Managing Your Spell Rotation - Affliction

[SirNotInThisFil]

that is what the patch notes say.

[clavarnway]

Shadowburn should NOT be cast at every opportunity in bosses; not only does it get a crappy bonus from +damage, so the better your gear gets, the worse it gets, but every time you cast Shadowburn instead of Shadowbolt you give up opportunity for ISB proc!

[Lopennie]

@Clavarnway

You are not getting the point that this is more for AFFLICTION locks, which means we do not gear towards crit so we cannot count on our shadowbolts critting.

[NewfieDave]

Crits have been accounted for in the calculations. Without ruin, 15% crit chance translates into a 7.5% increase in average damage.

Yes, Shadowburn has a lower spell damage coefficient than Shadow Bolt, but it also has a shorter cast time. Here is the math for finding the "breaking point" where Shadow Bolt finally reaches the same damage per second of cast time as Shadowburn:

Shadowburn Average Base Damage = 631
Shadowburn Spell Damage Coefficient = 0.4286
Shadowburn Cast Time = 1.5
Shadow Bolt Average Base Damage = 572
Shadow Bolt Spell Damage Coefficient = 0.8571
Shadow Bolt Cast Time = 2.5

(631 + 0.4286x) / 1.5 = (572 + 0.8571x) / 2.5
420.6667 + 0.2857x = 228.8 + 0.3428x
191.8667 = 0.0571x
x = 3360 spell damage to break even in terms of damage per second of cast time

Crits and other percent based damage increases which effect both Shadowburn and Shadow Bolt can be ignored in this equation, since they effect both sides equally and effectively "cancel out".

I'm not nearly good enough at math to try and wrap my head around factoring Improved Shadow Bolt into my calculations, so my advice is to make common sense judgment calls when deciding between Shadow Bolt and Shadowburn. If you are in a 25 man raid with 3 or more sources of shadow damage, I would assume that the benefit from Improved Shadow Bolt outweighs the extra damage per second of cast time from Shadowburn. If you are the only source of shadow damage in a Kara run, then by all means spam Shadowburn every cooldown during Phase 3 on Prince to help nuke him down quickly.

Obviously you can't carry around 300 shards to be able to Shadowburn every time it is up. You can keep your bags full of shards though, and Drain Soul on trash to restock.

Before I did these calculations, I had always assumed that Shadow Bolt was simply superior to Shadowburn with the exception of burst damage. Now I'm realizing that it is more situational, and you should learn to make those decisions on the fly.

[Korth]

Trying not to be dense here...

Casting priority is not equal to cast rotation, if I'm seeing this right. In other words, your original post merely points out what the best "bang for buck" is in priority order, right?

My understanding is that it's best to base your cast rotation on DoT durations, so that it's easier to keep all your DoTs up all the time, and still provide a few windows for Shadow Bolts.

The thrust of this post (with admittedly less study than it probably deserved) seems to be geared toward identifying the most important DoTs damage-wise rather than which order they should be cast in?

Or am I missing something?

[Moordawts]

I was wondering the same thing. I'm a fairly new raider and want to maximize my casting order. I understand the cast IMPORTANCE, but casting order might be a little different. If I am reading the original post correctly, the macro should look something like this:

/castsequence reset=target/combat Curse of Agony, Corruption, Unstable Affliction, Siphon Life, Immolate

I'd like to add more spells on the end to refresh my DoTs as they expire, but this is a good macro to put all your initial DoTs up on the target.

[NewfieDave]

You are right to assume that cast rotation is not the same thing as cast priority. Grouping DoTs like UA and Corr so they expire together (and therefor can be refreshed together) is a good practice. The standard "opening sequence" for an Affliction Lock is generally:

Curse -> UA -> Corr -> Immo -> SL

This is a fine way to start off an encounter, but over the course of a fight you will not be able to stick to this exact pattern. There will be times when you have Siphon Life, Immolate, and Corruption all expiring at the same time, and it is helpful to know the "priority order". Things like resists, silences, stuns, etc. can interfere with your DoT rotation, so there is no perfect cast order. You need to learn the capabilities of your spells, and be able to adjust on the fly to in-game situations.

This guide also serves to show that all DoTs are superior to Shadow Bolts provided they are allowed to tick for their full durations. Many people take the word of Nihilum as gospel, and their Warlock guide states that Siphon Life is an inferior source of damage. This is simply wrong.

[MrUnderpants]

i wouldnt use shadowburn on bosses...its a long fight, concentrate on keeping dots up and filling in with shadowbolts....now with trash...shadowburn is good as its instant damage for mobs that go down fast.

[panamareg]

Unless it is a boss, (who I start out with amped CoD) I do UA - Corr - Curse of Agony - Siphon Life - bolt - bolt - bolt, then UA-Corr and bolt to finish...

Using UA in the beginning allows the tank to grab a little more aggro leadtime. Once you start you rotation, UA ends just a split second before Corruption. This allows you to keep those two working near 100% of the time. You also seem to get off 3 shadowbolts, then start the UA spellcast with it arriving the exact moment that the old UA expires.

The only thing you really need to be carefule of is pulling the aggro.

Also, UA is a channeled cast. You must remain still while casting, but the three following spells, Corr, Curse of Agony, and Siphon Life, can be cast with your back turned while running to a strategic position...

[NewfieDave]

Remember that the opening cast sequence is a very small portion of your cast rotation. It's the only "perfect" moment in a fight where you can have a predetermined order to apply your DoTs. Differences in DoT duration, potential resists, and boss abilities that silence, stun or otherwise incapacitate mean your DoTs will need to be renewed at varying times over the course of a long fight. This is why giving DoTs an order of priority is more useful than saying Curse -> UA -> Corr -> Immo -> SL.

Also note that for people with the 4 peice T4 bonus, it is advantageous to use Curse -> Corr -> UA -> SL -> Immo to start a fight, because of the longer durations on Corr and Immo.