Warlock Discussion with Senior Technical Game Designer Kris Zierhut.

[Magpai]

I'll admit dot snapshotting is clunky and boring but the secondary resources are what turned warlocks from a dot/cooldown class into a long-term strategy class. They'd be idiots to regress to "cast X when it comes of cooldown/when the dot falls off".

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The only one that really needs rework would be Affliction. It doesn't really matter for Demo as much IMO.

Having two proc trinkets, a proc set bonus, a meta gem proc, and dark soul can drastically affect your doom, which in turn creates pretty noticeable changes in your overall dps. But yes, certainly the problem is more central to affliction.

[Vathral2]

He admitted that the warlock skill cap right now is the highest of any class atm, and that for 5.4, they are going to stay as they are due to how late into the tier things are.

For 6.0, they said they have some plans to compensate for affliction in some manner, but wouldn't necessarily delve into what they are. He assured that warlocks will definitely be fine, but feels they are far too strong right now with how they are performing. The reason he said warlocks feel easy for the playerbase is because affdots is taking the guess work out of min/maxing with the numerical values, and we just don't really notice how much of a difference the addon is making.

When I was playing destro/aff on their WoD stations, I mean for the most part they left it as is (both specs that is @ 90 scaling), but I'm certain they're going to scale us based on our level 100 talents and their changes to compensate dot snapshotting being gone. He definitely wants to make warlocks easier to play for the average player, but feels that the top players just have to have something taken out of their play to make it a little easier to manage. At least that's how I understood it.

[Paarthurnax]

Lets hope demo stays more or less the same. I really liked what they did with the spec this expansion and it has been the most rewarding and exciting spec to play while it was relevant. It's a shame the numbers haven't quite kept up with other specs in a post UVLS tier.

[Xanatas]

i HOPE in funny RNG for istant cast.

RNG can break monotony in rotation, and give istant spell castable in PVP.

[Jessicka]

Dot snapshotting is what makes this game. If they remove it I dont see how I will want to play it anymore.

I'm sorry I keep seeing this, but the truth is that with affdots dot power just replaces the timer as an indicator for when to press the button. Yes, its a skill thing without an add-on but the alternative is that such add-ons get disabled, and removing snapshotting. I don't think they can guarantee that no one would find a workaround.

Further, its Pandemic that makes it so strong for warlocks compared to other classes, and it seems their intention to give that to everyone.

Lastly, Gc just tweeted that no warlock revamp for 6.0 so there's less cause to stress.

[l33t]

I don't know what "skill cap" are you talking about. Even 4-years old child could install and use AffDots.
When a side software becomes mandatory to play your class/spec, I think it definitely is time to disable mechanics you use that software for.

[Nivrax]

I don't know what "skill cap" are you talking about. Even 4-years old child could install and use AffDots.
When a side software becomes mandatory to play your class/spec, I think it definitely is time to disable mechanics you use that software for.

Good thing that they made Healer legendary meta a 4 sec proc then. I'm sure you can watch your buff bars to know when to use it well. Definitely not required to make Weak Aura for that.

[demonik]

I'm kinda relieved because on ghostcrawler's twitter someone asked why they always have to revamp the warlock class every expansion and he replied by saying there is no revamp set for the warlock again. so hopefully they stick to that because i'm sure certain specs need work but, overall in my opinion the revamp for MoP is amazing. If they do any major changes to the class I really hope they take a closer look at affliction more than the other specs. I would actually like them to look at the talents for the warlock more than anything else. the health cost for some of them are ridiculous and some could be more benificial, not for dps but for utility usage.

[Magpai]

What exactly was the "revamp" for warlocks for Cataclysm?

Good thing that they made Healer legendary meta a 4 sec proc then. I'm sure you can watch your buff bars to know when to use it well. Definitely not required to make Weak Aura for that.

Eh, you still benefit from the healer buff (free heals right?) even if you never ever notice it just by casting as you normally would.

[Deleted]

from what ive read they said that they would give afflic some kind of compensation for what i assume is due to the loss of dot snapshotting as i cant remember if they actually wrote a reason, but we all know that what they say and what they do are 2 entirely different things.

[Jessicka]

What exactly was the "revamp" for warlocks for Cataclysm?

It wasn't so much a revamp as it was a coming together of unintended consequences. While they removed a lot of the passive talents that buffed specific spells to create the desired rotations, a lot of them became passive like DoTs Critting and scaling with Haste. That led to Destruction using Corruption, all three specs using Improved Soul Fire etc.

[calanos]

The big issue is that Locks are the class that most heavily benefits from the decision to make trinkets stupidly OP this expansion.

I played a Shadowpriest through all of Cata, and a Lock for all of MoP. DoT snap-shotting used to be how the elite distanced themselves from the very good. Especially with old mechanics like the big DoT-buff priests used to get after Mind blast (whatever that was called). With affliction, the ONLY method of doing great DPS was to track with Affdots and Pandemic-snapshot mega procced DoTs all around. I agree that is crappy gameplay, but I don't think removing DoT snapshots is a good idea. What exactly will separate good play from bad play then? I don't get that part.

But all 3 specs benefit from this "crazy OP trinket" craze. Destruction gets to unload 3-5 embers on big procs, and with AD you can line up every DS with procs as well. Demo gets to unload Fury on huge procs, and used to be absurd with UVLS Doom imps. Most classes try to line cooldowns up, but nobody really gets a secondary resource that they ONLY use when at max power without losing significant overall DPS when procs aren't up.

All 3 specs are like playing ranged Rogues with super powerful Combo points that build up really slowly, and get used at the perfect time, almost every time. That alone is an issue they probably need to fix, but it wouldn't have been as big of an issue before the MoP-era trinket and iLvl absurdity.

[Deleted]

Rather than 'fix' it, I'd rather see them distribute such mechanics to other classes.

I have quite a few alts but they are all pretty darn boring compared to playing my warlock. Having such control over damage via resources is just so much fun and feels so satisfying that I would loathe to see them dumb it down in order to balance us.

Reduce our numbers, but don't gut the playstyle.

[fatal]

I wish they would give destro a reverse ember tap.

[Rustjive]

I don't know what "skill cap" are you talking about. Even 4-years old child could install and use AffDots.
When a side software becomes mandatory to play your class/spec, I think it definitely is time to disable mechanics you use that software for.

I don't know why people keep saying this. Among the top Warlocks there is a huge difference in performance and roughly 0% of that has to do with using AffDots correctly, incorrectly, or not at all.

[mystogunn]

Most people don't realize that affdots gives you an estimate of when you should refresh. There are still many situations where blindly following affdots is a dps loss. Might as well remove mechanics from this game because DBM just tells you what to do.

[Haphe]

I've heard a lot of people say that affliction is clunky, but for me, it is my favorite warlock spec. The options that you get with soulburn, and the flow that comes with using soulswap makes the class incredibly fun and versitile. I have 13 90's and not a single one has provide the fun that I have when it comes to AOE, via getting a soulburned seed + reg seed + all dots, then inhaling, and exhaling over and over again on a pack of mobs.

I'm assuming the snapshotting makes it difficult for them to scale dps up and down. If they didn't have to worry about trinket combinations, and other things, adjusting the class's DPS would be fairly straight forward, however, for me would make the playstyle a bit more boring. I've not yet tried Affdots, however I do use WA, and have all my procs pop up visibly on my screen.

[Deleted]

I don't know why people keep saying this. Among the top Warlocks there is a huge difference in performance and roughly 0% of that has to do with using AffDots correctly, incorrectly, or not at all.

in the age of rppm trinket that difference comes down to luck nothing more.

[Rustjive]

in the age of rppm trinket that difference comes down to luck nothing more.

Absolutely not.

Edit: To be clear, I am talking about between a very good Warlock and a world-class Warlock.

[Restors]

DoT snapshotting removed.

I welcome this change very much... Never liked affliction became another procc-depended specc (not only haunt + soulshard but trinkets and other spell power / haste proccs aswell).