Even with Diabolist buffs, the game design of constant movement still makes Hellcaller feel too good. It’s a shame because all those demons look so good thematically.
How can I go back to standing still to cast Immolate?
Has anyone switched because of the higher simmed dps of Diabolist? Am I just so bad that I can no longer play it?
I play whats fun. I like Diabolist. Usually get pretty good dmg and sustain on immolate with Demonfire or Soul Fire procs. Feels fast paced enough for me. Sure I lose a some mobility, but again. I play what I find fun.
Positioning to plant yourself has often been a thing for Destro.
I guess I am just used to it.
I understand the appeal, but I prefer my Diabolist.
For PvP specifically I feel the same way.
In a meta of spam purges/dispels, having to hard cast an immolate which is tied to all your other spells doing damage just isn’t it.
Yes some people make it work, but it doesn’t change how outdated it feels in the current game.
If they made immolation instant or added some form of dispel protection I’d swap to Diabolist right away.
Diabolist is super cool but it has a lot of glaring issues. Severe lack of mobility, lack of interactions with spells like Infernal Bolt with Havoc, shard economy has large swings, damage profile is extremely flat, etc.
Rain of Fire probably needs to shave a flat 2 seconds off Ritual rather than only 1. Bolt still doesn’t hit hard enough for Diabolist to be so centered around it. Diabolist feels ‘busy’ without the payoff for playing it well.
They could go all sorts of ways with it. I’ve seen some interesting ideas tossed around, like if consuming Touch of Rancora gave you a movement speed buff, or giving old WoD KJC to Diabolist as a 1 min CD for some parity with Malevolence.
My 2¢ after playing one night of dungeons with new diab buffs.
Basically copied the spec list off icyveins and ran it. Big differences are infernal talent that empowers your next casts of rain of fire instead of summoning more internals (crashing chaos) and empowered rain of fire instead of cataclysm.
Basically it’s putting a ton of power into rain of fire which… yes will sim well but if a tank doesn’t play around and do massive pulls while not pulling the pack out of your rain then you won’t do as good dps as Hellcaller.
Also noticed that you need massively big pulls due to only hard casting two immolates to compensate not having wither on everything.
TLDR is diab “can” do better than Hellcaller in higher keys where rain of fire has time to stack 10+ casts and work. Keys 12 and higher.
Otherwise Hellcaller is still better.
Personally I think Diabolist truly shines when it’s paired with Demonology. I know it’s for both specs but for me Diabolist doesn’t feel like it’s meant for Destro. It plays too slow and feels shard starved with how infrequently the demons spawn
I noticed this as Destro vs Demo. And even Hellcaller Destro… the s-l-o-w feel to it.
I didn’t realize how much difference Hellcaller haste from Hero tree made, esp when swapping new targets.
Demo also has the advantage of not having a terrible way to consume Rancora. For Destro, if you spawn one of them with an empowered Shadowburn instead of a Bolt, it’s pretty bad. It’s honestly kind of a player trap for Destro Diabolist players. Hellcaller is just so simple, scales fantastically, brings mobility and a 1-min CD. Diabolist for Destruction just isn’t tuned high enough to justify all the drawbacks.
Diabolist Demons go BRRRRRR, endorphin rush as things melt, I’m a happy girl.
I make it work and it just feels really fulfilling for me.
And when adds die as your demon spawns, it just stands there looking dumb instead of attacking something else.