Blizzcon: Warlock chat (NEW TALENTS IN FIRST POST!)

[Biruta]

Warlock tanking spec, just it

[Grizelda]

I've more or less loved the warlock revamp. Demo still seems a bit awkward with meta weaving, but I think some people like that layer of complexity.

I like the charge system that they added to HoG and Conflagrate, so that you don't just use it off CD but have a bit of leeway on when you want to use it.

I would like to see better implementation of our Demonic gates. I feel like they don't debug them because they regret giving them to us, and the bugs are their unspoken nerf.

I'd like to see the addition of new races for Warlocks.

New pets. I want a Phoenix.

Some of these comments above I just don't understand. "We're too streamlined?" Really? Sooo....not clunky enough?

Destro doesn't have enough spells? It's a nuke spec. If you spread it's damage among more spells it isn't a nuke spec anymore. Didn't we cover all these things back in beta?

[Xanatas]

i hope in helpful RNG like shammy ele and mage, to have istant cast and break the boring rotation in PVE and help us in PVP to land some spells.

[Deleted]

We were probably the most overhauled class in MoP and we've had a real good time of it through every tier. We're not gonna be anywhere near the top of their priority list.

A tanking spec would be amazing.

[Soulzar]

Some great ideas here.

Aff: I was never a fan of Maelific Grasp. Please bring back Shadow Bolt as a filler. The new Soul Swap is very good, perhaps too good. So leave it lol. I love the idea of Shadowbolt Volley for AoE, but Seed also still holds close to my heart from the days of it pulling half the instance through the floor...so it stays. Perhaps a cooldown on Shadowbolt Volley, or it requires a shard similar to Fire and Brimstone.

Destro: Really like where it sits. I really love Fire and Brimstone, even if its the same rotation as single target. Only thing I would really like to see changed is an added proc of some sort. I liked the days of Shotgun Imp proccing Soulfire. I would like to see Backdraft modified to avoid the haste global issue, however if item squish happens this could be a non issue.

Demo: Absolutely loved its revamp. The Fury system and having control over Meta and your burst is an amazing PvE design. The spec feels better with higher Fury generation, adjust dmg modifier if you need to but I would like to spend more time swapping in and out of meta and less time building fury for a burn. UVLS brought one great thing along with the army of imps, and that's the fury generation for the spec to flow at the right pace. Annnnnnnnnnd... ability to tank. Dark Appo form something badass like a pitlord.

All: Guardian cooldowns need rework. Separate their cooldown so that one is not always ignored. Single Target boost in dmg is almost ALWAYS going to be valued higher. Really like the idea proposed above to have a charge system on them. 10 minute cooldowns are really dumb.

Game as a whole: Tri Spec. With the existence of Dual spec, the ability to not just be able to change between all specs is just stupid.

[Mazda]

ITT: Unrealistic hopes and dreams.

It always surprises me that people are unhappy with Demonology. Its current iteration is freaking brilliant.

[Werst]

I think balancing realistic vs functional puts some constraints in. I also think we might see a shift to a bit less "snapshotting/CD stacking" than what we have now. I don't want to say dumbed down but I think present destro is a more likely direction than say cata era demo "Rube Goldberg DPS machine".

Thus some things that wouldn't surprise me.
*Dot snapshotting going away - this will be a major rebalance effort for aff.
*Gosac goes away...c'mon you know devs don't like it no matter how much the playerbase does lol
*4th spec which is a true tank - only IF devs want to spend a lot of time on locks again....which is a big "IF"
*More differences in terms of PVP vs PVE damage for spells apart from resilience.
*KJC goes away, instant casts reduced, casters in general will be forced to hardcast more while being stationary.
*Life tap looked at in terms of a mana regen model/mechanic for aff/demo.

Things I might look at trying...

Demo:
*corr gone, shadowflame's dot extended 6 seconds
*ToC given a haste scaling component (something like our T16 4pc chaoswave)
*void ray remodeled closer to a dark chain lightning or FF volley (shadowboltvolleyjk)
*Chaoswave always crits, scales with crit, etc.
*Imp swarm glyph a baseline ability on 2-3 min CD, no longer haste scales, imp generation will still haste scale.
*Doom crits no longer grant imps, doom dispels grant DF refund + imp, glyph of doom = half duration doom/half DF cost
*MC/soulfire castable in meta form, no longer gets meta dmg bonus, does still grant DF

Destro:
*Backdraft glyph lets you trade 30% cast speed redux for 30% crit to next 3x incinerates, no effect on chaosbolt.

Affliction:
*DS gone, MG just ticks x% harder during execute range, refunds shards when target dies OR
*DS becomes a dot only useable in execute range, instant cast, short'ish duration, VERY hard ticking, undispellable, shard refund if target dies with DS on it.
*SS goes away, SoC detonation spreads dots, SB:SS still there for asap dot application at a resource cost.

Pets:
*30% movement speed increase baseline all pets
*1-2x "spec" choices for our pets between abilities
*Mastery = increased chance of resource gain for aff/dest on pet attack
*Doomguard/Infernal moved from 10m CD to a 3 min CD with 1/3 the duration.

[Baconeggcheese]

I just want a mass summoning stone to go along with our current summoning stone.

Cause ermahgerd is it hard to get 1-2 people to pay enough attention to actually summon a 25 player raid that's too lazy to fly 30 yards to an instance.

[Werst]

I just want a mass summoning stone to go along with our current summoning stone.

Cause ermahgerd is it hard to get 1-2 people to pay enough attention to actually summon a 25 player raid that's too lazy to fly 30 yards to an instance.

I would think putting a "demonic altar" in major/capital cities that let locks port/summon/etc would be a nice quality of life kinda thing. Then again you'd have the folks that now bother mages for ports bugging us too so maybe not?

I kind of hope that racials get revamped to be either completely irrelevant or you get to choose your model based on appearance (woo UD casting animation!) but pick say 1x a dps racial, a CC racial, and 1x fun/trivial racial. IE you could have a zerking or orc on use, a belf silence, and say a bonus to archy/herbalism/bouncy/etc. It would be something else to "spec" and non permanent of course....just a way to customize and have the same "toys" be available to both factions. Maybe certain races default to certain specs but upon max level or whatnot you can customize things to suit your style. That wouldn't overwhelm a new player but by the time you hit 95 or whatnot you can choose.

[Kagecamia]

I quit around the first round of demo castration hotfixes in 5.4.

Although I don't really foresee myself coming back to WoW, I am a bit interested in what they have in store for us and the game. However I am a natural pessimist and part of me thinks they will go "cata nerfbat mode on us."

Still, I truly think that a demon hunter spec for locks that gives us the chance to tank will probably bring me back to the game. I started to love tanking after i decided that the dps arms race was too stressful. I would be very happy if I could play my favorite class in my newfound favorite role (tanking).

[Betrayerx]

I'd love to see Tri spec so we can freely use all 3 specs because they all offer distinct types of dmg but the specs need to be retuned numbers wise so that destro is the nuke/cleave spec, Aff is the multi dot/single target sustained/execute spec, and demo is the in between that allows for on demand ST burst and burst AoE and decent sustained ST. Every spec retains it's niche but is more tailored to that niche numbers wise.

I love the idea of a tank spec being added where you are always in meta form and get to dual wield kinda like illidan. I think that would be extremely badass and really wouldn't require a whole lot of work because tank systems are sort of in place already with dark apotheosis. All they would need to do is add another defensive cd or two and maybe one more aoe/cleave ability and then tune threat modifiers and boom, tank spec enabled. Also add in a shielding ability or buff twilight ward into something like demonic shield where you use a secondary resource to either self heal or shield with and the strength is dependent on your current resource level.

At the very least demonic gateways need to be fixed and demon flight form needs to happen if nothing else is going to change.

[Talen]

I wasn't expecting a call for Demon Hunter spec. for Warlocks to be honest

Wouldn't you rather just have a Demon Hunter class instead?

There's been a call for that ever since Warlocks got Meta. And while Blizzard hasn't clsoed the deal by making the DH an official Warlock spec, they ahve continued to move the two closer and closer together.

IMO, a DH class right now, as shown in WOW, can only hurt the Warlock class. There has been too much crossover and the two classes right now share too much to justify a standalone Demon Hunter class.

As it is, the system is almost where Druids were last time; two specs rolled into one. And just as the Guardians were, the Demon Hunter spec can be split off from Demonology into a full fledged tanking spec.

Blizzard pays homage to the Warlocks tanking history, Demon Hunters get put into the game, Warlocks get to keep their unique flavor and theme, Warlocks get more variety in their play with a tanking role/feel, an aspect many Warlock players appear to miss.

The downside is that some players have a personal vision of the Demon Hunter that is incompatible with them having ANYTHING in common with Warlocks, let alone seeing Demon Hunters as a Warlock with a melee specialisation.

EJL

[pokeadott]

1) 4th Tank Spec (or just turn Demo into a tank) - personal pref, but I loved the idea of lock tanking. Suits the class style/mindset perfectly.

2) Destro - Change backdraft to a +crit proc (or something non-haste) to avoid scaling issues, Give us one other spell or proc to worry about (4set bonus is a good example of something they can tweak and baseline), find a way to buff pvp CBs to the effectiveness (cast time, dmg, cost) of other class 'nuke's without breaking pve.

3) Aff - Remove shard cost from SoulBurn and just put the spell on a 30sec baseline CD (someday I'd love to actually be able to cast a SB->Teleport).

4) Demo - I kind of hate the meta weaving, and the spec just feels too spammy to me. Probably off the table, but I'd prefer a BM-style approach that leans more on demons doing damage with Meta functioning as a dmg CD alla BWrath.

5) Gateway - Get rid of Demo Gateway. HATE being balanced in pvp around this ability. Games feel 100% different based on whether or not we can get this awkward cast off at the start of an arena. Awful design. Replace with anything less clunky for team utility or personal escape.

6) Talents - Kill Demo Breath and replace with root, stun, knock (anything really - no one ever will use this talent as is). Bake KC as a baseline ability (every dmg spec in the game should have a move-while-casting filler spell), and just redo the 90 tier - I don't find AD or MF particularly compelling as talents.

[Shodan30]

What i would like to see if blizzard wants to do something major in the gameplay changing department is to create 3 different classes that are intended to 'stack' onto an existing class. Put it this way:

Once you hit level 100, you can choose one of the arch-classes which each represent tanking, dps, and healing. You have all of your original class abilities, but you start over at level 1 in your new class. As leveling is currently just about as trivial as they can make it, they can either make you relevel your character through normal means or they could instance several zones for your character to level in that are essentially level 100 to 200 mobs for you to relevel your character.

The choices would be something like Juggernaut, ArchAngel, and i dunno necromancer would be pretty cool for dps because it would tune itself to your previous class. Warlock demons become undead demons with different abilities, spells change, immolate becomes burning bones, chaos bolt becomes death bolt. hunters are summoning undead animals, mages...well mages remain boring. etc.

[Deleted]

Ive been a warlock since beta (the idea of sacrificing health, to gain mana, and use that mana to damage while healing myself, was very appealing), but im tired of the long queues and always crying out for a tank or a healer. Im actually considering changes classes, as painful as that will be (i love my lock)

So, my main wish is: either a tanking spec or a hybrid dps/healing (monk style).

[Seasz]

Get mana back to pets

[Koloss]

Btw, there will never be a separate Demon Hunter class, nor a separate tank spec for locks, get used to it. But still Apothesis rocks, and it's not true that you can't tank with it, you just can't queue as tank, i already tried back in HoF at Amber-shaper and in 5-man instances, the only thing needed for Apothesis to be a real tank is a true Taunt, not just this Mocking Blow effect useless on bosses. Demon hunter is not a thing that deserves separate spec or class, the second of them because it would be a second warlock with melee wep and all classes should be something really really different, so im fully ok that it's only a glyph, so just give it a real taunt and then its AUSOM.

Other thing is that GoSac should work like a CD not a permanent demon-kill, like Sac your demon every 2 min for extra haste/crit/damge or anything, i don't know if anyone wrote it before. Then you can resum with SS, fury or Ember. Gives place for a little theorycrafting if it's better than 2nd pet each 2min or not.

Yeh, well, and purple fire.

ITT: Unrealistic hopes and dreams.

It always surprises me that people are unhappy with Demonology. Its current iteration is freaking brilliant.

True dat man. Best spec ever made.

[Count Zero]

Btw, there will never be a separate Demon Hunter class, nor a separate tank spec for locks, get used to it.

I wouldn't say never. So many things folks thought, and even Blizz said, would "never" happen have happened.

[Turturin the Warlock]

I'm pretty happy with the mechanics of all 3 specs overall, especially Demo and Destro, which just leave a lot of room to optimize their mechanics in real raid situations. Accelerated resource generation, saving resources for burst, etc...

Part of what's fun for me about real raiding is figuring out a non-intuitive way to optimize (havoc -> immo > fel flame > CB/ROF > Fel flame on off-head on maegara for example) my dps, and warlock mechanics in general make that possible (with one spec or another) on a lot of fights. Real depth there.

I don't partiularly love the 5.4 soul swap, it just makes snapshotting dots too critical in terms of overall output. Snapshots being very powerful + ease of snapshotting (SB:SS) + ease of spreading dots (5.4 SS) = just feels dumb. One (or more) of those has could go and I'd be ok with it, personally.

I don't really pine for a tanking class...wouldn't it be the case that we'd then be "expected" to have a tank set and tank whenever needed? The novelty would wear off pretty quickly.

The one thing I would like to see is that pets need to scale from mastery for all specs - increase damage, resource gen, w/e. They need to scale or else Sacrifice will always be problematic to tune. If you add mastery to pets, its pretty easy to keep sacrifice at a dps level below that of sup/serv.

[ComputerNerd]

well, if he said "Everyone deserves 4 specs", I assume he was talking about a 4th spec based on a modified version of demo (just like guardian is a modified version of feral).

so it wouldn't replace demo, they'd coexist peacefully.

Feral/Guardian split only occurred due to a single spec trying to be both at once.
It was a mess, and in no way hints at or makes others "deserving" of it.
There is a hell of a lot more distinction between those than there is between demo and the tanking warlocks people want.

So my wants include NOT having demon hunter in warlocks.
I cannot see any realistic way to have it in at all given how little of it is actually left mechanics-wise unused by fundamental parts of other classes.

CoE baked in, no need for it to be manually applied in complete contradiction to everyone else bringing that same debuff.