fire warlock

[Lissa]

So I have a 54 warlock who is currently aiming towards MD/Ruin.  Ever since I've first created the character there has been something about shadowbolting things that just bugs me though.  It just isn't very fun for me.  Part of this may be that I previously played a 60 shaman with a warlock friend who spent all her time shadowbolting and so that could have made me lose interest in it.  I generally play my warlock with two friends, a mage and a priest.  So we spend alot of time AOEing things to death.  The priest is a little lazy when we aren't AOEing (and sometimes when we are heh), just tending to be on follow and using instants (renew, shield, pain).  So I was thinking about making a fire build so that both the mage (frost/arcane mage.  Often uses blizzard when we AOE) and myself could take advantage of the same curse on mobs.  The question is though, how effective would a fire build be and what one would be the best?  I see two main options for builds.

The first build option is Searing Pain, Soul Fire, Rain of Fire, and Hellfire.  Such a build would probably look something like this: Searing Pain Build.

The second build option is Immolate, Soul Fire, Rain of Fire, and Hellfire.  Such a build would probably look something like this: Immoalte Build.  With the option of going Destructive Reach instead of Improved Firebolt if you wished (I went firebolt just cause its in theme heh).

Now the only imfo I've really found involving these skills is this thread on the amazon basin.  It contains a spread sheet with various warlock spell information.  Basically it says that Immolate is better damage per second (dps), but worse damage per mana (dpm).  Conversely Searing Pain is better dpm, but worse dps.  The problem is that the thread generally ignores crits which seems to be a big point of Searing Pain.  The thread is also old and so doesn't reflect some changes in spells and such.  So its difficult to rely too much on it, the info seems questionable at best to me and even the original author says it needs redone in the last post.

So what I'm wondering is if anybody has any experience with these builds.  Both builds do get enough demonology that if I Need to CC with seduce I have it improved, if I need to tank with VW it is improved, and if I need to sac VW repeatedly during AOE I have the near instant summons as well.  The Searing Pain one also gets Demonic Sacrifice so it can sacrifice the imp for more fire damage, but the skill does provide other utility as well.

Another question would be what kind of items should I aim for with these builds.  Would +fire or +crit gear be better?  Would one stat be better for one build and the other for the other, is it a clear decision, or is it a toss up either way?  Lots of things to figure out here.

Also, I should state that I never do 40 man raids and so the fire resist in MC is not an issue.  My comp just can't handle the amount of people there.  I also dont' PvP for a similair reason and so thats not an issue either.  This would be entirely for playing with my mage and priest friends plus others we get for instances (usually a shaman and then another random class though we try for tanks).

I would greatly appreciate any advice that can be given on such a character.  Just sitting here thinking about it makes me kind of excited to try it and to play the character.  I just need to figure out what I'm actually going to do before I respec and such.
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The Immolate fire build can be fun and can do a lot of damage, but, once you hit the raid instances, only Zul'Gurub will allow you to use it to full effect. Too many mobs in Molten Core, Blackwing, and Onyxia and her warders are either high resistant or totally immune to fire. This means that either the Immolate or the Searing Pain build will be severly limited. Also, once you get into raiding, Searing Pain is a bad idea due to the large agro the spell generates and can easily pull the mob away from the tank.

So, while fun, the Immolate build will probably lead to frustration in the raid instances.