UVLS for Demonology, haste cap vs mastery

[gravydays]

Ilvl 525 lock here. I usually play affliction but just got the UVLS trinket so I want to give demonology a try. From everything I read or video guides I've watched (thanks Evrelia and Sparkuggs) it seems that you either need to hit an incredibly low soft Haste cap 8097 and then stack mastery. OR you can reach an incredibly high haste cap around 13000-14000+. With my gear, I can't quite reach those upper level of soft haste caps. I have the legendary meta, UVLS, Wooshalays (sp?), and Breath of the Hydra trinkets (all normal raid versions). It just feels wrong to drop haste down so low to the 8097 range, especially when haste is so beneficial for the RPPM stuff. Further confusing me is what AMR says to do. For default settings on Demo spec it optimizes a random 9000ish haste, and fills all red gem slots with straight Intellect. Just doesn't seem right to me.

So, with UVLS, legendary meta gem, and BotH (or Woosh), should I really soft cap at 8097, and stack mastery? Or just reforge into, and gem for, full haste (while preserving socket bonuses of course). Or should I just do what AMR says to do?

Note:
My guild clears ToT every week, the bosses I fight and clear vary from week to week. I can switch specs but I can not reforge/regem for between bosses.

[Zevoa]

Ilvl 525 lock here. I usually play affliction but just got the UVLS trinket so I want to give demonology a try. From everything I read or video guides I've watched (thanks Evrelia and Sparkuggs) it seems that you either need to hit an incredibly low soft Haste cap 8097 and then stack mastery. OR you can reach an incredibly high haste cap around 13000-14000+. With my gear, I can't quite reach those upper level of soft haste caps. I have the legendary meta, UVLS, Wooshalays (sp?), and Breath of the Hydra trinkets (all normal raid versions). It just feels wrong to drop haste down so low to the 8097 range, especially when haste is so beneficial for the RPPM stuff. Further confusing me is what AMR says to do. For default settings on Demo spec it optimizes a random 9000ish haste, and fills all red gem slots with straight Intellect. Just doesn't seem right to me.

So, with UVLS, legendary meta gem, and BotH (or Woosh), should I really soft cap at 8097, and stack mastery? Or just reforge into, and gem for, full haste (while preserving socket bonuses of course). Or should I just do what AMR says to do?

Note:
My guild clears ToT every week, the bosses I fight and clear vary from week to week. I can switch specs but I can not reforge/regem for between bosses.

You usually play Affliction and want to test out Demonology with UVLS. Furthermore, you do not wish to reforge or re-gem between bosses.

With these considerations I would recommend going for the 9778 Haste breakpoint, as it will allow you to comfortably switch between the two spec. In regard to gemming I'd recommend a mixture of either Mastery/Int (Red Socket), Mastery/Hit (Blue) and Mastery (Yellow) should you be able to reach the required haste threshold easily. If not, simply change some of the mixed mastery of pure mastery gems to their haste counterparts.

An armoury link would prove useful, as well as some commentary on our current level of progression.

Best of luck.

[gravydays]

Thanks for the reply. Just for clarification though, I'd like to know what's best for Demonology, ie I can switch to affliction, but I'm really wanting to know what's best for demo spec. My goal is to run all bosses as demo. My guild clears ToT in its entirety every week (not including Raden) and we clear Jinrok, Horridon, Iron Qon on Heroic every week while working on others, currently Tortos, Twins, and JiKun.

I will work on getting an armory link.

[Zevoa]

Thanks for the reply. Just for clarification though, I'd like to know what's best for Demonology, ie I can switch to affliction, but I'm really wanting to know what's best for demo spec. My goal is to run all bosses as demo. My guild clears ToT in its entirety every week (not including Raden) and we clear Jinrok, Horridon, Iron Qon on Heroic every week while working on others, currently Tortos, Twins, and JiKun.

I will work on getting an armory link.

10man or 25man?

To be honest raid format and your amount of gear makes a considerable difference to the 'optimal' set up. For instance on 10man Lei Shen heroic Ball Lightning isn't even a thing, while one 25man its a considerably greater potential source of damage as a Demonology Warlock; which means mastery would be preferable. However, in the 10man format, where gear makes a much greater difference as you progress, in terms of how quickly encounters die, Haste is more benefitial; you aren't going to have as many adds to pad damage on ie. Megaera, Durumu Ice Walls, Lei Shen Ball Lightning.

At your ilvl going for the 13737 is a BIG strech, you don't want to sacrifice too much mastery and completely disregarded it. Furthermore, you aren't really going see a noticeable in the proc rate of your RPPM trinket between the two builds. 9778 is your safest level, you are still progressing; you should be focusing more on mechanics, as you outgear the content.

In regard to the heroic bosses you are working on, I'd definately recommend playing Demonology on Ji-kun as the burst AoE is very effective in dealing with the nests. However, for Tortos and Twins Affliction is still likely to be the prefered option; since you are progressing on them. Afflicion on Tortos for Curse of Exhausation and near unlimited Soul Shards off of the Bats and Affliction for milking as much damage as you can in to Sun during phase one of the encounter. While you could play Demonology on Tortos or Twin Consorts, you aren't really bring your raid more and will be more likely to suffer from RNG, especially on Twin Consorts where your DPS to Sun during Phase One will be lack luster, unless you can get a lucky UVLS proc during the moments when she is attack-able.