6.1 Affliction Guide

[spikeysquad 50]

I had always thought that Doomguard in the opener (even without BL) did the most damage... However, if this not the case is he better with BL/Hero or in execute? (Yes, I know ideally he is better used for a nuke phase).

[Lockybalboa 618]

It really won't matter much either way. There is nothing that will make him do godly damage. I normally save him for a priority target or sub 20%, sometimes I use him on pull but not often. The buff he gets at 20% is about as strong as using him with BL/full procs so if you are picking one or the other it really doesn't matter much.

[Soulzar 42]

If you are not using Lust on pull, it likely means you have a dps check you are saving it for, in which case holding your DG for it is a no brainer.  For me its not really about where it does the most dmg, but where its dmg is needed.

[spikeysquad 50]

Thank you both for the reply and yes it makes sense for most fights. Namely I was asking for say Kilrogg (heroic) as we BL when the first group get out (or there abouts) which is in the middle of the fight. 

 

Also Zakuun springs to mind as we still BL at 30% but then of course it's soon execute and with BL so that's a no brainer now anyhow. 

 

Socrethar we BL on the first Dominater and then for back on the boss so not during execute.  

 

Think that's the main ones. We have killed those bosses 8-10 times each so it's farm and there isn't really a dps check for us now. If it's progress then yes I will use him where we are struggling. 

[Stunlocked 8]

 

 

Socrethar we BL on the first Dominater and then for back on the boss so not during execute.  

 

 

Doomguard's AI isn't the best...sometimes if his target dies he just stands there and doesn't switch to a new one.

 

My guild does the same thing as you - one time instead of going to the boss after the Domnator died, turned around and started shooting ghost that was trapped in a prison.  Thanks big guy!

Edited September 5, 2015 by Stunlocked

[spikeysquad 50]

Yeah had that issue on Assault Stunlocked, so much lost DPS! It was our first tries so we did BL at the beginning to see the fight so I popped Doomguard. 8-12 casts later he stopped every time. Anyhow we are getting to the main add phase now so ensuring that I use him on the Grand Corruptor 

[spikeysquad 50]

So we killed Assault on our second night so that was good and no more silly pet antics except 3 casts that never reached their target but that is to be expected (though I did play Destro there so this went slightly off topic).

 

So with Demo/Destro you want to end the fight on low resources to not waste any. It occurred to me this probably also applies to Affliction. I am pretty sure that a 100k Haunt has to beat a Drain Soul tick and the 3 partial ticks which add up to about 40-50k. Am I correct? It's not something that I have really done.

[Lockybalboa 618]

I haven't run or seen math on it lately, but I remember either really late SoO or early WoD Zag, Reckless, and I ran math looking at it and it was worth it to dump Haunts if the boss was <5% but the DPS gain/loss was like 200-500dps I think.

 

I do it sometimes because it *feels* more productive and I want to smash something.

[spikeysquad 50]

Thank you and hah yeah I like Haunt! Indeed though this is such a small matter over the course of a full fight. It's the middle I need to focus on.

[spikeysquad 50]

So say Heroic Kormrok and the BL/Hero/Ring is held off until he stops going for a swim and is in a nice position which is about 15 seconds in. Is the opener the same or should DS be held until then (but once DuT/DSI/weapon enchant etc have all almost faded)?  

 

Is the answer the same for Destro?

 

More importantly what about mythic? I assume BL is still then and it will be the same answer for the highest boss damage.

[Lockybalboa 618]

Heroic you should have no problem standing close to the pool so that he stays in range at all times, I would hold DS for lust if you use it at the start.

 

Mythic most guilds hold lust for hand phase to burn hands and to get a really good ring proc on the boss, again I would hold DS for that. Mythic is harder to keep the boss in range at all times due to needing to soak the pools, if you are assigned to a pool half way or more from the pool that he is starting on you won't be able to be close to the boss to keep him in range. Use warlock gate and self portal to help overcome this problem.

[Liquidsteel 279]

My reformed guild does Kormrok a bit different.

 

We lust on pull and do the empowered Fel Outpouring first. We get one set of hands just after a minute into the fight and only once again. Boss dies in like 3 minutes shortly after he jumps to second pool and we get second load of hands. With 3 healers and only 2 people specced into AoE and everyone else specced single target (but they can use AoE if they have it) the boss just melts.

 

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/xF96mjBXdaWtQkG1#fight=17&type=damage-done

[Lockybalboa 618]

I think PM raid we do green, purple, dead. Don't remember off the top of my head. I dont need gear from bosses 1-6 of mythic so I sit a lot of times.

 

This was last weeks kill. Not our A+ team, we had a few alts and trials.

 

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/V8WH6jrmAc71RDfw#fight=15&type=damage-done

[spikeysquad 50]

Thanks both for the replies. 

 

Yeah I don't have a problem with the boss going out of range on heroic, its just that the guild has decided to hold off on the ring and BL until he is settled (I guess for the melee and other classes are not so proc dependent anyhow). 

 

Ah have to admit I did not realise how much damage actually went into the hands compared to the opener (at least on heroic, haven't reached mythic yet). Pretty sure I will play Affliction as it has such nice ST damage and if I am soaking then will much prefer this to Destro. The 2 warriors, shammie/shamans, ret etc do the AoE thing but will see what the guild does and what is needed.

 

Wow! Insane DPS Shizwix. Up to 600k burst with Cata!

[Liarparadox 5]

Is there a trick to uptime with DUT buff Instability? Or do I just have the worst Fing RNG? Did Fel Lord tonight using DUT instead of Heroic WF Frag. and Instability was up for 18.8%.

 

I was shard starved and had Haunting Spirits up for less than 80%; I only got to cast haunt off one time that wasn't Soulburned, because, well, that's how little shard gen I was getting (with 61%uptime on Drain Soul and all dots 99%+ uptime). Supremely frustrated with tonight's FL kill while using DUT.

 

I've looked at other logs and people are often getting 30%+ uptime with DUT.  Am I missing something about the uptime here? Oh, and that 18.8% uptime was with a double proc pull.

[Liquidsteel 279]

No, sometimes that just happens. The best parses will have the highest uptime.

[spikeysquad 50]

No trick. Last night I got 13.74% on Zakuun and 24.37% on Tyrant but both without double procs as I don't really try with Affliction and my guild and especially when starting so close to the boss.

 

DuT has approximately 0.92 procs a minute so in theory my Zakuun was about right and Tyrant it procced at least 2 times too many! 

 

With being soul starved as well the RNG element does suck sometimes. 

[Zagam 1,982]

Many of the complaints with the redesign of Affliction this entire expansion has been the heavy RNG effects that take place within the spec.  You can see Blizzard's attempt to fix it by seeing every tier bonus this xpac somehow involved with lessening the effect of RNG-controlled uptime of SB:H.

 

Trinket RNG has always been a thing.  Unless it has an ICD with a solid duration like DSI and PBI, you can have a really bad time or a really good time, but you'll usually, on average, have a relatively average time.

[Curinir 4]

I definitely hope to see some changes to the spec in Legion. Personally, I think having a way to spread dots (like bloodboil) would be fantastic. It would fit the "fantasy" of Affliction for sure, as I usually picture a plague or contagious disease when I think of the word.

[Liarparadox 5]

I just want the RNG removed. It isn't fun at all.

[Zagam 1,982]

I just want the RNG removed. It isn't fun at all.

You aren't going to see RNG removed from a Blizzard game.  And you most certainly will not see it removed from Affliction.

[HeadBeeGuy 11]

I just want the RNG removed. It isn't fun at all.

You aren't going to see RNG removed from a Blizzard game.  And you most certainly will not see it removed from Affliction.

Seems like something they could easily do by, say, making every tick of your most recent Corruption generate X shardbits. But yeah, probably never going to happen.

[Zagam 1,982]

I'm personally under the belief that nothing should ever be able to be held at 100% uptime via good RNG while averages show lower values, especially when it's tied to the strength of the class and is only balanced via tier bonuses or better gear/trinkets.  Being "shard starved" and not being able to keep SB:H up at 100% is detrimental to DPS in a large way.  I'd prefer to see Haunt have a Conflagrate-like charge system that lasts a set amount of time to where you can optimize Haunt at like some figure between 60 and 80% but choose when to apply it.  It would bring back a small bit of "intellectual requirement" needed by the spec instead of mindlessly keeping DoTs up and reapplying SB:H every 30 seconds IF you have the shards.  

[Liarparadox 5]

Yeah I get that Zag; I agree. I don't really want it removed entirely from the game or think it's going to be; I'm fine with it in some small areas of a class or game but as you indicate, I just don't want affliction's performance tied THIS much to RNG. It's one of the reasons I don't use DUT anymore. I don't want my dps and shards to be soooo dependent on procs that may be 19%-30%+ uptime. It's too frustrating. 

[Alben 0]

Hello fellow locks,

 

please excuse i'm writing here instead of "fix my dps", but no one has posted here since September and i do believe Affliction should deserve more love ;)

 

As i'm an old and fat and lazy nerd who cannot really master Destro with all it's macroed stopcasting and mouseover stuff, i'm fighting all bosses as Aff and i'm generally satisfied with the results, ranging from 60 to 100k  @ 718 ilvl.

 

My question for you is then only related to Manno and Archie fights, where really i find myself not having "exploited" timings/targets/cooldowns properly, resulting in poor performance. As an example of this please take a look at this random Archie log fight, just to have an idea on what i'm doing.(i use to upload logs on AMR so i have few fights on WL)

 

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/znNkGxZqr9yTcLYv#fight=55&type=damage-done&source=53

 

Would you be so kind to share some lock wisdom with me please?

For example, i now only go Supremacy on Assault, Council and trash, the rest being Sacrifice (ofc SB:H)

At the beginning i was Sup for Manno and Archie too, but i then realized i could a few K more as Sac

 

Any help will be appreciated, thank you!