Malefic Grasp

[Jessicka]

I have this weird feeling of it being a new, channeled filler for Affliction. Maybe I've just been playing my SPriest too much recently.

[Deleted]

> Horizontal HoG.
i loled hard, thanks mate, you enlightened my day !

> They've said on multiple occasions that they want Affliction to continue using Shadow Bolt
Wrong, the reason is that they wanted us to use cast time spells as fillers, and not channeled spells.

[Albert the fish]

first off it is almost certainly a mainstay spell rather than a movement based of any sort. the wording includes it right in with sbolt and incin, so...well i'll leave 2+2 for you to figure out.

as for which spec it represents let us look at the facts.
Affliction is (more and more as time goes on)based on shadow damage and dots
Destruction is (mamatgo)based on fire damage and directed damage
Demonology is (mamatgo)based on demons and fel magic

Incin is a fire spell. clearly for Dest
Sbolt is a shadow spell, possibly des and possibly demo.
Malefic Grasp is...no idea, but probably shadow since it doesn't sound fire-based and 'locks don't cast the other spheres really.

Sbolt has a long history with Aff while Demo has tried to pull away somewhat over the past with different mainstays.

Malefic basically means bad or evil of intent, which could work with with aff or demo, but in my mind evokes the demons of demo a little more.

result. MG is probably the new mainstay spell of demo with sbolt becoming a more pure aff spell. possibly it'll be changed to better integrate with the spec.

[Jessicka]

Maybe meta is permanent, and grasp is its melee attack?

Meta is not permanent, you can use it when you've built up enough secondary resource 'Demonic Fury'. How that works is not yet known, but whether it activates automatically when you hit a red line reached through using certain spells, or through your rotation building up power with active time then hitting a button or some combination thereof, or even something else entirely, we'll just have to wait and see.

[Cursedfate]

i bet it will be demo's main nuke, they want to differentiate the specializations spells, making immo destruction only for example

[Dariela]

I think:

Demonology spec nuke will continue to be HoG, and SB will be our filler.

Affliction will replace Shadow Bolt with MG. MG will be similar to effect as Moonfire, a nuke with a dot component, tho with a cast time. Maybe the dot component will stack. Possible slowing debuff, replacing CoEx, instead of a DoT?

Edit: To make it a little clearer what I was thinking, imagine MG does some shadow damage up front, and applies a 3-4 second stacking dot. you start your debuffs/pet/dots, then filler time you start blasting MG to build stacks. Then when you stop to refresh your dots you need to weave them in between refreshing the MG stack, or drop them at a DPS loss. Seems to be a way to add some fine skill back to the spec without being to harsh in situations where you can't be spot on.

Edit 2: I can see this as a way to balance us around afflictions multi-dot potential. You will have to choose when its appropiate to multidot or build stacks, and different situations would call for different strats. Say a single pull you build stacks, on a 2 pull you can multidot and build stacks on one, and maybe sneak a stack on the second. With three it could become a balancing act between keeping dots and MG stacks spread in a useable fashion.

Edit 3: Also, since the trees are being removed as we know them, there goes shadow and flame. This could be a way replace that effect in the affliction tree, as maintaining the debuff was key to their play.

The "grasp" part really sounds like some effect that lasts longer then an initial cast. The only other thing I can think of is HoG is being replaced, and the "grasp" replaces the HoG debuff. Now instead of a ground based AE debuff, its a single target but sticky debuff, that is more reliable and holds up under heavy movement.

[Ataro]

MG may be Shadowflame dmg, making it take SB/ Incinerates place of filler in demo tree perhaps

[Deleted]

Definitely a filler spell, otherwise spells like haunt and HoG would also create 25% selfheal by "Soul Leech".
Also sounds to me like a demo filler. Shadowbolt for affli, and Incinerate for destro, and demo got both of them. Seems like demo is getting his own filler.

[Gorehowl]

greg street said "immolate will be available exclusively to destruction warlocks"

my guess, taking immolate and most likely incinerate out of the demo rotation, and replacing them with this ability. Or if that is not the case maybe incinerate wont deal additional damage if the target is immolated?

[Ichiru]

I would probably say demon filler and honestly the name of it just doesnt seem like a filler spell to me either.

[Envojus]

It's a Affliction/Demonology filler.

Proof? Other than soul leach? Illidan's guile. Gives splash damage to shadowbolt, incinerate and Malefic grasp.

[Xethik]

Why hasn't anyone considered that perhaps both Affliction and Demo will use Shadow Bolt and Malefic Grasp is a new, possibly short cooldown, possibly situational spell that all specs will use?

[Envojus]

Why hasn't anyone considered that perhaps both Affliction and Demo will use Shadow Bolt and Malefic Grasp is a new, possibly short cooldown, possibly situational spell that all specs will use?

Because all of the talents (Illidan's guille, Soul Leach) has Malefic Grasp standing with both incinerate and Shadowbolt.

[salpsan]

yea remember they said they want to make all 3 warlock specs diff and individual, therefore separate filler spells
what does it matter which spec uses it, lets talk animations!

[Thancia]

Probably a little far fetched.. but sounds cool:

MG is a 'grasp' that's only available in Meta form. Instead of pulling the target to you, it pulls you to the target. This would be great for when you want to AoE as demo. Given the talents, it'll do some amount of damage by itself.

[Count Zero]

Animation ? Death grip. At least on the PTR, very first iteration. hah.

[-Zait-]

I think it's going to be Demonology's version of Incinerate (Destro) and Shdowbolt (Affliction). The word Malefic makes me think of demonology...

Or maybe locks will get a death grip :P

[Deleted]

I can see it going either way, though honestly Affliction not using a Destruction nuke sounds better than Demo getting a new ability to me.

This, plus as affli we might be moving away from SB as a filler but we'll still have insta procs from it.

[Deleted]

i would make MG be the affliction filler, i would make it work like felhunter's shadow bite (the more dots on your target the more dmg MG does), and i would change the felhunter shadow bite (which does not scale with haste whatsoever because it's a simply cooldown ability) into a dot of some type, so that felhunter remains the pet of choice for affli. this would make MG not hit the same on multiple targets.

even tho i do preffer more complicated rotations (i enjoyed the rewarding affliction with drain life filler and isf at the start of cata), i do hope they will get rid of shadow embrace.

[Jessicka]

yea remember they said they want to make all 3 warlock specs diff and individual, therefore separate filler spells
what does it matter which spec uses it, lets talk animations!

Strange, I remember them saying they like how all three trees use spells from across the three specs.

No one considered that MG might just be a replacement for Soul Fire during Decimation?