Originally Posted by
SkillOverKill
I should explain why Affliction is difficult - because if you are playing destro/demo and think thats hard but affliction isnt - you likely arent even approaching the full complexity of affliction.
Imagine a 1 target scenario (baleroc, patchwerk) - the complexity in all 3 lock specs and shadow are roughly similar (though shadow and affliction are still more punishing for mistakes or inefficiencies, but marginally so). Now consider a two target fight, a destro lock would apply Bane of Havok once every 2 minutes, Elements every 5 minutes, and Immolate when they feel like it (because its not a huge dpet to interrupt their rotation for). Demo would apply Elements and corruption to proc more shadow bolts. Affliction would roll 5+ debuffs on both targets while keeping up 3/3 Shadow Embrace on both targets. Shadow would roll fewer dots but would contend with a much higher punishment for inefficiency because of the higher dpet on shadow spells.
Look at this way, if Immolate falls off the second target for destro, they lose some dps - but not much. If corruption falls off the second target for demo - they lose a marginal amount of dot damage and more importantly their nightfall proc, but still not much. Affliction is most likely to lose their Shadow Embrace stacks because its very short duration, and if they do - they lose 15% of their dps on that target and now need to weave in 3 more Bolts on the same target while continuing to monitor dot refreshes and Shadow Embrace stacks on both targets still. That's a big issue because it usually means they end up playing catch up for up to the next minute.
Shadow only needs to roll dots on two targets, but failing to just refresh those dots at precisely the right time is probably a comparable dps loss to completely neglecting a secondary dot for destro/demo - if shadow casts Mind Blast at a target other than their triple dotted target (and they cast MB every 6.5-7 seconds) they lose 25% of the damage off their primary source of damage, and if they don't have an orb when they need to apply dots - they have to apply the dots anyways and then likely recast over the existing dot to update it for Shadow Empowerment - to make this worse - the more targets they dot the less mind flaying they do and the less orbs they proc, but they need orbs to make the dots they apply worth cleaving with.
Now think about what changes for 3 targets for each of these specs, for destro and demo - nearly nothing - and failing to consider the additional targets has a small dps change for these specs. Affliction just adds a whole third target to their mix - applying 5+ debuffs to all 3 targets, and keeping 3/3 Shadow Embrace on 3 targets. Shadow similarly needs to scale to 3 targets.
With 4 targets, Affliction just ignores one of them, 3 is the limit for what even an amazing afflock can maintain. Shadow gives the same consideration to the fourth target that they do to the second and third. With a 5th target, Shadow again gives the same consideration to the 5th that they did to 2 through 4.
TL;DR - while the complexity of dot classes is perhaps marginally different to any other class in single target, non-dot focused classes do not scale in complexity beyond 2 targets (some not even beyond 1 target, like arcane and feral) - while the complexity of dot-centric classes leaps significantly for every additional target added.