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  1. #1

    Exclamation [6.2.3] Affliction Warlock Guide


    Contents
    • Introduction
    • New in Patch 6.2
    • New in Patch 6.2.3
    • Resources
    • Abilities
    • Talents
    • Glyphs
    • Spell Priority & Opener
    • Pets
      1. Doomguard & Infernal
    • Stats
    • Gear
    • Races
    • Hellfire Citadel Encounter tips
    • Addons and Macros


    Introduction
    Greetings, friends. I am Victor/zvvl/Astrothug/vvv/ and I am here to teach you how to Affliction Warlock. Affliction receives a lot of hate for being boring and easy, and it can be at times. But it's also very strong at the moment so whether you like it or not, you'll probably be being playing it at least a few times in Patch 6.2 and for those of you who haven't touched it until now will have to learn somewhere. This guide will be written with the intention of making your journey into Affliction easy. I will try to remove as much fluff from my explanations as possible to make sure information is clear and concise.
    Affliction Warlock is a primarily single-target Warlock spec that relies upon applying and maintaining damage-over-time effects to the target(s). Affliction is a spec that most players will find easy to pick up and learn while those of you who are savants will be able to exploit Affliction's nuances to top meters on and acquire sick™ parses (the best indicator for player skill) on numerous fights.
    While reading this keep in mind that I am not the demi-god of Warlocks who knows everything. I simply am compiling information and presenting it in a readable format with my own take on Affliction. I encourage you to read other resources and speak with other players in addition to reading this guide. Always feel free to deviate from guides and experiment. There are a lot of Warlock resources out there, use them all if you really want to improve.

    New in Patch 6.2
    Affliction received several major buffs in Patch 6.2: Furty of Hellfire.
    • Corruption now deals 12% more damage.
    • Agony now deals 12% more damage.
    • Unstable Affliction now deals 12% more damage.
    • Haunt damage has been increased by 25%, and now increases periodic damage dealt by 35% (up from 30%). -July 20th, 2015 Hotfixes
    • Drain Soul damage has been increased by 50%, and now causes all other DoTs to instantly deal 50% of the their normal damage (up from 40%). -July 20th, 2015 Hotfixes
    • Deathrattle Regalia
      - 2piece: Each time your Drain Soul deals damage it has an x% chance to extend the duration of Dark Soul by y-seconds.
      - 4piece: While Dark Soul: Misery is active your Drain Soul damage also refreshes the duration of your Haunt effect on the target.
    • Fragment of the Dark Star: Reduces the duration and period of Agony, Unstable Affliction, and Corruption by x%. Percent is based on Trinket quality.
    • Nithramus, the All-Seer: 7 months of grinding paid off. Raid wide cooldown similar to bloodlust. 2 minute cooldown with a 15 second duration. Increases the damage of everyone with the ring by 25%+ for 15 seconds. After 15 seconds the person who activated the ring will explode for x% of the damage everyone has done to all enemies within 20 yards. It will split evenly between all enemies. If it has 100,000 damage saved and there are 10 enemies within range, each enemy will take 10,000 damage.

    New in Patch 6.2.3
    • Orb of Voidsight - A BoA Trinket that drops randomly from bosses in Mythic Dungeons. Scales to ilvl 800 / level 110. The buff is exceptionally strong against targets classified as Demons and Archimonde (hotfixed to work against him).
    • Valor upgrades!

    Resources
    • Mana:
    Unless you're a complete beginner to World of Warcraft then you likely know what Mana is. However, just in case you are a complete beginner (not that there's anything wrong with that) I will explain it to you! Mana is a resource that is used to cast spells and abilities. Most Warlocks spells have a Mana cost associated with them. In order to cast these spells you must have an equal or greater amount of Mana than the Mana cost of the spell. Using the spell will remove Mana from your 'Mana pool' automatically. Mana is regenerated passively over time and through the use of Mana regenerating abilities such as Life Tap. Typically Mana is not an issue as you will often regenerate it faster than you spend it. At level 100 you have a baseline of 160,000 Mana.

    Soul Shards are an Affliction Warlock only resource. Certain spells require the expenditure of Soul Shards in order to be cast. You can have a maximum of 4 Soul Shards. Out of combat you passively regenerate 1 Soul Shard every 20 seconds. In combat you can only generate Soul Shards via Nightfall. Or by channeling Drain Soul on a target when it dies.

    Abilities
    • Agony: This is the strongest of our DoT spells. It deals Shadow damage over 24 seconds, it time it ticks (deals damage) it gains a stack, including ticks from Drain Soul. It maxes out at 10 stacks. Each stack adds damage. This spell needs to be kept at 10 stacks. Agony should always be refreshed before the debuff falls off the target.
    • Corruption: Deals Shadow damage over 18 seconds to the target. It has the added benefit of Nightfall. Nightfall causes your MOST RECENTLY applied Corruption to have a "8.5%" (Empowered Corruption) chance to generate a Soul Shard each time it deals damage. There currently are some technical issues with this and the actual chance is closer 6% (thanks Gahddo, you nerd) to generate a Soul Shard with every 4th occurence causing 2 Soul Shards to be generated at one time.
    • Unstable Affliction: Deals Shadow Damage over 14 seconds. If it is dispelled the dispeller takes damage and is silenced. Has a cast time.
    • Haunt: Costs a Soul Shard to cast. Does an intitial bit of damage and then causes the target to take 35% (July 20th Hotfixes) more damage from our DoTs for 10 seconds.
    • Drain Soul: This is our filler and execute spell. The channel from Drain Soul does it's own damage but also causes DoTs on the target to tick for 50% of their normal damage. Deals 100% more damage to targets that are under 20% health.
    • Soulburn: Costs a Soul Shard to cast. Enhances our Summon Demon, Demonic Circle: Teleport, Seed of Corruption, Soul Swap, and Haunt (Level 100 Talent). You cast this before any other enhanced abilities in order to enhance them. You will mainly use it to enhance Soul Swap and Haunt, however, other Soulburns can have their niche uses.
    • Soul Swap: Copies the current DoTs on a target and stores them. Recasting again will apply the stored DoTs to new target. Can not be cast on the same target. Soulburn will cause Soul Swap to instantly apply full duration Agony, Unstable Affliction, and Corruption. Soulburn: Soul Swap will cost a total of 2 Soul Shards. One for Soulburn and one Soul Swap.
    • Soulburn: Haunt: Costs a total of two Soul Shards. One for the Soulburn cast and one for Haunt cast. Applies a buff to the player that lasts 30 seconds and causes ALL damage over time effects cast by the player to deal 20% more damage. Also, applies the regular Haunt debuff to the target.
    • Dark Soul: Misery: This is our big dick DPS cooldown. It increases our Haste by 30% for 20 seconds. It has a 2 minute cooldown.
    • Seed of Corruption: This is really our only AoE spell. It puts a debuff on the target, once the target has taken enough damage from the Warlock it explodes dealing Shadow damage to all enemies within 10 yards. It also triggers if the target dies with the debuff.


    Talents
    Tier 1 (Level 15): Soul Leech is generally my go-to choice for this tier. It gives you a nice shield for 30% of the damage you do with Drain Soul and Haunt. This equates to a lot of absorption over the course of an encounter. Dark Regeneration can have it's use on a few fights such as Iskar where your raid might have you standing in the fire laser. Harvest Life is poop.

    Tier 2 (Level 30): Shadowfury is basically the only talent worth taking in this tier. Mortal Coil doesn't heal unless it also incapacitates (most raid mobs are immune). Shadowfury can be used to stun adds on a few fights such as Socrethar ghosts or the skellingtons in Gorefiend's stomach.

    Tier 3 (Level 45): Soul Link is the talent to take. It gives you a nice 20% damage reduction and some alright healing to you and your pet. Dark Bargain can be useful if you are personally struggling with a specific one shot mechanic and want to just ignore it, but I'd strongly advise against this.

    Tier 4 (Level 60): Take Burning Rush. Outside of Gateway and Circle you have no mobility abilities and Burning Rush fills this gap.

    Tier 5 (Level 75): As of the July 20th Hotfixes, Grimoire of Sacrifice is the pick here. You can Sacrifice a Voidwalker if you need a personal Damage Reduction ability (Shadow Bulwark) or a Felhunter if you need to interrupt. You sacrifice a pet and gain additional damage on your Drain Soul and 20% extra Health if you also take Soul Link. You'll also gain access to your sacrificed pet's Command Demon ability. You ALSO (MAN, HOW MANY BENEFITS CAN ONE TALENT PROVIDE?) get 2% of your max HP regenerated every 8 seconds. Not a lot, but still nice. Take Grimoire of Supremacy if you are taking Demonic Servitude.

    Tier 6 (Level 90): Take Archimonde's Darkness. It provides a sizable damage increase and more flexibilty with Dark Soul. Kil'jaeden's Cunning and Mannoroth's Fury have literally no serious use.

    Tier 7 (Level 100): Soulburn: Haunt should be grabbed here. As explained above you get a buff that increases the damage your DoTs do for 30 seconds. Demonic Servitude can be taken at lower item levels. If you choose Demonic Servitude use the Summon Doomguard summon, don't take Summon Infernal. Cataclysm can be taken if you want to do some shenanigans during farm to get big DPS numbers on fights like Kormrok, but you lose a lot of single-target (boss) damage because of this so I recommend against doing so.

    Glyphs
    Affliction Warlocks are granted a lot of freedom with their choice of Glyphs. This can be a bit of a double-edged sword as while we have many Glyphs we can use, we also have a lot of trap Glyphs. Glyphs that seem great at a first glance but fall flat in practice.
    • Glyph of Eternal Resolve: Transforms Unending Resolve into a passive ability granting 10% damage reduction at all times. I strongly recommend taking this glyph in every situation. I honestly can not think of a time where I considered switching this glyph out, in Highmaul, Blackrock Foundry, or Hellfire Citadel. The existance of this glyph basically means you have 2 glyph slots to work with. This is a part of my typical set-up.
    • Glyph of Demonic Circle: Reduces the cooldown of your Demonic Circle: Teleport by 4 seconds. This glyph is incredibly strong and under-utilized, in my opinion. Every fight has a use for Demonic Circle and making good use of it is critical to success. This is a part of my typical set-up.
    • Glyph of Soulstone: This glyph can be used to fill a slot. While you usually won't be casting a battle res for your raid, there are times where you might have to. However, the true usefulness of this glyph comes from pre-soulstoning someone. In general I will soulstone a tank before the pull, that way they can get back up instantly with full health. This can make the difference between a wipe and a messy, but successful, kill. This is a part of my typical set-up.
    • Siphon Life: Every time Corruption does damage it will heal you for 0.35% of your maximum life. This glyph is useful and can be used to fill an empty slot but I feel it's usefulness is overestimated by many. In general the healing is so minimal that it won't really be noticeable and won't take any stress off your healers.
    • Glyph of Soul Swap: Increases the duration of your Soul Swap to 27 seconds. This can be good if you are going to swap to an add that has yet to spawn or want some extra buffer with Soul Swap. There are some neat tricks you can do with this such as absorbing full DoTs and then refreshing with them if you have excess Soul Shards. However, doing so can put you at risk of being out of Soul Shards so only do so if you are confident!
    • Glyph of Life Pact: I have personally only tested this glyph on speed kills. So it's usefulness during progression may be limited as you may run the risk of running OOM on longer kills and putting pressure on healers. HOWEVER, it is very strong on speed kills as it saves you precious globals. It also allows you to extend Dark Soul longer on the pull and during Lust. -

    The next few glyphs are glyphs that you shouldn't use. Their usefulness is limited or non-existant. Some are even detrimental.
    • Glyph of Healthstone: Makes your Healthstone heal for 100% more but it now takes 10 seconds. You should be using Healing Tonic (from First Aid) instead. If you are using Healthstones then you want them to be a quick burst heal, not a slow heal over 10 seconds, even if it is more. Don't use this glyph.
    • Glyph of Unstable Affliction: Reduces the cast time of your Unstable Affliction by 25%. This doesn't bypass the global cooldown and is not a DPS gain. Can be useful on heavy movement fights (or PVP) but it isn't great.
    • Glyph of Dark Soul: This is a DPS loss. Don't use this glyph

    Spell Priority and Opener
    Soulburn: Haunt Opener:

    1. 22 seconds before pull: Pre-cast Soulburn. Remember earlier when I mentioned that you regenerate one Soul Shard every 20 seconds out of combat? Time to put that knowledge to use. By precasting your Soulburn you give yourself an extra Soul Shard at the start of the fight. Make sure you ask for a 22 second pull nicely!
    2. 2.5 seconds before pull: Draenic Intellect Potion.
    3. <2 seconds before pull: Pre-cast Haunt. This will apply Haunt to the target and give you the Haunting Spirits buff. If you are using a pet send it to attack while doing this.
    4. <1 second before pull: Pre-cast Unstable Affliction.
    5. On the pull: Cast Soulburn: Soul Swap which will immediately apply Corruption, Agony, and Unstable Affliction to your target. Your Unstable Affliction will have a full pandemic duration.
    6. Hit Dark Soul: Misery
    7. Cast Drain Soul.
    8. Follow priority.

    Soulburn: Haunt Priority:

    1. Keep Agony, Unstable Affliction, and Corruption applied to the target. This should NEVER fall off your primary target and your uptime should be above 95% if you are playing properly. If for some reason all 3 fall off (you had handle a mechanic that put the boss out of range for example) then the order for reapplication should be Agony -> Corruption -> Unstable Affliction.
    2. Reapply Soulburn: Haunt when it's about to fall off, <9 seconds. You should make sure to have 2 Soul Shards banked at all times so this never falls off.
    3. Cast Summon Doomguard/Terrorguard when under the effects of Bloodlust or when the target is under 20% Health.
    4. Cast Haunt ONLY under the following circumstances:
      1) You have 4 Soul Shards. Cast Haunt so you do not waste any Nightfall procs.
      2) You have 3 Soul Shards and have a major damage boost up. Such as a trinket proc, Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp, or Dark Soul: Misery.
    5. Cast Drain Soul. I've seen some players spam recast this ability, do not do that. You just waste mana. Try to recast Drain Soul about 3/4ths of the way through the channel immediately after it ticks. Most castbar addons will display this. Here is an example.

    Demonic Servitude Opener:

    1. 22 seconds before pull: Pre-cast Soulburn.
    2. <2 seconds before pull: Draenic Intellect Potion.
    3. <1.5 seconds before pull: Cast Unstable Affliction. Issue Pet Attack command.
    4. On the pull: Cast Soul Swap which will immediately apply Corruption, Agony, and Unstable Affliction to your target. Your Unstable Affliction will have a full pandemic duration.
    5. Cast Haunt
    6. Cast Drain Soul
    7. Follow Priority

    Demonic Servitude Priority:

    1. Keep Agony, Unstable Affliction, and Corruption applied to the target. This should NEVER fall off your primary target and your uptime should be above 95% if you are playing properly. If for some reason all 3 fall off (you had handle a mechanic that put the boss out of range for example) then the order for reapplication should be Agony -> Corruption -> Unstable Affliction.
    2. Cast Haunt under the following circumstances:
      1) You have 4 Soul Shards. Cast Haunt so you do not waste any Nightfall procs.
      2) You have 3 Soul Shards and have a major damage boost up. Such as a trinket proc, Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp, or Dark Soul: Misery.
    3. Cast Drain Soul

    Dark Soul usage:
    • Dark Soul is your big DPS cooldown. With a cooldown of 2 minutes and 2 charges because of Archimonde's Darkness you can use it several times throughout the course of a fight. In general you want to use it once every 2 minutes. Lining it up with Haunt (usually when refreshing Soulburn: Haunt) is ideal. Especially with the Tier 18 4piece bonus. Lining it up when your raid uses the DPS Legendary ring is even better. Thankfully the ring has a 2 minute cooldown, the same as Dark Soul and your Soulburn: Haunt has a 30second duration so you will be refreshing it for the 4th/8th/12th etc time around every 2 minutes. It's entirely possible to line all three of these up. If you are progressing on a shorter fight such as Fel Lord Zakuun where you use the ring twice then you don't want to delay Dark Soul and sit on charges. Just ensure you have at least one charge for ring.
    • With your second charge you'll typically want to use it during a burn phase that occurs at an abnormal time (ie: Hellfire High Council Bloodboil burn) or during the execute phase (<20% HP) of a fight. You can back-to-back Dark Soul during long executes.
    • As always you'll want to have it up for Bloodlust.
    • While progressing you should be thinking of how you can most effectively use Dark Soul during the fight. Think about where you need to burn, how many Dark souls you theoretically can cast, when is there 'downtime' where you can't DPS, when is Bloodlust, etc

    Pandemic: You'll see this term a lot when researching Warlock. Basically, it's a mechanic that allows you to refresh DoTs and 'add' the full duration as long as the DoT has <30% time remaining. This means you won't waste any DoT time as long as you refresh your DoTs under 30%.

    Pets
    All pets essentially provide the same DPS bonus, aside from the Doomguard and Infernal.
    Imp on single-target. Voidwalker if using Grimoire of Sacrifice. Felhunter / Observer if you need to interrupt.
    • Summon Imp: Ranged attack. Generally the default choice if using GoSup because it is ranged and will have less downtime. Command demon is Cauterize Master. This deals a small amount of damage to you then puts a heal-over-time effect on your for 8% of your maximum health over 12 seconds.
    • Summon Succubus: Melee attack. Generally not used in a raid environment but can be used if you absolutely need a knockback. Command demon is Whiplash. Deals a small amount of damage and knocks back all enemies in a 5 yard range.
    • Summon Felhunter: Melee attack. Used if you need to interrupt. Command Demon is Spell Lock. Interrupts a spell and spell locks for 6 seconds.
    • Summon Voidwalker: Melee attack, 'tank pet.' Not really used as a pet for DPS at all. Command Demon is Shadow Bulwark. Grants the Voidwalker a shield for 30% of max health for 20 seconds. This pet is very useful if you are Grimoire of Sacrifice. The Shadow Bulwark ability works on the Warlock. It can skyrocket your health to disgusting levels when combined with Soul Leech and GoSac bonus.

    Doomguard & Infernal:
    Use the Doomguard/Terrorguard. Doomguard gives much more single-target damage (the goal of Affliction Warlock) than the Infernal. Infernal doesn't start to beat out Doomguard's overall damage until there are ~6-7 targets that will be sustained for the full duration. Your melee will also thank you for not having a giant rock monster up in their shit.
    Doomguard also has the added benefit of having Shadow Lock when using Demonic Servitude, an interrupt that you don't have to stop casting to use because the pet itself uses it and not the Warlock.
    Doomguard also deals 20% more damage when the target is below 20% health due to Doom Bolt.

    Stats
    Single-target:
    Int > Spell Power > Haste >= Mastery > Multistrike > Crit > Versatility
    I strongly recommend valuing Mastery over anything aside from Intellect and Spell Power. Not only is Mastery very close to Haste in value, it also has the added benefit of being stronger when you switch to Destruction and Demonology. It is significantly stronger on both of those specs than Haste.

    Gear
    Best in slot gear, now feat. Archimonde because Furty is a babby:
    Helm: Deathrattle Mask (Tier 18 Helm) - Kormrok
    Neck: Choker of Forbidden Indulgence - Gorefiend
    Shoulders: Mantle of the Eredar Lord - Archimonde
    Chest: Deathrattle Robe (Tier 18 Chest) - Mannoroth
    Back: Cloak of Hideous Unity - Fel Lord Zakuun
    Bracers: Contemptuous Wristguards - Tyrant Velhari
    Gloves: Deathrattle Gloves (Tier 18 Gloves) - Socrethar
    Belt: Sash of Unending Anguish - Fel Lord Zakuun
    Legs: Deathrattle Leggings (Tier 18 Legs) - Gorefiend
    Boots: Dessicated Soulrender Slippers - Trash
    Ring 1: Loathful Encrusted Band - Tyrant Velhari
    Ring 2: Nithramus, the All-Seer - Legendary questline
    Trinket 1: Desecrated Shadowmoon Insignia - Hellfire High Council
    Trinket 2 (Non-demon target): Fragment of the Dark Star - Archimonde
    Trinket 2 (Demon target): Orb of Voidsight - Mythic Dungeon random boss
    Weapon: Edict of Argus - Archimonde

    Keep in mind when gearing that these pieces aren't always going to be easily obtainable. Sometimes they won't drop, sometimes someone else will get them, etc. This BiS list is just what you should shoot for if you are given complete freedom of loot. However, since that isn't always the case you may have to take different pieces. It's always worthwhile to consider taking an upgrade even if isn't ideal stats. A general rule of thumb I follow is that if it is a 10 ilvl, Mastery or Spell Power upgrade, I'll take it.

    Gems:
    Immaculate Haste Taladite
    Mastery gems are also acceptable.

    Enchants:
    Enchant Cloak - Gift of Haste
    Enchant Neck - Gift of Haste
    Enchant Ring - Gift of Haste
    Enchant Weapon - Mark of Warsong
    Full enchanting for Mastery is also acceptable.

    Consumables:
    Buttered Sturgeon or Sleeper Sushi - Buttered Sturgeon if you are Enchanting and Gemming for Haste. Sleeper Sushi if you are Enchanting or Gemming for Mastery.
    Draenic Intellect Potion
    Greater Draenic Intellect Flask


    Races
    All races are pretty much even in terms of DPS. The difference between them is neglible, so pick whichever you want. Blood Elf if you want datass, Orc if you want giant shoulderpads, Human if you've always fantasized about being a human, Dwarf if beards are your thing, etc. But in case you are concerned with squeezing out that extra few hundred DPS I'll include the numbers:


    Hellfire Citadel Encounter Tips
    Work In Progress

    For the purposes of this guide I am assuming all fights are being done on Mythic difficulty and that all your gear is at least Heroic quality. Your standard talent set-up will look like this: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#Mowyy0-bfks

    Hellfire Assault:
    Affliction on progression? Not recommended
    Talents: Standard set-up with Cataclysm
    Trinkets: DSI + Class Trinket

    Iron Reaver:
    Affliction on progression? Recommended
    Talents: Standard set-up
    Trinkets: DSI + Class Trinket

    Kormrok:
    Affliction on progression? Recommended if your raid needs more boss DPS
    Talents: Standard set-up
    Trinkets: DSI + Class Trinket

    Hellfire High Council:
    Affliction on progression? Recommended
    Talents: Standard set-up (Yes, GoSac)
    Trinkets: DSI + Class Trinket

    Killrogg Deadeye:
    Affliction on progression? Not recommended
    Talents: Standard set-up
    Trinkets: DSI + Class Trinket

    Gorefiend:
    Affliction on progression? Not recommended
    Talents: Standard set-up
    Trinkets: DSI + Voidsight

    Shadow-Lord Iskar:
    Affliction on progression? Not recommended
    Talents: Standard
    Trinkets: DSI + Class Trinket

    Socrethar the Eternal:
    Affliction on progression? Only if you need more boss damage and Ghosts are covered by other classes
    Talents: Standard set-up
    Trinkets: DSI + Class Trinket

    Tyrant Velhari:
    Affliction on progression? Recommended
    Talents: Standard set-up
    Trinkets: DSI + Voidsight

    Fel Lord Zakuun:
    Affliction on progression? Recommended
    Talents: Standard set-up
    Trinkets: DSI + Voidsight

    Xhul'Horac:
    Affliction on progression? Not recommended
    Talents: Standard set-up
    Trinkets: DSI + Class Trinket

    Mannoroth:
    Affliction on progression? Not recommended
    Talents: Standard set-up
    Trinkets: DSI + Voidsight

    Archimonde:
    Affliction on progression? Not recommended
    Talents: Standard set-up
    Trinkets: DSI + Voidsight

    Addons & Macros
    Addons:
    - WeakAuras 2: WeakAuras does everything. From being a boss mod to a buff tracker. There are so many uses that it's basically mandatory. Warlocks have their own WeakAura thread here on MMO-C: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...ock-Weak-Auras
    - AffDots: Simple DoT tracker.

    Macros:
    Pet attack:
    Code:
       /petattack [target=target]
    Extra Action Button Mouseover (Iskar!):
    Code:
        /tar mouseover    
        /click ExtraActionButton1
        /targetlasttarget


    class preview!
    more coming with beta!



    thanks and credit
    Big thanks to cabana for his original guide.
    Gahhdo for doing all the nerd math stuff <3
    Woz for giving me COURAGE AND STRENGTH and writing the race sim and helping me post things
    Warlock IRC for being cool: irc.coldfront.net #darkintent
    Xyronic for pointing out some errors
    Atroxe and Nonamekiller for the dank Glyph of Life Pact strat


    to do list
    Boss tips
    Multitarget rotation
    Multitarget stat priority
    Last edited by zvvl; 2016-02-25 at 12:09 AM.

  2. #2
    As I said in the 6.1 post, it's time for a new 6.2 guide for Affliction!

    Welcome Astrothug!

    Looks good so far, hopefully this will generate just as much interesting discussions about how GREAT Affliction is now, especially on Iskar .
    Last edited by Woz; 2015-07-30 at 03:20 AM.

  3. #3
    Pretty great guide by the looks of it, a few things I've noticed that can really help:
    1. If you end up at 4 soul shards at any point and already have haunt/soulburn:haunt up, you don't necessarily have to use one on a haunt, you can hit soulburn to sit on that extra shard without wasting any and guarantee to have it up when you need to refresh soulburn:haunt
    2. In your Demonic Servitude opener I still think it's worthwhile to pre-soulburn 22 seconds in advance, I haven't really played DServ at all as affliction in 6.2 but it seems like a good idea to use that extra shard to soulburn: soul swap and get your dots up immediately, it'll cost one more shard than usual but the instant dots are worth it
    3. You neglect to mention glyph of soul swap in your guide, and I think this glyph is situationally pretty good, especially at higher gear levels and with T18 4pc when you end up with shards to spare (example: on archimonde before getting banished I soul swap my dots off the boss so I can instantly put them up on the add in the nether)

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Aravell View Post
    Pretty great guide by the looks of it, a few things I've noticed that can really help:
    1. If you end up at 4 soul shards at any point and already have haunt/soulburn:haunt up, you don't necessarily have to use one on a haunt, you can hit soulburn to sit on that extra shard without wasting any and guarantee to have it up when you need to refresh soulburn:haunt
    2. In your Demonic Servitude opener I still think it's worthwhile to pre-soulburn 22 seconds in advance, I haven't really played DServ at all as affliction in 6.2 but it seems like a good idea to use that extra shard to soulburn: soul swap and get your dots up immediately, it'll cost one more shard than usual but the instant dots are worth it
    3. You neglect to mention glyph of soul swap in your guide, and I think this glyph is situationally pretty good, especially at higher gear levels and with T18 4pc when you end up with shards to spare (example: on archimonde before getting banished I soul swap my dots off the boss so I can instantly put them up on the add in the nether)
    I knew I was missing a glyph somewhere, thanks for the mention.

    I'll be continuing to add some rotation updates and more glyphs over the course of week/weekend. Thanks for your feedback <3

  5. #5
    Glad to help!
    Also I disagree about never using the health stone glyph, personally I run it on most fights but I also keep health pots on hand so I have the choice:
    Oh shit did I just dip really low? Health pot!
    Big damage phase and healers say they need help? Healthstone!

    And generally I believe on single target fights (where affliction excels) it's better to take Grimoire of Sacrifice because of the recent buffs to haunt and drain soul, in which case you'd also take Sacrificial Pact on most fights for a huge cooldown
    Last edited by Aravell; 2015-07-30 at 04:28 AM.

  6. #6
    Under the Soul Shard/Nightfall section maybe make a quick note about the double shard nightfall procs and keeping track of that so it isn't wasted.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Octa View Post
    Under the Soul Shard/Nightfall section maybe make a quick note about the double shard nightfall procs and keeping track of that so it isn't wasted.
    Corruption: Deals Shadow damage over 18 seconds to the target. It has the added benefit of Nightfall. Nightfall causes your MOST RECENTLY applied Corruption to have a "8.5%" chance to generate a Soul Shard each time it deals damage. There currently are some technical issues with this and the actual chance is closer 6% (thanks Gahddo, you nerd) to generate a Soul Shard with every 4th occurence causing 2 Soul Shards to be generated at one time.
    Already covered, unless I'm misunderstanding you.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by zvvl View Post
    Already covered, unless I'm misunderstanding you.
    That's it, I just missed it there and was looking for it here:
    Quote Originally Posted by zvvl View Post
    [*]Cast Haunt under the following circumstances:
    1) You have 4 Soul Shards. Cast Haunt so you do not waste any Nightfall procs.
    2) You have 3 Soul Shards and have a major damage boost up. Such as a trinket proc, Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp, or Dark Soul: Misery.
    My bad.

  9. #9
    Missing BiS Chest

  10. #10
    Deleted
    Why do you recommend Fragment heroic if piston M and even heroic piston sim higher?
    Last edited by mmocf07314a97b; 2015-07-30 at 05:38 AM.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by laughtrey View Post
    Missing BiS Chest
    Fixed, thanks.

    Quote Originally Posted by Heretias View Post
    Why do you recommend Fragment heroic if piston M and even heroic piston sim higher?
    Personal sims show the combination of DSI + Fragment being higher than DSI + Piston/Unblinking. Maybe someone can provide a wider range of sims, but just based it off the one I ran personally.
    Last edited by zvvl; 2015-07-30 at 05:46 AM.

  12. #12
    Deleted
    Is it really worth it to open with soulburn + soul swap and starve yourself of shards the first thing you do?

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by slaskel View Post
    Is it really worth it to open with soulburn + soul swap and starve yourself of shards the first thing you do?
    Given the free shard from Soulburning at 20-30 seconds before the pull, yes.

  14. #14
    Thanks Astrothug/Zvvl/vvv etc for taking the time to do this. Looking forward to how it evolves.

    Slaskel,

    Are you ever soul starved in the opener? That's the most relevant question to begin with. I tend to be drowning in shards then with DS (and naturally especially if BL/Hero is up to) and throwing Haunts out before their time so I will (usually) not miss shards.

    However, on a different note Haunt hits pretty darn hard (talking 80k+ average in my 706 gear). So my question is why does getting your dots up 2 GCDs earlier beat 2x Haunt? Especially as my guild only does a 10 second timer though (thankfully) so I only get a free shard when I have estimated correctly.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by striderZA View Post
    Given the free shard from Soulburning at 20-30 seconds before the pull, yes.
    I am still not convinced it is worth it. Comparing the two openers:

    SB:SS
    <2 sec start casting SB:haunt
    use SB:SS just as the boss is pulled

    Manual dotting
    <2 sec start casting SB:haunt
    <1 sec start casting Unstable Affliction
    apply agony as the boss is pulled
    apply corruption 1 sec into the fight

    As you can see you only gain 1 GCD by opening with SB:SS

  16. #16
    I am still learning Affy and starting to run it more due to just the stupid buffs it got. I have a few questions regarding multi target fights. For Mythic Reaver as example, when bombs are out, should i just Agony them all and then go back to focus on the boss? Of course during air phase, just focus down bombs. My main question is really how many dots do you cast per target when X number of adds are up before focusing on the main target. Similar to shadow priest dot style, dot it all and DP everything in site due to the mass procs . I never see this detail in any guides so figured i'd bring it up for the new to affy folks like my self.


    EDIT: Council as another example, do we just cast all 3 dots across each target the entire fight and only DS when we can, while keeping Haunt up?
    Last edited by Restitution; 2015-07-30 at 12:20 PM.

  17. #17
    Deleted
    With fragment, you can barely do anything else besides refreshing dots and keeping haunting spirits up. If you have spare soulshards, you can try to keep regular haunt up on during Dark Soul by refreshing it with one tick drain souls. Opener id go SB:Haunt, dot up manually and then soulswap onto the other targets. Then maybe some draining, you should already have an eye on your dottimers, UA runs out really fast.

    Regarding iron reaver, tbh, either you tunnel boss or you play destro. Switching to volatile bombs isnt really worth it imo as affliction. You can try and snipe some soulshards of the tough. P2 dot reinforced, mainly, get as much as you can from volatile/burning, especially Soulshards.

  18. #18
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by zvvl View Post
    New in Patch 6.2
    Affliction received several major buffs in Patch 6.2: Furty of Hellfire.
    I lol'd

    10chars

  19. #19
    Deleted
    9/11, not enough puns.
    Last edited by mmoc20b0a89b82; 2015-07-30 at 05:02 PM.

  20. #20
    Your BIS Legs point to an ilvl 700 piece from well of eternity O.o

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