Disclaimer: I’m sure many other classes/specs can relate. I will exclusively make a case for 1 PVP talent that needs to be base line.
Why?
a) Impact to PVE is minimal. Only Demo gains a little bit of DPS from this change. Historically, locks have had higher HP than their peers. And would it be ground breaking to have 5% higher hp in dealing with the new raid mechanics/dungeon mechanics in 9.2? If 5% hp is the problem, In lieu of 5% hp, any change to demon armor to deal with physical damage dealers would be welcome.
b) Mandatory PVP talents to be competitive.
Take Affliction lock for example; Imagine a world where affliction locks do not have Rapid Contagion or Deathbolt or Rampant Afflictions. Then, Aff Locks would have the most meaningless damage profile. Would anyone even invite them to a 3s or 2s? Out of these three talents, we have to give up one for Demon Armor/Nether Ward. And Rapid Contagion is bread and butter for pressure and sustained damage. That leaves one talent slot. Last slot is an easy choice, either deathbolt or rampant affliction. This doesn’t leave room for the N number of additional non-dps/fun/strategic talents that I as an affliction lock would like to try. Shadow Rift, Gateway Mastery and Amplify Curse are such cool talents that never see the daylight. Because them over Deathbolt or Rampant Afflictions feels like gimping myself. Then we have some dead talents Rot and Decay/Bane of Fragility/Essence Drain/Casting Circle/Bane of Shadow.
Demo has a similar issue. Call Felhunter and Master Summoner are required talents. That leaves one talent slot open for Fel Obelisk/Call Fel Lord/Pleasure Through Pain. Let’s face it, the rest just don’t see any game time.
Destro is the only spec that has room for real choice. Dmg is baked into baseline spells and talents. Interrupt is baseline. +Eventhough demon armor is a required talent, we can still play around with the other 2 slots.
TLDR, Just to be competitive, Dmg and high impact utility like interrupt is locked behind PVP talents for Aff/Demo. Choice has been taken away from us!!! And this is a plea to get it returned.
You don’t have to take deathbolt you just think you do cuz thinking is hard.
Lots of classes have " mandatory honor talents" it’s cuz we can only select 3 (unless ur a dk) I don’t think short apoc or necro wounds should need to be selected but they do.
Aff just needs a redesign tbh. Both defensive and offensive kits for the spec just feels like an anomaly. Deathbolt needs to be removed, dots need to hit harder, drain life playstyle needs to be nerfed heavily, Malefic Rapture needs to get replaced by haunt, and so on. Even if demon armor was made baseline, I doubt the spec would really see a big difference with its gameplay.
Warlock is strong as hell and infuriating to play against. You do not need deathbolt. You can run and rot for days. It’s actually crazy how much mobility a good warlock can have.
Like I mentioned, other classes can relate. And if you have something as fundamental as demon armor being mandatory for your class/spec, by all means bring it up, so hopefully it get’s addressed now or in the next expansion.
This post is more about having fun talents at our disposal, but not having the room or luxury to try them out. Considering how demon armor is a basic requirement in World of Meleecraft, it is really not a choice.
