Previously Dimensional Rift and Demonfire were two quite effective attacks. Now I notice they have been put on one of those two-choice talent nodes but the percentage chance of them proccing seems rather low.
Periodic damage from Immolate/Wither has a 4% chance to fire a Demonfire bolt…
and
Periodic damage dealt by Immolate/Wither has a 5% chance to tear open a Dimensional Rift.
My question is, is it better to take these options, or to choose to keep the individual attack options?
Not sure about Dimensional Rift but Channel Demonfire is superior to Demonfire Infusion.
From what I read, Demonfire Infusion was bugged on the PTR and proccing WAY more often than it should (like 30%) which is what made it seem super strong. Once Blizzard nerfed it, it became a dead talent. Channel Demonfire is better
Hey, let me offer you some insight on those spells and some consideration.
I am one of the lock players who help testing, theorycrafting and implementation of SimC warlock, i did quite some of the testing around those spells and i believe i have some idea of the behavior of those spells during the PTR.
About Demonfire Infusion
I will be talking about this as %chances but truth is that the system is less RNG and follow a accumulator system with variance, this means that everytime you cast Incinerate for exemple it gives an value who averages 0.25, once it adds to 1 it represents a proc.
So on average you will see it happening every 4 incinerates but with some variance (its possible to see a cast happen after 2 casts of Incinerate, but also see it only after 5~6, both are rare).
Talking as % procs is just simpler given the tooltip description and the variance in the system.
1º In single target it will offer less Demonfire Bolts per second than Channel Demonfire, this happens because the 25% proc-chance on Incinerate + 4% proc-chance on immolate can’t catch up to Channel Demonfire 15 bolts every 25 seconds.
2º Demonfire Infusion on the other hand, offers better AOE growth due to two reasons.
A - It synergizes with Fire and Brimstone in the Incinerate, this growth is not linear, it have diminishin return behind it following a cubic formula, effectivelly at 4 targets you have 60% chance to proc 1 Demonfire Bolt, effectivelly you will see 1 proc every 2 casts instead of an average of 1 proc every 4 casts.
B - It allows it to scale with nº of targets on Immolate, as each targets is an additional 4%(again accumulator not a real proc-chance) ticking.
As such, as target count increases, Demonfire Infusion eventually catches up to and may even surpass Channel Demonfire at High-target counts.
About Dimension Ripper
This talent function in a similar way as B) from Demonfire Infusion, for each target you have with your damage over time effect the faster/more it will happen.
Currently (at least last week from PTR it was) it’s bugged with a value of “2.25%” in its accumulator instead of the 5% so i can’t recomend it at those values in any sensible way.
IF, they come to fix this issue (or have fixed with the patch release) it will be lower single target option than Dimensional Rift but with potential to surpass it in aoe scenarios due to the target-scalling of additional damage-over time effects.
This have been fixed, it only happened on Hellcaller, if it had made to live you would play with it as it would far surpass CDF in AOE and slightly better in single target.
I personally wouldn’t say it’s a completely dead talent yet, it may see use in m+ due to the aspects i mentioned above (target scalling), but it does come at a bit of an single target sacrifice.
the loss isn’t as high as it looks because as a passive talent you don’t need to spend GCDs(button presses) to gain its effect.
Yes but CDF offers control. You can use it during CDs (which will be a good idea with tier set because of the mastery bonus window) and get every single bolt to do extra damage.
There’s also the issue of immolate extension. Does infusion offer enough dot extension to maintain dots 100%? Currently destro has strong aoe because CDF + cataclysm can maintain dots at all times, and losing that might not be worth it.
I’ll always find Dimensional Rift more valuable because it gives me something to use during movement.
Shadowburn and Conflag?
DR is a DPS loss as its so far down the tree and the regen rate does help. Shadowburn on CD and move away from DR for now.
Demonfire Infusion feels better > CDF.
On a pack mobs that “small” 4% doesn’t matter. Each bolt lengthens ALL Wither targets. Just like with Dimentional Ripper, it procs quite often and is one less button to press.
Maybe CDF is more consistent and predictable, but DI surprised me yesterday.
The talents tbat buff demonfire are not useful for infusion. This REALLY ANNOYS ME.
As for dimensional rift, the passive version procs around once per 45 seconds on a single target if you have good haste so it should theorietically be always better for long fights. I did not know about it only having a 2.25% chance instead of 5% but if this is still true then it is only better for 3 targets.
Unfortunately, it seems DR is never worth taking at the moment though.
Well I’ll still play CDF in M+ because of how it wither drop off lines up with Cata.
Wish we had more build choices that doesn’t feel like you’re giving up something significant.
CDR in ST raids too… new sims show it sims over shadowburn by ~100k
Youtube: 11.1 Warlock Sims are Here by Kalamazi
If lots of movement, I’ll stick with SB.
One less button. 