60 Lock High-end Instance Builds?

[_Duress_]

Well, I took more than a little time off of WoW. Just came back with over 300k rested and got that big six-oh.

Anyways, I am ITCHING to do high-end 5 man groups, and thinking about a respec. I fooled around last night with talent builds and came up with a few that walk the line between business and pleasure. Before I do so, let me ask some questions:

How important AOEs are in high level content? They seem only useful against non-elites. Can I ever compete with a mage at this level? Would I ever want to?

Once I get to Onyxia/Molten Core raids (FAR OFF), I hear that the need for spirit gear increases greatly, due to the longer duration of battles. Also, because of the 10 debuff limit, wouldn't I be better off, respeccing to a more direct damage build (non-DOT)?

Currently, I'm 31/0/20 or 31/5/15 with my group hotbar having:

1 DP 2 LT 3 Main Assist 4 CoA 5 Cor 6 Immo 7 DL 8 SB 9 CoS 10 __ 11 __ 12 Healthstone

The position moves around a bit, depending on the situation. Others that often make the cut, depending on the situation:

Drain Life, Siphon Life, Banish, Rain of Fire, Hellfire, Amplify Curse, Curse of Recklessness/Tongues/Exhaustion/Weakness/the Elements, Shadowburn. I'm proud to report I can't remember how long it's been since I've needed to use Searing Pain to peel.

I've heard it said that once you get high enough Dark Pact is a waste, since you have to wait for the other casters to drink anyways. Is this true? If so, I'd love to explore these other builds:

Fire Magelock w/ Imp

Affliction Talents (7 points)
# Improved Corruption - 5/5 points
# Improved Life Tap - 2/2 points

Demonology Talents (13 points)
# Improved Imp - 3/3 points
# Demonic Embrace - 5/5 points
# Fel Intellect - 5/5 points

Destruction Talents (30 points)
# Cataclysm - 5/5 points
# Aftermath - 5/5 points
# Devastation - 5/5 points
# Improved Firebolt - 2/2 points
# Shadowburn - 1/1 point
# Improved Searing Pain - 5/5 points
# Destructive Reach - 2/2 points
# Ruin - 1/1 point
# Inferno - 5/5 points

This build casts Curse of the Elements. I'm not sure how important the Affliction and Demonology talents are to this tree. If not very, I'd funnel more points into:

# Improved Immolate - 5/5 points
# Conflagrate - 1/1 point

Shadowmage w/ Succubus

Affliction Talents (30 points)
# Improved Corruption - 5/5 points
# Improved Life Tap - 2/2 points
# Improved Drain Life - 3/5 points
# Amplify Curse - 1/1 point
# Fel Concentration - 5/5 points
# Nightfall - 2/2 points
# Grim Reach - 2/2 points
# Curse of Exhaustion - 1/1 point
# Siphon Life - 1/1 point
# Improved Curse of Exhaustion - 3/4 points
# Shadow Mastery - 5/5 points

Demonology Talents (0 points)
# None

Destruction Talents (21 points)
# Cataclysm - 5/5 points
# Bane - 5/5 points
# Shadowburn - 1/1 point
# Devastation - 5/5 points
# Improved Lash of Pain - 2/2 points
# Destructive Reach - 2/2 points
# Ruin - 1/1 point

Similar to the other build. There are a few Affliction talents that can be swapped. Getting the 5/5 in Shadow Mastery is the goal. If I don't PvP much anymore, I'd cut the Curse of Exhaustion for something whatever I use the most, probably Improved Curse of Agony and/or Drain Life.

Middle-of the Road

Affliction Talents (20 points)
# Improved Corruption - 5/5 points
# Improved Life Tap - 2/2 points
# Improved Drain Life - 3/5 points
# Amplify Curse - 1/1 point
# Fel Concentration - 5/5 points
# Nightfall - 2/2 points
# Grim Reach - 2/2 points

Demonology Talents (14 points)
# Improved Imp - 3/3 points
# Improved Healthstone - 2/2 points
# Fel Intellect - 5/5 points
# Improved Succubus - 3/3 points
# Fel Domination - 1/1 point

Destruction Talents (17 points)
# Cataclysm - 5/5 points
# Bane - 5/5 points
# Shadowburn - 1/1 point
# Improved Lash of Pain - 2/2 points
# Improved Firebolt - 2/2 points
# Destructive Reach - 2/2 points

This build definitely lives up to its name. Thought I might as well include it. It was built with PvE in mind and nothing but. I actually had 8 points left over when I was satified and threw them into greater range and some other stuff you shouldn't really need.

To conclude, I spent quite a bit of time in this post and backed it up with much thought in the hopes that I'd get replies of the same caliber. I'm also looking for any and all information about doing 61-63 level quests with 5man groups and how to prepare my warlock (and guild in general for ) for raid instances. Thanks for input in advance.

Duress
60 UD Lock
Eredar

[Scorpicore]

I would go the des/demo build, affliction isn't worth it as long as they didn't fix the numbers of debuff on a mob which is a huge trouble in raids and yes, you can compete with a mage's aoe really nicely and fel dominating is handy for those emergency tank situations ;)

[_Duress_]

Still so many questions. I'd really like to see more responses on this post. I check it many times a day.

Since I last posted, I adopted a Fire Magelock build in order to test out a radically different build from the Dark Pact Affliction I've used since 40.

I maxed out Imp talents, Searing Pain, and Immolate with Conflagrate -- which, if casting is started before Immolate burns out, will cast successfully when it finishes casting after Immolate burns out without lessening any of the Immolate damage. (It's also very disappointing for a 31 point treetopper.) While trying to gauge the effect of the new specialization, I spammed many Searing Pains, my most aggro spell and realized that the benefit of greater DPS came at the sacrifice of the ability to effortlessly solo and Curse of Agony. Sure Curse of the Elements turned medicore SPs and Immos into respectable burn, but the class just isn't designed to rival the DPS of a mage or rogue nor handle the hits like a warrior. We do have tons of health that we can dip into, but that's the slowest regen after a battle as well and a warlock does best solo with a minimal amount to no health loss; pets regen health and mana at a incomparable rate and with Dark Pact, we can harness their pool and rate for our own purposes. To a lesser extent, we can use our own health via Life Tap to mimic the power of Dark Pact.

I have yet to test this build duoing with a mage or with the level 60 Torment, but after just writing about it, I'm sure that the benefits of an Affliction Build or even a Affliction with a slight Shadow Bolt bent far outweigh deep specialization into the Destruction Tree.

[Tarukito]

To tell you, I tried many differant talent specs(im up to 25g a respec now) and I've found a few things are pretty much useless:

Pet Talents, Ive found decreased timers are only useful if you are killing someone in about 20 seconds, if the fight is going to last longer than that your pet will be out of mana 1/3rd of the way into the fight. and for big raids that makes stamina buff only useful spell you get out of this and when compared to other talents isnt worth it. Also having talents for more than 1 type of pet is a complete waste as you would only be using 1 at a time and so the talent points could of been spent on something that you can use all the time. Now I only have Demonic Embrace for PvP purposes. Raids I default use Imp and pull out Succubus for Humanoid CC(15 seconds Seduce basic and Improved Suc only gives 18.75 seconds so Not noticable at all).

Destruction-

Cataclysm, 5% less mana is kinda of waste I think, when I get low on mana I just use Major Mana pots(which I make with alchemy) or I Lifetap/Bandage. I'ed rather go with Improved Shadow bolt for the bonus DPS your give everyone and you.

Aftermath for raids is just retarded, mob is not chasing you or running from you. Just get Bane for increased DPS.

Intensity, A MUST have for endgame Raids, enless you enjoy wasting your mana recasting because any damage interupts you. Intensity is the only thing that makes Hellfire usable. Just dont fall into the belief that Pyroclasm works, it doesnt, dont waste your 2 points on it. Just get intensity and your good to go.

Improved Searing Pain, I myself dont use searing pain except when I dont have the mana to cast to Shadowbolt. Personal preference I think.

Improved Immolate/Conflagrate, going this high into Destruction cuts off so many good talents in affliction I have never justified it.

Demonology-
As useful as Fel Domination/Master Summoner is in PvP, it takes way to many wasted points to get it. Only 2 Talents I find useful in Demonology is Demonic Embrace and Improved Imp.

-note, I believe Improved Healthstone is bugged in the fact you are the only person that gets the bonus hp, when you trade it to someone else it goes back to basic healthstone hp restore.

Affliction-
Improved Corruption is life, I love it cant live with out it.

Improved lifetap, I love using this spell as my downtime killer/midfight mana fountain. I use Heavy Runecloth Bandages afterwards to healup.

Channeling Spells: I find them all very buggy and wasteful, exceot for improved drain soul,.

Improved Drain life, the hp from drainlife is nice but improved drained life doesnt do anything noticable.

Fel Concentration, I only use Drain soul and you only cast that spell right when mob dies, in raids you arent tanking so I find it to be a waste.

Improved Drain Soul, since lvl 30 or so I have stopped using higher level drain souls and just use drain soul lvl 1, the idea is why waste more mana than you have to? In raids the mobs are gettin hit by others so you dont have to do damage and in PvE I let pet kill mob off. The bonus is because you only use lvl 1 drain soul I get about 500-600 mana back and thats with no spirit items.

Supprresion, Now I know you wouldnt normally ever think about using this talent but I do, I use it as my filler talent, when you need more in lower tiers to get higher tiers open. I believe Fear also is a Affliction spell so thats a kicker bonus that people will resist fear less. Biggest bonus is that you use this talent Every single fight, so you at least know its not wasted.

Ampily Curse, Great free spell to cast every 3 minutes that increases DPS or makes an epic mount slower than runspeed with exhaustion. Also required for Exhaustion which isnt a Raid spell but extremly useful PVP spell.

Improved Curse of Agony, Now since I dont spec Fel Concentration I spend my points in Imp, CoA for increased DPS, and when you amplify Imp. CoA you do amazing damage.

Nightfall, I love this spell for PvP insta damages but in Raids you usually conserve mana more. But if you have plenty of mana PvE, you toss 5-6 Corruptions/CoA in a big pull and you will get 4-5 free shadowbolts.

Grim Reach/Destructive Reach, Also very useful PvP spell not so useful PvE since range really isnt a WarlocK Factor.

Siphon Life, as useless as it gets, but required for Shadow Mastery if thats what you want.

Shadow Mastery/Inferno, I have had these specs before and to tell you I didnt think it worth the 5 points I'ed rather spend in another line.

Curse of Exhaustion/Imp CoE, Useless raid spell pretty sad pve spell, Extremly useful PVP spell. You have to get it Improved if you want the slow to be noticable, Amplify this and you can stop Epic Mounts.

Now that you have heard what I think about most of the spells/talents here is my current build which I find most useful All the time and with no wasted talents:

Affliction Talents (25 points)
# Improved Corruption - 5/5 points
# Suppression - 3/5 points
# Improved Drain Soul - 2/2 points
# Improved Life Tap - 2/2 points
# Amplify Curse - 1/1 point
# Improved Curse of Agony - 3/3 points
# Nightfall - 2/2 points
# Grim Reach - 2/2 points
# Curse of Exhaustion - 1/1 point
# Improved Curse of Exhaustion - 4/4 points

Demonology Talents (5 points)
# Demonic Embrace - 5/5 points

Destruction Talents (21 points)
# Improved Shadow Bolt - 5/5 points
# Bane - 5/5 points
# Devastation - 5/5 points
# Shadowburn - 1/1 point
# Destructive Reach - 2/2 points
# Intensity - 2/2 points
# Ruin - 1/1 point


-Tarukito
60 Forsaken Warlock
Enclave of Twelve
Warsong