No one else terribly dissapointed?

[ComputerNerd]

Due to separation of banes and curses, that will if anything add more variety to affliction in the rotation, but only slightly.
My concern is still that they have ripped out what defined the spec, and nerfed it to the ground.
Quite how that plays out we will have to see, with maybe it being "balanced" for pve, but I am rather more skeptical about it in pvp.

[Deleted]

Due to separation of banes and curses, that will if anything add more variety to affliction in the rotation, but only slightly.
My concern is still that they have ripped out what defined the spec, and nerfed it to the ground.
Quite how that plays out we will have to see, with maybe it being "balanced" for pve, but I am rather more skeptical about it in pvp.

Truth be told, seperating curses and banes just added to our ramp up in pvp even more then before [BoA]. And the ebst part is that affliction has melee in the face all the time. Not only fear was the worst CC with the most escapes from it but now with 2sec cast time base.... its just....stupid, for the lack of proper word.

[Neotokyo]

In b4 someone says Beta is Beta.

see, now i dont think this really applies anymore, things are pretty much at a point where blizz are happy with what they have done and just tweaking numbers now not entire class mechanics. Blizz is trying to get the final polish on the game ready to release, and no doubt the delayed release date is to ensure that cata is amazing to everyone, even those of us who have been testing in the beta.

[Ridania]

Due to separation of banes and curses, that will if anything add more variety to affliction in the rotation, but only slightly.
My concern is still that they have ripped out what defined the spec, and nerfed it to the ground.
Quite how that plays out we will have to see, with maybe it being "balanced" for pve, but I am rather more skeptical about it in pvp.

It seems for me as a buff, at beta now I can also use CoEx without losing the damage I get from Agony in a fight, wehter I wish to kite a mob or a player.

Overall I'm slightly dissapointed, Soul Burn is a button I usually only push for instant demon or I use it whith healthstone while afking just for the lulz of it(91k hp ftw).

Affliction - Siphon Life, oh I raged abit when I saw this becoming a RNG ability, I'm fine with the heal nerf to 2% aslong as they make it a one talent again and make it 100%. Shadow Embrace feel outdated, and now when DL are competitive with SB as a filler it should atleast be a self buff that last longer, or getting applied with our drain spells aswell. Soul Swap, I have nothing to say about this one, I've only used while questing and once or twice while PvP'ing in Tol Barad.

Demonology - First of all Hand of Gul'dan, I love it. it's a nice burst spell and the increased chance for your demon to crit on players/mob in the "fissure" along with Cremation makes it lovable. Although I'm not quite happy with Aura of Foreboding, every1 should by now know one of the most basic stuff in WoW, don't stand in the fire/shadow. And it's too long between the root and the stun imo, although it can be reduced nicely with theFG's Axe toss.
After summing up that spell I'm not quite sure in which direction Blizzard is taking this specc, Molten Core now procs of SB instead of Corruption are we supposed to spam SB in the decimation phase and only throw out Soul Fire when MC procs?

Destruction - this specc is mostly the same old, although they've added some flavor to it with Bane of Havoc, Burning Embers and the Ember Imp that spawns from Bane of Doom. I have to say that so far destruction is the specc I like most in the beta, I've been playing demo for most of my time live and it's what I see as the most fun specc, but after trying beta and experience the chanegs wiht it i'm not really sure about what to play anymore. This is actually the only time I've considered making another class my main.

[Chad warden]

if siphon life was the main thing you liked about affliction..I don't know what to say to that...aside from...wtf...its such an extraneous little thing that you rarely ever notice aside from chaining mobs..drain life is amazing now..theres your self healing..Affliction got some quality of life enhancements and its damage is great, I'm not a huge fan of drain life..but who knows what will happen to the spec. Its plays exactly the same..I don't understand how its gutted all of a sudden...

what? i never said siphon life was the main thing i liked about affliction. Not only SL got nerfed, drain life and ALL self healing got nerfed. blizz said they wanted to tune down our self healing. and now on ptr, rogues does more self healing. Drain life got ruined when they nerfed it to 3 sec and made the healing scale with hp. its basically a copy of Mind flay now. Instead of nerfing the duration to 3 sec, couldnt they just have made the spell cancel if the target got out of LOS? No, Blizz is too lazy.

mage ward needs a nerf 2 years ago..

If you mean Mage armor, yes i agree 100%

[Deezlar]

I figured I would tough it out till 85, so finished off all the questing I needed to do, and Dinged.

Went to a test dummy, couldnt break 5k in any spec.
Went to a BG, couldnt DPS through melee passive healing.

I had a few years of fun in WOW till they watered it down, and now I realise im only playing it out of some distorted nostalgia.

Im done. Cheers.

[ComputerNerd]

The Bane/Curse separation is a PVE buff no doubt, and does offer the extra difficulty some were craving.
Though I do agree with the reply that it does add an extra chore to pvp, not least due to the excessive ramp up time.
The "current" 10 second cooldown on soul swap does sound interesting, since if that remains it will help to get multiple targets dotted up fairly quickly.
It still suffers from lack of burst, which the greater healthpools are not going to be sufficient to solve.
Resilience was touted as a woundrous fix to that problem, yet still with over 900 resilience I can lose half my health before dots start ticking on a target.
It was a complete failure of a mechanism, and burst will continue to rule in pvp unfortunatly.

[Freshouttajail]

i really dont mind the nerf's to some spells if that would make us a more fun char to play
y, they did make it fun to play but not as much as i expected
i was expecting a spell so new that would blow my mind, like dark simlacrum for dk's, or camouflage for hunters! instead we just stayed with the old spells, with some minor improvements, but nothing that makes me say "wow, i'm really glad i play a warlock"

You had enough to make you say that since day 1.

[Vaez]

what? i never said siphon life was the main thing i liked about affliction. Not only SL got nerfed, drain life and ALL self healing got nerfed. blizz said they wanted to tune down our self healing. and now on ptr, rogues does more self healing. Drain life got ruined when they nerfed it to 3 sec and made the healing scale with hp. its basically a copy of Mind flay now. Instead of nerfing the duration to 3 sec, couldnt they just have made the spell cancel if the target got out of LOS? No, Blizz is too lazy.

If you mean Mage armor, yes i agree 100%

you realize the heals scaling with hp is not a nerf right? The dmg of each spell has changed pretty dramatically, corruption isnt as big any more which means the heals you got from siphon life wouldn't have been as large as it would be in pvp gear at 85 when you'll most likely have ~100k+hp. You specifically mentioned the healing aspect of affliction (which is relatively the same) which is why I mentioned it.

Please explain to me how affliction is 100% ruined, when the spec is EXACTLY the same with a few modifications and improvements. Currently at 80, drain life is better, it wont be at 85 (notice: videos where locks use sbolt and not DL in fights) Hell its barely better at 80. So I am very interested to know EXACTLY why it sucks so bad all of a sudden.

[DocQuantum]

Re: PvP survivability:

They have hooked in more pvp/pve balancing mechanics this time around - if we are lower, it's easier to buff us in one without affecting the other. 1v1 we will have more mitigation than plate, including magic damage. I think we'll be middle of the pack again, if not a tad higher.

Middle of the pack I can live with: that puts the onus on my skill/gear. If someone outgears/outplays me, I lose - which is how it should be. And if Gherkin thinks that's the case, I'm pretty sure it is.

[Bommer]

Stop whining ! As you said, it's still beta. My 25 year old son has played his lock, since the release of vanilla, and he seems to be quite excited about the way locks are headed. Just be Patient !

[Chad warden]

you realize the heals scaling with hp is not a nerf right? The dmg of each spell has changed pretty dramatically, corruption isnt as big any more which means the heals you got from siphon life wouldn't have been as large as it would be in pvp gear at 85 when you'll most likely have ~100k+hp. You specifically mentioned the healing aspect of affliction (which is relatively the same) which is why I mentioned it.

thats why they first buffed SL to 60%, because they nerfed the dmg of corruption. the self healing is actually way lower then it is now, the current DL and SL heals for more at 80 then it will heal for at 85.

Please explain to me how affliction is 100% ruined, when the spec is EXACTLY the same with a few modifications and improvements. Currently at 80, drain life is better, it wont be at 85 (notice: videos where locks use sbolt and not DL in fights) Hell its barely better at 80. So I am very interested to know EXACTLY why it sucks so bad all of a sudden.

read the thread "affli is the worst developed spec in cata" first post pretty much sums up everything that sucks.

[gherkin]

The spec isn't ruing, nor even remotely bad. It's just ~there~ and that upsets people. They want there to be some over-arching plan in place so that when they have all their talent points to spend it becomes a working cohesive unit. Right now these people look at the tree and only see quality of life improvements and bandaid fixes.

This is not to say that these updates and upgrades are indeed bandaid fixes (soul swap and felflame are very good additions, despite looking like bandaids). It's just that without actually using them and seeing how they work in relation to what you do now, its hard to see them as anything but.

As I said in the other thread, the only problem I have is the amount of buttons to set up and maintain my rotation and buffs and combat utility is large. Too large? Maybe, but large enough to cause me to be concerned for newer players. Us old-timers will make do just like we always have.

[Fojos]

"Beta is Beta", something I would normally use if numbers were brought up, but really I think we are beyond any substantial ability additions or modifications short of something dramatic.
Therefore I am pretty confident outside of tweaking this what we are going to be stuck with, and I admit it does feel like warlocks have been shafted.

On a single target pve fight, then yes the shards will be limted to 3, but with adds there will be the option, though a tedious one to earn them back through drain soul/shadowburn.

"Oh look you get a new resource system, nevermind the fact it is nerfed to the ground baby, that will be enough for you."

Warlocks, hunters and shadowpriests are the best damage-dealers by far right now. You should try some other classes.

[Deleted]

As I said in the other thread, the only problem I have is the amount of buttons to set up and maintain my rotation and buffs and combat utility is large. Too large? Maybe, but large enough to cause me to be concerned for newer players. Us old-timers will make do just like we always have.

I have that problem already on live. I just started playing again since maybe a month or 2. Installed Bartender and logged in to my lock and said to myself i'm only gonna place on my bar what i really need. After i was done with the abilities/spells i thought i really needed plus some macro's/trinkets/pots/etc i noticed i still had 4 rows of buttons with like roughly 35 to 40 buttons to push/bind

P.S. Do note i don't make seperate layouts for pvp and pve.

[Deleted]

Warlocks, hunters and shadowpriests are the best damage-dealers by far right now. You should try some other classes.

you should find people who know how to dps from other classes

[Deleted]

you should find people who know how to dps from other classes

I think he means beta where warlocks especially destro do a lot of damage, not that numbers matter because dps will be balanced but badly designed trees will stick through the whole expansion.

[Numbnut]

As I said in the other thread, the only problem I have is the amount of buttons to set up and maintain my rotation and buffs and combat utility is large. Too large? Maybe, but large enough to cause me to be concerned for newer players. Us old-timers will make do just like we always have.

This is my complaint as well. I primarily play as demonology and on live it is right at the limit of keybinds I am really comfortable with. Judging by the T11 bonus I assume Fel Flame is in our rotation so we have to include that along with BoD, Demon Soul, Felstorm, Dark Intent, Soul Burn. I am actually going to have to completely redo my keybind layout to support all this. This is annoying to me considering that a mage has far, far fewer buttons to hit and will theoretically pull the same DPS. I guess that means we are playing on 'hard mode'? lol

I made a post about this on the Blizzard PTR feedback forums and of course I was met with "l2play" comments and people claiming class X is harder.

[Xorn]

I am going to play mage in Cata (If I can force myself through northrend again)due to them being much better designed and having lots of abilities to use, locks are just too boring compared to mages for me.

I'm sorry but... what the fuck are you talking about? How can you possibly say that a lock is boring compared to a mage, or that mages have "more abilities"? Lets see a break down of the core dps abilities (not including cooldowns) for each class by spec.

Arcane: Arcane Blast, Arcane Missiles (2)
Fire: Living Bomb, Fireball, Pyroblast (3)
Frost: Frostbolt, Deepfreeze, Frostfire Bolt (3)

Affliction: Haunt, Corruption, Curse of Agony, Unstable Affliction, Shadow Bolt, Drain Soul (6)
Demonology: Shadow Bolt, Immolate, Corruption, Curse of Doom, Incinerate, Soul Fire (6)
Destruction: Immolate, Conflagrate, Chaos Bolt, Incinerate, Curse of Doom (5)

CLEARLY mages use more abilities than the "boring" locks, right? And these are just the abilities on live, lets look at what gets added in for cata.

Arcane: Arcane Blast, Arcane Missiles, Arcane Barrage (maybe) (2/3)
Fire: Living Bomb, Fireball, Pyroblast, Flame Orb (4)
Frost: Frostbolt, Deepfreeze, Frostfire Bolt, Flame Orb (4)

Affliction: Haunt, Corruption, Bane of Agony, Unstable Affliction, Shadow Bolt, Drain Soul (6)
Demonology: Shadow Bolt, Immolate, Hand of Gul'dan, Bane of Doom, Incinerate, Soul Fire (6)
Destruction: Immolate, Conflagrate, Chaos Bolt, Incinerate, Soul Fire, Bane of Doom (6)

Even in Cata mages don't have more spells than locks do on LIVE, and most lock rotations are getting MORE spells. But no, you're right, LOCKS are the boring class without as many abilities.

[sugarfree]

I am just disappointed with Affliction. The other trees could use some tweaking and adjustments, but Affliction has just been neutered. Not only was the Felhunter unwarrantably nerfed due to stupid dev reasoning to make other pets "attractive", but they nerfed its self healing and still ignoring the weaknesses the plague the spec.

One lock in the official forums surmises it perfectly. They nerfed a lot of our strong points but never addressed our weaknesses. I'm speaking mostly of Affliction. Shadow Embrace is still there where it should've been gone along with Dark Pact and Imp. Drain Soul. The lack of dev response in our beta thread is also disheartening. There's really nothing in Affliction that will make a lock go spec it when Demo and Destro can outperform it in various ways.

Also, most top locks are not feeling the affliction changes. Some are even fuming in beta, well they're lucky they haven't been kicked out yet.