At a Crossroads Here (Gear Discussion)

[FlacidGladiator]

I'm at a bit of a crossroads. I want to play affliction spec as I enjoy it very much. My question becomes now what gear should I go for? By that I mean spell haste or spell crit? I would presume that spell haste AND crit are necessary for destruction since their mainstay spells require being affixed to one spot and have a cast time and are direct-damage for the most part.

For affliction with most of the DOT's being instant cast or quick-cast like haunt and unstable affliction, spell haste doesn't seem to have much utility except to throw out a couple shadowbolts while the DOT's tick down.

Now 3.1 is saying affliction DOT's will crit for 200% damage, so now haste seems to be a smaller concern and more emphasis to gear/enchant/gem for spellpower and crit like a mage and oh yes, by the way, get gear with spirit if you can. It seemed at one point warlocks were being herded towards snagging up priest gear with its spirit and haste. It takes a lot of haste to get a notable reduction in casting time for a spell I'm not focused on with my spec (shadowbolt). It also takes a decent amount of crit to make those DOT crits proc and I can also benefit my shadowbolt with spell crit as well.

What's the current consensus?

[Wintie]

As per usual focus for hit, once you reach cap focus gem and enchant for raw spell power... naturally you will get enough crit (the badge trinket is worth it) and there is an overabundance of haste, I believe about 500ish is a nice amount. As for crit I'm at 16% and it seems to be enough.

[skojten]

are we talking about pvp or pve?

[Azathar]

Ahh my mistake ;D First post looks like about PvE. Deleted prev post =]

[zey]

As of 3.08 haste is better for affliction than crit. Even though your DoTs are instant cast or short cast, because haste can lower the gcd it is still useful for those spells. Haste is also extremely valuable sub 25% for shortening your drain soul casts.

I have not seen any hard numbers from 3.1, but with the talent changes it stands to reason that the value of crit will be inflated. Whether it will overtake haste is up in the air though.

Of course, spell damage is so much better than haste and crit that you should probably never gem/enchant for either of the later.

[Protokol]

I try affliction in the ptr and the dots crits a LOTS! and it crit for about 3k. but like all buld for now the bets this is to
hit cap> spell power>haste>crit>spirit>int
this is as good for affliction as destruction!