New lock animations

[Raqubor]

My main gripe is just how long it takes for warlock to do anything. Even destro, setting up AoE when my DH rushes in an in a few seconds has vomited aoe burst while all I've done is set up immolates on a couple of targets and pump out rain of fire by the time the mobs are more than half dead and even if rain of fire did all its damage, it would be less than the burst aoe of other classes.

All warlock specs feel like ass to play because they don't have that nice feeling of burst or epic cooldowns. When I enter voidform on my shadowpriest, I know what I'm getting. When I enter meta on my DH or serenity on my monk, things are going to blow up.

The demon cooldowns suck ass. Life Tap sucks ass. Having burning rush made a talent that i need to sacrifice survival cd's for just to keep up in mythic+ or cope with movement sucks ass.

The class is nowhere near a turret on the caliber of a marksman hunter or arcane mage pumping one big hardcast. It's just immobile crap for mediocre chunks of damage.

Only affliction feels viable in the level of movement raid design has been shifting to, and affliction is boring as fuck to play. Shadow priest is just an all out better implementation of a dot class than affliction has ever been.

The lock specs don't capture what I loved about them in cata and even mop. I loved my cata demo play.

The expansions have only pruned and pruned more of what I liked about the class and yet left all the crap I didn't like about it.

What you talk about is performance in non-relevant content.
Let's say a DH will out-damage you in a +5 mythic dungeon.

If you try again in a +15... your lock will shit on his burst with your superior sustain.

Go do harder content m8.

[Kithelle]

I hope they'll finally update demon bolt so if you have green fire unlocked the ball of fire is green.

[Lucrece]

What you talk about is performance in non-relevant content.
Let's say a DH will out-damage you in a +5 mythic dungeon.

If you try again in a +15... your lock will shit on his burst with your superior sustain.

Go do harder content m8.

Oh, stfu. Outside tyrannical a remotely well played demonhunter will not be losing to a lock in burst damage even on higher keystones. The bosses don't last more than 2-3 minutes even at 10+ and DH burst period lasts longer than 30 seconds and doesn't taper off fast enough.

[Baconeggcheese]

No shit there, it's literal cliques and meme cesspool there, you have maybe like two guys there that worth a shit and are not just massive memelords spamming pepes and toxic shit.

Well you and I know that, but clearly not everyone.

[Duckz0rs]

Well you and I know that, but clearly not everyone.

Then again this forum isn't faring much better these days... Just minus the memes.

[Gaidax]

Then again this forum isn't faring much better these days... Just minus the memes.

I hold no illusions about these forums, it's basically the usual circle-jerk gathering of people who rinse and repeat the "devs hate us" mantra and competing with each other on who can produce more ridiculous QQ post/conspiracy theory/snarky comment.

It's gaming community in a nutshell really, but at least I don't have to stare at walls of pepes here.

[Deleted]

Coming in BfA and might come in prepatch.

[Baconeggcheese]

Yeah, which is curious because if the status quo stays the same BFA is like a year away and it absolutely doesn't take that long to make animations for 1 class.

Makes me think that the lock overhaul is going to be fairly significant to the point where it doesn't make sense to try and put updates in now. Here's hoping anyway.

[Lucrece]

Yeah, which is curious because if the status quo stays the same BFA is like a year away and it absolutely doesn't take that long to make animations for 1 class.

Makes me think that the lock overhaul is going to be fairly significant to the point where it doesn't make sense to try and put updates in now. Here's hoping anyway.

Or maybe it's the same case as when they told worgen and goblins model updates were coming this xpac but just later, and lo and behold an xpac later it's been pushed toward the later part of the next xpac.

When you make the money Blizzard makes and don't have to fear for people walking out from your products given how loyal the fanbase is, you do the bare minimum and still make truckloads of cash.

Moonkin form was just updated this expansion, at a base polygon count update, no racial differences or embellishments. From a form that existed since VANILLA.

Let's be honest here. We're still playing a game where armor is spraypainted into your character outside shoulders/belt/gloves/helm, and your character moves stiffly on a mount. Now play GW2/FFXIV. Completely different physics and character model/armor quality.

Sure, those are newer games, but on far smaller companies making a tiny fraction of the money WoW is making. Blizzard has had the opportunity to update their game's graphics or revamp the engine with the cash they're pulling. They just haven't felt compelled by their customers.

[Gaidax]

If money could solve everything, company I work in would not lay off 40 developers and QA staff out of 50 total. This is when I, as Project Manager a year and half ago, learned that deadlines > fringe features.

In between releasing content in timely manner and pleasing some people, releasing content in time comes first, because ultimately nobody gives a damn if your spells are pretty if you are stuck throwing them at the same targets for a year+.

[Felrane]

I hope they'll finally update demon bolt so if you have green fire unlocked the ball of fire is green.

Blizzard seems to hate the green fire. Warlocks did get a small fire animation update in legion. Mostly for the NPC spells but they didn't touch the green fire at all. They also said in a panel that no other classes are getting different color or types of spells because its more work.

[Baconeggcheese]

Or maybe it's the same case as when they told worgen and goblins model updates were coming this xpac but just later, and lo and behold an xpac later it's been pushed toward the later part of the next xpac.

IIRC they worded that vague enough in that they would be worked on in the future because they weren't as dated as other models.

All things considered with the rate at which we've been getting content I don't feel like they've just been diddling their thumbs.

When you make the money Blizzard makes and don't have to fear for people walking out from your products given how loyal the fanbase is, you do the bare minimum and still make truckloads of cash.

C'mon man, you know better than that. Nothing about this expansion says they've been giving us the "bare minimum". If anything its the polar opposite, we've gotten sooo much shit this xpac.

I'm not thrilled with how a lot of things worked out, but man did we get a lot of it.

[Kithelle]

Blizzard seems to hate the green fire. Warlocks did get a small fire animation update in legion. Mostly for the NPC spells but they didn't touch the green fire at all. They also said in a panel that no other classes are getting different color or types of spells because its more work.

And they love to cut corners when it comes to work...

[Lucrece]

IIRC they worded that vague enough in that they would be worked on in the future because they weren't as dated as other models.

All things considered with the rate at which we've been getting content I don't feel like they've just been diddling their thumbs.

C'mon man, you know better than that. Nothing about this expansion says they've been giving us the "bare minimum". If anything its the polar opposite, we've gotten sooo much shit this xpac.

I'm not thrilled with how a lot of things worked out, but man did we get a lot of it.

I'm not talking about content. I'm talking about art. And their approach to art updates has not changed one lick. Same glacial pace for visual/model updates as usual. Bane is only getting an update this very next xpac, and god knows Bane has been around for a while.

In fact, the wealth of content is the one reason that has kept me subbed despite irritation with how dated the game looks and how long it takes them to update it visually. There is virtually no excuse why in an expansion all about demons and fel/shadow magic warlocks have sat without updated assets until the very end of the expansion.

[Baconeggcheese]

I'm not talking about content. I'm talking about art.

The biggest hindrance to any content creation is art...

The two are mutually inclusive.

There is virtually no excuse why in an expansion all about demons and fel/shadow magic warlocks have sat without updated assets until the very end of the expansion.

Well to start, demonology's spells are models, and they are for the most part brand new to legion. Fire has also been updated, and aff got its teensy tiny bit of souls animations.

But as far as the larger animation overhaul, to me it seems pretty apparent that they're planning on doing a lot more work on the class and that's why they're waiting until prepatch.

In all probability we're close to a year out for BFA, and we both know it doesn't take them a year to update those animations. That leaves a bunch of assuming an explanation, which to me the most obvious seems that they're reworking the class and it makes no sense to give an animation update to something that's getting overhauled.

[Lucrece]

The biggest hindrance to any content creation is art...

The two are mutually inclusive.

Well to start, demonology's spells are models, and they are for the most part brand new to legion. Fire has also been updated, and aff got its teensy tiny bit of souls animations.

But as far as the larger animation overhaul, to me it seems pretty apparent that they're planning on doing a lot more work on the class and that's why they're waiting until prepatch.

In all probability we're close to a year out for BFA, and we both know it doesn't take them a year to update those animations. That leaves a bunch of assuming an explanation, which to me the most obvious seems that they're reworking the class and it makes no sense to give an animation update to something that's getting overhauled.

I'd enjoy my fire updates if it actually applied to green fire and demonbolt also enjoyed a fire update (it didn't, neither on orange fire or finally patching it up to be covered by green fire as well) ;p. Hand of gul'dan remained unchanged, which could also use a nice visual.

I would be very happy to get a sick looking soul fire animation as either destro or demo, updating my green fire and giving us the flaming ember aura back.

Affliction holds the most potential, and I really think giving them the theme of a coven witch-type caster holds real identity separate from shadow priests. Kul'tiras hints at a lot of witch-like magic and haunt themes that affliction could benefit from.

[Baconeggcheese]

@Lucrece Bruh this is what green fire looked like just 2 xpacs ago: https://youtu.be/XNOA9jEB48Y?t=1m47s (don't watch the first half it'll just make you sad)

They've updated it not that long ago compared to most of the spells that just saw updates. IIRC its been updated twice since that video.

[Lucrece]

RIP my soul fire and dark intent begs from raid members ;x.

But, yeah, it's just painful going back to my warlock whenever I'm playing my shadow priest. The animation updates to shadow priest are just too good.

[Abraxas79]

Well no animation revamp until the next expansion, which means locks were the only class not to receive any. I am sorry but this idea that it was delayed because of a potential rework is a canard. All classes are going to have some level of work and I suspect the only reason locks will get anything in the next expansion is because with the introduction of the new races they will have no choice but to do them.

I don't know if it is a deliberate slight or not or just a case of piss poor management on the part of Blizzard for excluding a class for the entire expansion. I too wonder why the art department takes so long to do anything. I mean WOW is such a primitive game, especially by modern standards, why do they take so long ? Is it because they also work on other games such as Diablo and WOW is just not a priority anymore ?

[Lucrece]

Well no animation revamp until the next expansion, which means locks were the only class not to receive any. I am sorry but this idea that it was delayed because of a potential rework is a canard. All classes are going to have some level of work and I suspect the only reason locks will get anything in the next expansion is because with the introduction of the new races they will have no choice but to do them.

I don't know if it is a deliberate slight or not or just a case of piss poor management on the part of Blizzard for excluding a class for the entire expansion. I too wonder why the art department takes so long to do anything. I mean WOW is such a primitive game, especially by modern standards, why do they take so long ? Is it because they also work on other games such as Diablo and WOW is just not a priority anymore ?

Diablo also looks pretty dated, so I doubt that.

Playing heroes of the storm is another matter however and looking at how neat Malfurion looks as a druid or Tyrande or Gul'dan's spells makes me think what Blizzard could do with an updated engine for WoW.