General information
An affliction warlock's damage is based on several spells with very high damage per cast time which do damage over time instead of having a cooldown.
Shadow Bolt is used as a filler spell in between those DoTs. He's completely lacking burst abilities, but damage goes up significantly when the target goes below 35% and again below 25%.
Stats Priority
Hit Rating (17% is cap but you need 14% because Suppression talent which gives 3% hit)
Spell Power
Haste Rating
Spirit (increase spell power)
Crit Rating
Intelect
With high end raiding gear Haste Rating becomes better than Spell Power.When you get around 3250 sp self buffed Haste becomes better than Spell Power.
Talents and Glyphs
<Talent Build 54/0/17>
This is spec that i'm using in graids.3 points in Suppression give me 3% hit and with Moonkin/Spriest in raid I need only 11% hit from gear.
NOTE: If you don't need 3 points on Suppression you can put points from Suppression to Improved Life Tap/Improved Drain Soul (especially if you're doing pug raids)/Grim Reach
Glyphs:
[Glyph of Life Tap]
[Glyph of Haunt]
[Glyph of Quick Decay]
This 3 glyphs are definatelly the best for affliction and they can't be replaced by any other glyphs.
Pets
Best pet in affliction is Felhunter and you will use it always.
Spells, Priority System
Haunt
Unstable Affliction (UA)
Corruption (Corr)
Curse Of Agony (COA)
Curse of Elements (COE)
Shadow Bolt (SB)
Drain Soul
Life Tap
Seed of Corruption
Rolling Corruption and Haste
Before I start with rotation and spell priority system I must say something about Rolling Corruption bug on Molten. When Corr is refreshed by SB/Haunt/Drain Soul, crit rating shouldn't be updated. However on Molten when Corr is refreshed haste rating isn't updated. So instead of trying to get as much crit as you can at start of fight you should try to get as much haste as you can. So i sugest using Potion of Speed and trinket with haste on use at start before puting Corr on target. You can wait for BL/Heroism and eradication to be up at same time and recast corruption then. Point is just to get as much haste as you can at same time and recast corruption so it will tick faster. If you get very lucky you can make your corruption last 5 secs. However corruption that lasts 5 secs is very hard to refresh if you have to move or to dps on adds. In this situations you can cast drain life just to refresh corruption. If you lose this buffed corruption you will lose a lot of dps ofc. This bug makes affliction much different than it should be and with abusing it you can do a lot of dps. I hope Molten Stuff will fix this very soon. <Bug Tracker report of this Bug>
First of all before pull you must have your pet up, then cast Life Tap (rank 1).
You should start with SB>Haunt>UA>COA>pop trinket with haste on use if you have, Potion of Speed>Corr. Priority System: Corruption(proc hasted) > Life tap buff > Haunt > Corruption(static hasted) > CoE (or equivalent) > UA > CoA>SB/Drain Soul. Your Haunt and SB refreshes your Corr. However if Corr fades from target you should recast it. Use SB as filer and on -25%hp of target use Drain Soul instead of SB. Keep refreshing your UA, Haunt, and COA. On Short fights and adds if targets will live less than 10 secs just SB spam it, if it will live more than 10 secs just do normal rotation. On encounters with more targets best would be to put Corr, UA, COA on all targets and Haunt on 1 main target. If your raid doesn't have moonkin or UH dk you will use COE and you won't be able to use COA. Don't forget to refresh Life Tap every 40 secs to get buff. Your AOE spell is Seed of Corruption.
I reach 100% uptime just by clipping my dots, right?
"Clipping" a dot means reapplying it before its last tick. Although this increases your uptime (no more dot gaps), this is VERY bad for your dps. Why? Imagine a dot ticking every 3s. If you reapply it in the moment of its last tick, it is like resetting its tick counter, meaning there will be a gap of ~6s between two ticks instead of 3s. That is as bad as not reapplying it for 3s. Actually, it's even worse: You shortened its duration by one tick, meaning you have to reapply it more often, losing even more dps. So don't clip dots.
There are exceptions: If you know your target will be unreachable within a few seconds (e.g. Noth in Naxxramas porting to the other group), reapplying all dots is actually a good idea. If you are running around unable to cast anything but instants, clipping dots will save you time when you stand still again, and so on.
I could cast a Shadow Bolt, but CoA has only 1s left, what to do?
Situations like that will happen all the time during fights. The general rule is: You should always be casting. Always. If you are able to fill gaps like that with a clever Life Tap, fine. But there is nothing wrong about dots ticking for the last time while you are casting a shadow bolt. Remember that while the dots have very high DPCT, they don't have high dps. Applying them a second later won't hurt. Not casting anything for one second will reduce your damage by the dps of Shadow Bolt.
The proper use of Drain Soul
First of all, Drain Soul does not "recheck" the percentage of the target. This means that if you start casting it when the mob is at 26%, you won't get the 4x damage bonus for the whole casting time. If the mob heals itself after you applied drain soul, it WILL do 4x the damage for the whole casting time (have fun in the arena!). So start casting when the mob is definitely below 25%.
The main problem about Drain Soul is its channeling time: Within 15s (or whatever it is after your haste is applied), your dots will probably need a recast. Every dot has a higher dpct and does contribute to the damage of Drain Soul by the Talent "Soul Siphon".
The Shadow Embrace effect from Haunt and SB also improves Drain Soul's damage. This means that you have to reapply dots and haunt almost immediately when they fade off / don't have a CD left.
This forces you to clip your Drain Soul cast most of the time.
Now...
- The wrong way is to not reapply the dots and haunt.
- A bad way is to reapply all of them when they have all faded.
- A good way is to just reapply dots and haunt as soon as there is one of them fading off.
- A very professional way is to reapply dots and haunt immediately after the next Drain Soul tick after they faded off.
This is only possible with the help of addons (Quartz) showing you when the ticks will occur or if you have a very good feeling for the ticks. But even if you choose the moment of the clip randomly your results will be far better than without clipping.
Buffs and Consumables
You will always use your Fel Armor and Spell Stone (60 haste) on weapon. Don't forget to use soulstone on someone in raid so if he dies he can ress.You should always have 1 helthstone in your bags. Consumables:
Flask of Frost Wyrm / Elixir of Lightning Speed + Elixir of Draenic Wisdom
Potion of Speed
Firecracker Salmon / Baked Manta Ray
Gems
Meta: Chaotic Skyflare Diamond
Red slot: Runed Cardinal Ruby
Yellow slot: Reckless Ametrine
Veiled Ametrine
Blue Slot: Purified Dreadstone
Intricate Eye of Zul
When to break the socket color?
Breaking the socket color is now only useful if it is a blue socket, you already have activated your meta and the socket bonus is worth less than 6 spell power, 6 haste rating or 9 crit rating.
Enchants
Head: Arcanum of Burning Mysteries
Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Storm (or the inscription equivalent)
Back: Greater Speed (or Lightweave Embroidery if you have tailoring)
Chest: Powerful Stats
Bracers: Superior Spellpower
Gloves: Exceptional Spellpower
Belt: Eternal Belt Buckle (socketed with Runed Cardinal Ruby)
Legs: Brilliant Spellthread (or the tailoring equivalent)
Feet: Tuskarr's Vitality / Icewalker
Rings (only if your are an enchanter): Greater Spellpower
Main Hand: Mighty Spellpower, Black Magic (you can choose between this 2)
Staff: Greater Spellpower
BiS Gear (Non-Donor)
Head: Sanctified Dark Coven Hood
Neck: Blood Queen's Crimson Choker
Shoulders: Sanctified Dark Coven Shoulderpads
Back: Frostbinder's Shredded Cape
Chest: Sanctified Dark Coven Robe
Wrist: The Lady's Brittle Bracers
Gloves: Sanctified Dark Coven Gloves
Waist: Crushing Coldwraith Belt
Legs: Plaguebringer's Stained Pants
Feet: Plague Scientist's Boots
Ring1: Ashen Band of Endless Destruction
Ring2: Valanar's Other Signet Ring [Horde] / Memory of Malygos [Aliance]
Trinket1: Dislodged Foreign Object
Trinket2: Phylactery of the Nameless Lich
Main Hand: Bloodsurge, Kel'Thuzad's Blade of Agony
Off-Hand: Shadow Silk Spindle / Sundial of Eternal Dusk
Wand: Corpse-Impaling Spike
BiS Gear (Donor)
Head: Sanctified Dark Coven Hood
Neck: Amulet of the Silent Eulogy / Blood Queen's Crimson Choker
Shoulders: Sanctified Dark Coven Shoulderpads
Back: Cloak of Burning Dusk
Chest: Sanctified Dark Coven Robe
Wrist: Bracers of Fiery Night
Gloves: Sanctified Dark Coven Gloves
Waist: Crushing Coldwraith Belt
Legs: Plaguebringer's Stained Pants
Feet: Plague Scientist's Boots
Ring1: Ashen Band of Endless Destruction
Ring2: Valanar's Other Signet Ring (Donate for this if you have Blood Queen's Crimson Choker) / Ring of Rapid Ascent (Donate for this if you have Amulet of the Silent Eulogy)
Trinket1: Charred Twilight Scale
Trinket2: Dislodged Foreign Object
Main Hand: Bloodsurge, Kel'Thuzad's Blade of Agony
Off-Hand: Shadow Silk Spindle
Wand: Corpse-Impaling Spike
Recommended Addons
Quartz (Shows ticks of Drain Soul)
Power Auras (extremly usefull addon for procs and i use it for Life Tap buff)
DoTimer / ForteXorcist / Buttontimers (use 1 of this 3, it is easier to know when to refresh DoTs with this addons)
OmniCC
Omen (As affliction warlock you will pull a lot of threat so this is must if you don't want to die because you got agro)
Recount
Elitist Jerks helped me to make this guide.
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PugoriaGuest[Guide] DoTs and You (Affliction Warlock PvE) 3.3.5a
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Member
for OH, you could put the option of SED too, they are quite close, if you check the math
the non-donor bis is giving 11.58% hit
note : with suppression & a spriest/balance druid the hit rating needed is
Horde : 11%
for alliance : with draenie in their party : 10%
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PugoriaGuest
I sugest next then:
Aliance can replace Valanar's Other Signet Ring with Memory of Malygos
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TechStremeGuest
Idk So far I find Ether-Soaked Bracers better than The Lady's Brittle Bracers
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eberGuest
No...close but no.
Corruption(proc hasted) > Life tap buff > Haunt > Corruption(static hasted) > CoE (or equivalent) > UA > CoA > Filler
Just because corruption can be refreshed by haunt and sb doesn't remove it from the priority system. The whole meaning of "priority" is importance. If a proc hasted corruption is about to fall off, removing it from the priority system implies that it's not important and that is completely false. Not to mention in icc, with a fast corruption, there will be fights where it's difficult to keep it up with just sb and haunt.
I got a few other issues but I'll pick those apart later when I get time
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PugoriaGuest
Fixed. I made that part a bit confusing.
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ViolinistGuest
Stealing my bis list, i see how it is... :D:D
However i disagree with your choice of neck for donor gear. Right now with ur current talents (which besides wat i am going to say below are good) You are putting urself with the donor gear 2% above the hit cap. This is bad lol. Instead of Amulet of the Silent Eulogy, u should be using the HC version of Blood Queen's Crimson Choker.
Anyways, for your talents using amplified curse is practically usless because the amount of haste u should be getting as a afflock makes the talent well, useless (im pretty sure eber will say smthing about it). I would suggest putting that one talent into Imp. Drain Soul for threat reduction or in Imp. Life Tap
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KibaTheWolfGuest
Question for Glyphs.. I use Glyph of Corruption over Life tap because it procs Shadow Trance more OFten but you say that you shouldnt use anything but the three you said? The DPS is better with life tap how?
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Member
Life tap glyph contributes 20% more than the granted spell power from Life Tap, so you get more spell power and more spell power means more dps. But Imo, it is good for low gear when you have a lot of spirit gears, but for high end gears when spirit is absent from gears, life tap glyph does not have that much advantage anymore. *Just my opinion*
Also, I have a question about DoTs part though.
Somewhere in all the guides I read, I remember people say DoTs should not fall off the target. When the DoTs have 1 or 2 seconds left, they should be recast. However, in this guide, DoTs should not be recast before its last tick. So do these two conflict each other? When should DoTs actually reapplied on the target so that clipping DoTs does not happen?
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ViolinistGuest
The other guides are wrong then. You MUST wait until ur dot has finished ticking, even if the dot is off the target for a sec or so (this of excluding corruption it should be up there all the time). If you dont then you are losing dps
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Member
Glyph comparison
Glyph of Quick Decay 471.24 / 648.38 dps
Adding haste rating to Corruption - the best glyph by far at the moment.
Glyph of Life Tap 248.97 / 324.74 dps
As you would lifetap 1.5 times a minute anyway, this glyph gives a huge spellpower increase at no costs. Even when you don't need the mana the GCD is worth it (think of general vezax here. Downgrading the spell to rank 1 is a smart action for situations like that). As a side effect, the impact of this glyph makes spirit an even better damage stat.
Glyph of Haunt 88.36 / 89.87 dps
Increasing the Haunt effect by 3% is an 2.5% increase to all your dots and results in about 1.2%-1.5% overall damage increase, which is quite good for a single glyph.
All other glyphs are inferior to these:
Glyph of Curse of Agony 30.51 -> 37.04 -> 62.86 dps
There are two more heavy ticks when you use this glyph. The damage amount coming from spell power does NOT change per tick (but of course the DPCT changes). The damage plus from the additional ticks is constant and can be computed like this: base dps unglyphed = 1740/24s = 72.5 dps. base dps glyphed = (1740 + 2x389)/(24+4)s = 89.93 dps. So the glyph gives a constant 17.43 dps increase here. Furthermore, you gain (60/24 - 60/28)s = 0.358s per minute because you have to recast CoA less often. In this time, you can cast your filler spell, giving you another 784.6 / 1176.3 dpm or 13.08 / 19.61 dps.
Glyph of Corruption 12.49 dps -> 19.47 -> 36.01 dps
This glyph increases the proc chance of Nightfall by 4% (or by 3.96% if it really is multiplicative and you have talent points in Nightfall - it does not make a measurable difference and none will ever know). The effect is not very good dps-wise. As a side note, this means that the talent Nightfall is not very good dps-wise, either.
Glyph of Shadow Bolt 10.94 dps -> 14.14 -> 20.24 dps
This one is quite weak - mana costs are just not really important to a warlock.
Glyph of Unstable Affliction 0 dps -> 0 dps
Decrease Base Casting time of UA by 0.2s (before haste. This works like the talent bane for sb/immo.) Unfortunately, it does not lower the GCD for Unstable Affliction. Your cast will be followed by a 0.2s GCD and so, the Glyph will not give any DPS increase.
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PugoriaGuest
For amplified curse: It will save you less time the better your equip becomes. This means that it becomes less efective with better gear but as i said i don't have any problems with threat and mana so i don't want to take Imp. Drain Soul or Imp. Life Tap
For gear: I'll add BQL neck and Gunship Ring to list. With Gear I put you would have 13% hit. If you don't want to relay on Spriest or Moonkins you can get it and gem 3 Veiled Ametrines.
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Member
you have 13% (12.99%) hit there
making the BiS gear incompatible with talents.
better off changing the neck to Blood Queen's Choker (Heroic) [lose 1.83% hit & gain 1.42% crit]
At level 80, 26.232 hit rating is equivalent to 1% hit.
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eberGuest
K said I'd be back.
First a few enchant issues, I'd think enchant chest - major spirit would be a bigger dps increase than powerful stats. I'd make the same arguement for Icewalker or greater spirit for boots. With that said I understand substituting some dps for extra running speed, but I think it would be good to include at least icewalker.
As for the gear, I agree your donor gear has a little too much hit (13%). However, I also having both haste trinkets is a bit over kill, the value of static haste is lower on molten with the bug and places more value on sp and crit. I also agree with dtgulab about Sundial of Eternal Dusk.
Lifesgood already said it, Amplify Curse is completely useless (especially with your donor gear). Amplify Curse only reduces the gcd to 1s after casting a curse, the gcd can NEVER be reduced below 1s. With the amount of haste we have as afflocks, it's a waste of a talent point. It would be better spent else where.
No... just no...
Not only is glyph of corruption below GoLT in dps, it's also below glyph of curse of agony. Just do some google searching regarding the glyph and nightfall there are so many posts telling people that while they stack, it shouldn't be used (even in pvp for some people).
The one dot you definately don't want to clip is CoA, since the ticks get stronger as it ticks. When recasting other dots, you want to do it just after a tick, otherwise it makes those final ticks useless, meaning you get less dps per cast time (dpct). In a perfect fight you want to time your reapplication of dots immediately after that last tick.
So put the point in improved felhunter or fel synergy and get better use out of it.
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PugoriaGuest
I'll add Icewalker enchant to list even though i prefer tuskarr's vitality. Amplify Curse should be used if you have starter gear, if you're well geared you shouldn't use it. I'll move talent point from it to Imp. Felhunter. Also I forgot to add Sindragosa Offhand to list and I'll add it now.
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