[Archived] Affliction Warlock 5.4

[Damien 1,514]

This thread is for comments about our Affliction Warlock guide.

[Bevey 0]

Do you have any data on which race is the best for PvE DPS affliction considering that we sac our pet.

[Damien 1,514]

Do you have any data on which race is the best for PvE DPS affliction considering that we sac our pet.

This is an interesting question. We've never given advice as to which race people should choose. It is something that we will probably add in the future.

To reply to your question, I don't really have any data, except that in Simulation Craft, the race they chose for their most optimized tests is Orc.

[Vollus 0]

Tooltip states that you can't soulswap to same target whereas your strategy relies on doing so. I have not had a chance to log in an check this. Which way is correct.

[Ouic 1]

Tooltip states that you can't soulswap to same target whereas your strategy relies on doing so. I have not had a chance to log in an check this. Which way is correct.

When you Soulburn: Soul Swap at the start, you apply all three DoTs at once. Affliction has very little relative ramp-up time now thanks to this.

There's one issue you'll run into at the moment where your Soul Swap will go on cooldown if it's glyphed, even if you use Soulburn. I believe this is considered a bug, so I'd just leave it unglyphed.

[Guest Valkyl]

Shadow trance is now actually Nightfall. Gives corrpution 5% chance to regenerate a soul shard, rather than give a trance with 5 sec of free soul shards

[Guest mwiland]

just thought id share this macro for putting up ur dots while saving room on ur bar. it will go from one spell to the next and change what spell is about to be cast on ur cast bar.

#showtooltip

/startattack

/castsequence reset=6/combat Agony,Corruption,Unstable Affliction

[Damien 1,514]

Shadow trance is now actually Nightfall. Gives corrpution 5% chance to regenerate a soul shard, rather than give a trance with 5 sec of free soul shards

I reworded the paragraphs that mentioned Shadow Trance. Thank you for reporting this issue :)

[Damien 1,514]

just thought id share this macro for putting up ur dots while saving room on ur bar. it will go from one spell to the next and change what spell is about to be cast on ur cast bar.

#showtooltip

/startattack

/castsequence reset=6/combat Agony,Corruption,Unstable Affliction

Thank you, I simplified it a bit and added it to the guide :)

[Zagam 1,982]

Damien, I added some useful information in the 5.0.4 Affliction Warlock Tips and Quirks post. Check that out for rotation simplification.

[Guest Hellyeah]

Zagam's post is decent stuff I must say, well worth a read even if you're close to mastering the spec already.

In addition: you mention in your guide, regarding Grimoire of Sacrifice, that it doesn't matter which pet you sacrifice - but it most certainly does. You still retain the ability of Command Demon (which applies to yourself and takes an auxilliary form to the usual moves available) after the pet is sacrificed. Here is a list of the abilities gained and their effect:-

Sacrificed Imp || Singe Magic: 3000 mana / 10sec CD - Burns a harmful magic effect off the target.

Sacrificed Voidwalker || Shadow Bulwark: 5000 mana / 2min CD - Temporarily grants you 30% of your max health for 20sec.

Sacrificed Felhunter || Spell Lock: 2000 mana / 24sec CD - Silences the enemy target for 3sec, if used on a casting target will counter the enemy's spellcast and prevent any ability from that school being cast for 6sec.

Sacrificed Succubus || Seduction: 2000 mana / casted (roughly 1.5sec) - Seduces the target, preventing any actions for up to 30sec. Any damage caused will remove the effect. Only works against humanoids. (It's then channelled for duration)

(Demonology only)

Sacrificed Felguard || Pursuit: 2000 mana / 15sec CD - Charge an enemy target causing 150% weapon damage and increasing movement speed by 30% for 6sec. (ZOMG I'm a warrior!)

On live I'm generally utilising Shadow Bulwark alone and also macro bound with healthstone to provide a monstrous survival CD in raids, (I'm running with Soul Link > Dark Bargain.) Singe Magic has increased PVE utlity with the change to healer dispelling, and it seems cool to have an interrupt without having to have a feldoggy out and suffering what would potentially be missing out on Grimoire of Sacrifice. Might well be able to get the jump on players in PVP who wont see the demon and think they can freecast! (It's also amusing having more flat HP than our warrior tank with the Soul Link/Grim 'o' Sac talent combo!)

Incredible customisability and utility, warlocks are definitely the most enjoyable class I've play since 5.0.4. Can't wait to play around with the Demonic Gateway!

[Guest Myst]

Should be noted that expertise gets converted to hit for casters. Including racials such as range weapons with Trolls, they recieve 1% hit while using a wand, etc.

[Guest Xergle]

bit of a noob question (i only just returned to my lock after a long time away) but why is it not advised to maintain both UA and Coruption with Fel Flame ?

thanks in advance for any advice

[Zagam 1,982]

bit of a noob question (i only just returned to my lock after a long time away) but why is it not advised to maintain both UA and Coruption with Fel Flame ?

thanks in advance for any advice

If you're moving, use Fel Flame. If you're not, you should never be wasting time using Fel Fire when you can be channeling Malefic Grasp.

[Guest pers]

Mr. Robot has Locks reforging into expertise, I just wanted to know if this is correct or not. I don't think it is but I wanted feedback about it

[Damien 1,514]

Damien, I added some useful information in the 5.0.4 Affliction Warlock Tips and Quirks post. Check that out for rotation simplification.

I've been through it, but I'm not sure what you mean by rotation simplification. To me, your post goes further than my guide on many issue, so it's more like the opposite of a simplification :P

Zagam's post is decent stuff I must say, well worth a read even if you're close to mastering the spec already.

In addition: you mention in your guide, regarding Grimoire of Sacrifice, that it doesn't matter which pet you sacrifice - but it most certainly does. You still retain the ability of Command Demon (which applies to yourself and takes an auxilliary form to the usual moves available) after the pet is sacrificed. Here is a list of the abilities gained and their effect:-

Sacrificed Imp || Singe Magic: 3000 mana / 10sec CD - Burns a harmful magic effect off the target.

Sacrificed Voidwalker || Shadow Bulwark: 5000 mana / 2min CD - Temporarily grants you 30% of your max health for 20sec.

Sacrificed Felhunter || Spell Lock: 2000 mana / 24sec CD - Silences the enemy target for 3sec, if used on a casting target will counter the enemy's spellcast and prevent any ability from that school being cast for 6sec.

Sacrificed Succubus || Seduction: 2000 mana / casted (roughly 1.5sec) - Seduces the target, preventing any actions for up to 30sec. Any damage caused will remove the effect. Only works against humanoids. (It's then channelled for duration)

(Demonology only)

Sacrificed Felguard || Pursuit: 2000 mana / 15sec CD - Charge an enemy target causing 150% weapon damage and increasing movement speed by 30% for 6sec. (ZOMG I'm a warrior!)

On live I'm generally utilising Shadow Bulwark alone and also macro bound with healthstone to provide a monstrous survival CD in raids, (I'm running with Soul Link > Dark Bargain.) Singe Magic has increased PVE utlity with the change to healer dispelling, and it seems cool to have an interrupt without having to have a feldoggy out and suffering what would potentially be missing out on Grimoire of Sacrifice. Might well be able to get the jump on players in PVP who wont see the demon and think they can freecast! (It's also amusing having more flat HP than our warrior tank with the Soul Link/Grim 'o' Sac talent combo!)

Incredible customisability and utility, warlocks are definitely the most enjoyable class I've play since 5.0.4. Can't wait to play around with the Demonic Gateway!

Thanks, I now make a mention of the fact that when it comes to sacrificing a pet, the DPS is the same regardless of the pet but you get to keep their "Command Demon" ability.

Should be noted that expertise gets converted to hit for casters. Including racials such as range weapons with Trolls, they recieve 1% hit while using a wand, etc.

All our guides have recently been updated to reflect this :)

Mr. Robot has Locks reforging into expertise, I just wanted to know if this is correct or not. I don't think it is but I wanted feedback about it

Actually, this is correct. Expertise Rating now grant you spell hit in the same amount as Hit Rating, so if you reforge 40 Critical Strike Rating into 40 Expertise Rating or into 40 Hit Ratings, the results are the same.

[Guest RawR]

If you're moving, use Fel Flame. If you're not, you should never be wasting time using Fel Fire when you can be channeling Malefic Grasp.

I found this one untrue

use (1.5 +1 gbc (UA+ COR) vs 2x fel flame (2 gbc), fel flame now got reasonable damage to cast compare to before

UA = lose 2 sec -> get some damage and refresh it to 12= better than hardcast in both casttime and damage so win-win

Corruption = lose 6 sec, but it is 1 GBC like fel flame it is not that great and can consider it a DPS lose on time wasted on MG time that could be used)

but here is the kicker, I can line up US and COR to something like this after first refresh

MG(3)->MG(3)->MG(3)-MG(3)->FF(gbc)->FF(gbc)->HA/MG-MG-MG-MG->FF-FF

with this I not have to juggle the diffrent refresh and break MG (and potensial Haunt damage that you hold back because of not full use of MG for the 8 sec or dot need refresh) and only need to care on UA and Agony because COR will never run out before UA

fel flame can also be cast at as low as less than 1 sec remaining as it travel speed is really great and can refresh it as low as 1 sec remaining with no worrry, with haste you "buy" time inbetween that could be use for agony refresh and even more MG depend on your haste and use of DS

still I have not used it in spreadsheet(only got libreoffice at work that just won't open it) and think this will be worst as soon as we get pandemic

more testing when I come home from work

love your input on this and sorry for my poor english

[Zagam 1,982]

Your input is well thought out, and your English more than sufficient =) Fel Fire does have its damage buffed, but there are many perks to using Malefic Grasp. Malefic Grasp generates additional ticks of your DoTs, namely Corruption which enables more Nightfall procs and keeps the number of Soul Shards high. The ONLY time that Fel Fire should be used to extend DoTs is if you had a powerful buff at the time you originally cast the buff, and even then, the benefit starts to fall off. The buff to Fel Fire made Warlocks capable of doing DPS while mobile similar to what Fire Mages could do. When Pandemic is acquired at level 90, reapplying DoTs to increase their duration will be a much larger DPS gain than it is now and will completely suppress the Fel Fire topic.

[Zagam 1,982]

Damien, the Simulation Craft link is broken. You have .com at the end instead of .org. The .com ending took me to tigerdirect.com lol

Also, what else do you need me to prove to you that Mastery > Haste?!?!?! haha

[Guest RawR]

thanks for your input Zagam I will still test some more so I I can get the input from simple testing and thesis to practical use (not counted for amount of lifetaps, less soulshard ect) yet

my main point was that the time you use to cast a singel UA you can cast 2x fel flames ,

at this time you will not cast MG in first place but UA instead. I did not mean replace MG as a filler but cast fel flame instead of UA only.

the best benefit is not the damage from fel flame damage alone but that you get to line up UA and CoR so you turned jugling between 3 dots to only 2 (as corruption will never fall below UA )

this make it much easier to line up a" perfect haunt" I like to call itm where you can MG whole haunt duration without disturbance, without the need to hold back haunt or DS because of corruption need to refresh in 6 sec and UA in 10 (random number)

while bloodlust/heroism lust got popped and your dots is out of line

but than again I started to think about the 2 sec that I could get on UA could also mean 1-2 MG tick that can add up to many ticks because the rotation will atleast be done 20+ so can add up to 40 missed out MG ticks

need more testing and can end with just use 2 x fel flame right before a bloodlust/DS to not be out of whack for max potensial for casting UA , I am going to try when I get home from work to find a spreadsheet and some more dummy testing

I am very aware that at 90 this idea will be garbage, I just love to toy around with the spec right now

[Damien 1,514]

Damien, the Simulation Craft link is broken. You have .com at the end instead of .org. The .com ending took me to tigerdirect.com lol

Also, what else do you need me to prove to you that Mastery > Haste?!?!?! haha

Thanks for the report about the broken link. I can't believe I messed it up so badly :P

Regarding Mastery, the latest version of SimC now gives me Master > Haste, so we're all good

[Guest Phisnern]

Just a note on Hit Cap under Stat Priorities. You listed 4420 at level 90 for those races that have a 1% hit buff based on weapon used. That number should be 4760. 4420 would be 13% hit.

[Guest Osiris]

Question

I noticed ur stat priority's is Mastery/haste/crit.

everywhere else ive check is haste/crit/mastery for aff

i just wana know which is correct so i can reforge correctly

[Zagam 1,982]

Question

I noticed ur stat priority's is Mastery/haste/crit.

everywhere else ive check is haste/crit/mastery for aff

i just wana know which is correct so i can reforge correctly

Other places you are looking are wrong. A little research done in the Warlock forums of this website will show you the mathematical and theorycrafting proof that Mastery > Haste > Crit. The priority you listed is pre-5.0.4.

[Guest Guest845]

Hi there! Love your guide.. it has really helped me get a grasp on the Warlock changes after taking a break for awhile.

Will you be updating best in slot, enchants, etc once MoP is out?