[Legion] Terryn's guide to Affliction Warlock

[Soulzar]

Effigy/PS & Siphon/SoW - Primarily I would think what you are seeing is those who main Affliction or are more experienced with it vs those off speccing it for Dragon Parses. Somebody like me who uses Aff primarily as a trash clearing or questing spec with all the aoe talents.. may want to try it out on Dragons and will stick with what we are comfortable with (and what will probably parse the highest eg. aoe the shades). Somebody who plays Aff more seriously would likely use Effigy and Siphon for better boss dmg.

That's my guess at least.

[Deleted]

Well, the number one parse for warlocks on Mythic Dragons is by a dude using that build, so there seems to be something to it. The top 50 lock parses in general have a good number of guys using that build or something similar. I wonder if their guilds are using some strategy to pull a lot of adds together, otherwise I'm not sure how StS could be worth it, but there's gotta be some way, because these dudes are doing some pretty crazy damage.

Edit: Compare these parses:
"Meltzu", #4 Warlock parse, pretty much pure ST build
"Mysterx", #7, the mentioned AoE build

The AoE build seems to have an edge when it comes to Spirit Shades, but that has to be taken with a grain of salt since there was one Shade spawn less in the first parse since the fight was shorter. Overall I'm quite surprised by how little difference there is when you compare boss damage to add damage between these two builds that seem pretty drastically different.

Edit2: Upon closer inspection, the only difference in playstyle seems to be that the AoE build uses pure Seed spam for the Spirit Shades. And, of course, using Phantom Singularity during Shade of Taerar/Essence phases. But it doesn't seem to be a real damage improvement for anything other than Spirit Shades.

[Dwill]

Well, the number one parse for warlocks on Mythic Dragons is by a dude using that build, so there seems to be something to it. The top 50 lock parses in general have a good number of guys using that build or something similar. I wonder if their guilds are using some strategy to pull a lot of adds together, otherwise I'm not sure how StS could be worth it, but there's gotta be some way, because these dudes are doing some pretty crazy damage.

Edit: Compare these parses:
"Meltzu", #4 Warlock parse, pretty much pure ST build
"Mysterx", #7, the mentioned AoE build

The AoE build seems to have an edge when it comes to Spirit Shades, but that has to be taken with a grain of salt since there was one Shade spawn less in the first parse since the fight was shorter. Overall I'm quite surprised by how little difference there is when you compare boss damage to add damage between these two builds that seem pretty drastically different.

Edit2: Upon closer inspection, the only difference in playstyle seems to be that the AoE build uses pure Seed spam for the Spirit Shades. And, of course, using Phantom Singularity during Shade of Taerar/Essence phases. But it doesn't seem to be a real damage improvement for anything other than Spirit Shades.

In the end it just comes down to the strategy your raid uses and your raid composition.

[Xeranath]

So I've migrated to Aff. Enjoying it, doing fairly well on most bosses.

Ursoc confuses me with effigy. It's fine until you take him around a few corners at which I lose range of the effigy. Should I recast it and lose my agony stacks? Or should I bee line for the middle at the start of the fight so I can try and get it in range all the time?

[kuLiii]

So I've migrated to Aff. Enjoying it, doing fairly well on most bosses.

Ursoc confuses me with effigy. It's fine until you take him around a few corners at which I lose range of the effigy. Should I recast it and lose my agony stacks? Or should I bee line for the middle at the start of the fight so I can try and get it in range all the time?

If you can manage at pull to place the effigy literally to the middle of Ursocs room, you'll only need to take a few steps to reach it.

[Valkaneer]

I see the guide does not cover rotation if spec for Contagion. I take it that is because no one ever takes contagion? Because no locks play Affliction on ST?

[Deleted]

I see the guide does not cover rotation if spec for Contagion. I take it that is because no one ever takes contagion? Because no locks play Affliction on ST?

Since it was nerfed in 7.1 I find I get better single target damage with Absolute corruption, simming my character gives AC 3-4k ish ahead. Doesn't really leave many situations where you would use contagion, I guess fights where your flush with shards.

[Valkaneer]

Since it was nerfed in 7.1 I find I get better single target damage with Absolute corruption, simming my character gives AC 3-4k ish ahead. Doesn't really leave many situations where you would use contagion, I guess fights where your flush with shards.

Funny cuz that was what I was finding myself just on the practice dummy and it much easier to use.

[muto]

I have some questions regarding Hood of Eternal Disdain.

Does the 20% haste mark become less important with this item, since Agony will tick faster?

Also, does Writhe in Agony pull ahead of Drain Soul in Mythic+?

[lollified]

If something dies with multiple UA stacks on, only 1 soul shard is refunded. Does anyone know if this is bug (multiple shards should be refunded) or intended?

[GameFX]

@muto - I'd say anything above Mythic+ 5 Writhe is vastly superior. Especially with all the movement that M+ requires; no way Drain Soul would be able to keep up.

[Deleted]

hello! Im looking for simcraft for trinket or at least what is the best for ST and cleave (for odyn mm? helya mm?) Thx a lot!

[Sunlighthell]

So soulstealer not doubling by reap? It seems that reap doubling like 30% of artifact traits tbh.

[Rothiusx]

So soulstealer not doubling by reap? It seems that reap doubling like 30% of artifact traits tbh.

Sadly soulstealer is not doubled, tested it few days ago. Other traits that don't work properly with reap souls are compounding horror, wrath of consumption and harvester of souls. All damage/crit/... % increase traits work fine from my testing.

[Werst]

I hate to be the obvious solution guy but what would happen (out of line) if aff's "on death" effects were changed to "on shard generation" as well?

Do like the new haunt. Really think it needs to apply all dots at full agony stacks if it has a 30 sec cooldown. At 15 sec it's good as is.

Drain soul vs MG is the same thing we have now with drain life vs drain soul but less healing lol. Not a fan there, think we are being trolled (glyph of red banish) or there is something I am missing.

Effigy is a big reason many don't like or play the spec and it would be best as a flat single target debuff they can knob up/down to get single target right. Even if it just followed the lock like a floating voodoo doll...it would at least be workable. Right now with ramp up, agony stacking, UI, and encounter range issues it's so mechanically challenged for no good reason whatsoever it's causing further balance problems.

Overall aff's mechanical issues of being a 2006 spec in a 2017 world should go to more short duration high damage dots. That way you really couldn't multi dot so much but could do damage in a more relevant time frame. UA is a good example...short duration, about 2x the damage of baseline dots, fast cast. If corruption lasted 8ish seconds, agony 10 with no ramp up, siphon life 8, and absolute corruption doubled duration or just boosted damage. So you really couldn't multi dot more than 2-3 tops though I also like the 1.0 gcd for aff (which it gets in pvp). SoC could go instant with delayed detonation or 1.5 cast with detonation on impact. Fixing the SL vs StS problem and to make the choice more like other classes level of tradeoff I'd have live StS baseline and have the talented version agony everything along with corruption. If those buffs sound scary it should be an indication how mechanically outdated the spec is conceptually. Forget numbers for a moment, how fun would that type of spec be compared to the mess we have now? Not to mention with the live mechanics issues balance will be so hard to achieve...if not impossible and certainly seems welll beyond the interest/time levels the devs would put into it.

[Scooby Dooby Doo]

how long does the damage buff from seeds of doom last? 15% damage increase seems huge.
i swear it is impossible to find any sort of information about that trait.

[Dwill]

how long does the damage buff from seeds of doom last? 15% damage increase seems huge.
i swear it is impossible to find any sort of information about that trait.

It's permanent and it becomes 30% when Reap Souls is active.

[TheLimonTree]

I've been doing some simcraft to see if procs and such are better and noticed it's giving me some widly different stat values than what most guides list.
for me it's suggesting Int > SP > Crit > Haste ~= Mastery > Vers
Should I trust simcraft? Here's my armory if it helps? http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...bonburn/simple

[Scooby Dooby Doo]

It's permanent and it becomes 30% when Reap Souls is active.

what about instanced pvp?

[Dwill]

what about instanced pvp?

I don't do instanced PvP but I would assume that artifact weapon works in there so it would be the exact same.(15% base -> 30% on Reap Souls)