[BETA] Affliction Warlock Discussion

[Lucrece]

Sure I'll give you that.



No.



Not really.



That's almost all subjective.

Tell me what spell visuals we have other than talenting into Soul Effigy? Only other spell we actually see an animation for is drain/life, which is a downgrade from malefic grasp/drain soul visually.

The dots you don't even see on a boss, as their animation is a dark circle aura on your hands much like any shadow spell cast in vanilla (including shadow priests), a skull with horns for agony on non-boss targets that has existed since Vanilla, and for unstable affliction/corruption it's this tiny smoke cloud on the target that isn't even seen on boss targets.


Now compare that to the shadow auras and infusions of the new demonology warlock, with shadow bolt and demon bolt being new animations on top while we get the outdated drain life.

Or compare that to shadow, who now gets freaking tentacles all over their body plus dark violet flames, who spawns a tentacle that channels mindflay, who spawns a sphere of insanity that stole our shadowbolts and turned it into an aoe shadow bolt barrage for shadow priests, and who got this amazing Void Torrent animation that's basically channeling a bunch of dark magic tendrils at the target.


Yeah, I'll say warlocks got the short end of the stick relative to priest, mage and shaman spell animation updates.

They even updated our demons, and then proceeded to shit all over that by locking us into specific pets per spec, destro gets an un-updated imp, demo the same felguard when we could have used the new fel lord model, and so succubus and voidwalker (who arguably is the shadow pet) won't see the light of day in a raid setting so what was the point of updating them?

[ThePhantombox]

Tell me what spell visuals we have other than talenting into Soul Effigy? Only other spell we actually see an animation for is drain/life, which is a downgrade from malefic grasp/drain soul visually.

The dots you don't even see on a boss, as their animation is a dark circle aura on your hands much like any shadow spell cast in vanilla (including shadow priests), a skull with horns for agony on non-boss targets that has existed since Vanilla, and for unstable affliction/corruption it's this tiny smoke cloud on the target that isn't even seen on boss targets.


Now compare that to the shadow auras and infusions of the new demonology warlock, with shadow bolt and demon bolt being new animations on top while we get the outdated drain life.

Or compare that to shadow, who now gets freaking tentacles all over their body plus dark violet flames, who spawns a tentacle that channels mindflay, who spawns a sphere of insanity that stole our shadowbolts and turned it into an aoe shadow bolt barrage for shadow priests, and who got this amazing Void Torrent animation that's basically channeling a bunch of dark magic tendrils at the target.


Yeah, I'll say warlocks got the short end of the stick relative to priest, mage and shaman spell animation updates.

They even updated our demons, and then proceeded to shit all over that by locking us into specific pets per spec, destro gets an un-updated imp, demo the same felguard when we could have used the new fel lord model, and so succubus and voidwalker (who arguably is the shadow pet) won't see the light of day in a raid setting so what was the point of updating them?

The majority of that little snippet was talking about flavor and "interesting mechanics," which ARE subjective. Perhaps if you wanted me to actually pay attention to the "neat little particle effects" you're so concerned about, you would have actually made that the main point of your post. No what actually got me to respond was all the stuff you said that was factually incorrect. Though since talking about visuals seems so important to you, I should probably mention the new ones for siphon life, tormented souls, and soul flame. Sure that's not a lot, but if you're going to try and argue with me by being a pessimist, at least be an accurate pessimist.

To be honest though I don't really care about the whole "this class lack purple and I'm mad" stuff. Be pissed about that all you want I really don't care, though I'm just not sure what you accomplish telling us here that.

[Lucrece]

The majority of that little snippet was talking about flavor and "interesting mechanics," which ARE subjective. Perhaps if you wanted me to actually pay attention to the "neat little particle effects" you're so concerned about, you would have actually made that the main point of your post. No what actually got me to respond was all the stuff you said that was factually incorrect. Though since talking about visuals seems so important to you, I should probably mention the new ones for siphon life, tormented souls, and soul flame. Sure that's not a lot, but if you're going to try and argue with me by being a pessimist, at least be an accurate pessimist.

To be honest though I don't really care about the whole "this class lack purple and I'm mad" stuff. Be pissed about that all you want I really don't care, though I'm just not sure what you accomplish telling us here that.

I'm glad to be informed that you don't care, clearly I've been craving your opinion on what I should and should not care about in order to adjust whatever the fuck I feel like saying in a public forum.

Anything else I should pass on over for your review and approval? Don't make me wait too long for your invaluable feedback on my views and priorities on a videogame.

[ThePhantombox]

I'm glad to be informed that you don't care, clearly I've been craving your opinion on what I should and should not care about in order to adjust whatever the fuck I feel like saying in a public forum.

Anything else I should pass on over for your review and approval? Don't make me wait too long for your invaluable feedback on my views and priorities on a videogame.

It was never about my opinion, I was just correcting you when you were wrong.

[dholland662]

That's almost all subjective.

I do think affliction is far more thematically limited than any other spec in the game. And I also think this translates to more gameplay stagnation

[Deleted]

New build, and a massive Drain Life... nerf? Thoughts?

[Halwyn]

New build, and a massive Drain Life... nerf? Thoughts?

Where? I see only removal of the mana cost of the initial cast

[Deleted]

Drain Life Affliction: Drains life from the target, causing [ 15 + 62.6% of Spell Power ] Shadow damage

has changed into:

Drains life from the target, causing [ 6 + 25.05% of Spell Power ] Shadow damage

[Deleted]

Nerfing Drain Life for Affliction makes little sense and that's huge, I can see why they made it a weak baseline spell for all three specs because they don't want Demo or destruction using it (their fillers being Shadowbolt and Incinerate)

For Affliction Drain Life should be stronger, if anything. A filler spell that is that weak? Get real? It makes Drain Soul mandatory, unless the MMO section is a type, because it shows Drain Soul as doing (6 + 750%) and it creates a shard if the target dies

I'd suggest they are pushing Drain Soul very hard. I'm willing to be we'll get a DOT multiplier attached to it next -sigh-

As I read it, this makes the tier 15 talents

Haunt (take it for a fight where infrequent adds need to die fast)
Writhe in Agony (any heavy multi-dot fight)
Drain Soul (the go-to talent for anything else, and a competitor for the other two in any situation)

Shame Soul Effigy has apparently lost the "additional effects". It's an effective but immensely boring talent.

[Deleted]

has changed into:

it isnt a nerf, its just the dmg it does for every class since its a general class spell, keep in mind that you need to differentiate between the dmg it does for demo/destro and afflic(which it doesnt on mmo champion) and thanks to the passive secrets of the necrolyte which was buffed(fairly sure it used to be 150% increased drain life dmg) so instead of 62,6% sp pr tick it is actually 75,15% sp pr tick or 450,9% spellpower over 6 secs, so not a nerf at all, just very unprecise description of the spell.

[Halwyn]

it isnt a nerf, its just the dmg it does for every class since its a general class spell, keep in mind that you need to differentiate between the dmg it does for demo/destro and afflic(which it does on mmo champion) and thanks to the passive secrets of the necrolyte which was buffed(fairly sure it used to be 150% increased drain life dmg) so instead of 62,6% sp pr tick it is actually 75,15% sp pr tick or 450,9% spellpower over 6 secs, so not a nerf at all, just very unprecise description of the spell.

Even if it is, and not the tooltip clarification - Blizzard stated they'll tune the shard generation higher for ST and it seems Soul Effigy is back to it's normal state - possible DL nerf could be an attempt to offset it.

- - - Updated - - -

Shame Soul Effigy has apparently lost the "additional effects". It's an effective but immensely boring talent.

I think it's just back to having a normal rate of procing shards and CI.

[Deleted]

it isnt a nerf, its just the dmg it does for every class since its a general class spell, keep in mind that you need to differentiate between the dmg it does for demo/destro and afflic(which it doesnt on mmo champion) and thanks to the passive secrets of the necrolyte which was buffed(fairly sure it used to be 150% increased drain life dmg) so instead of 62,6% sp pr tick it is actually 75,15% sp pr tick or 450,9% spellpower over 6 secs, so not a nerf at all, just very unprecise description of the spell.

Hmm, I was expecting something like that, hence all the question marks in my first post about this. Anyway, would be nice if someone on alpha could actually check it to see which way it is.

[Deleted]

Nerfing Drain Life for Affliction makes little sense and that's huge, I can see why they made it a weak baseline spell for all three specs because they don't want Demo or destruction using it (their fillers being Shadowbolt and Incinerate)

For Affliction Drain Life should be stronger, if anything. A filler spell that is that weak? Get real? It makes Drain Soul mandatory, unless the MMO section is a type, because it shows Drain Soul as doing (6 + 750%) and it creates a shard if the target dies

I'd suggest they are pushing Drain Soul very hard. I'm willing to be we'll get a DOT multiplier attached to it next -sigh-

As I read it, this makes the tier 15 talents

Haunt (take it for a fight where infrequent adds need to die fast)
Writhe in Agony (any heavy multi-dot fight)
Drain Soul (the go-to talent for anything else, and a competitor for the other two in any situation)

Shame Soul Effigy has apparently lost the "additional effects". It's an effective but immensely boring talent.

Try not to forget that balance changes so early shouldn't be considered outright nerfs or buffs; whilst people have already commented on this particular example, just remember that they'll try their hardest to balance all specs before live.

If they were to follow a Drain Life nerf with an Unstable Affliction buff, it would clearly be a shuffle of where the damage comes from.

[Amnesia101]

Is it just me or did they gimp our Infernal? It seems to die alot quicker and it's not giving off an immolation aura anymore...

[Canitank]

Is it just me or did they gimp our Infernal? It seems to die alot quicker and it's not giving off an immolation aura anymore...

I noticed this also, but I was also questing in Valsharah where a level 106 neutral fox had 260 million HP and hit me for 12 million overkill and a level 1 larva had 356 million HP and kept me in combat forever. I didn't manage to get in combat in another zone before I went to bed so not sure if the infernal was still buggy elsewhere.

[Deleted]

I noticed this also, but I was also questing in Valsharah where a level 106 neutral fox had 260 million HP and hit me for 12 million overkill

That was no ordinary fox, that was secretly Inari-sama, the Shintoist god of foxes. And also, iirc, sake? Maybe if you manage to kill it, it drops booze.

[Deleted]

You'll find most answers to your pvp related questions here : http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/17611003452

The guy ( not me ) pretty much sums up everything going on about affliction pvp.

He make some great points in that post, but I do think that high sustained spread pressure play will be viable as long as you pick the correct talents. Writh/contagion/conduit from the pve tree provide damage/free gcds/shards while soul siphon and rot and decay allow you to sustain your dots indefinitely with 1 tick of drain life per target and also freeing up shards to dump into your priority target. Casting circle(which is op) provides the safety window when you want to go balls deep with 5 UAs. This playstyle will require a bit more management and dot monitoring but a simple arena 123 macro for drain life can eliminate having to swap targets to refresh your dots. It will be fast paced but very strong in comps like RLS where your rogue can control the other team allowing you to cast.

Just dumping UAs into one target looks good on paper but it has many counters, doing it at the right time however while still maintaining spread pressure is the other layer of play ppl seem to be missing IMO

[Woz]

Since Beta is officially upon us this thread will be changed slightly from the "pre-Beta" iteration to a full blown Beta thread. I'll include a few shortcut links to things relevant to Beta:

General Talent Calculator

PvP Talent Calculator

Artifact Talent Tree

Item Sets
Legacy of Azj'Aqir
Vestments of the Black Harvest

Legendaries (ooo shiny):
Pillars of the Dark Portal
Sin'dorei Spite
Sephuz's Secret
Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus

Hood of Eternal Disdain
Power Cord of Lethtendris
Streten's Sleepless Shackles
Sacrolash's Dark Strike

Legendaries NOT available yet:
Fatebender
Timeshifters
Norgannon's Foresight



If anyone has anything else that should be listed here (including any video overviews, relevant theorycrafting links, spreadsheets, etc) PM me or post them here so I can add them to the 'master list' that is in the original post.

[Deleted]

Wondering how Legion Affli will compare to WOD Affli for PvP.. From what i've seen it isn't looking too great (casting circle aside but that forces you to stay imobile)
Stacking UA is fine for single target but multi-dotting I think is taking a hit damage wise with that sort of playstyle

[Deleted]

Wondering how Legion Affli will compare to WOD Affli for PvP.. From what i've seen it isn't looking too great (casting circle aside but that forces you to stay imobile)
Stacking UA is fine for single target but multi-dotting I think is taking a hit damage wise with that sort of playstyle

Not at all you just have to talent for it, centreing around rot and decay drain life refresh, keeping up good spread damage wil be totally viable in the right comps, very strong in some. It will just take a bit more management to pull off, but if done right can be devastating
,