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.
March 5, 2013I 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!
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
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