Just bought the Meteor!

Ok, so I may get a lot of crap for this.. I decided not to spend my 95 Frost Emblems on the Tier10 Robe and instead grabbed the [Meteor Chaser's Raiment]. Don't judge me, I was thinking ahead!

I decided that having 900 haste, 50% crit, and 4000 spellpower (fully buffed.. elitists) was much more better than a periodic 10% damage bonus for 10 seconds. I've also got this thing where I MUST look different than all the other Warlocks on my server which plays a big factor when choosing gear. I've always been that way....

/sneakaway

The Cataclysm Survival Guide!

"World of Warcraft will definitely undergo a cataclysmic change." ~ Avernus

Yes, you've read about it, the next WoW expansion is almost upon us. In fact I bet it will be on the shelves this Christmas or early 2011. There are 2 new races who have long been begged for by fans. There is an overflowing amount of end-game content being released that will tie the knots between the previous expansions. The entire original game is being re-made!

But there are also some major stat changes that will affect the way you play the game. Thus, I am writing this survival guide. Keep in mind, this will change as more info is released.

Stats:
~ Spellpower - will no longer be present an the majority of items in the game, save for a few "situational" pieces of gear here and there. Intellect will become the new bad-boy. This is going to generalize caster gear and open up a lot more customization between classes. I personally love this because no one likes to be a clone.
~ Spirit - this will most likely be unusable to Warlocks anymore. Our only use for this now is a small percentage of Spellpower from Fel Armor. Spirit is being reformatted for healers only, thus I highly doubt they will keep it usable for Warlocks.
~ Hit,Haste,Crit - All staying the same. Perhaps less, perhaps more than usual, but the mechanic will more than likely stay as they are now.

Mastery:
~ 04/07/2010 - From WoW Forums

Affliction
Spell Damage
Spell Crit
Shadow DoTs

Demonology
Spell Damage
Spell Haste
Demon Damage

Destruction
Spell Damage
Spell Critical Damage
Fire Direct Damage

• Shadow DoTs: The damage caused by Shadow damage-over-time spells is increased.
• Demon Damage: The damage caused by pets and Metamorphosis is increased.
• Fire Direct Damage: The damage caused by Fire direct damage spells is increased.

~ Each talent tree will grant 1 unique effect and 2 stat bonuses. Obviously a damage bonus and perhaps a Haste/Crit bonus based on how many points spent in a particular tree.

Mastery info is still not 100% accurate yet so don't take this to the bank.

Soul Shards:
~ Goodbye!
Yup, no more Soul Shards. Well, not exactly. Your Shard system is being re-worked to play much like a Death Knight's Rune system. Apparently, we get 3 Shards to work with that will supply us with special abilities but will NOT regenerate in combat. (I personally think this is misinformation because this would remove a need for [Drain Soul]). Don't worry about it, this is for the best and you even get one of your bag spaces back!

Should you Prepare?
~ I wouldn't worry about it. First of all, come Cataclysm you will be leveling again and green items will replace your ICC Tier10 gear about the time you hit level 82. Secondly, the only thing you need to worry about is NOT collecting mp5 gear. Incidentally, if you are indeed collecting mp5 gear as a Warlock, I would strongly encourage you to re-roll and name your character Fail or Facepalm.

What I hope to see:
~ A new Demon pet or the ability to permanently Enslave 1 Demon like a Hunter.
~ A new Warlock only Flying Mount!
~ Flying with Metamorphosis.

Affliction Warlocks

RANT:
Afflocks are still king in 3.3.3!

Honestly, if you are a Destro Warlock and are pumping out 6-8k DPS, switch to AFFMODE!!

Your DoTs are more helpful than your Direct Damage in ICC.

Furthermore, Survivability is a HUGE benefit in ICC due to the massive AoE damage in that frozen-over hellhole. Affmode provides that! :)

Try this spec out if you've never tried Affliction before.

Explanation:
~ This is the most commonly accepted Affliction spec and is my personal preference to raiding. It offers the best survivability in ICC for the Warlock class and still pumps out the DPS required for all of the fights.
~ Very powerful Seeds of Corruption
~ Extreme Health Regeneration
~ Powerful DoTs

Rotation:
The combat rotation is fairly simple and you can really go about it however you want.
~ The most common rotation is: Haunt, UA, Corruption, CoA, SB ~~~

I hate that.
I do it differently.

~ The very first thing I like to do is cast Curse of Agony because it has the longest duration.
~ Then I cast Unstable Affliction, Corruption, and then Haunt (yes, you do miss out on a few initial boosted DoT ticks but that's ok)

~ My Rotation: CoA, UA, Corruption, Haunt, SB ~~~

Reasoning:
~ By the time UA and Haunt are reapplied, CoA has about 6 seconds left and is doing it's maximum DPS. This technique allows me to focus directly on CoA's timer without having to worry about anything else! You do not want to cut the last few ticks of CoA short because CoA escalates it's damage over the duration. The last few seconds are doing the most damage.
~ After CoA is reapplied, you have free-time to launch a bunch of Shadow Bolts and Insta-Bolts without having to worry about your Global Cooldown messing up your DoT casts.
~ Haunt and UA will be coming up next in the rotation, after those are cast, you should have about 6 seconds of Shadow Bolts before your next CoA.

It's like having 2 phases - DoT phase and Bolt phase.

The "common rotation" is theory crafted for maximum flawless DPS in a perfect world, which we all know doesn't ever happen. It sets the DoT re-casts between Shadow Bolts and can really get confusing, costing you a major DPS loss if you lose track. You will be reapplying DoTs individually between your Shadow Bolts in other words. While that may be appealing to some, it is definitely not the way I like to roll.

But it's really up to your style of play and I encourage you to try both or make up your own.