[BETA] Affliction Warlock Discussion

[Cyberthug32]

Have KJC become a passive trait/ability would be nice.

I miss casting on the run ;-).

[Elise the Seeker]

Im excited to see how the scythe mechanic works

[Deleted]

And that they improve the green beam animation.

A green version of the MG gfx would maybe be cool. Always liked the MG for that part.

[kneeo]

Warlocks look great. Concerns for spec loyalty being a goal tho. It will take some AOE talents for AFF to not get overshadowed
There's a particularly interesting talent that makes Seed of Corruption apply as an AoE, but cost a soul shard. Pop pop pop!

That sounds like literally the worst idea ever. Gosh darnit.

Edit: misread it, whoops. Either way, still not too big a fan of it. Maybe if they change it back to all damage popping seeds and not just our own, because otherwise that talent is at least 95% worthless.

[Soulzar]

That sounds like literally the worst idea ever. Gosh darnit.

Edit: misread it, whoops. Either way, still not too big a fan of it. Maybe if they change it back to all damage popping seeds and not just our own, because otherwise that talent is at least 95% worthless.

I love the sound of the talent. Its a great throwback to BC when you would cast 3-5 seeds before your first would blow up.. and they'd all chain react "pop pop pop"

.... through the walls and floors.. pulling entire instance....

[Baconeggcheese]

.... through the walls and floors.. pulling entire instance....

<3

ah man, yes.

[Deleted]

IMHO what they are going to try to aim at is that a player will be able to play any spec they like (with it's playstyle) throughout a raid (or raid expac) without feeling obliged to switch

For example, right now, it's fine to play affliction on single target but most people feel obliged to switch to destruction for add fights (although destruction is good enough on single target so the reverse isn't true)

In Legion, you will be able to play affliction right through, but you will be able to adjust to fights as required by switching talents.

For example, the basic concept of affliction is obviously rather weak on single target because it will rely in Agony to generate shards, and a lot of damage is tied to shards via UA. However, reading blue posts, we'll be able to compensate for that by taking shard generation talents.

In a multi-target fight, we'll be able to get loads of shards by multi-dotting, so we won't need those talents, but instead, we'll be able to take maybe an AOE talent instead (it wouldn't surprise me to see talents being mutually exclusive, as now)

This would mean that a player could stay with their style of choice (such as affliction) but not feel automatically gimped or pressured to switch to a style they don't like (such as destruction)

Instead, we will simply switch talents - keeping the same basic style, but with enough variety and a requirement to change gameplay

It would fit with their stated "players being forced to take demo because it was better is a huge problem"

Talents also open up possibilities of spec tinkering without screwing up the other specs. At the moment talents are pretty rigid and only the lvl 100 one is spec specified (though the demons one has modifiers)

Though I did hear someone say they thought that artefact talents would all be available, you just need ot level them, they wouldn;t be exclusive, so maybe I'm wrong.

I hope not. I like the idea of being able to stick with say affliction, and to tailor it to fights by adjusting it strengths and weaknesses

You would even use that to tailor your role within a fight, for example, being an "add guy" or "stays on the boss guy", as desired by the player or the raid

At present affliction particularly forces such roles - less so with destruction

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That sounds like literally the worst idea ever. Gosh darnit.

Edit: misread it, whoops. Either way, still not too big a fan of it. Maybe if they change it back to all damage popping seeds and not just our own, because otherwise that talent is at least 95% worthless.

They would certainly have to make it so that either

ALL damage causes Seeds to explode or the explosion damage from one Seed is enough to make the others explode

Otherwise, as you say it would be horrible, worse that SB:SoC is now!

[PickleballAce]

Re-posting from Destro thread. Making us even more reliant on guardians as our main class CD is problematic.

[kneeo]

Re-posting from Destro thread. Making us even more reliant on guardians as our main class CD is problematic.

Oh ffs. Whelp, demon hunters and shadow priests look pretty cool..

[Baconeggcheese]

Oh ffs. Whelp, demon hunters and shadow priests look pretty cool..

Spriests are already designed around not having a CD, so unless they plan to add one in that they didn't mention... then you're swapping a class that's becoming more like a spriest for a spriest.

[Kirroth]

Spriests are already designed around not having a CD, so unless they plan to add one in that they didn't mention...

Given how much times the Devs have said "cooldowns aren't in the previews because those are just core rotational abilities" and "talents will have a lot of throughput options like cooldowns" then yes, I would say it's very very safe to assume that Shadow has cooldowns that didn't get mentioned. I mean, besides the one cooldown talent that was the sample talent in the preview.

[evertonbelmontt]

The bad thing about this is that you can't control guardians. You can't say to him "switch to that warrior ASAP" in arena, for instance.
But maybe we'll have many more options this time arround.

All specs look great on paper, but since I'm so disappointed with WoD overall, I don't get my hopes up. They should do a hell of a job in the game this time arround, because WoD seems like a patch instead of an expansion and Warlocks pretty much paid for MoP greatness.

I don't want to be "fine", I want to be amazing. Make everyone amazing if they will, but I want more options, more flavor, etc.
In MoP it wasn't about the dps. We could cast on the move, we had a green quest line, all specs were fun to play and there was the "lulz" moments. UVLS anyone? hahah

[Deleted]

Yes, that is certainly the problem - if a Doomguard every two minutes replaces Dark Soul, then it's a problem outside of everything other than a boss burn phase.

Pets but particularly guardian pets are horrible for target switching. Even main pets, I have specific pet attack macros keybound because the AI tends to be tardy. A guardian pet is pretty much like a totem. No control at all

Evidently, they plan on making all warlock specs much more pet oriented. It would not surprise me at all to see pet sacrifice gone or radically changed. It fits with the class, of course, all warlocks should use demons (I hate destruction, lore wise, basically it's a fire mage)

But the bane of it is the pet AI

[Baconeggcheese]

Given how much times the Devs have said "cooldowns aren't in the previews because those are just core rotational abilities" and "talents will have a lot of throughput options like cooldowns" then yes, I would say it's very very safe to assume that Shadow has cooldowns that didn't get mentioned. I mean, besides the one cooldown talent that was the sample talent in the preview.

If you want to base it off that assumption that they're going to have DS levels of cooldowns as talents (which would obviously become mandatory instantly and completely eliminate purpose in having other talents in that row) I'm not sure why you wouldn't assume that for warlocks as well?

The one CD they showed for spriests isn't much of a CD. It's like saying voidfiend is a CD when we're talking from the context of CD's like DS and DG. Spriests haven't had a major CD for 2 xpacs, it'd be kind of a big deal if they dropped a dark soul equivalent in their talents or baseline kit and forgot to mention it.



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all warlocks should use demons (I hate destruction, lore wise, basically it's a fire mage)

and lore wise aff struggles to pretend like it isn't the same thing as a spriest.

Here's hoping they give me usable talent options to get rid of any pet focus they may throw in there for at least destruction.

[Deleted]

and lore wise aff struggles to pretend like it isn't the same thing as a spriest.

Other way around, surely.

[Deleted]

Indeed. I'd have said that a SPriest was a perverted, gone-bad wannabe warlock. As a class they have one "warlocky" spec, just like warlocks have one "magey" spec. Neither Shadow nor Destruction really fit with the ethos of the classes and only exist as a sop to people to chose the wrong class and want a different playstyle. Or need it because the true warlock specs suck at certain encounters!

Destruction is a glass cannon that utilises almost exclusively direct high damage abilities. That, to me, if a description of a Mage.

Shadow Priest is someone who has turned to darkness and uses abilities that slowly and painfuly suck the life out of their victims with the help of an evil minion. That, to me, is a description of a Warlock.

[PickleballAce]

What is a Warlock intended to be...nothing but Dots?

Like, are we just supposed to have three Affliction specs?

[uhhwateva]

What is a Warlock intended to be...nothing but Dots?

Like, are we just supposed to have three Affliction specs?

Nah, Warlocks dabble in slowly siphoning the life energy out of their target with shadow magic, DoTs, and Drains. They also control demonic essences, demons and other creatures from the twisting nether to do their bidding. And they also command fel fire, wreaking havoc and leaving a wake of destruction in their path.

All of our specs have a niche in the class fantasy.

[Baconeggcheese]

Other way around, surely.

Chicken egg.

[Deleted]

Chicken egg.

Yeah, sure. SPriests are chickens and warlocks are the red junglefowl.

I just remember spriests being weird mana batteries that I never felt were even close to encroaching on affliction territory. Channeled filler, SWD, infrequent MB casts, Vampiric Embrace, hell, I remember they didn't have devouring plague way back - not even sure how many dots they used to have besides SWP.
Either way, never felt like there wasn't enough of a difference back through TBC->Cata.

Then we got the affliction revamp. Since then I've felt the similarities, but only since then.