lvl 68-70 5 mans...Follow

Folks;

From levels 1-60 I was affliction, then went felguard at 60 and really liked it, but missed some of the utility/damage from affliction (extra dots, dark pact), and I missed affliction greatly in pvp (instant howl of terror), so at 68 I went back to affliction. The only bad part is that I got used to a really nice tank that I could single grind anything almost forever.

I'm a bit confused as to how to do the most damage. I am currently 41/18/0 and am a bit puzzled about doing damage in 5 mans. I was in Sethekk Halls the other day and, as usual, was watching the damage meter & threat meters closely during fights. I found that if I went: UA -> Siphon -> CoA -> Corr -> SB SB SB I did more damage with my shadow bolts and stayed higher on the damage meter while still staying under the tank in the threat meter. Should I be using shadowbolts at all? IF so, would it be a good thing to stick 10 points into destruction?

I didn't use any shadowbolts, almost ever, while leveling & soloing, but more did the drain tanking, because I deemed shadowbolts to be mana inefficient, but for 5 mans, it seems that is the way to go. Anyone have any other suggestions for increasing 5 man dps? Is destruction a tree that lots of people go into at lvl 70 for 5 mans and getting ready to do kara?

Thanks a ton!

If you have a good tank, aggro shouldn't be that big of a problem. Soul shatter comes in handy.

In a group with two other good DPS, you'll find that your dots don't have time to fully tick on the trash, especially Curse of Agony. This makes casting all of your DoTs kind of mana inefficient.

My DoT rotation in instances is basically the instant casts.... corruption, siphon life and Curse of Shadows. Then spamming shadow bolt (this is where Bane comes in very handy) allows you to do a lot of damage.

For boss fights, which are longer, I throw on UA and CoD instead of CoS. Sometimes immolate. Throw a bolt or two and refresh dots as needed.

(edit: for PvP I change my dot macro to replace CoS with CoA). My DoTs are on my shift-mouse wheel up bar, so if one is resisted it's quickly redone.

I leveled 58-70 as demo and liked it a lot. Went back to affliction and like it even more.

Edited, Feb 19th 2008 5:49pm by dimworks

Extra Stamina is not just for getting hit but also extending your mana pool via life tap. Also, the Imp HS or Imp Imp raise your tanks HP one way or the other. So the few points in Demo are very well spent.