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Zagam

5.4 Affliction Tips & Quirks

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Thanks so much for this. It does answer the one question I had regarding Harvest Life and Yor'sahj's Black Bloods. If you're using it on that fight I guess it's safe to assume that the heal doesn't proc Deep Corruption. That fight is one of the first things I thought of when I first saw that talent. Guess I won't be needing my prepared apology for blowing everyone up.

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It's odd, but I never had Black combined with Purple last night, so I can't say 100% whether Harvest Life counts or not. It's so weird on that mechanic on what counts or what doesn't count, but I don't remember Drain Life counting. Evocation does count, but Healthstones do not. You're more than welcome to check it out and post it here. I plan on building a Warlock 'tricks and tips' page here that will make the one on Elitist Jerks look bad (mostly because they forgot about it). By pooling this information, we can make sure that Icy-Veins stays on top of the world on guiding Warlocks into helping their guild succeed!

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When we run it next week I will try it out. If I blow up our raid I'll let you know. All in the name of science and what not. ;) And yes, all of your guides and forums blow EJ away. I tell everyone who asks how to do anything to come here. The standardized format is great and you guys have made me a much better player. Much appreciated.

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Ok, I see where you say the rotation should be:

4) Affliction's opener should be like this:

Curse of Elements -> Haunt -> Demon Soul -> Soulburn: Soul Swap -> Spam Malefic Grasp

My question is where is corr,agony and ua in the order or does it not matter the order in which you cast them? Also, is it best to cast haunt when it's free even if you're mid-cast on grasp?

Which talents did you take dark regen/soul leech and burning rush/unbound will?

Thanks for the help in advance.

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You said..

Curse of Elements -> Haunt -> Demon Soul -> Soulburn: Soul Swap -> Spam Malefic Grasp

what or where is Demon soul?

I dont see that in my spell book,,,

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Excellent overview, Zagam. I'm curious if you tested out doing any channel-twisting mid-combat to help with shard regen, or if that is a significant loss?

Ok, I see where you say the rotation should be:

4) Affliction's opener should be like this:

Curse of Elements -> Haunt -> Demon Soul -> Soulburn: Soul Swap -> Spam Malefic Grasp

My question is where is corr,agony and ua in the order or does it not matter the order in which you cast them? Also, is it best to cast haunt when it's free even if you're mid-cast on grasp?

Which talents did you take dark regen/soul leech and burning rush/unbound will?

Thanks for the help in advance.

That initial Soulburn: Soul Swap will apply all three DoTs, so the order isn't an issue. If you were to manually apply them, for whatever reason, you'd probably want to prioritize Agony (the sooner it stacks up, the better) > Corruption > UA.

I'm not 100% on the current numbers, but if Haunt is not up or it's about to fall off, I'd interrupt Grasp. Haunt is just an incredible amount of damage, especially if Nightfall procs feel like making friends.

Of those you asked about, many seem to be taking Harvest Life and Unbound Will. Many of these are really preference/playstyle/encounter-based choices, though.

You said..

Curse of Elements -> Haunt -> Demon Soul -> Soulburn: Soul Swap -> Spam Malefic Grasp

what or where is Demon soul?

I dont see that in my spell book,,,

Demon Soul is now called spell_warlock_demonsoul.jpgDark Soul and it's benefit changes based on your specialization. The Affliction version is called spell_warlock_demonsoul.jpgDark Soul: Misery.

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You mentioned the necessity of haunt's refreshing.

Let me ask what would you advise when I have 0 soul shard.

Should I pray for corruption proc or may I start to channel drain soul to create 1 or 2 (above 20 %)?

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Zagam, I have to say thank you for a really clear and informative post.

I have tried your opener and it has boosted my dps by approximately 5k, which is sick. I trully thank you.

However, I want to know what you think about stacking Mastery as opposed to Haste, and what your recommendation for haste in this newer situation where mastery gives so much damage bonus.

Right now my Warlock is by no means BiS in all slots, but I reforged to 15.04 hit,

and i am at 17 percent Haste with 50 percent Mastery. I can certainly reforge more into Mastery, but the question is should I at the expense of haste?

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Ok, I see where you say the rotation should be:

4) Affliction's opener should be like this:

Curse of Elements -> Haunt -> Demon Soul -> Soulburn: Soul Swap -> Spam Malefic Grasp

My question is where is corr,agony and ua in the order or does it not matter the order in which you cast them? Also, is it best to cast haunt when it's free even if you're mid-cast on grasp?

Which talents did you take dark regen/soul leech and burning rush/unbound will?

Thanks for the help in advance.

Sorry for the delay...WVU college football game =)

I'm sorry for using the ability "Demon Soul"...I'm stuck in my ways. It is correctly called 'Dark Soul: Misery' and it should be used before applying your dots with Soulburn: Soul Swap because the haste will greatly impact the dps of those DoTs.

Also, for talents, I took Harvest Life, Mortal Coil, Dark Bargain, Unbound Will, and Grim of Sacrifice. I may be tossing Harvest Life aside and using Soul Leech since Soul Harvest is suffering a huge nerf and Rain of Fire was better anyways.

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You said..

Curse of Elements -> Haunt -> Demon Soul -> Soulburn: Soul Swap -> Spam Malefic Grasp

what or where is Demon soul?

I dont see that in my spell book,,,

Bobio, I apologize for using the incorrect term. The correct spell is "Dark Soul: MIsery"...I apologize for being stuck in my ways of Cataclysm. I hope you found this ability successfully now =)

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Excellent overview, Zagam. I'm curious if you tested out doing any channel-twisting mid-combat to help with shard regen, or if that is a significant loss?

That initial Soulburn: Soul Swap will apply all three DoTs, so the order isn't an issue. If you were to manually apply them, for whatever reason, you'd probably want to prioritize Agony (the sooner it stacks up, the better) > Corruption > UA.

I'm not 100% on the current numbers, but if Haunt is not up or it's about to fall off, I'd interrupt Grasp. Haunt is just an incredible amount of damage, especially if Nightfall procs feel like making friends.

Of those you asked about, many seem to be taking Harvest Life and Unbound Will. Many of these are really preference/playstyle/encounter-based choices, though.

Demon Soul is now called spell_warlock_demonsoul.jpgDark Soul and it's benefit changes based on your specialization. The Affliction version is called spell_warlock_demonsoul.jpgDark Soul: Misery.

Criph,

Thank you for your assistance in clarifying my attempts to help people with spell names.

As for your question, I do NOT currently spend time obtaining Soul Shards to keep Haunt applied. I feel it to be too much of a DPS decrease, and most simulations I've looked at and ran have this coming up with a 1% DPS gain if you do it perfectly like a machine would. Considering movement, changing, and human error, no one would be able to obtain a DPS gain by drain twisting. RNG will affect your DPS if Nightfall doesn't proc a lot, but it hasn't destroyed my DPS in any fight. I've been running the crap out of LFR to test various things, and I've never found Drain Soul'ing to get a shard worth the loss of not having Malefic Grasp up. Just keep doing your rotation and then use Haunt when it procs. Take advantage of any add in a fight...as long as Drain Soul is channeling on it when it dies, you'll be replenished with your 4 Soul Shards.

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You mentioned the necessity of haunt's refreshing.

Let me ask what would you advise when I have 0 soul shard.

Should I pray for corruption proc or may I start to channel drain soul to create 1 or 2 (above 20 %)?

Kispee,

I do not advise you to channel Drain Soul in efforts to obtain a Soul Shard. You are not meant to maintain 100% uptime on Haunt. RNG will allow you to come closer to 100% than other attempts, but no one will ever be able to maintain 100% uptime on a single target boss without hampering their DPS.

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Zagam, I have to say thank you for a really clear and informative post.

I have tried your opener and it has boosted my dps by approximately 5k, which is sick. I trully thank you.

However, I want to know what you think about stacking Mastery as opposed to Haste, and what your recommendation for haste in this newer situation where mastery gives so much damage bonus.

Right now my Warlock is by no means BiS in all slots, but I reforged to 15.04 hit,

and i am at 17 percent Haste with 50 percent Mastery. I can certainly reforge more into Mastery, but the question is should I at the expense of haste?

Great question. In Cata, Affliction stayed as far away from Mastery as humanly possible...now it's a FANTASTIC stat and it scales extremely well. I pushed as much of my secondary stats (after hit of course) into Mastery and I run around 56% self buffed, 72% with Blessing of Might. I have found my Mastery build to do significantly more DPS than my Haste build. If you can squeeze more Mastery out, do it. I'm currently running a few simulations with the Necromantic Focus from Baleroc (391, 44 mastery stacking 10 times + 433 int) to see if I can benefit over Cunning of the Cruel now that Cunning doesn't get the 30% Shadow damage buff it used to from speccing into Affliction. I'll keep you guys posted on my finds. Obviously this would only be true for the next couple of weeks, but worth a look into anyways =)

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I do not advise you to channel Drain Soul in efforts to obtain a Soul Shard.

Excellent, thanks for the confirm. And I'm still stuck on Demon Soul, too. :)

You mentioned multi-dotting being a loss in most scenarios, but what do you think about maximizing available Corruption targets to fish for more Nightfall procs?

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Excellent, thanks for the confirm. And I'm still stuck on Demon Soul, too. Posted Image

You mentioned multi-dotting being a loss in most scenarios, but what do you think about maximizing available Corruption targets to fish for more Nightfall procs?

This is how I've been doing my AoE:

4 or less targets: Soulburn: Soul Swap to each target, channel Malefic Grasp on one. When it's close to dying, switch to Drain Soul. Bam, 4 shards are back in your soul

5 or more targets: Chain Rain of Fire. Seed is bad, and it's only being nerfed more.

If you do the Soulburn: Soul Swap method to multi-dot, it's a huge DPS increase. Manually casting UA, Corr, and Agony is not what it once was. The real power comes from channeling Malefic Grasp, but being able to apply 12 DoTs in 4 globals is pretty impressive. I anticipate a nerf...if this goes live, we will be the ultimate 4 target DPS champions.

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http://www.worldoflo.../?s=2444&e=2657

Here is a link to my World of Logs parse for the first half of LFR. I have it tabbed to Hagara, but you may have to navigate the kills to see my DoT uptime, spells used, etc. I was let to die on Morchok and Yor'sahj (took a 205k melee due to tank dying lol) but Hagara is noted because of my BEAST burst by applying dots, Haunt, and channeling MG. Holy hell, I peaked at 150k, can only imagine if I had a potion used. I'll link the 2nd half shortly. Waiting in this absurd queue.

While I wait, I'm looking at some of this data. You'll see duplicated spells on my Hagara list like Unstable Affliction listed twice...the 2nd one is the UA that is proc'd by Malefic Grasp, if any of you are confused.

Notice how HARD Haunt hits! I managed to get a 57% uptime on Haunt on Zon'ozz by balancing around 2 Soul Shards (using one when I proc'd to get up to 3) and burned them all in the end. Haunt should always be a priority, but don't get caught without a Soul Shard.

EDIT: Can't do LFR due to big time dummies. Can't understand how tanks don't get it by now. I'll just have to push my parses up on Tuesday for a pure Affliction test. Stay tuned =)

Edited by Zagam

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I have been toying around with the idea of using my necrotic focus (sp?) to replace one of my other trinkets (have Will of Unbinding, and Heroic insignia of the corrupted..), I know I wouldnt replace the will of unbinding with it, so that would only leave replacing my heroic insignia. It is an int drop (as well as that huge haste proc), but a 440 mastery gain. With the testing I have done on the dummies I haven't been able to tell much, if an,y difference yet. The guildies I have pitched this idea to have all said I should stay with the heroic insignia, but I would like to hear your opinion on it when you have the time.

Thanks

-Silvercus

Kobayashi Maru Scenario - Norgannon US Horde

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Thanks guys for clearing that up! This is a great website and all my friends and guildies are recomending it.. It is such a good format you have here, easy to read and you guys do a great job, unlike EJ which is just to much over thinking on specs, builds, talents and so on..Keep up the good work and once again..Thanks!

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http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/cd8ymzp0dvglx3x6/

My logs for 2nd half of LFR. Now, I want you all to realize that I sat through a 76 minute queue only to find tanks who didn't know anything. I died to a melee on Ultraxion shortly after Bloodlust and I was tanking the Terrors on Madness during execute phase, so my DPS fell from 95k to 80k =(

If anyone has any questions, I wouldn't say this is a good parse to look from, and I'll be sure to put posts of my Heroic logs on Tuesday.

A side note, I'd like to recommend a chance to the Affliction execute rotation and it should go as follows:

First, make a macro that looks like this:

#showtooltip Soul Swap

/cast Soulburn

/cast Soul Swap

Now, when the boss hits 20% (or a PvP player), do the following:

1) Cast Haunt (Costs 1 Soul Shard)

2) Use Macro (refreshes UA, Agony, and Corruption (Costs 1 Soul Shard)

3) Cast Drain Soul for 4 ticks (Generates 2 Soul Shards)

By doing this as soon as the 4th Drain Soul ticks, you can infinitely keep up your Haunt bonus as well as your DoTs with minimal effort. My execute DPS shot through the roof using this method. This method can also be abused to hell and back during any encounters with adds that you can use as a Drain Soul battery (see Warmaster). Go to my Warmaster logs. Because I have 4 Soul Shards, I used my macro to put 3 DoTs on each of the 2 ground adds and the two drakes...I then went and performed the single target rotation on one drake and casted Drain Soul as it died refreshing my Soul Shards. I then refreshed DoTs on the other 3 and repeated. You can see that I almost hit 50k DPS and I could easily break that with more focus, buffs, and concentration. Since nearly every DS fight has adds, you should almost never be out of Soul Shards, therefore reducing the number of times you have to manually refresh your DoTs. Let me know how this works out for you guys =D

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thanks for clearing up a few things.

i have one question concerning the soul shard management. you said to keep haunt up as much as possible without switching to drain soul above execute and i agree basically. but wouldnt it be better to save up at least 3 shards when your dark soul CD is about to end? so you can keep haunt up 100% during dark soul.

also, what glyphs are you using? soul swap doenst make sense, dark soul is pretty crappy aswell..

soul shards is very good, but the other 2? i use siphon life and healthstone.

kind regards

Nortrom-Frostwolf-EU

Edited by Exciter

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thanks for clearing up a few things.

i have one question concerning the soul shard management. you said to keep haunt up as much as possible without switching to drain soul above execute and i agree basically. but wouldnt it be better to save up at least 3 shards when your dark soul CD is about to end? so you can keep haunt up 100% during dark soul.

also, what glyphs are you using? soul swap doenst make sense, dark soul is pretty crappy aswell..

soul shards is very good, but the other 2? i use siphon life and healthstone.

kind regards

Nortrom-Frostwolf-EU

Yes, you want Haunt up as much as possible, but not where you are Drain Souling above 20%. If you want the Soul Shards for Dark Soul, then just save them up and don't apply Haunt.

My current Major Glyphs are: Soulstone, Soul Shards, and Siphon Life.

My current Minor Glyphs are: Soulwell, Nightmare, and Banish.

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One other tip i would recomand is to remeber Fel Fire adds 6 seconds to UA and Corruption. So if you are on the move and need to refresh its great till you can get stopped again.

Edited by Kissodeath

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One other tip i would recomand is to remeber Fel Fire adds 6 seconds to UA and Corruption. So if you are on the move and need to refresh its great till you can get stopped again.

Fel Fire is horribly under represented by heavy movement fights. When doing an Ulduar achievement run, the idea on Hodir is to never stop moving. I only did to apply Haunt and replaced Malefic Grasp with Fel Fire and still did 59k DPS over about 2 minutes with Bloodlust up for 40 seconds of that. Do not feel you are gimped in heavy movement fights....slap Fel Fire on those bad guys!

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