[5.4] Affliction Warlock and Encounter Specific Guides

[Deleted]

Absolutely, Demo was one of the best specs for Spine (until they nerfed the HP of the tendons).

[Shauni]

[Fanboy]
Citing sparkuggz as an exemple is like saying "Ursain Bolt run the 100 meters in 9 s 58. So I guess everyone should be able to do it."
[/Fanboy]

Skill matters, at that time warlocks had to developp hideous exploit of game mechanics (I still tremble when I say "Moon chalice" and "Mastery swapping") to be on par with less skillfulled classes.

And now, destruction warlocks tends to rely on that as well (soulburn snip' says hi)

But yeah, spine was fun. Twice.

[Deleted]

[Fanboy]
Citing sparkuggz as an exemple is like saying "Ursain Bolt run the 100 meters in 9 s 58. So I guess everyone should be able to do it."
[/Fanboy]

Skill matters, at that time warlocks had to developp hideous exploit of game mechanics (I still tremble when I say "Moon chalice" and "Mastery swapping") to be on par with less skillfulled classes.

And now, destruction warlocks tends to rely on that as well (soulburn snip' says hi)

But yeah, spine was fun. Twice.

That's not a very good comparision.

Also, iirc, it didn't take that much skill to dps the tendon more so than luck in regards of Meta CD reducing procs. The most annoying part was Felstorm > SS: Felpup.

[Deleted]

Bit of a slowpoke-ish question, but I'm progressing on Will heroic and my guild is asking me to soak sparks from the rages. Anyone have any tips on how to do that?
I've tried these two:
1. Dark Bargain. Downside: Puts a 800k dot on me for 8 seconds.
2. Sacrificial Pact. Used with Dark Bulwark, only gives me a 600k shield, not enough to absorb the full damage. Can survive if use with Unending Resolve, but can only do it every 3 mins.

[Deleted]

Bit of a slowpoke-ish question, but I'm progressing on Will heroic and my guild is asking me to soak sparks from the rages. Anyone have any tips on how to do that?
I've tried these two:
1. Dark Bargain. Downside: Puts a 800k dot on me for 8 seconds.
2. Sacrificial Pact. Used with Dark Bulwark, only gives me a 600k shield, not enough to absorb the full damage. Can survive if use with Unending Resolve, but can only do it every 3 mins.

I've only ever soaked courage sparks, so had to soak far less frequently than you.

Dark Bargaining one, UR + External CD from resto druid the second. Repeat.

What composition are you using? There are better soakers out there than warlocks, seems odd to use them for rages, which require the most soaking.

[Shauni]

That's not a very good comparision.

Yup, that was a fanboyish comparison, you can't expect fairness

For the sparks, remembers that you have other survival capacity. As you mentionned, unending resolve by itself can make you survive a spark (plus one HoT from you favorite druid)

Outside this, don't forget your healthstone, it WILL save your ass (that was a lame pun, but I regret nothing) and others can also help you with their own survival CD.

But I agree, making warlock tank sparks from the rage is dangerous. Too many of them :/

[Bloodfire]

Question about adds on Protectors Heroic: Should I apply CoE when they walk just right out of the platform, or It should be used a little closer to melee dpsers who need to catch em up?

[Surutcra]

Basically, you should aim to apply it so it would fade a few yards before reaching the boss. The most important thing by far here is regularity though, you want to keep the interval between two adds the same all the time. Note that if you're using the CoE glyph, I don't think you can keep up with the spawning rate in P3 by yourself (10s CD is too long).

[Bonkura]

I disagree. Apply it as fast as you can so you can make sure it's low enough when it reaches the soakers. As soon as the ranged dps who are on add duty can hit the mob Exhaustion should be up on it.

[Deleted]

Basically, you should aim to apply it so it would fade a few yards before reaching the boss. The most important thing by far here is regularity though, you want to keep the interval between two adds the same all the time. Note that if you're using the CoE glyph, I don't think you can keep up with the spawning rate in P3 by yourself (10s CD is too long).

Using Soulburn: CoE makes it possible since they it doesn't share cooldown with normal CoE.

[Deleted]

I've only ever soaked courage sparks, so had to soak far less frequently than you.

Dark Bargaining one, UR + External CD from resto druid the second. Repeat.

What composition are you using? There are better soakers out there than warlocks, seems odd to use them for rages, which require the most soaking.

We have a mage soaking with blink both strength and courage. Our comp is: Dk as blood tanking the strengths, Enh Shaman, Shadow Priest, Hunter, Mage, Me (warlock), Holy Pala, Disc Priest and the 2 tanks, druid and warrior.
We had the guardian soak the first rages, then the hunter soak two in a row, the shadow soaked the forth group, I'm supposed to soak the fifth, then the hunter again and the shadow afterwards

[Deleted]

If you're not having to soak consecutive sparks, then I'd say ideally you'd UR + External CD it (if UR alone isn't enough), and save dark bargain for emergency soaking (on our kill we ended up having a spark almost slip through at one point, having a backup can save you a nasty wipe). Alternatively, it's "safer" to DB it, but I'm not sure I'd like having UR as my emergency soaking thing - since you'll still drop like a brick.

Don't worry about the DB dot, your healers should be able to cope with it easily, could always DR+HS it if you really need to, but honestly - the dot shouldn't cause healers issues if they're expecting it, just make it clear that you'll have it after soaking.

[Shauni]

Yup, that's the key point : communication with your healers. If you state clearly that you are "emergency soaking" and you will need heal in the next 10s, they will have your back.

Otherwise, you will just die. Healers can't read your mind yet

[Teye]

We have a mage soaking with blink both strength and courage. Our comp is: Dk as blood tanking the strengths, Enh Shaman, Shadow Priest, Hunter, Mage, Me (warlock), Holy Pala, Disc Priest and the 2 tanks, druid and warrior.
We had the guardian soak the first rages, then the hunter soak two in a row, the shadow soaked the forth group, I'm supposed to soak the fifth, then the hunter again and the shadow afterwards

Having a hunter soak only 2 adds at a time is a waste. CC the first and 2nd pair, and AoE when the 3rd pair spawns. Have the hunter take all 6, then do the same thing with groups 4, 5 and 6.

[Surutcra]

I disagree. Apply it as fast as you can so you can make sure it's low enough when it reaches the soakers. As soon as the ranged dps who are on add duty can hit the mob Exhaustion should be up on it.

Given a passive slow will probably be apllied by the time your debuff fades, strictly speaking you're right.
But anyway, unless the people DPSing the adds are standing miles from the bosses, both approaches will result in pretty much the same CoE application time. Most important is regularity to keep interval between adds constant. Didn't know bout SB:CoE to prevent CD !

[MachPilot]

Quick question....

After playing destro most of this expansion..I've been slowly working my way back to Affliction. More to do, more to manage....more involved in a sense.

My dps numbers are respectable, I've followed the sticky at the top of this thread and its been very beneficial. I do, however, have a couple questions that I cannot seem to find an answer too.

Scenario 1 : Mid fight and simply managing my dots
Agony at 14 sec, UA 8, Corruption 9
I have 1 shard
I get a Jade Spirit proc
Do I now apply my Haunt (only use during burn phases and int procs per sticky), and then update my dots manually after 1 cycle of MG...cause they are
going to be expiring soon

OR do I SB and reapply all my dots with the new Jade Proc and forgo the Haunt until I get another hopefully....

My issues seem to be mid fight where I am trying to have a more complex understanding of dps relative to my procs.

Scenario 2: As above, 1 shard etc. Get a Jade Spirit proc, cast Haunt. Should I use a Fel Flame before jade Spirit fades to give UA and corruption more time at a higher value or manually update and only use Fel Flame during Dark Soul as the sticky outlines.

Thanks for the help, I really am liking the "work" of Affliction, just need to better understand mid fight mechanics I guess.

Doc

[Viggers]

Quick question....

After playing destro most of this expansion..I've been slowly working my way back to Affliction. More to do, more to manage....more involved in a sense.

My dps numbers are respectable, I've followed the sticky at the top of this thread and its been very beneficial. I do, however, have a couple questions that I cannot seem to find an answer too.

Scenario 1 : Mid fight and simply managing my dots
Agony at 14 sec, UA 8, Corruption 9
I have 1 shard
I get a Jade Spirit proc
Do I now apply my Haunt (only use during burn phases and int procs per sticky), and then update my dots manually after 1 cycle of MG...cause they are
going to be expiring soon

OR do I SB and reapply all my dots with the new Jade Proc and forgo the Haunt until I get another hopefully....

My issues seem to be mid fight where I am trying to have a more complex understanding of dps relative to my procs.

Scenario 2: As above, 1 shard etc. Get a Jade Spirit proc, cast Haunt. Should I use a Fel Flame before jade Spirit fades to give UA and corruption more time at a higher value or manually update and only use Fel Flame during Dark Soul as the sticky outlines.

Thanks for the help, I really am liking the "work" of Affliction, just need to better understand mid fight mechanics I guess.

Doc

jade spirit is a fairly weak proc, and i dont think i would spend my last shard on that proc alone. with those durations left and powerful procs though, i would manually reapply them (maybe fel flame and agony instead of hard casting them all?) and then use the shard for a haunt. remember though, your DoTs wont benefit from the procs unless you reapply them so "Do I now apply my Haunt (only use during burn phases and int procs per sticky), and then update my dots manually after 1 cycle of MG...cause they are " this bit is not the way to go about it at all. having said that, i guess proc values is relative. jade spirit would be a very powerful proc if your in 450ilvl for example, but in my gear jade spirit alone increases dot power by about 8%. so i would reapply if my trinkets were not going to proc in the near future and the dots are within pandemic, but i would not use haunt.

if your struggling to understand the relative power of your DoTs, try the affdots addon maybe

[MachPilot]

Thanks Viggers,

So what youre saying is that if I have that one shard up and I get a Jade proc, then Im better off using a fel flame to increase duration of UA and corruption....hard cast agony.....then haunt.

I dont sit on haunts, but I dont use them either unless I have a jade spirit or Lightweave proc. This is a correct line of thinking yes?

Doc

[Count Zero]

Unless I'm at 3 Shards and DS is nowhere near coming back off CD, just having Jade Spirit doesn't really seem to warrant using Haunt. Having at least any two of my trinks procced (light of the cosmos, darkmoon faire trink) at the same time generally warrants a Haunt from me as long as I'm not like only at one shard and DS is coming up pretty soon.

I dunno, it's tricky. I try to save my SB:SS for if I have one trink with one or two seconds left and my other trink has just procced, meaning I don't have time to hardcast refresh everything. Lightweave and Jade Spirit I give much less weight to, particularly Jade Spirit since the uptime is so high anyway.

[MachPilot]

Count,

Perfect that is what I was looking for. So I will hold haunts until I have both jade and lightweave up or a combination of two of my procs. The problem is despite running everything for months I still only have one piece of set gear. 30 rolls on sha alone including bonus coins and nothing. Having 40 sec shaved off DS would be really nice.

Doc