Warlock patch 5.4 discussion

[Brusalk]

has the new effect for Glyph of Everlasting Affliction been announced?
my guess is that it will allow Fel Flame to extend dots like it does now.

That sounds like a safe bet.

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Something interesting to think about - The amplify and Int Trinket with crit proc both appear to have 105 second ICD's. With Archimonde's Darkness, we can use Dark Soul every time these trinkets proc (whichever we may end up using) for the first 14 minutes, assuming the trinkets proc on CD. After 14 minutes you can only use it every 2 minutes, as the charges come off cooldown.

I just hope they don't balance Destro around the assumption of this gear.

[Deleted]

So without EA glyph, i guess we're going to have to go back to 1.5 minute dooms?
Or did i miss something?

[Lulbalance]

I think affliction will be the way to go for pvp in 5.4 as well.

after playing arenas all week on ptr again i can vouch for this. most games i'm doubling the next highest dps.. it's crazy atm. survival is still a bit iffy.

[keefbeef]

I really don't understand the point of changing the way Fel Flame works as far as DoT extension removal with a planned glyph to return DoT extension. Affliction seems to be the only spec that would want this so both Demo and Destro would have to use the glyph to return the DoT extension.

Why not just keep Fel Flame's DoT extension (please stay with the buffed damage and lower mana cost) and have the DoT extension removed via a glyph for Affliction?

[Jessicka]

I really don't understand the point of changing the way Fel Flame works as far as DoT extension removal with a planned glyph to return DoT extension. Affliction seems to be the only spec that would want this so both Demo and Destro would have to use the glyph to return the DoT extension.

Why not just keep Fel Flame's DoT extension (please stay with the buffed damage and lower mana cost) and have the DoT extension removed via a glyph for Affliction?

That would make too much sense. Think it might be down to being on balance with the buffed damage.

[Hegemonia]

If they'd make Glyph of Fear a minor glyph it may end up being a nice glyph to go with IN CERTAIN situations. Right now it is totally unusable.

Why would they spend precious time to change a very unusable glyph into a less unusable one if still no one will pick it in the end? Waste a major slot for that? Come on.. this is more on the cosmetic side and is too situational to be any good in its current form.

[Deleted]

after playing arenas all week on ptr again i can vouch for this. most games i'm doubling the next highest dps.. it's crazy atm. survival is still a bit iffy.

I really really hope SB:SS gets nerfed and survivability gets buffed or we are going to have a horrible season: 2s heroes qqing about damage and cleaves raping us in the opener.

[Shadowygoodness]

I really really hope SB:SS gets nerfed and survivability gets buffed or we are going to have a horrible season: 2s heroes qqing about damage and cleaves raping us in the opener.

I do agree that as of right now, we look very VERY squishy against cleaves; however, I'm not really sure how you could nerf SB:SS at this point without just removing it altogether. As of the PTR currently, you only use SB:SS to throw initial DoTs. After that you just use baseline SS to spread them to other targets, b/c the old glyph of SS is now baked into SS baseline.

I feel like A LOT of people are overestimating this new Soul Link as some sort of godsend 20% DR, when in reality it's only a 10% DR buff over live, AND we have to forego Sac Pact/Dark Bargain for it which are far superior counters to burst (which is kind of the name of the current metagame).

[login]

after playing arenas all week on ptr again i can vouch for this. most games i'm doubling the next highest dps.. it's crazy atm. survival is still a bit iffy.

so when 5.4 releases affliction will be the way to go for pvp? now are you talking arenas, rbg, 3v3? sorry if this seems like a dumb quesiton but i just want to make sure because if affliction is gonna be the way to go for pvp again i'm just gonna stop playing my lock lol. i really dislike playing affliction, its a nice spec but locks have had to play affliction for pvp for as long as i can remember playing my lock.

[Kildragon]

I do agree that as of right now, we look very VERY squishy against cleaves; however, I'm not really sure how you could nerf SB:SS at this points without just removing it altogether. As of the PTR currently, you only use SB:SS to throw initial DoTs. After that you just use baseline SS to spread them to other targets, b/c the old glyph of SS is now baked into SS baseline.

I feel like A LOT of people are overestimating this new Soul Link as some sort of godsend 20% DR, when in reality it's only a 10% DR buff over live, AND we have to forego Sac Pact/Dark Bargain for it which are far superior counters to burst (which is kind of the name of the current metagame).

Soooo SS has the glyph baked into it but does not have a CD? That seems stupidly OP considering they just buffed DoT damage, buffed shard gain from corruption and made SS preserve the power of DoTs. If you use your offensive CDs you can just double cast each dot real quick for the extra duration, which takes about 6 seconds, then in 2 GCDs have the entire enemy team covered in pandemic-extended fully buffed DoTs at no soul shard cost. This then leaves you three shards to either go ham on a burst target with or just haunt each target and watch as their entire team gets wrecked. If you then add a boomkin or UH DK to that team you'll have them back pedaling in under 20 seconds.

As for the BRAND NEW (old) soul link, I think people just forget that the only reason old SL was so amazing is that we had demon armor, SL glyph, and siphon life.

[Deleted]

Soooo SS has the glyph baked into it but does not have a CD? That seems stupidly OP considering they just buffed DoT damage, buffed shard gain from corruption and made SS preserve the power of DoTs.

afaik SS copies the duration of the dots with a max of 6sec. havn´t been on PTR yet, but read something like this on the frontpage.

[Kildragon]

afaik SS copies the duration of the dots with a max of 6sec. havn´t been on PTR yet, but read something like this on the frontpage.

That's how long the soul swap buff lasts on you. It used to be 20 seconds now it's 6. So you can "store" DoTs for 6 seconds before losing them

[kornoth]

Soooo SS has the glyph baked into it but does not have a CD? That seems stupidly OP considering they just buffed DoT damage, buffed shard gain from corruption and made SS preserve the power of DoTs. If you use your offensive CDs you can just double cast each dot real quick for the extra duration, which takes about 6 seconds, then in 2 GCDs have the entire enemy team covered in pandemic-extended fully buffed DoTs at no soul shard cost. This then leaves you three shards to either go ham on a burst target with or just haunt each target and watch as their entire team gets wrecked. If you then add a boomkin or UH DK to that team you'll have them back pedaling in under 20 seconds.

Shard regen is buffed in single target, but clearly nerfed in multi because only one corruption generate shards in ptr ( the lastest one casted). So we're not gonna generate as much shards as on live in multi targets fights so i don't think the new SS is OP , it even copy the duration of the dots so there is a time where you need to cast the dots again before SSing them to more targets.Overall it's a buff to dot spread anyway, but far from OP.

[Deleted]

I do agree that as of right now, we look very VERY squishy against cleaves; however, I'm not really sure how you could nerf SB:SS at this point without just removing it altogether. As of the PTR currently, you only use SB:SS to throw initial DoTs. After that you just use baseline SS to spread them to other targets, b/c the old glyph of SS is now baked into SS baseline.

I feel like A LOT of people are overestimating this new Soul Link as some sort of godsend 20% DR, when in reality it's only a 10% DR buff over live, AND we have to forego Sac Pact/Dark Bargain for it which are far superior counters to burst (which is kind of the name of the current metagame).

Plus the fact that gateway was nerfed pretty badly and we have to stand still to cast everything again, we're basically going to be sitting ducks I feel.

[pokeadott]

We could use a survivability buff and a burst nerf (Aff), but bliz is bliz, so I doubt that will happen. I'm guessing Aff will see a pvp dmg adjust, but we won't get any survivability help.

What should happen: baseline 15% DR Soul Link (15% hp boost if you GoSac, glyphable to 20%), and a replacement active mitigation talent in the tier.

[Grubjuice]

We could use a survivability buff and a burst nerf (Aff).

Shard Tap! Sacrifice a Shard to heal yourself.

[Nicola]

Shard Tap! Sacrifice a Shard to heal yourself.

Rather have them buff something else. Sacrificing damage for healing is kinda meh.

[Hegemonia]

Guys, just tried the PTR PvP-wise and we are squishy as hell.

Remember the cheap-kidney-dead situation since times forgotten? Well, these times are back - my bro's rogue just vanishes when I pop bubble and downs me with the re-opener like the good ole times back in vanilla.
'
The 10% more damage taken is freakin tangible, mark my words for when we go live there will be tears.

[Deleted]

The 10% more damage taken is freakin tangible, mark my words for when we go live there will be tears.

Good thing they nerfed the pvp trinket set bonus. On the ptr I feel like a glass cannon- tons of damage but no defensives; something definitely not suitable for a pressure spec (I play affly).

We could use a survivability buff and a burst nerf (Aff), but bliz is bliz, so I doubt that will happen. I'm guessing Aff will see a pvp dmg adjust, but we won't get any survivability help.

Yeah we will probably get damage nerfs without fixing our defenses

What should happen: baseline 15% DR Soul Link (15% hp boost if you GoSac, glyphable to 20%), and a replacement active mitigation talent in the tier.

Nah, blizz is allready removing all the passive dmg reduction from the baseline. I hope they might rethink giving haunt a cd and the healing portion back.

I really don't understand the point of changing the way Fel Flame works as far as DoT extension removal with a planned glyph to return DoT extension. Affliction seems to be the only spec that would want this so both Demo and Destro would have to use the glyph to return the DoT extension.

Why not just keep Fel Flame's DoT extension (please stay with the buffed damage and lower mana cost) and have the DoT extension removed via a glyph for Affliction?

I think its a good thing fel flame refreshing is gone- dot applying should be a bigger role in the affliction gameplay; not just a setup for doing damage.

[keefbeef]

I think its a good thing fel flame refreshing is gone- dot applying should be a bigger role in the affliction gameplay; not just a setup for doing damage.

This is exactly my point, you like it from the perspective of an Affliction Lock. Since I play both Demo and Destro (Aff too), I don't like the DoT refreshing being taken away from baseline Fel Flame. If Aff locks are the one spec (out of 3) that like it, then they should just be given a Glyph that takes it away. Just make it a minor glyph so it's in line with Glyph of Carrion Swarm which takes away the knockback.