[6.2.3] Affliction Warlock Guide

[FurtyIRL]

that's not really a blanket statement.

It really depends on the rest of your raid comp. For most of HFC progression we ran 2 locks and we both ran Aff on the majority of fights. we ran destro on HFA, Kilrog, Gore, split on Iskar. Aff on everything else until manno. where we dropped to 1 lock and he ran Demo. ran destro on archi because we sucked at infernal damage. We used our locks to just sit on the bosses and let other classes handle AOE/cleave (2 warriors, 2 DKS, 2 SPs, 4 hunters, 2 rets and so on).

Fight is not a DPS race. Archie has roughly 520m hp on Mythic including his heal. This week we killed the boss in 6 minutes, with more or less BiS gear. Two of our warlocks played Affliction while one played Destruction. Damage on boss was 33m & 34m respectively from the afflocks vs. 27m from the destro lock. That's 1.45m raid DPS with those numbers for a 6m kill. If all three warlocks played Destruction and you alter their boss damage per second accordingly (from roughly 100k dps to Archimonde to around 87k) the boss takes like, 6 seconds longer to die. Affliction pulls further and further ahead the shorter the kill, but since your first kill was pre-upgrades (and therefore pre ring-max), I'm going to assume your kill was longer than 6 minutes. Since the inverse is true in that respect (destruction catches up the longer the fight due to the abundance of shadowburn cleaving and embers) a good Destruction lock should be heaps more valuable on a progression kill. Not only is Destruction far and away the best of any class/spec on Infernals, but it's more or less the best spec on every other priority mob in the fight as well.

To be entirely fair, Affliction can't really be messed up.

[Styxxa]

My decision was pretty simple. When we weren't casting lust on pull I went Destro and just did my job. When we started casting lust on pull I went Affliction and just did my job (but I was sure that others were handling my previous job).

[Ciremyk]

tbh, don't ever go 1 doomfire for progression, keep the lust for last phase and burn the boss down, if you have all battlerez you can ignore sources.

And yeah, stay destro for a first kill, infernal + void star is what will wipe you.

[Moruff]

Also if you run multiple destro, you're gimping each other since you're taking sburns away from each other. I guess any execute class in general suffers from this. Really just depends on having just enough for adds, then rest of raid is on boss.

[Deleted]

Also if you run multiple destro, you're gimping each other since you're taking sburns away from each other. I guess any execute class in general suffers from this. Really just depends on having just enough for adds, then rest of raid is on boss.

There comes a point though where you can have excess Shadowburns. If you get all your Havoc charges off and there are still dogs or whatever running around, you should return to attacking the boss in between snipes to maintain those embers. It's also pretty easy to guarantee at least 1 shadowburn on each Doomfire, Doomcaller etc.

Gear levels obviously skew this a bit, but do take into consideration that guilds still progressing at this point will also suffer from having a few / a lot of weak players. Having a bunch of execute classes doesn't always matter if people are slow to capitalise on opportunities.

I didn't really write this very well as I'm on my phone, but I hope my point was clear.

[Moruff]

Perhaps it was I that wasn't being clear. Definitely not arguing one spec over another. Just pointing out that if the argument for destro is its add dmg and dmg gain from sburn snipes, there comes a point where you can have overkill and its advantages are negated. When choosing your spec, just be smart about what your raid needs. If you're lacking add dmg in general then destro will be more useful. If adds are dying fast enough but you're getting extra mechanics at the end of phases then affliction might be better to push phases a bit faster.

[dholland662]

2 questions: do DoTs update with stat changes (like a haste proc or dark soul)?

And does the Doomguard as well? Or is the Doomguard even affected by your stats?

This seems to change every so often so double checking.

[Deleted]

2 questions: do DoTs update with stat changes (like a haste proc or dark soul)?

And does the Doomguard as well? Or is the Doomguard even affected by your stats?

This seems to change every so often so double checking.

1. yes
2. I think so

[JV Chequer]

2 questions: do DoTs update with stat changes (like a haste proc or dark soul)?

And does the Doomguard as well? Or is the Doomguard even affected by your stats?

This seems to change every so often so double checking.

Yes and Yes.

[dholland662]

Ty and ty.

Glad I don't have to reapply DoTs.

Well, kinda. It was fun when it lasted but it got out of hand.

[Djriff]

What about stuff that's in midair like chaos bolt, incinerate, or haunt? Say I launch Haunt then pot and pop CD's before it hits, does it snapshot what it was when it left my hand or is dynamic as well?

[striderZA]

What about stuff that's in midair like chaos bolt, incinerate, or haunt? Say I launch Haunt then pot and pop CD's before it hits, does it snapshot what it was when it left my hand or is dynamic as well?

The direct damage from Chaos Bolt, Incinerate and Haunt is computed from your stats when the cast completed.

[Djriff]

The direct damage from Chaos Bolt, Incinerate and Haunt is computed from your stats when the cast completed.

That's what I thought. Thanks!

[Deleted]

That's what I thought. Thanks!

Many gnome slaves died to bring us this information.

[JV Chequer]

Many gnome slaves died to bring us this information.

What a Lovely day.

[Davycrocket]

Hey guys, quick question. I've seen warlocks using a addon that tells them when ever 4th soul shard (the double one) is about to occur. I've looked around and couldn't find it. Does anyone know what the addon is called?

Great guide btw

[striderZA]

Hey guys, quick question. I've seen warlocks using a addon that tells them when ever 4th soul shard (the double one) is about to occur. I've looked around and couldn't find it. Does anyone know what the addon is called?

Great guide btw

You can just use a weakaura:

dOd4caGELu1lvIyxKO2MsfZujsZwQUSIBlOddYofv2l1ULY(v9tLeggPQFdQLjQAOkP0GrnCOYbvsLtPuPJjkNdqTqaAPkj14eOLd0Iuk5PepMKEUqNgYuLyYqz6ixujrxvjjpdaxxKnQuQzPu0MjHTtQ0NLKVQKIPjP(oPI)cv9qLQmALW4bKlPeLBPuvxJe58cyLKY3uIQrPuyN5ILqlywWCXIc4gjO1poha6TGHI46qbkdqKLLPArnfj4WYaezrrQPsi42g7ETZNpF(ANpF(m4qjW25v1q0AH1za3ylCDOad4wBEE5BEMatZUx785ZNpF(85RD(85Ztd7ANpF(81oF(85RD(85Zx785ZNV25ZNpFTZNpF(ANpF(81UMfWPcb3kbWnwObiYcQHi8QWH46dnyoxMfimmeHGBqD8eiQQAaJUyYcbIQQgqxSqbWnwIeeLIwsXbpuxhOarcmngqlP2O70ilqjc2YO70il7b3WqecUfTKId(udrgqlQPibhIFbcBSqOWbZKfDqy0cVTsaNPh4Gz1aRpFTs7aqERy)6GwAPWciQQAaJoxMLfdQAb5TdwxxNhGGkTdaaRpRUwVvSFDqlDyimxSqq9PrUyjm1jKlMmzjIBuDXse1Q6JZLzYcgsHcKAQtbCXsyQtixmzYciK64ILWuNqUyYKffqQecU5ILWuNqUyYKLuCWhXnQgqlQDOy0flruRQpwwZ6w9sxXElXKLuCWR2HIrdOfq4(4ILWuNqUyYKjlimlcCQFwwabIfpVsGGujtwIwYRCMY6volOfDDUS68zMSb

You gain 125 shard-"bits" on every Nightfall proc, so whenever the counter is at x75 (i.e. 175, 275, etc.) you'll know that the next Nightfall will give you two shards.

[Davycrocket]

You can just use a weakaura:

dOd4caGELu1lvIyxKO2MsfZujsZwQUSIBlOddYofv2l1ULY(v9tLeggPQFdQLjQAOkP0GrnCOYbvsLtPuPJjkNdqTqaAPkj14eOLd0Iuk5PepMKEUqNgYuLyYqz6ixujrxvjjpdaxxKnQuQzPu0MjHTtQ0NLKVQKIPjP(oPI)cv9qLQmALW4bKlPeLBPuvxJe58cyLKY3uIQrPuyN5ILqlywWCXIc4gjO1poha6TGHI46qbkdqKLLPArnfj4WYaezrrQPsi42g7ETZNpF(ANpF(m4qjW25v1q0AH1za3ylCDOad4wBEE5BEMatZUx785ZNpF(85RD(85Ztd7ANpF(81oF(85RD(85Zx785ZNV25ZNpFTZNpF(ANpF(81UMfWPcb3kbWnwObiYcQHi8QWH46dnyoxMfimmeHGBqD8eiQQAaJUyYcbIQQgqxSqbWnwIeeLIwsXbpuxhOarcmngqlP2O70ilqjc2YO70il7b3WqecUfTKId(udrgqlQPibhIFbcBSqOWbZKfDqy0cVTsaNPh4Gz1aRpFTs7aqERy)6GwAPWciQQAaJoxMLfdQAb5TdwxxNhGGkTdaaRpRUwVvSFDqlDyimxSqq9PrUyjm1jKlMmzjIBuDXse1Q6JZLzYcgsHcKAQtbCXsyQtixmzYciK64ILWuNqUyYKffqQecU5ILWuNqUyYKLuCWhXnQgqlQDOy0flruRQpwwZ6w9sxXElXKLuCWR2HIrdOfq4(4ILWuNqUyYKjlimlcCQFwwabIfpVsGGujtwIwYRCMY6volOfDDUS68zMSb

You gain 125 shard-"bits" on every Nightfall proc, so whenever the counter is at x75 (i.e. 175, 275, etc.) you'll know that the next Nightfall will give you two shards.

Ty good sir

[stannix]

Got a quick question about the opener, what if your not given a longer pull timer and only a 10 sec pull timer? Do you soul burn + haunt then apply all dots manually then hit dark soul ect.?

[FurtyIRL]

Got a quick question about the opener, what if your not given a longer pull timer and only a 10 sec pull timer? Do you soul burn + haunt then apply all dots manually then hit dark soul ect.?

The main advantage of the 25s countdown is that it allows you to (usually) re-apply with SB:SS on your refresh rather than manually re-dotting. If you don't get an extra shard nothing changes in terms of the initial opener:

2.5 seconds before pull: Draenic Intellect Potion.
<2 seconds before pull: Pre-cast Haunt. This will apply Haunt to the target and give you the Haunting Spirits buff. If you are using a pet send it to attack while doing this.
<1 second before pull: Pre-cast Unstable Affliction.
On the pull: Cast Soulburn: Soul Swap which will immediately apply Corruption, Agony, and Unstable Affliction to your target. Your Unstable Affliction will have a full pandemic duration.
Hit Dark Soul: Misery
Cast Drain Soul.
Follow priority.