Some feedback for Affliction

[Frontright 1]

Hey Zagam and friends

Thank you SO much for the write up on Affliction warlock. I've been trolling through the comments for the past few days and it's just PURE gold. I recently got WoW and this is my first character. I blazed through 90 levels with destruction and joined a guild and they suggested I go affliction. Needless to say, I felt like a fish out of water because of the massive contrast in game-play style.

This is my character: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/twilights-hammer/Frontright/advanced

Could you please give me some advice on how to reforge and re-gem at this point? Wowreforge.com is giving me a reforge where my Haste is sitting at about 4% or so, which I feel is very low so I found myself reforging out of Mastery to up the Haste, which still isn't that great at about 7% now. Is it worth dropping all the Int gems and going for Haste breakpoint?

I ran Elegon last night with a few buddies of mine and would just like some critical feedback on what I'm doing wrong and what I'm doing right. I have to say I've been banging my head again the wall with Affliction because it feels like I'm not getting the same numbers with destruction.

Here is the combat log: http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/4rw8rr1qnp8vvqba/

The character name is Frontright

With regards to Affdots, I have a question:

Say I cast corruption, it ticks a few times, my Relic of Yu’lon procs and my SP in Affdots shows 115 with 15 seconds left (perfect time to reapply because of damage increase AND pandemic will increase time from 18-27seconds). Yet Affdots shows red?

Even if my recast isn’t utilizing the full effect of pandemic in that some of the 50% is being clipped off because it hits the time cap, is it still not better to cast immediately after you see the buff go up(regardless of Affdots showing red) so you a) get slightly more up time on the empowered DoTs and B) don’t risk missing the buffed up reapply while waiting for Affdots to show green?

Does Affdots have a threshold for when the tab will turn blue? Ei: 125% spell power? If this is the case then affdots will only show blue when both my int procs go off at the same time, and this seems few and far between. Most of the time I get one of them at a time, which takes me only up to 115 or there abouts.

Also, given all of the info above, what kind of DPS should I be looking, right now, at as a relatively new gamer?Does this differ in LFR and on test dummies. What is the best measure of DPS? 10 mans?

Thanx again for the awesome work

[Kaboozey 16]

First, if you're going to re-gem to anything, you might want to follow Zagam's gem guide which primarily leads to gemming Mastery.

Second, in reguards to wowreforge: In lower-left corner, you'll notice a spot to enter your caps. A rating of 5100 is automatically placed for you to hit the 15% hit cap. Beyond that, caps are up to you. In the case of a warlock, you'll primarily be concerned with haste breakpoints. Ideally, you'd like to get 4717 rating at your current ilvl. Unfortunetly, due to having too much crit gear, you're unable to hit this cap. Until then, use a haste cap of 3043. To break this down visually, it should read like this:

Cap#1: Hit at least 5100

Cap#2: Haste at least 3043

Don't worry about the over cap weights. Leave those blank.

Remember that these are haste rating with raid buffs in mind. With 3043 rating + 5% haste buff, you'll end up with 12.52% haste. At 4717, you'll end up at 16.65% - again, with the raid spell haste buff.

[Zagam 1,982]

Hey Zagam and friends

Thank you SO much for the write up on Affliction warlock. I've been trolling through the comments for the past few days and it's just PURE gold. I recently got WoW and this is my first character. I blazed through 90 levels with destruction and joined a guild and they suggested I go affliction. Needless to say, I felt like a fish out of water because of the massive contrast in game-play style.

This is my character: http://eu.battle.net...tright/advanced

Could you please give me some advice on how to reforge and re-gem at this point? Wowreforge.com is giving me a reforge where my Haste is sitting at about 4% or so, which I feel is very low so I found myself reforging out of Mastery to up the Haste, which still isn't that great at about 7% now. Is it worth dropping all the Int gems and going for Haste breakpoint?

I ran Elegon last night with a few buddies of mine and would just like some critical feedback on what I'm doing wrong and what I'm doing right. I have to say I've been banging my head again the wall with Affliction because it feels like I'm not getting the same numbers with destruction.

Here is the combat log: http://www.worldoflo...w8rr1qnp8vvqba/

The character name is Frontright

With regards to Affdots, I have a question:

Say I cast corruption, it ticks a few times, my Relic of Yu’lon procs and my SP in Affdots shows 115 with 15 seconds left (perfect time to reapply because of damage increase AND pandemic will increase time from 18-27seconds). Yet Affdots shows red?

Even if my recast isn’t utilizing the full effect of pandemic in that some of the 50% is being clipped off because it hits the time cap, is it still not better to cast immediately after you see the buff go up(regardless of Affdots showing red) so you a) get slightly more up time on the empowered DoTs and don’t risk missing the buffed up reapply while waiting for Affdots to show green?

Does Affdots have a threshold for when the tab will turn blue? Ei: 125% spell power? If this is the case then affdots will only show blue when both my int procs go off at the same time, and this seems few and far between. Most of the time I get one of them at a time, which takes me only up to 115 or there abouts.

Also, given all of the info above, what kind of DPS should I be looking, right now, at as a relatively new gamer?Does this differ in LFR and on test dummies. What is the best measure of DPS? 10 mans?

Thanx again for the awesome work

First off, welcome to the Warlock side of WoW! It's awesome.

I can't see your armory from work, so I can only assume your item level isn't that hot since you said you just got started. My primary and very basic suggestion is if you're 480 or below, go for 3043 haste and the rest into mastery after hit capping. If you're between 480 and 490, go for 4717 haste, hit cap, then shove into mastery. If you're 490+, go for 6637 haste, hit cap, then mastery. As for gemming, you basically want to do whatever you need to in order to hit those caps. For example, I my Warlock is using a plethora of Haste + Hit gems because it gives me a more accurate number hit than reforging alone. When you start accumulating gear, remember that a 320 Mastery gem will have a higher value than a 160 int gem. This is the biggest road block for most Warlocks who start gemming and enchanting.

As for your Elegon attempt, I don't think YOU'RE the one holding your group back. You're doing 80k which is pretty good for not really understanding everything or making your first couple of attempts. Looking at the 9:21 attempt, I see a Mage doing 49k DPS with Frostfire Bolt as his top damaging spell. I'd send that friend to the Mage forums or the Mage guide here at Icy-Veins. As for YOUR numbers, your DoT uptimes are pretty low. 70% for Agony, 58% for UA, and 67% for Corruption. Your DoTs should ALWAYS be up on SOMETHING. For Elegon specifically, you should always have DoTs rolling on Elegon and the Celestial Defender in Phase 1. While you are transitioning into the next phase, DoTs should be maintained on Elegon while you DoT up your assigned Energy Charge. When the charge dies, you should reapply to Elegon. When you go into P3, you should have DoTs ticking on your assigned pylon and DoTs ticking on Elegon again as soon as he becomes attackable. You gained 25 Soul Shards during this attempt but only fired our 14 Haunts. I do see 18 Soulburns, so I'm guessing you have the hang of SB:SS to get DoTs on things fast. In order to boost YOUR DPS, focus on your DoT uptimes.

For Affdots, you need to understand how it changes. It does, indeed, modify its value when procs happen. The color goes from red to green when the gain in spell power is positive AND you'll gain the FULL effect of Pandemic. However, you shouldn't make it a priority to hit your DoTs at a certain point to maximize the time on your DoT...you want to maximize the power. Think of Pandemic as purely a bonus and not something to actually worry about. The 125 number I made reference to is my mental threshold that when I see it, no matter what color Affdots is displaying, I recast my DoTs.

Finally, your question about where you should be in terms of DPS...this is hard to evaluate because certain comps will have certain jobs and things can separate pretty quickly. The best fight to see where your DPS is lies is either Feng or Gara'jal, but only if you never go into the other phases. Feng lowers your DPS during part 1 with Epicenter, so it's not the best test and there is some minor movement involved. I can tell you from your logs that you are not the one holding your group back. Just keep working on improvement and you'll see those numbers soar. Also, best of luck on Light of the Cosmos...it'd do well to replace that crappy Predator trinket you're using :)

[Gravyspasm 70]

This is my character: http://eu.battle.net...tright/advanced

Could you please give me some advice on how to reforge and re-gem at this point? Wowreforge.com is giving me a reforge where my Haste is sitting at about 4% or so, which I feel is very low so I found myself reforging out of Mastery to up the Haste, which still isn't that great at about 7% now. Is it worth dropping all the Int gems and going for Haste breakpoint?

• step one: remove any reforge where you pull mastery out for another stat.
• step two: decide if you're going to be the kind of player that has to be at the hit cap first, or the kind that wants to be at the basic haste threshold first.

For my reforging of your character, i played it as being haste first. Doing this will get you to the 4717 haste threshold, but will leave you .3 below hitcap. As it is now, you're 1% over the hitcap and 5% under haste.

I'll say that what i've done here is one possible solution. I've basically replaced every gem, so it is certainly not a cheap solution. I am sure there are more elegant ways to achieve what you're looking for, but this is what i have to offer.

Starting from the top and working our way down:

• Main Hand: no change
• Head: New Gem - Lightning Wild Jade New Reforge: Hit --> Haste
• Neck: New Reforge: Hit --> Haste
• Shoulder: New Gem - Wicked Vermilion Onyx
• Back: New Reforge - Hit --> Haste
• Chest: New Gems: Wicked in the first and Lightning in the second New Reforge: Crit --> Haste
• Wrist: New Enchant - Mastery
• Hands: New Enchant - Mastery
• Waist: New Gems : Quick Sun's Radiance in both New Reforge: Removed original reforge
• Legs: New Gems: Accurate Imperial Amethyst and Lightning Wild Jade New Reforge: Crit --> Haste
• Feet: No change
• Ring 1: No change
• Ring 2: New Reforge: Crit --> Haste

You may be better off only trying to hit the 3043 haste threshold. That will certainly allow you to hit the 15% hitcap. But from the gear you have now I think you're very close to getting some upgrades, and this reforging i have done is already getting you to the 4717 haste point, so there will be fewer major changes needed once you start getting newer pieces.

[Zagam 1,982]

Gravy is the Hutch to my Starsky. Thanks for the in-depth look, Gravymaster!

[Frontright 1]

Guy's thanx SO much for the advice. I totally hear you about the DoT uptime. Tracking DoTs is one of the elements of Affliction I find more tricky, especially when there is all the action of the boss. I'll change up the things you guys have recommended ASAP. Thanx so much. I'll be sure to point our mage in the Ivy veins direction too.

[Frontright 1]

Hey guys. Could you please take a look at my latest raid log for the garalon fight and let me know where I can improve. Already doing a lot better from the tips you gave me. I think I'm just fine-tuning now. The relative flat spot is where i was kiting and didnt want to fuck up.

http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/siz2m8b6it5xppo9/

This is my character: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/twilights-hammer/Frontright/simple

[Cruzan 71]

I think I'm just fine-tuning now. The relative flat spot is where i was kiting and didnt want to fuck up.

Hi Frontright,

Looking at your Armory it says you are taking Archi's Vengeance over Kil'j Cunning. I can't tell if that was the setup you were running during that Garalon fight, but I would highly recommend taking KjC. It should help you a lot during kiting as well.

Now looking at those logs I see two points during the fight where your damage drops to Zero The first time lasts for almost 20 seconds. The second time is much shorter, but happened nonetheless. Keep those DoT's rolling man! 81, 86 and 79% up-time for Agony, Corr and UA respectively for the fight overall is definitely bad.

I'm sure as you run the fight more you will become more comfortable kiting and since you guys have gotten a kill definitely start trying to focus on increasing your output. That will come by keeping your DoTs rolling as much as possible. If you haven't read through Zagam's warlock strategy for all the fights I highly recommend it! https://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/790-normal-tier-14-warlock-style/

Beyond that which is all very basic and boring your raid comp might be better suited to have you multi-dotting instead of just focusing Garalon. Read through the link that I posted to see which of the strategies sounds best for you and your raid.

Best of luck!

[Frontright 1]

Ok awesome, thats so much for the feedback. Yeah, now that you mentioned it there is no excuse why my DPS should have dropped to zero. I think this will sort itself out as I run this boss more and get more comfortable. This was the first time we downed Garalon and I just didnt want to mess it up for everyone by making a stupid mistake (messed up badly last week so maybe was a bit paranoid). Will definitely keep the DoT's rolling. I do have KJ's Cunning running, it think the Armory is just out of date. Thanx again dude.