Intended Affliction AoE?

[Deleted]

So earlier I was running Flex with some friends and I noticed Soul Swap is now, whether intended or not, copying Seed of Corruption. I thought it could be Affliction would be putting out some pretty decent AoE with this method.

As you can have a SoC and a SB:SoC on the same target whether Soul Swap would transfer them both, I tested this at the dummies and this does in fact work. So I figured you could apply SoC, SB:SoC, SB:SS, SS:Inhale (before the SoCs explode) then see if when you SS:Exhale onto a new target its possible to SS:Inhale before the explosion again - Which it is!

So this has potential for some incredible AoE surely - 2x SoC explosion + All dots rolling on many targets for 2 GCD per target.

Of course getting the Inhale off before the explosion may be limited by haste so you don't get DoT ticks before you can Inhale

I haven't done any proper digging into whether this is a known thing, as I'm about to go to sleep :P Want to see what you guys make of this

Thanks

[Alarinth]

It is possible, but it requires some god sent luck. If you want to be able to catch SoC on the same Inhale as your dots, you have to be incredibly lucky, as it takes almost no damage to blow up the SoC.

If you're talking of doing it without having dots rolling, it's a much higher chance you'll be able to pull that off. :-) At any rate, this is a very welcomed thing and a fun one in theory, but sadly I see no practical applications of it due to SoC blowing up almost instantly in high levels of gear.

[Synchrony]

I tried this out a bit tonight. I did SB:SoC > SoC > SB:SS, and then I proceeded to spread it around. The seeds popped right after I inhale, so it worked out perfectly. I'm not sure if this was intended, but it made my AoE in Affliction jump quite a bit.

[Deleted]

I see what you mean about it possibly not working in higher gear, but then if you we're to just spread around to 2x SoC (You'd need to manually explode then once, but then Spread Corruption would take over) it would be better than usual way.

[Bonkura]

It doesn't sound like a that big gain with SoC cast time being so low to start with. Eventually you'll trigger all SoC's you have. Also rolling all your normal dots with Soul Swap many times give more DPET than a single SoC.

[Deleted]

You just need to take care of your yulon cloak proc or your SoC will explode before you are able to inhale them.

[Deleted]

You just need to take care of your yulon cloak proc or your SoC will explode before you are able to inhale them.

I don't have the cloak :P Testing it in LFR it does some pretty good damage, atm I'm playing on a really shitty laptop and dips/freezes I get in FPS ruin it occasionally

[Deleted]

You just need to take care of your yulon cloak proc or your SoC will explode before you are able to inhale them.

Not only this, earlier applied SoC explosions can also explode all the existing ones and remove SoC from the SS.

[Deleted]

Not only this, earlier applied SoC explosions can also explode all the existing ones and remove SoC from the SS.

SoC explosions explode almost immediately after the Inhale so you probably won't have them detonating newly Exhaled SoCs. Cloak will still be a an issue though, and I noticed when Exhaling onto a target with DoTs already rolling on it the SoCs can explode as soon as it lands.

But I'm pretty sure this a very strong way to start AoE, if the AoE needs to continue after you lose the SS with 2x SoC I guess you continue the usual way - Or it is possible to drop SoC onto a target with DoTs and Inhale it off before it explodes, I don't know if Soul Swapping about a single SoC (+DoTs) is better than conventional AoE however.

[Deleted]

Well, if you are soul swapping all of your dot ( or at least those already on your target ) soc wont explode instant, meaning you can swap your double soc for a really long time ( ~15-20 sec).

[Barrowwind]

SoC explosions explode almost immediately after the Inhale so you probably won't have them detonating newly Exhaled SoCs. Cloak will still be a an issue though, and I noticed when Exhaling onto a target with DoTs already rolling on it the SoCs can explode as soon as it lands.

But I'm pretty sure this a very strong way to start AoE, if the AoE needs to continue after you lose the SS with 2x SoC I guess you continue the usual way - Or it is possible to drop SoC onto a target with DoTs and Inhale it off before it explodes, I don't know if Soul Swapping about a single SoC (+DoTs) is better than conventional AoE however.

What is the usual way? Please

[Brusalk]

What is the usual way? Please

Find a balance between more Seeds and spreading dots.

I had a fair amount of luck on H Sha of Pride with MF and spreading around 1 Seed + Dots to the small adds. I'd have a full set of dots up on the boss, Seed on the boss, and try and guess the moment it hit the boss to inhale. I got it about 4/5 times after an attempt or two of utter failure. It put me with pretty much top damage on small adds, even with an Ele Shaman and a BrM.

[Deleted]

Find a balance between more Seeds and spreading dots.

I had a fair amount of luck on H Sha of Pride with MF and spreading around 1 Seed + Dots to the small adds. I'd have a full set of dots up on the boss, Seed on the boss, and try and guess the moment it hit the boss to inhale. I got it about 4/5 times after an attempt or two of utter failure. It put me with pretty much top damage on small adds, even with an Ele Shaman and a BrM.

I found managed to get some very nice AoE of Sha of Pride also, and did more damage of Galakras than I did as demo (At least, as you say, when it didn't fail :P) - but using the 2xSoC method as much as possible, and when I lost the 2xSoC I tried to time pulling off a SoC as it landed in the same way you said.

Dunno if it'd be better to cast 2xSoC then SS:SB and bounce around or just try and time single SoC and pull of a target with DoTs already on it (Probably depends on the situation). Either way it seems a little unreliable yet capable of good things.

[Brusalk]

I found managed to get some very nice AoE of Sha of Pride also, and did more damage of Galakras than I did as demo (At least, as you say, when it didn't fail :P) - but using the 2xSoC method as much as possible, and when I lost the 2xSoC I tried to time pulling off a SoC as it landed in the same way you said.

Dunno if it'd be better to cast 2xSoC then SS:SB and bounce around or just try and time single SoC and pull of a target with DoTs already on it (Probably depends on the situation). Either way it seems a little unreliable yet capable of good things.

I feel like Affliction's AoE is actually really exceptional with this patches change to soul swap, but has a lot of ramp up time and risk involved. 2xSoC followed by SS:SB and Inhale would probably work really well for when you can't remove that ramp-up by casting seeds on a target with existing DoTs before the adds appear (like on Sha)

If burst AoE isn't a concern it'd probably be worth it to try and swap 2 seeds around with DoTs.

[Deleted]

I feel like Affliction's AoE is actually really exceptional with this patches change to soul swap, but has a lot of ramp up time and risk involved. 2xSoC followed by SS:SB and Inhale would probably work really well for when you can't remove that ramp-up by casting seeds on a target with existing DoTs before the adds appear (like on Sha)

If burst AoE isn't a concern it'd probably be worth it to try and swap 2 seeds around with DoTs.

Agree, for non burst AoE its probably be better to bounce around 2 Seeds as long as you can then if you lose them continue as you did with 1 seed, unless you have a target with no dots on to get 2 seeds on. It might be possible to get 2 seeds, SB:SS, SS:Inhale off a target with just corruption on before they explode, I haven't tried just yet.

It's not mentioned in the patch notes that SS should affect SoC. It just says affects your Dots, so whether its intended or any oversight because SoC does have a dot component to it - either way hope it doesn't change :P

[Baconeggcheese]

Idea is fun in theory but not really practical. This is far from the first time this has been discussed, *if* you can snapshot everything with good procs rolling and inhale properly you're going to have the corruption constantly re-applying (which could be a bad thing) and more often than not the seeds explode before you get an opportunity to inhale on a random time you exhale the dot since you're copying dots mid-tick and then they tick inside the gcd of your exhale.

Couple that with most aoe dying so quickly on heroic to the point of aff aoe being pretty awful with the delay and it makes it kinda useless. If this doesn't get changed in the future it might find its niche but for this tier so far it seems pretty meh.

[OokingDooker]

it definitely works, I used this on heroic immerseus last night. the AoE was absolutely ridiculous

[Struggle]

My SoC takes forever to explode...I frequently catch all 4 dots in an inhale. Granted they're rarely timed with procs, it still adds up to some nice deeps.

[Warrada]

At least on dummies, its very easy to cast SC + SC:SB+ SS:SB+ SS:inhale on a target, then SS:exhale and inhale again on as many targets i want without the seeds exploding.

The thing is: the time for the seeds 'within' the SS doesnt pass while youre holding, but only when its apllied to the target, so you (at least me) can do this the whole day. The only thing that can possibly affect this process is the previous seeds on another target exploding right after you exhale the dots+ seeds on a new target and so trigering them before you can exhale again, but, as someone already said, its just a matter of timming it right...

[Shauni]

Timing and lag.
Bad luck can make your seed detonate. My personal record is 4 swap before losing it