some affliction questions/scenarios

[vaeevictiss]

so, im trying to really fine tune my play here but i get in these various situation and im not sure what to do:

1. Say i have a bunch of shards but no reap up, do i just stick with the same cycle of shard usage as if i had reap?

2. the opposite of #2. Say i have a lot of reap stacks but no shards up, is it better to just dump reap after a certain point so it can start building up again?

3. say im doing my cycle and i have a time when agony will fall off in a couple seconds but i have a lot of time left on my UA. Is it better to recast agony and then drain the rest of the UA, or just start the cycle over by recasting agony and corr (while letting whats left of the UA fall off) and then starting the UA cycle over.

4. what friggin lego is best for what boss lol. I have every one you can get for aff...i see logs with all sorts of ones being used, i have run sims and gotten different suggestions. Im more confused actually having them all now, and dont know which ones i should use for which boss. Only ones i know for sure seem to be helm/sacrolash for DI and Host. Chest/Belt seem to sim the best for the rest, but the majority of people seem to use either Helm/Netherlord or Chest/Netherlord.

[Neverlock]

1.) just dont overcap on shards, but dont waste too many without reap
2.) it stacks until 12 so if ur not at 12 you dont have to worry about building up since it wont cap faster, if u have a high amount of reap tho just use it, shards will come
3.) dont let agony fall off especially if ur running writhe, same rule applies to malefic grasp build tho
4.) single target go for waist + netherlord, for the rest go for helm/chest paired with netherlord or sacrolash( helm is more consistent)

[Biomega]

4. what friggin lego is best for what boss lol.

There's tons of options, and most sim very close to each other. Checking Warcraftlogs is a good gauge, but be mindful of your guild's particular strategy etc. and adapt as needed.

[vaeevictiss]

1.) just dont overcap on shards, but dont waste too many without reap
2.) it stacks until 12 so if ur not at 12 you dont have to worry about building up since it wont cap faster, if u have a high amount of reap tho just use it, shards will come
3.) dont let agony fall off especially if ur running writhe, same rule applies to malefic grasp build tho
4.) single target go for waist + netherlord, for the rest go for helm/chest paired with netherlord or sacrolash( helm is more consistent)

see i was looking at belt/ring vs belt/chest.

With belt/ring my stats are:

53,511 int
26% crit
26% haste
104% mastery

but with chest/belt im at

55,264 int
24% crit
27% haste
119% mastery

So id be loosing a lot of int, mastery, and a little haste. Unless the Eradication from the ring makes up for that. Sims at least show it does not.

as far as not capping, sometimes it feels impossible. you are mid drain cycle then get lucky and proc a few shards and now you're capped. But at the same time you dont want to stop your drain cycle just to "uncap".

[Tolian]

I think the lost damage from being capped and having another shard get wasted is greater than the lost damage from not draining an existing UA(s) while you use that 5th shard to cast another one. In fact, if my math is right there isn't a case where it would be better to waste a shard than stop draining to cast a UA, even with MG. 25% increased damage while draining x 4 UAs x 1(maybe 2 depending on haste) ticks of those UAs not being drained while you cast another UA is not greater than the damage from losing a full UA by being shard capped.

TLDR: never cap, even if it means stopping in the middle of a drain and casting another UA.

[vaeevictiss]

thanks, thats a good way to look at it.

[pappaslop]

A lot of people use belt/netherlord w/ 2p/4p on ST fights such as Goroth, Sisters and Maiden... Otherwise, it makes sense to run Sacrolash on DI and Host (beyond that - helm/chest/netherlord for the most part). It really doesn't matter on some level, you can make great use of Sephuz on Mistress via DG interrupt for example.

In regards to legendary items, Affliction is better off in terms of the results you can see. It will also depend on group composition... For example, I find it much more effective to NOT use Sacrolash/SotS on Harjatan because of two boomkins/hunters. It's a waste of time to try and dps something that blows up instantly - sure it's worth tagging mobs for WoC but that's it - at least from my experience. If your group has garbo AOE/people die consistently then it's a different story for sure.

[vaeevictiss]

yea, our group has a DH, 2 hunters and 2-3 rogues. Any aoe type stuff is useless for me cause they are dead before i can get a seed out. Harjatan is the only one where they are up a bit for me to at least dot up to stack up consumption. but thats probably cause adds are so spread out on Mythic.

[Neverlock]

see i was looking at belt/ring vs belt/chest.

With belt/ring my stats are:

53,511 int
26% crit
26% haste
104% mastery

but with chest/belt im at

55,264 int
24% crit
27% haste
119% mastery

So id be loosing a lot of int, mastery, and a little haste. Unless the Eradication from the ring makes up for that. Sims at least show it does not.

as far as not capping, sometimes it feels impossible. you are mid drain cycle then get lucky and proc a few shards and now you're capped. But at the same time you dont want to stop your drain cycle just to "uncap".

Well thing with stats is that you can always balance them around by swapping some gearparts, legendary effects however are usually what make them strong. Singletarget haste is very valuable however, since fighting 1 target will usually cause u to starve on shardgen so if u run more haste ull get more agony ticks and more shards; its fine to run more mastery when there are more targets involved, since shardgen wont be that big of an issue there.

[Deleted]

so, im trying to really fine tune my play here but i get in these various situation and im not sure what to do:

1. Say i have a bunch of shards but no reap up, do i just stick with the same cycle of shard usage as if i had reap?

2. the opposite of #2. Say i have a lot of reap stacks but no shards up, is it better to just dump reap after a certain point so it can start building up again?

3. say im doing my cycle and i have a time when agony will fall off in a couple seconds but i have a lot of time left on my UA. Is it better to recast agony and then drain the rest of the UA, or just start the cycle over by recasting agony and corr (while letting whats left of the UA fall off) and then starting the UA cycle over.

4. what friggin lego is best for what boss lol. I have every one you can get for aff...i see logs with all sorts of ones being used, i have run sims and gotten different suggestions. Im more confused actually having them all now, and dont know which ones i should use for which boss. Only ones i know for sure seem to be helm/sacrolash for DI and Host. Chest/Belt seem to sim the best for the rest, but the majority of people seem to use either Helm/Netherlord or Chest/Netherlord.

1. Theres currently no fight in ToS where that happens i think but you shouldn't ever ever cap on shards if you can

2.Save it for the first UA you'll use, dont throw it like this

3.This situation shouldnt even be happening, but let's imagine it :
The scenario you're describing is single target, since you don't play MG on aoe fights, In this case, not wasting shards is the absolute priority, which implies having agony up at all times , so don't ever let agony drop, as you'll waste potential shards AND ramp up damage

4.Chest belt for ST (or belt ring) for Goroth Sisters Maiden and KJ (i suggest Belt Chest if you're progressing for KJ and Sisters as bursting earlier will avoid your raid overlaps or too much cd usage
Helm with one of the rings or double ring for Harjatan/DI/Host (the corruption ring is mandatory for DI for the slow, and the execute ring for mistress as the last phase is the most horrible for your healers, and if you have too much AoE go for Belt execute ring)
For Avatar it will depend if you have too much or not enough padding on maiden, i'd go helm execute ring personally

[Biomega]

3. say im doing my cycle and i have a time when agony will fall off in a couple seconds

UA cycles start with you refreshing maintenance DoTs in Pandemic range. How is your Agony running out during a cycle, when the very concept of such a cycle exists precisely to avoid just that?

[pappaslop]

UA cycles start with you refreshing maintenance DoTs in Pandemic range. How is your Agony running out during a cycle, when the very concept of such a cycle exists precisely to avoid just that?

Probably a 2x cycle within a single dot window, prior to refresh?

[vaeevictiss]

Probably a 2x cycle within a single dot window, prior to refresh?

yea this. when UA falls off i cast another 1 or two. when i get an echo refresh, now im at a point where that refreshed UA will last longer than the remainder of the Agony.

[Biomega]

yea this. when UA falls off i cast another 1 or two. when i get an echo refresh, now im at a point where that refreshed UA will last longer than the remainder of the Agony.

But aren't you supposed to wait until the next cycle before casting multiple UAs? I.e. until after refreshing maintenance DoTs in Pandemic range?

Or do you mean not a cycle but a dump into some proc?

[vaeevictiss]

But aren't you supposed to wait until the next cycle before casting multiple UAs? I.e. until after refreshing maintenance DoTs in Pandemic range?

Or do you mean not a cycle but a dump into some proc?

sometimes it just seems to work out to where im at a point where its too soon to pandemic refresh agony, but too far to not just cast a UA to fill the time before i can refresh.

I guess to simplify what im asking would be in those occasions, is it better to just drain for a few seconds, UA-less, until you can do a pandemic refresh, instead of wasting a shard on a UA you may only get to drain half of before needing to refresh?

[pappaslop]

sometimes it just seems to work out to where im at a point where its too soon to pandemic refresh agony, but too far to not just cast a UA to fill the time before i can refresh.

I guess to simplify what im asking would be in those occasions, is it better to just drain for a few seconds, UA-less, until you can do a pandemic refresh, instead of wasting a shard on a UA you may only get to drain half of before needing to refresh?

Generally, you probably would want to drain and/or lifetap when needed in between to prepare for the next cycle (this will of course vary too depending on fight/talents/movement requirements)...

That said, there are plenty of times when you can dump/fit more than cycle within a dot window (lust, whispers, tier proc, zerking, etc.).

Just be mindful of your CDs, your procs and how many souls you have. You definitely want to avoid wasting shards and capping shards.