Affliction - stepping up difficulty.

[Shodan30]

So i switched from Destro to Aff with 7.1.5 and since its been a very long time since i played aff, I decided to break down the talents and abilites from most simplistic playstyle to most complex. I'd like some opinions about this because while i may just be not good enough to pull off the high end stuff, i feel like something is incorrect.

Least complex:

MG - AC - Sow the seeds - supremecy - soul effigy - With this very simply playstyle I have a minimum of dots to retain. At its simplest I corruption and coa the Effigy once, then forget about the effigy unless i am moving and can quickly target it to reapply CoA, but with Corr being permanent its just a set amount of flat damage that never stops. The main target gets CoA, Permanent corruption, drain soul, and I UA 2-5 times depending on my reap soul count, making drain a priority during UA, but keeping CoA at 10 stacks.

MG - AC - Siphon Life - Supremecy - soul effigy - Only a slight change to the above, in that i keep siphon life and CoA on the main target, only put SL on the effigy if i have nothing else to do. but SL being shorter tends to fall off a lot, I'm not even sure if its a real dps positive to using the global to reapply it but i try.

MG - Contagion - Siphon life - soul conduit - I've tried to have all the dots, and i find this playstyle too complex for me at the moment. I'm spending way too much time on global cooldowns of recasting dots and not enough draining. even with only one target, UA is too short to keep consistantly on the mob while keeping up corr/coa/SL . Makes me yern for that PvP talent that lets you add time to a UA by channeling DS, which would be really nice (if they could code it so it works if only one UA stack was on the target...that would make the rotation more doable.).

Most complex.

I know haste is not a major priority for us...but this seem wrong...I remember in a past expansion we wanted x amount of haste to eliminate the global cooldown on casting dots to .5 seconds and that might help but i feel like im casting too much and not draining enough.

[Deleted]

you're not supposed to maintain UA like a normal dot. with MG you cast agony SL corruption, then UA twice and drain. you should only ever refresh dots when UA falls off the target, or when agony is about to run out. dont worry about SL/corruption uptime too much. the goal with MG is to always make sure you drain whenever u apply UA in sets of 2 (or 3 if you are being flooded with shards).

[Shodan30]

So 3 should always be the limit of UA's you try to keep up? Assuming nothing like a 'burst' phase is vital, where i assume i could hit reap, put 5 UA's on and drain until its done), I dont usually get enough shard regen and i feel like i have too much time without shards to UA. (I'm mainly worried about single target here)..keepin sow the seeds over SL seems to be a good utility function since so few fights are strictly single target but if i can fit it into my rotation decently ill add it in. I see SL as the lowest priority dot and the last to really try and squeeze into the difficulty curve. Also, are you describing a contagion / effigy build or a AC / soul conduit?

[Deleted]

in m+ i sometimes even cast up to 5-6 uas on bosses when i get lucky with sc proccs.
Affli is the hardest at multi target with writhe, effigy, siphon, thats where the difference in skill is seen from meters.
The single target rotation with MG is super easy, just try a few times and should be set.

[Deleted]

all MG builds function very similarly. if you are struggling with shard generation you should go soul effigy. one thing to know about effigy is that it is a dps loss to cast SL on effigy so only do that if you're moving and have nothing else to do. if you're struggling to maintain dots with an effigy build its a good idea to go AC. I believe AC beats contagion with effigy anyway. so with a standard effigy build it should be agony boss, agony effigy, corruption boss, corruption effigy (assuming you went AC), SL boss, then UA*2 reap and drain. keep draining until UA falls off, then refresh your dots and begin again.

if you aren't planning on changing talents then it probably is best to take sow over SL since it isn't a huge dps loss, but SL is still useful on fights that aren't just single target. if you're on a cleave boss like botanist SL is better than sow, but maintaining all those dots in tandem with effigy can be pretty overwhelming so for a fight like that you want to drop effigy for soul conduit.

[Shodan30]

what do you guys use as an offtarget mod? what would really help my game would be being able to macro the target of the effigy or hotkey the spell to my offtarget then lasttarget to get back on the boss. There use to be a macro command to return your target to the previous one but i seem to remember it was removed?

[jojoushi]

I just use boss frames for multidotting, with focus frame just under it for effigy.

[Cyranis]

I know haste is not a major priority for us...

wait whut?

[Shodan30]

Wowhead guide for afflication:
Mastery > Crit > Haste > Intellect > Spell Power > Versatility
askmrrobot:
Mastery > Intellect > Haste > Critical Strike > Versatility > Avoidance > Movement Speed > Leech
icyveins:
Mastery > (Critical Strike >= Haste) > Intellect > Versatility.


anyway you look at it haste is usually not a first or second priority for affliction. I know it is for destro and demo, but not aff at least assuming one of these guys has it right.

- - - Updated - - -

wait whut?

Meant to include your comment.s

[BannedForViews]

Wowhead guide for afflication:
Mastery > Crit > Haste > Intellect > Spell Power > Versatility
askmrrobot:
Mastery > Intellect > Haste > Critical Strike > Versatility > Avoidance > Movement Speed > Leech
icyveins:
Mastery > (Critical Strike >= Haste) > Intellect > Versatility.


anyway you look at it haste is usually not a first or second priority for affliction. I know it is for destro and demo, but not aff at least assuming one of these guys has it right.

- - - Updated - - -



Meant to include your comment.s

Lets assume for a second we believe simcraft is correct. If we trust it, at least as much as we have reason to trust anything else, the depending on your talents your desire for haste will change. There are a lot of people playing contagion/co duit, which sims worse (but seems to do more damage) and it prioritizes haste highly. If youre using writhe or mg with an ac/effigy build, mastery and crit will be valued higher, assuming no known stat values. Obviously things change if you have too much or little of this or that stat.

i would completely ignore all 3 sites you reference though.

[Rawkfist]

Wowhead guide for afflication:
Mastery > Crit > Haste > Intellect > Spell Power > Versatility
askmrrobot:
Mastery > Intellect > Haste > Critical Strike > Versatility > Avoidance > Movement Speed > Leech
icyveins:
Mastery > (Critical Strike >= Haste) > Intellect > Versatility.


anyway you look at it haste is usually not a first or second priority for affliction. I know it is for destro and demo, but not aff at least assuming one of these guys has it right.

- - - Updated - - -



Meant to include your comment.s

You really dont want to look at stat weights like that, very easy to make bad gearing choices. Simcraft with stat scaling is the best known way to see whats what for you.

For example, for me if I run it it has Mastery>Int>haste>crit>vers I have like 17% crit 22% haste 94% mastery (and sim out to just over 400k dps @873ilvl)

However, when I was at like 110% mastery and 13% haste, it was Int>Haste>Mastery>Crit>Vers.

The value of secondary stats is highly dependent on what you have on, and Simming yourself after an upgrade or two (or more often if it matters more to you) is a good thing to do, also using Pawn to verify item upgrades etc.