[BETA] Affliction Warlock Discussion

[Deleted]

The datamined change never had anything to do with Sow the Seeds. It lifted the restriction of the number of targets that would get afflicted by Corruption when a seed explodes...

[Deleted]

Oh, my mistake, I actually thought they were going to give affliction real AOE. ah well.

[Lightwysh]

Did some TW today... DPS is abysmal... I hope the Artifact smooths things out for us.

[Deleted]

Did some TW today... DPS is abysmal... I hope the Artifact smooths things out for us.

look at the artifact and look at other classes artifacts. don't forget that everyone gets artifact weapons. It may help certain classes/specs more than other, but the artifact is not going to completely change balance and turn dps upside down.

As far as I can tell the artifacts look great for all classes. Most talents are a small dps increase, some talents are a strong dps increase and the remaining are AoE talents. It's basically the same for every spec/class.

They may impact balance a bit, but it needs more fundamental tuning on blizzards side to make certain specs better.

Sadly it is hard to come by reliable LEGION beta data, because the sample size is too small

[cristos]

Long time reader but thought I'd finally register, Chime in and give my thoughts regarding the new changes to affliction.

Specifically in relation to pvp I'm well aware that we're tuned for 110 and the artifact weapon but as it stands now and a statement that I can safely make is some of the changes have left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Our demonic circle was talented which was a huge mobility boost and now as a result of that we're forced to invest into that or dark pact for competitive multiplayer. Other classes like mages and other casters got to keep some of their mobility so I think it's unfair they talented it. Our demonic circles were the heart and soul of our pvp.

Almost feels like blizzard have a tight chain around warlocks necks and they're afraid to remove it.

Now onto the next issue that's been bothering me, We now have more casting uptime because of the way you can stack UA with multiple casts to accumulate damage. More casting= vulnerability to interrupts. Shadowfury was another good one for our class but it appears that's gone too. I'm never the one to come forwards about issues like this but I honestly don't believe I'm the only one who feels the same way about the spec. I really hope affliction gets better.

[Kirroth]

Other classes like mages and other casters got to keep some of their mobility so I think it's unfair they talented it. Our demonic circles were the heart and soul of our pvp.

Have you tried PvP since the patch? I have. Let the Mages keep their mobility. They're glass cannons, they need it. We don't. Warlocks are fucking tanks in PvP now. Afflic's self-healing is amazing to see. I had a Warrior jump me and try to go HAM, but I just popped Unending Resolve and my health didn't even budge. You know what I use my Doomguard's Cripple for? To prevent other people from running away from me.

Seriously, this is BC or Wrath style PvP. Forget kiting, it was never a good fit for us. Warlocks are for drain tanking.

[scribol]

Now onto the next issue that's been bothering me, We now have more casting uptime because of the way you can stack UA with multiple casts to accumulate damage. More casting= vulnerability to interrupts.

Have you tried using Casting Circle?

[cristos]

Have you tried PvP since the patch? I have. Let the Mages keep their mobility. They're glass cannons, they need it. We don't. Warlocks are fucking tanks in PvP now. Afflic's self-healing is amazing to see. I had a Warrior jump me and try to go HAM, but I just popped Unending Resolve and my health didn't even budge. You know what I use my Doomguard's Cripple for? To prevent other people from running away from me.

Seriously, this is BC or Wrath style PvP. Forget kiting, it was never a good fit for us. Warlocks are for drain tanking.

Yeah I most definitely have tried pvp after the patch. I'm not saying the class is complete garbage at all because I'm definitely enjoying these changes for the most part. Ie the passive soul leech...

I feel as though 99% of all the changes are welcomed, Our honor talents look fantastic!

I guess it just saddens me where prior to the pre patch I had a really good win/loss ratio against rogues in duels but now I feel hopeless. Either they've over tuned rogues or we just aren't tuned enough yet. It's 1 or the other because I'm now being destroyed by rogues where as prior to the latest patch installation I felt like I had a better chance even with these new tanky changes.

Have you tried using Casting Circle?

Haven't had a chance to try it yet because I haven't played the beta but it looks like a great spell, But my observations so far from the pre patch is what I'm reporting back on. It wasn't actually the first reason why I came here though I got side tracked with pvp discussion.

Now once again I'm well aware that there'll still be some fine tuning for warlocks still and across the board for that matter but how are we stacking up against other classes in raids and damage output. I know affliction always excelled at single/multi target sustained damage and if I can recall correctly affliction was right under arcane mage for dps.

Can anyone foresee this happening again, I know it's still very early to say but surely someone must have a rough idea on where affliction stands right now.

[CuchuCachu]

I actually find Mana Tap to be okay. It's like another dot almost. And synchronizes well with things like Soul Harvest, Berserking, etc. I imagine bloodlust helps.

I actually really dont like haste making UA shorten its duration. It works for something like Fragment of the Dark Star in WoD because you can always cast a new dot to refresh the shortened ones, so you get more ticks in.

Whereas the UAs you can cast are limited by soul shard generation.

[Deleted]

Long time reader but thought I'd finally register, Chime in and give my thoughts regarding the new changes to affliction.

Specifically in relation to pvp I'm well aware that we're tuned for 110 and the artifact weapon but as it stands now and a statement that I can safely make is some of the changes have left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Our demonic circle was talented which was a huge mobility boost and now as a result of that we're forced to invest into that or dark pact for competitive multiplayer. Other classes like mages and other casters got to keep some of their mobility so I think it's unfair they talented it. Our demonic circles were the heart and soul of our pvp.

Pretty sure Blizzards design ethos for warlocks in Legion pvp is that they should be tanky and the tradeoff is mobility.

I really think we should have had one mobility talent baseline though, even if it was in a nerfed form. I've always felt that circle, while powerful in pvp, was also pretty awkward - you're sending a massive broadcast as to where you're going, it requires setup time and needs to be re-set pretty regularly. That's a lot of hoops to jump through as is.
I'm also really baffled as to WHY they reduced the circle to one button instead of the two (cast / teleport) that it used to be, I was caught out by that on our first few pulls of the night on Wednesday, they've pruned a button just so users have to manually macro their own cancelaura to be able to replace it, how is that an improvement?

I'm mildly optimistic about pvp though, the pvp talent tree looks very tasty (even if CoEX isn't back, boo!) - a bigger gripe for me ends up being out of combat movement. Cleared Molten Core + Karazhan for a tailoring recipe last night, it's absolutely atrocious. Never running old content on my warlock if I can avoid it when my warrior flies in comparison - I'll be feeling it in Legion content though.

[striderZA]

Well Affliction's damage is much more dependent on DoTs, so you have very little casting to do aside from UA/Fear and the odd DL ticks to refresh DoTs (that won't be the only reason to DL though, but you can still do pretty ridiculous damage without being too reliant on hard casting) through whatever that honor talent is called.

[Narwhalosh Whalescream]

Bleugh, i dislike being forced to use soul effigy for most things.

[Jessicka]

Bleugh, i dislike being forced to use soul effigy for most things.

Is it really that strong that the extra ramp up, slower switching etc. is worth it? Particularly given its positioning can lead you to out-ranging it during an encounter.

[wholol]

Have you tried PvP since the patch? I have. Let the Mages keep their mobility. They're glass cannons, they need it. We don't. Warlocks are fucking tanks in PvP now. Afflic's self-healing is amazing to see. I had a Warrior jump me and try to go HAM, but I just popped Unending Resolve and my health didn't even budge. You know what I use my Doomguard's Cripple for? To prevent other people from running away from me.

Seriously, this is BC or Wrath style PvP. Forget kiting, it was never a good fit for us. Warlocks are for drain tanking.

It gets even better at 110 with some artifact traits and pvp talents, you can pretty much 1v1 anyone with the right pvp talent combinations.

[Narwhalosh Whalescream]

Is it really that strong that the extra ramp up, slower switching etc. is worth it? Particularly given its positioning can lead you to out-ranging it during an encounter.

No other choices really for single target.

[Jessicka]

No other choices really for single target.

Conduit that bad?

[heinz0r]

Aff feels way too strong right now in pvp, especially for the low effort that is required to spread the dots, due to 3 of them being instant cast. With circle youre immune to interrupts, which is a really big problem for any other caster. Now you only need to be aware of classes with a stun, but if youre rolling orc with the passive trinket cc reduction youre not stunned for that long anyways and dr kicks in very quickly, which is way better than interrupt chains which can disable you for much longer.

And of course, if you take dual succubus through grimoire of service you have two quick options to lower the incoming damage to yourself. Seduce has 30s cd now but it also removes all your dots so its actually a viable pet now, because you can use it even as a dot spec. And the knockback is yet an additional tool that you can use to good effect, either to interrupt enemy spellcasts or shoot ppl off cliffs. Add the felguard stun every 3 minutes and you got a ton of cc that most other casters do not have, while not even being half as tanky.

I feel that one of the main imbalances with it right now is the strength of drain life and the fact that you can sustain yourself WHILE your damage is still ticking.

[Deleted]

Aff feels way too strong right now in pvp, especially for the low effort that is required to spread the dots, due to 3 of them being instant cast. With circle youre immune to interrupts, which is a really big problem for any other caster. Now you only need to be aware of classes with a stun, but if youre rolling orc with the passive trinket cc reduction youre not stunned for that long anyways and dr kicks in very quickly, which is way better than interrupt chains which can disable you for much longer.

And of course, if you take dual succubus through grimoire of service you have two quick options to lower the incoming damage to yourself. Seduce has 30s cd now but it also removes all your dots so its actually a viable pet now, because you can use it even as a dot spec. And the knockback is yet an additional tool that you can use to good effect, either to interrupt enemy spellcasts or shoot ppl off cliffs. Add the felguard stun every 3 minutes and you got a ton of cc that most other casters do not have, while not even being half as tanky.

I feel that one of the main imbalances with it right now is the strength of drain life and the fact that you can sustain yourself WHILE your damage is still ticking.

1) artifact not yet active
2) pvp talents not yet active
3) warlocks have low mobility
4) coefficients not yet active I think. warlock get a very small gain compared to other casters. mage get like 50% more haste and warlocks only 20% more hp.
5) pre-patches are always imbalanced in PvP environments.

[Deleted]

Aff feels way too strong right now in pvp, especially for the low effort that is required to spread the dots, due to 3 of them being instant cast. With circle youre immune to interrupts, which is a really big problem for any other caster. Now you only need to be aware of classes with a stun, but if youre rolling orc with the passive trinket cc reduction youre not stunned for that long anyways and dr kicks in very quickly, which is way better than interrupt chains which can disable you for much longer.

And of course, if you take dual succubus through grimoire of service you have two quick options to lower the incoming damage to yourself. Seduce has 30s cd now but it also removes all your dots so its actually a viable pet now, because you can use it even as a dot spec. And the knockback is yet an additional tool that you can use to good effect, either to interrupt enemy spellcasts or shoot ppl off cliffs. Add the felguard stun every 3 minutes and you got a ton of cc that most other casters do not have, while not even being half as tanky.

I feel that one of the main imbalances with it right now is the strength of drain life and the fact that you can sustain yourself WHILE your damage is still ticking.

I'd wait until Legion is in full swing before asking for nerfs. That sounds a lot like Cataclysm affliction where affliction was strong but not outlandishly so, especially once a melee parked on you.

[bio347]

4) coefficients not yet active I think. warlock get a very small gain compared to other casters. mage get like 50% more haste and warlocks only 20% more hp.

All three mage specs get a 50% boost to one of their secondary stats and a 50% reduction to another on their PvP profiles. That second bit is important, because the baseline for secondaries is equal which means they're at no advantage compared to warlocks.

Two mage specs do get a 30% boost to intellect, but that's pretty obviously to feed the part where mages are glass cannons and warlocks (particularly Affliction!) are not.