Curses!Follow

Hi Guys,

I'm almost embarassed to ask this but I will. I am only a casual gamer, I'm lucky if I get 3-4 hours playing each week. I really only have time to PvE but somehow I've gotten to level 60 as an affliction warlock. I've read the sticky threads (FAQ) and one thing I haven't really found is a good description on the curses. So, here's my question:

When should you use one curse over another? Is one better against certain foes (like Curse of Tongues I know is better against spellcasters) but are there others? Are some just situational?

There have been some really good threads/posts about playstyles that mention utilizing certain curses, but don't really mention why they would use one over the other and if it really matters.

Sorry, if this is stupid question... but any light you could shed would be helpful.

Thanks,

Since you stated taht you are a casual gamer then curse of agony is probally the only curse you should be using. Here are the execptions as you know there are always execptions.

Curse of tounges - you can use this one on casters but i think that for most PVE content CoA is alot better as it kills the mob faster and i'm all for faster killing.

Curse of elements - well this one i only use if a mob is immune to shadow damage. as we have either shadow or fire if they are immune to shadow i hit it with curse of elements *since CoA is shadow and would be resisted* this makes all your fire spells hit harder and makes the fights more managable

Curse of recklessness - i use this one when i'm facing runners and i don't want to argo a whole group nearby. i do replace CoA with this when the mob reaches about 1/4 health so i'm using CoA anyways for most of that fight.

Curse of Weakness - I rarely use this one. i only use this if i'm soloing a melee elite to take a bit of the edge off and where CoA on one compelet run through wouldn't kill it. Even then sometimes i'll use CoA

Curse of Doom - as i haven't used this one yet i can't say anything about it. but even this most fights while grinding won't last 60 seconds unless you only put on curse of doom and nothing else.

Anyways to make a long post short. CoA is the main curse for a reason. Its the best for 99% of fights and on the other 1% a case can be made for using it anyways.

This is all based on you being a casual gamer. Some things change in PVP and in Raiding

That's what was heavily debated, though I beleive the math showed that the extra SBs in a CoD rotation made very little change in the overall DPS, unless Amplify Curse was up. I think it was something like a 1.5 DPS increase using CoD all the time over CoA. There was a much clearer increase using it only when Amplify Curse was up and CoA all the time. Not that it really matters anymore. The simple point is, unless your in a raid, and even then it's very situational, CoA is the only curse worth using over 95% of the time now.

Speaking of which, hopefully in WotLK we'll see more uses for some of our other curses. It seems like blizz is really trying to get rid of useless spells/abilities, so hopefully we'll see more uses for our curses in 70-80 content. Heck, they made Spell/Firestones worthwhile, and we got talents like frailty now, so maybe.

@Lathais: No, it was fact that shadow bolt scales so extremely well with crit, haste and damage that it outdoes Curse of Agony in one cast than Curse of Agony would do in the same 3 seconds (taking into account travel time for Sbolt), with 3s being the downtime for CoA GCDs as opposed CoD.

Still, Faerie Fire is at least equal (if not better) armor reduction than Curse of Recklessness, and Demoralizing Shout/Roar has always been better than Curse of Weakness. Curse of Tongues is actually better situationally than other curses (a la Channelers for Magtheridon, and many trash mobs). Ebon Plaguebringer and Earth and Moon are passive talents that don't take up a DPS slot like Curse of the Elements (with or without Malediction). So, that leaves us with CoA and CoD.

With current talents, CoA seems to be better DPS because it has a much higher DPCT (despite the huge nerf to Amplify Curse), if I remember correctly. It is *definitely* better DPS for Destruction (and possibly Demo), as it lends to more Molten Core procs.

In any case, outside of raid and 5-man bosses, CoA > most other curses in almost every case, and has always been that way.

As far as spellstones vs. wizard oils, the Firestone would probably be better for Affliction/Demo for the crit bonus, and Spellstone for Destruction for the haste bonus. Probably a playstyle preference, though. In any case, they yield a tad more DPS than oils - and best of all, free.

Yes, they are.


The patch.


you don't have to put the wand away. The stones are applied to your weapon (like a sharpening stone).