How to fix Destro AoE - your suggestions

[Angrod]

hey there,

so what do you think should blizzard do to fix the AoE for the warlock specs (especially Destruction).

SoC for Afflicition, Hellfire for Demo and RoF for Destro - ok

but how should they change rain of fire to fix AoE?

i think a cool effect like SB:SoC for RoF would be nice too

or perhaps let RoF trigger Burning Embers? that would be cool, but overpowered?

have fun discussing

[Deleted]

Short answer: AoE isn't broken.

Long answer: Mastery should address the shortfall in damage we are experiencing now (compared to what we were used to). Most AoE spells were reigned back so that they won't be OP when we're in Cata gear that is apparently loaded with Mst (proposed abbreviation).

AoE is less appealing atm and rightly so. We could probably safely remove RoF from our action bars and not miss it during the leveling process to 85, and won't use it often while gearing up in heroics unless we have a desire to wipe. We'll be using glyphed fear way more frequently instead.

AoE will be fine with Mastery, and you won't be spamming it as much as we are used to. Single target DPS and CC are back in fashion for leveling and Dungeons. If there comes a point when we out-gear instances and AoE is a viable way to progress through farmed content I'm sure things will be dying fast enough anyway. If it turns out it's too low they'll just adjust the base damage perhaps.

AoE doesn't need fixing from a damage PoV. Come the 7th of December, lower trash DPS in ICC won't matter.

As far as making them more interesting, well as you said Aff has a nice effect with SB>SoC, and Demo has increased range and movement for HF, and Destro can take Aftermath for stuns on RoF. Destro has more AoE choices than any spec really considering they have Shadowfury for slight damage and utility. Shadowflame is available to all, does nice damage and glyphed can have kiting utility. All pretty cool ideas with distinct indentities if you ask me.

However, I'm all for hearing whatever people can imagine.

[Dethh]

Short answer: AoE isn't broken.

Long answer: Mastery should address the shortfall in damage we are experiencing now (compared to what we were used to). Most AoE spells were reigned back so that they won't be OP when we're in Cata gear that is apparently loaded with Mst (proposed abbreviation).

If the other AOE is beating destro now and your solution is mastery will fix it, won't mastery make the other 2 better still?

[Nexxia]

Heres the answer, AOE is useless in cata content, or near useless. The only place you'll be using it is on non elite trash packs that are specifically made for AOE. If you AOE elite trash mobs youll probably get aggro and die. Single target dps is the model in cata, also using cc which would be broken by aoe damage. TBH you can just about unbind your AOE spells when cata hits and not miss them, replace them with your cc spells, now fear (glyphed) and banish especially. For instance, in a heroic, even if you could aoe an elite trash pack it would take about ten minutes to kill with aoe and youd be oom at the end.

[Deleted]

If the other AOE is beating destro now and your solution is mastery will fix it, won't mastery make the other 2 better still?

If it turns out it's too low they'll just adjust the base damage perhaps.

By that I meant either base damage or final rank damage. Perhaps I didn't make that stand out too well.

We can't really anticipate what they will do with all other AoE (for other classes also). RoF might end up the most powerful (or equal) by virtue of everything else getting nerfed without them even touching RoF, however unlikely that may seem.

That said, I can be happy with slightly less AoE damage if our single target DPS stays competitive. AoE was never a compelling play style for me. Big numbers are of course nice but I'd rather see them on Bosses than anywhere else if there was a choice.

What would you suggest, Dethh if you feel RoF is going to under-perform?

[gherkin]

Nexxia has the right of it. You will spend more time in heroics dpsing single targets so the tank doesn't die, or CC'ing off targets so the tanks don't die, or CC'ing untankable mobs so the healer doesn't die. You will not have the time nor the control to pull off the above AND aoe everything. In fact, you will probably get vote kicked if you are caught aoe'ing in Heroic Deadmines.

The few times you can AOE, the mobs will usually die in 2 ticks of Rain of Fire and yes, Mastery will make up for it.

[Daggy1111]

The easy awnser you will get is mastery will fix it, but that is kind of a cop out really. The easy awnser would be to just have rain do a bit more damage really. Aoe is rare in cata so its not that big of a deal.

[nocturnus]

Nexxia has the right of it. You will spend more time in heroics dpsing single targets so the tank doesn't die, or CC'ing off targets so the tanks don't die, or CC'ing untankable mobs so the healer doesn't die. You will not have the time nor the control to pull off the above AND aoe everything. In fact, you will probably get vote kicked if you are caught aoe'ing in Heroic Deadmines.

The few times you can AOE, the mobs will usually die in 2 ticks of Rain of Fire and yes, Mastery will make up for it.

Therein lies the fix to what was broken in Wrath. Trash has a tendency to get boring very fast, in wrath (after the immense aoe buffs all classes received) it became a habit to pull complete packs and aoe them down, which caused trash to be even more boring than it used to be.

Now we're going back to how it was in TBC. Trash won't be a silly hinderance weak enough to be aoe'd down. Trash will actually be a concrete obstacle if not given the deserved respect.

Sunwell anyone? Plenty of guilds out there that wiped on certain packs because their cc wasn't organized well enough, or because they didn't do the necessary research on trash abilities before pulling them. IMO that was fun.

Anyway, I don't think mastery will make ROF as powerful as soc. But in the end, who cares really.

[Velocet]

Anyway, I don't think mastery will make ROF as powerful as soc. But in the end, who cares really.

Don't know if I imagined it, but I thought SoC was getting a 50% nerf?