8.0 Warlock changes from Beta

[Werst]

Doomguard doesn't exist on beta. Hasn't all alpha either. Infernal is nice but its so obvious as a cooldown nobody is going to let you cast during its uptime. Destro's damage in pvp is still way too preventable. PVE destro is still already on the polar end of immobility so when we aren't casting it is a far more significant loss than before. The normalization of pet damage is nice. Hopefully the pet sac option isn't so undertuned we can take it. I very much look forward to combining the VW last stand. That defensive boost is only possible with that grimoire option...hopefully we don't pay too much of a offensive price for it in terms of grimoire of sacrifice being a under tuned talent because some notion that we should always have a pet unless some fight mechanic bugs it.

[Deleted]

Why the hell would they take away Unending Breath? Isn't there a boss in Legion that has the 'you're now drowning' thing as part of the fight? Not to mention it gave swimspeed as well, even if it was only 20%. Now I'm going to see if I can farm that one seahorse mount you can use outside of Vash'jr...

They haven't taken it away.

[wholol]

You don't have permanent Doomguard/Infernal

Unending Breath is not removed.

DG/ infernal is completely gone for affli, not even the regular version remains.

@garonne
I was referring to older affliction design, before even mop.

Legion affliction wasn't tanky , it had sustain as long as you could cast drain life uninterrupted.

Also the healing isn't that significant inside instanced pvp where templates and dampening alter the actual damage/sustain of drain tanking, affliction in BFA is even weaker than that because not only did we lose % multipliers to our healing and our main filler not being drain life but we also lost reap's ability to double healthstone heals ( which was the only redeeming survival tool for aff in instanced pvp).

[Gaidax]

DG/ infernal is completely gone for affli, not even the regular version remains.

This just gave me an idea about "coming soon" and the row seems to match too.

Who knows what it will be in the end.

[The Stormbringer]

They haven't taken it away.

Oh, I misunderstood your statement/missed Gaidax's one. Nevermind.

Still really irritated by the 'no more permanent Infernal' though. It was my Destrolock's preferred tanking pet since it had such good AoE tanking.

[Gaidax]

Oh, I misunderstood your statement/missed Gaidax's one. Nevermind.

Still really irritated by the 'no more permanent Infernal' though. It was my Destrolock's preferred tanking pet since it had such good AoE tanking.

Voidwalker in Beta is AoE tanking beast.

[The Stormbringer]

Voidwalker in Beta is AoE tanking beast.

But my big green buddy!

[Gaidax]

Blue is the new green anyway with all the incoming tentacle porn.

[wholol]

Blue is the new green anyway with all the incoming tentacle porn.

There was a time on alpha when it was pure white instead of the usual blue, it was quite enjoyable to run around with an albino walker for a time.

[Uzkin]

, make soulfire instant cast...

It would probably have to be disabled in pvp, though. Otherwise the following sequence would likely cause too much burst (with cooldowns/pots up and burst talents selected) :
(1) cast CB
(2) cast instant Soulfire (both nukes get released at the same time)
(3) cast Immolate
(4) cast (instant) Conflagrate
When cast from a long distance, all of them would hit pretty much at the same time.

[Tabrotar]

they did not say that and your comment is misleading.
Warlocks were one of the first classes to be iterated upon. they've got a lot of attention and because of that, they've moved onto other classes. Infact, i have an inkling feeling that the ppl who work on warlocks also work on Dk's. Dk's never got touched until they stopped working on warlocks.

i'm not saying we're gonna get extreme changes, but there will probably be changes if they feel the specs have problems. On top of that, it seems Azerite gear is supposed to be our artifact weapon + legendaries + tier gear all added together. As boring as affliction is now, an my goodness is it boring, if we remove the bells and whistles in legion, its pretty much similar to current bfa. So if they are true to their word, when they add the bells and whistle to bfa, affliction (and all the other classes) should be similar to legion.

- - - Updated - - -



I dont like the current affliction, the playstyle is absolutely abhorrent and i do agree that it probably needs the most work. However, some of the points you're bringing up i dont see how they are true.

1.) we've lost the artifact weapon and so has everyone. unless you're saying the survivability from the weapon was above and beyond the other classes, i dont see how we lost more than any other spec.

2.) Our tankiness didnt change (apart from losing the artifact). With everything scaled down, numbers were adjusted across the board for every single spec. We can still heal for relatively the same amount and take relatively the same amount of damage. The tankiness didnt change. what changed was that we cant do full damage while being tanky.

3.)shadow has its problems but its a better playable spec than affliction. Shadow lost the gameplay of striving to be in voidform as long as possible and is now a cycle of in and out of voidform (still want to be in voidform but its not as long as live). they have more direct damage spells in their repertoire and the way they build and use their resource is different over affliction and its also controllable. They are squishier and so are more mobile. They have a cd (albeit a pet) and they are visual more appealing. so i dont agree with this assessment at all.

So let me get that right we´re supposed to play a subpar specc because "No worries it will get guud later you just have to wait until then that´s what Azerite is for after all"...

Really great standpoint you have there mate care to say how much your head is in Blizz ass?

[garonne]

So let me get that right we´re supposed to play a subpar specc because "No worries it will get guud later you just have to wait until then that´s what Azerite is for after all"...

Really great standpoint you have there mate care to say how much your head is in Blizz ass?

You sound like a person who doesn't understand reading comprehension I see. How about this then, Go play the game without an artifact weapon and legendary and tell me how the class isn't subpar without it.

[Baconeggcheese]

And I spent 50k gold renaming my Infernal...

You say that like it isn't a trivial amount of gold

It'll be so sad that we'll never see the likes of flame flame anymore QQ

[Lucrece]

You sound like a person who doesn't understand reading comprehension I see. How about this then, Go play the game without an artifact weapon and legendary and tell me how the class isn't subpar without it.

I think the assertion is that believing azerite armor will compensate for artifact ability+legendaries+ tier sets looks far more like wishful thinking given the early preview of the azerite traits we've seen and that are datamined.

At best azerite armor bonuses seem like 2-4 piece bonuses rather than the scale of artifact ability+ keystone gold traits.

[Kirroth]

At best azerite armor bonuses seem like 2-4 piece bonuses rather than the scale of artifact ability+ keystone gold traits.

Technically true. But it's also true that you get three Azurite armor pieces and four unlocks per piece for a total of twelve Azurite abilities. In total that's a decent amount of power. Also the last Dev Q&A hinted that you can possibly replicate powers as strong as a legendary by deliberately stacking the same Azurite unlock from multiple pieces at once.

Are we taking a hit from Legion where you stacked artifact plus two legendary items plus a tier 4pc? Yes, but at the same time that means the Devs tune all the hostile mobs and raid bosses to not expect that level of stacked output. So it all comes out the same in the end.

[Deleted]

Ahhh.."Gear will fix it".

Almost as predictable as "It's only alpha, guys"

Sadly, it is mostly a combination of wishful thinking and denial of what happened in every previous expansion.

Azerite bonuses as said are much more like old tier bonuses than artifact abilities. Probably because they found out how horrible it was to have specs rely on artifact crutches and how it made it hard and painful to balance when artifact abilities proved too good, or too bad and the gaps you got between haves and have-nots.

[Lucrece]

Technically true. But it's also true that you get three Azurite armor pieces and four unlocks per piece for a total of twelve Azurite abilities. In total that's a decent amount of power. Also the last Dev Q&A hinted that you can possibly replicate powers as strong as a legendary by deliberately stacking the same Azurite unlock from multiple pieces at once.

Are we taking a hit from Legion where you stacked artifact plus two legendary items plus a tier 4pc? Yes, but at the same time that means the Devs tune all the hostile mobs and raid bosses to not expect that level of stacked output. So it all comes out the same in the end.

Currently in beta I selected the 2 stacks of versatility trait when killing mobs, got it on two armor pieces and they don't seem to stack.

[Ithekro]

Anyone notices Incinerate acting peculiar since this last build. I think it might be reacting to some of the procs from the second set of Azerite Armor and some of the trinkets. Some of the casts don't go all the way to the target for several seconds, and hit after its dead...yet display damage numbers. It just goes in a small back and forth pattern sparking like a fuse on the ground, or right on the target's face....than explodes after the target is dead.

[Kazuchika]

This just gave me an idea about "coming soon" and the row seems to match too.

Who knows what it will be in the end.

My money is either on Drain Soul or Soul Flame but it's pretty hilarious we're into beta and we still have a "coming soon" talent for a spec. Doesn't bother me either way though as Demo and Destro feel like much better specs (demo especially) so Aff can take its snoozejob of a spec and fuck right off.

You say that like it isn't a trivial amount of gold

It'll be so sad that we'll never see the likes of flame flame anymore QQ

We're on the same site where some dude made a thread complaining 800 gold to change skin color was too expensive.

[Lucrece]

Anyone notices Incinerate acting peculiar since this last build. I think it might be reacting to some of the procs from the second set of Azerite Armor and some of the trinkets. Some of the casts don't go all the way to the target for several seconds, and hit after its dead...yet display damage numbers. It just goes in a small back and forth pattern sparking like a fuse on the ground, or right on the target's face....than explodes after the target is dead.

Yes, it's bugged. It's not just warlock spells. Shadow priest void bolt and hunter shots also are suffering some of this delay.