Affliction - The Opening Attack!!!

For Warlocks, the opener is super important. 

Look at the DPS chart above. In the opening sequence, you pull roughly 3 times the average dps for the rest of the fight. If you screw up the opener, it will greatly reduce your dps. 

This is the Opener that I use. I will try to explain the rationale behind each step so that all of you can learn. 

For Single Target

Before the Boss is Pulled 

Tell your tank to have a Pre-Pull countdown: 5,4,3,2,1 PULL! 
One second before the boss is pulled: Consume a Potion of the Jade Serpent
Additional Note: In the execute phase (Boss < 20% Health), use another Potion of Jade Serpent together with your Dark Soul. 

Boss is Pulled 

Our job is simple: 
Get all possible procs and buffs UP as quickly as possible.
Extend and keep these procs and buffs for AS LONG AS POSSIBLE

The spells to use are (in this order): 

• Curse of Elements  - 5% Damage Debuff
• Summon Guardian: DoomGuard. Benefits from all procs too! 
• Use all possible DPS Cooldowns (Dark Soul, Profession, Trinket, Racial, etc) 
• Soul Swap (Soul Burn)-  Apply all Dots on Target Immediately.  
• Malefic Grasp until you have all your Procs/Buffs UP. Important Note: You must have an addon to track all your Procs/Buffs on your target
• Once all Buffs/Procs are UP, Recast all the dots manually to benefit from the new procs. Do it in this order: Agony, Corruption, Unstable Affliction
• Cast Haunt(30% Damage Increase) as much as possible but keep one Soul Shard as backup. 
• One second before the Big Buffs expire, Refresh all the dots again using Soul Swap (Soul Burn)
•  
• For example, in the screenshot above, the Red, Blue and green Buff are going to expire soon. I refresh all my dots NOW to keep the buff in my dots. Even though the proc is gone, my dots continue to tick and benefit from them. 
• One second before Dark Soul expires, refresh all your dots again using Soul Swap (Soul Burn) to keep the Dark Soul Buff on your dots. 

For Multi Target

This is mainly for fights like Council of Elders, or Stone Guards where there are a few bosses to attack at the start. 

The main thing to note is this: 

Cast LESS of Haunt and Malefic Grasp

Use MORE of Soul Swap (Soul Burn) to multi dot all your targets. 

Before the Boss is Pulled 

Tell your tank to have a Pre-Pull countdown: 5,4,3,2,1 PULL! 
One second before the boss is pulled: Consume a Potion of the Jade Serpent
Additional Note: In the execute phase (Boss < 20% Health), use another Potion of Jade Serpent together with your Dark Soul. 

Boss is Pulled 

Our job is simple: 
Get all possible procs and buffs UP as quickly as possible.
Extend and keep these procs and buffs as LONG as possible.
Multi Dot ALL Bosses with our Super Buffed Dots as much as possible.

The spells to use are (in this order): 

• Curse of Elements  - 5% Damage Debuff
• Summon Guardian: DoomGuard (Don't use Infernal unless you have 6+ targets)
• Soul Swap (Soul Burn)-  Apply all Dots on Target Immediately.  
• Malefic Grasp until you have all your Procs/Buffs UP. Important Note: You must have an addon to track all your Procs/Buffs on your target
• Once all Buffs/Procs are UP, Use Soul Swap (Soul Burn) as much as possible to put Dots on all the bosses. 
• Just before the Big Buffs expire, if you still have shards, use Soul Swap (Soul Burn) on as many bosses as possible. If no shards, refresh Agony manually on all the bosses again. Never ever let Agony drop off any of the bosses. Get an Addon to show Dots on the name plates of the bosses. If you are having problems, just refresh Agony slightly earlier (when > 10s left on Agony left). 
• Before Dark Soul expires, refresh all your dots again on all the bosses to extend this buff in your dots.