5.4 Affliction Tips & Quirks

[Vortex 3]

o/ Zagam I thought on this all the time, SB:SS on execute phase never seems I good thing to do, but since EVERYONE said it, i went for that aswell with the feeling that was very wrong...

I'm doing rank top<100 in all bosses with Affliction but it seems with this change I might went for top 20 xD. I always thought on execute ppl don't want waste seconds cast dots on execute but yeah i support 100% this idea. I managed to this that one some bosses.You'll swimming on shards on this phase, don't worry about that just do your normal rotation.

Affliction nowadays it's so tricky... Well now I know why i pass rank 20 on Feng to rank 70 on hc! Because I'm sure many people understand this execute mechanic before some of us.

Hardest spec to play, if you play like a pro. Demo it's too easy, rotation I mean. Destro no idea. Affliction nowadays can separate a pro warlock to a mediocre one.

[schmearcampain 0]

Do NOT use Haunt back to back. The rule of thumb is to not overwrite Haunt. During execute, you'll want Haunt up full time while managing the power of your DoTs. Don't use SB:SS if you had a monster proc...just let your DoTs tick to their last duration and manually cast. Since Drain Soul powers your DoT ticks from Drain Soul ticks, you don't want to lose this power as the DPS loss will be multplicative. Most people would just rather avoid complications and just apply via SB:SS, but this is a huge DPS loss if you don't manage the power of your Agony. Overwriting a 37k spell power Agony with a 24k spell power Agony would crush your execute phase. Manage DoTs, manage DoTs, manage DoTs. Keep Haunt up, use DS as filler.

This is pretty different than what you said in the OP.

"1) Boss hits 20% --> Apply DoTs then Haunt and Drain Soul. Use SB:SS if you had 2 shards when boss hit 20% life; otherwise, apply manually

2) When Drain Soul has ticked FOUR times, you'll have AT LEAST 2 shards. If you have 2 shards, then reapply DoTs with SB:SS, Haunt, and Drain Soul again until it has ticked 4 times.

3) When Drain Soul has ticked 4 times and you have at least 3 Soul Shards, then you will reapply DoTs with SB:SS, Haunt, Haunt again, then Drain Soul. Haunt hits for a ton and you'll want to use Haunt when Haunt is already applied to the boss for a major hit."

Am I missing something? is this a situational thing, or are you planning on updating the OP to reflect this?

[mediocregatsby 18]

is there a macro or script to prevent myself from soul-swapping DOTs off a target? sometimes in a multi-target situation, i will accidentally soulswap DOTs off a target while i'm tabbing through targets. i'd prefer if i had one button to explicitly use for exhaling DOTs (both thru soul burn and normal soulswap) and one button ONLY for inhaling DOTs.

[Fel 42]

Thanks for the replies folks, seems both my questions have been answered, but folks are still understandably curious.

Initial questions:

1)

Q: Should I just use SB:SS during execute phases on the assumption that 1-GCD refresh all 3 is always >> using specific GCDs to keep powered DoTs.

A: Not always, if you have supercharged DoTs, dont overwrite with SB:SS.

My take-away: It's down to the trade-off between not wasting more GCDs refreshing DoTs and keeping DoTs that are doing much higher damage. Some hard work and math might tell a clever warlock at exactly what level of buff per-DoT he should stop SB:SSing and starting doing manual overwrites.

2)

Q: Should I back to back haunts during execute phases when I'm rolling in shards.

A: No.

My take-away: I wasnt satisfied so I did some logs investigation, which can be easily replicated by anyone with passable Wologs knowledge.

Example findings.

Haunt hits for an average ~80k, crits for an average 160k, cast time 1.5 secs before haste.

Drain Soul ticks hit for average 40k, crit for 80k, 2 secs apart before haste.

Drain Soul ticks ALSO proc all 3 DoTs for 100% - based on average, this will amount to ~40k in total, or 80k if all 3 crit.

So, I dont know crit coefficients on a per spell basis, nor do I know if any other factors impact the ticks of DS beyond what the tooltip states, BUT, what that would appear to indicate from the logs is that Haunt and DS are roughly equivalent in damage per cast, but Haunt has a shorter cast time (1.5 vs 2 secs).

At the moment I'm still going off the advice in this thread and on the site, but I'd appreciate if someone could counter/explain the mechanics of it and why I am wrong to think that the above indicates chain-casting haunt should pull slightly ahead during times of free soul shards.

Thanks!

P.S. Usual disclaimer about my math, I'm no statistician or theorycrafter, just an interested and passionate warlock looking to squeeze every last bit out of my soul-sucking baby-munching death goddess. XD

[Zagam 1,982]

o/ Zagam I thought on this all the time, SB:SS on execute phase never seems I good thing to do, but since EVERYONE said it, i went for that aswell with the feeling that was very wrong...

I'm doing rank top<100 in all bosses with Affliction but it seems with this change I might went for top 20 xD. I always thought on execute ppl don't want waste seconds cast dots on execute but yeah i support 100% this idea. I managed to this that one some bosses.You'll swimming on shards on this phase, don't worry about that just do your normal rotation.

Affliction nowadays it's so tricky... Well now I know why i pass rank 20 on Feng to rank 70 on hc! Because I'm sure many people understand this execute mechanic before some of us.

Hardest spec to play, if you play like a pro. Demo it's too easy, rotation I mean. Destro no idea. Affliction nowadays can separate a pro warlock to a mediocre one.

Very true. The only thing separating me from ranking is a weapon. I passed on the 503 Elite dagger from Protectors last night to my Mage...he better appreciate. But even with a lacking spell power, I'm always at 98% of the threshold of ranking. TBH, I think challenge modes separate the good Warlocks from the Elite Warlocks.

This is pretty different than what you said in the OP.

"1) Boss hits 20% --> Apply DoTs then Haunt and Drain Soul. Use SB:SS if you had 2 shards when boss hit 20% life; otherwise, apply manually

2) When Drain Soul has ticked FOUR times, you'll have AT LEAST 2 shards. If you have 2 shards, then reapply DoTs with SB:SS, Haunt, and Drain Soul again until it has ticked 4 times.

3) When Drain Soul has ticked 4 times and you have at least 3 Soul Shards, then you will reapply DoTs with SB:SS, Haunt, Haunt again, then Drain Soul. Haunt hits for a ton and you'll want to use Haunt when Haunt is already applied to the boss for a major hit."

Am I missing something? is this a situational thing, or are you planning on updating the OP to reflect this?

You're not missing anything at all. Haunting twice CAN be a DPS gain. It's rather...complicated. The math used to describe the travel time and the time you need to wait before Haunt is applied increases significantly if you're playing at a particular range such as 30-40 yards. Haunt travels INCREDIBLY slow...to the point that I don't know wtf they were thinking. The reason I suggested using 2 Haunts with 3 Soul Shards is because you can shoot a Haunt, fire another that will gain the 25% buff, and none of your Drain Soul ticks will happen without Haunt's application. If you're standing closer and Drain Soul's tick happens after Haunt is applied, then you don't want to cast two Haunts. My apologies for not being clearer.

is there a macro or script to prevent myself from soul-swapping DOTs off a target? sometimes in a multi-target situation, i will accidentally soulswap DOTs off a target while i'm tabbing through targets. i'd prefer if i had one button to explicitly use for exhaling DOTs (both thru soul burn and normal soulswap) and one button ONLY for inhaling DOTs.

You can remedy this by putting the actual Soul Swap spell somewhere in your keybindings. This will turn into Exhale when you have DoTs on you. You can have that as a shift modifier from your Soulburn:Soul Swap so that you don't run into this problem. I still notice this problem happening despite Blizzard's attempt to fix this 'bug' as they call it. I've found a remedy to the situation by just weaving in another spell in between SB:SS when trying to spread DoTs as fast as possible. Just play around with it...not like we haven't had to work around Blizzard's awesome programming in the past.

Thanks for the replies folks, seems both my questions have been answered, but folks are still understandably curious.

Initial questions:

1)

Q: Should I just use SB:SS during execute phases on the assumption that 1-GCD refresh all 3 is always >> using specific GCDs to keep powered DoTs.

A: Not always, if you have supercharged DoTs, dont overwrite with SB:SS.

My take-away: It's down to the trade-off between not wasting more GCDs refreshing DoTs and keeping DoTs that are doing much higher damage. Some hard work and math might tell a clever warlock at exactly what level of buff per-DoT he should stop SB:SSing and starting doing manual overwrites.

2)

Q: Should I back to back haunts during execute phases when I'm rolling in shards.

A: No.

My take-away: I wasnt satisfied so I did some logs investigation, which can be easily replicated by anyone with passable Wologs knowledge.

Example findings.

Haunt hits for an average ~80k, crits for an average 160k, cast time 1.5 secs before haste.

Drain Soul ticks hit for average 40k, crit for 80k, 2 secs apart before haste.

Drain Soul ticks ALSO proc all 3 DoTs for 100% - based on average, this will amount to ~40k in total, or 80k if all 3 crit.

So, I dont know crit coefficients on a per spell basis, nor do I know if any other factors impact the ticks of DS beyond what the tooltip states, BUT, what that would appear to indicate from the logs is that Haunt and DS are roughly equivalent in damage per cast, but Haunt has a shorter cast time (1.5 vs 2 secs).

At the moment I'm still going off the advice in this thread and on the site, but I'd appreciate if someone could counter/explain the mechanics of it and why I am wrong to think that the above indicates chain-casting haunt should pull slightly ahead during times of free soul shards.

Thanks!

P.S. Usual disclaimer about my math, I'm no statistician or theorycrafter, just an interested and passionate warlock looking to squeeze every last bit out of my soul-sucking baby-munching death goddess. XD

The tradeoff on overwriting super charged DoTs with the SB:SS macro during execute is bad and it multiplies the badness of the decision for every DoT you downgraded and then that gets multiplied by the level you decreased them. Overwriting awesome DoTs during Drain Soul phase will make your execute hurt FAR less, which goes into your 2nd question. I reference the Haunt question in an answer slightly above this reply.

[Sternebrezeln 0]

I have 2 little questions.

1) Does the macro in the guide always works properly? and do you only tap it once or twice?

I have experienced that the macro from time to time uses Soulswap before Soulburn but that only happens rarely. Furthermore I tend to quickly double tap the macro because the window of getting it "through" after a cast is bigger. Like after casting a Haunt you can be a little sloppier with the timing when you double tap it.

2) Everyone of you knows Affdots, and my questions is at what % do you set the blue color, basically what % boost of stats is recommended to overwrite dots (non pandemic)?

Thats all, and thanks a lot for the guide Zagam, it helped a lot.

[Fel 42]

Thanks for taking the time to clarify some Zagam, much appreciated.

[Manoj 1]

so haunt travel time and drail soul tick start late when we are far ? that means we should be close to boss or adds when we dps rite ? is it correct or am i missing something ..!

[Zagam 1,982]

I have 2 little questions.

1) Does the macro in the guide always works properly? and do you only tap it once or twice?

I have experienced that the macro from time to time uses Soulswap before Soulburn but that only happens rarely. Furthermore I tend to quickly double tap the macro because the window of getting it "through" after a cast is bigger. Like after casting a Haunt you can be a little sloppier with the timing when you double tap it.

2) Everyone of you knows Affdots, and my questions is at what % do you set the blue color, basically what % boost of stats is recommended to overwrite dots (non pandemic)?

Thats all, and thanks a lot for the guide Zagam, it helped a lot.

I tap my button once. It should activate so long as your ability is off the global cooldown. I think a good bit of the problem comes from people using this ability before the GCD is over. This would activate Soulburn but NOT Soul Swap. Waiting 0.1 seconds for the GCD to be up will prevent a majority of these issues as it did for me.

I don't touch the color of the add-on. I do, however, leave the number up. When Affdots first came out, the number was arbitrary meaning you had no idea how much better your current DoT was. The programmer/writer made a WONDERFUL change that made that number relative. Now, the numbers are essentially a percentage. For example, if you see Unstable Affliction colored blue but the number says 149, that means applying UA right now will be 49% stronger than the one you have currently. It may be a gameplay error for me to ignore the fact I won't get the full Pandemic and apply at that point, but I feel, especially in the opener, getting your DoTs to that kind of power shouldn't be missed out on. The gameplay style that addon has helped me the most with is essentially ignoring all the micromanagement required of Affliction. A general rule of thumb is to follow his advice: Green = cast, Red = don't, Yellow = your DoT is about to fall off, Blue = wait. If Blue is 105, I'm not casting my DoT. I guess you have to get a feel for when is the best time. I would think about 120ish would be the level when I would ignore the blue color and override my previous DoT.

Thanks for taking the time to clarify some Zagam, much appreciated.

Anytime, my man. I'm trying my best to stay on top of things. Planning on starting heroics within the next week or two before I give my guild two weeks off for Christmas/New Years. Since Ghostcrawler already said a content patch is about 4 months away, I am in no hurry to belt this content down.

so haunt travel time and drail soul tick start late when we are far ? that means we should be close to boss or adds when we dps rite ? is it correct or am i missing something ..!

This is fight dependent. You should, by no means, try to play a melee when a fight dictates you as ranged such as Wind Lord. Planting a Wind Bomb in melee would surely cause a wipe. However, what I try to do is position myself about 15-18 yards away so that Haunt lands right as my GCD finishes and I start my Drain Soul tick. This type of situation falls back to my general rule of raiding: prevent your own death by all means necessary. If you can stand closer with no penalty to the raid, then yes, stand closer and your execute DPS will be slightly higher.

[Manoj 1]

tell me one thing for example i use haunt and drain soul , haunt debuff is applied a bit later than my drain soul or MG so that means i will have less dmg for 1st tick or whole ticks ??.. and im doing like 45k dps for 20M constant on dummy with 469ilvl with dragonling trinket is it good (self buff have 500ms lat )... ofc first time ever playing lock .. if i play a class i must be best at it or else i cant take it ... i have ret pala i do around 60k dps on dummy self buffs 486ilvl and dk 476ilvl with 50k dps on dummy .. same dmg done 20M .. i am comparing all dps classes i have and to be frank i see same numbers when i was at 470ilvl with my pala and dk which is 45k dps constant. so this is what balance is called? .

Edited December 10, 2012 by Manoj

[Zagam 1,982]

Balance is something that Blizzard strives for but will never obtain. It's too difficult, and each class brings its own flavor to each individual battle. Only Patchwerk type fights can be used as an all out balance between classes, but even then other classes with high movement DPS ability will pull ahead of others on fights with mobility required.

To answer your Warlock specific question, debuffs on bosses automatically update damage. Drain Soul takes about 1.8 seconds to apply its first tick of damage, so as long as Haunt gets there before that, you'll be fine.

[Manoj 1]

ty for the info , i am recently facing a problem in heroics , boss hits 20% i have all dots ticking(no haunt debuff) i cast DS .. after 1sec shadow trance procs but 0 ticks of DS so shd i drop ds and cast haunt ? by then other guys wud have downed boss to 10% . so this dont favor me in dps so i lack behind in dps .. any suggestions to this ? ..since DS takes long time to actually do dmg 3 or 4 ticks boss wud have died .. so its not much execute phase . so this problem all locks face or something ?...

[Zagam 1,982]

ty for the info , i am recently facing a problem in heroics , boss hits 20% i have all dots ticking(no haunt debuff) i cast DS .. after 1sec shadow trance procs but 0 ticks of DS so shd i drop ds and cast haunt ? by then other guys wud have downed boss to 10% . so this dont favor me in dps so i lack behind in dps .. any suggestions to this ? ..since DS takes long time to actually do dmg 3 or 4 ticks boss wud have died .. so its not much execute phase . so this problem all locks face or something ?...

Never break a Drain Soul until after a tick of damage occurs. The best way to notice this is a non-Nightfall proc'd Soul Shard. Or get the add-on called Drainsouler. This gives you a tiny little box you can place anywhere and you can track when tick damage is going to occur and how many ticks have happened.

[Manoj 1]

Never break a Drain Soul until after a tick of damage occurs. The best way to notice this is a non-Nightfall proc'd Soul Shard. Or get the add-on called Drainsouler. This gives you a tiny little box you can place anywhere and you can track when tick damage is going to occur and how many ticks have happened.

Never break a Drain Soul until after a tick of damage occurs. The best way to notice this is a non-Nightfall proc'd Soul Shard. Or get the add-on called Drainsouler. This gives you a tiny little box you can place anywhere and you can track when tick damage is going to occur and how many ticks have happened.

ok got it . have gnosis cast bar addon which tells when tick will happen :)...

[JvChequer 43]

Two questions my dear Zagam.

1) 4TP Bonus is about how much dps increase ?

2 ) Using Fel Hunter in garalon could be a DPS Increase or they dont increase your dmg with legs buff?

[Zagam 1,982]

1) Not sure as to the actual DPS gain during 4pc bonus because it will depend on player's skill level. If they time the reapplication of DoTs for every Dark Soul, I see it as a 33% increased uptime of Dark Soul (20 sec/80 sec CD vs 20 sec/120 sec CD) so you COULD theoretically have Dark Soul up 25% of the time. Not bad to be carrying what is essentially Bloodlust/Timewarp/Heroism 25% of the time.

As for the actual DPS gain, like I said it depends on situational use. You would definitely have it available more often and would be able to line it up with periods of higher increased damage. Think of it on Tsulong...his Night phase is exactly 2 minutes long. With the 4pc bonus, you could cast it twice each Dark Phase dramatically increasing your DPS.

2) Pets DO benefit from the increased damage on the legs. As Affliction, using anything except Sacrifice is a hefty DPS loss. If your group has cleavers, they should be on the legs full time. If you're kiting Pheramones, you should be DoT'ing legs up and/or keeping DPS on the boss. If your group has no cleavers, just take Kil'Jaeden's Cunning and keep your DPS pressure going full time while DPSing the legs.

[Jonome 0]

Sorry if I've missed this and this has already been answered, but during the execute phase is it best to wait for Haunt to drop off before recasting it, or to cast it so it will reapply as the old Haunt drops off?

I'm unsure as the first way will result in more Drain Soul ticks while Haunt is up, but the second way results in the DOTs never ticking without Haunt up.

[Rrasis 13]

Sorry if I've missed this and this has already been answered, but during the execute phase is it best to wait for Haunt to drop off before recasting it, or to cast it so it will reapply as the old Haunt drops off?

I'm unsure as the first way will result in more Drain Soul ticks while Haunt is up, but the second way results in the DOTs never ticking without Haunt up.

you want to refresh it before it drops off, it's very important that you are able to track when your drain soul is ticking though. there are several addons that track this or you can use your shard counter. As soon as the shard pops you cast your haunt and whatever other spells then go back to drain soul. you don't want to be casting drain soul for several seconds and then break off before it hits just so you can update haunt. If you forget to watch your ticks just wait until the next one, you may lose some up time on haunt but you'll end up better off than had you wasted the drain soul tick.

[Sternebrezeln 0]

I have a question about trinkets.

I got Essence of Terror (483) , Relic of Yu'lon (476) and Shock Charger Medallion (496).

Trinket rankings show that Medallion is inferior to both, but rankings dont regard that you can line Medallion up with demon soul while the other 2 can't.

Does anyone have an advice ?

[JvChequer 43]

I have a question about trinkets.

I got Essence of Terror (483) , Relic of Yu'lon (476) and Shock Charger Medallion (496).

Trinket rankings show that Medallion is inferior to both, but rankings dont regard that you can line Medallion up with demon soul while the other 2 can't.

Does anyone have an advice ?

SCM and Yu'lon would be my choice, until you get H Light of Cosmos or Essence of Terror.

Edited December 13, 2012 by JvChequer

[Zagam 1,982]

The Medallion isn't terrible, but it's pretty close to that. Valor trinkets aren't meant to be good. An upgraded Yu'lon to ilvl 484 will take care of you until you kill Heroic Sha of Fear and get your Heroic Essence of Terror. Until then, keep Yu'lon and the Medallion until you get Light of the Cosmos, any version. Even the LFR version would put your Medallion to shame. Light of the Cosmos is heavenly for Affliction. 43% uptime; by comparison, the BEST you can do with the Medallion is 25% uptime.

[gabbergob 0]

Refresh buffed dots vs run MG for duration of haunt

I make sure all my dots will run for the duration of a haunt before using haunt. If during the haunt uptime Relic of yu'lon and Light of cosmos proc should i refresh my dots straight away or carry on with the MG's until the haunt uptime has ended? would the few seconds of 6k+ int bonus to the dots outweigh the seconds I'd lose of haunt+MG on the weaker dots?

Thanks

[Fel 42]

Refresh buffed dots vs run MG for duration of haunt

I make sure all my dots will run for the duration of a haunt before using haunt. If during the haunt uptime Relic of yu'lon and Light of cosmos proc should i refresh my dots straight away or carry on with the MG's until the haunt uptime has ended? would the few seconds of 6k+ int bonus to the dots outweigh the seconds I'd lose of haunt+MG on the weaker dots?

Thanks

You can probably just quickly math it out on your own Gab, but it's highly dependent on exactly when during your active haunt the procs occur, what duration remains on your DoTs at the time, what strength of procs occur, and frankly it's such a comparatively short window that I dont believe you need to worry too much about it, you'll be looking at a VERY minor dps change one way or the other.

Something you can do, if this is a worry, is use an addon like Weakauras to track your ICDs for trinkets and enchants. Then if you know when they are going to come off CD and likely proc, you can hold that haunt for the extra few seconds to allow yourself to refresh first without wasting the haunt uptime. Affliction is very much a gameplay style that begs you to think a few moves ahead at all times, and this is one of the ways you can/should be doing it.

Hope that helps answer the question

[Zagam 1,982]

Auracle summed it up by saying you have to stay a step or two ahead. Most other DPS classes are like checkers...we play chess while DPSing. It's all relative to the amount of spell power you gained with your proc. I noticed myself being eager to update DoTs for a minor upgrade (110% of original spell power) only to go back to MG and watch more procs happen. Then I'd spend more time updating DoTs effectively losing some DPS. Your Haunt uptime is important, but it's not backbreaking enough to bypass a 50% gain in spell power just to finish off your Haunt uptime with MG channels.

[Zagam 1,982]

Editted haste values with thresholds and recommended item levels for use.