Friday, January 2, 2009

Tale of a Spell Non-Rotation

I have always enjoyed Affliction warlock spec. Running around putting DoTs up on every thing/one in a 40 yard radius. I LOVE glancing behind me and seeing them fall over like dominoes… one … after … another. *wistful sigh*

Right now I am having issues. I feel spastic. It is like I am waiting for them to take me away. I am franticly trying to find a comfortable grove in a long fight. Just to give you an idea what my spell “rotation” is like right now by just the keys I am hitting …

= 3 4 5 6 7 2 3 1 6 7 = 3 2 1 1 6 7 = 3

An excreta was not added at the end of the string because it constantly changes. THAT is why I am feeling spastic.

Spell Cast Time Duration
Corruption
Instant18 sec
Curse of Agony
Instant12 sec
Siphon Life
Instant30 sec
Immolate 1.5*15 sec
Unstable Affliction
1.518 sec
Haunt 1.512 sec
Shadow Bolt 2.5*N/A
* with Bane

There are a lot of things that change all the cast times and the Global Cooldown (GCD). I have instant spells that I can move while casting but depend on the GCD. There are the cast spells of 1.5 seconds (the same time as the GCD). Shadow Bolt is at a respectable 2.5 seconds with talents.

Full 5 talent points in Bane reduces the casting time of Shadow Bolt to 2.5 seconds and Immolate to 1.5 seconds.

Amplify Curse reduces the global cooldown of your Curses by 0.5 sec. After casting a curse you can cast another spell quicker.

Everlasting Affliction lets Drain Life and Haunt spells reapply Corruption. This is a must have talent. It is important to make sure you reapply Haunt. I am trying to remember that drain life also reapplies Corruption with this talent. I need to think on when it would be more of a benefit to use Drain Life verses reapplying Haunt. It maybe simply a “mob is going to die in the next 5 seconds” scenario.

Another talent is Eradication that has a chance every 30 seconds to increase casting speed by 20% for 12 seconds. Faster casting can let DoTs override eachother. That is bad for Curse of Agony. So something I need to watch for before reapplying my curse.

Haste is not something I have a firm grasp on yet. Because most of our spells are instant or at the 1.5 GCD it was not a very useful stat. As of patch 2.4 spell haste affects GCD. Enough haste can reduce the GCD to 1 second.

My gear spell haste influences spellcasting and the GCD of my instants. Until wrath I have not had a lot of haste gear but it seems to be on everything. My natural collection of gear has lead me to have some haste. So the actual cast time for my 1.5 sec spells are actally less.

So with gear and talent procs my spell cast speed can change at any moment.

Why is there NOT a spell rotation?
1. Different cast times
2. Different durations
3. Talent procs different cast times
4. Trinket use causes different cast times
5. Human “opps didn’t see that DoT fall off”

All we can do is establish priorities.
1. Haunt
2. All the other DoTs that drop off.
3. Shadow Bolt

I keep Haunt up on target above all other spells. As DoTs drop I reapply. If I am not sure what to reapply yet I automatically hit my Shadow Bolt. That gives me 2 seconds to figure out what is dropping off next and be ready for it.

After chatting with another warlock at a Holiday Party, he told me as a destro lock he hits three maybe four keys. Well that is up from the curse and Shadow Bolt spam from BC. Still … if I wanted to roll a fire mage I would have. QQ

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