best warlock end game raiding spec?

[tunechi]

whats the best dps output spec for current endgame raids for warlocks

[DotDotDot]

what ever you play best.
All specs within 1% dps of each other, so which you play best with fewest errors, will do most damage.

[Sabrius]

As the above post said they're close a good affly lock seems to be the best.. but honestly.. you have to be a really good affly lock. there is a very large skill gap between the average and the great. Destro and affly within a few dps of eachother. demo is still lagging behind. it has a ton of burst but not that much DPS. my best advice.. go destro and learn affliction then go affly

[Jessicka]

According to: http://www.stateofdps.com/ Destruction is looking to be bordering on overpowered at the moment, Affliction is doing ok but Demo doesn't seem to be doing too great, but I think that's possibly down to the significantly smaller sample size.

[andromalia]

Many high end guilds do not log or do not log during progression (that we can see). This will skew the results by a bit (it uses top WoL parses for data). The sample size on demon locks is fine. Adding another 100 people's parses isn't going to magically bring it up to par with affliction and destruction.

[Jessicka]

Many high end guilds do not log or do not log during progression (that we can see). This will skew the results by a bit (it uses top WoL parses for data). The sample size on demon locks is fine. Adding another 100 people's parses isn't going to magically bring it up to par with affliction and destruction.

It's not so much adding in to Demo, it's more a case of what was left out of the others. If you take the top 120 from each fight for 2 specs, then you can't really compare with basically everyone in the third, because you don't now how many were left out from the others and how badly those were performing. We already know Destruction is by far the most popular spec, so the chances are it will have more, better players to tighten that average.

[andromalia]

It's not so much adding in to Demo, it's more a case of what was left out of the others. If you take the top 120 from each fight for 2 specs, then you can't really compare with basically everyone in the third, because you don't now how many were left out from the others and how badly those were performing. We already know Destruction is by far the most popular spec, so the chances are it will have more, better players to tighten that average.

I can tell you from personal experience the demon is really a niche spec right now. It's almost a must have for heroic maloriak, magmaw and similar add heavy fights. It's absolutely dreadful at almost everything else. Demon is weak right now. The problem that systems is left with is how do we buff demon without making it's aoe even more outrageous. It'll have to be buffs to core demon talents like MC, Decimation, cremation and maybe even meta itself.

[Stingray0011]

As affliction I can, and have, topped the charts on 25 mans. Always very low on trash and such but that's a given. On fights such as Halfus, where a destro lock can bane of havoc the boss while dps'ing the drakes, they will obviously pull ahead for that phase, but I do pass them once we are full burning the boss. AOE heavy fights like Magmaw, demon locks do better, but only during the aoe phase and I do beat them overall.

On most, single boss fights, the dps between me and the equally geared destro lock is usually very close, and it often comes down to lucky procs or boss mechanics that determines who wins. I do praise myself as being a talented aff lock, which could make the difference since there is a lot of gearing/clipping that takes time to learn, but the destro lock is equally as talented.

Long story short, pick what you can play the best and you should be competitive with the rest. have fun! (and go affliction, healers will love you)

[Mortanix]

I'm loving affliction still at the moment, which is so not me as I was a flat out destro player since tbc, assuming you get it right it's hard to get the same results as destro, I mean I know people mention bane of havoc on halfus but if you manage to get DoT's rolling on all three targets, and gradually stack shadow embrace on them all too I find it hard to reach anywhere near the same results as destro it's just a lot harder to track if you're doing that compared to just sticking a bane up. There are definitely only a few fights where demo can shine though and it's a real underdog on single target, realistically though as long as you're equally good at destro and aff theres not much to seperate the two at the moment.

[Jenerena]

I can tell you from personal experience the demon is really a niche spec right now. It's almost a must have for heroic maloriak, magmaw and similar add heavy fights. It's absolutely dreadful at almost everything else. Demon is weak right now. The problem that systems is left with is how do we buff demon without making it's aoe even more outrageous. It'll have to be buffs to core demon talents like MC, Decimation, cremation and maybe even meta itself.

It would seem demo is lagging behind, I agree with that. Simcrafts don't really show this, but I think both soul swap and BoH are really pulling destro/affliction ahead right now. Now I gotta say, I play demo on every fight when our mage isn't present (6% sp) and I'm getting the top 20 ranks on probably half the bosses right now - it's strange because if you look at demo ranks you will see that the gap between the top DPS and maybe the 10th is massive - the sample size is just tiny. Compare my ranks to the same ranked destro lock and the difference is insane. I'm doing about 17k Argaloth dps - the top destruction lock is doing maybe 22k (taking into account gear differences ofc). I just don't think demo can keep on fights which have multiple targets up (that can't really be aoe'ed) plus the fact that I can't sit in melee range every fight, taking away about 1k dps.

All that said I do still adore demo and I love that it's actually viable for raiding now, it never used to be. I'm very happy that all three specs are close enough to be considered decent enough for raiding - of course I only play it for the buff but my dps is competitive enough within my own guild to beat enrage timers. I have affliction as my offspec but I am very tempted to try destruction instead just to see what I can do with it.