I was exploring through some threads recently and some people wished that some talents would become baseline
and some others to be so. I have my desires but lets face it. With correct reasoning, it might seem feasible.
Without them, we don't know what blizzard will do as they tend to leave the wrong ones alone and mess up the correct ones.
I will also address the changes that I think blizzard should make
PROVIDED that they correctly balance change the other 23 DPS Specs as well.
I will not cover all of them. Only the ones that became an issue
So I would like summarise em and start some constructive criticism so that we could at least appeal to blizzard (if they read) with useful details.
("Not" I have a right to my opinion and my opinion is that you have no right to your opinion)
Haunt - To me, forcing us to remove this from the rotation made us awkward. In WoD, it acted as a nuke and a damage amplifier
with the Rot n Decay talent. I think this is the main reason why Affliction's ST dmg is low right now.
Class fantasy-wise, it appears more painful if all 3 dots are applied to a target which has a ghost stuck up my butthole than without one.
So balance-wise, and Class-fantasy-wise, I think that Haunt should be in the baseline.
Writhe In Agony - PvE players are all forced to choose this which is not what blizzard promised us with a statement
"we want players to choose a variety of talents for variety of playstyles."
If players don't choose this talent, the single target damage would drop.
Affliction is forced to increase mastery and haste. On my character, I have ilvl 875, 7.38% crit, 21.44% haste and 139% mastery.
Even with this stat + reap activated, 20stack agony will deal a crit damage around 253,000.
(3+1 points in inimitable agony, 3 points in shadowy incantations, 3 points in peredition)
Class fantasy isn't an issue here but balance is an issue.
To be competitive with other dps specs, i think agony dmg should be buffed or they can limit the number of agony targets.
(Above 7 main priority targets, it's difficult to even consider casting UA but you're shards will cap out though)
Drain soul(or malefic grasp) - consider yourself in a mythic+12 or above dungeon (arcway for example).
For the sake of observing your one of the few moments that affliction could only implement (i mean slime soulfireworks)
you took sow the seeds instead of siphon life.
this means you have more time to cast and channel drain life. this is the case when you take "Writhe in Agony"
However, If you take Drain soul, what will happen to your ST damage?
The 3 artifact trait only increases its damage by 6% only. and with the damage numbers that i represented above,
DMG of 10stack agony + 20% + dmg buff from changing from drain life to drain soul is nowhere near
DMG of 20stack agony + drain life.
When I first saw this talent, i felt I am a component of a PLC program with lots of INTERLOCKS with nowhere to go.
If i choose this, the other will fail. If i choose that, then this will fail.
Therefore I think I think this needs a complete new rework.
Either they buff the damage that drain soul gives (or the dmg bonus of malefic grasp) or replace it with something different
Siphon Life & Sow the Seeds - Our main issue. In my opinion, having these 2 in the same line is just a total mistake.
Blizzard has just made more issues themselves. If these 2 were in different lines, Affliction warlocks will be happy
And they were be able to reduce one rant that most affliction warlocks will fire at them.
I didn't even want all 2, or either one of them becoming a baseline. At least wanted them as talents on separate lines.
Already the ST dmg of affliction warlocks were proven weak but blizzard's obligation against affliction warlocks said
"If you want more AoE dmg, then sacrifice your ST"
I do however admit that AoE of affliction warlock is amazing (Im talking about 5+trash stacked) if SoS is talented.
Problem is that AoE almost seems negligible without SoS.
Again, Affliction warlocks are stuck in a dillemma.
May be it's only me that before I go into a mythic+ dungeon, I count the number of mobs on each section of each area
and conduct an analysis and bring a result of which of SL or SoS would be ideal for what specific dungeon
when other classes could by the meantime, do more world quests for the AP grind.
Well, at least I tried my best to contribute the most for my party.
Soul Harvest - Well, blizzard and other specs could say We have Grimoire Sacrifice as cooldown ability.
But if we go to mythic+ and for the sake of contribution, If i take Supremacy for stunning and interrupts,
Then technically speaking, we are left with no DPS cooldowns at all.
This is an awkward one though. Because for ST this is tempting but for multi-cleave. I don't think it is that necessary.
But again.. in Dungeon content, for boss fights, if this is taken, ST deteriorates (Siphon Life gone)
If Soul Harvest is selected for the sake of burst, (prioritized target), the mob is dead by 2 other DPSers
before you even could ramp up your agony.
Is this talent really viable? I have sometimes questioned its existence in the first place.
Soul Effigy - Some people like it, Some people think its ok, Some people love it.
I am on the side LOVE. However I understand the issue people address about it though.
Here are some examples of some situations:
1.
"Halls of Valor, Fenryr. For the 2nd phase after Fenryr went to lick is wound, every other class is on their mount but the
poor affliction warlock has to remove pet, remove focus, and spam the mount button hoping he will get there in time.
(faster than warlock anyhow, and please, dont even say cast Demonic Gateway before fighting the boss. We're in a hurry to dmg to the
boss here)
2.
"Halls of Valor, After defeating Hymdall, We take the 3mobs upstairs towards the mid-level of the stairs and kill em there.
To Ride quickly you removed your pet and killed the 3 mobs. You are out of shards but your tank already pulled the big trash pack
right in front of the hall. You are hoping the first tick of agony gives you a shard for summoning your doomguard or infernal but
that really never happens. Lacking of communication and interrupt wipes the party. What a nice experience to start your mythic+.
But sometimes I thank this talent which improved my skills. It made me download the addon "Hard Yards" and I make no mistakes
on where to put the effigy on the first and 2nd podium of Elerethe Renferal as well as Ursoc.
However, forcing us to choose this talent for ST is a mistake from blizzard.
Because I am no rocket scientist but I do know from my guts that More soul shard generation equals more damage.
Again suppressing our creativity.
Soul Shard Generation % is exceptionally difficult to express in numbers (in my opinion)
and that's why I think blizzard never mentions about it though. We've never seen Soul Shard Generation Rate alteration fixes regarding
PvE content yet.
I don't think this should be a baseline though. It can act as a nice shenanigan which fills its role as a talent.
Finally, For the most important thing of all,
It is just me that I believe that Ulthalesh Stack generates at an equal rate between
Agony+Corruption on ST and Agony+Corruption on ST+Effigy?
I personally think RNG on Ulthalesh Reap stack must definetely be fixed.
Thanks for reading guys.