[top]Introduction

Kobal · 10/13/10, 5:14 AM

Could you clarify in your guide what to do with backdraft charges in the destruction rotation?

As I understood it as long as threat is no issue Searing Pain is better than Incinerate even when the target mob is above 50% health, so Incinerate should be dropped completely in this scenario. But how should one proceed as long as backdraft charges are left? Let them rot, or switch to Incinerate for them. The answer potentially differs once the target drops below 50%.

scaffold · 10/13/10, 5:20 AM

Originally Posted by Warlocomotif

[top]Introduction

=Talent specs=

[top]Affliction

First thing you should know is that you'll probably want to reforge as much of your crit to hit/mastery as you can, keep in mind you'll need 2 blue gems (hit) for the meta gem, so first fill your blue sockets with hit+int, then reforge crit to hit until the hit cap- and once hit capped reforge the rest of your crit to haste (if you can't reforge to haste, reforge to mastery).

There must be something obvious I'm missing here, but if reforging grants just 40% of the stat you reforge from, and scale factors (pulled from simcraft thread) are:

Warlock_401_Affliction Int=4.1835 SP=3.0770 Hit=5.0114 Crit=2.0733 Haste=3.2885 Mastery=2.6345

Why would I ever think of reforging crit to anything but Hit?

EDIT: thank you for pointing out the "obvious" part I managed to miss in all the previews.

xeonoex · 10/13/10, 5:25 AM

Originally Posted by scaffold

There must be something obvious I'm missing here, but if reforging grants just 40% of the stat you reforge from, and scale factors (pulled from simcraft thread) are:

Warlock_401_Affliction Int=4.1835 SP=3.0770 Hit=5.0114 Crit=2.0733 Haste=3.2885 Mastery=2.6345

Why would I ever think of reforging crit to anything but Hit?

You still keep the other 60% on your gear.

Demonfire · 10/13/10, 5:25 AM

Originally Posted by scaffold

There must be something obvious I'm missing here, but if reforging grants just 40% of the stat you reforge from, and scale factors (pulled from simcraft thread) are:

Warlock_401_Affliction Int=4.1835 SP=3.0770 Hit=5.0114 Crit=2.0733 Haste=3.2885 Mastery=2.6345

Why would I ever think of reforging crit to anything but Hit?

When reforging, only the 40% that are added to the new stat are actually removed from the old stat, here is a screenshot from mmo-champion.

EDIT: already answered by Xeonoex, can be deleted

Warlocomotif · 10/13/10, 5:26 AM

When you refresh a dot the ticks do not clip, and the new duration of the dot is "time to next tick" + "full duration".

For example, corruption. For simplicity's sake lets say 0 haste, thus 18s, 6 ticks each 3s interval.
If you refresh it at 17s, then the new duration becomes 19s, if you refresh it at 16s the duration becomes 20s.

Refreshing at that point reducesthe downtime of dots to 0 while still effectively maintaining a maximum interval between recassts.

--

Regarding affli best pet: I'll double check to make sure.
I took glyph of soulswap because it could lead to a DPS increase, none of the other glyphs can.
I took Shadowburn because most bosses aren't festergut, you can utilize shadowburn on a fight like Saurfang or Putricide- it's the same reason I took Bane of Havoc- although useless on most fights it can be useful on LDW HC.
I'll check incinerate vs imp- keep in mind that in the real world you're likely using a 50% searing pain rotation instead of a full sp rotation. Anyway- even so imp could beb etter- I'll check.
Bane of Agony is weird, try not to poke it too much or it might get angry (Seriously, BoA is weird; I'm not sure of best practice when it comes to recasting it).
Corruption is powerful now due to it getting 6x 20% of our spellpower and is instant cast, at high levels of mastery it may no longer be worth casting Corruption though.

Could you clarify in your guide what to do with backdraft charges in the destruction rotation?

As I understood it as long as threat is no issue Searing Pain is better than Incinerate even when the target mob is above 50% health, so Incinerate should be dropped completely in this scenario. But how should one proceed as long as backdraft charges are left? Let them rot, or switch to Incinerate for them. The answer potentially differs once the target drops below 50%.

It is most likely not viable threat wise to use a 100% SP rotation, if it is for you due to great tanks (or if I am perhaps underestimating tank threat in general) then you would still want to use incinerate during backdraft when above 50%. This may not have been the case previously- however since Blizzard fixed Shadow and Flame Incinerate has become slightly better at competing with Searing Pain.

Scabreux · 10/13/10, 6:06 AM

I wonder why you specc "Improved Howl of Terror" in the Affli-Tree and not e.g. Seed of Corruption which might be of bigger importance in certain raid situations (LK ghosts) or 2/2 SL.

vo1os · 10/13/10, 6:13 AM

About clipping...
So for example we are destro, 0 haste. We're going to make last tick clip at 14. So the "new" immo is not standart 5-tick, it's a new 6 tick immo.
So the question is: will this affect the conflagrate ? Can anybody test, 'cause european servers will be up not soon (

And 1 more: Bane Of Doom has possibility to be upgraded by 1+ tick?

p.s. Great guide.

Warlocomotif · 10/13/10, 6:14 AM

Originally Posted by Scabreux

I wonder why you specc "Improved Howl of Terror" in the Affli-Tree and not e.g. Seed of Corruption which might be of bigger importance in certain raid situations (LK ghosts) or 2/2 SL.

Needed Improved Howl of Terror to move down the tree- if Soul Burn SoC were available at that level I would've taken it. Like I notced however, optional talents are optional, feel free to move those around.

[edit] @ Vo1os: I never considered that, and am also on a EU server- so I can't test it. Interesting question however.

vo1os · 10/13/10, 6:30 AM

Know that it can be clipped at 1-14 sec left without damage loss. Interested about haste influence on base spell, not the +1 clipped tick )

Unknowndiv · 10/13/10, 6:34 AM

Originally Posted by vo1os

Know that it can be clipped at 1-14 sec left without damage loss. Interested about haste influence on base spell, not the +1 clipped tick )

As I said, it's not affected by haste at all

Scabreux · 10/13/10, 7:15 AM

Originally Posted by Warlocomotif

Needed Improved Howl of Terror to move down the tree- if Soul Burn SoC were available at that level I would've taken it. Like I notced however, optional talents are optional, feel free to move those around.

[edit] @ Vo1os: I never considered that, and am also on a EU server- so I can't test it. Interesting question however.

Shame on me :-)

Talimar · 10/13/10, 8:40 AM

A few destruction questions comes to mind:
Do we stick with incinerate during heroism while below 50%? Or even use soulfire?
Should we reforge to haste wherever possible if under a certain number?
Is it better to hardcast soulfire at the start of fight and save shards for searing pain even if only using sp below 50%?

CronoFire · 10/13/10, 8:52 AM

Ok I have a question about the affliction build. For the last few points (I know it won't make much of a difference when Cata comes out), but for the last 5 points that go into the Destruction tree why not top off Shadow and Flame to make Shadow Bolt do more damage rather than doing Bane and making it cast faster (esp with reforging all crit to haste and mastery)?

koltara · 10/13/10, 9:48 AM

With haste being stronger for Demo than Int, will it make sense to replace Int/haste gems with pure haste gems?

calderstrake · 10/13/10, 10:06 AM

Originally Posted by Tenebrarum from hell

Thanks for the post but I have some questions please?

1. what is the best opening cast sequence for affliction ?
2. Can we clip bane of agony too, shortly after the before last tick ?
3. Why corruption in destruction rotation (we must always keep up corruption)?

1. Although the priority is Corruption > Haunt > UA > BoA > Shadow Embrace > DS (<=25) > SB or DL; the best opening rotation should still be: SB > Haunt > UA > BoA > Corruption. Here's why: you get an early SE and a built in delay for the tank to get aggro and Corruption is cast last to possibly give time to proc trinkets to increase dmg output for the duration of the fight.

2. Has already been answered, but yes.

3. Corruption is now a valid source of dmg for destro with typical dmg around 5% for a boss fight.

@OP: great post as I've been looking for this information for the past few hours.