What could possibly go wrong: Affliction?

[Ishimada]

Greetings warlock professionals. My problem mostly connects to my Affliction Warlock's DPS.

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte.../vincie/simple

Here is my Warlock's gear and some more stats:

Hit rating 16.39% (0,61% missing from hitcap)
Haste rating 14.42% unbuffed
Crit rating 12.29% unbuffed
Spell Power 5963 unbuffed, no FA
Mastery is 12.34.

The biggest problem is really the DPS. Yesterday in Argaloth fight, I'm doing merely 13k DPS and I was 5th in DPS. I'm lazy to take screenshot from Recount, but I tell some %:s -
SB 30% - UA 24,4% - Corruption 14,7% - BoD 14,4% - Haunt 6,2% - Shadowflame (DOT) and DS both 4,6% (at the end yes I failed a little with DS) and Shadowflame itself 1,1%.

What I think: Biggest problem is mostly DI. I'm throwing it to our Assassination Rogue, I watched that my DI wasn't proccing, stacked only to 1. But about 9% from the DOT damage, it was 43,7%, about 5715 DPS, and if I had the DI all the time, would it be like 6230 DPS. So 500 more DPS, but well..

[Deleted]

It would be better to see what your DoT up time is like for each spell. I don't know if you can see this from Recount, I usually check mine from raiding logs once they are uploaded to World of Logs. Maintaining as close to 100% up time is where you are going to see the greatest DPS increase. I think simcraft assumes a 95% uptime for DoT spells so that is what you would be aiming for in a perfect scenario with no lag, no movement etc. Issues such as letting Haunt drop off at all will also cripple your DPS.

Have you simmed your affliction spec with your current gear to see what sort of DPS you should be aiming at?

[Zoldor]

I would check DI lists. If you google DI priority list you might find a better person to put it on. I normally toss it on my Resto Druid and it stays stacked in that scenario. There are a bunch of better choices than the Rogue for sure. EJ has a list and so does a few other places. Stack int other than that, like others said uptime on DoTs and always be casting something....Drain Soul under 25% don't forget your other demons etc.

[stuckinwell]

Gherkin's Guide to Dark Intent usage. I post this for the convenience of all readers.

[ynkesfan2003]

I would check DI lists. If you google DI priority list you might find a better person to put it on. I normally toss it on my Resto Druid and it stays stacked in that scenario. There are a bunch of better choices than the Rogue for sure. EJ has a list and so does a few other places. Stack int other than that, like others said uptime on DoTs and always be casting something....Drain Soul under 25% don't forget your other demons etc.

Give credit where it's due, EJ uses Gherkins list.

[ManiacL]

Just tossing this here, I would never put DI on anything besides the healer. If the healer already has it, put it on a mage, pally, or boomkin. Putting it on a rogue seems like too much of a waste, seeing as how on just a normal Ret Pally, I'll usually get all 3 procs from it.

[Spookyfish]

Get yourself hit capped.
You miss with Haunt, it is a sad day

[Syck]

Your hit rating is fine. The problem you have is crappy dot uptime, if those figures you posted are right. SB should never be your highest damage ability as Aff, especially by that much.

[Ishimada]

Get yourself hit capped.
You miss with Haunt, it is a sad day

Have missed Haunt only on Chimaeron when my brain works too slow.

And best place I have put my DI are SPriest. We don't have Retri Paladin, or Resto Druid, SPriest is only sometimes and Balance.. No.

And my DoT uptime should be full. Haunt refreshes always my Corruption, after 25% DS is refreshing UA, and I refresh myself BoD and Shadowflame when it's good to use.

Pet is btw Succubus, as it should be.

[Deleted]

Have missed Haunt only on Chimaeron when my brain works too slow.

And best place I have put my DI are SPriest. We don't have Retri Paladin, or Resto Druid, SPriest is only sometimes and Balance.. No.

And my DoT uptime should be full. Haunt refreshes always my Corruption, after 25% DS is refreshing UA, and I refresh myself BoD and Shadowflame when it's good to use.

Pet is btw Succubus, as it should be.

If you say you have pretty much 100% uptime on your dots, then there is only bad RNG. Seing your BH "log", something is off. Corr and UA dmg should be nearly identical, with UA generally only being slightly ahead Corr. Blame that on either bad RNG, or corr for some reason had poor, like 60%, uptime.

Poor Corr uptime, poor DI, and LOW Drain Soul dmg can easily result in that dps result

[Deleted]

For me is the same. I use Destru because I do the best dps with this spec. I like Afliction very much but I do always less dps than destru.

[Inshabel]

Just tossing this here, I would never put DI on anything besides the healer. If the healer already has it, put it on a mage, pally, or boomkin. Putting it on a rogue seems like too much of a waste, seeing as how on just a normal Ret Pally, I'll usually get all 3 procs from it.

Shadowpriest?

[Deleted]

Druids and Shaman healers are great targets for DI, Priest and Paladins not so much. In general it's best to refer to the sticky thread for a general idea then use your own judgement with regard to specific players.

Priests bad? Disc prolly, but ever heard of Renew?
And yes. For selecting DI target, go and read the sticky. Just always remember: Gear, skill and other factors must be accounted for prior to choosing DI target.

[Ishimada]

I have heard of Renew, but I was under the impression that it was one of the Holy Priest's rarely-used spells. Also, I don't think Echo of Light can proc DI even if it does gain from it so, again, they're not the best of choices.

Resto Druid is best, second is (I merely remember) Holy Priest as raid healer with PoH glyph. Shaman > Holy Priest as tankhealer > Discpriest > Holypaladin

We have 2 Warlock's in raid, I'm the Affliction one, and the other is Destruction.

I have read the sticky, I read the EJ link. For the list, Assassination Rogue just were the best place to put my DI on our raid comp this day. My DPS is not crap in every fight, but my gear goes up, and it stays quite the same, my other raid just goes up.

[nocturnus]

Your hit rating is fine. The problem you have is crappy dot uptime, if those figures you posted are right. SB should never be your highest damage ability as Aff, especially by that much.

Aah how much ignorance on these forums... If on a fight like Argaloth SB isn't your highest damaging ability you're not playing correctly.
Your best DI targets are spriests, resto druids, feral druids and fire mages. The absolute best is spriest.


Ishmad, first of all, we can't really help you if you don't post a WoL/WWS parse mate.

By looking at your stats, you shouldn't be doing this badly. Sure, your gemming is not perfect and your enchants aren't the best. But that shouldn't result in such low dps.

Post a log and we can scrutinize what's going wrong.

[Deleted]

Firstly it would help if you said some of the other classes that are in the raid as there's surely something that will give you better uptime on DI than an assassination rogue. If you're giving it to a rogue over a resto druid, holy priest or resto shaman for example you're pretty much kicking yourself in the nuts.

For affliction now you don't even need to analyze wws to see reasons why your dps is low. Some of the common reasons are:

1) Low dot uptime
2) Clipping dots before the last tick (actually very hard to do now)
3) Bad choice of DI - if the target doesn't keep it up you are severely going to be lacking because of it
4) Poor use of spells, ie life tapping when you have trinkets procced, using fel flame to refresh UA
5) Not even using all your spells, racials and cds (infernal, demon soul, pots, etc)

Go through each of these and I'm confident you'll find the cause to your low dps.

[Ishimada]

1) Low dot uptime

Not a problem I guess

2) Clipping dots before the last tick (actually very hard to do now)

This could be one of the biggest problems in this point. Usually it is the UA which goes like this. Corruption refreshes naturally with Haunt.

3) Bad choice of DI - if the target doesn't keep it up you are severely going to be lacking because of it

Big problem when raid comp is bad for my DI (Our ShadowPriest missing)

4) Poor use of spells, ie life tapping when you have trinkets procced, using fel flame to refresh UA

Not usually, only a little. Life Tap glyph added, and when needed, I use it after cast-time spell. Fel Flame only when I need to move (Argaloth, Atramedes etc.)

5) Not even using all your spells, racials and cds (infernal, demon soul, pots, etc)

Usually I'm not using potions on "faceroll" fights, like Argaloth. When I do use, it's naturally a little higher. And yes, I'm using my potion and possibly every CD I have active on Bloodlust / Time Warp (This fight didn't have Bloodlust which I added.)

[Meejum]

Greetings warlock professionals. My problem mostly connects to my Affliction Warlock's DPS.

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte.../vincie/simple

Here is my Warlock's gear and some more stats:

Hit rating 16.39% (0,61% missing from hitcap)
Haste rating 14.42% unbuffed
Crit rating 12.29% unbuffed
Spell Power 5963 unbuffed, no FA
Mastery is 12.34.

The biggest problem is really the DPS. Yesterday in Argaloth fight, I'm doing merely 13k DPS and I was 5th in DPS. I'm lazy to take screenshot from Recount, but I tell some %:s -
SB 30% - UA 24,4% - Corruption 14,7% - BoD 14,4% - Haunt 6,2% - Shadowflame (DOT) and DS both 4,6% (at the end yes I failed a little with DS) and Shadowflame itself 1,1%.

What I think: Biggest problem is mostly DI. I'm throwing it to our Assassination Rogue, I watched that my DI wasn't proccing, stacked only to 1. But about 9% from the DOT damage, it was 43,7%, about 5715 DPS, and if I had the DI all the time, would it be like 6230 DPS. So 500 more DPS, but well..

Recount was screwing up for me the other day for about a day or so. It wasn't considering any of my permanent pet damage as my damage, except, oddly, the ebon imp and infernal. It only affected me though, as others in the raid were able to see the succubus, in this case, damage, as attributed to me. It has never done that in the past, and I certainly didn't change any settings in the add-on. Recount has since started to work properly again, without me changing anything or doing anything but a restart.

If you continue to be "off" from what you have been accustomed to find, check with others in the raid to see if they have you in the same ballpark area, it could perhaps be an add-on issue. Otherwise, echoing others in the thread, get a log. You should be easily able to identify the problem, if there is one, with a log.

[ynkesfan2003]

Greetings warlock professionals. My problem mostly connects to my Affliction Warlock's DPS.

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte.../vincie/simple

Here is my Warlock's gear and some more stats:

Hit rating 16.39% (0,61% missing from hitcap)
Haste rating 14.42% unbuffed
Crit rating 12.29% unbuffed
Spell Power 5963 unbuffed, no FA
Mastery is 12.34.

The biggest problem is really the DPS. Yesterday in Argaloth fight, I'm doing merely 13k DPS and I was 5th in DPS. I'm lazy to take screenshot from Recount, but I tell some %:s -
SB 30% - UA 24,4% - Corruption 14,7% - BoD 14,4% - Haunt 6,2% - Shadowflame (DOT) and DS both 4,6% (at the end yes I failed a little with DS) and Shadowflame itself 1,1%.

What I think: Biggest problem is mostly DI. I'm throwing it to our Assassination Rogue, I watched that my DI wasn't proccing, stacked only to 1. But about 9% from the DOT damage, it was 43,7%, about 5715 DPS, and if I had the DI all the time, would it be like 6230 DPS. So 500 more DPS, but well..

no lash of pain?

[Veriu]

Greetings warlock professionals. My problem mostly connects to my Affliction Warlock's DPS.

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte.../vincie/simple

Here is my Warlock's gear and some more stats:

Hit rating 16.39% (0,61% missing from hitcap)
Haste rating 14.42% unbuffed
Crit rating 12.29% unbuffed
Spell Power 5963 unbuffed, no FA
Mastery is 12.34.

The biggest problem is really the DPS. Yesterday in Argaloth fight, I'm doing merely 13k DPS and I was 5th in DPS. I'm lazy to take screenshot from Recount, but I tell some %:s -
SB 30% - UA 24,4% - Corruption 14,7% - BoD 14,4% - Haunt 6,2% - Shadowflame (DOT) and DS both 4,6% (at the end yes I failed a little with DS) and Shadowflame itself 1,1%.

What I think: Biggest problem is mostly DI. I'm throwing it to our Assassination Rogue, I watched that my DI wasn't proccing, stacked only to 1. But about 9% from the DOT damage, it was 43,7%, about 5715 DPS, and if I had the DI all the time, would it be like 6230 DPS. So 500 more DPS, but well..

1 problem I see right off the bat....why are you casting SB? I see this so often, and can't figure out why people haven't learned that drain life>>>>>SB for affliction filler....here's the simcraft

http://elitistjerks.com/f80/t110222-...n_4_0_6_4_1_a/

while with zero movement, the difference isn't that big, scroll down to the results for any movement in the fight...what do you find? oh, Affdrain is now the 2nd highest dps spec, while affliction w/ SB is down at the bottom....

for those of you that are worried about clipping ticks, get gnosis or some other addon that shows ticks for channeled spells...or if you are really that worried, just let drain life go it's whole duration, not perfect, but drain life duration isn't that much longer than SB cast time now....

oh, and come 4.1, affdrain is looking like the highest dps spec over all....
http://www.simulationcraft.org/410/Warlock.html

Your gemming seems a bit off. If the bonus is less than 20 Intellect or 30 Rating (Haste/Hit/Crit/Mastery) for every Yellow / Blue socket then you should ignore it and put a +40 Intellect gem in there. The only exception to this is when you can reach another haste plateau (the next for you would be 20% I believe) in which case it's okay to put +40 haste gems in yellow sockets.

Other than this take a look at the Affliction sticky thread and see if there's anything you might have missed.

eh....that's a good rule, but really you should run simcraft and check to see your current stat scale factors and check if it's 30 mastery (30 haste/crit will always end up as a dps increase I think)....but depending on your gear, it is possible that 30 mastery + 20 haste + 20 int may end up being a dps loss compared to 40 int.

oh, and I'm pretty sure that affliction has no haste plateaus that actually matter...while yeah, at certain points your dots will gain another tick....why does that matter? as affliction, you should be keeping your dots up as close to 100% of the time as possible, so does it really matter if UA is ticking 14 times or 15? I mean, sure it's like maybe 2.something longer, so fewer casts of UA in a fight, but it isn't as big of a deal as it is for destro.

the reason why destro actually has plateaus, is because adding another tick to immolate, means that conflag hits for another 4k or so...it has almost nothing to do with having to recast immolate less or more often.