Idea to fix affliction aoe/deathbolt

[Keniwa]

Currently I feel affliction is so unrewarding when trying to do aoe dmg compared to alot of other specs, even when completely talented into aoe. The amount of effort req to simply beat the tank on aoe is daunting.

I like the idea of Vile Taint, a little change to it like Vile Taint dmg is increased by X% for each enemy affected by Vile Taint, Corruption or Agony up to a maximum of Y. (To make sure it won't be used/abused for single target)

This would give us the option to opt into a talent to help with aoe, while also still maintaining the affliction damage over time fantasy.



Or simply reduce cast time of Seed of Corruption and make it apply agony when talented into sow the seeds.



Also, any changes to Deathbolt is welcome, I hate the fact that our single target is balanced around that one burst window, every 3 min with darkglare, without darkglare deathbolt feels like an instant shadowbolt that needs build up before doing any dmg.

[Ordaine]

Or simply reduce cast time of Seed of Corruption

Mostly this. And make it pop either via damage OR if the mob dies.

But aoe isn't a huge issue. You have to phantom singularity/perm corruption.
Affliction has never been a burst aoe spec. Thanks to soul flame, locks got used to the burst and massive aoe damage.

The biggest issue in my opinion is seed in general. Takes too long to cast and if a mob dies before it pops, rip shards and potential damage.

[Keniwa]

Mostly this. And make it pop either via damage OR if the mob dies.

But aoe isn't a huge issue. You have to phantom singularity/perm corruption.
Affliction has never been a burst aoe spec. Thanks to soul flame, locks got used to the burst and massive aoe damage.

The biggest issue in my opinion is seed in general. Takes too long to cast and if a mob dies before it pops, rip shards and potential damage.

True affliction was never the aoe spec, but in an expansion where you are kind of pigeonholed into 1 spec as a pure dps class unless we want to carry around a bunch of different gear sets, I feel like every spec should have the option to deal either aoe or single target decently, often times I cast Seed of corruption on a target and it dies before the cast goes off because so many other specs have some kind of instant burst aoe.

Yes I know alot of people want to use the argument that affliction does alot of single target dmg, but just running along because you have no chance to contribute in any meaningful way on trash until we are actually at a boss feels bad.

I should think I would have the option to choose affliction because I like that spec and still be able to contribute to the group. Instead of the normal "Go destruction for dungeons" Because even destruction has its flaws, being reliant on a 3 min cd and stacking and overtuned trait to be useful.

[Deleted]

remove shadowbolt would be the perfect Start. It simply does not fit into Affliction anymore. Im dotting my Targets and then i cast Shadowbolts ? What ? i wanna drain my Dots and interact with them not see them just ticking away until i have to refresh again.

Make SoC a 1.5sec baseline cast or even less. Just do something with it. Its just bad right now

[Jahrastafari]

remove shadowbolt would be the perfect Start. It simply does not fit into Affliction anymore. Im dotting my Targets and then i cast Shadowbolts ? What ? i wanna drain my Dots and interact with them not see them just ticking away until i have to refresh again.

Make SoC a 1.5sec baseline cast or even less. Just do something with it. Its just bad right now

Casting SoC faster isn't going to help when you're sitting on 1-2 shards all the time. After landing two weak seeds, even though you saved 1.5 seconds in cast time, you're left doing tab-Agony until you get another shard.

The burst damage is less than a Corruption tick, that's the core of its problem. It can be a slow cast, it just needs to hit like a dump truck when it pops.

[muto]

Mostly this. And make it pop either via damage OR if the mob dies.

But aoe isn't a huge issue. You have to phantom singularity/perm corruption.
Affliction has never been a burst aoe spec. Thanks to soul flame, locks got used to the burst and massive aoe damage.

The biggest issue in my opinion is seed in general. Takes too long to cast and if a mob dies before it pops, rip shards and potential damage.

Oh yes it was. 45% haste with Sephuz and spamming Seed. It was absolutely a burst AoE spec in Legion.

[Mykal87]

remove shadowbolt would be the perfect Start. It simply does not fit into Affliction anymore. Im dotting my Targets and then i cast Shadowbolts ? What ? i wanna drain my Dots and interact with them not see them just ticking away until i have to refresh again.

Make SoC a 1.5sec baseline cast or even less. Just do something with it. Its just bad right now

As someone that has mained a SP before switching to a warlock, no thank you. (Dot,Dot,Dot, MIND FLAY MIND FLAY MIND FLAY... repeat)

[Malikath]

remove shadowbolt would be the perfect Start. It simply does not fit into Affliction anymore. Im dotting my Targets and then i cast Shadowbolts ? What ? i wanna drain my Dots and interact with them not see them just ticking away until i have to refresh again.

Make SoC a 1.5sec baseline cast or even less. Just do something with it. Its just bad right now

go play shadow priest then.
shadow bolt does need some damage interaction with DoTs similar to death bolt.

have seed of corruption spread all the DoTs from the warlock that spawned it to all targets hit by the explosion, then have "soulshard tap" spell to make shadowbolt into shadowbolt volley.

soul shards also need to generate based on fragments consistently rather then full charges randomly.
RNG needs to die.

[Deleted]

Honestly feels as if people don't have the faintest idea of how to play Affli or where it is good.

Affli isn't a burst aoe spec, deal with it.

[Schirmy]

go play shadow priest then.
shadow bolt does need some damage interaction with DoTs similar to death bolt.

have seed of corruption spread all the DoTs from the warlock that spawned it to all targets hit by the explosion, then have "soulshard tap" spell to make shadowbolt into shadowbolt volley.

soul shards also need to generate based on fragments consistently rather then full charges randomly.
RNG needs to die.

I always felt the RNG factor of Soul Shards was terrible design; dating back to MoP it has been a pain.

[Mykal87]

In general, I think we're overreacting. Yes SOC damage is low, and it is stupid that the burst does less than a tick of COR, but overall we're a DoT class. Having played a SPriest for years at a high level, our AoE was garbage with the exception of 1 fight (sinestra lul) and 1 patch (halo first release). We're not meant to blow everything up instantly but more melt down overtime. I do think it needs a slight bump to the baseline, but we don't need to be, and never will be, in the top 5 of AoE damage class/specs.

[Malikath]

I always felt the RNG factor of Soul Shards was terrible design; dating back to MoP it has been a pain.

destro was great in MoP because everything gave you small fel embers and it had no RNG to it's meta resource with the variance being determined by crit chance instead of RNGeus.

[Werst]

SoC has been outdated in mechanics for several expansions now. Which means it has to be tuned to be either abusively powerful to make up ground for its slow rollout OR it needs better mechanics. Very few playing remember (and fewer still fondly) seed chain detonation leveling packs but that isn't 2018 wow, not even 2008 wow anymore.

Seed needs to be instant and no shard cost with delayed detonation and corruption spreading OR have a 1.5 cast time, shardless, detonates on impact. Corruption spreading is so minor nowadays its really not significant. If mobs live long we could multi dot, if they don't why should we dilute our aoe to the point we can't compete unless adds do live a long time thus setting up the same problem aff always has with aoe. The pvp seed talent actually isn't a bad direction for pve in dungeons.

Vile taint is fine, probably needs to apply agony or something if its not going to hit harder. Right now feels expensive and tanks are always dragging out of it. I wouldn't mind if it followed a targeted mob. That way at least it would have a radius around a big dude in a pack and if the tank is dancing we don't lose all our shard/cast time/etc. That IS a steep price to lose out on when a caster pays a shard, cast time, travel time, detonation time, etc and the melee just hits and instant and does upfront 100% full damage NOW.

Deathbolt is going to be a problem to balance. Especially in terms of its other alternatives. Drain Soul could obviously use a buff. Deathbolt probably needs a cap for how many UA's it can go from so probably a higher % of fewer UA's and maybe a shorter cooldown? Maybe cap it to 2-3 UA cap and give it a 15-20 second cooldown?

Haunt is still curse of elements 2.0 with a cast time and negligible damage. Why does this have a cast time or not at least longer duration so it can have full uptime?

[Phookah]

Honestly feels as if people don't have the faintest idea of how to play Affli or where it is good.

Affli isn't a burst aoe spec, deal with it.

This times a million. Walk up to a pack, seed/agony the first, tab and agony the others. Spam seed if talented into sow and 4+ targets, otherwise keep up dots and spread around UA. We cleave and multi-dot, leave AoE to the AoE classes.

Also don't use deathbolt in dungeons unless you really really need the single target. Drain is simply too good around a lot of dying targets, it'll also fix your issue of not having shards. If you don't come off every pack in a 5 man with 3+shards while using drain, you're doing it wrong.

[Deleted]

go play shadow priest then.
shadow bolt does need some damage interaction with DoTs similar to death bolt.

have seed of corruption spread all the DoTs from the warlock that spawned it to all targets hit by the explosion, then have "soulshard tap" spell to make shadowbolt into shadowbolt volley.

soul shards also need to generate based on fragments consistently rather then full charges randomly.
RNG needs to die.

why dont you go play destro/demo if you love hardcasting so much ?

[Deleted]

why dont you go play destro/demo if you love hardcasting so much ?

Hard casting as Demo? Do you know that spec at all? It's so easy to end up in a train of spam instant casts as demo, especially in mythic dungeons.

[Deleted]

Hard casting as Demo? Do you know that spec at all? It's so easy to end up in a train of spam instant casts as demo, especially in mythic dungeons.

and ??? does it change the fact every spec has a hardcast filler ?

[Deleted]

I have a great idea, friends.

Bring back Soul Flame.

[Malikath]

why dont you go play destro/demo if you love hardcasting so much ?

if you love channeling so much, go play Spriest.
see how we can go around and around on this forever?
affliction uses shadowbolt, and should stick to shadowbolt, but shadowbolt needs the damage interaction of deathbolt for the affliction spec.

[Nuniqt]

What about deathbolt turning your shadowbolt INTO a deathbolt. It would obviously need retuning but i feel the mechanic needs to either gen shards or interract with dots. Making our shadowbolt deal extra dmg per dot on target or a drain soul both feel right.

I also like the idea of spending a shard(s) to make our spam abilities cleave.

Tapshard to make drain life/soul act like mind sear? So you seed in, tap your shard and sear aoe? Idk. Think tanking right now.