Is Affliction generally bad at low item levels?

[AdrianCC100]

I just reached 100 on my Warlock the other day and did some grinding for gear. I'm happily 655. However, I don't do that much damage.. I do at most 25,000 in 5 mans and maybe around 30,000 fully raid buffed when I did Kazz. But solo I'm only doing maybe 20,000.

I feel like that is pretty low considering my Frost mage at 640 item level can burst up to 50,000 if I get lucky with crits. So is Affliction just overall bad at low item levels this expansion? I tried the other Warlock specs but I didn't really enjoy them as much as I do Affliction.

[Baconeggcheese]

Yes, you play destruction until you're at a reasonable gear level.

Aff is also just horrible for 5 man content and soloing right now.

[AdrianCC100]

Yes, you play destruction until you're at a reasonable gear level.

Aff is also just horrible for 5 man content and soloing right now.

To be fair. I can solo better than my mage because of the tank pet. At least right now, until I can get some more gear on mage.

[pvw1075]

Yes, you play destruction until you're at a reasonable gear level.

Aff is also just horrible for 5 man content and soloing right now.

If you're looking to do raids, as usual, Mr. Baconeggcheese is correct.

Doesn't mean you can't use it on "good aff" fights just to get use to it though!

[AdrianCC100]

If you're looking to do raids, as usual, Mr. Baconeggcheese is correct.

Doesn't mean you can't use it on "good aff" fights just to get use to it though!

I'm not looking to get serious into raiding again. Already did that on Hunter. I was just curious since I'm getting a few classes slightly caught up in gear and to learn/practice them for Legion so I can decide which one to main.

[bu3mair]

For aff to be good you'll need a lot of haste and mastery both are equally important (haste slightly higher)
once you get reliable shard regeneration, aff becomes the strongest spec on single/counsel fights .. ie hellfire high counsel
but as the previous guys said
in 5 mans you are better off using destro for its AOE and cleave
demo is fine too but not as powerful anymore but most fun IMO

[Deleted]

Yes, you play destruction until you're at a reasonable gear level.

Aff is also just horrible for 5 man content and soloing right now.

Soloing is fine, as in leveling or questing - dot up everything and snipe with the Drain Soul glyph to heal and it's all good.

But dungeons... you might as well afk follow.

[wholol]

I'm not looking to get serious into raiding again. Already did that on Hunter. I was just curious since I'm getting a few classes slightly caught up in gear and to learn/practice them for Legion so I can decide which one to main.

If you don't really care about getting into raiding what is the point of concerning yourself with how good or bad affliction is with ilvl ? at this point in time any question regarding specs is pretty irrelevant as all 3 specs ( not to mention most classes ) are getting reworked in some way or another, so in a way you neither need the gear to level up in legion nor do you need to learn the specs coz they're changing, so outside of playing what u feel is fun to pass the time there's not much else to say really

[Iofeska]

affliction is fine for soloing, unless you're mass pulling stuff. and even then, if you're undergeared then that wouldn't be ideal anyway

[AdrianCC100]

If you don't really care about getting into raiding what is the point of concerning yourself with how good or bad affliction is with ilvl ? at this point in time any question regarding specs is pretty irrelevant as all 3 specs ( not to mention most classes ) are getting reworked in some way or another, so in a way you neither need the gear to level up in legion nor do you need to learn the specs coz they're changing, so outside of playing what u feel is fun to pass the time there's not much else to say really

Serious in raiding as in I'm not going to get into it hardcore again. I'm going to do it casually. Plus I was just curious.

[zvvl]

I'd really recommend playing Destruction at lower item levels and for soloing content.

Affliction is good for a variety of reasons right now, most of them are tied to specific trinkets and the tier bonuses. It's usable and certainly viable/better than Destro on some single target fights without those, but for most purposes you'll want Destruction.