Affliction: Bring it back to its roots

Classes Warlock
#1

The DoT spec where DoTs did a lot of damage. There seems to be a conception that just slapping on dots and laughing as things melt is terrible design but…is it? I play affliction because it is unique and awesome. I don’t want it to be like every other class that is “burst damage and one damaging ability topping your meters.” The burst meta has gotten ridiculous. DoTs frankly don’t have a place in the game anymore, and it makes me sad.

Putting on DoTs and maintaining them constantly over a long period of time WAS THE SPEC. The DoTs were the damage, not Malefic Grasp, not drain soul, not deathbolt (good riddance), not Malefic rapture…just the DoTs themselves. I see nothing wrong with periodic damage dealing high damage, except in PvP but that’s another discussion. Does EVERYTHING have to be burst now?

Please stop trying to make affliction into a burst spec. I just want my actually powerful DoTs back.

33 Likes
#2

Yep: Here’s some dots you can use to do damage, but they don’t really do anything, until you put on enough of them, and then cast this other thing…sigh.

I mean the entire game, is a concept of ways to do damage, and complete quest. They basically made doing damage, annoyingly, not fun anymore(to me).

I went from loving Aff-lock, and enjoying logging on, questing etc. to basically not even playing wow anymore. If I log on, I always just wish I could have that good happy feeling of doing damage(dots) again. Feels bad man.

7 Likes
#3

theyve unilaterally decided that the maintenance style of dps isn’t fun because it isn’t particularly interactive, failing to understand that a lot of players genuinely find it fun even if it isn’t the deepest gameplay.

i dont pretend to get it either.

10 Likes
#4

It’s less that players don’t like it, more that it scaled way too hard. We saw where aff was in legion when it was effectively just what is being said. It was starting off avg and then became the strongest spec in the game in every aspect and was unkillable bc drain soul also drained life. It was fun asf tho

2 Likes
#5

i dont deny that was also a stumbling block, but i also dont deny that there are/were workarounds that blizzard did not approach and their recent spec rotation design speaks for itself i think

4 Likes
#6

It was SO FUN though. Aff lock was the first class I fell in love with in legion, and then BFA absolutely killed it. Just destroyed it. No more fun at all.

They need to get back to that drain soul type of play, because it felt unique, smooth, and overall fun.

2 Likes
#7

i mean the deafening complaints of aff in M+ in BFA when it was purely a dot spec, MR - to me - was a direct response to that complaint. that we could not do burst aoe in any capacity and they gave us a button to do so. what should they have focused their spotlight on? BFA was widely hated despite being purely dot based. Legion was highly lauded but wsa also viciously overpowered in all content

3 Likes
#8

im not gonna sit here and pretend im an aff master, we both know that’s not true, but i think there are dot interactions they could make work that keep dot specs from going broken and having minor burst while still remaining a pressure spec.

feels like after the mechanical and gamefeel failures of legion/bfa they sorta gave up and decided it was going to be another identity altogether wearing the general skin of affliction. but i suppose the same accusations can be laid at the feet of most specs if we’re being honest.

im very interested to see what changes the talent trees bring in Df and how they treat the underlying identities of the specs.

3 Likes
#9

Yeah i think it needs some touchups, i dont think MR should be scrapped but i think it needs a complimentary single target spell and im totally fine with adding power back to dots, its a matter of damage per execution. if my dots are viciously overpowered for instant global with minimal upkeep, that is frankly not super fair. however if i get some sort of single target spender that actually cranks up the dots, then at least you have a tuning knob right

1 Like
#10

I’ve thought about this a lot. I think giving every dot a 1.5 second cast time would be a good way to balance some of the less tangible power affliction has had. If you had to cast your dots, I believe blizzard would be more open to letting the dots be harder hitting. Effectively they would go out in the same time frame, but you would have to be stationary, which is a nerf. Once they’ve been cast, they can stay up for much longer, since the time/effort investment to cast them was much higher. There is also something pretty satisfying about actually getting a cast off, vs spamming instant casts.

I cannot imagine blizzard hasn’t seen the requests from locks to focus affliction back on damage over time vs combo point cleave on a cd.

1 Like
#11

eugh. i mean. maybe.

but having all 3 warlocks specs that stationary feels… not great.

maybe if they return a lot of our inherent tankyness so we can soak mechanics more easily instead of running out like everyone else it’d work. iunno.

1 Like
#12

Honest thoughts here on aff in m+ is just play demo or destro. Why does a class with a 3 damage specs need all 3 specs to be good in every bit of content? Demo is a spec that’s only good in arena when it gets massively overpowered, usually due to one or two abilities interacting weirdly with a patch, yet we all accept it and play other specs for that content. Or some people make a sub par spec work for them, but at greater effort.

Affliction should be about damage over time, and if theres no time to deal damage then it just shouldn’t excel in that content.

2 Likes
#13

I like the “maintenence is unfun” when almost literally every class has combo points, a filler, and a huge dump move that does damage. Everything feels the same and it’s getting really old. My two cents on Legion affliction: Overpowered because of Wrath of Consumption. Take that out and it might be a more balanced spec. The best iteration of AFF was WOTLK, where your dots were actually your damage and you, yes, maintained them as your main source of damage, then cast shadowbolt to fill gaps. It’s really not that hard to grasp, but apparently being a rogue, sorry, warlock that deals half-burst and then some trickle tickles is more fun

3 Likes
#14

Soul Burn mechanic could fix this.

#15

im in complete agreement - we have 3 tools, opting not to use 2 of them removes your ability to complain about that one not being good at something one of the other 2 is. notable one tricks are few and far between at the high end for a good reason.

#16

was this just refreshing 3 DOTs every 20ish seconds and then pressing shadowbolt for 18 seconds or how did this rotation work. I was a MOP baby but didnt play lock till late legion, i’ve never heard someone say WOTLK aff was peak so any guidance/clarity here would be sweet so i may be more educated

#17

Ok, but the stats show it also being bad in raids right now. I would be with you on this if affliction had destro or demo’s spot in the raid statistics.

#18

No one is talking about SL lol

#19

I was specifically replying to the idea that it’s ok to have a spec that is bad at certain things as long as it is good at others. Specifically, all specs don’t have to be good in mplus.

That’s fine, but data shows the spec is bad in raids as well. If that trend continues, then it is still a problem in the future that will have nothing to do with SL, but everything to do with how the spec is designed.

However, I’m of the mindset that every spec should be balanced around mplus 15, and they should be able to do overall similar numbers.

People should be able to play what they love without having to ditch a spec just because another is outperforming by literally thousands of dps. Such is the case we have now across many classes. It’s nonsense. They have the data, they just don’t care.

1 Like
#20

i mean aff being bad in raids isnt a design flaw, in fact aff as it stands is pretty decent to play and is pretty okay designed for a first iteration (see 1000000 other threads regarding it), its moreso that they completely kneecapped it going into SOD with like a 40% ST nerf. It was decent in M+ then still, but awful in raid. come 9.2 and tier sets, aff’s tier set really doesnt do anything but enable more drains and the occasional free MR, and its still recovering from the nerfs it was given. Aff died to tuning more than it died to design

3 Likes