[5.4] Affliction Warlock and Encounter Specific Guides

[Bonkura]

Most people keep only 1 set to play both affliction and destro, at least I know I do, so it's logical to maximize your gear towards mastery, no?

50 weeks into the tier I think most people actually have managed to get slightly different gear for Affli/Destro.

[Deleted]

I have 3 different set ups, one for each spec \o/

[Woz]

I have 3 different set ups, one for each spec \o/

Likewise. And most of those sets have full HWF (except for this dumb wand, bracer and trinket).

[Deleted]

Likewise. And most of those sets have full HWF (except for this dumb wand, bracer and trinket).

Missing both trinkets and a belt here. If it takes a year to get full BiS with warforged, how bad is it going to be once we factor in extra sockets and stats or whatever else? Sheesh.

[Woz]

Missing both trinkets and a belt here. If it takes a year to get full BiS with warforged, how bad is it going to be once we factor in extra sockets and stats or whatever else? Sheesh.

It's pretty brutal. Clearing SoO every week and have seen maybe 1 PBoI WF outside of coin rolls, 2 wands/bracers from spoils. I have every other piece you could ever imagine wanting and have seen them multiple times outside of those.

The new stats/random rolling of said stats is going to be a giant mess.

[Valq]

And they changed Malefic Grasp yet SimCraft shows haste is superior single target. Haste scaling for dots and multidotting as a whole is greatly underratetd by people like you. As I said I'm still waiting for someone to prove mastery's superiority.

Thing with SimCraft is it generally overvalues haste. Additionally, it generally drops the value of a stat you stack heavily in favor of one you don't stack as heavily, for example, if I switch all my mastery reforges and gems into crit, then my mastery value outweighs haste slightly, and outweighs crit by a landslide for single target, and when I return my mastery gemming and reforging, haste goes on top, and crit/mastery more or less even out. And its generally known, that mastery (even on simcraft) jumps up largely in value when there's more than one target in the fight (every fight in SoO but IJ).

Otherwise, I do not disagree with you that haste is the second best secondary for affliction warlocks (Heck, I like it more than crit even for destro) And should always be the second stat on off pieces. Basically a Mastery>Haste>Crit build.

[Tato23]

How up to date is this guide? Sorry just browsing looking to go afflic soon. But I know there are certain items i need first to go afflic, are one of those the bindings trinket? Are there any others besides that one? And is it a matter of if i get one of them I automatically need to go afflic as it will be superior without question? Or do i need a combination or all of the items before i should go afflic?

[Valq]

How up to date is this guide? Sorry just browsing looking to go afflic soon. But I know there are certain items i need first to go afflic, are one of those the bindings trinket? Are there any others besides that one? And is it a matter of if i get one of them I automatically need to go afflic as it will be superior without question? Or do i need a combination or all of the items before i should go afflic?

If you're approaching the spec in that way, you're not really going to do well at all, even if you manage to gather the full BiS affliction set, it doesn't "automatically" become "superior without question" because you have the right gear on. If you can't play the spec - which from the way you posted I can pretty much assume you can't - then it will not be "superior" to anything at all, the spec doesn't play itself, you play it. Before worrying about what items are best in slot and so forth, learn the spec, how to use it, and you'd be able to figure out yourself if its better suited for the situation you're in - depending on factors like kill times, strategies used for bosses etc -

As for an answer to your question, yes, bindings is one of the two trinkets you want to use as affliction, the other being black blood.

[Tato23]

I can tell you i will have no problems performing on Afflic, I am a skilled enough player to pick up on specs and learn them well. I have done so with a Mage for years, and now a Warlock. However I do know there are items that really can help a certain spec shine. But yes your right it does come down to the player 100% being able to play the class itself. You don't know me nor have you seen me play, but i can assure you...that aspect won't be a problem at all. Which is why i just wanted the gear question answered. Thanks!

[Zoldor]

I'm 580 geared. Not totally optimal, some of my pieces are second best (weapon/off-hand) and Trinket (super unlucky no Black Blood and Normal Bindings). I play Destro mainly, but I want to switch back to affliction and I feel like my raid group would benefit from it on some fights. How important is having Black Blood (I have no black blood trinkets) to affliction? Since I don't have it am I better off staying Destro? (HKadris and Normal bindings) I can reach the 13k haste break point with some reforge.

I've been insanely unlucky on the kills still no heriloom no H Binding nor Norushen's shoulders. I swear he and Immers hate me. So many coins wasted.

Thanks for any help. Playwise I can play Destro a little better, but thats mainly because I haven't played Affliction as my main spec in a bit, just played around with it from time to time on farm encounters LFR etc.

[Bonkura]

On the fights where Affliction is superior to Destro it will still be better even if you don't have black blood. Mainly Protectors, Shamans and shorter fights.

[Zoldor]

On the fights where Affliction is superior to Destro it will still be better even if you don't have black blood. Mainly Protectors, Shamans and shorter fights.

Thank you very much. Hopefully I'll get a few weeks of it before it all gets changed over.

[kaamila]

quick question since i dont know how up to date the thread is and it has alot of pages to look through :

does the sb:soulswap with 10 stacks of black blood still work? where i just keep soulswapping it to not let the dots run out? or is it just normal where ill SB:SS and just keep going normal rotation type stuff? made my lock an alt during tier 15 so i stopped keeping up with updates.

[Toastiekins]

quick question since i dont know how up to date the thread is and it has alot of pages to look through :

does the sb:soulswap with 10 stacks of black blood still work? where i just keep soulswapping it to not let the dots run out? or is it just normal where ill SB:SS and just keep going normal rotation type stuff? made my lock an alt during tier 15 so i stopped keeping up with updates.

Yes, you can snapshot with SB:SS. In any multitarget situation you can extend those dots for quite a while. For a quick primer watch Sparkuggz's video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXymugBjoJQ

[Deleted]

Hi, one question again. Is it worth to play with 4pc if I don't have any wf / hc-wf offpieaces?
Until yesterday I played with this - Helm and Pants non-HC, Chest and Gloves HC, and the off-piece shoulders of Ordos with 4/4 Upgrade.
Yesterday I recieved the Juggernaut Pants. There are 2 possibilites now.

- Swapping them with my Set Pants, keeping the rest and play with only 3 setpieces?
- Swapping them, and swapping the Ordos Shoulders with non-hc shoulders?

The setshoulders have 0/4 upgrades. I'd have to invest 1k VP first. But I don't know if it worth to do that. The shoulders itself are not that good, and the 4pc bonus ... I'm not sure.

[Janglybits]

Hi, one question again. Is it worth to play with 4pc if I don't have any wf / hc-wf offpieaces?
Until yesterday I played with this - Helm and Pants non-HC, Chest and Gloves HC, and the off-piece shoulders of Ordos with 4/4 Upgrade.
Yesterday I recieved the Juggernaut Pants. There are 2 possibilites now.

- Swapping them with my Set Pants, keeping the rest and play with only 3 setpieces?
- Swapping them, and swapping the Ordos Shoulders with non-hc shoulders?

The setshoulders have 0/4 upgrades. I'd have to invest 1k VP first. But I don't know if it worth to do that. The shoulders itself are not that good, and the 4pc bonus ... I'm not sure.

The four piece isn't necessary for Affliction. Stick with your two piece, and then go with your best itemized off pieces.

[striderZA]

The setshoulders have 0/4 upgrades. I'd have to invest 1k VP first. But I don't know if it worth to do that. The shoulders itself are not that good, and the 4pc bonus ... I'm not sure.

The tier shoulders do not have mastery on and therefore are not worth spending anything on.

[xskarma]

With Mists in the rearview mirror it is time to close this guide and move discussion to the new WoD Affliction guide found here:

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...-Warlock-Guide

Any questions and discussion about Affliction Warlocks can now be done there while this thread gets closed so discussion doesn't take place in 2 places.



CLOSED.