When to refresh dots as affliction?

[Badahs]

I still haven't seen any definitive answer on whether we should refresh UA or corruption when the following proc:

eradication
darkmoon card
lightweave
powertorrent

are there any rules for when to refresh the dots and when to leave them alone?

[Prez-]

Corruption refreshes itself every time you cast Shadow Bolt, or have a tick of Drain Soul, so don't worry about that. As for UA I'm not 100% sure so I'll wait to see if someone else with more knowledge would comment.

[drroastbeef]

eradication increases spell casting speed, not haste, by 20%, so refreshing dots while it is up would be pointless. DMC:V and PT both last for 12s, and lightweave lasts for 15s. Since UA is a 15s dot, and you should be casting so you "refresh" UA about the last second on the dot, it's likely you will always get a buffed UA out during these procs. Haunt has an 8s cooldown and it refreshes Corruption, so you'll probably get a buffed corruption out as well, maybe not if you're very far away from your target.


EDIT: did some searching, and it seems eradication actually increases spell haste. However, even though it would affect your dots it would likely only give you one extra tick, and the shadowbolt cast time you would lose refreshing corr/ua early isn't outweighed by one tick of either spell. Eradication lasts 10s, so it's still likely you'll get some hasted dots during an encounter, but i typically try to fill my eradication procs w/ as many SB as possible.

[Dotspwn]

i use the addon ForteXorcist that allows me to track my dots and when the ideal time for a refresh comes up (dots are at their last tick) it will flash at me, that's when i always refresh my dots despite what buff is up

[Viled]

Umm all dots and hots now update with whatever buff you have instantly. Aka whenever u get eradication all you dots previously casted will be affected by it as if you applied them with the buff. Welcome to 4.0

[Cactrot]

Umm all dots and hots now update with whatever buff you have instantly. Aka whenever u get eradication all you dots previously casted will be affected by it as if you applied them with the buff. Welcome to 4.0

I'm 99% sure this is incorrect.

[Harsesis]

Wrong dots update debuffs on the target on a per tick basis. All buffs on you are snapshotted when the dot is cast. If this was true we would see ticks getting added mid dot from procs.

[Aedail]

Umm all dots and hots now update with whatever buff you have instantly. Aka whenever u get eradication all you dots previously casted will be affected by it as if you applied them with the buff. Welcome to 4.0

Wrong. This is true for DE-buffs only, on whatever target you're attacking. Buffs on you the player do not instantly update existing DoTs.

[Jahrastafari]

Umm all dots and hots now update with whatever buff you have instantly. Aka whenever u get eradication all you dots previously casted will be affected by it as if you applied them with the buff. Welcome to 4.0

This isn't correct.

[Badahs]

buffs on the caster are taken into account when the dot is cast
debuffs on the recipient are taken into account per tick

[nocturnus]

buffs on the caster are taken into account when the dot is cast
debuffs on the recipient are taken into account per tick

This is the only correct answer so far, you ill informed warlocks you.

[rutiene]

Except for Shadow and Flame which doesn't update until dot is reapplied. How many times are we going to have to say this? I've only been reading this forum for a week and I've seen it corrected 4 times.

I never refresh my dots except for IF UA has only 2 ticks left in it, but BL is about to fall off. Other than that, I just time BoD application with my trinkets, since those are on a 1min/2min timer (which lines up perfectly with BoD).

[Manguadi]

Woah there are some shady sayings here.

Definitive, tested information:

- Eradication will update all currently ticking dots. You can test this on a target dummy by hovering over the dot icon on the target where it will tell you that you get one tick per x seconds, and when eradication procs this number will decrease automagically. Eradication requires no work on your part to optimize. When eradication falls, dots will revert to normal ticking time.

- Do not ever clip a dot when a proc comes up. None of your procs are powerful enough to add even an extra ticks worth of damage, so even shaving a single tick is not worth it. For example, unstable affliction has an sp coefficient of 0.2. A 1600 int boost will increase its damage per tick by 320, plus a little more for the crit increase. All of our procs last long enough that you will have the opportunity to refresh them normally in all but the rarest of cases, and they are all short enough that you are unlikely to be able to refresh them, without clipping, twice if you cast the dot at the beginning and the end of the buff. Even a dot like bane of doom with an sp coefficient of 0.88 is not worth clipping even a tick early. For most players, BoD will tick between 14k and 16k per tick, non crit. In order to get an extra ticks worth of damage from procs, you would need approximately 14,000 bonus int plus demon soul (14,000 * 0.88 * 1.2 ~ 15000).

- You can delay casting bane of doom until procs are active for a dps increase, but the longer you wait the less damage you gain. If you wait around 10 seconds for lightweave, power torrent, and dmc: v, your ticks will all do more, but you have to calculate the damage over 70 seconds instead of 60, and you wind up with a net gain of near 0.

- Shadow embrace updates like a normal debuff, that is, your dot damage will go up by 3% for each stack, regardless of when the dot was applied. Another easy thing to test on a dummy.

- Shadow and flame will not update like a normal debuff. You must already have this debuff active on the mob when you apply a dot in order for the crit bonus to be added. I didn't believe this (even though EJ asserted it was true) until I took a fair bit of time and a lot of dot casts to prove it to myself.


To sum it all up: play as if you don't have any procs at all, cast all your spells in dpet order, and refresh your dots just before the last tick happens. If you do this you will be playing right.

[rutiene]

- Shadow embrace updates like a normal debuff, that is, your dot damage will go up by 3% for each stack, regardless of when the dot was applied. Another easy thing to test on a dummy.

Err, yes I meant Shadow and Flame. Edited.

To sum it all up: play as if you don't have any procs at all, cast all your spells in dpet order, and refresh your dots just before the last tick happens. If you do this you will be playing right.

I will say that you should let BoD run through full duration half the time (DS and trinket charged).

[nocturnus]

manguadi is right. Dots automatically update based on your current haste levels. You can test this easily by either casting corr and waiting for a haste proc or just cast a proc and after use DI. You'll see that the dot automatically updates (e.g. goes from ticks every 2.3 seconds to ticks every 2.05 second).