Understanding Simcraft for Warlocks

Introduction 

This is the first in a series of posts about Simcraft and how to use it to learn more about playing a warlock. Simcraft for warlocks can be found here. There are some important pieces of information found in Simcraft that can help you learn how to be a better warlock 



Estimated Theoretical DPS

This is useful for gauging your own performance. Simcraft is designed pretty well for warlocks and currently, it is possible for warlocks to perform very close to the simulated values (Within 5K dps) for single target fights. If you are pulling 20% below what simcraft suggests for you, it means that we need to work on your dps. Fortunately, that's what we are here for. 



Damage per Execute Time (Value for Money!)

A layman's way of understanding Damage per execute Time is Value for Money. A spell with a high Value for Money means that you will get very good damage for the time you spend casting it. 

A spell that has high Damage may not always have high Value for Money. For example, a spell that hits for 1,000,000 damage but takes 1 hour to cast is not as good as a spell that hits for 500,000 but takes 3 seconds to cast. 

This graph below is very useful for us because it tells us how to prioritise. 

 Basically, Agony gives us the most Value for Money and it is our most important Dot. In any multi-dot fight (Council of Elders, for example), you will do much more damage if you cast Agony and keep it up on all the bosses instead of other spells.

 

There are a lot of interesting things to note for Destruction. Firstly, you will see that ShadowBurn should be our highest priority. Interestingly, Immolate has a higher Value for Money compared to Chaos Bolt. Incinerate(our filler spell) has the lowest priority of all. This means that in any fight, we should try to cast LESS Incinerates and MORE Immolates whenever possible. Notice that Rain of Fire has better Value for Money than Incinerate and it generates the same amount of embers. If you can cast Rain of Fire on at least two targets, it will result in a noticeable gain in DPS. If you can cast it on only one target, it will result in a slight gain in dps.

DPS Timeline

The last thing that I want to show is the DPS Timeline. This graph tells us two interesting things. Firstly, our opening burst is super important. If we can line up Bloodlust at the start, it will result in us having significantly more DPS

Another interesting thing to observe. Do you notice the little humps in DPS? Warlocks are like rubber bands. They do their damage in bursts. Learning how to take advantage of important procs makes the difference between a good warlock and a bad one. This will be the topic of my next post.