Warlock Ember System
How does Destruction’s Ember system work?
Basically, you build embers with some spells, and then spend those embers with Soul Fire, Ember Tap, or Fire and Brimstone.
Internally, this is how it works:
Immolate – DD + DoT on the target
Incinerate – generates 1/10th ember, or 2/10ths if it crits an immolated target.
Fel Flame – generates 1/10th ember, or 2/10ths if it crits an immolated target.
Conflagrate – triggers Backdraft and has a 12 second cooldown.
Soul Fire – consumes one ember instead of mana.
Fire and Brimstone – costs 1 ember and has no cooldown.
Ember Tap – costs 1 embers.
Each full ember costs 0.33% of your maximum health per second. If you stay below 1 ember, you take no damage.
How does chaotic energy work?
We are experimenting with a resource-driven, rather than time-limited, caster model on the Destruction warlock.
In a nutshell, Destruction warlocks are not GCD locked. In fact, chain-casting spells as a Destruction warlock is less important than spending all of your resources.
Keep in mind this is all subject to change, but here is how Destruction flows at the moment:
Start of Fight: Full mana bar, Empty Ember bar
1. Immolate the target
2. Conflagrate to trigger emberstorm
3. Incinerate to generate embers
4. Continue until you are low on mana
Middle of Fight: Empty mana bar, ~2 Embers
1. Soul Fire
2. Soul Fire
3. Mana bar is mostly full (Soul Fire costs embers, so your mana refills during the Soul Fires)
In addition to increasing your base mana regen, Chaotic Energy increases mana regen even more with Haste. This means the ability to cast spells scales smoothly with gear.
As long as the warlock never lets her mana bar fill up and burn her embers, she's maximizing damage. This is very different from the standard caster model where priority is placed on casting at all times and ordering spells based on cooldown.
Our hope is that the Destruction Warlock will attract players who are interested in a playstyle that rewards spending resources at the right time, rather than constantly casting.
How does Destruction’s Mastery work?
Emberstorm increases the effectiveness of all Ember consuming spells. Soul Fire deals more damage. Fire & Brimstone deals a higher % of the base spell’s damage. Ember Tap heals for more. (
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Development Time Cutbacks
Blizzard severaly reduced the number of people on WoW development teams in last few months, which explains the simplifying of various aspects of the game. They don´t want to spend too much time tuning bosses, so they simplify the player, for example.
I have no idea where you got this information from, but it's wrong. We're not simplifying various aspects of the game, we're constantly reviewing them to ensure they're fun, which can actually sometimes mean making them more involved. Also, we spend however long is necessary to tune bosses to make them engaging and challenging, we're not cutting back on that at all. (
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
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