Warlock Soul Shards: Keep the Mechanic, Drop the Bag Tax

In Development WoW: Forever Beta Discussion
1

I love soul shards. I’m saying that first because this isn’t a “make it like Retail” post.

Pulling a soul from a dying enemy and carrying it into your next fight is one of the best pieces of class identity in this game. It makes Drain Soul matter. It makes you plan. It makes a Warlock feel like a Warlock.

But I can’t defend what it costs us.

I’m an Herbalist and Alchemist. Every herb I pick goes straight into my main bags, not into a reagent bag like every other Herbalist in Forever, because my reagent slot is holding my soul bag. I can move the soul bag to a regular slot, but then I lose a quarter of my bag slots instead. There’s no setup where a Warlock isn’t a full bag behind a Mage, a Rogue, or a Priest.

It isn’t a flat cost either. It grows the more you help your group. Summons, Healthstones, Soulstones, and every pet resummon cost a shard. In Classic, raid prep for a Warlock meant farming a full shard bag before every raid night, and nothing in Forever changes that once raids open. The Warlock who shows up for the group loses the most space. We’re penalized for doing our job.

So what do we get in exchange? Nothing. Hunters at least get attack speed from their quiver. A soul bag has no stats. Nobody tunes Warlock damage around inventory, so this isn’t a balance lever. It’s friction left over from 2004 that nobody went back to fix.

Forever has already shown you’re willing to fix exactly this kind of friction: the bigger bank, the mount window, transmog, the reagent slot. Those were great calls, and players feel them every session. Warlocks just never got to feel the reagent slot, because it was already full.

Two fixes, and neither touches the class fantasy:

1. Let soul shards stack (20 is plenty). You still Drain Soul for every shard, and you still have to plan. You just stop paying a bag slot for each one.

2. Or give soul bags their own slot, the same way reagent bags got one, so Warlocks get the reagent slot everyone else already has.

I plan to play this Warlock for a long time. That’s the whole promise of Forever.

Keep the mechanic. Drop the tax.

15 Likes
2

Informed post and you come with not only identifying a problem but 2 realistic solutions. Kudos!

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3

Eh. I mained a Warlock in Vanilla and never had an issue and that was before we had bigger bags with slots for dedicated reagents, before DS had a chance to give shards on tick, etc.

It wasn’t difficult getting them through trash in a raid, never needed many shards, either. I kept like 4 usually. Even leveling in Beta I keep like 4. If I make stones for tank/heals I’ll just click on 2 mobs and I’m back to where I was no big.

It’s not friction, it’s management. Clear your bags before runs. Preparation before the run, not during it. No need to bring tons of reagents with you, anyway. Part of the RPG is managing this type of stuff. Bank what you don’t need to bring with you in a dungeon, prepare your pots, bandages, etc ahead of time - you’ll have zillions of open slots. You’ll be fine.

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Seconded. I enjoy the concept of soul shards, and frankly I’d like to be able to do quests to unlock new uses (spells) for them. They feel like a primary mechanic for warlocks.

I would argue that merely increasing the volume of them that are available passes the problem along a bit, and ends with warlocks needing to merely keep a stock of them.

Third fix: Make it so soul shards have durability, and that durability is used to some extent by the spells you cast. Increase the durability of your soul shards as you level up soul drain in a similar manner to how conjure food and water feels for mages.

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5

All of this but for hunters and their ammo/quivers too, thanks. :grin: I fully support my warlock brothers-in-arms getting their bag tax dropped.

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Agreed. I have two issues with warlocks. one, the soul shards as you outlined.

Two, with demonic pact, you can summon a different demon and retain the demonic sacrifice buff. What we need though is for the demonic sacrifice buff to persist through death in battle grounds otherwise you will be in the graveyard summoning two pets every single death which will cost way too much time, mana, and you guessed it.. soul shards

3 Likes
7

I think the addition of the reagent back and the ability to put the soul pouch in it is already an amazing addition. I would not ask for yet another bag slot, I DO agree with letting the shards stack, to 5 instead of 20 though. Otherwise, they would likely take the soul pouch away entirely. Which is something nice about warlock I have enjoyed personally.

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I feel the stacking of the stones is a great idea but I would also set a limit so you aren’t expected to have a soul bag full of stacks. Also arrows should stack to 1000 IMO. Leave the quiver as a potential bag slot so its a trade off for the attack speed or the bag space.

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Four shards is two summons and a Healthstone. You said it yourself: when tank and heals need stones, you go click on 2 mobs. That’s farming shards during the run, which is the opposite of your own advice to prepare before it.

The bigger bags point cuts the other way. Bigger bags and the reagent slot went to every class, so the gap between a Warlock and a Mage is the same size it was in 2004. Banking, prepping pots, and clearing bags before a run help every class equally too. They raise everyone and leave Warlocks exactly one bag behind.

Drain Soul giving shards on tick makes shards faster to get. It doesn’t give them anywhere to go.

And yesterday in the Priest leveling thread, you were on the other side of this:

See how abjectly stupid that sounds? You’re saving space to limit downtime

That’s the whole point. Bag space is downtime. Warlocks just get less of it than everyone else, and not by choice.

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10

You get a free mount as compensation for this inconvenience. Are you okay with giving up your free mount for this?

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Fully agree. Hunters are being taxed in the same way and it doesn’t make sense!

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12

What do paladins give up for their free mount?

You’re tying unrelated things together just to be contentious.

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13

Yeah I don’t consider clearing trash to restock a couple of shards as going against anything I said. Preparation to clear your bags ahead of time to make space for shards = get some shards ahead of time. Maybe I should spell everything out, this is the WoW forum, afterall.

If you wipe during a run and need a couple more some trash will do. It’s fine. Not to mention at 60 you should be running around with so much bag space that you forget to clear them in the bank because it becomes a non-issue at some point. There’s your room for shards. Summons? Sure. Carry 10 shards instead of 4 then and you’ll still have 70% of your bags empty. Unless you’re still rocking 6 slot bags at 60, there are larger bags. I expect people to just make it to the run on their own. If someone needs to swap mid dungeon and a summon is needed, great. Nothing changes.

And I was right in that thread, too, nothing changed. You dump the unnecessary garbage from your bags into the bank ahead of time before runs to make space for what you need. Easy. Inventory management 101.

Anything else?

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Nethaxion covered the Paladin side. The mount argument has two more problems.

The shard tax starts the day you learn Drain Soul, and the Felsteed doesn’t show up until 40.

A free mount also saves you gold once. Shards cost you bag space every session for as long as you play the character.

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15

I think it won’t be so bad if they make good on their promise of way bigger bank space. But I also wish soul stones stacked.

I am appreciative that drain soul can gen shards WHILE it ticks though. That is huge imo.

16

Unless I’ve missed something in the default UI options, the issue of having your main mana regen talent tied to forcing you to delete a soul shard every fight thus needing macros/addons to manage it, is awful. Give Locks a toggle to generate or don’t, so we can level in peace with our drain soul talent.

17

tink

Your inventory is full.

Your inventory is full.

Your inventory is full.

Your inventory is full.

:sob: :sob: :sob:

1 Like