Demo or Destro?

[nanoam 0]

this question probably been asked lots of time..
i can't decide which offspec to go.

i main affliction, i have corcordance, and i banked all ap in my bank. more then 1.5b
i guess it won't worth it to get more conrcordance 
i've seen lots of videos which said Demo going to rule in ToS because of single target fights
but destro is mysterious because no one checked the actual numbers on live yet, or did they?

so which one to pick?  

Edited June 15, 2017 by nanoam

[spikeysquad 50]

All 3 lock specs are looking really strong at the moment. However, there are probably multiple tuning passes yet to come.

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/statistics/11#region=3&difficulty=4 Change to whatever difficulty and percentile you prefer. At the moment parses are quite inflated due to short fights and little movement. 

Personally I have much more respect for Destro on progression as Demo's target switching is really weak and that is something that my guild struggles with. However if you truly value single target damage then Demo is probably your way forward.

I actually can see a place for all 3 in ToS so I do not envy your decision.  However, which do you actually prefer to play? As they feel quite different in my opinion. 

[nanoam 0]

i'm leaning towards Demo,
at beginning of legion i mained demo then switched to aff.
so i have good demo legendaries, and i play it well. and the 4set piece looks nice.
i didn't play much destro. few in Emerald Nightmare, and some dungeons. i don't have good legendaries
and my artifact left behind with 34 traits.

[CanidSerpent 2]

I can't vouch for Demo since I haven't played very much of it. But I have ran Destro since the beginning of this xpac and am still running it as my primary spec.

Like Spikey said, Destro can easily switch targets using Havoc, and I personally find it to be a very versatile spec, it's also just the most comfortable for me to use so I am a little biased in that regard. Between the two I would try to find which one you enjoy more, I don't really like strictly going by numbers and such because if you don't like the spec, you won't be able to use it to its fullest potential.

Just my two cents.

[faragorn 2]

Do some trials on the test dummies and see which spec you get better performance out of.

[Lockybalboa 618]

7 hours ago, faragorn said:

Do some trials on the test dummies and see which spec you get better performance out of.

No.

Test dummies are highly inaccurate for a dozen reasons or so. They provide very basic and unreliable data at best and are best used for testing weakauras.

If you want real information, sim it. If you don't know how to sim it then read up on what the correct talent options are and log out in those talents, go to raidbot.com and use their website to sim yourself. It is not as good as doing the sim yourself but it is good enough for 99% of users.

[Tarazet 144]

I've been playing both Demo and Destro since 7.2 hit, barely touched Affliction since it doesn't appeal to me.

Destruction is an amazing spec for world quests and 5 mans, because it is so good at instant-on spray. It gets to peak damage very quickly, somewhat similar to a Fire Mage or a Hunter, and it can repeat the process with a new mob much faster than Demonology. The mobility isn't as bad as it's made out to be, either, since your rotation has a lot of instant casts, unlike Demo.

Demonology is a slightly stronger raid spec, but its damage is not as steady because it is highly dependent on its cooldowns. If something gets screwed up in your opener, you've lost several million. In addition to that, it also has a long ramp time, so it suffers from target swapping or immunity periods. And there's no point even swapping to something that's not going to live 15 seconds or more.

However, this is only relative to Destruction. Demo is totally playable. It's also highly survivable and has a great toolkit.

Edited June 17, 2017 by Tarazet

[Schattensang 0]

Honestly, you have to try it out for yourself. I tried Demo as well as Destro, following the guids on this site, as the main stats are the same. With equally useful (or useless) legendaries, I got far more value out of Demo than Destro. Against the emerald dragons. soo.... I guess I am pretty bad at playing Destro. Try it for yourself.

[Furty 51]

Objectively Destruction is a much stronger spec this expansion.

[Tarazet 144]

19 hours ago, Schattensang said:

Honestly, you have to try it out for yourself. I tried Demo as well as Destro, following the guids on this site, as the main stats are the same. With equally useful (or useless) legendaries, I got far more value out of Demo than Destro. Against the emerald dragons. soo.... I guess I am pretty bad at playing Destro. Try it for yourself.

Are you talking the LFR Dragons, where you just stack everything up and cleave it down? That's the perfect scenario for Demonology. On actual progression in that raid, when you had them spread out, Destruction wrecked that fight.