State of destruction spec and opinions

[Deleted]

I don't like destro spec, it's boring and brainless. I was trying to be one in wotlk went back to demo and affi (had lowest dps, screw that)
Was forced again in Cata by old and stupid guild to try that again. yha, dps was nice but still very boring spec.

Affi needs brain = more fun for me
Demo needs less brain but still fun
Destro no brain at all, go roll a mage.

Lol yeah sure "affliction needs a brain" its probably become the easiest of the 3 specs to play.why would you need a more brains to do something with less things to keep track of and 3/4 the amount of spells in the rotation,
Anyway that been said its each to their own some people find other things more fun and as for no brain at all to play destro lol,whatever and comparing it to a mage lmao have you even played a mage before.

[Hellfury]

I can understand how they can mess up a glyph so it gives all minions a 20% increase, but I honestly do not see how double 20% would be a possible mistake. I'm pretty sure the glyph has always given 20% to the Imp and from the looks of things 20% to all other minions. Not 40% to Imp and 20% to the others. That makes no logical sense.

If it was giving 20% to other pets I dont really know and its a nice fix. Infact I never heard about it anywhere, and tbh if I knew about it I would use it since UA glyph gives almost no DPS and its a bad 3rd prime glyph.

But the fact its, it was giving 44% to the Imp from EJ http://elitistjerks.com/f80/t111390-..._1_updated/p8/

I think we can confirm that the imp glyph is being applied twice for both of you. Multiplicatively, even, so it boosts his damage by 44% instead of 20%.

As for the rest of the details, it looks to me like all of these numbers can be explained if we assume the new spell power coefficient is 0.618 and that the orc racial also applies twice. Still would like more numbers to confirm these assumptions though.

The big question is, why is my imp behaving completely differently? Is this an EU-only bug?

EDIT: Just confirmed that another warlock on my (US) realm is seeing the same mechanics you guys are. I'm going to have to retest to see if it's changed on me - been a couple weeks since I tested last.

RE-EDIT: Just confirmed all the numbers on my own lock, so this looks confirmed - imp benefits doubly from both the glyph and the orc racial.

This simcraft also was using the 44% bonus to imp from the glyph


as u can see the diference to affliction was almost null for a tank and spank fight. A bug was making the spec close to affliction they fixed it and very well. But its abit wierd how a bug makes a spec close to another.

[Harsesis]

Those simcraft results only prove what I said in my first post. That the warlock class is pretty well balanced with itself. To all the people that are complaining about ISF, it's that ability alone that separates the average destro player from the great destro players.

[Jessicka]

Those simcraft results only prove what I said in my first post. That the warlock class is pretty well balanced with itself. To all the people that are complaining about ISF, it's that ability alone that separates the average destro player from the great destro players.

People aren't complaining that it's hard, or that Destruction is a bad spec. They're complaining that the mechanic is "clunky", and I totally agree with that - it completely breaks the flow of the spec's playstyle effectively "stopping for breath" every 15s. It's really not hard to watch a timer or program and aura to ensure you're maximising uptime, certainly no harder than refreshing a DoT on time; it's just a stupidly long cast in an otherwise fast paced rotation that makes it feel so out of place.

[Harsesis]

It was clunky when you couldn't refresh the buff while it was still up.

[HatsHatsHats]

Stuns... on HC Maloriak... what? I am confused. We were all told to remove all stuns/slows from our glyphs and not do any of the adds.. maybe it's just out technique.

My group on 10m H Mal uses stuns on the adds to help the tank take less damage, and my destro spec has glyphed shadowflame and a stun so it's one of the only times I use destro over afflic

[Same]

My 2 favorite specs are Afflic and Destro. Luckily H Halfus and H Maloriak are farm now so I don't have to go demo anymore.

As far as difficulty goes I'd say that single target Destro > Afflic > Demo
For 2 targets Afflic > Destro > Demo

I definitely enjoy the Imp. Soul Fire component to Destro, I wouldn't mind Empowered Imp getting a slight proc% buff though. I think a lot of destro locks stumble on trying to keep 100% uptime on Imp. Soul Fire. It's really not essential. You of course want to have it up when you're recasting immolate but between Soul Burns and Emp. Imp procs you can usually get away with only really hardcasting when you don't have Backdraft anyway.

For afflic, 2 targets adds a lot more to keep track of. You're casting a few shadowbolts on your off target to keep up Shadow Embrace. BoA has a much shorter duration than BoD and you can't clip the last tick like other dots. Plus Soul Swap isn't hard but it takes more effort than BoH for destro =P.

[jimdavis]

Thank you very much for your responses i was quite surprised that many of you thing in the same way as me, i will formulate this suggestion and post it on the official forum and see maybe some developer will notice.

Thank you very much.

[Deleted]

Such a fix to the Imp now breaks my heart (as an Orc!). Makes Destruction even less viable to use against Affliction in single target fights. I've been holding off on changing to Affliction. But changed my ways last night. Not too bad, but still, Destruction was my baby.

[Deleted]

Thank you very much for your responses i was quite surprised that many of you thing in the same way as me, i will formulate this suggestion and post it on the official forum and see maybe some developer will notice.

Thank you very much.

Wait , wait . Which suggestion? Did i miss something?^^

[Nebthet]

i love destruction. im never gonna respec to affli just because it does 300 (or w/e i dont rly know exactly and idc anyway) higher dps on simcraft.
but yea they could do something about the improved soulfire buff.. too long cast and its dmg is like lower than incinerate (why the hell did they remove its cast reduction bonus from backdraft, or was it backlash? the conflag buff affecting only incinerates now).

[Same]

If Blizzard makes the cast time shorter what is the difference between Soul Fire and Incinerate?

[cleotaurus]

I don't see the problem. I play destro as an alt and I've only been 85 for a few weeks but I have done a couple HMs and I enjoy not having a mindless rotation. The last thing blizzard needs in this game is more arcane specs.

Just because you have a backdraft proc doesn't mean you "have" to use it or get mad because you waste one. It is a dps gain to prioritize keeping up ISF and conflag on cooldown. If it clips your backdraft then so be it. Blizzard can't just keep ability rotations fluid all the time because they have to keep in mind the class being played a various levels of gear. Abilities might not all fit together depending on how much haste you have.

[Hystify]

Just because you have a backdraft proc doesn't mean you "have" to use it or get mad because you waste one. It is a dps gain to prioritize keeping up ISF and conflag on cooldown. If it clips your backdraft then so be it. Blizzard can't just keep ability rotations fluid all the time because they have to keep in mind the class being played a various levels of gear. Abilities might not all fit together depending on how much haste you have.

QFT. well said.

[Deleted]

I also feel that the Destruction "rotation" is very clunky because of the Improved Soulfire talent.

This for me.
It feels like the old life tap glyph ( [Glyph of Life Tap]: When you use [Life Tap], you gain 20% of your spirit as spell power for 20 seconds.) It took them major patch to make it 40 seconds so locks didnt need to life tap every 20 seconds..and life tap was instant with no travel time. Refreshing imp soulfire when it has 5 secs left (15 sec duration) feels just bit too much of un-needed annoyance.
Make it 40 seconds or something or make SF shorter cast time with the talent. Or if 40 is too much make it 30..25.. just not 15 sec.

Destro has its uses, but thats mostly because of bane of havoc (like say valiona and magmaw heroic). Without havoc it would be pretty worthless spec anyway. Again, thats for me. I've been affli since level 10 back in BC. Yeah shocking, affli lock raiding back in BC. While it was bit more viable perhaps you know what I mean ;P

[cleotaurus]

This for me.
It feels like the old life tap glyph ( [Glyph of Life Tap]: When you use [Life Tap], you gain 20% of your spirit as spell power for 20 seconds.) It took them major patch to make it 40 seconds so locks didnt need to life tap every 20 seconds..and life tap was instant with no travel time. Refreshing imp soulfire when it has 5 secs left (15 sec duration) feels just bit too much of un-needed annoyance.
Make it 40 seconds or something or make SF shorter cast time with the talent. Or if 40 is too much make it 30..25.. just not 15 sec.

Destro has its uses, but thats mostly because of bane of havoc (like say valiona and magmaw heroic). Without havoc it would be pretty worthless spec anyway. Again, thats for me. I've been affli since level 10 back in BC. Yeah shocking, affli lock raiding back in BC. While it was bit more viable perhaps you know what I mean ;P

Being able to creatively abuse your class's mechanics to gain the upper hand on dps is what makes dps interesting. Do you really want a class where you just continually spam the same order of buttons over and over again. Yes it seems kind of lame having to sweat to pull the same numbers that another class does by hitting one button - but you know what? Ask that one button wonder class how much they enjoy dpsing with that class in this game, and they will probably tell you that they hate it, its boring, etc.

The two alts that I mainly play are a warrior and my warlock, and I prefer playing my warlock leaps and bounds over playing a fury warrior. Fury is the classic example of a mindless rotation, and the majority of my time is literally 2,3,2,wait,2,3,2,wait - with a couple procs thrown in for good measure and a 2.4 minute cooldown to time appropriately. The class is extremely mobile and you would need to have down syndrome to not be able to dodge mechanics and pull good dps. It's everything that a casual player could ask for, and I absolutely hate it and it puts me to sleep.

If you find the warlock playstyle to be too complicated perhaps it is time to roll a new class, preferably after researching to find out which one is the "easiest." Dumbing down the mechanics is definitely not the right solution.

[Deleted]

Being able to creatively abuse your class's mechanics to gain the upper hand on dps is what makes dps interesting.
(...)
If you find the warlock playstyle to be too complicated perhaps it is time to roll a new class, preferably after researching to find out which one is the "easiest." Dumbing down the mechanics is definitely not the right solution.

Woah woah, that was not my point.
If we are talking about havoc: I love love using bane of havoc and "abusing" it so to speak. What I meant that without bane of havoc destro would be really really lack luster and not intresting. Havoc is awesome, I love finding new ways to use it.

Also I dont find casting imp soulfire "hard", I just find it would be more enjoyable if I didnt have to refresh it every 10 seconds (since you "have to" cast it when it has 5 secs left cos of cast time and travel time). Just add some extra 10 or 5 seconds to duration and it would be more of nice bonus than annoying bonus that feels bit clunky on most fights IMO.

I like destro but it needs either majorish buffs or fix the imp soulfire duration then I would play it more than usual.

[cleotaurus]

I wouldn't complain if they made backdraft affect the casting time of soulfire.

[Sabaka]

i personally enjoy destro a lot more than afflic... i dont like the long ramp up time it takes for afflic to really be effective (compared to spriests/boomkins/mages) and on fights where u have to do quick switches it doesn't seem as good.. i liked that destro had decent burst as well as good dot dmg

a lot of ppl are complaining about ISF buff but it really isnt that bad.. maybe they could make the cast time a bit less but its not unbearable right now

if destro was doing the same dps as afflic id play destro, at least on most fights