Warlock destruction is unplayable, what is wrong with class devs?

Classes Warlock
1

Let’s break down these changes, and I’ve gotta say, I’m seriously ticked off.

  1. Madness of the Azj’Aqir Removal
  • This change is just plain STUPID. They got rid of Madness of the Azj’Aqir, and it’s the most frustrating thing I’ve seen in this game. The new talent, “Chaosbringer,” basically dumbs down Chaos Bolt’s damage by a whopping 10%. They also scrapped the cast time reduction, and their excuse is all about not messing with movement. Seriously, it’s like they randomly made these changes without thinking things through. They say they want to make spells hit harder, but how is a straight-up 10% nerf making things better? It’s just nuts.
  1. New Talent: Chaosbringer
  • It’s like they’re shoving this channeling demon fire thing down our throats over and over. It’s something none of us wanted, and it’s now a “must-have” talent. In other words, they’ve removed any other choice, and you’re stuck taking this talent, or you’re slapped with a 15% damage nerf. So, less choices, less fun.
  1. Grand Warlock’s Design Redesign
  • This change is just a flat-out nerf. Before, we had more options and could benefit from reducing cooldowns by actually using our skills more. It felt way more rewarding. Not to mention that alot of ppl talked about how bad is this to m+, this was since day one in PTR and never ever was touched again, yikes.
  1. Summon Infernal Damage Increase
  • This is like going backward because we had this before, but it got nerfed thanks to the last season’s Shadowlands ROF build. There’s no reason to celebrate.
  1. Chaos Bolt/other skills Damage Increase
  • The damage increase here doesn’t add up at all compared to what other classes and specs are getting in their buffs. We’re way behind, and it’s the same story with the ROF and Shadowburn buffs, both getting just a paltry 15% increase.

In the end, this is downright frustrating. Last season, Warlock Destruction wasn’t at the top, and with these changes, it’s even worse, while other classes are still sitting pretty at the top. It’s got a lot of us Warlock players feeling pretty miffed, and we’re hoping the devs will take a long hard look at these changes and actually make things better for our spec.

The way Destruction was in the last season, at least we could fight for something in m+. Now, we’re just useless in raid, m+, and pvp. I think class devs throw random cards into a used toilet and decide what’s next for Warlocks. There’s no way they think through all of this, and we end up with these brain-dead ideas

5 Likes
2

I’ll note that while I agree with almost all of your points, they did buff Chaos Bolt baseline in addition to the rework from Madness. Net Chaos Bolt damage per cast is higher now than it was before, but since it casts slower it’s basically a wash.

That said, I’m also ticked off. We really need Cata baseline or super easy to get to. DRift is underwhelming and honestly needs to be buffed really hard to make our tier not completely trash. Even then, I think they should take it a step further and make DRift Havoc’able.

5 Likes
3

Additionally, I’d like to note that Destro tier (Aff and Demo tier aren’t great either overall, but somewhat average) is dirt tier this season.

For a fully geared S2 character aka a mythic raid, it’s around a 2.8% increase. I implore EVERY warlock to sim their tier in Raidbots, though it is a little annoying to do so since you gotta play around with Gear Compare or Advanced Sims to due to builds being different.

But…on my character…the single keystone single target build with only Chaos Incarn which is really good right now (and was in S2)…is beating full S3 Tier and Dimensional Rift build. Looking through the sim data, it seems the Rift build ONLY wins with S3 Tier Set IF you get very lucky with rift procs AND mastery procs. Otherwise, you lose to the channel demonfire S2 set and build at normal iLVL from Amirdrassil. Which is pathetic.

I’m cool with being a slow, hard hitting caster…but then we gotta hit hard during our dmg windows since we do nothing during movement.

Honestly, been playing a little Frost Mage this week while checking out other classes waiting for the season to start…it’s kind of what Destro is supposed to be, but just way faster. Not that I want Destro play like Frost Mage, but…Glacial Spike…wow, that’s what Chaos Bolt should be if we are gonna be spending the equivalent of a moon cycle casting it.

2 Likes
4

No that question is really justifiable for the whole class and not just Destro. All 3 are just - unaceptable. I can totally see your point abotu Destro as well

2 Likes
5

sims doesnt look good for warlocks

3 Likes
6

To be fair, Frost Mage tier is also not great, but Mage in general is in a fine spot.

Warlocks (especially Destruction), not so much.

2 Likes
7

Season 2 we got a tier with CDF while all other classes had tiers based on skill they already used, at this point they are just punishing us for playing as warlock.

2 Likes
8

Cataclysm + RoF + FnB baseline.

Make Shadowburn actually do good damage in execute.

Warlock dev, if you are reading this, what are they paying you for.

9

At this point if they just delete CDF i would be 100% happy and don’t mind at all being the worst dps of the game just to don’t channeling that freaking dumb skill again.

1 Like
10

Biggest problem for 10.2 specifically is destro tier set being insanely bad. You cant really fix the fact that taking dimensional rift breaks our actually good builds without reworking the talent tree but the least it could do is actually deal good damage when you get the 4pc. Its hard to imagine not seeing dimensional rift getting a pve only buff of at least 50% but we’ll have to see.

3 Likes
11

a tier set that doesnt improve your damage!

1 Like
12

It also makes you do less damage in AoE, since dimensional rift is garbage for m+

So yeah, we have a tier that barely improves your damage in single target and is an outright dps loss in AoE.

The circus is back in town for the end of the year.

2 Likes
13

Y’all need to start putting PVE into the titles of these posts because Destruction is very playable in PVP and does well if you know how to play warlock. I forget most of these posts are PVE related tho…

14

You can’t have an opinion about something you don’t play. Checked your profile you don’t even have a pvp rating.

Are you this unaware about what need to have an opinion about something? You need knowledge. Warlock destruction suck even with the new announcement about the ridiculous buff (always in skills that doesn’t adress the problem).

The spec is bad in pvp and PvE, and your casual opinion doesn’t matter

1 Like
15

Been playing lock since BC. Over 2500 exp from 5s. I know Destro…

Destro is completely playable in pvp and with our new tier set it will be pumping out rifts like no other.

16

5v5 arena was removed in 2016, you need to update.

1 Like
17

So you just pick and choose players achievements to make yourself sound better about a class?

Stop trying to sound like an elitist meanwhile your highest achievement is Rival for PVP.

Scram kid.

18

The class devs must have had people leave because the other explanation is just going to be rude.

1 Like
19

I get what you’re trying to say and other people have likely commented on some of the corrections, but just in case.

1: Chaos Bolt also got a 15% baseline buff, so with Chaosbringer it does 30% more damage, which is more than you used to get with Madness of Azj’Aqir and you don’t have to burn a Chaos Bolt to get the buff. You do lose out on the cast time benefit, but I think it’s pretty clear how this makes you penalized less for heavy movement.

2: I’m unsure how Chaosbringer is any different from Madness of Azj’Aqir as far as being “required”. Channel Demonfire is a bad comparison, especially since I don’t think it gets used in S3 at all. Madness was essentially a required talent for all builds and now Chaosbringer is in its place. There’s really no change here, so not sure what your complaint is unless you also hated having to take Madness.

3: Grand Warlock’s Design rework makes it more consistent, you have an odd definition of nerf. You say it felt way more rewarding, but it was rarely ever used in PvE builds, so it’s a moot point. They reworked a talent that hardly got any play.

4: They restored some power to a spell that was previously nerfed isn’t good enough for you apparently. Will it fix all the issues with the class, obviously not. But complaining about this is silly.

5: Not all other classes are getting buffed, some are getting nerfed. Yes, our baseline dps needs to be improved so that we can be competitive, but not every class was getting buffed.

I get what you’re trying to say, but I feel like a lot of your complaints miss the spot. I’m not a fan of being pigeonholed into specific talents like Channel Demonfire or Dimensional Rift, particularly talents that no one used before and they only reason we are using them now is because it’s required for our set bonus. However, we are stuck with that set bonus for the season.

We do need to have our baseline dps increased, that is absolutely true. It would also be nice if they modified the set bonus to give more cleave damage like 50% instead of 25% to help out in M+. If they did that, we would be in a decent position. I don’t mind most of the current talent changes, I just wish we had a more versatile set bonus.

20

I’d just like to point out that people often have opinions on things of which they have no knowledge.