Mr. Gnow-it-all

Tuesday, I posted my 3.1 Affliction build. I also said it's FAIL, raising a few eyebrows.

Allow me to explain.

Here I am, a few days after the patch, sitting in Ironforge, blowing the bejeesus out of a testing dummy. I'm not here trying to rock uber-pwn DPS. All I'm doing is testing out the new Affliction and comparing it's damage potential to a previous test I had run.

Some random Destro-Gnome is fwooshing the dummy next to me. Suddenly, he starts inviting me and telling me that he can help my DPS.

Here's a brief paraphrasing of the conversation.

Gnowitall: I can give you advice.
Me: No thanks, I'm just here trying to get a rough estimate of Affliction's potential.
Gnowitall: Your spec is broken.
Me: I wouldn't say it's broken. Not optimal, to be sure, but it works best for my purposes.
Me: I mostly solo with some small group situations.
Gnowitall: No, it's broken. Those points in Demo are useless.
Me: I wouldn't say they're USELESS. I find Demonic Aegis very useful.
Gnowitall: Aegis is crap. You want your points in Ruin.
Me: Yeah, because I cast Shadow Bolt soooooo often while solo.
Gnowitall: Your DPS will be bad. Groups will not want you.
Me: My DPS is just fine. I'd say 1800 self-buffed in mostly greens is fairly nice.
Me: I'm fully aware of what the "optimal" builds are. I like this one.
Gnowitall: Your broken without Ruin. Get it.
Gnowitall: Trust me.
Me: Teach me, Obi-Wan. PLEASE explain to me how great Ruin is with 7% crit.

Of course, the Gnome mounted up and ran off before he could see my witty retort. frakking Gnomes.

Okay, let's discuss this.

I KNOW Haunt/Ruin is the best DPS for Affliction. I ALSO know what's best for me.

First of all, as I said previously, I'm mostly solo. I'm starting to try to get back into some PUGs, but I'm in no hurry. As such, I like the extra survivability and utility my build gives me.

Here's what I'd be missing with a cookie-cutter build:

Dark Pact helps when I don't want to Life Tap.
Improved Felpuppy helps with that, as well as a nicer group buff.
There are very few specs who can bring the equivalent of my Elements debuff, so I rarely use Agony. Group DPS > Personal DPS
Better Healthstones for bad healers.
More Health and Mana for myself and my pet, plus pet healing.
Fel Concentration is essential for solo.

Okay, we've established that my build works for me, what about the loss in DPS this causes?

Secondly, Let's examine what I'd get from a Ruin build.

Okay I prioritize my stats like this:

Spellpower (including Spirit calculations)
Glorious, wonderful HASTE
Allthatothercrap


With that in mind, I have a hair under 7% Spell Crit. Right now, with my 2 points in Imp Shadow Bolt (I'm REALLY trying to free up 3 more points), I have roughly 9%.

Over a 2-minute window, I cast Shadow Bolt in a full Affliction rotation an average of 42 times, including Nightfall procs. (I still use Glyph of Corruption)

42 x .09 = 3.78

Let's round up and assume 4 crits.

Now, my Shadow Bolts hit for approximately 2800 each. Spell crits inflict 50% additional damage, so each crit added 1400, for a total of 4200.

Here's Ruin's tooltip: Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Destruction spells by 100%.

So, with ruin, each crit would total 5600, with an additional 1400 damage each.

1400 x 4 = 5600

5600 more damage over 2 minutes.

5600/120 = 46.6666666666666666

46.67 additonal DPS.

Is Demonic Aegis worth 47 DPS?

Talented, Demonic Aegis gives me an additonal 54 spell power, plus an extra 9% from Spirit, which is 511 in my current gear.

511 x .09 = 46

46 + 54 = 100

Is 100 spellpower worth 47 DPS?

Using ElitistJerk's calculations, 10 SP = 11.33 DPS

100/10 = 10 (duh)

10 x 11.33 = 113.3 DPS

113.3 > 47

Not to mention all of that aforementioned utility.

I win.

Now, once my gear improves, when the crit outweighs Aegis, I'll definitely respec. Additionally, I'll also pick up Bane, which reduces my Shadow Bolt cast time slightly, which will increase my DPS. However, there is currently no way bane will make up that distance right now.

Now, I am in no way saying my build is better. All I'm saying is my build is better FOR ME.