7.1.5 Ptr Changes

[blackops2008]

... really?

And all the people who enjoy the fantasy of a dot/curse Warlock spec deserves to be the worst for an entire xpac I take it.

Right now basically every warlock has demon as an off or main spec, even if they don't like to, think about it.

Being a decent spec IS different of being op as its now, with these changes affliction is on Shadow priest level of opness.

If affliction stay as its, every fucking warlock will be forced to roll affliction to raid. And as you know, this expansion is ASS to ~reroll~ because legendaries and artifact weapon.

While they buff affliction to the sky, demo gets more and more nerfed without a fucking reason and destruction getting irrelevant ~tweaks~.

[Deleted]

Time to switch to aff boys. Sadly i got 4 legends but any for affliction, so I will never get 5th

,

[Lucrece]

Demo was already pretty middling, far behind assassination rogue and arms warrior in ST, with its DPS being entirely dependent on not moving.

This is honestly quite irritating, Demo is virtually an inferior version of affliction if it doesn't top ST damage, because it's short duration dots with heavy maintenance and even longer ramp up than affliction, with even worse target switching because it's pet AI.

Not to mention demo cleave/aoe is trash compared to affliction.

If demo doesn't top single target DPS by a wide margin, there's virtually no reason to play it as all it has is disadvantages. No destro cleave or burst, no affliction mobility or aoe or cleave.

It's a one trick pony turret spec and they keep nerfing it for no reason whatsoever when it isn't even the top single target DPS spec despite all its relative disadvantages.

This sucks big time for anyone who invested in demo because they wanted the strong single target DPS warlock spec.

[Gaidax]

I wouldn't say 40% buff to CDF and a buff for imp are irrelevant to only Destruction weakness which is ST.

But affliction indeed seems going to be pretty damn powerful now and without Soul Effigy at that.

I am pretty sure we will have another ptr soon, simply because quite a few classes/specs are not exactly where they should be, it's not only warlocks. In that PTR Demo may get attention.

[blackops2008]

Time to switch to aff boys. Sadly i got 4 legends but any for affliction, so I will never get 5th

,

One of the reasons i really hope they balance this shit. Destruction and demonology being outclassed in a way that you simply CANT play as them because of the affliction opness, and surprise ! you focused on these two specs for like 3 months, got 4~5 legs for those just to see these 2 specs being so heavily outclassed by the affliction opness that you'll be forced to basically reroll, and start all the gear progress again.

[lollified]

Time to switch to aff boys. Sadly i got 4 legends but any for affliction, so I will never get 5th

,

Legendary soft cap removed. Sky is the limit now. I played affliction for so long. One time I switched to destro for lulz without setting main loot spec to affliction, I got a legendary (havoc 8% dmg boost cloak) and that remains my only legendary so far:P

[blackops2008]

I wouldn't say 40% buff to CDF and a buff for imp are irrelevant to only Destruction weakness which is ST.

But affliction indeed seems going to be pretty damn powerful now and without Soul Effigy at that.

I am pretty sure we will have another ptr soon, simply because quite a few classes/specs are not exactly where they should be, it's not only warlocks. In that PTR Demo may get attention.

Malefic grasp buff alone beat these two buffs by a LARGE margin, affliction ST jumped from the worst to the best single target by FAR.

- - - Updated - - -

Legendary soft cap removed. Sky is the limit now. I played affliction for so long. One time I switched to destro for lulz without setting main loot spec to affliction, I got a legendary (havoc 8% dmg boost cloak) and that remains my only legendary so far:P

With leg cap or not it still a bad choice, or do you think its raining legendaries ? It still takes 1 month average to get a legendary if you do a decent number of content. I do full clear of every difficult of EN + tov normal and heroic every week , 40 or 50 mythic+ minimum per week plus all emissaries and i`m stuck at 3 legendaries for like 2 months.

[lollified]

Btw don't complain about so called "affliction opness". It doesnt help demo or destro. At least we may have one viable spec (maybe) overall. This game doesn't have only 1 class and 3 specs. We need a spec that can compete with real classes. If that spec is destro then so be it. If it's demo thats ok too. If that spec is affliction then that's ok as well. At least we will be able to compete without rerolling. We will have to farm gear and legendaries whatnot but no matter how hard that is, still better than rerolling

[Deleted]

Effigy will still beat the RNG nature of SC by a heavy margin. Gahddo posted numbers apparently 16k dps difference between SC vs Affigy.

Source on the numbers?

[blackops2008]

Btw don't complain about so called "affliction opness". It doesnt help demo or destro. At least we may have one viable spec (maybe) overall. This game doesn't have only 1 class and 3 specs. We need a spec that can compete with real classes. If that spec is destro then so be it. If it's demo thats ok too. If that spec is affliction then that's ok as well. At least we will be able to compete without rerolling. We will have to farm gear and legendaries whatnot but no matter how hard that is, still better than rerolling

If they want to keep this rollercoaster of classes jumping from shit to op and vice versa, just dont create such retarded system which you need to literally reset your progress to change spec. Needing to levelup the weapon and re-farm the legendaries just because blizz decided to keep destro and demo at shit tier while they buff affliction ( most underused spec atm ) to the sky is bullshit. Buff all of them and make all of them at same tier range, it do not apply only to warlocks but with every class.

[Walrock]

I don't understand why they would want to nerf Demonology, it's already pretty much forced to be a single target spec and now they are nerfing ST dps?

The Affliction buffs are huge.. wtf..
https://media.giphy.com/media/oyF8cKgNtlYNG/giphy.gif

But i think they shot them very high just to see where we land and now they are going to be brought down to "realistic" levels.
I hope they learned from their 2-3x 5-15% Hotfixes and still Aff wasn't performing.
And even with a "huge buff" to Aff, we will not see the immediate change in the numbers, people will need to get Mastery gear, legendaries, skill up their weapons and get their relicts.

But what still bothers me is the fact that Aff has NO utility for M+, no mass stun, no counter, no cc (which is reliable usable).
I think Destruction will still be better for M+, maybe even encounter with priority adds which need to die fast.
But with the changes to DS/MG and Contagion.. damn.. maybe Aff can now burst adds..

[Gaidax]

Mark my words, this is not a final ptr. I'm pretty confident they will reduce MG some, because it's quite overshot now and likely the synergy adjustments are preparation for some sort of caster buff for Demo.

[Xorn]

Mark my words, this is not a final ptr. I'm pretty confident they will reduce MG some, because it's quite overshot now and likely the synergy adjustments are preparation for some sort of caster buff for Demo.

God I hope that's true

[Raex]

Wouldn't the BIS Aff helm dictate that you'd always take WiA and build around it anyway? (if one has it).

[Walrock]

Yeah im thinking the same, the nerfs to demo make no sense, they (hopefully) are about to add something that will buff the overall performance of demo, maybe making Implosion baseline.

[Lucrece]

Yeah im thinking the same, the nerfs to demo make no sense, they (hopefully) are about to add something that will buff the overall performance of demo, maybe making Implosion baseline.

Implosion baseline is a nice bump to aoe but still far short of the aoe other classes can accomplish. Run Darkglare+Implosion and see how the outlaw rogue/WW monk/ele shaman/havoc DH/fire mage are trouncing you on aoe.

The whole point of demo is single target, and it will continue to be until they make Demonwrath as a spell not utter trash (or bump the initial strike damage of hand of guldan substantially so that's the aoe rotation).

The whole problem is demo has 20+ seconds worth of ramp up and the slightest bit of movement during your opener trying to line up TKC with doomguard, 10 imps, dreadstalkers, and synergy buff up can wreck you.

There needs to be a payoff for how unforgiving demo can be.

[lollified]

If they want to keep this rollercoaster of classes jumping from shit to op and vice versa, just dont create such retarded system which you need to literally reset your progress to change spec. Needing to levelup the weapon and re-farm the legendaries just because blizz decided to keep destro and demo at shit tier while they buff affliction ( most underused spec atm ) to the sky is bullshit. Buff all of them and make all of them at same tier range, it do not apply only to warlocks but with every class.

The thing is.. destro and demo are both shit tier, affliction is shittiest tier as of 7.1.. so if anyone does not like shit, they shouldn't be playing warlock in the first place.

Warlocks complaining about buffs to any one of the 3 specs make us look bad. Let's just grab what we can on any spec we can. Let us ask for buffs to underperforming specs. Without calling nerfs to one of our specs. If they nerf affliction back, will that help demo or destro in any way? No.

[Walrock]

The whole point of the big demo nerf in WoD (for HFC after BrF) was because they didnt want casual player to feel obligated to play demo to perform well in a raid scenario.
They thought it was to dependet on external information tracking (aka addons, wa's) which would be to complicated to handle for the majority and to deterring to even start playing the spec.
But right now, i think its even worse... And way to punishing if you dont.
I mean, just look at Not's interface, hes pretty much tracking the breathing of everything he summons^^

[Deleted]

So :

- Channel DemonFire buff is nice. Seems to get better now and based on intuition I'd say it's the best talent in that row now
- Synergy nerf didn't expect that. Maybe more demo changes next ptr build?
- The buff to imp damage is another confirmation that GoSac is dead. Even on cleave GoServ is going to double the damage of GoSac with 7.1.5. GoServ is already better on live on fights like Odyn. Sad to see it go this way, because I love GoSacrifice more than Sup and Serv.

Affliction buffs are nice. It seems that affliction is on its way to overtake both destruction and demonology with ease. In its current form (on live) it is already surparssing Destruction on ST and probably the overall best mythic raiding spec for warlocks.

So, but how do we feel about 0 Affliction Legendaries, next to no mastery gear and 0 AP in Affliction artifact weapon. I guess AP is no problem, because there is time left, but legendaries might turn out to be a big problem.

I really have no idea what to do if Affli turns out to be THE specc to play. Destro T19 seems amazing.

So what is it now. Is ELT 12% for 20 seconds or 10% for 20 seconds? The talent calculator shows 12% for 20 seconds, but the spell changes show 10% for 20 seconds.

So much to think about. I wish there was some way to know how balance looks in the end. In a perfect world all 3 warlock speccs would be roughly equally good, but knowing blizzard there is no chance of this happening.

Well I guess I start putting AP into my affliction weapon and bunkering mastery gear, but legendary lootspecc not quite yet. New destro legendary + 4pc T19 just looks like too much fun.

[Eleriol]

Buffs to demonfire St component was the most logical and easiest way to bring up Destro ST damage without making Wreak havoc retarded, atleast for short term this will help alot.

More Demo nerfs even though demo is good its not top top tier and now that synergy has a total of 15% nerf Service probably will take over as the go to Grimoire.
Havent played much affliction but i think we all know the buffs in this biuld will be brought down hopefully not in the hamfisted way Blizzard oh so often tend to do.

Now lets just hope the mechanic changes we are asking will atleast arrive in 7.2, i kind of doubt it but hey heres hoping.