Affliction is too hard for me.

[Deleted]

lol at this thread seeing as how warlocks are not even 1/5 as difficult as they were in the last two expacs

Affliction as it is now is alot harder than destruction was in WOTLK.

Other than that, yeah..

[Seezer]

Affliction as it is now is alot harder than destruction was in WOTLK.

Other than that, yeah..

They're neck and neck. Affliction is not hard whatsoever. Just like Destro was in wrath.

---------- Post added 2012-12-07 at 02:30 AM ----------

Sure there is! Castsequence reset=target Immolate, Conflagrate, Incinerate (repeat incinerate until about 2 seconds before Immolate expires). Keep a modifier for Conflagrate for opening burst and whenever you might risk losing a lap since the refresh is slightly shorter than Immolate duration. Nope.Maybe an ElvUI conflict? It was working with ElvUI just fine before 5.1.

You're using a modifier. I think the point was, why even bother with a cast sequence macro? You can time your immolates clean, your conflags, and incinerates. A cast sequence macro with a modifier is already using an extra key, so you're saving yourself 1 keybind at the expense of timing your immolate.

[Kinjin]

Affliction as it is now is alot harder than destruction was in WOTLK.

What point are you trying to make? Affliction isn't difficult right now. I wouldn't say its more difficult than WOLK Destro. It's only a one dot difference and Affliction is much more forgiving now with clipping and pandemic than it was with the dot model from wrath.

I put Immolate at the top of a castsequence

I'm not saying this to be mean. But if you know you have an issue multi-tasking and you need a macro to keep good uptime on one dot, I don't think Affliction is a good choice for you.

[Deleted]

Affliction can be simplified into something as much as knowing a colour scheme.

Using:
- Weakaura's/omniCC for trinkets
- Affdots addon

[Deleted]

What point are you trying to make? Affliction isn't difficult right now. I wouldn't say its more difficult than WOLK Destro. It's only a one dot difference and Affliction is much more forgiving now with clipping and pandemic than it was with the dot model from wrath.



I'm not saying this to be mean. But if you know you have an issue multi-tasking and you need a macro to keep good uptime on one dot, I don't think Affliction is a good choice for you.

The point I'm trying to make is; the guy I quoted claimed that warlocks were 5 times harder to play in the last two expacs. I disagreed and came up with a relevant example (proof, you might say) of the contrary.

[Seezer]

The point I'm trying to make is; the guy I quoted claimed that warlocks were 5 times harder to play in the last two expacs. I disagreed and came up with a relevant example (proof, you might say) of the contrary.

What proof? Affliction is faceroll right now. The only thing you have to know is when to use your haunts. That's it. If someone can't do something like track dots and pay attention to their environment, then they're going to have problems with most of the game.

[Xandy]

What proof? Affliction is faceroll right now. The only thing you have to know is when to use your haunts. That's it. If someone can't do something like track dots and pay attention to their environment, then they're going to have problems with most of the game.

While much of what you say is true I wouldn't brush off Affliction difficulty as "faceroll." Like any class in the game it is easy to learn, but difficult to master.

That being said, if you're having trouble with learning Affliction there are guides to read and video's to watch, so at this point in the expansion pack there really is no excuse to "not know how to play."

[Iry]

I think the difficulty of a spec depends entirely on the person playing it. For example, Affliction has a very parallel playstyle where you have multiple things going on simultaneously and you have to keep those things up. Destro has a very linear playstyle where you can stick to your rotation without much deviation outside of a burn phase. Some classes have it even more linear than Destro.

So, for people who are good at parallel playstyles Affliction probably feels like a walk in the park. For people who are bad at parallel playstyles Affliction probably feels like ADHD.

[Ballfro]

Oh, certainly! The reasons why Affliction is too hard for me is because I cannot keep track of all the DOT uptimes. I'm really bad at multitasking, and paying attention to all those uptimes means I cannot pay attention to the raid. At least with Destruction I only have to pay attention to Immolate.

I use classtimers but I still can't keep track of all the uptimes.

I'm almost embarrassed that no one has mentioned the one thing that causes his issue to completely be a non factor. Pandemic.

I can actually make things very very simple for you. I was also thinking the same way you are now, and for that reason I stuck with Destro(Which if played right can do massive damage). But then I remembered something: Pandemic This makes your issue a non issue, as it did for me. Basically, what this does is allows you to refresh any DoT you have on the target as long as its under half of the original duration. For example:

You cast Corruption, and the duration of Corruption lasts for 18 seconds. As long as you refresh it after it ticks to 9 seconds or lower? You will not suffer any DPS loss at all. So having to be perfect on the DoT timers isn't necessary anymore. Just as long as its done at some point between half the duration and the end of the duration.

Obviously there are other factors to consider once you have gotten the hang of this part of it, like not refreshing a DoT that has a massive buff to it either from a boss mechanic or from a trinket/ability proc, but for the most part the "watching like a hawk" thing doesn't really apply anymore. I use Weak Auras and it shows my DoTs with a timer. When it drops below 50% duration I have it set to start blinking, this way all im looking for is the blinking, not the actual time. I see the blink I know I can refresh when im ready. Pretty easy stuff, hope this helps

[Lulbalance]

What proof? Affliction is faceroll right now. The only thing you have to know is when to use your haunts. That's it. If someone can't do something like track dots and pay attention to their environment, then they're going to have problems with most of the game.

unless they play melee ^^.

anyways destro in CATA was 5 times harder than anything we have right now imo.. 5x more rewarding when you pulled off anything respectable too. wrath was jokes.. i dunno why people would wanna use that as an example for difficulty.

aff is easier since getting up dots right now is super easy and they last a little longer. just have to manage shards and curses and track dispels.. it's not that bad. harder than most casting classes right now tho.

[bionics]

If you're already raiding then you must already have somewhat decent gear. What can you do now?

Brush up on your rotation and other pertinent information on a site like Noxxic or Elitist Jerks. And then... DO IT UP. You have nothing to lose by practicing Affliction on dailies, heroics, and scenarios. Just keep practicing and plowing away and before you know it, you'll be all good. Affliction should be no more complex in terms of spell management overall than Demo or Destro -- the playstyle will feel different, of course, but once you get past the differing mindset everything will be copacetic.

TL;DR: Do some research. Then practice, practice, practice, DO IT, till you get the hang of it. No fear, son.

[Deleted]

Demo in early cata when you had to keep up Improved soul fire on top of the normal demo prio of the time was pretty epic, can't think of a time when any lock spec was harder than then. Hammering out top notch dps with it made you feel pretty pro though. Almost made up for ele shammys getting our SP buff.

Tbh affli is harder now than it was in wrath and cata, but it's still not really hard, just need to practice until you can do it without thinking. After all thinking is hard.

[Xandy]

No fear, son.

Unless you PvP

[Kinjin]

Demo in early cata when you had to keep up Improved soul fire on top of the normal demo prio of the time was pretty epic, can't think of a time when any lock spec was harder than then. Hammering out top notch dps with it made you feel pretty pro though. Almost made up for ele shammys getting our SP buff..

The beginning of Cata when you couldn't refresh the Soul Fire buff early and had to keep it up in all three specs. That wasn't fun.

Tbh affli is harder now than it was in wrath and cata, but it's still not really hard, just need to practice until you can do it without thinking. After all thinking is hard.

I think in ICC Affliction was more challenging than now. You had to really be on top of dot refreshes. You couldn't clip and you had to reapply as soon as it fell off. I think it's much more forgiving now with clipping and Pandemic. It took dot refresh response times out of the equation to min / max performance.

[Speedlance]

As long as there is a "best spec" and you want to raid I suggest you learn the spec by running LFR and dungeons get used to the rotation. Also you'll be surpriced of how much easier things get if you adjust your UI to the spec you're playing.

[draconisaerius]

So I downloaded AffDots and I've been trying to play Affliction for a couple of weeks now and I'm still absolutely terrible at it. I have to learn to play it better because it's 2nd Highest DPS in general and my raid needs that, but I can't seem to do what other people can do.

You have to watch your DOTs like a hawk, putting all your attention into those countdowns which means you completely neglect the raid environment. Seriously, how do you pay attention to your countdowns but still look around at what is going on?

Practice. Lots and lots of practice.

[dakalro]

unless they play melee ^^.

anyways destro in CATA was 5 times harder than anything we have right now imo.. 5x more rewarding when you pulled off anything respectable too. wrath was jokes.. i dunno why people would wanna use that as an example for difficulty.

aff is easier since getting up dots right now is super easy and they last a little longer. just have to manage shards and curses and track dispels.. it's not that bad. harder than most casting classes right now tho.

Wait what, I don't think you played destro in Cata. The spec was pretty damn easy. 2 timers and that was it.

And if you use Pandemic as a crutch you won't get much out of affliction. I still need to get AffDots but I do try to remember when I have buffed dots and when I should NOT reapply until close to end. Or when there's a phase/target change and I need to disregard Pandemic completely and refresh early.
There's a ton of little stuff that gets you DPS as affliction and a ton of dps wasted if you lose MG uptime.

[zvix]

Wait what, I don't think you played destro in Cata. The spec was pretty damn easy. 2 timers and that was it.

2 timers ? It was 10!!!!!!!!!!!! + 1 instant proc to look out for.

Have been playing warlock for 8 years, have been in casual and hardcore raiding guilds and by far destro during blackwing descent was the hardest rotation.
By FAR that spec was retarted, but fun to master.

And now back to affliction, if you dont like it go destro, pretty sure if you simucraft yourself on moving fights the diffrence is very small, it aint worth switching for.
But the biggest part why warlock fuck up on affliction is ... the good old tunnelvision. Players get so focused on their dot timers they react late.

Doing several LFR's can really help master it out.

[Cryonic]

ALL the warlock specs were too hard for me, dunno what is so special with warlock as I managed to grip all the other classes/specs (tried all) but not warlock.

I found that going destro and sac was the best way for me. Still I'm only utilizing like 50% of the spells to not get too confused.

[Rustjive]

Wait what, I don't think you played destro in Cata. The spec was pretty damn easy. 2 timers and that was it.

Yeah...considering that it was a 4 DoT spec with ISF uptime, a proc, Conflag and CB CDs within the rotation, I'm pretty sure it wasn't 2 timers...