Getting back to my lock. now what? (raid advice needed)

[Zenaur]

So i haven't played my lock since the good ole days of sunwell (quit him since i wanted to try healing) and to be honest i havent really even been a hardcore raider since uld when i gave it up to focus on getting my pally glad.
Anywho... i have done my proper research on EJ and tankspot to get back into the dragonslayin mode but i literally just hit 85 on my lock earlier today and while i do have a guild that will kinda carry my under geared ass for a bit i am the overly competitive type when it comes to doing my job properly. So i do have a few questions

1 -- Both EJ and others i have talked to puts Aff at the top of theoretical dmg meters. The question i have with this is that since the since the number are so close in simulation is one of the other specs more forgiving when it comes to rotation and errors in movement (just for while i get back into the swing of things and go through learning the fights to a flawless degree)

2 -- any basic tips that arn't in the stickies or on EJ? most of these just list numerical upgrades and dont really give any actually playing tips for squeezing out a few extra dps.

i guess ill add otehr stuff as i think about it.
thanks for your time and assistance
=D

[cloin]

In my experience affliction has become the faceroll spec for warlocks. So long as you're refreshing UA between the last and second last tick, refreshing BoA after the last tick, casting Haunt on cooldown, and spamming shadowbolt whenever you're not taking care of the above, you do pretty respectable damage with relatively minimal effort.
I found demo to be awkward to juggle, particularly balancing casting HoG on cooldown and keeping ISF up.... perhaps my haste was approaching the threshold of another immolate tick and thereby making refreshing Immo with HoG challenging, but I still found it rather obnoxious to pull off. I dropped my demo spec after a few raids since we have a reliable ele shaman and I won't be called upon to supply the spellpower buff.
Destro feels pretty comfortable at the moment. I find it more challenging and therefore more enjoyable to play than affliction, and a whole lot less frustrating than demonology. Shadowfury is awesome, and bane of chaos is really powerful on multi-target fights. And Nether Ward + Nether Protection = win.

tl;dr - I find destro most enjoyable, but aff is nice if you're feeling a little less twitchy and still want to put out strong dps.

[Zenaur]

yeah. in time i am definitely planning on testing all and seeing what works best for me personally and which i enjoy the best i was just looking for somewhere to start. thanks.
any other opinions out there?

[gualdhar]

The biggest thing - and the problem with 90% of the people coming here for help with their dps - is keeping ISF up. This won't be a problem for afflic or demo soon, but as destro, letting ISF drop and not putting it back up kills dps.

Otherwise there's really not much to talk about - just like any other class, you have to juggle your priorities and cool downs effectively. There aren't really any "tricks" to higher dps.

[Zenaur]

k. question on demon soul. when cast does it increase the dmg of dots already cast and on the target for that many seconds or does it increase the damage of dots cast when the buff is us?

and there are always little "tricks" that can be used. i dont know if it works any more but back when the refreshing of corr w/ haunt first came out if you poped a spellpower or haste pot (or buff) and you just kept refreshing that corruption that corr would continue to benefit from that buff for the remainder of the fight. If this is still in effect Then when things like lust go up it may be worth recasting corr so that for the rest of the fight it benefits from 30% haste.
This concept goes for tinkets/raid buffs/pots and used to work for other class buffs like tricks or HoT or whatever that buff used to be. I was just asking if there are little things like that that exist any more or if they were all removed.

[gualdhar]

no, Corruption rolling doesn't work anymore, that was nerfed quite quickly. DoTs refresh with the power/ticks it would have if you recast it at that very moment.

Yes its worthwhile to recast dots during bloodlust, but only if they're within a tick or two of going down. With bloodlust up you get about 2 extra ticks of immo/UA, depending on your haste rating (only 1 until 4.0.6 goes live, since you'd have ISF that doesn't stack, so effective haste gain is only 25%), and effective dps gain from the extra ticks are still lost if you cast too early.

With procs its harder to judge due to different stat scaling and all, however I'm not sure any of the current trinkets gives a proc that makes it worthwhile to clip a dot at all. DMC:V may be the possible exception, with the massive amount of INT it drops on you. Most procs however are long enough to get at least one powered up set of dots, possibly two depending on its timing. I'll do some simcraft testing later on tonight if I have time.

[Meejum]

k. question on demon soul. when cast does it increase the dmg of dots already cast and on the target for that many seconds or does it increase the damage of dots cast when the buff is us?

and there are always little "tricks" that can be used. i dont know if it works any more but back when the refreshing of corr w/ haunt first came out if you poped a spellpower or haste pot (or buff) and you just kept refreshing that corruption that corr would continue to benefit from that buff for the remainder of the fight. If this is still in effect Then when things like lust go up it may be worth recasting corr so that for the rest of the fight it benefits from 30% haste.
This concept goes for tinkets/raid buffs/pots and used to work for other class buffs like tricks or HoT or whatever that buff used to be. I was just asking if there are little things like that that exist any more or if they were all removed.

In terms of tricks, well destro can do some pretty fun things with Bane of Havoc, and Demo can still "fish" for decimation uptime. Affliction potentially gets better by juggling pets in and out, because Glyphed Succubus easily beats all pets on raw dps, but the felhunters demon soul effect is really strong and could be used at the start and for the drain soul/execute phase.

The thing with locks, and the boss fights available, is that they can all shine on different encounters, so being proficient at more than one spec is desirable, unless you absolutely have to provide demonic pact or replenishment.