For several expansions now I keep hearing how affliction is top or usually top DPS. Mine always falls far behind and I think its partially that I dont understand how to AoE the best way as affliction but mainly in that Im pretty sure no matter how I do unstable affliction, I always do it wrong.
I have tried just spamming it on a target anytime there is a soul shard available, this doesn’t seem to work well. I’ve tried just keeping one cast of UA on a target at a time, but that doesn’t work either, I just end up capped on soul shards.
What am I doing wrong? What is the best way to impliment UA? And if you are feeling really kind and helpful, explain me how to affliction AOE? I’ve ready icey veins easy mode and some other sites but I just don’t seem to do well. My warlock is just an LFR hero alt that Id like to play more seriously.
Thanks in advance.
Play destruction or spriest. Affliction is a shell of its former iterations.
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uh okay. Sorry to hear that. I still like demonology quite a bit, so maybe I will go that route if affliction is just unplayable. Maybe its not just me then Lol.
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Its not you, its blizzard that decide to make affliction the worse spec in the game.
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There really isn’t much to say.
You can use affliction in raids, and in mythic+ starting around 8ish, anything lower and demo really does better. Be sure to stack lots of explosive potential azerite gear when you use demo in mythic+.
Anyways, back to UA.
- Keep at least 1 unstable affliction on the target to get the 10% damage buff.
- Dump shards just before you summon darkglare
- If you have 2 azerite items with cascading calamity, keep UA up to maintain the huge haste buff.
Other than keep your dots up, use filler spells, and click your essence, there really isn’t much else to do.
If your doing mythics, be sure you have Absolute Corruption and phantom singularity.
Start casting seed as the enemy pack is pulled, then click phantom singularity.
Once the seed pops, everything in the pack will have permanent corruption. Then tab target through the pack and put agony and unstable affliction on everything. After that, just keep refreshing dots and using filler spells.
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if you’re talking specifically M+ then the other comments are correct, affliction has serious shortcomings in the aoe department outside of cooldowns and its just not pleasant to properly try and AOE. UA in general as mentioned (in a raid environment), should always be present on your priority target, i like to keep 1 on and have at least 1 shard to re-apply to keep the 10% damage buff.
Affliction is useless in M+, literally bottom of the pack. That being said, they are a single target monster and do well with light cleave.
Right now we work around a burst window with our DS and Deathglare. You can do insane damage single target or light cleave in that window, then you kinda just hover for 3 mins. Make sure you are keeping your dots up and renewing in your pandemic window and don’t forget your haunt.
Your bust window should look like this. Haunt, Agony, Corruption, Siphon life, Phantom Singularity, Darksoul, put up as many UA as you can, Deathglare, deathbolt. Then keep up your dots/haunt, and fill with SB, make sure you use DB right
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Do things like to be getting any better in 8.3?
Not really. There are some neffs and buffs on board for a few talents, but on the balance, no real changes. I’m strictly casual, so I guess theory crafters will have to weigh in with actual data.
No, the changes dont do much for m+, it just change a bit the style of playing switching DB and SB for DS.
Understanding UA:
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UA management is about two maintenance buffs.
a) UA is 10% dot damage. Don’t worry about this much.
b) The Cascading Calamity azerite trait gives haste when you recast UA on a target with UA already on it. It’s up to 2200 haste on 3x450 gear. You want 2-3 instances of this trait.
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Playstyle:
a) Affliction’s playstyle is damage in burst windows every 3 minutes in 8.2.5 and possibly in 2.2 minute windows in 8.3 after essence changes. You need 4 shards when starting your burst rotation in order to assure that you have 5x UA when you Darkglare - this is the only normal time when you should dump 5 UAs on a target The burst rotation is basically making sure that you have Agony, Corruption, Siphon Life, Haunt, 5x UA, and Phantom Singularity on the target when you cast Summon Darkglare and then cast Deathbolt. The spec’s damage depends upon using trinkets and essences to maximize the damage in this 20 second window.
b) Damage Maintenance outside of burst windows is about maintaining the Cascading Calamity buff, not about maintaining the 10% dot damage buff. You want to stagger your UA casts so it looks like:
[Cast UA] [Do stuff for 5-6 seconds] [Cast UA before the first one expires (gets haste buff)][Do stuff until haste buff expires] [repeat]
When using Phantom Singularity outside of burst you can justify reapplying UA even if doing so would reset the haste buff early because the extra 10% damage to PS is significant. You want both the haste and 10% buffs up when PS is on the target. If you do this, then it’s best to go ahead and reset the haste buff anyway.
Affliction AOE:
Short Answer, there is none.
Long Answer, outside of Phanstom Singularity and Seed of Corrutpion, there is none. You’re better off doing a single target rotation and hoping the target doesn’t die before your dots do their damage. Seed’s damage is trash, sow the seeds talent just gives you 2x trash and almost 0 added benefit in spreading corruption. Unbuffed Corruption’s damage is trash. Phantom Singularity is good but its short duration and mid-range cooldown do not make up for the lack of other AoE damage tools.
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are you actually saying to ignore contagion and the damage modifier it provides in exchange for haste from CC??