Affliction questions from a new comer.

[Novelty 0]

Here is a link to my armory before I start: http://us.battle.net...iction/advanced

Advice is welcome.

I have a level 90 warlock and I've read a lot and watched a lot of videos. But there are some things I'm uncertain on and I feel like the best way to get help is asking the warlock community! I feel my dps is lacking a bit and I'm trying to figure out how I should improve it.

I kind of understand empowered dots but I'm trying to ignore them until I get a full understanding of managing dots properly first. Say I go into a fight with 4 targets. What should I do? SB/SS all 4 of them? Or... SB/SS 3 of them and haunt the third one then go into my single target rotation? This is also where I'm confused. Am I supposed to channeling MG as much as possible on one target or does refreshing ANY dot from the four targets come before that... I find myself letting dots slip off of the other 3 while paying attention to my single target rotation on the add I'm targeting. I was thinking just refreshing Agony on the other targets before it falls of would be beneficial overal, but I'm not sure? I have a handful of other questions but I'll ask them one at a time!

Any help would be much appreciated... thanks everyone!

Edited February 14, 2013 by Novelty

[Zagam 1,982]

You're asking about 4 target rotations like it's meaningful...5 man dungeons are not where Affliction shines. There aren't even that many fights in raids where you have to worry about maintaining DoTs on more than 1 or 2 targets. Take this list for example:

Stone Guard - 2 viable targets able to be DPS'd. Keep DoTs on one while doing your single target rotation on the other. It's ok if the other DoTs fall off, but try to keep Agony rolling full time.

Feng - one target

Gara'jal - one target boss, lots of small adds. I go into how to do this in my Tier 14 Warlock Guide.

Stone Guard - one target

Elegon - one target with some adds. I go into how to do this in my Tier 14 Warlock Guide.

Will of the Emperor - 2 targets with some adds. I go into how to do this in my Tier 14 Warlock Guide.

Vizier - one target

Blade Lord - one target

Garalon - one target

Wind Lord - lots of targets, but you perform your single target rotation while using Soulburn: Seed of Corruption on your main target to spread Corruption. Otherwise, spam Seed.

Amber Shaper - one target with minor adds

Shek'zeer - mostly one target. Adds will be focused down in priority, so you're almost always doing a single target rotation.

Protectors - one target

Tsu'long - one target, some minor adds that aren't alive long.

Lei Shi - one target

Sha of Fear - one target with some minor adds. I go into how to do this in my T14 Warlock Guide.

Also, maintaining DoTs and their Spell Power can be monitored with the same addon, Affdots. You do NOT want to ignore the empowered DoT portion of my guide on how to DPS because this is how Affliction goes from mediocre to one of the top two PvE specs in the game. Spend much less time worrying about 4 target DPS because that situation only presents itself in scenarios that are unimportant such as 5 man heroics. However, if you tuning your DPS for Challenge Modes, then yes, you'll SB:SS 4 targets and use Malefic Grasp until you either generate another Soul Shard or kill your target. Once you kill your target with Drain Soul, reapply DoTs to everything else alive and go back to MG/DS.

[Novelty 0]

Thanks Zagam... I'll get Affdots as soon as possible. Addons I use right now are WeakAuras, Fortexorcist, and TidyPlates.

So now that you cleared that up. When do I refresh dots to be empowered dots? Say one item procs, do I start refreshing? Or should I wait for like 3-4 things to proc when doing empowered dots. What's the rule of thumb for applying them?

I also have a question about managing haunt in my single target rotation. I know all of my other dots should be up before casting it. And to channel MG the entire time it's up. Do I MG until haunt falls off, or do I renew haunt before it falls off and continue MG?

[Zagam 1,982]

You want to use Haunt as much as possible with procs up. Don't use it when you don't have procs rolling. You don't necessarily need to pool shards for Dark Soul, but anytime you get a nice combination (Jade Spirit/Tailoring proc/Trinkets) you'll want to use Haunt to buff those procs another 25%. You can't necessarily 'wait' on procs especially in the next tier with Real PPM proc rates which will make them completely random. Right now, it's pretty easy to monitor the CDs for Light of the Cosmos and Relic of Yulon, but if you're not comfortable calculating when procs will happen, don't sweat it because in the next tier, you won't worry about that. You'll just wait until something procs.

A more specific answer may be that you have to observe the threshold of Affdots. You don't want to interrupt your MG to update Corruption that suddenly got a minor proc (107-110) but you'll want to stop what you're doing and refresh a DoT if you see 125 or higher on your Affdots table. This is a 25% buff to your current DoTs and should not be overlooked. This value can be modified in Affdots, but 125 is a very solid choice on when to ignore and when to immediately update.

[Novelty 0]

Thanks again. I guess I've been playing entirely wrong in dungeons and in raids... I usually open with CoE, DS:M, Doomguard, Haunt, SB/SS, MG and refresh haunt before it falls off while refreshing the other 3 dots manually. And I usually continue casting haunt before it falls off until I run out of shards. Then as the fight continue keeping up the 3 main dots while MG above 20% and at that point I would usually cast haunt whenever I got a SS (I thought that buffed all my other dots big time combined with MG) dang..

^ That's totally wrong then... right?

Edited February 14, 2013 by Novelty

[Gravyspasm 70]

dude....you're positively swimming in haste. about 1500 more than i would suggest

which is a crazy statement to hear especially after you're already reforging into mastery on your light of the cosmos

here's my poke at the stat equalizing

basically just undid all your Hit>haste and hit > mastery changes and made haste into hit where i could.

this alone gets you to about 12% hit.

if you make the following gem changes you'll get to 15% hit but lose a little mastery

Head - Keen

waist - first yellow into a green (sensei) and buckle goes full hit (rigid)

legs gets a keen

Edited February 14, 2013 by Gravyspasm

[Novelty 0]

My stat priority and reforges weren't based around reaching hit cap. And I rarely miss on normal raid bosses. When I do I just simply recast. The reason I'm not trying to reach hit cap is because of what I read in Zagam's thread, affliction tips and quirks. My DPS overall isn't bad it's actually pretty good. But I know I'm not maximizing it. Could I get an answer to my question two posts above this one? :)

10) Hit capping

Hit capping is an option up for debate. Currently at lower item levels, hit does not have as high a weight as Haste does, so a lot of Warlocks are pushing Mastery and Haste over Hit. This is acceptable and does simulate higher. However, hit capping removes a lot of human error and judgment and allows you to focus on other things in a fight such as the mechanics and phase transitions. You can choose one of two priorities:

1) Mastery > Haste > Hit > Crit

or

2) Hit (to 5100) > Mastery > Haste > Crit

If you decide to hit cap, reforge first out of all your Crit, then your Haste. If you still need more and can't reforge anymore, remember that you can reforge into Expertise and benefit the same as if it were Hit rating. For example, if your legs have Hit and Crit, you can reforge the Crit into Expertise.

Edited February 15, 2013 by Novelty

[Cruzan 71]

Hi Novelty,

I'm not 100% sure what the question is that you're referring to in that post, but here's what Zagam quoted me for an opener sequence:

My opener is prepot, CoE, DS + SB:SS, Haunt, MG for one duration, UA, Corr, Agony, Haunt, MG x 3, SB:SS, Haunt, MG x 4. From there, you're monitoring your procs, but until that second SB:SS, all procs are live (Relic of Yu'lon, Light of the Cosmos, Lightweave, potion, Bloodlust, Jade Spirit).

If you're asking about when to Haunt, the basic rule of thumb is to not use it if you have zero procs up. You'll want to wait until you get a decent combination of procs before throwing out a Haunt. So yes, what you stated as 'casting Haunt on every nightfall proc' is incorrect, with the exception being if you have 4 shards, then you'll want to use Haunt to burn one of them so future nightfall procs aren't wasted.

Haunt does buff your DoTs "big time," but due to the nature of nightfall and RNG you're not going to be able to achieve 100% up-time on it, so picking and choosing when and where to utilize Haunt is important and using it only when you have empowered DoTs is key.

Best of luck!

Edited February 15, 2013 by Cruzan

[Novelty 0]

Thanks for the help everyone... So I downloaded AffDots and it seems to have help improve my DPS. I refresh dots when their modifers jump at least 15-20+ or before they are about to fall off. I cast haunt when I have 4 shards so nightfall can proc and I pool shards until about 2+ procs have went off then I try to keep haunt rolling consecutively with remaining soulshards while those procs are still up. Does that sound any better than what I was doing?

[Cruzan 71]

Sounds good. Aim for 100% up-times on your dots as well. UA usually tends to be the dot that most of us struggle to keep good up-times on since we are making sure to never let Agony fall off, but UA is very important as well.

Its pretty common when someone makes a post asking for help with their DPS that they'll post a link to one of their logs as well. One of the first things Gravy and others will point out is that their DoT up-times are much lower than they need to be. I still struggle with it myself, but it is an easy thing to go back and look at and evaluate on your own!

Also I know you mentioned that you are aren't reforging around reaching the hit cap which is fine, but I think 8.55% is extremely low. I'd honestly recommend that you shoot for at least 12%. The choice is ultimately up to you! I personally can't stand minor fluctuations in my DPS and being hit-capped lets me know that my numbers during a fight are based solely on my gameplay and not RNG.

Edited February 16, 2013 by Cruzan