Destruction/Affliction Gear

[Kraeve]

Since I started playing my warlock I've always been Affliction at heart. After 5.2 changes, I decided to join the bandwagon of Destruction and have found myself enjoying it nearly as much. I know that currently Destruction has the highest sim'd damage output of the specs until ilvl 522 at which point Affliction pulls ahead. My question is one of gear interchangeability. I would prefer to keep only 1 PvE gear set for raiding that can switch between Affliction and Destruction with minimal change in gems (reforging is much easier to deal with than having to swap gems all the time) as that allows my raid group to maximize the number of Haunted Souls acquired for crafting better gear for the group and also doesn't require me to constantly farm/buy new gems. I've noticed a few high-end destruction warlocks (talented GoSup) gemming nearly full mastery instead of the standard crit/haste>mastery. Would this gear set-up be severely detrimental to my overall dmg output? If so, should I look into trying to build 2 PvE gear sets? I'm only ilvl 500 at the moment.

[Seezer]

No, you don't need two sets of gear. People get too caught up in secondary stats. Crit is the only stat for affliction that isn't that great. For destro, they are all close in value. Besides, one stat being a .4 of a point below another one doesn't make it garbage. With destro, you'll be fine with a haste/mastery reforge.

[Cirque]

I have to agree with Seezer. If you're switching specs often, haste/mastery will be fine. Other than that, crit->haste likely wins out.

Additionally, I have found it greatly varies with your gear what stats are best, but also, specific fights require specific gemming at high level raiding. As a result, it's never a good idea to look up a high end Warlock and just copy what he's doing, because he may have been in a totally experimental setup to beat a certain boss or phase. For example, I knew a warlock who copied my warlock completely, which would have been fine, except at that time we were on Sinestra, and the gemming and reforging was done to accomodate that fight and absolutely not conform the norm or even good in any other fight. Even today I often have guildies whisper me they "just did what I did" and I hold my breath hoping I didn't have an armory with weird stuff going on. In any case, it's rarely wise to copy a progression warlock's armory.

To be sure, I'd suggest you sim your toon. To not waste gold on regemming and forges, use Chardev to create a new character profile. Import your warlock and edit gems and reforges, save the profile and import it in simcraft. That way you can quickly and easily compare what different stat setups will do for your dps.

Of course, theoretical dps is just that, but it's the only reasonable way we have to estimate what is the best thing we should do. For me, this was actually a lot of mastery and haste at some point, but this has shifted back to crit. As Seezer mentioned though, differences are usually minimal, and if you're not in a top progressing guild, probably not anything to break your head over (I know I have broken my head over it for 3 weeks straight! It's not worth it ).

That said, while Destro is likely better at lower gear levels, if your gear is much more affliction friendly, it is unlikely destro will pull ahead or by that much. Another thing worth simming - in case you like aff more than destro.

[Deleted]

the problem is that a lot of ppl just sim their character, look at the stat weight and gem accordingly. what they tend to forget is that this only really works for single target dps and there arent many single target fights in t15. since there are lot of fights with adds and as destro you use a lot of your embers for aoeing down adds, mastery actually becomes better than what those sims says since it increases the dmg of your ember spenders which is why you see a lot of destro locks gem mastery and also since you will be swimming in embers you'll have plenty of embers to use on most fights, so those destro locks tend to gem/gear for the encounters themselves and not whatever theoretical dps they should do according to simcraft. for most fights in t15 atm, mastery tends to be the better stat for destro altho this isnt always the case there are a few situations where it isnt but it is anything to worry about.

[Deleted]

No, you don't need two sets of gear. People get too caught up in secondary stats. Crit is the only stat for affliction that isn't that great. For destro, they are all close in value. Besides, one stat being a .4 of a point below another one doesn't make it garbage. With destro, you'll be fine with a haste/mastery reforge.

Well.. No.

As affliction you want haste. As destruction and demonology you want mastery.
Stacking haste as destruction in the infinite-ember scenario for instance is a complete waste. It will still do well, but nowhere near as well as mastery would have.

But then again, kinda yes.. If you're a casual player, in a casual guild where your min-maxing is of no consequence you can gem full spirit if you like.

Thing is: Destruction is played to its greatest advantage if you can generate lots and lots of embers and stack mastery. This can be done on Horridon, Tortos, Megaera HC and Primordius.
On the fights where that isn't the case, Affliction or Demonology (especially Council) would win out, affliction stacking haste to the 13737 bp, while demonology goes for a mix of the two.

[Tritone496]

Well.. No.

As affliction you want haste. As destruction and demonology you want mastery.
Stacking haste as destruction in the infinite-ember scenario for instance is a complete waste. It will still do well, but nowhere near as well as mastery would have.

But then again, kinda yes.. If you're a casual player, in a casual guild where your min-maxing is of no consequence you can gem full spirit if you like.

Thing is: Destruction is played to its greatest advantage if you can generate lots and lots of embers and stack mastery. This can be done on Horridon, Tortos, Megaera HC and Primordius.
On the fights where that isn't the case, Affliction or Demonology (especially Council) would win out, affliction stacking haste to the 13737 bp, while demonology goes for a mix of the two.

currently I use crit as my stat priority over mastery or haste. The only disadvantage with crit is it locks you into destro only where stacking mastery would make it viable to dual spec for affliction. But high crit builds are working very well right now for destro. I may change back to mastery tho cause I miss being able to go affliction for certain fights like counsel for example.