Destro / Afflic

[Martyn 470]

Hey guys

So i've posted a few weeks ago about afflic or destro being better, well my ilvl is 533 at the moment ( http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...n/Bumps/simple)

I seem to be doing about 140k single target as destro and 110k as affliction on the target dummies, my question is

Is it viable to maintain destro reforging, gems, and enchants, but to swap to affliction when the fight needs it?
or am I really gimping myself by keeping destro gems and reforges?

Or should I just bite the bullet and reforge / gem / enchant everything towards affliction, and just play that spec until i get better at it?

[Deleted]

I just have a low geared warlock, but I guess due to the yesterday's buff, I would stay destru.

[Diamondeye]

To answer your first question, it is not viable to maintain proper itemization for destruction and affliction. This is simply because destruction goes for Mastery > Crit >> Haste while affliction is Haste (9.7 / 13k) > Mastery > Haste >>> Crit. In addition, Destruction requires the regular crit meta gem while affliction requires the legendary meta gem. Basically, you'd be dropping gold left and right to change specs for the right fights.

Secondly, it is up to your preference which spec you want to play. If you play really good destruction and know when to do chaos bolts and what to do with backdraft etc. yet you don't properly know afflictions mechanics (haunt timing, DoT updating, etc.) then stay with destruction. If you want to min/max, affliction is currently the better spec simply because destruction took a major hit with Rain of Fire nerf; the spec cannot generate as much embers as it used to (which Blizzard thinks they'll make up for it by upping our spell damage). Also, affliction only gets better with gear / ilvl while destruction kinda stays in one place.
I did look at your character and noticed you have the timeless trinket. This trinket greatly plays to destruction and pretty much is awful for affliction; this might just be the deciding factor for you.

Tip: Don't base your damage on dummies. There are so many mechanics missing from dummies that impact how your damage is, I personally stopped using them. They're missing an execution phase (which aff goes CRAZY on), raid buffs (unless you're REALLY ambitious), and other various mechanics.

[Hexotic]

the non heroic dummies are good so simulate execution because they drop to 20% hp now. Either way, Affliction scales with stats a lot more than any other spec for locks. So having a 5% mastery buff is 15% more dmg to your dots, kind of significant, and without the 5% haste buff, you are missing several ticks from your dots. So dummies are nice if you are fully buffed to see what your true damage can be. That being said, mechanics mechanics mechanics. There are no patchwerk fights, so dummy dps is never true. Not having the legendary meta gem kind of gimps affliction. That gem is a huge part of afflictions potential dps.

So yeah, those r my 2 cents.

[rijn dael]

the non heroic dummies are good so simulate execution because they drop to 20% hp now.

Those dummies seem funny, I drain soul them, and get no damage boost
Drain soul says "20% OR below". Not "Below 20%" >.<