@Shinafae Affliction....!!!!

Forum for all Blood Legion friends to chat with us.

Moderator: Spider

@Shinafae Affliction....!!!!

Postby Amnesiac on Sun Jan 29, 2012 1:00 am

Hi guys!!

Hey Shinafae, I've been following you, your logs, your different comments, and Blood Legion as a whole for quite a while now. The reason I'm writing this is mainly because I have seen you give such great answers to different persons on these forums and you are, IMO, the best affliction warlock I could possibly hope to ask these questions to. I am a Frenchy Warlock from Illidan, I have extended knowledge when it comes down to Demonology Spec, be it 0/31/10, 3/31/07 (which I usually perform alot better with, even if the maths don't always back it for everyone's gear) and I decided to drop the SB filler spec completely to pick Affliction back up. This being my 5th lock that's been max level at any point, I did play all 3 warlocks specs before and I am an avid WoL,EJ, Simcraft, etc stalker and I always try to find the right thing to do with every of those specs whenever I play them.

Link to armory for current Demo Spec;
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/i ... iac/simple
Link to Chardev for the best gear/reforges/enchants/gems/spec/etc I can get as Affliction that's available to me;
http://chardev.org/?profile=333081

Trinkets I own; CoC(normal),WoU(normal),IotCM(normal),RoZ,Bottled Wishes,DMC-V,NMF(heroic).
Weps; 403 Ratrakh (coupled with MS), 391 Volcanospike/Molten Scream, 391 Funeral Pyre, No legendaries =(
I chose to use the old 391 rep ring as afflic. (over the normal Ring of the Riven) considering the haste/hit itemization outweights the 19 int loss.

I currently am back into a more relaxed, casual setup, just Raiding with IRL friends some DS 10man normals and that's it.
Since it's a way more relaxed atmosphre than what I am used to, I figured I might as well improve my Affliction spec but I can't seem to grasp what exactly is holding me back.

My reforges, gemming, enchants, glyphs, etc are all the ''basic'' affliction recommandations, so that's not a problem.
I use multiple addons, such as Needtoknow, Gnosis/AzCastbar, Auracle, Power Auras, OmniCC, Tidyplates (looking for one more suited to Aff multidotting) and I have all my relevant procs, Buffs, Dots, Debuffs, etc showing in some way or another in a way that suits my playstyle. I track all the stuff I need to track, is basically what i want to say.

Edit; Stats weights; int = 1 haste = 0.57 crit= 0.45 mastery= 0.31

(considering I chose to use WoU/CoC as my trinks)
My opener is more or less the same as everyone else; prepot;Sbolt(now in combat);Haunt;Demon Soul;UA,Corrupt,Bane of Doom,(CoE is covered by a second lock), Popping my Doom when as many int/sp procs are aligned, or at an important moment of the fight. After that, I usually, after the first BoD, don't recast BoD before it ends ( I do 1 second after it falls off) to ensure I don't lose that buffed up 4th tick of my first BoD. Afterwards, I try to remember if the previous BoD had more int/sp buffs then the one I'm about to cast, while keeping in clear view all my ICDs, to decide wheter or not to clip BoD. Also, when alot of procs are rolling (IE; lightweave+PT+SBurn proc all together) I immediatly refresh UA even if it wasn't time yet. I never, ever let a Haunt (or a dot for that matter) fall off, and usually time the cast+flight time accordingly to make sure it reaches my target before the other one falls off *usually 1 SB after it's off cd, more or less).
if fight allows, or if I judge it to be not too much of a gimp, I try to time DS with PT/Lightweave/Bloodlust/other stuff to make the best use out of it. During the execute phase, I cancel drainsoul only to refresh Haunt, Move, or refresh BoD/BoA (depending) and I always time it right after a Drain tick. I usually save my second potion for Bloodlust, Execute phase, depeneding on fight.

consider I usually keep a dot Uptime of +- 95% and up on all my dots on a singletarget fight, I am always casting. (Lifetaps,Instants,Fel flames on the move).

so a few questions I'm having, and that I can't find any answers to it seems anywhere on the internet, despite long searchs;

Is it worth it not to refresh Haunt ON cd but instead wait untill the very last second (about 2.5/3 seconds before it falls off for a 1.1 sec cast if I'm about 30 yards away from my target), or should I not bother delay it and just cast it on CD?
I see on your january 24 ultraxion log that you casted 27 haunts in a 5;44 min fight which gives an interval of 12.67 seconds in-between each haunt, so I'd assume delaying it is actually worth it?

Also; I tend to refresh UA right after the second-to-last tick occurs, leaving me a 1.5 or so gap to actually refresh it and I usually also refresh it if more than 1 proc (example both PT+LW) or right after I pop Demon Soul, is this what you do also or should I just wait until it almost falls off THEN refresh not considering those procs?

Also; As demo, I've been used to recast Shadowflame over my filler and I've been doing it forever, but it seems as afflic it doesn't matter as much? could you enlighten me on this topic because again, I cannot seem to find info on this anywhere?
as afflic, I've been pretty much just refreshing it only if I have nothing better than Shadowbolt to do, putting everything else in priority, and dropping shadowflame completely during Drainsoul phase, unless i HAVE to move and nothing better is available.

You said in a comment on someone else's topic that you decided to macro shadowbite into your spells to ensure it's done ON cd and not delayed for any reason, I guess I'll do this as well to ensure efficiency.

Also, I'd really love to hear what you think, use as far as unit plates go, and how exactly do you deal with multi-dotting (more than 2 targets, because that's ''easily'' done with a @focus macro). back in the day I'd use mouseover macros and just use shiftmodifier in all my spells for mouseover, is it the most efficient way to go about multidotting 3+ targets In your opinion?

any other tips/insight on what else I could be doing to pull the most I can with my Afflic spec (or demo, for that matter) would be really appreciated. I admire what you guys do and the impact Blood Legion has on a very large group of people that is World of Warcraft players. I can't thank you enough if you actually even read this wall of text and/or answer my questions, and for any tips or help you could provide me. you can contact me here, or in-game at any-time (Amnesiac) you feel like you have spare time, it would mean the world to me ! =)

Keep killing dragons guys and girls!! BL is THE shit!!!

ps;
I am well aware No WoL of any sort were given, the simple reason is I have yet to run a WoL as afflic for this tier. I will get on that and hopefully it will give a little bit more info about what I actually do. also, I read in one of your post you do the 5 ticks 1st BoD thing, is it much of an increase? if so, another thing I could be doing, heh.

Amnesiac
Amnesiac
 
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2012 11:29 pm


Re: @Shinafae Affliction....!!!!

Postby Shinafae on Mon Jan 30, 2012 10:55 pm

Bonsoir Amnesiac. :)

Responses in red ; I hope it helps.

Link to armory for current Demo Spec;
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/i ... iac/simple
Link to Chardev for the best gear/reforges/enchants/gems/spec/etc I can get as Affliction that's available to me;
http://chardev.org/?profile=333081

The Chardev profile won't load for me. If you can farm the 391 neck off of Majordomo, it is better for us than the valour neck you are wearing presently. For Demo, I prefer to keep 1996 haste rating for the extra tick on Corruption and - as we no longer are bound by the cooldown of Moonwell Chalice - more frequent Impending Doom procs.

I chose to use the old 391 rep ring as afflic. (over the normal Ring of the Riven) considering the haste/hit itemization outweights the 19 int loss.

Ring of the Riven is decent for us. This is only worth it if you are struggling to meet the hit cap.

My reforges, gemming, enchants, glyphs, etc are all the ''basic'' affliction recommandations, so that's not a problem.
I use multiple addons, such as Needtoknow, Gnosis/AzCastbar, Auracle, Power Auras, OmniCC, Tidyplates (looking for one more suited to Aff multidotting) and I have all my relevant procs, Buffs, Dots, Debuffs, etc showing in some way or another in a way that suits my playstyle. I track all the stuff I need to track, is basically what i want to say.

It's imperative that you track your procs and buffs, e.g. Power Torrent, Eradication, Potion, 4pc. bonus, etc. To track DoTs, I use DoTimer and have it configured to display focus and target debuffs permanently. I don't track debuffs via TidyPlates myself, but many people I know do and find it helpful.

My opener is more or less the same as everyone else

I disagree that this opener is best. From another thread on these forums :
Shinafae wrote:Single target, the optimal opener is [Precombat Potion] > Prepull SB > BoD > [Cooldowns/On-Use] > UA > Corruption > [Soulburn] > Haunt > Shadowflame > Instant SF > Shadowbolt x2-3 (check proc timers) > BoD > rotation. This must all be done before your BoD ticks once.

This is to ensure maximal uptime on BoD as well as giving it a fifth strong tick. I'm glad you seem to understand the other rules of BoD-management. Lightweave, if I recall, has a 90s ICD, which means that it will line up with every second Power Torrent/tier bonus, but not much else reliably. Thus, after the pull, I don't really worry about it too much unless the fight lasts over six minutes, in which case it will align again with Demon Soul just past the six minute mark (assuming everything is being used precisely on cooldown which is, in itself, unlikely).


Also, when alot of procs are rolling (IE; lightweave+PT+SBurn proc all together) I immediatly refresh UA even if it wasn't time yet.

Don't. It is not worth the global to do this given UA's duration and spellpower coefficient. Your UA will be updated optimally during execute, but there, you are not casting it.

I make sure Haunt reaches my target before the other one falls off *usually 1 SB after it's off cd, more or less).

Since patch 4.1, Haunt's DPET is superior to that of a non-instant Shadowbolt. Thus, you should cast it directly off cooldown, at least until execute.

During the execute phase, I cancel drainsoul only to refresh Haunt, Move, or refresh BoD/BoA (depending) and I always time it right after a Drain tick. I usually save my second potion for Bloodlust, Execute phase, depeneding on fight.

Play around with Drain Soul on a dummy and observe its behaviour when you refresh. Keep in mind that if you get a proc of any sort mid-channel, DS will NOT update to take account of that proc until it is refreshed. On the other hand, if you lose a proc that was present when the channel was cast, DS will NOT update to take account of that, either... Also, it is always worth it to use the second potion in conjunction with Demon Soul and other cooldowns during the execute phase. It is nice when Lust is used during said phase, but if it's not, don't bend your cooldowns out of shape to react to it.

Is it worth it not to refresh Haunt ON cd but instead wait untill the very last second (about 2.5/3 seconds before it falls off for a 1.1 sec cast if I'm about 30 yards away from my target), or should I not bother delay it and just cast it on CD?

See my above response. Haunt -does- have a lower DPET than drain soul in execute, but you risk to lose your Shadow Embrace stacks if you try to cut it too close with refreshing. Remember that Haunt is a slow travel-time spell. It's not worth the risk to delay casting Haunt in most cases, and when it is, do so because you are trying to preserve huge Drain Soul buffs and don't delay more than a tick or two, depending on the range to your target.

I see on your january 24 ultraxion log that you casted 27 haunts in a 5;44 min fight which gives an interval of 12.67 seconds in-between each haunt, so I'd assume delaying it is actually worth it?

About a second and a half of that delay can be attributed to me finishing up my last cast/GCD before Haunt became available. I'm also not going to recast Haunt over refreshing a DoT or using Shadowflame 99 % of the time. The rest of the delay is probably attributable to not refreshing the final Haunt before the boss dies. Actually, in that log, I think a bunch of people died near the end unexpectedly, making the boss take a long time to finish off, so I let my last Haunt fall off, when I shouldn't have.

Also; I tend to refresh UA right after the second-to-last tick occurs, leaving me a 1.5 or so gap to actually refresh it and I usually also refresh it if more than 1 proc (example both PT+LW) or right after I pop Demon Soul, is this what you do also or should I just wait until it almost falls off THEN refresh not considering those procs?

Ideally, refresh it between the penultimate and final ticks. Don't worry about anything else.

Also; As demo, I've been used to recast Shadowflame over my filler and I've been doing it forever, but it seems as afflic it doesn't matter as much? could you enlighten me on this topic because again, I cannot seem to find info on this anywhere?
as afflic, I've been pretty much just refreshing it only if I have nothing better than Shadowbolt to do, putting everything else in priority, and dropping shadowflame completely during Drainsoul phase, unless i HAVE to move and nothing better is available.

Recasting Shadowflame over filler, but not much else, is correct. Using it at all still nets you a ~750 DPS gain as Affliction (heroic t12 gear) and about half of this is due to the buff it confers to Shadow Bite whilst the DoT is active. It's absolutely worth casting pre-execute, in other words.

You said in a comment on someone else's topic that you decided to macro shadowbite into your spells to ensure it's done ON cd and not delayed for any reason, I guess I'll do this as well to ensure efficiency.

I macro Imp's firebolt into my other spells, because as Firebolt has a cast time, server-client latency can affect it. This is not the case with Shadow Bite, and if you read otherwise, I assure you that it was not me who posted it.

Also, I'd really love to hear what you think, use as far as unit plates go, and how exactly do you deal with multi-dotting (more than 2 targets, because that's ''easily'' done with a @focus macro). back in the day I'd use mouseover macros and just use shiftmodifier in all my spells for mouseover, is it the most efficient way to go about multidotting 3+ targets In your opinion?

In all honesty, I don't track dots on > 2 targets simultaneously. I make good use of the /targetlasttarget function and casting directly at focus via macro to track 3 targets, e.g., Shannox and friends. For more than that, I simply use tab - if it's worth fully dotting that many targets at all, you cannot accomplish this before at least the UA on your first target has expired, meaning that you can tab perpetually through everything and constantly refresh dots, spamming shadowflame on cooldown. Keep your pet on the most important target and set that to your focus, so you can always be sure that full DoTs are active on him (helps pet's Shadow Bite).

also, I read in one of your post you do the 5 ticks 1st BoD thing, is it much of an increase? if so, another thing I could be doing, heh.

Yep.



Merci beaucoup pour ton soutien et bonne continuation dans ta quête de t'améliorer en tant que démoniste. :)
Image
Image
User avatar
Shinafae
 
Posts: 462
Joined: Fri May 14, 2010 5:51 am
Location: In the mountains.



Return to Public for Peasants

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 45 guests

cron