New shadow bolt animation?

[Baconeggcheese]

They forgot the ___only___ thing that kept the spec working in both PVP and PVE: Soul Swap.

Without it the spec is lacking a LOT. Soul Swap could fix the ramp issues with priority adds at least, something that MG helps with right now (spam UA's and drain). And it's cool AF. Add some kind of CD to it (30 sec, 20 sec, IDK) and we're gold.

I can't believe they let Soul Swap go. It was one of the most amazing spells I had the pleasure to play with as a Warlock (along with Metamorphosis from MoP and FF from cata). Without snapshot I think it would probably be really easy to balance just by adding a CD to it. Make the dots reset to full duration once you SS them (MoP version kept the power and duration, Cata version kept the power but reseted duration: without snapshot it would keep the duration and power would be the same as current dots).

I imagine they're hesitant to pop it back in with how it went in mop / wod. It kind of needs snapshots to be at its most relevant, but it would still help out. They kind of screwed themselves with spender UA in that regard though, unless they exclude UA from the swap.

[Tiev]

Our affliction dots also need some proper effects.
And class specific casting gestures please.

Yes. They do. Desperately. There is literally nothing. A small "whoom" sound effect and that's about it.

[Deleted]

They need to change it. It's unacceptable. This isn't shadowbolt, plain and simple.

Where is the iconic skull? Where is the green?

Say no to purple frostbolt.

But while I'm at it, has anyone else heard the new sound effects for many of our shadow spells? There seem to be whispers while casting them too and when Shadowbolt hits a target. Or am I going crazy?

[evertonbelmontt]

But while I'm at it, has anyone else heard the new sound effects for many of our shadow spells? There seem to be whispers while casting them too and when Shadowbolt hits a target. Or am I going crazy?

Haven't noticed anything but my hearing isn't anywhere near amazing, lul

What I did notice is that shadowbolt and Seed has an "impact" animation like a wave when it hits the target. Like it hit them from inside out.

[Netherweave Cloth]

They need to change it. It's unacceptable. This isn't shadowbolt, plain and simple.

Where is the iconic skull? Where is the green?

Say no to purple frostbolt.

But while I'm at it, has anyone else heard the new sound effects for many of our shadow spells? There seem to be whispers while casting them too and when Shadowbolt hits a target. Or am I going crazy?

I think it's a quieter version of what Shadow Priests hear when casting some of their spells.

Just tried out some of the new spells on Beta and Shadow Bolt is TERRIBLE. I was super excited to have sbolt back as Aff, but now... nope.

It's too blobby and thick, like I am throwing purple pudding at things

[Baconeggcheese]

It's too blobby and thick, like I am throwing purple pudding at things

That's so odd, because I feel the polar opposite about it. Its like a needle almost.

[sugarfree]

It's fitting for much damage it hits, what y'all talking about. I'd prefer this, than something really flashy and then just tickles someone after a 2.5 sec build up.

[Lucrece]

It's fitting for much damage it hits, what y'all talking about. I'd prefer this, than something really flashy and then just tickles someone after a 2.5 sec build up.

Oh, fuck off with this. Drain Life looks amazing and it also tickles.

Lightning Bolt and Wrath looks great and they also tickle. Fillers don't have to look like shit.

[Baconeggcheese]

Oh, fuck off with this. Drain Life looks amazing and it also tickles.

Lightning Bolt and Wrath looks great and they also tickle. Fillers don't have to look like shit.

I don't really get the level of volatility, it doesn't look bad at all. The particle effect looks good, its just that it makes me think of mind spike or something more than it makes me think shadowbolt because of how pointy and narrow it is.

[nodq]

Current Shadow Bolt is just looking bad. Also we get some "void" whispers when casting it, I think it doesnt fit WL very well, it is a Priest thing now and it shouldnt be a WL thing even tho it is a "Shadow" spell. What I like is the impact that some spells give, you really see and hear and feel the impact, that is something the new shadowbolt does very good. The projectile just looks bad.
Also, the feel and sound of casting Agony is great, they should add the head back in, it is so iconic. But hearing some voices that scream because of "pain" the first 2 seconds of agony ticking is just great. Run around and dot like 4 dummys with it and hear them all screaming. So good.

Destruction spells are very nice, impact of an Immolate or Conflag feels just so good. So far Blizzard does a good job on the new spell effects, it is just that Shadowbolt is terrible looking so far and has not fitting "void" whispers attached to it.

Also the Fear animation when the screaming skull is above your head has some upgrade, it looks very smooth now when it fades in and out and has some particle effects below it.

[Warning]

I don't think shadowbolt necessarily looks bad, but its missing a lot of its "character". Shadowbolt has had an icon and blackish bolt for so long that it just feels like something completely different now, like it could've just as easily been assigned to deathbolt or some void bolt or w/e. I agree with baconegg that it looks very thin and spikey. A lot of the other effects look great, imo Drain Life got the best upgrade. Chaos Bolt's particle effects are too "blocky" for me.

[evertonbelmontt]

It looks a lot more blue'ish and it's easy to associate it with SP.

Maybe make it look more black like? Longer?

[Lucrece]

I don't really get the level of volatility, it doesn't look bad at all. The particle effect looks good, its just that it makes me think of mind spike or something more than it makes me think shadowbolt because of how pointy and narrow it is.

For me it's a callback to their melee update. They do a couple new swing animations, normalize it to all the melee and then just give a different color palette to each slash.

In this case it's a recolored frostbolt and just feels bad.

It is nowhere near the deserved level that was given to destruction spells or even the balance druid/shadow priest efforts like a levitate on voidform.

Warlocks really don't have many spell effects in the form of cooldowns or forms they enter, so their spells should pack a visual punch. None of affliction or demonology spells currently do that.

I could even live with the thin incinerate (liked the previous alpha one better even if it was thinnish too, at least it had character) because of how good the updated chaosbolt and fire effects from rof/immo/conflag look.

But aff has been long overdue for animation updates and I have little patient for half assed updates due to getting short on time before release.

Or maybe I'm just mad that instead of using the great drain life animation they made, they are shoehorning an awful filler spell that looks like garbage to top it off.

[sugarfree]

Oh, fuck off with this. Drain Life looks amazing and it also tickles.

Lightning Bolt and Wrath looks great and they also tickle. Fillers don't have to look like shit.

Well, I think it looks good. It just needs some touches of fel green and I think it's fine. I like that it's beefy enough compared to the old shadowbolt. Few improvements can be more particles, but that's it. I personally prefer my fillers to be less distracting, and this fits. The whole "whispers" though has to be changed because that's a shadowpriest thing.

[Deleted]

That yes, I personally would like it to retain Dragon head thing and curve, though I must say when I mentioned it in thread about CB new effect, all the derps were like "omgh wut dragon does not fit wtfwtf".

But other than that - spell looks much much better than old CB - very nice quality, huge nuke and they added extra glow to it last build or two - it also illuminates the area it goes through. Basically they threw everything at it, I tried mage as comparison and Pyroblast looks pitiful compared to new CB. It also got new sounds for flight and impact like two builds ago, which are good.

Oh yeah, I think the effects on it are absolutely fantastic - I just hate losing the skulls from spells and having them be generic blobs. Noticed the lighting effect they added and it's rad, I just wish we could have the best of both worlds and have high quality, iconic spells - seems updating the spells has removed the most visually iconic part. Drain Life, ROF and the general effects of CB are fantastic, but I want muh skulls, not a generic blob.

Literally slap the skulls in and I'm a happy camper, without them I'd rather just have the old ones available though.

[Mkluvin]

Needs a bit of green similar to the new drain life animation

[Deleted]

I could be wrong, but looks like shadow bolt and demonbolt has the exact same animation? Or am i just blind?

[garonne]

demonbolt has a fire component while casting, however it seems its missing after the spell is fired off.

[Gaidax]

demonbolt has a fire component while casting, however it seems its missing after the spell is fired off.

Really hope it's a placeholder there, it's kinda silly because it has literally same visual as shadowbolt just faster.

[garonne]

Hopefully. Hopefully it's bigger too.