6.1 Affliction Guide

[spikeysquad 50]

Thank you muchly Locky for the answer. That makes perfect sense now and it was quite obvious really! I did know that but I realise now that I never really understood how important Drain Soul uptime is as well. Though it may only do a small amount of direct damage it boosts the DoTs, then we have the 2 set bonus, it has an execute and of course it returns shards. 

 

For the tier I will probably have issues making sure that I Drain Soul on my Corruption target as I always refresh my target's DoTs before my focus/extra targets ones but habits can be broken (eventually!). 

 

Thanks for the log reading tips. I will get some personal logs sorted and see if I can read them properly.  

Edited April 23, 2015 by spikeysquad

[spikeysquad 50]

So having played around with Affliction some more I have some questions. Sorry this is so long but I have been reading around and I am still so unclear on certain aspects.

 

1. Is Glyph of Life Pact still advised?

 

2. If there are 3 targets do I still do SB: Haunt, DoTx9 and then DS: M? It would cause them to be rather unsynced but I guess it's 30 seconds and 20 seconds. Ah but yes I am forgetting Soul Swap. So manual DoTs and then swap to another target?   

 

3. Firstly should BL/Hero always be covered by DS: M x2 rather saving an extra for execute? 20% more on Drain Soul that does about 8% of overall damage on ST doesn't sound that good (assuming that it does not buff the instant DoT ticks).

 

4. Where should my potion be? Again in execute or with some nice buffs during the fight? This is assuming that BL was at the start.

 

5. Doomy at the start? Are all pets still roughly equal damage wise? Though some have advantages in certain situations.

 

6. Can someone advise me a bit more on shard management and Haunting Spirits (HS) please? So ideally I gather that I want to sit on 2 or less shards in case of double Nightfalls. So if I get 3 and HS is not in pandemic range then I can SB to hold it (assuming that I will not be casting any other spells that it affects)? So say HS is not up but I do not have any damage buffs then should I wait? I still get no where near 100% uptime, more like 70%.

 

So if I get to 4 and I have up Haunting Spirits then I want to send out a regular Haunt (and then I guess follow my rule for 3 above?) If I am about to DS then I want to be having 3 shards for full coverage and I gather that I should be covering BL fully with HS and a regular Haunt as well.

 

If I do not have HS up and only one shard yet I have 3 damage procs should I throw out a regular Haunt (for ST I mean)? Or just always prioritise SB: Haunt over it?

 

Ok think that I have covered most situations! Sorry for the length of post and poorly expressing myself.

[Lockybalboa 618]

1. Is Glyph of Life Pact still advised?

 

 

You can use it but it isn't required or even really needed. I would skip it.

 

 

2. If there are 3 targets do I still do SB: Haunt, DoTx9 and then DS: M? It would cause them to be rather unsynced but I guess it's 30 seconds and 20 seconds. Ah but yes I am forgetting Soul Swap. So manual DoTs and then swap to another target?   

 

Depends on the fight, as a rule though Soul Swap is basically useless. When to DS depends on what kind of three targets you are doing. If it is just adds then DS is likely not the best since adds are normally quickly killed. If you're doing a multi boss fight like Iron Maiden then DS with max DoTs is best for beast damage. SD:Haunt before either situations for the sweet ass buff.

 

 

3. Firstly should BL/Hero always be covered by DS: M x2 rather saving an extra for execute? 20% more on Drain Soul that does about 8% of overall damage on ST doesn't sound that good (assuming that it does not buff the instant DoT ticks).

 

 

Depends on the fight way to much to give a clean answer for this. There are a LOT of fights that you NEED the second charge of DS for some important burn, in that case it should not be wasted before then. WHEN to do damage is almost always more important then how much damage is done by the end of the fight.

 

If you are in a clean tank and spank like Gruul then you should load up as much buffs and damage as you can, thus DSx2 w/ Lust w/ trinkets w/ potion right off the bat of the fight is going to be best.

 

T17 set DS isn't god mode, T18 it is. So it might end up being better to save for execute in 4pc t18 - I'm not sure about that though since I haven't run numbers and I haven't done PTR this time around.

 

 

4. Where should my potion be? Again in execute or with some nice buffs during the fight? This is assuming that BL was at the start.

 

Again it depends on the fight. You should ALWAYS pre-pot, the second potion should be used for 1) the most important part of the fight to burn 2) with Bloodlust if BL isn't used at the start of the fight 3) when you can stack it with as many other buffs as possible. 4) at the specific time that your raid needs to use potions due to fight strat.

 

 

5. Doomy at the start? Are all pets still roughly equal damage wise? Though some have advantages in certain situations.

 

Doomguard at the start normally, unless he is needed for stronger burn later in the fight. You *can* save him for sub-20% for the extra damage out of him but really he doesn't do enough to really swing the dps much either way.

 

 

6. Can someone advise me a bit more on shard management and Haunting Spirits (HS) please? So ideally I gather that I want to sit on 2 or less shards in case of double Nightfalls. So if I get 3 and HS is not in pandemic range then I can SB to hold it (assuming that I will not be casting any other spells that it affects)? So say HS is not up but I do not have any damage buffs then should I wait? I still get no where near 100% uptime, more like 70%.

 

If I'm reading what you said right, then basically yes...I think.

 

100% uptime is totally doable but is still controlled by RNG. Aff is a VERY wide swing DPS spec, the top 10 Aff parses on most fights range 6-10k between #1 and #10. 

 

*most* of the time you want to sit on 2 shards since you don't want to lose shards to double proc. If you have 3 and nothing to really spend it on, throw a Haunt out. You might over lap the debuff a bit but it is better then losing out on the shard.

 

That's mostly IMO though, I haven't run indepth numbers on it and I haven't gotten to play Aff enough to really *know* for sure.

 

 

If I do not have HS up and only one shard yet I have 3 damage procs should I throw out a regular Haunt (for ST I mean)? Or just always prioritise SB: Haunt over it?

 

I'm not sure, sorry. Like I said I haven't run super numbers and I don't play aff as much as I wish. I *think* it would be better to wait for the shard since it shouldn't be to long of a wait and most trinkets are fairly long timers right now anyways. Better then throwing the Haunt, getting a shard, and not being able to do anything for another X seconds because you're still only at 1.

 

Not 100% sure about that though, one of the other locks that gets to Aff a lot might have better info.

[spikeysquad 50]

Hey Lockybalboa,

 

Thanks for the detailed reply. Ah yeah having only been doing dummy work and been in LFR on mostly ST/dual target fights there's never really been burn situations but yes indeed makes sense to DS: M and potion here if needed. I will do what is needed for the kill.

 

It is possible I am doing something wrong then with my shards as I have never got 100% uptime on HS. I only have 13.2% haste self buffed in Affliction spec though, could this be a contributing factor? Perhaps I should change my enchants over just to see if it makes any difference on some ST fights. Once I get more comfy with the spec I will sort out some logs. I am definitely under where I should be on such short fights so I know that I am going wrong somewhere. Once I see a few analyses as well I will be in a much better position to help with the influx of logs in 6.2.  

 

Another question. So when having to move we have Life Tap and DoT refreshes. AFAIK the DoT refreshes have no instant damage component unlike Shadow Word: Pain for example. So how often should I be refreshing them? Should I spam? Or will the mana cost offset refreshing them that often?

 

Thanks again. 

[Liarparadox 5]

Soulburn: Haunt spec: should soulburn: Soul Swap be used in the in opening? Some guides say yes, others say no. I have 4pc T17, and I've tried it both ways and I lean toward not using a burnt SS. But I guess the thinking is to get as much time under all those buffs as you can. Worth the shard to burn at the start?

 

And if so, still worth the shard once T17 set goes away? Thoughts?

[Curinir 4]

The simcraft APL for aff does have a Soulburn: Soul Swap for the opener, so I suppose you could use that to justify using it in your opener. Personally, I don't use it unless the raid leader or tank would be a lamb and put up a 25 second pull timer for my soul shard to regen. All Soulburn: Soul Swap does is save you two globals, so I feel that an extra haunt is considerably more valuable than 2 seconds of channeling drain soul.

 

So, no, unless you are getting 25 second pull timers from your tank and starting with that extra shard, it will never be worth it.

[Liarparadox 5]

So, I've asked tanks in my guild tanks to give me a 25-30s dbm pull. They won't do it; they think it's comical. And I find it rather frustrating. Sometimes we even have 3 locks in raid. Anyone else have/had this issue and any suggestions on how I can make this happen? Am I unreasonable to request this?

[Brewmonksta 157]

Yell louder.

Or explain to your raid leader on the side the importance and boost it will give.

 

Alternatively if DPS on the opener isnt a real issue then it may not be seen as a "requirement" .

 

I had a similar discussion with my WW and trying to EH to a full chi opener.

[spikeysquad 50]

I personally tend to think it's an unreasonable request (and yes I main a lock and play Affliction on 3 or so bosses). Perhaps your guild is way more disciplined but with us and a long pull timer people get antsy (myself included), distracted and some start talking and then don't stop in time (say by 8 on the countdown, I and many others like to focus). Ninja pulls happen way more as well.

 

Perhaps this does not happen for yourselves but I see this behaviour a lot with my guild when we have had a long timer. Also changing something so 2-3 benefit out of 15/20/25 (or whatever size you run with) to me does not seem worth it or even fair. Yeah we get an extra shard but is it really that much in the end when sometimes I have more than I know what to do with anyhow? More so though if BL/Hero is at the start but with DuT as well this happens. Anyhow that is my experience and point of view. Doesn't mean it is right though. My fellow lock disagrees and keeps asking for a long timer.

[Liquidsteel 279]

25s timer is hardly unreasonable. Our guild does 15s as standard so an extra 10 doesn't hurt.

You could always have someone alert the raid at 10s left to have people focus.

3 locks with an extra shard could be the difference between a few 100k wipes or a kill an hour earlier.

Ultimately it doesn't matter massively,especially this tier with Destro so dominant, but i dont see why anyone would turn down free damage when close to a kill.

[spikeysquad 50]

That is true Liquid. If we have a problem with DPS I will bring it up but at the moment we do not on an Affliction fight. I have no idea how to write this sort of stuff so has anyone actually seen how much it does add? Numbers tend to make a better impression than opinions if someone really wants to make a change. 

[Lockybalboa 618]

Unless you're getting within about 2-3% per warlock (so if you have three warlocks within 6-9%, two warlocks 4-6%, etc.) of killing a boss/pushing a phase on time, or otherwise doing something important then the extra 10s pull timer doesn't really have any impact outside of your ego and ranks, making it unlikely that the effort you will put in trying to inform the inept on how advanced warlock theory works will really pay off in the end. IMO, if your raid leader/tanks/etc. are giving you problems and refusing to comply with your request then just let it go.

 

Or 

 

If all else fails, do what I did.

 

Find a friend. Talk them in to making a guild with you. Become the DPS Officer or raidleader or GM. Impose your will like a fascist dictator. Kill bosses. 

 

No one remembers the details, just the result. If the result is that you kill bosses, get mad lewts, and post epic ranks - you win.

[Liarparadox 5]

Took some advice, spoke to tanks about it on the side. Last night we had some dps issues pushing Tyrant phases; by the end of the night I was getting about 50% of the pulls as  25s. I'll take it. Thanks for the input.

[spikeysquad 50]

Do you actually notice a difference then Liar? For the rest it is probably still worth using Soulburn. I'll sometimes get a free shard still however sometimes it falls off just before and then I'm actually behind on my sequence.

[Liarparadox 5]

Well, I do notice a difference in shards at the pull, especially if heroism isn't used on pull because it pretty much means you can be liberal with haunt at the start and not worry too much  about running out of shards. If heroism is used it's still really nice because it means you can just throw off that extra haunt, well, because you simply are going to cap otherwise. I guess what I like is that with the 25s pull I don't have to pray to the RNG gods quite as much. I've had some bad luck on some boss fights where I couldn't keep haunting spirits buff up because I just wasn't getting any nightfalls for so long.  I'm not saying it makes or breaks our attempts to have the 25s pull, but it doesn't hurt at all and on a few of those attempts we were just barely missing pushing tyrant into the next phase. At that point you start to think about things you can do to squeeze out dps. Little of this, little of that. It adds up.

 

But I figure, in the end it's 10-15 seconds difference and I'm not someone who ever holds up our raids. I'm there early; I summon people; I don't screw around on trash and I've watch my videos and learn quickly to adjust. I simply don't cost our raid/guild time. So I don't think they really minded after I mentioned it on the side more directly.

 

I don't notice it messing up my sequence at all. But I have weakauras set up so that I'm well aware of my pandemic window and when haunt is coming off as well. That extra shard is an extra haunt on pull while those trinkets/pots are all going. And you can clip haunt without losing uptime on it; so feel free to just fire off another haunt earlier than you might normally; it's travel time plus pandemic should allow you to not get behind on the sequence.

[Liarparadox 5]

I'm trying to figure out why Grim: sac is supposed to be the best talent with ST low movement. I've got to be missing something here because if I take my parses and increase haunt and DS dmg by 25% it doesn't make up for my demon's dmg, let along demon plus doom vs terrorguard dmg. Together they make up around 10% dmg done. An increase to DS and Haunt by 25% isn't close to that. And when I look at very high parses from locks with Sac I don't see these spells making up for the loss of a demon either. Am I missing something about this talent?

[Lockybalboa 618]

25% isn't JUST the base damage of DS and Haunt, it also effects the secondary property of DS - "When Drain Soul deals damage, it causes all of your other damage over time spells on the target to instantly deal 40% of their normal damage"

 

That 40% gains the 25%, that isn't to say that 40% becomes 65% - rather 40% becomes 50%.

 

This alone is fairly strong, combined with how powerful your DoTs are and how much DS effects your Aff damage when you have 2pc and/or 4pc, GoSac becomes very strong if you can maintain a high uptime on DS.

[Lockybalboa 618]

Also, those numbers are slightly off. IIRC they buffed DS in a hotfix not to long ago but haven't updated tool tips yet. But the idea is the same.

[Liarparadox 5]

AH there it is! Thanks so much for the clarification.

[HeadBeeGuy 11]

Just an update for those who don't know (which included me before a few days ago), but the double shard Nightfall proc is not random. Empowered Corruption makes Nightfall generate 1.25 shards per proc (as opposed to increasing proc chance by 2.5%). You can find an excellent WeakAura to track your shards/partial shards here:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/18724762931

Enjoy. :)

[Drkdragon 9]

When using affliction on fights like Archimonde for example. What is the best practice for adds like Doomfire spirit? All three dots and DS or just UA and corruption and DS since Agony will unlikely get to full strength.

[Lockybalboa 618]

When using affliction on fights like Archimonde for example. What is the best practice for adds like Doomfire spirit? All three dots and DS or just UA and corruption and DS since Agony will unlikely get to full strength.

 

 

Depends on a lot on your comp. If my raid has our full complement of hunters I don't even DoT the Doomfire at all since it does in less than 9 seconds. The adds I UA and Agony everything on the first pass then do a second pass of Corruptions. 

 

If something burny like the Doomfire is going to life 15 seconds or more then I UA, Agony, Cor, DS spam. The Agony may or may not get to full stacks but the DS tick from it is worth-ish the cast.

[Drkdragon 9]

Thank you Locky, I'll check our logs to see how fast they are going down.

[Liquidsteel 279]

If you are playing Affliction and still want to maximise Doomfire damage you're best off Soul Swapping to it.

[Drkdragon 9]

If you are playing Affliction and still want to maximise Doomfire damage you're best off Soul Swapping to it.

You have a very good point. I will have to see how I do with shard generation. Currently using no tier.