So UA becomes another layer of dots on top of Agony and Corruption?
Seems lazy tbh.
Rather they just move it to PvP talents as there’s no purpose in a pve setting without the pressure it added in being a spender. While I am thankful it is no longer a spender, I can only assume its become another filter dot for PvE.
Other changes are good!
Would rather see baseline reduction for Darkglaire.
Shadow embrace works on Drain Soul still? I’d hope it does.
Deathbolt moved to PvP, I’m extremely happy to see!!!
It’s sad to see that the moment warlocks get some decent changes to their specs we see broken beaten down locks come in, and basically start asking to be nerfed instead of seeing how things play out…
These changes are overall in the right direction, and it gives me hope that they aren’t just complacent with afflicition, or warlocks really in general going in to Shadowlands. Demo, and Destro still need to get a good look from the devs from all the feedback given on them, but this is a nice start.
It’s a shame they are so hell bent on Darkglare staying instead of having it replaced with DS:M baseline but I guess it is what it is…
Having Inevitable Demise as a talent in the first tier to replace deathbolt will be interesting and should open up an actual choice for the level 15 talent row for the first time in years. It’ll also be nice to have an actual extra talented CC since portal will be baseline.
Tongue tied being removed is interesting, and is probably why they were more willing to give UA a buffed backlash and the ability to be put on more than one target. If we still had it then we’d probably be pretty broken with the UA changes, imagine having UA backlash damage worthwhile while also basically having a necrotic strike with a 30% casting time debuff for the enemy.
Another thing they need to look at in general is our last tier of talents. Soul Conduit is boring, and is practically a dead talent in every situation especially at later gear levels with decent haste. Maybe with rapture it’ll see a bit more play, but even then I’m not sure. Creeping death is an alright talent on paper, but again falls by the way side next to DS:M because the value you get from it outweighs agony reaching full damage slightly faster.
I’m not sure what they could replace them with, but it’s one of my remaining gripes outside of darkglare, shadowbolt being our filler, and haunt not being baseline. I can live with these changes though, and I’m slightly more excited and optimistic about the expansion.
Great job of listening over all even if it did come after months of pure silence. Hopefully they have more in store for us.
Yeah. What’s with their weird Darkglare love affair? It’s bad, and more importantly it feels bad. It’s not fun to use and doesn’t even fit the affliction ‘shadow not demons’ aesthetic. It’s time to ditch it and replace it with something fun and useful instead.
I made the comment about UA and Rapture both having a shard cost is because that lets them be competitive for what you want to use (2+ with no priority? rapture. single or priority? UA). Having the main shard spender be an AoE is going to lead to messy balancing, where this would allow tuning on single target and AoE dmg.
But thats only my viewpoint. In the end, im a demo guy, have been since 04
I actually think demo seeing such few changes is a good sign that more substantial changes are in the works(similar to shadow). If they were just going to add a interrupt, it would’ve been way easier to just throw it in w/ the aff changes via a returning ability, talent, etc.
That is what I am hoping. I wish they would announce what specs are getting a pass. As it stands there have been no substantial updates for months for warlock after all the feedback tells them what we need. Its a little disheartening.
Changes look pretty good so far. Happy with them. Only thing I dislike is Darkglare, and with them putting a darkglare talent in, it seems they want us to keep using it.
Happy with much of this, happier they explained what they did. Please continue to be communicative.
If they’re set on making pet death ‘matter’ please make it have different cast times in and out of combat. Make it 1 second if you’re not in combat or less. Many of the complaints will go away if you do this.
I think Darkglare as an ability would be better received if it had a different spell effect and did something on the gcd it was pushed. No suggestions but consider a rename/new graphic and maybe it applies a dot of its own on the gcd pushed? I know all warlocks are summoners but Darkglare feels off-spec, like it belongs in Demo’s pile just on the graphic/name. A spooky miasma of some sort would be much more on-theme.
I think it’s important to notice that the UA change they made was specifically stated as being changed due to player feedback. Keep giving ideas. If they looked at our feedback for affliction they will surely make adjustments to demo and destro. Just keep giving advice. Try to stay positive.
Step in the right direction,
But Affliction was destroyed to then be rebuilt, I like the affliction changes as I wasn’t a fan of the UA stack/deathbolt build.
But, Demo and Destro will still be damn-near unplayable without the borrowed power of BFA.
We still need help in these specs.
I have a few questions is there a cooldown on COEx? Does the 5 second addition to UA get applied to the 16 second base making it a 21 second dot does the damage get increased to give same dps from the spell? So choice between haunt and a 1 minute cd reduction on a pet we dont want worthless change. The 2 min cd should be base. The way to make shadow bolt more used is what you did with ua extend dot duration leaving more time for filler. With change to nightfall and the id talent you need to give drain soul some perk otherwise a dead talent. You have now made both cooldowns talent selections which i feel is horrible design. Make haste cd base and put cd reduction on DG in its place row 100 also add the proc from minor vision.
I’m worried about Affliction single target. We have Haunt (why is this still a talent?) and Shadow’s Embrace, but our only Soul Shard spender still does full damage on multi target. I also don’t see UA sniping soul shards remaining, when there’s a very low cost to putting it on every target.
My only hope is that there’s some thought that goes into when you Rapture and what DoTs you apply. I don’t want another Legion Aff where there was very little thought that went into anything.
Really hope blizz gets around to updating demo soon im getting kinda nervous looking at all these affliction changes and not a word about demo. The spec has so much potential if only they would fix the clunky hand of guldan imp spawn delay and give us that damned interrupt.
Snutz himself was in contact with the dev that pushed some of these changes through. Good start in returning aff to its former glory, hopefully they look into reworking/removing darkglare
As an affliction warlock I’m happy to see UA return as spammable and Deahbolt move to PvP. I think they are returning this spec back to a high class fantasy DoT spreader which is good, just wondering what I’ll be spending shards on in non AoE situations. They should turn their attention on the other two specs and get them sorted as well.
I still think they need to give us Soul Wrack. I think that would be our single target ability while rapture would function as the AoE. Because it will be difficult to balance rapture around both single target and AoE. Having the ability to ramp the speed of our dots on a single target would be fantastic. Imo it could replace shadowbolt. Or bake it into drain soul (which I love so much) so that DS also forces a tick of your DoTs every time it deals damage itself.