A couple of questions regarding Affliction

[Vargnatt 0]

So I recently started playing Affli lock again. I love the spec, however I have a couple of doubts about it,

 

1) Souls for reap souls. Always at 0-1. Since, from my understanding, the single target rotation for Affli is Agony -> Corruption -> Siphon Life -> Unstable Affliction x2 -> Reap Souls -> Malefic grasp until UA is off, I don't think it's normal to be Souls starved, I suppose I'm doing something wrong. I can throw a 12 stacks at the pull, then maybe a 4-5 one after that one is over, then a 3, then always 0, at max 1. I mean, 1 is still "fine", but most of the time I don't have Souls to cast Reap with. What am I doing wrong?

 

2) Mana. I know I have life tap, but damn I'm ALWAYS out of mana. Like, every 3-4 casts of UA (I mean double casts) I'm drained, need to life tap. Isn't it a dps loss to life tap like a madman? Also, should I life tap from 0 to 85-90%, or just once?

 

Just trying to improve here, still grasping the whole rotation, still 846 item level, but I don't think these two issues can be resolved with gear.

[spikeysquad 50]

Welcome.

1. Reap Souls has a random proc rate of something like 4.5 a minute (at least it did at one point, not sure if it's still that number but regardless it's pretty low). To Reap is a bonus, otherwise do your drain cycle without.

It is very normal to be soul starved though naturally sometimes you get a lot too. 12 is just a bonus on farm/in dungeons. Make sure you tag as much as you can as adds often give souls (and Wrath of Consumption stacks).

2. Well I'd say it's more of a DPS loss to not cast anything or not have the mana to cast the spell you need to like letting Agony fall off. 

After a while it's something you weave into your rotation. It's a nice filler sometimes when you are waiting for DoTs to pandemic. Otherwise it's handy to do on moving and when all your DoTs are refreshed. It comes in useful sometimes.

I try to space out my Lifetaps (unless moving and DoTs are all fresh). If you do too many and don't enter a drain cycle your DPS starts to fall and with 4 set and decent gear you will start to cap on shards as well.

Edited March 10, 2017 by spikeysquad

[Vargnatt 0]

So, it is a bonus, not a "requirement". I've been reading that Reaping was an absolute requirement before draining your UA, and I can obviously see why, but it was also pretty unrealistic. What is a good number to "pool" before Reaping? One, two?

 

As for life tapping, yes, obviously not casting anything would be a dps loss. What I had doubts about was that maybe I was Draining too much, or in a bad way (like refreshing before it ends). I know it's that spell that destroys my mana, and I'm not that familiar with channeled mana consumptions.

 

Thanks for clarification though, it helped quite a lot understanding the spec.

[spikeysquad 50]

Ideally you want all UA ticks covered by Reap (when possible) and if it's up for when the DoT drops so you also get the increased Fatal Echoes proc chance. I tend to Reap on 2 souls (unless I am saving them) and do UA, UA, Reap and then the majority of the time another UA (or more if I am capped) as I have the legendary belt and 4 set so my shard return is pretty high. If yours is less dumping 2 UAs with 2 souls is a good mix as you do not want to shard starve yourself either for your next drain cycle. 

Though Reap is nice as you also double certain traits in addition to the 10% damage increase fully draining your UAs is far more important. 

If you haven't yet check out the guide over on MMO-Champion and the videos on Youtube by Yipzarena. Knowledge is power and all that. 

You're unlikely to be doing anything wrong with the draining thing as having a good Drain uptime is important around DoT refreshes. We just use a lot of mana though it's nothing compared to using Empowered Life Tap with Destro and tapping every 20 seconds.