Noob Warlock Question

[Korzair]

Where to start... well first I'd like to say I've taken the time to read the stickies and to a lesser extent post on these boards from the first to about the fourth page to see if I could get a simple answer to my question.

First off, I'm terrible at math, horrid, horrid at numbers so trying to comprehend and understand theorycrafting from ElitistJerks with other forums and threads just confuse me even more. Right now I'm looking at different peoples opinions and ideals on what a good rotation for an Affliction Warlock is. Only problem is I'm usually removed from groups because ether my dps is only around 4-5k on Lv 85 dungeons or when I try and ask for help or get into a debate in the group people tell me I shouldn't be following ElitistJerks list on what to find in stats from the most important too the least important. 7 out of 10 people have told me I should be putting my stats into Mastery then Crit instead of Haste.

I'm an old player from Vanilla and just recently got back, I'm also a point and click player as well, playing on a laptop so I tend to judge all of my spells from what people have told me too the latency on me clicks from one spell to the next. (I don't have a mouse for my laptop and I'm terrible at keybinding)

I'm terrible at math and I can't make heads or tails with any these newer changes. Right now I'm in iLv 333 and below.

If anyone is willing to help and would like to take a peak at my character, this is my profile on the Armory. Character Profile. I'm in the midst of getting rep up to get better suited gear for my Warlock.

Again I understand that there are stickies on the Warlock board but again I can't make heads or tails of any of them. Instead of spamming the same question in each thread I'd thought it'd be best suited to post this instead.

[Natrii]

For right now Int and Haste are king stats for affliction. As for a rotation, maintain your dots and hunt(and ISF atm) and SB filler replace SB with Drainsoul sub 25 percent. For multi target, I usually soulswap onto a second target and just line up and single target the first, moving mob to mob. Unless it is a bunch of weak adds(parasites on Magmaw for example) then I use tab seed tab seed.

[Alistelle]

I sympathize with playing on a laptop, I did all of my early raid tanking on a laptop. If you can afford a wireless mouse for your laptop, I would recommend putting the time and effort into learning how to keybind/mouse turn. It's annoying and tough to realign yourself to a new way of moving (I raged at my boyfriend for maybe an hour when he keybound all my moves) but your reactions and mobility are much faster.

That said, if you're having difficulty with affliction you might consider trying destruction or demonology. I've been almost strictly destruction since WotLK, and have been getting better numbers with that rotation in Cata. If you enjoy Affliction more, try installing a DoT tracker add on, just to make sure that you're keeping track of all your dots. If all else fails, practice practice.

[gherkin]

Your random warlock on your realm usually doesn't read the math (and is just as bad as you say you are). You came to the right place.

Haste is king for Affliction by a large margin, and you can't go wrong stacking it in other specs as well (despite some of them getting marginally bigger numbers from other stats). (Note that this is not applying to you end game raiders so please dont jump down my back on this)

You should read EJ to learn what spells to prioritize and what buttons to ignore, and other tips and tricks. However, you should know that recasting a dot on a target that is going to die soon is a waste - it won't do enough damage in the time remaining to count for shit.

As Alistelle said, try Destruction out too. Its much more straightforward and much more forgiving in 5 mans.

[ikshaar]

Just on the gear, your reforging does not make sense. You have items reforged to add hit and some to remove hit at same time. At your level, to do dungeons, you only need 6% hit. 17% hit is for raid bosses - which you are not gear for now anyway.

So you can follow EJ thread but target 6% hit and then focus on haste and mastery, then crit.

You say you are a point-and-click guy and that you don't have a mouse... which one is it ? anyway, invest in a mouse.

Also install an addon which show your DoT (eg. dotimers or similar) so you DoT are up all the time. Key to Afflic DPS is to keep your DoTs up all the time.

Also you are in a guild level 11, might want to ask a fellow warlock of your guild for his rotation...

[Thizzn]

You're almost NEVER going to be as good as you can if you're a clicker/keyboard turner. Even if you think its best for you, its not. I didn't like keybinding at first either and I didnt have a mouse for a while either, but you can move quicker, faster, use spells more effectively, and increase DPS dramatically.

Destro is always a good spec to start out with for subpar/ at par gear. Its a quick and easy rotation and not too hard to manage and figure out the spec, and its also kinda fun in pvp.
Afflic has always been my favorite spec, only cause its the only complicated/hard spec in my opinion, which could be totally wrong, but I just think its very fun and does good damage once you get the rotation down correctly.
Demo has ALWAYS been my least favorite. It has some good burst but the dmg is pretty shitty, and I just dont like it.

I know you're not looking for what spec to be, just trying to help out on what spec you might want to choose over what.
I just really recommend getting a mouse and keybinding. It makes reactions times way quicker and makes damage a lot better.

[Korzair]

Just on the gear, your reforging does not make sense. You have items reforged to add hit and some to remove hit at same time. At your level, to do dungeons, you only need 6% hit. 17% hit is for raid bosses - which you are not gear for now anyway.

So you can follow EJ thread but target 6% hit and then focus on haste and mastery, then crit.

You say you are a point-and-click guy and that you don't have a mouse... which one is it ? anyway, invest in a mouse.

Also install an addon which show your DoT (eg. dotimers or similar) so you DoT are up all the time. Key to Afflic DPS is to keep your DoTs up all the time.

Also you are in a guild level 11, might want to ask a fellow warlock of your guild for his rotation...

I use my track pad, the one you use your finger with? Comes built in to every laptop known to man.

Also I'm the only active Warlock and the only one in my guild who mains a Warlock.

---------- Post added 2011-01-19 at 03:07 PM ----------

Your random warlock on your realm usually doesn't read the math (and is just as bad as you say you are). You came to the right place.

Haste is king for Affliction by a large margin, and you can't go wrong stacking it in other specs as well (despite some of them getting marginally bigger numbers from other stats). (Note that this is not applying to you end game raiders so please dont jump down my back on this)

You should read EJ to learn what spells to prioritize and what buttons to ignore, and other tips and tricks. However, you should know that recasting a dot on a target that is going to die soon is a waste - it won't do enough damage in the time remaining to count for shit.

As Alistelle said, try Destruction out too. Its much more straightforward and much more forgiving in 5 mans.

I actually was Destruction through out WotLK and into Cata for sometime but since WotLK I've gone back and forth with both Affliction and Destro. Come to find out I do more damage as Aff then Destro. Too be brutality honest I've been playing WoW since release but I'm just a bad WoW player in truth. I've tried all the classes and the only one I'm attracted to is the Warlock Class. I can't stand Demo though.

I'm just not good at math, never was and never will be. It's why I'm a Concept/Graphic Artist and not working for Nasa or how to create worm hole travel :P

[Shuya82]

I do CoE > Shadow bolt > SB Soul fire > Corruption > Haunt > Unstable Affliction > Bane of Agony, then I spam shadow bolt untill haunt is about to fall off, then I refresh Haunt and UA because they last about the same. Rinse repeat except below 20% I change to drain life instead of shadow bolt (unless a free shadow bolt procs) Also make sure to not refresh bane of agony until it falls off because the hardest hitting tick is the last one.

Also make sure soul swap is glyphed and occasionally soul swap you dot's onto another target (always just before it dies, but sometimes mid fight as well) so you get twice the ticks. You wont pull threat and if you do just soul shatter.

Oh and stick with INT Haste, whoever told you otherwise is wrong, period. Also, if you are in a group that is just destroying an instance, your damage isn't going to be good on trash and that is ok, your numbers will shine on bosses.

[Korzair]

I do CoE > Shadow bolt > SB Soul fire > Corruption > Haunt > Unstable Affliction > Bane of Agony, then I spam shadow bolt untill haunt is about to fall off, then I refresh Haunt and UA because they last about the same. Rinse repeat except below 20% I change to drain life instead of shadow bolt (unless a free shadow bolt procs) Also make sure to not refresh bane of agony until it falls off because the hardest hitting tick is the last one.

Also make sure soul swap is glyphed and occasionally soul swap you dot's onto another target (always just before it dies, but sometimes mid fight as well) so you get twice the ticks. You wont pull threat and if you do just soul shatter.

Oh and stick with INT Haste, whoever told you otherwise is wrong, period. Also, if you are in a group that is just destroying an instance, your damage isn't going to be good on trash and that is ok, your numbers will shine on bosses.

That is one thing I didn't know until I read the helpful stickies and links here. That certain spells shouldn't be refreshed until they're off the target.

[ikshaar]

[QUOTE=Korzair;10154675]Also I'm the only active Warlock and the only one in my guild who mains a Warlock.[/COLOR]
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...aster/advanced

[Moriah]

and i thnk renewing ur dots in bad ways may also cause ur dps to drop.if you cant renew them good enough try letting them fall off then recast.basicly our dots have high dpct but low dps so dont sacrifice from ur dps spells (sb) to renew them when casting.