Hello!
In no way is this a guide or gospel, or a blog post to trigger people. Feedback in whatever way is welcome, just stay on point and remember this is not for “random bgs” but more Rated Arena / RBG.
There are most likely threads in relation to this but it’s mixed and lost under the arguing and general nonsense.
This is a thread for Affliction suggestions to improve PVP in Shadowlands.
Meta >
Throughout BFA the meta was around; Get agony on as many targets as possible to boost up Inevitable Demise so you could try and “drain” the target down in a turret style. This gameplay was almost a mirror of the Malefic Grasp era in previous expansions.
The difference being between ID and MG was that during the MG expansions your dots ticked significantly higher and scaled better through mastery and snapshotting.
My understanding of playing a warlock for 15 years has been that affliction should be the Dot and Rot spec, I have seen iterations of the spec change from the SL/SL days in TBC, to the Soul Swap of Cataclysm and MOP to it’s current edition and it feels as if the class is moving away from the dot element to a drain meta.
There are arguably issues with this and the key factor being Balance.
How do you go around balancing a class on dots who could effectively just kite you and rot you?
Let’s look at the talents and the options that are given;
Afflictions Tree
First Row
- Nightfall - This will in my opinion never ever be used in PvP even with the coming buff to Shadowy Embrace (A passive spell learnt in Shadowlands)
- Drain Soul - An execute drain that does noodle damage until 20% and requires effort and time to set up for very little to no reward.
- Inevitable Demise - The only talent people are choosing because it gives you dispel protection against this drain meta that Blizzard are so heavy on forcing out.
Second Row
- Writhe in Agony - Most likely to be the go to choice once Azerite Traits go, as the instant 4 stacks and 18 cap is quite significant in damage.
- Absolute Corruption - Another increase to dot damage and buff to duration vs players.
- Siphon Life - If this ever gets used I will eat a hat, the self heal is embarrassing considering a hunter pet and DK pet will out damage the heal, and that the damage reward is awful.
The most likely option will be WIA or AC depending on preference.
Third Row
- Demon Skin - Provides a nice passive absorb with an okay regeneration rate, a good pick up talent without another button bloat.
- Burning Rush - Beneficial in the world of passive slows but the health cost could be punishing with how damage is currently in Shadowlands.
- Dark Pact - This has recently been buffed and provides a 1 minute CD on demand shield but at a health cost, useful for setups vs RMX and other comps.
I don’t believe BR will be chosen at all, the most used talent will be Demon Skin with a swap to Dark Pact depending on what you’re fighting and doing.
Fourth Row
- Sow the Seeds - A complete waste of time for PvP as is Seed of Corruption.
- Phantom Singularity provides a nice aoe damage ability which could do with a 5% increase to healing.
- Vile Taint is an ability that requires a clump to be beneficial, practically never realistically happening in Rated Arena.
I’d imagine PS will be the choice throughout the expansion unless work is done.
Fifth Row
- Darkfury - Don’t even waste your time.
- Mortal Coil - good for setups especially in RLX / WLX or MLX, and a heal reward despite the value being small.
- Howl of Terror - I am glad this has returned in this style, instant cast and there has been an increase to the damage threshold before it breaks.
It’s going to be a choice between Coil or Howl vs comp, a minor buff to Howls Damage break would be beneficial and potentially a small increment to the healing from Coil.
Sixth Row
- Dark Caller - A generic passive talent with 1 minute reduction on Darkglare
- Haunt - The shard cost and cooldown with little damage from the cast just makes this talent useless, the 10% amplifier is abysmal.
- GoSac (Grimoire of Sacrifice) - GoSac has always been one for a debate, in the world of pet killing when fighting affliction this talent has always been the choice, but what happens when you lose spells for sacrificing a pet? This is where the debate has come from. The damage of GoSac is very good currently.
I imagine GoSac will be taken vs most comps until you need devour magic via felhunter or seduce from succubus, if in that case Dark Caller will be the option to go to.
Seventh Row
- Soul Conduit - Optional choice but most likely useless.
- Creeping Death - There is potential for this but with the Rapid Contagion ability this could cause haste issues early on and the possibility of Shard starving.
- Dark Soul: Misery - our only cooldown for affliction minus Darkglare that has the ability to be dispelled.
The three above will be choice and preference, all to be experimented with fully but the go to will most likely be Dark Soul.
Now with Shadowlands and going forward we have to look at the PvP Talents and what “little” choice there is.
So how do we combat what talents are mandatory? I’m not going to write out the whole list, as I’d imagine if you’ve got this far you actually know what talents we have.
- Demon Armor and Netherward will without a doubt be baseline and rotated but also combined depending on comp vs.
- Rapid Contagion will be the other mandatory talent, as the rapid dot tick is just far too good.
- Deathbolt has incredible setup potential and burst damage, scaling off dots.
- Gateway Mastery may prove to be useful with the increase to escape by 20 yards and the reduced cooldown by 15 seconds.
- Rampant afflictions - Spread UA x3.
Now the other talents not mentioned are completely redundant in my eyes and will most likely never be seen, with the odd exception of Amp Curse for Weakness to reduce crits until there’s a dispel then that talent stays in the book forever to become dusty.
Solution?
Baseline Demon Armor OR Netherward to all three warlock specs;
This allows for choice for an additional talent such as
- Gateway for survivability
- Rampant for spread damage
- Deathbolt for that flavour damage
What happens when I play GoSac?
You obviously lose your pet, this is not necessarily a bad thing given how low health pools pets have, and the 6 second cast time for a new pet (ignoring Fel Dom) but it does hinder your gameplay as such:
- Sacrificing a Felhunter does give you a 24 second CS but you lose Devour Magic, DM has been such a clutch spell in the past, albeit RNG at best - Did you purge a crucible stack or divine favor?
How do we address this going forward? - Do we give every single class a purge ability? Etc… Hunters - Tranq Shot / Priests - Dispel Magic / Demon Hunter - Consume Magic / Shamans - Purge
Do we add Devour Magic to the GoSac ability or do we replace some of the dull PvP talents with Devour Magic? - I think a lot of testing to figure out balance would be required prior to any iteration of this; because you then have to ask the question: Are we now just straying completely away from Pets?
Personal Opinion (Blog Post time)
I would love to see Affliction go back to its roots of being a Dot specialization, with a baked in self heal to Corruption or a buff to Siphon Life. We have been tanky for expansions to come and have either blasted people with “ChAoS BoLt” or completely obliterated people with Cunning of the Cruel, Rathrak or Dragonswrath, or throwing it back to SL/SL Drain Mana days.
The damage from Affliction has never been the most dooming factor but as of recently, more the survivability of Warlocks, which I hope Blizzard are looking into, as recently they have buffed Demon Armor specifically for Affliction.
I have concerns for Affliction going forward in Shadowlands, I do not rate the spec when it is compared to Shadowpriest that offers such great utility and damage.
Finally -
Please throw whatever you want in here, pick apart this post entirely and please be sarcastic when doing so (Jokes aside, please just be honest and if my post is LOB then dont hesitate to call me out on it, but it will be returned)
~ Exephia.