Warlock - Cataclysm Preview Compilation

[Zàphán]

I made an account to tell you all that I am this close to the truth:

[Modez]

Meh. I'm on the fence with the new soul system. I like that they are taking the 32 souls I have and condensing them down to three. but i dont know if i like the mechanics of whats to come. everything else looks like locks are gettin a few minor buffs and a handfull of new things to try out, maybe even throw some into a rotation.


on a side note...
"Baaadum" its people like you who QQ about not being able to make affliction your top dps spec. and you dont need to be playing a warlock. Stick to button spamming as destro and watch for 1 CD. I myself am a aff>demo lock. mainly in 251's and im usually in the top5 on the 25's charts. Dot Clipping probably THE easyest thing to watch for. go QQ somewere else. Now every lock is going to be able to do aff AND still push viable numbers. I could understand if they made it to say Hot's for trees to make raid healing 25's a bit less stress full, but not a pure dps class dot.

You made an account to post inaccurate information?

Good deal.

[Jerseÿ]

Why don't they just cut the shit and admit that warlocks aren't getting a flying mount, a new demon, or a female metamorphosis form?

/agree

[Sneakylemons]

It would be epic if warlocks got a mount similar to the one that the Shade uses in the movie Eragon.. that thing was legit

[Irollmyface]

I can't wait to level up as Demo using soley hellfire

[Bakemono]

Anyone else disappointed a little bit? With awesome new spells like Wall of Fog, Smokebomb etc. Dark Intent seems like a lame spell. If anything it should be a talent at let us locks get something cool. I mean, LK gave as Shadowflame... That said, the 2 others are cool, green flames and a CD are win, but again... I'd like something different than upgraded Focus Magic.

[gherkin]

First, they're experimenting - heres a bunch of rehashes for the well balanced classes (DK's, Warlocks, for example) and heres a bunch of omgwtf abilities for the imbalanced classes, because hey guess what we're nerfing the shit out of you by the time you hit 85. Arcane losing Missile spam and Rogues losing defensive cooldowns = massive nerf, imo

Second, LK gave us Shadowflame because in 2.3 and 2.4 someone at Blizzard said "Wow, look how easy warlocks are in everything" - shadow bolt spam pve, SL/SL pvp, void sacrifice farming. They said "hey, they're so good they don't really need anything, but look how often they're in the mobs face. Lets give them cold of cone, but the evil version." Then they realized it hit too fucking hard and nerfed it by like 70%, only to buff it later. And it was bugged with a narrow cone.

Shadowflame is an example of how the "new" way of thinking - all specs are viable, everyone deserves a chance at content, and the "old" way of thinking (ret paladins, elitist raiding, endless mat farming) butted heads during the transition. It happens in organizations everywhere. Check out the book "Switch" - it describes these kinds of scenarios perfectly.

[Bakemono]

Thanks for an awesome answer. But I might beg to differ at one point.

I don't believe that rogues and mages are gonna feel nerfed to the ground at the end of the day. They might need to re-adapt a bit, but that's happened so many times that you'd probably have a hard time keeping track of the cases. With that said, they get som rather unique new skills with new oppurtunities, just like Demonic Circle. Indeed though, it seems that an ability like Wall of Fog/Smokebomb/ might be ridicously good, but also, as stated before, new and unseen before. Same goes for a number of new cool spells, Leap of Faith and Dark Simulacrum come to mind, where as one of our spells is 'just' improved Focus Magic. Taking in account that Shadowflame is also just a 'different' Cone of Cold, it would be nice with something shiny/unique/different for a change. Of course, this isn't just a warlock concern, and as I said, I do realise that DemCircle is pretty nifty, but I'd love to see something like what mages are getting to be honest.
Mostly it seems like a PvP thing, and honestly, with rated BG's having a huge focus on things, frost mages are suddenly gonna be able to exert a huge amount of control in BG's. Again, nothing is certain yet, it's just a small concern I felt reading about the new skills.

[gherkin]

Not necessarily to the ground, but they'll have enough of their core gameplay mechanics changed that the result may or may not be on base with where they are today. The Ret Paladin gong-show of 3.0.2 is something I could see repeated for Frost mages, but the opposite (lol, us) will be repeated for assassination and arcane.

The Fog mechanics are also the first of many to come in terms of environmental controls. Thats the only avenue they can pursue - they've done every possible combination of dots, instant strikes, procs, buffs, and interactions that the only way to give us new and exciting tools is to let us control the environment. The best example of this is the crap-ton of speed boosts everyone got. Now there is the two fog mechanics and an invisible mushroom bomb. I would not be surprised if, based on the success of the Fog Mechanics, they give us something like a demonic portal storm, where enemies in the storm disappear, take some damage from demons, and reappear somewhere else in the room (minorly damaging cc effect). Or Ret paladins having a "super-consecrate" that literally scorches the earth, causing damage and debuffs/buffs. Or Warriors leaving a trail of fire behind them after a charge.

WOTLK was the expansion of vehicle combat, and they nailed it down with Jousting simplicity and cool interactions (Gunship, Putricide, Flame Leviathan).
Cataclysm will be the expansion of environmental combat.

[Nickle]

I enjoyed reading about the up coming changes for Warlocks, besides the fact it lacked what many see as the needed defensive cool downs. While granted Mages have a new unique way to control PvP and rogues have yet another way to mess with people, I think the value of how much Stamina we're going to get, relative to the amount of damage we're going to be doing, is hugely understated. While defensive cool downs are needed to day because some one can be stun locked and burned down so quickly, but with life were it would take more than 10 seconds of sheer beating to burn some one down, I think defensive cool downs may come much less needed than they have in the past. This in turn shifts the focus of PvP from how best to use your abilities so that you don't pop that trinket at the wrong time, to how best can I manage a team of people around me to be coordinated enough to have a cohesive effort to take targets down.

From a PvE standpoint a lot of the changes are welcomed by me. I find them to be interesting and while they may be lacking in fine details, that I believe is were the players imaginations can help guide the general direction of the game. Peoples ideas on Demon Soul, or Soul Burn are possibly the ones that Blizzard is going to implement because they have left so many things vague.

[Clarkis2001]

Maybe I'm wrong here, and tbh I'm just trying to be optimistic because I too feel that Warlocks will be lacking in PvP, but won't http://www.wowhead.com/spell=18699 scale with the stamina boost? This way, if a Mage or Rogue has 80k health, Warlock's will have 88k?

Actually now that I think about it, that's not comforting at all. I am now even more worried about Warlock PvP. Except Affliction, that will always work. God I hate that spec. Destro survivability please! However, an instant/spammable spell will be very nice, assuming it hits somewhat decently.

Oh, also, how do spells like Frostfire Bolt and the new Fel Flame work? I mean, if a target has no resistance to either Frost/Fire or Shadow/Fire I guess it doesn't matter in theory. But, if I'm Destro and my Fire spells deal more damage, will Fel Flame deal Fire over Shadow damage to a target that has no resistances? What about an Affliction Warlock (barf)? Will Fel Flame deal Shadow over Fire damage to a target without resistances?

[Phage0070]

Why has nobody mentioned the hilarity of a ground-targeted knockback as an ability of an invisible demon?

"Doopy doo, just minding my own business standing around this cliff... Hey, is that a warlock in the distance? I should get ready to <POOF!> FUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!"

[Zorathos]

I just want to mention that farming shards isn't an issue for me since I learned you can get them off a target dummy. Not sure if this is a glitch but works at the time I'm posting. Now at the end of a long raid... might be worth a duck out and resupply.

Also, I think the shard change is good but there are too many prolonged battles for us to not get any combat regen options.

[cronix]

I am now even more worried about Warlock PvP. Except Affliction, that will always work. God I hate that spec.

/Signed.

[Goatonlb]

I just want to mention that farming shards isn't an issue for me since I learned you can get them off a target dummy. Not sure if this is a glitch but works at the time I'm posting. Now at the end of a long raid... might be worth a duck out and resupply.

Also, I think the shard change is good but there are too many prolonged battles for us to not get any combat regen options.

Everybody *should* know that. It's not a bug, and yes, it's the easiest way to do it, IMO.

Also, IMO, the shard change isn't something Blizz is required to give us as a DPS increase. It's taking an old, clunky mechanic that offers little to no DPS as is, and making it both fun and for utility. If it offers a DPS increase via 3x Insta Soulfires, then that's a bonus - fight length doesn't matter here.

[smapty]

Not a huge deal, but I noticed this:

Voidwalker Torment will do increased damage and generate a lot of area-of-effect (AoE) threat. Suffering will become a single-target taunt.

Currently Torment is the single target "taunt", and Suffering is the AoE ability. Was this a typo, are are they planning to switch these around for some reason? If it's the latter, seems like a little unnecessary confusion.

[Galbinus]

Removing dot clipping is like sending a mass letter out to every terrible lock on the planet saying "Here you go, its okay you can dps reasonably now and you don't even have to use your brain at all." What a TERRIBLE idea.

[Goatonlb]

Affliction will def. move towards something like Destro, where it's easy to be OK. It'll still have a certain "wall" beyond which top players will excel, it'll just be easier to reach that wall than it is currently.

[Deleted]

Removing dot clipping is like sending a mass letter out to every terrible lock on the planet saying "Here you go, its okay you can dps reasonably now and you don't even have to use your brain at all." What a TERRIBLE idea.

Except DoT clipping is generic mechanic that applies to all, including healers with HoTs. It is also complicated by the randomness of a laggy connection. So it penalizes (maybe only slightly - but who knows) a good player on laggy connection. Removing DoT clipping is actually from a technical/developer perspective easier because its then entirely about how many ticks have been scheduled on a target rather than exactly *when* did those ticks hit the target. In short, it's easy on devs and removes some of the variability of play of people on bad connections.

[Deleted]

Removing dot clipping is like sending a mass letter out to every terrible lock on the planet saying "Here you go, its okay you can dps reasonably now and you don't even have to use your brain at all." What a TERRIBLE idea.

That really depends on how it works out. It may well still be possible to refresh inefficiently and waste GCDs. Even as aff it's not as though the system is hard now, you just refresh 2 dots at the nearest available opportunity after they drop off prioritising UA over CoA. Then again:

• Pandemic will now cause Drain Soul to refresh Unstable Affliction and Bane of Agony on targets below 25% health.

Fel Flame (level 81): ... Fel Flame refreshes the duration of Immolate and Unstable Affliction... Instant cast.

I assume that Blizz would have talked about it if their intention had been for UA to replace Corr as our rolling dot - though I may be wrong - so I also assume that this means that we won't be refreshing dots anyway except Bane of Agony above 25%. Despite the mention that Fel Flame would be for demo/destro, it's not a talented ability, and even if UA were instant cast, fel fire would achieve the same effect with additional damage - unless UA had an initial damage component, and since that's a soul shard mechanic it's unlikely to be the case.

I'm not sure exactly how that would work out - we could end up with a rotation consisting of almost purely nukes and drains once the target has been dotted up.

As for Bane of Agony - I reckon they'll try and keep it backloaded, have it gain stacks each time it deals damage and then reset them after a certain number.