Every other dps spec has an interrupt baseline. Every tank has an interrupt baseline. At least one of the healers has an interrupt baseline, not sure of the others but healers need it least of everyone. Affliction and destruction can use a felhunter with minimal dps loss compared to demonology.
Interrupts are not some niche type of ability that defines a class/spec in the same way that say a warlock using fear and banish differs from a druid using roots and hibernate. It’s something that everyone can do. Warlocks, demo especially, are the only ones that have to take a hit to do so.
Requiring the use of the felhunter to have an interrupt reminds me of life tap. When mana no longer mattered to other dps specs (aside from arcane being designed specifically around mana management), life tap remained as a relic of a previous time that only really served to hinder us in the modern game. Now in content that often has a ton of stuff to interrupt, ours being locked to a specific pet feels similar; a relic of a previous time that only serves to hinder us in a way that no other dps classes have to deal with.
And interrupts are good abilities for everyone to have.
They let good players and groups distinguish themselves. They reward paying attention to multiple enemies at once. They reward communication. Coordinating kicks is great gameplay and only keeping it from 1/24 dps specs is ridiculous.
Maybe if half of the other dps specs didn’t have a kick there would be an argument for not giving it to everyone. Not everyone needs an aoe root. Or polymorph/hex/paralysis. Or a knockback. But literally everyone else has a kick.
I agree with the statement, except the game design itself has changed from vanilla. We have went from ‘it’s ok to miss an interrupt’ to ‘okay, who messed up on interrupt and causing us the wipe/lost?’.
Given how focal Mythic+ has become as ‘end-game content’, removing/limiting access to interrupt would have a ripple effect across the game.
That’s gonna make us a lot of enemies.
I can argue that rogues ‘should’ have kick removed - hey, they got 2 stuns AND a blind - but then it would affect them in other ways, right?
Leave BM out of this. They’re having a very hard time right now. I would bet they would trade any and all utility they have for the DPS I keep hearing Demo Locks are doing.
Try looking at the big picture rather than only right this moment. Demo is so strong right now because of the major buff to Explosive Potential. When it gets nerfed and demo is no longer at the top then your entire argument means nothing. BM was one of the top specs for awhile earlier in the expansion while demo was one of the lowest. BM still had their baseline interrupt and demo still didn’t.
And interrupts are not some unique utility at this point in the game’s lifecycle. Every dps has one. Warlocks, demo especially, are just the only ones who have specific requirements to actually use theirs that no other class has. Honestly, who would it hurt to just give Call Felhunter baseline?
I still think felpuppy is a huge advantage. It allows you to purge, and when it does, your pet gets a (small) damage increase through the energy it gains. So even if the interrupt was taken away, the purge still helps quite a bit if your team REALLY needs it. It’s bascially equivalent to a DH’s purge at this point with only a slightly longer CD. they could just reduce the CD from 15 to 10 to be equivalent to a DH’s purge if needed so it’s a bit more worth to take the felpupper (which really isn’t needed. It would just give more of a reason to use felpupper rather than imp, which technically has a little higher damage). Succubus is quite situational and is 99% of the time only taken for PVP since the slow the succubus has isn’t AOE. I just really wish blizzard would balance all the lock pets to be used based on a situation, but each one is just as good as all the others.
EDIT: A bit random, but server transferred about a month ago. Renamed to Stanaran-Madoran. Not sure why forums haven’t updated for me. anyone else see this or am I seen as stanaran for everyone else?
Truth be told - Call Felhunter should be baseline for all warlock specs.
Let’s not forget the disastrous backlash in Legion, in which somehow the team thinks revisiting an outdated-and-still-terrible idea is promoting ‘spec identity’.
Yes, Destruction being ‘encouraged’ to stuck with imp 24/7 for maximum efficiency and not having an interrupt is oh-so-interesting. /s
Yes. And ya know what else they should have do? Fix/improve Command Demon/Grimoire of Sacrifice spell on Felhunter to cast Devour Magic instead. That would have fixed the ‘double interrupt’ issue long ago instead keep sticking us on a hamster wheel.
Ironically the previous Knockback effect is 3x more useful than the slow ever is for PvP.
And i’m not sure how should i classify the decision behind giving us the Seduction ability upon using Grimoire of Sacrifice. Was it:
a, lack of vision - we think ‘30 sec of not doing anything’ is ok.
b, lack of competence - whadda ya mean ‘30 sec of not doing anything?’
In my ‘best possible outcome’ scenario, i was aiming for:
1, baseline character-based interrupt, Spell Lock would just be located on ourselves.
2, Spell Lock removed from Felhunter, thus preventing double interrupt from ever possible. Slow/Snare utility as replacement.
3, Whiplash reverted back as Knockback effect. Seduction no longer requires channeling.
4, Mobility improvement for Felhunter/Succubus to help target swapping, eg a leap for Felhunter or Shadowstep for Succubus.
Possibly i dream too much, but at least i tried pitching it during alpha/beta BfA.
Listen, Demo’s working fine.
But there’s massive irony that the warlock demon/pet master spec is the one most glued to a specific pet and has none of the utility of either of the other specs that aren’t glued to a specific pet to the same degree that demo is glued to the felguard.
you’d think a master of demons could just snap his fingers and command a set of dogs to kick its target without breaking a sweat while his main demon goes to town…but apparently that’s too much
I’ll be honest - i can go infinite rounds on how terrible Implosion is in terms of mechanics and usability, and how Demonwrath was superior in both function and aesthetics, even remain useful down to ‘mundane low-level dungeon mog running’ or ‘brainless casual WQ’.
Sadly i see no other alternative until the next xpac.
The irony wasn’t lost, as such ‘feature’ was just brought back in Legion, in which Destruction relive the taste on how it’s like to being stuck with an imp 24/7. Not that Affliction fairs any better - being stuck with a Felhunter makes it easy when you need to interrupt, but accessing other utility? Not so much.
Though i despise the idea of ‘being forced to stuck with a specific pet’, i do think that solving this utility-access issue isn’t as easy as it seems. People liked pets, but on general they disliked being told to use which pet instead picking the ones they prefer. It’s a tricky balance, which gets even more complicated when they design each pets with different utilities.
But i think we can generally agree that it’s about-damn-time that Interrupt utility should be granted universal access, instead binded on a specific pet.