[6.2.3] Affliction Warlock Guide

[Multiabuse]

I am not entirely clear on when or even if switching between GoSup/Servitude and GoSac/SB:Haunt is ever worth it. Is it purely an ilev thing where lower levels would use the pet combo and at higher ilev use the Sac/SB:H? What would you consider "lower" ilev for this?

The reason I ask is that GoSac (on paper anyway) doesn't seem to do much if you are not able to drain soul very often - High Council comes to mind here. Does the buff to haunts damage outweigh the damage a pet would do over the course of the fight? I am getting ready to raid as Affliction tonight on a number of fights and am justifiably nervous.

I'm thinking Affliction for: Reaver, Council, Fel Lord, Tyrant and maybe Socrethar and Archimonde. . . What is the consensus on HFC and Aff thus far? I've been Demo/Destro for so long but I think Aff has much better potential given the recent buffs, and despite my bitterness, its time to retire Demo for the time being.

Thank you for writing up this guide, and thanks in general to the entire Warlock community on these forums. I am not sure where I would be without you.

[Xandy]

With the recent buff to Haunt, the way our tier bonus works with Haunt and considering the inherent RNG with Nightfall I only ever use excess shards on Haunt. You only need to apply UA and Agony to secondary targets for anything higher than 2 targets for respectable cleave damage anyway. So, no I never use SS or SB:SS, that's my 2 cents anyway.

EDIT: As mentioned above, on a fight with quick dying adds you can SS on to them and DS for the Shard back, but I wouldn't recommend going Affliction for those fights anyway.

[Zerach8]

I am not entirely clear on when or even if switching between GoSup/Servitude and GoSac/SB:Haunt is ever worth it. Is it purely an ilev thing where lower levels would use the pet combo and at higher ilev use the Sac/SB:H? What would you consider "lower" ilev for this?

The reason I ask is that GoSac (on paper anyway) doesn't seem to do much if you are not able to drain soul very often - High Council comes to mind here. Does the buff to haunts damage outweigh the damage a pet would do over the course of the fight? I am getting ready to raid as Affliction tonight on a number of fights and am justifiably nervous.

I'm thinking Affliction for: Reaver, Council, Fel Lord, Tyrant and maybe Socrethar and Archimonde. . . What is the consensus on HFC and Aff thus far? I've been Demo/Destro for so long but I think Aff has much better potential given the recent buffs, and despite my bitterness, its time to retire Demo for the time being.

Thank you for writing up this guide, and thanks in general to the entire Warlock community on these forums. I am not sure where I would be without you.

The only fight where id switch to GoSac is Zakuun, every other fight has too much movement for Sacrifice so u will get better results with GoSup Imp (i just prefer the imp, faster target switching + he doesnt need to move when the boss moves unless he gets out of range which is something that happens to observer all the time).

For what its worth, i played GoSac once on Zakuun a few weeks ago and did preety well, altho i got a bit lucky with procs as well Log

I would play destruction on Archimonde just so u can deal with Infernals and maybe living shadows, depending what your raid does (mine uses a hunter to solo the Living shadows). Boss damage isnt that important up till last part of the fight where Affl would idd shine, but u also need to kill the infernals which is where Affl doesnt do well at all.
As for Socrethar, depending what your guild does, but we kill the ghosts, i preety much solo them with a little bit of help from the hunters who take care of any stray ghosts that might run further ahead of the pack. If u plan to play affl, using Soul swap for Dominators is a good idea since they need to die asap.

With the recent buff to Haunt, the way our tier bonus works with Haunt and considering the inherent RNG with Nightfall I only ever use excess shards on Haunt. You only need to apply UA and Agony to secondary targets for anything higher than 2 targets for respectable cleave damage anyway. So, no I never use SS or SB:SS, that's my 2 cents anyway.

EDIT: As mentioned above, on a fight with quick dying adds you can SS on to them and DS for the Shard back, but I wouldn't recommend going Affliction for those fights anyway.

I agree, any fight where adds need to die asap id go with destruction...overall u might do less dps but u will do good damage in places where it matters.

[Astynax]

The only fight where id switch to GoSac is Zakuun

I'll probably try this next week, but so far movement is pretty RNG on zakuun too depending on seeds, running to absorb fissures, moving from wakes, run out w befouled etc. If you dont get targetted then it's great, but if you do could be a drop.

So far all 3 of us have been running sup with some pretty good results
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports...pe=damage-done

This week's run got botched from DC and UI bugs where some abilities got greyed out :/

[zvvl]

The only fight where id switch to GoSac is Zakuun

I strongly disagree with this. There is no fight where I'd pick Affliction and then not want to buff up Drain Soul for execute or priority focus.
Also, most fights don't have that much movement, especially not so much that you can't plan around it to minimize it's impact on your DPS.

[Zerach8]

I agree, with good planing u can do more better with GoSac, but for someone thats new to affl i wouldnt recomend going GoSac on every fight untill they get comfortable with the spec and the fight.
The difference between GoSac and GoSup is about 1% on mythic patchwerk simulation...in theory there is no reason to go GoSac on fight with movement.(Source) It makes me wonder why does Sacrifice pulls ahead so much than, if its preety much even in simulations.

[zvvl]

I agree, with good planing u can do more better with GoSac, but for someone thats new to affl i wouldnt recomend going GoSac on every fight untill they get comfortable with the spec and the fight.
The difference between GoSac and GoSup is about 1% on mythic patchwerk simulation...in theory there is no reason to go GoSac on fight with movement.(Source) It makes me wonder why does Sacrifice pulls ahead so much than, if its preety much even in simulations.

That information is outdated.

[Zerach8]

ah if it doesnt include the latest hotfixes than that makes sense, thanks for clearing it up.

[Liirin]

So I hope this isn't a dumb question but here goes. When playing affliction and say you have to swap to another target, so you soul swap and burn it. While you are doing that obviously that is the most recently applied corruption for Nightfall, but when that add dies does the game then still count your main target with corruption for Nightfall or can it not proc till you reapply it?

[Woz]

So I hope this isn't a dumb question but here goes. When playing affliction and say you have to swap to another target, so you soul swap and burn it. While you are doing that obviously that is the most recently applied corruption for Nightfall, but when that add dies does the game then still count your main target with corruption for Nightfall or can it not proc till you reapply it?

It will still proc Nightfall even if you don't refresh it. It's the "most recent Corruption" that procs Nightfall so if that "most recent" target dies it goes to the next "most recent" target.

[Deleted]

Hey,
I would like to know do affliction warlocks have haste cap? or we need as much haste as we can get and sit and relax. Thaks for your answer.

[zvvl]

Hey,
I would like to know do affliction warlocks have haste cap? or we need as much haste as we can get and sit and relax. Thaks for your answer.

No caps

[Xyronic]

No caps

Technically 300% haste is the cap

[zvvl]

Technically 300% haste is the cap

only sanic the hedgehog could go that fast

[Fatmike69]

Hey i currently have 3 trinkets and i was wondering which would be best to use for fights i play affliction on (single target)

DSI - Heroic
IRP - Mythic
Fragment - Normal

Thanks in advance.

[gruxxar]

go with dsi & irp

[zvvl]

Hey i currently have 3 trinkets and i was wondering which would be best to use for fights i play affliction on (single target)

DSI - Heroic
IRP - Mythic
Fragment - Normal

Thanks in advance.

irp + dsi
normal fragment is basically garbage, imo

[Jonny727272]

I was wondering if aff has become better with the semi recent(4ish weeks) buff to drain soul? I recently started playing a lock and I really liked the burst damage from destro, but aff seems to be doing better in the single and two target fights. I don't have any T17 trinkets or armor sets but with T18 sets/trinkets, will destro be better? Also, the T18 set bonus for aff goes against what the class trinket wants us to do. It will be come increasingly hard to maintain dots on 2+ targets if they are running out faster and it won't leave much time to drain soul which has is what out tier bonus focuses on.

[Astynax]

Ran zakuun last night trying sac instead of sup and was disappointed. Didnt get targetted by too much but was 5k+ behind the other locks when we're usually much closer. Their observers did ~1M damage. Sac damage boost wasnt enough to compensate for that. Wont be running sac for any encounters in HFC

[Deleted]

You sure you had Sac buff?