The Help My DPS Thread

[Liquidsteel 279]

Are you running the latest version of simcraft?

[Nytemare 2]

Are you running the latest version of simcraft?

 

Looks like I wasn't. Just noticed I could get it. Download link only shows r2, and not the newest release with the changes. I now manage affliction will win over Demo on Patchwerk but still fall short over demo on fights like Assault and other add fights. I also still using 4pc T17 and have no T18 yet. 

 

 

 

Spike: I fixed the link, for some reason I forgot to change it over when I switched servers.

Edited August 4, 2015 by Nytemare

[Nytemare 2]

So I tried affliction tonight on all the bosses we did expect  Xhul as I didn't think the spec would be good against him. Here are my logs.

 

AMR: http://www.askmrrobot.com/wow/combatlog/48a28169-e0e5-4bce-bde6-fb09b41ac1f2/boss/overview#c=19

 

Warcraft: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/JkDMd7CrTKR8tZqW#boss=-2&type=damage-done&source=2

 

What could I improve on to make the spec do more?

[Liarparadox 5]

Well, taking a look at a few of your kills, you could really use more uptime on Haunting Spirits. Yours is quite low and that's a serious issue. You should be maintaining this well above 90%.

 

Your uptime on your dots are low as well. Sometimes around 90%, sometimes even lower. That's far too low. The aim should be for around 99%. Crap happens. So if you were around 98% I wouldn't be too hard on yourself; But lower than 95% is something of a "red flag, needs improvement asap". This is where target dummies are of some use. Stand in front of those dummies for 10 minutes straight, more if you need to, doing your priorities/rotations and NEVER let those dots fall off. Once they are up, they need to stay up. Practice it over and over. If you get bored, good. Affliction IS boring and it should seem like nothing to keep them all up all the time. Soon you'll get to the point where it will feel weird if you haven't casted Agony lately, for example, and you'll refresh it without any issues.

 

Just fixing those two things immediately and you'll see  a boost in dps. There's probably more issues. But it's late and i'm not really great at looking at logs tbh; but those are glaring issues and Affliction 101.

[Nytemare 2]

Thanks, I tried to keep HS up, but there were many times that time the buff fell off I didn't have 2x shards so I was screwed.

 

I been using SIm opener where I do SB:Haunt, but I use SB 22 sec before pull to get the shard back, then go into Doomguard - SB:SS > DS. I then recast haunt to keep it up on the target during the big procs and ds. After all said in done, I sitting at 0 shards. 

 

I just got 2pc T18 and now using it with 2pc T17. I read with RNG you could keep thing up at almost 100%

 

For the dots, thanks, yeah working on them, I finding sometimes I tunnel on the mob we must kill, and forget to refresh dots on the boss.

[Nytemare 2]

So how do I play affliction on fights like Hellfire, Deadeye, Gore, etc.. Mostly on the fights that had little adds that keep spawning and need to be killed asap?

 

 

Also I noticed Furty is enchanting haste, and geming haste. Right now I only replaced my enchants with haste for affliction. Should I also do gems and take haste food?

Edited August 6, 2015 by Nytemare

[Liarparadox 5]

Try not using SB: SS in the opener. What's best with the Sim gear isn't always best for your gear. If you find you're constantly running out of shards, then burning a shard to save on some CDS isn't worth it, if it means you have to let Haunting Spirits drop that much. I don't use SB:SS in the opener anymore because I'd personally just rather have the consistency of Haunting Spirits up. And If I find i'm capping on shards I just fire off a Haunt here or there. I'd rather have too many; that's a nice problem to have as Affliction.

 

Hellfire: umm, Aff sucks. Don't do it. It's pretty bad in comparison to destro/demo.

 

I think for both Kilrogg and Gore it really depends on your raid. If you're allowed to tunnel the boss, then by all means you could treat these as tank and spanks and save CDS for increased dmg. But Aff isn't great for killing adds with low health, like the bloods and constructs. Destro is far superior; I mean the only reason I've ever seen groups wipe on these two fights is lack of killing adds, so aff seems like an odd choice. But maybe your raid group doesn't need any help with adds.

 

I can't really speak for Furty, but my guess is he does that because he can afford to do so being a top raider in mythic. My guess is he switches enchants and gems all the time without a second thought depending on his spec. I don't, so everything is mastery.

[Nytemare 2]

So you do mastery as a affliction hmm.. ok. I was destro but wasn't pulling the numbers, I was told I would be getting sat if I didn't improve. so I switched to affliction and despite still learning it, now pulling higher numbers.

 

For the sim this was ran with my gear that I had a few days ago.

 

 

Despite having 3x hunters, 1 arcane/frost mage, 2x arms warriors. a rogue, we still struggle with adds, so no getting lucky to stay on boss only.

Edited August 6, 2015 by Nytemare

[spikeysquad 50]

There are some people post-buffs who now advocate haste as the best stat for Affliction. As I share gear mostly I just go with mastery anyhow.

 

In my opinion you will probably still "need" to play Destro on some fights. At least if you want an easier time in killing bosses by doing more damage when needed. .

 

Generally on overall damage (which isn't everything of course) I think Affliction will be lower on Assault, Iskar, Socrethar, Xhul and perhaps Mannoroth(?) Maybe some others as well but those are the ones that come to mind first.

 

As to priority damage well that depends on what your guild is struggling with. For example, if you cannot kill the adds on Gorefiend before they kill people then Affliction is a poor choice if you can play another spec. Unless of course you can do better than my fail 7% only on adds.. If people are dying in hands on Kormrok the same thing applies. 

[Nytemare 2]

On Kormrok hands die in like 3 secs. We struggle on Deadeye, at the start and for first half adds die fast, 2nd half all sudden adds are a problem and not dying. On Gore, which we are progressing on, adds were coming out at full health. we wiped at 1% cuz a tard put doom right in the middle due to tunnel and killed us all.

 

Most times my team seem to handle adds fine, for like first half, then all sudden loses how to deal with adds the second half. 

 

Destro will be better, but my numbers were super low with that spec, so kinda staying away right now. I guess I can drop demo for it, until I can get 4pc + Trinket and go back as Demo maybe.

[Khaizen 0]

Hello Guyz, im having problem with my dps, especialy on Archimonde. Yes, im suck :(. For the love of God can someone say what im doing wrong? I am Kåizen,

 

WL: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/1LtAbK2JMFqfv3dm

 

Armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/pt/character/nemesis/K%C3%A5izen/simple

 

I have heroic UGS trinket too.

 

Thanks and sory for my bad english

[Guest]

Hello my fellow Warlocks,

I've been reading the forums and following the advice of the very knowledgeable people here for years.

 

This is the first time I have ever reached out personally so I hope I get this right.

 

My guild is progressing on Normal mode Archimonde for the past two weeks. While it is a rough right my team mates seem to have a much easier time with dps'ing.

 

To start here is a link to our logs for tonight's raid:

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/YQBHmwrFR3Mf2a8c#

 

And my armory [sorry if this isnt neccisary, but I wanted to save someone the search ]

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/thrall/Zsiga/simple

 

 

As far as dps im barley keeping up with the tanks.

 

One of the issues I have is my positioning. I can't seem to find a good harmony to get to a position in phase 1 during the spread quickly enough to maintain optimal dps.

 

I do find myself messing up my rotation and procs, and I believe my positioning is to blame.

 

I try to make good use of my portal to get across the room, but I find it difficult to use in some situations.

 

One other issue that I struggle with constantly is switching targets. I know the priority target, but tab targeting doesn't always switch to the add for me.

 

I have tried macros with new keybinds, I have tried tidy plates. I find myself still struggling to target the priority add in the entire pack of them, or being out of range for tab target to function correctly.

 

Any suggestion is greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

I did also have a question about havoc in the encounter. I have focus macro set up to cast havoc on Archimonde. 

 

I then will use chaos bolt if I have an ember on the add when it spawns to cleave the CB onto the boss.

 

Other times I will save havoc such as during phase3 with the puppies to shadow burn clean onto the boss.

 

I was thinking of possibly trying the glyph of havoc, but I've read that its not a very good glyph to use.

 

 

I also wonder if glyph of dark soul was good in this fight. I find it difficult to fully utilize dark soul with my procs during the fight due to the constant movement with the puppies/wrought/fire/chains/allure. All around I find it hard to be in a good position to cast and switch targets appropriately. 

 

 

I see warlocks with similar gear to mine doing at least 10k more dps on the Archimonde encounter then I am. Any suggestion is is very much appreciated.

 

I also wanted to thank you, for all the years of help you have provided me as well as my peers on the site. 

[spikeysquad 50]

I do not feel able to comment yet on the Archimode encounter per se however Zhentar I would recommend some type of boss frame mod. I personally use the one that comes with Elvui so I do not know if there are others out there as stand alone addons but may be worth looking into. The boss frame allows me to mouseover for DoTs, Havoc and Shadowburn and just select new targets that much more easily. Otherwise I will just mouseclick on the target that I want however, yes in a big pack that is not always successful. You may want to play around with your Tidyplates settings a little more so it is obvious who you are "mouseingover" etc. 

 

One quick thing from your logs though. On the last try yes you used Havoc 6 times (not a lot either in 10 minutes) however with these you did not copy one CB/SB across... Most of your other tries paint a very similar picture (or at least you definitely got worse as the night went on) so you will want to be watching your Havoc stacks a lot better and make sure you use them all each time.

 

Edited for a spelling error.

Edited August 20, 2015 by spikeysquad

[Guest]

Thank you for the reply. It brings great insight into some of my issues.

 

I will admit every attempt we try I progressively got worse as the night went on. This is mostly due to the frustration of the fight and guild frustration with the fight. I do forget sometimes to set Archi as my focus so it really screws my macro and makes things worse. Sometimes when I use havoc I end up using it up on incen rather then CB when im attacking adds, and this may be bad resource management on my part. Ive read using incen or immolate is essentially a waist of a good havoc if your not using your CB.

Does anyone use havoc to cleave immolate off an add back onto Archi to have a better up time with immolate?

 

Im wondering as well if I should use havoc on Archi at all times and CB/SB cleave off the priority add target, or if I should be using havoc on a add, and then cleaving off that add onto another add in order to down them quickly.

 

I also find it very difficult to kill Living Shadows. I find myself banking my conflag charges until they come out, which will gimp my dps since im banking the charges. I think this may be fixed with some proper backdraft management on my part in order to have a faster incen when the living shadows come out.

 

Thanks again everyone for any help! I appreciate it alot!

[Liquidsteel 279]

If you're not assigned to Living Shadows I wouldn't bother, Hunters two shot them pretty much and it's a waste. 

 

Sub 20% you can Havoc one and triple Shadowburn the boss if you're quick.

 

Otherwise make sure you are using Havoc stacks with Chaos Bolt every time unless you can a) get 3x shadowburn shortly after or b) snipe a shadowburn + some extra filler in the same window. 

[Guest]

Thanks again.

 

Our current raid strat has all of our ranged dps assigned to the living shadows so we are all watching for them.

My number 1 issue with the shadows is that by the time I target and cast, my cast gets half way through and there dead, I have to rotate and switch targets, then move etc if anything is happening so I loose a huge dmg window. This may be something that we as a group need to get worked out. I do agree fully with you when our hunters see the shadows they absolutely destroy them and our mages seem to wreck them as well. Makes you wish you had more instant cast spells other then conflag 

 

Thanks for the havoc tip. I did want to ask do you think my focus macro to put havoc on Archi all the time is ok? I have it on a cast@focus macro so I don't have to un-select my current priority target and I can cleave CB/SB to hit archi. I was thinking that I might want to switch it up and have it not macrod to to havoc 1 add then sb cleave the other add for quicker dmg?

 

Apologies also if I repeat myself.

[Liquidsteel 279]

Add mouseover above focus in the macro. This leaves it open to being flexible.

[Guest]

Thank you for the suggestions.

 

I believe a mouse over macro will greatly increase my efficiency. Just will have to get used to them.

 

I did have a questions about rotation as far as when you have procs available to you.

 

I know that I want to dump chaos bolts when I have procs and have pooled some embers.

 

I find myself sometimes after a chaos bolt dump having no embers, but still having some time left on my procs.

 

For example,

A. say I have a chaos bolt dump with fresh procs, and I dump all of my embers. I still have maybe 5-7 secs left on a proc.

B. Or I will have a fresh proc, and have only half an ember.

 

For A, I normally will try to squeeze out 1 more chaos bolt by generating a half ember because I only have half of 1 ember left. Then I will cast a chaos bolt and then continue normal rotation.

 

For B, I will normally try to pool as many embers as I can then start chaos bolt dumping. Sometimes I find myself trying to charge up an ember, CB, then charge 1 ember, then 1 CB. Or I will try to pool up my embers as much as I can, then dump maybe 3 CB's with the time on the procs I have left. I have this feeling that this isnt proper ember/cb management and its gimping me.

[Liquidsteel 279]

As long as you are getting out as many CB's under procs as you can, it doesn't really matter.

 

I think you are grossly over thinking the situation.

 

Try to think more about the encounter and how it will affect your next 3-4 spells. Then you'll have a greater idea of whether or not you need to build - dump - build - dump (mechanic might force you to move) or if you can build - build - dump - dump (and hope for another proc in the extra build phase).

 

Ultimately it doesn't matter how you do it, just don't build to 3 embers then have the boss go immune or have to kite a doomfire and not be able to spend them.

[Nytemare 2]

Zhen I feel your pain with hunters and mages. My team has 3 MM and 2x Frost/Arcane and when it comes to fights with adds I get destroyed and barley can keep up with tanks as destro - to the point where I either have to play affliction and tunnel to keep high enough numbers not to be sat, or I have to sit out. 

 

Problem is my team suffer from a major weakness half way into the fight/sub 20/30 and they tunnel way to much, then adds get out of control, heck sometimes adds get out of control right off the back, making me want to do destro, but knowing I can't

 

Until HFC I was good as a destro always did high dps, followed the cb rules, and despite doing all that and changing rule from 3.5 to 2.5 with CR I still can't do crap for dps. 

 

Team just has way to much cleave that even sometimes as affliction I just get destroyed in dps/damage. 

[spikeysquad 50]

The raid set up makes it harder sometimes for sure. This week I noticed a significant difference in my SB damage while we have the second lock, second hunter and SP missing. However, sometimes I think that people can also place too much emphasis on this and fail to realise how many other apsects are also affecting their numbers.

 

My personal advice is not to give up and keep working on the areas that you do poorly with, try to speed up your reactions in target switching and with mouseovers and you should see better percentiles again and again (or at least I am slowly improving most of the time). Though yeah indeed fights like Kilrogg it's pretty impossible for me to get more than a CB on the little adds and bloods which only gets worse as people get more gear. I used to think Destro locks really sucked at certain fights (mainly thinking of Xhul, Mann and Arch aka higher movement fights) but really it was mostly me playing badly and now I am getting more competitive all the time. 

[TADMG 0]

I was hoping I could get some help with my poor destruction skills, or at least input on what I'm doing wrong. I'm pretty confident in my Affliction play, but seeing as I can't play that on every fight, I need to improve as Destro. In these logs, I am Sozilicious.

 

H Archimonde

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/C3vGMk184dNwQTBf#type=damage-done&fight=5 

 

M Hellfire Assault

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/C3vGMk184dNwQTBf#type=damage-done&fight=9- Should add I am running crates, but I feel like my DPS is pitiful on this even with that in mind.

 

H Mannoroth

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/m7j1DxKwnt2QYHqf#type=damage-done&fight=36- I'm barely beating tanks when playing Destro, so I'm clearly doing something wrong here.

 

H Mannoroth 2

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/vyXPZq9aQRBVn1Ff#type=damage-done&fight=23- Once again, barely beating tanks.

 

Armory 

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/perenolde/Sozilicious/advanced- I currently use the same gear for both specs. 

 

Thanks in advance for any help or input I can get.

[spikeysquad 50]

Hi Tadmg,

 

Started writing a longer post but have been called away. Until I can get back to it tomorrow, or someone else replies, for now I would suggest to focus on Immolate uptime and using Havoc on cooldown or pre-casting it if there are not always adds up. Then make sure you use all stacks every time on SB>CB>other stuff. If you are raiding tonight then you should see a significant increase from just these changes.

 

Good luck 

 

Oh and snipe way more SBs

Edited August 26, 2015 by spikeysquad

[spikeysquad 50]

Hi Tadmg,

 

From looking at your first Mannoroth log mainly here are some issues that I found:

 

Immolate uptime (only 66% on Mannoroth)

Havoc. You cast it only 6 times in 6 1/2 minutes but then fail to actually use any of the stacks on the good stuff!

Using Doomy way too late. Either in opener (if safely on farm) or at least a minute to boss death. Potion was also too late for full effect

Lack of SB sniping (do you have decent nameplates to show execute mobs clearly? Do you have a mouseover SB macro?)

RoF for moving or part of your rotation? 

Find out which adds give you the most DPS on Mannoroth. Personally I found doing lots of Infernal damage increased my DPS the most but it will depend on raid set up. Our Imps die too quick so I just SB them mostly

You are not syncing DS with the ring

Lack of CBs in DS and other strong buffs (twice it seems you went into DS without high embers)

Becoming ember capped too often/staying that way too long

At one point 46 seconds without a CB! Generally you should be able to get more out over the whole fight than you are

CB>SB in execute now unless you are using Havoc or you will get the embers back

Do you find Dark Regen is essential? Only one cast in 6 minutes is easily outweighed by Soul Leech. Do you really need Sac Pact?

Seems like you only had GoSac on for about 60% of the fight so a that meant a lot of lost DPS

 

So quite a few issues but that means you now know what to improve on :)

 

Good luck

[TADMG 0]

Okay, thank you very much for taking the time to look into this for me SpikeySquad. I appreciate it, and will be trying to keep all of these things in mind for the future. As for the GoSac thing, that's something that happens quite rarely, but I do have a bit of a bad memory, so once in a while I'll realize I don't have pet sac'd. I should really make a Weak Aura for it, to remind me when I have that talent selected.