Discussion: Secondary Spec

[alexishomer]

Given the difference in secondary stats focus required for afflict and demonology (and destro to a smaller extent), how often do you switch to your secondary spec? How do you maximize your effectiveness in BOTH your primarily & secondary spec WITHOUT reforging?

[Deleted]

Given the difference in secondary stats focus required for afflict and demonology (and destro to a smaller extent), how often do you switch to your secondary spec? How do you maximize your effectiveness in BOTH your primarily & secondary spec WITHOUT reforging?

I have a Destruction offspec.

[Delia]

Given the difference in secondary stats focus required for afflict and demonology (and destro to a smaller extent), how often do you switch to your secondary spec? How do you maximize your effectiveness in BOTH your primarily & secondary spec WITHOUT reforging?

My main spec is affliction, OS Demonology, I use my secondary spec for fights where Demo has a clear cut advantage to a degree which will counter balance the wrong itemization of stats.

Translation: I go Demo for Lord Rhyolith, and that's it...

And I swap my secondary spec to destro for H Beth'tilak, cause shadowfury, and bane of havoc are win on that fight... wtb tri-spec.

[Metalfenrir]

I go with main spec demonology with lots of gear reforged to mastery. The only fight I use my affliction off spec for is Alysrazor, so my gear is already optimized for the fight. The only change in gear you might have to make at all is trinkets.

[Defai]

I go with main spec demonology with lots of gear reforged to mastery. The only fight I use my affliction off spec for is Alysrazor, so my gear is already optimized for the fight. The only change in gear you might have to make at all is trinkets.

Affliction doesnt use mastery though

[alexishomer]

Affliction doesnt use mastery though

This is my dilemma.

I geared mostly towards mastery as demo main spec - but as a result, my afflict dps suffers greatly. Sitting @ 1500 haste, i can barely do over 20k.

[Metalfenrir]

Affliction doesnt use mastery though

It does on Alysrazor.

This is my dilemma.

I geared mostly towards mastery as demo main spec - but as a result, my afflict dps suffers greatly. Sitting @ 1500 haste, i can barely do over 20k.

If your main spec is demo the only fight were Affliction is vastly superior is if you are flying on Alysrazor. The haste and crit buff are enormous and greatly increase the value of Mastery.

[Nanhar]

If your main spec is demo the only fight were Affliction is vastly superior is if you are flying on Alysrazor. The haste and crit buff are enormous and greatly increase the value of Mastery.

I thought the exact same thing and tried a mastery-oriented affliction spec on Alysrazor this week. The results were more than disappointing. The lack of haste during the burn phase is very noticeable: with 25 stacks, DS ticked every .88s with a full mastery spec instead of every .64s with a full haste spec.

In the end, I pulled around 40k with affli/mastery while I pulled 58k with affli/haste the week before.

[kosuko]

Anyone wanna sim this ? haste vs mastery during burn phase with 25 stacks and crit buff? Eventhough having the 200% haste benefits mastery.. mastery starts out very bad.

[kushlol]

if you are flying up i'd imagine mastery being better for affliction although I just stay demo for alysrazor

[Delia]

Anyone wanna sim this ? haste vs mastery during burn phase with 25 stacks and crit buff? Eventhough having the 200% haste benefits mastery.. mastery starts out very bad.

While not a sim, here's some quick napkin math (I was skeptical at first too, til I ran some numbers *note not 100% accurate, but close enough to get the jist*):

Normally, for 1% haste the math would work like this:

No haste

3 second tic / (1+0) = 3 second tic

1% Haste

3 second tic / (1+0.01) = 2.970297 second tic

Difference of

3 / 2.970297 = 1% (plus other benefits, such as shorter cast times meaning less vulnerability to movement, faster SE stacking, shorter GCDs, and other multiplied haste sources)

Making 1% haste worth slightly more than 1% damage (like 1.1-1.2%)

Normally 1 Mastery works like this:

~50% of our normal rotation comes from DoTs on a single target fight

0.5 x 1.63 = .815

Making 1 mastery worth slightly less than 1% damage (0.815%)

So normally, the difference is:

1.15% vs 0.815%... not a hard choice

Now, haste after 25 blazing stacks

0% Haste

3 second tic / (1+2) = 1 second tic

1% Haste

3 second tic / (1+2.02) = 0.993377 second tic

Difference of

1 / 0.993377 = 0.666667 (both situations are GCD capped, no penalty for movement, and both cast 1 second sbolts so SE stacks at the same rate... DI still multiplies separately)

Making 1% haste worth slightly more than two thirds of a percent (like probably 0.7%)

1 Mastery with 25 stacks works like this

While flying, our rotation is 100% DoTs so:

1.63 x 1 = 1.63%

Making 1 mastery while flying with 25 stacks worth 1.63%

During burn phase, we get our felhunter back, but his shadowbite is unaffected by haste, so ~90% of our damage still comes from DoTs:

1.63 x 0.9 = 1.467

Making 1 mastery during burn worth a little less than one and a half percent (1.467%)

So with 25 stacks the difference is

around 0.7% for haste or around 1.5% for mastery... again shouldn't be a hard choice, even if it's counter intuitive to everything we know about affliction.

Edit:

Remembered that it takes 179 mastery rating for 1 mastery, but only 128 haste rating for 1% haste, so the comparison was unbalanced.

More correct values after balancing by rating would be around:

Normally: 1 Haste rating ~= 1.97 Mastery rating
25 Stacks: 1 Haste rating ~= 0.65 Mastery rating

[avengingbt]

In order to keep things short:

- Mastery Demonology main spec
- Affliction off-spec with Bane of Agony, Soul Link and Healthstone glyphs (Replace UA, Life Tap and Shadow Bolt) for flying on alysrazor.

The main weakness is Majordomo Staghelm where affliction is better than Demo. If you're having trouble progressing on this boss then you should probably respec to a proper haste affliction build. Besides that, the mastery demo/flying-aff build will probably be the most versitile and effective way to go.

[Deleted]

Simply play affliction main spec, with affliction reforge since full mastery demo warlock is the most boring spec to play to date. Also affliction is just better on majority of the fights. Only Ragnaros HC i respec for the p3 damage, and i reforge aswell just because the encounter is still at that level.

[alexishomer]

The main weakness is Majordomo Staghelm where affliction is better than Demo.

really? i beg to differ...

---------- Post added 2011-08-23 at 06:24 PM ----------

Only Ragnaros HC i respec for the p3 damage, and i reforge aswell just because the encounter is still at that level.

do you mean you reforge to mastery demo for rag hc p3?

[Nicola]

Think the best you can do is just getting all your gear reforged for affliction and make sure you are hitcapped without reforging your 2nd trinket (DMV should be your first)

For those few fights where you use demonology, just switch your 2nd trinket with the challice. Even tho you lack some mastery, the extra amount of haste you have will make sure you dont lose to much dps