Noob post alert - cooldowns, cast times, defense, etc.

[machinestatic]

Hi everyone. I just got my forum account registered last night, so I sincerely(!) apologize if you guys get this question a hundred times a day. So basically, the warlock is the first class that has seemed to speak to me, so I rolled one up to level 30-ish, and the entire time I had the same basic confusions:

 

1. When I save my cooldowns and try to play "smart", I have to eat a dumpling after every 2 fights. But when I allow myself to just go all out and use my whole tool kit (Z for defense, 2 for root, 3 when rooted for insta-cast) I no longer feel weak, BUT what I trade for that is I then have to sit there for ~30 seconds waiting for my abilities to be available again... after every single fight. It totally ruins the momentum and fun. 1 or both of these methods has to be wrong, right?

 

2. The combo of Wingstorm to get orbs, and then following up with Helix is awesome. But the cast time of Wingstorm (whenever 3 is unavailable) means I'm standing there for several seconds getting hit in the face - which means I have to eat a dumpling - which negates the fact that I busted out my big abilities in the first place.

 

3. Is part of playing a Warlock correctly trying to keep Quell up as often as possible? Or is that wrong, face-tanky, and not proper BNS?

 

I feel there must be a simple tip or concept that just needs to click in my head, and I'll be able to master this beast. Anyone care to help? Thanks, appreciate it!

[SaintPepsiCola]

Warlock is a cooldown heavy class , Yes; but read your abilities. Most of them reset or lower cooldowns of Wingstorm and Dragoncall or give you orbs to fire off helix. It's more complicated than playing other ranged casters (insert summ or fm ) as you have to be mindful of your rotation and your rotation is what keeps you from going into cooldowns. 

 

full animation of 3 resets it and so does F leech(rmb during leech says hello) and F rupture. Then there's things you can do to reduce cd of leech too. 

For Levelling; I recommend getting a purple amethyst which you get for free from doing the survey. also, warlock has heals everywhere if specced right. You have heals on your rmb; on your lmb, on your V, 2, Z, C,F rupture, 1. I'm sure I missed some others.

 

you can get a HM skill at 50 to make the rotation smoother but you shouldn't be struggling during levelling until about 45+. Neither should you be doing your helix combo for every single mob out there. You should essentially bring them all together and do helix and bye bye quests. There are very few classes other than WL who have awesome AOE to pull this off.

[Eimi]

Off the top of my head the most low effort improvement you could make to reduce your downtime would be to change your Wingstorm into Form 2 Tier 3, which will provide you with a ridiculously high amount of lifesteal, considering the fact that you can reset its cooldown with both Imprison as well as Leech

 

That being said, there is no reason for you to stand still and take hits when your main skills are on cooldown.

Apart from casting Dragoncall, Imprison and the initial 1s cast time on Wingstorm, you can move around all you want.

Learning to kite is an important part of being a ranged class and making use of your snares ( Eclipse Form 2 and Soul Shackle Form 1 Tier 3) goes a long way to keep your health up.

 

At level 30 you don't have that many skill points to play around with yet however, realistically, your main damage source in pve would be your Bombardment Form 2 Tier 3 which you can cast instantly, while moving on any opponent that has the target debuff, such as after a Dragoncall, Dragon Helix or Rupture.

The alternative RMB spec, Dimensional Volley is a more slow paced skill that focuses on building up shadow orbs for Dragon Helix rather than doing damage on its own.

 

If for some reason you're undergeared / fighting an opponent that won't die to a simple Dragoncall - Bombardment spam / Wingstorm-Helix-Bombardment, kiting with your snares and using the non-instant Bombardment to proc Rupture Form 1 Tier 3 is a great way to get your opponent targeted and lower the cd on your Dragoncall / build up shadow orbs for more Dragon Helixes.

 

Quell and Repulse are amazing skills however i feel as you're leveling, using Eclipse to create distance & snare your enemy in place will often times do you more good.

Quell would be the choice in avoiding ranged or aoe multi hit attacks that you can't easily jump out of, or even just stalling untill your Eclipse is off cooldown so you can setup again from a far.

[FilthyCasual]

My entire tactic is to try and maintain a helix at least once every 5 seconds. Here's a list of all skills that form Spectral Orbs:

 

Wingstorm-, 3 orbs per hit, 3 hits per cast.

Dragon Helix- critical, 2 orbs regained.

Rupture hit-, 1 orb created.

Imprison (stage 1) critical, creates 3 orbs on critical hit, 5 hits per cast. Reset Wingstorm CD on final hit.

Leech- 3 orbs created on hit, reset CD on Wingstorm.

(Thrall) Nether Pulse- 3 orbs created on hit.

 

My skill rotation basically goes:

Wingstorm cast-hit, (crit)Helix, rupture, (helix), WS hit, Helix, WS hit, (crit)helix, rupture, (crit)helix, (continue crit-helix combo until helix doesn't crit).

Imprison 5-hit, helix, insta-cast WS, restart previous combo.

*If both Imprison and Wingstorm are on Cooldown, use stage 1 leech. Restart WS, resume combo*

By the time the Wingstorm caused by Leech is over, Imprison should be less than 5-10 seconds from using again. If the boss is something like Asura or Be Ido, where you can sacrifice your SS to regain Wingstorm cooldown, use stage 1 tier 3 ss to gain 1 second i-frame, and time it so that you resist an attack. Resisting an attack grants a new wingstorm. Continue first combo. Rinse and repeat, cooldowns should allign. Leech might be unusable for a few seconds, and if you're feeling risky, go for another SS. Keep your Bastion on hand though, you don't know when you'll need it. Even if it means taking a weak hit or two.

 

During the entire combo, I'm spamming Bombardment stage 2 tier 3 to avoid a small bit of aggro. If needed, Mantra can be casted instead of rupture, and is recommended to be used if a helix doesn't crit and you have the option to either rupture or Mantra. Use Mantra.

 

Here and there I'll be dropping skills like Soul Shackle, Tether Blade and Sanctum, but that's my dps rotation. This is all also assuming you haven't used Soulburn/Time Distortion.

[Natose]

don't forget to put gravity well on your thrall, what I like to do is gather mobs hit z, summon thrall, ss, cast imprison, cast 3 then 4, v

you'll get some good damage, once you get hm skills its faster, btw i'm a dragoncall rotation and this is just if your bunching and aoeing them down

[Eileithia]

On 7/10/2016 at 6:33 PM, Natose said:

don't forget to put gravity well on your thrall, what I like to do is gather mobs hit z, summon thrall, ss, cast imprison, cast 3 then 4, v

you'll get some good damage, once you get hm skills its faster, btw i'm a dragoncall rotation and this is just if your bunching and aoeing them down

What Natose said - You're playing a predominantly AOE class, so use that to your advantage.  Gather 5-6 mobs, use Bastion, shackle and your thrall to take the heat off of you while you burst the whole group down.  If you're trying to level killing one mob at a time with this class you'll suffer from a lot of wait time.  Every main skill you have is AOE. Why kill 1 mob when you can kill 5-6 in the same amount of time with a little practice.