New to the Warlock class, some questions.

[Master Guns]

Heya. I'm a long time player but I recently thought it'd be fun to level a Warlock alt. Well, less than a week ago he hit 80 and I've been farming heroics on him to get some decent gear, almost a 5k gs now, but his DPS seems a bit low, more than likely due to my limited knowledge of the class/rotation.
I'm doing instances with him as Aff, I think my self buffed SP is 2750 or around there, hit being at about 340. I was wondering if you guys could take a look at him and tell me if he's specced/gemmed/glyphed properly?
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...52&cn=Manabarr
Now, bear in mind, he is an alt, and yes, he has bad gear. Not even a week old yet. So keep that in mind when verbally raping me. And yes, I realize he has a PvP belt on, but it was leaps and bounds better than the blue quest reward from Sholzar basin I had. Heh. And no, I didn't pay anything for the pvp belt, it was a VoA drop.
My current rotation for Affliction is Corruption>UA>Haunt>CoA, then Shadow bolt Spamming while keeping up those dots. Is this right? Obviously I keep up life tap for the increased spell power.
Any help you guys could give me would be great.
BTW, is Aff the best spec for me right now with my gear level? Keep in mind I have 4 piece t9, if that'll make a difference.

[Lefeng]

First, slap a Chaotic Skyflare Diamond in your meta slot. In other gems slots, equip a maximum of two Purified Dreadstones to meet the meta requirement and fill all others with Runed Cardinal Ruby. If you are low on hit, equip only enough Veiled Ametrine to get capped. Most warlocks try to get the gem bonus only when it's 7 or 9 additional spell power. I think you've done that.

Your gear is fine, but when getting upgrades try to favor haste. Use the following flow chart to determine upgrades:

Hit to cap > Spell power > Haste > Crit > Sprit

[Master Guns]

Ok, thanks. Any comments on the rotation? I feel as if that's the reason my DPS is low, I don't really know a warlock rotation, I just kinda made the one I posted up myself based on logical thinking and how the globals flowed together.

[lukerocks]

edit. i saw your avatar thing.. i hate you

[Master Guns]

K?
Bad troll is bad. Making fun of avatars in threads is mature.

[fizikz]

Aff does terrible dps on trash, and not the greatest dps on 5 man bosses that die in ~20-30 seconds. I'd recommend a respec to demo or destro (I perfer demo, more stuff to do than just watch 2 cooldowns) but play what you like. 5 mans are lol and you shouldn't really need to spec for them. your dps should be better in raids when things live longer.

I haven't played affliction in a long time for PvE, so the rotation is probably different, but I think (for bosses) you should still start out with SB -> haunt -> dots because of shadow embrace. you can go look up the exact rotation on EJ if you want.

[JackalopeSpam]

Aff does terrible dps on trash, and not the greatest dps on 5 man bosses that die in ~20-30 seconds. I'd recommend a respec to demo or destro (I perfer demo, more stuff to do than just watch 2 cooldowns) but play what you like. 5 mans are lol and you shouldn't really need to spec for them. your dps should be better in raids when things live longer.

I haven't played affliction in a long time for PvE, so the rotation is probably different, but I think (for bosses) you should still start out with SB -> haunt -> dots because of shadow embrace. you can go look up the exact rotation on EJ if you want.

This is actually a big problem that bad Aff locks and Shadow Priests have. You don't want to start out with Corruption. Since it is a rolling DoT, you need to apply it only when all the Debuff's needed are present, else it will act as though Shadow Embrace was not there at all. So to start the rotation, use Shadowbolt/Haunt to get the Embrace up to 3 stacks, then apply Corruption and other DoTs. As far as maintaining the rotation, just make sure CoA, UA, Haunt, and (most importantly) Corruption are on the boss.

If you can, get your hands on the SP trinket from H-PoS final boss. You can then 'roll' the crit buff by activating the trinket before applying Corruption and then never let it fall off. So you'll have an added 20% crit chance or so constantly applied to your Corruption.

Like others have said, Aff sucks for 5-mans. Best you can do is hope a boss lasts long enough or spam Seed of Corruption on trash.

Another note, make sure you never clip CoA, the last tick of the DoT hits hardest.

[Zoots]

This is actually a big problem that bad Aff locks and Shadow Priests have. You don't want to start out with Corruption. Since it is a rolling DoT, you need to apply it only when all the Debuff's needed are present, else it will act as though Shadow Embrace was not there at all. So to start the rotation, use Shadowbolt/Haunt to get the Embrace up to 3 stacks, then apply Corruption and other DoTs. As far as maintaining the rotation, just make sure CoA, UA, Haunt, and (most importantly) Corruption are on the boss.

If you can, get your hands on the SP trinket from H-PoS final boss. You can then 'roll' the crit buff by activating the trinket before applying Corruption and then never let it fall off. So you'll have an added 20% crit chance or so constantly applied to your Corruption.

Like others have said, Aff sucks for 5-mans. Best you can do is hope a boss lasts long enough or spam Seed of Corruption on trash.

Another note, make sure you never clip CoA, the last tick of the DoT hits hardest.

Going to add to this, as the rotation was more generalized here. Firstly, if your still in 5 mans then affliction really isn't going to help you out much as the others have said. Stuff dies to fast before the dots really have a chance to really start stacking up. In fact, most beginner locks I suggest go destruction while they get used to not a rotation, but what is more what I call a spell priority system. The spell priority system is NOT a set rotation, but instead a cast order based upon the priority of the spell in relation to the others. From top priority to least.

1) Haunt
2) Corruption
3) Curse of Agony
4) Unstable Affliction
5) Drain Soul if Boss < 25% health
6) Shadow Bolt if Boss > 25% health

Jack mentioned to cast ShadowBolt around the Haunt cast. I've seen some arguments back and forth on this, but in my experience, in the long term I've found that making sure those other dots are ticking before your first shadowbolt cast adds more to dps than spending the casting time to get the 3 shadowbolt stacks up. Also, don't clip any of your dots if you can help it, nor should you stop casting Shadowbolt if a spell such as Corruption is about to end. Reason being you lose the dps you were going to have while casting Shadowbolt.

I'm not going to really comment on your gear because you seemed to shy away from people really commenting on it. Do please reconsider allowing yourself to be verbally raped though, a female Gnome verbally raping a Male BELF would be a hilarious mental picture.

[Master Guns]

How was I shying away from my gear being commented on? I asked in the OP for you TO verbally rape me. I want opinions, and I know how to take them. I'm no stranger around these boards, and certainly not to criticism. It's not like it's going to hurt my feelings, I've been 80 less than a week. /shrug. I know this alt is bad.

[Garrim]

Farm man. Farm farm farm. Your rotation seems fine but as affliction haste is your biggest stat, according to a spreadsheet (which might be bugged)haste is nearly a 2 EPV til 1900ish. That's not obtainable. I think the spreadsheet does that b/c at that much haste your corruption equals a 1 second GCD. At least that's the only thing I can think of. If you could have that you'd just push corruption as you jumped around. However haste is your biggest stat followed by SP then crit for your gear lvl like 90% of the time.

At least that's the way I remember the stats from my spreadsheet when I dinged 80 as affliction. I since then went destro which seems to preform better with badge gear then affliction.

Once you get higher gear levels affliction pulls ahead b/c of the amount of base haste on all your gear.

And PS: The Avatar...really man?

[ComputerNerd]

The socket bonus will determine the gem. If the item has a red socket, go by the average bonus per remaining socket.
If that bonus is equal to or greater to (I think) 3.5sp - ie a 7sp bonus for matching non-red sockets, then you try to match it.
Excluding any requirement for hit
- Red - Runed Cardinal Ruby.
- Yellow - Reckless Ametrine.
- Blue - Purified Dreadstone.

I noticed your pvp pieces, assuming they are just to fill in the gaps are stacking a lot of spirit.
I would have gone for the haste ones personally, same with the bracers which instead should be the bejewelled instead of the moonshroud.