I have a level 70 lock... I don't talk about her much. My daughter created her and we/I have leveled her to 70.
Last night I took her on a ZA run, full clear and with a Destro spec, crafted and Kara gear (no Tier gear or anything from 25 man raids or badge gear and only PvP S2 staff) stayed pretty competitive I thought.
I am spec Destro, sack a wentch for the buff, curse for added shadow damage, and spam either SB, seed, or banish throughout the run.
We take down the first boss (Eagle) and my DPS is so/so because I keep being flung into the air or made the storm... lol... so I had a lot of down time and didn't quite break 1K DPS.
We take down the 2nd boss (Bear) and I am 3rd in DPS and not really that far from the leaders breaking 1K DPS.
We take down the 3rd boss (Phoenix) and I am 2nd in DPS while managing the dudes breaking eggs and seeding the adds while staying alive from the bombs.
We missed the timed chest... oh well, no big...
We take down the 4th Boss (Lynx) and I am a solid 3rd in DPS and right there with the leaders.
We take down Hex Lord and my DPS falls quite a bit since I am keeping an add on focus and rebanishing it over and over. Hurt a little with 3 priests in the group since when they get MCed they would cleanse my banish... doh.
We kill Zul'jin and my DPS falls because I die to a Lynx rush... Healthstone didn't even make a dent as I croaked... remember, my gear is not stellar except for my Belt of Blasting... Frozen Shadow since level 70 FTW... lol
A couple points I would like to make.
1. Locks are increadibly easy compared to DPSing with a feral druid. I life tap when I need mana, I keep an eye on my Corruption DoT timer, I make sure Curse is up, I spam SB.
2. Locks are WAY more gear independant than my feral druid. No way I could have come in ZA as a feral in no badge gear, no head enchant, S2 mace, and only some bought rep peices and Kara drops with no Tier gear and been close to contributing as much as I did on my Lock.
Because of stuff like this and having to share rogue gear now I start to consider changing my main to my lock which really sucks since she has not even ran 1 Herioc... not 1. She has no Outland rep to exaulted except for Scryer.
Again, she is breaking 1K DPS in a 10 man and really didn't have to do shit to get there. I had to grind my ass of on my druid, spend tons of badges and gold, get all kinds of rep... ugh.
Now I am going into Wrath, I am going to be sharing leather with rogues, I have to choose between specs to either MT or DPS, I have no clue if being an OT/DPS will still be possible and even if it were now I have to juggle energy regaining abilites, lose what was the best Tier bonus in the game (2T4), and possible add more attacks/casts into both my tanking and DPSing rotations. So now I might be timing Mangle, rake, shred, rip, Fury, bezerker... you get the point.
Do I really want to put myself through even more min/max gear and playstyle when I could just level my lock and roll into the first raids with some crafted crap and top the DPS meters by spamming 1 or 2 spells?
I just don't know.
I guess I could just spec resto and be done with it. I think I am going to bounce between Tanking spec and Resto spec that way I can always find a group for a 5 man while getting to 80.
If my lock didn't look like a craigslist special of the week maybe I would think differently.
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7 comments:
Currently Destruction DPS is simplified, as you described put up a curse and spam shadowbolt. However, locks wont be getting a free ride in the expansion and certainly won't be about spamming shadowbolt over and over. That being said, my main is a warlock and the main thing is that the crafted gear for warlocks/casters is very OP, and won't be that way in WotLK(unfortunately). Generally the Spellstrike Set + frozen shadowweave plus some decent blues and a pvp weapon are enough for a destruction warlock to eek out close to 1000 dps assuming they gem correctly and get hitcapped.
Yeah, after I wrote this I started doing some reading and it sounds like Micro Managing a demon or watching the DoT timers is going to be the new DPS method of locks in WotLK.
I guess I am just lashing out on how easy locks had it in BC. I am not even going to get in to the difference in 2v2 arena between locks and feral druids.
I am starting to think as far as druids and locks are concerned DPS wise it might end up being the other way around come Wrath.
Very interesting. Well, I also have a magetard in my 60s, and I'm consistently topping the dps charts in instances with no effort whatsoever. All that feral stuff that I sweated over just like you have... I dont have to do any of that for the mage, it would seem. It's been an eye opening for sure, shedding new light on the ease of playing a pure dps class. It also invalidates all the dps boasting that mages (& I guess locks) do.
Well, the druid way is the druid way, that's all I can say. I'm going for MT roles in my guild as much as possible on the druid - thats the plan. I dont believe cat dps will ever be as good as mage/rogue/lock dps. According to GC, the feral tree is deliberately bloated to allow both bear & cat talents. With that degree of flexibilty in play styles for only 5-10 talent points all in the same tree, it wouldn't be fair to all the huntards, magetards & locktards if we could dps as well as them. What do they have to look forward to in other talent trees? More dps? A bit of utility? That's all pretty yawny, compared to the variety in the druid talent trees.
I'm also levelling a prot warrior for wrath. If bear tanking truly sucks, I may switch mains to the warrior. I cant imagine not being a tank in endgame raiding. Every other role seems infintely easier, and therefore infinitely more boring.
I dunno, I found OTing/DPSing/OHing challenging but MTing is challenging more for the healers than the MT IMHO.
Trying to keep up with the rogues/mages/locks in DPS could be a challenge but until proven it might be hard to get a guild to let you along in a non tanking spec.
I dunno... maybe rolling a DK is the answer.
Yeah lets compare notes once wrath hits. my guild tends to bring me for most fights in spite of boring dps when I'm not tanking, probably because a) I always show up and I'm not an idiot, and b) I have a battle rez.
I do wonder about your guild in some respects tho - I remember some previous posts about your guild "letting" you in on the party. We try to bring the most reliable, skilled players, irrespective of class, and I hope that will be even easier in wrath. You are a skilled player - isnt that worth about 20x more than top dps?
Sorry, I should have been more specific about the challenges of MTing: I mean being MT/RL - knowing the instances better than anyone, explaining strats, marking trash, sorting groups, and generally being a leader for the raid. Yes, I've MTed where I just show up, and clicking 5 buttons in a row for 8 minutes is the limit of my contribution. But I'm talking about the whole package. Whats the point of being an MT if you're not a leader of some sort too? (mileage may vary I guess)
When I made reference to the guild "letting me in to the party" it was tongue in cheek.
When I talk about things like this it is meant to represent players that are unproven which really could be anyone at any point in time if you end up changing guilds at one point or another.
In my past guild the raid was not necessarily led by just 1 person but by the officers in the raid. We had a raid leader but class leaders also get involved and sometimes the GM would decide to change strategy based on suggestion or a change in raid dynamic.
We were pretty successful this way especially when at times we would raid with no rogue, pally, mage, lock... etc.
Hey Jace!
I finally caught up in my reader so now I can reply to things and maybe even make a post of my own.
But on to your dilemma. Clothie's itemization may seem more independent but that is just because of the OPness of the tailoring epics when compared to Blacksmithing and Leatherworking. Apparently Wrath has them more in line with how LW and BS were in BC. Some nice starting gear, but not needed.
So... don't give up on the druid, locks and other clothies got more gear dependent come 80
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