Doomguards are Confusing

I neglected to put doombolt in my spell analyzer because it's possibly the murkiest and least well understood of all warlock spells.

In an hour of testing (6 tests woo), I found that while using affliction the doom bolt scaled predictably with (sp / 1.7545 * 1.286) + 1016. 1.7545 is the ratio of sp:pet attack power, and 1.286 is the coefficient of doombolt and 1016 is roughly the average base damage of doom bolt.

When I went to demo, I found that doom bolt scaled sort of predictably with sp * 1.286. Flat. Just that. This mystifying result could not be modeled anywhere close by a myriad of formulas I attempted to use.

I have no idea what it does in destro, but I do know that simcraft is modelling it wrong. They appear to use pet attack power + base damage to achieve their result, getting fairly accurate results in affliction but wildly wrong results in demonology.

The important thing is that I was able to confirm that his cast time scales with your equipment, but does not appear to scale with haste buffs, and having more spell power will make him hit harder.

Anatomy of a "Something" guide - part the first

I'm starting a series of guides about how to Warlock in instances. Warlock forums are awash with begging and pleading for tips and tricks about how to dps better, and most of the responses reprise the elitist jerks priority list, or give some tips about how to gem and enchant better. Instead, why not show you what to do.

Here is guide #1, covering affliction dps to trash pulls!



It's encoded at 1280x720, so you can watch it at much higher resolution if you click the '360p' button once you start the video.

Almost Pretty Much There

The basic spell mechanics are in, and by basic I mean this tool will do a pretty good job of predicting your performance against a dummy. I'm going to start a to-do list, as much for myself as for you. Drop any suggestions or prioritization you want to see in the comments, and I'll work on turning this into something really useful.

- Buff toggles. That on/off switch is an idea I have for toggling various buffs you might have, like 3 stacks of dark intent, shadow embrace, or soul siphon, as well as procs like volcanic destruction, revelation, eradication, etc. Each modifier will also have a custom field for help in simulating alysrazors haste buff, or h nefarian's damage bonus.

- Configuration menus. I want to add some expandable menus where you will have an array of buff toggles, options to configure talents with more precision than elitist jerk specs, options to tweak the settings of spells to predict incoming patch changes, and probably lots of other things.

- Spell refresh analyzer. There is an endless debate about if or when you should refresh an already ticking dot when a certain proc comes up, and I'd like to add a row to the table that will help you decide.

- Reordering spells based on the spec you choose. When you click destruction, it will push soul fire, immolate, incinerate, conflagrate, chaos bolt (when I remember to add it in), etc. to the left side of the list, and it will add each of them to the table automatically.

- Tips for individual spells and what the numbers in the table mean, especially when the meaning isn't always clear. For example, the damage of shadowflame shows the average initial damage, the total damage of shadowflame shows the total damage of the average initial plus the dot damage, and the dot damage just shows the dot portion. You shouldn't have to guess!

- Importing from the armory. I have no idea how this can be done at this time, but I figure google will be able to help me out. I plan to have a box where you can paste your armory URL, press import, and it will fill in the boxes with your current armory stats. This may or may not be particularly useful, but it might save you some time.

Also, thanks for checking it out! Please let me know if you find it is wrong about damage for your spec. Leave your 5 stats and the spells and ill look into it.

First Video (again)

Okay here is the first More Dots video. My first attempt was heroic magmaw, but that's dated now, and I needed to redo it for realsies and I never did. In any case, here's Shananananox:

Duke Nukem Forever!

I hate, and by hate I mean am bad at, fps games. Pointing and clicking with predictable results is elusive to me. Just as my fat, stubby fingers failed to master a violin, my unwieldy arms and stubborn wrists flail uselessly, even as pyro.

I loved duke nukem 3d. It was released in 1996, also known as 15 years ago, which means I was roughly 10 when I played it. Considering my fond (and many) memories, I can't help but wonder if that game was the beginning of puberty, given the sort of unmentionables that followed. I never cared about Duke Nukem Forever because the reason I loved duke nukem 3d were the digital breasts. It wasn't a particularly good game, and I doubted that any remake could capture the nostalgia of a 10-year-old and his first porn. So I will probably never play, nor see Duke Nukem Forever in action. Fortunately, my favorite reviewer has played it for me. You can watch Yahtzee's take here.

In case you don't watch it, the highlight of the video is right at the end where it reads,

"And you can't even give money to strippers. That's like remaking Jaws and forgetting to put a shark in it."

Content I Already Posted Somewhere Else

I've written some stuff down that really helped me get started in Cata, and I want you to have some content and some idea of what I do. Here are links to some of the threads I've crashed:

http://wowmb.net/forums/f8/41790-pve_becoming_pro_player/#post342498

http://wowmb.net/forums/f81/41739-low_dps_inconsistent/#post341853

http://wowmb.net/forums/f81/41753-raid_leader_thinks_my_dps_too_low/#post342029

http://elitistjerks.com/f80/t110366-demonology_cataclysm_demon_within_4_1_updated/p6/#post1902582

(this contains an error that I corrected a few posts down)

Obligatory Introduction

Hi! Thanks for coming.

This blog will attempt to cover all the PvE Warlockery I can manage. My goals are thus:

1) To feature full videos of raid content from my perspective (good and bad!).

2) To feature tips and tricks for individual raid encounters, compiled from friends, forums, and from personal experience.

3) To describe, in the greatest of detail, as many Warlock-spell-related mechanics, details, uses, costs, benefits, selection criteria, dps, dpet, coefficients, and trivia I know and will learn while writing them.

4) To also describe in lesser detail all of #3, because besides planning a "complete" Warlock reference, I also want to provide a quick Warlock reference.

5) To offer tips and advice on Warlock playing in general, from trash to cash to the random dungeon finder.

6) To update you with all changes Warlock.

7) To help you level your Warlock through quests, elites, and the RDF.

8) To entertain, inform, and educate you through all your Warlock Wanderings.

My priorities are to discuss how I make spell choices in different raid scenarios and to get some raiding footage.

Stay tuned, adventurers.