Raiding Felguard spec - why mixed?Follow

I've been planning to go with a Felguard raiding spec since I started my 'lock about a month ago, so I found the recent thread on Felguard raiding very useful.

However, there was something that puzzles me: All of the specs I've seen for Felguard raids put their leftover points into both affliction and destruction. This doesn't make sense to me, so I thought I'd bring it up for discussion.

If you put your extra points into Destruction, you're going to be spamming shadow bolts for the 20% shadow debuff, so you want as many criticals as possible. You'll likely be maximizing Demonic Tactics then. So why not put five points into Devastation as well to double your critical bonus? This would also give access to Destructive Reach for some burst threat mitigation.

If, on the other hand, you intended to put more points in Affliction, you wouldn't be as focused on criticals, and would probably put fewer points into Demonic Tactics. You could then get Empowered Corruption, Amplify Curse, and Nightfall. You also have some filler points in Suppression so you don't need to worry as much about +spell hit equipment.

Both of these seem more viable to me than a mixed Felguard build, so why is a mixed build the most popular?

His point is more valid than just that simple answer, however in the end the "cookie cutter" build is so commonly used because it ends up putting out the best damage.

Nightfall is a very VERY powerful tool in certain situations, but on the Boss fights where it's really needed the only effect that will cause it is generally a single Corruption spell -- hardly worth the points.

As for the Destructive Reach, this is actually an extremely useful tool for 5Mans, however on the grand scope of things sacraficing Improved Corruption AND Improved Life Tap ends up dealing a major blow to a Warlock's options when raiding. You cut down the only instant-DoT to one that's better used as a CoElements or CoShadows and you're stuck a few seconds longer than you need to be -- especially on long fights.

The reach itself its more of a PVP tool, but the Agro redux is huge. Then again, if you're really in a serious Raid you should not only have multiple threat reducers -- but your Tank needs to be able to keep agro off of bigger threats than a Warlock... again not as useful as splitting the points.

You need 10 points into Destro for the .5 Second redux (a whopping 16.66% DPS increase in SBolt spam), and 7 points in Affliction for the Improved Lifetap and the Instacast Corruption.

Shadowburn probably isn't useful in raids, unless you've got a wicked sick mana regen going and brought two shard bags filled to the top. And even then.

As a PvP Warlock, I absolutely love it, though. Nothing like firing off a Shadow Bolt and a Shadowburn right after, critting on the Shadow Bolt for 2,000 damage and the Shadowburn (due to the Imp. Shadow Bolt talent) just as much.

Most clothies crumble after that.

I have 18 points in Affliction (I would not suggest more if you are going with Demonology). Demonic Tactics, Demonic Knowledge, Demonic Embrace and Fel Stamina are all maxed.
I dont use a minion to attack a raid boss, usually because my minoins have half my life and would get one-shotted lol. Felguard is good for added resistance and AOE evasion, but I will send it in when I am sure it wont get directly attacked.
When I did Karazhan for the first time, I used my imp and felguard mostly. Everyone said I did well, and expected that I had been there before.


Edited, Mar 19th 2008 9:09pm by sederix

It's also fairly apparent that you're an ebayer. So stop posting for a while, read the sticky and try to learn something instead of inanely babbling.

Sederix, lawl.