5.4 Affliction Tips & Quirks

[Juloroh 0]

More questions from the noob:

 

#1: In your opener you have two places for SB:SS and a Haunt. After that, do you ever use SB:SS or just manually do them all (excluding UVLS proc which I'm assuming you SB:SS due to the small window)?

 

#2: How much of a loss is Drain Life compared to MG? Obviously it shouldn't be used as a filler, but what about helping healers during periods of heavy raid damage?

[Juloroh 0]

 

I thought the 549 version had a much higher proc rate , so high that you could play demo without the glyph?

or am i horribly wrong?

 

[Juloroh 0]

More questions from the noob:

 

#1: In your opener you have two places for SB:SS and a Haunt. After that, do you ever use SB:SS or just manually do them all (excluding UVLS proc which I'm assuming you SB:SS due to the small window)?

 

#2: How much of a loss is Drain Life compared to MG? Obviously it shouldn't be used as a filler, but what about helping healers during periods of heavy raid damage?

Sorry for the triple post , i tried hard posting from google chrome , and it didn't work , anyways :

#1 : from my pov, since it is a heavy burst period, you'r allowed to dump all the shards you got, and you will never manually recast them during the opener or at least Dark Soul duration,since it's a waste of GCD during a period where you have to maximize... Opener=Malefic Grasp a LOT, 100 % Haunt uptime, Sb:SS when you have better(let's say best when using Breath/Wush combo waiting for the 10 stack,) snapshotting stat for your DoTs during the opener.

#2 : a big loss i think, it's like using drain soul as your filler when your target is abose 20% of life. The thing with using another spell as affliction is the fact that you lose malefic grasp main damage component, the fact that it does a portion of all your DoTs damage.You can pretty much see in an Affliction Warlock DPS data, that those effect are among the most damaging tools of the Affliction Warlock...So yeah, it's a big loss since affliction is all about DoTs

ATM  Warlock get soul leech, 10 % passive reduction, a BIG health pool, very stong defensive cooldowns so you really don't have to worry about healers..

[Brown 14]

Drain Life is a terrible heal. You'd only really see decent heals if you take Harvest Life and then you lose your shield.

 

At the moment, that shield is pretty much the reason why any warlock putting out decent numbers can be a LITTLE slow moving out of fire. While not entirely demonstrative and empirically unprovable because I don't pay attention to it, I think the most damage I take in LFRs half the time is Life Tap. The only time a healer should ever really have to directly heal you is when you pull aggro off someone who has no idea how to tank (or if someone doesn't stand in the stupid Sha of Fear circle of light...).

[Kazistrasz 216]

Thanks for clearing that up.

 

With Soul Leech and MG... does it count the extra DoT damage every tick when it does the 10%? Otherwise the direct damage is like a wet noodle. I would have to assume it does, even though Skada is showing that damage for the DoTs I believe.

[Zagam 1,982]

#1: SB:SS is only used during special conditions.

 

-if you are switching to a target with no DoTs on it

-during Perfect Aim proc

-during 10 stack of Wushoolay's Lightning

 

Other than that, you should be using Soul Shards for Haunt, not SB:SS.  Your DoTs will all have different timers.  Affliction's job is to monitor these and upkeep them with as high of a spell power coefficient as possible.

 

#2 Drain Life should absolutely, under no circumstance, be used over Malefic Grasp in terms of optimizing DPS.  It's healing isn't great enough to help healers, and as a Warlock, you should be taking the least amount of damage in the raid anyways.  With Soul Leech, Sacrificial Pact, and Fel Armor, don't worry about your HP. 

[Juloroh 0]

Thanks for clearing that up.

 

With Soul Leech and MG... does it count the extra DoT damage every tick when it does the 10%? Otherwise the direct damage is like a wet noodle. I would have to assume it does, even though Skada is showing that damage for the DoTs I believe.

 

I didn't quite understand your first sentence but the direct damage of malefic grasp is really crap but every tick of malefic grasp cause all of your DoTs(Agony, corruption and UA) to instantly deal 50% of their normal periodic damage(with Drain Soul, it's 100% i think under 20% of targelt life).So in my recount here is what i can see, your highest damaging spell should be Agony(DoT) followed by Unstable Affliction(DoT) and Corruption(DoT). At 4th place, i think it's normally Agony(writted like that on my recount, which is considered Agony Malefic Grasp effect) and so on...

Maybe in your Skada, if you see two Agony, Agony(DoT) is the Agony that you cast upon the target and which deals damage without MG'ing or DS'ing, and Agony( on recount) is agony hitting when you are MG'ing. The same for other DoTs.

[Zagam 1,982]

In Skada, Agony, Corruption, and UA's damage is rolled up into one single spell ID.  Agony ticks and Agony 'hits' are counted as one damage source.  You need to run World of Logs to see the actual difference in spell hits.  Your top 2 damage sources should be Agony and UA ticks followed by Agony 'hits.'  Corruption comes up just behind that, but Agony should hold 2 of your top 3 spots.

[Kazistrasz 216]

Yes but for purposes of calculating Soul Leech shield from using MG, does it include the extra ticks as MG damage to create a bigger shield or just use the channel itself?

[Zagam 1,982]

It uses all damage done by the cast.  Soon, it won't matter since Soul Leech will cap at 15% of your max HP.  Currently, I sit around 647k, so that'd be about a 100k shield, instead of a 647k shield.

[Kazistrasz 216]

How exactly do you handle the proc with Wushoolay's? It builds over 20 seconds, do you try to refresh DoTs a few stacks in and then again right at the end or right at the start and wait til the end? Since the 10th stack is only for 2 seconds, it's only long enough for two DoTs, so which do you try to get in that window? Agony and UA with Corruption during 9th stack? When it becomes a 10-second buff instead of 20- next patch, we'll only have a 1-second window. Just Agony then and try to get the others on 8/9?

[Zagam 1,982]

It depends.  If Breath is proc'd with it, then I absolutely reapply all 3 with Soulburn:Soul Swap regardless of what's going on.  Otherwise, I make a quick, calculated decision based on what Affdots is telling me as well as making a decision based on how much time is left.  As you said, the buff is changing and is exactly like the new Black Blood trinket, except it's a shit ton of Haste instead of Hit (yay), so they'll operate the same.

 

All things considered, you wouldn't want to reapply a DoT JUST because you have a 10 stack of Wush/Black Blood.  The Purified Bindings trinket proc is almost as large as a 10 stack Wush/Black Blood, and if you had Tempus Repit going with it, it may be a downgrade to reapply with Wush/Black Blood proc.  That's the beauty of Affliction...there is no 'guide' on what to do...it is all reflexes and maximizing the power of your DoTs.  This will be even more crucial now since more damage is being pulled from MG and DS and put into our 3 DoTs.  This effect will make a larger gap between skilled players and mediocre players. 

 

As for reapplying rules, there's no rule such as apply Agony with a 10 stack, UA with a 9 stack, and Corr with an 8 stack because that situation would almost NEVER happen in real play time.  Your DoTs timers should be all over the place, so it wouldn't be appropriate to automatically overwrite a 130 Agony with 25 seconds left just because you have a 10 stack. 

 

Affliction = Recognize & React

[Kazistrasz 216]

I'm sorry, I should have clarified: assuming you don't have any significant buff on your currently rolling DoTs (maybe Lightweave proc at most). I didn't know how much you would or wouldn't want to try to get the 10-stack buff on them (accounting for Pandemic, is there a time where you'd maybe want to clip two seconds early, etc.). Reacting takes a certain amount of base knowledge to do.

[Zagam 1,982]

The way 5.4 is going to line up is you'll almost always have SOME proc whether its Tempus Repit, Tailoring or Engineering proc, Jade Spirit, any trinket, etc.  If you don't have procs on your DoTs, your first priority is getting buffed DoTs, so all your reactions should be tailored towards that.  The less powerful your DoTs, the less you should care about anything else.

 

That is the total amount of base knowledge.  Affdots does what most of us had to run in our head often.  It literally calculates a percentage of your previous DoTs relevant to current buffs.  If your 10 stack of Wush is giving you a number of 80 and your DoTs have between 3 and 5 seconds left, I would overwrite them.  If Wush is giving you a number of 80, but Agony has 24 seconds left, UA was just reapplied, and Corr has decent time left, I'm just going to toss Haunt and keep using MG because if my DoTs are strong enough that a 15k Intellect buff wasn't more powerful, I'm going to keep pumping buffed damage.

 

If your 10 stack of Wush shows a number of 100+ at 10 stacks, I reapply regardless because Pandemic is going to extend those DoTs significantly.  You can't assume anything in these scenarios...there are so many variables that you just need to understand them all and how they all play out before you can make educated, perfect decisions during combat.

[Kazistrasz 216]

Yeah, I got the AffDots part, it's more of the actual when you do have to apply part that's getting me. Would you SB:SS to get them all during the 10stack window or do them individually getting one of them during the 9 and the other 2 during 10 stack?

[Zagam 1,982]

Corr during 9 stack, UA + Agony during 10 stack.  This will change in 5.4 since Wush will stack every second for 10 seconds, so 8 stack = Corr, 9 stack = UA, 10 stack = Agony.

[Zagam 1,982]

And the guide is formally updated to 5.4.  If you see typos, please PM me so I can correct ASAP. 

[Wolland 1]

Thank you!

 

Question on point 5)

 

"Since  Soul Shards are limited, you should strive to optimize their usage as 100% uptime is nearly impossible to achieve and tied heavily to the RNG of  Nightfall.  In order to maximize your limited resource, you should always use  Haunt during  Dark Soul: Misery,  Bloodlust,  Haste Trigger, or any time you have a large Intellect proc empowering your DoTs.  Try to not use  Soul Shards and  Haunt during periods of time where your DoTs are not empowered. "

 

Maybe I'm reading it wrong, so we should save shards and only use haunt during DS:Misery, Bloodlust, or other empowering procs?

 

If yes, I suppose we should offload (with Haunt) one shard if we have 4?

 

And per an earlier paragraph, we would use Haunt during execute phase as much as possible, not waiting on procs.

Edited August 30, 2013 by Wolland

[Zagam 1,982]

It really depends on how hard Haunt hits live.  Right now, it's hitting harder than Chaos Bolt.  They did, however, make it so Haunt doesn't affect Haunt damage (that woulda been stupid OP) so clipping isn't awesome, but if you have 4, yes, I'd unload one immediately.  It'll be similar to casting Chaos Bolt before you hit 4 Burning Embers. 

 

You're not reading it wrong, and it really depends on how many Soul Shards you're generating.  I make the note that since they're limited because under most play, they will be in that you won't be able to achieve 100% uptime.  If you can't achieve 100% uptime, you're far better off optimizing your procs by buffing them with Haunt.  You don't want to Haunt when you have absolutely no procs rolling and you don't have 4 Soul Shards.  Make sense?  Try to consider it a small, yet powerful multiplicative buff that grows in power the stronger your DoTs currently are. 

 

During execute phase, it's yet to be seen on whether or not Haunt has a priority over Drain Soul.  To me, that would be a design flaw, but we play the cards they deal. 

[Wolland 1]

Thanks man!

[JvChequer 43]

With 4tp t16 bonus i will maintain 2 shards because of a lot of procs from bonus and nightfall, but when Lust or Dark soul is near maintain 3 shards and we will be fine.

 

At least that is how I think we will optimize the shards this patch.

[Meeloh 0]

So PTR patch notes say Haunt deals 50% more damage, and increases damage done by all of the Warlock's damage-over-time spells against the target by 40%. Is this just a tooltip change to Haunt and a nerf to dot dmg while haunt is up?

[Zagam 1,982]

Not sure.  Things are still changing.  I'll believe what I believe when the patch notes go out on Tuesday, the 10th.  Or Wednesday, the 11th, after a hotfix.

[Meeloh 0]

Hey Zagam would you take AD or KJC for Immerseus as affli?

[Zagam 1,982]

KJC.  I think I recommended that in the T16 topic. I need to open that topic...

 

Reason is moving out of puddles that he throws out.  AD is rather lackluster in that it really only gives you one extra Dark Soul per fight.  Yeah, it's useful, but there is a significant DPS value to KJC you don't realize until you break your cast.  Casting Fel Flame will be a good alternative, so it really depends.  I'm torn...I hope the choice is small.  Even if AD is a small DPS increase, I might take KJC purely for a quality of life talent in that I just don't have to worry about moving and not casting.  Not many of the Siege bosses show tight enrage timers as of yet, so pushing that last 1-2% DPS isn't crucial.