#0 - April 24, 2009, 1:48 p.m.
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This is a WotLK 3.3 raiding guide meant to help those not sure of what specs work best and what glyphs they should be using- and the spells consumables or gems. This thread is not meant to be an extensive raiding guide for every imaginable talent spec, more of a side by side comparison and otherwise useful information.
Index:
01] Training dummys
02] A raider's mindset
03] Don't do rotations
04] Talent specs
05] Decimation
06] Glyph of Life Tap
08] Hit rating
09] Crit rating
10] Frequently Asked Questions
11] General tips
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+ Training Dummys:
You will often see people asking "what is your DPS on a training dummy with this spec?", or "how much dps did you just do?" when DPSing a training dummy. What this section is here to tell you is to entirely disregard what DPS you do on training dummys. Put simple, it will never be important.
The reason you can't take a training dummy as a dps benchmark is because each different talent spec will scale differently with the various buffs and debuffs that will be present in a raid. Not only that, but even more so when your talent spec provides a raid buff, it will draw a very skewed picture when you compare that talent spec to another spec that doesn't have that raid buff. Why? Because in the end, both specs would get that raid buff when in a raid.
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+ A raider's mindset:
This has been a strong belief of mine for a long time. There's nothing at all- anywhere, that will have a bigger effect on a raider's performance than the raider's mindset, their mentality. It's not gear that's going to put you ahead of everyone else, it's walking that extra mile that will give you an edge.
Using consumables- all of them- the best of them. Paying good money to get the best glyphs available, and educating yourself about how you should be playing your spec.
If you do not really really want to do what it takes to do a lot of damage, odds are you're not going to.
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+ Don't do rotations:
I am a regular poster on these forums and the Elitist Jerks forums, this guide has been around for a bit, and in general I tend to be vocal on how things should be done. As a result, people will often ask me questions about Warlock related issues, from spec/talent choices, to gear or gems, and things alike. In general there's only 1 question that annoys me; "What rotation should I use?".
There is no rotation, if you're following a rotation you're doing it wrong. If you want to do high dps, you're going to have to go by a priority list. What this means is that you prioritize your spells based on how much damage they'll do in total relative to the cast time spent on them. This might sound complex, but in practice it's not too hard to accomplish.
Some general tips are to not refresh your dots before they've expired, and that if the fight is likely to end before the end of the dot you're about to place- it's likely not worth casting it.
