Monday, October 20, 2008

Affliction Tree 3.0

Alright, I've given my impressions of Affliction gameplay, let's dive a little deeper into the tree itself.

My build can be found here. Keep in mind that this build is optimized for solo play.

Let's break that tree down.

Tier 1
Improved Curse of Agony: 0/2 I prefer CoElements, so these points are better spent elsewhere.
Suppression: 3/3 Extra hit is nice. Mana efficiency is a big goal of mine, this is where I put my extra points to get down to further tiers.
Improved Corruption: 5/5 Extra damage with it now base instant-cast? Yes please.

Tier 2
Frailty: 0/2 I guess if these are your dedicated curses in a raid setting, this would be a decent talent.
Improved Drain Soul: 2/2 Haven't had much use for the mana return at 70, perhaps later. Threat reduction is always nice, but not sure how neccessary it will be with tanks getting huge buffs. Perhaps these points will move in Wrath.
Improved Life Tap: 0/2 Nice talent for a pre-40 build. May take this if I decide to drop Imp Drain Soul.
Soul Siphon: 2/2 A must for Drain-Tanking.

Tier 3
Improved Fear: 0/2 Nice PVP talent.
Fel Concentration: 3/3 Another must for Drain-Tanking. Now that is affects UA and Haunt, it's an amazing talent.
Amplify Curse: 1/1 This is more of a PVP talent. I put this here just because I had one extra point left. This will be removed in my level 80 build.

Tier 4
Grim Reach: 0/2 I never understood this talent. Why would I want extra range on my Affliction spells, but have to run in to fire Shadow Bolts or put up Immolate?
Nightfall: 2/2 Easily my favorite talent in the game. And, yes, Glyph of Corruption will give you double the Nightfall procs.
Empowered Corruption: 3/3 No explanation required.

Tier 5
Shadow Embrace: 5/5 A decent talent becomes amazing. Useful in PVE and PVP. Also, the Shadow Embrace effect counts towards Soul Siphon.
Siphon Life: 1/1 I rarely use this spell in normal leveling, due to it's mana inefficiency. It just takes too long to get the full effect. But when i need it, I'm glad I have it.
Curse of Exhaustion: 0/1 Primarily a PVP talent. Warlocks can use it to kite, but just bring a Hunter instead.

Tier 6
Improved Felhunter: 2/2 Love it. Love it. Love it. Affliction finally has a dedicated pet.
Shadow Mastery: 5/5 If you see an Affliction Warlock without this, ask him where he bought his account.

Tier 7
Eradication: 0/3 Nice talent, great name. More of a raiding talent, for help with Shadow Bolt spam, I would imagine.
Contagion: 5/5 Another mandatory talent.
Dark Pact: 1/1 The reason to go Affliction. With Improved Felhunter, I see almost no need for Life Tap now.

Tier 8
Improved Howl of Terror: 0/2 More of a PVP talent. I know many 'Locks like to Drain-Tank multiple mobs with this, but I'm happy with my playstyle. Using fear mechanics as a leveling method just seems too risky for me.
Malediction: 3/3 Curse of Elements is my primary curse. Extra spell damage is icing.

Tier 9
Death's Embrace: 3/3 I really like this talent. My biggest problem with Affliction in Burning Crusade was difficulty finishing enemies off. This talent fixes that.
Unstable Affliction: 1/1 More DoTs!
Pandemic: 0/3 The only reason I'm avoiding this talent right now is I have almost no crit rating. My gear is focused on pure Spellpower. I may pick this one up in Wrath.

Tier 10
Everlasting Affliction: 5/5 This is brilliant. I really have nothing to add here.

Tier 11
Haunt: 1/1 This is the best new skill of the patch for me, across all classes. Bliz did tons of tinkering to get it just right, and I believe they were successful in a big way.

From here, I prefer to go Demonology for the stat boosts and Demonic Aegis.

Before I sign off on this post, I'd like to give a huge shout-out to Wowhead. Powered by Wowhead has got to be the greatest tool a WoW blogger has.

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