State of Affliction in MoP Beta (Grasp & Rotation figured out, for now)

[Vesprion]

Here's some constructive feedback for Blizzard, make the Doomguard/Infernal a 10, 12 or maybe 15-second ability on a 2 or 3-minute shared cooldown, adjust damage accordingly and then we have something we can use on each dungeon/challenge boss and we also get extra burst when we need it (a la tendon fights).

[Grubjuice]

i would say 5-minutes is reasonable, that would put it on par with Fire Elemental totem, Stormlash totem and Stampede.

[Zinnin]

I would be fine with the 10m cd if it actually reset like it was supposed to. Our damage doesn't seem terrible as long as we have doomguard to use, but without it there is no way I'm keeping up with boomkins \ hunters in my group.

[Deleted]

watched a few streams and killed the heroic boss today myself.

it seems like demo can "compete" doing like equal plus minus 5 % of other ranged and meele classes (hunters and mages are pretty high)

Affliction on most streams (didnt try it myself after 1 try) like 20-30% behiend all other classes (equal to tank dps)

Sooo disapointed, we litterly need a 18-20% dmg increasement buff on all spells imo.

[Deleted]

My doomguard resets on tonight's boss, they just have to activate this reset on every boss and it should be fine.

[n0n3]

Seems alot of people here only liked aff for its OP damage and not its gameplay (which fyi, did not change with last patch), disappointing.

They changed affliction filler mechanic "Malefic Grasp base damage reduced by 50% and SP scaling reduced by 25%. Duration reduced by 33%. Every 1 sec, when Malefic Grasp deals damage, it causes all of your other periodic Affliction damage effects to instantly deal 50% of their normal periodic damage."
Affliction is just plain terrible now its about 20% behind any other classes.

[Hellfury]

I would be fine with the 10m cd if it actually reset like it was supposed to. Our damage doesn't seem terrible as long as we have doomguard to use, but without it there is no way I'm keeping up with boomkins \ hunters in my group.

Thats only fine, if one just does raiding.

Warlocks gona be the worst DPS class for Challenge modes, if it keeps it like this.

(made up numbers)
We arent doing 100k with Doomguard and 50k without it, while everyone else is doing 75k. That would average maybe 75k at the end, anyway not a fan of this system anyway. What happens is we do 75k while others that dont have a 10min CD do 75k all the time, and we do 50k without DG/TG. This is a problem

My doomguard resets on tonight's boss, they just have to activate this reset on every boss and it should be fine.

Just did Blade lord and it CDs on DG/TG wasnt reseting, also KJ cunning was still bugging every time walked into instance after a wipe.

[Deleted]

Well there must be a weird issue, it was definitely working for me tonight.

[Zinnin]

Huh, wasn't working for me.

What grimoire talent do you use zumzum?

[Iffnar]

soo did blade lord ... some notes: Yes affliction was kicked in the gutter ... its not terrible .. mediocre at best ...
I noticed one thing and since we don't have a normal MoP thread i am gonna post it here --- the speed of our demonic gateway was nerfed or is bugged --> the green portal is faster atm(as fast as before) but the lila one is just slow ...
still demonic gateway could lead to some funny tactics in that bossfight ^^

[Zinnin]

I felt like I wasn't doing too bad.

Boomkins burst at the start of a fight is still insane and our hunter started way ahead too but I usually caught up around the two minute mark. But I also have no idea what the skill level between us was because it was a pug, and a reroll.

The amount of damage locked into doomguard is still just ridiculous. Honestly I wish they would just revert as much of the nerfs as possible and cut the doomguards damage by 90%. We don't need that big of cooldown at all.

[Deleted]

Huh, wasn't working for me.

What grimoire talent do you use zumzum?

I had Sacrifice, might be an issue with the improved guardians ?

[Micke]

They changed affliction filler mechanic "Malefic Grasp base damage reduced by 50% and SP scaling reduced by 25%. Duration reduced by 33%. Every 1 sec, when Malefic Grasp deals damage, it causes all of your other periodic Affliction damage effects to instantly deal 50% of their normal periodic damage."
Affliction is just plain terrible now its about 20% behind any other classes.

Except for the MG duration change (which is bad and no idea why they did it) and KjC OP synergy (though that's not exactly tied to the spec), that is not affecting gameplay, MG got a mechanic change under the hood, but that change alone does not change niether the rotation, priorities or dps. The nerf was on dot damage, not MG. Without a dmg meter and tooltips/patch notes, most would not have noticed any change at all.

Design is subjective, and can be disagreed on. If blizzard disagrees with you on the direction and feel of a certain spec, then you're in tough luck no matter your arguments. Numbers however are factual, and can be proven and demonstrated to invoke a change.

The numbers are going to change more than the design will, therefore it is sounder to go by the class/spec you enjoy the most irrelevant of performance. (speaking to the "dps rerollers" here) Unless ofcourse performance is ones only interest in the game then fair enough, though that would be based on the expectation that Blizzard will fail the balancing act and certain specs/classes will perform better than others (which does have some merit based on empirical data). One would also rely on it not being changed for long enough period of time either, or simply have every class at max level ready to switch, in which case, nerfs and buffs shouldn't be a surprise and certainly wouldn't be worth coming to a forum to passionately complain and state ones intention of abandoning the class when affection for its playstyle is of no merit anyway.

[Betrayerx]

Has anyone tested if my first rotation with the double Fel Flame to reset UA and Corruption is viable now since FF seems to be hitting a lot harder than it used to in beta and on live. I would test it but I just can't find the time or patience to do the 90 grind so I'm slowly dungeon leveling and everything is just so boring on the beta cuz our abilities never settle down long enough to really get comfortable with playing the class.

[Deleted]

From what I saw on tonights testing, affliction is still very competitive compared to other classes, though the soul shard regen feels waaaay less than it was pre nerf.
believe I was still topping, just not by 15-20k compared to pre nerf.
Lets face it, anyone who thought it would last till release are completely dillusional

[Iffnar]

yeah ... some of the low numbers I was seeing was probably because i didn't used the doomguard ---
OT:
what troubles me is that I couldn't really find good uses for demonic gateway until this boss ---> you can avoid all dmg(and the need to stand together or use a cd) by going through it as soon as he becomes visible again

are there any other uses I missed? - the giant bug boss maybe if you have the pheromones but server was so instable that we could only pull once
its just that I want to find a good use for this really cool spell - could help get a better rank for the guild etc. and it makes playing the warlock more fun if you can contribute something special to the raid other that healthstones(and I know they are good now) and summons

[Xorn]

They changed affliction filler mechanic "Malefic Grasp base damage reduced by 50% and SP scaling reduced by 25%. Duration reduced by 33%. Every 1 sec, when Malefic Grasp deals damage, it causes all of your other periodic Affliction damage effects to instantly deal 50% of their normal periodic damage."
Affliction is just plain terrible now its about 20% behind any other classes.

You kinda just proved his point. The change to MG doesn't change the way you use it, just how damage is calculated. That is not a gameplay change. And if you're arguing that that 1.5 second gives the spec a whole different "feel" then you're full of shit.

They only thing they changed was the damage and how it's calculated, literally nothing about the gameplay of the spec has changed.

[Zinnin]

From what I saw on tonights testing, affliction is still very competitive compared to other classes, though the soul shard regen feels waaaay less than it was pre nerf.
believe I was still topping, just not by 15-20k compared to pre nerf.
Lets face it, anyone who thought it would last till release are completely dillusional

If you can stand still and patchwerk shard regen is slightly higher, however a higher percentage of corruption 'ticks' comes from channeling MG now, so if you have to move frequently and not cast MG you gain less shards.

[Micke]

Should be less in aoe/multitarget situation also than previously (maybe 1/5th cut or so)

[Zinnin]

Should be less in aoe/multitarget situation also than previously (maybe 1/5th cut or so)

Yeap, it is a pretty noticeable loss in 2+ targets.