As you may have read around the internets, the biggest DPS spec for raiding warlocks is the DS/SnF spec. This goes into the Demonology tree far enough to get Demonic Sacrifice, and takes the other 40 points in the Destruction tree, ending up with 5/5 in Shadow and Flame. The basis behind this spec is to sacrifice your Succubus for the 15% Shadow damage boost, and spam Shadowbolts all day long (with the obligatory Curse of Shadows). I have been an Aff-lock for a long time now, occasionally flirting with a Felguard spec, but I haven’t had the guts to try the DS/SnF spec, fearing my crit chance wasn’t high enough (at a self-buffed afflock spec of 11.39%, I am right).

Last night, I had nothing important to do after dailies, so I headed out to Dr. Boom and proceeded to wail away.

The parameters I had set for myself were:

  1. Only curse with Curse of Shadows
  2. Only Shadow spells to be used
  3. Test will run for the duration of one (1) Curse of Shadows (5 minutes)
  4. DS/SnF spec will be 0/21/40 - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IZbxszIbzZEx0tr0khhi
  5. Afflock spec will be 41/2/18 - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IVMrcRctVtcokZxx0tM [Edit: fixed]

DS/SnF

This test was probably the least Real-World in my eyes, as I didn’t move from my safe spot in the entire 5 minutes. In theory, it would also be the most boring, too, but the reality was I was squeaking over Vent about my 5600 Shadowbolt crits, especially when I crit two or even three times in a row. With the DS/SnF spec, my crit got up to just over 14%, which is still waaaaay too low.
Link to WWS Report
The problem with this test is that WWS shows the fight going for 9 minutes. I had a false start and ended up waiting for a long time for an Orc Hunter to kill him off, but after a few minutes I realised that it wouldn’t make any difference if he was attacking the good Doctor at the same time.
DPS: 870
SB%: 100%
Crit%: 17%
Miss: 3.8%

Afflock

Normally, I include Immolate in my rotation, but for this test, I wanted only to use Shadow spells. Affliction has the additional bonus to the Curse of Shadows, making it 13% instead of the normal 10% increase to shadow damage. In my Affliction spec, I have Dark Pact (less healing from Life Taps required) and I still have Improved Shadow Bolt.
Link to WWS Report
I have had the most experience with this style of fighting. Most of my DoTs are Instant cast, meaning I can cast them on the run, if I need to be.
DPS: 823
SB%: 53%
Crit%: 15%
Miss: 0

Conclusion

For an increase of 47DPS, I make myself more vunerable to lost DPS in mobile fights, lose alot of raid buffs/debuffs. At my current gear level, I will be staying Afflock specced (and to be honest, if I can raid in Tier 5/6 raids as Affliction, I will). Although, I will be recording data from boss fights as much as I can from now on, so I may find that DS/SnF is better in the long term.

PS: An interesting thing to note is that as DS/SnF, my tooltip crit chance is 14.56%, and WWS showed me critting 17% of the time. Whereas as Affliction, my tooltip crit is 11.39% and WWS said I critted 15% of the time (granted, I cast less SBs as Aff than DS/SnF).