Newest patch notes and casting-on-the-move

[Jessicka]

I forgot, they also changed the functionality of Mage bombs, meaning they detonate at the 'end duration' regardless of overwrite, making them a very viable move cast ability.

[PickleballAce]

Warlocks:
Demonology/Affliction
- add Life Tap

While it does behoove us to be thorough in including what Warlock abilities we can so as not to appear biased, I always felt that Life Tap needed the condition that if the "Boss Time to Death" is lower than the time that your remaining mana pool allows you to deal damage, Life Tap is functionally worthless. Maybe I'm being nitpicky.

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Ah, Warlock tears. Only redeeming factor of the expansion.

Infracted

Viridian gon' Viridian.

[l33t]

I, as a raiding (and formerly pvp-ing) shadow priest, laugh at your conclusion.
WoD basically makes every caster, except frost mage, an unmobile glass turret. Welcome to the real life of playing not-OP-FOTM casters, Neo.

PS. Just so you know, I'd love to have all casters cast everything on the move, like they do in any other game. Well, Blizzard thinks otherwise. Then, since Blizzard thinks that way, it is nothing but only fair that all casters are treated the same. Except frost mage, because it looks like we would never see frost mages nerfed...

[PickleballAce]

I, as a raiding (and formerly pvp-ing) shadow priest, laugh at your conclusion.
WoD basically makes every caster, except frost mage, an unmobile glass turret. Welcome to the real life of playing not-OP-FOTM casters, Neo.

You forgot Fire Mages and Hunters, who are ranged (the problem is not melee vs. caster it is melee vs. ranged).

It's funny....Shadow Priests cried and cried and cried about only having SW:P in MoP to cast on the move. Now that you have specs like Destruction that are clearly worse than Shadow they like to play the "working as intended" game.

But we already knew how much of a bitter, hypocritical mess that community is.

[l33t]

You forgot Fire Mages and Hunters, who are ranged (the problem is not melee vs. caster it is melee vs. ranged).

It's funny....Shadow Priests cried and cried and cried about only having SW:P in MoP to cast on the move. Now that you have specs like Destruction that are clearly worse than Shadow they like to play the "working as intended" game.

Holy shit that community is a bitter, hypocritical mess.

Well hunters are not casters, they are ranged melees by the fact. Rogues with a bow, if you like. Unlike casters, they have their damage gimped in many ways, and locked to stupid focus regen.

And please, spare me the community part. When every other caster could cast their filler on the move, we got nothing but "lol spam sw", while locks could do everything on the move. Now its your time to spam Corruption on the move, my friend. Remember every second of intense fun using a supreme mobile spell that hits less than a lvl25 non-combat pet.

[Brusalk]

I, as a raiding (and formerly pvp-ing) shadow priest, laugh at your conclusion.
WoD basically makes every caster, except frost mage, an unmobile glass turret. Welcome to the real life of playing not-OP-FOTM casters, Neo.

PS. Just so you know, I'd love to have all casters cast everything on the move, like they do in any other game. Well, Blizzard thinks otherwise. Then, since Blizzard thinks that way, it is nothing but only fair that all casters are treated the same. Except frost mage, because it looks like we would never see frost mages nerfed...

Shadow Priests have had their movement potential buffed significantly.

The fact that you're spiteful towards warlocks due to Blizzards tuning of damage numbers is appalling.

[PickleballAce]

Now its your time to spam Corruption on the move, my friend. Remember every second of intense fun using a supreme mobile spell that hits less than a lvl25 non-combat pet.

Sure....give Corruption some impact damage like SWP and make it available to Destruction.

[Zharradan]

I think this is a good post for the official forums after the lil changes are made, I will help upvote it when you post (US)

also, we should spam celestalol (the kid) with the link for the post when it gets posted

[Deleted]

Oh look, it's the 14578532th time someone plays the "you deserve to be shit in WoD because of how strong you were in MoP" card. (Surprise surprise it's a Shadow Priest).

It's like they genuinely believe we are responsible for Blizzard's tuning. I was even considering switching to Shadow as ours quit and we have enough Warlocks, but their community just seems to teeming with arseholes.

[Tya]

Nice write-up indeed, interesting to see all the movement changes summarised. As you state, I'm not sure if I agree that the ability to deal damage while moving has in fact been nerfed across the board. Seems to me like it's more focused around a few classes.

Is there anything wrong with that?

I miss when different classes felt like a different experience. Currently it's a case of giving each caster a DoT, a reskinned "bolt" spell and a big nuke, then calling it a day after adding some fluff abilities for variety.

[Hawkshaw]

Good thread. I agree with the OP, the breakdown looks good. Not sure pointing this out to Blizz will matter they are probably committed to how WoD will roll out now.

I've been unsubbed for 6 months but recently resubbed and bought WoD to get ready for 6.0. Destruction lock was my main. I boosted my low alt mage to 90 and geared her up on timeless isle as frost mage just playing around and learning the spec. Luckily, i get invited to beta right away and just tried out destruction lock and a frost mage. Destruction lock has some familiarity and isn't terrible but there seems to be something missing, and moving around is gimped. I can' put my finger on what seems off or different. The loss of curses is like a wtf nostalgic moment of loss but I'll get over it. Frost mage though is still a blast and I don't see much of a change from MoP that impairs movement at all. Hate to say it, but I might be rolling with the frost mage this next expac all things being equal.

[Deleted]

Is there anything wrong with that?

I miss when different classes felt like a different experience. Currently it's a case of giving each caster a DoT, a reskinned "bolt" spell and a big nuke, then calling it a day after adding some fluff abilities for variety.

There's nothing fundamentally wrong with that design. What we're saying here is that it's wrong to say that the ability to deal damage was reduced for all ranged specs, while it's only really true for a couple. Did you read the OP?

I think this is a good post for the official forums after the lil changes are made, I will help upvote it when you post (US)

also, we should spam celestalol (the kid) with the link for the post when it gets posted

I tweeted Celestalon about this thread the minute I had finished reading the first post.

[Moggie]

I tweeted Celestalon about this thread the minute I had finished reading the first post.

Was fine until you said this. Hint: He doesn't care. =P


Regardless, the fact they made a rule set for one entire class and one other spec (elemental) and never applied it to other classes or specs simply shows their bias, plain and simple. There was another post a while back outlining pretty much the same thing and it was on the official forums and Celestalon and co. knew about it. It got snarky remarks. At this point, they're not going to change their mechanics unless some overlord performs a miracle. When and IF Warlocks perform poorly in a real Live game (not betas or PTRs), then they'll try backtracking slightly. But only then.

They won't buff dots because then the PvP implication becomes too great (supposedly). The moment they claimed they were going to try doing something different with KJC or Fel Flame, then you know they weren't going to touch it ever again, much like a lot of talents nobody in their right minds would take that were promised years ago to be looked into.

Vanilla, TBC and WotLK we were fine standing and firing or casting dots on the move. Okay, maybe not Vanilla and early part of T7 and all of T9 and T10. Admittedly, fights weren't so hectics then as they are now and in WoD but still doable to........ Oh hell who am I kidding? lol. One spec worse than a healer, another a liability and another an unreliable turret gun. No amount of dps buff's gonna fix the underlying issues and the devs bias towards the class. Unless you're a spriest with a horribly faulty rebuttal full of gaping holes grasping at straws then you're golden!

[Deleted]

Arcane mages can't cast Arcane Blast on the move. Also, you list multiple choices from the same talent row (Nether Tempest, Supernova) as multiple options to cast on the move. You should at least write those occurrences on the same row as well and add clarification.

[Shamran]

I, as a raiding (and formerly pvp-ing) shadow priest, laugh at your conclusion.
WoD basically makes every caster, except frost mage, an unmobile glass turret. Welcome to the real life of playing not-OP-FOTM casters, Neo.

It's okay, dude. Everyone understands that MoP was a traumatic experience for you. Remember, this is a safe space. Let it all out!

Incidently, statements like these work a lot better if you actually back them up with some sort effort to actually look at what each class and spec has to offer. For example, how spammable Shadow Word: Pain, instant Mind Blast, instant Mind Spike, instant Divine Star and instant Devouring Plague doesn't really fit the description of an unmoving turret. Also, at this point, Fire Mages are every bit as mobile as frost.

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Arcane mages can't cast Arcane Blast on the move. Also, you list multiple choices from the same talent row (Nether Tempest, Supernova) as multiple options to cast on the move. You should at least write those occurrences on the same row as well and add clarification.

Good point. And I meant Arcane Explosion for moving. Melee range conditional, like Hellfire, for example.

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Is there anything wrong with that?

I miss when different classes felt like a different experience. Currently it's a case of giving each caster a DoT, a reskinned "bolt" spell and a big nuke, then calling it a day after adding some fluff abilities for variety.

Nothing wrong the classes being different. I take issue with the fact that Blizzard's trying to pass these changes off as something the entire caster/ranged community has to go through when that quite clearly isn't the case. Also, based on the run down of each spec's on-the-move option, I guess I take issue with the fact that Shamans and Locks admittedly have horrendously sub-par toolkit to deal damage while moving compared to other classes and specs. I just can't see the reasoning.

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Good thread. I agree with the OP, the breakdown looks good. Not sure pointing this out to Blizz will matter they are probably committed to how WoD will roll out now.

I will post it on official forums and chances are they won't change anything. I'm not going to lose any sleep over that. On a personal level, I guess I'd feel remiss if I didn't at least point this out. Especially when I feel like Blizzard's trying to make light of the fact that this isn't an across the board reduction in caster abtilities to cast and move, but simply a nerf of locks and shamans.

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Here's the link to the thread on the Blizzard Forums.

[oplawlz]

Especially when I feel like Blizzard's trying to make light of the fact that this isn't an across the board reduction in caster abtilities to cast and move, but simply a nerf of locks and shamans.

Is it really a nerf though? I thought Locks were still pretty strong compared to the other casters at least. If you're tuned to do higher damage while stationary (or passively, through dots and pets) then it's just a change of playstyle, which isn't a nerf--just a change.

[Jessicka]

Is it really a nerf though? I thought Locks were still pretty strong compared to the other casters at least. If you're tuned to do higher damage while stationary (or passively, through dots and pets) then it's just a change of playstyle, which isn't a nerf--just a change.

At this point we're not though, we're mid to dead last (Demo) on standstill.

It's fine if they'd just said from the outset "We're going to nerf Warlock mobility, it's too high so we're changing KJC and we're cutting Fel Flame"; we'd cry for a bit and move on. The attempts however to a) dress this up as a global nerf, meanwhile buffing the mobility of other classes and to b) ignore questions and finally c) not even finish implementing a talent (Servitude) that might actually help with mobility; make all this a very sore point.

Point a) is particularly disingenuous and annoying since it just causes people to drop in and reiterate a demonstrable untruth, disrupting the conversation and ideas on how to fix it. Point c) just makes it look like the class's priority to Blizzard is bordering on ignorance.

[Lodreh]

...That wasn't the point...

I get your point... boo freaking who... others get more mobility than me... it's disgusting to think that you feel you need to run as a Warlock... we are the ones who make others run. We should inspire fear and rain destruction. As a Warlock you do not fear getting hit... we can take it... hell we used to damage ourselves intentionally just for a quick boost. If we are moving back toward that kind of survival gameplay then I welcome it. Warlocks are powerful... we do not need to run... let the sheep scurry... they will only die tired.

[Deleted]

I get your point... boo freaking who... others get more mobility than me... it's disgusting to think that you feel you need to run as a Warlock... we are the ones who make others run. We should inspire fear and rain destruction. As a Warlock you do not fear getting hit... we can take it... hell we used to damage ourselves intentionally just for a quick boost. If we are moving back toward that kind of survival gameplay then I welcome it. Warlocks are powerful... we do not need to run... let the sheep scurry... they will only die tired.

This sort of idealistic view gets you nowhere I'm afraid. Seems all Warlocks are good for in PvP these days is running and hoping nobody looks at you too sternly.

[Shamran]

I get your point... boo freaking who... others get more mobility than me...

Well, you got half the point... ish. So, you know, you also get points for trying. :-)

The other half of the point, the most important one, is this:

Blizzard claim to reduce damage-while-moving options for casters across the board. They don't. It's a rhetorical giftwrap to shade the fact that they only reduce those of Shamans and Warlocks. When that's the case, they should, at the very least, stand by it.

Warlocks are powerful... we do not need to run... let the sheep scurry... they will only die tired.

Best input I've seen thus far. :-)