drain life = mind flay ?

[backdraft]

I've been doing some PTR testing and currently drain life is superior to shadow bolt as filler in affliction rotation with over 1k dps. SB is destro spell, but yeah - thats what was so special about it. And blizzard say they try to avoid class homogenisation...bull!@#$

Havent played beta but i want to know : Is this the new look of affliction@85 lvl - using drain life as priest's mind flay and popping SB on nightfall proc only and what do you think about that ?

[ComputerNerd]

PTR numbers are screwed up yet.
That is not intended, with shadowbolt for pve remaining the intended filler nuke.
We should see that corrected at some point.

[Deleted]

"We will probably see that corrected at some point."

fixed

[Takanami]

I noticed the same thing on ptr. I did remember that SB was said to be the intended filler still, so I just laughed to myself. Have a little fun with it, it's an interesting change for the warlock still and worth goofing around with. I also was never able to get affliction to compete with my demo and destro specs in terms of dps.. and thats with affliction glyphs for the affliction spec and destro pvp glyphs for the other two. In terms of that I am really hoping to see affliction numbers buffed, perhaps it will be in the way of shadow bolts.

[gherkin]

If anyone is still confused on this matter, think about this:

Why would they nerf Siphon Life, stating "Too much self healing means healers don't have to spend precious mana on you. New healing = revised self healing" as the reason and then immediately change your rotation to force you to heal yourself?

It's gonna get nerfed.

[Deleted]

It already got hit by ninja nerf. Quite huge one at that too.

WITHOUT debuff for me, it went from 1850 hits to 1400 hits. 1350 dmg less in 2,5 sec channel [less with eradication] is huge difference

[Deleted]

I actually tested it and like way more affliction with drain life as filler. Also in this way, soul burn has more of a use for affli for hell fast drain life nukes and also nightfall makes SO much more sense cause with the talent plus glyph the procas are way more than when using shadowbolt as a filler. In that case we dont even need to spec bane, only shadow and flame for max isntant SB damage and putting debuff on target. THen we can go put 1 point on mana feed or something. Drain Life as filler also helps as be better on add emergency burn phases (e.g. Saurfang) where shadow priests had it well while slow-cast afflictoin locks didnt. THats because lets say a SB's dmg = the sum of 3 DL ticks. But drain life's dmg is divided in 3 parts while u have to wait for the entire SB cast to finish so you can launch all of its dmg. if add dies quick yuo may end up casting and casting and casting and then "FAILED, target is dead". I think i pointed more than 1 or 2 reasons that make drain life feel like a more viable and LOGICAL and into the "spec's feeling and philosophy" filler. I will be so disappointed if they balance it out for SB to be filler.

[Deleted]

I actually tested it and like way more affliction with drain life as filler. Also in this way, soul burn has more of a use for affli for hell fast drain life nukes and also nightfall makes SO much more sense cause with the talent plus glyph the procas are way more than when using shadowbolt as a filler. In that case we dont even need to spec bane, only shadow and flame for max isntant SB damage and putting debuff on target. THen we can go put 1 point on mana feed or something. Drain Life as filler also helps as be better on add emergency burn phases (e.g. Saurfang) where shadow priests had it well while slow-cast afflictoin locks didnt. THats because lets say a SB's dmg = the sum of 3 DL ticks. But drain life's dmg is divided in 3 parts while u have to wait for the entire SB cast to finish so you can launch all of its dmg. if add dies quick yuo may end up casting and casting and casting and then "FAILED, target is dead". I think i pointed more than 1 or 2 reasons that make drain life feel like a more viable and LOGICAL and into the "spec's feeling and philosophy" filler. I will be so disappointed if they balance it out for SB to be filler.

as much as i agree with you, you will be disappointed

[Dethh]

I was on ptr last night and drain life was hitting for 1110 per tick but it channels so fast. Also it was critting for 3k on test dummy. Haste is kinda crazy on ptr I have 1.1 second incinerate casts. I also had 32-34k conflag crits. This is all self buffed. The drain life channels were soooo fast. Also 2.1 second soulfires. I was destro casting drain life just to see how fast it cast.

[Deleted]

Even everlasting affliction. Drain LIfe and haunt reset corruption. Every single talent and mechanic on affliction tree atm seems like shouting DL be the filler. ALso it can be like pets, each one for each spec. DL- affli, SB- demo, Incin- Destro. I dont know what yuo think guys but every thought i make about it, leads me to DL = affliction if it keeps doing = or > dmg than SB.

[Deleted]

Hmmm

Ive dont few test, and heh, Shadowbolt actually does now better dps then DL most of the times.

all include 5% crit debuff and CoE:

corr + SB > DL + Corr
Corr + SB = DL + haunt + Corr

Apparently DL only becomes better when target is FULLY dotted, and then by not muh really.

this is somewhat interesting i must say. Right now SB has equal DPS to DL.

Notice this:

DL refreshes Corr while SB doesnt
SB refreshes SE + 5% crit while DL doesnt

Do any of you think that blizzard intends for some.... mixed rotation ? As in using DL AND SB as main nukes?

From current numbers 1/3 SE and 2/3 bane tho it seems so.

With 3/3 bane and 3/3 SE numbers would most likely be similiar that means equal DL fully powered up = SB fully powered up

---------- Post added 2010-09-29 at 09:59 PM ----------

I was on ptr last night and drain life was hitting for 1110 per tick but it channels so fast. Also it was critting for 3k on test dummy. Haste is kinda crazy on ptr I have 1.1 second incinerate casts. I also had 32-34k conflag crits. This is all self buffed. The drain life channels were soooo fast. Also 2.1 second soulfires. I was destro casting drain life just to see how fast it cast.

i did up to 6,5k crits on dummy, now highest i got is 5300 actually seems about right considering how mind flay hits.

---------- Post added 2010-09-29 at 10:00 PM ----------

BTW remove buff from elemental invasion it doesnt give 50 haste rating, it gives some enormous ratings making you ast insanely fast, that + eradication + soul burn i had 0,65sec DL

[Shadowviper]

As much sense it would make for DL to be our filler and using Corruption glyph for free shadowbolts we would be too close to Shadow priest in playstyle. We are borderline . Might never know that they are making it so Drain Life is part of our main rotation. I wouldn't be too upset from it since it is an affliction spell and using a destro spell in an affliction spec always made me wonder.

[Deleted]

"DL refreshes Corr while SB doesnt
SB refreshes SE + 5% crit while DL doesnt" that makes me think DL= main filler, instant SB procs (which will be MANY using DL) also refresh SE (this helps you by making SE duration different than Haunt debuff duration cause say u cast haunt a LITTLE bit later than cd, and you stand max distance, SE debuff will drop while haunt is travelling to hit boss. so one insta SB to make SE duration start again and be different than haunt fixes this).

Other than that, DL on fully doted target crits 8800 for me.. thats WAY more than SB in a case where all ticks crit and still more if only 1 crits and the rest 2 are normal ticks.

Let's all vote for DL ppl!

[Deleted]

"DL refreshes Corr while SB doesnt
SB refreshes SE + 5% crit while DL doesnt" that makes me think DL= main filler, instant SB procs (which will be MANY using DL) also refresh SE (this helps you by making SE duration different than Haunt debuff duration cause say u cast haunt a LITTLE bit later than cd, and you stand max distance, SE debuff will drop while haunt is travelling to hit boss. so one insta SB to make SE duration start again and be different than haunt fixes this).

Other than that, DL on fully doted target crits 8800 for me.. thats WAY more than SB in a case where all ticks crit and still more if only 1 crits and the rest 2 are normal ticks.

Let's all vote for DL ppl!

try again, DL got nerfed, doesnt crit as much anymore. And make sure you dont have 2/3 DE as it bugs DL on targets under 25% hp

[Mudkiper]

Apparently DL only becomes better when target is FULLY dotted, and then by not muh really.

'Fully dotted'... Isn't that kinda.. you know, the whole point of affliction... ?

[Deleted]

With Haunt up, CoE up, and 3 stacks of Shadow embrace 2/3 My DL does 2224 hits which given 2,6 sec channel time equalls to 2566 DPS

Shadowbolt with CoE and nothing else with bane 3/3 and 2 second cast time doing 5200 hits does 2600 DPS.

Thus even after nerf to DL, a bit increase to mastery [+dot dmg] and corr/ua/boa and DL indeed does a little bit more dps.

During dps phase with demon soul from felhunter ATM it would be better to use dl.


EDIT:


and searing pain does 2615 dps XD although i put it for lolz due to its lack of scaling with affli and rather low coefficients


PS

DL might be better now due to increased BASE damage, which means in the long run SB will be better due to better coefficients

[ComputerNerd]

It was stated specifically in a blue post that shadowbolt will remain as the pve affliction filler.
Not least because they do not intend to turn us into shadow priest clones, where the bulk of our rotation becomes a carbon copy of dot and channel.
If that is the playstyle you want, then reroll since you are not happy playing a warlock.
The numbers are screwed up, they will be fixed, though why that is a concept so many are struggling to understand I do not know.

If being a "destruction" spell is the basis for your arguement, then you go try demonology without immolate, incinerate, and shadowbolt and tell me how you get on.

[sugarfree]

TS talks about class homogenization.

Yeah how many specs uses channeled spells as fillers?

And how many specs uses cast time nukes as fillers?

Move along.

[Deleted]

TS talks about class homogenization.

Yeah how many specs uses channeled spells as fillers?

And how many specs uses cast time nukes as fillers?

Move along.

1) all...
2) but one - sp


Anyways, as said, DL got ninja nerfed by 25%% afaik, thats how much elss dmg i do with it.

1400 hits down from 1850.

1400*100%/1850 = 75,67%, thus 24,23% nerf more or less.

[backdraft]

DL might be nerfed, but @ lvl 85 there is something else we have to take in mind - mastery rating. Affli's mastery increases damage-over-time effects dmg, so we might have to simply exchange our filler SB cuz of strong boosted drain life with the mastery.. anyways this just feels like shadow priest :S