Warlock - moving from MV/ToeS/HoF to ToT - Affliction Guide

[Whyplashh]

Alot of people asked me about Affliction Warlock moving to Throne of Thunder content, and I decided to make this post.

Preface

Playing and gearing an affliction warlock is a more complex process that it would be for destuction warlocks, with a lot of variables to account witch will affect the outcome of your warlocks damage output. This expansion spans from 464 to 549 ilvl, and that massive span also includes a plethora of different stat weights, breakpoints and so on so forth. The information that I am giving you here is based on personal research, simulating, discusing with some other competitive warlocks on the server, reading blizzard guides.

This is mainly intended for the players that have the basics of warlocks in general, and have some information about how to play an Affliction. I will try to offer a deeper approach and more in-depth learning to their character. I'm sure you'll find sufficient guides elsewhere, and while this is not made to take their spot, I'll try to give you all the information about this specialization on our server .

MV/ToeS/HoF



I will speak quick about this bracket of gear. As an affliction warlock you depend alot on some things:
*Intelect
*Haste Breakpoints
*Mastery
*Procs : your trinkets are a big buff for your damage in burst. You want to have as many procs as you can in burst, so your DoTs will hit harder and quicker, and as an affliction you can prolong this DoTs to almost 1 minute depending of the encounter.
*Hit Points? of course you have to be hit capped, but sometimes you can go for 14% if you are near a haste breakpoint and you need to reach it.

Knowing this things, if you started a warlock now, and you want to play affliction you have to do this things : get all the gear with haste/mastery , haste/hit, mastery/hit and the best trinkets with very good procs (intelect , haste, mastery)
Your stat priority will be getting your mastery as high as possible, but also allowing yourself to get a haste breakpoint without losing too much mastery. In general, you'll want to have more mastery than haste in this itemlevel, but if you're just about to get a breakpoint, it is a priority over mastery. Relevant breakpoints are 4717 (Corruption), 6400 (Agony) and 6637 (Unstable Affliction).


Preparing for ToT as an affliction :

If you played on the last content patch, that means you already have 4 T14 pieces, and the bis trinkets : Cosmos from MV, and Terror from ToeS. What I can tell you from my own experience with the gear from last patch, is that it starved me to get to the haste breakpoints I needed and in the same time to keep mastery at the same value as haste. You needed the BiS gear to be competitve, witch untill HoF , where you could get the head from Galaraon was a bit of hard to achieve.

You'll want to hoard items with Haste and Mastery on them, and avoid crit like the plague. Crit will in no way be as meaningful for this spec as the two other stats. Depending on how well you are itemized, you may start looking at the 9778 haste breakpoint if that doesn't put your mastery too low (9778+ haste is fine if you can keep your mastery over 7200).

At the moment on freakz the haste is broken for all classes (https://forum.wow-freakz.com/Multiple-Haste-Raiting-stacking-from-multiple-itemes-t413739.html), I reported that already, but you can benefit from that for the moment, because alot of people on the server do. The ideea is that you can reach the 9778 haste cap at 9000 haste, this means you win 778 mastery.

So at the 520 ilvl you should be going for 9k haste 14 to 15% hit 10k mastery unbuffed.


Throne of Thunder



Well we got to this. As an affliction gearing becomes so much easier, the itemes give alot of secondary stats, witch makes life easier, at this moment you can get your mastery higher and higher.
First of all the transition between heroic MV/ToeS/HoF and normal ToT is really important. Keep in mind that alot of itemes from the weekly raid finder are NOT better than heroic gear from MV/ToeS/HoF. Only the trinkets are, the procs from them double the ones from the patch before. You have to get your hands on those asap!
*the 4p T14 is really powerful, it is a 10% dmg increase while Dark Soul is active. If you play with Archimonde's Darkness (and you should) you can use Dark Soul like 3 - 4 - 5 times on an encounter. At first you should try not to break the set. you should try to change the offpieces : neck from trash, back from reputation whit Shado-Pan, wrist from pvp Griveous, belt from Ondasta, boots from tailoring, rings from pvp Griveouns ( hit + haste) and Oondasta.
*the next step is to get the trinkets, the bis trinkets at the moment for affliction are Wushoolay's Final Choice and Breath of the Hydra. Untill you get this 2 trinkets you don't change Cosmos + Terror, you can change Terror with the trinket from Shado-Pan Assault Quatermaster ( it is the same trinket with a lower internal cd, and it is lining better with Cosmos when it procs). About this trinket Unerring Vision of Lei Shen, probably you saw it as also a bis trinket, witch if it procs on a 10 stack Woosholay means that you will see only big numbers on your screen. Well don't think at it anymore, you won't see that, it is the most useless trinket at the moment, because Crit is bugged, it updated dinimicaly as on WoD, when you should snapshot it, so don't donate it, don't want it just ignore it.
* after you have done the first to steps of getting ure gear corectly, you can start changing your main gear, because now you will have for sure more intelect another 10% mastery and your curent gear with bring more dmg output from raw stats than the 4p T14 bonus will do in burst. Keep in mind that you only need 2p of Tier 15, the 4p is not worth going for, you should get Thunderforge gear, if I remeber corectly, TF gear should be introduced, but if not try to get 2p of T15, at the moment only hand and legs are available, and the other pieces with alot of haste and mastery, try to ignore itemes with crit ( I know that is not posible all the time, because you have so few itemes with mastery haste in ToT and alot of crit haste crit mastery, but keep in mind that ToT gear was made to make Demonology shine )
*to do be competitive with your affliction, keep in mind that you would also need the legendary metasocket, so if you can donate for it, do it, it is really overpower.When you get the legendary metagem, things change. You can pursue another hastebreakpoint available only when you have the metagem proc. That is the 10700 haste breakpoint, available because of the haste problem I told you about at 9600 haste.

*Intelect: you will start getting close to 20k intelect
*Haste Breakpoints : 9k or 9.6k w/o legendary metagem
*Mastery : you should be getting close or going over the 100% mastery unbuffed
*Procs : trinkets : Breath + Wushoolay, Troll is mandatory (20% haste proc ), Jade Spirit, profesions: here is another discusion, the bis profesion should be the ones who give you intelect, Engineering + Tailoring, but you can also have Herbalism for 3k haste on burst, because 9600 + 3k haste = 12600 ( and again because of the haste being buggy you will reach the haste breakpoint of 13700ish), it is your choise.
*Hit Points? from the itemes you get now from ToT you will be over hit capped so getting 15% won't be hard, but if you want to be more greedy as I am, you can go for 14.3 - 14.5 ,yes another 100 mastery is worth it.

Going from normal to heroic gear, means getting more intelect and more mastery, and keeping your haste breakpoint at 9600 haste.

Talents + Glyphs

tier 1 : go for Dark Regeneration or go for Soul Leech, I would say that Dark Regeneration is better at encounters with alot of burst dmg going on, and on heroics is almost all the encounters you get dmg spikes and Dark Regeneration helps more than Soul Leech.
tier 2 : Mortal Coil (for the same reason HEALING YOURSELF, it is very important to help your healers, knowing when to use ure healing defensives), Shadowfury is good at encounters as Horridon, Tortos, Counsil for the Loa Spirit.
tier 3 : Soul Link is the bread and butter for the warlock , 20% passive dmg reduction ( + another 10% if you use the Glyph of Eternal Resolve = 30% less dmg taken, you are the DPS that all the healers want in raid, you can can not die if you know how to evade dmg. It is like you have the disc priest bubble all the time on you, and you also regenerate 3% of the dmg done ), the other 2 are also usefull, depending of encounter. For exemple at Tortos if you are getting smash by the Rock Fall, just go Sacrifice , use the pet ability from Void Use Sacrificial Pact and you have 1M Hp with 800k Shield on you, or you just can avoid the dmg and doing this will mean no dps loss
tier 4 : Burning Rush vs Unbound Will, do you have something to dispell at this boss? Yes? go for Unbound Will. No? go for Burning Rush. At some hc encounter you have something to dispel from yourself, and you can do it. Than DO it, help your healers, don't make them use dispel on you, they need mana. You have Ionization on you at Jin'rokh? Go away from the raid use UW and after use Dark Regeneration Healthstone, and back to 100%, have on you debuff from the first gate at Horridon? dispel yourself.
tier 5 : At the moment Grimoire of Supremacy is the way to go. The only question is Shivarra or Fel Imp? Observer is not the pet to go for the moment ( I know that on blizz you wanted to go Observer all the time, but because of some reasons it does near to nothing dmg ). So , single target and your pet won't move alot? Shivarra. Single target and your pet has to run after the boss? Fel Imp. Multitarget? Fel Imp. Also Fel Imp has mass dispel, help your healers when there is a need for a mass dispel on the raid.
tier 6 : Archimonde's Darkness vs Kil'jaeden's Cunning. I go for the first one like 99% of all encounters. To say the truth I went Kil'jaeden's Cunning, when I had to kick the turtle at Tortos, and I needed to get used to it, and that was just 1 try.

Glyphs : [Glyph of Healthstone] [Glyph of Eternal Resolve] [Glyph of Siphon Life] are the ones I go for, dmg reduction + health regen.


Now, I will explain the opener, you need to do it a few times at the Dummy to get used to it.
before starting the encounter use Soulburn, try to time it so when the DBM Pull is at 10 sec you have 15 sec on ure Soulburn buff left ( the shards regen after 20 sec of using a spell out of combat)
at 2 sec before pull prePot
at 1 sec cast Haunt
*if you are using the RPPM trinkets and metagem, when the Haunt hits the target it should proc them, but it won't happen all the time, keep in mind if you reloged before the pull, that the trinkets wont probably proc on burst, seems a bit difficult to make them to activate the first time after loging in.
use Soulburn Soul Swap to instantly put on ure target the 3 DoTs : Corruption , Agony, UAffliction
activate Dark Soul + Berserking + Proffesion Procs + Terrorguard
Soulburn Soul Swap again and use Haunt ( if you have 2p T15 this Haunt will have extended duration ). At this moment if you did everything right you will have 1 Soul Shard left, if you didn't had luck for the Nightfall to proc yet
Use Malefic Grasp until you have 8 - 9 stacks of Wushoolay, as soon as you get 10 , ure Berserking , metagem are about to expire, you have be really awear of this or you will lose alot of dmg output in ure burst. So as soon as you have 9 stacks use Soul Burn and when you see 10 use Soul Swap. At this moment you have the DoT's up with all the procs. Refresh Corr and UA when under 6 sec, Leave Agony to go almost to 2 3 second before you refresh it. Because some of you guys will experience some lag issues in the opener you can do the last SS SS in the burst at 9 stacks of Wushoolay.

and from here on its just about refreshing the dots manualy or with SS SS when you have the proper procs up.


Conclusion

I hope that this will help, and will make you better understand Affliction. What I intend to cover in this thread is essential information that is universal for afflcition, because I see alot of fellow warlocks switching to Affliction without having the proper information about gearing ( witch is bassicaly the big issue with Affliction, because it needs alot of haste and mastery, that a destro gear setup doesn't cover it).
I think I have done some spelling mistakes, I will edit it later, and bring some color to it.
And the last thing take it as it is, medium to advanced affliction warlock guide, it was not inteded to explain what the spell do, for that there is another guide on the forum.
Hope you enjoyed it, any like or +Rep is apreciated and welcomed. If you have other questions, ask me here or ingame.

[Woozy]

Very nice wall of text I read it carefully. It's okay, hope other warlocks will read this and try what you said here.

Congrats.

[Magnus06]

Hi,

Whyplashh wrote:

Keep in mind that you only need 2p of Tier 15, the 4p is not worth going for, you should get Thunderforge gear, if I remeber corectly, TF gear should be introduced, but if not try to get 2p of T15, at the moment only hand and legs are available, and the other pieces with alot of haste and mastery. Now, I will explain the opener, you need to do it a few times at the Dummy to get used to it. before starting the encounter use Soulburn, try to time it so when the DBM Pull is at 10 sec you have 15 sec on ure Soulburn buff left ( the shards regen after 20 sec of using a spell out of combat) at 2 sec before pull prePot at 1 sec cast Haunt *if you are using the RPPM trinkets and metagem, when the Haunt hits the target it should proc them, but it won't happen all the time, keep in mind if you reloged before the pull, that the trinkets wont probably proc on burst, seems a bit difficult to make them to activate the first time after loging in. use Soulburn Soul Swap to instantly put on ure target the 3 DoTs : Corruption , Agony, UAffliction activate Dark Soul + Berserking + Proffesion Procs + Terrorguard Soulburn Soul Swap again and use Haunt ( if you have 2p T15 this Haunt will have extended duration ). At this moment if you did everything right you will have 1 Soul Shard left, if you didn't had luck for the Nightfall to proc yet Use Malefic Grasp until you have 8 - 9 stacks of Wushoolay, as soon as you get 10 , ure Berserking , metagem are about to expire, you have be really awear of this or you will lose alot of dmg output in ure burst. So as soon as you have 9 stacks use Soul Burn and when you see 10 use Soul Swap. At this moment you have the DoT's up with all the procs. Refresh Corr and UA when under 6 sec, Leave Agony to go almost to 2 3 second before you refresh it. Because some of you guys will experience some lag issues in the opener you can do the last SS SS in the burst at 9 stacks of Wushoolay. and from here on its just about refreshing the dots manualy or with SS SS when you have the proper procs up.

Nice chunk indeed, i've picked up parts of your guide to submit a little question about the 2p. Since the application of the 2p bonus is dynamic meaning that it will last longer only if haunt is applied during Dark soul, is it worth to pop Dark soul and other on-use things right before Haunt is applied go tain the extra duration since Haunt has a travel time or should i keep doing what you said ? Also, should i recast Haunt like 3s before Dark soul ends to get a last 12s Haunt after Dark soul ?

[Whyplashh]

Magnus06 wrote:

Hi, Whyplashh wrote: Keep in mind that you only need 2p of Tier 15, the 4p is not worth going for, you should get Thunderforge gear, if I remeber corectly, TF gear should be introduced, but if not try to get 2p of T15, at the moment only hand and legs are available, and the other pieces with alot of haste and mastery. Now, I will explain the opener, you need to do it a few times at the Dummy to get used to it. before starting the encounter use Soulburn, try to time it so when the DBM Pull is at 10 sec you have 15 sec on ure Soulburn buff left ( the shards regen after 20 sec of using a spell out of combat) at 2 sec before pull prePot at 1 sec cast Haunt *if you are using the RPPM trinkets and metagem, when the Haunt hits the target it should proc them, but it won't happen all the time, keep in mind if you reloged before the pull, that the trinkets wont probably proc on burst, seems a bit difficult to make them to activate the first time after loging in. use Soulburn Soul Swap to instantly put on ure target the 3 DoTs : Corruption , Agony, UAffliction activate Dark Soul + Berserking + Proffesion Procs + Terrorguard Soulburn Soul Swap again and use Haunt ( if you have 2p T15 this Haunt will have extended duration ). At this moment if you did everything right you will have 1 Soul Shard left, if you didn't had luck for the Nightfall to proc yet Use Malefic Grasp until you have 8 - 9 stacks of Wushoolay, as soon as you get 10 , ure Berserking , metagem are about to expire, you have be really awear of this or you will lose alot of dmg output in ure burst. So as soon as you have 9 stacks use Soul Burn and when you see 10 use Soul Swap. At this moment you have the DoT's up with all the procs. Refresh Corr and UA when under 6 sec, Leave Agony to go almost to 2 3 second before you refresh it. Because some of you guys will experience some lag issues in the opener you can do the last SS SS in the burst at 9 stacks of Wushoolay. and from here on its just about refreshing the dots manualy or with SS SS when you have the proper procs up. Nice chunk indeed, i've picked up parts of your guide to submit a little question about the 2p. Since the application of the 2p bonus is dynamic meaning that it will last longer only if haunt is applied during Dark soul, is it worth to pop Dark soul and other on-use things right before Haunt is applied go tain the extra duration since Haunt has a travel time or should i keep doing what you said ? Also, should i recast Haunt like 3s before Dark soul ends to get a last 12s Haunt after Dark soul ?

Well if you do what I told you you have a 60 70% chance depending on lag issues that the haunt will hit on DS proc, if not dont worry, with a full burst + Hero / Bloodlust you will have enoght shards to keep Haunt up, you will be able to even spam Haunt in Dark Soul if you have luck with shards, for exemple after applying the last dots on burst I am basicaly at 4 shards and I use 4 Haunts just for some dps bust. You could recast Haunt like 3s before DS ends, but again it all depends on ure luck with nightfall proc, if you are confident you won't go out of shards and you will be able to keep Haunt up all the time, you don't really have to do it.