1. Spec and Glyphs
2. Rotation
2.1 Decimation and Soul-weaving
3. Gear / stats
4. Q&A
1 Spec and glyphs
Spec: Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Glyphs: Felguard, Incinerate, Life tap.
Stone: Use Spell Stone.
2 Rotation
A lot of you may think Curse of Elements may be the bigged raid dps buff. But there are a couple of rules that need to be passed in order for you to be applying it.
1. 25 Man raid without a boomkin or and unholy dk.
2. No destro or affliction locks in thee raid.
Curse of agony is a huge damage increase for you because it has great DPCT and it procs molten core! So unless those 2 rules are satisfied use CoA.
LT: Life Tap
Immo: Immolate
CoA: Curse of Agony
Corr: Corruption
Inc: Incinerate
SF: Soul Fire.
Initial cast order: Life tap, Immolate, CoA, Corr, Incinerate.
Prioritization: LT > Immo > CoA > Corr. When and only when there's nothing else to cast, cast Incinerate.
Once you have Glyph of Life Tap, Life tapping every 20 seconds increases DPS. I use Elkanos Buff Bars to keep track of this, power auras is also reccomended.
When Immo, CoA, or Corr fall off the target, It's time to cast them again. WARNING: If you cast them before they fall off the target you will lower your DPS. Just cast another incinerate, It's ok if there's one second down time on that DoT.
2.1 Decimation -or- Rotation < 35% HP.
The spells you cast change once you have the decimation buff which you get from successfully hitting a target with < 35% HP with Incinerate. Your rotation or priorities will change as well. This rotation may not always be possible, as you will see, but when it is it is a very large DPS increase. First I think It would be useful for you to understand how soul-weaving (Inc --> SF) works.
1. You have the decimation buff.
2. You cast Incinerate1 which travels towards the target.
3. You cast Soul fire, you lose decimation.
4. Incinerate1 hits the target, You gain decimation.
^ To summarize: You have decimation, you cast incinerate and soul fire, you lose decimation, and then after all of this, that incinerate you cast finally hits the target and gives you decimation again. That is,
Travel Time of Incinerate > Cast time of Incinerate + Cast time of Soul Fire.
Naturally the factors are 'distance to the boss' and 'spell haste'. Here is a poor illustration where you Start with the decimation buff.
(You)--------------------------------------------------------(Boss) _(Have Decimation)
(You)--(Incinerate1)-----------------------------------(Boss) _(Have Decimation)
(You)--(Soul Fire)-------------(Incinerate1)-----(Boss) _(Do not have Decimation)
(You)----------------(Soul Fire)------------------------(Boss) _(Have Decimation)
(You)--(Incinerate2)-----------------------------------(Boss) _(Have Decimation)
(You)--(Soul Fire)--------------(Incinerate2)-----(Boss) _(Do not Have Decimation)
(You)-----------------------(Soul Fire)-----------------(Boss) _(Have Decimation)
Prioritization: LT > Immo > CoA. Notice that Corruption is no longer a part of your rotation. Again, Life Tap is only if you have the glyph and only every 20 seconds. If and only if there's nothing else to do, cast Incinerate+Soul Fire. Try to think of Incinerate+Soul Fire as a single cast (assuming you are far enough away from the boss). If you are unable to get far enough away from the boss, such as when fighting Thaddius, you can either cast Soul Fire whenever possible (look at your buffs) or do the sequence Inc --> Inc --> SF. Important, So long as you have decimate and you only ever cast soul fire immediately after an incinerate from a good distance, you will never have to think about it again, and in between you can refresh all the dots and life tap if u need to.
3. Gear and stats
Hit > Spell Power = Haste > Spirit > Crit
Your hit cap is 17% (as always) except you now get none from talents. Shadow Priests and Boomkins with Improved Faerie Fire provide you with 3% hit (does not stack). If you always have one or more of these in your group, your cap from gear is 14% hit, or 368 hit rating (13% for alliance). If not, then your hit cap from gear is 17% (16% for alliance).
After you get hit capped, you'll want to be selective with your gear. Crit and spirit were roughly tied for 0/41/30 before the life tap glyph. Now Spirit is a clear choice over crit. You'll notice that just about every piece of gear generally has 3 of the 5 stats on it. Until you are hit capped, the ones with Spell power, Haste, and Hit are the best for you. After that the ones with Spell power, Haste, and Spirit are the best for you. You do want some crit (because it scales better the less you have) so a few pieces with Spell power, Haste, and Cirt are good also. A shorter way to say this is: avoid pieces of gear with SP and Spirit and Crit.
These are simcrafts scaling factors with best-in-slot-known-ulduar-gear:
intellect=0.28
spirit=0.78
spell_power=1.22
crit_rating=0.67
haste_rating=1.27
4. Question & Answers
I will put any questions that are asked here to make the reference much easier.
I will answer any questions in this thread. I may add an addon section later on.
![Warlock Warlock](/uploads/1/2/6/3/126348092/572762113.jpg)
Class changes are coming for Affliction Warlocks in Patch 7.2.5 and Blizzard started a discussion about their balance aims for the specialization. Patch 7.2.5 Affliction Warlock Changes from the Patch Notes Blizzard (Source) Affliction Malefic Grasp damage bonus reduced to 40% (was 70%).