last minute decisions about lock lvling spec.

[Gratlim]

so what's the deal so far? is affliction still the best spec to level with ? or has anyone found a better spec with less downtime and faster clearing?

just wanted to see if I should swap to another spec at the last minute or stick with affli

Best spec with least downtime so far for me: Demo DA glyph / 20% hp heal on kill. You can't beat that.

1) Go in DA mode
2) GoS your imp (dispel), +30 dps, +20 hp with soul link talent
3) Pull every mob around you with corruption
4) Aoe the crap out of them with your instants and always stay full life with the glyph
5) Demon leap to next pack. Rince and repeat

[nightfalls]

Best spec with least downtime so far for me: Demo DA glyph / 20% hp heal on kill. You can't beat that.

1) Go in DA mode
2) GoS your imp (dispel), +30 dps, +20 hp with soul link talent
3) Pull every mob around you with corruption
4) Aoe the crap out of them with your instants and always stay full life with the glyph
5) Demon leap to next pack. Rince and repeat

I still think DA is not a bad option, but personally I would recommend felguard + service: felguard unless you are absolutely needing the dispels.

[wholol]

Always finish with shadowburn, when you kill a target, you're refunded the ember.

unless you are starting with more than one ember, I don't see this happening, unless you mean to say you CB, then build another ember to use shadowburn all on the same mob, which seems to me like it would take ages to kill a mob if this was the case

Unless you meant I never CB , just spam inci then finish with shadowburn, wouldn't it be weak at say around 87~ ish ? since the mobs you will face will gain a lot of hp and your incinerate damage wont go up that much ( unless quest items are THAT good , but I have my doubts ).

[Zharradan]

unless you are starting with more than one ember, I don't see this happening, unless you mean to say you CB, then build another ember to use shadowburn all on the same mob, which seems to me like it would take ages to kill a mob if this was the case

Unless you meant I never CB , just spam inci then finish with shadowburn, wouldn't it be weak at say around 87~ ish ? since the mobs you will face will gain a lot of hp and your incinerate damage wont go up that much ( unless quest items are THAT good , but I have my doubts ).

you can double pull and them havoc 1 target and shadowburn the other, this will almost kill the havoc'd target and you will get 1 ember and 20% health

and since now embers don't decay below 1 you will be doing this every time

[Jenerena]

Even though I'll be main spec Affliction I'll probably play demo for levelling as I'll be doing a combination of questing and dungeon grinding. Really though, it'll come down to what feels most comfortable.

[Deleted]

unless you are starting with more than one ember, I don't see this happening, unless you mean to say you CB, then build another ember to use shadowburn all on the same mob, which seems to me like it would take ages to kill a mob if this was the case

Unless you meant I never CB , just spam inci then finish with shadowburn, wouldn't it be weak at say around 87~ ish ? since the mobs you will face will gain a lot of hp and your incinerate damage wont go up that much ( unless quest items are THAT good , but I have my doubts ).

I don't quite understand why you would need to use Chaosbolt straight away? It's not like Destruction cannot function without that one spell...

On the first monster I encounter I would use it to build embers, not to dump them off...

After I have my 4 embers, I can go to town with chaosbolt/shadowburning and i'll never run out of embers.

[pokeadott]

Destro is a very fast lvling spec in the MoP environment. Mob spacing alone makes chain pulling more than 2/3 mobs impractical, after lvl 87 mob hp/dmg reduces that possibility further.

As was posted, don't worry about Chaosbolt. It's quasi useless while leveling. Save at least one ember always for Shadowburn - it's free/instant/guaranteed mob death/huge heal. Only CB when you have 2/3 embers. Your 2 main spells will be Conflag+FelFlame with some drafted incins mixed in - FF is good damage and mana is a non issue while lvling. Destro actually has the best mobile dmg in a lvling environment thanks to FF and lack of mana issues.

Generally you should be doing something like: Pull mob A with Conflags/FF while running toward mob B, when mob B is in range pull with Havok, back to mob A, finish mob B. Ideally, you get mob A down to 20% by cast #2 of Havok then copy SBurn for a free double kill.

It's really efficient/fast throughout and much safer than Aff at higher lvls.

[Deatheryn]

I just lvl'd my lock to 85 as Destro and I'll continue as Destro, The self healing and mana regen is phenomenal. I single target mostly, just post up and burn everything in a 30 yard radius.
The aoe is still quite too though between Fire and Brimstone and Rain of Fire instant cast, I can pop F&B:Conflag and RoFx4 then burn off Incinerates to rebuild embers for my next pull. It is just fun.

[Bigbamboozal]

I will definitely be leveling as demo in the dark apotheosis form. That play style is awesome.

Quoted for truth in the face of leveling. I've been absolutely facerolling, pulling as big as packs as I can get, popping survival cd's and Harvest soul starts to really shine when you've got big packs, just aoe, pop some cd's and immo aura and harvest away.
If you use walker with soul link and then sacrifice you get another defensive cd and more hp, which makes bigger harvest soul heals.
At some point, you get a nice balance between tankiness and healiness, with enough dps to make it worth the effort.

[xskarma]

Just for the Americans or people yet to start, I've been going as Affli, with GoSac for the past 5,5 hours and it's been simples so far. Just make a castsequence macro for SB:SS and pop that thing on everything moving, bit of DS here and there and you are golden. Combined with the Soul Consumption glyph you're not going beneath 90% health either.

So, good luck if you're yet to begin, I'm heading to bed for now, ready for more tomorrow

[Sattori]

Always finish with shadowburn, when you kill a target, you're refunded the ember.

For those who haven't been paying attention, Shadowburn returns TWO Embers if you kill a target with it. So if you have 2 Embers and Chaos Bolt a target, then Shadowburn kill, you end the fight with 2 Embers again.

With GoSac, Chaos Bolt always knocks mobs below 20%, so the rotation is self-sustaining. Chaos Bolt, Shadowburn = 1 kill, Ember neutral. If Havoc is up, Chaos Bolt, Shadowburn x2 = 2 kills with 1 more Ember than you started with.

Add the fact that it has less ramp-up than Demo and better dungeon viability than Affliction (and it's fun EXPLODING things) and I have my leveling spec.