[Legion] Terryn's guide to Affliction Warlock

[Deleted]

I presumed it was because afflocks could stack DOTs and every oenof them has the possibility to proc the AOE damage

Seemed to work that way when I tried it, stack Agon, Corruption and SL and it procced a LOT. Even more when you have targets in proximity and stack dots on all of them. of course.

[Zerach8]

I presumed it was because afflocks could stack DOTs and every oenof them has the possibility to proc the AOE damage

Seemed to work that way when I tried it, stack Agon, Corruption and SL and it procced a LOT. Even more when you have targets in proximity and stack dots on all of them. of course.

exactly, where as destro only has direct dmg and immolate to proc it

[Terryn]

I saw this hadn't been answered yet. It was patched during a tuning pass. http://www.wowhead.com/news=254233/7...uning-hotfixes

Was nurfed due to how many procs you could get as aff, making it a viable single target talent, not just for aoe (which is the main point of this talent), and turning it into sillyness on aoe.

UA
Agony
Corruption
Siphon
Seed explosions
Drainlife
Trinket procs


all of these things can proc the GoSac proc, and considering you have about 3+ of these happening every second on every target, you proc GoSac a LOT. Rather than nurf the RNG by dropping hte % proc chance, its better to drop the damage it deals.

[Dekonic]

With the buffs, how is Affliction looking for Mythic raiding?

[Deleted]

I just dont get why stacking hight compendous horror is THAT important
NO difference beetween 5 ua with + 5 % buff and 1 with + 25%

[jojoushi]

I just dont get why stacking hight compendous horror is THAT important
NO difference beetween 5 ua with + 5 % buff and 1 with + 25%

Shard efficiency

[Deleted]

Shard efficiency

sorry but still not sure to understand the math under this

lets take an example:

imagine a boss fight when you generate 10 shards ( so 10 ua ), and where you generate 10 stack of compendous horror
and let's say UA does 100 damage

first case : you spend your shards asap, you put 10 UA with 1 stack of compendous, so (100 + 5% ) x 10 = 1050 damage
second case : you stack compendous, and you put 8 UA unbuffed + 2 UA with 5 stacks, so 8x100 + ( 100 +25%) x 2 = 1050 damage
third example 1 ua 5 stacks + 2 ua 2 stacks + 1 ua 1 stack + 6 ua baseline 1 x ( 100 + 25 %) + 2 x ( 100 +10 %) + 1 x ( 100 + 5%) + 6 x 100 = 1050

WHATEVER the way you use your compendous horror stacks the damage is the same
SO, in fact, excluding a preparation for a burst phase/trinket, the only important thing for compendous horror, is to use it during buffs / reap, which tend to just say, never put a UA without reap buff, unless you cap shard

am i wrong somewhere?

[Kirroth]

sorry but still not sure to understand the math under this

lets take an example:

imagine a boss fight when you generate 10 shards ( so 10 ua ), and where you generate 10 stack of compendous horror

I believe your error is in assuming equal rates of Soul Shard and Compounding Horror generation. While I'm not in the Beta, my impression is that you get CH stacks much faster than you proc SS. So here's a counter example:

You generate 10 SS and 50 CH stacks in the same period of time. If you cast every UA at 5 stacks of CH, each SS gets the maximum value and no CH stacks are wasted. If you start casting UA with only 1 or 2 stacks of CH, then you'll soon find yourself hitting the CH cap of 5 stacks with no SS to cast UA. This means additional CH stacks are wasted and those earlier low stack UA gave less value for the SS.

[Raxle]

While using Contagion, I always assumed that saving shards and chain-casting UA when need be was counter-intuitive, even when taking Compounding Horror into consideration. It seems like that talent pushes the rotation toward casting one UA at a time and only casting again when the previous falls off. Is there any definitive information out there regarding which play-style is better when using Contagion?

[Deleted]

While using Contagion, I always assumed that saving shards and chain-casting UA when need be was counter-intuitive, even when taking Compounding Horror into consideration. It seems like that talent pushes the rotation toward casting one UA at a time and only casting again when the previous falls off. Is there any definitive information out there regarding which play-style is better when using Contagion?

Keeping up low-stack UAs should be really simple once we get the proper legendaries for it. In addition to that, the T19 set bonus boosts shard generation by 50%, making that even easier.

[ambident]

am i wrong somewhere?

Compounding horror stacks have a short duration. In single target it's not uncommon to get 1-3 stacks and have them expire if you don't consume them with a UA. It stacks higher more frequently in multi-dot situations.

[Deleted]

Raxle has a point...how do i use Compounding Horror in combination mit Contagion? Do i keep UA up to get the 15% via contagion and are happy if there were some Compounding Horror stacks or do i try to maximize the stacks before casting, potentially leaving gaps in Contagion uptime? -_-

[Deleted]

Since Compounding Horrors is a purely additive bonus, you'll do fine as long as you're not wasting stacks. The only exceptions to that are non-haste trinket procs and buffs. I believe it'll come down to staggering UA before you expect such a buff to come up in order to build up CH stacks versus not wasting shard gain by overcapping. There's quite a lot of nuance to be found.

Interestingly enough, CH stacks are gained linearly proportional with the amount of targets afflicted by your DoTs, whereas shard generation is proportional to the square root of the number of targets (with a penalty to Effigy as a target). This means CH stacks will outpace shard generation significantly with higher amounts of targets.

Edit: More targets for Agony and Corruption = more AND stronger UAs!

[CactusDisco]

Thanks for posting this

[Terryn]

Raxle has a point...how do i use Compounding Horror in combination mit Contagion? Do i keep UA up to get the 15% via contagion and are happy if there were some Compounding Horror stacks or do i try to maximize the stacks before casting, potentially leaving gaps in Contagion uptime? -_-

That kind of depends on a lot of things. I'm writing up a bunch of changes to rotationals and stuff right now.

First off, the only way to have the shard generation for between 50-70% uptime on UA. Its literally impossible to maintain a 100% uptime because of our shard generation rate, so you have to pick and chose when you want to put up UA.

1. You NEVER want to cast UA without reap. This is a 10% damage buff + What ever modifiers you would have to UA (Perdition, Shadowy Encantations, Inherently Unstable).
2. You want to make sure you have enough dot time to get some good drain time with the contagion buff. This also means you get maximum drain time during Reap up-time.
3. you would LIKE to have some stacks of CH
4. The soonest you would like to cast a new UA is with 1 tick left on the old reap.

Notice theres a few changes here (I will be updating the guide shortly). Theres a balance that you have to strike between contagion uptime and good damage on UA. Also, if you are using the heirloom trinket on Demons (which is BIS right now even on non demons), you REALLY want to try to have 2-3 shards in reserve for when a proc happens. So with this trinket you will want to shift things down towards getting the maximum UAs outside of trinkets to prevent wasting things like CH.

[ThePhantombox]

That kind of depends on a lot of things. I'm writing up a bunch of changes to rotationals and stuff right now.

First off, the only way to have the shard generation for between 50-70% uptime on UA. Its literally impossible to maintain a 100% uptime because of our shard generation rate, so you have to pick and chose when you want to put up UA.

1. You NEVER want to cast UA without reap. This is a 10% damage buff + What ever modifiers you would have to UA (Perdition, Shadowy Encantations, Inherently Unstable).
2. You want to make sure you have enough dot time to get some good drain time with the contagion buff. This also means you get maximum drain time during Reap up-time.
3. you would LIKE to have some stacks of CH
4. The soonest you would like to cast a new UA is with 1 tick left on the old reap.

Notice theres a few changes here (I will be updating the guide shortly). Theres a balance that you have to strike between contagion uptime and good damage on UA. Also, if you are using the heirloom trinket on Demons (which is BIS right now even on non demons), you REALLY want to try to have 2-3 shards in reserve for when a proc happens. So with this trinket you will want to shift things down towards getting the maximum UAs outside of trinkets to prevent wasting things like CH.

And people say that aff is the easy spec.

[muto]

And people say that aff is the easy spec.

Said no one ever.

[ThePhantombox]

Said no one ever.

I've run into a ridiculous amount of people in my guild/on my server who say "all aff is is just keep dots up."

[Deleted]

I've run into a ridiculous amount of people in my guild/on my server who say "all aff is is just keep dots up."

They ("they" being misinformed people) will then get crap results and handwave the spec as being useless. Or not spec into aoe because "Aff sucks at aoe", then get even more horrible results (while on big pulls Aff can do crazy aoe with StS, PS and art traits). I know Aff isn't strong, but it's not total shit either, however, it gets a really bad rap from people who play it in an ignorant or naive way, not exploiting the things you should exploit.

[Dehumanizer]

Affliction bugs:
Siphon Life, Drain Life and Seed of Corruption do not increase Shadow Bite damage.
Potion of Deadly Grace does not work for Affliction.