Germ, um no, Incinerate wasnt even good for a good destro lock before patch.
In fact, being a fire based destruction lock, really was kinda a horrible idea. Before patch.
I actually played with all the specs of a lock alot. Really alot.
The most misbased perception I have ever seen is that Destro is a FIRE based spec. EPIC FAIL.
Even stacking +fire dmg items, a destro/fire lock, can never out dps a SHADOW based lock. Even the end talent in the destruction tree is BASED ON SHADOW DMG.
That is quite simply why you see a buff this patch to fire in destro. The game developers, in their infinite game testing (and your ignorant if you dont think Blizzard spends as many hours with a test team constantly playing in realms) has seen a DEFICIT in fire based destro locks.
Note. the KEY work DESTRO.
If your afflic, you need to stick with shadow spells..
In my opinion no matter what tree you pick, stacking shadow dmg>crit>stam = the most you cant get outta your lock, both pvp/pve.
on a side note, Sac/AFFLIC seems to be the absolute best BG spec Iv'e found, tho I die alot, I do top the dmg charts usually by 100k over anyone else. Its actually pretty good against warriors too, if you watch their buff (I do this using Quartz) and time your instant hot and death coil appropriatley.
So long answer short, no incinerate is garbage, even with the new patch, for an Affliction lock.
Edit: sorry about the misspellings, stupid keyboard inserts randomg letters, has done so scince I got this new comp.
Edited, Mar 25th 2008 2:52pm by orickruns