Specs so boring

[Queendom]

As for Demo... they really missed a trick when they didn't make it a tank spec. Now it's just... bleh.

This was really disappointing, everything hinted towards it, warlocks tanks were a thing, searing pain, meta taunt, I was sure the'd make a tank spec, but alas.

[LordVargK]

DoT snapshotting was the opposite of fun. Nothing is more unfun than babysitting procs. I think the current iteration of Affliction is pretty fun, though Demo is probably my favorite, and Destro is fun because of big Chaos Bolts.

I mean, if babysitting dots is no fun for you, why do you play a dot spec? Now it's still babysitting dots, but without them doing damage

[muto]

I mean, if babysitting dots is no fun for you, why do you play a dot spec? Now it's still babysitting dots, but without them doing damage

I said procs not dots.

[LordVargK]

I said procs not dots.

sorry, misread. my bad!

[ImpalerEU]

Affliction lost dot snapshotting and has been unengaging ever since, and has been made less fun to play with every expansion.
Destro is destro.
Demonology is not as fun as in MoP but out of the three specs, although not exciting it's still pretty cool with the whole summoner thing.

Exactly how I have been feeling with the class since Legion. More than half a decade of the same junk.

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What do you want people to do with this post?

Snapshotting was effectively removed from the game, aff wasn't the only spec affected by this. Are you imputing all dot specs are unengaging without snapshotting? If so that's not an aff problem, that's a you and dot specs problem.

Demo was always going to change when they released DH. If demo got to keep a meta that actively changed gameplay that would further go to highlight how creatively bankrupt blizzards class design had become (more than only being bothered to make two three-button specs).

That's not exactly accurate. I still saw Fire Mages with reliable DoTs in addition to their ultra reliable burst in BFA. There is a problem when a spec openly advertised to being a damage overtime spec with multiple buttons loses on AoE damage to Hunters spamming one button(Barrage), Warrior's bleed effects and Fire Mage's passive damage overtime spells which are mostly baked into other single target spells.

Affliction is nothing but a mess and the developers working on it know this. That's why they first introduced "Deathbolt" in BFA then later claimed "We don't want Affliction to be Single Target based" and moved on to nerf Deathbolt but did absolutely nothing to improve the spec and kept it dead and useless. Now they introduce Malefic Rapture and literally, in yet another clearly low budget design move, baked everything into it with DoTs(Agony, Corruption and UA) being nothing but button you mash on that can't kill a fly by themselves. Soon, a similar treatment is incoming. Malefic rapture is getting nerfed while DoTs will remain harmless.

This is yet another interesting expansion, but again my one and only(since 2007) class/character feels exhausting and annoying to play.

[Elise the Seeker]

DoT snapshotting was the opposite of fun. Nothing is more unfun than babysitting procs. I think the current iteration of Affliction is pretty fun, though Demo is probably my favorite, and Destro is fun because of big Chaos Bolts.

What? Why play a dot spec then complain about managing dots.

People like you are the reason devs think warlocks are perfectly fine.

[hc7]

I havent really bothered to play the new iteration of demo, but Destro is fairly satisfying and yet disappointing at the same time, and aff can get...annoying. I usually prefer playing an affliction type playstyle, but the current iteration of Aff just gets simply tiring. Sure I love Maflaeic rapture but on 3-5 mob pulls it just becomes an absolute chore to get your full dots and damage ramped up and out. Were talking at least 4-5 GCDs spent on the main target, then multiple GCDs spent on every other mob present to get everything dotted up, then theres your PS/VT, and then Soul Rot too. You just have to spend way too many god damn GCDs all the time, not to mention the amount of time that actually takes to ramp up. Feeling like youre racing to get everything fully dotted (and by that time, you often have to start refreshing dots on earlier targets) while everyone else has their full aoe damage rolling far before you just gets freakin tiring if youre playing aff for hours at a time doing dungeons.

[SNES-1990]

Demo's my favourite in terms of fun, but Destro isn't far behind. I'm going with Destro for now since I can't stand Affliction in it's current state. Malefic Rapture just feels like a ranged Scourge Strike but less satisfying.

[Mardux]

As someone who played Demo Cata-WoD and mained it in MoP, I definitely agree that current demo is a lot more boring. I'd love a builder/transform/spender style of gameplay, and currently no spec really offers that. DH obviously has meta, but their rotation isn't drastically different during the meta period. Shadowpriest might be the closest in 9.0, but even that is less a builder/spender and more a period where the rotation changes.

Also, demonic leap was one of my favorite warlock abilities. Crashing to the ground as a meteor was amazing fun! At least BfA fixed some of the Legion issues with demo, even if the spec still feels nothing like what it used to.

What you’re describing is what spriest was before blizzard ruined it in 9.0 by making it just like any other builder/spender.

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Demonology is a meme spec, the most hated of all. The devs, recognised haters of warlock and demonology, just wanna lol of you for play it. Just lost your hope about demon. Blizzard decided demon has to be the worst and clunkiest spec of the game.

Most hated of all yet is consistently top end.

[Zenfoldor]

Yes, snapshotting as a warlock was the funnest this game has ever been.

I can imagine that it was impossible to balance, because if you balance around snapshotting, you are basically balancing around a concept that casuals can't do because they don't know about the addon.

So with snapshotting, depending on how it was balanced, you either had a bunch of casuals underperforming because they can't play the spec, and another group of happy players. Or you have a group of super players who use the addon to pull way ahead of everyone, and then normally performing casuals.

There was way too much potential for a delta between skill+addon and casual players.

Unfortunately in WoW that very often means that the skilled players will need to sacrifice that engaging gameplay, because it is too difficulty for the casuals to pull off and/or understand.

Yes, WoW does require certain addons to play properly, but usually these addons are required by the community and not blizzard directly. I don't think they want an addon to be necessary for anything they put in the game, but I also don't think they will go out of their way to change the game if the community does require as much. Snappshotting efficiently was greatly trivialized by the addon and players without the addon would likely be left out in the cold. Who didn't have the addon? Casuals.

Also, to OP, I am playing Shadow Priest this xpak. Pretty fun, imo. I would suggest anyone who is just a fan of dot classes in general to give it a try before they nerf it or however they will probably mess it up.

Another great spec messed up by blizzard because fun detected was fire mage in early legion.

[me4again]

Warlocks is just a empty shell of what it used to be. Extreme power gain through major drawbacks and sacrifice. Now everything is streamlined and well.. Thats just a mage with a dark theme. Nothing of the gameplay it used to be.

[Aggressive]

Warlocks is just a empty shell of what it used to be. Extreme power gain through major drawbacks and sacrifice. Now everything is streamlined and well.. Thats just a mage with a dark theme. Nothing of the gameplay it used to be.

I would have to agree with you. Warlocks are nothing like what they use to be. MoP will always be when warlocks were the most fun to play. If people claim warlocks are good now and better then back in the day then that person is obviously trolling. Warlocks are a empty vessel of what they were in the past. The developers now are to strung out on drugs or something to know what they are doing to the class.

[Pjfleck]

I'm patiently waiting to become a god in TBC Classic, I dunno about you guys...

[Varolyn]

Yes nothing is more engaging than Burning Crusade warlock, the pinnacle of wow class design. Shadowbolt spam was clearly the height of warlock design, every iteration of warlock following was just a shell of Burning Crusade warlock.

[Gaidax]

Yes nothing is more engaging than Burning Crusade warlock, the pinnacle of wow class design. Shadowbolt spam was clearly the height of warlock design, every iteration of warlock following was just a shell of Burning Crusade warlock.

You clearly don't understand the finesse and detail in TBC raiding spec.

Depending on the angle and pressure force applied on 3 button you could completely transform and mix your gameplay. Some even say that screaming "Shaaaadow Boooolt" during cast could produce extremely satisfying gameplay results.

Take now, you need to press 5-7 buttons to get less results than you could by pressing 1 button. How is that not better design then? Such efficiency.

[Jaman]

I would have to agree with you. Warlocks are nothing like what they use to be. MoP will always be when warlocks were the most fun to play. If people claim warlocks are good now and better then back in the day then that person is obviously trolling. Warlocks are a empty vessel of what they were in the past. The developers now are to strung out on drugs or something to know what they are doing to the class.

The main reason MoP is seen as some sort of pinnacle of warlock class design has little to do with the design and is mostly because the class was OP the entire expansion.

[Arna]

The main reason MoP is seen as some sort of pinnacle of warlock class design has little to do with the design and is mostly because the class was OP the entire expansion.

Affliction could be OP now, its design would still be cancer.

Lock needs a MoP's level Revamp, at least Affliction and Demono, the core of Destruction is alright I think, mostly CB must be hard-hitting and Infernal should go away

[NineSpine]

There are a couple of different problems:

1. A lot of people think more rotation buttons means better design, so they think the clunky bloated rotations we have now are somehow better than a simple rotation.

2. Affliction suffers from Blizzard refusing to let it be a dot spec. They are constantly trying to find a way to make your damage come from bursts rather than from the actual dots. This is because Blizzard is obsessed with classes not having strengths and weaknesses.

3. The builder/spender mechanics are boring as hell and too many classes have them.

4. Demonology feels awful because it isn't fulfilling the class fantasy. It probably would have been a much better idea to keep the meta style of gameplay but change the theme to "You merge with your felguard for X seconds" to free up meta for DH. Then they could have refined that playstyle. Instead, we got "I AM A COMMANDER OF ONE BILLION DEMONS THAT LAST THREE SECONDS" and that just feels lame. You don't feel like a commander when everything is so transient.

5. All specs are somehow too similar and too detached. They all use almost entirely different spells, yet revolve around the exact same gameplay loop: "Build, spend, summon a big fuck you cooldown, repeat". It's sort of the worst of both worlds. There isn't enough unifying theme to the class across the specs, but we also don't get the benefit of very divergent playstyles.

[Niratias]

I've played every class but DK and priest at endgame over the years. This is my first Warlock, I went destro and I love it.

I'll never get sick of popping havoc and firing off 6 chaos bolts while my infernal and rain of fire aoe the crap out of everything.

I'm a fan of the build/spend system and I enjoy doing it from ranged.

This might be my final "main" character going forward. DK and priest might be my alts for Shadowlands for tanking and healing, but for DPS I think I've found my calling.

[Cyanu]

The main reason MoP is seen as some sort of pinnacle of warlock class design has little to do with the design and is mostly because the class was OP the entire expansion.

tbh this is exaclty what i've been wondering as well, it's getting harder and harder to remember how it was in mop and what was so good about it, but i do remember having little trouble topping meters in pretty much everything without too much effort either, i remember the talent line Mannoroth's Fury, KC cunning and Archimonde's vengeance and how OP it was... especially KJs cunning

and for so many people playing an OP class translates into 'my skill is rewarded therefore the class/game is well designed'

i do remember more clearly the WoD itteration with the mandatory talent that decreased the damage of your fire spells while it increased their ember generation by a huge margin ( i think it was something liek 100%?) what a terrible design! everything you did felt meaningless unless it was spending embers...

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There are a couple of different problems:

1. A lot of people think more rotation buttons means better design, so they think the clunky bloated rotations we have now are somehow better than a simple rotation.

2. Affliction suffers from Blizzard refusing to let it be a dot spec. They are constantly trying to find a way to make your damage come from bursts rather than from the actual dots. This is because Blizzard is obsessed with classes not having strengths and weaknesses.

3. The builder/spender mechanics are boring as hell and too many classes have them.

4. Demonology feels awful because it isn't fulfilling the class fantasy. It probably would have been a much better idea to keep the meta style of gameplay but change the theme to "You merge with your felguard for X seconds" to free up meta for DH. Then they could have refined that playstyle. Instead, we got "I AM A COMMANDER OF ONE BILLION DEMONS THAT LAST THREE SECONDS" and that just feels lame. You don't feel like a commander when everything is so transient.

5. All specs are somehow too similar and too detached. They all use almost entirely different spells, yet revolve around the exact same gameplay loop: "Build, spend, summon a big fuck you cooldown, repeat". It's sort of the worst of both worlds. There isn't enough unifying theme to the class across the specs, but we also don't get the benefit of very divergent playstyles.

while more buttons does not automatically translate to better too few buttons DOES automatically translate to bad, see DH for example, the class is fresh and very well polished but it's so damn shallow because it was designed to be a simple spec, especially the TBC era was ridiculous all you did was spam Shadow Bolt which for silly reasons crited for absurd amounts of damage

many people say that demonology is awful but the truth is that it always has been a meme spec

it started as a spec that was mostly meant to be unkillable in duels without providiing any meaningful dps or ultility

then it evolved into a spec that was mostly good for leveling when felguard was introduced, people were always making fun of warlocks and their 'noobguard' back then

and it then proceeded into being a weirdo spec with some random mixture of spells/pets, some tanking abilities (wtf?) and for some reason they tossed metamorphosis into the mix despite it being a DH ability since WC3, there was never any synergy between the spells, the pets and meta which was just there for the sake of 'being cool'

the legion itteration as admittedely attorocious due to you having to spam demonic empowerement all the time, a spell that essentially does nothing other than stopping you from 'sucking' for X seconds and you need to recast it all the time in order to not suck

so in that light i think with some more polishing and if they finally get the numbers straight i prefer the current demo... IF it wasn't underperforming as it is now it wouldn't be THAT bad

i mean there's some gameplay involved with the tyrant, aligning your cds, positioning your felguard, having a fine toolkite but the spec still suffers from too high ramp-up and long spellcasts (the reduciton in dreadstalkers and the shard generation on tyrant were a step in the right direction) and also it's a unique spec, the meta felt more like 'ok since we can't give them DH let's toss them a bone shall we?' tll they actually gave us DH...