Warlock visuals gone in Legion?

[Deleted]

Since I don't have access to beta and can't seem to find the answers on Google, I was wondering if some beta Warlocks can answer my questions here.

First of, since the glyphs are getting massacred, what happens with Glyph of Verdant Spheres? It's a really cool visual for warlock, especially for Blood Elfs and I would hate to see it gone. So what became of it in legion?

The other question is for destruction warlocks specifically. I love how the more embers you have, the more you radiate with fel power (if you have Codex of Xoroth), With Burning embers gone in Legion, what happens with that magnificent glow? Is it also gone or...?

[Duckz0rs]

The only remaining Glyph is Glyph of Felguard, which gives your Felguard a weapon from your inventory. New ones are individual glyphs that give you the Grimoire of Supremacy demons. Verdant Spheres etc have all been removed.

The Fel Glow is also removed. Probably because mages have a similar effect now with Combustion (/salt).

[Irian]

Burning Ember glow is gone. AFAIK Verdant Spheres are gone as well. Those were both basically given straight from warlocks to mages in a cooler, more visually appealing form. RIP Xelnath...

Worse yet, demonology and affliction both have no fire-based spells (why does the demonic spec have shadow instead of felfire, seriously?) so your green fire is essentially gone as well.

Yeah, warlocks aren't exactly visually stunning in Legion. In fact, I'd say they're easily the most boring-looking DPS caster, now that I think about it. Priests get badass new shadow spells and tentacles galore, elemental shaman are absolutely freaking gorgeous (oh my god single target chain lightning visual bless you blizzard), mages basically stole all of our cool stuff like floating spheres and self-immolation, and balance druids got new moonkin forms and some visually awesome new spells to boot. Warlocks got...christ, our new talents are pretty much all visually terrible (seriously, I was hoping so much that the soul effigy was a placeholder....I'm pretty sure it's just the old Soul Burn effect around an invisible mode) and while several of our demons got some nice visuals, the overall feel of warlocks is very...ugly? I know it's a gripe, but seriously, I'd say we actually got visually downgraded in Legion.

[wholol]

Burning Ember glow is gone. AFAIK Verdant Spheres are gone as well. Those were both basically given straight from warlocks to mages in a cooler, more visually appealing form. RIP Xelnath...

Worse yet, demonology and affliction both have no fire-based spells (why does the demonic spec have shadow instead of felfire, seriously?) so your green fire is essentially gone as well.

Yeah, warlocks aren't exactly visually stunning in Legion. In fact, I'd say they're easily the most boring-looking DPS caster, now that I think about it. Priests get badass new shadow spells and tentacles galore, elemental shaman are absolutely freaking gorgeous (oh my god single target chain lightning visual bless you blizzard), mages basically stole all of our cool stuff like floating spheres and self-immolation, and balance druids got new moonkin forms and some visually awesome new spells to boot. Warlocks got...christ, our new talents are pretty much all visually terrible (seriously, I was hoping so much that the soul effigy was a placeholder....I'm pretty sure it's just the old Soul Burn effect around an invisible mode) and while several of our demons got some nice visuals, the overall feel of warlocks is very...ugly? I know it's a gripe, but seriously, I'd say we actually got visually downgraded in Legion.

Yep, they also removed the floating baseline purple shard above us because we always start with 1 shard and displaying 1 shard above your head doesn't look as cool as having a full shard deck floating, I still don't know why they didn't keep the start at full shards model instead of this weird starvation playstyle.

[Spell]

What is the best spect in legion is affly?

[eScar95]

What is the best spec in legion is Affliction?

ftfy

And do you mean what talents?

[FertsBlert]

Warlocks are still paying for MoP, maybe the expansion after Legion the hate of the the Dev team will stop........maybe.

I'm still certain someone with the power to guide development was beaten to a pulp consistently by warlocks during MoP, cause seriously the removal of so damn much of the warlock kit, the reducing to very narrowly defined roles (you can AE or you can cleave\single target or you can do them all with a massive ramp time acceptably not fantastically but you are utterly immobile) and the removal of the good-great visuals we have enjoyed for years (not "oh we fell behind" outright removal of pre-existing visuals)?

Yeah warlocks are being targeted by someone.

[Zyky]

First of, since the glyphs are getting massacred, what happens with Glyph of Verdant Spheres? It's a really cool visual for warlock, especially for Blood Elfs and I would hate to see it gone. So what became of it in legion?

Honestly never belonged on a Warlock to begin with as it was specifically an Arcane Artifact sought by mages to enhance, specifically, Fire Spells.

[Drakile]

Let's not forget the removal of Meta, yeah yeah DHs had it first but we didn't receive any spells anywhere near that level of visuals, maybe the portals will looks cool from destro, but aff and demo visuals make me kind of sad currently, totally agree that locks seem to be on the short end of the stick, that being said I can't really remember a time we weren't, besides our many toys given to us in Mop which have slowly been taken away

[Maleific]

I just kinda feel like Warlocks are stuck in between too many classes as far as our unique flavour is concerned.

Destro was too similar to fire mages (rip verdant spheres self-immolation.)

Demo was encroaching on demon hunter's aesthetics (rip meta)

Aff's entire play style resembled Shadow too closely over the last 2 expansions (rip execute/ direct damage in Aff)

Even though lore-wise Warlocks are mages/ shamans/ priests who sought out more power, the only things Warlocks had that was unique to them, without *borrowing* from other classes are demons and a focus on DoTs.

Which, in an expansion focused around class fantasy leaves us less appealing than we have been in the past, both in play style and aesthetics.

[Raddest]

I just kinda feel like Warlocks are stuck in between too many classes as far as our unique flavour is concerned.

Destro was too similar to fire mages (rip verdant spheres self-immolation.)

Demo was encroaching on demon hunter's aesthetics (rip meta)

Aff's entire play style resembled Shadow too closely over the last 2 expansions (rip execute/ direct damage in Aff)

Even though lore-wise Warlocks are mages/ shamans/ priests who sought out more power, the only things Warlocks had that was unique to them, without *borrowing* from other classes are demons and a focus on DoTs.

Which, in an expansion focused around class fantasy leaves us less appealing than we have been in the past, both in play style and aesthetics.

Well said. We have to deal with all of that, and the fact that soul shards have become the bane of this class. I've played a lock since vanilla, the shard system outside of demo feels so wrecked. Not to mention we have no real DPS cooldowns outside of talent choices. When we pick a damage talent, we forfeit something else... this probably is an overall thing and not just limited to warlocks, idk but when I jump on my DK and Mage to test things out, they all seem to have a decent DPS CD which doesn't cost a combo point to use or was just a given spell with the specialization rather than a talent choice.

Don't get me wrong, I like the shard system and it's unique to locks. Back in the day I never had soul shard issues that made me hate them (other than bag space). The way they've designed warlocks now makes us hate what makes us unique. It's a lazy combo point system where it doesn't belong at all.
Personally I think tying shards to UA and CB is the worst thing at the moment. UA costing a shard feels so incredibly wrong. The main purpose of going affliction is to have HARD HITTING DOTS on demand. If you can't get UA, corr and COA on a target, you're only hitting with corr and coa.... you're tickling your enemy basically. Remember when corruption use to give an instant Shadowbolt... wtf happened to that stuff? Now it generates a shard which we can use to stack UA's... who thought of this shit? Seriously.
CB costing an ember was FINE because ember generation was guaranteed through incin, imo etc... In this state, I'd much rather have CB on a short 10 second CD which hits harder than it does now with something being able to reduce the CD of CB or making it free and instant or something... the gameplay of warlocks now seems very un-imaginative and like I said, lazy.

Oh cool, gosup trades off a 3min cd to constantly have a doomlord or infernal, you'd expect that sort of trade off to have at least comparable damage or slightly better than an imp... nope. Imp/felhunter/felguard outshine its dps, not to mention you'll have an imp/fh/fg constantly doing more dps than a DL/INF, but you've got a 3min CD TOO! Where is gosup applicable? Maybe I'm missing something.

Someone please tell me there's still hope when we get the artifact weapon for affliction and destruction. And by hope, I mean a fun playstyle with comparable damage to mages. We're one of the few classes who have 3 specs all dedicated to dps. There's no reason anymore not to be up there on dps. Our utility is hardly unique outside of gateway.

[Varteras]

I've never been satisfied with Affliction. There has always been a lack of visual flare with that spec and I was hoping that Blizzard would take the opportunity to make some changes there. Also not happy with how Demonology turned out. I like the basic idea behind it but I'm disappointed with what they landed at. All the same demons I've always had plus Dreadstalkers, which really just feel like a different Felhunter, and a Darkglare I can summon if I talent for it. None of which last very long and I'm too busy trying to frantically get shards back so I can resummon them ASAP to be able to spend any time appreciating them.

The fact that Demonology only has one PvE talent to give me access to a new demon is incredibly disappointing and the artifact traits just feel like one missed opportunity after another to give me more demons or something truly cool. An Arcane Mage can talent for an Arcane Familiar that follows them around for an hour and attacks what they do. They have no direct control but I wouldn't mind having something similar. Just a demon instead. Perhaps an Inquisitor with a couple of those floating eyes that shoots fel beams? Hell, I'd be fine if it only lasted one minute and costs a shard.

[Wondercrab]

So baffling that they removed this. It was one of the absolute coolest things about being a warlock, but all of that fun flavour is now gone.

[Deadwood]

It's beta, you can still send feedback about this you know.

[FertsBlert]

Well said. We have to deal with all of that, and the fact that soul shards have become the bane of this class. I've played a lock since vanilla, the shard system outside of demo feels so wrecked. Not to mention we have no real DPS cooldowns outside of talent choices. When we pick a damage talent, we forfeit something else... this probably is an overall thing and not just limited to warlocks, idk but when I jump on my DK and Mage to test things out, they all seem to have a decent DPS CD which doesn't cost a combo point to use or was just a given spell with the specialization rather than a talent choice.

Don't get me wrong, I like the shard system and it's unique to locks. Back in the day I never had soul shard issues that made me hate them (other than bag space). The way they've designed warlocks now makes us hate what makes us unique. It's a lazy combo point system where it doesn't belong at all.
Personally I think tying shards to UA and CB is the worst thing at the moment. UA costing a shard feels so incredibly wrong. The main purpose of going affliction is to have HARD HITTING DOTS on demand. If you can't get UA, corr and COA on a target, you're only hitting with corr and coa.... you're tickling your enemy basically. Remember when corruption use to give an instant Shadowbolt... wtf happened to that stuff? Now it generates a shard which we can use to stack UA's... who thought of this shit? Seriously.
CB costing an ember was FINE because ember generation was guaranteed through incin, imo etc... In this state, I'd much rather have CB on a short 10 second CD which hits harder than it does now with something being able to reduce the CD of CB or making it free and instant or something... the gameplay of warlocks now seems very un-imaginative and like I said, lazy.

Oh cool, gosup trades off a 3min cd to constantly have a doomlord or infernal, you'd expect that sort of trade off to have at least comparable damage or slightly better than an imp... nope. Imp/felhunter/felguard outshine its dps, not to mention you'll have an imp/fh/fg constantly doing more dps than a DL/INF, but you've got a 3min CD TOO! Where is gosup applicable? Maybe I'm missing something.

Someone please tell me there's still hope when we get the artifact weapon for affliction and destruction. And by hope, I mean a fun playstyle with comparable damage to mages. We're one of the few classes who have 3 specs all dedicated to dps. There's no reason anymore not to be up there on dps. Our utility is hardly unique outside of gateway.

Gosup is for solo the Infernal is a beast of a tank.... and when talents weren't locked you could have traded out that talent for groups but oh well just use the Doomguard (or Felguard if Demo and accept that point is wasted atm) it's decent.

Artifact weapon doesn't really change much, the Destro one buffs everything you DON'T ever want to cast but are occasionally forced to. Aff is ok but everything is passive there are no active abilities at all, which is true of most admittedly.

I honestly never thought I'd say this but I want vanilla soulstones back......

[Inci]

Okay that gave me one more reason to leave my warlock behind.

[The Stormbringer]

It's beta, you can still send feedback about this you know.

It's also feature complete, all content added, and now only balance and bug testing is being done.

[Kirroth]

I've never been satisfied with Affliction. There has always been a lack of visual flare with that spec and I was hoping that Blizzard would take the opportunity to make some changes there.

That's always been a problem for DoT specs. It doesn't make sense to have a projectile visual for Corruption or Agony being applied, and for visual clutter reasons you can't layer a bunch of different constant effects on the target.* Plus half the point of being a DoT spec is that you're not casting them very frequently. So you end up with a lot of filler time in there. I'll admit, about a third of the reason I'm thinking of going with Drain Soul is that it's got a much better look and sound than Drain Life.

In theory, improvements would be great. In practice, I'm short on good ideas for what improvements to ask for.

*Non-instant visual effects are usually reserved for "doing an important thing" and not "had a minor debuff applied". Plus nearly everyone stacks debuffs of some sort on targets these days, and sorting those all out would be a mess.

[FertsBlert]

That's always been a problem for DoT specs. It doesn't make sense to have a projectile visual for Corruption or Agony being applied, and for visual clutter reasons you can't layer a bunch of different constant effects on the target.* Plus half the point of being a DoT spec is that you're not casting them very frequently. So you end up with a lot of filler time in there. I'll admit, about a third of the reason I'm thinking of going with Drain Soul is that it's got a much better look and sound than Drain Life.

In theory, improvements would be great. In practice, I'm short on good ideas for what improvements to ask for.

*Non-instant visual effects are usually reserved for "doing an important thing" and not "had a minor debuff applied". Plus nearly everyone stacks debuffs of some sort on targets these days, and sorting those all out would be a mess.

Put the effect on the warlock, say a nice purple\green\orange swirl that builds in intensity the more DoTs you have active.

[Varteras]

That's always been a problem for DoT specs. It doesn't make sense to have a projectile visual for Corruption or Agony being applied, and for visual clutter reasons you can't layer a bunch of different constant effects on the target.* Plus half the point of being a DoT spec is that you're not casting them very frequently. So you end up with a lot of filler time in there. I'll admit, about a third of the reason I'm thinking of going with Drain Soul is that it's got a much better look and sound than Drain Life.

In theory, improvements would be great. In practice, I'm short on good ideas for what improvements to ask for.

*Non-instant visual effects are usually reserved for "doing an important thing" and not "had a minor debuff applied". Plus nearly everyone stacks debuffs of some sort on targets these days, and sorting those all out would be a mess.

I'm saying it wouldn't hurt to try something so that I'm not staring at the same damn drain animation. Like a passive that sometimes shoots something from me when one of my DoTs does damage. Maybe even give me a spell I cast that has a chance to activate on a DoT tick. Perhaps more spells that I cast that go on some cooldowns to reduce my reliance on filler spam. There's no moment for Affliction where I think to myself, "Aww yeah... I'm about to cast THAT spell and it's gonna look so cool!"

Shadow Priests are a decent example of how Blizzard can take a DoT spec that looked visually boring for the longest time and now it actually looks neat.

Yeah, the sad part is I've debated going with Drain Soul just so I don't have to look at that plain green beam of Drain Life constantly. Sadly, I'll probably end up taking whatever is most effective.