Are locks more reliant on gear specifics or am I missing something?

[dredlox]

Hey folks,

Been awhile since I've posted here but curious about aff lock damage. I've played lock off and on since TBC and just recently starting Antorus with one as my main. Haven't had much time to play since legion launched until now do to real obligations so definitely behind on legendaries and gear. I have the spectacular pants, bracers, cloak, haste ring, and quest ring, and none of the recommended trinkets. I have one INT/MAS trinket and the trinket that stacks crit at the moment with only 2 piece T21.

My issue is that I've consistently, over the years, been able to at least hang above 70 percentile for my ilvl range but for the life of me, can't seem to break 40% in antorus, a few fights I get higher with multi-targets but it isn't consistent, but there is a clear gap of like 300 to 400k dps between myself and those above 70% for my ilvl range. Do the T20 set bonuses, recommended legendaries (ring, belt, hood), make that big of a difference? Those above me all seem to have consistent gearing in respect to those things or am I completely hosing the rotation?

Just curious if anyone noticed a significant difference with those items.

Thanks

[Biomega]

Do the T20 set bonuses, recommended legendaries (ring, belt, hood), make that big of a difference?

Yes, and also the trinkets. It's not uncommon for things to be skewed on a new tier, based on what gear people manage to get quickly, and also what gear carried over from the previous tier (since that means people with insanely optimized gear may end up in lower ilvl brackets as they are intentionally downranking their ilvl with old pieces).

[SpikeySquad]

Item level means so little now days and especially when you have people running around with 860 Arcanos still. Same item level can sim several hundreds different.

Affy is pretty non fussy when it comes to leggos compared to most specs. However, Affy is a scaler and tier, decent trinkets and generally well balanced high item level gear can make a world of difference.

Of course the rotation has also changed some what over time.

[Exodeus]

Mastery/haste > all for affli, if a item has vers instead of one of them it has to be almost 30 ilev higher to be better for example. T20 is really good even after nerf so keep that unless you get items way higher or t21 4 set.
Hood/belt is also a few % better then any other combo but also keep in mind that you need to change your talents from fight to fight.

[dredlox]

Mastery/haste > all for affli, if a item has vers instead of one of them it has to be almost 30 ilev higher to be better for example. T20 is really good even after nerf so keep that unless you get items way higher or t21 4 set.
Hood/belt is also a few % better then any other combo but also keep in mind that you need to change your talents from fight to fight.

That's my issue. I just started raiding in antorus, granted I don't do terrible but when compared to my ilvl range, it's horrific at best. Kind of annoying that best would be to go back and do ToS for tier or stay shit while I wait for different legendaries and 4pc t21. That seems to be the common consensus.

[Biomega]

That's my issue. I just started raiding in antorus, granted I don't do terrible but when compared to my ilvl range, it's horrific at best. Kind of annoying that best would be to go back and do ToS for tier or stay shit while I wait for different legendaries and 4pc t21. That seems to be the common consensus.

I'm a bit confused. It's always been like this. If you don't have the right gear, you do bad DPS. It's not like going back to ToS is going to magically fix that, the stat priorities didn't change with the new tier. And it's not like Antorus doesn't have the right gear in there, it totally does. Do Antorus and M+, and upgrade to more optimized pieces - you know, the same way it's ALWAYS done when gearing up.

[Trend]

Been awhile since I've posted here but curious about aff lock damage. I've played lock off and on since TBC and just recently starting Antorus with one as my main. Haven't had much time to play since legion launched until now do to real obligations so definitely behind on legendaries and gear. I have the spectacular pants, bracers, cloak, haste ring, and quest ring, and none of the recommended trinkets. I have one INT/MAS trinket and the trinket that stacks crit at the moment with only 2 piece T21.

My issue is that I've consistently, over the years, been able to at least hang above 70 percentile for my ilvl range but for the life of me, can't seem to break 40% in antorus, a few fights I get higher with multi-targets but it isn't consistent, but there is a clear gap of like 300 to 400k dps between myself and those above 70% for my ilvl range. Do the T20 set bonuses, recommended legendaries (ring, belt, hood), make that big of a difference? Those above me all seem to have consistent gearing in respect to those things or am I completely hosing the rotation?

With such little information provided, it is very hard to give any constructive feedback. But if you are around 920-935 ilvl (which is a total assumption on my part), I would find it very unlikely that swapping out legendaries and adding set bonuses would give you an additional 300k. I suppose it's possible that you have so few points in your weapon and your itemization is so poor that taken all together (with the legendaries and set bonuses) it would add up to something approaching those numbers. But I would guess you're not playing as optimally as you could be either. If you are more specific with either logs or even just some details about what boss (at least as an example) with the talents you're using, some people here are generally pretty helpful with advice.

Also, IMO, there is absolutely no need to collect old set bonuses to parse 70%. Sure, it's nice to have that extra 2-piece, but not necessary.

[Gaaz]

Affliction, just like several other classes is very dependent on a specific gear combination if you want to show very good log parses for your ilvl. Ideally, you would want either 4p t20 + 2p t21 or 2p t20 + 4p t21 sets. The t20 bonuses are very powerful and more than compensate any stat loss over t21 if you use same relative difficulty items. For example, my 955 warlock sims almost 100k higher with 900+915 t20 shoulders and gloves than if I would insert 945+ t21 set items to complete 4p bonus (I am lazy and only started raiding as a warlock this tier). Basically, you need t20 gear with as high item level as possible to compete for log standings. Arcanocrystal is insanely powerful for affliction as well. Sockets are worth 10-25 ilvls in stats, depending on gear. But because they do not increase your ilvl, they are also a huge boost in log standing. In general, if you aim to go for ilvl logs you should have:
1. t20 and t21 set pieces to choose best available combination.
2. Arcanocrystal (other trinkets are situational, but you can not go wrong with a socketed stat stick)
3. Have as many sockets as possible, as they give you a huge overall boost without raising ilvl.
4. Swap talents for each boss in Antorus. At the very least you should swap between pure single target and pure AoE builds.
5. Use rings or neck as your legendaries. They inflate your ilvl less than others, while providing some very good bonuses. Sephuz is very powerful anywhere where there are stuns or interrupts possible. But even if not, 2% haste and movement bonus are decent anyway. Corruption ring is powerful on any spread milti dot or if adds live for a long time. God send on bosses like Eonar. Class ring is good on general AoE, as well as bosses with low health burst phases when bloodlust / heroism are cast. Neck is an excellent stat stick in general. Belt is good, but robs you of burst UA spam or you will not get max benefit out of it. Hood is excellent in terms of overall DPS gain compared to non set gear, but takes a set slot that is much more valuable and raises ilvl.

Bear in mind, the above steps are not how you do your optimal DPS. These are to provide maximum DPS for your ilvl, which are not the same thing. Things like Arcanocrystal are extremely powerful in their ilvl brackets. But overall it will not compete with Antorus trinkets that are 50ilvls higher for pure damage. So, unless you have been extremely lucky with a titanforged crystal from a token, chances are, heroic trinkets from Antorus are going to outdamage it. At least some of them. But they will make your logs look worse.

[Biomega]

So this is what we've come to. Intentionally performing more poorly than you could, just to pad ilvl bracket rankings. Just let that sink in for a moment.

[Deleted]

In short. Affliction is currently the best spec for current tier raiding, But tier 21 sucks. tier 20 set bonus is such a major dmg increse that even with full 21 you wont come near 20. People run old content in hope of titanforged tier 20

[SpikeySquad]

In short. Affliction is currently the best spec for current tier raiding, But tier 21 sucks. tier 20 set bonus is such a major dmg increse that even with full 21 you wont come near 20. People run old content in hope of titanforged tier 20

This is so false in my experience. Perhaps your t21 is too low (you will probably need higher pieces), or you do not have helm, are still using Netherlord or haven't switched to SL on some fights? Mine is a significant damage increase in ST, MT and in dot builds in dungeons. That's also with the same overall item level of gear. Naturally it falls down a little when you go to a seed build but currently I have no need to use that in the raid.

Do you even know how bad T20 2 set is? It has a little more value on ST but when you generate over 100 soul shards on a fight and get approximately one a minute from the bonus it is inconsequential. The 4 set of course also even got nerfed.

http://lockonestopshop.com/#!/Affliction/Sims/Misc Yes, the T21 here uses higher item level but makes sense to me to replace heroic with heroic and so on.

Of course some people do still run T20 but there is no need.

[Lulbalance]

This is so false in my experience. Perhaps your t21 is too low (you will probably need higher pieces), or you do not have helm, are still using Netherlord or haven't switched to SL on some fights? Mine is a significant damage increase in ST, MT and in dot builds in dungeons. That's also with the same overall item level of gear. Naturally it falls down a little when you go to a seed build but currently I have no need to use that in the raid.

Do you even know how bad T20 2 set is? It has a little more value on ST but when you generate over 100 soul shards on a fight and get approximately one a minute from the bonus it is inconsequential. The 4 set of course also even got nerfed.

http://lockonestopshop.com/#!/Affliction/Sims/Misc Yes, the T21 here uses higher item level but makes sense to me to replace heroic with heroic and so on.

Of course some people do still run T20 but there is no need.

I agree with this. T21 is pretty good and SL is monstrous on some fights now in part because of 4pc.Dont forget t20 was ok but you built for it and we were all using whispers.

[dredlox]

Affliction, just like several other classes is very dependent on a specific gear combination if you want to show very good log parses for your ilvl. Ideally, you would want either 4p t20 + 2p t21 or 2p t20 + 4p t21 sets. The t20 bonuses are very powerful and more than compensate any stat loss over t21 if you use same relative difficulty items. For example, my 955 warlock sims almost 100k higher with 900+915 t20 shoulders and gloves than if I would insert 945+ t21 set items to complete 4p bonus (I am lazy and only started raiding as a warlock this tier). Basically, you need t20 gear with as high item level as possible to compete for log standings. Arcanocrystal is insanely powerful for affliction as well. Sockets are worth 10-25 ilvls in stats, depending on gear. But because they do not increase your ilvl, they are also a huge boost in log standing. In general, if you aim to go for ilvl logs you should have:
1. t20 and t21 set pieces to choose best available combination.
2. Arcanocrystal (other trinkets are situational, but you can not go wrong with a socketed stat stick)
3. Have as many sockets as possible, as they give you a huge overall boost without raising ilvl.
4. Swap talents for each boss in Antorus. At the very least you should swap between pure single target and pure AoE builds.
5. Use rings or neck as your legendaries. They inflate your ilvl less than others, while providing some very good bonuses. Sephuz is very powerful anywhere where there are stuns or interrupts possible. But even if not, 2% haste and movement bonus are decent anyway. Corruption ring is powerful on any spread milti dot or if adds live for a long time. God send on bosses like Eonar. Class ring is good on general AoE, as well as bosses with low health burst phases when bloodlust / heroism are cast. Neck is an excellent stat stick in general. Belt is good, but robs you of burst UA spam or you will not get max benefit out of it. Hood is excellent in terms of overall DPS gain compared to non set gear, but takes a set slot that is much more valuable and raises ilvl.

Bear in mind, the above steps are not how you do your optimal DPS. These are to provide maximum DPS for your ilvl, which are not the same thing. Things like Arcanocrystal are extremely powerful in their ilvl brackets. But overall it will not compete with Antorus trinkets that are 50ilvls higher for pure damage. So, unless you have been extremely lucky with a titanforged crystal from a token, chances are, heroic trinkets from Antorus are going to outdamage it. At least some of them. But they will make your logs look worse.

I'd love to use those recommended legendaries but unfortunately my best are sephuz and cloak at the moment. Maybe now that I have gotten KJ trinket, portal pants, and bracers, some of the good ones are on the way. Probably one of the most frustrating things to me so far since coming back. I understand gear differences and such, just wasn't expecting it to be that big of a difference but with dps numbers in the millions, it just looks bigger.

[Deleted]

Affliction scales exceptionally well with stats - as it always has.