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  1. #1

    Throne of Thunder 5.2 [Affliction]

    From the eyes of a die hard Affliction Warlock in a pretty decently ranked guild (US 21st Sha H, finished 33rd US T14 <Demise> and did 6/12N tonight {I know, like OMG SO GOOD. /eyeroll @ normals}). Since there really hasn't been much talk regarding Affliction for this raid what with all the changes to Destro and Demo I figured this would be a good start for some people looking to see how Affliction is faring so far early (and I mean early) T15.

    -- I will update this as we clear the rest of the content so that there will be more info to come! --

    For all these fights I have chosen to stick with 6637 haste threshold, forgoing hit cap and stacking mastery after the haste threshold. I have stuck with the "standard" GoSac spec, regardless of rumours indicating GoSup being better (however it is not that far behind from the few fights that Cyner {the other Warlock in guild} went with GoSup).

    Since there are quite a few multidotting fights I decided that stacking mastery is going to be far more beneficial than anything else I could have possibly prepared for.

    I will preface this post with the fact that you shouldn't take this as gospel and you can play how you want to play - this is how I play and how I feel is the best way to approach these fights to maximize your damage. "Padding" is something that I do on a regular basis and while these encounters are normal mode fights I will use them for my own testing to see what I can do when and how I can do it better for when Heroics come around. If you don't agree with how I am relaying the information, that's fine. Are there situations where it is literally needless pad that I may suggest doing, yes absolutely! Normal modes (for me) are a way to get a feel for the fight and learn when and where I can maximize my damage without blatantly holding back the raid (like is discussed here already by the negative Nancy crew) - I have not ever been low on damage on "x" target that is required to die with the practices I've posted about while still maintaining "pad".

    Enjoy!
    March 5, 2013
    Jin'rokh the Breaker

    Pretty boring fight on normal for a Warlock and you can do EXTREMELY well on it. It kind of requires some RNG to not get picked by the Focused Lightning, but overall it's your basic Patchwerk with a bit of movement. In the end I still topped meters even with the "significant" nerfs to GoSac and Aff overall comparatively.

    Horridon

    This fight is literally a multidotting wet dream. You will have at any given point 3+ adds up at all times which you are MORE than encouraged to multi-dot. The boss takes increased damage every gate he destroys so it is highly recommended to maintain your dots on Horridon full time. All the dots means all the damage. Keep calm and DoT on.

    Council of Elders

    Again a heavily favoured fight for multi dotting and I had a theory about GoSup actually being better for the encounter based solely on the fact that you won't be actually using MG too often - but I stuck to my guns and used GoSac and still prevailed since lolmultidots.

    *I got the Wushoolay's Final Choice trinket off Council and decided I would play with that as well for the next bosses

    Tortos

    Like the past two bosses, this is another fight favouring multidotting. The ability to maintain your dots on Tortos, dot the turtles and have a SB:SoC apply Corruption onto the bats is significant DPS without overly padding (as some might say), although there is plenty of room to pad your heart out. I'd say on this fight in particular, even though you are able to multidot quite proficiently there are most definitely classes that will outshine you here. In particular I could see Demo and even Destro outshining Aff on this fight in particular based solely on the mechanics of the fight as it is.

    Megaera

    Many fun times with multidotting here . Two heads all the time means full uptime of dots on 2 targets all the time! Overall this fight you should destroy and no one in your raid should even come close to you. (Hint: re-apply your dots on the other head before you kill the "main" one they still do damage). VERY fun fight that as Aff you will definitely excel on.

    Ji-kun

    Awful fight. Awful mechanics. Just awful. However do-able as Aff I wouldn't say you are doing yourself absolute justice by playing it on this fight. The mere fact that you really don't have the bursty AoE needed to REALLY help on the eggs puts you at a distinct disadvantage already. I will say one thing about this fight; you are definitely able to play with the fact that you can go back up to Ji-Kun with full shards every time you kill eggs and have it go in your favour.

    *As long as you are able to sufficiently track the stacking Int gains and can react to the 2 GCD's you have @ a 10 stack this trinket is AMAZING. If everything lines up (10 stack + Jade Spirit + EoT proc) you can have two sets of dots fully buffed with 50k+ SP ticking full duration on 2 targets. This is DEFINITELY a situation where you should let your dots fall off entirely (especially Agony) and then reapply them.
    I'd really like to play with using LoTC instead of EoT with Wushoolay's but I have a sneaking suspicion that EoT is just straight better (anyone have a anything to show otherwise?)


    March 6, 2013
    Durumu the Forgotten

    Just a straight DPS burn with movement mechanics. As always KJC is amazing for the entire encounter overall. Best bet is to just burn your dots onto the crimson add and keep your pewpew onto Durumu. Nothing really to add here - don't die?

    Primordius

    Depending on what your job is there is a couple things you could do as an Aff lock on this fight.
    - single target on boss after getting transformed
    - be an add killer (this is what i did)
    Either way (imo) stick with GoSac...burn dots onto adds (if thats your job) and drain off dying adds to keep your shards up. You should be able to maintain a full set of dots on the boss as well.
    Even if you are assigned to killing boss only (doesn't make sense why you would though) you should try to get a drain off of the adds for free shards and (obviously) more DPS.

    Dark Animus

    A very fun fight! Multidotting is NOT encouraged even though it is tempting. For this fight I went GoSup for a couple of reasons based around our strat. However, that's all I'll say about this fight right now. It's a fun fight that just takes discipline to do .

    Iron Qon

    This fight is all about standing still and not spreading debuffs around doing the most amount of damage possible. A couple of tricks that I figured out while doing the fight:
    - effective use of your Gateway or Portal during the Windstorm will really lessen the amount of damage you're taking
    - If you can, try to get away from the deadzone (if its going to make you spread debuffs just stand there)
    - Cycle through as many CD's as you can during the last phase for his Fist Smash (I could easily see GoSup w/ Sac Pact being very very good here for this down the line).

    Twin Consorts

    Another simple spread out and DPS boss encounter. If you wanted to do a little more DPS (read: effective since Suen doesn't gain health back) on the pull SB:SS dots onto Suen and every time she ports up to be attackable again she will port onto you so you can reapply dots.
    S'long as you're spread out (not in front/behind of another ranged) it's a very very simple fight.

    Lei Shen

    --
    Last edited by Woz; 2013-03-11 at 03:07 PM.

  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by Woz View Post
    rumours indicating GoSup being better (however it is not that far behind from the few fights that Cyner {the other Warlock in guild} went with GoSup).
    Hi thats me! Thanks for writing all the things while i tried to farm green fire.
    Cyner#1996

  3. #3
    I thought the heads on Megaera went to full after you killed one, or is that not the case?
    Your comments are duly noted and ignored.
    I punch a hobo every time someone says 'it's not a rotation it's a priority list lol'.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Screwtape View Post
    I thought the heads on Megaera went to full after you killed one, or is that not the case?
    They do. We like to pad for more numbers
    If our rl see's this its purely for more soul shards
    Cyner#1996

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Cyner View Post
    They do. We like to pad for more numbers
    If our rl see's this its purely for more soul shards
    This. Except I'll openly admit it's padding. Why wouldn't I spread my dots with huge SP onto two targets for no cost of single target DPS?

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Woz View Post
    This. Except I'll openly admit it's padding. Why wouldn't I spread my dots with huge SP onto two targets for no cost of single target DPS?
    Because it's another GCD you could be using on the main head /sarcasm. Anyways thanks for the update Woz it's good to hear. Have any of your Warlocks tried Demo? I'd be interested to see you update this with more findings and it's great info to have heading in there tomorrow.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by sickestnerdchills View Post
    Have any of your Warlocks tried Demo?
    Nope. Neither of us tried Demo at all - though there are definitely fights where it would excel (Horridon, Tortos, Ji-Kun of the first 6).
    Chances are I won't be trying out Demo at all until maybe some Heroics unless it's needed without a shadow of a doubt. Check out Zinnin's Demo thread, I believe he and Depravity were planning on doing the Demo thing.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Woz View Post
    Nope. Neither of us tried Demo at all - though there are definitely fights where it would excel (Horridon, Tortos, Ji-Kun of the first 6).
    Chances are I won't be trying out Demo at all until maybe some Heroics unless it's needed without a shadow of a doubt. Check out Zinnin's Demo thread, I believe he and Depravity were planning on doing the Demo thing.
    Ya I have been keeping up with it all it's just nice to finally hear some actual live realm raid testing.

  9. #9
    Zinnin is currently streaming if you want to see demo
    5.1 16/16 HC 5.2 12/12

  10. #10
    As WoLs isn't working properly, I'm curious what kind of dps people are doing as Affliction on Horridon. On 10 man with a 501 ilvl, I did 215k as Demonology, but I'm curious if Aff would have done more.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Teye View Post
    As WoLs isn't working properly, I'm curious what kind of dps people are doing as Affliction on Horridon. On 10 man with a 501 ilvl, I did 215k as Demonology, but I'm curious if Aff would have done more.
    In 513 ilvl on a 1 shot pull not fully taking advantage of the buff on Horridon + effective multidotting I did 224275.2 DPS as Aff, just shy of a SPriest spamming Mind Sear (zzz). For some reason we want to keep our normal mode logs private or I'd link them to you. /shrug

  12. #12
    25 man, Woz?

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Teye View Post
    25 man, Woz?
    Yeppers. Can't really say one way or the other what would be better there but if I look at Zinnin's logs where they had 4 Demo locks and killed it 6 seconds faster I still did more DPS(e) than even their top 'lock. Maybe I can sneak my log public for a bit later this week so you can get a better idea.

  14. #14
    Multidotting on Megaera is pointless aside from throwing corruption on the other heads for nightfall procs. You're just padding damage and not actually doing more damage to the boss

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Jetjaguar View Post
    Multidotting on Megaera is pointless aside from throwing corruption on the other heads for nightfall procs. You're just padding damage and not actually doing more damage to the boss
    Soulburning = 1 GCD for 3 dots or put up 1 dot for 1 GCD. Tell me which makes more sense to you? I even said it is padding and in fact I went out of my way to say so. You can do what you want in the long run, I just don't see the point of not using SB:SS with the one global over using a single dot cast.

    On a completely unrelated topic; in full T14 BiS I still sim higher using LotC+EoT rather than using LotC+Wushoolay or EoT+Wushoolay.

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Woz View Post
    Soulburning = 1 GCD for 3 dots or put up 1 dot for 1 GCD. Tell me which makes more sense to you? I even said it is padding and in fact I went out of my way to say so. You can do what you want in the long run, I just don't see the point of not using SB:SS with the one global over using a single dot cast.

    On a completely unrelated topic; in full T14 BiS I still sim higher using LotC+EoT rather than using LotC+Wushoolay or EoT+Wushoolay.
    UA and agony provide no benefit to single target damage, only corruption in aiding Nightfall procs. You should be using that Soul Shard you wasted on casting SB:SS for a Haunt. Not only are you cheesing meters but you are severely hampering your single target damage. You should be glyphed into Soul Swap, soul swapping just before execute with drain soul and then soul swapping onto your next target when it comes up and corruption the head you aren't focusing down.
    Palmz - Warlock
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  17. #17
    Soulburning = 1 GCD for 3 dots or put up 1 dot for 1 GCD. Tell me which makes more sense to you? I even said it is padding and in fact I went out of my way to say so. You can do what you want in the long run, I just don't see the point of not using SB:SS with the one global over using a single dot cast.
    Soulburning is even worse because you're using a soul shard. I mean, padding is nice for normal mode e-peens but if you're going to dot the other head you're better off using 1 gcd and saving the soul shard by just using corruption on the other head.

  18. #18
    Deleted
    Quick question. Why would demo be better on the turtle? Hoarding fury for debuff on the boss after the kick or better burst aoe on the bats?
    Same question goes to horridon. I was planning to do the fight as demo with mannoroth's fury. But will see in the evening what kind of dmg is needed in my 10man.

  19. #19
    Deleted
    It's great to hear that GSac is not so far behind.
    If possible could you post numbers about the difference between the two? Not so far can depend on the person and I'm really interested how much it really is.
    Also thanks for your effort of posting this information here

  20. #20
    There's no reason to be using Sac on any fight with heavy multidotting.

    So in other words, don't use Sac on Horridon, Council, Tortos, Primordius and MAYBE Animus

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