Inevitable Demise is now a talent, Lil bit too OP for Afflic?

[Coraline Bat]

A lot of the new alpha changes seem okay, but I cant help but feel affliction is going to synergize a bit too well with the nightfae covenant ability, essentially locking in Nightfae for AoE when playing affliction.

New Talent: Inevitable Demise. Damaging an enemy with Agony increases the damage of your next Drain Life by 5%. This effect stacks up to 50 times.

Soul Rot: Wither away all life force of your current target and up to 3 additional targets nearby, causing them to suffer (100% of Spell power) Nature damage over 8 sec. Drain Life will also be cast on any enemy affected by your Soul Rot. Consumes 20% of maximum health when cast.

It feels like one of these would need to change?

I know previously it was the Maldraxus ability which seemed to be strong due to it working with Drain Soul too, so perhaps it's demo and destro that need stronger synergy with the covenant abilities instead.

[Malekius]

They could easily slap a "Only on your main target" clause to keep it balanced. However we have to wait and see, since it's early (not sure) in alpha.

I liked the changes they've made for affliction. Seems like the majority of them will be good for the quality of life issues affliction has. My favorite one is Suddent Onset becoming a part of the Writhe in Agony talent. That is going to feel amazing in dungeons. Granted destro might still be the king of bursting, but I'm glad affliction is being brought back into the field with some good changes.

The other talent to reduce the cd on darkglare is going to be nice too, since having it as a 3 minute cd was such a drag.

Just wondering, where is Inevitable Demise going to fit as a talent? Is it taking Death Bolt's spot?

[Coraline Bat]

Just wondering, where is Inevitable Demise going to fit as a talent? Is it taking Death Bolt's spot?

Im assuming Death bolt, since Shadow Embrace is being replaced with Darkglare CD reduction, and Deathbolt is the only other talent being moved out of the PVE tree.

[Saltysquidoon]

A lot of the new alpha changes seem okay, but I cant help but feel affliction is going to synergize a bit too well with the nightfae covenant ability, essentially locking in Nightfae for AoE when playing affliction.

I mean it's purely a numbers thing (instead of an obvious mechanical thing) so it's really too early to tell. Also, the talents and the night fae ability seem to operate with opposite priorities. You need to stack inevitable demise, most aoe packs aren't going to live that long.

You are right though, Aff seems like its shaping up to innately have more synergies with covenant abilities then destro or demo.

[Calfredd]

Just wondering, where is Inevitable Demise going to fit as a talent? Is it taking Death Bolt's spot?

Death Bolt is now a pvp talent so probably taking Death Bolt's spot, Shadow Embrace is being baked into Shadow Bolt and replaced with the Dark Glare cd reduction talent, and Howl of Terror is replacing Tongue Tied. From the front page:

Affliction

• Shadow Embrace is now baseline as a part of Shadow Bolt (Rank 2), learned at level 52 for Affliction.
  
  • Developers’ notes: Shadow Bolt for Affliction was falling by the wayside in the rotation. This should encourage Warlocks to use it more often, and provide more gameplay while fighting a single target.
• Unstable Affliction no longer has a limit of 1, and no longer amplifies damage on your target.
• Unstable Affliction’s damage backlash on dispel increased substantially.
• At level 56, Unstable Affliction is ranked up to gain an additional 5 seconds of duration.
  
  • Developers’ notes: This is a more of an experimental change than the rest, but we feel that Unstable Affliction is not meeting player expectations at a limit of 1. This change allows Affliction to focus more on spreading dots to many targets at once.
• Corruption now ranks up at level 54 to gain an initial period, dealing .12 coefficient damage instantly.

Talents

• Writhe in Agony now also causes Agony to start at 4 stacks, in addition to increasing its maximum stacks to 18.
• New Talent: Inevitable Demise. Damaging an enemy with Agony increases the damage of your next Drain Life by 5%. This effect stacks up to 50 times.
• Nightfall now activates slightly more often as Corruption spreads to more targets.
  
  • Developers’ notes: Previously, Nightfall was not occurring more often as you spread Corruption to multiple targets. This felt counter-intuitive, so we added functionality to increase its rate with multiple Corruptions. Similar to Agony, its increase is not linear, but you will see more Nightfalls multi-target.
• Deathbolt is now a PvP talent.
  
  • Developers’ notes: With Unstable Affliction stacking gone, the instant burst single target damage from this felt more appropriate as a PvP talent, to act as a finisher.
• Tongue Tied Removed. Replaced with–
• Howl of Terror: Fears 5 targets within 10 yards for 20 seconds. Has a 1.5 second cast time and 40 second cooldown.
• New talent: Dark Caller (in place of Shadow Embrace). Reduces the cooldown of Summon Darkglare by 1 minute.
  
  • Developers’ notes: This talent should allow Warlocks to specialize further into keeping lots of dots on many targets at once, and give them more room to use Malefic Rapture in that window.

[Nefarious Tea]

I mean it's purely a numbers thing (instead of an obvious mechanical thing) so it's really too early to tell. Also, the talents and the night fae ability seem to operate with opposite priorities. You need to stack inevitable demise, most aoe packs aren't going to live that long.

You are right though, Aff seems like its shaping up to innately have more synergies with covenant abilities then destro or demo.

ID stacks insanely fast in AOE though. While soloing or in high keys you can throw a 50 ID stack life drain every 15 seconds in aoe

[Lulbalance]

ID stacks insanely fast in AOE though. While soloing or in high keys you can throw a 50 ID stack life drain every 15 seconds in aoe

0 zero chance they let it apply to secondary targets by launch.

[LordVargK]

0 zero chance they let it apply to secondary targets by launch.

about 90% chance they will, only to nerf it 3 weeks later, forcing every warlock to choose a new covenant.

[enigma77]

Maybe let's worry about things being too op after they fix our class okay?

[Coraline Bat]

Maybe let's worry about things being too op after they fix our class okay?

We dont want blizzard to nerf this kind of thing during the expansion, as blizzard are notorious for massive nerfs which ruin specs.