Meta/ruin viable in PVE now?

#0 - Jan. 23, 2009, 7:54 p.m.
Blizzard Post
With all the new patch changes and affliction fix of SE but breaking of Haunt (I know its hotfixed but this was yesterday when it wasn't) I thought I'd take a meta/ruin spec to naxx. I've specc'd that way before to raid support and do enjoy it in principle or when lag is making affliction frustrating.

Patch I cracked 5K which normally required affliction or a caster friendly raid w' any other spec. (granted I was using charge/immo aura to pad dps) This was w/o boomkin or pro caster raid makeup (actually did 20 man achievement). RNG wasn't excessive (within a point or two of norms) so I'm forced to admit the spec is getting closer to viable when it used to be 25%'ish behind. Granted fury warriors faceroll 1K+ dpsbetter in most fights but its a huge step forward for the tree.

The HP buff to the FG w' demo knowledge is about a 25-30 spellpower buff (roughly 1%), the flat timed buff from demo empathy is up quite a bit and is actually useful now, the HP itself helps a ton on things in PVE (KT void zones, saph aura, random poisons, etc). Heigan still wrecks him and I still don't see the spec being viable for say sarth 3d but the changed malygos it does fine.

Took it to wintergrasp and arc mages and the usual suspects still blow him up in record time. In my pvp gear the FG has about 19K hp but like a player w' that amount of hp but zero resil he's just a couple globals to kill. His newfound attack power does help a little bit on the warlock's "can't dps while focused" problem but only vs non plate. Thus he is still trivial for a DK, Ret, warrior, etc. The new demon armor takes his armor from 49% to 51% mitigation so very minor there. Mine goes up from about 11% to 23% so at least it helps me at the cost of 20% dmg. However, since there is little self healing on meta builds I see the new armor being only of significant use to a 54/17/0 spec. BTW, in meta form I went from 46% dmg reduction from armor w' fel armor to 51% with the buffed demon armor. Need to add a line to my meta macro to switch armors I suppose.

Overall I have to say thanks to GC and team for the pve improvements w' demonology. Its still quite a bit behind affliction but now at least not dead by a mile last pve. PVP the pet needs resilience or no realistic amount of HP will change things. The demon armor change heavily favors affliction's self healing and nearly excludes other specs in benefit. Something to chew on for uldar I hope. Thanks again.
#1 - Jan. 23, 2009, 8:09 p.m.
Blizzard Post
We'd love to see some more players try Demonology in a raid setting. I think it has a stigma from being the PvP spec in BC, but some of our numbers suggest you can do a lot of damage with a Fel Guard. That Immolate Aura can do a lot of damage too if you can keep stuff close to you.