Shadowbolt or Drain Soul

[Jessicka]

Translation: WAAAH SHADOWBOLT IS BETTER BECAUSE IT WAS THERE FIRST DONT TAKE AWAY MUH BLIND NOSTALGIA

Read my post on the first page, I said I don't dislike DS. I do prefer SB sure, and I was pretty clear why - it never felt out of place to me, and meant the switch from SB to DS in the execute felt a much more meaningful contrast in gameplay. It's not nostalgia, I have very good memory of playing it, and playing Affliction now, I really do miss that contrasting rotation change at the execute. I've been saying the same thing since MoP beta when MG was introduced.

[Dyptheria]

Malefic Grasp, honestly. I don't have a problem with a channelled spell as filler. But I do find it silly and lame that our execute spell is still the same spell as the filler.

This. I actually liked Malefic Grasp but having said that, a channelled spell is a channelled spell. Theoretically, Affliction could use Drain Life as filler and Drain Soul as execute, while bringing back Siphon Life as a self-healing DoT. But, that still wouldn't change the fact that a channelled spell is a channelled spell.

I suppose to mix things up, Affliction could have Shadow Bolt return as a 1-second cast projectile which places a 10-second debuff on the target which lowers magical resistance by x% when the target is below 25%, just for the sake of weaving something into the execute phase, but in reality that's all it would be. There aren't that many different spell types in the game: projectile (like Shadow Bolt), projected single target (Mind Spike), bomb (Seed of Corruption), projected AoE (Rain Of Fire), centered AoE (Hellfire), channelled and DoT.

[Kanariya]

Cataclysm Affliction was the best spec out of every spec in the entire history of World of Warcraft. Yes, it was that good. Even the Devs said it was the "most complete" spec out of all.

And yet, it got butchered to a Shadow Priest knockoff in 5.0. Why? Because our multi-dot potential was "too strong." So now we're stuck with weak as fuck dots and a weak as fuck filler that only deal damage when combined.

They fucked Affliction over hardcore with 5.0 and I will never ever get over it. I've made the decision to quit my Warlock main of several years because of how horrid the class has become.

[purebalance]

Shadow bolt with the old nightfall procs.

This. Nightfall shadow bolts felt so amazing for no real reason, but they just did.

[Nihilist74]

If I want to do shadowbolt, I will play demonology.

Drain soul looks cool and it is more fun to do a channeled spell instead of a cast time spell.

[purebalance]

Dot class...channeled dot spell fits better to the class design...blabla.

Actually I'd take shadowbolt with the NF procs back any day. Preferably together with dot snapshotting and the old / larger set of dots.

Dot snapshotting is only good if they disallow add ons. Most people who played affliction seriously had add ons telling them when to cast and recast. It wasn't really skillful at all. Honestly I'm 100% against all add ons in game anyway short of a damage meter which they can easily build into the game or you can just upload logs, but that takes a minute and isn't in real time during pulls.

- - - Updated - - -

70% don't remember that Shadowbolt doesn't benefit from Mastery.

Everyone ok having 45% of your damage wrapped up in a 2.5 cast that only scales with Haste/Crit? Want your DoT enhancers dependent on maintaining individual target debuffs on a 15-20 second timer with said filler?

I remember that and it wasn't that elegant of a solution.

Yupp because that makes your other stats more meaningful in a world where reforging doesn't exist. If anything not benefiting from mastery was good for the game because it increased haste and crit's value.

[Kanariya]

Dot snapshotting is only good if they disallow add ons. Most people who played affliction seriously had add ons telling them when to cast and recast. It wasn't really skillful at all.

This literally only happened during MoP after the Aff change with the mastery double dip and the introduction of modern Pandemic.

[purebalance]

If I want to do shadowbolt, I will play demonology.

Drain soul looks cool and it is more fun to do a channeled spell instead of a cast time spell.

"fun"=I don't have a real reason but my opinion is better.

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This literally only happened during MoP after the Aff change with the mastery double dip and the introduction of modern Pandemic.

Not really. People have been using add ons like that for the longest time. Old dot rolling was far better like on Nef heroic getting the portal buff was just amg ridiculous if you could roll your dots with a good high stack of it.

[Kanariya]

Not really. People have been using add ons like that for the longest time. Old dot rolling was far better like on Nef heroic getting the portal buff was just amg ridiculous if you could roll your dots with a good high stack of it.

Specific encounter snapshotting is different, and Blizz set it up that way. We were not snapshotting our DoTs in Cata at the same level as we did in MoP because it was always a DPS loss except for certain encounters with gimmicky mechanics.

[Deleted]

Yupp because that makes your other stats more meaningful in a world where reforging doesn't exist. If anything not benefiting from mastery was good for the game because it increased haste and crit's value.

I miss stacking haste through the roof instead of "oh, you're a warlock? Just stack mastery".

[Deleted]

Specific encounter snapshotting is different, and Blizz set it up that way. We were not snapshotting our DoTs in Cata at the same level as we did in MoP because it was always a DPS loss except for certain encounters with gimmicky mechanics.

snapshot power is related to procs power, so yeah late mop was the 1st time when you had trinkets able to double your sp

[Wvvtayy]

I miss stacking haste through the roof instead of "oh, you're a warlock? Just stack mastery".

Affliction does stack haste. You only stack mastery if you're dual spec aff/destro, which I am not.

[Illiterate]

Cataclysm Affliction was the best spec out of every spec in the entire history of World of Warcraft. Yes, it was that good. Even the Devs said it was the "most complete" spec out of all.

And yet, it got butchered to a Shadow Priest knockoff in 5.0. Why? Because our multi-dot potential was "too strong." So now we're stuck with weak as fuck dots and a weak as fuck filler that only deal damage when combined.

They fucked Affliction over hardcore with 5.0 and I will never ever get over it. I've made the decision to quit my Warlock main of several years because of how horrid the class has become.

I completely agree. I also completely stopped playing my lock from the mop pre-patch. It was never fun after that and wod just made it worse.

[Deleted]

Cataclysm Affliction was the best spec out of every spec in the entire history of World of Warcraft. Yes, it was that good. Even the Devs said it was the "most complete" spec out of all.

And yet, it got butchered to a Shadow Priest knockoff in 5.0. Why? Because our multi-dot potential was "too strong." So now we're stuck with weak as fuck dots and a weak as fuck filler that only deal damage when combined.

They fucked Affliction over hardcore with 5.0 and I will never ever get over it. I've made the decision to quit my Warlock main of several years because of how horrid the class has become.

And they completely tone down our multidotting. If anything, they made it worse by removing the CD from SS, which made multidotting unfun, 1 button cancer to play - but it was stronger if anything. Poor thing is still practically broken in WOD with the bandaid fix of tacking two soul shards onto it, why they seem incapable of rolling back to things that DID work to fix the problems the revamp caused is beyond me - SS was fine with a cooldown, just affliction themed Havoc.

Affliction does stack haste. You only stack mastery if you're dual spec aff/destro, which I am not.

Yup, I'm aware of that - but going pure affliction isn't an option from where I am. I just find mastery boring. It increases my dot damage? That's cute.

I remember being a fool back in TBC when haste was first added and talking with our spriest about how I wasn't sure I'd like it because if I'm casting faster I'll go OOM faster and need to lifetap, right?! Why not just stack proper dps stats?

By WOTLK I was gobbling up as much haste as I could because shortening a shadowbolt cast was something that felt felt noticeable and rewarding over time. Tangible power creep in something other than just abstract numbers is nice, something that you can feel. Destro also did that quite nicely in MOP with ember generation throughout the expansion.

[Metaslave]

This. Nightfall shadow bolts felt so amazing for no real reason, but they just did.

Yeah I miss those. Really did feel great. I guess part of it was that Shadowbolt was a very long cast for a filler so having one be instant felt really rewarding.
Shadowbolt also hit hard. As I recall it had the highest spell power coefficient in the game.

I remember in Cata I wanted a drain filler because I felt Affli should be THE drain spec, rather than Shadowpriests. We did use Drain Life as filler briefly during t11 and it was cool at the time but felt awkward due to Shadow Embrace or whatever it was called.
When we finally did get a drain filler with Malefic Grasp the fun didn't last long. Nightfall proc was now an extra shard. Whoopty doo. I can't really put into words why but it wore out it's welcome really fast. I guess it doesn't "feel" like a "nuke" the way Shadowbolt did.

[Deleted]

I would like to see Shadowbolt as the main filler with a dot or perhaps shadowbolt itself having a chance to procc, temporarily making shadowbolt Drainsoul (in its current form) for its next cast. Also making it Drainsoul for as long as it hits a target under 20% health.

[Wvvtayy]

I would like to see Shadowbolt as the main filler with a dot or perhaps shadowbolt itself having a chance to procc, temporarily making shadowbolt Drainsoul (in its current form) for its next cast. Also making it Drainsoul for as long as it hits a target under 20% health.

That is perhaps the worst idea I've seen yet in this thread.

[Baconeggcheese]

Lol that's not to bad, make shadowbolt basically have ignite attached to it or it simply applies an infinitely stacking dot a la ignite and has no direct dmg.

[Maleific]

I do miss Shadowbolt filler with Drain Soul execute, as people have pointed out <20% shit got real and you're finishing off by sucking out their very soul which feels very warlocky. Don't miss shadow's embrace, really miss eradication procs though. =\

[baatora]

I loved the few weeks back in cata when we could use Drain Life as filler.
Shadow Bolt doesn't feel good in affliction, Drain Soul mechanic was boring.

Drain Life is life.
Drain Life is love.

And the old Drain Soul finisher was also great!