Blood Pact: Some advice for newbie affliction warlocks
by Megan O'Neill 
Apr 2nd 2012 at 9:00AM
My friends, Blizzard is trying to torture me. The large number of drastic changes to the warlock class makes for cool columns. I have no beta access yet (c'mon, late Burning Crusade wave!). The greater likelihood of people playing through beta on weekends rather than on weekdays means those with beta access update information threads on the weekends. I write most of my columns before the weekends. The timing of new information contrary to my writings has had me wanting to drain my own soul out for a couple of weeks here.
... OK, you got me. The real reason I don't want to talk about Mists this week is because Wryxian broke my heart with the no green fire trickery. Don't worry, though! I got my evil groove back by proving my preparedness and fast reactions to my guild. I gloriously dropped a QQ train during a heroic Ultraxion attempt when my raid leader jokingly called for it.
Sadly, the next night, many guildmates brought train-wreckers to raid. What are you saying? A Heroism filled with choo-choo yells and fist pumps isn't the best DPS buff ever? Blasphemy!
If I'm breaking from Mists for a bit, what to talk about? The excitement around the new warlocks in Mists means other players are rolling new toons or dusting off old toons in the flavor of ...warlocks. This means new players to educate on how to warlock.
I'll admit, I usually don't judge other warlocks' DPS, whether through looking at the spell usage in Skada or a full gear inspection, unless it's unusually low. Low warlock DPS is the exception, in my experience; most warlocks appear to wear the right glyphs, have an EJ-approved talent spec, and look pretty in gemmed and enchanted cloth. Even a few icky spirit pieces in those hard-to-fill slots (shoulders, I'm looking at you) are OK while you grind for RNG to give you a proper piece.
It's the spell selections that get most people. Trying to do a proper raid priority rotation on dungeon mobs doesn't always work out to the greatest dungeon DPS. But that's what makes dungeons great practice -- they're great for practicing pieces of the raid spell-flinging.
So here's some more advice on various affliction spells in practice.
On trash DPS as affliction
My first question when a new warlock comes to me with low DPS is: Trash or boss? "Trash" earns you a heartfelt "Join the club!" from me. Affliction trash DPS has traditionally sucked, and it will continue to suck because we are the DoT people, even when it comes to our AoE. You should still shine on bosses, but kissing the meter's floor on trash isn't uncommon for affliction.
Many factors can worsen this effect. I've found that melee-heavy groups especially kill your trash DPS when it comes to AoE. Some casters with particularly potent or friendly-targetable AoE spells can also kill the mobs more quickly than you can get off a few Seeds. Affliction trash DPS also dies as the tier swings on and people overgear the dungeons, since things die more quickly, allowing less time for DoTs from lesser-hasted new afflic 'locks.
Just relax. Don't worry about your trash DPS. If anyone gives you crap for it, just laugh and excel on the boss.
What can I do on trash as an affliction warlock?
Our trash DPS buttons depend on two things: the number of mobs and how long each mob is going to live. If there are a lot of mobs (6+) and they don't last very long (less than one Seed cast), I often don't DPS at all, or I'll use something entirely silly like Rain of Fire for laughs.
If the mobs are going to last a little longer than a couple GCDs, then you have some fodder for Corruption. You'll want to put up Curse of the Elements on a central mob, and the talent Jinx will spread the effect to the other mobs. For fun times, you can mingle with the melee and Shadowflame on cooldown. Just watch out for mobs that cleave.
If you need two hands to count all the mobs, spam Seed of Corruption (a radially expansive AoE) on a central mob. Preferably, soulburn a Seed to apply our favorite DoT everywhere. For greater effect, pop a soulburned seed while under the puppy's Demon Soul buff. Alternatively, if the central mob dies quickly, Seed the mob with the most health, so you don't have to waste precious spam time switching targets.
If you can still count the mobs on one hand, try to multi-DoT. Start with a Corruption up on every target, wind around with Unstable Affliction, and finally finish off stragglers with Bane of Agony. If you have the Glyph of Soul Swap, start on one mob with the full three DoTs, then swap to another mob.
This is one of the questions that comes out when someone reads EJ for the raiding priority and then doesn't understand why multi-DoTing isn't working well for them.
Bane of Doom has the high damage per execute time (DPET) -- that is, it does far more damage for the one GCD it takes to put up Doom than Agony will do. The trick is, Bane of Doom doesn't scale with haste. The ticks don't get closer together, and you don't get an extra one. Every Doom tick is 15 seconds from the last. So if the mob will die within 15 seconds, you won't get anything out of the spell. Doom is also limited to one mob anywhere.
If the mob will die within 15 seconds or if you are multi-DoTing, use Bane of Agony. Bane of Agony scales with haste and has a ramp-up throughout its duration. Agony can be put on multiple targets, though it replaces Doom if you try to put both on one target (only one Bane per warlock per target).
Both Banes are best left until they fall off, contrary to the refreshing most DoTs get. This is because Doom ticks at the end, but it's more important for Agony, since Agony's hardest-hitting tick is at the end.
Do I have to use the optimal opener?
If you want to be absolutely, simulatorily optimal, yes. The optimal opener gets up Shadow and Flame, which is a debuff that gives you greater spell crit on that target. It also gets up two stacks of the very cool and important Shadow Embrace first.
In Wrath of the Lich King, the optimal opener was very important, because your DoTs didn't update according to the proper debuffs unless you recast the DoT entirely after the debuff appeared. In Cataclysm, DoT mechanics changed to update per tick based on the debuffs that were present on the target. So now, you can actually put your DoTs up first and then apply stacks of Shadow Embrace (via Shadow Bolt and Haunt), and your DoTs will update accordingly.
But the exception to this rule is Shadow and Flame, which still appears to operate as if it were a player buff instead of a target debuff. DoTs do not update to player buffs, so a haste proc is wasted on Shadow Bolt spam if you don't ever refresh your extra tickable DoTs before the proc ends.
Speaking of procs, what buffs my Doomguard?
Most people pop the Doomguard during Heroism, because Heroism is when everybody is popping everything else like trinkets and potions. But Heroism itself doesn't actually buff the Doomguard.
Your pets scale from your stats, but the Doomguard actually scales from only some of those. The Doomguard benefits from hit, crit, and most importantly, spellpower. The Doomguard benefits neither from haste nor affliction's mastery, unlike demonology.
The best time actually occurs a few seconds after the fight starts, since all the internal on-equip procs you have will be almost guaranteed to be in sync with each other (all the internal cooldowns are off). Power Torrent plus Lightweave plus pre-pot plus Soulburn four-piece T13 plus Bottled Wishes means a really awesome Doomguard.
Next week?
Hopefully, the beta will calm down over a few weeks and start to work out some kinks in the demon tanking. I've weave in some steadied beta talk with Cataclysm destruction and demonology advice. I know Haunt has made a reappearance in affliction and is draining soul shards as a resource, which is interesting. The demon tanking flurry has covered over some destruction information that I still need to read fully.
Blood Pact is a weekly column detailing DOTs, demons and all the dastardly deeds done by warlocks. We'll coach you in the fine art of staying alive, help pick the best target for Dark Intent, and steer you through tier 13 set bonuses.
Filed under: Warlock, (Warlock) Blood Pact
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
sjamesclarkson Apr 2nd 2012 9:12AM
As for the doomguard, I find it practical to set up a power auras to track when certain/all my procs/buffs are up. It certainly helps you understand the optimal point of summoning instead of guesswork
Malsi Apr 2nd 2012 9:25AM
Since Green fire is out the door, what happened to Rainbow Fire
Snuzzle Apr 2nd 2012 9:51AM
Rainbow Fire would scare off your imp, so that's right out.
Revynn Apr 2nd 2012 9:40AM
Random thought.
Can you stack Will of Unbinding with Hellfire spam pre-fight like you can with some other trinkets?
sjamesclarkson Apr 2nd 2012 11:53AM
No, it only procs of attacks that land on an enemy.
jealouspirate Apr 2nd 2012 9:45AM
I just came back to WoW by accepting a Scroll of Resurrection, and I decided to make my free level 80 a Warlock. I've never played a warlock before, and I'm feeling totally lost.
Affliction seems like a very iconic spec for warlocks to me... but I have no idea how to play it. Any advice for "newbie affliction warlocks" who are still leveling?
Morgandonor Apr 2nd 2012 6:10PM
Since I just finished leveling my affliction warlock alt, I may have a few suggestions. :)
Get the Glyph of Soul Swap and whenever multi dot quest mobs that are in the same area i.e. don't wait for a mob to die, just move on to next mob. The more you use this glyph's benefit, higher your DPS will be.
Make a macro that casts Corruption, Bane of Agony and Haunt (in this order). Open by casting Unstable Affliction and start hitting the macro button before the cast time of UA is finished. This way, you will eliminate the reaction time delay in your rotation.
Replace Drain Life and Seed of Corruption each with macros that cast Soul Burn before these spells. That way you don't need to check whether your Soul Burn is off cooldown and you will make the most use of it.
For trash mobs in dungeons, if you have 4+ mobs in a group, start tabbing to each mob and spam the macroed Seed of Corruption. You will run out of mana soon, but you have Life Tap and healers are usually skilled enough to heal you back quickly.
Haunt gives a big boost to your Dots, but even if we ignore that benefit, it still hits much harder than Shadow Bolt or Drain Life. So, make sure you cast haunt whenever its ready (which is why having it on your regularly spammed macro helps).
Morgandonor Apr 2nd 2012 6:21PM
Please ignore the typos in that post (there is no edit button).
Your regular rotation should be
1. Unstable Affliction
2. Spam the macro (Corruption, Bane of Agony, Haunt)
3. Soul Swap if its ready and move to next target.
4. Shadow Bolt (if Shadow Trance has procced from the Nightfall talent or Glyph of Corruption - they do stack).
5. Drain Life (if Soul Burn is ready).
6. Shadow Bolt spam until one of your Dots fade or Haunt becomes available again. You will only need to do this on bosses, others die before this.
Morgandonor Apr 2nd 2012 6:28PM
The reason why I don't recommend putting Unstable Affliction in your spam macro is because sometimes you need to use it while moving and you don't want the first spell in the macro that requires you to stop and cast.
jealouspirate Apr 2nd 2012 6:29PM
Thank you very much! That makes me much more enthusiastic about playing my new Warlock. Appreciated.
paul.marsico Apr 2nd 2012 10:31AM
The only thing cool about Shadow Embrace is that it unnerfs our DoTs........
Locks have sucked to play this entire expansion.
Joshua Apr 2nd 2012 11:44AM
I'd like to direct you to Cynwise's The Decline and Fall of Warlocks in Cataclysm in regards to "warlocks sucking" this expansion.
http://cynwise.wordpress.com/warlockery/decline-and-fall/
Warlocks have done well damage wise, but in general their interest has been low. We've been in a good place damage wise this expansion, sitting middle to high ground.
paul.marsico Apr 2nd 2012 5:11PM
I wouldn't say they suck, but it's hardly rewarding for the work that goes into them compared to the many easier or more flexible classes that do much more damage with much less effort.
Locks have to basically memorize every encounter to maximize their damage, which is quite different than say, an Arcane Mage.
Nikalia Apr 3rd 2012 7:30PM
"Locks have to basically memorize every encounter to maximize their damage, which is quite different than say, an Arcane Mage."
If you are looking to mindlessly blast a couple hard-hitting spells at something for the majority of the fight, then roll that Arcane Mage you speak of and receive your self-fulfillment.
Those who are more inclined to put thought and skill toward their gameplay will be across the room eloquently orchestrating our rotation and feeling rewarded by the fact that we get to use our brains.
Nothing is more rewarding to me than hitting those perfect proc dot refreshes, and summoning that doomguard at the most beautiful time, and seeing the planets align and heroism line up with metamorphosis & power torrent & lightweave & demon soul & trinket....... *cackles mirthlessly*
Truly playing a warlock is being passionate about the dps you are putting out, knowing how hard you worked for it, and being ever so thankful you aren't that boring arcane mage. Yes, we do a lot of button presses to keep ourselves ahead of other dps--- but hey, at least we CAN be ahead! (Trust me, I do it all the time...). Again, that hard work put into our DPS is what makes it that much MORE rewarding.
Besides, a LOT of classes benefit from "memorizing" the fight to put out more dps --- everyone has cooldowns, why WOULDN'T you use them at the most beneficial time to you? In my honest opinion, I sincerely wish so many players *weren't* re-rolling warlocks just for the new changes. I feel they don't deserve to be a warlock without having some sort of passion for the playstyle as is; all of these 'fairweather' fans can go back to playing their arcane mages. Warlocks are the most engaging, intriguing, and FUN DPS class to play, and if you aren't (nearly) topping meters then you aren't doing it right.
Chmmr Apr 2nd 2012 10:41AM
So, I'm a Dragonwrath-toting affliction lock in a 10man guild who has cleared through madness and so far heroic morchok. So, while I'm not extremely hardcore, I do fairly well... well enough that the guild wanted to finish running me through firelands anyway ;)
Sorry, I can't quite agree with your advice on trash Megan, even for newbies. I'd tweak it thus.. First, your ideal postioning for trash is about 10-15 yards away.. about the max distance you can be while still being able to Shadowflame everything. This of course means your Soulshatter button should be hotkeyed and at the ready. There are basically two types of trash pulls in raids, 1) a few, high-health mobs, 2) many lower-health mobs.
For 1) CoE (with Jinx), apply UA and corruption to each mob, and/or Agony if they're very high health.. soul swap may come in handy. Shadowflame if the mobs are close enough to each other (i.e. NOT the tentacles before Zon'ozz, but definitely the blobs before Yor'sahj). Try to drain soul on mobs that get to 25% health.
For 2) a good example might be the scorpions at the start of FL... a 'big' aoe pull.. still 15 yards away ish from the tank. CoE (with Jinx), soul burn + SoC, Shadowflame on cooldown!, spam seed of corruption. I tend to switch targets with tab as soon as each SoC is starting to cast.. you don't lose any time really. Careful your tab won't pick any undesired targets. :) On Madness of deathwing, for the hemorrhages, the key is to SoC on them as soon as they land on the ground. You WILL have nice dps if you are able to get off 3-4 SoC's and a shadowflame... they'll probably die before their first regen cycle if everyone is helping!
hope this helps...
keith.woodland Apr 2nd 2012 11:25AM
tabbing between targets in your no.2 example will undo the use of soulburn seed pretty quick as seed of corruption will remove corruption from the target. better advise would be to pick one high health target and SoC on just that one.
andro Apr 2nd 2012 12:09PM
If you tab through targets after using soulburn seed of corruption, won't the new seeds overwrite the corruption that the soulburn applied?
Smashbolt Apr 2nd 2012 12:45PM
Another thing worth mentioning is that if you have shards available (you should), it is ALWAYS worth soulburning SoC for any number of mobs greater than one, provided they're in range of each other. Soulburn is off the GCD and SoC has a two second cast, so even if there's only two mobs, you can apply Corruption to both of them in (2s - haste), as opposed to 2 GCDs (ie: 3s - haste) for casting Corruption manually.
Plus, you get the bonus of the explosion damage.
SINisterWyvern Apr 2nd 2012 1:53PM
Yeah dude with the legendary you're telling us just for e-peen.. You're doing Soulburn SoC wrong if you're tab targetting.
Chmmr Apr 2nd 2012 4:12PM
I disagree with avoiding tab targeting after soul burn + SOC (on big pulls). If you happen to pick a target that isn't getting enough incidental damage to set off the normal SoC's in the time it takes to cast your next one, you're wasting the GCD's. Better to chain cast the SoC's with guaranteed explosions than to overwrite one that didn't explode.
I consider the damage the normal Corruptions are doing on targets, for whatever period of time it's on them (before it might get overwritten with a normal SoC), to be bonus damage... not the priority.
Optimally, you'd target one target that is guaranteed to set off your SoC's before the next one lands. if you can do that.. great. if you can't, tab + cast, repeat.