Warlock spells used to look so cool and distinct. Why don't they look that cool anymore?

Community General Discussion
1

Shadow Bolt and Incinerate especially.

The Classic version of Shadow Bolt was a clearly-defined energy ball made up of a black skull with glowing eyes, and a glowing sphere of purple, green, and white energies with a long tail, and when it hit the enemy, it would explode into a blast of green fel energy that felt like it had some impact.

Nowadays…you look at Shadow Bolt in retail, and it’s just a nondescript blob of black and purple goop that flies slowly toward an enemy and then just kinda…fizzles out, without any significant impact animation. It feels like you’re flinging a scoop of ice cream at somebody and it just kinda…plops.

Same thing with Incinerate. The spell originally, and for many years, was this broad, bright, burning patch of flame that snaked rhythmically toward an enemy, and when it reached, it leapt onto their body and set them on fire for a good 1-2 seconds, which really looked like you were throwing magical fire onto somebody’s skin and trying to burn them alive with it.

It looked amazing. There was a time when Incinerate was my favorite spell visual in the entire game.

Now…Incinerate in retail is basically just a color swap of Shadow Bolt. An orange and black blob that “kind of” snakes along the ground, and when it hits the enemy, it “kind of” leaps onto them…but really it just pops like a water balloon and there’s like a half-second flame splash that immediately vanishes.

Rain of Fire used to be physically distinct meteorites with a flaming streak…now it’s just the flaming streak with no visible meteorite.

So why is it that every time a spell effect is “updated,” it loses most of what made it cool and just becomes another cloud of nondescript particle effects with no satisfying visual impact on the enemy?

I have my particles turned up to Ultra, so it’s not just a graphics setting issue. Most of the spells just look worse now.

One thing I’ll say is that the new Drain Life, where it starts out purple and becomes green as it gets closer to your body, is a distinct upgrade over the old version which used to be a solid green piece of silly string. So it’s not ALL bad, it just feels like most “main” spells have gotten more generic over the years.

A lot of classes have this issue, but it’s most noticeable with Warlock in my opinion.

8 Likes
2

What you’re talking about? It’s lliterally the caster class with the best spell effect in the game.

3

What a weak troll. Warlocks have the coolest looking everything cast wise.

4

I feel like I was pretty clear in the post. Warlocks went from having very cool, unique designs for their spells, to having generic blobs of purple and orange that don’t even look cool when they hit the enemy.

Shadow Bolt and Incinerate are downgrades in pretty much every way, except for particle count.

That may be true, but current warlock looks worse than old Warlock in terms of visual style and creativity. The particle count may be higher, but the actual visuals are not better than they were before. If current warlock still looks cooler than all the other classes, that might be because all the other classes are victims of the same art style/design philosophy downgrades.

I’m not sure why they felt the need to totally redesign the concept of these spells, instead of using the original version as a template and simply upping the visual fidelity.

1 Like
5

I also miss the old effects of Shadowbolt and Incernate.

The new effects of those two spells are a downgrade.
Chaos bolt and, as you said, Drain Life on the other hand are better.

5 Likes
6

This isn’t even subjective, it’s fact.

1 Like
7

All well and good, but they used to look even cooler than they do now.

8

Listen we all can’t be like Hunters that get fancy new pets every xpac without having to give something up. We had to sacrifice those effects to get better looking minions.
boops Jarnock on head with slightly better looking imp

9

I just miss the classic Incinerate animation. It looked so, so cool. I logged onto SoD while making this topic just to look at it in action again, and it’s so beautiful. Current Incinerate just feels so tiny and insignificant by comparison.

The new pet skins do look nice, but most of the time I have my demon sacrificed nowadays anyhow lol

10

Lol
/10 characters

11

Dude, warlock spells are amazing. My favourite little detail they gave their fire spells is that black, smoky tinge. It distinguishes them from mage fire spell visually, but also just makes them feel that much more sinister and toxic. Like a dirty petrol fire or something. Warlock fire has fumes!

12

I like most of the warlock spell effects but the new one I hate is Chaos Bolt. I prefer the old one.

13

Old SB was better, but overall I think Locks still absolutely kill it in the looks department. Spells, mount, drip, we got it all on lock.

That’s the real reason everyone in Azeroth has taken up the Fel.

14

OP is absolutely right.
Old SB and Chaos Bolt was unique. Now its just green pyro and purple frost bolt.

2 Likes
15

I do love a lot of their aesthetics, I just really think they’d be even cooler with higher-res versions of their Classic Shadow Bolt and Incinerate. They were iconic. Now they look “okay” at best. The worst part being the impact animations, or lack thereof.

Shoot a Shadow Bolt at something and look what happens when it connects. It just kinda…plinks.