[5.4] Affliction Warlock and Encounter Specific Guides

[PickleballAce]

With rumours of GoSac Demo being very decent it wouldn't surprise me.

If Aff and Destro running with Sacrifice makes Ghostcrawler uneasy, imagine what would happen with Demo going the Sac route....

[Count Zero]

I can understand, if not agree with, GC's reasoning.

I don't think it'll be a huge problem, however -- the overwhelming majority of wipes are due to mechanics failures. I mean, the world-first race folks have proven that you can go in pretty damn undergeared and get things done. And I realize that things add up ... if everyone in the raid is performing 5-10% sub-par (even based on average, and not theoretical max, performance) that's like missing a whole person ...

But, really, in the end if you just truly, truly hate pet management ... the overwhelming majority of folks don't need to try to squeeze out every last % of theoretical dps. I think a lot of folks are very, very inflexible with regard to theoretical performance -- to the point where their actual performance suffers because they are unwilling/unable to do any independent thinking.

[Kink]

I can understand, if not agree with, GC's reasoning.

I don't think it'll be a huge problem, however -- the overwhelming majority of wipes are due to mechanics failures. I mean, the world-first race folks have proven that you can go in pretty damn undergeared and get things done. And I realize that things add up ... if everyone in the raid is performing 5-10% sub-par (even based on average, and not theoretical max, performance) that's like missing a whole person ...

But, really, in the end if you just truly, truly hate pet management ... the overwhelming majority of folks don't need to try to squeeze out every last % of theoretical dps. I think a lot of folks are very, very inflexible with regard to theoretical performance -- to the point where their actual performance suffers because they are unwilling/unable to do any independent thinking.

The worst thing about raiding in a moderate to good guild(sometimes even in casual guilds...) in my opinion is the competition with dps, regardless if the raid leader looks at those details or not it's within the dps themselves. I've gotten the vibe from some people of anger or attitude towards one another or even myself before over the numbers you pull. That's the best thing about progression raiding, and it's only good for the first kill that everyone is more fixated on mechanics and dodging things that dps is low and it's not a race or competition. If this game didn't have damage meters or rankings and was more fixated on just the % of what you're doing to each boss/add I feel it would be more relaxing and playable but for me it's just meh.

[landy]

Hello, I've just downloaded latest simcraft version 510-12 and according to the results (T15H) it seems like affliction with sacrifice is still the top spec

Warlock_Affliction_T15H : 202809 dps
Warlock_Demonology_T15H : 184744 dps
Warlock_Destruction_T15H : 181090 dps

Is it reliable or is the build broken and the numbers are pure fantasy?

[Teye]

Hello, I've just downloaded latest simcraft version 510-12 and according to the results (T15H) it seems like affliction with sacrifice is still the top spec

Warlock_Affliction_T15H : 202809 dps
Warlock_Demonology_T15H : 184744 dps
Warlock_Destruction_T15H : 181090 dps

Is it reliable or is the build broken and the numbers are pure fantasy?

This should probably be in the 5.2 thread, but Simcraft isn't accurate for Demonology. There's a known bug that they haven't fixed yet.

[landy]

Ok thx for info

[Deleted]

There's a known bug that they haven't fixed yet.

Which is ?

[Teye]

Which is ?

Shadowflame doesn't scale with Meta's damage multiplier even when its applied while you're in Meta. A much much smaller issue is the Frag Belt not scaling with Mastery in any way.

If you want to talk more about it, bring it up in the Demonology thread, not here.

[Bonkura]

While Affli's APL is complete shit and should boost the damage by at least 5% if fixed...

[Teye]

While Affli's APL is complete shit and should boost the damage by at least 5% if fixed...

And Demonology's APL isn't just as fucked? Pandemic is completely ignored as well, and its nearly as important for Demonology as it is for Affliction. I'd bet that having your Doom buffed by all your procs and Dark Soul for a minute and a half is worth an extra 5% by itself. Not to mention HoG weaving, and the fact that the Demonology APL still spends every DS spamming Soulfire.

Now, again, this isn't the place for this conversation.

[xskarma]

Hello, I've just downloaded latest simcraft version 510-12 and according to the results (T15H) it seems like affliction with sacrifice is still the top spec

Warlock_Affliction_T15H : 202809 dps
Warlock_Demonology_T15H : 184744 dps
Warlock_Destruction_T15H : 181090 dps

Is it reliable or is the build broken and the numbers are pure fantasy?

Most likely you just forgot or didn't know to set it to run the PTR version. This seems to be using the normal T14 spec damage modifiers, just with T15 gear.

You need to go to "options" and under the basic options the first thing you can change is a dropdown that has "Live" "PTR" and "Both". You need to set this to PTR. At least that's how it should work, have not downloaded the latest version myself to play with.

[Bonkura]

Somehow removed my old post... Anyway, here's my results with the PTR build:

Affliction T15H GoSac: 195329 dps
Affliction T15H GoSup(Obs): 189139 dps
Affliction T15H GoServ(FelH): 188340 dps
Demonology T15H GoServ(FelG): 178486 dps
Demonology T15H GoSac: 174590 dps
Destruction T15H GoSup(Obs): 174946 dps

Gonna do some T14H gear list comparisons because I have a feeling this is just showing insane gear scaling benefits for GoSac.

I tried change reforging/gemming for Affliction with GoSac and 15 mins work only gave me a 52 dps increase. T_T

[xskarma]

Somehow removed my old post... Anyway, here's my results with the PTR build:

Affliction T15H GoSac: 195329 dps
Affliction T15H GoSup(Obs): 189139 dps
Affliction T15H GoServ(FelH): 188340 dps
Demonology T15H GoServ(FelG): 178486 dps
Demonology T15H GoSac: 174590 dps
Destruction T15H GoSup(Obs): 174946 dps

Gonna do some T14H gear list comparisons because I have a feeling this is just showing insane gear scaling benefits for GoSac.

I tried change reforging/gemming for Affliction with GoSac and 15 mins work only gave me a 52 dps increase. T_T

That's some pretty crazy results, and if SimC is accurate at least to some degree then this is suddenly a VERY good explanation why Sacrfice got nerfed so much. I'm still slightly wary of the results, but I'm sort of now starting to wonder if we're indeed going to be transitioning to Sacrifice at some gear point (or even staying there).

[Xyronic]

Out of curiosity, what trinkets are this sim using? I would imagine Lei shen's unerring vision would be a big deal when it comes to figuring out our dps, and if there isn't a line for refreshing dots when that trinket procs the sim will be horrendously wrong.

On top of that, I just don't think that's an accurate representation of what our dps will look like next tier. I played about an hour of pet sac demo, and pet sac affliction on Heroic Durumu (Mainly Single Target), and was getting far more out of Demo than I could get out of Affliction.

[Bonkura]

It's good to know that Blizzard devs have acknowledged Affli's crazy gear scaling that we brought up here long ago and that they've managed to find a way to handle it. I really couldn't imagine GoSac having so much to do with it since the nerfs they've done to it now have been huge. It's kind of unfortunate GoSac will have to go for a while because it forces so big changes to the Affli playstyle, but at least we know it will be back and the nerf was for a good reason. As long as they don't keep nerfing it, of course.

---------- Post added 2013-03-01 at 05:19 PM ----------

Out of curiosity, what trinkets are this sim using? I would imagine Lei shen's unerring vision would be a big deal when it comes to figuring out our dps.

Breath of the Hydra and Wushoolay's Final Choice.

On top of that, I just don't think that's an accurate representation of what our dps will look like next tier. I played about an hour of pet sac demo, and pet sac affliction on Heroic Durumu (Mainly Single Target), and was getting far more out of Demo than I could get out of Affliction.

Do you honestly think after everything we've been told in blue posts that Demo will play with Sac next tier? Tuning for Demo is still in need of more tweaks.

[xskarma]

Just did my personal sims, my results come out: Demo 1.5% over Affli GoSup 1% over Affli GoSac. So it is indeed a gear question it seems, where more gear means GoSac Affli just rises to the top steadily. Still means I'll be going Demo for the tier (Or trying to at least, I still suck at it too much at the moment for it to be a good idea)

[Depravitty]

Out of curiosity, what trinkets are this sim using? I would imagine Lei shen's unerring vision would be a big deal when it comes to figuring out our dps, and if there isn't a line for refreshing dots when that trinket procs the sim will be horrendously wrong.

There is either a "bug" or blizz has intended for the Lei Shen trink not to give 100% crit to the extra dot ticks when MG is cast, so i think that is why it is not in the Bis profile but i would like to see numbers as well if anyone has them, I originally thought Lei shen would be really good for afflic just because its so easy to get dots recasted in the 4sec window.

[Bonkura]

SimCraft wouldn't refresh on procs from that trinket anyway so it would be complete junk according to their numbers. I'm pretty sure that trinket will be BiS though.

[Apero]

The thing with the lei shen trinket is, that fully buffed dots with ds are worth more (or eatleast not worse) than dots without any proccs except 100% crit. So, you need to be really lucky with the critprocc. Plus the malefic grasp issue. I always thought it would be amazing for affli, but all in all it seems pretty bad. Atleast singletarget.

[Kael]

Just did my personal sims, my results come out: Demo 1.5% over Affli GoSup 1% over Affli GoSac. So it is indeed a gear question it seems, where more gear means GoSac Affli just rises to the top steadily. Still means I'll be going Demo for the tier (Or trying to at least, I still suck at it too much at the moment for it to be a good idea)

I missed my Terrorguard for Ta'yak as the first boss I tried to run Demo on in preparation for next tier (ewww) and got myself swiped while trying to figure out what abilities to use running out for pheromone kiting on Garalon. I was so ashamed. Assuming you're not terrified of learning how to do Demo on normals though, next week should be a great time to get most of the practice you need in. I might shove myself into an LFR or two to make the rotation more automatic, myself.