CoE or CoA for arena (affliction)

[Balbaroy]

Hi, i was just wondering what locks use in arena? I was thinking CoE would lower resistance so you wouldn't need spell pen, and also save some GCD's (disregarding curse dispel here), but everyone still seems to be getting 130 spell pen. Just curious

[gherkin]

You get 130 spell pen so you arent required to pre-coe everything. That said, if you're ramping up burst with another caster then COE can make the difference between a kill or not, so pre-cast it to get ready.
CoA is a pressure curse. Something they can safely ignore right away but have to deal with when it gets up there.
Your main damage will come from UA and Corruption and Shadow Bolt.

[Balbaroy]

true, but im curious as to which curse is generally more useful. CoE increses damage from all sources and lowers their resistances. overall it's probably slightly less damage, and i don't run with another caster dps, but the GCDs you dont have to waste by recasting CoA might make it worthwhile. I guess im just wondering what locks prefer to use most of the time in arena.

[gherkin]

I would use COA myself because it's extra damage and does low enough damage to be safely ignored. Good de-cursers will let it go for 16 seconds then remove it before it gets to be a pain. Then when I needed the extra damage, I would swap it out for COE and go to town.

[HavocLock]

In arena I would say you are mostly using CoE and tossing tongues as needed. The utility curses are much more useful imo.

[ComputerNerd]

CoA would add to the pressure certainly though not quite on the same subject perhaps, but CoE could be useful to remove a spell reflect providing that you are not coming up against Spell Damage, otherwise perhaps Curse of Weakness.

[harky]

CoE/CoW/CoT. CoA is okay if a rogue is playing hide and seek and you know his cloak is down. You can toss it on him purely for the long duration keeping him out of stealth as much as possible. The resistance reduction isn't needed, but the magic debuff? Sexy. Especially lovely against Pally teams, CoE their partners, then CoT the Pally just before a burn, or right after a full stack of DoTs. You can really ruin someones day. CoA is meh, especially if you're running any wizard cleave variant, or shadowplay, or anything similar. Also against dispel happy players you can apply it after DoTs are up and the damage still applies. Very fun for screwing with people.

[Woony]

CoE against mages and against everything if you have another caster or a rogue in your team. If not, CoA.

[cronix]

Increasing all of your damage by 13% and negating any resistance buffs compared to 200-400 ticks of coa is a no brainer imho. For me coa is less than 15% of my damage so by increasing the other 85% by 13% is going to give you alot greater damage in the long run. That being said sometimes 200-400 dmg can be the difference between a kill or not. So its up to you. I also prefer having one less dot to worry about. Also if you are using your felhunter you may have him nom nom on their resistance buffs anyway, so again its 6 of one 1/2 a dozen of the other.

[Devaztator]

I do tend to agree that CoA/CoT is probably better for affliction in PvP, but then again I run with a rogue/paladin, so it's only my own damage it increases. And since I have haunt up and drain, I'm getting 20% DoT damage from that anyway.