Affliction Warlocks need some changes in order to be more competitive and feel more streamlined in Mythic+ environments

Classes Warlock
1

Affliction Warlocks need some changes in order to be more competitive and feel more streamlined in Mythic+ environments.

I am going to try and keep this as short as possible so that it does not take too long to read.

Affliction

Affliction warlocks are doing great at single target and 2 target situations. However, they are not doing very well in Mythic+ because:

  • The AOE rotation is hectic and does not really catch up to other specs such as MM Hunter, Fire Mage, Balance Druid, Unholy DK, Outlaw Rogue that can immediately dish out tons of AOE damage with much less effort.
  • The ramp up time is really high – by the time I am done putting my dots on an AOE pack, they are already at around 30% health/dead – this is especially true if you have a Fire Mage / MM Hunter / Balance Druid in your group as they can nuke AOE packs rather quickly.

The way to fix this is by applying the following changes:

  • Seed of Corruption now also applies Agony to nearby targets when detonated.
  • Rework 25 Row Talent Absolute Corruption to Absolute Affliction

New Talent: Absolute Affliction

Corruption and Agony are now permanent.

Duration reduced to 24 and 28 seconds respectively against players.

…

These changes will cause our AOE damage to match up to other classes because we would be able now be able start our Malefic Rapture dump early enough to keep up with other specs. Agony will also be able to reach 10 stacks faster than when we had to select every target individually to apply it.

These changes will cause our AOE rotation to feel much more streamlined as we will not need to constantly worry about refreshing Agony on multiple targets while simultaneously trying to dish out as many Malefic Raptures as possible.

Additionally, these changes will also allow to free up enough headspace so we can focus on Soul Shard sniping with Unstable Affliction and Drain Soul.

…

I feel like these changes are a fair thing to ask for since Warlocks are a DPS only class and their other 2 specs are not really performing good enough to be considered competitive in any environment (Single Target, 2 Targets, AOE).

It really gets to me when I see a mage or a hunter nuking an AOE pack with 20k DPS while I’m still applying my Agony on every mob and then having the mobs die before I can dump my soul shards into Malefic Rapture. I hate how long it takes, and how I have to keep refreshing my DOTs, its too hectic, inconvenient, unenjoyable, stressful and its just badly designed overall.

The reason I thought of this and wrote it down is because I hate feeling held back by my choice to play a class I enjoy.

7 Likes
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Half of your issues are only issues because you’re not doing 15’s. Who knew a dot spec was bad in dungeons, it’s been like that for over 30 years or however long MUDS(OG MMO’s) has been around. At higher keys you’re more than viable and do good dmg, whilst being immortal.

Is hunter mage WW better than Wlock? Yes they sure are. But have you looked at ele shaman, priest and such. We have ramp but with pridefull and CD’s can delete 2 packs by ourselves. Whilst having the highest boss dps.

6 Likes
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People: “I play Afflock, a Dot Specc.”
Same People: “I don’t like applying dots to multiple targets. Change plx.”
Me: ???

You should play demon hunter and enjoy your 2 button rotation, since that’s what you pretty much get with this change.

And it might get to them when you pump the bosses with pride and Lust and they eat your dust.
Not every class has to be S-Tier in every aspect.
Your Hunter and Mage won’t complain if you do less AoE then them if you can bring something else to the table. And Afflock most certainly does.
100% agree with EvaliĂ .

3 Likes
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You seen doomkins with prideful? disgusting.

On topic the only things I think is needed for m+ warlock is faster cast speed and some OOMPH on seed of corruption.

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Honestly, a simple buff to seed of corruption cast time would help alot. It feels too sluggish to cast

4 Likes
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If Blizzard had to do anything it’d be how Affli plays in sub 15 keys and Arenas, but just like with PvP balancing a lot of it would affect the other environments. Your proposed changes would turn Afflocks into gods in RBGs and Raids too, while also doing extremely little to help afflocks hard stuck at a certain rio score and having to do +10s or below. I’d donate my left kidney to have Legion’s affli return with all the design choices and artifact powers, but that won’t happen as Affliction is already performing very well where ramp up is possible.

Not that I’d be against that mind you, the balance mill will then have Aff nerfed/soft reworked into an abysmal state in 9.1 and get Destro and/or Demo buffed to “open up new avenues for player choice” or whatever horsedung the devs dump on these patches.

Added bonus being that Affliction’s current iteration of “High numbers at the cost of fun and flow” would go down the gutter and make way for something that’s at least fun to play.

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Or just remove rupture and shards all together, and having dots do more dps

2 Likes
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Thats about the only change that might be needed; for the rest affliction is more then capable.

OP, yes, affliction is not strong in burst AoE, but in ST and Cleave its way up there as an S-tier spec. And no spec is good at everything.

And if people really want great bursty AoE, we have destro for that.

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Only change that needs to be made is to sow the seeds. “seed of corruption now applies agony to all targets hit” still only 1 seed that gets sent but you get way more bang for your buck, this change would make that long cast time also more “fair”. By selecting as a talent you are speccing into a more aoe focused build so we do lose some of our single target power (no vile taint or ps dot to add to mr damage) which is fair considering we get more aoe, cant take without giving

… no… just no. If i wanted to play a 1-2 button class I would play DH or arcane mages back in the day where your entire keyboard was bound to arcane blast. the reason why we have absolute corruption is to free up GCD’s so we can do other stuff and in raid settings depending on the boss you either use writhe or siphon life (sludgefist ie)

I don’t have too much difficulty with this as it is, this is something you need to actively pay attention to.

Lets be real… its nice doing top dps on bosses yes, but i would rather drop my boss dps a bit and contribute to the add fight where the mage and the hunter and almost any other class just went “Cool guys don’t look at explosions” because the real fight is in the trash packs for m+.

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It is pathetic out of blizzard that the game’s master dotter spec has to individually apply dots while the dk clicks 1 button and instantly 8 mobs have dots on them ready to smash that aoe.

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Tbh, i think that smth like accumulation main target’s damage and exploding it with some interval of time fits way better. For example bind it to seed of corruption. “seed of corruption - for 16 seconds makes your target explodes each 4 second (based on haste) with 50% of damage dealt for last 4 seconds to primary target in 16 yard range” (same idea as destro talent but let it be aoe)
This numbers are pretty random, but mechanic won’t be so gcd starved, same as multidotting will be still mandatory for shard gen and focusing some unique targets.
And bring siphon life back in corruption -_-.
And completely disagree with spreading agony with 1 button. We need to make decisions: extra dot or faster but lower burst damage, 1 button agony denies our skills to shine ^^. Calculating which number of agonies for each fight fits better, and it is pretty fun part of movements between packs as for me.

1 Like
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  • Malefic Grasp
  • 40 yd range
  • 1.5% of [base mana]
  • Binds the target in twilight, causing X Shadow damage over 4 sec.

Every 1 sec, when Malefic Grasp deals damage, it causes all of your other periodic Affliction damage effects to instantly deal 30% of their normal periodic damage.

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But then we’d be back to the issue of being completely useless still in m+, dots don’t work in m+ unless super high key, we need burst as affliction to be competitive

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It definitely is an issue when adds die fast, but that goes for any dps.
I was actually thinking of the old style affliction, where you would keep up dots for the nightfall proc and make hit harder? Or like DKs having dots spread, but it might just be me with some wishful thinking.

15

I’m struggling as well with Affliction especially when trash doesn’t live long enough for me to dot them up and start rupturing, and that’s at +12s.

Even though i’m coming on top on every single boss fight, but the overall damage i’m always 3rd due to trash ramp up.

I thought about this and i honestly believe that the best solution that blizzard can implement right now is making seed spread agony as well, simple solution.

1 Like
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