I'm having a hard time judging how well(poorly) I'm doing with my 78 affliction lock since the vast majority of articles I read are geared towards endgame 80 characters. I'm a very casual gamer (I've solo'd almost exclusively, with an occasional 5-man thrown in) who took a couple years off. Now that I'm back and there's a working dungeon finder system I'd like to do more 5-mans and maybe work up to Heroics, but I need to work on my grouping skills. The instance thread a couple pages back was VERY helpful, but I still feel like I'm a drain on every group I join. I THINK my problem is my gear, which is composed almost entirely of quest rewards, but I thought I'd try to get some more opinions:
1) When I found out you needed to be 78 to queue for the Frost Lord Ahune summer festival fight, I rushed to 78 so I could get my achievement/emblems/cloak/etc. I suck pretty badly compared to everyone I'm grouped with. I can't even get 700 dps on either Ahune or overall. I'm consistantly 4th on the damage meter by a sad margin, and I've been (understandably) mocked for it. I've tried both SoC and RoF for the little guys and the typical haunt-corruption-CoA-UA-SB refresh/repeat as needed for Ahune, but I'm still barely more than useless. Granted, I'm always grouped with well geared 80's, but I'd still like to do more damage than the tank.
2) When I got to Dragonblight, I suddenly couldn't seem to solo elites to save my life. I've got about 6 green group quests stuck in my log that are laughing at me right now. I've tried numerous tactics with different pets to take them down, but so far the only elite that's died for me is that rare mammoth (I've only tried one of them since hitting 78 - I think at least one or two of the others would be manageable now). This is what makes me think it's not just the level disparity that's killing me in groups; I've got to be doing something seriously wrong.
Here is my armory link http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Windrunner&cn=Haezelle&group=1
I did a lot of research before choosing my spec, and the only decision I regret is missing improved CoA (and I still don't know what I'm willing to give up for it... maybe put my last two points there instead of Ruin?). I really enjoy affliction and I'd like to make it work for me. So what do you think? How much of my problem is practice vs gear vs spec? How far off am I for my level?
Edited, Jun 28th 2010 7:54pm by reddrummz
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Well, you're going to be hard-pressed to make yourself comparable at level 78 in quest gear to T10-geared level 80s. I wouldn't sweat that too much. When mobs go down quickly, such as in a simple dungeon fight like Ahune when the other party members are 80s, Affliction suffers as your DoTs don't have much time to tick, Shadow Embrace can't stack, etc. Also, you just can't compete with the gear; for instance, your unbuffed spellpower is less than 1,000, but an ICC-geared lock should have unbuffed spellpower over 3,000. Being two levels below the 80s, you would need even more hit rating to mitigate your chances of a miss on bosses.
The only thing I saw in your rotation is that you should prioritize UA over CoA.
All this being said, your spec could use a little tweaking. The biggest change is that you have 3/3 Fel Concentration. Let's take those 3 points out and put them to better use. As Affliction, you should be using the felhunter as your pet, so put 2 points in Improved Felhunter to increase its effectiveness. Drop the other point in Improved Curse of Agony to help that DoT. You could also shift your 2 points in Improved Life Tap and put one in Dark Pact and the other to fill out Improved Curse of Agony. This will allow your last two points to complete 5/5 Ruin. Dark Pact now also enables the Glyph of Life Tap, which should be your third major glyph choice.
As for soloing quest elites, I don't have any details to really give you advice, but here's a couple thoughts/questions:
1. I leveled as Demonology from 70 - 80. Since they have subsequently changed the talent trees, I can't link my exact build, but basically I had a felguard and enough points in affliction to get Siphon Life. It was a lot of run around and DoT up mobs as the felguard finished them off. That spec gives a good combination of survivability and sustainability, which is what you want as you level. I didn't have much problem soloing elites quests, and the felguard is a great "tank" for questing.
2. What tactics are you using? Are you grabbing aggro off your pet?
Anyways, good luck and don't worry too much! Get to 80 and then the real fun will begin!
The only thing I saw in your rotation is that you should prioritize UA over CoA.
All this being said, your spec could use a little tweaking. The biggest change is that you have 3/3 Fel Concentration. Let's take those 3 points out and put them to better use. As Affliction, you should be using the felhunter as your pet, so put 2 points in Improved Felhunter to increase its effectiveness. Drop the other point in Improved Curse of Agony to help that DoT. You could also shift your 2 points in Improved Life Tap and put one in Dark Pact and the other to fill out Improved Curse of Agony. This will allow your last two points to complete 5/5 Ruin. Dark Pact now also enables the Glyph of Life Tap, which should be your third major glyph choice.
As for soloing quest elites, I don't have any details to really give you advice, but here's a couple thoughts/questions:
1. I leveled as Demonology from 70 - 80. Since they have subsequently changed the talent trees, I can't link my exact build, but basically I had a felguard and enough points in affliction to get Siphon Life. It was a lot of run around and DoT up mobs as the felguard finished them off. That spec gives a good combination of survivability and sustainability, which is what you want as you level. I didn't have much problem soloing elites quests, and the felguard is a great "tank" for questing.
2. What tactics are you using? Are you grabbing aggro off your pet?
Anyways, good luck and don't worry too much! Get to 80 and then the real fun will begin!
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