The Warlocks Den - WoW Warlock Discussions

Abstract:

This thread will be dedicated to affliction warlock theory. This post which I will update frequently should contain

- general information
- raid talent specs
- gear/gem/enchant choices
- playing style tips

for a level 80 raiding (25-man, mainly) affliction warlock.

There is still a lot of work to do here. If you want to contribute parts, just do so!



General information:

An affliction warlock's damage is based on spells with very high damage per cast time which can't be "spammed".

All of these spells have in common that they are dots or at least apply a dot.

He will use the formerly "normal" warlock damage spell shadow bolt only as a so-called "filler" in between those spells.

The affliction warlock is the most mana efficient spec of a very mana inefficient class.

An affliction warlock has a very high amount of self-healing as part of his normal spell repertoire and thus needs less heal than other warlock specs. He also uses life tap less often than other specs as he is more mana efficient and has another spell to gain mana, namely "dark pact".

An affliction warlock will take up to 6 debuff slots in a fight. As the debuff mechanics have been changed, that does no longer pose a problem. Debuffs are not "pushed off" anymore by other debuffs. Nevertheless, the Blizzard UI is unable to show all of the debuffs, so yours might become invisible. But they are still there, just trust your timers.


Key Stats:

Your interest is damage, and lots of it. While surviving is important in raids, it is usually based on what you do rather than what your equip is like. The stats that influence your damage output are:

Hit Rating
Spell Power
Haste Rating
Crit Rating
Spirit (via fel armor)
Intellect

For a naxxramas starter gear, the stat-to-dps ratios of these are:

10 hit rating = 12.71 dps
10 spell power = 11.48 dps
10 haste rating = 4.26 dps
10 crit rating = 4.09 dps
10 spirit = 3.79 dps
10 int = 1.24 dps

(see math part).

Note that these will change significantly for full Tier7.25-Gear. I will add those ratios later on (hopefully in time for Ulduar :-) )

The exact numbers are not interesting here, just the tendency. Spell power is a very valuable stat and nearly reaches the importance of hit rating. haste and crit rating have less than half the effect of spell power. Spirit, however, is a surprisingly good stat. Intellect is, as usual, inferior to all other stats. It doesn't hurt, but it doesn't really help, either.

A short note on hit rating: A miss will not only cost you considerable damage, it will also screw up your "rotation". Reaching the hit cap is highly recommended (as it has been recommended at level 60 and 70 as well).


Common specs:

The PvE Spec discussion is the source of these talent specs.

Haunt/Ruin: 51/0/15 +5:
with both hit Talents and DP a flexible starting spec
only 1% hit, no DP, using MC high dps spec, requiring decent gear
no destruction hit a slight variation for hit capped warlocks.


Haunt/Demonic Aegis ... 51/13/5 +2



Key talents:

Whatever you do, don't miss these:


Affliction:

Improved Curse of Agony:
As long as you don't want to or have to place another Curse, this one is a good one.

Improved Life Tap:
Currently, Life Tap is by far superior to Dark Pact, so you will use it anyway, so why not improve it?

Improved Corruption 5/5 / Empowered Corruption 3/3:
Both give a huge boost to your 100%-Uptime-Dot.

Siphon Life:
Another dot

Shadow Embrace 5/5:
As about 60% of your damage come from dots, this one is worth it

Contagion 5/5:
Increases Damage from Corruption and Curse of Agony and is needed for UA

Unstable Affliction:
Yet another Dot

Pandemic 3/3:
Makes Corr/UA scale with crit.

Everlasting Affliction 5/5:
Full points -> never cast Corruption again as long as you cast haunt again and again.
The Spell damage coefficient part is misleading. As it seems, this spell adds a total 25% spelldamage coefficient to UA,
30% to Corruption and 50% to Siphon Life (5% per tick). This is a very huge amount and makes this talent a sure take.

Malediction 3/3:
If you have to use CoE because your raid is lacking a moonkin or something, this helps all casters.
If you don't have to use CoE, you still get +3% damage, which is not exceptionally much for 3 talent points, but still okay.

Shadow Mastery:
As almost all (>90%) your damage is shadow damage, this is nearly a 15% damage boost. Note that CoD does not profit from SM although it is shadow damage.


Destruction:

Bane 5/5:
Makes your filler spell and Immolate significantly faster.

Molten Core:
Although this only buffs Immolate, the buff is significant extra damage. One or two points are recommended.

Ruin 5/5:
Makes your filler spell and Immolate scale better with crit rating.
And makes you see higher numbers, which is of course not important at all.


Nice to have:

Soul Siphon:
If you use Drain Soul as a finisher (and you probably should do so), this is the only talent directly improving it.

Grim Reach:
Doesn't really pay off as destruction spells are part of your rotation.

Suppression / Cataclysm:
These are most probably very good as long as you still need the hit part. After reaching it on your own via equipment, both become almost obsolete.

Nightfall:
I personally like it and it does surely improve your DPS, but not as much as you would think (see math part).

Death's Embrace:
+12% damage for roughly one third of the fight, so about 4% overall damage for three talent points. Not a sure take, but still okay.

Dark Pact / Improved Life tap:

At current state, Life Tap, even without the talent above, will give more mana per use and is therefore preferable
as long as your health is not critical. Nevertheless, many people like the option of dark pact in critical situations.

Eradication:
The main problem about this talent is the diminishing return. The first talent point gives more than 3% effective haste, the second one gives 1% haste while the last one gives only 0.5%. So 1 point is highly recommendable, 2 are still good, 3 might be a waste if there is a more promising talent left.

Amplify Curse:
If you use Curse of Elements, for example, this one's not that good. Using Curse of Agony, however, it's probably worth it.
It changes the GCD of the Curse to 1.0s. Since this is the hard cap, your curses will no longer benefit from haste, but
are, of course, quite fast.

Improved Drain Soul:
As aggro is nearly a non-issue at the moment, this talent is no longer a must-have.

Improved Fel hunter:
More Spirit doesn't hurt the raid. More pet mana neither. Still, your raid and pet are fine without this.

Frailty:
Makes your CoW the best Minus-AP-Debuff in the game, but you want to use Curse of Agony or CoD, don't you?

Improved Shadow Bolt:
This has been nerfed a lot, it is no longer a raid-wide debuff but a personal buff. And you are not even
sb-spamming anymore. Is it still worth it?


Pets:

The usual choice of an affliction warlock is the fel hunter. It deals considerable damage itself and serves as a "mana battery"
for "dark pact". Furthermore it adds a spirit and intellect buff to the raid group. It has very high magic resistances supporting
its survivability. In some special encounters where it still tends to die, a phase shifted (buffed!) imp is a reasonable alternative.



Spells:

In a normal tank and spank scenario, these spells will be used:

• haunt (actually bad DPS but a very important debuff)
• shadow bolt (filling the gaps when everything else is applied)
• Drain Soul (same as shadow bolt when the target is below 25 percent hp)
• Corruption (bread and butter dot)
• Unstable affliction (dot)
• Immolate (although its not shadow damage, the dpct is still a lot higher than shadow bolt's dpct)
• Siphon Life (weakest dot, but still higher dpct than the filler spells. The healing is also not a disadvantage)
• Life tap/Dark pact (LT gives more mana, DP doesn't loose hp)
• Curse of Doom (highest dpct in game) OR
• Curse of Agony (strongest dot in game) OR
• Curse of Weakness, Elements, Tongues (depending on the raid situation)

Gems/Gear/Enchants:

This is just a rough guideline, nothing more. It is based on the stats and the model derived in the next post. It will almost certainly NOT match your stats, your talents and your raid situation. It contains many wrong assumptions making the computation easier. If you want exact data, fill out a spreadsheet. This thread does not nearly match the accuracy of a good spreadsheet, and never will. It is static, it just can't compete. The idea here is to understand why some stats are better than others, why some talents are better than others, why some spells and spell rotations are better than others, and give an idea of which items are good and which ones are not. The idea is NOT to give a perfect dps predection or an itemlist you can use without thinking yourself. So use it as a guideline if you want to, but if you want to know the exact values for your character, use a spreadsheet. Leuliers is most probably the best one around no matter at what time you read this.

The dps values mean: If the slot was empty before and you are fully raidbuffed, if your initial stats were comparable to those used in the simulation (naxx-starter gear, stats you would have when coming directly from heroics or Sunwell on your first visit to Naxxramas), fighting patchwork or the like, this should be your dps increase if you wear it. Pieces are sorted by rating. I will normally only include pieces of iLvL >= 200.
I will add the values for "High-End"-Gear later on, then you can easily see what changes if you have doubled stats.



Gems:

I did only include rare quality gems. First of all, if you low quality gems into epic gear, you should die in fire. Second, if the rare hit gem is better than the rare spelldamage gem, the same is true for the lower quality ones.

Meta:
Bracing Earthsiege Diamond 25.90 dps + less threat
Ember Skyflare Diamond 25.90 dps +2% Intellect
Tireless Skyflare Diamond 25.90 dps + Run Speed
Trenchant Earthsiege Diamond 25.90 dps + Stun Resist
Chaotic Skyflare Diamond 7.96 dps + 3% higher crits
Beaming Earthsiege Diamond 7.96 dps + 2% mana
Destructive Skyflare Diamond 7.96 dps + 1% spell reflect
Enigmatic Skyflare Diamond 7.96 dps + Snare/Root reduce

Note: DPS-wise, the Ember Skyflare Diamond is best as the +2% intellect slightly increase your crit chance. But it's just personal preference. My recommendation is Bracing Earthsiege Diamond. Threat is still not a good thing at all. If you choose Tireless Skyflare Diamond remember that run speed does NOT stack, so don't enchant boar's speed or something. The Chaotic Skyflare Diamond's critical damage increase is still interesting, although you don't shadow bolt spam anymore.
According to my calculation it is only an increase of about 10 dps, and you will lose even more of the benefit if you substitute shadow bolt with drain soul for the last quarter of the fight.

Red:
Runed Scarlet Ruby 19.684 dps

Blue:
Sparkling Sky Sapphire 4.97 dps

Yellow:
Rigid Autumn's Glow 18.06 dps
Quick Autumn's Glow 6.27 dps
Smooth Autumn's Glow 6.06 dps
Brilliant Autumn's Glow 1.66 dps

Purple:
Purified Twilight Opal 11.81 dps
Glowing Twilight Opal = Mysterious Twilight Opal = Royal Twilight Opal 9.32 dps

Green:
Shining Forest Emerald 11.52 dps
Lambent Forest Emerald = Tense Forest Emerald = Vivid Forest Emerald 9.03 dps
Intricate Forest Emerald 5.62 dps
Misty Forest Emerald 5.52 dps
Seer's Forest Emerald 3.32 dps
Energized Forest Emerald = Forceful Forest Emerald = Shattered Forest Emerald 3.13 dps
Jagged Forest Emerald = Radiant Forest Emerald = Sundered Forest Emerald 3.03 dps
Turbid Forest Emerald 2.48 dps
Timeless Forest Emerald = Dazzling Forest Emerald 0.83 dps

Orange:
Veiled Monarch Topaz 18.35 dps
Reckless Monarch Topaz 12.46 dps
Potent Monarch Topaz 12.35 dps
Luminous Monarch Topaz = Durable Monarch Topaz 9.32 dps
Accurate Monarch Topaz = Etched Monarch Topaz = Glinting Monarch Topaz = Pristine Monarch Topaz 9.03 dps
Deft Monarch Topaz = Fierce Monarch Topaz = Wicked Monarch Topaz 3.13 dps
Inscribed Monarch Topaz = Deadly Monarch Topaz 3.03 dps

Gems summary:

As a metagem, use a +25 spell power gem with any additional effect (your choice).

If you are not hitcapped:
For a red slot, use Runed Scarlet Ruby.
For a blue slot, use a Purified Twilight Opal.
For a yellow slot, use Veiled Monarch Topaz.

If you are hitcapped:
For a red slot, use a Runed Scarlet Ruby.
For a blue slot, use a Purified Twilight Opal.
For a yellow slot, use a Reckless Monarch Topaz

If you do not care about socket boni, always use Runed Scarlet Ruby.



Equipment:

Head:

1. Faerlina's Madness (Naxx25, Faerlina) 218 dps
2. Enamored Cowl (?) 193 dps
3. Cowl of Vanity (Naxx25, Grobbulus) 191.0 dps
4. Valourous Plagueheart Circlet (Naxx25, Kel'Thuzad) 190 dps
5. Gothik's Cowl (Naxx25, Gothik) 183 dps
6. Heroes' Plagueheart Circlet (Naxx10, Kel'Thuzad) 172 dps
7. Cowl of Winged Fear (Naxx10, Sapphiron) 168 dps
8. Cowl of Sheet Lightning (Naxx10, Thaddius) 168 dps
9. Crown of Unbridled Magic (The Oculus Heroic) 150 dps
10. Cowl of Innocent Delight (Naxx25, Loatheb) 148 dps

to be continued...


Glyph Selection:

the computation is based on the model used in the second post. More on the individual glyph is found there or in the
Glyph Discussion Thread

Glyph of Immolate 46.67 dps
Glyph of Siphon Life 46.22 dps
Glyph of Curse of Agony 41.27 dps
Glyph of Unstable Affliction 19.41 dps
Glyph of Shadow Bolt 11.92 dps

Still missing: Felhunter & Corruption. Both should be worse than the leading three here.
Other glyphs are not interesting for affliction builds.


General playing tips:


How much hit rating is best?

See here for the official discussion. The short version is: Basically, you need +17% hit. As 26 points of hit rating give 1% at level 80, that is 442 Hit Rating. You can use talents to get 3% hit rating for your affliction and/or destruction spells via Suppression / Cataclysm. The only important spell that is neither affliction nor destruction school is Soul Shatter.
In a 25-man raid, there is most likely a debuff placed upon the boss that gives another 3% hit rate. That leaves 11% (289 rating) up to you. If you happen to be an alliance player and a draenei is in your group, you also get their racial, leaving you with 10% (263 rating).

You can improve your hit rating by food.

You don't want to miss a boss. That could have been a 10k Shadow Bolt! So reach the 10%/11% (263/289 rating) mark as fast as possible.
In a raid situation, things can become hectic. People die, even Draenei. People forget refreshing their Faerie Fire while moving out of something painfully burning. Raid groups become separated.
You still want to hit that boss, no matter what happens around you. So every point up to 14% (368 rating) is an improvement.
After reaching 14%, it is up to you. If you happen to get more hit gear, you could save 3-6 talent points and take other talents which improve your damage, or you could just stack spell damage. I guess the best choice is to see what gear upgrades are possible in the near future and decide it based on that, and smooth it with some appropriate gems.

How do I beat the meters at trash?

Under normal circumstances, you won't. However...

• You still got SoC, and it it still has incredible dps in a multi-target situation (6 or more)
• You could even use Rain of Fire, it's no fun at all, but it's still decent damage (considering 3-5 targets in range)
• If it's even less targets, just dot one up and switch to the next one. If your group is too fast for this, start with the second one
• And last: Relax. It's just trash. Noone cares as long as you deliver on the boss. And you will.

Rotations by Fallenmen

Up next, it's time to talk about rotations, and how to raid with affliction. This will also include a section on how to run a WWS parse, and calculate your DoT uptime.

Let's start with what's normally called the "rotation". Rotation is not really an appropriate name, since after the initial casting of each DoT, you'll pretty much never cast them all in the same order again, due to the fact most of them have different durations.

If you can pre-cast, you should start with a shadowbolt, and then haunt. Now, many people often ask why you would do this, and some people are even under the misconception that casting haunt after your DoTs is somehow more efficient. Think about it this way: Haunt should have 100% uptime for the entire fight. And since DoTs receive the bonus no matter when the debuff went up (before the DoT was cast, after the DoT was cast, makes no difference), it only matters that the debuff is up. So, why would you cast DoTs first, and have the first several ticks not get any benefit from Haunt? If you're going to have Haunt up the entire fight anyways, wouldn't it be better to have ALL ticks benefit from Haunt? Of course. The same goes for shadow embrace. The first stack is put on by that shadowbolt, and the second stack by Haunt.

So, your initial cast rotation will look like this:

Shadowbolt > Haunt > UA > Immolate > Curse of Agony > Corruption > Siphon Life. After that, you're now into what is called "filler" time. If your raid does NOT have a moonkin druid or unholy death knight, you will use CoE for your curse instead.

If you cannot pre-cast, then start with instant cast DoTs such as Curse of Agony, Siphon Life, and Corruption. Getting these up as you move into position will start your dps up sooner.

From this point on, your goal is to refresh DoTs as efficiently and quickly as possible. I HIGHLY recommend Asheyla's DoTimer. It is a great mod for tracking your DoT durations. You can get it here: DoTimer : WoWInterface Downloads : Warlock

The goal is to refresh a DoT the very moment the last tick expires. For DoT's with cast times, this is done by starting to re-cast the DoT when the amount of time it has left is just slightly less than the DoTs cast time. For example. If your Unstable Affliction has a 1.5 second cast time, you start to cast a new UA when the current one has 1.4 seconds left on the timer. Now, being realistic, obviously it's rare that this will happen. The reason for that is you do NOT want to stand around doing nothing just because you're waiting for that timer to hit 1.4 seconds. It is better to do something, whether that's casting a shadowbolt or using dark pact / life tap. Even if it means you will be a bit "late" refreshing the DoT.

Generally, you do not want to "clip" a DoT. This means refreshing the DoT before the previous one had its last tick of damage go off. And since Corruption is automatically refreshed by Haunt via Everlasting Affliction, you never have to worry about corruption.

Next, there is a reason we cast UA and Immolate together. They both have a 15 second duration, therefore every successive refreshing of these 2 DoTs will always be UA and then Immolate immediately following. You can essentially think of them as just one dot with a 3 second cast time.

And finally, since haunt has a 12 second duration, and you start with Haunt, then UA, and immolate, eventually haunt will work its way around and end up right after you refresh UA and Immolate. When this happens, on the very next "refresh", refresh Haunt early, allowing you to reset the rotation back to Haunt, then UA, then Immolate. So for example, with about 2.9 seconds left on UA's duration, cast Haunt. This brings you to 1.4 seconds left on UA's duration, so you immediately follow Haunt with UA, and then of course immediately again with Immolate.

Lastly, never interrupt a spell cast mid-cast just so you can cast something else. You want to try and avoid that whenever possible.

WWS and DoT Uptime by Fallenmen

Now that you have the basics of DoT casting order, rotations, etc, let's work on applying that, practicing, and seeing results for yourself.

To start, a quick explanation of WWS (wow web stats). WWS is an online DPS parser. It takes a combat log you record in game, and allows you to see the information in a very useful and detailed format. To create a WWS report:

1. Before you start WoW, browse to C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Interface\Logs. If you have a file called "wowcombatlog.txt", delete it!
2. Now, in game, before you start whatever it is you want to log, hit enter in your chat window and type: /combatlog (this will get wow recording your combat log parse)
3. After you are done with everything you want to record, go to Wow Web Stats
4. Click on "Start WWS Client" (note, you may have to quickly sign up for a free account)
5. Click on "Add Combat Log" and browse to C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Interface\Logs, and add wowcombatlog.txt.
6. Click on "Host Report". You will now see a WWS report of your combat log!

The sample below references one of my WWS reports, but can be applied to any WWS report you use.

Let's figure out doT uptime first. To start, we need to know what the total combat length of the boss fight was in seconds. At the top of a WWS report, you'll see the date, time, and length of fight in minutes/seconds. In my example, the fight was 2 minutes and 39 seconds long. So, that's 159 seconds.

Next, we need to determine what 100% uptime would be for each DoT. This is done by taking the length of the fight and dividing it by the interval of a DoT's tick. For example, corruption, UA, siphon life, and immolate all tick every 3 seconds. 159 / 3 = 53. So, if I had 53 ticks of each of those DoTs, that would be 100% uptime. To see how many times your DoTs ticked, look under each spell, and look under the column that says "Dots".

In my example, I had as follows:
-Corruption: 48 ticks
-UA: 42 ticks
-Immolate: 39 ticks
-Siphon Life: 46 ticks

Remember that 100% uptime is not realistic. Especially if the mechanics of the fight stress execution over DPS via moving around, doing other things, etc.

For Curse of Agony, which ticks every 2 seconds, that would be 159 / 2 = 79 (round down). I had 68 ticks, so that's not too bad. To determine uptime, take the number of ticks you had and divide it by the number of ticks you would have had with 100% uptime. So, for Curse of Agony: 68/79 = .86 or, 86% uptime. 90% uptime is a realistic goal in a stand-up tank and spank single target fight.

Practice Tips (by Fallenmen)

If you're struggling with DoT uptime, start by simplifying the rotations by temporarily dropping a DoT. Drop siphon life and Curse of Agony. Then, practice, and get that rotation down and working. Then, add in Curse of Doom. Practice more! Then, add in Siphon life. Practice practice practice. Now finally, replace Curse of Doom with Curse of Agony again.


Can I have too much haste?

The reason for this question being asked many times by affliction warlocks is the following: Most of your spells (all of them except shadow bolt and drain soul!) have a 1.5s casting time or are instant casts, meaning they have a 1.5s global cooldown following the cast. Haste reduces both in the same way. But there is a hard cap, neither the casting time of a spell nor the GCD can be reduced below 1s (In fact, the casting time can be reduced below 1s, but this triggers a short GCD, extending it to 1s). This means that the majority of your spells won't benefit from haste anymore if you reach this cap.
The first question should be: Can I actually reach it with "normal" gear?

At Level 80, the formula is:
Casting Time = Original Casting time /(1+Haste in Percent).

To reduce a 1.5s cast to 1s, you would need 50% haste. Assuming you get roughly 10% from the raidbuffs, this would be 1311 Haste Rating. Unreachable without crazy haste stacking.

There are, however, effects increasing your haste by a large amount, like Bloodlust/Heroism.
When these are popped, you only need 327.9 hate rating to reach the hard cap, which is actually quite easy.

For the longest part of a fight, there is no Bloodlust or Heroism. It is still possible to reach the cap for some seconds, for example with a haste proc trinket, Eradication proccing and a Haste Pot. But it's only momentary. Most of the time, your spells are not 1s-Casts, so haste is fine. You wouldn't stack it anyway as spelldamage just gives more dps. And there is another point to it: Haste never increases your dot's dps! It just saves time for your filler spells and maybe helps you to improve your dot uptime. But it doesn't change the duration of the dot, so it's real purpose is to increase the number of your filler spells. And although the gap for the filler spells does not become larger when you reach the cap, your filler spell still becomes a faster cast (as it is not a 1.5s-cast). So, there still IS a considerable dps improvement when you reach the cap.

To make a long story short: The haste cap does influence the value of haste rating. But the effect is small. Haste is fine, hit and spell power are better - but we knew that before.

Short questions and answers from the math part:

• Curse of Agony or CoD? Curse of Agony.
• Use Drain Soul when mob is below 25%? Yes.
• Use Immolate? Yes.
• Is the dps calculation perfectly right. No.
• Is the equip comparison perfectly right? It is based on the dps calculation. No.

The math part
This part is dedicated to the computation of concrete dps/dpsc values for a normal raid situation, considering first-visit-gear, e.g. optimal blue/heroic gear, naxx10 gear, naxx25 gear and so on, and a normal raid situation (tank&spank boss, one target, all raid buffs possible).


DPCT:(by Fallenmen)
DPCT is a measure of what you get in damage return for the amount of time used to cast a spell. For example. If you cast a shadowbolt, and your shadowbolt's average damage is 1000, with a 2.5 second cast time, the DPCT is 1000/2.5 or 400DPCT. If you cast a DoT that will do 1000 damage (no matter how long it takes to do that damage), and the DoT is instant cast, then the DPCT is 1000/1.5 or ~667DPCT. (Instant casts "time used casting" is whatever the length of your global cooldown is.)

So, what does this mean to an affliction warlock? Simple. Shadowbolt is your "filler" spell. IE, it's what you cast when your dots are ticking and none of them need refreshing. You fill this gap with shadowbolts. That said, any dot that has a higher DPCT than your filler spell (shadowbolt) should be cast, because it will mean more dps for you. This is because you get more damage for the amount of time spent casting the spell than you would casting a shadowbolt.



Base stats:

unbuffed:

• ~250 spirit
• ~1400 Spelldamage
• 10% Haste
• 10% Hit
• 10% Crit
• 0 MP5

This should be more or less what your stats are like when you step into Naxxramas for the first time.

An optimal raid setup (and almost all setups are nearly optimal now) gives you:

Raidbuffs:

• +3% damage (Paladin Aura, Hunter proc)
• +91MP5 (Blessing of Wisdom)
• +5% Crit Chance (Moonkin Aura, Elemental Totem)
• +5% Spell Haste (Totem)
• +3% Hit chance (Imp FF, Misery)
• +3% Damage done (Sanctified Retribution, BM Buff)
• +144 Spelldamage (Totem, this might be 280 if it's an elemental shaman)
• (+1% Hit if you are alliance and have a draenei in your group. I'll ignore this.)
• various stat changes. The only interesting is BoK (+10% spirit) and the spirit buff (e.g. +64 spirit by felhunter)

Self buffs:

• Fel Armor: 180 Spelldamage + 30% of your Spirit - I consider this to be ~300 spell power for the sake of simplicity
• Flask of the Frostwyrm +125 spell power
• Bufffood: 36 spell power for the "normal" bufffood.
• Professions: Two "good" professions will give about 38 spelldamage each, so this is another 76 spelldamage.
• Spellstone: This is 1.83% haste plus the dot improvement.

Debuffs:

• +13% damage (CoE, Earth & Moon, Ebon Plaguebringer)
• +10% crit chance (Scorch, Winter's Chill)
• +3% Crit taken (Elemental Totem, Poison, Heart of the Crusader) (Question: Does this work for Pandemic?)

This changes your stats fully raid-buffed to:

• 18% Spellhaste
• 13% Hit chance
• 15% Crit chance
• 15% Haste
• roughly 2000 spelldamage

Talents:
most specs will cover most of the key talents

• +10% Damage done by Corruption (Improved Corruption)
• +3% Hit chance for affliction spells (Suppression)
• -0.5s Casttime for Curses (Amplify Curse)
• 4% Nightfall Proc chance (Nightfall)
• +36% spell power for Corruption (Empowered Corruption)
• +5% periodic damage (Shadow Embrace)
• +15% shadow damage (Shadow Mastery)
• +5% Damage for Curse of Agony and Corruption (Contagion)
• +3% Overall spell power (Malediction)
• Corr and UA can crit (Pandemic)
• Corr ticks can give 20% haste for 12s, 10% chance, 30s internal cd (Eradication)
• 12% more damage when target is below 35% health (Death's embrace)
• +5% bonus spell power for Corr, UA and SL. (Everlasting Affliction)
• -0.5s casttime for Sb and Immolate (Bane)
• critical sbs apply 4% more direct damage buff for 12s (Improved Shadowbolt)
• +3% hit chance for sb and immolate (Cataclysm)
• Destruction Crits do double damage (Ruin)

Lets now work out the dps and dpsc of the spells above:


Tank & spank boss scenario (Think of Patchwerk here).

General rule of thumb:
Damage done = Absolute Coefficients * (base damage + ( (spell power coefficents) * Spelldamage))*Hit chance * (1+Crit chance)
Note that the coefficients from talents (like Contagion and Shadow Embrace) are additive.

Corruption:

Absolute coefficients:
+0.15 (Shadow Mastery)
+0.10 (Improved Corruption)
+0.05 (Contagion)
1.2 (Haunt)
1.10 (Shadow Embracex2)
1.13 (CoE/Earth&Moon/Ebon Plague)
1.01 (Spellstone)
1.03 (Malediction)
1.03 (Sanctified Retribution)

Spell power coefficients:
1.2 Base Coefficient
+0.36 (Empowered Corruption)
+0.30 (Everlasting Affliction)

Hit chance:
0.83 base
+0.13 (equip+raid)
+0.03 (Suppression)

Crit chance:
0.15 base

Haste:
+5% (Eradication)
+1.83% (Spellstone)

Damage done:
(1+0.15(Shadow Mastery+0.10(Improved Corruption)+0.05(Contagion))*1.2(Haunt))*1.1(Shado w Embrace)*1.13(CoE)*1.01(Spellstone)*1.03(Maledicti on)*1.03(Sanctified Retribution)*(1740(Base Damage) + ((1.2(Base Coeff)+0.36(Emp Corr)+0.30(Everl. Affl.))*(2000(spell power))))*0.99(Hit Chance)*(1+0.15(Crit Chance)) =
(1+0.15+0.1+0.05)*1.2*1.13*1.01*1.03*1.03*( 1740 + ((1.2+0.36+0.30)*(2000)))*0.99*(1+0.15) = 11040.29
cast time: 1.5s*(1/(1+Haste)) = 1.5*(1/1+0.15+0.0183) = 1.23s
Damage/Casttime = 8966.92 DPCT


Curse of Agony:

Absolute coefficients:
+0.15 (Shadow Mastery)
+0.10 (Improved Curse of Agony)
1.10 (Shadow Embracex2)
1.20 (Haunt is up)
1.13 (CoE/Earth&Moon/Ebon Plague)
1.01 (Spellstone)
1.03 (Malediction)
1.03 (Sanctified Retribution)

Spell power coefficients:
1.20 Base Coefficient

Hit chance:
0.83 base
+0.13 (equip+raid)
+0.03 (Suppression)

Crit chance:
Curse of Agony can't crit.

Haste:
Amplify Curse sets casting time to 1.0.

Damage done:
(1.0+0.15(Shadow Mastery)+0.10(Improved Curse of Agony))*1.2(Haunt)*1.13(CoE)*1.10(Shadow Embrace)*1.01(Spellstone)*1.03(Malediction)*1.03(S anctified Retribution)*( 1740(Base) + ((1.20(Base))*2000)*0.99 =
(1.0+0.15+0.10)*1.2*1.13*1.10*1.01*1.03*1.03*( 1740 + ((1.20)*2000)*0.99 = 8188.30
cast time: 1.0s
Damage/Casttime = 8188.30 DPCT



Curse of Doom:

Absolute coefficients:
1.13 (CoE/Earth&Moon/Ebon Plague)
1.03 (Malediction)
1.03 (Sanctified Retribution)
CoD does not get a bonus from Shadow Mastery although it is clearly shadow damage.

Spell power coefficients:
2.00 Base Coefficient

Hit chance:
0.83 base
+0.13 (equip+raid)
+0.03 (Suppression)

Crit chance:
CoD can't crit. Really. It just can't.

Haste:
Amplify Curse sets casting time to 1.0.

Damage done:
1.13(CoE)*1.03(Malediction)*1.03(Sanctified Retribution)*( 7300(base) + (2.00*2000)*0.99* =
1.13+1.03*1.03*( 7300 + (2.00*2000)*0.99* = 11994.32

cast time: 1.0s
Damage/Casttime = 11994.32 DPCT


Unstable Affliction:

Absolute coefficients:
+0.15 (Shadow Mastery)
1.10 (Shadow Embracex2)
1.20 (Haunt is up)
1.13 (CoE/Earth&Moon/Ebon Plague)
1.01 (Spellstone)
1.03 (Malediction)
1.03 (Sanctified Retribution)


Spell power coefficients:
1.20 Base Coefficient
+0.25 (Everlasting Affliction)

Hit chance:
0.83 base
+0.13 (equip+raid)
+0.03 (Suppression)

Crit chance:
0.15 base

Haste:
+5% (Eradication)
+1.83% (Spellstone)

Damage done:
(1+0.15(Shadow Mastery))*1.1(Shadow Embrace)*1.2(Haunt)*1.13(CoE)*1.01(Spellstone)*1.0 3(Malediction)*1.03(Sanctified Retribution)*( 1150(base) + ((1.20+0.25(Everlasting Affliction))*2000)*0.99*(1+0.15) =
(1+0.15)*1.1*1.2*1.13*1.01*1.03*1.03*( 1150 + ((1.20+0.25)*2000)*0.99*(1+0.15) = 8169.19
cast time: 1.5s*(1/(1+Haste)) = 1.5*(1/1+0.15+0.05+0.0183) = 1.23s
Damage/Casttime = 6635.02 DPCT


Siphon Life:

Absolute coefficients:
+0.15 (Shadow Mastery)
1.10 (Shadow Embracex2)
1.20 (Haunt is up)
1.13 (CoE/Earth&Moon/Ebon Plague)
1.01 (Spellstone)
1.03 (Malediction)
1.03 (Sanctified Retribution)


Spell power coefficients:
1.00 Base Coefficient
+0.50 (Everlasting Affliction)

Hit chance:
0.83 base
+0.13 (equip+raid)
+0.03 (Suppression)

Crit chance:
SL can't crit.

Haste:
+5% (Eradication)
+1.83% (Spellstone)

Damage done:
(1+0.15(Shadow Mastery))*1.1(Shadow Embrace)*1.2(Haunt)*1.13(CoE)*1.01(Spellstone*1.03 (Malediction)*1.03(Sanctified Retribution)*( 810(base) + ((1.00+0.50(everlasting affliction))*2000)*0.99=
(1+0.15)*1.1*1.2*1.13*1.01*1.03*1.03*( 810 + ((1.00+0.50)*2000)*0.99= 6932.76
cast time: 1.5s*(1/(1+Haste)) = 1.5*(1/1+0.15+0.05+0.0183) = 1.23s
Damage/Casttime = 5630.79 DPCT


Immolate:

Absolute coefficients:
0.85 (Boss Level Target)
1.13 (CoE/Earth&Moon/Ebon Plague)
1.03 (Malediction)
1.03 (Sanctified Retribution)

Spell power coefficients:
base: Hybrid spell: DoT component: 1.0, direct damage 1.2-1.0 = 0.2
dot: haunt (1.2), shadow embrace (1.1), spellstone (1.01)
direct: none

Hit chance:
0.83 base
+0.13 (equip+raid)
+0.03 (Cataclysm)

Crit Chance:
0.15 base
+0.10 (Scorch, Winter's Chill)
+0.03 (Wrath of Air Totem, Heart of the Crusader)

Haste:
+5% (Eradication)
+1.83% (Spellstone)

Damage done:

dot = 1.2(Haunt)*1.1(Shadow Embrace)*1.01(Spellstone)*(765(base)+1.0 * 2000)
direct = (460+(0.2*2000 )*(1 + 0.15(base crit)+0.10(Scorch)+0.03(Heart of the Crusader))
total = 1.13(CoE)*1.03(Malediction)*1.03(Sanctified Retribution)*(dot+direct )*0.99 = 5216.59

cast time: 1.5s*(1/(1+Haste)) = 1.5*(1/1+0.15+0.05+0.0183) = 1.23s
Damage/Casttime = 4236.91 DPCT


Haunt:

absolute coefficients:
+0.15 (Shadow Mastery)
1.13 (CoE/Earth&Moon/Ebon Plague)
1.03 (Malediction)
1.03 (Sanctified Retribution)

Spell power coefficients:
1.5/3.5 base coefficient

Hit chance:
0.83 base
+0.13 (equip+raid)
+0.03 (Suppression)

Crit Chance:
0.15 base
+0.10 (Scorch, Winter's Chill)
+0.03 (Totem of Wrath)

Haste:
+5% (Eradication)
+1.83% (Spellstone)

Damage done:
(1+0.15(Shadow Mastery))*1.13(CoE)*1.03(Malediction)*1.03(Sanctif ied Retribution)*( (645+753)/2(base) + ((1.5/3.5*2000))*0.99*(1+0.15(base crit)+0.10(scorch)+0.03(Heart of the Crusader)) =
(1+0.15)*1.13*1.03*1.03*( (645+753)/2 + ((1.5/3.5*2000))*0.99*(1+0.15+0.10+0.03) = 2400.01
cast time: 1.5s*(1/(1+Haste)) = 1.5*(1/1+0.15+0.05+0.0183) = 1.23s
Damage/Casttime = 1949.29 DPCT


Shadow Bolt:

Absolute coefficients:
1.15 (Shadow Mastery)
1.13 (CoE/Earth&Moon/Ebon Plague)
1.03 (Malediction)
1.03 (Sanctified Retribution)

Spell power coefficients:
3.00/3.5 base coefficient

Hit chance:
0.83 base
+0.13 (equip+raid)
+0.03 (Cataclysm)

Crit chance:
0.15 base
+0.03 (Totem of Wrath)
+0.10 (Scorch/ Winter's Chill)
Crits do double damage (Ruin)

Haste:
+5% (Eradication)
+1.83% (Spellstone)
NF procs are brought in later.

So far, I ignore the talent improved shadow bolt.

Damage done:
(1+0.15(Shadow Mastery))*1.13(CoE)*1.03(Malediction)*1.03(Sanctif ied Retribution)*((690+770)/2(base) + ((3.00/3.5)*2000))*0.99*(1.00+0.15(base crit)+0.03(Seal of the Crusader)+0.10(Scorch)) =
(1+0.15)*1.13*1.03*1.03*((690+770)/2 + ((3.00/3.5)*2000))*0.99*(1.00+0.15+0.03+0.10) = 4103.39
cast time: (3.0-0.5)s*(1/(1+Haste)) = 2.5*(1/1+0.20+0.05+0.0183) = 2.05s
Damage/Casttime = 1999.66 DPCT


Drain Soul:

absolute coefficients:
+0.15 (Shadow Mastery)
+0.60 (Soul Siphon)
1.13 (CoE/Earth&Moon/Ebon Plague)
1.03 (Malediction)
1.03 (Sanctified Retribution)
4.00 (Target below 25%)

Spell power coefficients:
2.14 base coefficient

Hit chance:
0.83 base
+0.13 (equip+raid)
+0.03 (Suppression)

Crit Chance:
Drain Soul can't crit.

Haste:
+5% (Eradication)
+1.83% (Spellstone)

Damage done:
(1+0.15(Shadow Mastery)+0.60(Soul Siphon))*1.13(CoE)*1.03(Malediction)*1.03(Sanctifi ed Retribution)*4(Target below 25%)*( 710(base) + (2.14*2000))*0.99 =
(1+0.15+0.60)*1.13*1.03*1.03*4*( 710 + (2.14*2000))*0.99 = 41870.49
cast time: 15s*(1/(1+Haste)) = 15*(1/1+0.15+0.05+0.0183) = 12.31s
Damage/Casttime = 3400.72 DPCT

Note that this is based on 15 affliction debuffs on the target (meaning there are at least two other affliction warlocks), a target below 25% and the fact that the factor 4 is really a total damage factor.

Life Tap:

Base: 250 spirit
Felhunter buff: +64 spirit
BoK: +10% spirit
Improved Life Tap: +20% Mana generated

Mana generated: 1.2*((250+64)*1.1*3.0 + 1460) = 2496.2
cast time: 1/(1+0.20+0.05+0.0183) = 1.23s

DPCT-Charts:

1. Corruption 8966.92 DPCT (or infinity using haunt)
2. Curse of Agony 8188.30 DPCT
3. Unstable Affliction 6635.02 DPCT
4. Siphon Life 5630.79 DPCT
5. Immolate 4236.91 DPCT
6. Drain Soul @ <25% HP 3400.72 DPCT
7. Shadow Bolt 1999.66 DPCT
8. Haunt 1949.29 DPCT

Conclusion: Every single DoT is worth being kept up as long as possible. Immolate is worth it, too. The only reason to cast shadow bolt is having nothing else to do.


Computing the DPS:

Let's look at a whole minute mid-fight:
Corruption will be up from start to finish.
Curse of Agony, Immolate, Unstable Affliction and Siphon Life will be refreshed as often as possible.
Haunt will be refreshed as often as needed.
I assume casting Haunt about every 10s, and an DoT Uptime of 100%.

Then this one minute will be filled by:

60/24 = 2.5 CoAs -> 2.5s
60/30 = 2 SLs -> 2.46s
60/10 = 6Haunts -> 7.38s
60/15 = 4 UAs -> 4.92s
60/15 = 4 Immolates -> 4.92s
0.8 NF procs -> 0.8*1.23s

Including the mp5 for the whole minute, so far 9116.86 Mana have been used, resulting in
2.73 Life Taps.

The rest of the time (33.45s) is used for shadow bolts. To compensate the mana use of the shadow bolts, I calculate "0 Mana Shadow bolts" by adding a small percentage of the GCD to their casting time. The 0 mana shadow bolt has a casting time of 2.31s (SB cast time + Life Tap Casting time * (SB-Mana Cost / Life Tap Mana regeneration).

-> 14.46 shadow bolts.

So, the overall damage should be:
60/18*Corr = 3.33*11040.29
2.5* Curse of Agony = 2.5*8188.30
2* SL = 2*6932.76
6*Haunt = 6*2400.01
4*UA = 4*8169.19
4*Immolate = 4*5216.59
(0.8+14.46)*Sb = 15.26*4103.39

This sums up to 198016.05 dpm or 3300.27 dps including complete mana regeneration.

Spotted errors:
- I did not calculate ISB procs
- I did not add Eradication Haste (as I'm not sure if I'm right with the computation


How much haste is Eradication?

Time starts, corruption ticks for the first time.
There is a 4/7/10% chance of an eradication proc. This gives 20% haste right now for 12s, and the game starts again at
30s. this is an average 20%*12s/30s = 8% haste. The probability of this actually happening is 4/7/10%, depending on the talent points spent.

96/93/90% of the time, it didn't proc.
3 seconds later there is another corruption tick. The above game starts again, but the benefit is only
20%*12s/33s = 7,27% haste as you had 3 seconds without additional haste before the proc.

So you simply sum up the average benefits, breaking it up somewhere (e.g. the probability of not getting a proc 60 times in a row is only 1/1000, so I ignore these).

average haste benefit = 0.1*(20%*12/30) + 0.1*0.9*(20%*12/33) + 0.1*0.9^2*(20%*12/36)+...
I won't write 60 terms here, the result is :
1 talent point : 3.28% haste
2 talent points: 4.18% haste
3 talent points: 4.69% haste.
So the first talent point effectively gives you more than 3% haste, the next one gives 0.9% and the last one about 0.5% absolute haste. Although 0.5% haste is not that bad, there are stronger talents available.

How often does Nightfall proc?

Let's assume corruption is up 100% of the time (on one mob). The chance of a NF proc is 4% every 3 seconds. Let's further assume that you will use every NF proc immediately, so you never "lose" any procs. Then you will just have an average 0.80 NF procs per minute. Of course, you can have two in a row, but normally, you won't. The proc reduces the casting time of one sb to your gcd, so it saves about a second, meaning this will save you an average 0.80 seconds per minute. By the way, this DOES stack with Glyph of Corruption, giving 2x 4% proc chance.

Curse of Agony or CoD?

Switching from Curse of Agony to CoD in the above scenario loses 8476.43 damage, but saves you 1.5s. In this time, you can cast 0.73 more shadow bolts, dealing 2999.50 damage, which is simply not enough to compensate. This is even without using the Glyph of Curse of Agony. So, as a result: Do not use CoD if you want to max out your dps.

Should I use Drain Soul when the mob is below 25%?

In short: Yes, you should. Drain Soul deals almost 75% more damage than Shadow Bolt does when the mob's HP are below 25%. This is a very decent dps increase. The only drawback is: With a good ten second channel duration after haste, the spell will make it rather difficult to reapply dots in time without clipping it. So clip it! The perfect moment to clip it is right after a tick, there is a huge discussion atm how to support this difficult timing with addon timers. I'll add in useful addons here later. In general, as long as you don't clip it right before a tick, your dps will be fine.


Equip comparison

I computed the dps with slight changes in the unbuffed stats. This gives a very good estimation of the change in dps when you, for example, get some more spell power. The more accurate the above dps calculation becomes, the more accurate these ratings will be. So far, I computed:

10 spell power = 11.48 dps
10 haste rating = 4.26 dps
10 hit rating = 12.71 dps
10 crit rating = 4.09 dps
10 int = 1.24 dps
10 spirit = 3.79 dps

The item comparison is based solely on this.

Glyph comparison

Glyph of Siphon Life 46.22 dps
Just multiply the total damage of SL with 1.2, divided by 30s.

Glyph of Immolate 46.67 dps
DoT increased, direct damage decreased. As most of the damage comes from the dot, this one is quite strong.

Glyph of Curse of Agony 41.27 dps
This increases the base damage of Curse of Agony by two medium ticks, which is 113*2 more damage. But of course it also applies the medium spell power coefficient to both new ticks, so the dps of Curse of Agony will not change significantly while the DPCT increases by roughly 18% and gives about half a second per minute to do something else.

Glyph of Corruption 19.42 dps
This glyph increases the proc chance of Nightfall by 4% (or by 3.96% if it really is multiplicative and you have talent point's in Nightfall - it does not make a huge difference). The effect is not very good dps-wise. As a side note, this means that the talent Nightfall is not very good dps-wise, either.

Glyph of Unstable Affliction 19.41 dps
Decrease Base Casting time of UA by 0.2s (before haste. This works like the talent bane for sb/immo.)

Glyph of Shadow Bolt 11.92 dps
Decreases the casting time of the 0-mana-shadow bolt in the simulation (or decreases the mana cost of the normal shadow bolt in reality). This is quite weak - mana cost is just not really important to a warlock.

Glyph of Fel Hunter ? dps
I do not consider pet dps in my calculus, and probably never will. To give a rough guess here: Let's say the felhunter does 300 dps (a lot!), 50% of it comes from shadow bite and the crit chance of shadow bite would be 0%. Even under these very favorable circumstances, the glyph would only give 300*0.5*0.06 = 9 dps. So i guess it is just not worth it.


Special items, set boni and procs:

Chaotic Skyflare Diamond
This increases the crit multipliers of Haunt, Shadow Bolt and Immolate from 50% / 100% to 53% / 103%. The dps increase with the above stats is only 9.75 dps total, not even assuming you use drain soul for the last 25% of the boss' hp. Of course, this gem effect scales, but I guess it won't ever overcome the spell power gems.