Drain life in the affliction rotation and also in PvP importance

[Ofmanv]

Once a powerful spell in BC, it seems to me like the drain life spell has been long forgotten ever since WotLK. I don't know if the coefficient got nerfed or what (soul siphon did get nerfed) but this spell just isn't what it used to be.

It's a shame, too. I really think it's time Blizzard came back to this spell and gave a hard look at it. Changed properly I think an improved drain life could mean great things for both PvE and PvP.




In PvE, drain life would be a great substitute for shadowbolt in the affliction rotation. Much like how Blizzard got death strike in the blood rotation instead of constant obliterates, drain life should be beefed up to be worth using in the affliction rotation instead of shadow bolt.

Shadowbolt is a destruction spell. It makes no sense what-so-ever for the largest portion of damage coming from any one spell in the affliction rotation to be a destruction spell. Why do all three warlock specs have to do most of their damage from destruction bolt spam?

Give us different playstyles. Drain life in the affliction rotation would make it more unique from the demo and destro rotation instead of the same old bolt spell spam.

I think what will bother a lot of people about this suggestion is the fact that drain life also heals and therefore "isn't worthy of doing as much damage as pure damage spells".

However, this isn't true. For one, death strike also heals for a lot and it was worked into the blood rotation anyway. Second, drain life doesn't have to do as much damage straight up as shadowbolt. Give affliction talents that gives dots a bonus for using drain life and things of that nature.






In PvP drain life could improve the warlock situation in many ways. After siphon life and immolate were removed from affliction, affliction is suffering in pvp because after dots are applied there's no filler damage to do except shadowbolt/searing pain which just isn't feasible.

More importantly drain life as PvP spell makes warlocks, warlocks. I know one of the criticisms of buffing drain life in pvp is that warlocks will just be "drain tanks" and "warlocks are not supposed to be tanks, they're supposed to be kiters now".

Well, let's be honest here. Has Blizzard's attempt to make warlocks kiters instead of tanks had any success in PvP? No, it has been a massive failure. The only way warlocks are going to be adequete kiters is if you copy/paste the frost tree and if you ask me, the mage and warlock classes have already been homogenized enough.

Look at the only new spells warlocks got in WoTLK: shadowflame and demonic circle: teleport. IE watered down cone of cold and watered down blink.

Warlocks being "caster tanks" in pvp was one of the few things that made them unique from mages. Mages have always been known in PvP for having strong snares, are highly mobile and set up huge burst. Warlocks, on the other hand, mostly used dots for damage, and used fear and their beefy tanking skills for defense.

But instead of making warlocks and mages unique in PvP, Blizzard has tried to make warlocks just like mages. Fear is no longer a reliable CC after the huge 3.1 nerf. Affliction now only has 1 more dot than a fire mage after the equally huge 3.1 nerfs siphon life and immolate. Warlocks are "no longer supposed to be tanks in pvp" but rather "kiters".

Let warlocks do what they've always done best: Dot, fear, and drain tank. Blizzard's attempt to make warlocks pvp like mages has just been a massive failure and warlock's arena representation shows it.

[ggary]

i agree, ive been 2v2 and man this would improve our situation there so much, also an immunity type spell woul be nice but thats for another thread, as for pve my corruption comes in at about the same as sb so i thinks it okay, anyways great post

[Ofmanv]

i agree, ive been 2v2 and man this would improve our situation there so much, also an immunity type spell woul be nice but thats for another thread, as for pve my corruption comes in at about the same as sb so i thinks it okay, anyways great post

Thanks.

Corruption is really doing as much damage for you as SB post 3.1? After immolate and siphon life were removed from the rotation I've just had more time for shadowbolt spam than ever.

[ggary]

ya depends on the fight though, usually its pretty close. if its like patchwork then ya sb does way more,

[gherkin]

We used to be drain tanks. Once you got to a certain point, you were unkillable by anyone without some sort of interrupt or cc. Arms warriors with MS would do less damage than I could heal, and that was pre-haunt.

I don't welcome a return to those days. Drain Life is a spell to save yourself in PVE or as a stop-gap while your healer is busy in PVP.

[Ofmanv]

We used to be drain tanks. Once you got to a certain point, you were unkillable by anyone without some sort of interrupt or cc. Arms warriors with MS would do less damage than I could heal, and that was pre-haunt.

I don't welcome a return to those days. Drain Life is a spell to save yourself in PVE or as a stop-gap while your healer is busy in PVP.

I was afraid we'd jump right into the "if you buff drain life, warlocks will be unkillable" slippery slope fallacy.

Drain life isn't even the two things you said it would be in its current state.

In PvE if a warlock dies its usually because he's 1 shot by a boss, I don't think drain life is going to be in lieu of a healer ever.

In PvP warlocks have a better chance of victory keeping themselves up by killing their opponent off with other damage sources than they do by defending themselves with drain life when their healer is busy.

[ggary]

i use drain life as a filler spell in pvp when i have all my dots up, i was just about to do the math and see if sb would be better without being destruction sub spec

[Aidsventura]

Damn, great post!
I miss the drain tanking so much ):

[gherkin]

I don't think we'll be unkillable. I think we were unkillable, and I don't want to go back to that.

Buffing drain life means its your go-to spell. You can't move, you can't cast other things. Therefore, you stand and tank and teleport on cooldown. That's about it. If I wanted a hard and fast "do this and the target dies" I'd level my Rogue past 70. If I wanted a "do this and you'll never die" I'd level a resto druid.

Everyone dies in PVE because they're two shot by a boss. Even dps warriors. This argument is moot.
I want more options than Drain Life in PVP.

@Everyone - Drain Life is a terrible PVE spell. Only use it to heal yourself, not dps.

[ggary]

I was afraid we'd jump right into the "if you buff drain life, warlocks will be unkillable" slippery slope fallacy.

Drain life isn't even the two things you said it would be in its current state.

In PvE if a warlock dies its usually because he's 1 shot by a boss, I don't think drain life is going to be in lieu of a healer ever.

In PvP warlocks have a better chance of victory keeping themselves up by killing their opponent off with other damage sources than they do by defending themselves with drain life when their healer is busy.
[/quote]

on some healing intensive fights, it would be better to save you healers mana in pve

and in pvp if your healer is cc'ed then its pretty dam hard to kill the other guy while hes getting healed, so drain life is a vaible survivale option there

[Venthos]

I totaly agree with this post , drain life has been a joke since lvl 70 and it was a spell that gave the Warlock feeling

[gherkin]

I totaly agree with this post , drain life has been a joke since lvl 70 and it was a spell that gave the Warlock feeling

I thought Seduction gave the Warlock feeling.
Or Searing Pain.

Depends what you're into.

[ggary]

i dont want drain tanking that would put us on the same skill lvl as ret pallies, all i say is buff drain life and make it more viable

[Ofmanv]

I don't think we'll be unkillable. I think we were unkillable, and I don't want to go back to that.

Buffing drain life means its your go-to spell. You can't move, you can't cast other things. Therefore, you stand and tank and teleport on cooldown. That's about it. If I wanted a hard and fast "do this and the target dies" I'd level my Rogue past 70. If I wanted a "do this and you'll never die" I'd level a resto druid.

Everyone dies in PVE because they're two shot by a boss. Even dps warriors. This argument is moot.
I want more options than Drain Life in PVP.

@Everyone - Drain Life is a terrible PVE spell. Only use it to heal yourself, not dps.

WotLK is just different from BC.

In BC the fastest I could be burst down was in 12 seconds despite my terrible resilience. In WoTLK I have over 1000 resilience and I get burst down in under 3 seconds all the time.

In BC warlocks were a strong class regardless of drain life. Warlocks were actually one of the beefier classes in PvP. They had larger health pools than even most plate wearers and I had more armor mitigation in BC with fel armor on than I do in WoTLK with demon armor on.

A useful drain life coupled with a beefy class is what made it powerful. In WoTLK warlocks are in no way beefy. Drain life being a useful spell in a 3 second burst environment is not going to automatically make warlocks unkillable in WotLK.

[Marithas]

nice idea, hope it will be used

[Deleted]

They tried to make you a caster tank in pvp.

Both times it was massively o v e r p o w e r e d.

Wanna know why?

A caster's inherent advantage is that he does his damage at RANGE.

A warlock being designed to"tank" means:

He isnt punished for letting the melee up close.
The melee isnt rewarded for coming up close.

You have a pet,which disturbs healers.You can deal damage while not facing your target.You can dispel-protect your crowd control,mages can't.Whether you admit it or not,you are FAR more durable when hit than a mage.

All you need is some pet survivability(which will be addressed by pets gaining resil) and some defense against stuns,aka teleport while stunned.

You need NO other pvp buffs.Any other would revert us to the old unkillable dothappy juggernaut,which Blizzard takes special measures to NEVER see again.

[ggary]

teleport doesnt work when a warrior just charges you again, pet survivability? pshh that doesnt matter fighting against a rouge or warrior, we need some kind of mellee immunity spell

[Ofmanv]

They tried to make you a caster tank in pvp.

Both times it was massively o v e r p o w e r e d.

Wanna know why?

A caster's inherent advantage is that he does his damage at RANGE.

A warlock being designed to"tank" means:

He isnt punished for letting the melee up close.
The melee isnt rewarded for coming up close.

You have a pet,which disturbs healers.You can deal damage while not facing your target.You can dispel-protect your crowd control,mages can't.Whether you admit it or not,you are FAR more durable when hit than a mage.

All you need is some pet survivability(which will be addressed by pets gaining resil) and some defense against stuns,aka teleport while stunned.

You need NO other pvp buffs.Any other would revert us to the old unkillable dothappy juggernaut,which Blizzard takes special measures to NEVER see again.

It's hard to argue with slippery slopes like "warlocks would be unkillable dothappy juggernauts" if drain life just did a little more damage.

Warlocks were never better off letting melee in range of them.

Here's the difference between BC and WoTLK:

BC: Warlocks were unable to kite melee but did not automatically lose because of it

WoTLK: Warlocks are still unable to kite melee. DC: Teleport is just traded off by talents like Juggernaut. Warlocks automatically lose when they cannot kite which is always.

It's time to get over BC. If you really thought warlocks were all that overpowered, guess what, warlocks made up 10% of arenas. They were powerful, yes, but every class deserves to be powerful, not just melee.

[Deleted]

Here's the difference between BC and WoTLK:

BC: Warlocks were unable to kite melee but did not automatically lose because of it

BC:Warlocks were unable to kite melee and automatically won since they draintanked everything until season 3 came with its good dps weapons,armor penetration ahoy on gladiator gear,and the crazy rogue buffs.

[Ofmanv]

BC:Warlocks were unable to kite melee and automatically won since they draintanked everything until season 3 came with its good dps weapons,armor penetration ahoy on gladiator gear,and the crazy rogue buffs.

Please read:

It's time to get over BC.