Drain Soul: The most useless spell in WoW.

[The Devious Chicken]

I don't usually play a lock, but i've seen a spell that locks rarely ever use, or it just has no point. This spell is Drain Soul, what Drain Soul does is deal minimal damage, and if the target is killed during the process, you regain all your soul shards. Now, with Soul Harvest, which is a quick way to regain shards, this move is a very useless move. Dealing minimal damage, it's not even a good normal attack. How does it help you, other then a very slow and difficult way of regaining shards? If you know, tell me. If you can't think of a reason, i think it should be removed from the game due to it's pointlessness, other then a low lvl way of regaining shards. Or, if removing it is hard, make Soul Harvest a higher lvl, so it can be at least SOMEWHAT helpful.

[Decra]

You don't have to channel the whole spell to get the shard, just wait till your target has about 5% HP then use it.

[leaks]

It's affliction's execute hence:

If the target is at or below 25% health, Drain Soul causes double the normal damage.

Combine that with the affliction talents that increase shadow damage 12% and cause drain soul to refresh dots on targets below 25% health and it does great damage for the spec during the execute phase.

[Deleted]

...have you considered proposing an alternative on the Warlock forum over at Blizzard?

[Deleted]

drain soul is used as the best filler for affliction wlocks when target is under 25% HP. It is also used during boss figths when u need to regain soul shards. For example a figth where u swap pets. Then u can get back all 3 shard by draining an add.

to explain future, when the traget is under 25% hp and u have all dtos up, use drain soul to max DPS on that target. dont use shadow bolt.

[Deleted]

Drain soul useless ? Every Affliction lock should use it in PvE when target is below 25% health. (look at talents). It deals huge damage, and at below 25% health is better than other spells.

[Deleted]

I don't really agree with you...for aflli drain soul is their execute spell and it does a shitload of dmg under 20% (or 25% don't remember exactly) when the other dots are also up and it also renews the duration of some of the dots on each tick (i mostly play demo so i can really say which)...for any other spec it is useful for replenishing soul shards while in combat (eg. when killing a ooze on yor'shaj). If you want to look at useless lock spells check Eye of Killrog (i have never used that spell in the last year at least).

[Deleted]

Affliction warlock DPS is balanced around the usage of Drain Soul sub 25%.

Affliction warlocks fair better than pretty much any other class during an execute phase due to how drain soul works (buffed sub 35% and sub 25%).

To say Drain Soul is useless would be like saying warriors Execute is useless or Hunter's Kill Shot is useless.
I'm sure if it was Greyed out (like the aforementioned abilities) until you reached execution range (-25%) you would have a different view on the spell because if you used it sub 25% you'd realise just how powerful the spell really is.

I however would like to see Drain Soul changed, lowered in damage and compensated on dots or filler. The reason for this, is that the better people in your raid become geared, the shorter the execute phase lasts, the less damage the affliction warlock will be able to contribute.

On the contrary, if your raid group has terrible gear and in general 'subpar' DPS, you'll be carrying the raid's DPS due to Drainsoul alone... It really is so damn strong.

[Jessicka]

On live it's great, as it offers contrasting gameplay to the pre-execute rotation with Shadow Bolt's nuke filler. On Beta though, that contrast is rather lost as Malefic Grasp is also channeled, and although DS channels more slowly and over a longer period; all it really feels like is that you're doing the same thing, but slowed down. :\

[foxHeart]

It's affliction's execute which hits super hard and refreshes unstable affliction, so yeah. Also, the ability to regain all three soul shards is kind of a huge deal while in combat (t13 4 piece kind of makes it pointless, but whatever). Do you even have a lock?

[Deleted]

Currently, the most useless spells I'd say have to be between Pickpocket, for the Rogues and Blood Strike for DK's. Going with Live that is.

Pickpocket is essentially useless, only granting you small amounts of gold and other useless crap...
While Blood Strike is downright USELESS. There's literally nothing to use it for. It's just a skill you acquire during leveling and never return to.

[Scathbais]

I don't usually play a lock

Enough said. Someone lock this stupid thread!

DS is Afflictions execute filler as mentioned above, but you probably should have looked it up on wowhead before posting.

[psr1620]

What was "Searing Pain" again?