Let me start off by saying that Warlock is my favorite class by far. I’ve been maining the new Demonology since the beginning of BFA. I’ve always loved the synergy between spells in all 3 Warlock specs.
I was coming into Shadowlands with the mindset of “I want to be a Venthyr Warlock. Nothing is going to change my mind on that.” The concept of vampires and leeching seemed like second nature to a warlock. Life Drain, the entirety of the Affliction spec, all seemed to scream “Venthyr” for me, not to mention my love for the world of Bloodborne. I don’t want to switch away from Venthyr, because doing so would mean abandoning the entire idea I had for my vampire warlock that I was so excited about.
Having said all of that, I’m very tempted to switch away from Venthyr due to the absolutely dull spell that is Impending Catastrophe. There’s no synergy with the Demonology or Destruction kit, and the main reason why it’s even remotely acceptable on Affliction is due to the fact that it acts as a DoT quantity boost for Malefic Rapture.
I want to see a change to the Impending Catastrophe that brings it into the standard rotation for all warlock specs, not an outlier spell that feels like a world quest ability.
Here is my rework concept:
Demonology:
Impending Catastrophe (2 sec cast) (1 min cooldown): Call forth a cloud of vampiric anima, capable of draining 5 soul shards, that travels to the target enemy, dealing (23% of Spell power) Shadow damage to enemies in its path. When the anima reaches the target it explodes, dealing (120% of Spell power) Shadow damage over 12 sec to all nearby enemies. The cloud of anima leeches 1 soul shard from every enemy hit in its path or explosion radius (up to 5 soul shards). For every 1 soul shard not leeched, the leftover anima is used to summon 1 imp.
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In a single target situation, this would give the caster 1 soul shard, and 4 imps.
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In a 5+ multi-target situation, this would give the caster 5 soul shards and 0 imps.
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In either situation, it would decrease the ramp-up time needed to deal decent DPS.
Destruction:
Impending Catastrophe (2 sec cast) (1 min cooldown): Call forth a cloud of vampiric anima, capable of draining 5 soul shards, that travels to the target enemy, dealing (23% of Spell power) Shadow damage to enemies in its path. When the anima reaches the target it explodes, dealing (120% of Spell power) Shadow damage over 12 sec to all nearby enemies. The cloud of anima leeches 1 soul shard from every enemy hit in its path or explosion radius (up to 5 soul shards). For every 1 soul shard not leeched, the leftover anima gives the caster 1 charge of Backdraft.
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In a single target situation, this would give the caster a window of haste, used for either Incinerate or Chaos Bolt, that isn’t tied to their Summon Infernal DPS window, potentially evening out their spread of DPS during a fight.
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In a multi-target situation, this would give the caster significantly higher ramp-up, with instant soul shard generation for their AoE spenders.
Affliction:
Impending Catastrophe (2 sec cast) (1 min cooldown): Call forth a cloud of vampiric anima, capable of draining 5 soul shards, that travels to the target enemy, dealing (23% of Spell power) Shadow damage to enemies in its path. When the anima reaches the target it explodes, dealing (120% of Spell power) Shadow damage over 12 sec to all nearby enemies. Each enemy hit in the travel path or explosion radius is afflicted with Agony, and either Curse of Weakness or Curse of Tongues. The cloud of anima leeches 1 soul shard from every enemy hit in its path or explosion radius (up to 5 soul shards). For every 1 soul shard not leeched, the leftover anima is converted into 1 stackable 5-sec application of Haunt.
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In a single-target situation, this would apply 20 seconds of Haunt to the target hit (4 soul shards not leeched = 4 stacks of the 5 second Haunt application).
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In a 4 target situation, this would apply 5 seconds of Haunt to the main target hit with Impending Catastrophe (1 soul shard not leeched = 1 stack of the 5 second Haunt application).
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In a 5+ multi-target situation, this would not apply Haunt to any targets, but would give the caster 5 soul shards.
Conclusion
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this idea. I tried to design the spell in a way that makes it fit into each spec’s rotation, without devaluing different talent builds.