Possibly the worst warlock change in MoP

[Deleted]

I don't have beta yet so I can't comment on the details, but I really really doubt it's their intention to make locks hardcast soulfires. It's one of the most complained about issue during the class feedback survey.

[Kildragon]

I don't have beta yet so I can't comment on the details, but I really really doubt it's their intention to make locks hardcast soulfires. It's one of the most complained about issue during the class feedback survey.

That's what I was hoping, however there was even a blue post a couple of weeks ago about their plans for Destro. They said they wanted to have Destro use Soul Fires when oom to regen mana, which means that the Soul Fire cast has to be rather long in order to give time to regen mana.

[Deleo]

Live Phase: QQ your ass off.
Beta phase: Give feedback like a mature customer. You can QQ a bit if its late beta.
Beta first day: Whatever you do don't QQ like a retarded little kid who wants her barbie, seriously.

[Jessicka]

Live Phase: QQ your ass off.
Beta phase: Give feedback like a mature customer. You can QQ a bit if its late beta.
Beta first day: Whatever you do don't QQ like a retarded little kid who wants her barbie, seriously.

I believe the same principal was followed for ISF last time round. Look how that turned out.

[Kildragon]

I believe the same principal was followed for ISF last time round. Look how that turned out.

Hate to agree, because I wish I could give Blizz more credit with this, but ISF was an absolute disaster. The fact that they currently have a 4 second hard cast in our rotation shows me that they learned NOTHING from the past. I believe it's the perfect time to QQ, even though I admit that my OP was rather brash and hard to relate to, so I changed it to make it reflect my concerns more accurately.

---------- Post added 2012-03-23 at 03:14 PM ----------

Live Phase: QQ your ass off.
Beta phase: Give feedback like a mature customer. You can QQ a bit if its late beta.
Beta first day: Whatever you do don't QQ like a retarded little kid who wants her barbie, seriously.

If you had been following the Warlock changes for the past few months, you would be aware of the blue post that stated their design for Destro Warlocks in MoP. A lot of people weren't happy with it because of the stupid implications. This post was about a month ago, so seeing the same exact design philosophy still in game worries me a lot. They should have learned from the ISF debacle, instead of INCREASING the cast of the damn spell. The fact that their design for Destro also hasn't changed in over a month shows that Blizz is obviously happy to an extent with what they have right now. I do not want to see the Destro that's on the Beta go live, so I'm going to make people aware of the changes.

[Kaeth]

Long cast times are probably my #1 complaint with any caster class/spec's play style. I can just see it now, trying to cope with this mechanic on fights with adds or big trash pulls ... or god forbid the ever popular "OH-NO-FIRE-MOVE-NOW":

"Uh oh, getting low on mana. Better start the Soul Fire train."

<begins casting Soul Fire>

<still casting Soul Fire>

<target dies before cast completes>

<switches target and begins casting Soul Fire>

<fire appears under warlock's feet ... stops casting and runs out of it>

"Well, I guess I did get my mana back. I just wish I'd been able to cast something."

---

HEY BLIZZARD! Long cast times are neither fun NOR balanced. They're hell for trash, adds, target swaps, and movement fights. Making us commit 4 seconds to casting a spell that might not be completed hurts dps in so many situations. And there's no "fun or compelling" reason to balance the downside...

[Jessicka]

they learned NOTHING from the past.

Double AoE area effect - removed in 3.0.6, reinstated for 5.0.
Dual roles within 1 talent tree - removed from Shaman in TBC, DKs for Cata, and Druids for MoP. Reinstated for Warlocks for MoP.
See-saw damage from Decimation removed for Cataclysm. Reinstated for Metamophosis for Cataclysm.
Demonic Sacrifice - Removed in early Wrath. Reinstated in 5.0.
Mitigation tanking (Frost DKs) - removed for Cata. Brought back for Warlocks in MoP?????

That's just off the top of my head. They learning alright.

[jahasafrat]

I think you've mistaken MMO-C for Blizzard. Nobody here can change and/or fix anything in the beta. You may want to contact the appropriate party instead of QQing here. Beta testing only works if the right people get the feedback.

[Sockmaster]

Double AoE area effect - removed in 3.0.6, reinstated for 5.0.
Dual roles within 1 talent tree - removed from Shaman in TBC, DKs for Cata, and Druids for MoP. Reinstated for Warlocks for MoP.
See-saw damage from Decimation removed for Cataclysm. Reinstated for Metamophosis for Cataclysm.
Demonic Sacrifice - Removed in early Wrath. Reinstated in 5.0.
Mitigation tanking (Frost DKs) - removed for Cata. Brought back for Warlocks in MoP?????

That's just off the top of my head. They learning alright.

In most of these cases, they're just implementing them in better ways.

1. Double AoE: I think I might actually agree on this one. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense if it increases Immolation Aura's range. If it doesn't, then it's not a big deal as the combination of moving with a massive hellfire was the issue, not just the range.

2. The problem was that, in the case of DKs, the balancing was terrible because there were potentially 6 different specs they had to keep in mind when making any changes. For druids, it was two different specs. One relied on cat, one relied on bear, and there was a crossover that allowed bears to do okay DPS when off-tanking. They re-introduced it with the Warlock class via a glyph that also lowers the output of the spec to tank standards (it's insane right now, but provided that this makes it through the beta, it will be balanced mostly properly).

3. This one doesn't count. They didn't remove it for Cata if they implemented it at the same. All they did was shift the cause of the see-saw from Decimation to Meta.

4. Almost agree with you here since they removed it because they wanted us to rely on our pets for damage, but they seem to have changed their minds since the focus doesn't seem to be on pets anymore. Destro needs a pet for dark influence, but who knows how great that will actually end up being?

5. I don't think it was that they wanted to remove a mitigation style of tanking, but it was a consequence of converting the DK class into a 2 DPS, 1 Tank spec class. They decided that the current model was better for them rather than the Frost DK style.

So yeah, you were being sarcastic, but they are learning.

[Gohzerlock]

I agree with op it does kinda remove the option to take the sac talent as destro, it's a good thing the imp seems to be one of the more compliant pets. With exception to firebolt latency..

Double AoE area effect - removed in 3.0.6, reinstated for 5.0.
Dual roles within 1 talent tree - removed from Shaman in TBC, DKs for Cata, and Druids for MoP. Reinstated for Warlocks for MoP.
See-saw damage from Decimation removed for Cataclysm. Reinstated for Metamophosis for Cataclysm.
Demonic Sacrifice - Removed in early Wrath. Reinstated in 5.0.
Mitigation tanking (Frost DKs) - removed for Cata. Brought back for Warlocks in MoP?????

That's just off the top of my head. They learning alright.

So sad.... so true.

[Deleted]

i think people should wait till the expansion is released before qqing about it

Yeah lets wait until after the testing phase is complete to report issues and broken mechanics.

[n0n3]

I wont play a spec that has a 4s cast time in it, i'd rather have a rotation with 10 cds and dots in it than have to cast 4s spells so if this makes to live i'll prolly spec affliction coz with a channeled spell at least i'll do some dmg if i have to interupt it, anyway if you want stuff to get changed now its the time to speak up, post here http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/4629801/ and keep bumping til they pay attention, blizz usually listens to the masses.
I watched a destro lock stream and demonic sacrifice can stack twice so when u sacrifice your pet you get 30% more dmg(not 15% like its said in talent), after a while u lose a stack and dmg goes to 15%, what i hope is that u wont have to keep hardcasting pet summon and sacrifice them during the fights to keep a 30% dmg buff.

[Repo123]

At lvl86 you get Destructive Influence.
Your demon's attacks reduce the casting time of your next Soul Fire by 0.1 sec. Stacks up to 40 times.
Problem solved?

In PVP, you won't be able to cast that 2nd soulfire with the 4 second cast and you'll be luck to cast a 2 second soulfire back to back in pvp. Problem not solved.

Destro locks are not viable in most rated competitive PVP settings because of cast times. Classes with a multitude of instants fair much better.

Soulfire at 4 second casts is a complete fail in pvp. In addition to the pushback, the destro lock is screaming to be interrupted and/or locked out of their school of magic.

[MaximusRex]

i think people should wait till the expansion is released before qqing about it

Considering that Blizzard won't make any meaningful class changes, and will mostly drag their feet about spec balance between expansions, to prevent the "rollercoaster" this is terrible advice. A spec that ships like crap will be crap for 2 years before they look at it again.