Dots and you: The Affliction Warlock Thread - Page 8

krilz · 12/12/08, 9:39 AM

This is what puzzles me: Regardless if it "doesn't really matter" or not, isn't it still the "best" option still? Some people might debate if it's worth it or not, but since it improves your critical damage (and since most affliction specs also include Ruin) isn't it still worthwhile? I'm a bit tired but hopefully you get what I mean.

Namnalia · 12/12/08, 9:51 AM

No, it's not the best option. The point is that the crit part gives only ~10 dps - even when you do not consider that you won't use shadow bolt anymore as soon as the boss hits 25%. That is not enough dps to overcome the 25 spellpower gems. Of course, the gem scales and could possibly be better with very high crit and spell power values, but for a starter gear like the one I use in this thread, it definitely isn't.

alhill · 12/12/08, 10:35 AM

One issue to consider on the demonic aegis question is whether or not you include immolate in your dot rotation. If you do, the relative value of aegis goes up, because you have an extra dot to leverage and SB time goes down.

I think on an immo-free rotation, ruin is no-brainer better, at least once you start getting fairly geared. With immo, it may be a bit closer.

valheran · 12/12/08, 11:38 AM

Not using Immo is a no-brainer, hauntwise you are gimping yourself skipping it, unless you tot around murlock level gear. And I'm not even so sure about that murloc thingy.

I would really like to see proper calculations around DA, since arguments so far were: "everyone can see apples are better than oranges" and "IMO..."

With huge weight behind Spell Power as Afflock, it seems reasonable to me that DA'ed spirit should give more dps, point to point, than crit. My math's weak, but just increasing Namnalia's value (I know it's not very accurate, but that's all I can do) you get DPS Value for 1 point of Spirit = 0,4(4). Let's say that less tapping and stronger Firebolts equalize lesser DPS/ Spellpower of 53/13/5 (compared to baseline 56/0/15), that's pretty significant outscale of 1 crit, even allowing pretty heavy margin of (my) error.

And that's still assuming item budget for 1 spirit = 1 crit, which is obviously false.

This means to me, that if you can find Moonshroud-type gear for enough of your slots, and just anything with some spirit and no crit for rest, stacking spirit should give somewhat bigger results than 56/0/15's get from stacking crit (an even haste).

I recognize possibilty of being wrong, but still I think some people didn't wholly woke up from out of TBC...

PS. This is all theory, since lock's tiers are obviously optimized for ruin builds.

PSGarak · 12/12/08, 2:40 PM

The budget for 1 spirit is that of 1 crit rating. That was the entire reason they put in ratings in the first place.

Darkstarrz · 12/12/08, 7:17 PM

Any implicatoins of the shadow embrace bug being fixed? That 10% dot damage loss is pretty huge. We run with two affliction locks which really doesnt help, seems theres a race who can get the first shadowbolt/haunt up which is very dissapointing.

Tornwings · 12/12/08, 11:41 PM

Is there any way to make quarts divide the channel bar to see DS ticks? or is there any way to really make them stand out?

• KingSpeedy · 12/13/08, 12:14 AM

ForteWarlock(link) just got updated with a new version that lets you see "ticks" of DoTs on the Spell Timer. It's still a little buggy (Isn't factoring Haste for Drain Soul), and it isn't terribly easy to see, but at least it shows that there's enough demand for such a feature. Hopefully Quartz isn't too far behind

Sumie · 12/13/08, 6:03 AM

Is there any way to make quarts divide the channel bar to see DS ticks? or is there any way to really make them stand out?

I had this same issue beforehand and was really struggling to optimize my DPS sub-25% when we needed to drain soul.

Best way I found to deal with this is to create a new custom event in SCT (named it Soul Tick), that would sticky crit in my scrolling combat any time Drain Soul dealt damage to my target.

DiamondTear · 12/13/08, 3:29 PM

Originally Posted by Sumie

Best way I found to deal with this is to create a new custom event in SCT (named it Soul Tick), that would sticky crit in my scrolling combat any time Drain Soul dealt damage to my target.

Here's an example of a Drain Soul custom event:

http://mpu9aa.bay.livefilestore.com/...ustomevent.jpg

Turbo Moses · 12/13/08, 9:42 PM

Trying to do a similar function in Power Auras, but since it's specialty is tracking debuffs and buffs, not damage, the closest I got was making an aura for when drain soul is active on an enemy, with a timer, so I can at least get a general idea of how many seconds have passed since i started draining.

fallenman · 12/13/08, 10:09 PM

Originally Posted by Namnalia

Damage done:
1.2(Haunt)*1.15(Shadow Mastery)*1.1(Shadow Embrace)*1.05(Contagion)*1.13(CoE)*1.01(Spellstone)*1.03(Malediction)(1740(Base Damage) + ((1.2(Base Coeff)+0.36(Emp Corr)+0.30(Everl. Affl.))*(2000(spell power))))*0.99(Hit Chance)*(1+0.15(Crit Chance)) = 12046.82(Total Damage)
1.2*1.15*1.1*1.05*1.13*1.01*1.03( 1740 + ((1.2+0.36+0.30)*(2000)))*0.99*(1+0.15) = 12046.82
cast time: 1.5s*(1/(1+Haste)) = 1.5*(1/1+0.15+0.0183) = 1.28s
DPCT: Damage/Casttime = 9382.86 Damage per second casting.

Some errors with how you are calculating damage done.

Talent damage modifiers are additive of each other, not multiplicative. So for example, shadow mastery and contagion should be added, not multiplied with each other. The only exception to this I know of is malediction. The passive bonus is multiplicative.

Also, I don't see improved corruption in your math there? Improved corruption is also additive, by the way.

Here is some sample math showing my corruption DPCT calculations (note that my "stats" used were 2000 spell power, 40% crit raid buffed, and hit capped):

1080 base damage + ((120% coefficient + 36% empowered corruption + 30% everlasting affliction) * 2000) =
1080 + (1.86 * 2000) = 4800 base damage.
Modifiers:
4800 * (10% improved corruption + 15% shadow mastery + 5% contagion) * 3% malediction * 13% earth and moon * 3% sanctified retribution (ret pally) * 20% haunt * 10% shadow embrace =
4800 * 1.30 * 1.03 * 1.13 * 1.03 * 1.20 * 1.10 = 9874 modified damage.
Pandemic: 9874 * 1.22 = 12046
12046 / 1.5 second GCD = 8031DPCT

Originally Posted by valheran

Not using Immo is a no-brainer, hauntwise you are gimping yourself skipping it, unless you tot around murlock level gear. And I'm not even so sure about that murloc thingy.

All affliction warlocks should be using immolate. It's a no-brainer. I presume that's what you meant, but figured it should be clarified. Especially considering the immolate glyph is one of the best glyphs there is for an afflock.

Originally Posted by Namnalia

I) Bosses are considered 3 levels higher than you are, giving them a 15% chance to resist spells. There is NO way to prevent that. As these are partial resists, you don't get a "resisted" but just do 15% less damage in the average. This has been fact for a very long time, and you can easily see it when approaching the boss training dummy, you will get "Xyz does n damage (k resisted)" all the time.

This isn't really correct. ?? or lvl83 bosses have an inherent 24 magical resistance to all schools of magic. That doesn't equate to anything near 15% mitigation. I believe it's closer to around 3% mitigation.

II) This has been a lenghty discussion in this thread, and I now agree that "fallenmen" is absolutely right about it. Everlasting affliction does improve your spell damage by 5% PER TICK. Tested, discussed, topic closed. I actually wrote it in the spell description, and you can find it in this thread. Maybe you should read a little bit more before you post, then you would get less warnings :-)

Glad to see you updated more of your guide. By the way, feel free to copy/paste anything you like from my other thread about affliction rotations into your own here.

Evyle · 12/14/08, 7:02 PM

For a rading affliction lock I typically cast 8 different spells

Shadow bolt 2.5 seconds
Haunt 1.5 seconds
Unstable Affliction 1.5 seconds
Immolate 1.5 seconds
Corruption 1.5 seconds (GCD)
Curse of Agony 1.5 seconds (GCD - no talent)
Siphon Life 1.5 seconds (GCD)
Life Tap 1.5 seconds (GCD)

In my gear and with raid buffs I have the following haste
20% base from gear/spell stone
5% from wrath of air totem
--- possible 30% from bloodlust
--- possible 20% from eradication

If I proc eradication and 7 out of the 8 spells (any thing but shadow bolt) I am clipping the global cooldown bottom end cap of 1.0 seconds right?
The same goes for bloodlust.

Am I wasting any haste above 33% for 7 out of the 8 spells I cast?
If so perhaps I should look for more gear with + crit instead of + haste (currently I have been giving about the same value to each for comparing items).

Anthraxx · 12/15/08, 6:34 AM

What would be the optimal rotation during Bloodlust/Heroism as an affliction warlock? Seems that SB spam is not an option but maintaining the usual dot rotation makes me feel I don't use it to the max...

Missing something or does affliction benefit much less from it?

krilz · 12/15/08, 6:43 AM

The problem as I see it (and as I noticed last night) is that you should just keep it up as usual but you WILL encounter problems with DoTs clipping if you have to much haste on your own. My 1.5 casts (UA, Immo) ended up at 0.8 sec which wasn't very good and made things harder, especially if Eradication procced as well (can't recall if 0.8 casts was /w Eradication or not). I'm seriously considering getting less haste so that with Bloodlust DoTs end up as 1sec casts.