Learning Affliction - Please Help?

[Kazistrasz 216]

First off:

 

Armory (if it says UVLS, I was using Volatile as I just got 522 UVLS tonight): 

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/korgath/Kazistrasza/advanced

 

Log from tonight's raid (only IQ/Twins are as Affliction): http://worldoflogs.com/reports/gbbe4agco6b2emwm/

 

Following pretty much the same stuff as in Zagam's guide, trying my best to not have to reapply mid-haunt, trying to not SB:SS when it isn't necessary unless all three are running out and I have a sizable buff (I got a lot of nice timings with that and Wushoolay's during Twins).

 

Basically, I'm not sure where to focus on improving, but I know that I'm not performing near my demo numbers. I'm consistently about 30k below.

[Wolland 1]

I'm not sure which guide you follwoed, but remember that Zagam's post was updated to 5.4 last week, just checking that you didn't follow that rotation while we are still in 5.3.

 

I'm not sure if I'm being of any help here, but if you want to compare this is me this week:

IQ HC: http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/ubmlv3wfkgrw800f/sum/damageDone/?s=4688&e=5243

Twins HC: http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/5ks9jg7wcgm6xwgi/sum/damageDone/?s=3329&e=3930

 

I see that the main difference seems to be uptime on dots.

 

Sorry if I can't be of better assistance :(

[Zagam 1,982]

There's a reason Affliction is being buffed.  It's because you won't be using UVLS in 5.4.  Most of the ridiculous parses you see on WoL involve that trinket and manipulation of a bug that allowed you to abuse that proc.  The numbers were grossly overstated in 5.3, so you'll see better numbers and have more fun in 5.4.  Quick look at your logs showed nothing really to improve on in terms of Haunt and DoT uptimes.  If you want to squeeze that extra DPS, bring your 95% UA uptime to 99%.

[Kazistrasz 216]

Wow, I didn't realize Demo was really supposed to be that high. I know your guide had said you want to always have at least 35% uptime on Haunt, and maybe it's that I'm just really lucky all the time, but I find I'm never below 45%.

[Zagam 1,982]

Yeah the 35% was from like...early, sub 522 gear.  Now with higher gear levels, more Haste, and higher Nightfall procs as a result, uptimes are usually around or above 50% for good parses.

[Kazistrasz 216]

Oh, okay. That makes more sense. By the way, with the new Soul Swap, is there a CD on it?

[Zagam 1,982]

Nope.  It's as awesome as it sounds. 

[JvChequer 43]

Shame is only for 3sec everytime we use it, an 20sec windom would be extremely Overbaconess

[Horcored 17]

There's a reason Affliction is being buffed.  It's because you won't be using UVLS in 5.4.  Most of the ridiculous parses you see on WoL involve that trinket and manipulation of a bug that allowed you to abuse that proc.  The numbers were grossly overstated in 5.3, so you'll see better numbers and have more fun in 5.4.  Quick look at your logs showed nothing really to improve on in terms of Haunt and DoT uptimes.  If you want to squeeze that extra DPS, bring your 95% UA uptime to 99%.

About this, what bug? I am curious

[Zagam 1,982]

The Festerblight bug?  Where you could Soul Swap:Inhale buffed DoTs and Soul Swap:Exhale fully buffed DoTs to a new target with new durations?  That was fixed, but it still works on Agony.  The change to Soul Swap in 5.4 will render this completely obsolete.

[Horcored 17]

Well, that i've never heard of, but i know that still as of 5.3 u can SB:SS with UVLS up and get 100% crit on the targets u SB:SS on.

[Zagam 1,982]

That was never an issue.  The issue was making that trinket essentially 100% uptime using Soul Swap cleverly.

[tassadar 1]

What are the core statistics to look at when analyzing affliction parse? I for example see 99.1% - 98.5% - 99% uptimes on A-C-UA, 51% MG uptime, 55% haunt, 12.5% soul drain. Are these numbers OKish? What else should I look at?

[Zagam 1,982]

Fight dependent.  And it'll change soon.  Try not to look at logs this week and focus more on what you'll see next week.  Next week, DoT uptime above 98% is paramount.  It is absolutely crucial. 

 

If you want to look at trends, follow these:

 

Agony: 98% or higher

Corruption: 98% or higher

UA: 98% or higher

MG: down from now, will be even lower in multi target fights

DS: down from now, will be even lower in multi target fights

Haunt: maximize it.  The higher, the better.  This will be the most important uptime (after DoTs, of course) to maximize. 

 

There aren't too many single target fights, but I'll look at logs of everyone that post next week and give you some simpe analysis.  I'll be posting my logs as well with notes on what I could have done better.

[Kazistrasz 216]

So, two questions next week:

 

Say you're playing affliction on Immerseus, because that's just what you want to do. You're assigned to X number of adds. Would you DoT one, haunt it, then SS to the other three or however many adds you're in charge of killing? (Or in any multi-target situation).

 

Will reapplying DoTs during haunt be less bad juju?

[Omaric 246]

I don't want to play Affliction. :(

[Zagam 1,982]

If you're assigned to 4 adds and you have 4 Soul Shards, I would SB:SS one, Haunt, SS:Inhale, tab, SS:Exhale, Haunt, SS:Inhale, Haunt, SS:Exhale, etc.  Since you only get Nightfall procs from most recent applied Corruption, you won't be rolling in Shards.  Cycle back to add number 1 and finish with Drain Soul. 

 

The change to Affliction means DoT everything all the time and boost it with Haunt!  Haunt buffs periodic effects by a massive amount (45%) so you're doubling the strength of the DoTs rolling.  With 4pc bonus, Haunt will return lots of Soul Shards to you so there will be more incentive to use it.  Also, with 2pc bonus, more UA means more 15% damage buff to MG and DS. 

 

*insert DoT ALL THE THINGS meme*

[Omaric 246]

Holy shit balls I didn't realize that they actually made Soul Swap good.

 

Also, are we the first class to have 2 glyphs that, when combined, can make the other absolutely useless?  I'm looking at you Unending Resolve and Eternal Resolve.

Edited September 4, 2013 by Omaric

[Kazistrasz 216]

My number one problem I've always had whenever Affliction has been the top spec, is what do you do for adds that won't live long? Agony takes a while to get to its 10-stack, Corruption hits like a wet noodle, and UA takes longer to get up (That's what she said?).

 

Also, for my trinkets as 5.4 drops: I know the nerf to procs-on-start makes UVLS less reliable, which combined with the EA glyph removal is a much bigger hit to Demonology than Affliction. Should I still use my 522 UVLS with my 530 Wushoolay's or use my 522 Volatile?

[Wolland 1]

The change to Affliction means DoT everything all the time and boost it with Haunt!  Haunt buffs periodic effects by a massive amount (45%) so you're doubling the strength of the DoTs rolling.  With 4pc bonus, Haunt will return lots of Soul Shards to you so there will be more incentive to use it.  Also, with 2pc bonus, more UA means more 15% damage buff to MG and DS. 

 

*insert DoT ALL THE THINGS meme*

 

Down to 40% since last night :/

[Zagam 1,982]

My number one problem I've always had whenever Affliction has been the top spec, is what do you do for adds that won't live long? Agony takes a while to get to its 10-stack, Corruption hits like a wet noodle, and UA takes longer to get up (That's what she said?).

 

Also, for my trinkets as 5.4 drops: I know the nerf to procs-on-start makes UVLS less reliable, which combined with the EA glyph removal is a much bigger hit to Demonology than Affliction. Should I still use my 522 UVLS with my 530 Wushoolay's or use my 522 Volatile?

Adds that won't live long?  Ignore them.  There should always be something else worthy of your attention.  UVLS will still be a decent trinket when it procs.  It does have a nice baseline Intellect boost.  522 Volatile is a garbage trinket.  It should never be used once you acquire the 5.2 trinkets.  Just ride those out until you get one of the 5.4 trinkets and replace UVLS quickly.

 

 

Down to 40% since last night :/

That's fair.  That means Affliction is in a good place if they're tuning things backwards.

[Roided 3]

Ok so im confused on some things and i think im just a noob when it comes to playing a warlock. Im typically a pvper (arenas) though i also casual raid on occasion. I am switching from destro to affliction in 5.4. What im confused about is managing soul shards. So what i understand is the rotation is use sb:sw to start, then haunt, then keep reapplying each individual dot manually before they expire and cast haunt every time it runs out if i have a soul shard. When i have a proc available i should use sb:sw immediately for better dots. Finally use mal grasp as filler.

 

Am i doing something wrong? I feel like i burn through shards like crazy and then im casting drain soul more as a filler than mal grasp just to make sure i keep up the shards. On small mobs its not really a prob but on long fights like boss fights or on players i feel like im constantly out of shards or spamming drain soul. I gemmed all mastery and have reforged all crit to mastery when i could. Dunno if that is a problem or not.

 

Can someone explain how i should be managing my shards better?

 

 

[Zagam 1,982]

Shards are RNG.  You need to stop casting Drain Soul as a filler right now.  It's ok to be out of Soul Shards.  That means you're casting Haunt enough!  You want to use them during powerful procs like Dark Soul or trinket procs rather than anytime at all.  Focus on OPTIMIZING your Soul Shard use.  You don't have infinite shards, so let RNG dictate how many you get.  Use Drain Soul on things about to die.  If you use them on an add about to die, you'll completely refill on Soul Shards. 

[Roided 3]

Hmm ok that all makes sense. Still just need to get used to optimizing haunt. Im used to playing melee classes so quite a change in playing aff lock.

 

One more question. So looks like my opening is curse of elements, dark soul:misery, sb:sw. With optimizing should you cast haunt immediately after or should i wait until agony reaches 10 stacks to cast haunt? Or is there a different order to use? Icy veins has a single target order casting haunt before anything else but that seems to be a waste and haunt doesnt last very long.

[Kazistrasz 216]

When you have DoTs rolling with the haste buff from Dark Soul, you're going to see a lot of Shadow Trance procs. At least as of now, I'm finding I almost always come out of DS with 4 shards, even having used 4 during the CD. Even now, during 5.3, DoTs do enough that you want to have haunt going immediately, because you will often quickly find yourself with full proc. During Durumu, with my 528 ilvl, I am getting between 300-350k on the pull with Hero. CoE -> DS -> Haunt -> SB:SS -> MG. I'm generally getting UVLS to proc around 4-5 stacks of Wush with Tempest Repit, Jade Spirit, and Lightweave Proc. I wait to the very last moment of that 4-second window, when Wush will be up to 6-7 stacks, to SB:SS again for monster DoTs. Not only do you lose the DPS from not haunting your DoTs at the start, you end up wasting a shard as you can come out of DS with 4 after using 4. Only using 3 would mean one gets wasted at some point. In addition, waiting to cast Haunt will interfere with timing the re-cast of your DoTs, and even if you are able to immediately follow Haunt with SB:SS, you will get at least a tick from your DoTs while Haunt is travelling (unless you're right on top of the boss). That, too, is wasted damage.

 

In reference to using SB:SS to catch procs, I do this in very limited manner. There are two conditions I must have met (aside from having an available): First, all three of my DoTs must be close to running out. If they're stronger than the current proc, they must be within a few seconds of running out. If they're weaker, they must be in Pandemic range. There's a bit of lee-way here. My second condition is I must have a short window in which to re-apply them with the proc. If I have five seconds, I have more than enough time to finish any cast and recast the DoTs. For this time, I look at the time to cast UVLS, following it with Agony, and then Corruption, as this minimizes the time it takes (if you do UVLS last, you have two GCDs plus its cast time instead of its cast time and one GCD). This is usually around three seconds with haste (or slightly under).

 

Now, while I say that, I've begun getting to a comfort level with Affliction that I think about it more of this way:

 

If I still have empowered DoTs and only a single proc available, it is advantageous to wait to re-cast until later in the proc (but before DoTs fall off) in case of another proc going off. In the case of Wush proc, it is clearly advantageous to get the higher-Int stack on the new DoTs. Consider: you have DoTs with some manner of proc on the boss. Tempest Repit procs, giving you 10 seconds of +30% haste. At this point, Affdots displays 115 on all DoTs, and gives you that UA and Corruption are both in Pandemic range, but Agony is not. Let's say UA has 6 seconds left, Corruption 7, and Agony is 5 seconds from Pandemic range. At this point, you could certainly re-apply your DoTs manually. By the time you get UA and Corruption re-applied, Agony will be soon ready. Or, you can wait up to 6 seconds. In the window between waiting 5 seconds and waiting 6 seconds, Agony will be in Pandemic range while UA will have under a second left. But, the real key here is that if you start reapplying immediately, you could have UVLS proc 4 seconds later. In this case, you would have two seconds before DoTs fall off with UVLS and Tempest Repit both up. At this point, I start UA immediately and follow with Corruption. These two will go just before UA would have fallen off, and then by the time your GCD is up, you would have Agony ready to go on the spot.

 

This may be very confusing, as I am becoming confusing while writing (though possibly due to sitting in History of Mathematics at the moment, learning about Pythagoras).