I was recently told that no 'sane' warlock would ever put Dark Intent on a healer, and would instead use it on a dps. It was my understanding that the haste, and nominal dps/heal % bonus from the procs, would be put to better effect on a resto druid than on just a dps. I also figured due to the blanket style of HoTs and use of WG, that more crits would be proc'd by me to benefit the warlock than a normal dps would. While agree on other healing specs, the haste may not give such amazing breakpoints as it does for a HoT based class.
Is this a lack of understanding on one side, or is there only certain circumstances where the buff is better off on a certain dps vs. a resto (raid healing) druid?
Any and all information would be helpful as, if it does turn out to be more beneficial to me, I will need some supporting evidence for it.
I think it has more to do with:
Does your raid need more healing or DPS atm?
DI is nice to have at times but it won't make or break your performance.
Also, feel free to read up on it here:
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/813759-Dark-Intent-The-Guide-%282010-12-24
It really doesn't matter tbh, if your raid is coming down to the point where a DI target makes / breaks you, something bigger is wrong.
That being said, if a lock wants the most overall benefit for the raid, I'd say it'd go to Spriests, as it's still a large DPS boost to them.
Spriest / Rdruid / Aff Lock as a DI target will almost guarantee 100% uptime for the casting warlock.
In our raids, both rdruids get a DI, and the Spriest will get one if we run a 3rd warlock. It's just personal preference.
There's a lot to this.
Dark Intent is only useful to druids who need that %3 to reach a breakpoint. We only have two breakpoints we concern ourselves with right now: 915 (easily attained) and 2005 (tricker, but fairly easy after enough epics are acquired). If you have Dark Intent, you only need 1573 Haste to get the 2005 benefit (9 ticks on WG/Efflo).
So if a Druid has between 915 and 1573 Haste, there is no reason to give them the buff.
If a druid has between 1573 and 2005 haste, the only reasons to give them the buff is in the absence of a DoT-based DPS (because DoT/HoT specs will have a higher uptime for the
Lock's personal DPS) or if the group NEEDS that bonus healing to complete the encounter (very common in progression content, where learning the mecahnics is more important than worrying about the enrage).
If the druid has 2005 haste or more, the buff will always be better off given to a DPS, since the reduced fight duration from the extra filler nukes helps us more than a fraction of a second shaved off Healing Touch.
Edit: I also want to add that there's a pitfall to gearing to exactly 1573 haste on the assumption that you get a single-target buff. If there's only one Warlock, and two resto druids that did that....one of you will have 650 haste that should be Mastery instead. If he gives the buff to a Shadow Priest, BOTH of you have wasted itemization.
If you can reach 2005 without losing too much Intellect, you should do so. That lets the buff go to DPS without any question of optimal placement.
It's really hard to quantify the DPS increase to the warlock due to the nature of healing. It's easy to rate each DPS class because they have an ideal rotation that you can simulate. In comparison healers are just hitting buttons at random. This is why the benefit to the warlock isn't talked about much, there's no hard numbers to back this up.
It's not true that no sane warlock would put DI on a healer. It's a very good idea to move DI from DPS to a healer when you're learning content and/or you're having healing issues with the fight. It's also arguably better to put DI on a Resto druid than it is for a warlock 'circle jerk' to happen.
Also, if you're trying to get a lock to put DI on you more consistently, point out how huge a throughput increase just the haste is for the properly prepared druid. The extra tick of Wild Growth and Efflo constitutes a lot of healing, but you have to be prepared by having at least ~1575 haste to get there. If you aren't at all sure if you're getting DI or not that haste is a waste.
Cheers!
Does your raid need more healing or DPS atm?
DI is nice to have at times but it won't make or break your performance.
Well, given how important haste breakpoints are for Resto Druids, it can give an very nice bonus if the Resto Druid can hit the WG breakpoint with it.
But yeah, it's mostly about what your raid needs more.
A raid healing Resto Druid that uses WG on cooldown grants the best uptime to the lock. With the 4.1 nerf to DI for the non-Warlock that might become more important. But Spriests with their 4 DoTs aren't far behind.
Thanks for the information and helping me understand. :)
Edit: For reference, I would be freshly experiencing the raid content, so maybe if it let's me hit the WG break point it would be good while I'm learning. For all I know I'll never get to use DI, but this helps me immensely!
I never wanted DI for the haste - I wanted it for the 9% increase to my HoTs. Although now that we only get 3% I don't know if I'll want it as bad ;)
I always ask the lock for it with the promise that he'll probably have 100% uptime on the buff. And like other people said, it depends on the dps you have in the raid. If there isn't one that will have high uptime then it should go to you.
I think it has more to do with:
Does your raid need more healing or DPS atm?
This.
As far as the lock is concerned, a good DoT class should have the same up time as a good resto druid. So, it's up to your raid and the specific encounter as far as which recipient would benefit more.
I want to clarify two things I've read in this thread
'druids have two break points we worry about...'
Should read resto druids. Balance druids will take your 2005 haste and ask for more. And then some more with a side of haste topped with haste and a nice big glass of haste to wash it down. And don't worry we save room for our dessert, haste cream with a haste berry on top covered in haste sauce. We do not have a haste cap that is obtainable in this tier of content with out being stupid. And no Bloodlust/heroism/time warp don't count since they're short term buffs.
And then there was something about putting DI on an affliction warlock. No. So much no. You will never want to put DI on another warlock because the buffs don't stack. You will always want to put it on another DoT/HoT class.
I want to clarify two things I've read in this thread
'druids have two break points we worry about...'
Should read resto druids.
I did point out the DoT-based DPS specs have filler nukes they'll always want more of. =)
And then there was something about putting DI on an affliction warlock. No. So much no. You will never want to put DI on another warlock because the buffs don't stack. You will always want to put it on another DoT/HoT class.
That's something I didn't know, and it's also rather lame. =/
I did point out the DoT-based DPS specs have filler nukes they'll always want more of. =)
Yeah, there's just been a lot of confusion over DI, which is odd since it's pretty simple really.
I've had people tell me healers with very little reliance on HoTs should get priority because of the haste. Even though that nerfs the raid DPS two fold and does little to increase the healing output.
I don't understand what's so hard to get about
'this buff gives haste, and when a DoT/HoT crits the warlock gains a dmg buff to their DoTs, likewise when the warlocks DoTs crit the recipient of DI gets a dmg buff to their DoTs/Hots.'
No comments:
Post a Comment