Your Raiding Casting Sequence

[punkrockrobot]

As a Noob to these forums, I'll start by saying HI!!
I was wondering what other locks here
Affliction/Demo/Dest casting sequence is in Raids.
My guild is currently in SSC/TK tier of Raiding
We've down only Lurker/VR in those two dungeons.

I think my casting Sequece is Jacked Up, I got beat in DPS by a DEMO lock
who shouldn't be beating me. It was my 1st time doing VR, so maybe that's what it was.... I hope

I go UA>CORRUPTION>SIPHON LIFE>IMMOLATE>SHADOW BOLTx5>DARK PACT>LIFETAP.

I was told Curse of Agony is worthless now to put up because it usally gets bump'd off the Debuff bar. Should I make a Macro which would allow me just to keep hitting 1 key over and over again? If so what would be the code.

Anyway feel free to leave a reply. I'm very interested in reading what others have to say, as well as each spec's casting sequence.

-Laters

[Manf]

Hi there, and welcome to the forum. One thing you have to keep in mind is that to maximize your damage you must ALWAYS keep your dots running on the boss. I'd think some of your dots will have run out by the time you have cast 5 shadowbolts. I cba doing the math though ;). I am also affliction, and here is what i do: Immolate, UA, Curse of Agony(if im not on COS or COE) corr, siphon life, and then 3 shadowbolts. By the time i've cast my third Shadowbolt its time to put up an new Immolate, then UA will come off again, then corruption and Curse of Agony. Darkpact any time imp has some mana for me to use ;P. But yeah you get the idea, keep dots up at all times, and spam shadowbolts. Then you shouldnt have problems being in the high end of your damagemeter.

[Coud]

assuming i ain't on curse duty i go

amp CoD => UA => cor => immo => SL ( VR is immune to this if I recall correctly) => sbolt / LT / DP

2 things i can see that's "wrong" in your cast sequence is firstly..... where's your curse? on boss it should be Doom unless the boss has de aggro abilities like nightbane landing or you're on CoS / CoE abilities

second thing is, your dots > your SB if you're affliction. I refresh my dots asap but never cancelling a cast. so if UA ran out and I'm mid way thru casting shadowbolt, i'll finish casting then reapply UA. I don't tell myself to cast X sbolt, if i can cast them then i will, if i can't then I won't.

[Solarus]

First of all: Don't underestimate demo locks ;>

As seen by the many threads on demonology raiding, it can sometimes actually be just as good if not better than an affliction warlock. So don't be so surprised when you get beaten by one.

Raiding With Felguard (SSC, TK, Hyjal, BT) - The Warlocks Den Forums - Raiding with felguard in SSC/TK.

As for casting "rotations" there are quite a few threads on the forum explaining in depth the cast rotations. The main thing that's already been pointed out by some of the previous replies is that if you want to maximise the DPS you can do,

1: Keep your dots up and running as long as you can (but remember not to recast before the dot is finished as you will lose the last tick)

2: Always be casting something even if a dot has run out. If you're in the middle of casting a shadowbolt while your dots have expired, finish the shadowbolt, then refresh your dots.

Unfortunately casting rotations aren't as easy as pressing one macro over again and again as DoTs expire at different times. You'll have to do it the hard way ;>

If you want an easy time just pressing 1 (or 2) buttons go destruction :P but I wouldn't recommend doing so until you have adequate gear.

[chaos701]

I agree with the guys above that if you haven't been using a curse, you should talk to the other locks in your raid and decide who is doing C of Elem, Shad, and Doom. If you are the only lock, generally go with Curse of Elements to help out the mages.

Also don't forget to activate your trinkets whenever their cooldowns are over. This will add a nice punch to your dps, especially if you can time it with a curse of doom or reapplication of a full round of DOTs.

One other point is to try to minimize the global spell cooldowns. This means that you generally try to avoid casting 2 instant cast spells in a row. Every spell has a global cooldown, (I think it is 0.75 sec) meaning that is the minimum the game allows between 2 instant cast spells. You can read about it on the forums here, but it boils down to the fact that you will reduce non-casting time by leading with a spell with a cast time (UA, immol, SB) and following it immediately by an instant cast (Corr, Siphon Life, Life tap, or a curse). That way the casting time of the immolate spell (for example) will use up its global cooldown, allowing you to cast corruption instantly.

This is just a general guideline however, don't let worrying about a 0.75 sec delay stop you from renewing a DOT, but the optimal starting sequence for an affliction lock is generally considered to be:

Amp curse >> use trinket >> curse of doom >> UA >> Corr >> Immol >> SL >> SB >> LT >> SB....

[Devicus]

Oh one other thing.

If he's 0/40/21 or felguard spec, as demo (ie not affliction), he'll hose you on trash. Even if you dominate bosses you're basically screwed there anyway. That's fine, affliction is boss DPS. Where it counts. It suffers less from mobility too.

Also as far as curse choice goes, my guild has 2 imba moonkin (no, really, we're farming kara and they're basically gear maxed till where you are) and lots of arcane mages, so curse of shadows goes down. Use your brains, work out who will benifit and how much, then go for it.

[Talonn-Shu'Halo]

As a destruction lock.. and one that doesnt play like a normal destruction lock, I cast the following on mobs

I personally dont like spamming sb, cause with it... I can rip the agro off of anything short of a mack truck... Its amazing just how pissed off a boss gets when hit with two or three sb's in a row critting over 3K....

If its just one or two or three..up to four

Send in the vw, Curse of Agony,Corr on the first couple, then Seed of Corr on the last,Immol, SB, and finish off with life tap, drain life if needed.

If its a large group, use the vw to round em up... toss Curse of Agony and Immol on everything and then nuke em to hell with rain of fire and shadowfury. I just love watching six or so guys all die at the same time.

Get a dot timer..to show you when your dot's run out so you can cast them again. They work wonders.

Play around..try this..try that.. till you find what you like and what works for you.

Cheers and happy killing.

[Kastesmoelf]

My casting sequence is UA > Corruption > Curse > Siphon life > Immolate > shadowbolts untill UA fades, then start over again

[Raszahk]

I'm running the ever-popular SL/SL (Siphon Life/Soul Link) arena build at the moment, and I've found casting your DoTs in order of longest-shortest works best for me. So, with that being said, I usually cast CoD -> Siphon LIfe -> Corruption -> Immolate -> Spam Shadowbolts. I noticed that if you cast Corruption and then immediately cast immolate, corruption and immolate will end at practically the same time, making for some fairly easy dot refreshment, since Siphon Life ends between a Corruption/Immolate refresh, so just takes a quick button press to apply. If I'm not on a boss, then I cast Siphon Life first, followed by Curse of Agony. If I had UA, I'd probably use that right before Corruption, since that would put UA, Corruption, and Immolate ending at the same time, thus making reapplication easier to manage. Just my 2 cents, take it or leave it.

[Turmeric]

Originally Posted by Raszahk

If I had UA, I'd probably use that right before Corruption, since that would put UA, Corruption, and Immolate ending at the same time, thus making reapplication easier to manage. Just my 2 cents, take it or leave it.

Without sounding too harsh, this is exactly whay you should try to avoid when initially casting and refreshing dots. When 2 dots end at the same time, at least 1 of them will not be re-applied for a few seconds. In this example the Global Cooldown of Corruption plus the cast time of Immolate means Immolate isn't on the mob for 3secs, which = less DPS.

The key to good affliction dps is simple.

1. Time initial Dot application so they don't end at the same time. This generally means shortest Dot first, so Immo>UA>Corr>Curse of Agony(if used)>SL.
2. Refresh every Dot as soon as you can after it expires, but never before.
3. Life tap/dark pact to keep mana high and health <100%, and when you have a spare half-second, fire a shadowbolt.

The difficult bit is making all that work in a fight where you move, stop DPS, etc. The last thing to remember about Affliction is.... There is NO casting 'sequence'.