Patch 3.3 PTR: More Warlock changes
On the WoW Insider Show a few weeks back I made a comment about a lack of patch 3.3 warlock changes. Now I'm not saying that it had anything to do with it, but we have seen an awful lot of changes since then. I've posted three previous articles covering some fairly significant changes to our spells, talents and pets (as well as our clothes) and here we are with a fourth.
The balancing of the different trees continues with one change to each. I'll start with destruction as it's one that a lot of people were anxious about.
The balancing of the different trees continues with one change to each. I'll start with destruction as it's one that a lot of people were anxious about.
- Conflagrate: Redesigned. This talent now consumes an Immolate or Shadowflame effect on the enemy target to instantly deal damage equal to 9 seconds of Immolate or 8 seconds of Shadowflame, and causes additional damage over 3 seconds equal to 3 seconds of Immolate or 2 seconds of Shadowflame. In addition, the periodic damage of Conflagrate is capable of critically striking the afflicted target.
This ability had previously changed to move a portion of its damage from the initial hit to a subsequent DoT (in the case of Immolate). The concern raised was that this is a damage reduction as the DoT couldn't crit. Now that they have added a crit mechanic to this DoT, the damage imbalance has been somewhat redressed, though a few questions are outstanding.
If not then this means the damage drop from the mechanic currently in live is only half compensated for by this change.1. Does the amount of increased damage from criticals increase for this DoT with points in Ruin?
Fire and Brimstone increases the crit chance of the direct damage portion by 25%, if this is not shared by the DoT portion then this means the DoT is still not making up for the loss to the direct damage.2. Will the DoTs have the same crit chance as the direct damage portion of Conflagrate
If so then you have four chances to proc the effect for each cast of Conflag.3. If the Conflagrate DoTs do crit, will they trigger Pyroclasm?
More testing will undoubtedly be done over the coming week to answer these questions and fine tune the numbers. Whatever the result this is a damage increase for destruction, albeit one that is redressing a prior nerf.
Next we see a change for affliction:
- Shadow Mastery: This talent now also increases the damage done by the felhunter's Shadow Bite ability by 3/6/9/12/15%.
Finally, for demonology, Molten Core has changed once again:
- Molten Core: Redesigned. This talent now increases the duration of Immolate by 3/6/9 seconds and provides a 4/8/12% chance to gain the Molten Core effect when Corruption deals damage. The Molten Core effect empowers the next 3 Incinerate or Soul Fire spells cast within 15 seconds (Incinerate: increases damage done by 6/12/18% and reduces cast time by 10/20/30%; Soul Fire: increases damage done by 6/12/18% and increases critical strike chance by 5/10/15%). Molten Core now has a new spell effect.
Another change is that the effect will now only trigger from Corruption; so no more procs from Shadow Bolt or CoA. This is likely to cause a reduction in MC uptime, especially during the execute phase. Also, interestingly, the Glyph of Quick Decay might become more viable for builds using Molten Core.
The third change is to the duration of the Molten Core effect. Previously this was a flat 12 seconds, which could be refreshed. Now it's for the next three casts of either Incinerate or Soul Fire within 15 seconds. This is a reduction in the number of casts one proc will empower but it will depend on the proc-rate as to whether this is a reduction in the number of empowered casts in a fight. Since that proc-rate is going down it does look like there will be less casts under the effect of MC.
That's not all though, the effect that Molten Core has upon your casts has changed dramatically. Incinerate used to have up to 15% extra damage but now has 18% extra damage and 30% reduced cast time. Soul Fire used to have 10% extra damage but now also has 18% damage increase as well as a 15% extra critical strike chance. This is a huge buff to these abilities, though is offset by the reduction in the number of times they will be buffed.
The changes to Molten Core make it a very complicated but interesting talent. It's likely to mean a change to the standard builds that use it -- to have all three talent points invested in it, probably at the cost of Demonic Empowerment. It is also likely to change the demonology build rotations so that when Molten Core is active Incinerate is cast instead of the normal Shadow Bolt (except where the boss is below 35%, in which case Soul Fire).
One final thing; I forgot to mention previously:
- Glyph of Life Tap: The effect of this glyph now has a chance of activating when Dark Pact is used.
Filed under: Warlock, Patches, Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Sean Oct 22nd 2009 12:56AM
Exciting changes. With the previous changes to buff Affliction and change how Decimate works, it looks like we might get a number of equally viable raiding specs (or so close as to be statistically insignificant for all but the most progressed, elite raiders). I've always played Affliction but have been playing deep Destruction for the last few months as my guild has struggled through Ulduar. I'd love to get back to melting faces and draining souls; hopefully, with 3.3 I'll be introducing Arthas to my Shadow Bolt instead of my best impression of a Pyroblast.
christian_588 Oct 22nd 2009 2:01AM
so destro is staying OP. awesome, blizz. ure really as stupid as you look like you are.
Malsi Oct 22nd 2009 2:38AM
WHO IS THIS ROSSI??????!!!!! I MUST SUBJECT HIM TO MY UNDYING TIDAL WAVE OF MAGE TEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seriously though, could you please post a link so that I may target future prey??
Turtlehead Oct 22nd 2009 4:00AM
Angus is entirely right*. It's a stat nightmare; making demon form a melee fighter is a huge can of worms. Enhance is truest hybrid in the game (much of the damage comes from spells, option to use maelstrom stacks to heal) but it is always in melee range smacking stuff. There's no "timer's up, Illidan and run in to do melee" goofiness.
n1nesplne (really? you're going with that as a name?, and yes, I get it) is also right, this makes MC overcomplicated.
Blizz is hitting the wall on existing talents and having to chuck in more and more "x does y or z if a is up by b or c" conditionals. It's gone beyond procs and into crazy town. I was completely unimpressed by the Blizzcon announcements about splitting talents into talent + mastery but I see why it's going to happen. Unconvinced it'll mean more build diversity as most knee-jerked but something needs to change: a talent tooltip shouldn't be five hundred words.
Not that I should lecture others about brevity.
Btw, very nice breakdown of the changes Hobbs. Many posts do nothing but list them or list them and get the implications incorrect.
*PvE/PvP split is a big part of the problem. If it were one or the other.... The game isn't structured to do both cleanly.
tim Oct 22nd 2009 4:39AM
I wish Blizz didn't force the one spec one pet design.
DB Oct 22nd 2009 8:43AM
I think an even better change for cataclysm would have been to introduce two separate specs, one for pvp, one for pve. PvE specs could not be used in PvP and vice versa. This would effectively end all of the balancing act that has hurt the PvE players so much over the years. I would say that the number of pure PvP players in this game is small in comparison to PvE, but the nerfs seem to hit the PvE community much harder in most cases. That way they could "fine tune" each and every class to be as equal as they wanted in PvP while PvE specs would be free to do more or less DPS depending on individual class/spec/race combos, as was originally intended.
Kromus Oct 22nd 2009 1:46PM
I really am worried about were they go with it.
I mean, right now theres a few things that needed changing, but with the new shard system theres going to be even more things for them to think about.
Its always fun to get used to new stuff! As long as we don't go back to Shadowbolt spam :D
The present Molten Core needs changing for definate, can't wait :D.
Umehte Oct 22nd 2009 11:22AM
I think the Lock should get two pets. The imp should permanently sit in your back pack firing bolts over your shoulder, leaving a free roaming second pet do to other stuff... that would buff all specs, especially demo... plus I would love my affliclock to have his felpup and the imp... together at last...
Beelzebud Oct 22nd 2009 2:34PM
Ever since the end of TBC they really don't seem to know what they want from the class.
Stone_Rhino Oct 22nd 2009 7:54PM
They have always known, they are just afraid to do it.
Affliction cant have dots and drains that are too powerful, because coupled with their survivability it would make them OP in pvp.
Demonology cant have strong pets, because they are meant to assist the warlock, not be his primary source of damage. So the demo lock must rely on nukes to fulfill his role.
Blizzard took such daring steps for destro, and they regretted it. Going so far as to nerf conflag within the first 8 hours, despite weeks of testing on the PTR. Given the plethora of nerfs to paladins, I think they want to avoid overbuffing any of our trees so they dont have to go back and make sudden changes in the name of balance. Unfortunately this leads them to not taking any action at all.
Kiros Oct 22nd 2009 9:43PM
Affliction gets a minor pet buff. Awesome. Affliction is fine IMO.
Vogie Oct 25th 2009 8:45PM
I hope there are more directional changes coming for Locks in the coming patches. The above poster was right: the Destruction tree is fantastic, and whole. The other two trees are just variations thereof.
We have destruction, the blazing DD Spam spec. I'd love to see:
Affliction: Compiling DoTs and Smashing with a Channeled ability to build up Nightfall procs, then Unleashing a Tharon'ja-meets-Hakkar torrent of Shadowbolts... not as DD spam, but yet another debuff. Corruption, stacked to 11
Demo: The Hybrid Spec that jumps in and out of fights; DD empowered by DoTs, then going Meta-Charge-immo to smash face, then Circle's back out to rekindle the shadow/fire combination. Demo Locks should have their choice of Demons to summon, not just always show up with Big Gruunty in tow - Whether that means Minion customization or just Minion scaling in the top tiers of the tree, give 'em choices.
Smoe Oct 25th 2009 10:52PM
Wouldn't it be better if we didn't have to rely on a pet though? Don't you guys get sick of using one or two pets all the time?
Affliction: Fel Hunter
Demonology: Felguard
Destro: Imp (or Succubus if you pvp)
Admittantly, there is a use for the voidwalker sometimes ie: Tanking the headless horseman as Destro or killing large amounts of mobs as Demo (only because of his sacrifice ability).
We're missing two important links here. What happened to the demons that we actually worked for?
The Infernal and the Doom Guard are almost never seen anymore. Was I wandering aimlessly in a field of demonic elites for nothing? Did I learn to mana-efficiently dot, wand, and fear that Infernal just for a trophy pet? (I soloed the Infernal that way as a Destro lock back in Vanilla (I'll admit though, I was still in that sexy level 30 robe))
I have toubble finding reasons to bring them out anymore because they lack utility. I'll admit, I sometimes use the Infernal in one part of Naxx (bottlenecking adds after too many people get killed while running through to the other side of the room) and sometimes when dueling Rogues (hoping I can get them out of stealth by either depth charging them or having them run into his firey aura).
In the future, I would like to see a plethora of demons to choose from and their utilities ranging depending on situations, but this would be impossible if we have to bind ourselves to specific demons when we choose our spec.
What? This boss triggers either physical or magical immunity phases depending on his health percentage? I'll get my Satyr (maybe a ranged hunter-style pet (with maybe shadow or frost related spells mixed in with some physical attacks)) to switch between physical and magical attacks durring those phases so I can continue to push out damage on the boss while I personally switch to dpsing the adds down.
What? A boss that needs a heavy amount of dots on him before the next phase? Good thing I have my handy, dandy Nathrezim (maybe like a mini Affliction lock) to carion swarm him, doing damage AND increasing the raid's mana regeneration by stealing it from the boss since the last phase was so mana intensive (either a nuke phase or a heal-intensive phase).
I think it would be better to add in an element like this because now we get to see something a little more refreshing than, "C'mon you stupid imp, proc allready!" It's true that there is a chance that it may cause anxiety for some players who are trying to find out what pets work best for them in what situations, but that is better than being bored of the same old pet and the anxiety of "Do I put the last talent point into improved Imp or do I throw it into Pyroclasm?" I'll admit, that may not have been the best example as improved Imp is more valuable now that it's gotten such a buff, but i'm sure that someone has asked a pet related question like that before.
As Warlocks, we bind demons to us. It's a natural part of who we are as a class. Are we controling our pets or are they controling us? So far, the damage buffs that we gain from our pets have influenced our own specs as raiders. It's starting to feel as if they're the ones who are so cunningly taking us over and binding us to them like we did to them so long ago.
Call it QQ if you may, but it does seem rather bland to see Zepqa's ugly face every day. To cope with this, I made a macro of my Voidwalker saying, "I am void where prohibited," but that can only tide me over for so long. It would also be interesting if maybe the pets we do have get added attacks (like void-sentries) or being able to equip pets with items (like Voidwalkers get a shoulder slot where we may give him one of our older shoulders (that will show up on him once equipped) to give him a slight stat boost or something.
All in all, I don't like my demons stale.
Gregoriorius Oct 29th 2009 10:48PM
I like the changes to demo. My favorite spec was affliction, but I do enjoy dishing out the DPS at destro at the moment. I see destro as staying a dominant spec for end game raiders, and the nerf to conflag really isn't that major for pve. PVP is a different story, of course, where you lose some burst potential, but in PVE, losing a percentage of crit on a percentage of one spell isn't a big deal, and that nerf is only a possibility. I like the changes to demo, and plan on playing demo after the patch. I personally wouldn't normally prefer demo, but the changes to decimate, demonic empowerment, and now molten core really seem like they are trying to up demo's damage. If demo can even come close to the damage of destro, let alone equal it (which I think it certainly has the potential to), it's a sure win for any raider in a guild that is serious about content.
Demo warlock's current role, and the role they are seemingly going to fill in the patch, but better, is to be a raid buffing class like an ele sham or a boomkin. They bring the ISB debuff which is no longer supplied by mages since any mage worth anything raids as arcane, the Demonic Empowerment buff, which is going to be head and shoulders above ToW in ICC gear (think 5k sp raid buffed), and is the only raid buff that scales with gear other than kings, and finally CoE if you are lacking a boomkin, though this is less of an issue if you are actually in serious raids, as there should always be a crit chicken. They will fill this role in ICC on top of these extra damage buffs, making them even more desirable for end game raid groups. Would I like to see metamorph changes? Sure, but I'm very happy to see a damage buff to our raid buff spec.
Docseuzz Nov 3rd 2009 9:36AM
I think that the classic Blizz raid benefit/dps balancing is a bit off here - either Affliction should be higher DPS than the other specs - or they should be supplying some sort of raid buff/mob debuff ... some thoughts on deep affliction raid benefit:
* Corruption causes target debuff (-spell dmg done, -hit, etc...)
* Dark Pact returns 100% mana to the party/raid, or proc's replenishment...
* Shadow Bite causes Curse of Elements, Weakness, or Tounges
* Drain Life or Drain soul while Haunt active causes raid wide +spell haste for 20 secs
* Haunt also heals target's target for 50% of amount healed to the warlock (any bonus heals to tank can't hurt)
* Curse of Agony doesn't count in the one curse per warlock - freeing up warlock to put debuff curse.
* Siphon life provides some raid healing (maybe 10% of corruption dmg)
* Curse of Exhaustion is now bonus effect to curse of agony for NPC targets
Generally, I think adding more debuff capability to affliction locks makes more sense than bonus raid heals/buffs
Just some thoughts...