Are you arguing a literal numbers tuning issue on a alpha/beta? Are you that bad at how this game works? The concepts are sound, they can work out the numbers towards the end of beta or even all throughout beta and keep tweaking things, and even on live they can still work out the numbers.
Calling it “lazy” when it literally fits the spec thematically speaking is pretty idiotic considering how awesome they both are for the spec. Just because you don’t want to do it wouldn’t mean the majority of the community and players wouldn’t want to do it.
Spriest is pretty fun on beta and it has a concept quite similar to MG with their Mind Flay / Mind Sear making DoTs tick faster during the channeling and a lot of players are actually enjoying that so far. It’s also a lot more fun right now, too and fitting thematically speaking.
Numbers arguing is pretty stupid for Alpha/Beta considering they’re meant to get the concepts first and then tuning happens at the end of Beta, but alright.
“Beyond X targets, Y does Z reduced damage.” They can set X to being 4 targets. Y being each DoT individually, Z being a start of 20-30%. Do the same for beyond 8 targets, reducing their power by yet another 20-30%, and then leaving it at that where beyond 8 targets your DoTs do 40-60% reduced damage. Why this? Because it limits how much power your abilities scale outwardly. Don’t need more than 8 targets, realistically speaking as unless you’re doing MDI or TGP, you’re most of the time not pulling more than 8 mobs anyways unless you’re pushing at the highest of key levels.
They could adjust that concept to any amount of targets, doesn’t actually matter the number much. It can be beyond 6, beyond 12, Idc but that’s a very easy solution to scaling. They could even soft nerf the first part to beyond 2 targets, nerfed by 20%, beyond 4, nerfed another 15%, beyond 6, nerfed another 15% and keep going with that method. It doesn’t quite matter.
As for the MG part, Malefic Grasp fits full on better than Withering Bolt. Why? Because fillers are not meant nor are they supposed to do insane amounts of damage. Malefic Grasp turns your Drain Soul into a buffer for the other DoTs, not turning the other DoTs into a buffer for your filler. That’s why it’s bad. Drain Soul is a filler and the best filler Affliction could ask for.
Affliction’s theme is Damage over Time and Drains specialist, as per even Blizzard’s description of it when you scroll over it to read. Drain Soul is both a Damage over Time ability and a drain, and as a filler it fits. It also fits with how much more mobile it is vs Shadow Bolt. You can get partial ticks to count. Malefic Grasp makes your DoTs shine as the heroes of this story, which they are and should always be in a Damage over Time spec.
DS:M was the same exact thing? It gave you 20 or 30% Haste for 20 seconds, which affected everything you did. Rapid Contagion only affects your Damage over Time effects, and they can further adjust it so it doesn’t affect DoT trinkets, too. It doesn’t shorten them like Creeping Death did, just added more ticks to their regular duration. They changed CD to do this, which is awesome. This is good design direction.
Also, no, Malefic Rapture is not a good design concept the way it was launched. The original idea of it, as I understand the original design concept of increasing your DoT tick rates, was actually better than what it came out to be on live. That would have fit so much better and been so much more widely accepted by the audience/players. Would it have been harder to balance? Yeah, probably, but a goal or design direction should not be squandered because “hard to balance” or “too hard to balance.” Figure it out, do it. Everyone experiences the “theme” of a spec first and foremost, before numbers, before anything else you experience the fantasy, the description, the abilities, how they relate to each other, etc. This all ties into the “theme” of a spec. Affliction’s theme and button bloat makes it way off the mark, especially moreso with Malefic Rapture being a nuke, not a DoT itself and nothing else to do with DoTs outside of just being based off of the numbers of them present. It breaks fantasy, it breaks theme. It does do good enough in that numbers wise it felt satisfying for some people for them pressing it. Again, however, it broke everything else concerning the theme of the spec. If you have a nuke you don’t want to jump through 15 hoops in order to use it. You want to use it right away when it is desired. So in both ways of concepts, this spell being tied into DoTs also breaks its own theme of direct damage since you have to spend quite a few globals to get good damage out.
I think those people don’t have a concept of a DoT spec, and just want it to be a caster at the end of the day. I also think those people need to understand DoT specs are not supposed to, nor should they have anything non DoT related unless it’s pet or trinket.