Affliction is too hard for me.

[Gorthan]

Wait what, I don't think you played destro in Cata. The spec was pretty damn easy. 2 timers and that was it.

Corruption, Doom, Immolate, SF Buff, Conflagrate cd, CB cd and Fel Flame proc. 6+1. So, no.

[jonoy8]

just need to practice

I don't really like affliction either but it performs better than destro or demo for me in raids, so I just stick with it, I don't like babysitting 4 dots and watching for proc. buffs to refresh dots.

affliction isn't a face roll either, something like a frost DK is that, it's sickening how much dps you can do as frost with average gear.

if you just throw up some dots and don't know when to refresh them your dps will suck. I think affliction is actually the most complex dps class atm, would like to hear what people actually think is more complex if affliction is faceroll. I play ever dps but monk and druids and there isn't anything that requires as much monitoring as affliction

[jason1975]

Wow, this thread is a lot epeening and a couple of good posts sprinkled in. Perhaps folks could stop judging long enough to actually help the OP, or keep their snarky "you suck, I'm so great" comments to the Blizzard WoW forums where they belong.

OP - There's a couple of issues here I see, some of which you might want to address, and some you might not want to:

1. Is this the right guild for you? I understand that you have 10 IRL friends in this guild. Is it a hardcore progression guild? They often require their players to completely relearn their specs and even classes based on the progression needs of the guild. It's worth thinking about if you're looking for a more casual progression guild which won't require you to level a new toon or respec.

2. If you're set on staying in this guild, is your GM's decision final? If you indeed have 10 IRL friends who are raiding with you, can you appeal to them to help change your GM's mind? Frankly, it seems that Affliction might not be your cup of tea. That's fine, people have different strengths and weaknesses. Also, perhaps you could bring your concerns about switching to Afflic to your GM. Tell him all the work you've done, and that even after all that you can't keep up in Afflic what you could do in Destro. Perhaps there is room to negotiate. Also, consider how your current Destro DPS (I hate DPS, BTW . . . I prefer total Damage done instead, but some people treat DPS like it's biblical) compares to the rest of the raid. Are you in the top 1/3, the middle 1/3, or the bottom 1/3? If you're in the middle or top, you could make an argument here that you're doing about the best you can do period (if indeed you can look yourself in the mirror and say that), and that the increased DPS will either have to come from other members or better gear in future weeks.

3. A little rant about SimulationCraft and all the numbers quoted from it. It's a sim that people take as though it was the 11th commandment. It's really dumb the trust people put in those numbers. It's only supposed to give you an idea of what rotational or gearing changes at your current gear level could yield better DPS. Instead, people quote it as though the numbers are comparable (as though you can take the same player and plug them into a different class/spec and get those values). Worse yet, people look at the patchwerk single target numbers only. Destro is a perfect example of the fallacy of that logic. It's a cleave spec. It can put up some impressive numbers on cleave fights. But since players often function in a groupthink mentality, most of the best players are focused on Affliction . . . and in logs it does in fact seem to produce the "best" numbers. Thus you'll see the "top" parses in that spec. Does that make Destro non-viable? Of course not.

4. If you do decide to play Affliction, there are some good posts about the UI, guides, etc in this thread. I'd urge you to also consider the larger questions above.

Because after all, it's a video game. We play to have fun. Make sure you're having fun . . .

[Telemont]

1. Is this the right guild for you? I understand that you have 10 IRL friends in this guild. Is it a hardcore progression guild? They often require their players to completely relearn their specs and even classes based on the progression needs of the guild. It's worth thinking about if you're looking for a more casual progression guild which won't require you to level a new toon or respec.

This is a very valid question and one I sometimes struggle with. The guild has a pretty hardcore attitude and just last week a mage was outright kicked for pulling only 60k in normal raids (we're not in heroics yet). I really do want to stay with my friends though, who are not the raid leader and all decent folk. I go where they go, mostly.

2. If you're set on staying in this guild, is your GM's decision final? If you indeed have 10 IRL friends who are raiding with you, can you appeal to them to help change your GM's mind? Frankly, it seems that Affliction might not be your cup of tea. That's fine, people have different strengths and weaknesses. Also, perhaps you could bring your concerns about switching to Afflic to your GM. Tell him all the work you've done, and that even after all that you can't keep up in Afflic what you could do in Destro. Perhaps there is room to negotiate. Also, consider how your current Destro DPS (I hate DPS, BTW . . . I prefer total Damage done instead, but some people treat DPS like it's biblical) compares to the rest of the raid. Are you in the top 1/3, the middle 1/3, or the bottom 1/3? If you're in the middle or top, you could make an argument here that you're doing about the best you can do period (if indeed you can look yourself in the mirror and say that), and that the increased DPS will either have to come from other members or better gear in future weeks.

I usually rank #3 as Destro, with our Affliction lock pulling 10K more and holding rank #1. I do have fights where I shine like Will of the Emperor where I always rank #1. I think my raid leader looks at the Affliction lock numbers, then at my numbers, and mostly wonders why I don't pull the same numbers as the Affliction lock. And most fights are not Will of the Emperor style.

4. If you do decide to play Affliction, there are some good posts about the UI, guides, etc in this thread. I'd urge you to also consider the larger questions above.

The only reason I would want to play Affliction is jealousy over the damage. I guess from everyone here my inability to keep up with so many DOTs makes me a baddie, but it just frustrates me so much. Unstable Affliction really gets my goat, with a 2 second cast time that screws with all the rest of your timing

[DiGG]

5.) Remember, your dots do not update on the target when you get a proc, this means in order for your dots to benefit from the proc (or from DarkSoul!), you must re-apply the DoTs after something procs. It's not necessary to do it for EVERY proc(Like windsong), but if you have a Darkmoon trinket and it procs, tailoring cloak enchant, use trinket, etc. it's a good idea to reapply them then.

Does Fel Flame counts as reapplying dots, or am I supposed to redot each separately?

[Rarespawn2012]

personally I love destro. Currently leveling a lock atm so can't speak of raiding but I tend to out dps fellow locks who are aff in pugs

[kushlol]

Corruption, Doom, Immolate, SF Buff, Conflagrate cd, CB cd and Fel Flame proc. 6+1. So, no.

don't forget shadowflame to

[DenniZ]

personally I love destro. Currently leveling a lock atm so can't speak of raiding but I tend to out dps fellow locks who are aff in pugs

You are still leveling, so its totally unbalanced untill you reach level 90 and everyone gets all the skills available. For Afflic locks the level 90 skill Pandemic is a game changing ability.