I'm actually too stupid and lazy to provide the answers for this, but I thought some of the more edumicated locks out there might provide their knowledge for the rest of us.

I'm thinking to keep the thread in a useful format, the discussion should be done along the lines of a matrix with splits between PVE/PVP and by Spec.

PVE:

1) Affliction
2) Demonology
3) Destruction

PVP:

1) Affliction
2) Demonology
3) Destruction

Please try to provide the special tips/tricks you have found useful in certain situations.

Also, any research about when the doomgaurd and/or infernal are appropriate to use over the standard pets would be much appreciated.

Thanks for any info you may provide.

I'll answer for the PvE:
Affliction:
In terms of raw numbers, your imp will beat your Felhunter. That's not to say "always go with the imp," however.
There are two things to consider here:
1) Do you use dark pact? A lot of warlocks don't due to the fact that at intro-level gear, it gives less mana than an improved Lifetap. If you do use Dark Pact, or maybe you're just using it for a particular fight (Loatheb, for instance), you'll want a Felhunter out. An imp will run OOM quickly if you're stealing from it.

2) Do you have Improved Divine Spirit? If you don't, your Felhunter is going to bring a huge amount of utility and value to the raid. It will also give you more personal dps due to the spirit aura. If you have improved Divine Spirit, you'll want to stick with the imp.



Demonology
This one's easy. Felguard. Higher crit and fast attack speed will yield more dps than any other pet.


Destruction
Also easy. Imp. Improved imp is simply too good to pass up.

Does this really need its own thread? Pet choices for each tree can be discussed in that tree's thread. Informational requests on the infernal/doomguard can go in the Simple questions/Simple Answers thread.

Different strokes for different folks. You may enjoy reading through 20+ pages of a thread to find information on one issue, but myself, and I assume others, enjoy a more distributed format that allows you to go to one small thread to find information on a particular subject

This would have been fine had you not said...

Probably not the best way to start off a thread

In any case, the Imp provides the best PvE dps at the moment, in part due to some bugs with the Felhunter not attacking for extended periods of time. If you look closely at WWS reports, the Shadow Bite frequency is much lower than the time that the Felhunter is in combat. Warlock bugs for the lose. Ah well, time to bust out the Imp for PvE once again just like last expansion.

What about PvE use of the Infernal and Doom Guard?

Browsing the EJ forums I've seen a few references of some people using them on boss fights.

My question are:

1) What about losing control? Does the DPS boost from using them make up for the time you have to spend recapturing (plus the danger of it attacking/hurting you)?

2) Do you only use them on a few select bosses? If so, which ones?

3) For it to be effective is it required to have the Improved Enslave Demon talent?

4) Glyphs, do you have to Glyph of Enslave Demon for this to be worth while? (Not a huge issue as it's a minor glyph and currently our selection of minor is very narrow imo).

As affliction I have been trying to drop an infernal on boss fights that are DPS races. However since he only has a 60 second lifespan you need to time it so that when you cast it there is about 60 seconds left in the boss fight. If he dies early then that is Damage lost, if he dies after the boss then you didn't use him to his full potential.

I don't have any number's solidified yet, but dropping him mid fight almost seems like a guarenteed DPS increase considering how on Patchwerk this past week he did more damage in his 60 second life than my felpup did for the preceeding 150 seconds.

You should have heard the melee yelling about the infernal the first time I dropped it on their heads!

Where did you see Doom Guard? Did I completely miss something?

I have not seen anyone use the doomguard in any of the WWS reports posted on these forums.

Doomguard is now:

* Guaranteed enslaved for 15 minutes.
* Summonable without killing someone.
* Amazing dps (critting for 1800+)

Well worth using on patchwerk, etc as affliction. Not sure it's worth the loss of your pet buffs as demo/destro.

Pet peeve, but what he crits for has no bearing on what dps he outputs.

That is because neither WWS nor StasisCL seem to add Doomguard damage to the respective warlock that summoned it.
Here is a parse from a Patchwerk kill last week when I used a Doomguard: Patchwerk
Ignore the melee damage, one of our tanks disconnected very early in the fight. All our melee got gibbed.
Here is the screenshot of the recount for the fight, which has my Doomguard inlcuded: http://blog.machine-code.com/wp-cont.../patchwerk.jpg

Edit: According to recount, my Doomguard did approximately 650dps. However calculating the difference between Recount and StasisCL, you see a 560dps difference.

imo putting two points into imp ensalve is a huge waste. Considering you don't/can't actually use either the Infernal or Doomguard a considerable amount in or outside of raiding, due to cooldown and uptime. Don't get me wrong, using them is a good idea on bosses for the extra DPS they both can pump out, but the two points in imp enslave = wasted.
That and you are correct, most of the deep demo talents don't effect enslaved pets.

Also, in terms of Aff locks (seem to be the cookie cutter spec for locks now) using them is move than a good idea. With the glitches with your felhunter and the not being able to spec into your imp, they come out being a big help in terms of just raw DPS.

I thought the trick for Afflcition locks was to use the Inferno on the last minute 12%? of a fight and let him finish off the boss. summoning a doomguard at every hour might be a good move, I supppose he might be easier to keep alive than the felhunter.

Has anyone considered this?

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft 53/3/15

I was reading elsewhere that putting more than 1 point in eradication has serious diminishing returns so thats why only 1 point. Also, no points in felhunter since imp does more DPS (in most fights). Especially if you have the spirit buff from priests up already.

Edit: This isn't the original post regarding eradication, but it has the numbers...


Spell Hit Discussion

Is this a definate bug with the Felhunter? I had not seen any info on this before, but I have read a lot of concerns on the WWS site forums that people feel WWS is not working well with the expansion.

If Doom is viable DPS then how about something along the line of... 0/27/40+4
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

Sac Imp for the buff, use doomguard to start the fight, pop fel domination pull out infernal for the last minute?

While this will depend a great deal on cooldowns it seems like it would be competitive for max output.

Two Question:
1) Do Doom/Infernal overwrite the buff from sac imp? (I think that I read that Doom Guard will not but that Infernal will.
2) Will Doom/Infernal benefit from Imp Enslave Demon and Unholy Power? (Are the demons enslaved? summoned?)
3) If they do benefit from Imp Enslave would the +10% AS

Do you have a screenshot of the actual breakdown inside of recount when you click the player's name?

That would show us much more information.

So I run with another affliction lock in the raid, should i be using my imp due to having a point in MC and him using the felpuppy? Will this produce more dps for me? Still gettin this affliction thing down and trying to maximize my dps as much as possible.

I've not had a chance to test, but in the old days (BC) you could sac your pet with Demonic Sacrifice and gain the buff and then summon Infernal/Doomguard and have the best of both worlds. Assuming this is still the case, the question would be:

1) Do you need Demonic Sac to make using Infernal or Doomguard with demonology build worth while?

Of course you are correct some talents don't work with non-standard demons. I've not had a chance to test but I plan on respecing to get demonic sac (going to sack a Felguard) and try running with the combination with a doom guard to see what type of dps I can put out.

So from someones comment about Improved Enslave demon, it sounds like both Fel and Doom start off with the enslavement debuff but by having the talent Improved Enslave increases the dps of the special demons, is that true? If it is, I have to agree with one of the posters above, not sure 2 talent points is worth the short up time that you have those demons...

You shouldnt be running 2 aff locks in one raid right now.

BUT, if you are, yeah go ahead and use your Imp.

Why is this? Debuff cap gone, any other reason?