What spec is best for locks now in 90 ?

[David Cavalheiro]

Atm I see Demonology very strong when I'm running heroics. Hardly any class can follow me on dps/damage. It's true mostly of them are short fights.

When I pop Imps, trinket, Dark Soul, GoSer, Doomguard, Demon Form, Immo Aura etc etc... I can do more 30-40k then the 2nd on meters. At Some bosses I did 80k lol, some of them with Felstorm and Immo Aura active.

But ofc I'm running heroics with pugs and most part don't know how to play. When I do heroics with my guildies the numbers are not so disproportionate. And atm so people reach level 90 yesterday or at Sunday for example, others are just green pieces.

But yeah I believe Affliction will be much more stronger at long fights. Ye will see. Yet I'm willing to use tremendous Demonology on raids.

On heroics, Demonology FTW!

[Gratlim]

Tried affli demo and destro in HC. Affli dps is bad as it lacks aoe, demo is best but i hate the new gameplay so i tried petless destro and felt in love with it: good aoe, insane crits, mobility is top with burning rush, ember generation is nice as it is. Happy panda so far beside the pvp aspect of MoP

[Shauni]

Each of our spec has a niche.

Affli is bad for heroic (mobs dies too quickly, sometimes even turn friendly witch negates the drain soul finisher) but is awesome for raid.
Demo is good for both setups (good DPS, huge AOE potential)
Destro is Godlike for heroics (learn to combine Havok and Shadowburn and you will melt face) but pretty lackluster (and boring) in raid.

But above all thoses considerations, you have to remember that you will make the most of your character by finding what spec you like to play. By badly playing the "best" spec because you can't help but disliking it, you will have a poor dps.

[Ebbikenezer]

I'm sure you'll get some "professional" opinions, but so far, from what I've see during beta (I played a lock exclusively), Destro was still the best dps. Demo has potential with a few tweaks on the part of Blizz and Affliction, as always, needs work to become raid-viable. Affliction, to me, has always really been the most fun and had the most potential to be a powerhouse. The problem is, when you give Affliction the power it needs to be great in PvE, it becomes monstrously overpowered in PvP and blizz fears this.

What is your rating in reference to? End of WotLK? It's always the same, until Destro locks start crying because Demo/Aff locks start figuring out their new abilities better:

-Destro is moderate-high DPS, a la Fire Mage 2.
-Affliction will be amazing DPS throughout the middle of the expansion, but you'll need to be great at micro managing your DoTs and knowing your rotation vs your haste vs your CD's.
-Demo will be great towards the end of the expansion, but a lot of people will cry because it will either be too easy or too difficult(4 buttons!?!!?!? OMFG Blizz wtf are you thinking?!?!?!?).

This is really just opinion, but yeah beginning of an expansion you play Destro. Why? Because no one wants to try and tough it out with a spec that needs a little work, look at how much they dumbed down the game, no one will put effort into knowing their class well enough to go outside of their comfort zone.

[Evillocksp]

im rocking demo now and will be in raids im not using imp swarm glyph and still rocking 50k plus
still no idea about my offspec mite keep destro for killing adds fast but demo can do nearly the same with some imps out and wrathguard and in demon form
btw my wrathguard is critting for close to 25k to 30k in dungeons with mortal cleave
demo is also on two target fights and amazing at aoe
but in two target with corr and shadowflame and doom is very nice esp of i get lucky with doom crits

[Tomed]

I've done a lot of Affliction and Demo and I like Demo a lot more in heroics because it's so easy to AoE efficiently. There are a lot of 3 or 4 pack pulls in heroics and you can pull off decent AoE with Affliction by using SB/SS on every target then spamming Seed of Corruption. Demo is as simple as sending your pet in, dropping Hand of Guldan and pressing Hellfire. You can even cast Corruption on everything if you really want but everything dies so fast already. Even better, if you have Demonic Fury you can pop in Meta and just blow everything and those trash packs disintegrate.

I prefer Affliction in single target fights and sims have shown (check simulationcraft.org) that in such fights Affliction wins out by a fair margin. The Affliction rotation feels very similar to pre-5.0.4 and a lot more natural than the Demo rotation.

[Jensworld]

I've been running Affliction since the release, and I disagree that Affliction has bad AOE. Seed of Corruption is awesome AOE damage, you just have to work for it. I average 40-65k dps in heroics at the moment and top out over 100k on some fights (especially the first two in Siege of Niuzao Temple) It is very rare that another dps top my damage in heroics so far, regardless of class / spec. I have not taken the time to try demo or destro, but I have had both in pug heroic groups and they have not been able to keep up with my damage - whether that is due to gear, skill or spec I cannot say.

At any rate, based on my experience, Affliction is definitely the way to go but be prepared to work for it. There is a lot of tab targeting and dotting to do (Souburn + Soul Swap is a beautiful thing!), but if you do it well, you are untouchable!

[Arkamedis]

Single target fights > Afflict
AoE Fights> Demo

Imo.

[Haffmaistro]

Okei, so here is my opinion. All the spe s are Kinda individual and all have their uses. As it is for me it will be affli/destr where affli will be the spec I use for bosses with no insane dps requierment where I have to burn a add fast etc. For those fights destro will really spike duo to the fact that you can put out 2mill damage in 8-9 seconds with cb. And thats a gimmik i love. I also think destro can shine when this tier is over when you run around rocking hc gear. For hcs im also finding destro godlike duo to the gear I have (465 haste/mastery) just because the bosses only last for about 4 cb. Bur this is what i feel and think. And im no pro so take this with a pinch of salt!

Ps. Sorry of this got clunky, im currently writing on a iPhone

[Sattori]

First: If you're running out of Embers as Destro, you're playing it wrong (until raiding burn phases, at least). Save the last Ember for a Shadowburn. Kill the target and BAM, now you have 2 Embers.

Second: Destro is complicated for multi-target. Depending on the number of targets, the health of each target, and how long they last, you end up with different rotations. With -many- targets FnB -> Incinerate is self-sustaining and insane DPS. With just 2 targets you can regularly pump a Chaos Bolt into each. If one of them goes down faster, you can pump SIX SHADOWBURNS total using Havoc, even if the Havoc target has high health. If one target has a lot of health and others have little, you can AoE them all, Havoc the big guy, and pop shadowburns on the little ones... pumping all 3 shadowburns into your big target. And if the big guy is still alive, you'll probably have full Embers to tear him up. This strategy also helps Destro with 3-5 similar health targets, where it's generally weakest. Pummel one down, then Havoc->3x Shadowburns into the highest health mob and the low health target.

Third: We're really lucky to have 3/3 viable and competitive specs where you can ask 3 warlocks which spec is best and get 3 different, well-reasoned answers.

[skitzin]

Demo and affliction are the specs I find to be the best overall. Demo I find tends to serve better with aoe intensive dungeons/fights and affliction on single/2-target fights which take some time. Destro I feel whilst it does good burst damage in dungeons, that this is at least partly due to the high number of mobs you can kill to build embers up (like BGs) which I foresee issues about longevity in raid fights. It is for these reasons I run afflic/demo and swap between the two depending on the fights/dungeon.

[Shauni]

Third: We're really lucky to have 3/3 viable and competitive specs where you can ask 3 warlocks which spec is best and get 3 different, well-reasoned answers.

QFT. But to take with a grain of salt. To me, each fight will have a "best" spec & glyph.
All 3 are viable, but Each has his niche and should be mastered accordingly.

[Viggers]

also, take into account that for movement, affli will suffer much more than demo (havent yet played destro) if your playing demo right, you will always have a bit of demonic fury. if you need to move anywhere, pop meta and you can dps 100% efficiently while moving. this is the main reason i have been mastering demo over the other specs. the reason i feel destro is the least likely to be used, is that it will never touch demo for aoe or affli for multi dotting, and all 3 are likely to be comparable on single target

[Deleted]

Ok - i'll summarize this thread

people or should i say sheep - mindlessly quoting simcraft numbers with Aff top. In certain cases and fights throughout the 1st tier, this may be the case, but its not the nailed down truth.

Bottom line - play whatever you find fun - there isn't really a nailed down 'top spec' barring 6m long patchwork fights or 2 target fights (destro really fails on both of these)

when you play what you find fun - you will find yourself automatically min/maxing various parts of the spec and likely do more damage than the spec which you dont enjoy and wont put as much effort into learning.

[Deleted]

Conclusion: Each spec has it's high and low points. So depends on what you are fighting and how long, and which spec YOU PERSONALLY pull the highest DPS. I personally pull more DPS as Demo than as Afflic, but that may be because I love demo and pretty much hate afflic. I need to give destro a shot soon too though.

Yeah I tend to get higher dps with destro then affi. I don't know well I'll just have to go what ever spec. is suppose to give you the best dps and learn it.

[Grubjuice]

destro sims lower but who seriously plays like a simulation? Destro is the easiest to play, the harded to screw up with, and is excellent for Cleaves and Execute sniping and does decent AoE so it's by far the best Dungeoneering spec for showing your Recount Epeen.