Conflicting advice?Follow

I've been hearing from various people that Affliction is better than Demonology for leveling, and vice versa. I've heard it from enough people both ways to think that apparently they are both good for it, so I figured I would ask about it. I'm not completely sure what to ask honestly, so I'll just toss it out in general. What are your opinions on leveling? I was considering this sort of spec for the time being, but I'm not so sure honestly.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IiMrb0cZfxhzIizMesz

My problem is that I want Improved Health Funnel, and I'm not really sure where to pull the points from to get it. Maybe Mana Feed? But I really do love that skill, at least based on what I know (I'm a whole level 6, lol).

Anyway, any advice would be appreciated. I tend to solo on this character for the most part if that helps with anything.

[edit] For end-game, is staying demonology a good idea? I hear the Fel Guard gets 1-2 shotted in instances at that point. If that's the case, I may switch over to a Affliction build (I really don't want to have to re-spec down the road). I have an affliction spec in mind also that I can post.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=NEMrrRczqtbodgc0I

Again, any advice is greatly appreciated.

Edited, May 4th 2007 12:23am by codexia

I was afflic all the way up to 70, and stayed as afflic until today I switched to demo for more arena and pvp survivability. I would definitely say afflic is better for lvling and pve in general. Depending on your gear and talent setups you can be ultra efficient with little to no downtime. So far I've noticed with demo on pve I'm slower, my dps is a bit lower, I can handle more adds, but I have more downtime to rest up or let the pet rest up.

For me, the speed of affliction does not make up for that it bores me to tears!
My advice is to just play the way you think is the most fun.

This is the build I've used for my lvl 38 lock before I respeced to destro to play BGs with a friend.

I had next to no downtime with that build.

For one mob at a time:
Send in VW and let him taunt.
CoA
Corruption
Immolate
Wand mob to death or drain soul for mana.
Every other fight you do a life tap.

For multiple mobs:
Send in VW and let him taunt.
CoA
Corruption
Immolate
Life tap
send VW at next mob
repeat casting on new mob
finish off first mob with wand or drain soul for mana.
send VW to next mob
etc.

After a few mobs your VW will be low on HP, just have him do consume shadows once and apply a bandage to him (and perhaps yourself to compensate for life taps) and he's good to go again with just a few seconds downtime.

I could solo elites three levels higher with this build. I killed a lvl 39 elite giant by the desolace coast when I was lvl 36 and Lord Azrethoc(40) at lvl 37.


Edited, May 4th 2007 10:47am by pompa

this is coming from a noob (lv 24) but yes with affliction i have little to no downtime depending on the mob

lol.. i belive he meant Drain hunting. Unless he is hunting someone, i have known people who will hunt others just for fun ;)


As for the OP, Its not a matter of which build or which tree is better, because that would be a lifelong discussion. The better wording is which tree or build would best suit your playstyle. If you like to be behind your pet while you dot/wand/drain, then you will most likly go with demonology. If you like to go full out and have more DOT's, then affliction would be better for you. It all comes down to how you play, which one is fun, and, most importantly, which one you like. I have tried all three tree's, never really go the hang of desto, but I know locks that are really great with a desto build. Demonology was great with the felguard, he was a great tank, but usually if you get 3-4 adds, your done (thats from my experience, so i might not have been playing it well), but I just love the affliction tree. I think I have a pretty good grasp on how to play as affliction, and have no problems and most importantly, almost no downtime at all.

But again, I will say, deciding what tree to go into is something that you have to decide on for yourself, which one do you think would suit your playstyle better. My opinion, try all the trees for about a week or so, that will give you a better idea on which tree you like better.

Hope this helps..

I'm starting to think Affliction may be the way to go, but I do have one more question along those lines. My other character is a Beastmaster Hunter, would playing a Demonology Warlock end up crossing a lot of the same lines and possably get a bit repetitive? I can stand doing it with one character, but...not sure I could do it with two. Just how similar are the two classes when pet specced?

Hmm...so which would be better for a playstyle along the lines of this?

-send pet in
-dot the mob up and wand it to death

I dunno =/ Better pets for better aggro holding would be nice, and pet focused classes are the one I love. But being able to let dots do all the work...I do love poisons :)

And considering I solo most of the time...meh. It's so hard T_T I like both specs.

If you like the send in pet, then dot and wand to death, then demo would be the best tree for you. Let your minion do most of the work. If you like DOT's, well thats affliction, but as said above me, at lvl 6, you really dont need to be focusing on this just yet. I can see why you are asking, before starting a character, i like to get a spec lined up so I know what my end build will be, but as you get higher in lvls you will want to try out other specs to see how they compare, for youself. You can solo with any of the builds that locks can have, we are a versitile class, learning how to use everything at your disposel will come with time. But when you can, i would dump 5 points into Imp. Corruption for the insta-cast, then worry about the later points, well.. later.

More than likely I'm going to end up speccing into both at some point to try this stuff out, but yea, I'm basicaly trying to get a feel for stuff as far in advance as I can.

So far it looks like I'll be hitting demon instead of affliction. Even though I do love my dots, I tend to like pets more. I did hear though that no matter how much demonology you spec into, your pets are still trashed in the 70 instances? Is this true? If it is true, what benefits can you still get out of demonology if your pets can't help in combat?

I tested Demo out again today. I played around with it in my 50s before switching back to Affliction.

So, I tested again today.

It's extremely fun and versatile in PvP, I'll tell you that.

For grinding, it's a big no-no.. unless you like to take things slow and steady, Affliction out performs Demo in every way. Efficiency, speed, and fun.

IMO, spec Affliction. Around level 30 you can start drain tanking. By level 40 you will be a little sick of Affliction and want to try something new. But you'll stick with it, and at 40 you'll get Dark Pact. After you get Dark Pact, you'll love affliction more than you ever did before. Then, you'll hit level 50 and spec Demo because your interested..

Then, within a few levels, you'll realize why you fell in love with Affliction in the first place and head straight to your trainer to spec back into it. Then, you'll get Instant Howl of Terror and Unstable Affliction. Suddenly, you can take 5 mobs at once and not drop below 99% health. Then, you get to Outlands and start collecting real gear. And you start to take on 10 mobs at once without going below 99% health. Then, you'll Dark Pact your Imp's mana away, life tap and start grinding again.

Then, you'll hit 70 and get Seed of Corruption, and realize your spec doesn't matter anymore because you can put that on 30 mobs and watch them blow themselves up.

Edited, May 5th 2007 2:51am by BuckeyesFTW

If you think being a clothie you cant take on 10 mobs click here

Does't matter whether we are clothies or not they die and die hard

granted this has just a little help from a priest

Edited, May 5th 2007 6:09am by Calenthe

Our regular outland group is mixed. We have a Pally healer, two tanks (prot warrior, feral druid), a fire mage, a Marksmanship Hunter, a Demonology spec warlock and me (afflic/destro). Recent inductees into our instancing groups are a resto druid, another afflic warlock, an assasination rogue, and another prot warrior. Note the lack of a priest. The highest priest in our guild is L50, but we're working him up to outland real soon - and if he wants to spec shadow, that's also fine by me. We can accomodate any build and still rock.

We have never had a wipe in either Blood furnace or mana tombs, with almost any combo you can think of that includes a tank and a healer. There is plenty of DPS and plenty of tanking ability. Yes, even from our feral druid. She also serves as an off-healer when necessary, by switching gear. WHat the heck, she's also been main healer when the pally or resto druid weren't available - and still no wipes.


Perhaps in pick-up groups, where people don't know each other or trust the other player's abilities. 700HP? Less than 20% of a swat from a boss.

When another lock and I are in the same group in BF, we don't use any pets in the central part. We each grab one of those enemy felguards, beat on the others with them for 3 battles, then let one loose, use the controlled one to bring down both of their HP and kill them before grabbing another set. We hardly ever get asked to bring out our imps for the buff. When you have so many concentrated mobs, it's better to off-tank with a VW or the FG and use the DPS to your advantage. I used to think that the imp was imperative, but it isn't. At least it isn't in all the 5-mans I've been to so far.


and still wiping, because you'll grab aggro from the tank. During your GY run, you can be smug in the realization that you were at the top of the damage meters. If you can wipe as an affliction lock, you're twice as likely to wipe as a destro. Destrolocks are way low on our recruitment desires. However, If we got one we would insist that he get KLH threat meters, throw away any damage meters he might have, and use KLH instead.



Edited, May 5th 2007 5:09am by ohmikeghod

Something tells me i'm going to go affliction. I didn't actually watch the movie, but I like the idea of standing there and just loading up dots :P

Now if I could only figure out whether to use Tailoring or Jewelcrafting...*sighs* maybe I could actually level again.