Ragnaros, Affliction and me

[Amarynth]

Hi guys,

I am playing as affliction warlock and I love it very much. But sometimes.. sometimes I only want to cry. Just sit in the corner and cry, whine. Not like the PVP rogues in their forum used to in former times, no, I mean: REAL crying. Yesterday was one of those days.

My guild has not killed Ragnaros (normal) so far but we didn't have much tries. Well, yesterday I had to kill those damn adds that spawn and run to the hammer. While I was hearing "If I had a hammer" on my mediaplayer I tried to kill the two that spawned at "my spot". But: How the hell I am supposed to not only DoT my two, no, but also get them down to 50% before they reach the hammer? Till my DoTs "work" they reached the hammer.

I managed to slow one, but meanwhile the other played Taliban and destroyed us infidels. That made me very sad I also thought about using Curse of Exhaustion but I read that the Snare would not work on them. So.. is there another possibility? How do other affliction warlocks slow the add(s)?

Ama

[Deleted]

It's unlikely you have to do it by yourself...anyway another reason it's better demonology than any other spec from ragnaros is because you can stun with your felguard and do some instant dmg with the felstorm. Those adds needs to be stunned until they reach 50% of health, then you're safe most likely. Those adds can be gripped too from DKs. Apart the slow from reaching 50% of their health, they can't be slowed

[Licarius]

Soul swap dots from rag before he disappears, cast on one add, send pet, dot up the second....

easy.

[kosuko]

Don't forget that affliction can still shoot instant soulfires just like the other specs, they can burst quite a bit still.
Also, tell your raidleader to change the assignments so that you don't have to take 2 adds, that's just lame.
Or just get a demo or even destro spec for the fight. The only 2 adds that i can see an affliction lock soloing are the 2 on the far right if the hammer falls left..

[Deleted]

I find that destro is best for me, I usually take the furthest add on the left, nuke it down with instant soulfire, immolate and conflag, then can get a shadowflame stun off on the next mob and nuke him down too. easy! overall dps may stuffer a bit, but he dies first time most weeks, so it's all good.

[Llyth]

what we did on normalwas numbering them 1-8, and each person except for our healers were responsible for one add each, which worked like a charm for us at least. Just make sure you're not responsible for the ones closest to the hammer (thats what we stupid mages are for!) and any spec should be fine.

[Samania]

Why do they have an aff lock taking two adds? Just curious if it's raid comp or what, but this can be really difficult for locks in general, and aff locks especially. (We have no burst! Or stuns!) But what Licarius said does help a lot, I always make sure to refresh all my DoTs and then soul swap right before Rag vanishes. I can usually get one down completely and get one down pretty far, but doing two is way difficult in affliction. Also, make sure you're on the farthest ones from the hammer. Any others will get by you in aff.

[LET JIMMY RAID]

Soul swap dots from rag before he disappears, cast on one add, send pet, dot up the second....

easy.

pretty much this. soul swap to the closest one, dot up another while your pet finishes off the first one. if there's a few grouped up, throw out a shadowflame.

[Kayman]

Im at the same state as you and our guild have him at 50%

I play affi on rag and my role is always the 2 targets furthest away from the hammer (if middle i go right)

so like Licarius said

Soul swap dots from rag before he disappears, cast on one add, send pet, dot up the second....

easy.

[Soloose]

Yes, this is very manageable as affliction, assuming the raid leader has you on back adds. You can solo the furthest two away easily if the hammer is left/right, and almost solo the back 2 on your side if the hammer is mid, granted someone else in the raid should have your back I would assume. Like others have said, I soul swap off Rag and exhale to the next to back add with my pet on it, then immediately enter a rotation onto the furthest add, shadowbolts and all. The next to the back add will end up slowed (below 50% health) and the melee or whoever else can finish it off and most likely you'll kill the furthest add before anyone else even has a chance to touch it.

[rijn dael]

We have never used assigned mobs on sons for dps, (although we do for stuns / deathgrips). Makes it a lot easier, affi lock always goes for the side with the most - or an assigned side if it is an even split.

I dot up the two-three furthest from the hammer, along with a healer and whoever else is in the area. It isn't our strength on normal, but they die with plenty time to spare. On heroic affi tends to be on the higher side of damage done to sons - and you (hopefully) have enough stun/deathgrip/knockbacks that it isn't really about burst.

[Hekili]

Something I've rarely seen done but that is a reasonable option is to Soulburn: Summon Succubus for the transition phase, if your raid needs the help. Succubus has a targetted AOE knockback that can help with multiple adds and help buy a little DPS time. You are just stuck with Succubus up for 45 seconds unless you hard-swap to Felhunter afterward.

It's not an ideal approach, but it's something that you can try to help out your raid.

[MaximusRex]

I do it 10 man as an Aff lock, but soling 2 adds is just crazy. I have the right side all the way forward, and I Soul Swap my dots off Rag as the transition starts, and also toggle the Felhunter so he runs over with me and will be there, as soon as my son goes active I Shadowflame, Soul Swap, CoE and Death Coil, then Haunt and Toss a Sbolt, then I start toss some dots on the one next to me, which our tank stuns. Adding in an instant Soulfire as suggested is probably not a bad idea. Trying to solo two as affliction I just don't think is going to happen.

[Amarynth]

Ok,

first: Thank you very much for your feedback. First I thought I would get some "OMFG N00B" posts, but I forgot that this is the forum of MMO-champion, not the official ones

Second: Many interesting ideas I read - especially the SoulSwap part. I think I will try it that way. To be honest, I really considered it to use in my last tries but as I was in panic (sometimes I was assigned to get the closest two adds next to the hammer in the middle) I was not able to establish a routine. I was simply... well, I already mentioned it: in panic.

Third: Just for the fun I tried the Demo yesterday. It's very fun to play but I just started, so I have a lot to learn. My goal is to have a second well trained build so I can swap if ever needed. I considered the guide posted here on forums as the warlock guide threads on EK were not there yesterday (I do not know why, perhaps a temporary problem or they were rewriting them for 4.3).

Ama


Update regarding the EJ threads: thread age was too old. Changed on control panel -> now visible.

[Deleted]

Something I've rarely seen done but that is a reasonable option is to Soulburn: Summon Succubus for the transition phase, if your raid needs the help. Succubus has a targetted AOE knockback that can help with multiple adds and help buy a little DPS time. You are just stuck with Succubus up for 45 seconds unless you hard-swap to Felhunter afterward.

It's not an ideal approach, but it's something that you can try to help out your raid.

That succubus thing is actually a good idea, especially on the second transition on 10m heroic where depending om group setup stuns and knockbacks can be scarce. We wait a bit so we can take 3rd seed, have him cast engulfing flames and then push him to about 35% before he submerges. Seeing as we need to stop dps at about 45% anyway and the pet doesn't help on aoe dps pulling up a succubus about 30 sec before the last seed should make sure soulburn: felhunter summon is back for the P3 burn and killing of scions.

[Destroman]

I find it easy to kill with demo, stun with fel gaurd then drop a hand of guldan on it then it should be at 50% about , its also wise to save meta for that. We have 5 dps taking 1 each and the tanks take 1 each and leave 1 for healers to stun, works for us

[kaelleria]

Where is your RL placing you... You have ramp up time, so should should be 3rd of 4 depending on the hammer drop away from the hammer. That should be plenty of time to nuke your add down for 50-60%. Heck... or lock was on the 2nd closest to the hammer for a while and was quite capable. If set up correctly, you'll have a burst dps right next to you to help out with multiple adds.

I'm guessing that since you haven't killed reg rag, your transition phases are pretty shoddy. Here's a tip,set it up so no one needs to pick different positions. Your tanks can very easily take the end adds, even on a left of right hammer. They have far more burst damage than a ramp up class... minus shadow priests.

Try something like this...

Hammer Center
tank - ramp dps - caster burst - melee burst |-| melee burst - caster burst - ramp dps - tank

Hammer Right
tank - ramp dps - ramp dps - caster burst - caster burst - melee burst |-| melee burst - tank

Hammer Left
tank - melee burst |-| melee burst - caster burst - caster burst - ramp dps - ramp dps - tank.
tank - caster

[Confined]

u can very easily handle 2adds, as most have said, just get your dots swapped from rag, dot one and ask your holy pala to stun the other while u dot it up, send the pet on one and haunt the other.
Both should be slowed enough to easily takem out after that.

[Licarius]

I do it 10 man as an Aff lock, but soling 2 adds is just crazy. I have the right side all the way forward, and I Soul Swap my dots off Rag as the transition starts, and also toggle the Felhunter so he runs over with me and will be there, as soon as my son goes active I Shadowflame, Soul Swap, CoE and Death Coil, then Haunt and Toss a Sbolt, then I start toss some dots on the one next to me, which our tank stuns. Adding in an instant Soulfire as suggested is probably not a bad idea. Trying to solo two as affliction I just don't think is going to happen.

I do this weekly....?

Furthest from the hammer or i get the furthest 2 on the left (if hammers in the middle)

It's really quite simple. I put bane of agony on rag as we're transitioning and soul swap that as it'll tick on a scion before doom will. (wasted global? maybe?)

then dot up the 2nd and either spam fel flame or 1 sbolt. (or instant soul fire for added confusion and unnecessary difficulty) by then all the adds are usually dead....

[Deleted]

As said before, the only way this is managable as Affli is if you're assigned to the 2 adds furthest away from the hammer.

The greater distance will allow your DoTs to tick and get them somewhere near to 50%, with some Sbolts/drain life/Fel flame thrown in time permitting.

You need to have CoA on Rag before you soul swap - Although BoD is a DPS increase single target wise, it takes too long to tick on the small adds - So soul swap UA, Corr, BoA from Rag to one of the adds, and then DoT the other one, and then use drain life/fel flame or shadowbolt if theres still time.

It's also helpful to Soul Swap from Rag at the last moment. It is possible to lose your soul swap buff if you do it too early, because it takes some time for the hammer to land, the fireballs to go to the furthest spawns, and then the sons of flame themselves spawning.