Affliction changes are alright, but specc still too clunky

[Amariw]

The specc still feels too clunky in aoe and st:

-You want aoe agony, but the only way to do that (Vile Taint) has a longer cd then agony's duration. Tab targetting amongst 10 mobs isn't really anyone's idea of fun, and spriests, assassination rogues and feral druids, other dot classes, rightly don't need to. It's long past time Affliction joins this modern crowd.

-The same is true for single target. Removing siphon is a good idea, but needing 3 dots before you even start doing damage is just weird in 2024. Give Soulburn an effect that applies all the 3 major dots (agony, corruption, UA), either with a 2-3 shard cost and no cd, or a 1-2 shard cost and a short cd. This will also make outdoor play infinitely funner without impacting dmg tuning whatsoever, and at the end of the day speccs are meant to be fun.

Pvp dmg will be tuned by how well the lock can fake cast and get off Malefics and soul rots and Unstables that they're not spending shards on. But actually applying your dots manually will be something you choose in order to maximize damage, in middle of fights, not forced into on every new mob.

[Fullmetal89]

Haven't played the game since Dragonflight and came back for TWW. My biggest gripe with the spec was, is and will always be seed of corruption. Blizzard for the love of God rework that garbage spell.

[Mmid]

Clearly "fun" is subjective. I think the removal of Siphon Life was bad for the spec, and if we also get lower CD on Vile Taint to have perma Agony there's no more dot management left, which is what the spec has always been about. You would literally only pay attention to Unstable Affliction then. Refreshing 5 Agonies isnt really that hard.

There has not been much complaining about Vile Taint not keeping perma Agony before, but some content creators started talking about it late Dragonflight and now it seems everyone has a problem with it. Same happened with Siphon Life and now it's gone.

Obviously just my takes, people may disagree. I just feel they are dumbing down the spec more and more.

[Aleksej89]

tab targeting is the most unfun mechanic in the game imho and it has not improved since 2004.

there was a mod that made it more manageable but blizzard intentionally prevented it from working... thanks blizz???

but affliction is the jankiest and clunkiest of the warlock specs and its shard generation is also extremely uneven.