Most "useful" warlock raiding specs

[Peepo]

I really, really wouldn't recommend Demonology right now if you're serious about raiding. Unless your RL demands it of you for the 10% SP buff, it just really doesn't cut it outside of it's one-trick pony routine on AoE packs. Nor does it provide anything else useful other than that 10% SP. It lacks mobility, multi-dot and single target damage where Affliction absolutely wipes the floor with it. If you consider "competative" DPS to be mid-table, then it's passable, but it's not in it's current state ever going to top meters alongside serious players anywhere outside of that microscopic niche.

If it's damage and utility you want, go Destruction for Shadowfury and Replenishment.

demo is more than a 1 trick pony and doesn't lack any more mobility than any of the other specs... it's king of aoe, but lags behind in single target damage... but it also has a uber execution phase (soulshatter, doomguard, meta, pot, soulfire, meltface)...

to answer the OP... the most "useful" depends on the fight and raid composition... all 3 have pros and cons and are all pretty close in damage...

[backdraft]

i play warlock since 2007 and i can tell you that all specs are very fun to play
right now in my opinion, best specs for the specific encounters are :

BoT :
Halfus - Demonology (if green dragons pack is up on normal or for hc) or Affliction if green dragons are beaten up :P
Valiona & Theralion : Affliction
Twilight Ascendant council : Affliction all the way ^^
Cho'gall : Destro is the most useful simply cuz Shadowfury is OP for MC and blood of the old god

BWD:

Magmaw : Demo is best for aoe, but Affli does pretty good numbers too ^^
Omnitron : Affli is the pure winner here
Maloriak : Demo/Affli
Atramedes : Affliction
Chimaeron : here is gear dependant, go for affli if ur gear isnt that nice, demo/destro if you can pull out more dps than affli on single target
Nefarian : imo Affliction ftw

Heroics :
if you wanna top recount on trash mobs you wanna spec demo, but wont be that great on bosses
if you wanna top recount on bosses, pick destro or affli

[Jessicka]

demo is more than a 1 trick pony and doesn't lack any more mobility than any of the other specs... it's king of aoe, but lags behind in single target damage... but it also has a uber execution phase (soulshatter, doomguard, meta, pot, soulfire, meltface)...

to answer the OP... the most "useful" depends on the fight and raid composition... all 3 have pros and cons and are all pretty close in damage...

Decimation is pathetic compared to Affliction's execute.

[stuckinwell]

Demon/another is better for your utility, but your gear will need to be balanced in order to get some damage out of both specs. The downside is that you won't be as good at either as you could be if it was your only spec.

Affliction: Int > Hit (to 1742) > Haste > Crit > Mastery
Demonology: Int > Hit (to 1742) > Mastery > Haste > Crit
Destruction: Int > Hit (to 1742) > Haste > Crit > Mastery

For Demo/Another dual speccing I go with: Int > Hit (to 1742) > Haste (to reach another DoT tick) > Haste = Mastery > Crit

Fixed that for you.

Not to mention that if you're going to deviate from the BiS perfect build enough to cap Hit, you should also mention that Haste is weighted much higher than Mastery for Demonology until you reach significant levels of buffed haste (which you did touch on with your compromise build).

Secondly, if you're one who likes to live on the edge and lose say 1% Hit for some Int gain, make sure you're not Affliction. Missing Haunt/SS: Exhale is a huge drop in personal dps, and if your raid's counting on you to burn something the lack of Hit could cost you an attempt. To be fair, you'll do more average dps across multiple encounters (as Simcraft shows), but I hate being that guy who screws the group over because he didn't cap Hit.

OT: For the love of all that is warlocky, make sure that your raid has some kind of SP buff. Get a mage/shaman if you want to use a non-demo spec. Nothing sucks more than knowing that your Holy priest's PoH now only heals for 9.6k instead of the 10k you needed for Chimaeron.

[Peepo]

Decimation is pathetic compared to Affliction's execute.

so in vacuum sims, demo does around 800 dps less than affliction, yet has a pathetic execution phase compared to it?...

i've been running destro for a long time, so swinging over to demo for certain fights, i can admit the numbers i pop during decimate are pretty amazing compared to what i could do as destro with it's non existent execute phase...

give credit where's it's due, all specs are close dps wise and bring enough utility in their own way that a player should just play the one they like best...

[Bezoar]

personally i believe that, done right, demo can be great for single target but i must admit affliction is better. Goes the other way to, i think affliction can be great for aoe done correctly. Its all down to what you enjoy doing my friend. I started out as a Demonology lock because i found it the easiest and the funnest, but once i obtained better gear and gained pve experiance, i found that affliction was much more fun and indeed more powerful.
Also, if you have any pvp/questing intentions (e.g. the firelands dailies) most definetely Demonology.

[Jessicka]

I've been Demo for a good couple of years or so, so I'm not exactly inexperienced barely hitting 20k on Chimaeron but still ranking on WoL, walked in hard mode with an AffDrain spec having never played it with any seriousness and hit 23k easily without ranking. Sites like stateofdps.com back up that output disparity. Demo simply isn't as strong as the sims suggest, in much the same way Destruction could never match the heights it simmed towards the end of Wrath.

[Deleted]

Well, if you ask me, I love Affliction.

No matter how cool can the demon form look (Metamorphosis) or no matter how huge crits you deal as destro, affli is the king for me!
I love running around, casting dots, unstable affliction, haunt and then using shadowbolt as a filler.

Also, in my opinion, affli has the easiest spell "rotation" to master. I've always had problems with destruction and demonology, because there were so many things to care about that I got overwhelmed during fights.

What I love even more is the Soul Swap spell - copies (glyphed) your dots to another target.


I also have an Affli PvP spec and it's brilliant - the instant fear with 30 sec cooldown (what is the name of it? forgot hehe) or curse of exhaustion can help a lot.

IMO Affli all the way both in PvE and PvP, just my opinion. I purely love it!

[Daetur]

Well, I wasn't expecting this thread to live this long! Thanks for the input, guys.

At the moment, since my lock (the one in question from the OP) is only 340 ilevel and just hit 85 a few days ago, I'm going to stick with Demo for the 5 man trash cleaves and fun factor. If I start pugging raids, I'll probably go Affliction. Destro just doesn't seem that interesting to me.

[Jessicka]

so in vacuum sims, demo does around 800 dps less than affliction, yet has a pathetic execution phase compared to it?...

Just going back to this now I'm at home and can sim it to show the difference...

My profile using Decimation
My profile not using it.

That's a whopping 230dps gain by actually switching to Soul Fire for the Decimation phase, it's small wonder I've seen a number of posters here and elsewhere opt to ignore it.

[Morath]

Just going back to this now I'm at home and can sim it to show the difference...

My profile using Decimation
My profile not using it.

That's a whopping 230dps gain by actually switching to Soul Fire for the Decimation phase, it's small wonder I've seen a number of posters here and elsewhere opt to ignore it.

Jessicka is right, Soul Fire execute is joke, Demo have execute in WotLK, not now...

[Mitsumoto]

All specs are about the same if they are played correctly.

I am like destro more personally but also doing affliction, in certain fights some specs are better than the other.

And Demonology is mainly for AoE fights like Maloriak and Chogall if your raid AoE dps isn't so strong.

Besides that it's all up to you.

[Inshabel]

Demo might be close on single targets, but honestly, how many fights in the current tier are single target? Any fight where you can BoH or Soul Swap another target Demo will be absolutely trounced by the other 2 specs because it doesn't have a tool like that.

[Morath]

Demo might be close on single targets, but honestly, how many fights in the current tier are single target? Any fight where you can BoH or Soul Swap another target Demo will be absolutely trounced by the other 2 specs because it doesn't have a tool like that.

Magmaw - multi
Omnotron - multi (you can refresh DoT before shield)
Chimareon - single
Atramedes - single (but heavy movement fight - that mean affli is better than long cast Demo)
Maloriak - most of fight is AoE, ideal fight for Demo
Nefarian - multi

Halfus - multi/AoE
Valiona - multi
Council - multi
Chogal - multi (Elementals) and bad for melee AoE

Conclave - single (but you can use BoH on another pillar boss)
Alakir - single (but it is bad when Demo cant use 1/3 of combat demons)

ctrl + c and ctr + v from my another comment (I edited Chogal, we start progress him, there is lot of Multidot targets, like adds or elementals you are right, there is only one combat where is pure single target and it is Chimareon, yes you can count also Atramedes and Alakir, but how I say before, on both will be affli better.

[Orange Joe]

Omnotron - multi (you can refresh DoT before shield)

pretty sure this is a bad thing to do every time i have tested dot damage still triggers the shield even if casted before the shield is up

now the catch is (might have been fixed) destro can put bane of havoc on a target right before it goes inactive and the damage is still transferred

[Jessicka]

pretty sure this is a bad thing to do every time i have tested dot damage still triggers the shield even if casted before the shield is up

This only applies to Magmatron in terms of DoTs, Havoc on the other hand does not trigger it (unless that's been fixed). The other three are fine to continue DPS on.

now the catch is (might have been fixed) destro can put bane of havoc on a target right before it goes inactive and the damage is still transferred

This has I believe been fixed.

[phirx]

Well, if you ask me, I love Affliction.

No matter how cool can the demon form look (Metamorphosis) or no matter how huge crits you deal as destro, affli is the king for me!
I love running around, casting dots, unstable affliction, haunt and then using shadowbolt as a filler.

Also, in my opinion, affli has the easiest spell "rotation" to master. I've always had problems with destruction and demonology, because there were so many things to care about that I got overwhelmed during fights.

What I love even more is the Soul Swap spell - copies (glyphed) your dots to another target.


I also have an Affli PvP spec and it's brilliant - the instant fear with 30 sec cooldown (what is the name of it? forgot hehe) or curse of exhaustion can help a lot.

IMO Affli all the way both in PvE and PvP, just my opinion. I purely love it!

mind sharing rotation?

[Orange Joe]

mind sharing rotation?

check the affliction sticky