This is how you fix Affliction

Classes Warlock
1

I’m going to keep this brief and to the point. This is not a complete class redesign, more a fix for what they have. And no I haven’t done much since WOD on my lock or in general but I have mained lock from Vanilla to WOD. Any way lets move on.

Anyone who thinks doting up 3 target, tab target and doting up another target with 3 dots and repeating is fun or has a high skill cap, well I just can’t relate.

However deciding to spread dot, burst dots (new malific spell), dbolt procs target then sbolt or drain well sounds a little more enticing.

Baseline Changes require:

Nightfall (proc a free deathbolt that increases all dots on the target by 5 secs)

Drain Soul (balance it to cast twice as long as sbolt and to do twice the damage for balance so people can choose, and gain the bonus damage below 20% and while draining in execute dot timers don’t decrease CATA style)

Deathbolt (cost 1 shard and does increased damaged to the target depending on dot number)

Vile Taint (cost 1 shard and spreads all dot on the target to closest 5 enemies to the target refreshing the timer to effected enemies to full, but not the target you spread from)

New Talentish Soul Harvest (drain soul of your target and the closest 4 other enemies with corruption to your target ).

Game Play:

Pretty standard for solo boss fights, dot up use CD’s dbolt procs, dot burst then drain or sbolt (same dmg) then drain below 20%.

Boss and adds, this gets a little more interesting. You will want to spread dots off boss if you can, for a long lived add you might want to use you dbolt procs on the add to pop up dots enough till he dies. Or you might have a new add coming up and need spread dots to him so you can spread again to another 3 later.

Mythic+ /5 adds, now we are talking. Dot up, spread dots, burst dots, burn dbolt proc on primary target or which target you want to spread off next then finally when a target his 20% hp start drain soul that and 4 other targets with corruption and if “any” die while draining you snip a shard.

To me this as a base to build talents and the like around gives affliction a solid foundation to thrive off.

Just my 2 cents worth.

5 Likes
2

Ya know, I’ve been around a long time here, off and on. More off than on lately but to be quit honest, I can dig this. This(what you described above) captures what I fell in love with in the first place.

Affliction doesn’t have to be overly complicated. It’s hard to believe that I come back and check in about every 1-3 years to see how Warlock is doing and they still haven’t managed to get all 3 specs playable at the same time…it’s like, there’s always one spec that is currently crap tier(if it functions at all).

Anyways, I would be happy with simple Affliction(2-4 dots/a dot burst spell with Shadowbolt/Nightfall procs). Points for Harvest Life and Malefic Grasp visuals, because those looked hella cool.

Here’s to hoping for Shadowlands!

+1

2 Likes
3

+1! Spot on, this style is familiar, robust, and adaptable, the affliction I first fell in love with.

I’d throw in a CD spell that spreads all the current dots on a single target to nearby enemies. Bring back Contagion in this form. We still don’t lose the need to tab + multidot, but the ramp up is decreased and the fun can start earlier.

(On a side note, I can not wait to get my grasp on…malefic grasp).

1 Like
4

I somewhat agree but think your solution might be a bit to strong, being able to apply all our dots to everything via your proposed vile taint would just be crazy strong albeit very fun.

My biggest unanswered issue with Affliction is AOE, for a while now it has felt somewhat lost. Rapture helps this, but its still a problem of how much time do you want to put into spreading dots with seed of corruption, potentially vile taint, and other baseline dots before you start firing off your raptures and pumping out that feel good AOE. Seed of corruption just hasnt felt good to cast in a long time and personally ide like to see it replaced by a baseline vile taint which also applies corruption to all targets hit but costing two soul shards to prevent you wanting to use it in single target. Lastly, the cost would allow you to remove the CD. This would allow for a fun AOE playstyle of casting as many agony’s as time allows followed by a vile taint which applies the taint and corruption debuffs and finishing it up with rapture spam.

I am also someone who has never liked death bolt and take drain soul any time I can. The dot playstyle is just so much more smooth and satisfying when my filler is a channeled spell.

Lastly, UA and haunt in shadowlands are currently basically the same thing. I dont like this at all and one of them needs to change or be removed.

5

And as soon as mobs are kited damage is gone.

6

Vile Taint puts up a dot on the target, it’s not a ground effect like Consecrate, Death and Decay, or Blizzard.

1 Like
7

Is the malefic grasp + drain coming back?

That is what I miss most about affliction and what made it different than all the other casters.

SB filler killed it for me, not to mention the rest =(

3 Likes
8

Until ua stacking goes away aff just won’t feel good to play.

Id like to see UA consume all available soulshards doing more damage per shard consumed. Similar to how glacial spike is for mage.