So, right off the bat. Affliction, I don’t feel is as bad as everyone seems. I’ve been playing for a way to long.
- I like the streamline of the rotation. I think it just needs a few tweaks besides the obvious dmg.
- Very happy Malfeic Rapture was removed.
- Unstable Affliction - I feel is very close. Spamming it as a shard cost doesn’t really feel any different though. Maybe increase the duration just a little and have second cast, and causes UA to Crit.
- Love Wither - don’t change a thing!!
- Agony - great, awesome changes.
- Darkharvest - amazing!!!
- Talent tree
- Malfeic Grasp - Very fun for the rotation. Great way to change it up.
- Instead of trying it to Darkglare, make it an end talet that works like Shamans Ascedence proc.
- DD - AoE, I thought we are moving away from talent trees being one side DD and other AoE.
- Apex - All pure cosmetic change. It looks to voidy, like it should be for a shadow priest. Darker tint, hint of green. Maybe a shadow infernal meteor instead of void.
What’s missing. Something in the rotation. I don’t know what. Just so used to that another spell in there.
All in all, well done, honestly.
1 Like
I completely agree that UA spam doesn’t feel much better than MR spam. Would really prefer it to spend all shards for a longer duration or more damage.
They originally had it as a proc, but it was jarring to play when talented into Shadowbolt, because you’d be use to pressing buttons quickly but suddenly your cast is now a channel, essentially you interrupt yourself if you don’t hit the breaks.
But tying it to DG was a mistake. What they should have done was left it as a proc but made it a standalone spell.
Alternatively, make MG refresh your DoTs per tick to essentially “freeze” them. The fight between applying UA verse casting MG during DG isn’t very fun. Also, if you DG on pull you’ll also need to re-apply Haunt & Agony mid darkglare (because pandemic hasn’t kicked in).
It would also reward good planning and positioning. (by being able to channel MG the whole time for max UA stack damage)
Kinda same, my damage isnt the worse and im not the last one in every fight/pack. Just really feels like the damage profile is wrong. The highest damage is either random procs or Dark Harvest and thats just not fun! Soul Swipe is insane damage but its giga ultra random, same with the Nathrezim meteor. Feels like in most packs I lose damage by keeping Agony on targets and Haunt deals much more damage than UA in most scenarios.
Id rather they nerf the damage of these skills but make it consistent. Every X Haunt casts should call a meteor with a % chance of casting a bonus one or smth like that, every 10 succulent souls u summon the demonic soul for the swipe and so on.
I do think it should be its own thing, but if they dont want it I think would be rather cool if it was tied to the target that has the Haunt debuff, and then add another talent that extend the dots very slightly per tick.
1 Like
I think doing these would make Aff better.
- Make UA a priority DoT again and make Malefic Grasp the ST spender and make it do damage percentage of DoTs remaining or total damage.
- Shift some power from Soul Harvester tree into our DoTs, but maybe make them scale down beyond 5 targets, so it doesn’t conflict with AoE spender.
- Make Darkglare extend our DoTs again, or, better, make Dark Soul: Misery or Rapid Contagion our burst CDs.
- I like SoC spam, it’s kinda fun, but I’d like them introduce a talent that would make Drain Life damage stronger and AoE, but scale down the heal from it, so you dont become immortal.
Love the OP, honestly in heavy agreement!
However, this is something I’ll push back on: warlocks, in lore, will use any kind of magic at their disposal to achieve their goals, and that includes pushing past shadow and deeper into void.
I’d even love to see this expanded into areas of agony magic (the kind that Astalor Bloodsworn uses), and the magic of the Dreadlords like summoning swarms of bats and carrion insects. And, of course, the funky green-blue death magic that’s been teased to us for several expansions now.
Hell, destruction warlocks are actually calling down the magic of a corrupted Titan now through their Apex talents. This is something I never would have anticipated in a million years.
It’s one thing I adore about warlocks: they’re peppered with such a diverse range of spells and thus spell schools. To me, that is the heart of what a warlock is, and it should be leaned into even further. The idea of choosing a bunch of different schools to achieve the goal (damage over time, direct damage, summoning), is just immensely cool to me.
1 Like
Almost like you put the dot on the target and then you cast something to deal more damage based on the dot?
Almost like….
You LFR heroes have no idea what you’re doing.
1 Like
Almost like you don’t understand what Affliction class fantasy is. It’s DoTs and Drains, having UA as a spender makes it better immediately just because it’s a DoT, even if mechanically it’s similar to MR.
Funny seeing this from someone who doesn’t do the hardest content either.
1 Like
UA spam is great compared to:
waiting for 3-4 planetary alignments + no movement mechanics for the next 10 seconds + cooldowns + lust + optimal weather conditions + all ur dots on the target JUST so you can do the same thing with MR and then do nothing for the next 1-2 years pooling shards… and watching other classes play… MR was a plague on the spec.
UA does need a massive damage buff though
1 Like