I don’t really care about the PvE - I just want aff to be fun in PvP as a rot/dot spec with baseline CC/survivability vs. melee.
4 Likes
Honestly I just see no issue with having all specs be viable in all content and I’m not sure why Blizzard wants us to spec swap so much for different content. I should be able to play what I like playstyle-wise and be good enough to participate. Balance is always the excuse for Blizzard and many people who are apologists for their shortcomings. I really hope that ideology going forward is pushed out the window.
5 Likes
Yeah, especially with azurite reforging in the game, Lock is one of the only classes that have to pay crazy amounts of gold to hop from m+ spec to one of the two good raid specs. I completely agree that all specs should be so close that you just play whichever you are the best at or like the best. Hopefully Blizzard can realize that people want to play their favorite spec and don’t want to be forced to play a spec they dislike just because it’s the best.
1 Like
UA stacking needs to be reverted or it’s interaction with healer dispel needs to change. Back in the day dispel had no cooldown but only removed 1 magic and 1 (poison,disease,etc) effect. Now it just removes everything on an 8 second cooldown. UA design is trash. Afflock needs help.
Spriest main here, but miss alting my warlock. One day i guess…
1 Like
Reforge costs need to disappear if they want us spec swapping a lot or idealy make it so all specs are viable in dungeons too. Have you seen some of the top warlocks on raider io? Check ‘Zzooxx’. He didn’t even bother to change traits for playing Destruction yet he completed the 23 Atal and many other dungeons in time and this happens a lot in his logs where he doesn’t bother to change traits for spec swaps. I can only gather from that information that the traits are just not useful enough to be worth it for Destruction players to care what traits they use which should be worrying to Blizzard and players.
How about a spec that isn’t garbage at everything besides specific raid encounters?
Nobody wants a spec like that. Including those locks you envy.
2 Likes
It’s a complete failure on their behalf to keep encounter designers and class designers in the same space, with open discussion on what’s being designed to see if any conflicting ideas exist.
For instance turret style casters and the rampant mobility requirements in M+. If they actually communicated we wouldn’t be seeing things like that post-launch.
Instead if encounters were designed where ALL specs managed them sufficiently right down to CC and interrupts then everything would have been received better. Whether that means specs all get interrupts or the need for interrupts comes down is irrelevant so long as one choice is made that fixes the problem before development is done.
While I believe most of this to be true I still think that Blizzard are very confident in the decisions they make going into a new expansion and only later, on record, admit fault when there is backlash. How the same people who made Legion also majority made BFA thought a lot of stuff was going to fly with players transitioning between the two is beyond me.
It’s not the complete same team of people. No way that is possible given the track record of Cata > WoD > BFA.
When comparing the expansions to Wrath > MoP > Legion there is a clear disconnect so they’re either suffering from multiple personality disorder or actually different people.
Legion for example was more forgiving with regards to interrupts and mobility. It had mechanics sure, like Cordana but look at that fight specifically. Slow planting of fire, very telegraphed one shot mechanics everyone moves together with.
Versus crap being flung everywhere and at everyone all the time that has to be moved out of. Vo’kaal being the obvious example and Yazma’s spiders.
BFA encounter design reminds me of WoD in a lot of ways. Yalnu being a perfect example of being like Cragmaw where someone with high mobility needs to stomp the weeds and seeds before the party is overwhelmed.
Nothing like that existed in Legion dungeons to my memory. And I’m pretty sure when one team is developing a new expansion the other is on support for the current one. That would make sense on a big team.
Issues do exist on the A side but for a few important reasons they are more egregious on the B side.
3 Likes
Lol I don’t “envy” locks. The point, which seems to elude so many here, is that while yes, affliction has several issues this expansion, it’s hard to take people seriously or be super sympathetic when the spec has been top 5 for every raid since NH and was “IWIN” for almost all of the past expansion. It could be worse is all I’m saying.
Then why does this come up when we are talking about how the class feels to play?
You do realize that raiding isn’t everything right? That some of us do LFR one time and never set foot in the raid again?
What would you say to an affliction fan that only runs dungeons? Oh well?
There’s no good reason why things change all the time for the worse. And I don’t mean slightly worse than before but dumpster fire in one release.
3 Likes
I get this line of thinking but it’s a really narrow way of thinking. I’m sure you could find some faults where your class performs but I would never say that because you’re good in one area means you should be bad in another because of those faults. That’s just not fun in general for anyone.
5 Likes
Yes but it does make up a huge part of the game. The fact that you don’t raid or would rather do something else doesn’t take away from the fact that affliction is still amazing in them. You’re preaching to the choir here, friend. As an arcane mage, I understand what being ignored or given the shaft is like better than anyone. My spec has been the single most ignored one in the game over the past 5-6 years and when we do get attention, it’s usually a shocking rework of the class that doesn’t do much or a huge pvp nerf because someone figured out how to break something that should have been caught on the ptr. My alt is also a lock that I’d prefer to be affliction with.
But again, my point is that affliction at least was king of everything in Legion and is still top tier in all raids. Does it suck that you’re bad in pvp and dungeons? Certainly. But this is how Blizzard rolls for many classes, especially casters: overbuff then slam with the nerfhammer. I fully agree with it being utterly insane that classes get changed with no explanation and go from great at something to terrible. But at least your spec hasn’t been totally ignored for 3 expansions. At this point however, we’re going to have to hold out for 9.0.
2 Likes
I don’t disagree with your outlook. Though I do think it unacceptable that we’re in 8 expansions now and the teams still cannot get classes in a good state. At least something they can stick to for successive expansion releases.
It absolutely needs to be done better.
1 Like
Zero argument here. There is absolutely no reason why any class or spec should be utterly terrible at any aspect of the game, yet so many are. Especially when so many specs are good (or better) at everything. Pvp is crazy unbalanced unless you’re in the perfect comp for arena and world pvp…well I always laugh they wonder why they have to bribe people to warmode. Mythic+ frustrates so many because, while most specs are passable, if you’re not meta life is a pain. Having classes like rogue and monk that are both great dps and insane utility while a spec like shadow priest (and others) bring next to nothing in utility is just bad design. Period.
It’s the same adage that it’s been under the current regime: want to do it all, roll melee.
6 Likes
Even resto druids get an ability that applies all their HOTS on someone at the same time, (reminiscing of an old soulswap ability)
But as an afflic lock my rotation ends up being something like Agony, Corruption, Siphon Life, Haunt, Unstable affliction as much as possible (hopefully 3 - 5x or I don’t do anything for damage), Phantom Singularity, Then Dark Glare if it’s up, and Finally Deathbolt (if I still have my agony and corruption and siphon life up with time because tank runs and pulls at the same time)
Add up all the global cooldown times and cast times and my only saving grace in world PVE will be to always be forced to have to play with War Mode on just so I can use Rot and Decay and Essence Drain with my Drain life to keep DOTS refreshed while I self heal because my pet is likely dead already and I need to find some time to take a second… or 2.2, to pull out probably a Void walker if I am PVE, or Fel hunter for basically everything else.
Possible fixes you ask blizz? why yeah, here’s a few from me:
-
Would be real nice if I had a way to either cast all my DOTS at once on a single target and then tab to the next to do what I need. Or…
-
…When I cast a DOT on my target, it spreads to and affects nearby targets as well.
-
Maybe baseline the Warmode stuff into the drain life for me.
-
Give the Voidwalker a bit more health or armor or something since I’m stuck with it now and not the infernal.
-
How about giving locks instant cast seed of corruption, sounds a lot like my 2nd idea btw
I can’t stress enough that I DO ENJOY affliction but I ACTIVELY CHOOES TO over KNOWING the other 2 specs out DPS me, and almost any other class can rock my world. That said, I’ve been an Affliction lock since Vanilla, and that spoken about overall ENJOYMENT, is at an ALL TIME LOW.
But what do I know, just been playing for 14 years as an affliction warlock.
1 Like
At one point all 3 specs were designed optimally for pvp AND pve, and now this clearly isn’t the case. It’s trickled down into this situation incrementally throughout each expansion.
I just want to be competitive in PvP content. My personal interests are only with PvP, and this xpac has been a let down. Granted, I leveled my enh sham and aff lock for bfa. Probably a bad call in my part.
But again, my point is that affliction at least was king of everything in Legion and is still top tier in all raids.
So was Sin rogue and where’s their nerf? Best burst in the game, great in raids, PVP, and underrated in keys (3 x Echoing Blades, SS and Scent of Blood with the Hidden Blades talent means their AoE is good). They were great in Legion, and usually always are. They got nerfed a bit at the beginning of the xpac, and not since. But boy, all of those 500 subtlety rogue mains needed to be gutted and nerfed to oblivion.
1 Like
Wish we had a spread mechanic like unholy dk or even like old school fire mage. So tedious putting dots on everything one by one.
Also havoc should not countdown until the first spell lands. That would make it so much more player friendly.
Demo dogs should also be instant cast always.
1 Like