[5.4] Affliction Warlock and Encounter Specific Guides

[Disrupt21]

Hi there, I just wanted to ask a quick question about the EoT raid finder trinket compared to the LoTC normal mode trinket. Is the LoTC trinket better? My other question is when I've been running simcraft it keeps telling me to reforge back to the 4217 haste breakpoint even if I'm closer to the 4717 break point. Is there a option I'm forgetting, or is mastery just better than that breakpoint? Currenlty sitting about 486 ilvl btw. Thanks!

[EvreliaGaming]

Hi there, I just wanted to ask a quick question about the EoT raid finder trinket compared to the LoTC normal mode trinket. Is the LoTC trinket better? My other question is when I've been running simcraft it keeps telling me to reforge back to the 4217 haste breakpoint even if I'm closer to the 4717 break point. Is there a option I'm forgetting, or is mastery just better than that breakpoint? Currenlty sitting about 486 ilvl btw. Thanks!

There is no breakpoint at 4217. Just follow the reforging tips that simcraft gives you. And no, EoT RF is not better than LotC.

[JV Chequer]

question, why is it listing h feng and h will neck is bis over the one from galleon? i would think hit mastery is wayyyyy better then any of those which has crit.. i feel a 30~ int gain is not worth losing a way better secondary stat

Just Simulationcrafting your stats weights and do the math, not a big deal.

[Bonkura]

I decided to start a separate discussion about stats and gearing as a whole. The post became so long so I felt it would take up too much of this thread. And since this thread usually deals with the topics brought up and is also stickied I thought I'd post it here in case people come asking and haven't noticed the other thread. Hopefully people will find it interesting.

Link to thread: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...es-for-gearing

If you think there's too much text just read the bolded parts. I'll keep updating the first post so it shows the community's opinions and not just mine.

That fight really is about your melee. The most effective way to dps that fight is for there to always be one leg alive so that your melee can constantly be cleaving, which usually means your ranged dps should do nothing to the legs at all. That means no multi dotting, just nuke the boss. Your personal dps will be lower, but your raid dps will be higher as a result. When we were progressing on this, having our ranged stop multi dotting was enough to score the kill.

Very good advice. I tried to explain this to my guild when we were progressing on Garalon but it took them a while to understand it. Luckily our DPS was so good it didn't matter much, but we still had problems with the enrage in the beginning.

Basically as Evrelia said, if you can't stand under a leg you shouldn't attack it. We have no good cleaving so sometimes we will even ignore legs we can stand under to let other classes hit them. What my guild usually did was to let all front legs be taken care of by melees while ranged focused on the ones spawning in the back. Even if you can argue having dots up too get more procs or just boost your own DPS it's not always worth it for the raid.

This makes the fight one of few Affliction won't top meters on. I think even Demo might be better for this fight because of HoG cleave, Meta burst on legs and better mobility.

[Darkith]

Basically as Evrelia said, if you can't stand under a leg you shouldn't attack it. We have no good cleaving so sometimes we will even ignore legs we can stand under to let other classes hit them. What my guild usually did was to let all front legs be taken care of by melees while ranged focused on the ones spawning in the back. Even if you can argue having dots up too get more procs or just boost your own DPS it's not always worth it for the raid.

This makes the fight one of few Affliction won't top meters on. I think even Demo might be better for this fight because of HoG cleave, Meta burst on legs and better mobility.

Thanks for the advise. In general, I shouldn't bother running around with KJC and dps'ing the legs?

Below is our log from last night on 25-man. A few of the attempts when we hit enrage:
http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/r...?s=4573&e=5015
http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/r...?s=5670&e=6104
http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/r...=11549&e=11983

[nsgid]

hey fellow warlock community, so i've been reading this post for a bit now and people are saying haste>mastery? would this apply for me in my current gear? Or is mastery still better? Judging by current gear/current reforges, does my characters stats look right to you? Thanks for the input. I'm trying to figure out simcraft atm, but if someone can sim it while i'm trying to master this damn thing, could you tell me what the sims turn out for me? Thank you so much!

---------- Post added 2013-01-03 at 11:12 AM ----------

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...llove/advanced thats my armory.

[Disrupt21]

There is no breakpoint at 4217. Just follow the reforging tips that simcraft gives you. And no, EoT RF is not better than LotC.

Ah I see, I obviously need to re-look at the break points again. Thanks for the tip!

[Kink]

hey fellow warlock community, so i've been reading this post for a bit now and people are saying haste>mastery? would this apply for me in my current gear? Or is mastery still better? Judging by current gear/current reforges, does my characters stats look right to you? Thanks for the input. I'm trying to figure out simcraft atm, but if someone can sim it while i'm trying to master this damn thing, could you tell me what the sims turn out for me? Thank you so much!

---------- Post added 2013-01-03 at 11:12 AM ----------

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...llove/advanced thats my armory.

The current rule is:
-- If you're going to not hit cap, go for 12%. Any under that it's most likely just an increase through sims and not through actual play, though some would argue even going to 12% is wrong and some will argue going for hit cap. Nothing honestly has been 'confirmed' and it's just personal preference at this point.
-- Hit a haste breakpoint. 4717 or 6637, depending on gear.
-- Above item level 480, gem for mastery.
---- Sensei in blue, Fractured in yellow and Artful in red.

Following this, your gear needs changed from looking at your armory.

[nsgid]

So go for 12% hits, use the gems you recommended. and as for reforging, what would you do? Go for r6637 haste if i can? or 4717 with the rest mastery in my current gear? what would you do? sorry for all the newb questions.

[Kink]

So go for 12% hits, use the gems you recommended. and as for reforging, what would you do? Go for r6637 haste if i can? or 4717 with the rest mastery in my current gear? what would you do? sorry for all the newb questions.

I don't think you're hitting 6637 even with 12% hit in your gear, I tried to for you myself and couldn't so I'd go with 4717. If you don't want to go for hit cap then go for 12%, otherwise go for 15%.

[Deleted]

Thanks for the advise. In general, I shouldn't bother running around with KJC and dps'ing the legs?

Below is our log from last night on 25-man. A few of the attempts when we hit enrage:
http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/r...?s=4573&e=5015
http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/r...?s=5670&e=6104
http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/r...=11549&e=11983

It might (I'm uncertain) still be worth SB:SSing legs and standing under them if they're close to where your ranged stand, the circle won't help your dmg on the bosses body, but any dots on the legs will still get the boost.

Depends entirely upon how quick your melee are on legs though, if the 2nd leg isn't spawning before the first dies, it's better to just ignore the legs completely. If you have 2 legs up at once then it doesn't hurt to do a bit of damage to it, but you should always be focusing the body as ranged.

[Neltar]

Heya, as you can see by my profile (http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...Neltarr/simple), I have lately dinged level 90 on my warlock. It was my main for several years between TBC and Cata, however I have only recently decided I will play it in MoP. As there has been quite a lot of changes to the class and I have not been able to find proper answers on other websites, I have a few questions.

1) My opener currently goes as follows:

Pre-pot -> Darksoul + Synapse Springs -> SB:SS -> Haunt -> Fel Flame (on intellect proc) -> Malefic Grasp as filler and keep haunt up during Dark Soul.

Now, my question here is: When I renew my DoTs with Fel Flame to apply the intellect buff to them, I believe this does not have any effect on my Agony as Fel Flame only renews UA and Corruption. Am I missing something here or do I also need to renew Agony manually? I was previously using SB:SS but most other warlocks suggested using Fel Flame.

Furthermore, do I need to renew again once my proccs are about to expire?

2) When it comes to renewing DoTs (over 20%) should I apply them manually rather than with SB:SS? I'm aware they shouldn't be overwritten when they are buffed by my proccs , but is the reason you shouldn't do it with SB:SS because one of the DoTs may be over 50% of its original duration and it would therefore be a DPS loss?

3) Below 20%, I am struggling slightly with the rotation. I have Quartz to monitor when Drain Soul ticks and I can interrupt it after a tick has gone off, but I am having problems maintaining my DoTs as well as haunt. Guides seem to suggest you have unlimited soul shards during this execute phase but I am finding myself starved of them unless I have bloodlust.

As far as I know you should renew DoTs via SB:SS and keep haunt up at all times during the execute phase. Is it simply a matter of my gear/haste being too low and not having all of the haste buffs in 5 mans?

Hope I didn't make this sound too confusing, if anybody could provide some insight, I would be most grateful. Thanks in advance.

[xskarma]

Heya, as you can see by my profile (http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...Neltarr/simple), I have lately dinged level 90 on my warlock. It was my main for several years between TBC and Cata, however I have only recently decided I will play it in MoP. As there has been quite a lot of changes to the class and I have not been able to find proper answers on other websites, I have a few questions.

1) My opener currently goes as follows:

Pre-pot -> Darksoul + Synapse Springs -> SB:SS -> Haunt -> Fel Flame (on intellect proc) -> Malefic Grasp as filler and keep haunt up during Dark Soul.

Now, my question here is: When I renew my DoTs with Fel Flame to apply the intellect buff to them, I believe this does not have any effect on my Agony as Fel Flame only renews UA and Corruption. Am I missing something here or do I also need to renew Agony manually? I was previously using SB:SS but most other warlocks suggested using Fel Flame.

Furthermore, do I need to renew again once my proccs are about to expire?

2) When it comes to renewing DoTs (over 20%) should I apply them manually rather than with SB:SS? I'm aware they shouldn't be overwritten when they are buffed by my proccs , but is the reason you shouldn't do it with SB:SS because one of the DoTs may be over 50% of its original duration and it would therefore be a DPS loss?

3) Below 20%, I am struggling slightly with the rotation. I have Quartz to monitor when Drain Soul ticks and I can interrupt it after a tick has gone off, but I am having problems maintaining my DoTs as well as haunt. Guides seem to suggest you have unlimited soul shards during this execute phase but I am finding myself starved of them unless I have bloodlust.

As far as I know you should renew DoTs via SB:SS and keep haunt up at all times during the execute phase. Is it simply a matter of my gear/haste being too low and not having all of the haste buffs in 5 mans?

Hope I didn't make this sound too confusing, if anybody could provide some insight, I would be most grateful. Thanks in advance.

Next time please look for a thread you can post your question or topic in that is apprpriate before starting a new thread.

You would do well to view the guide in the OP of the thread I moved your post to. http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...pecific-Guides It covers all the basics and should answer the questions you have. Although question 3 might not be in there. Personally have never run into trouble with lack of shards sub 20%, so it might indeed be a gear/buff question.

[Neltar]

Next time please look for a thread you can post your question or topic in that is apprpriate before starting a new thread.

You would do well to view the guide in the OP of the thread I moved your post to. http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...pecific-Guides It covers all the basics and should answer the questions you have. Although question 3 might not be in there. Personally have never run into trouble with lack of shards sub 20%, so it might indeed be a gear/buff question.

Thanks for your advice, but I think if you read my questions properly you'd realise I am asking for more detail than the original post supplies. The original post implies you should renew DoTs with fel flame during proccs, but my question is how is Agony included in this renewal? Fel Flame does not renew Agony and it is not mentioned anywhere else in the post. I don't know how Agony works or if you shouldn't bother empowering it, that's why I asked the question after reading this thread.

As for the first question, all that is stated is "keep this up". I am asking how to keep my DoTs up, not simply asking if I should or not. This is not answered in the original post.

In addition, it claims Fel Flame should be used while moving. Not entirely true, as this could override empowered DoTs, I feel this isn't made particularly clear.

Edit: I also notice the OP says to keep haunt's uptime as high as possible. The video actually states otherwise and that it should never be used outside of intellect/Dark Soul proccs. The version linked at the top of the page actually corrects this, so please get it corrected.

[Zene]

Edit: I also notice the OP says to keep haunt's uptime as high as possible. The video actually states otherwise and that it should never be used outside of intellect/Dark Soul proccs. The version linked at the top of the page actually corrects this, so please get it corrected.

Not necessarily. You never want to waste a free Haunt cast by being full on shards. Thus maximizing the up time. That being said, when not sitting at 3 shards you're just being picky about when to cast Haunt. You are still maximizing Haunt's uptime this way, the only thing is you'll be redirecting Haunt uptime during trinket procs, thus doing more damage.

[EvreliaGaming]

Edit: I also notice the OP says to keep haunt's uptime as high as possible. The video actually states otherwise and that it should never be used outside of intellect/Dark Soul proccs. The version linked at the top of the page actually corrects this, so please get it corrected.

Those two things are not mutually exclusive. Maximising Haunt's uptime means ensuring a shard is never wasted, and under the instructions in the video, it never will be. In fact, you'd benefit the most you possibly can from it.

With regards to your other questions, the optimal opener is explained in detail in the video. There's no point doing an Agony refresh because you're going to do your second SB:SS before your procs start to fall off in order to carry them on as long as possible, which will cause Agony to be refreshed as well. Agony's damage is very low at the start, before it has time to stack up, so recasting it at that stage when it will be refreshed a few seconds later is pointless.

[Deleted]

Hey Evrelia, thanks for all the effort you put into this!! I just found something though that doesnt make sense to me. In yout guide, your dps rotation for 3+ mobs is to use improved SoC and then apply agony to all targets. On your Windlord Video you are not using agony at all but you just spam SoC. So is the informaton in the guide wrong or do you play the boss badly?

regards

[Deleted]

Just because i didn't find a quick explanation to this anywhere. Why should we use int/* gems when we could use exp/* gems for red sockets? i mean wont that free mastery and haste from items where you reforge crit into hit. So you you would sacrifice 80int to get (possibly) 160 haste or mastery > the int.

[Deleted]

I got a question for you guys that I hope im posting in the correct thread.
When entering the execute phase, or during, there are several times my Dark Soul and Synapse lines up perfectly with Int procs. My question is that, when it comes to refresh Haunt and your dots, it feel like such a waste to use SB:SS to apply greatly inferior dots instead of reapplying UA and corr individually when they are about to expire and later SB:SS when agony are about to expire. I know that you miss one or two DS ticks, but it feels like having almost twice as strong dots for a while longer would outweigh that loss. Your thoughts? Am I completly in the wrong?

[Micke]

I got a question for you guys that I hope im posting in the correct thread.
When entering the execute phase, or during, there are several times my Dark Soul and Synapse lines up perfectly with Int procs. My question is that, when it comes to refresh Haunt and your dots, it feel like such a waste to use SB:SS to apply greatly inferior dots instead of reapplying UA and corr individually when they are about to expire and later SB:SS when agony are about to expire. I know that you miss one or two DS ticks, but it feels like having almost twice as strong dots for a while longer would outweigh that loss. Your thoughts? Am I completly in the wrong?

Well not only will your dots be doing more dps, but the bigger part of drain souls damage (and MGs) comes from it's dot component each tick, and the ticks damage is based on how strong your dots are. The only thing they dont benefit from is high hasted dots after the proc has expired, though just the dots alone is around 40% of your damage so it's not exactly useless to take advantage of that too.

So yes, I'd say keep doing what you're already doing.