Demo is good up until you tap BiS. Affliction will always scale better. But something might change/nerf or specific stat build might get worked out in some bleeding edge laboratory and push destro or demo ahead. Or mythic raiding might be better auited for a specific spec.
I would say definitely not. Demo is great for arenas and solo, but affliction has insane group dps. That should be great for 10v10 or mythic. I’d say raid is where Destro will shine.
Also don’t underestimate talents now. I’m speced for single target survival, but I know exactly what I’d change for group damage on my demo spec.
Let it breathe, I bet you’ll find people more open to any dps if the talents work the way I think they are. Fingers crossed!
Generic answer? play what you want
Meta answer? Yes
As a Demo lock since cata, I’ll tell you this: play what you enjoy. If the only reason you’re looking at demo is because for some reason it’s actually good now, then you won’t enjoy it when it gets nerfed. Spec into it sometimes, sure. Stay demo if you actually like it. But explore the 3 and see what you enjoy most, because strength never lasts.
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I love Destro. My preference most of the time and no other spec does the green fire show up more.
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Ever since they introduced this new load out system I have been changing between all three just because I can. I love it.
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Demo is better AoE Atm.
For raids, it would be Destro or even Affliction
The amount of “you can play whatever you like/wan’t” on this post is on high alarming dishonest level. If your spec doesn’t have a good performance on the patch it WILL be a problem to you in PUGs, and you can’t blame other people. Why pick someone with low DPS when there’s tons of other warlocks with the “meta” spec doing so much better? The gap between warlock specs is a concern and you HAVE to watch for that if you don’t wan’t problem in pugs. Sure you can overgear any other spec and show some numbers, but at the same ilvl if you pick the worst you can’t blame anything but your choice, you will underperform and depends on the situation be kicked out of the group.
Check warcraftlogs for dps performance in raids and raiderio rankings for m+.
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Heroic ranks, pretty much affliction is at the botom so far
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/zone/statistics/31#difficulty=4&dataset=100
43 parses in total vs 840 on demo, what an utterly useless data point comparison
did you read the worlds so far?, i guess not.
What is not clicking here for you? Less parses means fewer are bothering as they know it is garbage. We had a whole week tinkering with destro in dungeons and PvP. Everyone understands Destro tops Demo in standing still DPS. Nothing in modern WoW accommodates standing still except dummies which exist for target practice.
Destro is overly reliant on haste and INT because the spec is designed poorly. Talents don’t go far enough to fix it. So expect Destro to be the S3/4 spec goto for PvP when haste and INT are trivial to max out.
I say this as the guy who 4 years ago told them their class design was a problem for warlocks in M+. Nothing has changed.
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if you are or would like to pretend you are a cutting edge M+ or Mythic Raid player, yes. if you play to have fun in Heroic or under, play whatever. if you raid in Mythic, consider going Demo. if you M+ at sub 20, play whatever. if you M+ at higher, consider playing Demo.
I cant and won’t speak to pvp.
Yes, Demo is the only option.
Affliction is hot garbage. It’s parsing 60%, by far the worst DPS spec in raiding. Bottom tier in Mythic+ because their AoE damage takes too long to do.
Destro is bottom to middle in raiding. It’s AoE is non-existent.
So you’re playing Demo or not getting invited to anything.
For PvP, I hit 2k in solo shuffle. I don’t see any other casters in my games besides Spriest. There was one Destro and he didn’t win a round. Destro is in a really bad state. Affliction might be good in Shadowplay but no other comps, they get everything dispelled or removed by most classes. Affliction won’t be good unless their damage is increased by 20% on every spell. If you’re in a game with a good MW, just leave the arena. AoE dispell where they take no damage from UA. Which is an absolute joke.
Tier list is for higher keys & streamers/professionals who take the game very seriously. Demo is harder to play and I don’t like it that much either. It can be tricky getting the timings of your demon buffs up even with Weak Auras installed, and how to use Wild Imps properly is harder. You can learn it, but it’s still inherently more difficult than destruction is. I don’t plan on climbing very high so I don’t mind staying destruction. So… play what you want.
Demo is not difficult at all. It’s the easiest Lock spec. In Mythic+ pop a CD every trash pull and you’ll top damage. Summon demons and profite. It’s the BM Hunter of Warlock.
There may not be tier list but I passively do double the damage of Destro/Affliction in Mythics.
I’m glad I’ve stood by demo all these years, it’s time for demo to shine, pit lord doing 70k lol out dps an 70 UH DK in a dungeon.
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Bro the toxic community will boot you if you show up in a sub par spec. Stop with the stupid “pLaY wHaT yOu LiKe” then they come qq to general because they can’t get a group as afflic lock or fire mage or any other sub par spec. Hmm wonder why?
I actually think most specs are viable most of the time, but the disparity is pretty bad right now. There is clearly a lot of tuning needed. Nonetheless, you’re right. Even in times when the specs are tighter, the community will seek out S and A tier regardless.
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It doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t matter. It doesn’t even matter. Nothing matters.
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