03-26-2005, 04:32 AM
My warlock (Zippyy on Stormrage) is currently level 42 and focusing on Affliction. My current 0-60 plan looks something like this:
![[Image: zipbuild.jpg]](http://twilighted.com/zipbuild.jpg)
Affliction Talents (31 points)
Improved Corruption - 5/5 points
Reduces the casting time of your Corruption spell by 2 seconds.
One of the best first row talents. Makes Corruption an instant-cast spell. 5 points well spent, and I’ve never looked back.
Suppression - 2/5 points
Reduces the chance for enemies to resist your Affliction spells by 4%.
Two points were needed to get up to the 25 affliction points needed to add points to Shadow Mastery. My choices for using up these two points were Suppression, Improved Drain Life, Improved Curse of Agony, Improved Mana Drain, and Curse of Exhaustion (with one extra point for any of the previous skills or Improved Curse of Exhaustion). I didn’t feel that any of these were worthwhile, but I settled on Suppression because it seemed the least worthless. I hate having my spells resisted.
Improved Life Tap - 2/2 points
Increases the amount of Mana awarded by your Life Tap spell by 20%.
Improved Curse of Weakness - 3/3 points
Increases the effect of your Curse of Weakness by 20%.
It was either these two, or 5/5 in Improved Drain Life. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Drain Life, and I use it in nearly every fight, frequently more than once. However, I examined the benefits of the talent maxed (+10% damage). The highest level Drain Life (Rank 6 at level 54) does 71 dps for 5 seconds. I just didn’t feel that 5 talent points were a worthwhile investment for only 35 damage per cast.
You will get this extra damage anyway once Shadow Mastery is maxed.
However, I find myself using Curse of Weakness quite a bit, and it (especially Amplified) will frequently reduce the damage of a mob by as much as 1/4, and in some cases even 1/3. The best use of CoW is on duel-wielding and/or quick attacking mobs and players. It’s fun seeing a 40ish mob doing < 20 damage per hit.
Life Tap is also invaluable. Use it in instances, use it before you cast Drain Life if you have full health, use it to balance your health and mana before resting. Hell, Tap yourself down to a sliver of health if you are running low on water and have plenty of food. :)
Improved Drain Soul - 2/2 points
Gives you a 100% chance to get a 100% increase to your Mana regeneration for 10 seconds if the target dies while while you drain its soul. In addition, your Mana may continue to regenerate while casting at 50% of normal.
Cuts down on downtime between fights. I would have skipped this, but these two points were needed to get to 25 Affliction points in order to get Shadow Mastery, as discussed earlier. This was by far the best talent out of the ones available.
Fel Concentration - 5/5 points
Gives you a 70% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while channelling the Drain Life, Drain Mana, or Drain Soul spell.
Yes. This is amazing. If you’re getting pounded by a mob or player, it’s not a half bad strategy to keep spamming Drain Life. They only have a 30% chance to interrupt it, and get a huge chunk taken out of their DPS since you are gaining life so quickly, whilst taking damage at the same time.
Amplify Curse - 1/1 point
Increases the effect of your next Curse of Weakness or Curse of Agony by 50%, or your next Curse of Exhaustion by 20%.
Use every 3 minutes. Not a great talent, but worth a point.
Grim Reach - 2/2 points
Increases the range of your Affliction spells by 20%.
Range is your friend.
Nightfall - 2/2 points
Gives your Corruption and Drain Life spells a 4% chance to cause you to enter a Shadow Trance state after damaging the opponent. The Shadow Trance state reduces the casting time of your next Shadow Bolt spell by 100%.
Fun and useful. Between Corruption every 3 seconds and Drain Life every second, Nightfall procs at least once in nearly every fight. With affliction being my focus, this is the only time I ever cast Shadow Bolt. Nice big boost to my DPS without interfering with business as usual.
Siphon Life - 1/1 point
Transfers 13 (increases with ranks, up to 35 at level 60) health from the target to the caster every 3 seconds. Lasts 30 seconds.
Meh. I can’t decide if this is worth casting, but it was a required part of the tree. I like the icon!
Shadow Mastery - 5/5 points
Increases the damage dealt or life drained by your Shadow spells by 10%.
I’m only level 42, so I haven’t tasted this particular fruit yet, but it looks delicious.
Dark Pact - 1/1 point
Drains 150 of your pet's Mana, returning 100% to you.
Seems quite nice. My pets at 42 have a little over 1000 mana. The Succubus can be used to deal pure melee damage to keep its mana pool available, I suppose. The Imp can be kept invisible as a cute second mana pool and stamina boost. The voidwalker looks like a giant mana pool, but I don’t know… I don’t seem to ever use good ol’ Hukkresh anymore.
Demonology Talents (8 points)
Improved Imp - 3/3 points
Increases the effect of your Imp's Firebolt, Fire Shield, and Blood Pact spells by 30%.
Extra damage, and even better, extra health for the whole party. A worthy use of 3 points.
Demonic Embrace - 5/5 points
Increases your total Stamina by 15%, but reduces your total Spirit by 5%.
Wow, I mean wow. This and Improved Corruption are in a tight race for best first row talent. For humans, who have a +5% innate spirit bonus, this talent just puts you back at net zero (not the dialup company).
The following is all speculation, since I'm only 42 and I have never put a single point in a Destruction talent.
Destruction Talents (11 points)
I was at a loss as for what to do with the rest of my points. I thought about maxing Fel Intellect and Fel Stamina to give my pets a +15% health and mana boost, and still may go that direction. My other idea (below) was to move into Destruction to get Shadowburn.
Improved Shadow Bolt - 5/5 points
Your Shadow Bolt critical strikes increase the next 4 sources of Shadow damage dealt to the target by 20%.
I use Shadow Bolt whenever Nightfall procs (about once a fight) but I can’t remember a single time that I’ve gotten a crit. Cataclysm reduces Destruction spell mana cost by 5%, which is also pretty paltry. It’s a toss-up for me.
Bane - 5/5 points
Reduces the casting time of your Shadow Bolt and Immolate spells by 0.5 seconds.
-.5 seconds isn’t much compared to -2 seconds from Improved Corruption, but I think it would be better than a 10% chance to daze from destruction spells. Does anyone know if the 10% can proc from each tick of Immolate? That might make it better. Dunno, I’m kind of out of my comfort area here :)
Shadowburn - 1/1 point
Instantly blasts the target with 87 to 99 (increases with ranks, up to 450-502 at level 56) Shadow damage. Requires 1 Soul Shard. If the target dies from Shadowburn, and yields experience, the caster gains a Soul Shard.
Instant direct damage costing a soul shard. Guess it’s pretty good.
You might notice I have one extra point. Anyone have an idea where I should put it? Maybe I’ll just keep it as a good-luck point when I get to 60 :)
I've been told that Destruction is the most effective in high-level instances, so a respec might be in order when I get to that point. So far, my current build has seemed the most effective both for solo and group/instance play. But as always, YMMV :)
Affliction Talents (31 points)
Improved Corruption - 5/5 points
Reduces the casting time of your Corruption spell by 2 seconds.
One of the best first row talents. Makes Corruption an instant-cast spell. 5 points well spent, and I’ve never looked back.
Suppression - 2/5 points
Reduces the chance for enemies to resist your Affliction spells by 4%.
Two points were needed to get up to the 25 affliction points needed to add points to Shadow Mastery. My choices for using up these two points were Suppression, Improved Drain Life, Improved Curse of Agony, Improved Mana Drain, and Curse of Exhaustion (with one extra point for any of the previous skills or Improved Curse of Exhaustion). I didn’t feel that any of these were worthwhile, but I settled on Suppression because it seemed the least worthless. I hate having my spells resisted.
Improved Life Tap - 2/2 points
Increases the amount of Mana awarded by your Life Tap spell by 20%.
Improved Curse of Weakness - 3/3 points
Increases the effect of your Curse of Weakness by 20%.
It was either these two, or 5/5 in Improved Drain Life. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Drain Life, and I use it in nearly every fight, frequently more than once. However, I examined the benefits of the talent maxed (+10% damage). The highest level Drain Life (Rank 6 at level 54) does 71 dps for 5 seconds. I just didn’t feel that 5 talent points were a worthwhile investment for only 35 damage per cast.
You will get this extra damage anyway once Shadow Mastery is maxed.
However, I find myself using Curse of Weakness quite a bit, and it (especially Amplified) will frequently reduce the damage of a mob by as much as 1/4, and in some cases even 1/3. The best use of CoW is on duel-wielding and/or quick attacking mobs and players. It’s fun seeing a 40ish mob doing < 20 damage per hit.
Life Tap is also invaluable. Use it in instances, use it before you cast Drain Life if you have full health, use it to balance your health and mana before resting. Hell, Tap yourself down to a sliver of health if you are running low on water and have plenty of food. :)
Improved Drain Soul - 2/2 points
Gives you a 100% chance to get a 100% increase to your Mana regeneration for 10 seconds if the target dies while while you drain its soul. In addition, your Mana may continue to regenerate while casting at 50% of normal.
Cuts down on downtime between fights. I would have skipped this, but these two points were needed to get to 25 Affliction points in order to get Shadow Mastery, as discussed earlier. This was by far the best talent out of the ones available.
Fel Concentration - 5/5 points
Gives you a 70% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while channelling the Drain Life, Drain Mana, or Drain Soul spell.
Yes. This is amazing. If you’re getting pounded by a mob or player, it’s not a half bad strategy to keep spamming Drain Life. They only have a 30% chance to interrupt it, and get a huge chunk taken out of their DPS since you are gaining life so quickly, whilst taking damage at the same time.
Amplify Curse - 1/1 point
Increases the effect of your next Curse of Weakness or Curse of Agony by 50%, or your next Curse of Exhaustion by 20%.
Use every 3 minutes. Not a great talent, but worth a point.
Grim Reach - 2/2 points
Increases the range of your Affliction spells by 20%.
Range is your friend.
Nightfall - 2/2 points
Gives your Corruption and Drain Life spells a 4% chance to cause you to enter a Shadow Trance state after damaging the opponent. The Shadow Trance state reduces the casting time of your next Shadow Bolt spell by 100%.
Fun and useful. Between Corruption every 3 seconds and Drain Life every second, Nightfall procs at least once in nearly every fight. With affliction being my focus, this is the only time I ever cast Shadow Bolt. Nice big boost to my DPS without interfering with business as usual.
Siphon Life - 1/1 point
Transfers 13 (increases with ranks, up to 35 at level 60) health from the target to the caster every 3 seconds. Lasts 30 seconds.
Meh. I can’t decide if this is worth casting, but it was a required part of the tree. I like the icon!
Shadow Mastery - 5/5 points
Increases the damage dealt or life drained by your Shadow spells by 10%.
I’m only level 42, so I haven’t tasted this particular fruit yet, but it looks delicious.
Dark Pact - 1/1 point
Drains 150 of your pet's Mana, returning 100% to you.
Seems quite nice. My pets at 42 have a little over 1000 mana. The Succubus can be used to deal pure melee damage to keep its mana pool available, I suppose. The Imp can be kept invisible as a cute second mana pool and stamina boost. The voidwalker looks like a giant mana pool, but I don’t know… I don’t seem to ever use good ol’ Hukkresh anymore.
Demonology Talents (8 points)
Improved Imp - 3/3 points
Increases the effect of your Imp's Firebolt, Fire Shield, and Blood Pact spells by 30%.
Extra damage, and even better, extra health for the whole party. A worthy use of 3 points.
Demonic Embrace - 5/5 points
Increases your total Stamina by 15%, but reduces your total Spirit by 5%.
Wow, I mean wow. This and Improved Corruption are in a tight race for best first row talent. For humans, who have a +5% innate spirit bonus, this talent just puts you back at net zero (not the dialup company).
The following is all speculation, since I'm only 42 and I have never put a single point in a Destruction talent.
Destruction Talents (11 points)
I was at a loss as for what to do with the rest of my points. I thought about maxing Fel Intellect and Fel Stamina to give my pets a +15% health and mana boost, and still may go that direction. My other idea (below) was to move into Destruction to get Shadowburn.
Improved Shadow Bolt - 5/5 points
Your Shadow Bolt critical strikes increase the next 4 sources of Shadow damage dealt to the target by 20%.
I use Shadow Bolt whenever Nightfall procs (about once a fight) but I can’t remember a single time that I’ve gotten a crit. Cataclysm reduces Destruction spell mana cost by 5%, which is also pretty paltry. It’s a toss-up for me.
Bane - 5/5 points
Reduces the casting time of your Shadow Bolt and Immolate spells by 0.5 seconds.
-.5 seconds isn’t much compared to -2 seconds from Improved Corruption, but I think it would be better than a 10% chance to daze from destruction spells. Does anyone know if the 10% can proc from each tick of Immolate? That might make it better. Dunno, I’m kind of out of my comfort area here :)
Shadowburn - 1/1 point
Instantly blasts the target with 87 to 99 (increases with ranks, up to 450-502 at level 56) Shadow damage. Requires 1 Soul Shard. If the target dies from Shadowburn, and yields experience, the caster gains a Soul Shard.
Instant direct damage costing a soul shard. Guess it’s pretty good.
You might notice I have one extra point. Anyone have an idea where I should put it? Maybe I’ll just keep it as a good-luck point when I get to 60 :)
I've been told that Destruction is the most effective in high-level instances, so a respec might be in order when I get to that point. So far, my current build has seemed the most effective both for solo and group/instance play. But as always, YMMV :)
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