Help with Affliction as a spec.

[cousinjemima]

Can anyone please give me some pointers on how to improve my gameplay? I played destro mostly while leveling and decided to try out aff. In bg's I die very quickly to melee is there any suggestions on how to live longer? also, What major glyphs would be recommended? Characters name is Sacajemima for those of you who can give me pointers. Many thanks ~Cousinjemima~

[Ipoopheals]

I am in the process of leveling a warlock, and I seem to be raping melles. I am 84 atm so that might be cause a change. As a affliction warlock, id think all you do is kite and dot and rape. Fear when they are close, you got coil and Howl of Terror. And if your not, always have a portal spawned to so you move away from other's, i suggest putting it behind a tree or rock. My other suggestion is to watch some youtube videos of some affliction warlocks in action. Good luck :P

[karydas]

First of all, here is my recommended spec and glyphs: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#IMGroGsGcdfMM:RsMmVqz0m
Now about playstyle, you say that you have problems against melees. the truth is that most of the melees will be able to kill you if you dont have any help from your teamates(rogues,dk's i.e), but this doesnt mean that you dont have any tools to counter them for a while
1)Curse of exhaustion b4 they even get to you, try to dot them
2)Shadowflame is a 70% slow
3) teleport and soulburn -teleport are great tools to escape/los/kite
4)healthstone and soulburn- healthstone if you are getting low
5)howl of terror (not really reliable on warriors and dk's)
6)Death coil

In general try to dot as much as you can, soul swap on cooldown also try to keep cc'ed on target with fear, curse of tongues on casters
Hope I helped

Edit: Oh i forgot about stats priority: 4%hit>Intellect>haste>mastery/crit

[Stanton Biston]

As you get more resilience, melee get easier.

Keep that in mind.

[guanqi]

Other than whats mentioned before, WoW pvp is not balanced around 1v1. You will almost always get beaten by a rogue, and many other classes do have advantages over warlocks. So I'd set my expectation straight. I consider aff locks to be a support dps class. they are there to roll out enormous dps pressure via multi dotting and controlling enemies with CC. Try play with a group with healers around, that is were you will shine, and be wary of your positioning, stay near the back and don't advertize yourself as a target.

[kewidogg]

In general try to dot as much as you can, soul swap on cooldown also try to keep cc'ed on target with fear, curse of tongues on casters
Hope I helped

What?

This is one thing I wanted to ask people. WTF is the point of this, in PVP? I mean I *guess* if someone is about to die, and you don't want to cast dots on your next target, you can soul swap to them...but this seems like almost more of a hassle than it's worth.

[Shamygandof]

What?

This is one thing I wanted to ask people. WTF is the point of this, in PVP? I mean I *guess* if someone is about to die, and you don't want to cast dots on your next target, you can soul swap to them...but this seems like almost more of a hassle than it's worth.

Aff excels at spreading mediocre damaage dots and soul swap is the easiest way to do so. It taake a few gcd to get all your dots on one target so soul swap eliminates the need to recast all of your dots on your next target. Basically its just a time saver as it does no extra damage itself and doesn't buff dot damage. Basically as aff in a bg avoid being alone. Try to stay on the outskirts of big battles and just dot everything up. Try to never be stationary as I find melee prefer stationary targets in bgs. Always have a portal down and if you can put it behind something. Warriors, dks, and rogues will almost always rape you so try to avoid them 1 on1 especially. you best serve your group in bgs by spreading dots and locking down healers. Aff is def not a noob/average player friendly spec for 1 on 1 pvp. Aff seems to really only excel in 3v3 imo.

[skitzin]

What?

This is one thing I wanted to ask people. WTF is the point of this, in PVP? I mean I *guess* if someone is about to die, and you don't want to cast dots on your next target, you can soul swap to them...but this seems like almost more of a hassle than it's worth.

It also helps you to spread your dots in a manner of exerting pressure on multiple targets, particularly usful in 3v3 where your trying to pressure a healer into let someone drop and be killed. This way you can dot up two targets and then dot up the third manually and just maintain the dots this maintaining pressure.

@OP your best bit ia to get used to defensive play in pvp as a lock, if try to play agressively like melee doo then you will get chewed up and spat out often. Doesnt mean you helpless or weak just that our strengths exist in a different area.

[Deleted]

The best Affliction class is Warlock and their primary stat is Intellect. Basically Gnome Warlocks are the way to go.

[gaymer77]

The best Affliction class is Warlock and their primary stat is Intellect. Basically Gnome Warlocks are the way to go.

Such an idiot. All your posts on MMO-Champ have been worthless and/or wrong information. The OP was asking for advice on learning to play affliction since he's currently demo spec (which isn't a bad spec at all either) and you tell him that their primary stat is int and tell him go roll a gnome.

[stickyjam]

roll with http://www.wowhead.com/talent#IMGroGsGckfMMZz:RsMmVqz0m IMO

[Deleted]

The talents Karydas has linked are good. So are the glyphs.
I have two tips for being a warlock who wants to do randoms. Never queue alone. Todays random BG teams are filled with rogues, mages, warriors, ferals or DKs.
Second tip which can help with survivability is to use Curse of Weakness as soon as you see a melee target you + switch to demon soul (isn't abnormal to see SB + HS crit for 50k while demon armor).