Affliction trash dps?

[jfuze]

A friend of mine just switched to Affliction lock because his dps was lacking as Destro. He did 16k on the BH boss but we go in a heroic and he does 4k on trash.

What can he do so he doesnt fail in heroics and trash?

[Ninurta]

affliction has never and will never be as good on trash. Boss fights is the sweet spot for afflic the longer a fight lasts the better your dps.

In wrath as afflic in pre toc times even i would pretty much just sb trash or seed them thats it, dots only work when the mob is alive long enough for them to tick.

[Glnger]

affliction is just not as good as other specs in doing up front, direct damage

albeit this question has been asked 300000000000 times. any descent group by now is geared to the point that MOST trash is trivial, dies in a few seconds with proper silence on healing mobs. you do better dps on most mobs just casting shadow bolt than bothering to throw up all your dots

[Infernix]

SoC spam is all I do on most nonelite trash.

[ynkesfan2003]

get a demo/destro OS

[Deleted]

Soul swap works like a charm on trash. Easily bringing you over 10k dps. Dot the first mob, soul swap, put them on the second mob, start dotting the third mob. Use SB to keep up corruption rolling on all.

Regarding AoE: that's a different story. What puts me really high on the meters for AoE trashpacks is using Shadowflame on every cd, then spam SoC. Soulburn SoC is not worth it. If you can't stay in melee range to apply shadowflame, then put your demonic circle at max range and run in/out.

[Deleted]

I found affli dps to actually be on a U shaped curve relative to the dificulty of the fight (and to others).

For instance, at the start of Cata, when noone had gear and every pack was CC'd so only the one target was allive, DPS overall was low enough that you could be competative.

Then whilst people got gear, but still used CC, relative DPS dropped as fights became shorter and their was still only one target.

Now, some healers and tanks (esp. my guildies) just can't be bothered with CC anymore (heroics at least) and are just taking it all. With the nerf to AoE making it useless on all but "whelp packs", it's the cleaving classes that now start to shine. We can cleave too, in manner; DoT everything! CoE+Haunt on the mob which looks like it'll die last (you do have Jinx don't you?) and lob shadowbolts all over to spread some shadow embrace lovin'. And for the love of god, make sure ISF is kept up.

Now, I shouldn't have to say this, but you never know, don't do this straight off the bat with any random PuG you join, even if noone calls for CC you may need to do some in an emergency. Do a couple of packs and guage whether or not you think there's going to be trouble.

[Seclorum]

Soulburn Seed of Corruption is our real AOE.

Pick a target to focus, Soul fire for Improved Soulfire, Unstable afflic and Curse of Elements.
Soulburn SoC that target. Make sure its in the middle of the group of mobs.
Chain Cast Seed of Corruption while keeping Soul Fire up.

For 1-3 adds use Glyphed Soul Swap to spread Corruption, Unstable Afflic, and Bane of Agony around. Keep Haunt on your burn target and keep Soul fire buff up.

Really afflic played right doesnt do that much less damage than another class/spec. But its really annoying and mana intensive compared to say Demonology.

[Raqu]

Affliction is great on trash too! I sometimes reach up to 20k DPS if the pack consists of more than 2 mobs. Just dot everything and keep soulswap on CD.

[Uvorix]

get a demo/destro OS

This is exactly what i did. I love the aff playstyle, but i needed better trash damage. So i got a destro offspec which i occasionally use for bosses just to keep things fresh

[Seclorum]

This is exactly what i did. I love the aff playstyle, but i needed better trash damage. So i got a destro offspec which i occasionally use for bosses just to keep things fresh

Why would you pick DESTRO as better AOE? Cleave 2 target sure it can do it but afflic does it better with Soul Swap or hard casted rotations on 2 targets.

What about destro is attractive for aoe?

[Sitara]

Since Cataclysm, and the introduction of CC, I've yet to see "trash" that would go down by massive AOE's. CC is a lovely thing, lovely single target DPS (I'm Affliction, have been and always will be, unless they nerf Affliction to the point of stupidity, by then I just might throw down my wand and go home.) Now there are "some" pulls that you can AOE but they don't stay alive long enough to truly matter (IMO.)

Raiding with Affliction (again IMO) is fun. I don't go into heroics with the mind set that I'm going to totally blow up the DPS charts. Granted, some pugs will expect you to pull crazy numbers on trash that doesn't really live long enough to affect anything. I like the idea of CC, single target DPS and go on about it. I'd rather have a successful pull and CC than worrying about crazy numbers on the Recount. When raiding numbers matter, not saying they don't in Heroics but I wouldn't be going too crazy over it. Thank God this isn't WoTLK any longer, finally something new for a change.

[Uvorix]

Why would you pick DESTRO as better AOE? Cleave 2 target sure it can do it but afflic does it better with Soul Swap or hard casted rotations on 2 targets.

What about destro is attractive for aoe?

I like it better than Demo, i played it for like two weeks then dropped it... i rather play something i like a lot more than play something that i dont like and might get slightly higher damage.

[Deleted]

I have no problem getting 10k dps on trash in heroics as affliction.

My guess is that he simply can't be arsed. Affliction takes quite a bit of effort and attention, and you can't just AoE because the seed of corruption AoE damage radius is a massive 15 yards that will break all your CCs.

Even so, I do single target damage on trash and hit 10k. Your warlock is just being lazy!