Redesigning Demonology: How would you do it?

[Maver1212]

With the announced Demonology rework coming up I wanted to take the chance to offer a showerthought I had recently that will hopefully breathe some new life into Warlocks who are currently stuck with some fairly boring specs.

My primary inspiration is Illidan. Having said that I know everyone's thinking "not another 'blzz dmonhuntrs plz' thread". I hope you'll bare with me.

Upon selecting the Demonology specilization Warlocks will no longer be able to use Staves or Wands. They will instead be given Dual Wielding and able to use Swords, Daggers, and Axes. Their armor will be increased by a certain percentage to put them on par with leather wearers. Intellect will still be their primary stat and they will still possess the ability to summon their demon.

Abilities

Corruption will stay as our primary DoT ability and Immolate will be making a return as a melee-range DoT ability.

Demonic Slash will be used as the Warlock's primary filler ability. It will be melee-range and be scale w/ weapon damage. (I've yet to come up with an appropriate resource system yet so this will be open-ended.

Demon Blade will be a passive effect that has a 50% change to generate a charge on melee attack/autoattack. These charges can be spent in a variety of ways. At 5 stacks the Warlock will be able to choose to summon either a Wild Imp or a Lesser Felhound. The Wild Imp is largely the same but will now apply a stacking, armor reduction debuff. The Lesser Felhound is the equivalent of the Wild Imp except is a melee-attacker and will apply a stacking debuff that increases magic damage taken by the target. At 10 stacks the Warlock will be able to choose to cast Chaos Wave which will be largely the same in terms of damage but will now be a frontal-cone ability, or the Warlock may choose to cast Empower Demon which will increase the Warlock's summoned demon's damage dealt by 20% for 30 seconds. Every charge spent will increase melee damage dealt by 1% for 10 seconds, this does not stack.

Corrupted Vitality is an active ability with a 45 second cooldown that applies a debuff to the enemy target that lasts for 8 seconds. Under the effects of this debuff the enemy target will take damage that is proportionate to the amount of resources (Rage, Energy, Mana, Runic Power, Focus, etc) that is used during the duration of the debuff. (This would have to be tweaked for each class as a Warrior uses rage faster than a Mage uses mana.)

Demonic Leap would have its transport speed increase, its arc reduced, and it would now increase the Warlock's movement speed by 60% for 2 seconds after landing. Its cooldown could be changed to compensate for the increase effects.

Metamorphosis would replace Dark Soul as the Warlock's primary offensive cooldown - having a duration of 20 seconds with a 2 min cooldown. It would increase the Warlock's attack speed by 30%, movement speed by 25%, damage dealt by 5%, and reduce damage taken by 20%. Chaos Wave will root all damaged targets for 1.5 seconds while under the effects of Metamorphosis.

Demonic Breath will return as a front-cone 50% snare.

Talents

Harvest Life now makes it so Drain Life will instantly restore 15% of the Warlock's total health but is now on a 10 second cooldown.

Archimonde's Darkness will now reduce the cooldown of Metamorphosis by 30 seconds.

Kil'jaedens Cunning will double the chance to generate a charge from Demon Blade for 8 seconds. This ability has a 1 min cooldown.

Mannoroth's Fury will now give all direct damage and damage over time abilities a 35% damage splash effect for 8 seconds. This ability has a 1 min cooldown.

Felfire will replace Demonbolt. Felfire will be usable only when further than 5 yards from your target and will deal moderate damage and apply a 15% snare. This ability also applies a debuff that doubles the damage dealt, the effectiveness of the snare, and the resource cost. This effect stacks up to two times.

Cataclysm will remain largely the same. It will now apply both Corruption and Immolate and will be able to be instantly cast at the cost of 20 charges of Demon Blade. This ability has a 1 min cooldown.

That's all I've got for now - I hope you enjoyed reading it! Please post any feedback and criticisms you may have!

[xskarma]

Keep the Demonology reworks in this main thread please. We don't want everyone to make their own thread to discuss this.