Affliction Soul Shards

[Wardonis]

I honestly feel that Soul Shards for affliction should predominantly be used for utility. Juggling dot durations can be a nightmare without add-ons, even with them. Overall though, simply put, Affliction just doesn't need a dps spender ability. A case could be made to have Haunt baseline and make it the spender, but with the RNG involved with Afflictions shard generation, having shadowbolt and drain spamable without shard cost, and having dots applyable without shard cost, I don't think using your shards in the rotation is necessarily a good thing. I think it actually detracts from the game play by forcing arbitry use of extra abilities the spec just doesn't need.

I'd honestly limit shard use to demon summons, a baseline haunt and seed of corruption. Realistically, using the shards with the OLD Soul Burn to empower effects, such as Seed, Drain, Summon etc should be the way to go. I think the return of Soul Burn specifically for Affliction should be the way Affliction uses its shards.

[enigma77]

I liked when Haunt was the spell that consumed Shards. Felt kinda cool to cast it, deal some decent direct damage and then amplify your dots' damage .

That said I also loved Legion Affliction.

[Recovery]

I honestly feel that Soul Shards for affliction should predominantly be used for utility. Juggling dot durations can be a nightmare without add-ons, even with them. Overall though, simply put, Affliction just doesn't need a dps spender ability. A case could be made to have Haunt baseline and make it the spender, but with the RNG involved with Afflictions shard generation, having shadowbolt and drain spamable without shard cost, and having dots applyable without shard cost, I don't think using your shards in the rotation is necessarily a good thing. I think it actually detracts from the game play by forcing arbitry use of extra abilities the spec just doesn't need.

I'd honestly limit shard use to demon summons, a baseline haunt and seed of corruption. Realistically, using the shards with the OLD Soul Burn to empower effects, such as Seed, Drain, Summon etc should be the way to go. I think the return of Soul Burn specifically for Affliction should be the way Affliction uses its shards.

Blizzards favorite thing to do since post mop is to over complicate shit. I actually feel like the whole game as we know it today is just a huge ass ball over complication. lol. Its like at some point, they decided that skill should be dictated by how well you master something thats complicated rather than how efficiently you use something thats simple. The fact that they actually thought having 4 different progression systems in the game at once proves this. Less is often times more.

[Warning]

I honestly feel that Soul Shards for affliction should predominantly be used for utility. Juggling dot durations can be a nightmare without add-ons, even with them. Overall though, simply put, Affliction just doesn't need a dps spender ability. A case could be made to have Haunt baseline and make it the spender, but with the RNG involved with Afflictions shard generation, having shadowbolt and drain spamable without shard cost, and having dots applyable without shard cost, I don't think using your shards in the rotation is necessarily a good thing. I think it actually detracts from the game play by forcing arbitry use of extra abilities the spec just doesn't need.

I'd honestly limit shard use to demon summons, a baseline haunt and seed of corruption. Realistically, using the shards with the OLD Soul Burn to empower effects, such as Seed, Drain, Summon etc should be the way to go. I think the return of Soul Burn specifically for Affliction should be the way Affliction uses its shards.

The same goes for destro imo. "combo points" shouldn't be a warlock thing and cbolt not having a CD puts it in an iffy spot in pvp. With a CD it could be strong enough so we could do ~60-70% of someones hp in a properly set up burst regularly. Right now because we can cast two it can't hit too hard cause it would be broken in bgs n other places where you can chaincast, but it makes arena kinda crap cause its not impactful enough outside of massive CDS. Soul shards for AoE and utility is fine.

[Saltysquidoon]

I honestly feel that Soul Shards for affliction should predominantly be used for utility. Juggling dot durations can be a nightmare without add-ons, even with them. Overall though, simply put, Affliction just doesn't need a dps spender ability. A case could be made to have Haunt baseline and make it the spender, but with the RNG involved with Afflictions shard generation, having shadowbolt and drain spamable without shard cost, and having dots applyable without shard cost, I don't think using your shards in the rotation is necessarily a good thing. I think it actually detracts from the game play by forcing arbitry use of extra abilities the spec just doesn't need.

I'd honestly limit shard use to demon summons, a baseline haunt and seed of corruption. Realistically, using the shards with the OLD Soul Burn to empower effects, such as Seed, Drain, Summon etc should be the way to go. I think the return of Soul Burn specifically for Affliction should be the way Affliction uses its shards.

I disagree, in ST situations, without a spender the spec has no interactivity and little to do.
Right now affs ST (without deathbolt) is literally; maintain agony/corruption, keep up UA, press CDs on CD (SL, haunt, etc), filler.
Take away UA and you have a very basic spec, I'm not saying MV in shadowlands is necessarily the right direction or meaningfully more complex but at least it rewards you for having more dots.
Dot classes need to be rewarded for maintaining dots beyond 'you have applied dots, your dots do damage', your reward for having dots up shouldn't be the opportunity to use filler spells. Right now ua does that where you have these ramp windows of high ua stacks (I agree this is wonky and sucks ass in m+). In sl you're rewarded by MV's damage being amped per dot, per mob it's nothing amazing but it's a reward. Even your suggestion of making haunt the spender fundamentally just increases dot damage so it all comes out in the wash.

Blizzards favorite thing to do since post mop is to over complicate shit. I actually feel like the whole game as we know it today is just a huge ass ball over complication. lol. Its like at some point, they decided that skill should be dictated by how well you master something thats complicated rather than how efficiently you use something thats simple.

I mean you're entitled to your opinion but it seems to me people like to wax philosophical about the good old days "when specs had more then 4 buttons" and weak auras/dbm didn't play the game