Validity of Full Time Destro Instead of Destro/Affliction?

[Penguin 0]

Hey everyone, I had a couple questions. I have been running both affliction and destro during our progression into normal HFC, but as I just acquired my two piece, i'm considering switching to destro full time, as I've heard that destro is about as competitive as affliction in every single fight once one has t18. 

Thing is, currently, I outperform destro whenever I run affliction, something that isn't really supposed to happen. Thus, I have two questions:

 

Assuming that one is playing both specs correctly:

 

1. I currently have 17.82% Crit, 8.52% Haste, and 68.95% Mastery when using destro (no buffs). As you can see, I've been following the recommendations of others by stacking mastery. While it is the best stat, I've noticed that I have been having a harder time generating embers than I have in the past, and that I run out of shards MUCH faster than I do (which, with so little haste, only makes sense). Now, while I technically am getting the most out of the best stat, I'm wondering if I need to stick to one spec (destro) and raise my crit to a more acceptable level BEFORE I begin to stack mastery. What's the consensus on this?

 

2. If you have been completely ignoring haste, is it still better to run affliction on fights where affliction tends to get higher numbers? Or is it all about mastery, and I'm just completely missing the point?  

  

Thanks for the help!

[spikeysquad 50]

It's not necessarily that Destro is meant to have better overall DPS than Affliction. If anything Affliction is far better for me on long term single, dual or trio targets (think Iron Reaver, Kormrok, Council etc). The key to choosing is what is more important for your raid team. Is it priority damage on mobs that need to die quick and/or AoE damage? Or is it high ST/multidotting damage? So personally I would always advise people to learn both specs (well all 3 even) if you want to be flexible and/or more competitive each boss.

 

1. Assuming that you are playing GoSac-CR (though from the sound of it you are not as it impossible to get ember starved really) mastery>crit especially when there's lots of adds aka nearly every fight. Are you sniping SB kills enough? 

 

2. When I was low on haste I still got better numbers with Affliction than I would have with Destro if the fight was more suited to it. I find that secondary stats are quite irrelevant compared to the strengths of each spec. However, Affliction does feel better with more haste in my opinion but I still play crit heavy.

[Facade 1]

Also fights that affliction excels at on normal such as fel lord and reaver, destro probably wont be compete well with before you get the class trinket. Afflictions opener is usually stronger and makes an impact on those short fights, and the trinket nets you a large damage increase for single target destro when you can keep the debuff up. Desto is completely serviceable for normals, but it is definitely recommended to learn all 3 specs to play your class to its best potential. 

[Penguin 0]

Sorry, I forgot to mention I was playing GoSac/Cr. I suppose that it isn't that I am ember starved, it's that I'm not generating as many embers as I feel like I could/should. Thus, I was wondering if it would be better to raise my Crit (via changing some of my enchants/gems) to a higher number that would allow for better ember generation before focusing on prioritizing on getting mastery.

Basically, what amount of crit is required to play Destro to it's fullest potential? What amount of Haste is required for Affliction? Obviously a clearcut answer is impossible, but I'm trying to figure out if just dumping everything into mastery is doing a disservice to both specs in the end.  

[Facade 1]

Personally I think your amount of crit should be fine. You're actually sitting with more than I have on my gear, but I like my crit and haste to be about equal for spec swapping. The 4 set can help somewhat with embers although it cant be relied on. I dont like to run destro on fights that I cant shadowburn things and get free embers on, but thats more of a personal preference rather than feeling like ember generation is low. Are you hovering around 2.5-3.5 embers and only doing a major dump within procs? It usually seems like every 3rd cast or so is a chaos bolt just to prevent capping. For CR destro mastery pulls ahead by a pretty fair margin. Your enchants will only make a nominal difference, but you could test it and see if crit just worked better for you for now. For affliction, I think haste is still slightly ahead for single target until you get a 4set, then mastery is equal, but the difference is so slight and mastery pulls ahead as soon as a second target is introduced. 

 

TL;DR Mastery is amazing for both and it may just require some playstyle tweaking to figure out how to maximize it in every fight. Crit and haste just run in even-ish amounts, but destro does take haste better than affliction takes crit if your looking to craft pieces. 

[spikeysquad 50]

Hi Sgreene,

 

Well haste will also affects your ember generation rate as well as crit. Like Facade I'm a believer in stacking mastery above all else for both specs (if anything I feel like I have too much haste for Affliction now...) 

 

If you still feel your ember generation is too low I would advise to check out your logs to see if you need to improve in certain places. Namely DoT uptimes, SB sniping and the ABC of warlock ("Always Be Casting") have an effect on resource generation. Playing well>>>secondary stats.

 

Edited for a spelling error. 

Edited September 1, 2015 by spikeysquad

[Liquidsteel 279]

You can never have too much Haste for Affliction! At least, not anymore with the reduced levels of secondary stats post SoO.

[spikeysquad 50]

Aye but to me it really does feel that way on single target with the tier 4 set bonus. Just doesn't feel right for some reason though being shard starved was not that fun either. This is just my feeling though I am not actually claiming that I have too much haste so go go people get more haste (after mastery)!

Edited September 1, 2015 by spikeysquad

[Liarparadox 5]

2 quick points.

 

1. I really think people still overrate secondary stats a lot. I prefer stacking mastery, and avoid versatility. Other than that I don't pay much attention and I don't think anything is make/break as far as "shouldn't spec into x"  because I don't have enough of stat y. If you have HFC level gear, any spec is fair game and I'd say it's more about the mechanics and your particular raid needs than anything to do with your stats.

 

2. The more I experiment with destro/aff, the more I think aff is not only viable but preferable on more and more fights given my raid comp where adds get destroyed in a couple globals. Destro on some of these fights actually might be a poor choice given how much aff can push phases nicely. That's a luxury I guess of having great dpsers that destroy adds quickly.

 

I understand what you mean about "too much haste". I started to feel this way on a few bosses; but I think it's just a matter of adjusting and realizing you can fire off more Haunts. Those procs mean the uptime gets ridiculously high. Aff with insane haste is actually pretty fun because Haunt starts to be more and more frequently used, which adds flavour and boosts dmg a decent amount. I start laughing when i have a string of Haunts and can keep haunt up on the boss even without DS going.

[spikeysquad 50]

Glad to see that someone does get what I mean Liar. Yeah I keep throwing out the Haunts (they hit for 80k++ anyhow) but it just feels (which is totally subjective of course) wrong; maybe with time it will change for me.