Affliction in arena

Classes Warlock
1

our damage takes so long to ramp and melee are not required to strategize AT ALL. just sit lock and we cant do anything because although we have potential to do big damage we cant het that far.

im sure with better healers we can make better progress, but A most healers will not choose an aff warlock over a melee, and B melee damage AND healing is way to high especially since all we have is a healthstone. Which btw usually doesnt do ajything because of the sheer amount of dmg im taking.

If our damage ramps shouldnt we be able to survive longer??? wasnt that always the idea??

2 Likes
2

I went 12 - 2 (win/loss) in shuffle today as Hellcaller Aff (2.3k rated last season). I was the primary kill target at the start of each game.

Some general comments/feedback:

Caster (ranged) lobbies/matchups

In general, they feel pretty easy. We have the most consistent damage throughput compared to other caster specs, and have numerous ways to disrupt their burst. It’s a game of maintaining dots on all three targets, then applying counter CC to the healer once someone’s HP gets low (while rotating through Nether Ward/Observer/Malevolence/Darkglare as they die slowly from unavoidable wither/agony dot damage). Just make sure to focus on extending far enough to land coil+fear on their healer, and being ready to port away behind a pillar if they decide to swap to you. Rinse and repeat.

Devestation/Ele is probably the toughest caster lobby to fight due to ele having high sustained spread pressure, enabling the Dev to randomly gib people in the open. I use a communication macro telling my teammates to stay near pillars and basically prioritize staying alive. The primary kill target should be the ele since they’re less mobile than Devs. Devestation’s spells have relatively longer cast times and channels compared to most casters (plus Satyr/Tongues slows it further). Since Fear has a much quicker cast time, you can use it against them as a pseudo-interrupt to prevent their casts from going off to break up their burst (allowing your healer to recover)

Versus melee lobbies/matchups

Windwalkers/Rogues/Fury Warriors are probably S or A-tier in difficulty to fight. Aff is fairly tanky, but these three specs in particular can deliver A LOT of single target burst and have several gap closers and snare removals. You definitely need to play aggressively against their team and disrupt their opener as much as possible (since they’ll try to nuke you with burst cooldowns while piling on overlapping stuns/disorients etc). The Windwalker’s knock-you-up-into-the-air ability is especially obnoxious. Apply Curse of Exhaust, and soulburn: portal the F@^# outta there. The port should be located somewhere that’s highly inconvenient for them to continue chasing you (the starting area before gates open in Mugambala is my favorite, since you can fight on the staircase or upper level then port back to the starting room, where there is no direct linear path for them to keep chasing you)

It gets much easier after you survive their opener. Basically, force them to swap to another target (even if it’s only for a short while) through port gateway behind pillar (note: make sure your healer is somewhere near your port’s LOS). Then, get counter CC on the healer ASAP while re-dotting the melee from max range. The goal is to make it as difficult for both of them to connect on you at the same time. If you can’t kite them, rotate fears onto the melee dps when they pop cooldowns to slow their damage, and lure them behind a pillar when they chase you so they LOS their own healer.

The good news is that it’s easier than ever to maintain spread pressure while being trained (wither/agony does so much damage), so refreshing your curses and applying dots via Jinx
and popping Darkglare > Malevolence does a lot of dmg with no casting. Lastly, we get A LOT of nightfall procs, so dump all shadowbolts on your UA dot target to further proc instant raptures. Instant shadowbolts proccing instant raptures on a fully dotted enemy team enables us to do good castless spread pressure (since hard casting rapture can be difficult verses melee lobbies)

3 Likes
3

Affi lock is far from tanky. We have unending resolve on a 2.3-3min cd, dark pact for an absorb which we have so sacrifice health for… and soulburn healthstones on a 1min cd, which essentially are gimped with so many melees or classes having some form of heal reduction/absorb.

Ever since they absolutely gutted drain life warlock survival went with it. Or allow you to port while stunned, rooted, silenced, etc. Something has to give.

1 Like
4

you forgot to give your take on unholy dk and arms warrior combo. seems to be the only comp i run into every game

5

I thought Soul Harvester tree was the go-to spec for arenas. Would you mind clarifying why you use Hellcaller instead? Thank you in advance.

1 Like
6

I ran into them too, and tbh I’ve had the most luck hard swapping and killing their healer after they’ve used at least one major cooldown while healing the Arms/UnhDK (Dampening stacks are usually significant at this point). Before the match starts, I tell my DPS partner to train and dump all stuns on the DK and then swap to the healer if the DK lives.

DK and Warr do hit very hard, but they have no real way to peel for their healer. If they do decide to peel, they’ll be forced to use their stuns/CC defensively to peel your partner off, instead of using them on you. You can lure the healer out into the open by forcing the melee to follow you, and then instant gateway somewhere safe during the swap).

Rdruids make good swap targets, since they need to apply hots to themselves (plus cyclone has a 20 yd range, so they have to run out from LOS to land CC effectively). Disc can also be swapped to after life swap (try to have a coil ready so you can immediately start dotting them and adding pressure).

I highly encourage people to make communication macros for different scenarios to tell your partners what to do (it’s worked wonders for me, and most people appreciate having directions). Aff needs partner coordination to really shine (which I know can be very challenging at lower MMRs , hence the macros).

It’s a matter of playstyle preference for me (I find it much easier to do damage in a melee lobby while being trained as Hellcaller). If you play soul harvester, just replace my advice with more shadowbolts +haunt instead of rapture since it does very high single target dps.

7

Love getting flamed in shuffle when I’m up against the third ret pall/ fury war/ survival hunter of the day and I can’t escape lmao

8

all that and you forget 1 major factor. Most people, specifically melee players wont always listen to your perfect plan and will usually do whatever they want anyways.

Been using the macro idea since solo shuffle came out. Like i said most people just dont cooperate, they just wanna zugzug