I will mostly be providing feedback for base demonolgy warlock, and for Diabolist, as those are the two I have most experience with. First will be my opinion, then my proposed fix, and then a “TLDR” afterwards, best way I can make sure stuff has full explanations, while also having a short and to the point option.
Warlock Base
It feels odd having Demonic circle be the starting talent for demonology, when fel domination is right there, a talent copied from the original Demonology tree.
I really feel Destro should start with burning rush, demonic circle affliction, fel dom demonolgy.
Make Fel dom default for demo, Demonic circle aff, and Burning rush destro
Implosion, Implosion is such a monster when it comes to using it, the skill ceiling is so extremly high when it comes to knowing when to and when not to use it.
- My Fix- Make it a choice node, one is implosion, the other a passive version of implosion. When your imps run out they will implode themselves. I think it is a fair trade off, the loss of the burst damage of implosion, for the gain of the implosion damage itself. As knowing I can never truly be fully efficient with my implosions does not feel great, nor does running imp gang boss without implosion, as the talent is just kinda massivly weaker without using it.
Add a passive choice node of implosion that makes it just happen to imps at end of life
Demon bolt is only ever hard-cast for pre-pull, otherwise casting it normally is pointless, and I think demon bolt should be altered slightly to just make it better to use overall. It really is annoying constantly accidentally starting cast on this ability for one reason or another. And with how super quick our spec has become with high haste values, and now with this 50% cast time reduction on hero talents, it gets way too much.
- My Fix- Make demonic cores charges, have it just right out not be able to be cast unless you have demonic cores, it will also make it easier to see how many demonic cores you have, instead of having to keep an eye on a buff.
Make demon bolt a charge based spell, remove the hardcast ability of it entirely
Less RNG please, Random soulshards from soul strike, random soulshards from Soul conduit, and the RNG behind demonic cores.
So much RNG, it makes Demonolgy TOO MUCH of what I can best describe as a whack a mole spec. it just feels awful when you finish casting a hand of guldan and quickly go to demonbolt, but uh oh you got lucky and now suddenly have wasted soul shards. It just does not feel good when it happens, and we feel encouraged to stop dps to make sure we don’t over-shard.
- My Fix- If anything make soul strike have a chance to trigger soul coundit, and make soul conduit when it triggers make your next cast cost 1 less shard, this way you know ahead of time and can pre-plan, instead of it being retroactive, make it pro-active.
Or another option? Soul conduit shards can go over 5. So if you gain soul conduit shards, they are additional, they do not fill your normal 5 shard cap, instead they are “floating” and will be used on your next cast that does not “normally” have enough shards. (have 2 normal, and 1 floating? cast hand of guldan all 3 are used) This way these abilities feel additions, instead of retroactive removals.
Really I would prefer something entirely different then these random soul shards, but if we must stick with it, atleast reducing the RNG would be nice. As the highs and lows are too much. Times you get no procs and then the procs you do are wasted, or you get CONSTANT procs and suddenly blast.
Make soul conduit + soulstrike less punishing by adding “Floating shards” or making your next spell cost less, instead of refunding. Or just right out replace
Make Demonic Tyrant good again. People have been running “Naked tyrant” where we take none of the talents for them, cause it is just so bad. As the main themed DPS cooldown for the spec, it is so obscene it is just, useless. You only take it to boost the duration of your felguard.
- My Fix- Soulbound tyrant should be built in, and the final talents just need some work.
Make Tyrant strong again, it is our main DPS cooldown afterall.
Doom and it’s follow up just need rework or removal. If anything make it work like it did in legion where doom is just applied by hand of guldan, as is it has never been used in all of dragonflight.
Make doom good or replace it
Ok now onto
Diabolist Feedback
Ok so first off these hero talents feel amazing, but I feel there is a few spots it is lacking, and really needs some work.
Overall- This is the “demon spec” as both destro and demo still have heavy influence with demons, and because of this I quite enjoy how the spec summons these huge demons. But a few things do not make sense and could really be altered, and super easily too, simply by changing “+damage to basic ability” to “Basic ability does this demon thingy” Examples later
Another issue is the spec just seems to play more into demonolgies two major issues with the spec. The whack a mole playstyle, which is good in small amounts, but has become more and more the ENTIRE playstyle. And the aspect that we are demonologists, we should be summoning more, and stronger demons, and yet some things here just feel like typical “buff X ability” when it should be “Buff Y demon”
Nothing here buffs our wrathguard, and too many abilities that have no effect on our demons
Animations for the overlord and ruination take too long, especially bad since they are aoe, but focus on 1 specific target. The issue comes when that target dies before this loooong animation finishes, causing the abilities to just wiff.
Too long animations on overfiend and ruination
Soul-Etched Circles. While cool it just makes demonic circle better, it does not change anything, it just means you do not need to soulburn it. This feels a bit lame, and I think I would prefer if instead it had the effect of Soul Burning Demonic Gateway.
- My Fix- Diabolist is all about opening portals and summoning giant demons, and the major focus on both destro and demo’s summoning aspect, I think being able to instantly open a demonic gateway is much more interesting, fun, and thematic.
As a M+ player, I really find little use of demonic gateway, as it requires settup, and only really in raid and arenas is this viable to do frequently. I really feel that having this spec just make demonic gateway instant would be so much better. Especially as it would be quite interesting to see it used in more tight scenarios.
Soul etched circles should give demonic gateway soulburn instead of circle.
Annihilan’s Bellow is just an issue of so few people if anyone takes howl of terror, especially since it competes with mortal coil. It feels weird having hero talents that not only require you to take a specific talent elsewhere, but also a specific talent that is a choice node. If you wish to keep it as is, also give it a buff for mortal coil. Maybe longer range and some damage, or more healing, or heck even a cooldown reduction.
Needs to effect mortal coil as well, or be replaced
Cruelty of Kerxan just does not seem useful, not only do you always have diabolic ritual up pretty much, making the first half of this effect pointless, but 3 second shorter duration is basically nothing as we already reduce its duration extremely quickly, especially since the other talent infernal machine far outpreforms it. But really both of these talents being about reducing its cooldown. I think it would be more interesting to have them be different style. Or make it so cruelty of kerxan lets you have 2 rituals up at once, or I guess 3.
- My Fix- I think if anything it right out should just always decrease the countdown by a couple seconds. This way you can pick a more “overall passive reduction” or a “bursty reduction based around our major dps cooldown” Or let Cruelty of Kerxan give you multiple rituals.
Not good at all, needs rework/replace
Touch of Rancora is cool, but the whiplash of casting at a normal speed, and then BOOM 50% castspeed bonus, and suddenly a spell is done WAY faster then you expect, feels almost more of a debuff then a buff. Right now it is not too much of an issue, but I have done testing with the most amount of haste I could get, and during bloodlust, and it just gets way too fast, and while fast specs are fun, demonolgy is an edge case because of it’s whack a mole nature.
- My Fix- Make touch of rancora more unique, Instead buff its damage by 100%, and give it a +50% bonus. Multistrike was great, and seeing it back in a talent like this would be great, so make the ability proc CB/RoF/DS/HoG cast a second time at 50% power. As is because of how it works it makes it just feel awkward at times, especially since it reduces the cast time by 50%, but there is a fair few soulshard costing spells that consume this, that don’t have a cast time.
The bonus cast speed makes the spec feel clunky
Ruination is amazing, but as is it has no cap. This makes ruination in a bit of a nerve wracking place. as just a MASSIVE aoe damage, this will encourage us to use it on bigger and bigger and bigger pulls. I was kind of suprised to see this without a damage cap, and while I normally do not like those, I do really like what has been done with a lot of abilities/trinkets/etc in dragonflight. “X damage split between all hit enemies, but more enemies hit buffs the damage” this means it is good for both single target, and aoe.
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My Fix- Ruination is literally a fel meteor, and with meteors being a common soak mechanic, I really think the ability could do with a large damage buff, at the cost of “splits damage between all targets hit, but increases damage slightly per target hit” as this ability is INSANE for large aoe, but when used on a single target is just “good” and as this big cooldown part of our rotation, it does feel it could use some help.
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I want a fel version of the beacon to the beyond is what I am saying lol.
Oh also, ruination is this BIG fel meteor, and yet it just summons 3 wild imps, making it basically a silly strong hand of guldan. I feel it would be cooler if it just right out summoned imp gang bosses, even without the talent. Just to give it that more OOMPF
Ruination should be damage split among targets but deal more per target hit, and also should summon more then just 3 imps.
Now while this would normally be under base Warlock, I put it here cause it is effected even more by diabolist.
Nether portal, not fun, I do not like, nor do many people, it is a cool theme but how it works, how it plays, it is just so awkward. I feel like this ability should work like how grand warlock design tyrant used to work. Now that tyrant lost its old version, give it to nether portal. Nether portal should just summon a set amount of demons, including a pitlord at the end. No soulshard spam during it, as it just means a cooldown you pump EVERYTHING into, however you can cheese to do so.
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My Fix- I think it should be the opposite, we should be using our soulshards after nether portal, in order to reduce its cooldown. Where it summons a few imps, then stronger and stronger demons, ending with the pitlord! and then you spend shards to refill your energy so you can summon the portal again. Make it more of a frequent burst, then a long cooldown MEGA BURST. as it is now.
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Now what does this have to do with diabolist? well both cruelty of kerxan and infernal machine proc off it. Which is odd as destro only gets infernal, but demonolgy gets both nether portal and demonic tyrant? This makes diabolist players sorta encouraged if not forced to go nether portal and tyrant. Which just is not fun, the amount of talents here that force players into specific talent choices in the tree is just too much. Yes the demon focused spec buffing grimoire felguard for demo makes sense, and that is high enough up the tree it is fine. But when we are at the bottom with our limited points, forcing us into nether portal and tyrant sorta brute forces demo locks out of the right side, which I really like, I love the “big strong wrathguard” builds, always have, even in SoD I have been working to make demon focused builds and can’t wait for the black book eventual drop.
Nether portal should lose the soulshard to summon more demons mechanic, and instead use soulshard consumption to reduce it’s cooldown, or should be replaced, maybe with metamorphasis? But also it should be removed from the diabolist talents
But the lack of demon synergy in this spec is just bizzare, and I love what you have done overall here, the overfiend, the mother, the pitlord, super amazing play and theme, but the things around them are odd at times. The fact that the ONLY talent in diabolist that actually effects our demonic pet is flames of xoroth, 2% increased demon damage. Is just confusing. I was really hoping for more. Heck even a second pet, 2 imps for destro, 2 wrathguards for demo. Would be insanely cool.