Help on Spine Heroic

[Xayide]

Hello DREAM Paragon Warlocks,
I was wondering if you guys could give some tips on Spine Heroic.
I'm in a 10man guild and am struggling to do good damage on Tendons, something that usually doesn't happen... I've practiced a bit on dummies, but don't know exactly the optimal rotation/course of action to use.

Here's our log from tonight (basically our first tries on this boss): http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/yuc887djygbr75cu/
Here's my armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/A ... e/advanced

What I'm doing (in order):
1) Making sure Will of the Unbinding is fully stacked before the Tendon comes up
2) Popping Chalice > Meta on half Nuclear Blast cast
3) Using the following macro as soon as the tendon comes up:
/tar Burning Tendons
/petattack [@target]
/use Curse of the Elements
4) Then, this other macro:
/use Demon Soul
/use Blood Fury
/use Soulburn
5) Then I follow with my "semi-usual" rotation: Immolate > BoD > Corruption > HoG > Felstorm > Shadowflame > Immolation > Incinerate

Observations:
1) I'm using the Soulburn effect on Soulfire right after my first Incinerate (Shadow & Flame debuff).
2) I'm using the Felguard full time on this fight and using its Felstorm on Tendons. Should I use the Felhunter for tendons instead and use my Soulburn to summon it before the tendon comes up?
3) I'm casting HoG before Shadowflame so I can cast it twice per time the tendon comes up.
4) I only used my DG on one or two tries on that log, but I know I'm supposed to always use it on the first tendon.
5) I'm only popping Felstorm after HoG so that it can benefit from its debuff. It's only 1 Felstorm per time the tendon comes up anyway.
6) When DG is available, I cast BoD before Immolate.

Questions:
1) Is the priority I'm using correct? Probably not since my damage seems to be lacking. Should I pop Immolation earlier?
2) Am I using the right pet? (See observation 2)
3) Am I using adequate trinkets? I also have at my disposal VPLC (H) and DMC:V. I don't have Cunning of the Cruel, but I could try to farm it on Raid Finder if it is a better choice.
4) Should I do anything different if my CDs are down? They usually are for the second time each tendon comes up.
5) Any other tips I might be missing?
6) How long does the tendon stay up? I've been told 19s. Is this correct? How could I make sure for myself? This question is for dummy practice purposes.
7) Please don't tell me the spec is wrong or I'll be very confused. (I know this is not a question =P)


Thank you very much!

[Hellward]

I also have the same question

[Xayide]

Sorry, my guild leader asked me to keep those logs private =/

Anyway, I think I managed to explain what I'm doing in enough detail in the post. I usually managed to do only around 1.4M-1.6M damage per tendon, adding both times it comes up.
I've been told Affliction can do pretty well too, since we only take one GCD to apply DoTs with Soulswap and Jynx takes care of CoE application. I haven't really tested it, but it would be a nice input from someone who has. I would use Will of Unbinding and Bottled Wishes as Affliction.

What are your thoughts about it?

[Opustjej]

I´m not a Paragon lock but I´m willing to share my thoughts and would also love some inputs from Paragon locks.

First, this is probably the worst designed fight for a warlock, ever. I´m going suicidal every time I do it.

Permisssion denied on your log so cant check. I´m averaging 1M damage on first tendon nuke on every plate. My record is at 1.2M. This is not including pets and I´m on CoE duty and not allowed to use Immo aura.... Second time it pops up is hard for me to measure since it dies fast and if we get him at 35% or lower first time I usually dont even dps tendon second time (starting to kill of corruptions instead for faster barrel rolls). Anyways I do have PI on these nukes and for first plate we do BL, second I pot and third BL.

1. In your rotation, try swap BoD with Corruption, atleast for me I can still get that BoD tick of and it gives me that final Corruption tick.

2. All my results show that Felhunter performs alot better. Sure, doesnt make a difference on your personal numbers but any good RL checks both your persnal and your pet damage. With both pets counted I´m around 1.5M total damage on a single tendon nuke. What I do is pop Chalice, Meta. Then when he Nuclear Blast is finsihed I pop Demon Soul and soulburn a Felhunter.

3. Using same trinkets as you for this fight. With the tactics we use I am not even allowed to use Cunning (dont have it either so doesnt bother me :P)

4. If you do have trouble getting the tendons down I recomend stalling second tendon nuke so there is 2 min between it and the first nuke (most classes rely on 2 min CD:s). Meta should be off CD aswell since you will be doing alot more Incin casts than normal.

5. Looks like you got it down, cant really blame us for beeing a shitty class on a shitty encounter,

6. 23 sec is the "supposed" number although I only have it targetable for 21 sec.

Tbh the sole reason you want to bring a lock for this fight is the buffs we provide. Also our AoE dps can be quite handy as you progress later on and want to kill bloods fast. Imo its a really poor boss design, with 50% of the classes beeing pretty much useless for the encounter.

[Hermanni]

I'm afraid the absolute best advice I can give you from my limited experience is to log your alt rogue (or mage.)

A few tips I can give is that you can drop your Doomguard and Immolation before the Tendon comes active and save yourself two globals. I'm not completely certain on how to best go along with pets (Jubeto might be since he actually played a Warlock there for a long time), but since I've heard the despawning bug of melee pets was fixed I think doing what the poster above suggested and just pulling off Demon Soul and Soulburn into Felhunter before the Tendon is up because even with Felstorm Felhunter does outdps Felguard in 22 seconds with 4 Shadow Bites.

[Xayide]

Thank you very much, Opustjej and Manni for your input!

It's sad to hear how our class sucks on this fight... Unfortunately, I don't have a decently equipped mage or rogue to bring... Guess we'll have to down it with my warlock in the raid after all or get me replaced =/

A few remarks on what you guys said:

Permisssion denied on your log so cant check.

Yeah, my guild leader asked me to keep the logs private, sorry. They'll be public again after we down it.

I´m averaging 1M damage on first tendon nuke on every plate. My record is at 1.2M. This is not including pets and I´m on CoE duty and not allowed to use Immo aura.... Second time it pops up is hard for me to measure since it dies fast and if we get him at 35% or lower first time I usually dont even dps tendon second time (starting to kill of corruptions instead for faster barrel rolls).

Try using Skada instead of Recount. It keeps better track of damage on a single mob and combines both your and your pet's damage. My raid usually doesn't have a problem with Immolation aura during this time.

1. In your rotation, try swap BoD with Corruption, atleast for me I can still get that BoD tick of and it gives me that final Corruption tick.

2. All my results show that Felhunter performs alot better. Sure, doesnt make a difference on your personal numbers but any good RL checks both your persnal and your pet damage. With both pets counted I´m around 1.5M total damage on a single tendon nuke. What I do is pop Chalice, Meta. Then when he Nuclear Blast is finsihed I pop Demon Soul and soulburn a Felhunter.

Will try both those things, thanks.

4. If you do have trouble getting the tendons down I recomend stalling second tendon nuke so there is 2 min between it and the first nuke (most classes rely on 2 min CD:s). Meta should be off CD aswell since you will be doing alot more Incin casts than normal.

Stalling is bad due to blood accumulation unfortunately. Meta is always up due to Impending Doom anyway, unless I'm really unlucky, even if trinkets and Demon Soul are not.

Tbh the sole reason you want to bring a lock for this fight is the buffs we provide. Also our AoE dps can be quite handy as you progress later on and want to kill bloods fast. Imo its a really poor boss design, with 50% of the classes beeing pretty much useless for the encounter.

Yeah, I feel at least a bit useful when I'm helping killing bloods... Honestly, the only unique buff I bring to my raid is the 5% spell crit debuff (since we have an elemental Shaman for 10% SP and a Hunter who could bring the 8% spell damage debuff) and I don't even apply it properly since I cast my first Incinerate so late in the rotation. I do have the brez though, since our only druid is a tank and there are no DKs.


I haven't seen you guys mention Affliction though. The world first kill had a single Warlock in the raid and he/she was Affliction. The only reason I can think for it is because of Jinx and maybe the less reliance on CDs to do decent damage (my damage the second time each tendon comes up is utterly terrible as Demo...). With Soulswap and Jinx you spend only 1 GCD to apply all your debuffs and DoTs except Shadow & Flame.
Any thoughts about it? I'm thinking of giving it a shot tonight. Will try to test it on Dummy before though.

[mannaroth]

Is there any case to use Bottled Wishes here instead of MWC? Mostly just beacuse MWC isn't up for every tendon.