The Warlocks Den - WoW Warlock Discussions

I actually initially wrote this for my guild. It includes very simple WWS analysis tips, with basic benchmarks you should look for, to advanced combat log filtering. If anybody has any questions, or has suggestions for improvement, I'd be happy to hear them all.


1. Initial Analysis

These first two sections are only really applicable for a stationary fight, so you can take a look at the optimized picture of your DPS output. Patchwerks is a perfect example, and for the purposes of this guide we'll be looking at this report: Report. I'd suggest opening this picture in another window for easy access as you read the guide.

1. First thing most people look at is their DPS. So let's just get it out of the way. Affliction warlocks tend to have lower DPS even with the same damage output due to our lack of burst. This number means nothing.
2. Hit and Spell Power are worth about the same point by point for Affliction locks at the moment, so it is very possible for you to not be hit capped if you min/max. However this number should never go above 5%, and I personally prefer mine to be under 3%.
3. (1d on picture) Your active presence tells you for how much of the fight are you actually doing something. This number should always be 100% for a fight like this, and you should aim for 100% on almost all fights. Even if you're running around, you should be refreshing your instants and life tapping so when you're stationary you can cast your spells with a cast time. (I know, weird ordering. Sorry :s)
4. (1c on picture) This number tells you how much of the time in 1d. you're actually DPSing. For a fight like this, this number should be 98%+. It is very situational in other fights though. For high movement fights, it's very common for this number to be around 90%. Any lower and you're looking at trouble.

Your presence numbers are very important because Affliction is all about staying on the ball. Your high DPS comes from the high DPCT of your DoTs, so not optimizing your DoT casts will cause you to lose far more DPS than any other class. It is said that the Affliction spec is very unforgiving, and this is the primary reason.

Additionally: Take a look at the ordering of your spells. They should follow the general outline of: Shadowbolt, Corruption, Drain Soul. Then followed by Immolate and UA. Then followed by Curse of Agony and Siphon Life. Yes, you should be casting all DoTs, and all of their uptimes are important. If your Shadowbolt place is 5th, then you're not spamming enough fillers for some reason or other.


2. Your Spells

1. Much of this section is based on your DPS time. In this case, it is 4 minutes and 11 seconds. You want to get this down to just seconds. The formula is: minutes * 60 + seconds
   Which in this case means: 4*60+11 = 251 seconds
2. To calculate your DoT uptime the basic formula is: (Number of ticks * How much time per tick)/Your DPS time in seconds
   Or in this case for Corruption: 81 * 3s / 251s = .97 or 97%
   All of your DoTs tick every 3 seconds, except for Curse of Agony which ticks every 2 seconds. Corruption and Immolate are bad examples of your DoT up-time ability. Corruption should have 95%+ up-time due to Haunt. Immolate should not be cast when the mob is under 25%, so there's no clear measure for its up-time. Otherwise, your DoTs should have 85-95% uptime. Any lower and they're dropping off too much, any higher and you're clipping your DoTs.
3. Calculating Haunt up-time is a little trickier if you're not hit capped due to its cool down. The basic formula is:
   (Number of Hits * Duration of Haunt + Number of Misses * Cooldown)/Your DPS time
   or in this case: 17*12 + 0*8/ 251 = .81 = 81%
   This number should be as high as possible. Anything over 80% is acceptable, although 100% is preferred. Note Not shown here, for your total number of hits you need to open up the Haunt tab and add landed hits with critical hits for your total number of hits.
4. Lastly, your Imp is important to your DPS. As you can see, Kupbis was 8% of my DPS in this kill. To calculate if you're utilizing him to the fullest, use the below formula:
   
   (Number of Hits * Cast time of Firebolt)/Your DPS time
   
   Or in this case: 82*2.5/251 = .82 = 82%
   Obvious exceptions occur when you use the Infernal at the end of the fight.
5. Finally, your drain soul should be a high % of your DPS. If it's not, there may be a few factors such as: You're channeling it too early (before 25% of the mob's health) causing your first channel to tick without the damage bonus. You are not keeping up with your DoT refreshes for the Soul Siphon benefit (or you're not even specced into Soul Siphon). You're cutting the channel right before a tick (remember, DS also ticks every 3 seconds). Or you're not even casting Drain Soul after the mob hits 25% health.

Execution

Lastly, your ability to maintain a rotation means nothing if you don't know how to execute. That means staying out of things or staying away from people. Checking out your "Damage In" section or "Gains, Buffs, or Debuffs" tab can tell you much about your execution ability.

Examples:

• Let's take a look at Thaddius:Thaddius Screenshot
  
  Note that it says I hit 2 people with a positive charge. In the case of Thaddius, this does not necessarily mean its my fault. Most likely, since the number is low, 2 people did not run out fast enough. If the number was higher, I probably failed in that attempt.
• Here in Loatheb: Loatheb Screenshot
  
  See that I gained Fungal Creep (the +crit debuff) 5 times. I know that Necrotic Aura is a 2minute debuff, and that the fight was 5 minutes long. (Not shown in the screenshot, but this was reviewed earlier.) Thus, I know that I was on the ball in grabbing the debuff from spores. Usually, however, the higher the number on this section the poorer you did. Failures of standing in Rain of Fire or Flame Wave (Sartharion), will all be shown here.
• If you've been dying a lot randomly, then WWS allows you to browse the log to figure out what happened. Just click on one of the death times (Screenshot) and you'll be taken to the log with a blow by blow account of your last moments.

Advanced Analysis

Sometimes you want more than that, you want to know something specific that WWS doesn't specifically find for you. In this case, going through the combat log is your best course of action.

1. Decide if you want information from a specific fight or for the entire run. Select the appropriate fight in the 'Split' category. (*note: It is not possible to search within several fights, but there are some tricks to emulate doing this that will be discussed later.)
2. Go to 'Browse' and select 'Browse Log File'. (Reference)

Filtering the combat log is done through a series of keywords which tell WWS what type of match you are looking for.

Basic filter syntax:

• keyword=phrase you are looking for
• Any time your search phrase is a name, surround it in quotation marks.
• Connect multiple filters with logical operators such as and/or.

Keywords

• source: The name that the action originates from.
  • i.e.source=Patchwerks
  • Searches for every time Patchwerks does something.
• target: The name that receives the action.
  • i.e.target="Jim"
  • Searches for every time someone named Jim had something done to them.
• unit: Basically a combination for source and target.
  • i.e.unit="Jim"
  • Searches for every event that involved someone named Jim.
• spell: Searches specifically for the specified spell.
  • i.e.spell="Frostbolt"
  • Searches for every time Frostbolt was cast.
• all: Combination of unit and spell.
  • i.e. all="Jim" or all="Frostbolt"
  • The main reason you want to use unit= or spell= instead of all= is if there is a player named Frostbolt or a spell named Jim, you would get events you didn't want.
• event: Searches for a specific type of event. The syntax for this is slightly trickier and will be explained later.
• source.flag, target.flag and unit.flag: Works similarly to their counterparts (source, target, unit) except, instead of matching to a specific name, it matches to the flag of the unit.
  • Possible values: raid, outsider, friendly, neutral, hostile, player, npc, pet, guardian, object
  • i.e. source.flag="raid"; (searches for actions done by everybody in the raid)

(from Wow Web Stats)

Event Keyword Syntax:
The value to define an event is made of two parts, a prefix and a suffix. The prefix describes what type of object caused the occurrence. The suffix describes what event the object caused.

Prefixes

• Swing: Any sort of melee attack.
• Range: This seems to only be applicable for a hunter's Ranged Shot, at the moment.
• Spell: Any spell.
• Spell_Periodic: Any DoT.
• Environmental:
  • drowning, falling, fatigue, fire, lava, slime

Suffixes

• _damage:
• _missed: Includes: absorbs, blocks, deflects, dodges, evades, immune, misses, parries, reflects, resists
• _heal:
• _energize: Any gain in mana, rage, energy, or rune power.
• _drain:
• _leech:
• _interrupt:
• _dispel:
• _dispel_failed:
• _stolen:
• _extra_attacks:
• _aura_applied: Includes buffs and debuffs.
• _aura_removed:
• _aura_applied_dose: Each time an aura gives you a gain that can be measured, whether it be health or mana, etcetc.
• _aura_removed_dose: Each time an aura removes an amount that can be measured, such as health, mana, or energy.
• _aura_refresh:
• _aura_broken:
• _aura_broken_spell:
• _cast_failed:
• _instakill:
• _create:
• _summon:
• _resurrect:

(I find most of these as self-explanatory, but if you need clarification feel free to ask.)

Examples
event=spell_aura_applied

• Searches for anytime anybody gains a spell buff or debuff.

event=spell_damage

• Searches for anytime a spell damages something.

Connecting Keywords:
Being able to use several keyword filters together is what really allows you to find something specific that you want. WWS uses basic logical operators to connect them.

• and: To connect two filters where you want the search result to satisfy both at once.
• or:To connect two filters where you want the search result to satisfy either of them.
• Parenthesis (): Groups filters together.

Example:
(event=spell_aura_applied or event=spell_aura_refresh) and unit="luxury" and spell="molten core"

• Searches for every time Molten Core procs (applied or refreshed) on Luxury. (Result)

As a final note, for those that don't know, the time stamp at the side goes: hour:minute'second.millisecond. Also, feel free to ask any questions.