Aaaand straight 5% nerf for Tomb launch (aff and destro)
I am the one who knocks ... because I need your permission to enter.
Well it seems that the main difference is that destro is much stronger in ST situations now such that it basically matches affliction. Everything feels slower with destro but in a good way. Before you were swinging a katana with constant Chaos Bolts flying but now it's like swinging around a big hammer. Slow but powerful.
I think affliction will win out for people:
1) who PUG because it has such high survivability.
2) who are in mediocre guilds that only look at topline dps meters and deaths. Aff is better able to cheat death than the other classes and also pad.
3) who want an easier rotation with more instant-casts.
Destro will win out for:
1) Fights with priority adds and target switching (always in a lot of fights). Destro *ahem* destroys Aff in target-switching situations.
2) Players in good guilds who will break down DPS charts more. Before Destro would always be behind Aff in topline dps but do more useful dps. I'm talking about fights like Botanist where Aff pads like crazy but Destro is the one actually doing damage to priority adds. I don't know if this point is applicable anymore since Destro dps is so much higher now that they won't lose out as much to Afflocks padding.
3) players who want something slightly more challenging than Afflock. Not saying Destro is super difficult but managing havoc and syncing it up to max soul shards while not wasting soul shards is key. And Roaring blaze styles are a little skill intensive with a more cluttered priority list.
Overall, it's nice for destro to be competitive again. I was hesitant to call the havoc changes good but they do feel pretty good. Havoc made it so that ST damage would always be bad for destro. The class feels like it has an identity now instead of a chaos bolt spammer.