1. #1

    Affliction Lock in dungeons. Ever worth it?

    Warlock is my 11th alt. Leveled one for the Velf heritage armor, alternating between Affli and Destro (mostly Affli). It’s already become my top 3rd favorite chars. For the looks (oh the transmogs...), the fantasy and obviously the varied gameplay you get from the specs.

    The thing that frustrates me though is how useless Affli is in dungeons, unless I play it terribly wrong. I play since 2011, Hunter main, AotC every expac, avid guide reader and all, but being unable to help DPSing dungeon trash (due to the nature of DoT spec right?) and only seeing my numbers in bosses makes it very weird to play Warlock. During trash packs, having Dots on the GCD, when I finish my multidotting the pack is already dead. I expect this to be different during leveling dungeons, when there is time to cast UA and seeds and see their whole damage, but when the dungeons get outleveled (or in higher M+), time to move away from Affli? I read Demo had even bigger ramp up times, true? Is Destro the only dungeon viable spec?

    Is it just how the class works? Spec switching during leveling or choosing 1 for each part of the game... Or am I simply misunderstanding everything?? Help me fellow veteran locks! (Even considering maining one in BfA, that’s how much I digged it)
    Last edited by renatompassos; 2018-07-12 at 03:54 PM.

  2. #2
    Banned Cebel's Avatar
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    Affi is currently a top dps spec for M+... If you're talking leveling dungeons, then yeah idk.

  3. #3
    High Overlord Atraxxa's Avatar
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    Aff is king in M+ so chances are that it is a combination of rotational issues and talents/gear chosen for the run. Aff warlock has the tools to handle every mythic with ease. That being said enjoy it for the next month and maybe go to lockonestopshop for additional info that would be helpful, also warlock discord.
    You asked a question and I gave you the answer. You might not agree with or fully understand the answer, but, it is correct because of reasons.”

  4. #4
    Affliction is decent on trach but great on Boss damage. I myself as an Afflic loc spec into the SoS talent that hits 3 targets. This can provide great AoE and Corruption Dots on all mobs. It will help the burn down of them while the other DPS can either single target the others or another AoE spec can also burn them down.

    On Boss fights, just keep up on your DoT control to make sure they are always up and Drain Soul will take care of the rest. For Boss fights I spec into Contagion for the extra dps on the fights since UA will almost always be up on the Boss and the added dps fron the DoTs can help

    Also dont worry too much about multi dotting Agony because they will drop before the 3rd tick even goes off. SoS and let that burst em. Agony on one or 2 targets
    Last edited by WoWGoneBad; 2018-07-12 at 06:10 PM.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by renatompassos View Post
    The thing that frustrates me though is how useless Affli is in dungeons, unless I play it terribly wrong.
    Afflic is a DoT spec, and DoT specs are ramp specs. If the trash dies too quickly for any ramp, a ramp spec is going to feel useless. Conversely, the harder the challenge and the longer the trash lives, the more a ramp spec will shine. If you're doing a high keystone on a Fortified week and trash packs take a significant amount of time to die, then being able to spread DoTs on the entire pack at once is going to effectively be super powerful sustained AoE and you'll easily top the meters. It all depends on what you're doing.

    If you find yourself frustrated by the ramp playstyle and not using your 11th alt for anything serious, I'd recommend switching to Destro. That's the Warlock spec for being able to just throw out damage with minimal ramp. I've been raiding as Afflic most of Legion and I still broke out the Destro set when I was helping a friend through a lowbie dungeon, just because Afflic couldn't ramp into any significant damage in the time it took things to die.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Kirroth View Post
    Afflic is a DoT spec, and DoT specs are ramp specs. If the trash dies too quickly for any ramp, a ramp spec is going to feel useless. Conversely, the harder the challenge and the longer the trash lives, the more a ramp spec will shine. If you're doing a high keystone on a Fortified week and trash packs take a significant amount of time to die, then being able to spread DoTs on the entire pack at once is going to effectively be super powerful sustained AoE and you'll easily top the meters. It all depends on what you're doing.

    If you find yourself frustrated by the ramp playstyle and not using your 11th alt for anything serious, I'd recommend switching to Destro. That's the Warlock spec for being able to just throw out damage with minimal ramp. I've been raiding as Afflic most of Legion and I still broke out the Destro set when I was helping a friend through a lowbie dungeon, just because Afflic couldn't ramp into any significant damage in the time it took things to die.
    Thanks for the replies. It all makes sense, so in fact Affli only gets obsolete in outgeared content. Seems people are suggesting Destro/Demo for leveling in BFA so I'll probably try all of them and see how it feels playing a warlock for real. Now I'm just getting the basics of the class.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by renatompassos View Post
    It all makes sense, so in fact Affli only gets obsolete in outgeared content.
    Speccing StS and doing the following "rotation" on trash always worked well for me: Precast SoC, cast UA, activate Artifact, cast SoC -> everything explodes in a big violet wave. Takes about 3 seconds if the first Seed is fully precast. If anything still lives after that but not long enough for another SoC-> drain soul for new shards.

    In ST affs burst potential shouldn't be that much underrated. With MG, Contagion and Death embrace one can still top the meters on a 10 second boss fight.

    If RNG blesses you while using legendaries like the chest, it's even better.

    Sure, there are classes with a lot better burst for AE or ST, so it depends a little bit on the group setup too. But Aff is far away from being "obsolet".

    However, for Prepatch and BfA... its a different story....

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by renatompassos View Post
    Thanks for the replies. It all makes sense, so in fact Affli only gets obsolete in outgeared content. Seems people are suggesting Destro/Demo for leveling in BFA so I'll probably try all of them and see how it feels playing a warlock for real. Now I'm just getting the basics of the class.
    Be aware that the 8.0 Patch and its class changes will drop next week. Official confirmation and everything. And while Destro is only seeing minor changes, Demo is getting very significant ones. Trying out Demo this week won't be much help to you.

  9. #9
    I main a lock and am leveling a lock for heritage armor and with low haste lock in dungeon is not the greatest. Basically spec into sow of seed and try to steal some shards with drain life but your damage is only as good as the length of the encounter/trash pull. Now as far as max level dungeons and M+, it is little tough to predict how well will Affliction perform, with Soul Flame (Artifact ability) going away this would probably mean a 10-20% dungeon damage nerf to the overall damage (this is a feels number so feel free to correct me). Try again next week after patch that should provide a clearer picture. I am sure forums will surge with all kind of opinions once pre-patch hits live.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by IAmJakub View Post
    I main a lock and am leveling a lock for heritage armor and with low haste lock in dungeon is not the greatest. Basically spec into sow of seed and try to steal some shards with drain life but your damage is only as good as the length of the encounter/trash pull. Now as far as max level dungeons and M+, it is little tough to predict how well will Affliction perform, with Soul Flame (Artifact ability) going away this would probably mean a 10-20% dungeon damage nerf to the overall damage (this is a feels number so feel free to correct me). Try again next week after patch that should provide a clearer picture. I am sure forums will surge with all kind of opinions once pre-patch hits live.
    If you are talking a heroic dungeon or M+ and you have good gear perhaps Soulflame is that much when you cannot start DPSing properly. However, in a highish mythic plus my SF damage tends to be in the 4-8% range and hence it is not such a big deal (nor controllable).

    A lot of classes had their AoE reduced in BFA. Yes, we have lost Soulflame and one seed but the damage of each one has been increased. However currently, Affys AoE/stacked cleave is still weak compared to our other two specs and you lose a fair bit of priority damage when you specced fully into it. Of course we still have multidotting builds but I haven't been able to fully judge their worth yet as stuff has been dying too fast.

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