Patch 3.3 PTR: More DoTs

There are a couple new elements on the patch notes this week, as well as some reworking. Demonology was previously looking like it was going to be the top DPS spec, as well as the best utility build. The margin was slight, but as ever the number one slot has some prestige and we could have seen felguards cropping up a lot more in raids.
After the break we'll have a closer look at the warlock changes and what they mean.
- Create Soulstone: The cooldown on this spell and duration of its buff have been lowered from 30 minutes down to 15 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
- Decimation: Redesigned. When Shadow Bolt, Incinerate or Soul Fire hit a target that is at or below 35% health, the cast time of Soul Fire is reduced by 20/40% for 8 seconds. Soul Fires cast under the effect of Decimation cost no shards.
- Molten Core: Redesigned. Shadow spells and damage-over-time effects have a 12% chance to increase the damage done by Incinerate by 5/10/15% and Soul Fire by 4/7/10% for 12 seconds. In addition, Molten Core now has a new spell effect.

Currently, I understand 3 points in Molten Core to give an uptime of around 60 to 75%. This will depend on your casting rotation -- more shadow spells and DoTs equals more uptime. Specs that have only two points invested can still attain a 60% uptime however; this will be partly because of the rotation but also because when the buff is refreshed you essentially 'lose' the remaining time of the initial buff; this means that as you increase the proc chance the uptime increase reduces. I could be wrong here, but I think that this change is a very minor element of the reworking and I'm not expecting any builds changing because of it alone.
The second change Molten Core sees is that it no longer affects all fire spells but now only increases the damage to Incinerate and Soul Fire. While this excludes a number of fire spells, most are not generally cast under the effects of the Molten Core buff anyway (such as Chaos Bolt or Rain of Fire). The two spells for which this will be a nerf are Immolate, for all MC builds, and Conflagrate for the 0/40/31 build. For the most popular (currently) MC build (Demonic Pact) I work it out to be around a 0.3% DPS loss from Immolate alone. Not huge but not insignificant either.
Thirdly, while Soul Fire keeps its buff value, Incinerate's gets bigger. This will be a bonus to the hybrid builds (40/31 & 41/30) but since deep demonology builds use Shadow Bolt rather than Incinerate this has no impact. The buff itself seems far too small to change this rotation even from a pure damage point of view, let alone factoring in any buff from ISB. That said it seems mages have lost their cause to whine about ISB being better than Scorch now anyway.
It's not in the patch notes yet but the glyph we mentioned that applies haste to Corruption has been added to the PTR as well. Glyph of Quick Decay is working pretty much as we expected and adding a nice little buff to affliction damage values.
With affliction getting its glyph, and demonology being given a bit of a kick in the painful bits, the provisional leader-board of warlock DPS has changed once again. I'm still impressed with the balancing of affliction and destruction at the top of the table -- their values are simply too close to call. Demonology and the demo/destro builds are all sitting a little way behind but all giving similar numbers.
That pretty much leaves the hybrids out in the cold as they don't really offer anything more than DPS -- and don't seem to be able to keep up with the pure builds there. That said, they offer an execute phase that destro lacks, and if you can make the spec work, then I don't think they are dead and gone. Demonic Pact spec is once again doing it's best to keep up with the big-boys and the Decimation change is making that easier. I still doubt we'll be seeing more than one per raid but it looks to me like more guilds are going to make sure they have this in their arsenal, even if it's as an offspec.
Destruction hasn't had any major changes and is still right up there, but it's looking like affliction might be about to have another turn as the warlock's "favourite child". The Glyph of Quick Decay looks like it will work well and while it doesn't mean that affliction is way out in front, it does push it slightly to the fore. Affliction is a spec that is dear to many a warlock's heart -- for some is the whole reason they rolled a lock. It's good to see it /flexing once again.
Filed under: Warlock, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Talents, Buffs, (Warlock) Blood Pact
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Sengir Oct 15th 2009 11:09AM
"I'm still impressed with the balancing of affliction and destruction at the top of the table"
Don't you mean Destruction, then waaaaaay down affliction?
I doubt that a single glyph affecting Corruption is going to put affliction on par with destruction.
souvlaki Oct 15th 2009 11:17AM
My guild has downed ToC 10 and Ulduar 10 until Vexxaz (we're currently wiping on yogg saron) and i don't see affliction waaaaay down. I raid only as affliction and i am always first on damage (global) and usually first on warlock-DPS (and there are players with better gear). Obviously in heroics i don't do any damage at all, but in fights longer than 3 minutes and fights with lots of movement, affliction rules.
Nebuloso Oct 15th 2009 11:39AM
He was referring to the current simulationcraft tests for the latest patch build. Affliction IS currently at the top of the heap with Destruction trailing slightly.
Of course this is all likely to change/be tweaked long before it goes live.
Daedalus4096 Oct 15th 2009 12:25PM
There's also the fact that the felhunter's Shadow Bite is getting a 15% boost per DoT in 3.3 rather than 5%. Not to mention the Improved Felhunter talent reduces its cooldown from 6 seconds to 2.
Zhiva Oct 15th 2009 11:12AM
If this is the warlock class column, can you please add prefix "Blood Pact: " to article's title?
Sengir Oct 15th 2009 11:36AM
Apparently the article written by the new warlock guy, as well as the "dots" in the title wasn't a clue.
bluerobin427 Oct 15th 2009 11:58AM
I think it's just by Dominic and about warlocks, not really the class column. That tends to come out on Mondays. Other classes have had posts about the PTR changes recently and they weren't titled with their respective class column names, so I think they're just making posts in general about the class changes. Just my observations though.
Although, now that I look a second time, it's filed under Blood Pact, but that might just be to get it to show up with other lock articles.
t0xic Oct 15th 2009 12:06PM
Now that locks have a columnist they like they have to B%@#& about something else. I sense a lot of untapped fel energy.
GG Dom =)
souvlaki Oct 15th 2009 11:12AM
Shadow priest got their haste added to shadowform and affliction locks will need to sacrifice a glyph slot. meh.
Attila Oct 15th 2009 11:18AM
The CoA glyph kind of sucked anyways.
Sky Oct 15th 2009 11:20AM
lol nerfed!
Sengir Oct 15th 2009 11:26AM
CoA glyph was pointless.
souvlaki Oct 15th 2009 11:57AM
Well, i actually use Corr glyph. I love chaining instant shadow bolts.
t0xic Oct 15th 2009 12:18PM
"Shadow priest got their haste added to shadowform and affliction locks will need to sacrifice a glyph slot. meh."
Shadow priests were also significantly lower on the dps charts. It would take a more significant buff to bring their dps back to the middle of the pack. Say it with me ... "BALANCE".
vazhkatsi Oct 15th 2009 1:08PM
the CoA glyph was a dps increase.... it added 2 ticks at the end of the curse at the 100% damage.
Steve Oct 15th 2009 11:18AM
Im really glad that they are bringing affliction back. Up untile recently, when i needed to go destro to stay raid viable, I have been affliction. It is by far the most fun spec in the game and even after the nerf from 3.1 the most difficult spec to play. It takes true skill to play an affliction warlock
nic4rest23 Oct 17th 2009 4:05AM
fix damn curse of agony its demand is F'in JUNK and it doesnt CRIT.. all of the priests dots crit,, GG
Eturyu Oct 15th 2009 11:59PM
Really? I love locks, Alfiction being my favorite spec, but i've played 3 classes to 80 and a 4th to 77 and Afliction was by far the easiest to solo/5man/raid with (even compared to Ret)
dot dot dot dot send pet fear, tab to next target, dot dot dot dot (pet finishes off 1st target), send pet fear...
in a 5 man its the same just w/out the fear lol
I LOVE locks but i by no means think they are hard to play, any pet (ezymode) class that can heal themself can't be THAT hard.
Honestly? who throws a shoe?
Orphoeus Oct 15th 2009 11:23AM
Nice...
We tried and true Demon Locks who spec to benefit our raids and survive longer for useful damage output are getting a nice nerf bat with the Decimation change...
Warlocks have been left in the dust for so long (with Demon spec even further behind) that this is just another slap in the face...anyone who says "locks need nerfs anyways" is an idiot who doesnt play the class very much OR still uses the Vanilla complaint of "all locks do is fear and dot"...
Whats next, Blizzard? Make the Felguard 3 feet tall and reduce his damage by 30% - since he does too much melee damage?
Thanks, Blizzard...
n1nesp1ne Oct 15th 2009 11:31AM
Decimation was buffed. They just offset the buff a little bit but it's still a big net gain. QQ more.