Any Warlock specific Raiding guides?

[Sesskia]

I have just started getting involved with raiding, and would like to know how to improve.  Does anyone know of any guides out there specific to Warlocks?I have only just hit my 60s, but my guild  has done a few Tier 6 raids raids recently (For Status), which I have been involved in, and done pretty well too tbh...but I want to know how to really play my class right for raids.The guild isn't a raiding guild, but they are a family guild that raids well 3x a week, and is pretty well respected for it.  I don't need to be a hardcore raider, but I do wish to be better than the average.The sort of things I'm looking for are:Which spells to use, not to use (and more importantly, why!)Info on the pros and cons of AAs for raiding warlocksAbsolutely must have gear/items or items that may not be obvious to a noob raider<div></div>

[Niun01]

A must have will be damage proc items i.e. Fitzpittzle walking stick, Cap of the living flame, Mystical orb of the Invoker, Death Orb.. etc. Procs are your friend.Always and I mean always keep your DoTs cycled.. Netherous Realm+dark Infestation is your friend..Use your Aura line of spells, be sure to cycle your boundless fury/<chaostorm at 70> all these will add up alot..Inbetween DoTs... throw out your rift, devastation <apocolypse later>, Nebula, larger AoEs etc.On single target mobs... Release all your DoTs.. chaostorm etc.. then cycle through your fast casting single target spells first.. reapply your DoTs.. Hit your large nuke.. reapply DoTs.. I still try to fit freehand sorcery+apocolypse in on single targets..As for AA's I have heard different theorys.. I am Strength/Wisdom for max damage and max Agro stealing ability, but I have been hearing good things about Strength/agility for the increased casting and crits.I have even heard that agility/intel is a great way to go to reduce agro and get more nukes out.. but when I was in Intel line personally, I still stole agro, so I respeced out to ultilize the Wisdom line.I suppose you may want to fit our 3 deaggro spells inbetween nukes as well.. I only use them on groups of 3 or more mobs personally.. I have yet to steal agro off of a single mob from our tank yet.Hope this helps.. Warlock is a volitile class, and I wouldnt change it for the world.<div></div>

[Nevao]

<div></div><font color="#ffcc00">I think you're going to find several opinions on this one, but I'll throw out some of quick thoughts (I'm at work) and then expand on them later.</font><font color="#ff0000">Which spells to use, not to use (and more importantly, why!)<font color="#ffcc00">I really think it's more about spell order then it is about which spell. I use most of my damage spells in any given fight, with the possible exception of "Scourge of Shadows". There were several spells though that I did not realize were as useful as they are until I charted a few things out.</font></font><ul><li><font color="#ffcc00">"War Pyre": This spell does more damage then "Soul Blister" and has the same casting time. I'm not saying you should always use it instead, but if there's still time left in the fight for it to do all of it's ticks you'll see more damage and less aggro.</font></li><li><font color="#ffcc00">"Dark Infestation": Use early! Use often, especially in multimob encounters. The Dark Broodlings do a good amount of damage and since they are again a "DoT" they help keep aggro down at the beginning. (See a theme <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> )</font></li><li><font color="#ffcc00">"Corrupt Gift": It's more damage, why not?</font></li><li><font color="#ffcc00">"Rift": You may not have this one yet, but the nice thing about it is that it generates little aggro so it can be used early in the fight, you just have to be careful to make sure you won't pull in additional mobs.</font></li><li><font color="#ffcc00">"Nebuala" and "Absolution" Lines: Of course you will be using these but several Live Updates back (sorry I can't make the switch to Game Updates) they fixed it so your casting does <b><i>not</i> </b>break if your initial target in a linked encounter dies. If it looks like the targeted mob is about to go down don't cast a single target, cast the encounter spell so you don't lose any time.</font></li></ul><font color="#ffcc00">As for the order, you will find one that works best for you but I tend to go down the following path: Debuffs (I usually just use Noxious), Damage enhancers (Corrupt Gift if single, Corrupt Gift and Netheros Realm if multimob), Dots (always, always including Dark Infestation and the "Aura" line) excluding Apocalypse, then then DD Nukes (which one's depend on the encounter), then Apocalypse. Depending on the situation I'll throw Rift in there as well.  This rotation let's you build up aggro gradually and I've had pretty good luck with it. One thing to remember is that you have two mana regen spells that you can use on your group/raid members, and while you don't want to give up too much in the DPS department, healers and tanks without power is not fun.</font><font color="#ff0000">Info on the pros and cons of AAs for raiding warlocks</font><font color="#ffcc00"><font color="#ffcc00">I do not yet have any of the EoF AA's so others will have to speak to them. From what I know, have heard and read in the forums about the Sorcerer AA's </font></font><font color="#ffcc00">Wisdom is a must have. I maxed out Freehand and the Base Damage Boost. There are some questions as to whether it's better to go Strength or Agility. Most Warlocks I've talked to would rather have the increased Crits, most Wizards I've talked to would rather have the decrease to casting timers. Personally I went Strength with 8 points in crit chance, but none in the final ability. I've always felt that our casting times were part of aggro control since we are hitting more mobs then wizards. As for Wizards due to the larger damage single target nukes, or so I have been told, increased crits was making managing aggro tricky. One note though, if you do go down the Agility Line be prepared to manage your power pool as you will burn through it much quicker.Another note:  know several sorc's who have respeced once they got their final Claymore items, but when starting around your level range that's what I've seen.</font><font color="#ff0000">Absolutely must have gear/items or items that may not be obvious to a noob raider<font color="#ffcc00">If your guild is willing to do Godking in DoF go for the Godking wand. Power regen, damage and Int proc. Manastone is another must, though I'm sure you already have that. In general damage proc gear is your friend. On the "I'm sure I'll get flamed front" I perfer the Deaggro Robe (Robe of the Skywatcher) from the Ring event in TT over the fabled robe from Nest. Except in 4+ minute fights power is usually not an issue for me, and the deaggro proc goes off a lot from this robe (plus it just looks cool <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> )Good luck and good hunting!</font></font><font color="#ffcc00"></font><div></div><p>Message Edited by Pondering42 on <span class=date_text>12-05-2006</span> <span class=time_text>01:24 PM</span>

[Sesskia]

<div>From the sound of things, i'm not doing too bad with my spell usage.  A bit of tweaking to see what works for me will help.My AAs are another matter tho.I have filled the Agility Line of Sorc up, and am not far from filling the Warlock Explosive line (+Aftershock).My plan was to go Ag/Str with Explo and something else as yet undecided.  Im now wondering if it isn't better to sacrifice some dmg for power management.I have the manastone already <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> just got it the other day, and im pretty confident my guild will help with godking.Thanks guys.  I feel happier knowing im on track, and have some areas to consider when looking for gear.If anyone else has suggestions, or expanded comments then feel free, I will def be looking at the replies in more detail.</div>

[Nevao]

<font color="#ffcc00">I was just wandering around in our brethren's forum and ran across this post. While the spell section does not quite apply as well many of the points about equipment and aggro do.</font><font color="#ffcc00"><a href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=23&message.id=27417" target=_blank>http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=23&message.id=27417</a></font><div></div>

[Hellswrath]

<DIV>I don't have anything pertinent to add to the spell rotations, but as far as AA's:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Strength line.  4/4/4/8/0  You get your added crit maxed.  I think the guaranteed crit is overrated as you will crit plenty without it.</DIV> <DIV>Wisdom line.  4/5/4/8/1  Freehand sorcery is terribly useful.  Maxed out base damage bonus is even better.  The 12% less power cost ability helps immensely on those long epic fights (and it's passive.....YAY passive) :smileywink:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>As far as the EoF AAs.  Still hearing debate about the usefulness of the -20% to target casting range in raids.  I think it will be amazingly useful.  But again the jury is still out.  After following the aftershock threads closely, it doesn't seem like this ability is really worth it.  In addition, I don't think that we really need that much help in the encounter AE department, since we have enough trouble holding aggro on the mobs not targeted by the MT as it is.  I plan on passing on this line until I finish out the protections line and hastenings line.  The hastenings line for helping greatly with our single target damage, which we don't have a problem on the tank keeping aggro.  The protections line for letting me let loose on the encounter DPS and still not lose aggro (almost done this line now and already noticing s drastic improvement.  Can't wait for Vacuous)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I think the KoS set up I mentioned is best for damage without wasting all your power while raiding, but I'm open to discussion on the EoF AA tree.  Some great options there.  Hard to choose. :smileyhappy:</DIV><p>Message Edited by HellsWrath99 on <span class=date_text>12-05-2006</span> <span class=time_text>05:38 PM</span>

[Sesskia]

<blockquote><hr>Pondering42 wrote:<font color="#ffcc00">I was just wandering around in our brethren's forum and ran across this post. While the spell section does not quite apply as well many of the points about equipment and aggro do.</font><font color="#ffcc00"><a href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=23&message.id=27417" target="_blank">http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=23&message.id=27417</a></font><div></div><hr></blockquote>Wow! thats a great link, thanks!Im still not sure which way to go on AAs.  Everyone seems to have diff opinions on the Str/Agi/Wis lines...but most seem to come out with Wis, which is hte one I wasn't planning to have.EOF AAs are worse because I am about 3AAs from getting Aftershocks, which now looks to be not worth the bother, particularly as u need to spend 20 points in increasing your AOE when it is already decent in the first place.Im definately a fan of speed increasing...i feel its better to have lots of little, rather than a little of lots (particularly if u are likely to get stifled, interrupted or stunned).  That means I might have power issues on long fights, so Wis may be a better option that Str.The thing that bakes my noodle is that if I choose crits instead, Im not going to have as many issues with my power, so Wis isn't so necessary, but then I can't use Agi with it or else the power becomes a prob again.In other words, If I want Agi, I need Wis.  If I want Str, then I won't need Wis, but I can't take Agi either.  That leaves Int and Sta which no one realy seems to think is useful.Really, I want to have Str and Agi lines with no power issues hehe <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><div></div>

[Nevao]

<blockquote><hr>LloydPickering wrote:Really, I want to have Str and Agi lines with no power issues hehe <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><div></div><hr></blockquote><font color="#ffcc00"></font><font color="#ffcc00">Well you can offset the power issues to some extent by group setups (make sure you have a troub or illusionist) and by items and potions. If you have access to a Necro or Summoner on the raid get you heart and shards and don't be afraid to use them. Also make sure you're bringing power potions, and Int potions if you can afford them. Serveral T7 fabled armor pieces (once you get into DT, Fallen Dynasty and EoF) have power drain or power heal procs and even if you're not far enough in for those get any piece you can with Flowing Thought. Aslo don't forget that you can use you can target your power feed spell (not the canni line but the other sorry I can't remember the name at the moment).The nice thing though is that is that almost all of the discussions I've seen are around what is the optimal setup, not about what setups work well. As far as I can tell the various combinations of STR/AGI/WIS all work well. They all have their positives and they all have some draw back. STR/WIS is a lot of damage but it's going to have spike aggro issues. STR/AGI let's you get off your spells faster but is going to have mana issues (and possible aggro if you don't time yourself well), etc. In the end it's about finding a combo that works well with your playstyle and that you enjoy.</font><div></div>

[Tumple-top]

<DIV>so the int AA line isn't useful unless your soloing correct?</DIV>

[Sesskia]

<div><blockquote><hr>Tumple-top wrote:<div>so the int AA line isn't useful unless your soloing correct?</div><hr></blockquote>Im not sure its great for soling either.Prob with int, as I see it is:Diminishing returns means those extra int point mean less, so the inc in dmg is minimalDeaggro is only an issue if u are doing too much damage for a tank to handle, and our deaggro spells did get a boost with EOF.Best thing is to go for dmg or power related lines, and group with a palidan and troub...</div>

[Tumple-top]

k thx