January 29, 2009, 03:24 PM
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#70 (permalink)
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Re: WOTLK affliction raiding, how-to guide
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Originally Posted by RelaxMan
here's a few comments i have after reading several of the posts (i'm no expert, just things i believe should be considered)
1 - in almost no fight have i had time to just stand and start casting a shadow bolt to begin the rotation. there is almost always something going on at the beginning of a fight in terms of "positioning" in my experience - as a result, i just don't start with it. secondly i'm almost always on CoE duty and because it provides a pretty significant raid benefit, it's my opinion that it should take priority and be cast first.
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First, yes this was covered in the guide. On a fight where you cannot "pre-cast" you should start with instant dots.
As for CoE, most locks these days don't have to use it due to the fact that a boomkin or unholy DK provide the same debuff. That said, if your raid doesn't have a boomkin or unholy DK then yes you'll want to be casting CoE. That goes without saying. 
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2 - casting UA & Immolate at the same time is a good idea, but you have to watch out for haste-increasing buffs (i.e. bloodlust, eradication, or trinkets). i'm pretty sure i'm not the only one noticing that re-casting Immolate too early will sometimes NOT reset the DoT effect, and only apply the initial burst. this will cause a big problem in overall damage. as a result... i often break my normal rotation when receiving a haste benefit and will either: cast a shadowbolt after UA, or refresh siphon life after UA (if needed)
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Casting UA and Immolate together isn't a requirement by any means. But it helps for those who are just learning rotations. And, don't clip your immolate, and you won't have the problem of it not going back up on the boss.
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3 - every lock should know you use DS when the boss is below 25% health, however in my opinion DS should only be applied after all DoT's have been refreshed
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This is very true.
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and no DoT's should be refreshed until the DS has channeled it's entire duration (causing some of your DoT's to expire before you refresh them).
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This is definitely not the way to do it. Just like shadowbolt, DS has a lower DPCT than your dots, so you absolutely must refresh your dots. At best, you'll have about 9 seconds of DS channel time before you have to recast haunt anyways. What you want to do is stop casting DS right after a tick, so if a dot has to be refreshed, wait for the next tick and then refresh it.
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i have no numbers for evidence but it seems to me this maximizes my damage the most. i do not recommend using DS on trash as, in my experience, the mob loses his last 25% life way faster than the DS has time to tick once or twice... might as well life tap or something.
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Well trash is trash. Just SB spam or AoE the trash. You don't need to maximize your dps on trash.
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4 - speaking of life tap... be sure you cast this before your Haunt expires. there's no sense wasting the health return you're going to receive
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This is definitely a HUGE no no. Do not lifetap just to "not waste the haunt heal". Haunt healing you is not increasing your DPS. Do not cast lifetap until you are just about OOM. And then you cast lifetap once. Then cast til OOM. Then lifetap once. Wash, rinse, and repeat. The more lifetaps you cast (especially unecessary ones just to "use the heal from haunt") the lower your dps will be.
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6 - regarding drain life, this should only be used to help out your heals. i use it a lot on the sapphiron fight because of the constant damage everyone takes... this helps heals pretty significantly since we STILL have to life tap (sapph does normally stay in range when he raises up to drop the ice bomb, but you will generate some threat if you continue to refresh dot's/drain life etc)
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Generally a warlock should never have to heal themselves in a raid. However, yes if you absolutely have to, or if your healers are "meh" then you can use DL. But you don't want to have to use it unless you absolutely MUST to save yourself from imminent death. It's pretty bad DPS to have to use DL.
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