Having Doomguard/Infernal as constant pets in Cata?

[Taintedfaith]

I was thinking that it would be a good Idea to have have both available in level 55-60 quests that then make them more useful for leveling and for trash at endgame.

Basically they would be nerfed to be slightly weaker than the Felguard, and have the Doomguard for Affliction and Infernal for Destruction. For example, in destruction, the Infernal would be much better for holding aggro, on 1+ mobs, while the imp would be much more useful (and powerful) for single target DPS.

Doing this would be a great way to give something fun and new (even more than the new soul shard system already is), but not game breaking.

Does anyone else think this is a good idea?

...or just want to tear me down?

[Kelpie]

I'd like to see the Infernal / DG have a better niche in Cata, but I'm not sure it is likely to happen. Its never been a huge issue with Warlocks, since raiders will still use the imp and pvpers will still use VW, Felpuppy or Succy.

=\ Would be nice though.

[Killia]

I'd like to see the Infernal / DG have a better niche in Cata, but I'm not sure it is likely to happen. Its never been a huge issue with Warlocks, since raiders will still use the imp and pvpers will still use VW, Felpuppy or Succy.

=\ Would be nice though.

I'd use infernal if it was a constant pet, seeing as I raid as affiliction. As for doomguard I don't care much for it, never did the quest for the ritual of doom and probably never will. That is for RP reasons though :P

[Inshabel]

I'd use infernal if it was a constant pet, seeing as I raid as affiliction. As for doomguard I don't care much for it, never did the quest for the ritual of doom and probably never will. That is for RP reasons though :P

You didn't learn Ritual of Doom for RP reasons? Your character hates Doomguards or dps cooldowns?

[Evert]

Point is that blizz doesnt wanne give us a choice in pets, like hunters can.
The want you to use the pet the made for your spec. :-\

[Sesto]

I think warlocks should get a near the end demo talent that allows you to enslave a demon, and have something like a warlock stable so you can keep demons in there :P

Not the 61 point talent though, but just something for people to have for fun.

[SutekhX]

I'd love Infernal to be permanent. Ever since the original cinematic I've loved those guys.

[Ravasha]

I would rather have Felguard as a normal pet and the Doomguard somewhat buffed in it's Demonology tree's place. Doomguard/Conflagrate spec in Cata, Nice.

[Evert]

End Demon tree talent,
alows you to use inferno and doomguard as permanent.
Makes felguard as tiny PVE tank
Makes Inferno be nice dps guy in raids
Makes Doomguard a GOD in PVP, just sum it before the battle starts and enjoy people suffer

[rhorle]

Warlocks don't need more petss. We have enough that don't see uses or have very minor niche uses. "nerfing" the doomguard and infernal to be weaker cause they stay around is just silly. All you are doing is creating a copy of a previous pet with the doomguard and infernal models.

The only thing that needs to change is the doomguard and infernal getting the avoidance, and a lower cooldown on doomguard. They both already serve their nich well, just the doomguard needs to be brought more into line of how infernal functions.

[Galith]

Makes Doomguard a GOD in PVP, just sum it before the battle starts and enjoy people suffer

Cripple would be awesome... and so would the dispel and stun.

[dahawk]

i play as a gnome and...i love haveing my doomguard out with me as a pet killing mob's i really hope blizzad give those pets a role in the expansion

[whazzz]

Though if they make it a demo talent ... Their will be major QQ and they dont want a single spec to be the only used spec so i dont think theyd make it solo tree pets.

[Neichus]

As other people have said I don't think having them permanent would be that great. It would force Blizzard to tone them down, and part of their appeal is that they're noticeably more powerful than your average demon.

I've thought a little bit about systems for repeatedly enslaving an Infernal/Doomguard, risking spontaneous breaks and suffering from your own playing with fire. While this is lovely from a thematic standpoint as a Warlock, it's functionally problematic when it screws up your Heroic Deathwing attempt due to an unlucky demon break.

I think what would work would be if the Doomguard and Infernal were shard-based cooldowns in the next expansion. I know they've mentioned that they'd only have empowered spells with the Shard system, but I could see this being reasonable. Now have a spell like:

Summon Infernal (10 minute cooldown, 1 Soul Shard): Summon an infernal from the sky to do your bidding for 30 seconds, replacing your present demon. Upon its death or the completion of 30 seconds your original demon is resummoned. Shares a cooldown with Summon Doomguard.

Some additional thoughts:

a) You could make it so that the preferred pets are spec-specific. For instance if the Imp talents also benefited Infernals then you'd see Destruction warlocks using the Infernal as a cooldown while Affliction continues with the Doomguard. You could also go a different route and specialize the two for difference circumstances; for instance the Doomguard could have superior single-target damage but the Infernal a brutal AoE aura that is useful against many adds.

b) Demonology is tricky, because you already spec for a Felguard so you wouldn't want to overly favor putting him away for another demon despite the tree apparently favoring such a spell. Also from a balance standpoint Demonology already has the only major DPS cooldown of the three trees (Meta) and heaping more capacity on top of this could be problematic; it would make them the ultimate cooldown spec for PvE encounters.

c) If Shards are difficult to reclaim mid combat this might offer the issue that if this cooldown is dramatically more powerful than other options then it's a given under all PvE circumstances. To use examples from BlizzCon, I could see a tradeoff between having 3x Searing Pains crit in a row (assuming the spell is worth casting in Cataclysm) vs. an empowered Death Coil that is capable of healing me for a significant amount in an emergency. But if the enslaved pets were truly that powerful then that just wouldn't be a tradeoff; you'd effectively have two soul shards per fight, the third always being reserved for this cooldown.