Ritual of Doom is back!!!

[Mrbleedinggums]

Honestly not a bad idea, 60% Doom Guard, 30% Lesser Pit Lord, 10% Jaraxxus. I'm up for that.

add 1% Millhouse Manastorm and I'm game.

[Sluvs]

Rofl. Sorry, but giving well-thought-out feedback to Blizzard on beta-test platforms which prompts them to actually make the proposed class changes is quite a bit more impressive than just cheer-leading for them on some forum/thread which their devs probably won't even read.

I'm quite sure Ritual of Doom, as it is now, WILL get changed. The only question is whether it will get changed before the expac comes out or only afterwards, once the novelty has worn off and the complaints start to pile up. I hope it is the former, because otherwise we might have to suffer from its poor design for a patch or two.

I am not suggesting Ritual of Doom to be removed entirely, just that it is implemented well. In the off-chance Blizzard devs DO read these forums, here are some options:

(1) Disable it in raids and m+, as already suggested by me and others.
(2) Make it purely cosmetic. The Doomguard would not attack at all, except when/if it breaks out of control (in which case it will attack friendlies -- so it can still be used to grief lowbies).
(3) Make Ritual of Doom leave a buff on your character (lasts for, say, 24 hours or maybe even for the whole reset). This buff would allow Doomguard to be used as a normal cooldown (with the appropriate CD reset upon wipe) for as long as the buff lasts without need for another Ritual. Alternatively, Doomguard could become an extra permanent pet choice for the warlock for as long as the buff lasts. This would retain the flavor of the Ritual, without making it a massive annoyance.

PS. I also suggested changes to Shadowburn and Soulfire, and Blizzard did change them.

Or just have it like it always existed. It did not break the game them, it won't break the game now. This is not poor design, is just design that you disagree with because it supposedly affects you progression. You will use it every other pull where you would feel more comfortable about your chances and that is it.

Your suggestions are poorly thought out and would completely take the fun out of it. Make it cosmetic? Gives you the right to summon if you succeed? The way it is, is fine. At this point people are complaining for the sake of it.

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It has been requested in its ORIGINAL FORM! Not as castrated version of its former self, that can't be used to do anything fun with anymore.

The only real change is that it comes enslaved already. It is fun on it's own.

[Amariw]

People are whining about Blizzard bringing back an ability that has been requested for a long time.

I swear to god they can't win. At this point if blizz made all covenants abilities available to everyone with the effects changing based on the convenant you are on, people would complain that it would cost them a raid tier.

I'm not complaining, but frankly haven't seen anyone ask for it. It was a cute niche back in vanilla which served no purpose, once you did it once or twice the novelty wore off.

Abilities i actually wanted back are those that added complexity and decision making. Soulburn for affliction, MoP/WoD Metamorphosis for demonology, MoP fire and brimestone for destruction. Stuff that give you choices and interesting interactions with your rotation and resource expenditure, so it's not just a "rotation". Ritual of summoning is a cute, but meaningless addition in my eyes.

[Pury]

Things casuals will have fun with for 10 minutes and forget completely can ruin other people's gameplay for 2 years, but casuals are too bad to understand it.
If you want your "RPG flavour" shit - there is plenty of it at classic WoW, consume it there and fuck off from retail.

Ritual of Doom is dumb outdated shit and should not exist in instanced content. End of conversation.

[naeblis495]

i can't hear anything other than mindless bitchin'.

[The Butt Witch]

Things casuals will have fun with for 10 minutes and forget completely can ruin other people's gameplay for 2 years, but casuals are too bad to understand it.
If you want your "RPG flavour" shit - there is plenty of it at classic WoW, consume it there and fuck off from retail.

Ritual of Doom is dumb outdated shit and should not exist in instanced content. End of conversation.

What. The. Fuck.

[Gaidax]

Nope, that's not how it works. If Ritual of Doom is a thing in raids/m+ then warlock damage WILL get tuned according to it. Otherwise, top guilds would just stack warlocks for that dps-check world-first kill, and Blizzard does not want that. Another reason is the player-base perception. What ppl see in the logs are the top performances: in this case, the fights where the warlock had a Doomguard up. At that point the tuning decisions would follow the route they ALWAYS do in similar situations:

Player-base: "Class X is 5%+ ahead of everyone else, nerf!"
Class X players: "But it's just because of this gimmick mechanic; it is only in effect in those top parses!"
Blizzard: *Class X has been nerfed by 5%+*

Kalamazi is knowledgeable about warlocks, he knows what's good and healthy for the class. So do I.

While I too think Ritual of Doom is annoying for said reasons, I do think that this take is a bit overestimated here.

All in all it will be a free 5% DPS (at most) once per hour and raids won't live or die with it, there won't be 14 warlocks in raid rotated each pull on WF progress to pop this every pull, at most you might see all locks pop it once per hour on pull they feel confident about which would result in ~2% more raid DPS or some such.

Blizzard won't balance warlocks around this, because it is a hour CD that does not reset, just like it does not balance shamans around their free reincarnate BR once half an hour (and that shit was actually key for Uunat progress, btw). It will be just that - free DPS once per hour. It won't impact balancing because it will simply be way too much statistically insignificant to even appear on the radar.

It IS annoying that you "feel" that you are not at full power you can potentially be most of the pulls and it WILL be annoying when we will be in full parse mode after progression is done. That true. But it's not going to be some OOOoOOoOoOOOOoooo crazy shit like Blizz balancing a DD class around 1 hour CD, it won't happen.

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What. The. Fuck.

True that, tbh.

Some people do take this shit WAY too over the top. This ability is mildly annoying for me as CE raider, but "omuhgad gaem ruined for 2 years wtf" - shiet... that's some sick take on that.

[fatgunn]

It's just pointless......

[Lucrece]

Because everything is and should be designed around Mythic+ and Raiding... Sure...

Yeah, or at least use the resources to fix other parts or the class, or maybe finish the fucking unfinished animations we were promised since WoD while Demonbolt still does not work with green fire, neither does demonic tyrant, and imps other than demo still use the outdated firebolt cast with green fire, and soulfire went from using the Vanilla mage pyroblast animation to greater pyroblast but green.

So, yeah, something that might actually see use over this pitiful meme.

[Raugnaut]

I'm glad they're spending development time on useless gimmicks. 60 min cd. Meaning you get to use doomguard after damaging someone's durability for a single pull during progression.

I hate how they keep repeating WoD and WotLK useless nostalgia design without practical gameplay in mind.

Umm, you mean Classic design. Wrath was oriented towards more practical gameplay, in which almost everything had some sort of use, and I can't think of anything in WoD that was remotely similar to Ritual of Doom. Classic was the expansion that had CDs you could only use 1-3 times per raid session.

Also, keep in mind that in raids, a 60 minute CD simply resets on boss wipes, since its greater then 3 minutes.

[Gaidax]

Also, keep in mind that in raids, a 60 minute CD simply resets on boss wipes, since its greater then 3 minutes.

I did not manage to test this one specifically in beta, but this is not some "rule" there. Reincarnation does not reset on wipe/reset and I imagine same is with Ritual of Doom.

[Narwhalosh Whalescream]

Sounds cool. But it's not metamorphosis.

[FlemmMinis]

People are whining about Blizzard bringing back an ability that has been requested for a long time.

I swear to god they can't win. At this point if blizz made all covenants abilities available to everyone with the effects changing based on the convenant you are on, people would complain that it would cost them a raid tier.

But what if it is a DPS gain tho? YOU NEED TO USE IT THEN!

/s

[LanToaster]

It... clearly doesn't seem intended for this use. It seems like Blizzard put it back in because it's fun and not too serious, and with a 60 minute CD is clearly not intended to be used on progression?

The thing is, I played warlock in Vanilla, and to a lesser Extend in BC (and even less going on from there). Yea it was fun when I learned it at around 50 I think. But I think I can count on my Hands how often I actually summoned it.

But, if people get a kick out of having abilities that they probably almost never use. More power to them. Doesnt hurt me having a bunch of skills in my Skillbook that I dont use.

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Things casuals will have fun with for 10 minutes and forget completely can ruin other people's gameplay for 2 years, but casuals are too bad to understand it.
If you want your "RPG flavour" shit - there is plenty of it at classic WoW, consume it there and fuck off from retail.

Can you elaborate a bit more on how a Skill players use maybe a few times in the Expansion to Trolololo Kill someone will ruin all other peoples gameplay for 2 Years?
I´m sadly a Casual who dont understand how that works.

[Raugnaut]

I did not manage to test this one specifically in beta, but this is not some "rule" there. Reincarnation does not reset on wipe/reset and I imagine same is with Ritual of Doom.

Reincarnation is currently the sole exception, and has been stated by blizz repeatedly to not reset due to balance designs (AKA, to keep Shamans from becoming the stacked class they were meant to be)

[Maleific]

People are whining about Blizzard bringing back an ability that has been requested for a long time.

I swear to god they can't win. At this point if blizz made all covenants abilities available to everyone with the effects changing based on the convenant you are on, people would complain that it would cost them a raid tier.

I must have missed all of those requests to bring back this clunky, archaic, and franky terrible spell which belongs in classic.

I hope they come to their senses and remove this anachronistic abomination.

[Sluvs]

I must have missed all of those requests to bring back this clunky, archaic, and franky terrible spell which belongs in classic.

I hope they come to their senses and remove this anachronistic abomination.

Just because you did not see it does not mean it did not happen.

[Aggressive]

I must have missed all of those requests to bring back this clunky, archaic, and franky terrible spell which belongs in classic.

I hope they come to their senses and remove this anachronistic abomination.

The spell is definitely ass. I don't even see the value of it beyond being used in Classic WoW.

So many things they could have brought back (Soul Swap, Fel Flame), And they decided to give us this useless shit.

[Marakara]

Thought it was cool when I first read they were bringing it back, but the more thought I put into it the less I wanted it. Doesn't feel like it fits into modern WoW design

[evertonbelmontt]

In dungeons it's actually a bit nice. BUT more than often (2 out of 3? times) it was bugged and not being automatic enslaved.

I then started to get annoyed at it and did not try it again. In raids I wish it was not useable. Really.