Need some advice, new to affliction

[Hazelsmrf]

I had levelled up Affliction until I got my felguard at level 55, and I've had a demonology build since. I just respecced yesterday, here is my armory profile:

The World of Warcraft Armory

I am fine in open spaces but I have no idea what to do when I'm in a confined area with lots of mobs, where fear would not be good to use. My current build has no points in channeling drain life so I can't drain tank, and I can't seem to free up the points to do so. My thought was to put the points into suppression and as I got +hit gear I would move them over to to Shadow Embrace. I also sacrified the two points in improved curse of agony as it seemed that they were more useful elsewhere, but now I wonder if I made a mistake as it means that I can't kill mobs my level with the instant cast dots. (Admittedly, I probably couldn't anyways until I got some more damage gear)

I am working on getting the spellstrike pants, and I just got exalted with scryer so I will be adding the thread to the pants and hopefully that will help with the damage output. I still have some weak gear spots, I am new to Karazhan and raiding on this character, and almost none of my gear is enchanted - I was waiting to have more "permanent" gear. So now I am farming for components to enchant my epic gear.

Any advice for me for fighting in close quarters? I would guess I would need to get rid of the imp and go for VW?

[Barghbq]

I'm guessing from your gear that you've specc'd for raiding, which is great, but the problem you're describing sounds more like an issue with solo grinding.

I never grind with my VW. He's a mana hog and does pitiful damage. If I need a "tank," I'll pull the puppy who can hold aggro long enough for me to dot 'em up. His mana pool, while not as good as the imp's, is much better than the VW and he does decent enough damage.

I'm nowhere near an expert, this being my first toon, but one thing jumped out at me while looking at your profile - your hitpoints. While it might not matter so much in a raid (I wouldn't know - I've only managed to run one heroic instance and I've yet to even see the inside of Shattered Halls), it does if you're going to be grinding.

Aside from maybe getting some specific +stam gear for grinding and/or putting points in Fel Concentration (I wouldn't have 5/5 Suppresion and 2/2 Howl of Terror - they're used for different things, but that's just me), I'd suggest slowing down your pulls and using some other form of CC (Succy / Banish / Fear-CoR yo-yo).

[Hazelsmrf]

Thanks... I got instant howl of terror for PVP mostly, I don't do much but I started an arena team with friends and uh, we don't win. I am not a great PVPer but I figured maybe this would help a little bit. But you're right, I am specced for raids, and my hit points ARE low. It seems that every time I upgrade something, I lose more and more hit points. I used to have 1500 more! I do need enchants though so maybe I should go for stamina and hit points over +damage for those and gems?

[Smirre]

I respecced from demo to affliction some time ago and I certainly had to get used to the thought of solo-ing without fellguard. I use my VW for solo-play, Imp for raiding.

My tactic (1 mob):

- VW: cast consume shadows (rank 7) for extra damage
- VW attack target
- DoT the target (UA, Curse of Agony, Corr, Siphon Life)
- Mana Tap
- Drain life

With this tactic you will end the battle with almost full health and mana.

With several mobs you can do the first 3 steps, let the VW attack the second target, DoT that target, etc. It all depends on the type of mob (eg demons can be banished). Keep an eye on the health of your VW. I always try to keep the aggro on the VW.

[Valimir]

Personally, I wouldn't put points into Shadow Embrace. I'd shift them all to Fel Concentration (you don't have any at the minute) so you can actually do some drain tanking without being interrupted. Shadow Embrace really isn't of much help if you ask me. Most people used to have one point in there but then the shadow embrace effect got gimped in 2.3. You could also farm some honour for the S1 blade which will give you a stamina boost.

Just to disagree with Smire a bit (sorry!), you shouldn't need 4 DoT's running to burn down one mob quickly. SL, Corr, and Immolate should do, then life tap, drain life. You should easily be able to take 2-3 mobs at once with VW. Let VW aggro then stick four DoTs on each mob, life tab and drain them down in succession.

[clavarnway]

Well for starting Kara nothing wrong with 5/5 Shadow Embrace, helps the tank live. But at your level not having 5/5 Fel Conc must really suck. As Affliction I learned at level 30ish to TANK WITH YOUR FACE and I still do that at 70.

[Whezia]

I leveled from 60-70 as affliction (playing with the FG atm) and my tactics has been the same all the time. I use Imp for grinding since he is an excellent mana battery, I put UA on the first mob and after that I run around and only use instant DoTs (if enought). When I have gathered enought mobs, usually 5 (range is usually the limit here) or something I DL...I usually DL the last mob but if my DoTs are not enough to kill them I choose another tactic. If I get a runner (humanoids) which brings another mob I count that as a bonus :D
I use HoT if the mobs hit hard or have poison attacks for example.
When all mobs are down i DP/LT usually to 50-75% health and I start again
with UA on the new group of mobs.

I only use VW as a tank for Elite Mobs/Group Quests...Usually he will survive/hold aggro long enought for me to throw up all DoTs and DL (or a SB or two...) before I pop him for the shield and DrainTank the mob to death.

I found that 5/5 in Fel Concentration is a neat talent, I would move the point from Shadow Embrace to FC. I would also consider to move Amp. Curse to 2/2 Soul Siphon (I almost always forget to use it anyway (but thats me) and you don't use CoEx for PvP).
5/5 FC and 2/2 SS can also be useful in raids if your guild are new to Kara or ZA....in that case your healers might be very buzzy healing the tanks and melee DPS and if you can offload them by healing yourself at need.
We have just started ZA, 2/6 down and I just love to heal myself when Nalorakk charge me for 4-5k or when I get all that random damage on the birdboss....

[Hazelsmrf]

Thanks, I agree that when levelling up I had 5/5 fel concentration and it was great. I sorely miss that talent. However I really can't think of anything that I could drop that wouldn't affect raid utility or dps in groups/raids. It's a very tough tradeoff as I'm used to being able to solo easily and efficiently. It's not everywhere that you can run around and fear stuff off yourself, I'm thinking farming the ravagers for netherwing faction.

Anyways, I did shift a few things around, dropped 2 points from destruction and put them back in affliction. I have 90 spell hit now, I wonder at what point can I start taking points out of suppression? I am hoping to put the points from suppression into fel concentration as I can, but really I can't think of anything else I could drop to put them in fel concentration as I would really like to keep shadow embrace (though I didn't know it had been nerfed! Is it badly nerfed?)

I can use the VW, he's just disappointing after being used to the felguard. I got spellstrike pants today and put 3 X 9 damage gems and got the spellthread added, so hopefully that will help. Still having trouble in the hit points department though!

Edit: My other option would be to just take all 5 points out of suppression and put them into fel concentration... how badly would that gimp my damage? My previous FG build did not use suppression and I only had 70 spell hit at the time, so I am used to not having it... however I now also don't have FG's extra DPS to make up for mine.

[Devicus]

Okay, affliction is my prefferred playstyle, I love it. I'm wearing 18/21 epics now so I have fair gear :P A summary of what works for me.

Now I find that 3 dots is enough to kill a level 63 mobs, sure, but if you're fighting level 70-71s you'll need UA, corruption, Curse of Agony, and siphon life. I like to pull and run away while throwing instants, life tap, turn and drain tank. the imp covers deficiencies nicely with dark pact.

For a 63, I'll cast UA, corruption, siphon life, life tap, find another target, siphon life, Curse of Agony, corruption, find a 3rd target, same, drain soul to get mana from first target, drain life second a bit, drain soul, etc...

For a 70 or 71, I'll pull solo. I can handle two, maybe 3, but it's no downtime and safer (means I can handle adds) to play safely. Pull with UA/corr, Curse of Agony and siphon life, life tap, turn and drain till near death, drain soul for mana.

Build wise, you NEED siphon life, improved soul siphon, imp drain soul, and 5/5 fel concentration, and dark pact, UA is worth getting. Shadow embrace doesn't hurt though 1 rank is plenty, it still works for this.

For group play, for trash, your rotation will depend on the life of it. The longer they live the more DoTs, the shorter, the less time, the quicker you should get to shadowbolts. If you can't get 3 or 4 shadowbolts off after the DoT, DoTs aren't worth using.

On bosses, keep DoTs up until the last couple of % health. Dont' overwrite a DoT as it destroys their high damage/cast but don't go long periods with several not ticking. Life tap, dark pact, and drain life as needed, (though hopefully DL is not too necessary) and then shadowbolt with any spare time (should get a few off). Immolate becomes worth using when in group situations too.