[BETA] Destruction Warlock Discussion

[Deleted]

Yeah that's mostly what makes me curious, though I assume they just wanted to make it look a certain way as the number could vary and get smaller depending on how they factored it in to get the same end result.

But yeah haven't gotten around to actually testing it to see. And more simple testing methods are now a pita because of mastery.

Are there any abilities/boss encounters where you can't crit (roar of sacrifice etc.)? I don't see why they'd balance the trait around something like that... but hey, who knows.

[Shubert]

Question to peeps with beta...

how does the gold dragon artefact trait 'Lord of the Flames' work if you are running Grimoire of supremacy and the doomguard pet?

[bio347]

Question to peeps with beta...

how does the gold dragon artefact trait 'Lord of the Flames' work if you are running Grimoire of supremacy and the doomguard pet?

Exactly how you imagine. If you want to activate LoF and you have Supremacy, you need to summon and infernal and use its Meteor Strike ability.

[kornoth]

yeah they changed the hand of guldan trait from being 30% crit dmg to +15% dmg buff why they didnt do it with CB is odd bcoz its kinda ambigous.

It's exactly the same thing for chaos bolt.
Why did they do this to HoG? it's a buff in fact. if you take 30% crit damage, it's 30% more damage ONLY when you crit, so when HoG doesn't crit, you get nothing.
15% damage to HoG means 30% more damage when it crits, so when it crits it's the same outcome, and when it doesn't, it's 15% more damage. So it's a buff.

For chaos bolt it's different, it always crit, so saying increase chaos bolt damage by 4%, or increase chaos bolt crit damage by 8%, is the same thing.

I hop you understood.

[Zerach8]

1 * 1.15 = 1.15, as a crit 1 * 2 * 1.15= 2.30, since the 15% applies once to the intial damage and not twice in case of a crit.

in case of 30% crit dmg buff its 1 * 2 * 1.3 = 2.60

so its a buff if it doesnt crit and a nerf if it does crit...end of the day u will probably get less crits than hits anyway so its probably a buff.

[bio347]

1 * 1.15 = 1.15, as a crit 1 * 2 * 1.15= 2.30, since the 15% applies once to the intial damage and not twice in case of a crit.

in case of 30% crit dmg buff its 1 * 2 * 1.3 = 2.60

so its a buff if it doesnt crit and a nerf if it does crit...end of the day u will probably get less crits than hits anyway so its probably a buff.

That's not how "increases crit damage" works, though. Criticals are not a 2x multiplier, but +100% damage done. So +30% to crit damage means your crits go from +100% to +130%.

It has always worked this way.

[Zerach8]

so its the same than in case of crit? multipliers are so much easier to use than added percentages...

[Baconeggcheese]

so its the same than in case of crit? multipliers are so much easier to use than added percentages...

It could still be a multiplier, just the crit damage would be additive, or it could be multiplicative like you were assuming. I think its pretty safe to assume its additive, but one can never be sure until they've tested. Thoroughness is king.

[Lucrece]

It's sort of incredible how visually outdated warlocks are compared to the spell effect updates mages and other casters got.

They even took our verdant speheres and gave it to fire mages on their artifact and they even orbit. Cataclysm looks bad compared to Flamestrike.

They won't even update spells like Demonbolt to use green fire instead of orange fire.

[Gaidax]

We will get visual update, patience.

[JV Chequer]

Right now os AMR Simulation looks like the Artifact-best-trait-choice awards go to Lord of Flames > DRipper > CoC or I'm missing something?

[Deleted]

That's not how "increases crit damage" works, though. Criticals are not a 2x multiplier, but +100% damage done. So +30% to crit damage means your crits go from +100% to +130%.

It has always worked this way.

No it doesn't. It increases the crit damage by 8% so you'd effectively deal 216% damage. Look at the frostmage vid of finalbosstv. Frost gets a 45% frozen orb crit damage talent and those ticks deal 290% normal damage on crits.

[Gaidax]

Right now os AMR Simulation looks like the Artifact-best-trait-choice awards go to Lord of Flames > DRipper > CoC or I'm missing something?

Seems reasonable, I actually think that CoC is a bit better than Dimension Ripper, but the traits that lead to it are atrocious. Lord of Flames is no doubt the best though and it has good traits on it's way too and it is very short ride as well to get it.

[wooters]

It's exactly the same thing for chaos bolt.
Why did they do this to HoG? it's a buff in fact. if you take 30% crit damage, it's 30% more damage ONLY when you crit, so when HoG doesn't crit, you get nothing.
15% damage to HoG means 30% more damage when it crits, so when it crits it's the same outcome, and when it doesn't, it's 15% more damage. So it's a buff.

For chaos bolt it's different, it always crit, so saying increase chaos bolt damage by 4%, or increase chaos bolt crit damage by 8%, is the same thing.

I hop you understood.

yeah its almost certain its a buff... before: 1000 base dmg + 1000 for crit = 2000dmg + 30% for the crit 1k = 2300 Now: 1150 base dmg + 1150 for standard crit = 2300 simples

[Nalistar]

We will get visual update, patience.

Did they explicitly say they will or do you just wish they would? Because I recently got into beta and one of the main complaints I have from leveling is how not "flashy" everything seems with destro.

We're not on fire anymore (which I think it's a real shame), incinerate is barely visible and there doesn't seem to be anything visually new with the spec, especially comparing with what other classes got, i.e. Fire Mages get to throw frigging fire phoenixes and have constant fiery orbs around them, while also turning into living flames!

The only "big" spell we cast seems to be Chaos Bolt, which is still not that great (I loved the animation it had years ago, and I have no idea why we can't have it now that they have the technology to make big spells smaller on other player's screen).

[askevi]

So I'm thinking of two builds. First for leveling: backdraft, reverse entropy, shadowfury, eradication, dark pact, service and soul conduit. And then Build 2 for dungeons: shadowburn, mana tap, demon skin, soul harvest, demonic circle, service and soul conduit.

[Gaidax]

Did they explicitly say they will or do you just wish they would? Because I recently got into beta and one of the main complaints I have from leveling is how not "flashy" everything seems with destro.

We're not on fire anymore (which I think it's a real shame), incinerate is barely visible and there doesn't seem to be anything visually new with the spec, especially comparing with what other classes got, i.e. Fire Mages get to throw frigging fire phoenixes and have constant fiery orbs around them, while also turning into living flames!

The only "big" spell we cast seems to be Chaos Bolt, which is still not that great (I loved the animation it had years ago, and I have no idea why we can't have it now that they have the technology to make big spells smaller on other player's screen).

They explicitly said that caster effects will be improved, melee were first.

- - - Updated - - -

So I'm thinking of two builds. First for leveling: backdraft, reverse entropy, shadowfury, eradication, dark pact, service and soul conduit. And then Build 2 for dungeons: shadowburn, mana tap, demon skin, soul harvest, demonic circle, service and soul conduit.

Shadowburn is a must for leveling, it is what allows you to keep spamming Chaos Bolts from mob to mob. Also Shadowfury? No - take Dark Pact and Sacrifice - this is like full HP shield every minute, makes you reasonably immortal while it is up.

Mana Tap is shit...

You just really need to chillax and play it once it releases, you will quickly find your flavor. I found that overall Shadowburn, Reverse Entropy, Dark Pact, Eradication, Sacrifice and Soul Conduit is good for most of the general stuff I need, such as leveling, world quests and dungeons.

In whatever raids I seen, you need to change things depending on encounter, quite a few encounters are purely single target or close to that so change accordingly (Service, Backdraft/Blaze).

[Nalistar]

They explicitly said that caster effects will be improved, melee were first.

Oh yeah, I read that too, I was hoping you were referring to something more warlock specific.

[Baconeggcheese]

@Gaidax: you like sac for leveling? I honestly hadn't messed with it too much, found I preferred serv over sup and just generally liked having the tank pet as it let me get through a lot of situations where I'd otherwise have died (pulling ludicrous amounts of mobs, or elites that hit like trucks etc).

[Deleted]

@Gaidax: you like sac for leveling? I honestly hadn't messed with it too much, found I preferred serv over sup and just generally liked having the tank pet as it let me get through a lot of situations where I'd otherwise have died (pulling ludicrous amounts of mobs, or elites that hit like trucks etc).

well it depends on what you prefer, im inclined to take cataclysm over reverse entropy for lvling coz popping life tap between mobs shouldnt cause too big of a downtime and then sup for a big ass infernal to aoe tank shit for me but it might change ofc, i can see the reason why taking the others for lvl, serv for the extra burst on elite, sac for extra aoe on multi mobs and infernal(assuming it still has the threatening presence stance) to tank multiple mobs, when it comes to which grimoire to take for lvling it comes down to preference.