[5.2] Affliction Warlock and Encounter Specific Guides

[evralia]

To view this guide with proper formatting, Wowhead links, images and more, visit www.evrelia.com




Skip to the 5.2 part of the discussion in the thread: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...1#post20435566

Contents:

0. Introduction
1. Talents
2. Glyphs
3. Stats
4. Gems
5. Enchants
6. Trinkets
7. Your Demon
8. Spells and Abilities - Single Target
9. Spells and Abilities - Multi Target and AoE
10. Extra Tips
11. How to DPS on specific encounters - Tier 14
12. Using Simcraft



Introduction

In Mists of Pandaria, Affliction has many of the same elements and abilities that it had in previous expansions, and is probably the most recognisable of the Warlock specs in terms of its rotation. That said, many of the issues that were present with Affliction in Cataclysm have been addressed, such as the lack of any real burst. In Mists, Affliction Warlocks can now instantly apply all their DoTs to an enemy, and use channelled abilities to increase the power of their DoTs. The spec utilises Soul Shards as a resource, which have a chance to be generated by Corruption ticks, and also by Drain Soul. Soul Shards are consumed by the Haunt ability, which buffs your damaging spells on an enemy for a short time, and by Soulburn, which enhances some of your other abilities.

In its current state, Affliction offers competitive single target and AoE damage, an enjoyable rotation and a familiarity of gameplay that many Warlocks will find to be a safe haven amidst the huge changes to the Warlock class this expansion.

This guide should teach you everything you need to know about the spec in order to play successfully. Remember though, that in Mists of Pandaria, how you play each spec will be very encounter specific. If you’re interested in a detailed guide on every fight in Mists of Pandaria, then subscribe to L2Ptv using the link on the right, to get access to my PoV videos when Mists of Pandaria goes live, where I will show you exactly how to play on every single raid encounter.

In Mists of Pandaria, talents are no longer split into trees that have prerequisites. They also do not offer noticeable DPS gains, which means there is a lot more room for flexibility. Some encounters will have clear winners, whereas others it will simply boil down to your play style.



1. Talents


Tier 1



There isn't a clear winner here. Harvest Life can be useful in situations where you need short, bursty AoE. Soul Leech will ease your healer's work by providing a constant flow of health, but Dark Regeneration adds an extra survival cooldown that might save you in dangerous situations. Either of these last two will be fine.

Tier 2



Howl of Terror isn't going to be useful in a whole lot of situations, although there may be specific encounters in the future where it's reliable. Mortal Coil has the benefit of providing you with 15% of your maximum health which gives it far more practical use in a raid situation, so it will be the talent of choice in most situations. With that in mind, on certain encounters involving stunnable adds, Shadowfury will be a great talent, so don't ignore it completely. I'll be explaining specific encounters where it'll be useful in future guides on my website.

Tier 3



The talents in this tree are all heavy defensive abilities. Soul Link in its current state shares damage between you and your pet so that you both remain at the same percentage of health. This works both ways, so you take a large amount of any damage directed at your pet. However, if you're using Grimoire of Sacrifice, then you get a flat 20% health increase by using this talent. This can be life saving in a lot of situations.

Sacrificial Pact offers you a ~300k shield, but Dark Bargain could save you from a lot more depending on how it's used. All of these defensive talents are viable and will see use in a variety of situations.

Tier 4



Burning Rush is the go to talent of choice here - an on demand sprint with no cooldown is absolutely amazing. There may be the odd fight here or there where you want Unbound Will. There likely won't be any occasions where Blood Fear will have use in PvE.

Tier 5



This is a DPS increasing tier. In most single target situations you'll want to use Grimoire of Supremacy, using the Observer pet. The difference between Grimoire of Sacrifice and Observer is very, very small however.

Tier 6



Honestly, the talents in this tier are all far too encounter specific to judge outright. For stationary "ultraxion type" fights without any AoE the only choice is Archimonde's Vengeance, on fights with considerable AoE you'll want to take Mannoroth's Fury, and on highly mobile fights Kil'jaeden's Cunning will be the talent of choice. Kil Jaeden's cunning is the default choice for most encounters.



2. Glyphs

Like most things in MoP, the glyph system has been simplified. Most of the Warlock glyphs do not offer any DPS gains and are simply cosmetic or fun tweaks to the class. The below glyphs provide some utility or survival. You can use any selection of them.

Glyph of Healthstone: This is amazing when paired with Dark Regeneration. Provides a huge influx of health, but does remove the burst healing element, so it's not good for fights like Empress where you need instant healing.
Glyph of Curse of Exhaustion: This is great for any fights with adds that need to be slowed. This is the best slow in the game. Great for fights like Tortos and Protectors.
Glyph of Soulstone: Stronger combat res is always useful.
Glyph of Siphon Life: Passive healing, always useful.
Glyph of Soul Consumption: More chance of extra healing.

I tend to use Healthstone + Siphon Life, and the third is available for whatever utility I need.


3. Stats

Intellect:
This is your primary stat. Each point of Intellect increases your Spell Power by 1. However, when looking at your gear, each point of Intellect is actually worth 1.05 Intellect due to the passive ability Nethermancy. Therefore, if an item has 20 Intellect, you will gain 21 Intellect when you equip it. Intellect also increases your crit chance by a very small amount; 2548 Intellect gives you 1% chance to crit.

Hit
Increases your chance to hit with spells. You need a total of 15% hit to reach cap, and 340 hit rating is equal to 1% hit. Once you reach the hit cap (5100 hit rating), your spells are all guaranteed to hit, so any additional hit is pointless.

Haste
Makes your spells cast faster and reduces your global cooldown. 1% Haste makes your spells cast 1% faster, and you need 423 haste rating to gain 1%.

Crit Rating
Increases your chance to critically hit with spells. You need 600 crit rating to gain 1% chance to crit.

Mastery
Each percent of Mastery increases the damage you do with Agony, Corruption and Unstable Affliction by 1%. Each percent of Mastery is equal to 302 Mastery rating

Expertise
Expertise grants Spell Hit at exactly the same rate as Hit Rating does. You can combine a mixture of Hit and Expertise to each hit cap.

As a general rule of thumb, you should consider stats in the following order of importance:

In Pre-Raid Gear:

Intellect --> Spell Power --> Haste (Breakpoints) --> Hit (Up to 15%) --> Mastery -> Haste --> Crit.


Intellect is your best stat, and will almost always be the deciding factor in your upgrades. Now, to explain. Mastery is generally a better stat than Haste, but it can be worth reforging to Haste if you can reach certain Haste breakpoints. A haste breakpoint is the level of Haste at which your DoTs gain an extra tick during their cycle. It's not an enormous dps gain, but it is a small one. There are several, but the main two you'll be facing are 4717, 6637 or 9778. Now, it's not worth reforging completely out of Mastery to reach the breakpoints, but as long as you keep Mastery and Haste roughly even, it should be worth reforging to these breakpoints.

Hit is optional. In simulations, it shows that Hit is lower value than Haste or Mastery, but the reason for this is the the simulation can react to misses instantly, whereas in practice you would not. Having low hit also means your dps will vary more from encounter to encounter, which is not very practical, so I would advise getting close to the cap.


To optimise your reforging, use the scale factors generated by SimCraft and plug them into the addon ReforgeLite. If you don't know how to use SimCraft, I'll explain it in a future tutorial.

4. Gems

SOCKET COLOUR	GEM	EFFECT
Meta	[Burning Primal Diamond]	216 Intellect and Increased Critical Effect
Red	[Artful Vermilion Onyx] [Keen Vermilion Onyx] [Wicked Vermilion Onyx]	80 Intellect and 160 Mastery 160 Expertise and 160 Mastery 160 Expertise and 160 Haste
Yellow	[Fractured Sun's Radiance] Quick Sun's Radiance	320 Mastery 320 Haste
Blue	[Sensei's Wild Jade] [Lightning Wild Jade]	160 Hit and 160 Mastery 160 Hit and 160 Haste

The gems that you use from the above list will depend on your stat weights. Refer to the video for more info.


Example Math - skip this if you don't care:

Early Stage Gear - If Int has a Scale Factor of 3.53 and Mastery has a Scale Factor of 1.70, then a 160 Int gem gives:
3.53 * 1.05 * 160 = 593.04
and an 80 Int and 160 Mastery gem gives:
(3.53 * 1.05 * 80) + (160 * 1.70) = 568.52

Therefore 84 Intellect is better than 160 Mastery.

Late Stage Gear: If Int has a Scale Factor of 4.56 and Mastery has a Scale Factor of 2.97, then a 160 Int gem gives:
4.56 * 1.05 * 160 = 766.08
and an 80 Int and 160 Mastery gem gives:
(4.56 * 1.05 * 80) + (160 * 2.97) = 858.24

Therefore 160 Mastery is better than 84 Intellect.


5. Enchants

SLOT	ENCHANT	EFFECT
Shoulder	Greater Crane Wing Inscription	200 Intellect and 100 Crit Stike Rating
Back	Superior Intellect	180 Intellect
Chest	Glorious Stats	80 All Stats
Wrist	Super Intellect	170 Intellect
Gloves	Superior Mastery	170 Mastery
Belt	Living Steel Belt Buckle	Extra socket
Legs	Greater Cerulean Spellthread	285 Intellect and 165 Crit Strike Rating
Boots	Pandaren's Step	140 Mastery Rating and run speed.
Weapon	Jade Spirit	1650 Intellect on a proc chance.
Off-Hand	Major Intellect	165 Intellect

6. Trinkets
Trinket numbers are not yet finalized for 5.2. You should use Simcraft to sim each trinket for your own personal character, but this should give you a rough guide:

Breath of the Hydra > Wushoolays > Cha-Ye's > Lei Shen's > Shado Pan > Essence of Terror > Light of the Cosmos
7. Your Demon

Affliction uses the Observer pet in most situations. This provides the highest dps gain. However, in situations where there is heavy target swapping, the Fel Imp can swap targets more efficiently, and only does slightly less dps.

Don't forget your Doomguard. This is a powerful demon that you can summon only once every 10 minutes, and he stays with you for 60 seconds, attacking the target that you cast him on. He deals 20% bonus damage to enemies under 20% health, and also benefits from bloodlust. The best time to use him depends heavily on the fight that you're on and when your raid uses bloodlust, but it will almost always be just before bloodlust is cast.

The Infernal is the Doomguard's equivalent for AoE situations. He shares the cooldown with the Doomguard, so you must decide which one is most appropriate to use. You'll usually use the Infernal when there are 7 or more targets.


8. Spells and Abilities - Single Target


Caster Form Spells:

CORRUPTION: This deals Shadow damage every 2 seconds for 18 seconds, and each tick of damage has a chance to generate a Soul Shard.

AGONY: This deals damage every 2 seconds for 24 seconds. It starts at 1 stack, and every time it deals damage, it gains an extra stack, increasing the damage done with each tick. Once it reaches 10 stacks, it won't gain any more. In addition, if you recast Agony once it is at 10 stacks, the duration will be extended and it will stay at 10 stacks.

UNSTABLE AFFLICTION: This deals Shadow damage every 2 seconds for 14 seconds. If dispelled, it deals damage to the dispeller and silences them.

Haunt: This deals high damage to an enemy, and applies a debuff that causes all of your spells to do 30% more damage to that enemy for 8 seconds. This consumes one Soul Shard.

SOULBURN: This grants extra effects to some of your spells. This costs one Soul Shard.

SOUL SWAP: This removes all of your DoT effects from one enemy, and allows you to move them to another target. With the glyph, it does not remove the DoTs from the first enemy, effectively allowing you to move your DoTs for free, although this has a 30 second cooldown. When used with Soulburn, it instantly applies Agony, Corruption and Unstable Affliction to an enemy, without the need for a target to steal the DoTs from. This has no cooldown.

MALEFIC GRASP: This is a channelled spell that deals Shadow damage every second for 4 seconds. Every time it deals damage, it causes all of your periodic effects on the target to instantly deal 50% of their tick damage.

DRAIN SOUL: This is a channelled spell that deals Shadow damage every 2 seconds for 12 seconds, and generates a Soul Shard every second tick of damage. If the enemy is below 20% health, it deals 100% additional damage, and every time it deals damage, it causes all of your Affliction periodic effects on the target to instantly deal 100% of their tick damage.



Spell Priority

1 - Haunt - Keep this up when you have Soul Shards.
2 - Agony - Keep this up at 10 stacks.
3 - Corruption - Keep this up.
4 - Unstable Affliction - Keep this up.
5 - Drain Soul - Use this as your filler below 20%.
6 - Malefic Grasp - Use this as your filler above 20%.
7 - Fel Flame - Use this when moving.

At the start of the fight, use Dark Soul, and then Soulburn with Soul Swap, to instantly apply your DoT effects to the enemy. Apply Haunt, and try to keep it up for the entire duration of Dark Soul. Once your Intellect procs are active, update your DoTs with Fel Flame and reapply them again before before Dark Soul expires. For the rest of the fight, keep your DoTs up and use Malefic Grasp as your filler spell, and keep Haunt uptime as high as possible. Once the enemy falls below 20% health, use Drain Soul instead of Malefic grasp.

Remember that if nobody else in your raid is providing the magic damage taken debuff, you should apply Curse of the Elements on every enemy you attack. Remember to use Flask of the Warm Sun at all times, and use Potion of the Jade Serpent immediately before you enter combat, and again at critical stages of the fight.

Advanced Soul Shard Management
Knowing when to use your Soul Shards is what will separate a poor Warlock from a great one.

At the start of the fight you will use a Soul Shard to get Soulburn into a Soul Swap and get your DoTs up. You will use this any time a big cooldown such as Dark Soul is about to expire.

The first rule is never let yourself waste a Nightfall proc. For this reason, you should never sit on 4 Soul Shards. If you get four Shards, throw out a Haunt.
During Dark Soul, try to keep Haunt up with 100% uptime.

The next rule is never to use Haunt when you don't have any Intellect procs active. The video at the top of this thread explains this in more detail.

During the execute, you have unlimited shards. Keep Haunt up with 100% uptime and only use Soulburn: Soul Swap to refresh your DoTs.


9. Spells and Abilities - Multi Target and AoE

SEED OF CORRUPTION: This deals Shadow damage to an enemy over time. Once the target takes enough damage from the Caster, it explodes and deals Shadow damage to all enemies within 15 yards. When used with Soulburn, the explosion applies Corruption to afflicted targets.


Spell Priority: Multi Target

1 - Use Soulburn: Soul Swap to keep DoTs up on as many targets as possible. Manually cast the dots to keep them refreshed if you don't have sufficient shards. Then focus single target once everything is dotted.

2 If more than 6 targets, use Soulburn: Seed of Corruption to keep Corruption up on every enemy, as needed. Use Soul Shard procs for Soulburn: Soul Swaps, and spam Seed of Corruption on targets with all dots to trigger them instantly.


10. Extra Tips
This section should clarify some of the major mechanic changes between Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria.

Dot Refreshing:
At level 90, DoTs are refreshed in a different way. If you cast Corruption on an enemy that already has Corruption on it, the remaining duration of the previous effect will be added to the new effect, up to a maximum of 50% of its base duration. So, if you recast Corruption when it has 6 seconds remaining, it will now have 24 seconds remaining. The maximum duration it will increase to is 27 seconds, since its base duration is 18. This means that you can refresh it any time when it has less than 9 seconds remaining and you won't waste any time. (9+ 18= 27).

Before you reach level 90, this extension doesn't happen, which means you should refresh your DoT just after it expires.


Int Procs:
DoTs do not update automatically with procs such as Intellect procs or buffs such as Dark Soul. You have to recast them in order for them to take effect, which means you can directly improve your DPS by refreshing your DoTs at opportune moments.


Doom Guard:
Your Doomguard now benefits from Bloodlust and deals bonus damage when under 20%. He also updates dynamically with your stats - there is no need to wait for Int or Haste procs before you summon him - although summoning him when their internal cooldown is soon to expire will be beneficial, to ensure they proc whilst he is out.

11. How to DPS on Specific Encounters

Elegon (Normal or Heroic):




Will of the Emperor (Normal or Heroic):



Imperial Vizier Zor'lok (Normal or Heroic):




Garalon (Normal or Heroic):




Wind Lord Mel'jarak (Normal or Heroic):




Amber Shaper Un'Sok(Normal or Heroic):




12. Using Simcraft

[Urhark]

Not sure if its my pc (useing google chrome) or cause we're on the forums ..but none of you items/spells pop up which is really annoying....
but on the plus side excellent right up really simple and constructive

/salute

---------- Post added 2012-08-16 at 11:28 PM ----------

ignore me being bumb

[evralia]

Can't use wowhead popup links on the forums. Go to wowraids.org for the version with popup links.

[Alone0129]

Thank you for taking the time to write this up and share it. I have been trying to wrap my head around the changes to affliction and the all the buffs and nerfs. With this I can jump into Beta and at least have a good foundation.

[Donblanco]

Been playing beta for the duration and can't really find a plot hole in this guide. That is at least as the state of Affliction is at the moment, barring any big changes.

Good work Evralia.

[conz]

wouldnt the mastery enchant on gloves be more valuable than haste?

[Haizer]

Mastery is actually sim'ing higher than haste is atm for affliction both pre-raid and T14 gear.

[Sockmaster]

Grimoire of Sacrifice only increases your maximum health by 20% if you take Soul Link.

[randa]

They changed rate of corruption ticks from one every 3 seconds to one every 2 seconds. How can maximum duration of corruption be 27 seconds? You cannot get whole number by dividing 27 by 2.

[Xelnath]

Very clean presentation.

[Xorn]

You have the Reckless gem listed under yellow which is Int/Haste, but in the description you have it saying Mastery. It should be a gem of the "Artful" variety.

Secondly, using a 160 Int gem in a red socket is NOT ideal. You want to use the aforementioned orange gem instead because according to the given stat weights here when you compare the two gems you get:

160 Int x 4.65 = 744

(80 Int x 4.65) + (160 Mastery x 2.94) = 842.4

With the value of secondary stats so high, and with so much of them in a mixed gem, it will be a dps increase to use them over a pure Int gem.

---------- Post added 2012-08-17 at 08:15 AM ----------

Can't use wowhead popup links on the forums. Go to wowraids.org for the version with popup links.

You can use MMO's though. Like so: Haunt

[Prandy]

Why reforge mastered to haste when mastery is so much better for affliction currently?

[evralia]

You have the Reckless gem listed under yellow which is Int/Haste, but in the description you have it saying Mastery. It should be a gem of the "Artful" variety.

Secondly, using a 160 Int gem in a red socket is NOT ideal. You want to use the aforementioned orange gem instead because according to the given stat weights here when you compare the two gems you get:

160 Int x 4.65 = 744

(80 Int x 4.65) + (160 Mastery x 2.94) = 842.4

With the value of secondary stats so high, and with so much of them in a mixed gem, it will be a dps increase to use them over a pure Int gem.

---------- Post added 2012-08-17 at 08:15 AM ----------



You can use MMO's though. Like so: Haunt

Thanks for the tip about the MMO links, I'll implement that today.

Couple of points: You'll see at the top that this was written for Beta Build 15972. (The previous beta build).
In this beta build, Haste was simming higher than Mastery, and all of the secondary stats were low enough that Intellect was sufficiently better to use in a red slot, particularly in pre-raid gear, which that set obviously is.


Obviously if the stat weights have changed so much, then you may be right - and I'll be updating this for the newest beta build in the next few hours (I do have to sleep on occasion!).

Also, remember that stat weights change enormously between Pre-raid and Tier 14 heroic.

Mastery is actually sim'ing higher than haste is atm for affliction both pre-raid and T14 gear.

There are no stat weights for the Pre-Raid profile currently up at http://www.simulationcraft.org/, and the latest version of Simcraft has not been uploaded to test it yet, so I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion. You're probably right though, but it's an assumption until it's been tested.

[David Cavalheiro]

Thanks alot for this guide. Good Luck Evralia.


With this guide, many locks will have a high performance on their playstyle.

Personally I thank you for linking BIS pre-raid. \o/

[Tearor]

Good guide!
I just wonder about Grimoire of Sacrifice, what's that "utility ability depending on which pet you sacrificed" you mention?
(I read under "Demons" what those abilities be, but I never heard of this before anywhere but here. Might just be me being underinformed though)

[evralia]

Good guide!
I just wonder about Grimoire of Sacrifice, what's that "utility ability depending on which pet you sacrificed" you mention?
(I read under "Demons" what those abilities be, but I never heard of this before anywhere but here. Might just be me being underinformed though)

Normally when you have your Demon out, you have an ability called "Command Demon" that orders your minion to perform it's strongest ability - for example, Spell Lock, for the Felhunter. When you Sacrifice your Demon, your Command Demon ability changes into one of those spells (again, in the example of the Felhunter, to Spell Lock), allowing you to cast it yourself when your pet has sacrificed. Otherwise this talent would come with too many disadvantages.

[Tearor]

Normally when you have your Demon out, you have an ability called "Command Demon" that orders your minion to perform it's strongest ability - for example, Spell Lock, for the Felhunter. When you Sacrifice your Demon, your Command Demon ability changes into one of those spells (again, in the example of the Felhunter, to Spell Lock), allowing you to cast it yourself when your pet has sacrificed. Otherwise this talent would come with too many disadvantages.

That's nice! Thanks for explaining, that totally went by me...

Sooo you lose the damage your pet does in exchange for the awesome damage buff to yourself, but you, basically, can keep the utility... pity, I liked the playstyle with a pet by my side. But sounds like big numbers

[Rurts]

The Command Demon button is usable with Sacrifice, you basically get a different ability when you push it, depending on which demon exactly was sacrificed by the spell.

[kaamila]

nice write-up. ty good sir. you are a scholar and a gentleman

just remember to update ur topic on every patch update from now until release

[evralia]

nice write-up. ty good sir. you are a scholar and a gentleman

just remember to update ur topic on every patch update from now until release

That's the plan! I'll be updating my own site (wowraids.org) a few hours after every beta build. I'll do my best to keep this MMO one as updated as possible also.