Please help me maximize my dps in COA(single mob pulls)

[rolokime]

Our class is so used to ruling the dps ladder with our aoe's. Please help me develop a new casting order. I really appreciate any and all input............ 

[Araxes]

<ol><li>Curse of ... whatever it's called.  The red one.</li><li>Scourge / Acid</li><li>War Pyre / Vacuum Chamber</li><li>Chaostorm / Catacylsm</li><li>Apocalypse / Armageddon</li><li>Distortion</li></ol>Most likely the mob is dead by now but if not ...<ol><li>Soul Blister</li><li>Encase</li><li>Velious</li></ol>Obviously tossing in one blue AE and one green AE will require a bit more power.  Also, I have a lot of speed gear, am AGI specced, and have tons of regen.  So you will to modify your tactics accordingly to account for cast times, power use, and DPS output of the group.  You won't want to bother to try and keep up with an Assassin, for instance.  No amtter what you do, it would be hard to keep up with an Assassin who knows what he's doing, especially on the wimp-[Removed for Content] mobs in CoA that die in less than 15 seconds.

[CelebornXI]

single target heroics shouldn't live longer then 30seconds, so precast gift if you want, vacuum field, catalyst freehand Armageddon/apoc, distortion, aura, encase, flames, distortion, rinse... dots take to long, so stick with dd.

[rolokime]

WOW thanxxx guys will do gonna try it asap

[Deathspell]

I think there is no real casting order.It all depends on the level of the mob (green or yellow?) and your group.If you have 2 scouts in your group, a wizard and/or dpsing tank, the mobs will die very quick and then it's simply a waste of time to start with 3-4 dots.If you have fast dps in your group, you have to fast as well, e.g. fast direct damage spells, like Distortion and Dissolve.

[Windowlicker]

<cite>CelebornXI wrote:</cite><blockquote>single target heroics shouldn't live longer then 30seconds, so precast gift if you want, vacuum field, catalyst freehand Armageddon/apoc, distortion, aura, encase, flames, distortion, rinse... dots take to long, so stick with dd.</blockquote><p>This is easily the best answer in this thread.  Please ignore the fellow up top that's suggesting you pile on small dots.  That's going to do nothing but result in *absolutely horrible DPS*.</p><p>I kinda hope his post was a joke, intended to misguide you. </p><p>The only change I'd make to Celeborn's post is:</p><p>Vaccum Field, Catalyst(If you have it)/Freehand Sorcery and Apocalypse, Aura, Cycle DD's starting from highest damage to lowest.</p><p>Keep in mind here these mobs die quick.  So you're looking to do as much damage as you can in a very short period of time.  A few small DOTS won't do that.  They only pay off in the longer duration stuff that will actually let them tick.</p>

[LionWilled]

<cite>Zahne@Mistmoore wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>CelebornXI wrote:</cite><blockquote>single target heroics shouldn't live longer then 30seconds, so precast gift if you want, vacuum field, catalyst freehand Armageddon/apoc, distortion, aura, encase, flames, distortion, rinse... dots take to long, so stick with dd.</blockquote><p>This is easily the best answer in this thread.  Please ignore the fellow up top that's suggesting you pile on small dots.  That's going to do nothing but result in *absolutely horrible DPS*.</p><p>I kinda hope his post was a joke, intended to misguide you. </p><p>The only change I'd make to Celeborn's post is:</p><p>Vaccum Field, Catalyst(If you have it)/Freehand Sorcery and Apocalypse, Aura, Cycle DD's starting from highest damage to lowest.</p><p>Keep in mind here these mobs die quick.  So you're looking to do as much damage as you can in a very short period of time.  A few small DOTS won't do that.  They only pay off in the longer duration stuff that will actually let them tick.</p></blockquote>Araxes is probably too used to giving advice for raid casting order on single targets.Though even yellow ^^^'s melt like butter, so it probably is a waste of time casting the dots, and you don't need the full duration of netherous and corrupt gift when mobs die so fast, so pre casting them and losing a handful of seconds in duration, but having it already up when the fight begins, is a good idea.

[Slako]

ok Warlocks. So far nice posts.my first advice is to check this one:<a href="http://www.eq2bm.com/guides/Warlock%20Spells.htm" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.eq2bm.com/guides/Warlock%20Spells.htm</a>that's a bit boring to read but offers some nice information: The dmg-amount of your spells related to it casttime. Its still t7, but it works fine for t8.(Dark Broodlings and the netherlord are only usefull if the mop is alive for more than 40 seconds. @ COA it isn't.)So just start your castorder with debuff or precast apoc, and then start just follow down the list of spells. And try to recast the Top-spells of the list as they are up again. Only use the green debuff, but use it. (Set 5 aa points on it so i get +35% more debuff -> nice dmg boost ,)Parsing around 1,8k dps without any casterbuff-classes.If you take an trub or an illu along you parse 2,2k++Parsed nmd around 3,6k (Realm, Gift, Focused Casting ,)Another advice is to cast Realm as often as possible it's an amazing dmg boost ;)Just check your spellorder with and without.

[BetaMaster]

<p>If you are in a group where the fight will last between 30s and 1m dots are NOT! useless</p><p> Precast Gift of Bertox when you think tank will be pulling very shortly and then chain cast/cancel Acid Storm until he pulls.NetherealmNox DebuffNetherbeastFocused CastingBrood InfestationAuraAcidVacuum ChamberFreehand - ArmageddonDistortionFlamesEncase</p><p>Warlocks are dots, we are not heavy hitters.  Yes, i'll clip off a 11k distortion or 15k upheaval from time to time in certain situations... but ya gotta keep stuff tickn.</p><p>Remember though... if the fights are quick then this is a terrible order, this is a longer sustained order.  Fights that last around 30-60s... 10second fights can just be a precasted gift and netherealm, focused casting freehand armageddon, distortion, flames, encase. do a lot of 8-12s fights like that in CoA.  Most of the fights in there consist of 5-10mobs cause i generally group w/ a nutty zerker... and in those cases my order is much different.</p>

[CelebornXI]

even on 10minute long or greater raid mob fights, distortion, encase, and armagedon have a higher precedence as far as being needed to be cast than say vacuum or acid, yes those get cast, but normally after everything else is down, or in acids case since it is unresistable and has a very low cast time, for procing netherous realm the first pulse.

[Laretha]

<p>ok try this but not in a Pug you will [Removed for Content] the tank and healers off,  I used this in guild groups.</p><p>precast: Netherelms & gift of bertox then Acid storm</p><p>on contact make sure you are in melee range if no AoE etc</p><p>then Focus Casting, vacuum field, Catalyts, freehand, Armageddon, aura of void, Distortion, Acid, Vacuum chamber, Flames, Encase then roll with whats up normally Distortion etc. (I can and do replace the DoT's spells with all the DD spells if I think the fight is not going to last long)</p><p>During this I will be using ambidextroux casting for the free melee hits that can be used while other spells are being cast.</p><p>Ok about the last 5% of the fight you will be tanking the mob say 25% of the time depending on the group make up. If you have a pally tanking and you have amends you wont be. IF you have other heavy hiting DPS classes you wont be. </p><p>I very rarely die doing this as the mob is dead before it beats me to death.</p><p>Laretha 80 Warlock Nagena  </p>

[Slako]

Hehe, do it the same way on nmd. Be sure you got a position deaggro up and got the mop in target. So you can use your deaggro if the mop tries to attack you. With the right equip you parse around 4k dps.

[knightofround]

Yeah I don't agree with the above posters that are anti-dots. DoTs are our single best source of dps since our heavy hitters are all spells with 30+ sec durations and/or recasts.Generally I open up with scourge/war pyre. AA enhanced to max, scourge is down to 10 seconds so its almost always goes to full duration, and depending upon your group you can double it up. Obviously the less AAs you have, the more worthless dots are in quick fights.Part of doing good dps is ensuring you don't die, especially in quick fights. You lose power, you suffer rez effects, you do no dps to a mob. Dots are a useful tool because they tease out the aggro, giving the tank time for their taunt specials and reactives to handle the incoming damage. In single groups you rarely have the perfect setups you do in raids, so aggro control is more a problem every warlock needs to address.There is no good template for how you should do your spell order. It varies depending upon your spell haste, recast reduction, +spell damage, crits, the spell quality you have, and the resistability of the mob.That said, when I am first learning how to best attack a mob I will go with the following:For <30sec fights I goScourgeWarpyreAuraFreehand+ApocFlamesEncase (sometimes this and flames will be flopped, depending upon your +spell damage)DissolveMaster Strikeand then at that point I judge if the fight is going to last another 10 seconds, in which case I will cast scorge+warpyre. If not I'll hit chaostorm and then try to slip in a nil-crystal generator.I don't bother precasting gift, unless I know I am hitting Focus Casting with it. Whats the point, you cause yourself pain by burning a nil crystal and mobs never last the full duration. And it will rarely do more than 1% of single target parses.For a 1 minute fight I goAcid Storm, not starting casting until mob is in campNoxious debuffNeatherous RealmGiftScourgeWar PyreAuraFreehand+ApocDissolveFlamesEncaseMaster StrikeDissolveRiftRepeat from scourgeAgain, that spell order assumes all spells of equal qualityUse focus casting and other racial spellhaste stuff whenever it will last its full duration. Oftentimes its a bad idea to save them for nameds because 1. you don't utilize the full recast and 2. nameds are almost always more difficult to control with aggro than trash mobs.For extended duration fights, your general goal should be to keep those "top 9 spells" as well as the "4 prep spells" cooking in the recast at all times. You will quickly find that the the one most difficult to pin down is the quick-nuke, dissolve. You want to avoid "dead space" where everything is down, and then a couple seconds everything is back up. But you also want to avoid leaving too many spells up, and not reaching your full potential by doing too many dissolves.However, depending upon your spell haste and how you structure your spell order, you can achieve a sort of zen where all your spells are spaced out perfectly so you can time one to three of them with a dissolve, with no more than 1 other spell up at the same time. When you can achieve this zen reliably in a single group setting, you can consider yourself a true warlock =) It's a difficult skill to learn, one that requires alot of practice and alot of experimentation.However, mastering the skill is even more difficult. You then have to learn it all over again for encounters with 2-5 mobs, linked, 2-5 mobs, unlinked, and they are all unique spell orders. You then have to take your knowledge and design spell orders to adjust to different levels of spell haste and recast reduction, which can often change in the middle of combat. You need to learn how to deal (and anticipate) resists and figure out the proper escape velocity spells. Then you have to learn how to anticipate the exact moment of the end of the fight, of figuring out how to time your big one shots to synchronize with the mob's death. You got to figure out how to best exploit group hostile procs, from how having aria/synergism changes your casting order, how to maximize PoM and Gift, when its advantageous to melee, how to deal with rays, and figuring out the best spell space to pump mana in. All this on top of the normal dps lessons; when to deaggro, figuring out the tanks aggro threshold without dying, managing your power and timing your dps.One practical suggestion I would give is to get away from the mouse. Reassign your hotkeys from the 1-10 on the top of the keyboard to the 0-9 on the numpad. Using the mouse to click hotkeys can result in misclicks, lag, and even muscle fatigue depending upon how long you're playing. By remapping hotkeys to the numpad, one hand can easily access all of your spells, depending upon how close your numpad is to the alt and ctrl keys. This is more accurate than clicking wildly on your screen or searching the top rim of the keyboard for the proper digit. And it's less fatiguing because your hand will be roaming less of the keyboard. It takes awhile to get used to, but within 10 gaming hours or so I'm sure you'll be glad you did =)

[Laretha]

<p>The last post has some good points but is very conservative in gererating DPS. I have used that spell order and still find that you can squease a lot more DPS from the order I suggest, aggro is not an issue for most groups I roll with, they are used to how things are.</p><p>We are talking about maximizing dps so every one spell counts, Nil Crystals are a pain in the bum but I burn them freely, I just make sure I harvest them while not grouping or raiding.</p><p>First rule as a Warlock is your going to die, get over it and learn from it and die again.</p><p>2nd rule of a warlock is your going to steal aggro, its not life ending. </p><p>ok the last post had 2 spell orders both are very defensive and limit your dps. Sometimes you may have to roll with lower dps because your grp is not the best or the tank is average.</p><p>If I was going to cast Scourge or warpyre (or there upgrades) firstly I would definatly precast Netherelms and gift, as both those spells are faster casting and makes Netherelms and gift more efficent. Hence you dps just by precasting those will be more than that line up.</p><p>And casting Acid storm on the pull has little chance of stealing aggro unless you dont time it right so im unsure why some warlocks are concerned with precasting it. </p><p>I have no issue with Dots and use them as much as I can but armageddon is our biggest DoT and if I can get 2 off in any one fight my dps is greatly increased, however there is not much point casting it if it does not run its full corse so most casting line ups that leave it 5 or 6th spell into the rotation wont get the chance to use it fully.  Next at the end of every fight DD spells > DoT spells.</p><p>I try as little as possible to use deaggros or Nil crysal genrators they are dps killers.</p><p>I will always use Focus Casting on names when its up, always, but I might not use it on the pull, depends on the tank and the group.   </p><p>OK this zen thing, I agree that you can get into the zone where you know when your next spell is going to be usable while still blacked out and the order just slots into place. </p><p>Dissolve has its place on my hot bar and I use it more to the end of the fight over Dots if I know the dot wont reach the end of the spell.</p><p>I almost never use Rift or its upgrade on a single encounter especially at the end of the fight, Its cast time vs damage sucks on single mobs, prior to its nerf I had been known to precast it. </p><p>Part of doing great dps is facing death head on and allowing the healers to do there job. </p><p>Having said that you need to know the difference between the class of tank you have in your group, how they hold agrro, what other classes in your group that will help them hold aggro,  If you are going PUG look at there gear, that helps and play it safe for the first few encounters and slowly do more dps until you reach there ability to hold it and them push them a little bit they are not going to get any better if you just make it a bland encounter.</p><p>Laretha, 80 Warlock Najena </p><p>Guild Allure. </p><p>  </p>

[Windowlicker]

<cite>knightofround wrote:</cite><blockquote>Yeah I don't agree with the above posters that are anti-dots. DoTs are our single best source of dps since our heavy hitters are all spells with 30+ sec durations and/or recasts.</blockquote><p>It's not that we're anti-DOT, it's more that we're pointing out that a fight that lasts under 30 seconds (Likely 10 seconds to 25ish as an average) It makes absolutely no sense to spend any time stacking small DOTS.</p><p>Figure out the math, if you have a fight that takes let's say 15 seconds .. how much value will those small DOT's end up having VS using the direct damage or precasting Armageddon?</p><p>DOT's are only benefitial when they have the chance to run their full course.  That being said, if your spending that 15 seconds stacking your DOTS .. several of them aren't nearly coming close to running down properly.  It's better to smash something for 5 or 6k with that 2 to 4 seconds of casting time, then to let your small dot tick for a couple seconds.</p><p>I don't think it's been mentioned in this thread, but from what I've seen our spells seem to hit a bit lower in CoA vs other zones.  It's possible these mobs just have a bit more Poison/Disease resist then the average zone.</p>

[sprogn]

<p>To be honest, if you've got a half decent tank you should be taking 2-3 mobs at a time and chain pulling - only with a small pause to make sure the healers have power between names.</p><p>If your DPS is struggling to get near the top because the pulls are too slow and only one mob at a time, make friends with a good tank.  I regularly clear that place in our guild groups (Zerker (me), Monk, Mystic, Templar, Warlock, Swash) and we don't stop for anyone <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>