Audience

This guide is targeted at the warlock who is extremely comfortable with their destruction rotation and is looking to squeeze that last ounce of DPS out of their raiding damage. It will go over some general concepts that apply to all range PDS, as well as some tricks unique to the warlock class.

Guide

This guide mostly focus on high you can get that last ounce of DPS assuming you are already extremely comfortable with your destruction rotation. We will go over some basic raid principles that will allow you to effectively utilize all your global cooldowns and beneficial procs. The suggestions below are mostly base on my personal experience as a raiding warlock.

UI Design 101

Keeping an eye on your DoT timer is a fundamental concept of achieving high warlock dps. However, keeping an eye on your beneficial procs is equally important. You need to be able to dynamically switch your rotation base according to the type of procs during combat (we will talk more about this topic later). Tracking the number of DOTs you put on your target, plus watching a variety of procs happening on your character, can quickly become overwhelming; therefore a good UI design is essential for maximizing your DPS.

It's staggering how many warlock UI designs are out there that lack necessary features for the class. For starters, most warlocks UIs don't track beneficial procs happening to their character. Relying on the default UI buff tracker or default settings for most buff mods isn't feasible if you're trying to grab as much DPS as possible. Why? Because your periodic procs are mixed in with a number of other raid buffs, and it's just too difficult (if not impossible) to locate the beneficial buffs amongst all the clutter in a fast-paced situation. Also, some warlocks UI have badly placed dot-tracking mods that make you wonder how they are able to effectively focus on both the raid around them and the dot-tracking display. Since it's of utmost importance for you to be aware of your character's surroundings during combat, the most pertinent information must be placed near the immediate surroundings of your character. That way, you can keep all of your mod displays and your character within your field of vision. You may ask, "Does it really matter if my eyes dart back and forth?" Of course it does, never doubt that for a minute. In the high-end DPS race, every millisecond matters.

Keeping these concepts in mind, I suggest designing a display to track all of the dots to the immediate right of the character and all of the beneficial procs to the immediate left. The character health and threat display are right below the character. That way, you can read all the UI information without moving your eyes away from the character. I've designed my personal UI this way and found it to be both useful and elegant.

Leave no Global Unused

To maximize your DPS, the Number 1 rule is to waste no global cooldown. You should always be casting, no matter what. This rule applies to mages as well as warlocks, but it is easier for the warlock class to observe it. Stationary DPS is easy, but casting while on the move is what pushes you to top the DPS meter. Blizzard has largely shifted the raid paradigm away from "tank and spank" encounters, where you can just stand there and bombard the enemy with spells. Most fights nowadays require you to be constantly on the move, but this doesn’t mean you have to waste your GCD while moving. There are a few simple strategies that can help:

Know Where to Stand

Your goal during raid to move as little as possible, so pick a spot ahead of time where you think your chances of moving during the encounter are less. For spread-out fights, this is usually at maximum range near the edge of the room. I suggest choosing two good spots, dropping a portal on the first spot, and moving to the second spot whenever possible. This will allow you to switch to a different spot instantly if your current spot becomes no longer viable.

Know Who the Idiots Are

There are a lot of idiots in World of Warcraft, and even in high-end guilds (including my own) there are always a number of jokers who just have very bad situational awareness. You need to stay away from these idiots during raid because they will:
• Crowd you during a spread-out fight and encroach into your turf, forcing you to move
• Happily chain a damage spell on you
• Make you take 5 ticks of damage when they have an AoE damage debuff
• Blow up 3 black balls near you when you have white shield during Twins (you guys know who you are)

Therefore, know who these idiots are and STAY AWAY FROM THEM. Try to surround yourself with smart players who know how to move, thus allowing you to minimize your own movement.

Move Proactively instead of Reactively

During encounters when you have to dodge a number of things, it is always better to move proactively than reactively. A good example of this is the Twin Valkyrs encounter. Instead of moving reactively whenever a ball of opposite color gets close, it is better for you to move proactively when the area becomes crowded with opposite balls and move to a clearer area. This allows you to move when you can manage to not waste GCDs, instead of having to be forced to move and waste GCDs in the process.

Cast While You Move

The reason why you want to plan your move proactively is because in order to move without wasting GCDs, you need to wait for certain spell cooldowns. There are a number of spells you can cast while you move:
• Life Tap
• Conflagrate
• Curse of Doom, Curse of the Elements
• Corruption, Curse of Agony

You don't want to cast Life Tap, because it is not a damage spell and it uses a GCD. The goal is to minimize casting Life Tap while keeping the Glyph of Life Tap proc up. You can, however, start moving when your Life Tap only has a second or so left. This allows you to cast a damage spell and move while on GCD, then cast Life Tap while running until your GCD is up again. That way, you move while not wasting any GCDs.

With the correct destruction rotation, your Conflagrate spell should always be on CD. However, when there is only a second left on your Conflagrate CD, you should start moving after casting a damage spell. Then you move during GCD and continue moving while casting Conflagrate until the GCD is up. Like the Life Tap rotation above, you move without wasting any GCD. You can use a similar strategy when Curse of Doom and Curse of the Elements only has a second left to go.

Typically for destruction DPS, most don't incorporate Corruption or Curse of Agony into their rotation. However, sometimes situations arise when the two GCD's worth of moving distance simply isn't enough. In those cases, instead of wasting a GCD to continue your move, why not cast a Corruption (or Curse of Agony if the enemy has less than 60 seconds left) while you are moving?

The goal is to plan your move so you can plan your rotation. However, if worse comes to worst, pop a potion or Life Tap a few more times to full when you
absolutely have to move reactively to keep from wasting a GCD.

Know Thy Buffs

Ah, the good old days of shadow bolt spam when you could just ignore any beneficial buffs and beat on a single key. Unfortunately for your carpel tunnel, nowadays the destruction rotation encompasses a number of spells. So it's important for you to know what buffs and procs you have on your character at any given time in order to change your rotation for the sake of maximizing DPS.

I suggest changing your rotation a bit when a +spell damage buff is up. It's wise to try to maximize your direct damage spells during this time. Even if Glyph of Life Tap proc is down, wait until the proc is over so that you do not waste a GCD casting a non-damage spell. In order to maximize +spell damage procs, try to squeeze in a DoT of some kind when there is only a second remaining on the proc in order to maximize the proc's effect.

Similarly, don't choose to Life Tap or cast instant DoTs whenever a +haste effect is up. This allows you to maximize your damage spell count when a +haste proc is up.

If you view a lot of videos, you might recall hearing our shaman players counting down before casting Bloodlust. There is a good reason for that. When you know Bloodlust is going to be cast, Life Tap quickly before the Bloodlust so you don’t have to waste a GCD under the effect of Bloodlust. Since you are getting no haste benefits for instant spells while under Bloodlust, casting those is just a waste when you could be spending your GCD on a damage spell.

Summary

The honest truth is, unless it is a gimmick fight, often the difference between Number 1 and Number 2 DPS on the raid meter is only separated by a few thousand points. Think about it...that means you can drop five spots on the DPS meter if you simply miss three or four GCDs throughout a whole battle. When it comes to topping meters, every GCD counts. With better UI placement, you save milliseconds from eye-tracking and lessen the risk losing your focus. With better movement plans, you save a couple of GCDs from being wasted. With better buff utilization, you maximize your DPS throughout any fight. The destruction rotation is easy to master, but what can truly make your DPS shine are all those minute details.

If you would like to contact me, the best way is to PM me on www.qtsonlyguild.com. If you would like to download my UI, or have any question about my UI, I would refer you to the Raisa UI thread in the public forum on www.qtsonlyguild.com