Warlocks in Mythic +

[Korinth]

Hello Warlock Community! As with many others I have found myself having trouble picking what class to main in Legion. I am really fond of my Affliction Warlock and have always enjoyed it in raids and pvp. The only problem I have been worried about on settling with Affliction Lock is how bad I assume we are in mythic + dungeons. It has always seemed that trash packs in dungeons die before we really can offer any significant damage. That is why I am here to ask you great beta testers, Have you tried Affliction in Mythic Plus and How are we doing in them? Now Im not looking to push server best times or be top for that matter, but I would like to be able to do them at a decent level. Any information that you can pass on will be greatly appreciated.

[Riens]

As of right now, if you want to take Mythic+ seriously, you need to spec destro. Affli and Demo bad in Mythic+.

[Taeron]

Any class can do mythic+ and contribute in their own way. Mix up classes and youll be fine.
Affliction is strong multitarget and decent AOE with soulflame. Unholy DK's are currently top notch aoe in the Beta and I was beating one on the Withered J'im world boss simply from soulflame alone.

Combine afflictions strengths with the burst aoe from a windwalker (for example) and the strong ST from an assass rogue (as another example) and youll smash them.

Gotta also remember the affixes. Many of them reduce the effectiveness of the typical "burst cleave" dungeon fav specs (often melee);
- Volcanic affix would require classes to be very mobile, likely making aff stronger than demo/destro for example.
- Tyrannical would make ST specs much more desirable than cleave (again, aff is currently on par with demo given the right talent setup for ST)
- Raging would make warlocks (a tanking class) much more effective due to our strong defensive capabilities on bosses that aoe
- Teeming might introduce further multi-dotting options
- Necrotic and decay also makes warlocks very attractive to bring due to strong defensives, especially affliction with life drain as a filler. it would just counteract the debuffs. Being ranged also assists with avoiding necrotic stacks altogether
- Skittish greatly reduces the effectiveness of burst aoe classes and would encourage single targeting adds (while you can simply agony the rest for shard gen)

[TummyBoy]

As of right now, if you want to take Mythic+ seriously, you need to spec destro. Affli and Demo bad in Mythic+.

Really? I keep looking at logs of Mythic+ dungeons and it seems that pretty consistently Affliction is doing better than any other Warlock spec.

[Janke]

Any class can do mythic+ and contribute in their own way. Mix up classes and youll be fine.
Affliction is strong multitarget and decent AOE with soulflame. Unholy DK's are currently top notch aoe in the Beta and I was beating one on the Withered J'im world boss simply from soulflame alone.

Combine afflictions strengths with the burst aoe from a windwalker (for example) and the strong ST from an assass rogue (as another example) and youll smash them.

Gotta also remember the affixes. Many of them reduce the effectiveness of the typical "burst cleave" dungeon fav specs (often melee);
- Volcanic affix would require classes to be very mobile, likely making aff stronger than demo/destro for example.
- Tyrannical would make ST specs much more desirable than cleave (again, aff is currently on par with demo given the right talent setup for ST)
- Raging would make warlocks (a tanking class) much more effective due to our strong defensive capabilities on bosses that aoe
- Teeming might introduce further multi-dotting options
- Necrotic and decay also makes warlocks very attractive to bring due to strong defensives, especially affliction with life drain as a filler. it would just counteract the debuffs. Being ranged also assists with avoiding necrotic stacks altogether
- Skittish greatly reduces the effectiveness of burst aoe classes and would encourage single targeting adds (while you can simply agony the rest for shard gen)

Nice observation mate, thx for sharing your ideas and bring up the affixes into the whole story. They are a important addition to mythic plus, and we cant ignore them. Would you like to share the most optimal ST aff build for mythic+, in your opinion, for when lets say Skittish or Tyrannical affixes is active?

[Taeron]

Nice observation mate, thx for sharing your ideas and bring up the affixes into the whole story. They are a important addition to mythic plus, and we cant ignore them. Would you like to share the most optimal ST aff build for mythic+, in your opinion, for when lets say Skittish or Tyrannical affixes is active?

I'd be speccing for full single target DPS for both of those affixes.
Skittish = Soul effigy + siphon life + GoServ/GoSup + 20stack agony
Trash - Drop agony on all mobs > target the tanks focus > drop all dots and spam UA from all the shards you'll be generating
Boss - all dots on both boss and effigy. make sure agony doesn't drop off either target

Tyrranical = Soul effigy + siphon life + GoSac + 20stack agony
Trash - (make sure soulflame is your first gold trait) drop dots on all trash, let sac/SF do the rest (it wont be super strong, again, invite and rely on a DPS great with cleave)
Boss - all dots on both boss and effigy. Make sure the effigy is placed right next to the boss so sac damage cleaves on both.

[Wenoxar]

Boss - all dots on both boss and effigy. make sure agony doesn't drop off either target

No not really You don't want to ever use UA on soul effigy

[Taeron]

No not really You don't want to ever use UA on soul effigy

I thought that was implied

[Wenoxar]

I thought that was implied

I know but might confuse some people :PP

[Taeron]

I know but might confuse some people :PP

Fair call

Also, (just a thought), with the skittish affix - haunt may be better than 20stack agony if adds are causing more grief than the bosses

[Wenoxar]

Fair call

Also, (just a thought), with the skittish affix - haunt may be better than 20stack agony if adds are causing more grief than the bosses

That's highly possible, but anyway at the moment, in prepatch affliction is extremely useless in Mythic HFC. Destruction is just a little bit stronger, still extremely weak. Demonology after that huge nerf is average spec - below assa/fire/ele/uh/feral/shadow and probably more.

Only fury/arms warriors seem weak as well, and possibly ww monk, retr paladin - other classes have at least 1 very strong DPS spec

Talking about pre-patch, everything will (should?) change in legion 110.

[Taeron]

That's highly possible, but anyway at the moment, in prepatch affliction is extremely useless in Mythic HFC. Destruction is just a little bit stronger, still extremely weak. Demonology after that huge nerf is average spec - below assa/fire/ele/uh/feral/shadow and probably more.

Only fury/arms warriors seem weak as well, and possibly ww monk, retr paladin - other classes have at least 1 very strong DPS spec

Talking about pre-patch, everything will (should?) change in legion 110.

Yeah this particular thread is only relating to mythic+ dungeons. Not current content. Things are all over the place atm in current content

[skitzin]

Affliction ... decent AOE with soulflame.

Debatable really.

Since soul flame works on mob death it's effectiveness is limited. Sure the numbers look good at the end of the fight but honestly if you're AoEing a pack of mobs down in a dungeon low HP is when soul flame becomes a factor and you're basically just padding the meters at that point.

Our main AoE tool is 'Sow the Seeds' which lets us hit multiple mobs with SoC simultaneously.

[Taeron]

Debatable really.

Since soul flame works on mob death it's effectiveness is limited. Sure the numbers look good at the end of the fight but honestly if you're AoEing a pack of mobs down in a dungeon low HP is when soul flame becomes a factor and you're basically just padding the meters at that point.

Our main AoE tool is 'Sow the Seeds' which lets us hit multiple mobs with SoC simultaneously.

Yeah agree that Soulflame is 'somewhat' limited, but will work well when single targetting adds such as with the skittish affix. It's cleave could also be incredibly valueable toward boss damage if heaps of adds die near the boss. Think of the last boss of everbloom (as a current example), or any situation where there might be a high-hp/elite mob in the middle of a bunch of non-elite mobs.

After testing on the 4 imps in our class hall for a long time, I actually find dotting all 4 with agony/corruption/siphonlife and letting GoSac cleave to provide higher numbers than Sow the Seeds, but that would only be for sustained cleave and I'm sure there's some magical number of adds/breakoff point where Sow the Seeds would be superior for sustained as well.