Which Lock spec in BfA is everyone's fav?

[Zorachus]

I am brand new to the Warlock Class, I used my BfA boost on this alt, just getting around to using the boost this past week. And the Warlock is my first caster class ever, been playing since launch, usually all Plate classes are my go to's. But after paying Arms / Fury Warrior, Ret Paladin, and Frost DK, I am burned out on them, and wanted to try something fresh. Got them all to level 120, and like i340+ or so, but wanted something new to play for BfA.

So I am asking what's everyone fav Warlock class in BfA ? I am not asking about top #1 dps for Mythic Raiding or top damage for M+15 dungeons, no. But more for casual players like myself, that will run LFR and Normal Raids, and M+ from like M8 to M12 or so.

I am only level 113 now, going through BfA, and starting @ 110, I have 3 levels so far experience, trying all 3 spec's, they really don't seem radically different to me. I couldn't tell you which spec does better DPS than other so far in leveling ? I guess Aff has a nice fast smooth rotation. Dest seems pretty powerful. And Demo is crazy with the pets. I kinda like them all, can't find one to setlle on.

But I want the one with the smoothest fastest rotation, Which spec is known for that mostly ?

Coming form Plate melee classes, the one thing the Warlock surprised me on ( not knowing this beforehand ) was the ramp up time to cast a spell. Click a spell, and it's not automatic, you have a wind up time, like a pitcher in baseball, before he actually releases the ball. Whereas like Fury Warrior or Ret Paladin, it's click the spell, and instant damage on the enemy, zero wait time. But the Warlock can take a solid one or 2 seconds it seems before the spell actually goes off. That was not expected, and totally new to me.

Also how I am pleasantly surprised how durable the Warlock is on open world questing, thanks to the Voidwalker pets. My Warlock can confidently take on large groups, and thanks to the pet, he keeps me alive big time

[Irian]

I would strongly suggest destruction for a novice warlock player. It's historically been IMO one of the more fun specs, and affliction feels like molasses to me right now even if it's the strongest overall. Destruction lacks a tiny bit (not horribly) in damage right now but it makes up for it in fun.
It's also a pretty fast-paced class overall, with most of your spell casts being speedy other than your big wind-up nuke in Chaos Bolt. A lot of good talent options too. It's not exactly what I'd call a fast caster, that identity goes more towards a frost mage if anything, but it has a nice flow of buildup and payoff that is easy to understand and leaves a very obvious path to minmaxing later on down the line if you want to really push the class to its limits.

Demonology exists too and I think after the buffs it'll be pretty respectable but it also feels to me like a very slow and buildup-oriented spec with not a lot in the way of payoff unless you really get to figuring it out. Addons are also very important to getting the most out of the spec which should tell you off the bat that it has some problems.
Demonology is my personal favorite in BfA and my preferred spec but I can't really recommend it unless you're really determined to figure it out. It's clunky for sure.

[Zorachus]

I would strongly suggest destruction for a novice warlock player. It's historically been IMO one of the more fun specs, and affliction feels like molasses to me right now even if it's the strongest overall. Destruction lacks a tiny bit (not horribly) in damage right now but it makes up for it in fun.
It's also a pretty fast-paced class overall, with most of your spell casts being speedy other than your big wind-up nuke in Chaos Bolt. A lot of good talent options too. It's not exactly what I'd call a fast caster, that identity goes more towards a frost mage if anything, but it has a nice flow of buildup and payoff that is easy to understand and leaves a very obvious path to minmaxing later on down the line if you want to really push the class to its limits.

Demonology exists too and I think after the buffs it'll be pretty respectable but it also feels to me like a very slow and buildup-oriented spec with not a lot in the way of payoff unless you really get to figuring it out. Addons are also very important to getting the most out of the spec which should tell you off the bat that it has some problems.
Demonology is my personal favorite in BfA and my preferred spec but I can't really recommend it unless you're really determined to figure it out. It's clunky for sure.

Thanks for the detailed reply appreciated

For Demonolgy, what talents and mini rotation would you recommend for 110 to 120 BfA leveling ?

I am sort of intrigued to try a Mage, due to the fast cast time, and no slow ramp up time like the Warlock has but the Pet is too great to give up. The Voidwalker is frigging beast, he keeps my butt alive most the time. I would think a Mage due to no pet, would be more squishy in the open world levels compared to a Warlock ?

[Irian]

Thanks for the detailed reply appreciated

For Demonolgy, what talents and mini rotation would you recommend for 110 to 120 BfA leveling ?

I am sort of intrigued to try a Mage, due to the fast cast time, and no slow ramp up time like the Warlock has but the Pet is too great to give up. The Voidwalker is frigging beast, he keeps my butt alive most the time. I would think a Mage due to no pet, would be more squishy in the open world levels compared to a Warlock ?

Not at all. Mages have their armor spells and ridiculous mobility, as well as huge burst and tons of instant casts. At times it might be slightly tricky and open world is definitely way easier as frost than fire or arcane but frost is one of the best open world classes IMO.
Voidwalker also starts to get a sharp tapering off as you get closer to 120 that leaves it a bit squishy this expansion, sadly.

For Demo, I personally go 2/1/1/2/2/2/1 for open world stuff. Demon Skin is a particularly notable talent because the shield from Demon Skin will stop you from being dazed as long as it holds, so incidental mob hits on the path to quests won't daze you. Bust out Felstalkers, use Soul Strike on CD and utilize Demonic Strength on CD, especially when there are multiple mobs. Demo isn't really the best for open world stuff but it can put out decent damage and the lack of damage you as a warlock deal means that you basically never have to worry about yanking aggro off of your cleaving felguard.

[muto]

Demo is the most fun IMO.

[Werst]

I find feel wise aff to be a chore. Especially when VW auto AoE pulls half the leveling zone and you have to manually dot everything down with slow ramp up. It handles movement best but by now I am so sick of affliction it makes me want to quit the game.

Destro is more fun but god help you if you can’t plant and spam cast. After awhile you notice stuff dies a bit faster but you take so long to plant and cast life gets irritating if you have ever played any other class or spec. Raids are fun to a point but the more interesting the content the more frustration destro generates.

Demo is actually kinda cool but as usual has too much ramp and is undertuned with some trap talents. That said for daily life I actually like playing demo with power siphon and soul strike right now most. Looking forward to being able to use the tyrant as a burst CD on a 1.5 minute cycle vs aff/destro being 3 minute pendulums with a 2 minute secondary come 8.1 instead of it being a massive loss.

[Zorachus]

So far I have to say Destruction feels the fastest. Not really into Aff yet, seems a bit bland. And Demon seems pretty cool though.

As of level 113 I'll say Des #1, Dem #2, and Aff #3.

[Gaidax]

Pulling off Destruction on Mythic Ghuun feels very satisfying. Especially last phase where you need to be running around dodging shit and soaking while keeping the damage up. That one is seriously exhilarating with all the Destruction limitations, but also powers.

As a whole Destruction is so nice, tossing nukes right, left and both right and left at the same time feels very nice.

[Zorachus]

Pulling off Destruction on Mythic Ghuun feels very satisfying. Especially last phase where you need to be running around dodging shit and soaking while keeping the damage up. That one is seriously exhilarating with all the Destruction limitations, but also powers.

As a whole Destruction is so nice, tossing nukes right, left and both right and left at the same time feels very nice.

What's your setup ?
Talent tree ?
Mini rotation for leveling in BfA and normal dungeons ?

[Gaidax]

What's your setup ?
Talent tree ?
Mini rotation for leveling in BfA and normal dungeons ?

For leveling you can use whatever you like - it's the time to try out stuff, the only thing I'd consider mandatory is Demon Skin and not taking Sacrifice which besides being generally useless is also counterproductive for leveling on top of that.

I personally used 1113222.

If you want a good bunch of relevant guides and info go here: https://lockonestopshop.com/#!/Home and additionally to Warlock Discord here: https://discord.gg/BlackHarvest

These are two places with good info and decent players that can help out, unlike this cesspool here.

[Animalhouse]

After leveling as affliction and gearing up to 345 before I swapped to destro, it is night and day. Destro just melts trash and is superior in mythic+ to affliction. Aff ST can be better but if you have any adds at all, destro pulls far ahead. The CB crits are very fun and satisfying and destro is very close to aff in ST.

As someone who has always been a fan of affliction and demonology, I would say destro is without a doubt the way to go.
I really wish demo was better but it just hits like a wet noodle. Fun to play but weak.

[Zorachus]

For leveling you can use whatever you like - it's the time to try out stuff, the only thing I'd consider mandatory is Demon Skin and not taking Sacrifice which besides being generally useless is also counterproductive for leveling on top of that.

I personally used 1113222.

If you want a good bunch of relevant guides and info go here: https://lockonestopshop.com/#!/Home and additionally to Warlock Discord here: https://discord.gg/BlackHarvest

These are two places with good info and decent players that can help out, unlike this cesspool here.

Thanks, that LOSS site is great, never seen that before.

[Taenaeris]

I can't really say much about Destro as I've never played that myself and it wasn't really viable at the beginning of this expansions before the buffs. It looks very fun to me from looking at it, but I don't know how to play it.

For Demonology, one thing you need to keep in mind is that this spec requires careful ahead-of-time planning - once you get used to it then you will have an amazing time playing it (at least from my perspective, as I find this expansion's Affliction really boring), although your first couple of pulls in an unknown instance might feel a bit awkward. If you're playing with friends or in a guild then definitely go for it, but if you're PUGing and think you might get kicked from group for under-performing then it might not be the right spec for you.

As for talents, I'm going with Demonic Strength / Demonic Calling / Soul Strike / Grimoire: Felguard / Sacrificed Souls - but make sure to sim the level 100 talent. You can freely choose the level 45 talent based on the encounter and Darkfury can be a viable option if you don't need the Demonic Circle. For leveling / learning, Inner Demons is decent alternative to Grimoire.

Choosing Demonic Strength and Soul Strike is not just about maximizing DPS, it also gives you two insta-cast spells (one of them on a short 10s cooldown) which gives you some decent movement.

However, key to mastering your Demonology Warlock is to correctly plan your Demonic Tyrant summons - you need to know which route your tank is going to take in a M+, whether he's going to pull big or not. Ideally, you want to align this with your Grimoire when there's a big group of stacked mobs that will stay alive for the entire duration of your Tyrant. This essentially requires you to stand still for a couple of seconds to build up your summons.

On pull, you can summon your Tyrant with your Dreadstalkers, your Grimoire and 6 Imps entirely during your pre-pot interval - put you need to pre-cast Demonbolt, get a lucky Demonic Calling proc and your Shaman must instantly hit that Bloodlust button on pull. Later on, with Demonic Calling and Demonic Core procs, you can summon it with your Dreadstalkers, your Grimoire and 9 Imps.

So it's a bit more of an ability priority list rather than a fixed rotation because you need to quickly adopt to getting or not getting those procs.

However, the class fantasy is really amazing - I just love this idea of being master of an army of demons.

Last week, I did a +12 Motherlode in time with it - but we were on Discord and I talked to the tank (who was way more experienced than me) beforehand about where to use strong DPS cooldowns.

[Soulstone]

Affliction has been my favorite for a while especially in pvp. even if I die, chances are I'm taking someone with me.

Demonology was my leveling spec until the recent changes. While its good, just not my cup of tea.

Destruction. I love green fire. moarplz.

[ONCHEhap]

As much as Demonology is the worst of the three currently,it's my favourite one to play by far

[Kwaai]

I like Aff a lot. Sniping adds with UA is pretty cool, and I like Deathbolt a lot. I'd like to see a bit of power moved away from Darkglare/Deathbolt and into Corruption, though.

[Inshabel]

You were surprised by casttimes? Are you new to the game?

(Dreams of everything being instant)

[SpikeySquad]

I enjoy all 3 specs and my favourite tends to depend on what I am doing/what is best for the situation. So for Vectis and Islands I like Destro. For Zekvoz and (most) mythic plus I prefer Demo. For the majority of raid bosses so far I lean towards Affy (though I haven't even looked towards the last two yet on Mythic).

Overall, at the moment I probably get the most enjoyment from Demo.

To answer your question OP, Demo also has the "fastest smoothest" rotation in my opinion what with Demonbolt Procs and Soulstrike (in dungeons/world anyhow). At the end of the day it depends on the person as to what they will like the best. Destro plays the slowest for me and has the least amount of instants.

[Zorachus]

Off topic, but I tried a 110 trial Mage, both Frost and Fire, and it's a cool class, but fragile as heck. In BfA zones I was always getting low on health when taking on a mini mob of 3 or 4. Where my Warlock laughs at 4 monsters, and barely lose health.

Fire spec against 1 monster is a instant kill though ������. Pop 3 fire spells and it's dead FAST. 2 enemies and it's still a quick kill. But take on 3+ then Mage gets rough to me, and not as immortal like the Warlock.

So of the two caster classes, for sure prefer Warlock over Mage.