How do you play an affliction warlock in heroics?

[coil222]

[Gahouf!]

One word: Multi dot. All right, maybe that's two words, but still, you get my point.

[harky]

A destro lock using single target dps, correctly dps'ing will come out ahead in any heroic before any other spec played equally as well. Spamming seed will probably get you just as far as dotting up a target, because you'll get about 3 off before a mob dies. You DO NOT want to seed unless there are 4 mobs or more not 2 or more. Multi dotting will do more damage overall on 3 mobs than seed.

Have you used seed recently? It doesn't sound like it. Three targets = ~9k DPS. Multi-dotting will only outperform that if the mobs last a long time. Destro will not be even close to keeping up, either. Seed is much stronger than you're implying.

Even in ICC on the aoe trash, you still use corruption on every mob but 1 and THEN apply seed to that remaining one for both shadow trance and eradication procs.

Uh... no. Not so much. Here's how it works: Seed's explosion hits harder than Corruption, or UA. If there are ever more targets to hit than their time to live divided by your corruption tick rate, then spamming Seed is better than using single target DoTs. That means on a 6 pull spamming Seed is a DPS gain over throwing up multiple Corruptions. The AOE packs in ICC are 6+. In heroics trash pulls lives <10 seconds. There's really no point dotting up anything more than a 2 pull. 3 pull needs to live a minimum of 10-12 seconds, 4 pull 12-15, 5 pull 15-18, 6 pull it's always a gain to seed spam.

This is the difference between me sitting at 12-16k DPS on ICC trash and some of our other Locks as 6-8k.

[Jenerena]

There yo go. Next!

[Deleted]

It is quite the challenge to pull of good dps just due to that if you are with a group that also are good dps , like burst dps, like Fury warrior or hunters then there going to have got the mobs very low before you get a chance to do any serious dps'ing but on bosses thats another story depending on the fight. + Nerf Destruction! it requires no skill

[purebalance]

Have you used seed recently? It doesn't sound like it. Three targets = ~9k DPS. Multi-dotting will only outperform that if the mobs last a long time. Destro will not be even close to keeping up, either. Seed is much stronger than you're implying.

Uh... no. Not so much. Here's how it works: Seed's explosion hits harder than Corruption, or UA. If there are ever more targets to hit than their time to live divided by your corruption tick rate, then spamming Seed is better than using single target DoTs. That means on a 6 pull spamming Seed is a DPS gain over throwing up multiple Corruptions. The AOE packs in ICC are 6+. In heroics trash pulls lives <10 seconds. There's really no point dotting up anything more than a 2 pull. 3 pull needs to live a minimum of 10-12 seconds, 4 pull 12-15, 5 pull 15-18, 6 pull it's always a gain to seed spam.

This is the difference between me sitting at 12-16k DPS on ICC trash and some of our other Locks as 6-8k.

And I pull 21k on ICC trash. The erradication procs speed up your SoC on the 1 target you do not toss corruption on AND you get a ton of nightfall procs. In the time it takes you to seed twice I've already done about 30k damage to a single target in a heroic as destro and that's under estimating. 3 targets is not 9k dps so I'd like some of what you're smoking unelss you're somehow in heroic ICC gear already which no you're not.

[wolfwood888]

Bind shadow bolt, corruption, agony, Unstable affliction, haunt, and seed to random buttons 1-6 and roll your face across the keyboard, if your numbers start to drop try pounding your face on your keyboard instead.

On a more serious note, 4+ spam seed, 3 use RoF, 2, dot up and S bolt spam the one everyone isn't attacking, 1 mob, either toss up a few dots if you think they will atleast tick half there duration, if not shadow bolt ftw.

[harky]

And I pull 21k on ICC trash.

12-16k is my average for all trash mobs up to Putricide. That's averaging things like full single target on dogs, the frost wyrm, small pulls of random crap, etc. That's not how much I'm putting out on AOE. In 10s I put out around 18k on the larger trash pulls, but I don't run Afflic at all in 25s, so you'll have to compare your 21k during AOE to my 30k+ spikes as Demo during any significantly large pull. You're not averaging 21k. You're getting that on the traps near putricide, the pack near the entrance to plague, the large 8 pull before Marrowgar, etc. You might come close to that on the other construct pulls and possibly the alliance packs if you get lucky. That's not what you're doing on average though. If it is I'd love to see a parse of your trash, but I find that extremely unlikely.

[DocKro]

put your face on the keyboard and roll

You registered just for that?

Enjoy your ban.

[MLX]

3+ typically = SoC, tab Soc, RoF

less than that sb > corr, and by then usually drain soul since theyre at <25%

I usually keep a steady overall 4k dps for heroics following that routine, considering even before heroic nerfs, they were designed to be completed with 2k dpsers, I'd say that's more than sufficient.

On Icc trash typically locks top the meters for dps. (in raids I have been in)

[Antares]

Seed>Tab>Seed>Tab>Seed>Tab>Rain of Fire

Or I just stand there. (I find I pull aggro in Randoms...Usually. So I wait for bosses to shine)

On bosses I go all out, full rotation.

[NAme0alt]

Worst dps out of all of them

[purebalance]

A spike of 30k DURING a pull doesn't mean you did that much dps on the pull.

Ending the pull with it saying 21-24k does mean it.

And to the rest of the mouth breathers replying with tab seed tab seed, lol @ you. You do not ever need to stop seeding the same target when you seed the main dps target since seed will instantly explode on impact. Hence getting erradication procs from the other mobs being hit with corruption is better since you get faster seed casts on the 1 target.

[harky]

Tab Seed is more reliable in heroics, which is what this topic is about. If you're pugging you can't reliably count on detonations to occur properly. You're also not dealing with anything that lives remotely long enough that tab dotting is efficient.

Oh and those 30k spikes? That's not mid pull, that's overall for a pull. The 'spike' is that pull. So again, post a parse because maintaining 20k+ average on ICC trash is well outside of anything I've been able to find in any parse, or anything I've seen in game. You'll be reaching that on certain individual pulls, but that's it. Again, if mobs hit exceeds maximum possible corruption ticks then seed spam is a DPS gain. You actually need fewer mobs than that, but it gets all complicated if you're lucky with Eradication and if mobs last longer than a single corruption lasts. Under normal circumstances on raid trash you shouldn't be tab dotting anything more than 3 mobs unless one mob has substantially higher priority than the others.

[purebalance]

Wow zomg suriously! Yall be so zomg 1337 if you can kill a single trash mob in an aoe pull in less than 8 seconds which is a GENEROUS length of time for before I get my first erradication proc off the about 6 corruptions I throw up. Odds are with 6 up, you're pretty much guaranteed erradication. Hence I do more damage on the pulls than the more geared lock who is also affliction on said pulls. But really keep thinking your made up numbers and parse searches have really happened.