Soulburn: seed of corruption please

[Amariw]

We need an option to pay one more soulshard for seed to make it instant and explode instantly. Won't make aff aoe kings in m+ but will atleast make it tolerable. Its just too cumbersome for current age, but we dont wanna make afflic op so it will take an extra shard and have some cd (say 8 secs).

Edit:and same option for instant three dots (you pay two soulshards for instantly applying agony, corruption and unstable affliction).

The intent is for it to be a sustained dmg loss, but givw us a more varied toolset for burst, without making us too strong in it.

Any reason not to?

[LordVargK]

It would cost 2 soul shards then. That's a huge dmg loss. Seed triggers pretty fast, if you want it instant, take haunt and cast it right after. But in general it explodes in the time it takes you to setup all your other DoTs or after you use your covenant ability.

[Locknrollen]

We need an option to pay one more soulshard for seed to make it instant and explode instantly. Won't make aff aoe kings in m+ but will atleast make it tolerable. Its just too cumbersome for current age, but we dont wanna make afflic op so it will take an extra shard and have some cd (say 8 secs).

Any reason not to?

We need alot of QoL changes, this is NOT one of them.

[Amariw]

It would cost 2 soul shards then. That's a huge dmg loss. Seed triggers pretty fast, if you want it instant, take haunt and cast it right after. But in general it explodes in the time it takes you to setup all your other DoTs or after you use your covenant ability.

It is intended to be a dmg loss, at medium or long fights. The idea is you can (but dont have to) pay an extra soulshard for some measure of burst, at cost of sustain dmg. Vs decently sturdy packs you wont use it, but vs low lived packs, decently common in any m+ key below 15, you will feel you can contribute meaningful dmg.

[AwkwardSquirtle]

Can someone explain how to be viable on m+ trash please.
I'm always bottom dps, it feels shit.
Yes on bosses I'm very competitive, but I just feel like dead weight on trash.

Are you using cooldowns? If not, you should be. It's longer than 3 minutes to get to the boss, you can pop Darkglare.
Are you fighting stuff that dies in a 3 globals? Then don't worry about doing too much damage to it, let the hunters smash their faces on the keyboard. Take the opportunity to build shards with Drain Soul for the next pack.

[Count Zero]

Maybe on a 90-second CD you could soulburn to do a SoC that would have instant cast / instant detonation / but also apply Agony to the targets. This would help us get the ball rolling on AOE in dungeons without being too strong.

[Amariw]

Maybe on a 90-second CD you could soulburn to do a SoC that would have instant cast / instant detonation / but also apply Agony to the targets. This would help us get the ball rolling on AOE in dungeons without being too strong.

Frankly great idea that needs to be no cd or 10 sec cd at most. No reason for a huge cd, its dot application. Was thinking 8 sec cd for instant seed and thats with it costing double shards ans being a dmg loss in sustained situations.

[Pury]

After trying unholy and balance, affliction's AoE dot spreading feels like I still have to use steam car, while others drive around on electro super cars. What a garbage design, /facepalm.

[Jester Joe]

Can someone explain how to be viable on m+ trash please.
I'm always bottom dps, it feels shit.
Yes on bosses I'm very competitive, but I just feel like dead weight on trash.

What AwkwardSquirtle said, I was feeling pretty awful about a similar situation as you until I started to just realize it's just how it is.
If you don't have stuff like Soul Rot/PS up, you're just not gonna do much in an AoE pull sadly, and to keep up you really need to make sure you're pre-casting Seed otherwise you're set back in build up.

Honestly I wish they'd just cut down the cast time of Seed, it takes far too long to cast.

[Count Zero]

What AwkwardSquirtle said, I was feeling pretty awful about a similar situation as you until I started to just realize it's just how it is.
If you don't have stuff like Soul Rot/PS up, you're just not gonna do much in an AoE pull sadly, and to keep up you really need to make sure you're pre-casting Seed otherwise you're set back in build up.

Honestly I wish they'd just cut down the cast time of Seed, it takes far too long to cast.

Cast time + travel time + detonation time total is way too much. One of the three needs to become instant as a baseline.

[Amariw]

Cast time + travel time + detonation time total is way too much. One of the three needs to become instant as a baseline.

Totally, its a relic of TBC (!) design that doesnt have a purpose for a long while now. The cast time can be made 1. 5 sec, the detonation time should be done away with.

And even after that, I'd still want the ability to instant cast it for extra shards, just to feel a bit useful on those 10-15 secs long packs.

- - - Updated - - -

After trying unholy and balance, affliction's AoE dot spreading feels like I still have to use steam car, while others drive around on electro super cars. What a garbage design, /facepalm.

Pretty much, and its not like we didnt have good design before. MoP had soulswap so you could copy existing seeds before they detonate, but now with malefic being main spender it wouldnt make sense. But even with malefic, aoe is still needlessly clumsy. A spell like one suggested above that also applies aoe agony seems like it should have been done in Legion.

[Biomega]

Can someone explain how to be viable on m+ trash please.

You can't, at least not compared to the meta specs.

Your job is to kill bosses.

[Jester Joe]

Cast time + travel time + detonation time total is way too much. One of the three needs to become instant as a baseline.

My favorite is casting it for so long, watching it travel, and then all the other mobs jump away.

Or they get RoP/knocked around.

[Narwhalosh Whalescream]

That'd be fun wouldn't it?

[Molvonos]

Can someone explain how to be viable on m+ trash please.
I'm always bottom dps, it feels shit.
Yes on bosses I'm very competitive, but I just feel like dead weight on trash.

SoC, spread agony before it pops, *if night fae*, soul rot, put haunt on one, put UC on another, spam Malefic rapture. If they dont die too quickly, you should be competitive.

That being said, trash isnt our forte, so dont feel too bad. And like mentioned above, pop your coolies if you can risk it without messing up your boss damage.

[Mehrunes]

After trying unholy and balance, affliction's AoE dot spreading feels like I still have to use steam car, while others drive around on electro super cars. What a garbage design, /facepalm.

This has bothered me about Affliction's dots for a long time. Affliction is supposed to be the master of dots, yet our dots are the most bland in existence. What do we have? Agony has stacks (but that is only a nuisance from mechanical perspective as it makes our ramp up time even worse) and has a chance to give us a Soul Shard. Other than that Siphon Life and Phantom Singularity have negligible healing and Vile Taint has a slow that's inferior to Curse of Exhaustion.

Meanwhile other dot specs have dots that spread around or dots that affect multiple targets in an instant. Shadow Priests have the Devouring Plague mechanism where recasting it makes the new Plague stronger if you need burst (so a tiny bit like UA-stacking in Legion and BfA). When it comes to AoE spreading of our dots specifically we're beaten even by goddamn Fire Mages in that department, since they can spread Ignite with an instant cast spell that also uses charges for extra comfort (and in the past it just spread on its own).

Totally, its a relic of TBC (!) design that doesnt have a purpose for a long while now. The cast time can be made 1. 5 sec, the detonation time should be done away with.

And even after that, I'd still want the ability to instant cast it for extra shards, just to feel a bit useful on those 10-15 secs long packs.

Well, no. It's a relic of Legion. Until Legion the cast time of SoC was 2 seconds. Still on the slow side, but 20% faster anyway. And until MoP all damage triggered it, not just the Warlock's own damage. Meaning it triggered basically instantly.

[Nutri]

You know SoC pops pretty much instantly when you cast UA or Haunt on the target? One global cooldown is a lot cheaper than having an extra soulshard cost added.

It'll actually be a dps loss if you have a 2-soulshard instant-pop SoC.

[Daws001]

I wish SoC would be a proper, grouped up dot spreader and also apply Agony.

[xuros]

That'd be fun wouldn't it?

I love your sig lol.

[Narwhalosh Whalescream]

I love your sig lol.

Thanks, it comes from warlods of draenor