that stand out.

Staff of Draconic Combat – Cache of Eregos by defeating Ley Guardian Eregos in Oculus heroic.

Staff of Sinister Claws – Herald Volazj in Ahn’kahet: The Old Kingdom heroic.

Staff of Wayward Principles – Skadi the Ruthless in Utgarde Pinnacle heroic.

Chilly Slobberknocker – Quest reward from ‘The Champion of Anguish‘. My bet is that everyone reading this has this already.

Enchants

Enchant Boots – Icewalker

Enchant Gloves – Precision

Gems

Rigid Autumn’s Glow

Vivid Forest Emerald

Perfect Rigid Sun Crystal (if you’re fortunate)

Rigid Sun Crystal

That’s it as far as gear and their enhancements go. However, if you’re still lacking in hit rating, there is Elixir of Accuracy and also Recipe: Snapper Extreme. The latter is probably more easily obtainable if you are patient enough to fish. I’m a herbalist and tailor and have a high enough fishing skill for either. I go for the food as it’s much more easy to grind and besides, you’ll be wanting to use Flask of the Frost Wyrm when you raid.

So now you have this giant list at your disposal. Like I said at the start, you can use a site such as www.chardev.org to plan something for yourself. Either you can start from scratch or build upon what you already have. For example, I’m aiming for this. And I’ll use the Snapper Extreme food to push me past the cap. I don’t think it’s worth getting the very best enchants on this stuff yet. Get the less expensive ones for now. Just make sure you get the 2 enchants I’ve listed above. The reason I’ve used those 2 green gems is to count towards the 2 blue gem requirement to activate the meta gem. This is the best meta gem for warlocks.

I hope you find this useful in whatever way. In the coming days and weeks I’ll be writing at least 2 more articles. The next will be about talents specs to use in heroics and raiding. And the one after that will be a shopping list of stuff inside Naxxramas itself. So stuff to look forward to. Good luck!

I must say, my stance on heroics right now is one of slight resentment. Although that’s probably because I’m only really interested in running one because it drops a great item that will help me in my quest to become hit capped before my guild starts raiding in January. The particular item in question is Mark of the War Prisoner and it drops from Cyanigosa, the last boss in Violet Hold heroic. This is a great little trinket to have, and it’s very valuable for only a blue item, and very diserable for any caster. So far my quest in the acquisition of this trinket has been nothing short of a nightmare. What annoys me about Violet Hold is that you don’t know what 2 bosses you’ll face before you reach Cyanigosa, and if you wipe, you have to start all over again. That means doing each boss again, but not getting any new drops or badges, although you do get rep (woopdy doo).

I think I’ve faced all of the bosses by now and I must say that I’ve had the worst experiences with Zuramat the Obliterater (the void guy) and Xevozz (the ethereal). Both can be pretty tough bosses, and the harder they are, the more chance you’ll have at wiping, and the less you’ll be motivated to try again. As soon as you start the event to kick off mob spawns, you get saved to the instance. One time I joined a pug for it and someone had already been saved to it because they started the event but didn’t go past the 3rd mob pack. And it was a very good geared group that wouldn’t have had any problems in my opinion. But everyone ended up getting saved to it and couldn’t do anything. The toon responsible wasn’t aware of how you get saved to the instance and I must say, neither was I. So that was rather unfortunate and didn’t ‘arf annoy me.

Read on!

Still, I like to remain positive and try to maintain that it’ll always be something on my to do list until I obtain it. Because today I finally completed my Loremaster of Northrend achievement with the help of 3 guildies which I’m incredibly grateful for. I still have a couple of normal quests to do and then I’ll be all done with Northrend quests. In 1 month of Wrath’s release. I guess I must be hardcore. But what a ride, the zones are great, Icecrown and Storm Peaks in particular are spectacular in their design and some of the quests are superb in their dynamic and originality. This phasing technology is really clever and seemless in how it works, but a problem I had with it was when it came to completing these last few group quests in Icecrown. The phasing technology means that only players who are on or who have completed the quests can actually see you and the mobs when in the same vicinity. Which made it quite difficult to find people who were also on the quests.

Back to heroics. Loken. I believe Blizzard said he’s the hardest heroic boss there is. I beg to differ. Depending on your tactic I think he’s actually very easy. Whenever I’ve run him, my group will just stay huddled around his feet and take the AoE blast. This basically makes it a dps race, kill him before too many die from continuous AoE blasts. I think once you get 3 or 4 blasts, you’re going to run into problems. But personally I’m somewhat fed up of that place, the trash leading up to Loken hasn’t been very kind to me in the past and I ran it several times to help a paladin get the Colossal Skull-Clad Cleaver which does look pretty badass.

But what I do think is the hardest boss encounter, in my experience, is the first boss in Azjol-Nerub. I don’t know what it is with that boss, if it’s bugged perhaps, but it just seems like there are so many things that can go wrong. And I’m not really talking about abilities the mobs do, I’m talking about things which will seem to pull the boss or other packs before you intend to. Of the many times I’ve run it, things seem to be going as smooth as they can, and then suddenly, another pack or the boss will just waltz over to you, for no reason at all. The individual packs themselves can sometimes be quite tough but if you’re on the ball you can get through it, you just need to watch out for each other. But sometimes I’m just left completely confused as to what caused the extra packs to come running at me and my group. I’ve generally just tried to do it through gritted teeth. The last boss is a lot of fun however.

What are your experiences? What boss (or bosses) have you found particularly challenging? I have a feeling that most people have a pretty easy time with Azjol-Nerub and Violet Hold – sods law strikes again.

This expansion I’ve had a few guildies asking me about what the new hit cap is for casters. And there are a lot of people out there who may still not know. So this article will break it down for you and explain what it is. If you’re not really interested in the finer details and just want to know the number, scroll down and look for the red text!

In Burning Crusade, you had a hit rating stat for melee, and a spell hit rating for casters. In Wrath, these 2 stats have been homogenized into the one stat, simply called ‘Hit Rating’. However, casters still in effect convert this stat into spell hit rating, because casters still require a different amount of it than melee classes do.

Hit Rating (an integer) is converted into hit chance (a percentage). At level 80, 26.23 points of hit rating is equal to 1% of hit chance for casters. For melee, 32.77 points of hit rating is equal to 1% hit chance. The mechanics of caster hit and melee hit is quite different, and my knowledge only covers the former. However, there is a nice explanation of melee hit for you on WoWWiki if you are interested. The rest of this article will be focused on casters.

Yup you guessed it, read the rest after the split.

The chance that your spells will hit or miss a target is dependant only on the level difference of the player and the target. Hit chance also differs between a player target and npc target. What is dependant on your particular level is the amount of hit rating required to achieve an increase of 1% hit chance. At level 70 it was 12.6 if my memory serves me well. At level 80 it is 26.23, more than double.

Your base chance to hit an npc of equal level is 96%. For 1 level higher: 95%. For 2 levels higher (end heroic bosses for example): 94%. For 3 levels higher (raid bosses) it plummets to – wait for it – 83%.

One significant change that came with patch 3.0 was the removal of the 99% hit cap. Prior to this patch, chance to hit was capped at 99%, meaning there was always that 1% chance you could miss with a spell, no matter how much spell hit rating you stacked. Also, oddly, if you missed with a spell, it would show as a resist rather than an actual miss. This I think was just an unintended error and was also fixed in patch 3.0. You may still get resists however, resistance and hit chance are 2 different mechanics, the former being a lot more complex.

So now it is possible to reach a point where you cannot miss with your spells. All Wrath raid bosses will be level 83, 3 levels higher than you, meaning you’ll need to acquire 17% of hit chance from somewhere. As mentioned earlier, at level 80, you need 26.23 points of hit rating to achieve an increase of 1% hit chance. So if we need 17%,

17 x 26.23 = 445.91

Now hit rating will only come as an integer (a whole number, not a decimal) so you’ll need a grand total of 446 hit rating to be capped. It is better to be overcapped than undercapped because of the old addage – a 1% increase of hit = 1% increase of dps…roughly speaking. It’s not quite as simple as that but it’s a good moral to live by.

Acquiring hit chance is mainly done via hit rating which is aquired mainly via gear. There are however potions and flasks and even food available to increase your hit rating. There are no doubt enchants which will do it too although I’ve yet to look them up.

Most importantly however, is that all classes have talents which will increase their chance to hit with spells. For all classes, you can get an increase of 3%, except for Boomkins who can get 4%. This may well prove invaluable in the early stages. If you do take these talents for the 3% increase, that will leave you needing only 14% more to be capped.

14 x 26.23 = 367.22 = 368

So there you have it, it’s not a particularly difficult figure to obtain, certainly not as difficult as I initially thought anyway. There are good pieces of loot dotted around, from badge vendors, crafting professions and even the odd quest reward. Remember if you hover over your hit rating value in your character window, it will tell your percentage so you can see how you are getting on. The target is 14% (368) with talents or 17% (446) without.

Good luck!

Even since the Wrath alpha information was being leaked out (perhaps even before that), there’s been a lot of fuss (at least from where I’m sitting) about what Wrath has given, and taken away in some cases, from the Warlock class. Now I don’t play any other class at least to the extent I play my warlock, but I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if the situation is the same for other classes too. Even now, with patch 3.0.4 on the horizon, there are a lot of meddlers of the dark arts who are passionate about their class and what Blizzard has done and is doing to them.

What grinds my gears sometimes is the way in which many seem to tell Blizzard, via the class forums what they need to do to Warlocks. Not considering the fact that Blizzard have a depth of knowledge and understanding about Warlocks that surpasses any player in the community. Of course Blizzard respect and encourage the input from the player base, but I certainly don’t think these kind of threads are constructive. What I do think is constructive are the suggestions that some people come up with, even now that Wrath is live.

Read on after the split.

I think you’ll rarely see any posts in the class forums which will congratulate and praise Blizzard for the work that they have done. Even if there are you can be sure it’ll be far outweighed by the many who think Blizzard need to change this and that. Personally I think Blizzard have done a superb job so far with the Warlocks. We naturally do great DPS, both on single targets and AoE, and they’ve expanded upon the talents to give us a more improved and fresh playstyle, particularly in the destruction tree, which needed it badly.

Some of the criticism I have seen is about Affliction being “too complicated” and Destruction “no longer about shadow.” My argument for the latter is that if you think about what the word ‘Destruction’ means, I think of fire, and if you think of the word ‘Affliction’ or being ‘Afflicted’ you may think of an illness or disease, something whose cause isn’t necessarily a physical thing in the macro sense, but rather something that happens on the inside i.e the ‘Shadows’. Let me just stress now that I don’t think about these things on a regular basis! As for the former, I echo that opinion also and it just so happens that Blizzard will be addressing that hopefully in the not too distant.

In the Burning Crusade, I raided as affliction through Kara, Gruul, Maggy and some of SCC & TK. It was a lot of fun for sure, juggling cooldowns and dots and it certainly had its advantages, for instance on Void Reaver where there may be a fair bit of moving around because with dots ticking away, you’ll be doing damage on the move. Especially the way my guild did it, which I still believe wasn’t the best way to go about it but hey, it worked! As soon as I got my 2nd piece of T5 from Kalithresh, I then specced into demonology to raid with the Felguard and I never looked back. In case you’re not aware, it wasn’t advised to spec into Demonology until you had the 2 part tier 5 set bonus which healed your pet for 15% of the damage you dealt. Thankfully Blizzard put that mechanic into the new Demonology tree via a talent called ‘Fel Synergy’ and also gave all pets an 80% AoE avoidance boost. My guild got to the cusp of killing Kael’thas before patch 3.0, at which point we strolled in and pretty much one shotted him.

When it was announced that the destruction talent ‘Ruin’ would be moved up a tier to make it available alongside 51 point talents, I was beaming I must say. I thought that was great. And right now I’m currently using a felguard with Ruin in heroics. My guild will be getting into Naxx in January, coincidentally with the first run scheduled on my 21st birthday.

The only complaint I have regarding the Wrath changes to warlocks as a whole, is Metamorphosis. When I first read about it I was so excited. It sounded so awesome and certainly put warlocks high up in the class ‘coolness’ ladder. An ability that turns you into a demon, and gives you new demonic abilities! It still sounds great. But this was all thwarted by the fact (I say ‘fact’) that Metamorphosis, at least for PvE, is pretty darn rubbish. Blizzard have however made it a little bit better but I personally don’t believe it’s sorted. My fear is that it will turn out to be like Shadowfury, the 41 point talent in BC that no one bothered with. I guess it’s early days yet.

The real problem I have with Metamorphosis is actually the point of it, the usefulness and the particular new demon abilities it gives you. In a recent video interview with Ghostcrawler, he explained how the old ethos with talent trees was that you’d have a tree (or trees) for PvE and another for PvP (it was something like that). This was certainly true for warlocks in BC with the wonderful SL/SL build that was unmatched and used to great effect in the Warrior, Lock, Druid (WLD) trio that was seen at the Blizzcon world 3v3 arena championships. But now Blizzard have got rid of the old ethos and have attempted to make all trees viable for both PvE and PvP. That’s cool, I like that. But, still, what’s up with these Metamorphosis abilities? In the early stages we had a demonic leap ability which got removed, why I don’t know. I can understand how it could be abused in PvP but surely the answer to that would be to put a cooldown on it? The abilities all tend towards a melee role of some kind. You have a taunt, a charge (useful in PvP), a shadow cleave (laughable), and an Immolation Aura, which actually does a giant amount of damage, but with it comes a lot of aggro. Even with a 600% armor boost you’re likely to get cut down quickly, at least if you use it in the wrong situation. Ghostcrawler said it may come in handy (in a novel way) if your tank dies in a 5 man. If it’s a heroic, and you have even 2 mobs on you, I’m quite sure you’d go down lack a sack of potatos. And if you use taunt, and immolation aura, Metamorphosis only lasts 30 seconds. So after 30 seconds you’ll return to your regular fragile clothy form, at which point the mobs will flick you with their finger and you’ll be sent flying (or crushed underfoot, whatever).

The initial outcry was that these few abilities weren’t enough. The response to that was you’d be able to use your regular abilities as well as the new demonic abilities whilst in this form. The problem with that is, all of the regular abilities are of ranged use mostly, certainly those abilities that have a cast time. If you’re in melee range you’re just going to get pushback and in PvP for example, the warrior will be unleashing their titans grip on you whilst running circles to avoid you facing them. Even the changes to spell pushback wouldn’t be enough for that, and the melee abilities themselves too weak to dish out the required damage. Immolation Aura on the other hand could be your saviour. I have heard some good things about Metamorphosis in PvP, bar your vulnerability to CC of all things. But I’m predominantly a PvE guy and I’m just not convinced that Metamorphosis is worth that talent point. I think the talent point itself, and the others required to get to it, are better spent elsewhere. It’s certainly better than it was, except for demonic leap perhaps, but I’m still not convinced it’s enough (when compared to 51 point talents across other classes), which to me, is a shame because I love demonology and was really excited at the prospect of a demon form, but has turned out to many to be a bit of a disappointment. Still, it’s early days yet and I like to be a positive person

Much of that positivity is actually in the rest of the Demonology tree. Funny that. I love that there are many abilities that buff your pet, particularly the damage of the Felguard, and Demonic Empowerment, and Master Conjuror. Wonderful, I’m still really pleased overall, just disappointed in Metamorphosis. I will certainly give it another try, but I think I’ll miss the talent points I currently have in place of them. That said, when it comes raiding time I may well have to rework things to give myself the 3% hit chance increase I imagine I will probably need.

As for Destruction, well I didn’t even give it a second thought in BC, one button mashing didn’t seem very appealing to me at all. I’ve yet to try the revamped version though, it sounds like a lot of fun. I had a go on the 3.0 PTR (I didn’t get into the beta unfortunately) and it seems similar to affliction in some respects, except it involves bigger numbers flashing at you.

My guild is built on a casual raiding platform, everyone is at least 18 years old, and the vast majority with families, jobs and commitments. However, there are the few (like me) who play a lot more than most (because I’m a student of course). I’ve seen a fair few heroics so far and have got myself a few epics already. We’re about 3 weeks into the expansion and I feel I’ve already done a lot, but I know there’s so much more to do and experience. More quests (I haven’t finished Icecrown yet!), dailies, achievements, raids, talents. Blizzard have created an absolutely sublime expansion, with the epicness I’ve always wanted to see.

And for Warlocks in particular, they’ve done a damn fine job. And there’s much more to come.