Easiest warlock spec?

[papajohn4]

Hi, I just got a warlock 80 lvl by SoR. I play the game since vanilla but never played a warlock and thats why I chose to get warlock from this :P

I also didn't play Shadow priest and in general caster with primary damage come from dots.So what spec do you suggest me to start with?First of all I am going to level to 85 and then I will do some dungeons, little pvp and maybe some LFR raids..

I am not asking for the best possible dps spec :P, I am asking what you think is the easier to adapt to the playstyle, and possible suggest 2 specs, one for leveling/pvp and one for dungeons /raids. I have read the guides but is not for me, I am not gonna do serious raids..

[Shadence]

Affliction is probably the easiest, Destruction isn't very hard either but people like to complain about Improv Soul Fire, Demo is pretty easy too but probably the hardest to master.

If your going to be doing mainly dungeons though most agree Demo is the best, its high aoe for trash, you get some extra stuns in the mix and meta is a nice damage boost for bosses. If your interested in PvP though its basically Affliction or bust I hear :S

[Chickat]

They are all hard comparing to a mage.

[papajohn4]

Thanks a lot m8 :P So I ll go with Affliction for leveling and pvp and maybe I will try demo on dungeons to see how its going :P

They are all hard comparing to a mage.

hm..arcane is indeed very easy, but fire is a little tricky..anyway I am not going to argue on that since I haven't played warlock :P

[Gohzerlock]

Affliction is probably the easiest, Destruction isn't very hard either but people like to complain about Improv Soul Fire, Demo is pretty easy too but probably the hardest to master.

If your going to be doing mainly dungeons though most agree Demo is the best, its high aoe for trash, you get some extra stuns in the mix and meta is a nice damage boost for bosses. If your interested in PvP though its basically Affliction or bust I hear :S

Pffft please demo and destro are harder to play than most dps spec's in game. Demo is also ton's of fun in bgs... although afflic is probably more where it's at. Destro is better in dungeons in terms of lower ilvl sub 85 scaling but with weak aoe and demo aoe being stronger as mentioned.

[Chickat]

Id say affl is about as hard as a fire mage and demo and destro are in the top 5 hardest specs ive ever played along with feral druids.

[Amontoya86]

Easy: Affliction
Medium: Destruction/Demonology(no pet swapping)
Hard: Demonology(pet swapping or still using MWC)

[papajohn4]

Thank you all..it's pretty clear I am going for affliction for the start :P Once I feel comfortable with all the dot tracking playstyle I ll maybe try the harder stuff :P

[gakpad]

Easy: Affliction
Medium: Destruction/Demonology(no pet swapping)
Hard: Demonology(pet swapping or still using MWC)

Eh, pet swapping with MWC makes the rotation easier, if anything, since everything can just be macrod and becomes very formulaic; MWC+meta+pet swap, repeat every 2 minutes. HoG on cooldown and incinerate when MC procs. Two things to keep track of. I'd say destruction and demo overall are pretty close to each other, with destruction being slightly harder to play to the fullest potential due to the intricacies of mastering ISF and the larger number of short term cooldowns to manage (keeping track of your external haste buffs to know when to cast/not to cast chaos bolt), as well as an extra dot to watch (immolate doesn't get refreshed like demo). Like I said, demo is a pretty formulaic and predictable rotation aside from watching for MC procs.

Affliction, however, is by far easiest. Probably one of the easiest specs in the game to be completely honest. Keep up UA and BoD, haunt on cooldown, shadowbolt spam. Once you reach execute you don't even have to keep UA up because it's refreshed automatically.

[Zinnin]

I generally say that Demonology is the easiest to play IF you understand how it works. For whatever reason people get tripped up over having to pet swap with MWC.

In generally I would rate them.

Easier - Affliction Single Target, Demo
Harder - Destro, Affliction 2-3 targets.

Still, I think that there isn't a giant leap of difficulty between the specs.

Something interesting about fire \ arcane mages.*

In a 552s sim Arcane spams AB for 387s compared to Fireball for Fire at 361s. In reality fire spams 1 button nearly as much as arcane does.*

[Gohzerlock]

I still think that affliclock is more difficult to handle than a fire mage, even though I agree that affliction is the easiest lock spec.

[Penguin FTW]

Easier - Affliction Single Target, Demo
Harder - Destro, Affliction 2-3 targets.

Multi-targetting difficulty depends a lot on your set up: UI, keybinds, macros, etc.

[Kivimetsan]

Destro and Demo are better for leveling than affliction because so much burst.

Affliction is probs the easiest (well iv been playing it forever so its like second nature) then destro > demo.
I actually found demo extremely difficult especially on H Rag, pretty much turned me off forever :P

[Palmz]

All three are difficult to master and a long time of playing to be at at the top 99% percentile. Unlike most specs ppl can master in a week (even fire mages). Warlocks are going to be your hardest class to play at a top level so get ready!

As far as difficulty? Depends on the player tbh and how they grasp the rotations. They are all very different!

Leveling? All three are fine. Want to let your demon do the work with some good aoe? Demo. Want to never have to drink or eat, good aoe and good single target, go Affliction. Want to blow up mobs? Go destro. Affliction was the best to lvl for me. Run and dot, drain life= never drink or eat or stop. But it can be pretty repetitive.

Demo is probably the easiest to master imo. Slow and steady rotation. Its hard to fall out of sync. Destro is fast paced, quick CD rotation, easy to screw up. Affliction is the quickest rotation, more room to screw up when 2+ mobs are involved.

more than 2 mobs? Destro>Demo>affliction easiest to hardest. Destro focuses more on single targeting
1 mob? Affliction>Demo>Destro easiest to hardest Affliction has the fewest buttons in a single target fight

All three specs are second nature to me so I'm trying to be as fair as i can.