The dots... - Affliction

[Seiken3]

Alright, so I've been at 90 for a while now and been doing alright numbers, being an affliction lock. Although, I am a bit confused about when to refresh the dots. Like, I apply them- and when there's just under 50% left, I refresh them. And as far as I know - that's when you get them to last much longer. However - when do you apply them again then? just under 50% or as they're about to expire?

[Lefeng]

You're wasting a TON of mana by refreshing them at 50%. General rule of thumb is refresh just before they expire. There also instances when you'll need to recast to take advantage of a buff, such as Bloodlust.

[Zakkarioth]

Please don't refresh dots after 50% duration at all times, if you had a huge buff when you cast the dot the first time you lose it if you no longer have the buff and refresh it.
in cases like that you need to refresh them just before they expire.

[Liagala]

The addon in this thread might help you with when to refresh: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...k-of-dot-power

[Seiken3]

Ah, alright... Well, I was just referring to the T6-talent where locks gets their remaining 50% duration or something left on the dot into the new dot. But could this be an option; Dot - wait till under 50% and THEN continue to refresh just before they expire? Or is it: Dot - wait till 50% left on duration, refresh, then re-dot when they almost expire and then just under 50% again?

[Gobuchul]

You're wasting a TON of mana by refreshing them at 50%.

What? No..

[Bladeface]

Ah, alright... Well, I was just referring to the T6-talent where locks gets their remaining 50% duration or something left on the dot into the new dot. But could this be an option; Dot - wait till under 50% and THEN continue to refresh just before they expire? Or is it: Dot - wait till 50% left on duration, refresh, then re-dot when they almost expire and then just under 50% again?

none of the talents say that anywhere... you are thinking of the passive effect pandemic which you always have

[xskarma]

The 50% duration left people refer to is the BASE duration of the dot, not 50% of the duration of the extended dot. So anytime your dot is below that base duration left you can safely refresh it and get full benefit from the refresh through Pandemic. For the rest, it doesn't matter at all wether you refresh it at the last possible micro second or refresh it the exact second the dot drops below the 50% base duration, or anywhere in between those points, the result is the same.

[Seiken3]

none of the talents say that anywhere... you are thinking of the passive effect pandemic which you always have

Ah yeah, sorry was a bit confused there. I'm referring to that passive.

---------- Post added 2012-12-28 at 04:55 AM ----------

But alright - base duration. So I can renew, lets say, corruption when it's at 12seconds left then at any time? (given its 24 secs duration)?

[Deleted]

Refresh ag under 12, corr under 9 and ua under 8 sec left. It makes no real difference you refresh lets say corr at 3 sec or 7 sec left as long you do it under 9 sec left (50% of baseduration as mentioned above). Refresh when you not have to cancle an other spell or while repositioning for example.

Sorry for my english :/ but hope that helps a bit.

[Seiken3]

No worries about your English, mate. It helped That's what I've more or less tried to do, but I kept thinking I was doing something wrong as my dps aren't living up to my expectations :P Or other's expectations, lol. Oh well, I guess I just need to practice more...

[Sabsy]

I'd like to add that you should get an ICD tracker of some sort to track your procs... if you see you have a proc coming up you will want to hold off to refresh (or fel flame to extend if they're about to fall off) then refresh when you have buffs up

If you can you should also try to refresh your dots right before your buffs fall off, though I'm still not completely sure if it's worth refreshing them even if you're over 50% base duration... I personally have been doing this but again, not too sure about how good it is

Anyway that's how I've been refreshing.. correct me if I'm wrong

[Deleted]

Just think about it logically, are you gaining ANYTHING by refreshing them early?

Dots don't increase their power based on procs / buffs unless recast, likewise, they don't decrease either.

If you're not refreshing your dots when you have huge procs, you're doing it wrong.
If you are refreshing your dots when you have no buffs, any buffs you had last time they were cast are lost, you're making your dot weaker for no good reason.

[Deleted]

You're wasting a TON of mana by refreshing them at 50%..

Math behind this? I'm kidding. It's completely false.
If you refresh at 10% you reach 10% again after X duration, just like you would if you refreshed at 50%. There is no mana-benefit to refreshing later rather than sooner, unless the target is about to die or similarly removes your dots, in which case it's mostly irrelevant anyway.

I recommend AffDots, it's an insanely good addon that puts most of the information you need in a single box that makes affliction the easiest thing in the world, once you get the hang of the addon anyway.

[Deleted]

the only thing that really matters is how powerful the dots on the target are. affdots makes it easy, and keep in mind you have fel flame that almost instantly apply your corr and UA with curent procs and +6 sec duration. if your current dots on the target had all procs when you applied them, then you should wait to reapply until they more or less fall off(agony is the exception as you should never let it fall off), if they didnt have any procs up when you applied your dots, then it can be beneficial for you to reapply your dots to get maximum duration of dots with ALL procs as it will outweigh pretty much anything else or use fel flame to apply procs to your agony and corr as previously mentioned.

[nightfalls]

the only thing that really matters is how powerful the dots on the target are. affdots makes it easy, and keep in mind you have fel flame that almost instantly apply your corr and UA with curent procs and +6 sec duration.

I'd also use some buff trackers (as recommended) with affdots. So say you have an Inner Brilliance and Blessing of the Celestials up with 3 seconds remaining, and you're UA is at 109 (on the addon) with 11 seconds remaining. I would make sure to get that UA refresh in even if its early to keep the 109, otherwise you'll (depending on your other ICDs) be stuck with a much lower UA.

While it's pretty formulaic when you're doing the main rotation, I'd say there's a lot of (quick) judgement calls at the higher end level.