Almost every dot class has a good aoe dot applicator, or at the very least seldom needs to refresh dots (balance with Starfall extensions). Shadow has permanent uptime on right targets with shadow crash… ele has uptime on three (buff magma totem pls god), yet add has to manually reapply agonies… just for vile taint to come back up. It’s not even a miniscule loss either since agony takes time to ramp. There are few things as unfun as manually tab targeting agonies in huge pulls where nameplates won’t stay still. Please God just make this quality of life change
18 Likes
The problem kinda has always been that it’s very hard to balance. Afflictions AoE profile is keys is already poised to be top tier, and the bottom line is vile taint is ridiculously powerful for affli.
It’s two dots by itself, combined with seed making 3. The unfortunate reality is maelfic rapture just plain goes too damn wild when rapture and seed are up.
You’d have to be willing to trade a pretty hefty nerf on MR’s AoE capabilities for a more frequent vile taint. Which from a quality of life standpoint, if you’re fine with that, that’s totally fine.
But there would be consequences in other areas.
My opinion (which is going to be very unpopular) is to remove vile taint altogether, and make a talent or something that makes every cast of Agony cleave onto a few other targets like Rogue’s garrote. Also buff up Agony’s damage by a fair bit.
7 Likes
The removal of soul flame opens up a door to give us some actual utility for mass application of agony, or at least some way to cleave it. But we likely won’t get it because of MR, highlighting once again how much that spell is holding us back.
If VT is kept to 30s, it would be nice to see a talent like the following:
When Malefic Rapture damages a target with Agony and Unstable Affliction, Agony spreads to one additional nearby target. Agony damage increased by 10%
4 Likes
i feel like theyll do something like that and slap it on a tier set
I personally don’t mind refreshing Agony manually but I wish the reward was par for the “annoyance” that It is. We don’t want Aff to be another SPriest, but I think refreshing Agony and activating Volatile Agony should be pretty rewarding, add another node below It and It could be like: Volatile Agony’s instant damage apply a DoT to every target It damages that It pulses shadow damage everytime an Agony is refreshed 10s before expiring.
So the idea would be to apply Agony with Vile Taint, then refresh each one 10s before it ends, dealing Volatile Agony’s damage and applying the dot to all affected targets and then each Agony you refresh would deal insta damage and pulsate for extra damage for each Agony you refreshed. I think It makes a lot of sense and it’s a big reward for all the hassle, It wouldn’t feel bad to stop spammimg MR to reapply Agony because it’s damage increase. Rewarding you for managing your dots correctly.
Please no. This would be disgusting for upkeep on AOE fights. Our damage profile would be centered around spamming and tab targeting instead of setting up MR windows
It doesnt need a cd reduction, 30 seconds is just fine.
Yes it does, spamming agony just to reapply vile taint is a stupid playstyle
4 Likes
Indeed.
Honestly, vile taint having any sort of cd is freaking stupid. It does little dmg and it has a cast. Its only used to apply agony. I dont see why blizz is soooo afraid of allowing us to mass apply dots.
It sucks running m+ when one group you get to use vile taint while the next group your tab targeting to apply agony. Whats worse is that agony is our primary shard generator.
Just horrible design and laziness on blizz’s part.
7 Likes
It’s a huge frustration I have with the spec. Even if Vile Taint had no cooldown, between its long cast time and Seeds long cast time, you still cannot really contribute to damage if the mobs only require 7-8 seconds to kill - you won’t even be able to get more than one or two raptures off before they are dead.
But I’m fairly convinced Blizzard only listens to MDI players, who have tanks who pull 3 packs at a time and bunches them together for their Afflocks who can VT + Seed and hit 3-4 million DPS, and since they can do that, the spec is fine and needs nothing even if the average player cannot puzzle together how to do reasonable damage in most normal situations.
2 Likes
Honestly I think if they removed vile taint entirely and made a choice node out of something like absolute corruption (increasing all dot damage and making corruption lasting perpetually) with seed of corruption which spreads all dots not just corruption but at some reduced % effectiveness the class would feel so much better than it currently does. Maybe add a trait down the line to increase agony damage or spread it to up to two additional targets for cleave raid encounters. Anythings better than tab targeting agony spread in any dungeon environment. As it stands you have serious fall off in m+ or, for the more casual players, stuff dies in dungeons too fast and you cant vile taint the next add pack till half way in making you a wet noodle.
Make it instant also
4 Likes
Would be cool if when you cast UA in a target affected with Agony, it spreads Agony to nearby targets, wouldn’t be too out of our normal rotation and it makes sense. Better than having infinite Vile Taint duration I guess
2 Likes
I argued in beta for talents that empowered seed of corruption to also apply agony, however, the obvious betas complained that vile taint was better. I really do not see how. Longer cast time, have to ground target, long cd. If agony was not our primary shard generator it wouldnt be worth taking.
I honestly dont even try to aoe dps on groups of 3 or less if they die realivitely quick. Not worth the effort. In tw, if you dont want to do anything, go aff. You barely have time to cast seed and they are dead.
My favorite is when I accidently spend all my shards in the previous pull… and don’t have any for the next one, even though VT is actually off cooldown. So I still have to manually dot them all up anyway.
Total skill issue, but I feel like Afflock is about the only spec in the game something like this can happen to.
2 Likes
Ua and drain soul sniping help alleviate this 9 times out of 10. Occasionally you may get mechanics, or targets dying too quickly, but as much as I love shadow bolt, drain soul is so good for m+
1 Like
100%
You shouldnt be punished for going all out to kill a group b4 it kills your tank just to sit there and wait for agony to give u a shard. Its very bad design.
How many other specs do you know where you have to stop dpsing and spam your “drain soul” to make sure you have enough soul shards for the next pull? Pretty sure most regenerate quick enough out of combat where its not an issue.
Thats on top of IF and i mean IF vile taint is off cd. Ugh, freaking worst design ever.
1 Like
Oh I agree - I acknowledge this was 100% a skill issue on my part, but I do think our spec is about the only spec that can conceivably have this type of issue.
1 Like
my opinion on this is that they should let drain soul interact with soul rot.
I mean personally I feel that they should make drain soul an upgrade to drain life and move all of drain life’s upgrades over to it but that has nothing to do with this convo
3 Likes