Too late to switch specs?

[Baconeggcheese]

Bolded the part that needs more attention. Just killed KJ on mythic last week as destro doing 1.3MM overall and crushing key add dmg. There's not really a great case for affliction there in my mind, and KJ is by far the hardest fight in the tier.

Do not be fooled by what you see in parses on guild's nth kills of a boss when they overgear it. There are so many circumstances when destro is far more valuable for what we're all here for: killing bosses on progress.

I very intentionally made that post in the past tense

Its obviously still better than the other specs at it, but its nowhere near as good as it was vs other classes.

[SpikeySquad]

Affli is no where near it's full potential without head/chest/ring.

I barely wear chest or helm in raids and never together actually so I disagree it's needed for top performance (though sure the chest can be good for RNG parsing and it's pretty awesome in dungeons).

We are so lucky with Affy that we have few bad legendaries and multiple options that are decent. Ring, I assume you mean Netherlord, is only good if you get to execute so that rules out a lot of progress (at least if you play at my level). Sacro is pretty awesome on multiple fights (though sure it is weak on single target) and the utility on something like Demonic Inquisition mythic is amazing. Prydaz will always be great on some progress bosses and it's a good stat stick. Belt definitely is strong on single target.

Of course you could actually argue the opposite and say if you don't have the majority you are also missing out however, the results are close enough in my opinion to be able to use any of the better ones and it will be determined by what off pieces you have as well. Of course if you have the cloak and say the boots only I feel sorry for you.

[Biomega]

We are so lucky with Affy that we have few bad legendaries and multiple options that are decent. Ring, I assume you mean Netherlord, is only good if you get to execute so that rules out a lot of progress

I get that it won't do anything until you get to execute range, but once you do, it is so very amazing ESPECIALLY for progress. Almost every first kill involves a tricky final stretch lasting longer than it ever will on farm, and being of more crucial importance than ever. Having increased damage there is SO good.

[SpikeySquad]

I get that it won't do anything until you get to execute range, but once you do, it is so very amazing ESPECIALLY for progress. Almost every first kill involves a tricky final stretch lasting longer than it ever will on farm, and being of more crucial importance than ever. Having increased damage there is SO good.

Yeah I cannot disagree with that. However, if you think you really need the execute on progress you can still spec Death's Embrace (DE) with little lost single target damage during the non-execute and a whole lot gained after. In a sim I personally lose 1.6% on patchwerk ST over 5 minutes with the same gear and the difference between the LOSS ones (pre-crucible though) is even smaller.

I would also suggest that going by statistics then DE is a fine or even superior choice on mythic Harjatan, DI and Host anyhow.

So while the ring is good I can't agree with anyone that says you "need" it.

[Jondar]

Affliction dominated in nighthold right? Everyone who looked at logs sees that. But what were the main specs of warlocks in top 50 world guilds in Nighthold on progress? ~55% destruction, ~40% Demo, ~5% affliction. Spec rankings on warcraft logs don't mean what many think they mean.

7.2 Aff and 7.1.5 Aff were very, very different animals.

[Turturin the Warlock]

7.2 Aff and 7.1.5 Aff were very, very different animals.

My point was largely about mis-interpretation of warcraft logs/standings on post progression farm and how people assume that translates to their progress.

I'm fully aware of the affliction buffs.

[Deleted]

Been keeping my destro weapon ticking over just so when i can see all the fights in Antorus are going to be like, so its viable for me to play destro if needed, its such a good progression spec not to.

Affliction was definitely much better for progression in TOS than Nighthold, but alot of that was linked to legendaries such as sacrolash for DI/Host and it was still far inferior to destro for priority damage and on demand burst mechanics.

[Deleted]

From what i have seen in the Adventure log it looks again that Affliction is going to be the most meta spec in Anto because of the most encounters are multi targets - long fights - extremely heavily movement oriented fights.

[Yhcti]

Havent touched my lock since the end of cata. Are they consistant still? The competitive casual in me screams to not gear my Ret and to instead gear my Lock BUT ive not a clue how Locks are any more. Last I saw the aoe/dots were bound into a very frustrating soul shard system...

[Baconeggcheese]

Havent touched my lock since the end of cata. Are they consistant still? The competitive casual in me screams to not gear my Ret and to instead gear my Lock BUT ive not a clue how Locks are any more. Last I saw the aoe/dots were bound into a very frustrating soul shard system...

That's hard to say because we're a long way from cata and 5.0 made it a different class vs 4.3 and its seen a ton of changes since.

Each spec effectively has a difference resource system, they just decided to homogenize the name to make it all more confusing for people. Demo and aff are both pretty much pure dot specs and destro is a direct damage sustain spec.

This is probably the least fun I've had as a warlock since the mop rework, but I didn't much care for 4.3 either so I can't say how you'll feel about it.