Playing as affliction with just 5 soul shards feel horrible, it’s time for a update, maybe other specs are fine with 5 but I want more options.
hm, what would happen if they just stacked indefinitely in combat and disappeared after you dropped combat? Perhaps they drop down to 5 when you leave combat so that you can continue in the next fight but not be able to save up a crap ton from fight to fight?
What options do you want? We only have 2 shard spenders, vile taint (20s cd) and malefic rapture.
Shards are basically combo points for us like a rogue. You pool them without going over to spam MR when you have the best lineup of DoTs + cooldowns active. Infinite shards would take all decisions out of the spec - you just infinitely pool them until soul rot, phantom, and DS are off CD then refresh dots and do 20 raptures in a row.
Now, that said, more shards would make the spec far less janky and easier to play, but IMO the better way to do that is to just prolong DoT durations - keeps the spec challenging through good play / decisions on dumping, but not challenging due to babysitting dots.
In PvP I would say more shards means LESS decisions, because you would always just pop rapid contagion then spam malefic, instead of choosing one or the other.
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Or make them function exactly LIKE combo points, with varying levels of DMG depending on the amount of shards expended per Rapture.
Make MR spend all available Soul Shards, leave the dmg per shard x available dots afflicting enemies alone. Just make it a Giant Nuke.
Why do warlocks need combo points, why are they trying to make warlocks like rouge’s this design philosophy is so flawed
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Implying they had a better vision this entire expansion to begin with?
I guess we can debate back and forth all we want, but my best guess is that they want rotations to feel impactful and exciting. Burning all resources in a single nuke isn’t really ‘fun’, you just do it. And if it’s proportionate to shard spending, there is no decision - just fire it when you remember. If they make it a cooldown, it’s just annoying and adds to the list of infinite other CDs we have. Even chaos bolt doesn’t burn all your resources at once, and you can only pool so long. A big nuke is also super punishing if you happen to use it right when a boss goes immune, because now you lose literally all damage after pooling for 2 minutes.
Now I personally like the MR playstyle much more than the chain-drain playstyle, but I appreciate people can feel differently. If MR were just a big nuke, I’d hate it. Would be just like the chain-drain BFA warlock which I didn’t enjoy. The only thing I hate about current affliction is DoT maintenance is such a chore due to variability in durations, cooldowns, and alignment. The decision around when to pool vs. spend, personally, I find enjoyable.
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I recently switched over to my Druid for the expansion, honestly, as Balance is just far more entertaining to me and fulfilling. Pulling off larger numbers in shorter duration’s with all the tools I need enately, with no “Sacrifices” needed from a play style perspective, it’s just superior in both engagement and more fun.
To me anyway…
I agree that having such options is really good and should be the goal. I’m happy with affliction being the challenging spec that does well only if you struggle through it. Destro has typically been the ‘easy’ spec that does well and has the bonuses you like with moonkin, and at times I have / will really like. I think the biggest problem is that destro has that archetype, but it is just really really underperforming. If Destro were stronger (less than top tier affliction, better than mid-tier affliction) I think warlocks would be in a good place. Either play affliction with high risk - reward sacrifices, or play destruction for good, consistent damage that is top tier without such a cumbersome rotation.
The real issue is our shard regen is based on RNG. All our other spec is based on casting spells to gather shards. The shard regen on ST is oblisimal. Even with the 20% Agony Shard regen is still slow af. It’s not until we can dot cleave Agony that it finally feels ‘ok’. Fix the Shard regen rate already.
Switch to Kyrian, Scouring Tithe on kill provides a full refill, timed it right thats 10 shards in total, play it as Destro with havoc, 15 shards if timed right.
No RNG, every 45 sec if it kills you can apply it, if it doesn’t kill the cooldowns is refreshed giving another DoT for Malefic Rapture, win win.
Underperforming seems to forgiving of a word, Destro and Demo are currently in the dumpster compared to Affliction/Night Fae
Destro literally just pulling ahead by a hair over Demo, they both need immense tuning to compete with Affliction, the best for Single Target, AoE, Cleave, M+ and PvP… even though Warlocks melt in PvP.
I’m confused, do you want more Shards? Or you want them to completely overhaul the class. Cause for more Shards just go Kyrian, if you want an overhaul, maybe next expansion… they never rework classes during an expansion.
I liked Destro more with burning embers and ember tap more than the current soul shard iteration, that’s for sure. Regardless, the time of each warlock spec having its own resource system is long gone.
Yes, longer dot times would be a fantastic modification to affliction, I agree.
Nightfae is the best all round covenant for locks and aff locks can alrdy snipe shards on targets about to die so that isn’t a issue. Plus I never want to lose soul shape.
Believe me I know, just trying to understand what the OP wants, I’m a little confused.