Looking for Arena Advice – Aff Lock in Solo

PVP Arenas
1

Hey all,

I’ve been grinding solo shuffle as Affliction, and yeah, I know—I’m the squishiest of the three specs, which usually makes me the designated punching bag in most lobbies.

One thing I’ve noticed—and correct me if I’m wrong—is that positioning seems like a huge part of winning games. Now before anyone jumps in with the classic “But you have port! You have gateway!”—yes, I’m fully aware. I try to use them wisely, especially when my healer gets CC’d and the enemy team is going in with offensive CDs. Since with the pvp talent making port on a short cd, I use it as soon as it’s off of cd or hold my port if I know pressure is coming so I don’t waste it before their go. I try to kite around pillars while staying in line with my healer, and I’m careful not to burn my defensives or drain my healer’s defensives if I can avoid it—especially with dampening ramping up.

That said, I’m running into some issues and I’m wondering if this is a L2P problem or something more situational.

The biggest problem is when my healer is sitting mid whole game and keeps getting cc’d. Or, I get gripped on top of my port, which is fine in theory, I didn’t soulburn port, so I don’t get the speed buff + freedom effect. I end up snared and the melee sticks to me.

Since I’m now planted right on top of my healer, they get CC’d instantly, and I’m just sitting there getting chewed up.

The most common offenders are rogues, WW monks, and warriors who tunnel like it’s their job. And, it’s super frustrating when I ask healers not to sit mid or stack directly on top of my port and they just say I’m bad or call me a noob. Like I’m not even being a D about it either.

I’m hard stuck in the 1600-1700 range, and I really want to push past it. I’d really appreciate any insight from higher-rated players—especially other locks—but welcome all advice regardless of exp on whether this is a gameplay issue or just the nature of aff in shuffle.

Appreciate anyone who took the time to read this.

2

The life of an AffLock is terribly hard in the mid brackets right now. SS, 2’s, 3’s… doesn’t matter. Melee in general are just so bursty and have so many movement CDs that they aren’t punished for just sitting on us. in SS it is especially brutal because often times when the other team decides to just dogpile the lock, their dps teammate is off trying to hero solo their healer, and then get mad when their lock teammate (who is chain CC/interrupted/chased) isn’t/can’t push with them.

Life gets slightly better as you get closer to 1800, but not by much. realistically it seems like Aff Locks need to play at 2200 lvl just to hit 1800 because of how focused we are. All you can do is keep trying juke for the Precog (and hope the procog isn’t wasted cause you were stuck in a stun already) and try to survive. Keep your dots up as much as possible, and any time there is a window where they aren’t training you… hit every big button as hard as possible.

For as much as some people meme about Aff Lock power, the reality is that the skill ceiling is incredibly high to actually push with one.

3

Positioning is probably the single most important factor for lock terms of winning a match

But the biggest way to get over the low mmr shuffle melee wall is to play long gate short port and don’t try to actively win the game just play to make the other team waste time chasing you

1 Like
4

Your goal as an aff lock in shuffle is to prolong the round as long as you can until your dots do unhealable damage. Live, cycle CDs properly. Position for your healer.

5

I’m not sure how warlock is played but going against one id say get a good use out of your port and gateway. Locks who use that to their full extent are the most annoying players to go against.

You’ll want to use it when your healer is in cc, or when the enemy team starts using offensives. After you do that you’ll want to continue to slow them down with coil and fears, so you turn their offense into a possible go for yourself.

6

Set your port and then run into mid as bait. The melee want to go you regardless so make them play in the open instead of where they can immediately line you around a pillar. If their healer doesn’t immediately push in with them, you make them range/line it when you port. After you port, you’re kiting back into mid where everything has to be in your line to kill you again.

If you’re just staying back, their whole team can push in at the same time to get to you without danger at the beginning which is just kinda giving them the momentum at their preferred placement from the get go. Your healers are probably pushing into mid to get a cc off and not get cleaved since that’s where you chose to play. If you spend more time occupying mid, you will give your healers better places to play.

7

You probably never want to run in as bait what? Careful with giving wrong advice man.

You setup gate and port in efficient spots and then walk away from your port. You don’t run into mid as “bait.”

8

Play in mid, think in your mind that you are bait. You are really just “baiting” them to play where you want them to play. Same idea.

9

That’s what your spriest is for. The lock doesn’t want to be bait. Look at the second part of my last post.