I need some help with Affliction

PVP Arenas
1

I’ve been trying to get back into pvp recently on my warlock. I started out playing Hellcaller Destro which was decently fun. However all the guides I’ve read are saying affliction and even demo are better so I’m trying affliction.

My problem is I just can’t do damage. The spec requires so much set up, and if at any time during that set up my target is dispelled, my damage goes out the window.

How do I do any threatening damage with this spec? I’m not here to complain that the spec is bad, I think my issue is I just don’t know what I’m doing.

There’s so much casting for affliction. Dots are instant sure, but then you have UA, haunt, Phantom, soul rot, dark glare, then a casted nuke. I find it really difficult to get it all set up and then be able to cast raptures so I can actually kill someone.

Please help, honestly any insight would be appreciated :pray:

Also, on a side note; is Oblivion viable at all? Having a big on demand nuke like that would be nice if it’s actually good

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Are you running jinx? Use your curses to get instant dots up, up SB when it procs, then kite all game until they get annoyed and stop or decide to go after someone else. Try to get up a UA to avoid dispels. Don’t use darkglare until you get max dots up on multiple targets. It’s not as much fun but if you’re doing damage while they’re chasing then you’ll get ahead and make it more advantageous to go after a teammate. At that point you can set up your burst.

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3

Jinx (pvp talent) is mandatory. You can’t pvp properly without it.
Casting is core in every caster spec, so if you’re running 100% of the time something is wrong.
Knowing when the enemy (mostly melee) have their kicks/stuns on cd is vital to do damage, because you have a window to stand still and cast as much stuff as you can.
Phantom singularity and dark glare are instant cast though.
UA must be applied on the kill target to protect your dots.
Keep in mind that if you get kicked while casting UA, Haunt, Fear, Shadowfury (shadow school), you can still cast Malefic Rapture (shadowflame school).
Against melee comps, consider using Impish Instincts to decrease teleport cd.
Oblivion not viable at the moment.

Hope these helps, good luck.

2 Likes
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Howdy! I’d love to help, but before I type a bunch of stuff out, what’s your preferred game mode? 2s? 3s? Shuffle? And what particular comps/mus do you struggle with?

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I’m mostly a solo player. I struggle the most against melee teams. Death Knights in particular, but if it’s something like DK + Warrior I feel like I never get a chance to cast.

Even if they both use their kicks, they have other stops and it feels like they always have something to stop my burst attempts.

Rogues are also annoying, although they don’t feel as disruptive since most of their cc comes in the opener. Plus once cloak is down they can’t dispel dots, but they’re still hard to kill, especially if we end up 1v1.

6

Play jinx, keep curse of exhaustion up on melee mainly.

Your goal is to get a haunt + ua (and phantom singularity if possible) out on a primary target with other dots on off targets.

Then press soul rot, which gives you 30s of a massive damage buff to malefic rapture (lots goes in to this, but keeping it pretty light).

Spam malefic rapture and everything will die, filter in fears + cs on healer

I’m a bad aff lock but doing the above let me own some lobbies and feel like chanimals just @ -1500 cr

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7

It sounds to me like you’re making a super common mistake that a lot of casters struggle with in that you’re trying to play the game too much.

First, as several others have stated, always play jinx and have curse of exhaustion on an easily accessible bind. This will be the vast majority of your arena presses and soul shard spendings and that’s perfectly okay.

Sure, you’ll be doing less damage without getting UA up, and they can be dispelled, but even still dispel has a CD where jinx does not and you can easily out-pace dispel cd with your shard gen.

At the end of the day, your goal and focus should be to have dots on 2+ targets and not being taking damage. Even if you’re doing 50% of your damage rotation, if they’re doing 0 damage, you’re coming out ahead.

The main steps to accomplish this are min/maxing your mobility, and recognizing when you can’t kite. Vs melee I’d take Jinx, Impish instincts, and gateway mastery every game. Start by putting your port down out of los behind a pillar, and soulburn gateway. Immediately apply curse jinx (almost always exhaustion) on both dps. If you still have space, UA, then haunt, then PS + soulrot + darkglare. If you don’t have space, just walk away and make them chase you.

If they connect, port. If they reconnect, gateway. The two should give you enough space to get your first ua/soulrot/glare off. From there, kite if you can (almost always with soulburn port for the freedom). IF THEY CONNECT, DO NOT WASTE TIME KITING. If you Cannot get away, do not try to. Use that time to plant and cast. Ideally start with shadowfury/fear to bait kicks, and if you’re kicked you can MR. Port has like a 15s CD with melee hitting you with impish, and that should help.

Also, save coil for dps connecting and usaully on their CDs if possible.

1 Like
8

Thanks for the advice everyone, much appreciated :pray:

One more question: Why does no one use Shadowflame?

It seems like it could help a lot with kiting

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Curse of exhaustion is more than sufficient and it ends up being a wasted talent point more often than not! :slight_smile:

Realistically curse of exhaustion handles all your kiting needs, AND is a curse which means it’s not magic dispelable