Necrolord Affliction Theory Crafting

Classes Warlock
1

Everyone seems to think Necrolord is the worst for Affliction but i noticed some potential synergies i want to discuss and see if others can verify or critique this to help.

First assumption/question: Does the Shadowbolt bonus damage from Decimating Bolt (100% bonus damage to Shadowbolt) also apply to Drain Soul when talented?

If it does and can be stacked with the Malefic Wrath (stacking up to 75% bonus damage to Shadowbolt/Drain Soul) Legendary effect there might be a strong single target drain spec with Necro that could justify this Covenent. Especially during execute phases where Drain Soul gains an inheirant 100% bonus to its damage. These stacking modifiers along with all the other stacking modifiers from Shadow Embrace etc etc etc could provide some ridiculous scaling.

In theory the practice of it appears pretty smooth as well:

Perform your normal Aff opener and throw all dots on target, pop demon soul and dark glare, spam out 4-5 Malefic Ruptures (stacking your next drain damage too +75%) then refresh dots, pop Decimating Bolt (for another +100% to your next drain) and Drain Soul as you normally would as filler during this timeframe where you’re rebuilding shards for your next Malefic dump. These should sustain your insanely high DPS coming out of the first malefic Dump because you Drain soul will be doing +175% more damage than normal. On a 45 sec CD, Decimating bolt should line up again for just after your next big Malefic dump window, and when you do this during execute phase you’d be getting +275% dmg on your Drain Soul.

A couple other thoughts:

Wrath of Consumption effects you Drain Soul but NOT Malefic Rapture so there’s more scaling and value there as well.

I suspect this will all come down to whether or not these damage bonuses that get applied to Drain Soul stack additively or multiplicatively. If any of them end up being multiplicative I could see this scaling it’s way into being dominant.

I would love to hear from anyone who managed to test any of the aspects i’ve mentioned on the beta to get some answers!

This seems like it should be very powerful and help sustain high DPS rather than seeing the spikes and valleys we normally would. Also I just really want to go Necro for the look (and the Fleshcraft shield seems strong in M+ as well and even in raid may allow you to just straight ignore some mechanics).

I’d love some feedback on this - i might even be missing other ways to build around ramping up a super powerful drain with other effects.

Cheers

2

there is not much to discuss, after blizzard nerfed necrolords they are the worse, simple! even when the theme fit warlocks well and i hate the angels theme, but they have the best numbers

3

Specifics as to why they are the worst? I mean i get the huge mastery bonus from Kyrian being a big deal but you can get a 2 min 120 mastery buff from Necro if you use fleshcraft next to a dead humanoid, depending on the content that could allow for 100% uptime. The other good option is a 3% magic damage buff for 2 min from Elementals.

otherwise you’re only losing out on the extra dot for Malefic Rapture

4

The reasons you stated were exactly the reasons it was the best for AFF for a minute. Was. It was the nerf to necro that made Kyrian the best.(I mean having Pelagos prop you up helped)
Take from that what you will

5

Just go necrolord imo…people hyping up kyrian when all it takes is one patch for it to go in the toilet

3 Likes
6

You essentially get 1 free drain soul every 45 seconds without having to cast it assuming you are using drain soul in your rotation. That isn’t exactly anything to get excited about. You really think that 1 extra channel will out dps a 100% uptime dot and the added MR dps? You’d have to be in execute phase for like 5 minutes to even catch up on the dps.

7

Drain Soul is why Decimating Bolt was nerfed so hard.