Affliction, Affliction, Affliction

[3xxiled]

Affliction seems to be the a Hot Topic right now on the forums since alot of warlocks generally make it out to be
the top DPS spec for Warlocks right now.

Obviously this thread is going to be like every single other Warlock thread about affliction and its aspects.
But to my concern, I am looking for responses from high end raiding Affliction Warlocks that have experienced and
played all the aspects of Affliction with the right gear requirements and played the other Warlock spec's that seems to compensate
against affliction
E.g 0/41/30
E.G 0/31/50

Armory, My current spec (0/41/30)
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...hilas&n=Artlol


I have certain gear that i swap around that preform better in different situations,
e.g Heroics ill throw on Crit gear since you don't need much hit.
Or Raid-wise ill throw on hit gear that raise my hit to a high extent that is close to capped.


My Current State


Now I have had a good experience with 0/41/30

Pets - Trash i have Imp, and for bosses i have felguard out, i dunno why don't ask
just something i prefer, seems felguard has a lot more survivability, always re-summoning Imp

Rotation - CoA --> Corruption --> Immolate --> Lifetap --> (Mainly for the 4 Set-Bonus) --> Spam Incinertate [Repeat]
On a solid patchwerk fight with Raid usually buffs, Dps will average at about 3.5k - Cant seem to just push any further.

With A lot of raiding, and experience with 0/41/30 - I've seemed to adapt to it A lot and consider reasonable but think its time for Affliction.
After A lot of forum researching, In depth research, Speaking to experienced Deep Affliction raid locks, its convinced me to respec Affliction
multiple times and i just cant seem to get the right Rotation, AddOns, etc.... and always seem to be respecing bak to 41/30 :\.

I would like Any experienced warlock who has Alot of Indepth knowledge with Affliction and knows all its aspects.
Right I'll get to the point and make it simple....

I would like to Respec affliction but fear i dont have the correct gear or rotation and need some help from those high end raiding affliction locks to fill me in.
- What's a good amount of haste i should aim towards
- Gear that would be recommended to improve afflictions benefits alot more
- Any brief knowledge on how affliction preforms on certain fights, E.g alot of Moving around fights like Thaddius or Simple fights like Patchwerk.
- Any recorded fights (WWS) or recount screens that show affliction at its best - Just by curiosity ^.^
- Macros that can help with Timing, Dots, Cast sequence that time dots perfect and sustain cutting dots.
- Glyphs
- How Affliction preforms against high DPS geared classes like, Fury Warriors, Druids, Death knights, and all those hybrids classes doing insane DPS in blues -_-


[u] The Rotation
What Rotation deals the best output of damage,
How the rotation preforms in fights which require A lot of moving around which can cause the rotation to break and lower DPS.

I don't wanna turn this into a big wall of text but, just any knowledge from experienced warlocks that can provide a good brief answers to my questions would help heaps
Looking forwards to affliction.

3xxiled

[Anime-Fan]

http://elitistjerks.com/f80/t37918-a...tations_guide/

Pretty much the best info on rotation. For me the glyphs I use are Siphon Life, Health stone and Corruption.

[Gnorllock]

Well for one, with any fire spec you want to prioritize your casts so you can use immolate incin incin incin incin. The immolate lifetap isn't as good because you're minimizing the your window of opportunity with incinerates. I've played every spec and yes affliction is the strong point currently. That being said it is also the hardest and most skill based, laggy computers will also have trouble with affliction.

Important notes are:
be hit capped ( take spriest/boomkin, draenei racial and talents into consideration )
use immolate corruption and siphon life glyphs
always maintain dots even immolate
always use drain soul below 25% (and yes still maintain immolate)
use infernals for extra pewpew ( he's about 660 dps to one target )

Affliction dps sucks complete ass in heroics, spam shadowbolt and seed.

Use this 53/0/18 spec http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IfxMbzMAoVq0IstZE0hV until you get enough hit to take two points out of catacylsm and put one more in eradiction and the other in moltencore.

[Offsprngr]

If go demon cause you can't handle affli you should go meta/ruin to buff us affli warlocks who can play.

[3xxiled]

Question!!

What rotation do i keep when the target is under 25%, i understand immolate is a must to keep up
Do i keep doing the same rotation, but replace sbolt with drainsoul, then continue haunt etc.... ?

so e.g

Rotation would be
Sb > haunt > ua > immo > CoA > corrupt > siphon > sb spam (filler) until 25%

then

continue the rotation
sb > haunt > ua > immo > CoA > corrupt > siphon > drainsoul during filler ?

or am i doing it completely wrong

[bahumut5]

If go demon cause you can't handle affli you should go meta/ruin to buff us affli warlocks who can play.

Even so:

I am Demo/Destro build, and I had more dps than a Affl Warlock in our group had.
Skill > Talent tree

Seriously, just because Affliction is the "suposed to be" most powerfull talent tree there is atm, if you dont like playing with it, it doesnt mean you ain viable enough to play with it.
Go wash your mouth and reroll Deathknight, couse you surely aint a Warlock.

[sonofschmee]

Question!!

What rotation do i keep when the target is under 25%, i understand immolate is a must to keep up
Do i keep doing the same rotation, but replace sbolt with drainsoul, then continue haunt etc.... ?

so e.g

Rotation would be
Sb > haunt > ua > immo > CoA > corrupt > siphon > sb spam (filler) until 25%

then

continue the rotation
sb > haunt > ua > immo > CoA > corrupt > siphon > drainsoul during filler ?

or am i doing it completely wrong

you might want to link your instant cast spells with others so your not wasting a bunch of time,
something like haunt/corruption, sb/sl/ immo/Coe/Coa-depedning if another lock is doing CoE or not then spam sb

Rinse repeat,

when the boss is under 25% substitute sb spam for drain soul

[Offsprngr]

you might want to link your instant cast spells with others so your not wasting a bunch of time,
something like haunt/corruption, sb/sl/ immo/Coe/Coa-depedning if another lock is doing CoE or not then spam sb

Rinse repeat,

when the boss is under 25% substitute sb spam for drain soul

GCDs don't matter, they affect all your spells, so linking instant with cast doesn't matter also cause of death's embrace you want to stop casting immolate at 35%.

[direlock]

Hey just a thought. I run the aggony glyph, because it extends the time its up and I'm lazy:P Seriously, lil less refreshing is always good. 0/30/41 build here btw. Trying to max that molten core proc.

[dahaliana]

re: Affliction. There is no 'rotation'. Keep haunt up (overwriting it is fine, it just has to stay up). Maximize dot uptime (if you can manage 85-90% uptime on Corruption, SL, UA, CoA when you analyze your WWS parse, you're doing good). Never interrupt a cast for any reason.

I have managed over 5k DPS on patchwerk in 25man, and 4.5k in 10man both using Felhound. You can get higher using Doomguard or a well-placed infernal.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IfxrbzMAoqq0IstZqzhV is the build to use if you only have 10% hit on your gear (11% on if you're a horde). In a 25 man raid you should be able to count on 1% hit Draenei racial +3% hit from Boomkin / Spriest, and you should definitely spec and gear appropriately. The more points you can take out of the hit talents to put into DPS talents the better. If you don't have any problem with threat you can take points out of improved drain soul, but currently affliction threat is through the roof (you get extra threat from the healing on Siphon Life and on Haunt).

Bosses you should trounce the rest of the DPS on and you'll pull aggro if you're not very careful with soulshatter, are Heigen and Malygos. The boss you will do absolutely horrible on is Gothik. Your trash DPS will mostly be sorry relative to a destro lock.

Gear
Spellpower. That is the stat you are after on gear, plain and simple. Haste is a little better than Crit, but you shouldn't go out of your way for either. I personally like to try to keep them about even (500 haste / 500 crit is a decent goal to shoot for, with 2400 spellpower self-buffed with felarmor). Often there is nearly equivalent gear for a slot where one will have SP, Crit, Haste but no spirit, and another will have SP, Crit or Haste, and Spirit - the item with spirit is better.

Tips
Cast UA then Immolate always as a unit - treat them as a single DOT. This will make keeping all your dots up easier as it effectively makes them into a single dot as far as keeping track goes.

Stop casting immolate when the boss is at 35%.

Drain Soul below 25%, but keep all of your dots up. Interrupt drain soul to reapply dots, but be sure to break it immediately after a tick of damage.

Glyphs should be Corruption, Siphon Life, and Immolate. That combination is the highest DPS you can get from glyphs for affliction at the moment.

Use either Potion of Wild Magic or Potion of Speed in the execute range below 25%, this will yield the highest DPS increase.

Do NOT use Life Tap for the bonus damage from 4 piece T7 - use it to get extra mana back so you have to tap less. What I usually do is tap when I get to about 40% mana, then tap again before the buff wears off, then tap again before the buff wears off all while casting in between. You may have to repeat that sequence twice. If you end the fight with zero mana the instant the boss dies, you win the mini-game.

Teleport on opposite side of the gate for Gothik lets you get more DPS time on the boss. Teleport in the middle of the platform on Malygos lets you get out of the Vortex and continue to DPS (careful of threat).

Infernal right after a decimate on Gluth positively owns the adds.

Go practice on a Dummy. Ignore the DPS numbers that you generate. Lifetap or whatever you need to do so that you can DPS the dummy for 5 minutes uninterrupted. Look at your recount and calculate your DOT uptime for all of your dots including immolate. Write it down and repeat the exercise until you can consistently keep an uptime of 85%+ for all your dots.

[3xxiled]

Just a former Issue I've come across is Immolate
Sometimes in the rotation when refreshing immolate its not showing up on the target or dotimer is not actually tracking it ?
I've notice other warlocks have came across this issue,
anyone know what causes this or is it just a big waiting to be fixed?

This issue is actually really annoying,
I've checked recount and i am not missing at all,


EDIT : The immolation issue is really annoying in rotations and it screws it up, is there not way around this? it lowers my dps heaps

[Kimbra]

re: Affliction. There is no 'rotation'. Keep haunt up (overwriting it is fine, it just has to stay up). Maximize dot uptime (if you can manage 85-90% uptime on Corruption, SL, UA, CoA when you analyze your WWS parse, you're doing good). Never interrupt a cast for any reason.

I have managed over 5k DPS on patchwerk in 25man, and 4.5k in 10man both using Felhound. You can get higher using Doomguard or a well-placed infernal.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IfxrbzMAoqq0IstZqzhV is the build to use if you only have 10% hit on your gear (11% on if you're a horde). In a 25 man raid you should be able to count on 1% hit Draenei racial +3% hit from Boomkin / Spriest, and you should definitely spec and gear appropriately. The more points you can take out of the hit talents to put into DPS talents the better. If you don't have any problem with threat you can take points out of improved drain soul, but currently affliction threat is through the roof (you get extra threat from the healing on Siphon Life and on Haunt).

Bosses you should trounce the rest of the DPS on and you'll pull aggro if you're not very careful with soulshatter, are Heigen and Malygos. The boss you will do absolutely horrible on is Gothik. Your trash DPS will mostly be sorry relative to a destro lock.

Gear
Spellpower. That is the stat you are after on gear, plain and simple. Haste is a little better than Crit, but you shouldn't go out of your way for either. I personally like to try to keep them about even (500 haste / 500 crit is a decent goal to shoot for, with 2400 spellpower self-buffed with felarmor). Often there is nearly equivalent gear for a slot where one will have SP, Crit, Haste but no spirit, and another will have SP, Crit or Haste, and Spirit - the item with spirit is better.

Tips
Cast UA then Immolate always as a unit - treat them as a single DOT. This will make keeping all your dots up easier as it effectively makes them into a single dot as far as keeping track goes.

Stop casting immolate when the boss is at 35%.

Drain Soul below 25%, but keep all of your dots up. Interrupt drain soul to reapply dots, but be sure to break it immediately after a tick of damage.

Glyphs should be Corruption, Siphon Life, and Immolate. That combination is the highest DPS you can get from glyphs for affliction at the moment.

Use either Potion of Wild Magic or Potion of Speed in the execute range below 25%, this will yield the highest DPS increase.

Do NOT use Life Tap for the bonus damage from 4 piece T7 - use it to get extra mana back so you have to tap less. What I usually do is tap when I get to about 40% mana, then tap again before the buff wears off, then tap again before the buff wears off all while casting in between. You may have to repeat that sequence twice. If you end the fight with zero mana the instant the boss dies, you win the mini-game.

Teleport on opposite side of the gate for Gothik lets you get more DPS time on the boss. Teleport in the middle of the platform on Malygos lets you get out of the Vortex and continue to DPS (careful of threat).

Infernal right after a decimate on Gluth positively owns the adds.

Go practice on a Dummy. Ignore the DPS numbers that you generate. Lifetap or whatever you need to do so that you can DPS the dummy for 5 minutes uninterrupted. Look at your recount and calculate your DOT uptime for all of your dots including immolate. Write it down and repeat the exercise until you can consistently keep an uptime of 85%+ for all your dots.

Exusme, why Stop casting immolate when the boss is at 35%. I don't understand.

[erinthea]

you stop casting immolate because its dpct is at the very most equal to drain soul...therefore its a waste to drop drain soul to refresh immolate the more spellpower ya have the more difference drain soul has due to soul siphon and the 400% bonus

[tiberius]

Drain soul only gets the 400% dmg buff at or below 25%. the reason for stopping immolate at 35% is because of deaths embrace.

[Offsprngr]

Cause of Death's Embrace, at 35% you get 12% more shadow damage and since immo is fire and isn't counted as an affliction talent it is no longer viable.

[Kimbra]

Ooo.. Good, I had not never thought to us! I will try! Thx..

[Hanus]

Quick question.. which pet is better dps for affliciton.. imp of felpuppy?
Also, when you get Molten Core procs does it affect your imps fire bolts? I assume not.

[ksem]

Quick question.. which pet is better dps for affliciton.. imp of felpuppy?
Also, when you get Molten Core procs does it affect your imps fire bolts? I assume not.

In most cases the imp will do slightly more damage than the felpuppy. This is not the case for long fights where the imp may go oom or if he might die. However, if you do not have another lock or a disc priest, its better for the overall raid to have the felpuppy for the spirit buff. Also, I do not know for sure, but i do not think the imp's firebolt is affected by MC.

But remember, the Doomguard (if you have it) and infernal do far superior damage if they arent on CD. On fights like Patchwerk, many locks say the Doomguard is the best choice. For other fights or if its on CD, it is good practice to use the imp or felpuppy and then pop the infernal when the boss is 1 minute from death (tricky to estimate, but a good dps boost if done right).

[Deceptor]

Tryed #9´s suggestion but when i tryed it out on dummy i got higher dps if i didnt include coa and did coe instead, wouldnt coe also be better for the raid if we got a mage and ele shaman aswell?

[bored059]

Tryed #9´s suggestion but when i tryed it out on dummy i got higher dps if i didnt include coa and did coe instead, wouldnt coe also be better for the raid if we got a mage and ele shaman aswell?

how was your dot uptime? perhaps the only reason why you saw an increase was because you had a simpler rotation to maintain with the (leave and forget) coe over coa. Also, of all dots to clip, CoA is the one that hurts the most.