[5.4] Affliction Warlock and Encounter Specific Guides

[Teva]

Does this mean only Corruption nightfall procs will give us soul shards? :/

Drain Soul no longer energizes Soul Shards from the pets and guardians of players, and now deals 34% less damage. If other periodic Affliction damage effects are triggered by Drain Soul, they now deal 60% of their normal damage (down from 100%).

[Deleted]

No, it's only pets and guardians, so only matters in PvP.

[varren]

So I am a bit new to Aff. I have affdots and from what I understand

green = refresh the dot (will get full pandemic)
blue = refresh the dot (but it wont have pandemic)
yellow = do not refresh unless switching targets
red = don't refresh

I assume I should wait until the last possible second to refresh dots if its green/blue? Is there any situation where you would want to refresh a red/yellow dot early?

[Thelm]

So I am a bit new to Aff. I have affdots and from what I understand

green = refresh the dot (will get full pandemic)
blue = refresh the dot (but it wont have pandemic)
yellow = do not refresh unless switching targets
red = don't refresh

I assume I should wait until the last possible second to refresh dots if its green/blue? Is there any situation where you would want to refresh a red/yellow dot early?

In addition to affdots, you really should find a way to monitor your buffs (trinkets, jade spirit, etc). That way you know how much longer you have with your current buffs up, so you know how much longer you can wait to refresh them if they are green or if you can wait for it to go from blue to green and get it under pandemic.

(bad run-on sentence)

[varren]

In addition to affdots, you really should find a way to monitor your buffs (trinkets, jade spirit, etc). That way you know how much longer you have with your current buffs up, so you know how much longer you can wait to refresh them if they are green or if you can wait for it to go from blue to green and get it under pandemic.

(bad run-on sentence)

Yeah I get what you mean. Thanks.

[Deleted]

Hey guys, i've just gone Affliction again. Need to start getting used to this. Could someone please take a look on my armory and see if anything needs changing pls? oxo

[Bonkura]

gem keen/wicked in red sockets since 2x haste/mastery is better than 1x int (meaning you can always reforge your excess hit to either haste or mastery). stop stacking haste like its the only stat you need on your gear.

[EvreliaGaming]

Hey guys, i've just gone Affliction again. Need to start getting used to this. Could someone please take a look on my armory and see if anything needs changing pls? oxo

Try not to be over hit cap, it's better to be a tiny bit under than being over by that much. You should also try to bring your Mastery up a bit, 9778 Haste is fine for your gear.

[n00bslayer06]

probably like 90

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks so much for the guide!!

[Deleted]

Try not to be over hit cap, it's better to be a tiny bit under than being over by that much. You should also try to bring your Mastery up a bit, 9778 Haste is fine for your gear.

Thank you <3

[Teva]

Hey Afew Affliction Warlock's have been saying that Kardris' Toxic Totem will be really good for Affliction? What do you guys think?

[TheBGreene]

Hey Afew Affliction Warlock's have been saying that Kardris' Toxic Totem will be really good for Affliction? What do you guys think?

It has the potential to be good, but as everyone else says, until the final numbers pass and we have all of the information, it is all just speculation.

From what I have seen from the PTR though it does add some decent damage. We will know soon enough.

[Deleted]

The main reason I think it will be better that the other trinkets is the proc. A shorter duration with lower ''cooldown'' is so much better for pandemic than the Bindings proc, which is longer but less frequent.

I believe the passive is quite good as well. With 15,9% chance to proc on the heroic version, that should be 1/3 of that in extra damage, so 5,3%. It doesn't proc off pets though, so around 4,7% should be more accurate (assuming pet does about 10-12% of our damage).

Bindings passive on the other hand gives 2200-2300 secondary stats in full heroic gear, plus the crit amp. The stats is roughly a 4,1% damage gain simmed in my current gear. Obviously not completely accurate because of all the spell changes as well as different gear, but I think it won't deviate far. The crit amp, assuming 25% crit chance, is worth ~1,8% extra damage, but again doesn't benefit pets. So in total I would estimate Bindings passive about 5,7% damage gain.

BBoY is looking quite bad, the passive haste doesn't quite measure up to the other trinkets and it's proc is not that big compared to Wushoolay. In addition, heroic version of that is unobtainable for progress since it drops off Garrosh. For those reasons I think it's safe to ignore that one.

Cleave trinket is obviously situational. If you have 20 targets on top of each other it's amazing, single target it's terrible. I think it might have its uses, but there is no point analyzing it since it will depend so much on the fight.

That leaves the old trinkets. Wushoolay is looking amazing, with a 17k intellect proc on 1,21 RPPM. The passive hit is not that great, especially since it will be hard to stay under the cap when you get close to full hc t16 gear. However, that proc is so huge that I don't think I will drop it before progress is over.

Breath is not bad, but in the end its proc is just not big enough to compete with KTT/Bindings.

In any case, I think we should pass trinkets to other classes for a long time. Old trinkets are very good for our spec. KTT/Bindings both don't affect pets in some way, meaning other classes will likely benefit more from getting them.

TL;DR IMO Wushoolay > KTT > Bindings > Breath, with cleave being ok situationally.

[Werst]

Theoretically sac grimoire will fully benefit from KTT trinket (same w' cleave) but face the latest 10% nerf/handicap. I'd go with bindings + KTT unless you have a HC or HTF wush. If you are swapping main specs from say demo to aff and have a UVLS + chan/hydra then its a bit different. Most guilds will not go back for a HC/HTF wush so moving forward with an amp + KTT seems the smarter play it just depends where you are with your present gear.

[Deleted]

If you are currently running UVLS, I would highly recommend to get a backup. Wushoolay/Breath are looking way stronger in 5.4. Maybe for demo you can get the crit trinket quickly, which is believed to be off timeless isle.

[TheBGreene]

If you are currently running UVLS, I would highly recommend to get a backup. Wushoolay/Breath are looking way stronger in 5.4. Maybe for demo you can get the crit trinket quickly, which is believed to be off timeless isle.

Unfortunately for me I currently only have non tf normal breathe and wush so I will probably grab what I can when it drops in SoO.

[Deleted]

Theoretically sac grimoire will fully benefit from KTT trinket (same w' cleave) but face the latest 10% nerf/handicap. I'd go with bindings + KTT unless you have a HC or HTF wush. If you are swapping main specs from say demo to aff and have a UVLS + chan/hydra then its a bit different. Most guilds will not go back for a HC/HTF wush so moving forward with an amp + KTT seems the smarter play it just depends where you are with your present gear.

personally, i dont like the KTT. the proc is weaker than that of BBoY with the same rppm, so it comes down to whether or not the 14-15% to multistrike+12669 int proc vs 2100 haste+16860 int proc and i cant really see the multistrike benefit afflic as much as it does demo and destro but i guess it also depends on which secondary stat will be the best in 5.4.

[Deleted]

personally, i dont like the KTT. the proc is weaker than that of BBoY with the same rppm, so it comes down to whether or not the 14-15% to multistrike+12669 int proc vs 2100 haste+16860 int proc and i cant really see the multistrike benefit afflic as much as it does demo and destro but i guess it also depends on which secondary stat will be the best in 5.4.

BBoY heroic is not obtainable for progress though, that makes the trinket fall behind for me. How does multi-strike not benefit affliction as much as our other specs? The only reason it can be less effective is pet damage, and I don't think affliction has more pet damage than demo/destro?

[varren]

Is it ever ok to interrupt your MG/DS channel to refresh dots and/or cast Haunt or should you always let the channel finish?

[Deleted]

Is it ever ok to interrupt your MG/DS channel to refresh dots and/or cast Haunt or should you always let the channel finish?

It is (almost) always ok to interrupt them. Try to do it right after a tick, you lose very little that way. For DS, it's better if you can get the 2nd/4th/6th tick for the shard gain. You don't lose anything but a very small amount of mana, plus the time between ticks, by casting your dots/haunt in between and then starting a new channel.