Affliction Mythic+

[Spoonfairy 0]

First post here, hello everyone! :)

Has anyone tried going high on mythic+ with affliction, it seems to be pretty baller when it comes to aoe down trash, was thinking of making affliction my offspec just for mythic+ and would love to know if it is worth the second set of gear for it?

Currently going demo impolsion on mythic+

[Lockybalboa 618]

I havent seen/heard of anyone doing Aff in high mythic+ on live, but I know in beta it was used quite a bit. However, since the destro/demo buff there really isn't any reason to do Aff. Most players that are high enough caliber to be looking at high mythic+ also know that Aff is a very weak spec right now and that *if* they invested AP/time/gear into the spec it would literally be a one trick spec. On the other hand, Demo and Desto are very strong in matter what content is being played - thus making them better picks for time/ap/gear.

 

If you go Aff for high mythic+ you are there to do one thing, kill adds. And doing so requires that the adds be pulled in such a manner that Aff can AoE down large packs at a time - the problem with that is there is a number of affixes that prevent that strat. 

 

Between the niche factor, the real possibility of that weeks affixes making you useless, and the stunningly bad ST damage aff falls behind realistically. That said, it isn't totally unviable, I personally keep my aff set semi-good so that I can do the odd mythic+ or raid trash or farm content as aff for the lulz.

[kuLi 11]

Legal disclaimer; Long time lurker, etc, long post incoming, TLDR at the end, just wanted to share my experience. I'm an extremely decked ilvl884+ affliction "main" who also PvE raids in a professional, but semi-casual enviroment (5/7m). My regular M+ build. Please take note that I'm not a serious M+ progressionist (is this a word? Sorry for bad London), so take the following with a grain of salt.

People tend to forget how awesome affliction scales with gear, so I decided to go with the spec I enjoyed the most in beta, and to be frank, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Not sure what a higher M+ means nowadays, but currently I don't really have any major difficulties finishing higher mythic+ runs as an affliction. 3 chest boost-runs with random guildmates are guaranteed till M7+, my highest finish in time was an M11+ Arcway. Most of the times we are casually running the classic "last minute Wednesday M10+" for the weekly gear only, no progression/race/stress at all.

I would like to highlight that destruction is currently the best choice for M+ and for progression raiding as well. The affliction PvE magic starts to happen once you spent a reasonable amount of AP to grind all the important artifact traits (~lvl30), reaching 20+% haste and 110+% mastery and when you (and your tanks as well, this is important) managed to learn all the small affliction-related tricks in every dungeon. Until that point, if you decide to go down the pure Affliction road, you probably need to get yourself "carried" by your friends and/or guildmates. :)

I often see people stating on different forums that affliction is useless, which is simply not true. Yes, it is a niche one, heavily favouring massive pulls and trash packs. The spec is extremely gear dependant, harder to execute to its maximum potential (for example the toying with UA timings on adds/packs to get an "extra" shards back, especially if you have the legendary belt), the tank should know our advantages and capabilities, not to mention that the results are also heavily dependant on the specific dungeon and weekly affixes as well.

I think that a well- and smartly geared affliction lock who also understands and exploits all the advantages of the spec itself is really rare nowadays due the highlighted fact above, thus resulting in an overall negative experience for everyone who encountered one in M+ pugs, which results in negative feedbacks across all boards. A month ago I was only a crappy, but happy "+1" in our random guild-groups, but the hard work and grind paid off; I was dedicated (AP) and patient to improve myself by digging logs, testing fictive and legit builds as well and in the meantime, I got super lucky in terms of world drops and Titanforged personal loots as well. I also started to encourage the view of "overall damage matters", where I'm always one of the top contenders at the majority (except CoS / HoV) of the instances out there.



TL;DR: Yes, affliction worked for me, I am one of the rarest affliction warlocks out there; The overall happy one. It was a very long and lucky road with heavy investments (AP, gear, practice) but I'm starting to feel satisfied with my results. Affliction is far from perfect, but gets in a better shape once you are decked in Mastery/Haste gear. Smart resource management pays off very well, but strongly depends (and limited) by many factors. Based on the fact that you are planning to do it as an off-spec, you should choose destro, overall it's a "cheaper" and better choice.

[Devkarin 5]

I just can /sign KuLi´s post.

I´m playing affliction since vanilla and sure, there have been easier times for an affli-lock to get one of the big guys in the raids. Actually it feels like there are just 10 Affli-Locks all over the world, which are playning this spec as main. Many warlocks i met, would like to play affliction but prefer Destru odr Demo because of the higher DPS. But they forget one important thing...

As KuLi said, Affli is nothing, what you can do as 2nd-spec to jump around from time to time...you will need patience and work hard for your gear and the following DpS. Unfortunatly most people forget, that in M+ runs there is always a ton of trash to wipe out and a good geared an passinate played affli ist the perfect option to let the trash explode (in my personal opinion). So it is sometimes hard to get in rdm M+-Runs except you got a very high GS. Many People think there is just ST DpS that counts in M+...bu they often forget the trash. Sure...killing a boss in 90sec is nice to have...but if you need 2min for a 3-Mob-Trash you will lose time. On the other side my personal DpS in EN is far away to be as bad as everyone said...there are only two Encounters (Ursoc/Nythendra) were i drop back a bit because there are to few targets...everyone else i EN comes over with min. one second target...so with Effigy you always got at least three targets to put your DoTs on...and you will get a nice DpS counter at the end...IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO!

After reaching ~20% Haste and 111% Mastery (unbuffed) i get a significant boost in my DpS. Actually i got a GS ~862 and M+6 is got to go "just in time". So...if you want to play affliction...play it with passion and patience...than you will have fun playing affli...and if you have fun...your personal DpS will increase and lose weight for your satisfaction ;)

[kuLi 11]

Sidenote; Yesterday I was finally able to finish EN mythic as an affliction main (my kills / playstyle is still extremely far from perfect), but yup, it is possible. It was fun to realize that there are only ~10 logs where an affli lock was present on a mythic Cenarius/Xavius kill.

Oh well. I'm a special snowflake now.
 

[Magstine 1]

I really like to play affl....my prob at the moment is that two times i have been kicked out of raids because of the low dmg..........:( but i gotta be patient and wait for the proper mastery and haste, and almost there. The worst is the hate you get from other players who cant stand the "low" dmg.......i meen why does blizz want that??

[Saurohn 0]

10 hours ago, Magstine said:

I really like to play affl....my prob at the moment is that two times i have been kicked out of raids because of the low dmg..........:( but i gotta be patient and wait for the proper mastery and haste, and almost there. The worst is the hate you get from other players who cant stand the "low" dmg.......i meen why does blizz want that??

I second that "hate from other players complaining about the 'low damage'. 

Not an Affliction 'lock, I have mained a demo lock since WoTLK. I also agree that there is no substitute for passion and patience. But it has been really tough when a two button class with some of the Blizz-love that gives them ultra high DPS comes in and says something really ugly to you when you are busier than hell trying to learn the new version of our class that Blizz has provided. Also by the way, keep in mind that one slight error can easily impact our DPS very negatively while their class is completely idot-proof. A 5 yr old can push two buttons over and over and get 500k.

I have to think that the DEVs do not play the class or it would not have been released in such a "not quite done" state. Now we are getting "hotplugs" every couple of weeks as they attempt to "level" the playing field as Blizz responds to the four demon hunters who got killed by warlocks in PVP. (Was I being negative? I promised I wouldn't be negative anymore!  :))

 

 

[Magstine 1]

13 hours ago, Saurohn said:

I have to think that the DEVs do not play the class or it would not have been released in such a "not quite done" state. Now we are getting "hotplugs" every couple of weeks as they attempt to "level" the playing field as Blizz responds to the four demon hunters who got killed by warlocks in PVP. (Was I being negative? I promised I wouldn't be negative anymore!  :))

Spot on :D

 

 

Edited November 5, 2016 by Magstine

[forthefel 0]

Hi guys! Just wanted to say thanks! My heart also belongs to affliction locks and have been playing them as my main since I started in burning crusade. I had to take a hiatus when I started college about six years back and had to stop after lich king...

Six months ago I decided to bring my main back! Holy hell have things changed! Thought I had a pretty good grip on my character and got her up to 110! Then I did my second dungeon today in years. Felt quite noobish (perhaps I am!) I was also kicked, and got crapped on for low dps :/ I spent all day researching my character further, and all I got was affs are crap, you cant do myths with them... then I discovered this beautiful post! This is why I thank you! For the ambition to stick with it and make my warlock a badass again!

I should get back to work figuring out how to get her there...

[Kencredible 0]

Kuli is 100% right. You need to be about 27points into your artifact, the more the better. But you should have great aoe trash dps if your tanks keep them close, Max stacks for reap going into everyboss. Use infernal for trash doom guard for boss.

if your dps is low, make sure you are stacking mastery, make sure you read all your artifact talents and understand how to maximize them. Make sure UA is on tagets about to die, maximize uptime on contagion, make sure you're running doom guard now. Use a shift (for effigy) alt (for focus) macros so you hit the same keys and never have to leave your target. Weak auras so your dots NEVER fall off, and weak auras so you ONLY refresh on the pandemic window. Make sure if you have to move, get aN UA up, top off your mana, and if that's all set refresh you dots (even if outside of pandemic) so you have more time to keep UA up to maximize contagion time and have more time for drain  life. . UA on 1 on the timer, get dots up (agony first) on boss and effigy, then pop reap souls. Try to have your artifact ability popped whenever dumping UAs, or when UA is about to fall off.  Lots of little things to maximize Dps. Also read the aff discord all the time

[EbetPdx 0]

So glad I found this post.  Been Affliction since TBC and yes, it is possible to make a silk purse out of the Sow's Ear we were handed by Blizzard.  It takes an understanding of the spec, enough AP in your weapon, and luck with gear drops  and it will all start falling into place. It was Ilvl 860 when it all fell together for me.  My guild are hardly bleeding edge raiders, but moving from the top 10 to the top 5 in DPS over 1 weekend was wonderful to see.  If you love Affl, just stick with it and keep plugging it will pay off in the end.

I'm running a Mastery > Haste ( to 20%) > Crit build and the extra crit is helping.  I dislike SE and use PS with GoSer and DS for the shards. Next step is to beat the Spriest on the meters :-)