Good item level to switch away from destro?

[Ocyt]

Afternoon ladies and gents. My lock is currently sitting at 502, and like the rest of my under geared peers, set for destruction. I gave both demonology and affliction the full 110% effort! but they failed to stay on par with every other class. Now no one likes to be called out for low dps numbers, so I switched to destro to stay on the boards.

Downside is, I can't stand playing such a simple spec, and loved the intricate rotations and timings of the other two specs. That said, when can I expect affliction and demo to pull the numbers of destro? I have access to ordos gear, as well as flex gear.

While I don't mind destro, it feels like a poor mans mage, and would love to return to the roots of an actual warlock.

[Bonkura]

When you have legendary meta and good trinkets (pref min from SoO normal). So I don't know, maybe 560 ilvl? And that's only on some fights. If you want to go full time Affli you're probably looking at 570+ for it to compete. Affli had too many bandaid nerfs so the scaling is crap with bad gear.

It depends on what you're doing though. I mean most people who are raiding on any serious level have at least full normal gear and the legendary stuff. If you're just doing LFR/Flex it doesn't matter because your gear is shit anyway so nobody cares if you're 6th or 15th on the DPS. You're still far away from the guys that are likely to be carrying your group.

[evertonbelmontt]

I'd say when your guild/core can handle fights on ~7min average time to kill a boss.

Seems extreme, but so is destro right now. Even at full BiS, affliction doesn't sim higher unless you get very short fights.

[Deleted]

Downside is, I can't stand playing such a simple spec, and loved the intricate rotations and timings of the other two specs. .

Intricate rotation? Affliction?

Hahaha.

You basically put up your most powerful dots and hope the fight is short enough to carry you through, with a stroke of good RNG with trinkets to soften the fall. This is why it requires such good gear, because the dots by themselves do crap damage.

[FurtyIRL]

I'd say when your guild/core can handle fights on ~7min average time to kill a boss.

Seems extreme, but so is destro right now. Even at full BiS, affliction doesn't sim higher unless you get very short fights.

I think the inherent contradiction in that sentence is obvious. BUT THE SIMS SAY IT IS SO!@#!@

Intricate rotation? Affliction?

Hahaha.

You basically put up your most powerful dots and hope the fight is short enough to carry you through, with a stroke of good RNG with trinkets to soften the fall. This is why it requires such good gear, because the dots by themselves do crap damage.

Intricate might not be the best way to paint the spec, but the skill delta between a great and good affliction player is a hell of a lot higher than destruction.

With regards to the OP, affliction becomes a competitive full-time spec between 560-565 ilvl. The stats on your gear have a little more impact as do your trinkets so the actual item level is somewhat flexible. Unless you're playing affliction at its fullest potential in that item level you'll probably get much more consistent results from destruction until the early/mid 570s.