Plz help. I can't afford another respec... Lvl 60 lockFollow

Okay, I am a DPS *****. I am a level 60 lock with base 12-13% crit and like most locks I like to nuke (shadow bolt) and love to see little DOTs flying off on my screen. But, I really love to minimize my down time. I know I am asking a lot, but it is 2008.

I tried the full affliction build (41/0/10). The DPS wasn't as high as I would have liked though there was practically no down time between dark pact and life tap. I tried the felguard build (9/43/0). I actually liked this build better due to the burst damage from the felguard, but found the DPS was a bit too low and controlling the felguard taxing. I tried the demon-sacc/destro build (7/21/21) and I like the DPS, but the downtime was too long especially if I sacc the Succubus for the 15% shadow damage. Hence, you see my dillema.

I've been playing around with the calculators and found I think what is called the dark pact/ruin build (31/0/21) build. This will hypothetically work for me, because I have my dots (inst and imp Corr, SL, agony/CoS), my nuke (ruin), my viability (mana from dark pack/life tap), and I can choose what demon I want out.

My question is two fold and perhaps very obvious, but I really can't afford two more respecs: one, does the shadow mastery damage increase the shadow bolt damage and two, what are your impressions of this build?

As a background, I will be using this build to run 5-man and AV pvp. I'm new to the lock and love the class so please comment. I know my crit is low for ruin and imp shadow bold, but I love to nuke =). I won't be able respec until level 61 to get dark pact and ruin at the same time, but this gives me time to get gold for the respec...

Here is the build at lvl 61:
www.wowhead.com/?talent=Iq0rVRfzqzZZxx0tr0z

Here is the build at lvl 69:
www.wowhead.com/?talent=IA0rVRfzqzZbZxx0tr0t


Cast sequence will be CoA/CoS, Corr, SL, Immolate (on bosses), SB. I will cut out some dots depending on how fast the 5-man pug is downing trash MOBs.

Thanks!



Edited, Feb 12th 2008 10:01am by bakaneko

Edited, Feb 12th 2008 10:05am by bakaneko

Edited, Feb 12th 2008 10:06am by bakaneko

Yeah, I didn't know what it will the build is called. My crit is at 12% now, but I think I might be able to get it up to 15% by level 61 and with devastation this should put be at around 20% crit. I guess I am looking for confirmation that SM affects shadow bolt as it is really bad having to respec all the time.

Another thought on this is what scenario the build will be used for. I am using it for 5-man instances up until raiding or harder lvl 70 instances, which I agree require higher sustained DPS. I mention this because I think the DPS variability (Ruin crits, DOTs) and viability (Dark Pact) is more important than high DPS builds in 5-man instances on trash and bosses. I would think that builds and play in 5-man instances is far different than long boss fights in raids.

Edited, Feb 12th 2008 12:09pm by bakaneko