Greetings, just wanted to send some of my thoughts out there.
First of all, I really enjoy Shadowlands so far and I sometimes need to pinch myself in the arm to really know if its WoW I am playing (after the nightmare called BFA).
As far as warlock goes… I was not impressed with the SPriest remake which I felt warlocks really needed. And I was not impressed with Affli warlock going up from 50 to 60.
But then something happened, I tried out a few different specs as affli, ran pvp and pve (and thorgast). And I just gotta say… with not even good gear (not near the haste or mastery I need) I can put out massive aoe dmg and also impressive single-target dmg.
The warlock class is kinda hard to master and can be really frustrating at times, but right now (before we get more choices of soulbinds and legys) I feel warlock is really fun and exciting.
The reason of this post is not to crap on people who have a rough time with their lock or spec, but to raise some hope in this exp as warlocks.
I am not done with the crafting of my lock but I am pretty happy so far with my pve and pvp situation.
For those who want to know my spec I blast thru pve with (changing talents depending on pvp or pve)
15 [Drain Soul]
25 [Write in Agony]
30 [Demon Skin]*
35 [Phantom Singularity]
40 [Mortal Coil]*
45 [Grimoire of Sacrifice]
50 [Dark Soul: Misery]
So basically I engage my target(s) with spreading Agony as much as I can (on atleast 3 mobs) then I put Seed of Corruption. I then pick the target I want to kill first and place Unstable Affliction and Drain Soul for the 3x Shadow Embrace.
Then I try to time my Summon Darkglare asap to refresh ALL spreaded dots (Corruptions now always popped ofc). Then just spam out those Malific Raptures.
You will need to use Dark Soul: Misery on harder packs, bossfight or just when it is a good situation to use it.
Rotations will take some time to get used to, but this way (there’s plenty other rotations) is an easy way to top dps in an exciting tempo with lots of multitasks.
Now you will also be useful with the new debuff curses (can’t wait for raids and future content)
Please share your ideas and rotations (even different specs) as we can all try to improve our ways of playing
I can see that point of view, but still affliction is lacking the sustainable bursting which Malific Rapture adds, also you could do other specs without the MR if you want to go insane singletarget and suchs, depending on covenant.
So far there’s so much to play around with (I made a warlock for each covenant just to try). Currently you wont fall behind that much if you have a “new” char and I like spending my time just trying out different ways and covenants to play in various settings.
At times ofc, I hate being “stuck” (emotionally invested) in playing Warlock, but when I see a glimmer of light I try to catch it.
Right now I can’t say that my warlock suck (as affli), maybe when the legendaries become standard I might’ve changed my mind… time will tell I guess
Problem with affliction warlocks are that they’re too slow.
I play really high mythic + keys (legendary rank in legion), mythic raiding and gladiator in PvP so I got alot of experience playing warlock.
Anytime you get into a half decent group you will struggle with dishing out your damage because the rotation is far too slow. You have to prepull the mobs for the tanks with seed -> Dark Soul: Misery
Then you need to cast UA on the seed target followed by 4-7 agonies on all targets. Then cast Vile Taint/Phantom Singularity followed by your Soul Rot into Summon Dark Glare.
After that you’re ready to Spam your Malefic Rupture to do some damage.
This setup takes ~10-15 sec before you even start doing your damage, and this is assuming you get a prepull with seed of corruption.
Most other classes start dishing out their damage in 3-4 globals and good classes will annihilate after you’ve cast your first rapture.
The problem with affliction raiding is that the rotation actually is pretty hard compared to other speccs. It’s easily the most complex dps specc right now since you’re forced to maintain 4-6 on the target aswell as Haunt + Shadow Embrace. You also need to understand how to manage your soul shards to keep up the Malefic Grasp - Drain Soul legendary buff during Phantom singularity dump windows.
The specc is slow, slightly undertuned and overly complex right now.
I think it’ll get better once we get more haste.
Ever since we got Dark Glare affliction design has been hurt badly. Affliction shouldn’t be a cooldown reliant specc.
Not counting the horrifically boring and tedious rotation i agree that aff lock can work in PVE. But in PVP? Maybe in an ideal setup where you have Demonic Gateway and Demonic Circle setup in an ideal way and you have all your CDs and maybe outgear your melee opponent. But in real life random battlegrounds i do crap dps and die quickly. I have been an avid warlock player since 2007 but it has never been this bad.
Exactly! Aff should be about rotting the opponent and then fear him and finish him off. Like in the olden days. There is nothing left of this glorious time now.
I agree but want to clarify that there is a valid middle ground between having no cooldowns and being cooldown reliant. Soul Harvest in Legion provided aff with a great tool to do more burst damage when needed without making aff fully depend on that CD.
Did you try this with the new soulbind conduit that increase the dmg that can be done without breaking fear?
Also, it would be too OP like in classic when you can keep people chain-ccd and just dotting and drain life. It is a comfy style to play, but maybe not that realistic. I do enjoy classic locks with sacri and life drain too ^^ but that is for classic I guess.
Affliction is an absolute abomination in PvP right now. You will fall over to anything.
Our damage and pressure is really good right now if we’re allowed to maintain UA up on several targets.
The problem is that we get deleted by 80% of the classes in the game right now.
Our mobility is actually ridiculous when we’re playing Night Fae. Problem is most competent teams will force trinket port (maybe even Unending Resolve) in the opener on you. Next go your healer will have to do stuff to keep you alive. After that you’re dead if you haven’t won by then. Warlocks get slaughtered in PvP because they can’t survive the insane burst melee classes bring currently.
I agree with you on several points, but for the pvp situation affli are gods if left to spread rot and malific on several targets… (you dont need all dots on targets for malific to still hit, I try to look for trinket procs, communicate with premade to try to sync something deadly, this ofc if you play with premades).
For a “duel” situation I love to try and force trinket or maintain the enemy before I mortalcoil -> demonic gateway up, then pop rapid contagion (by now the enemy is close to me) into summon darkglare and getting the f*** out of there. Usually they chase but forget the immense pressure. There’s ways to play around with this (could do gateway + demo-circle for more juke).
The main problem I have right now for pvp is that its too easy to remove dots, it costs too much to get swept away without punishment. The UA punish is too weak (will ofc be stronger for arena situations).
I think there’s alot of ways to play around like I said, we just have to find out how.
I am not disregarding the punching-bag aspect of things, as I drop in hp fast even with fleshcraft, demon armor + dark pact (I have my hopes up that I will be able to tank players more later into the expansion).
I have that conduit, yes. But frankly i never got nowhere near to even fear someone properly. I get shadow-locked then. You know how quick and messy battlegrounds are nowadays.
Playing Shadow Priest now (lvl 53) and while it is a much better pvp experience, rogues are still a pest. But at least i feel like i am able to do something, you know.
I agree with you OP and I use the same talents as you do. I mostly play pvp and now that I have some gear (171) it’s quite fun to play. I went Maldraxxus for the fleshcraft and omg that thing is so OP, you can feel the good old tanky vibe.
I noticed that sometimes when I’m lost on my rotation I do literally almost zero dmg but when focus and play smart you top dmg, not as much as hunters but top chart easily. Also, everytime during fights before applying dots, make sure to place your tp and gates, that saved my life many times. And the cds are short (except for the gates) but still, life saving abilities. I can’t wait for the legendary.
I try to keep Mortal Coil for mid and late fight, the heal coupled with healthstone is godly.
I am very happy with the fear conduit, Mortal Coil + Fear + UA and dots works, it feels like playing a Warlock again.
Against rogues, I prefer to use Howl of Terror, you can spam it between Cheap shot and Kidney, not sure why maybe because I lag but Mortal Coil doesn’t seem to work as fast as Howl even though I faced my target.
Yeah, I can relate to the getting lost on the rotation, it feels like its about timing and skill ofc. Warlock seems to have a high skillcap and all the micro-managing could get messy… but I feel like in Shadowlands atleast its a bit more forgiving (so far, will be interesting in raids). I mean I am not saying affli-warlocks are easy, smooth and overpowered. I am saying that there’s more to the eye than it seems, right now there’s alot of different choices and we just gotta try to see if they work.
I still think of giving credit where credit is due.
For the rogue situation we are ham, but the Howl of terror into imp CoE can help you out… problem here is the removing of dots which (tbh, just a quick fantasy about the single-target UA is that it could punish melee classes for removal, oh and that the removal would apply to “all” sorts of removal like cloak of shadows or anti magic~ but maybe that would be too OP).
For my playstyle I try to force the magic immunity and after that improved Curse of Weakness, combined with some surivability I feel I can make it work (at times), adapting to the target is something I try to work on all the time and you really need an understanding of what makes the enemy players class and spec strong and trying to apply the right curses and suchs. It’s not perfect in game, but atleast in SL there’s ways to make it work imo.