All You Need To Know About Warlocks

[bokou]

Found all of this information through various WoW and Warlock forums. I've added my 2 cents from experience but figured I'd at least put it all here in one place that was easy to find.

Note: Some of this information was written pre-BC so while it may seem outdated, what I've kept in this article is still accurate and I have disregarded anything I feel has changed partially or entirely since the Burning Crusade expansion.

Contents:
Talents & Spells
Aggro Management and Threat Reduction
Dots and Debuffs
Gear and DPS

[bokou]

Talents and Spells

• Bane +20%

Bane reduces your Shadow Bolts from 3 seconds down to 2.5 seconds. This is a 20% increase in Shadow Bolt spam dps.

Math
In 15 seconds...
With Bane: (15 / 2.5) = 6 Shadow Bolts
Wout Bane: (15 / 3) = 5 Shadow Bolts
6 / 5 = 120%

• Demonic Sacrifice, Succubus +15%

Increases your shadow damage by 15%, self explanatory. The greatest thing about Demonic Sacrifice is its versatility. In some prolonged fights where your raid may be strapped for healing, you can sacrifice a Voidwalker instead for the health regen. For AOE situations, you can sacrifice an imp for +15% fire damage. This especially shines on the dog packs in MC.

• Shadow Mastery +10%

Increases your shadow damage by 10%, self explanatory.

• Ruin

Ruin increases your dps by about half of your crit rate. So if your crit rate is 14%, your dps increase from Ruin is 7%.

Math
In 100 casts of 1 damage Shadow Bolts at a crit rate of 1%, your damage without Ruin will be 100 + 1(.5) = 100.5. With Ruin, your damage will be 100 + 1(1) = 101. 101 / 100.5 = .5% increase in dps. With enough +crit and +damage gear, Ruin can overtake Shadow Mastery in contribution to dps.

• Improved Shadow Bolt ~10%

This is much more difficult to calculate since it depends on your crit rate, how many warlocks you have in the raid, how many of those warlocks have this talent, and what each of their crit rates are. However, since all of the best raiding builds have Ruin in it, chances are most to all raiding warlocks will have this talent and with good gear, Improved Shadow Bolt should be up much of the time. Watch for it next time; with 3-5 warlocks in your raid, Shadow Vulnerability from this talent will be on the mob very often. Also, ISB increases all shadow DoTs as long as it is active. ISB also increases the value of each +1% crit you get from gear, which in turn makes it more valuable than +1% hit in many situations.

See Question: "How much does Improved Shadow Bolt improve warlock dps?"

• Improved Corruption

Improved Corruption is as good as it looks on paper and moreso depending on the situation. Some people will tell you that the bonus you receive from this talent is only half a second (2 sec regular castime - 1.5 sec global cooldown = .5 sec). This is correct to a certain extent, except there are several factors they are not taking into consideration: you get a 2 second head start in ticks since Corruption begins the moment it is applied and every time it is reapplied; when there are multiple mobs present, the time saved from this talent adds up even more. You can also move while you're casting Corruption, which is its biggest benefit.

• Improved Life Tap

Life Tap is one of the warlock's best and most used spells. However, every second you spend Life Tapping cuts into your dps. At just two points, Improved Life Tap gives you 20% more mana, which will add to your dps.

Some Questions

How much does Improved Shadow Bolt improve warlock dps?

With 5/5 Improved Shadow Bolt (hereby known as "ISB"), on a crit the target gets a debuff called Shadow Vulnerability which increases shadow damage taken by 20%. This lasts 12 seconds or 4 charges, whichever comes first. Some facts about Improved Shadow Bolt:

• Hits which are resisted do not eat up a charge.

• The debuff is occassionally resisted separate to the damage spell itself (ie, the Shadow Bolt will still hit, but the Shadow Vulnerability won't go up).

• Crits will reset the counter to 4 charges.

• Can be consumed by any Shadow Spell such as Shadowburn and Death Coil.

• Since patch 1.11, DoTs no longer eat up the charges. However, DoTs still DO benefit from the +20% shadow damage as long as the effect is active.

• ISB slightly increases the value of each +1% crit you get from gear.

Math
To calculate how often Shadow Vulnerability will be up on the target: SV = (1 - (1-c)^4) where c is your crit rate.

Example: assuming raiding warlocks have the reasonable average crit rate of 15%, Shadow Vulnerability will be up (1 - (1-.15)^4) = 47.7% of the time.

Math
To calculate how much ISB increases warlock DPS (using the variable SV from above): SV * .20

Example: Using the above example where SV is up 47.7% of the time, ISB increases your average Shadow Bolt damage by (.477 * .20) = 9.6%.

Since SV also passively improves DoT damage, your increase in DPS will be even greater than 9.6%. The lower your crit rate to begin with, the BIGGER the increase from crit will be due to Imp SB. Conversely, if you already have a high crit rate, you will see a lower increase in damage from crit due to ISB.

Example: Going from 5%->6% crit gives you a 0.67% increase in damage from ISB. Going from 30%->31% crit gives you a 0.27% increase in damage from ISB.

While the value does go down, more +crit is still worthwhile to get. The value goes down slowly, the fact that it goes down at all isn't a big deal. The real moral of the story is that +crit is slightly more valuable than most people believe.


How often does Nightfall proc?

See this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=518&t=4230&p=16368#p16368


What does Shadow Embrace do and who does it affect?

Shadow Embrace affects everyone. If you have 5/5 Shadow Embrace and use it on a target, it will deal 5% less damage to anyone it attacks including your tanks. Shadow Embrace does not stack, the higher ranked Shadow Embrace will overwrite any lesser ranked ones. Therefore, having multiple affliction locks with this talent is for the most part redundant. I personally put only 1 point in Shadow Embrace because it counts as an affliction effect for Soul Siphon and will help you drain/heal for more damage.


Is Cataclysm any good?

Not really. Think about it this way: with 5 points Cataclysm, you are saving 5% mana on destruction spells. Your most used destruction spell, Shadow Bolt, costs 380 mana per cast. 5% of 380 mana is 19 mana (380 * .05 = 19), so you save only 19 mana every time you cast Shadow Bolt. Divide 380 mana by 19 and you get 20. This means that you need to cast 20 Shadow Bolts to have saved enough mana for just one extra Shadow Bolt. No thanks.

[bokou]

How does threat work? What Can I do for Aggro Reduction?

Aggro and threat explained in a nutshell:

• "Aggro" is whoever the mob is attacking. "Threat" is a numerical value the mob assigns to each player it is threatened by. The mob keeps track of all players with threat on its threat list.

• Nearly everything you do offensively or defensively generates threat. Generally, 1 point of damage = 1 threat. 1 point of healing = .5 threat. So if your Shadow Bolt hits for 1340, you now have increased your aggro on the mob's threat list by 1340.

• To pull aggro, a player in melee range of the mob has to exceed 110% threat of the person currently tanking. A player outside of melee range (often casters such as warlocks) has to exceed 130% threat of the person currently tanking.

• Your goal, during raids, is to do as much damage as you can to the mob without getting aggro - that is - passing the tank on the threat list by generating more than 30% threat than him, or you risk either dying or wiping the raid in position-sensitive encounters.

• Certain spells have a special threat modifier, such as Searing Pain which deals 200% the amount of threat per damage (2 threat per 1 damage).

• Aside from the 1 threat per damage DoTs cause, there is also an extra "cast threat" which is applied the moment you cast it, which is why you will often find a mob targetting you after laying on a dot before the tank obtains initial aggro. This number is pretty small though, so it's not a big deal. See a few questions down for approximate "cast threat" values for some spells.

To get a more indepth read on threat, here are two excellent guides:
http://evilempireguild.org/guides/kenco2.php
http://www.wowwiki.com/Formulas:Aggro

Do crits generate more aggro per damage than a regular hit?

No. Crits do not generate more threat just for being crits. Each point of damage is worth exactly the amount of aggro, crit or regular hit. However, by the definition of a crit, more damage is being done which in itself generates more threat than a hit of less damage, so that is why it might seem like you are drawing more aggro when you crit.


Does Life Tap generate any threat?

No. Despite frequent anecdotes by warlocks who "could have sworn" they pulled aggro with Life Tap, the fact is that you can't. Although this fact is supported by many tests done by warlocks in the field, Blizzard QA Representative motive confirmed it in this post: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/threa ... ost1193240

[...] Id like to make one additional clarification to quell any arguments that are still raging: Life Tap does not generate threat.

Do our "health/mana modifying" spells generate extra threat from healing?

Dark Pact - Yes (.5 threat per mana gained)
Death Coil - No (except for initial cast)
Demon Armor - No
Drain Life - No
Drain Mana - No
Fel Stamina (from DS Voidwalker) - Yes (.5 threat per health gained)
Fel Energy (from DS Fel Hunter) - Yes (.5 threat per mana gained)
Health Funnel - No
Life Tap - No
Siphon Life - No


Which spells have a "cast threat" associated with them?

Most of our non-damage debuff spells have extra threat upon cast. So, for example, if someone pulls a mob with an arrow and does 25 damage, if you cast CoS you'll pull aggro since CoS has a "cast threat" of more than 25 threat. Here's a list of spells and their cast threat:

None: 0 threat upon cast
Corruption
Curse of Agony
Unending Breath

Low: around 75 threat upon cast
Demon Armor
Detect Invisibility
Shadow Ward

High: around 115 threat upon cast
Curse of Doom
Curse of the Elements
Curse of Recklessness
Curse of Shadow
Curse of Tongues
Curse of Weakness
Siphon Life

As you can see, none of our DoTs have an associated cast threat, except for Siphon Life. Also, it seems that the threat can change based on rank. For example, Siphon Life (Rank 1) has a "low" cast threat (around 60 as opposed to 115 for Rank 2). Thanks to Pentjak for his intial tests on this subject.


How much aggro reduction can I get through talents and gear?

At this time, there are five ways for a warlock to reduce or eliminate aggro:

• Talents: Master Demonologist (20%), Improved Drain Soul (5/10% Affliction), Destructive Reach (5/10% Destruction)

• Class Set: 8/8 Nemesis (20%)

• Other Classes' Abilities: Blessing of Salvation (30%, Paladin blessing) OR Tranquil Air Totem (20%, Shaman totem)

• Enchants: Subtlety cloak enchant (2%)

• Gear: Fetish of the Sand Reaver trinket (70% for 20 sec., 3 min cooldown); Grace of Earth trinket (-650 threat to enemies within 30 yards, 5 min. cooldown)

Aggro reduction is mutiplicative and not additive so the way to calculate how much threat reduction you have is to take your threat percentages and multiply them together.

Math
For example, with 8/8 Nemesis and Master Demonologist your threat would be .8 * .8 = .64 or 64% of what it would normally be. This is a 36% reduction in threat. With Blessing of Salvation on top of that, your threat would be .8 * .8 * .7 = .45 or 45%. Note, before Patch 1.11.2, some threat reduction items were additive. A few items were fixed and we believe they are all multiplicative now.

[bokou]

Dots and Debuffs

Is there a debuff prioritization?

Mobs currently are balanced with a 16 debuff limit, meaning any more than 16 and some will get pushed off as new ones are introduced. There has been a debuff prioritization system in place since Patch 1.10 where certain debuffs are "protected" and kept from being pushed off by lesser debuffs and dots. The protected debuffs include CoS, CoE, CoR, Sunder, Hunter's Mark, etc.

DoTs are NOT protected. Your Corruptions, CoA, and CoD are all susceptible to being pushed off. Certain AOE spells such as Hellfire and Rain of Fire count for an invisible debuff slot, although it doesn't show up under the mob's portrait. The mage spell Arcane Missiles is another spell that does this, which is why you might notice your Corruptions disappearing on Vael after only a few ticks.

NOTE: It has been confirmed that the debuff limit will be raised from 16 to 40 in the expansion.


Do CoS and CoE benefit spells cast before them?

No for direct damage spells. Curse of Shadow and Curse of the Elements will only benefit Shadow Bolts cast after it is applied. Thus, it is wiser to put up a curse first and then cast damage spells.

However, DoT ticks DO benefit from curses applied after the DoT itself. So if you put up CoS as a Corruption is ticking down, all ticks from that point forward will benefit from the curse.


Do DoTs benefit from Improved Shadow Bolt?

Yes. DoTs no longer consume charges of Shadow Vulnerability post-Patch 1.11, but they still do benefit from it, ticking for +20% shadow damage when Shadow Vulnerability is up. This is important: since Improved Shadow Bolt procs very regularly, your DoTs will be ticking for 20% more much of the time. The more warlocks in your raid that have ISB, the better.


Why and when should we use Curse of Recklessness?

Curse of Recklessness, used in the right situations, will add more raid dps than CoS and CoE combined. By reducing the mob's armor (while increasing it's attack power and damage by a neglible amount), the main tank does more damage, and with Defiance can keep hate on himself longer. This results in a 3% increase in raid dps across the board, and an additional 11% increase in physical damage from all rogues, warriors, and hunters in the raid. These numbers are not entirely accurate and may vary for different mobs and bosses, but for our purposes they are fine.
Source: http://www.saichotictech.net/Others/War ... sness.html

The general rule of when you should use CoR is any mob/boss that doesn't have a hard hitting instant attack (such as Broodlord's Mortal Strike or Razuvious' Unbalancing Strike) or Enrage/Frenzy. This is because attack power is multiplied in some special way for boss mobs that we don't know. Mobs you should NOT use it on include Broodlord Lashlayer, any of the drakes, the last 20% of Chrommagus, Sartura, Instructor Razuvious, etc. You should, on the other hand, use CoR on any dps fights such as Vaelastrasz.


Curse of Weakness?

Curse of Weakness sucks and should not be used under almost any circumstance. It reduces the damage done by a mob by a flat 31 damage and is calculated last. For boss mobs, 900 - 31 = 869 damage does not justify this curse on him. CoW is really good in one situation though, and that's hunter pets in PvP. For some math: http://www.saichotictech.net/Others/War ... kness.html


If we have multiple warlocks in the raid, who should cast what?

If you have multiple warlocks, the ones who cause the most threat should generally be put on CoS/CoE/CoR duty rather than using CoA. Similarly it isn't a bad idea to only have low threat warlocks using Corruption, since if you've got a lot of Warlocks they won't all be able to DOT due to the 16 debuff limit. Of course, if the fight isn't threat sensitive, then the opposite is true. Also, if you have SM/Ruin warlocks, have them Corruption in place of other specs, since they at least can benefit from Nightfall.

[bokou]

Gear and DPS

What is my DPS?

To figure out your dps, you first need to calculate a few things, which includes adding up your +dmg, +crit, and +hit from gear. I recommend using http://www.ctprofiles.net to make this step easier (it adds up your stats for you), or you can do it manually with a calculator. Then, plug in this info into Nuga's Warlock DPS calculator at http://www.maxdps.com/warlock/dps.php. This is an insanely useful tool that tells you what your dps is as well as how much each item can potentially add to your dps.


Which stats should I go for when picking up gear?

Generally speaking, you should be going for the following stats (in order of priority): +damage, +crit/hit, stamina, -resist, intellect.

If you are going for any end game gear in general, you will get all of those stats anyway, so worrying about which stats to go for isn't necessary. Note that it is better to have a good balance of +damage/crit/hit instead of too much of any one of those stats. If you're simply looking for a well organized list of what gear you should go for, check out Nuga's DPS calculator at http://www.maxdps.com/warlock/dps.php which lists all the warlock-friendly items in order of highest dps contribution.


Are shard bags worth it?

Yes. Immensely. This is especially so in raids and groups and even PVP (if you plan to hand out Healthstones at the start of the bg/arena.


How does +damage gear work?

The formula to calculate the +damage coefficient (what percent of the full damage bonus you get for each spell) is (cast time / 3.5).

• Direct damage spells - Shadow Bolt takes 3 seconds to cast (without talents), so it receives (3 / 3.5) = 86% of the damage bonus. If you had +100 damage gear, your Shadow Bolt (Rank 10) would hit for an average of 510 + 86 = 596 damage. Talents, buffs, and debuffs do not affect how the damage bonus is calculated, so Bane does not affect Shadow Bolt's damage bonus. As of patch 2.0.1, there is no longer a cap of 3.5 seconds max to determine how much bonus spells get. Soul Fire, for example, receives 6 sec / 3.5 = 1.71 = 171% of the damage bonus.

• Instant cast spells, such as Shadowburn are considered to have a minimum of 1.5 sec casting time. Example: Shadowburn would be (1.5 / 3.5) = 43% damage bonus.

• DoTs receive (duration / 15) of the damage bonus, spread over each of its ticks. Example: "DoT X" lasts for 18 seconds, so it receives 18 / 15 = 1.2 = 120% of the damage bonus. Since DoT X is spread over six ticks, each tick receives 120% / 6 = 20% of the damage bonus. (Note: Corruption, Curse of Agony, and Curse of Doom were nerfed in patch 2.0.3 (1/9/07) with hardcoded coefficients, so that they no longer observe the above rule for DoTs)

• Hybrid spells that both deal damage and heal the caster only receive 50% of what they "should". This is because although you are damaging for 50% more, you are also healing for 50% more. The health spread between you and your opponent therefore increases by 100% of the damage bonus. Drain Life and Siphon Life are both DoTs that are affected this way. Death Coil, on the other hand, is not a DoT but an instant cast spell, so it receives 43% (as an instant cast spell) divided by 2 = 21%.

• AoE spells are calculated like direct damage spells, except they only receive 1/3 or 33% of what they "should", spread over each tick. Rain of Fire, for, example is 8 sec / 3.5 = 2.29; 2.29 * 1/3 = 76%.

• Life Tap - Life Tap receives 80% of your bonus spell damage effects. Talents and items can further modify those values. Rank 1 and 2 receive reduced effect (38% and 68% respectively). Life Tap benefits from +damage/+shadow gear and buffs that increase your shadow damage by a fixed amount (ie ToEP, shadow power potions, flask of supreme power, etc.). It does not benefit from percent-based buffs and talents such as DS, SM, and Power Infusion. Improved Life Tap is calculated after +damage gear. To calculate your Life Taps, use the following math:
  
  • Without Improved Life Tap: x = [420 + (+dmg * .]
  • With Improved Life Tap: (x * 1.20) mana for x health

The damage bonus received by each warlock spell is as follows:

Affliction
Corruption - 93%
Curse of Agony - 120%
Curse of Doom - 200%
Dark Pact - 96%
Death Coil - 21%
Drain Life - 71.5%
Drain Soul - 215%
Life Tap - 80%
Siphon Life - 100%
Unstable Affliction - 120%

Destruction
Conflagrate - 43%
Hellfire - 141%
Immolate* - 20% direct damage, 65% spread over the DoT
Rain of Fire - 76%
Searing Pain - 43%
Shadow Bolt - 86%
Shadowburn - 43%
Shadowfury - 14%
Soul Fire - 171%

Immolate is calculated this way:
Math
Immolate (Rank 7) - Burns the enemy for 279 damage and additional 510 damage over 15 seconds. 2 sec cast.

Direct damage component:
(2 / 3.5) = 57.14%
[279 / (279 + 510)] = 35% of Immolate's total damage dealt
.57 * .35 = 20% total damage bonus

DoT component:
100% - 35% = 65% of Immolate's total damage dealt, and since DoTs get 100% of the damage bonus, the DoT part of Immolate gets the full 65%.


What are crits and how do I calculate my crit rate?

Critical spells deal 150% normal damage. With Ruin, crits deal 200% damage. Only your Destruction spells can crit. DoTs, which are Affliction, cannot crit. Warlock AOE spells, though part of the Destruction tree, are considered damage over time and cannot crit. The direct damage portion of Immolate can crit.

The base chance for warlocks to crit is 1.7%. After that, the chance to crit is based on your intellect divided by 60.6 and is completely linear at all levels as you gear up. To calculate your crit rate, use the following formula:

• 1.7 + (intellect / 60.6) + gear + talents

Math
Example: If your intellect was 239, you had +8% to crit on your gear, and had 5 points in the Devastation talent, your crit would be approximately:

• 1.7 + (239/60.6) + 8 + 5 = 18.64%

How much +hit do I need?

+16% hit max for PvE, +3% hit max for PvP.

• PvP Resistance:
  Vs. +0 level player (same level): 4%
  Vs. +1 level player: 5%
  Vs. +2 level player: 6%
  Vs. +3 level player: 13%
  And so on (+7% for each additional level)

• PVE Resistance:
  Vs. +0 level mob (same level): 4%
  Vs. +1 level mob: 5%
  Vs. +2 level mob: 6%
  Vs. +3 level mob: 17%
  And so on (+11% for each additional level)

Chance to hit is capped at 99%.

PvP: At level 60, your base chance to hit vs other level 60 players is 96%. Since hit% is capped at 99%, you only need +3% hit for maximum PvP effectiveness.

PvE: The highest raid mobs in the game are level 63, which is 3 levels above the maximum player level. Thus, a level 60 player versus a level 63 mob would need +16% hit for maximum PvE effectiveness (again, this is because hit is capped at 99%). Any more than +16% hit is wasted and would be better served with +crit gear.


What's better, +hit or +crit?

+crit is better than +hit, but only slightly. Both are important. +crit has the slight edge due to ISB. (assuming you have that talent, and if not then I'd say +hit)

Generally, with Ruin both stats give you the same 1% increase in dps. Without Ruin, +hit is better since crit would then only add .5% to your dps. There are two things to keep in mind. First, +crit only benefits Destruction spells, since DoTs cannot crit. Second, Improved Shadow Bolt procs off of crits. ISB increases the damage of the next four Shadow Bolts on that target by 20%, as well as all DoT ticks by 20% during that time. This makes the +crit stat slightly more valuable than +hit.


So how exactly do hits, crits, and resists relate to each other?

The current understanding is that the three outcomes are entirely separate. In this context, by "resist" we actually mean "miss", or the opposite of "hit". The chance to hit or miss is the first roll of all spells (read "How do resists work?" for more info on the subject of resists). There are three outcomes for your damage spells: you either hit, crit, or are resisted. Items affect this relationship in the following way:

• Every additional +crit you get from gear decreases the hit rate. So you are now critting for 1% where you would have been hitting for normal damage before.
  Every additional +hit you get from gear decreases the resist rate. So you are now hitting for 1% where you would have been resisted completely before.

So you see, +crit affects hit but has no affect on resistances, while +hit affects resistances but has no affect on crits. The following diagram (not a mathematical formula) may make this relationship easier to understand:

[hit% + (crit%)] + resist% = 100%

• Example:
  1. Currently: 75% hit, 15% crit, 10% resist.
  2. I got a piece of gear with +1% crit, my new status is: 74% hit, 16% crit, 10% resist.
  3. I got a piece of gear with +1% hit, my new status is: 75% hit, 16% crit, 9% resist.

As crit gets bigger, hit gets smaller. As hit gets bigger, resist gets smaller in order for it to equal 100%. For more reading on this subject, go here: http://www.wowwiki.com/Formulas:Critical_hit_chance

[taova]

I believe some of this is out of date. How old was this post you found?

[taova]

Never mind, I see the level 60 math equivs. May be useful to find more up to date info since much has changed.

[bokou]

i plan on it