General Issues
I feel the biggest issue that Warlock is facing in TWW currently is talent bloat. Over the course of Dragonflight, we saw a handful of raw talent points added to the Demonology tree such as Fel Invocation, Shadow Invocation, Imperator and a handful of others. While these talents do feel thematically “Demo”, it has led to an issue of talent bloat, to the point where we are no longer able to select all of the suitable talent for ST/AOE that we desire in those settings. This combined with many of our talents being 2-pt talent nodes that are also in important, connective positions has led to the general feeling of not having enough talent points. Some examples are
Demonology
Umbral Blaze
Imp Gang Boss
Demonic Brutality
Dread Calling (used to be 1-pt talent)
Cavitation
Affliction
Malediction
Contagion
Focused Malignancy
Xavius’s Gambit
Improved Malefic Rapture
Destruction
Raging Demonfire (Can likely be merged with CDF)
Rolling Havoc
Fire and Brimstone
Scalding Flames
Improved Immolate
Flashpoint
Infernal Brand
Burn to Ashes
Master Ritualist
Chaosbringer
Power Overwhelming
I feel the best way to address this is to prune/merge abilities like Fel/Shadow Invocation/RDF (just make the effect part of the baseline ability) and also reduce the amount of 2-pt talent nodes drastically. Currently, both Affliction and Demonology (both have had initial overhauls) are very limited on raw talent points, to the point where we are not able to select our main Demon CD (Tyrant/Darkglare) without losing out on other, more impactful talents. There is also the issue of Tyrant and Darkglare being underpowered damage wise. Below is a list of the current raw talent point and 2-pt talent count for every spec.
Destruction has yet to receive an overhaul, which is likely why it is the highest in both categories, but the merging and trimming issue still remains. Doing so would greatly improve the pathing issues that the Warlock spec trees have, allowing for more customization and enjoyment.
Class Tree
I do feel that the class tree may have a few too many 2-pt talent nodes, making pathing/choice a bit difficult in certain builds where you may want spells such as Banish, Amplify Curse or other effects. Potential reductions in certain talent nodes such as Demon Skin/Fel Armor or others mentioned below would potentially help alleviate that scenario.
Fiendish Stride
Fiendish has been altered in TWW to now be a 1-rank talent and reduce the damage taken from Burning Rush by 10%, down from 25/50% in Dragonflight. While we have been given a speed increase (10% → 20%) with the overhaul, the loss of % damage mitigation from Burning Rush is likely too much and will cause the ability to not be taken in most settings. Potentially making the ability a 10% speed increase, but having it reduce Burning Rush damage by 30% would be a more suitable alternative, and a good middle-ground from where it currently is in DF.
Teachings of the Black Harvest
Potentially instead of giving you extra pet utility, it allows you to summon more powerful pets which deal more damage while having the same baseline utility. Would be awesome to have new pet skins to play with like Shad’har from Nya’lotha for example.
Imp → Fel Imp
Felhunter → Shad’har style pet
Felguard → Terrorguard
The ability could also be made into a potential capstone (maybe swapping places with Soulburn) which would bring with it both thematic flavor, as well as a damage increase that fits the premise of Warlock.
Accrued Vitality/Lifeblood
Both talents are 2-pt talent nodes have not really seen much play since their introduction. Making them 1-pt talent nodes would certainly be helpful, but I think there is also potential for replacement with other, more impactful talent nodes or in an attempt to trim down on excess talents in the class tree.
Demonic Resilience/Resolute Barrier
Demonic Resilience and Barrier could likely be made into 1-pt talent nodes in an attempt to make pathing towards Soulburn and Pact of Gluttony a bit easier.
Soul Conduit
I feel that Soul Conduit is a fine capstone to have in the class tree, but certainly feels underwhelming at 5%. In DF, it’s currently 5/10% at Rank ½, but with it shifting to a capstone ability, 10% for 1 rank I feel would be suitable. Over the course of a 3 minute fight, Soul Conduit refunded 4 total Soul Shards as Affliction, which felt a bit underwhelming.
There is also the possibility of tuning the % change per spec, such as 5% for Demo but 10% for Destruction and Affliction, and they spend shards much less often than Demonology.
Demonology
I feel the biggest issue that Demonology has is one of talent bloat post overhaul. Abilities like Fel/Shadow Invocation were added to the talent tree in Patch 10.2 and while I do personally enjoy them, added to the overall excessive amount of talent available to us. I feel the best way to help alleviate the issue Demonology faces with both pathing and talent selection is to potentially merge certain talents into baseline abilities while also removing raw talent nodes from the Demonology tree. This would both give us additional points to spend in respective single target/AOE builds, while also making pathing choices more clear-cut.
Fel/Shadow Invocation
I personally love the flavor of both these talents, but do feel they play a part in our talent bloat issue. The two talent nodes before 10.2 did not exist.
While both fel/shadow invocation were welcome additions to our toolkit, I do feel that a potential solution would be to simply merge Shadow Invocation with Bilescourge Bombers and Fel Invocation with Soul Strike/Vilefiend. Simply adding the invocations ability into the corresponding ability would make them more powerful, and likely also make Bilescourge Bombers our choice in M+/AOE compared to DS, while giving DS the leg up in single target. This change would also save us 2 talent points for future pathing etc.
Shadows Bite and Umbral Blaze
Both Bite and Blaze have felt a bit unimpactful over the course of Dragonflight, and are passive abilities that do not really change your rotation or the way your character plays. If space is needed for new abilities or general talent pruning is done, both could likely be removed without affecting Demonology damage profile.
Imp-Gang Boss, Demonic Brutality, Umbral Blaze, Dread Calling & Cavitation
All of these abilities make up Demo’s 7th talent row, and each are a 2 talent point investment. The issue with that is that it makes pathing into the bottom “capstone” section of our talent tree awkward. If you want to select talents in both the Guillotine and Doom sections, you have to commit 2 talent points to both Dread Calling and Imp-Gang Boss to unlock both capstone rows, leaving you with only 8 talent points to spend on final talents.
This means that you are essentially locked out of choosing your new Doom Talents as well as Demon Tyrant (which is required for Soul Harvester). It’s possible that there are too many end tier talent points as Demonology which could be moved higher in the tree (such as Expendables, Pact of the Imp Mother etc) but it feels that we are far too limited regardless based on the previously mentioned pathing via our 7th talent row all costing 2 talent points each. A reduction in talent point costs from 2 to 1 in our 7th row would help alleviate the issue.
Sac Souls and Demonic Tyrant/Soulbound Tyrant
The positioning of Sac Souls and it being the only connecting talent to Demonic Tyrant makes pathing choices a bit awkward. It feels like Sac Souls is out of place, as it is not really a talent that I would want to pick for Mythic + or AOE, but is required to access my main CD. The first potential solution is to place another talent where sac souls is (such as The Expendables) which is universally applicable. This would make the pathing into Tyrant not feel as “restricted”, like you are paying a toll in Sac Souls to access Demonic Tyrant. I feel like fully removing Sac Souls is also more than fine.
The other potential solution is the return Demonic Tyrant to the 8th row of the talent tree (replacing Sac Souls) and return Soulbound Tyrant (5 shards on cast), but make it a 1-pt talent that grants all 5 shards, instead of a 2-pt talent that grant 3 or 5. You could also (instead of Soulbound Tyrant) reintroduce Supreme Commander, a well loved ability that was an azerite trait in BFA and Shadowlands.
Placing it below Demonic Tyrant would have a pathing of Summon Demonic Tyrant → Supreme Commander → Grand Warlocks Design/Reign of Tyranny. Doing so would add additional value to GWD, as you are gaining the Supreme Commander buff more frequently, while also keeping RoT as a choice you can make in settings where additional burst damage is required. Demonic Tyrant in its current form sadly feels underwhelming when it comes to power level and I fear may be at a risk of not being selected with current pathing. Adding some additional “juice” to the ability via Supreme Commander would be an exciting change and likely enough to boost its power level/relevancy.
There is also the possibility of adding an additional ability to Tyrants casts, such as a Doombolt Volley (AOE relevancy) or an empowered Doombolt, in a similar fashion to the S3/4 Tier bonus Doomguard casts.
Doom and Pact of Ered’ruin
The twist on our S3/4 Tier Set with Doom is interesting. The fact that the Doomguard is a guaranteed spawn is exciting, ensuring you should likely have one for every pack in M+/every 30 or so seconds. If Doom is to stay in its current form and not be altered to our S3/4 tier bonus, I feel it would be interesting to experiment with a CDR on Doom itself whenever you consume a Demonic Core, maybe by 1.5 seconds per core consumption? It would give you the choice of re-applying Doom at a certain point in M+/AOE, or potentially holding the ability for the next pack, if desired. Having Demonic Core apply Doom (like our tier) would also help with ease of play and enjoyment, so I am more than fine with simply implementing the S3/4 bonus, it has made Demonology feel quite enjoyable, having to watch your brands.
It does feel that both Doom and Pact could very well be moved to their previous position, where Improved Demonic Tactics and Demonic Brutality are currently positioned. With us wanting to path into Guillotine(far right side of talent tree) and then having Tyrant talent nodes, Wicked Maw, Mark of Shatug and Ferocity of F’harg, we are limited on talent points in the section. It feels that we are semi-forced to skip out on Doom or other talents of relevance to access what we want in different settings. Placing Doom and Pact where they previously were does not feel like it would be too powerful and the ability is universally applicable, a great center-tree talent path.
Passive Talents and Flavor
A great portion of Demo’s talents are simply passives, which is something that I do envision a pet based class having a bit more than others. A great portion of them are based around damage/crit/attack speed modifiers, things that you cannot really “feel” in your rotation, and being able to feel exciting talents, changes to your rotation is what keeps things interesting. We have had some exciting “passive” abilities before, such as the previous version of Imp-Gang Boss. Building imps for an implosion, imploding, and then getting 3-7 back felt amazing and it was gameplay that you could FEEL. It captured the essence of what Demonology is, and the talent was loved. The most recent iteration sadly removed the imp refund clause, opting for a larger increase to implosion damage. Sadly, this version is not played in any setting, mostly due to tuning/talent pathing, but even if it was worthwhile numerically, you can’t “feel” the talent, it just does more damage.
Two other talents come to mind when I think of passives that you can feel. The first is our iconic 3rd Dreadstalker in “Ripped from the Portal”.
This talent was removed heading into Patch 10.1 to address our Demonic Core economy, thus removing one Demonic Core from every Dreadstalker cast. While losing the core was felt, losing our 3rd Dreadstalker was the greater loss and one that was echoed by many. I would love to see Ripped From the Portal return in TWW, but you can simply keep the Demonic Core refunds at 2, which is what our current Dreadstalkers refund. Potentially turning the additional dreadstalker into a smaller Core Hound or some other kind of Demonic Hound would be a solution to the 3rd core and would certainly be an awesome, welcomed return to a beloved ability. This is also a great passive ability that you can feel as a player, similar to the previous version of Imp-Gang Boss.
Another potential option would be to bring back Improved Dreadstalkers from legion. This ability had your Call Dreadstalkers summon 2 Wild Imps, which rode on the back of the Dreadstalkers themselves, into combat.
Thematically, this is one of the most thematically “Demo” abilities that we have ever had. I feel the ability would also slot in very well on the left side of the Demonology talent tree with the recent additions of Wicked Maw, Mark of Shatug and Ferocity of F’harg. Improved Dreadstalkers is another awesome example of a passive ability that maintained Demonic thematics and was something they player could “feel”, everytime they cast Call Dreadstalkers. If it and Ripped From the Portal were to be part of a capstone row, it could look something like Wicked Maw → Improved Dreadstalkers → Ripped From the Portal. Improved Dreadstalkers would interact with Ripped, giving you an imp on the back of all 3 dogs, even more thematics and flavor. This row could take the place of Doom and Pact, which could be moved back to their previous, central location.
Thal’kiels Consumption
While Legion and Thal’kiel are gone, the ability itself is one that I think current Demonology could certainly embrace, potentially as a Capstone ability. Having the ability to steal the life-force of the Demons you summon and turn it into raw damage is exactly what I envision a “Master Summoner” being, which is what TKC embraces. It could slot into the talent tree in a similar fashion to Oblivion for Affliction, which is a lesser, 45 second CD that is used between our major demon summon.
Affliction
Affliction is in an interesting spot, but I like the overall direction it is heading for a Malefic Rapture based version of the spec. I feel the largest issue that Affliction faces currently is that of talent pathing/choices, but it differs from Demonology. Affliction currently has 43 total talent point possibilities, compared to Demonology having 50 and Destro having 56. 43 is nearly tied for the lowest raw number of talent points in any spec tree. The main issue is that the talent highlighted below are pretty much required in any and every Affliction talent build.
This means that (in similar fashion to Demonology) you are faced with the issue of having to spend your last 10 “capstone” talents in earlier rows to fill in certain abilities such as Malediction or Contagion, which are 2-pt talent nodes. You simply cannot reduce most of them to 1-pt talents however, as we are already at 43 total. A potential solution is to reduce talents such as Malediction/Contagion/Empowered Unstable Affliction to 1-pt talents, and add in a few new, 1 talent nodes.
A way to extend active DOTs
Having a way to extend active DOTs in a similar fashion to Shadow Priests via Void Bolt would be a significant QOL increase for Warlocks, especially in AOE/M+ settings. While the recent 5 second reduction to Vile Taint is helpful, it is still too long to permanently maintain DOTs by itself. Adding a talent point that extends active DOTs by maybe 1 second per Drain Soul tick/2 seconds per Shadowbolt cast would help alleviate the issue that Affliction faces in these settings, while greatly increasing QOL.
Siphon Life vs Absolute Corruption
The change to Siphon Life is a welcome one, one that I am very happy to play with. I do feel however that the difference in Corruption’s damage increase (15% with AC vs 20% with SL) is likely not enough to warrant SL over AC in single target settings. With AC saving you multiple globals over the course of an encounter, it is likely comparable if not better than SL in those settings. It is possible that SL needs a damage buff (or to buff an additional spell such as Agony or UA) to become the clear-cut winner in single target.
Sacrolash’s Dark Strike and Summoner’s Embrace
Summoner’s Embrace is a talent that you will likely want in every setting as Affliction. The issue is that it is locked behind talenting into Sacrolash’s Dark Strike, which is an underwhelming ability and one that I would rather not talent into in single target. It sort of feels similar to the Seized Vitality → Haunted Soul pathing that we have had in Dragonflight, having to pay a “toll” (toll being Sacrolash) to get to the better talent. I would love to see the Summoner’s Embrace/Sacrifice talent node stand on its own or have Sacrolash removed/replaced with something more universally applicable.
Death’s Embrace
Death’s Embrace in its original form was one of the coolest abilities I think Affliction has ever had to play with. In Legion, the effect began at 35% health on targets, and would increase your damage up to 50%, scaling higher when the enemy dropped lower in health.
The current form of Death’s Embrace in TWW however, is a much lesser version, beginning at 20% health (35% in Legion) and only increasing our damage by a flat 5% (down from a max of 50% in Legion). I would love to see a return to the ramping damage increase that old Death’s Embrace had, giving Affliction Warlock execute damage, which increased at lower health. Increasing the threshold where it begins (to say 30%) would also go a long way in making the ability more relevant. It is exciting to see the ability back but in its current form, sadly feels very underwhelming.
Soul Rot Placement
Soul Rot is directly tied to the Soul Harvester Hero Talent tree, one that I have greatly enjoyed playing so far. One potential issue that I do see however is where Soul Rot is placed in our spec tree, being in the far, bottom right talent row (row 9). Accessing this talent (with the previously mentioned talent issues) is hard at times when also wanting to select other talent such as Darkglare or Oblivion/Haunted Soul etc.
Potentially moving both Soul Rot and Dark Harvest to a more central location (potentially in place of Sacrolash and Embrace/Sacrifice) would go a long way in helping Affliction Warlocks select Soul Rot, without feeling pigeonholed in our capstone choices at times. Soul Rot being in the central talent point of the Affliction tree is also very suiting, as the ability is good in both single target and AOE alike. There could potentially be a clause added to Dark Harvest where it grants a bit more Crit/Haste if it only hits one target, to compensate for its placement and universal applicability.