Is Shadow Bolt no longer the way to go?

[lacitpo]

I was just reading up on this thread about someone's lvl 80 warlock macro http://www.dual-boxing.com/showthread.php?t=22209

Is shadow bolt no longer the bread and butter of destruction warlock DPS? Can anyone give me a quick breakdown. I must have missed something that happened between BC and Wrath that changed this.

[Multibocks]

Shadowbolt is used by two specs as a filler for Demo and Affliction locks. Destruction locks dont use it at all.

[yaki]

It got nerfed a few times and then they kept adding +DPS interactions between other spells...

[lacitpo]

Yeah, just did some reading on wowwiki. I'm only at lvl 39 with my warlock, but that really changes my plans. Glad I found that out now, rather than later. Learn something new every day..

[Fursphere]

Yeah, just did some reading on wowwiki.

You should do this more prior to posting in the future.

[yaki]

Changes your plans how?

Afflic --> 60
Demo --> 80
Destro or preference after

[lacitpo]

@fursphere lol

@yaki Just one of those moments where I realized I knew less about a class than I thought I did. I've been out of the game for almost a year. Continually finding things that have changed. Typically I have a good read on what is the correct formula for a class' best DPS. Just unsettling sometimes to find you're wrong.

As for plan changes, not sure. Probably still keep my lock destro. I never liked watching for nightfall procs on slaves. Re-evailuating my macro's i'm using now while leveling. I don't think it's time to remove shadowbolt yet since I don't quite have conflag and I need tog et conflag glyphed. Just brain dumping mostly

[yaki]

Most of what I know about warlocks came from before they were given Death Coil, so...

Keep in mind that even sub-par individual DPS is roflbbq overkill for leveling or doing dailies. It's not urgent. I got a lot of mileage out of this macro for my mages:

/cleartarget
/assist Leader
/cast Ice Lance

[Stealthy]

Shadow Bolt still has its place...in my 5 x lock group I use it for 1-shotting non-elite mobs when farming / questing - its faster and uses less mana than dotting mobs up.

Cheers,
S.

[Maxion]

Not to mention that you don't get the base spell, incinerate, for fire destruction until in the 60's

[lacitpo]

Lol, all the posts said incinerate and I kept reading immolate. This all makes like 1000% more sense now. Today was a good day to help me with humility. lol

[Mokoi]

Just for the record, improved shadowbolt still adds a GREAT debuff that indeed STACKS with Totem of wrath, since itrs a magic debuff and not a flat crit chance like totem. I add this at the start of every attack I make and it buffs the DPS of my entire group a lot. Since my DPS is all magic dmg, this buff is as good as 5 talent points for most classes, and it lasts long enough to not gimp the lock DPS by too much.

[shaeman]

I used shadowbolt just this morning on my destro lock. (solo) Then again it was against a fire elemental that was immune to my fire spells.