Erm...after level 25-30 or so, VW sucks ass. They don't hold aggro against your rank 4-5 DoT's, and if you think about laying one bloody shadowbolt with a VW tanking, you are toast. The only thing good about VW is it can allow you to tank VC at an earlier level (around level 38-42) if you understand how to VW/Sac rinse and repeat. Once you get over those levels were the VW can't keep up, use a succubus. You can kill more than one mob at a time without getting obliterated and their DPS is MUCH higher. Who cares if you take a few licks in the meantime, if you raised your lock right, you should be able to handle it.
After playing around with builds, Destruction builds are useless, even for PvP. It might work better in world PvP, but as far as doing BG's, you might kill one or 2 guys and think you are pimp shit, but then you are completely burnt on mana and there's just not enough spirit gear in the world. There's been some pretty mean Destro locks out there, don't get me wrong, but I would know what you are doing first. There are better builds for a novice.
As far as Demon/Ruin or as Jason was calling it (Demonology), it's not necessarily based around the talents you are thinking about. It's a "smart" destruction build more or less. It's using the talents you need from demonology to make a higher DPS destro build with 20% threat reduction. It's as good a raid build as I've looked at anyway.
As far as affliction, it's the best grinding spec you can go, simply because there aren't hardly any downtime. DoT, life tap/dark pact, drain life, nightfall, shadow bolt, dead critter. And you are still at full health and barely drained in mana.
PS: I've used a lock as my main for the past 3 months. Not that I'm 60 yet because I'm only 46 because my game time is limited, but I read a lot and I expiriment even more.
