4.0.1 Destro Or Afflic

[jster]

Hey, im looking at these buffs to destro (immolate buff) and the slight slight nerf to affliction (the ~200 damage nerf to UA) and i was curious about peoples opinions for end-game raiding for 4.0.1.

Will Destro be viable again since i been seeing some people rack up some crazy dps as destro, or will it stay with affliction.

/Discuss

[Jessicka]

The design of the trees and mastery system should ensure all three specs are viable.

[Deleted]

Destro is the way to go in 4.0.1, also Demo is starting to catch up. Would almost say that affliction will be the worst specc for raiding in 4.0.1 as it will give less DPS then Destro and less buffs then Demo.

[Phage0070]

The design of the trees and mastery system should ensure all three specs are viable.

In theory sure, but affliction is looking terrible at the moment.

[Takanami]

I haven't played on the ptr for a week or so. However, affliction wasn't doing near as well as the the other two specs at the time. Thats with affliction glyphs for the affliction build and destro pvp glyphs for the other two. Since affliction has only been nerfed since then I really can't imagine it will even be viable compared to the other two specs. As affliction is my main spec I am not to happy with what I have seen. It seems almost silly to stay affliction. Though I will admit I find destro a lot of fun and played it from kara to icc, I still see affliction as the warlock representative spec. For me, I am rather pleased with the destro and demo changes, but affliction is highly disappointing.

[Daggy1111]

Destro will more then likely be good, but your going to see afflicton prolly not get used until 4.1. THe reason I say this is that they are starting to get to the end of the beta, and I doubt there will be any more major changes. Now while they could maybe pull off, I doubt it as it still is gimped majorly by SE. Now I know beta is beta and blah blah, but it looks like afflicton is going to be one of those specs they have to play with each patch.

[Doomcloud]

Impossible to tell really. The only real way to know is raid parses after the patch comes out, or if someone builds a through and accurate simulator(which seems incredible unlikely to happen pre-patch.

[Jessicka]

In theory sure, but affliction is looking terrible at the moment.

Beta is Beta, Test realm is test realm, mechanics before numbers, numbers aren't final etc etc.

Shadow Bolt is really not scaling properly for Affliction, therein lies the problem and it will be fixed. Warlocks, Affliction imparticular, appear to be at the back of the queue at the moment looking at current dicussions and actual changes.

[Doomcloud]

I seriously doubt affliction is in last right now considering affliction drain life is currently the best filler by far of the three specs(only better one is searing pain for destro but that does 2.5x threat).

[jster]

ok, since i am trying to plan out my ideas, i was looking at the spec http://wowtal.com/#k=1WlK2_l.9zi.warlock

I hadnt looked at glyphs yet, if anyone was able, would you guys post your DestroBuild/Spec for now? Just to discuss/compare.

[Glnger]

60k drainsoul crit ticks do more than compensate for the first 75% lower dps


I'm more concerned about tank threat on the current PTR than anything else. I couldnt dps at all for the first 10 seconds, then had to stop dpsing several times during the fight just to be able to do the execute phase, and even at that I was half a hair away from pulling marrowgar off the tank

[Aesahaettr]

60k drainsoul crit ticks do more than compensate for the first 75% lower dps


I'm more concerned about tank threat on the current PTR than anything else. I couldnt dps at all for the first 10 seconds, then had to stop dpsing several times during the fight just to be able to do the execute phase, and even at that I was half a hair away from pulling marrowgar off the tank

I can't see that staying that way for too long.

To quote Blizz regarding Molten Core and Soulfire for Demo

We're considering having Molten Core proc from Immolate and just removing the Soul Fire part of the talent. We want to make sure Demo's dps isn't entirely balanced around the execute phase of a fight

So having so much damage loaded into the execution phase doesn't seem to be their plan. Of course, the may have different plans for Aff to Demo, but this seems a bit incongruous.

[Doomcloud]

The reasoning for the demonology change is sound.. With Soul Fire going down to 4 second base (3 seconds with emberstorm) you would have been able to pop hero, meta, and shoot off 60k soul fires at 1.0sec cast time.

On top of that damage in demon form is increased by mastery, and demon soul was added as a cooldown. It is quite obvious how that is way more broken than drain soul getting an extra 13%+mastery+dark intent over what it had before.


Kinda hoping the parse was before the threat changes(or bad tank), as it would really suck to be threat capped even with 90% deaggro soul shatter.

[hellar]

i think the question you should ask is.
Destro or Demo 4.0.1

affic apparently is crap atm compared to other specs.

[Jessicka]

I seriously doubt affliction is in last right now considering affliction drain life is currently the best filler by far of the three specs(only better one is searing pain for destro but that does 2.5x threat).

That's more of a damning indictment on the state of the spec in terms of closeness to completion more than anything. Everything about that flies in the face of everything they've ever said about how Affliction (and other specs) should work. By rights, Destruction's Incinerate should be top of that pile for 'best filler'.

[Doomcloud]

Well, I would guess that incinerates under backdraft are probably better than drain life, and considering you can conflag every 8 seconds, chaos bolt, doom, corruption and have 3 good dps incinerates... Destruction doesn't spend very much time doing its filler compared to affliction so even if it had the worst one it really isn't all that bad.

[ComputerNerd]

Numbers aside, I think that it depends largely on the role and playstyle.
Affliction is about sustainability, suited to longer or multi-target fights where the additional targets live for a sufficient period of time.
Demonology seems to be largely about the toolbox, and utility.
Destruction appears more about the superior burst, and like demonology will be better on short-lived adds, where affliction will not have time to ramp up.

[Doomcloud]

Not sure I agree with anything you said other than destruction has superior burst. Some of those things might be true on live at the moment but that has more to do with the game being broken and unbalanced than with the way they were designed. Affliction is not designed to be the best dps on long fights it just happened to work out that way because the other two specs are weak on live.

Affliction is pretty bad at multi-target non-aoe fights due to haunt/shadow embrace and between Bane of Havoc and super immolate that doesn't require a million debuffs to function I would be surprised if destruction wasn't the superior spec in 2-3 target situations. (Plus most 2-3 mob with high health situations you are focus firing one down not dotting everything up and splitting damage)

Demonology's benefit is its cooldowns and pet damage. Metamorphosis, the best demon soul cooldown, longest lasting guardians, and more damage tied in the pet are what define the spec. It shines in situations where pets can damage and players can't and in situations where cooldowns are really good (like a boss having a vulnerable phase for example)

[Ragnarokex]

things dying quick will always better destro because dps scales with time spent output.
affliction might be best come first raid tier due to elarning fights.. longer tunements and things liek that .. but as has been said.. ptr is just that.. ptr.. and atm things will surely change. so for the meantime.. speculate less

[Evillocksp]

I love destro, always have. I play destro on live servers right now with higher end gear and get hated on by some of my lock buddies in other guilds. But then we will raid together in pugs just for fun sometimes and i end up beating them. Esp with a demo lock in raid. Can't wait for cata and to roll as destro, be playing it thru another expansion i guess with a demo off-spec.