Affliction: Learning to corrupt

[Warlocomotif]

So, TotT is only a dmg increasing buff. Call me a noob, but I am failing to understand how this relates to Corruption and its rolling crit...? I mean, other than the few moments of increased dmg, which is great, how does this effect warlocks the entire fight? i must be missing something here.

Corruption is refreshed using Everlasting Affliction (Shadow bolt, drain soul, haunt), whatever crit or damage % buffs you have on you when you first cast corruption stay in effect for corruption so long as corruption does not fall off. Read the first post for more details.

[Gerian]

I never thought to test this, but does Corruption benefit from a Spell Stone after the fact? Meaning, if I equip a crit stick (10m ToGC staff, 3x20 crit gems, Firestone) and switch back. Would test it myself but I'm at work :-\

[Goatonlb]

Yes, and it's been mentioned. Have a crit staff, with crit gems, and a crit stone for your opening sequence, and switch to your normal weapons after applying Corruption.

[Gerian]

Yes, and it's been mentioned. Have a crit staff, with crit gems, and a crit stone for your opening sequence, and switch to your normal weapons after applying Corruption.

I've seen no mention of the 1% damage from a spellstone rolling or refreshing.

[Goatonlb]

It's 1% dmg done by direct spells, not DoT's, and 49 crit rating. It doesn't matter how you get it, that's 49 crit rating that will roll with Corruption. If you swap to a different weapon with Spellstone on it instead, you'd lose 49 crit and gain the haste, but you'd still be rolling it on that spell.


EDIT: Oh snap, I misread what you meant, my bad. While what I said above should be true, I do not think so about the Spell Stone, as it's not a + DMG Buff that you receive.

[gherkin]

1% damage is a self buff, which is (as a rule) not refreshed. So which is better - 1% damage or 1.1% Crit? Almost universally the former.
Using a guildies numbers on Festergut:

Corruption(R10)	652,413	104	28.6%				104	6,273	68.2%		2.0%

Combat duration 3:33 means 652413 / 213 = 3063 DPS
1% damage means 3063 x 1.01 = 3094

OR

1.1% Crit means one extra critical strike instead of a normal hit. Average Crit = 7532, so we add half that to the total number for 3766 + 652413 / 213 = 3081 DPS

Spellstone wins.

[harky]

Yep, the 1% buff from Spellstone is not auto-refreshed. If you had Demo values on stones it might be worth it (~4% crit then). But, you don't. :P

[Warlocomotif]

Has anyone explicitly tested spellstone's damage modifier? If not I'll go do it sometime tonight or whatever.

[Deleted]

I've seen no mention of the 1% damage from a spellstone rolling or refreshing.

Good point. I would assume that it would roll, i.e if you weapon switch to gain crit from firestone you lose the +1% on that corruption. Given that firestone offers ~1.1% crit the spellstone would then be better at point of casting provided that

1.09 x (1.1/C) < 1/D
i.e.
C > 1.199 x D where C is the % crit chance of corruption and D is the rolling +Dmg buff on corruption.

With 4pcT10 and TotT D would be 25, with Death's Embrace as well it could reach 37. This would mean that if you have about 45% or more crit chance on corruption (which you should achieve just by popping NMIC on cast) that you would be better off sticking with spellstone rather than switching for a firestone. Of course, without Death's Embrace this figure drops to about 30%, the conclusion being that spellstone is better even in extreme circumstances.

Note: I'm only assuming that the spellstone buff rolls; if it doesn't then the above is nonsense.

Edit: Curse you all for getting in before me. Still, general formula gets me extra credit :P and no I haven't tested, I'm basing the assumption on the parity in description of this and the other rolling dmg modifiers.

[gherkin]

I have not tested it - the post above is an assumption.

[harky]

I haven't explicitly tested the Spellstone, but I have explicitly tested other +% damage modifiers (Tricks in particular) and since the spellstone on an equipped weapon is applied as a buff to you the assumption is that it works in the same manner. If someone wants to test it that's great, but it would be very odd if there was an explicit exception to DoT rolling that applied only to spellstones.

[leisurelarry]

This thread has been very helpful to me in upping my dps, appreciate all of your posts here.

[Gerian]

it would be very odd if there was an explicit exception to DoT rolling that applied only to spellstones.

With the way Bliz programs things, you'd be surprised. :P

[harky]

Not so much. Most 'errors' of these sorts are caused by too much simplicity. In this case it would be over-complexity causing the issue, which makes it look pretty unlikely to me. Easy enough to test though. Just make sure Haunt is up prior to the first Corruption tick.

[Gerian]

Confirmed the 1% is rolled over, not refreshed from Spellstone. Weapon swaps should probably not use the Firestone then.

[Warlocomotif]

The reason I ask is because there are some exceptions to the rule, generally speaking those exceptions are raid encounter specific (IE: Empowered Darkness), however the fact that exceptions to the rule exist is enough to warrant this actually being tested.

[edit] Also I don't put too much value into "Yes it updates", because i've seen way too many people say things that just aren't true; often either due to "well its obvious that it would", word of mouth, or poorly executed tests.

An easy to make mistake for this test is swapping in a weapon with a spellstone on it, or swapping out a weapon with a spellstone on it. Easy to make mistake being spellpower difference making up the difference.

Just tested it myself using an argent l
Normal damage: 1235 - 987
Spellstone damage: 1244 - 995
No weapon->corr->equip argent lance->refresh corr (DS): 1235 - 987
Argent lance->corr->unequip argent lance->refresh corr (DS): 1244 - 995

Damage did not increase after equiping spellstone while corruption was rolling.
Damage did not decrease after swapping out the spellstone while corruption was rolling.

So spellstone does roll. In the future when "confirming" something like this please either cite a source or describe the test method used + results.

[harky]

The exceptions are special mechanics. For instance, Empowered Darkness is not a % damage increase. It's a linked aura. You yourself do not have +150% damage, but anyone with Empowered Darkness is given +150% damage when attacking her. So, while the mechanic is special, it falls entirely under the rule of %damage debuffs. I actually can't think of any special cases that don't simply have a unique implementation of a normal mechanic.

[Malefic]

I know Corruption has a small bug and things like crit etc roll throughout the whole fight whenever it's applied, however I know sometimes it's beneficial to reapply it.

Just a quick question about 2 things I am not sure of.

Do I need to reapply it when I am bitten on Blood Queen Lana'thel?
Do I need to reapply it when T10 4pc procs?

Thanks in advance.

Moved from another topic

[Warlocomotif]

The exceptions are special mechanics. For instance, Empowered Darkness is not a % damage increase. It's a linked aura. You yourself do not have +150% damage, but anyone with Empowered Darkness is given +150% damage when attacking her. So, while the mechanic is special, it falls entirely under the rule of %damage debuffs. I actually can't think of any special cases that don't simply have a unique implementation of a normal mechanic.

You yourself have +150% damage to anyone with the opposing aura. Now it's not a straight "increases damage done by x%" like TotT, but neither is the spellstone. The spellstone is also a special mechanic by being DoT specific.

@ Bloodqueen: This rolls, meaning you do need to refresh corruption.

[harky]

Please reread what I said and take note that at no point are you ever given a buff which increases your damage by a percentage. The twins have a debuff which modulates their damage taken by people with corresponding buffs. Check the spell details if you must, Empowered Darkness does not give you a damage buff. Spellstone is in fact a straight +% damage buff. Only working on specific spells doesn't change anything, it's a %damage buff applied to you. Most %damage buffs in the game are spell specific as well. They're called talents.

Fun trick: Make two Afflic specs one with a bunch of crappy talents, but make sure it gets Everlasting Affliction. Go to a dummy with low enough haste that you can DoT a dummy, get out of combat, switch specs, then use a potion and Haunt before Corruption drops. You can roll a Corruption from your other spec.