Soul Shards - new (old) secondary resource for all 3 specs

[Ealyssa]

Every form of Soul Shards has either been terrible (Vanilla-Wrath, MoP-WoD) or boring (Cata)

Nope, and nope.

You not liking it doesn't make them terrible nor boring.

[Deleted]

I always loved Destruction... until they based it on Burning Embers... .

I hope for destructions return and some changes in regards to AOE. Make Rain of Fire meaningful again, cut Fire and Brimstone and make something else. Soulshards are ok if done right.

I am also happy with Demonology being (finally) a summoner caster that empowers his demons to do his bidding. Never liked meta. Shards for all? OK, no prob here. Demo to my liking? Finally (i am well aware of AI limitations and so on). Possibility of Destruction changed to more of what it was with new stuff due to spec specific talents? Hell yeah! Basically how they make lock will decide whether he becomes my main again and DK is going to be dumped and DH as well. If I don't like it... it's DK dump and DH main since that's the closest fire/destruction thing to destro lock (just melee based).

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Nope, and nope.

You not liking it doesn't make them terrible nor boring.

Vanilla SS were terrible. That part is as true as it can ever be. He got that part right.

[Deleted]

Vanilla SS were terrible. That part is as true as it can ever be. He got that part right.

I'm more pissed about the use SS had in Vanilla than the SS themselves. No mass Healthstone production, summon individual players, soulstone players before combat, use to summon pets. You'd deplete your Soulstones quickly and they take up slots.

We shouldn't ask for them to implement carbon copies of early abilities and instead think about how they can integrate it into modern WoW - whilst keeping it somewhat interesting and minimally tedious/boring. Current Soul shard system is extremely boring and frustrating to me due to the self regenerating and RNG nature of it. But the abilities you need Soul Shards for are actually pretty well balanced - but alas relies heavily on the whole regenerating SS thing.

I wouldn't be surprised if they stick with the new soul shard resource system however. Just seems blizz-like for them to do.

[Netherspark]

When they were being removed, I had hoped just to keep hold of one to act as a reminder of those days.
Unfortunately I was not able to, instead having to settle eventually for the spellstone/firestone and the summoning reagents.
I wish I had been able to keep the dreadsteed quest stuff too.

You can still buy that stuff from the Goblin in Burning Steppes. You can even do the summoning again.

[Cwimge]

I am going to miss the visual from embers. I loved capping and being enveloped in green fire. Something no poxy pink gems will do

[Kanariya]

Every form of Soul Shards has either been terrible (Vanilla-Wrath, MoP-WoD) or boring (Cata), so the idea of us not being able to escape from them in any spec is a little off-putting.

Of course, they're probably going to work differently but they haven't managed to get them right so far.

They worked just fine in Cataclysm, being situational rather than directly tied to our core spells. I wouldn't call that boring at all, because the bonus they provided was pretty great and we weren't subjected to rng regen on them. Even pre-Cata they weren't tied to our dps either, they were just a massive annoyance to farm (until we could start farming them off training dummies in wotlk).

[PickleballAce]

Nope, and nope.

You not liking it doesn't make them terrible nor boring.

Vanilla Soul Shards were objectively terrible. There is no room for opinion here. It is science.

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I wouldn't call that boring at all, because the bonus they provided was pretty great

Let's face it, all they were good for was re-summoning pets and launching the occasional instant Soul Fire (especially with the DS set bonus). Any other utility they provided was pretty rare to use, at least in PvE.

[Deleted]

I am not sure why they changed embers for Destruction. They fit the specs identity perfectly and they also provide a very cool visual effect on the player.

[Kanariya]

I am not sure why they changed embers for Destruction. They fit the specs identity perfectly and they also provide a very cool visual effect on the player.

Not really. There was nothing about Burning Embers that felt like it was for Warlocks. It could have easily been a secondary resource for Fire Mages or Elemental Shamans. There's lore and history to Soul Shards all throughout Warcraft, but Burning Embers went from being just a talented DoT to a secondary resource with pretty much no explanation as to why we suddenly have them.

[Deleted]

Not really. There was nothing about Burning Embers that felt like it was for Warlocks. It could have easily been a secondary resource for Fire Mages or Elemental Shamans. There's lore and history to Soul Shards all throughout Warcraft, but Burning Embers went from being just a talented DoT to a secondary resource with pretty much no explanation as to why we suddenly have them.

Destruction is all about fire and chaos and embers signify that by slowly building up a roaring fire around you and releasing that energy in giant balls of chaos. I hope they change their mind. Soul Shards just do not fit that narrative.

[Grizelda]

Not really. There was nothing about Burning Embers that felt like it was for Warlocks. It could have easily been a secondary resource for Fire Mages or Elemental Shamans. There's lore and history to Soul Shards all throughout Warcraft, but Burning Embers went from being just a talented DoT to a secondary resource with pretty much no explanation as to why we suddenly have them.

Yeah man, there was a whole quest line that showed why we have them.

Being enveloped in green fel fire screams Destruction warlock to me.

[ComputerNerd]

Vanilla SS were terrible. That part is as true as it can ever be. He got that part right.

The one thing that Vanilla SS should have had, as a huge QoL improvement was stacking.
Hunters had increased ammo stacking but shards remained without it until their removal as an inventory item.
The gathering before content wasn't fun either, but at least most non-warlocks seemed then to have understanding of how they worked and supported us in doing that.

[Felpacino]

When I first saw that Demonic Fury will be removed and replaced with Soul Shards, I felt good. Finally.

[Seezer]

Destruction is staying embers. Demonology is getting shards.

Nope. All 3 are soul shards.

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When I first saw that Demonic Fury will be removed and replaced with Soul Shards, I felt good. Finally.

Well...why did we have demonic fury? For metamorphasis. What don't warlocks have anymore? Metamorphasis. That would explain it.

[Dnusha]

I would like to see embers instead of soul shards, or maybe some burning soul shards. And yeah destro resourse mechanics is afwul, random shards instead of fluid and reliable embers? No thanks.

[Deleted]

I think soul shards are iconic to warlocks and I am glad they return to all specs. Demonic fury is indeed fitting to a demon hunter. Hopefully the glyph of verdant spheres will stay as I love the visual and it reminds me of The Eye.

[Sylar Hao]

Burning Embers is the best resource in the game, both thematically and mechanically. It is smooth, it is fluid, it has no clunkiness at all, no RNG other than critical strikes granting more of them, it's a resource easy to catch up but hard to master with the different tools the spec offers, the character engulfs in flames as he gains Embers which is really cool ... and most importantly: fun to play... it's just perfect.

On the other hand, Soul Shards, while cool and all, are designed after RNG, which is a bad design. RNG is important in every spec of every class so you don't sleep smashing the same rotation over and over, but the RNG shouldn't be tied to the resource of the spec, because then every spell you create around will be somehow tied to that RNG.

Soul Shards,... well, don't fit the chaotic nature of the spec. Yes, you burn some souls to be more powerful, very warlock fitting, but so Embers are unstable materia that gives the warlock atrocious power when used, the former feels more afflictive, the feels more destructive.

Imagine the situation where you get your trinket proc and you have 5 Soul Shards and use Dark Soul, you cast 2 Chaos Bolt (-4 SS) and maybe one Conflagrate (+1SS) (you've pretty sure have both charges on CD) and another Chaos Bolt, and you keep your regular rotation. On the following Dark Soul somehow Immolate decides to proc a few times because of the extra crit, and you get to cast say 6 Chaos Bolt. Now imagine in a fight with 4 Dark Soul moments you get 4 of the first situation, not funny to be in the middle of the chart. But the following boss you get 4 Dark Souls as well with the second result, your damage skyrockets and you top the dps chart. While cool, it's unpredictable, and you can either get good resaults or mediocre ones. I pretty much prefer Burning Embers, knowing that when I pop DS I will use 4, and my final dps will reflect how good or bad at timing I am instead of how good or bad RNG I get.

I think the new Destro mastery fulfill that RNG pretty good (specially if it gets the multistrike visual ), add a proc to the equation a small proc like Backlash without need to be hit or an instant immolate, something like that, and we're fine.

Soul Shards in the preview description brings a much unnecessary RNG: 30% on Immolate crits, so it's a third of a third chance to get one. And now that FnB is an AoE talent that only affects Incinerate, you will have to fish for extra Soul Shards by hardcasting Immolate on multiple targets...

Not gonna lie, pretty disappointing.

In my opinion, Burning Embers should stay as the resource for Destruction, Soul Shards remain for Affliction (it fits better this spec) and Demonology could get say Demonic Stones, or call it whatever demonic name. They are all fragments of power after all, but they would generate and spend in different ways, bringing more depth and identity to the specs.

[demonik]

Yeah man, there was a whole quest line that showed why we have them.

Being enveloped in green fel fire screams Destruction warlock to me.

It's funny because That's probably one of the thing's that I'll miss the most. It was always so cool to see your character burning with fel fire, I know it's so minor but it really seemed neat to me and it sucks that we're going back to soul shards, especially since blizzard themselves said the whole soul shard mechanic system from cata was just not interesting or fun, so why bring it back?

We'll have to wait and see. hey who knows maybe we'll get a glyph to keep that neat visual of the burning embers who knows.Right now it's so early on you can't get too mad about anything, not saying that anyone is in particular, just saying in general for the warlock community.

The only gripe gameplay wise I have from the shards coming back for all specs, is it doesn't seem reliable enough for destro, the burning embers were. Hopefully it'll all work out