Soul Effigy :mad

[Hukar2112]

Why make a spell that will force you to use a macro or even an addon to use it properly?
Wasn't all the justification for taking away snapshotting so you wouldn't feel forced to use an addon to play your character? wtf?
What's the point of a spell that with all setting up time and preparation will only be used in big boss fights (considering PVE content only)?

[striderZA]

You don't need an addon to use it properly, at all. The default UI allows you to /focus, which is more than enough. You can make DoTing it more efficient with modifier macros, but you don't need to use them (not mentioning that they're ridiculously easy to make and use).

[Gaidax]

Tell me, OP, does switching targets require an addon for you too? Because this is virtually the same thing, it's just another target to DoT.

Add appears, switch dot dot dot okay. Soul effigy appears - o00OOooo00ooo00Oo!!! What to do, too 'and to think???

[Atomkanon]

Multidotting require macro/addon? Well split my dick and call me Caitlyn!

[wholol]

calm down guys no need to bash him that hard.

In all seriousness though effigy in arenas is going to be a pain, cant focus target the effigy coz you need to focus key targets instead, as such you basically have to track 4 targets all the time ( outside the other obvious things to track ), not to mention it's going to be a pain to track another set of dots and having to add several additional macros for applying dots on effigy without wasting time targeting it.

Well at least we won't feel the void of abilities caused by the prune, so we have that going for us

[Gohzerlock]

lol soul effigy complaints with mana tap still in the game.

[Scathbais]

Wow, this thread is already dripping with sarcasm and contempt

OP: as long as a /target macro will target your SE and not another warlock's, you should be ok. (can anyone confirm this?)
Also, in agreement with OP that default Blizz UI is horrible for dot tracking and that addons will be needed to track SE dots effectively. Keeping SE as focus is a terrible solution except in single target fights.

[Baconeggcheese]

Why make a spell that will force you to use a macro or even an addon to use it properly?
Wasn't all the justification for taking away snapshotting so you wouldn't feel forced to use an addon to play your character? wtf?
What's the point of a spell that with all setting up time and preparation will only be used in big boss fights (considering PVE content only)?

Multi-dot is aff's niche, if you play aff I'd hope you enjoy multi-dot since that's kind of what it does.

This talent allows you to multi-dot in single target situations. I'm not sure why you'd be against that, as its no different than multi-dotting any other time.

[Jessicka]

If I worked for Blizzard, I'd tell you it was an optional talent and that you don't have to use it.

I don't. So instead I'd just whine about how it has such obvious synergies with other talents (Writhe in Agony, Mana Tap, Siphon Life) that I guess we'll just have wonder why the other talents even exist while treating every fight like a Twin boss.

[Zerach8]

U can just pick Soul conduit which might be even better for burst as it might allow u to sustain it for longer. Soul effigy feels to me like its something that u can use in almost all situations if not all and it will still be okay to use...to me soul effigy should be a core mechanic of the class or maybe part of artifact and they should allow u to place it anywhere u want...but its good enough as is. Like the mechanic and it fits the affl theme.

[Jessicka]

U can just pick Soul conduit which might be even better for burst as it might allow u to sustain it for longer. Soul effigy feels to me like its something that u can use in almost all situations if not all and it will still be okay to use...to me soul effigy should be a core mechanic of the class or maybe part of artifact and they should allow u to place it anywhere u want...but its good enough as is. Like the mechanic and it fits the affl theme.

Soul Conduit just doesn't have the synergy with other talents to boost its value. I'll give you that I feel it plays a lot nicer, but it self evidently won't scale as well.

[Alvito]

Wow, this thread is already dripping with sarcasm and contempt

OP: as long as a /target macro will target your SE and not another warlock's, you should be ok. (can anyone confirm this?)
Also, in agreement with OP that default Blizz UI is horrible for dot tracking and that addons will be needed to track SE dots effectively. Keeping SE as focus is a terrible solution except in single target fights.

It is slightly better in Legion, at the very least you can see dots on the target over head health bars now.

[Kirroth]

Soul Conduit just doesn't have the synergy with other talents to boost its value. I'll give you that I feel it plays a lot nicer, but it self evidently won't scale as well.

As I see it, Soul Effigy is a niche talent. A powerful niche talent when you're in that niche situation, to be sure, but hampered enough in many situations to not overshadow the other option. (Yes, option singular, because even I'll admit Phantom Singularity is terrible.)

You're not going to want Soul Effigy for most World Quests. Maybe the ones where you're killing a mini-boss, but for basic mob killing the extra ramp time is just overkill. The same will likely be true for heroic dungeons where the trash takes up a major part of the clear time. It might come back for higher Mythic+ levels, where the bosses have scaled up significantly, but we'll have to see how that plays out.

As for raid bosses, yes Effigy is going to be better on single target fights. That's its niche. On a cleave or council fight, where you're already rolling DoTs on two or three targets at once? Well, I'm sure some people will be able to juggle DoTs on an extra target in those situations, but I don't know that I can. I'm also reserving judgement on add heavy fights. The relative value of Soul Conduit goes up as you spend more SS, so taking Conduit with Drain Soul when you can snipe a lot of extra SS off add deaths has potential. Well, theoretical potential. I'm all for practice beating theory, so we'll see how things play out.

[dholland662]

Multi-dot is aff's niche, if you play aff I'd hope you enjoy multi-dot since that's kind of what it does.

This talent allows you to multi-dot in single target situations. I'm not sure why you'd be against that, as its no different than multi-dotting any other time.

yea, all one would need is a mod which makes the tracking as painless as possible.

Although I do agree Soul Effigy is not the most elegant gameplay

[Zerach8]

As for raid bosses, yes Effigy is going to be better on single target fights. That's its niche. On a cleave or council fight, where you're already rolling DoTs on two or three targets at once? Well, I'm sure some people will be able to juggle DoTs on an extra target in those situations, but I don't know that I can. I'm also reserving judgement on add heavy fights. The relative value of Soul Conduit goes up as you spend more SS, so taking Conduit with Drain Soul when you can snipe a lot of extra SS off add deaths has potential. Well, theoretical potential. I'm all for practice beating theory, so we'll see how things play out.

Better micromanagement of dots on more and more targets is what seperates best affl players from good ones, always have been that way, always will be.

[Deleted]

The relative value of Soul Conduit goes up as you spend more SS, so taking Conduit with Drain Soul when you can snipe a lot of extra SS off add deaths has potential. Well, theoretical potential. I'm all for practice beating theory, so we'll see how things play out.

ppl tend to greatly overvalue soul conduit bcoz they forget that in order for them to get something out of it, they'll need to not only generate 5-9 shards, they also have to spend 5-9 shards which will take some time, essentially giving you zero gain that time period while other talents will give you a tangible gain any time, its one of those talents that is actually rather tough to value coz you have to factor a lot rng into it as well.

i personally dont like soul effigy bcoz its obvious that afflic's ST dps is balanced around it, so you can either not take soul effigy and suck ass or take soul effigy and be very good at ST dps, i dont like the idea of making all fights into multidotting fights even single target fights coz you'll have to work almost twice as hard for a very marginal gain for the work you do, its a very bland talent imo.

[Gaidax]

Soul Conduit just doesn't have the synergy with other talents to boost its value. I'll give you that I feel it plays a lot nicer, but it self evidently won't scale as well.

Soul Conduit has synergy with Drain Soul, Sow the Seeds and Contagion.

[Deleted]

Soul Conduit has synergy with Drain Soul, Sow the Seeds and Contagion.

either way, soul effigy has tons more things that synergize with it, also in what way does drain soul synergize with soul conduit?

[Kirroth]

Better micromanagement of dots on more and more targets is what seperates best affl players from good ones, always have been that way, always will be.

Well, yes. And it's totally legit to have talents that perform better in the hands of mythic raiders than they do for a mere heroic raider like me. But it's worth keeping a sense of perspective and remembering that the less complex talent might have better actual play results for a heroic raider, or a normal mode raider, or even all those people who don't raid or maybe just have a Warlock alt they mess around with for fun.

Blanket statements about the relative values of talents should usually be avoid. Not always (*cough* Phantom Singularity *cough*), but there's a lot of Warlock players out there who aren't in the top 1% or 5% or 10%.

[Zerach8]

Well, yes. And it's totally legit to have talents that perform better in the hands of mythic raiders than they do for a mere heroic raider like me. But it's worth keeping a sense of perspective and remembering that the less complex talent might have better actual play results for a heroic raider, or a normal mode raider, or even all those people who don't raid or maybe just have a Warlock alt they mess around with for fun.

Blanket statements about the relative values of talents should usually be avoid. Not always (*cough* Phantom Singularity *cough*), but there's a lot of Warlock players out there who aren't in the top 1% or 5% or 10%.

Naturally, less skilled players will likely perform better with soul condiut where they dont have to manage another set of dots and it makes it less confusing and they better execute the rotation...and its right to be so.

Soul effigy might transfer 35% damage to a target, but u also need to consider that u spend twice as many globals applying dots to a 2nd target instead of draining...now its up to blizzard to balance that but they usually never get it right anyway...