Managing Your Spell Rotation - Affliction

[NewfieDave]

This is a reference for all the Affliction Locks out there who are wondering what their spell rotation should be. I will be using the 41/2/18 spec as my basis of analysis, because it has all the available tools for doing DPS as a raiding Affliction Lock.

The most effective way to manage your spell rotation is to think of it in terms of cast time. You will have a certain amount to time available to you over the course of a fight. You should always aim to be using the spell that is the most effective use of cast time.

Note: "Instant spells" have an effective 1.5 second cast time because of the global cooldown.

Damage to Cast Time Comparison

These figures assume 1000 shadow damage, 600 fire damage, and 15% chance to crit with Destruction spells. These numbers should be easily attainable by a raiding Warlock while still focusing on achieving 202 spell hit.

Information regarding spell damage coefficients obtained from WoWWiki.

Spells sorted from highest to lowest based on damage per second of cast time.

Curse of Doom (Amplified) 6200 * 1.5 / 1.5 seconds of cast time = 6200 damage per second of cast time

Curse of Doom (4200 base damage + 2000 shadow damage) = 6200 damage / 1.5 seconds of cast time = 4133 damage per second of cast time

Curse of Agony (Amplified) 3092 * 1.5 / 1.5 seconds of cast time = 3092 damage per second of cast time

Curse of Agony (1356 base damage + 1200 shadow damage) * 1.1 * 1.1 = 3092 damage / 1.5 seconds of cast time = 2061 damage per second of cast time

Corruption (4 peice T4 bonus) (900 base damage + 1512 shadow damage) * 1.10 * 1.05. = 2786 damage / 1.5 seconds of cast time = 1857 damage per second of cast time

Corruption (900 base damage + 1296 shadow damage) * 1.1 * 1.05 = 2537 damage / 1.5 seconds of cast time = 1691 damage per second of cast time

Unstable Affliction (1050 base damage + 1200 shadow damage) + 1.1 = 2475 damage / 1.5 seconds of cast time = 1650 damage per second of cast time

Siphon Life (630 base damage + 1000 shadow damage) * 1.1 = 1793 damage / 1.5 seconds of cast time = 1195 damage per second of cast time

Immolate (direct damage) (327 base damage + 120 fire damage) = 447 damage CAN CRIT \\\ average damage 480
Immolate (DoT) (615 base damage + 390 fire damage) = 1005 damage
Immolate (Total Damage) 480 + 1005 = 1485 damage / 1.5 seconds of cast time = 990 damage per second of cast time

Shadowburn (631 base damage + 428 shadow damage) * 1.1 = 1059 CAN CRIT \\\ average damage 1138 / 1.5 seconds of cast time = 758 damage per second of cast time

Shadow Bolt (572 average base damage + 857 shadow damage) * 1.1 = 1572 damage CAN CRIT \\\ average damage 1689 / 2.5 seconds of cast time = 675 damage per second of cast time

Note: Shadow Bolts have added value due to Improved Shadow Bolt procs.

Drain Life (with maximum Affliction effects) (540 base damage + 714 shadow damage) * 1.1 * 1.4 = 1931 damage / 5 seconds of cast time = 386 damage per second of cast time

Note: Drain Life will be reduced in effectiveness in patch 2.3, and this change has been accounted for.

Facts

Drain Life is ineffective as a source of damage. Shadow Bolts are in every way superior, with the exception of self-healing when your healthstones/healing pots are on cooldown.

Shadowburn will always provide more damage per cast time than Shadow Bolt until you reach 3360 shadow damage (unreachable). This means it is advisable to cast Shadowburn at every available cooldown during boss fights, but save it for dealing finishing blows on trash to conserve shards. Note that the added benefit of Improved Shadow Bolt may tip the scales in favor of Shadow Bolt. The more sources of shadow damage in your raid, the more valuable Shadow Bolt becomes.

DoTs are inferior to Shadow Bolts if they can't tick for the full duration.

DoTs should not be refreshed until they have ticked for their full duration. Refreshing a DoT before it expires makes you lose the final tick, which effectively causes you to lose cast time. You are better off casting one more Shadow Bolt and refreshing it 1-2 seconds after it expires than refreshing the DoT early.

In a raid, an Affliction Lock should be casting Curse of Shadows/Elements because of Malediction. My argument for this can be found here. If both of those curses are already being covered or are unnecessary (lock of fire/frost damage sources for example) then you should be casting Curse of Doom if it will last the full duration, and Curse of Agony on mobs that die between 24 and 60 seconds.

Casting Priority Based on Damage per Second of Cast Time

Curse of X
Corruption
Unstable Affliction
Siphon Life
Immolate
Shadowburn
Shadow Bolt

Hope this is helpful and reduces the number of "what should my cast rotation be?" posts.

[Rizob]

Just a correction, CoD does not get the 10% benefit from shadow mastery--the description implies that it should get it since it is a shadow spell but it just does not. I consider it to be a bug.

Shadowbolt's effectiveness is probably a little underrated in the calculation due to absence of ISB procs, though these are difficult to model in a raid environment. Best attempt I've seen is the shadowseer addon.

[NewfieDave]

CoD fixed. Thanks for the input.

Also added a note to mention the importance of Improved Shadow Bolt when determining the value of your Shadow Bolts.

[Akasha]

Originally Posted by NewfieDave

Hope this is helpful and reduces the number of "what should my cast rotation be?" posts.

Very much appreciated!

[Shadow_Warlock]

Not to throw a spanner in the works..but I read somewhere that immolate is always considered to improved DPS over siphon life...

Comments?

S_W

[Rizob]

Originally Posted by Shadow_Warlock

Not to throw a spanner in the works..but I read somewhere that immolate is always considered to improved DPS over siphon life...

Comments?

S_W

Immolate has a higher DPS (damage/duration) but siphon life has a better damage/cast time.

For improving caster dps, you're better off thinking about it in terms of maximizing each second of your casting time so it's beneficial to use damage/cast time.

[thef00l]

May i suggest casting Shadowbolt before Shadowburn as one might benefit from the added damage, if SB crits...

Thanks for the input.

[daemonic666]

So,on bosses like Gruul do you just spam shadowburn every cooldown ??? God,you need like 1000000 shards to do that :(

[Duckie]

It looks realy nice, thanks for the good work!

Originally Posted by NewfieDave

Shadowburn will always provide more damage per cast time than Shadow Bolt until you reach 3360 shadow damage (unreachable). This means it is advisable to cast Shadowburn at every available cooldown during boss fights, but save it for dealing finishing blows on trash to conserve shards. Note that the added benefit of Improved Shadow Bolt may tip the scales in favor of Shadow Bolt. The more sources of shadow damage in your raid, the more valuable Shadow Bolt becomes.

Damage wise you might be correct, but realistic?
How much shards you carry in a 10 minutes fight? 15 seconds cooldown right? 4 shards per minute, that is 42 shards in a 10 minute fight, including HS and SS. That is doable, if you are 100% sure to kill it. On tries where you don't know I rather save my shards (that is personal though)

Casting Priority Based on Damage per Second of Cast Time

Curse of X
Corruption
Unstable Affliction
Siphon Life
Immolate
Shadowburn
Shadow Bolt

Hope this is helpful and reduces the number of "what should my cast rotation be?" posts.

Aye it is helpfull, I like to add though, that for casting speed, the sequence is most efficienty if you can do like "instant cast --> casttime --> instant cast --> cast time" It will save you lots of time and that will end up in more damage too. And use /stopcasting macro's for your spell, combined with Quartz (addon) so you can use the extra "lag time" too.

[Sidora]

Originally Posted by Duckie

Aye it is helpfull, I like to add though, that for casting speed, the sequence is most efficienty if you can do like "instant cast --> casttime --> instant cast --> cast time" It will save you lots of time and that will end up in more damage too. And use /stopcasting macro's for your spell, combined with Quartz (addon) so you can use the extra "lag time" too.

I had heard that a /stopcasting macro is no longer necessary as of patch 2.3??? Is this correct???