I mean, it’s always been my favorite spec, thematically. It fits what I think of when I think of warlocks. I want to preface this by saying I’m mostly a mythic plus player, though I favor my warlock in raids because it’s not as fun in m+.
Let’s start with the positive. What do I like? I like that it still does a little damage on the move. I like that two of my dots are instant cast and my “heavy hitter” dot (UA) has a decently short cast time. I like that they bring a lot of group utility in the form of stones and summons. I like how they can do pretty good scaling AoE damage on longer lived packs. I like the 1 minute burst windows.
But there are (again, to me and how I approach the game) a few things that make it just shy of being fun, and borderline unplayable in some scenarios. I dislike large pack dot management. The UI in wow makes it pretty hard to do, and you have scant few seconds to do it in. Managing dots on a 5 pack of mobs is horrendous. It’s not fun at all. I don’t know what to suggest here outside of a cool down that applies all your dots or spreads dots from one target to others. There might be a better way, but right now it’s physically painful to play it.
The APM for affliction feels too high, to me, for the quintessential “rot” spec. I’d much, much rather get rid of MR and put more damage back into the dots, and make the spender be a modified version of the pvp talent Rapid Contagion (costs 3 shards, dots tick more often). Drain soul should be baseline and the entire first row just scrapped and remade. Malefic Grasp was awesome, it need to come back.
And that’s really it. I’d maybe get rid of dark glare in favor of another cool down. Its weird for it to be an affliction tool. But either way, warlocks just feel… I hate to use the word clunky, but I think it’s right. I always feel like I’m a global behind, or everything is dying faster than I can kill it.
TL;DR: warlocks need a faster way to spread dots and to not have aoe chaos bolt as their filler.
Well you shouldn’t really like Aff because it is awful. It performs well in raid and high keys but the gameplay is so bad.
I agree that affliction needs a rework. I get its supposed to be dots vs destro being a more straightforward burn approach (which is why when I first learned lock I chose destro)
but I dont understand having a class that cant really compete in dungeons. You can be absolutely perfect in your rotation as affliction and by the time you dot up mob 3 or 4, mobs 1 and 2 are straight dead before your dots could really tick.
You look like a scrub doing 70% less dps than anyone else because everything just splats on the floor before your damage can pay off.
I liked affliction and malefic rapture so much I tried for weeks to find a decent payoff. Its just not there.
I dont like the mindset that certain specs are only worthwhile in raid fights (IE long drawn out fights where dots can finally pay off) while other specs only work in short immediate bursts. It only showcases why we should be able to multispec to be truly efficient in LFG, LFR, N/H/M raids
1 Like
I feel the same way. Affliction seems interesting on paper but once I actually try to execute it it’s a mess; too much tab targeting, too many gcds setting up. On the bright side Destruction scales better (it’s already starting to show) so I might dust off my Warlock in 9.1.
I didn’t play much during legion, but I always hear it was the “perfect” affliction incarnation.
I don’t know what the answer is, not really. But the way it is now isn’t fun, especially in m+.
I enjoy dot classes and consistent damage but feels like that playstyle isn’t meshing well with the current need for speed, faster things poof the sadder you are. Feel affliction locks probably feel the same~ If the ramp up time isn’t there you’ll be at the bottom while the fury warrior dices everything first.
I’ve always found a super clean kill more satisfying than a fast one but find most players prefer a more “long as it dies and we can get to the next” sort of style lately so they’ll want destro or fire for the boom or whatever.