5.4 Affliction Tips & Quirks

[Zagam 1,982]

So nightfall procs only from corruption that is manually casted not the SS one?

 

I always thought that if I SS from target 1 to target 2 then I should MG T2 cause it has most recent application.

Nightfall procs from the most recently applied Corruption regardless of how it was applied.  If you're using copied DoTs via Soul Swap, your ORIGINAL Corruption is what is spitting out Soul Shards for you.  This is why I suggest having a focus DoT target that you then cleave onto other things.

 

From what I understand the corruption tick from MG doesn't proc nightfall at all. So you'd focus the original target just to better track the strength of your dots via the affdots addon. Don't quote me, but I believe that change came with 5.4. I believe I read that from the aff thread on mmo champs.

Not 100% on the accuracy of that one...hard to test, too.

[Rakupenda 15]

Only way to test that would be to do statistical analysis:

# procs or average % chance to proc with corruption alone (total ticks / # Nightfall procs).

Do it again while casting MG and see if the above changes.

 

I'll put it on my to-do list this weekend. Sample size of 1k Nightfall procs ought to be enough, d'you think?

[Zagam 1,982]

Sounds like a fun weekend.  1000 ticks of Corruption would take you 2000 seconds with no Haste, or 33 minutes. 

[Rakupenda 15]

That is probably one of my favorite things to do: making theories and figuring out ways to test those hypothesis. Figuring out what Blizzard did, but didn't tell us, and then proving it.

 

1k procs, not ticks, lol, so you're 1/20th there. That's 10 hours...maybe I was a little too ambitious with that goal. A thousand Corruption ticks should still give a sufficient sample size to reach a good conclusion, and an hour isn't that big of a commitment for a thing that doesn't really change our rotation/priorities at all.

[Ilyenna 1]

You could sim it if you delete everything but cast corruption from the APL. Then do one with MG. Well...I guess if the sims was still considering mg procs nightfall it wouldn't help to test lol...old fashioned way we go! I'll also test so we have a larger sample size.

[Rakupenda 15]

You could sim it if you delete everything but cast corruption from the APL. Then do one with MG. Well...I guess if the sims was still considering mg procs nightfall it wouldn't help to test lol...old fashioned way we go! I'll also test so we have a larger sample size.

Correct. The sims may or may not be up to date. They are reactive to changes in the game and by nature are lagging. Best way to test is via the "old fashioned way" at the source.

 

Thank you for your assistance.

Edited October 9, 2013 by Rakupenda

[Rakupenda 15]

Aaand...nope. The Corruption from MG is a different Corruption. It does not proc nightfall. Recount labels your dot with (Dot) and the MG one does not say (Dot).

 

[Ilyenna 1]

Well at least we know were not .missing out on NF procs during times we can't channel MG

[Khalam 3]

Thanks Rakupenda :)

 

Thats very good news. I think I can squeeze a bit more dps from my warlock now :D

[vaeevictiss 17]

i feel dumb for asking this as i probably missed it somewhere...

 

But how to the stats affect your dots, is it example 1 or 2?

 

1. Cast dots on a mob, bunch of procs go off, soul swap, exhale to new mob, new mob is dotted with dots that take into account those procs.

 

OR

 

2. Cast dots on a mob, bunch of procs go off, soul swap, exhale to new mob, new mob is dotted with dots of the same strength of originally casted dots, and to have stronger dots you need to recast and redo all the soul swapping.

 

 

Also, how much mastery is worth loosing to make the next haste cap? Im currently at the 9778 cap and im sitting just a hair under 100% mastery self buffed. Would it be worth dropping some of that to hit the 13737?

 

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/stormrage/Vaeevictiss/advanced

Edited October 10, 2013 by vaeevictiss

[JvChequer 43]

i feel dumb for asking this as i probably missed it somewhere...

 

But how to the stats affect your dots, is it example 1 or 2?

 

1. Cast dots on a mob, bunch of procs go off, soul swap, exhale to new mob, new mob is dotted with dots that take into account those procs.

 

OR

 

2. Cast dots on a mob, bunch of procs go off, soul swap, exhale to new mob, new mob is dotted with dots of the same strength of originally casted dots, and to have stronger dots you need to recast and redo all the soul swapping.

 

 

It's snap-shotted, the dots on secondary target will have the same procs and time than the mainly target.

[Omaric 246]

i feel dumb for asking this as i probably missed it somewhere...

 

But how to the stats affect your dots, is it example 1 or 2?

 

1. Cast dots on a mob, bunch of procs go off, soul swap, exhale to new mob, new mob is dotted with dots that take into account those procs.

 

OR

 

2. Cast dots on a mob, bunch of procs go off, soul swap, exhale to new mob, new mob is dotted with dots of the same strength of originally casted dots, and to have stronger dots you need to recast and redo all the soul swapping.

 

If I'm understanding you correctly, it's not exactly either of those ways.

 

When your procs go off you need to recast (preferably hard casting to save Soul Shards for Haunt) all your DoT's on the main target.  *Now* you can start swapping them to new targets where they will have the same power and duration as they did at the time you inhale them.

 

If procs go off and you don't refresh them on the target you're inhaling from first, the next target will have the same lower damage DoT's.

[Rakupenda 15]

The wording of #2 is kindof confusing, but that is correct. You would be Soul Swapping the original, unbuffed dots.

 

As Omaric said, reapply dots to strengthen them with procs, THEN Soul Swap dem empowered dots.

[Zagam 1,982]

Soul Swap is a copy and paste.  It preserves all properties of original DoTs applied.  Never lose Mastery to get to the next Haste cap.  Haste has DR, Mastery scales linearly forever.

[vaeevictiss 17]

Soul Swap is a copy and paste.  It preserves all properties of original DoTs applied.  Never lose Mastery to get to the next Haste cap.  Haste has DR, Mastery scales linearly forever.

so in theory, its negotiable to even go for the next haste cap?

[Zagam 1,982]

I don't advise it.  I say 9778 and then full Mastery.

[Sneyk 0]

Hi Zagam!

 

First, I apologize for my English..i'm from Spain and my english...(traductor google  )

I'd like your advice on a couple of questions that I have today, on the subject of reforges, caps, high ilvl in heroic battles in SoO.

 

My pj is: http://eu.battle.net/wow/es/character/sanguino/Sneyk/simple

 

Is reforged optimized by askmrrobot...but , my question is, if you see it, does not reach 15% hit (14,50% with expertise+hit) and for example , Spark , with 3564 hit..your hit is 15,19%...why?)

 

And if not too much trouble to ask, with the bonus (2) t16, it would be more profitable to reach haste cap 12439 (for +3 ua tick)> mastery?

 

I'm sorry again, but I would really appreciate it.

 

 

Edited October 11, 2013 by Sneyk

[vladMTL 1]

hey Sneyk,

 

you might wanna not ignore the socket bonus on your shoulders and forget what mrrobot tells you to do reforge wise. I don't know your play style but I wouldn't play without hit cap, I'm unlucky enough without a 0.02% let alone a 0.5% but its your choice however my recommendation would be to play aff hit caped.

 

Without the Garosh trinket you'd have to lose a lot to haste to reach that cap I reckon so could be best to leave it until you get it; however your answer you want from Zagam is above your post regarding that haste threshold 

 

hasta luego 

Edited October 11, 2013 by vldsb

[Zagam 1,982]

Hi Zagam!

 

First, I apologize for my English..i'm from Spain and my english...(traductor google  )

I'd like your advice on a couple of questions that I have today, on the subject of reforges, caps, high ilvl in heroic battles in SoO.

 

My pj is: http://eu.battle.net/wow/es/character/sanguino/Sneyk/simple

 

Is reforged optimized by askmrrobot...but , my question is, if you see it, does not reach 15% hit (14,50% with expertise+hit) and for example , Spark , with 3564 hit..your hit is 15,19%...why?)

 

And if not too much trouble to ask, with the bonus (2) t16, it would be more profitable to reach haste cap 12439 (for +3 ua tick)> mastery?

 

I'm sorry again, but I would really appreciate it.

There's a solid post on AMR about why not reaching 15.00% hit exactly is beneficial when you can't hit the number exactly.  Their argument is that every single point of secondary stat is valuable and that any used going over the hit cap is wasted.  TECHNICALLY, they are correct.  However, I absolutely LOATHE missing.  I hate it.  So I go over the hit cap, but I NEVER go more than 0.25% over the hit cap which is about 100 rating.  Using this logic, I'm only "losing" 400-500 DPS.  In the grand scheme of doing 250-300k, this is extremely negligible.  However, AMR setting you at 14.5% sounds awfully lame.  They have an 'at least' mode where you can ensure hit capping.  Again, you might "lose" 200 DPS in AMR's terms, but I don't think that matters at all.  I can't imagine Spark is running 3500 hit, which is like 4-5% off of capping.  With the 2pc, it may be valuable to hit 12439 instead of pushing for the Agony cap at 13737, but then again, what's another 1k Haste?  Haste thresholds aren't entirely too important..Mastery scales much better.  If you're playing with Pandemic correctly, most of your DoTs aren't running their course, so you're just slightly increasing the tick speed.

[Kazistrasz 216]

There's a solid post on AMR about why not reaching 15.00% hit exactly is beneficial when you can't hit the number exactly.  Their argument is that every single point of secondary stat is valuable and that any used going over the hit cap is wasted.  TECHNICALLY, they are correct.  However, I absolutely LOATHE missing.  I hate it.  So I go over the hit cap, but I NEVER go more than 0.25% over the hit cap which is about 100 rating.  Using this logic, I'm only "losing" 400-500 DPS.  In the grand scheme of doing 250-300k, this is extremely negligible.  However, AMR setting you at 14.5% sounds awfully lame.  They have an 'at least' mode where you can ensure hit capping.  Again, you might "lose" 200 DPS in AMR's terms, but I don't think that matters at all.  I can't imagine Spark is running 3500 hit, which is like 4-5% off of capping.  With the 2pc, it may be valuable to hit 12439 instead of pushing for the Agony cap at 13737, but then again, what's another 1k Haste?  Haste thresholds aren't entirely too important..Mastery scales much better.  If you're playing with Pandemic correctly, most of your DoTs aren't running their course, so you're just slightly increasing the tick speed.

And really, as important as precision is with snapshotting, if you miss snapshotting Wush or BBoY, that's a monster DPS loss that being .20% over cap can't possibly compare to.

[Zagam 1,982]

Updated guide based on Xyronic's info about Haunt being better than Drain Soul during execute. 

[vladMTL 1]

Updated guide based on Xyronic's info about Haunt being better than Drain Soul during execute. 

 

hey

 

speaking of which have you guys noticed how freaking weak DS is nowadays ... i play in a 10m and on execute phase a lot of times the boomkin and sp catch up with me or sometimes even surpass me depending on the difference i have between me and them ... meh 

[Rakupenda 15]

Updated guide based on Xyronic's info about Haunt being better than Drain Soul during execute. 

Interesting...I'll have to look into this more when I get a chance.

[Nibbelets 0]

I don't advise it.  I say 9778 and then full Mastery.

 

I thought once you got a bit too much haste it was worth it just going for the 13700 (ish) cap, but after reading the last few pages this seems to not be the case. I'm around 11500 ish haste when going max mastery and I'm wondering if it's best to dump the remaining haste into crit for my destro offspecc or if I should just stick with the 11500 ish haste.

 

I also have a question regarding the 4pc tier for affliction. To me it feels like the 10% chance for an extra soul shard from haunt is somewhat weak. I can only think of 3 fights (at least on normal) where I can't soul drain to gain 4 soul shards, Protectors, Jouggernaut and Malkorok. My haunt uptime on Protectors is fairly shit, probably due to the fact that I'm spreading dots and neglecting Haunt. Whilst on the two other bosses I still manage to have 75% uptime on Haunt which I'd consider to be pretty good. On Jugg I cast Haunt 29 times and on Malkorok I cast 23 so a 10% chance to get a soul shard back would be 2-3 extra Haunts which seems like I said earlier kind of weak. Basically my question is, is it really worth getting the two tier pieces with crit over some extra haste/mastery and possibly WF for higher item level for just 2-3 extra soul shards?

 

I do realize it's a bit silly asking if I should skip crit on the tier pieces whilest asking if I should reforge my exess haste to crit in the paragraph over, though I suppose that comes down to if I should stick with the haste or go for the crit. 

 

TL;DR: Should I reforge my exess haste past 9778 into crit in favor of destro offspecc or stick with the haste?

Is the 4pc worth going for when I can manage about 75% haunt uptime on bosses where I can't DS for extra shards to escape the tier pieces with crit or should I just go for the 4pc and not worry my pretty little head about it?

[Zagam 1,982]

hey

 

speaking of which have you guys noticed how freaking weak DS is nowadays ... i play in a 10m and on execute phase a lot of times the boomkin and sp catch up with me or sometimes even surpass me depending on the difference i have between me and them ... meh 

Doesn't sound like something is going right.  It's possible they got procs and you didn't.  Boomkin doesn't have an execute that I know of, and Spriest's execute isn't nearly as powerful.  With the gutting to Drain Soul, our execute got hurt a bit, except that we now have to put it into Haunt because of the damage redistribution.

 

I thought once you got a bit too much haste it was worth it just going for the 13700 (ish) cap, but after reading the last few pages this seems to not be the case. I'm around 11500 ish haste when going max mastery and I'm wondering if it's best to dump the remaining haste into crit for my destro offspecc or if I should just stick with the 11500 ish haste.

 

I also have a question regarding the 4pc tier for affliction. To me it feels like the 10% chance for an extra soul shard from haunt is somewhat weak. I can only think of 3 fights (at least on normal) where I can't soul drain to gain 4 soul shards, Protectors, Jouggernaut and Malkorok. My haunt uptime on Protectors is fairly shit, probably due to the fact that I'm spreading dots and neglecting Haunt. Whilst on the two other bosses I still manage to have 75% uptime on Haunt which I'd consider to be pretty good. On Jugg I cast Haunt 29 times and on Malkorok I cast 23 so a 10% chance to get a soul shard back would be 2-3 extra Haunts which seems like I said earlier kind of weak. Basically my question is, is it really worth getting the two tier pieces with crit over some extra haste/mastery and possibly WF for higher item level for just 2-3 extra soul shards?

 

I do realize it's a bit silly asking if I should skip crit on the tier pieces whilest asking if I should reforge my exess haste to crit in the paragraph over, though I suppose that comes down to if I should stick with the haste or go for the crit. 

 

TL;DR: Should I reforge my exess haste past 9778 into crit in favor of destro offspecc or stick with the haste?

Is the 4pc worth going for when I can manage about 75% haunt uptime on bosses where I can't DS for extra shards to escape the tier pieces with crit or should I just go for the 4pc and not worry my pretty little head about it?

13737 Haste is solid for single target fights (See: Thok & Malkorok) while having more Mastery in other fights is more valuable.  If you're playing with Destruction as an off-spec, you wanna make sure you're not anywhere over 9778 Haste. 

 

Affliction's 4pc is weak.  Destruction's 4pc is solid.  Don't skip tier pieces for Aff if you also play Destruction (or Demonology).  If you get H WF pieces over your tier, then it's your call on whether to use it or not.  It's an RNG issue, so you might see 3 extra shards after firing 30 Haunts, or you may see 0, or you may see 8.  You can't say one way or another if the set is worse than H WF pieces because RNG...but MOST of the time, the tier set is relatively weak.  It is worth SOMETHING...that value is just not able to be calculated exactly.