4.0.1 Destro Or Afflic

[weewarrior]

actually, Instinctz....dealing with dots is ALL about keep x up keep y on z etc. There is no "rotation" to affliction, let alone any spec. There is priority then maintenance. So to each their own, i like all three specs, but I get a kick out of big numbers rather than many numbers, so I am running demo...

[Zoots]

and yet, destruction is so boring... at least affliction requires thought process more than just keep x up, keepy y and z on cd and spam w

I would agree with this. But if what is being said is true and destro is outperforming... then there really isn't much reason to go affliction when destro outperforms it while requiring less thought processes.

[Instinctz]

actually, Instinctz....dealing with dots is ALL about keep x up keep y on z etc. There is no "rotation" to affliction, let alone any spec. There is priority then maintenance. So to each their own, i like all three specs, but I get a kick out of big numbers rather than many numbers, so I am running demo...

but see thats just it, affliction is priority, your constantly having to monitor stuff and actually feels like a real rotation compared to

Keep up immolate, keep Conflag on CD, Keep Chaos bolt on CD, Spam Incinerate.
or you can have a spec where your monitoring several abilities at once, making sure there on the boss, and spamming something IN BETWEEN them

[weewarrior]

i can see what you are saying, but again, thats why they make chocolate and vanilla.

[Nest]

i laugh at destro warlocks, personally, you roll a lock for the pets and the dots, wanna play destro? go roll a fire mage, there currently blowing EVERYONE away on live.

Not one of these guys who has no clues about Mages nor Warlocks.

Also, funny how he thinks that Affliction is hard in PvE. :_D

[Instinctz]

Not one of these guys who has no clues about Mages nor Warlocks.

Also, funny how he thinks that Affliction is hard in PvE. :_D

on the contrary, i dont think affliction is that hard, however it is a lot harder than Destro is, cuz lets face it, destro is faceroll. my alt warlock is affliction and i manage to pull 10-11k on most fights. i love the spec, it actually makes me feel like im doing something besides spamming cooldowns, and acting like a fire mage.

[Zoots]

Not one of these guys who has no clues about Mages nor Warlocks.

Also, funny how he thinks that Affliction is hard in PvE. :_D

Where did he say affliction is hard in pve? Somebody saying something requires more thought processes doesn't mean they personally think it's hard.

[Instinctz]

Where did he say affliction is hard in pve? Somebody saying something requires more thought processes doesn't mean they personally think it's hard.

THANK YOU, Destro is very very spammy, where as affliction you have to constantly monitor and adjust what you are doing based on the timers left on your dots. seems a lot more in depth than destro to me.

[DR.Green]

Must say i always played affli, but started destro at the end of cataclysm, on beta and on ptr i really like playing demonology now, though it never attracted me before.

[nocturnus]

on the contrary, i dont think affliction is that hard, however it is a lot harder than Destro is, cuz lets face it, destro is faceroll. my alt warlock is affliction and i manage to pull 10-11k on most fights. i love the spec, it actually makes me feel like im doing something besides spamming cooldowns, and acting like a fire mage.

Like I already said a few times and this is generally accepted by the warlock community: Playing destro mediocerly is 'easy'. Playing destro (on live) and doing respectable damage is quite a bit 'harder' than affliction, since every single thing you do is based on pyroclasm procs. Even recasting and knowing when to clip your immolate.

I've played affliction throughout icc because it simply was the spec with highest potential damage output. Destro still is an incinerate spam, but I'd honestly rather have that at this point than having to stare at my dotimer for maximum uptime. I'd rather just nuke and enjoy the environment.

So in a nutshell: No, on live destro IS the 'hardest' (least easy, if you will) of the three specs to play WELL.

[Avey]

I love destro, and destro will probably be the min/max spec of choice. However, there were some very nice changes to Demo, that make it both viable and fun
May I suggest Dual Spec? as it will only be 250g come that patch.

[Jenerena]

i laugh at destro warlocks, personally, you roll a lock for the pets and the dots, wanna play destro? go roll a fire mage, there currently blowing EVERYONE away on live.

Come back in a few months and we'll see if the same statement is true.

Playing a destro warlock right now is a little meh, but this thread isn't actually about now, it's about 4.0.1.

[Saverem]

Right now Burning Ember is a little overtuned giving Destro more DPS than it should have, they'll probably nerf the damage down at some pointing bringing Destro down to Aff level.

Burning Ember is currently the number 1 damaging ability for Destro Locks.

[Glnger]

^^ what?
embers is 5.5%
incinerate is 36% for me.

burning embers is 6 damaging spell under incin, conflag, immolate, BoH, and chaos bolt

[The Trunk Munky]

So in a nutshell: No, on live destro IS the 'hardest' (least easy, if you will) of the three specs to play perfectly.

Fixed, maybe. There is also more to Affliction than people give credit for too, for example noone has posted on EJ numbers for what spell(s) to use on adds that need bursted down in X amount of time since Glyph of Quick Decay was created. I personally have worked out my own opinion for different adds but to do this I had to question and figure out, if Corruption is worth casting on a mob that dies quickly, well, how quickly? At what point do you simply revert to Shadow Bolt spam? And if Corruption is worth casting, what about Haunt to increase its damage? Judging this for yourself takes more thought than simply maintaining your normal rotation as Destruction, as you have to estimate how quickly your raid will kill the adds. Likewise I've found that it is massively beneficial to judge how many Drain Soul ticks you will get on a mob before it dies. E.g. on Lich King I've noticed it's very close most of the time between 1 & 2 ticks on the Raging Spirits. If its only going to tick once I might as well either switch to Ice Spheres, Life Tap or Shadow Ward - essentially buying a free GCD.

Another thing is making best use of Drain Soul, since it is not updated mid-channel by factors such as damage modifiers, haste, crit or spellpower, you can take full advantage of this while obviously still following the usual priority list. There are so many factors to take into account - 2 x trinkets, ICC rep ring, Heroism, Eradication, Tricks of the Trade, Power Infusion, Potion, T-10 4 set, Life Tap buff can be allowed to drop off mid-channel at no loss, or conversely refreshed as they proc. With only one trinket (DFO) I'd say it isn't easy to perform this perfectly since it builds stacks in spellpower, so you have to pay attention to the stacks it builds while refreshing Drain Soul after each tick as it goes up, making sure not to waste any time inbetween refreshing (i.e. refreshing it 'late').

A lot of the skill in Affliction is judging how long things will stay alive since the rotation is influenced by this, and Destro doesn't have to worry about that factor nearly as much.

[Deleted]

Not one of these guys who has no clues about Mages nor Warlocks.

Also, funny how he thinks that Affliction is hard in PvE. :_D

Said the guy having justin biebier or w/e he is called as an avatar. Get a grip of yourself

[hellar]

i laugh at destro warlocks, personally, you roll a lock for the pets and the dots, wanna play destro? go roll a fire mage, there currently blowing EVERYONE away on live.

i roll to play demo.
and come 4.0.1 i think you will be surprised how much dps destro is gona bring.

[Fangarn]

I tested my new affl dps on ptr at the heroic puppy. I am now at 8k dps in average spiking due to cds/trinkets to 10k if overlapping but in the long run it evens out at 8kdps. Currently on life i am pulling in average 6,5k dps but not more. I am not 100% sure what exactly pushed my dps on the ptr so much because my dots are ticking a lot lower than on life servers. Maybe it is the sum of the following drain life is probably adding a junk of dps 0,72 ticktime with crits ranging between 7-8k. I have now one dot more ticking because of bane of elements not interfering with cod. And the imp has now superior dps compared to the rest. With dark arts and glyph it is pulling 1,4k dps for me followed by the succ with glyph 1,2k and last is felpuppy with 1k dps. Also the doomguard is adding at least 1k dps for the time it is there.
I tried demo and atm it is not in the same league with affl and destro. I was able to pull 6k spiking to 8k but average was 6,5k dps in the long run. Also the execute phase is much weaker than affli. With affl it was easy to break 12k dps in the long run due to 20k ticks/40k crits of ds and you only need to refresh cod and haunt so actually only haunt. In my opinion the strongest execute atm for all classes. Demo execute I was able to break 10k easily but it was way behind affl.
I didn´t try destro but I saw one guy testing it. He had nearly the same gear and was able to pull 8k easily spiking to 11k and averaging out at 9k in the long run.
My conclusion is that destro atm is superior to other both specs but that affl is not that far behind. Demo is still way behind and because of the soulfire change it looses the edge over affl in the execute phase. The funny thing is that the felguard with all the mastery was only at 1,6k dps o.O

[Inshabel]

I think it's pretty boring Affliction received 0 changes to it's rotation, as Destro you get SF and the occasional SP if your tank can handle it, +Cor is worthwhile now, Demo gets HoG, but Affliction is still the same

[Glnger]

^^ only pre 80 talent we got was (soulburn+SoC) and soul swap, which is 100% useless at this point.
although we probably all agree that affliction had the most.. "in depth" rotation in wotlk.. demo is pretty much the same as it was too tho, just with hand of guldan reapplying immolate dot.

luckily enough tho if you cast soulswap right after you reaply haunt you can keep coruption on the first target and swap ua, BoA, and corr on the secondary. affliction just doesn't offer much in the current icc environment so it will continue to look "bad". talent progression favors affliction as far as dps points go, but destro with mana feed sounds like sex at 85