Affliction Rotation ... how to? (6 replies to this topic)

I am a bit confused about Affliction's rotation. I hope you guys can clarify how it works.

1.)Keep Curse of Elements up at all time.
2.)Keep Haunt up as much as possible.
3.)Zagam's guide says:

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So let me see if I have this straight ... If I have 3 Shards and both Corruption, UA, Agony + Haunt are about to run out I would recast Haunt which leaves me with 2 Shards and then I cast SB:SS leaving me with 1 Shard? Is that a correct interpretation?

When exactly do I refresh Corruption and UA? When they are have less than 50% of their time left? I am saying that because of Pandemic. I am never sure when to refresh them, because I am not entirely sure what Pandemic does.

What about Agony? When do I refresh? Do I wait until almost the last tick?

Taken all of that into account when do I use SB:SS? When Corruption and UA are low enough, regardless of where Agony is at?

4) If I have 2 shards or less I have to manually reapply dots. Now the order is what I wonder about. Do I cast Haunt first and THEN manually reapply Corruption, UA, Agony and then use Malefic Grasp or do I do the opposite? The reason I wonder about the order is if I cast Haunt first and then Corruption, UA, Agony by the time I use Malefic Grasp Haunt haunt is almost over and it does not benefit from Malefic Grasp. However, if I do it the opposite way (Corruption, UA, Agony  then Haunt) then Haunt benefits by Malefic Grasp a lot more than in the first example. Which is better for DPS?

5) In the execution phase using Drain Souls I get A LOT of souls which allows 100% upkeep of Haunt, but what about Corruption, UA, Agony? When do I use SB:SS to refresh them? As soon as I have the Shard or do I need them to get past half their timer?

6) Doomguard at 20%.

Edited by jollyjoka, 01 November 2012 - 10:18 PM.

Dont feel bad. Affliction is hard to dumb down into a priority number list. I'll answer by explaining what I do but Id also love to hear others discussion.

Generally, I open with SB:SS + Haunt and channel MG. after that, I never SS:SB and conserve shards for haunt.  

On when to refresh dots, there's a crucial mechanic that took me awhile to figure out..
Basicslly, you want to be channeling MG for the entire time that Haunt is up. Refreshing your dots while Haunt is up is a dps loss.

Haunt is not your priority. Your dots are. If a night fall procs, look at your dot timer and if they are half way or six seconds left, refresh the so that you may cast Haunt next and channel MG all the way through.

Get your dots up, haunt then MG MG MG MG.. If agony is halfway ticking, refresh it (same for UA and Corruption) because of the new Pandemic talent.

A very nice tip would be for u to get the addon called "tell me when" and make it show when your trinkets and wep ench proc.

There is a very strong opener as following:

Make sure your raid uses pull timer and prepot on 3
Use dark misery and pop soul burn
on 2 to 1  on the pull timer start to cast hunt so it lands on pull
Soul swap to apply all 3 dots and elements, start useing MG
As soon as the addon "tell me when" shows that your procs are on use fel flame to refesh dots with the extra stat u just gained.

This opener keeps with 2 soul shards. keep dots up manually unless all of em are running out and u have a soul shard.
Now it's RNG pray time, keep praying for soul shard proc. keep hunt up if u can stand still, have all 3 dots up and use MG on boss.

If there is long time left on dots and u get proc from trinkets and wep use felflame to get more out of your dots. U will still need to manually keep agony up.

Also if the encounter have adds make sure that u gain back all 4 soulshards when they die.

There is a lot of complexity to maximizing Affliction's DPS.  It's all about knowing what trinkets are proc'd, what buffs are currently on you, and what debuffs are on the boss.  To simplify everything, I prioritize keeping my DoTs up with minimal effort which is what SB:SS does.  Obviously RNG plays into your Haunt uptime, but a rule of thumb is to never overwrite a powerful DoT (applied during Bloodlust, Dark Soul, or a potion) with a lesser DoT.  Sounds simple, but it's not.

Take these scenarios for example:

Let's say you don't have any trinkets on.  You can test this at your local test target.  Apply some DoTs.  They will tick for the same damage at the same time interval all the time.  The only modifier to their damage will be critical hits.  Let's say (these numbers are SO wrong, but I'm using for simplicity) you have 3 DoTs running.

Corruption ticks for 10 damage and has 14 seconds left
Agony ticks for 15 damage and has 22 seconds left
UA ticks for 12 damage and has 6 seconds left

With no buffs present on these adds, they will continue ticking for that damage and only the time left matters.  Feel free to extend these DoT durations whenever you see fit.  Reapplying UA will make UA continue to tick for 12 damage but now the duration will be 20 seconds (14+6, because 6 is less than the maximum allowed to be added to 14 via Pandemic, which would be 7).

Now let's say you're a tailor or engineer and you use Synapse Springs or have your Lightweave proc.  If you do NOT reapply DoTs, your DoTs will continue to tick for the same damage.  However, let's say you're alerted to one of these procs and you reapply your DoTs.  Again, remember these numbers are made up for simplicity, but you see the effect...

Corruption ticks for 13 damage for 24 seconds (16 + 8)
Agony ticks for 18 damage for 36 seconds (24 + 12)
UA ticks for 15 damage for 20 seconds (14+6)

Now we have empowered DoTs ticking for their maximum duration!  Let's JUST look at Agony.  Let's say Synapse Springs lasts for 10 seconds (not sure, not an engineer).  So at that point, you'd have Agony ticking for 18 damage with 26 seconds left on its timer.  If you were to reapply Agony at 18 seconds to get back up to 36 seconds, you would LOSE the empowered DoT.  You'd go back to Agony ticking for 15 damage for 36 seconds.  In this scenario, it's better to NOT reapply DoTs until your empowered DoTs are about to wear off.  Follow?

Now let's add trinkets to the mess.  At the beginning of the fight, you will have all of your procs line up.  Lightweave, a potion, Dark Soul, two trinkets...I call this the "works."  You won't get the "works" at any other point in the fight because of different timers.  However, you can use knowledge of internal cooldowns on trinkets to see if you can line up things you can control, such as a potion or Dark Soul.  If you set up some auras or classtimers (I do this with TukUI) to notify you of stuff procing, you can use that moment to reapply DoTs for a bigger effect.  You can also see when Dark Soul or a trinket has 4 seconds left on its buff, you could reapply DoTs again benefitting from Pandemic AND receiving the damage buff for the extended duration.  At the beginning of the fight when you apply your DoTs, they are going to be mega DoTs.  Now, I'm using Light of the Cosmos and the Relic of Yu'lon, so both are proc trinkets.  I'm also a Tailor and I use a lot of potions.  At the beginning of a fight, I'll see my static raid buffed Spell Power of 22500 soar up to 39850.  THIS is when I pop my DoTs.  I think Lightweave wears off after 15 seconds, Relic of Yu'lon after 15 seconds, Cosmos in 20 seconds, and Dark Soul at 20 seconds.  Basically I open my rotation with Curse, SB:SS to get my DoTs up, Haunt, and Malefic Grasp.  By the time MG channels twice, all my stuff has proc'd.  I then reapply all of my DoTs one by one to get maximum duration, Haunt, and MG again.  When Lightweave and Yu'lon are about to expire, I reapply DoTs again to get maximum durations.  Then I just MG and Haunt on procs until my DoTs are about to wear off.  I do NOT reapply DoTs again until they are almost gone because reapplying them early would put up 23k spell power DoTs instead of 39k spell power DoTs.  This is what Pandemic is designed for.  Affliction is as good as you make your DoTs last, but if you want to excel, learn to REALLY understand that empowered DoTs remain empowered throughout their duration even after your buffs wear off.  Take advantage of this and see your numbers skyrocket.

Great answers ... the only thing that still confuses me is how Pandemic works ... does the talent mean that if you refresh a 20 second DoT with 10 or less seconds left on it then the remaining 10 second damage will be put onto the new 20 seconds?

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So you wait for them to be almost over before reapplying if you exclude procs from trinkets and stuff?

jollyjoka, on 02 November 2012 - 04:50 PM, said:

If its dots that are empowered or have "the works " yes you want to let them tick as long as possible (without letting them fall off) so you get the full extent of the buffed dots. If it's dots that are not buffed then just reapply as normal.

Please refer to 5.0.5 Affliction Quirks and Tips for how Pandemic works.  It's the very first post.