Comments on: Palooza? Pallooza?

By: mm

mm — Mon, 05 May 2008 18:42:13 +0000

This one gnaws on me since I’ve seen it said by you several times (and a few other non-lock bloggers). It takes much attention and timer micromanagement to play a lock well.

I have a 70 BM hunter and UA lock (or destro depending on raid needs and composition). I have to say that the hunter is massively MASSIVELY easier to play than the lock. I just send in the pet and spam the steady/auto/kc macro for 1k dps (or spam the steady/auto/multi/kc macro when safe to do so). As the lock, I have to keep up 5 dots, tap, drain, decide if it’s better to refresh a dot or sneak in one more SB, and finally time a shadowburn to sneak in more dps while returning my shard. I’d put playing a lock for max dps as one of the harder classes.

I challenge BRK to borrow an affliction lock (TJ?) and see how much massively busier it is to play to max dps. Make sure you have all your rotations down…will the mob live for 10 secs? 15? 30? 10 mins? All that varies what and how many dots to drop. For a hunter, the answer is all the same: send in pet, spam macro (or for the purist, weave in steady shot between auto shot timer).

Even as the easier-to-play destro lock, you still have to manage immolate, agony/doom/CoS/CoE dots while shadowbolting, tapping, and timing that last shadowburn.

Aggro? Hunters can FD frequently for complete aggro dumps. Locks? We have a 50% aggro dump that takes a shard and is on a 5 min timer. If we pull aggro? We’re cloth and are probably candidates for a one-shot. Hunters have mail and can often take a hit or two.

As stated previously, don’t knock the lock. Or at least master one before bashing them.

Other than that, keep up the good hunter work. Just leave the really skilled dpsing to the real class - the lock (j/k there) =)

By: Felandra

Felandra — Sun, 04 May 2008 22:13:56 +0000

I think the reason is that you shouldn’t really be bringing more than one Aff warlock, hence BRKs Warlocks (and most of the ones the rest of us meet too) are Shadowbolt spamming Destro locks that could be done in the sleep… *yawn*

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 02 May 2008 20:31:39 +0000

No one said that lock or hunter dps was more difficult or more stressful than tanking, so I don’t know why you are getting your underwear in a knot Tanking is the most stressful role, IMO. DPS is easy - it’s just that it’s crazy for BRK to make the absurd claim that hunters are supposedly more involved and locks are easy/simple.

But since you bring it up, most people that I know that play both healers and dps say that healing is the easiest role of all.

By: loldps

loldps — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:37:55 +0000

As a tank in a raid environment … you locks should get over yourselves! DPSing is so much more relaxing than tanking (or healing) will ever be. Doesn’t matter if you’re a warlock, a hunter, a rogue, a [fill in the blank] … DPSing is pretty easy.

By: Allisera

Allisera — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:13:31 +0000

Hmm. I always default my pet to passive in instances - it’s a habit I picked up when I first started running heroics (too much risk of my pet breaking traps otherwise). I do sometimes put my pet on defensive, but that’s only so I can call it back (by then returning it to passive mode). What might be the solution is to edit the macro so that it only fires KC if the pet is in combat, I’m thinking.

Again, though, I’ll only consider re-adding KC if they fix the issues with UI lockup.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:40:14 +0000

Well said Garryl. As an affliction lock, maintaining a set of DoTs + shadowbolting + watching threat is far more involved than Auto/Steady plus a few specials and feign deaths thrown in for good measure. BRK’s repeated slamming of warlocks is pretty uninformed.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 02 May 2008 11:18:01 +0000

I agree with Bloodtrip. Macro with kill command (autoshot first for quicker start) and pet on passive.

Petattack and hunters Mark Macro’d to button 3 and the SS macro to button 4.

So it’s Tab target, 3 then mash 4, leaving my right hand and mouse free to click pet management buttons, pots, trinkets etc. This way i can DPS, enjoy the encounter and the game without staring at buttons.

It’s a simple matter to stop mashing button 4 right after a Steady has been cast, then wait for the auto shot, before slipping in a manual Arcane shot. Repeat this if you want to really go for it and weave in an Arcane every time the CD is up and you have mana to spare.

By: Bloodtrip

Bloodtrip — Fri, 02 May 2008 09:01:32 +0000

I use a shot macro… the basic Auto/Steady with KC embedded. Hands down, great macro. I used to have the same problem with KC sending my pet in (in reference to a comment), but i realized that if your pet is on PASSIVE, Kill Command in your macro WILL NOT send your pet in. (like i learned from you, ALWAYS keep it on passive… good hunter/pet management). so now it makes it easier to mash that macro to my hearts contempt!! I too however, for a long time felt i was missing out on “manually” doing my shot rotation, but most of us know… Blizz does not have that many buttons and action bars… making a macro just frees up some space. same with “Hunter’s Mark/Pet Attack” macro, right next to my shot macro.

By: Heffer

Heffer — Fri, 02 May 2008 07:56:57 +0000

I was topping dmg meter in kara (until my guild stopped raiding - resting before WotLK). I use a manual shot rotation…. and I’m an clicker; everything is done with my mouse :s

By: Uhh

Uhh — Fri, 02 May 2008 06:43:28 +0000

I recently converted from SV/MM and the adjustment was rough for me to be honest, I’m not the greatest of hunters in my own opinion but I can hold my own I think. One of the biggest help for me was the shot rotation macro with the kill command. I have to refer to a post I read not long ago.

“You want to DPS the Skull, of course. You tab-target and accidentally select your trapped mob but are able to keep from shooting it. You see the Skull mob and try to select it but there are too many things in the way and you cannot get a good click on it. With a growl of desperation, you tab-target through the mobs… circle, moon, Skull! Yes! Start firing! OMG it’s been 10 seconds and we we haven’t sent our pet yet! Get going you! We’re not topping the DamageMeters today as it seems we’re always a bloody, bleepin’ step behind.”

Courtesy of http://www.wowinsider.com/2007/06/13/bigredkitty-basic-hunter-macros/

That was so me, and I would invariably smack my own trap I felt I was the stereotypical huntard. /cry

Then I hooked up with the shot rotation, then the focus, then the / , commands and wow, things were much less huntard, much more commander of all I survey!! /wakeup Ok, well much more confident and less self spankage occurred

I found that when I use the macro below I just demolished the mob! DPS is insane and it’s the macro that tunes it
#showtooltip Steady Shot
/castsequence reset=3/target !Auto Shot, Steady Shot
/castrandom [target=pettarget,exists] Kill Command
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear();

My favorite however is my Boom Boom Macro Makes me feel tingly to watch

/castsequence reset=120 Bestial Wrath
/stopcasting
/castsequence reset=60 Intimidation
/stopcasting
/castsequence reset=120 Bloodlust Brooch
/stopcasting
/castsequence reset=180 Rapid Fire
/stopcasting
/use Drums of Battle

All go off instantly!

Thanks for the blog BRK!

Uhh and Choo
Silverhand