Affliction PvP

[Bogdan]

Hi. A few weeks ago every class/spec received a PvP Template nerf, by 10% to their primary stat, but is everyone forgetting that Affliction already had a PvP Template nerf before launch, in pre patch? Affliction currently does roughly 40% less dmg in PvP, why isn't anyone concerned about this? I barely post here, but seeing no one mentioned this so far, seems rather odd... 10k Corruptions, 18k Siphon Life, 35k UAs ticks is ok? On 2 mils +? You can't even kill someone who isn't self healing in less than half a minute in a BG, not even worth talking about Arenas...

So, what is going on?

[Deleted]

Most people here don't play PvP. After all it's not the main thing of the game. Also PvP is more situational than PvE so can't do the same math.

[Deleted]

Hi. A few weeks ago every class/spec received a PvP Template nerf, by 10% to their primary stat, but is everyone forgetting that Affliction already had a PvP Template nerf before launch, in pre patch? Affliction currently does roughly 40% less dmg in PvP, why isn't anyone concerned about this? I barely post here, but seeing no one mentioned this so far, seems rather odd... 10k Corruptions, 18k Siphon Life, 35k UAs ticks is ok? On 2 mils +? You can't even kill someone who isn't self healing in less than half a minute in a BG, not even worth talking about Arenas...

So, what is going on?

Simple, Aff used to be very strong in the prepatch due to the combination of Soul Leech, Pact and generally lowered damage. We were able to tank a melee, even 1 vs 2, with relative ease.

Obviously all the moutbreathers who think pvp = "stun, pop cds, target dead in 3 gcd" were rubbed the wrong way by this, so there was an enormous amount of tears on the forums. The resulting heavy nerfs + damage scaling faster than our defenses lead to Affliction being a joke. We get tunneled to death yet again in 2-3 globals and our dots hit like noodles because every time we complain someone pastes a damage screenshot from a BG where they let a warlock stand and freecast dots into a whole 8v8 team brawl for several minutes, or an arena sob story where a bunch of losers allowed a lock to cast 5-6 back to back UAs and then some idiot healer dispelled this.

It can't be helped, Aff is the red-headed stepchild of Legion both in PVE and in PVP, being by far the worst lock spec and among the 3-4 weakest specs in the current game overall. But, as someone noted in one of the many "why is Aff so fucking weak" threads here, it has a niche! It's great for leveling. So there's that.

[Deleted]

Affliction was nerfed to the ground in the pre-patch. Dead on arrival, I'm afraid.

[Thepaintrain]

Its god tier in Mythic EN.
Pvp is a main point of the game, not the main point, but a main one.. there are 100% more pvp competitions than there are PVE.

[Deleted]

I really get tilted when people say or assume pvp is just a mini game of WoW. The entire warcraft franschise has focused very much on pvp ever since the rts games. It's always been there, and it's kept me playing and coming back for some pvp action for the past 11 years

[Sunlighthell]

Its god tier in Mythic EN.

Nice joke.

[transparent]

The few times Affliction really feels great is when facing +10 opposing faction members clumped together and hitting them with Phantom Singularity. Shit's hilarious since you can't die and gives you enough time to Siphon Life the shit out of everything becoming practically indestructible.

Nothing dies though, you don't die and they don't die, so after a while, they just leave you alone. Still quite funny having so many players beating on you and not dying.

[Locki]

I'm a bit above casual in PVP I would say, and despite the fact that I dislike the state of affliction a LOT in this expansion, I really enjoy it in PVP. Obviously, melee in general are having a field day, which is just the general state of the game at the moment, but if I manage to survive the first burst from the opposing team, I have a legit chance of winning. 2v2s are hard obviously, but in 3v3s, affliction is definitely something to fear. I tend to top dmg dealt, and I've never lost a 1v1-situation so far. Affliction is meant to help my team win by attrition more than anything. If I'm allowed to be present in a RBG or 3v3 for too long, I will be able to deal a LOT of damage.

[meatfresh]

Affliction are fine, there are 16 affliction locks over 2.2k which is pretty good compared to most other classes

[wholol]

Affliction are fine, there are 16 affliction locks over 2.2k which is pretty good compared to most other classes

That's not it, most people started with a single spec in mind with the whole artifact leveling and all, so most locks chose affliction for pvp since it was good in prepatch and historically the best 3v3 spec for locks for quite a long time, so it was quite a rational choice picking affliction, sadly things took a wrong turn somewhere.

With demo currently being the best pvp spec and destro getting buffed to equal grounds in 7.1, I'm afraid the number of affliction players will drop off as AP scaling rises over time and people are able to put more points in other specs faster.

[Deleted]

That's not it, most people started with a single spec in mind with the whole artifact leveling and all, so most locks chose affliction for pvp since it was good in prepatch and historically the best 3v3 spec for locks for quite a long time, so it was quite a rational choice picking affliction, sadly things took a wrong turn somewhere.

With demo currently being the best pvp spec and destro getting buffed to equal grounds in 7.1, I'm afraid the number of affliction players will drop off as AP scaling rises over time and people are able to put more points in other specs faster.

It also needs to be learnt since it's a completely new beast.
I know it took me a while to get to grips with it and I've heard similar from some players far better at pvp than me.

Hard to see affliction being even remotely competetive at the moment though, the kneejerk reaction to how strong it was in the pre-patch have resulted in it being flimsy and low damage and the one RnD playstyle it had that was viable has been nerfed twice since launch.
I guess it might work in 2v2s with Essence Drain, but that's all I can imagine.