[Legion] Terryn's guide to Affliction Warlock

[Biomega]

Guys, what is the ideal mastery value for affliction warlock?
I have 151% flat and both Simulationcraft and Raidbots are telling me to put crit and versatility, but if I swap some mastery items for some with versatility and crit my dps decreases in raids.
My stats atm:
151% mastery
20% haste
23% crit
4% versatility

There is no "ideal value". Stats are on a curve, and the value of one stat is contingent on how you have of the others, and vice versa. While there may be preferences in certain stat ranges, never take that as gospel. Individual setups can change things drastically, as does the fight in question. In particular, mastery is the top stat pretty much only on multi-target encounters; on pure single-target fights, haste and crit can often overtake it quite easily.

The general consensus is to try and gear for mastery + haste, as those tend to give the best increase overall, on average. However, that doesn't mean that it's ALWAYS optimal. Your own particular setup may very well favor something else, based on what level your gear is at, what trinkets you are using, and so on. Simcraft is a very useful tool for just that: not giving you a definitive guideline for what stat to stack, but for comparing concrete examples of gear you have or are considering to get. Do a comparison sim with the gear pieces available to you, and see what comes out best. In the end, that's probably a lot more useful than "mastery is worth X, haste is worth Y" because you need to work with what you actually HAVE. And there are no magical 955 pure Mastery pieces in every slot, or anything like that.

For most classes, there are certain diminishing returns at work when it comes to stats. Stacking one single stack is rarely optimal, due to the synergistic effects at work; the more you have of one stat, the more the value of other stats tends to increase, and so on. Where and when and how that happens, of course, can be tricky to determine. Simcraft is the best approximation.

[Urgfelstorm]

Guys, what is the ideal mastery value for affliction warlock?
I have 151% flat and both Simulationcraft and Raidbots are telling me to put crit and versatility, but if I swap some mastery items for some with versatility and crit my dps decreases in raids.
My stats atm:
151% mastery
20% haste
23% crit
4% versatility

I did a quick Raidbots for you and this is the report it generated

https://www.raidbots.com/simbot/repo...ZmLZvwY5ARj74M

Haste
28.09
Crit
24.13
Mastery
21.15
Vers
20.79
Int
18.34

You need haste, i would swap mastery gems to haste gems and enchant haste on rings.

[Deleted]

Is there a bug on Argus, all the relics available on the map are SoC damage, every single 1. Destruction there are various traits available for the wq?

[Biomega]

Is there a bug on Argus, all the relics available on the map are SoC damage, every single 1. Destruction there are various traits available for the wq?

Not a bug. The way relics work is that they're simply assigned a number, which is the number of the trait they're buffing on each class that can use it. That number is a different trait on each class, of course, but that unfortunately means that for some classes it's garbage, and for others it's amazing.

[Deleted]

Guys i don't see the Master Harvester mentioned in the guide, but i've been using it and i feel like it's much better than the legendary belt. Both are proc based, but the chest procs much often for me + it gives a great buff right as you are about to drain. Does anyone else agree that it's a very good leggo ? As someone who doesn't have the head, wrist and the new ring, i am using the chest + sacrolash and i love it. I also have the cloak, but i got a sick 950 cloak with bis stats so i decided to switch them.

One more question - if i have Sacrolash, should i switch from Contagion to Absolute Corruption for all intents and purposes ? Or contagion still gives higher dps ?

[Biomega]

Guys i don't see the Master Harvester mentioned in the guide, but i've been using it and i feel like it's much better than the legendary belt. Both are proc based, but the chest procs much often for me + it gives a great buff right as you are about to drain. Does anyone else agree that it's a very good leggo ? As someone who doesn't have the head, wrist and the new ring, i am using the chest + sacrolash and i love it. I also have the cloak, but i got a sick 950 cloak with bis stats so i decided to switch them.

One more question - if i have Sacrolash, should i switch from Contagion to Absolute Corruption for all intents and purposes ? Or contagion still gives higher dps ?

Master Harvester is great on certain fights, as is the Belt (usually on different fights). Affliction has a number of legendaries that are worth using, and ideally you switch gear and spec around very frequently in ToS. Belt is mainly used on single-target fights, not only because of its effect but also because it allows you to use 2p t19, further increasing UA damage. Check Warcraftlogs to get a rough idea of what legendary combo is good on which fight.

As for your second question, whether or not you're using the ring shouldn't influence your talent choice - fight mechanics should. The ring doesn't exactly change your playstyle, it just makes something you do anyway do more damage (and slow).

All that is for raiding, of course. In M+ or open world, things can look very different. But because they're so vastly different, it's hard to give useful advice without more parameters to go by.

[Kirroth]

I got caught off guard by the nerf to Whispers today. I don't know if I just overlooked it in the PTR notes or if it was a last minute addition. Whatever the case, I find I have no idea if Whispers is now "good but will be replaced in Antorus" or "dropped all the way to mid-list and should be replaced".

Does anyone have any idea on this, or are we waiting for Simcraft to update so we can run new sims?

[muto]

I got caught off guard by the nerf to Whispers today. I don't know if I just overlooked it in the PTR notes or if it was a last minute addition. Whatever the case, I find I have no idea if Whispers is now "good but will be replaced in Antorus" or "dropped all the way to mid-list and should be replaced".

Does anyone have any idea on this, or are we waiting for Simcraft to update so we can run new sims?

You mean buff? My sim dps went up 14k

[Kirroth]

You mean buff? My sim dps went up 14k

Well, it did get an offsetting primary stat buff. But a net gain? ...that might depend on the ilvl of your Whispers.

[Darkith]

You mean buff? My sim dps went up 14k

That doesn't sound right. You might be using an outdated sim profile.

[muto]

Well, it did get an offsetting primary stat buff. But a net gain? ...that might depend on the ilvl of your Whispers.

920. 3k intellect and 27% haste.

- - - Updated - - -

That doesn't sound right. You might be using an outdated sim profile.

Simc addon and raidbots

I did 1.55 on Goroth tonight, which was around the same as I pulled last week.

[Deleted]

Maybe I'm out of the loop, but I can´t seem to find the Whispers nerf. What got nerfed?

[Luthadal]

Maybe I'm out of the loop, but I can´t seem to find the Whispers nerf. What got nerfed?

Whispers in the Dark cast speed bonus reduced by 40%, and has 20% more primary stat.

[Deleted]

a question i geared for mastery as affliction but my mastery is way ahead of my haste. should i remove some mastery for haste? armory: https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-gb/ch...stmane/magrana

i also got a haste statstick at 910 with socket. not sure if worth replacing my trinkets tho.

[severan]

a question i geared for mastery as affliction but my mastery is way ahead of my haste. should i remove some mastery for haste? armory: https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-gb/ch...stmane/magrana

i also got a haste statstick at 910 with socket. not sure if worth replacing my trinkets tho.

Stat weights are not fixed and change with new gear. Best thing to do is sim your character and compare things.

https://www.raidbots.com/simbot

[Deleted]

did what you said and my weights say crit is higher then mastery and haste being best. aint that weird?

[SpikeySquad]

did what you said and my weights say crit is higher then mastery and haste being best. aint that weird?

Not really. Assuming the sim is correct it just means that you have relatively low crit compared to the other stats. If you have any extra crit traits especially Perdition that will also bump up its value. However, once you get more crit then it's value usually falls quite soon so you do not usually want to stack it as much as mastery/haste.

Ultimately, Affy is relatively flexible with stats though it does prefer somewhat of a balance. You just want to find the best combination of your own gear.

[Biomega]

Maybe I'm out of the loop, but I can´t seem to find the Whispers nerf. What got nerfed?

It grants a lot less spell haste now, but does provide more INT.

It's still very good, but no longer at a level where ToS gear just doesn't compete, period. Good ToS trinkets can surpass it. Simcraft knows if/when.

[Deleted]

It grants a lot less spell haste now, but does provide more INT.

It's still very good, but no longer at a level where ToS gear just doesn't compete, period. Good ToS trinkets can surpass it. Simcraft knows if/when.

I'm stuck with a 880 whispers and 935 owl/haste on use trinket... never looked back to whipsers :P

[Deleted]

Quick q about aff trinkets: I've just returned from a hiatus and am getting minimal gear to play around. No tier, C/H/M: 16, 32, 117. Which trinks from my "awesome" collection should I test/wear:

- 915 stick (crit)
- 915 stick (haste)
- 910 Fulmination
- 920 Aran's (no idea where this came from)
- 930 Naraxas w/ gem
- 895 poor man's Whispers

I don't want to sim every combination of 2, so help me narrow it down! I'm leaning towards Whispers/critstick or just Naraxas/Whispers, but eh...