Affliction Warlock 7.3

[Damien 1,514]

This thread is for comments about our Affliction Warlock guide for Legion.

[Guest Pixelovsky]

Just one thing: In talent choice in tier 3 you have got shadowfury, but affliction warlock has got howl of terror instead of shadowfury ^^

[Damien 1,514]

29 minutes ago, Guest Pixelovsky said:

Just one thing: In talent choice in tier 3 you have got shadowfury, but affliction warlock has got howl of terror instead of shadowfury ^^

Going to get fixed shortly :p

[Guest Akhtal]

In rotation, 2.4.1 is all outdated. That has been taken out since they added the accumulator system for shards. Effigy is just counted as a regular second target and has been for quite some time.

[Guest Dravius]

I have a question on the opening rotation:

Will it make a difference on which target Doomguard and Fellhunter will perform their attacks? I mean, is it important to switch back from Soul Effigy to my main target before casting those 2 spells?

Thx for the great guide!!!

[Furty 51]

2 hours ago, Guest Dravius said:

I have a question on the opening rotation:

Will it make a difference on which target Doomguard and Fellhunter will perform their attacks? I mean, is it important to switch back from Soul Effigy to my main target before casting those 2 spells?

Thx for the great guide!!!

I don't think I've ever tried casting them on the Soul Effigy :O But I would cast them on your primary target always.

[Guest Fail Lock =/]

so I just restarted playing and i'm lvl'ing up... did the first dungeon I came in dead last on dmg.  Any suggestions for leveling up build?  I've been using this affliction build right now as I see the leveling build section is out of date.... so thought i'd try here to fix my suckage.  Thanks in advance!!

[Furty 51]

55 minutes ago, Guest Fail Lock =/ said:

so I just restarted playing and i'm lvl'ing up... did the first dungeon I came in dead last on dmg.  Any suggestions for leveling up build?  I've been using this affliction build right now as I see the leveling build section is out of date.... so thought i'd try here to fix my suckage.  Thanks in advance!!

Unfortunately I don't think anyone has really done any low level leveling on PTR or Beta, so you're on your own! 

[Guest Suffrux - Doomhammer]

Hey, here's a useful macro I whipped up:

Quote

/target Soul Effigy
/castsequence reset=2 Agony, Siphon Life, Corruption, Null
/targetlasttarget

What it does is target your effigy, drop one of your three dots (cycling), then target back to your previous target. 

When it hits null you basically have a locked button until you stop hitting it for 2 seconds (reset=2) which prevents you from getting the sequence out of whack. Agony's the first just because it's the one you really don't want to have fall off, the order is adjustable though.  

I found it helps a lot in multi-add situations just because you can effortlessly keep your effigy dots rolling without having to target it.

[Furty 51]

3 hours ago, Guest Suffrux - Doomhammer said:

Hey, here's a useful macro I whipped up:

What it does is target your effigy, drop one of your three dots (cycling), then target back to your previous target. 

When it hits null you basically have a locked button until you stop hitting it for 2 seconds (reset=2) which prevents you from getting the sequence out of whack. Agony's the first just because it's the one you really don't want to have fall off, the order is adjustable though.  

I found it helps a lot in multi-add situations just because you can effortlessly keep your effigy dots rolling without having to target it.

Hello, I'm not going to add it to the guide because cast sequence macros can occasionally work in unpredictable or unintended ways, and I personally think they degrade your personal playing ability. However, I would recommend potentially posting it on our forums, as there might be people who can make use of it ;)

[manofthelaw3 0]

I'm not really good with macros, so is there something i could do where it would be macroed to cast corruption on soul effigy, then another macro for agony, and another for etc...? where it would be like a copy of my current bar but will always be cast on soul effigy?

 

[Guest Rubi - Revencrest]

You have AffDot as an addon for 7.0.3 but according to curse - its most recent is for 6.0.3  and comments have people asking for it to be updated for legion..

Can you confirm .. and if its not current - what is a good alternative.

Thanks

[Furty 51]

On 7/22/2016 at 1:28 PM, manofthelaw3 said:

I'm not really good with macros, so is there something i could do where it would be macroed to cast corruption on soul effigy, then another macro for agony, and another for etc...? where it would be like a copy of my current bar but will always be cast on soul effigy?

 

Yes but you would need a full second set of DoT keybinds.

2 hours ago, Guest Rubi - Revencrest said:

You have AffDot as an addon for 7.0.3 but according to curse - its most recent is for 6.0.3  and comments have people asking for it to be updated for legion..

Can you confirm .. and if its not current - what is a good alternative.

Thanks

WeakAuras, Gnosis, etc., any aura trackers are fine.

[Guest Phantom Singularity]

Is  Phantom Singularity still not a good choice even though the damage has been doubled?

[Guest Phantom singularity]

I like PS compared to the 35% damage of soul effigy and since Blizzard did double the damage of Phantom i really like it now.  35% from Effigy does not seem like a lot that is only 35k per 100k you dish out. Phantom is my choice. Effigy seems to bulky and not near the damage of Phantom. Phantom is 1152% of spell damage on me that is 96912 damage (no flask no food no augment rune) over 12 seconds plus heals you for 30% of the damage done.

 

Please would a pro lock respond. I just play to have fun i am by no means a expert on a lock so if someone who is great with affliction please weigh in.

[Guest Bob]

On 8/7/2016 at 6:11 AM, Guest Phantom singularity said:

I like PS compared to the 35% damage of soul effigy and since Blizzard did double the damage of Phantom i really like it now.  35% from Effigy does not seem like a lot that is only 35k per 100k you dish out. Phantom is my choice. Effigy seems to bulky and not near the damage of Phantom. Phantom is 1152% of spell damage on me that is 96912 damage (no flask no food no augment rune) over 12 seconds plus heals you for 30% of the damage done.

Please would a pro lock respond. I just play to have fun i am by no means a expert on a lock so if someone who is great with affliction please weigh in.

Buffed Phantom Singularity does 1152% spell power over 60 seconds(cooldown).  

Soul Effigy does approximately 1043% spell power over 60 seconds from Corruption(no talent), Agony(no talent), and Siphon Life at the 35% rate.  

However, this does not account for extra shard generation and splash effects hitting the Effigy.  At 110 the disparity is even worse because the Artifact traits buff Corruption and Agony and there is even a damage proc on Corruption.

The buff made Phantom Singularity probably a decent choice for AoE, but in single target and cleave up to 2, Effigy is still going to be ahead because of shard generation.

With Writhe in Agony and no Endless Corruption, 1421% over 60 seconds.  

With both, 1500% over 60 seconds.

[Guest Jakk Frost]

They may change (or "fix") it in a future patch, but I thought you'd like to know you can ramp up Agony faster by spam casting it.  Each time you cast it it also adds another stack, on top of the stack added per tick.

[Guest Targetman]

I don't see anything about Shard Instability.  I assume we should just cast UA when it procs?  Seems like that would be a fairly high priority since UA stacks. Or is it not even worth tracking and just let it happen passively?

[Furty 51]

On 8/9/2016 at 8:24 PM, Guest Jakk Frost said:

They may change (or "fix") it in a future patch, but I thought you'd like to know you can ramp up Agony faster by spam casting it.  Each time you cast it it also adds another stack, on top of the stack added per tick.

You've always been able to do this but it isn't an efficient use of Global Cooldowns.

 

On 8/10/2016 at 4:35 PM, Guest Targetman said:

I don't see anything about Shard Instability.  I assume we should just cast UA when it procs?  Seems like that would be a fairly high priority since UA stacks. Or is it not even worth tracking and just let it happen passively?

Track it if you like but there isn't an especially noteworthy way of using it other than, "Oh hey a free UA!".

[Guest Shadowsender]

Regarding the fast ramp-up of agony, will it be better to use it as a "filler", if the stacks aren't maxed out yet?
In single target combats, I get all DOTs up and need to "wait" for 5 shards to accumulate.
During that time I can either Drain Life or ramp up Agony all the way up to 20 stacks (or until I have 5 shards ready).
Which do you think is better?

[Guest Jacob]

Why is Corruption prioritised above Siphon Life? For me, SL seems to be hitting harder (your tooltips suggest the reverse, so I'm not sure what's happened there), so I'd expect keeping it up to be a higher priority?

[Furty 51]

On 8/15/2016 at 5:34 AM, Guest Shadowsender said:

Regarding the fast ramp-up of agony, will it be better to use it as a "filler", if the stacks aren't maxed out yet?
In single target combats, I get all DOTs up and need to "wait" for 5 shards to accumulate.
During that time I can either Drain Life or ramp up Agony all the way up to 20 stacks (or until I have 5 shards ready).
Which do you think is better?

Drain Life.

On 8/18/2016 at 6:18 PM, Guest Jacob said:

Why is Corruption prioritised above Siphon Life? For me, SL seems to be hitting harder (your tooltips suggest the reverse, so I'm not sure what's happened there), so I'd expect keeping it up to be a higher priority?

Ideally keep everything up at all times, there shouldn't be falloff. Part of the reason is that much of my initial theorycrafting is based off of Legion scaling and the Artifact influences Corruption damage whereas Siphon Life is a talent and thusly unaffected.

[Guest Geminior]

Agony is listed as 18 secs, with a valid refresh at 5.4 secs. It is in fact 15 secs and therefore a 4.5 sec refresh window. 

[Guest Geminior]

30 minutes ago, Guest Geminior said:

Agony is listed as 18 secs, with a valid refresh at 5.4 secs. It is in fact 15 secs and therefore a 4.5 sec refresh window. 

Nevermind me, obviously that is only true when using the class trinket.

[Guest Disapproval]

Thanks for busting your butt on the guides and getting them all up before Legion release Furty, much appreciated.

I'm torn between affliction and destro as my leveling-up and primary raid specs. A small issue, but one that is impacted by the keybind fluency and familiarity I develop over the next few weeks before raids land. I feel like I should pick Destro as the safe, jack of all trades raiding spec, but have a personal preference for Affliction. Time will tell I suppose.

I do very much wish that I didn't feel that no matter which spec I choose, I am limited by the specificity of said spec's strengths and weaknesses. To clarify, it appears that each spec does one role (ST/Cleave/AoE) reasonably well, but is inflexible and offers suboptimal performance in all other categories regardless of talent choice. I had hoped each spec would perform capably in all roles depending on talent loadout, so that those of us who have less time to learn/gear offspecs, or simply like to embrace a particular playstyle, needn't switch all the time. Obviously, there isn't a need per se, but I will likely be progression raiding this xpac and I dislike being forced to make a significant trade-off between raid optimization and personal enjoyment. I will just have to try and treat it as a fresh challenge.

Just airing my thoughts - I am sure I will enjoy playing no matter how things shake out. Have fun levelling everyone, see you in raid!