[Dragonflight] Issues with pet abilities

Classes Warlock
1

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/704412498589253743/1006704326871363686/unknown.png
So you are no longer wanna have “pet diversity?”

Warlocks have always been able to utilize demons to perform actions independent of whatever state the Warlock is currently in. Spell Lock is iconic to the Felhunter identity and has a lot of history behind it. We considered making this a choice-style node, but ultimately felt that we want to retain the gameplay of knowing what a Warlock is capable of by what demon they are accompanied by, and the unique identity Warlock has: utilizing powerful tools tied to their pets rather than themselves.

Blizzard, I see the reason why you gave fel hunter spell lock back, yet it raises the question in regards of demons and demonology talent tree.

Warlock is capable of by what demon they are accompanied by, and the unique identity Warlock has: utilizing powerful tools tied to their pets rather than themselves.

Ok, if we look at this sentence we can see some reason behind it - on the paper. Yet this statement is contradicted by the design of the pet utility and talent design.

Right now warlock pet utility is severely underdeveloped and barely fits the overall warlock design, additionally pet damage abilities in most situations are nothing more than just another damage source.

Additionally demonology talent design cuts off all possibility of use of any other demon rather than felguard, 7-9 talents are designed exclusively for felguard not only giving him more flat damage number and offering him more combat utility over other demons.

And with current design of warlocks we have a situation, and return of felhunter we yet again will find ourselves in situation where felhunter would be de facto pet for Affli and Destro, and Felguard for demo, where other pets would be just render absolute because of their utility that in 99% of situation would be useless for any PvE encounter.

With current design of pet usitity and demonology talent trees we are far from being free to use pets of our liking.

  • Affli and Destro would be forced to play with felhunter and be cut from 3/4 of other available demons, because felhunter just has spell lock that is needed in most situations.

  • Demonology would be cut from 4/5 of other demons because Felguard is pushed to be the only viable demon for demonology due to talents and stat distribution.

Blizzard just try to answer the question, in which situations you can see warlocks using sayaad or Imp in PvE (Raids and M+)?

6 Likes
2

With the spell lock I’m on your site, but i like my Wrathguard. The talents around the Wrathguard are good for me, but i know what you mean. Those talents could also increase the dmg of all perma pets.

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We are literally cut from 4/5 our pets. This is not a good design - this is a sign of a lazy design.

2 Likes
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That’s why i said those talents should work with all pets.

But first things first, we need to get back the spell lock on the player.

It is stupid to waste a pvp Talent for a spell lock.

1 Like
5

Agree. Blizz went an easy route. Instead of giving players spell lock and unlocking at least even a possibility for affli and destro of using pets of their liking, blizz changed things back because it would have required them to update or rework fel hunter toolkit.
Without spell lock, felhunter only had two spells - shadow bite and devour magic - which is kinda pathetic knowing how many skills other demons have and how many skills hunter pets have.
This would have required Blizz to make a rework of fel hunter to put him in line with others - give him some new ability and rework some talents in DF base warlock tree.

3 Likes
6

They could add Drain Mana to the pet so the real fantasy of the pet is still a thing. It was the anti caster pet from the start, but now it just the Spell lock pet.

2 Likes
7

Blizzard have finally seen what some of us saw on day one.

I’m extremely happy that they reverted it.

You don’t use the purge? :o

That’s not true. You’ll always swap out your pets if something is required. For demo, you can spend a few seconds summoning an imp for a dispel, or your felhunter for a second interrupt/purge if needed, regardless of a minor, temporary damage loss. It can be a matter of success or failure at times. If a dungeon boss doesn’t require utility, you can just use your succubus, because it does slightly more single target damage than the other demons because of the stacking debuff it applies. I think a lot of people are just too lazy to play like this. This is only from a PVE perspective, mainly in higher M+ situations. For PVP you still have the Call Felhunter talent /shrug

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Dragon flight pet diversity in Pvp :slight_smile:

→ if you play full mongo wizzard + shaman healer : Felhunter for more purgres
→ enemy plays Hunter, ret or something with dispellable CC : Imp
→ Enemy plays something that trains you/your pet : Voildwalker
→ you are a cringelord roleplayer, or you are casting a video montage of big Soulfire crits : Succubus

1 Like
9

This always comes up. “I play RPG, not number game”

Surely the roleplaying aspect of playing a warlock is utilizing your demons unique abilities to suit the situation haha

1 Like
10

In pvp you normally sack the pet, so the spell lock is on you. And as demo you always use Felguard. And we have the pvp talent for demo. But i want the spell lock back in the tree, to have more choices in pvp talents.

11

IN SL FG conduit gives you more damage for Felguard, Whiplash cannot compete there.
IN DF, on top of talent that works like FG conduit you have a number of talents that increase FG damage. It is not a really healthy design. If those talents like Fel commando worked with all demons no one would have felt bad about it, and warlocks wouldn’t have been punished damage wise if they had to swap demons for CC or utility

Immagine if warrior talents worked like that…

  • Range stun only with equiped mace.
  • Bladstorm only with swords or axes equiped.
  • Spell reflect only with equiped shield.

Talents in demonology should work with all demons, regardless of what demon you use.
Blizz in Wrath put an effort to make some talents for demons that had effect/utility for all avalible demons.

Grants the Warlock’s summoned demon Empowerment.

  • Imp - Increases the Imp’s spell critical strike chance by 20% for 30 sec.

  • Voidwalker - Increases the Voidwalker’s health by 20%, and its threat generated from spells and attacks by 20% for 20 sec.

  • Succubus and Incubus - Instantly vanishes, causing the demon to go into an improved Invisibility state. The vanish effect removes all stuns, snares and movement impairing effects from the demon.

  • Felhunter - Dispels all magical effects from the Felhunter.

  • Felguard - Increases the Felguard’s attack speed by 20% and breaks all stun, snare and movement impairing effects and makes your Felguard immune to them for 15 sec.

Talents like Unholy power or Demonic tactics worked with all demons as well.

2 Likes
12

I’m aware of the felguards damage amps/new abilities in DF and I still wouldn’t hesitate to swap out my pet temporarily for its utility if required.

13

Blizzard should just make a choice node that says either the warlock kicks himself or the pet does the kick, but any demon can do it. So you have the free choice between the pets.
With the demo blizzard would either have to do it in such a way that demo can summon 2 pets or that the demo can absorb the essence of a pet and then get the ability from the pet yourself. So a book of sacrifice without a dmgboost

14

Very disappointed in the Spell Lock change. They simply, once again, forced Aff and Dest to play only with Felhunter. Utility brought by other demons simply can not compete with such an important ability like Spell Lock.

My hope was that they were going to make Felhunter have a Spell Lock but it disappears from the Felhunter if you choose the Spell Lock in the talent tree and maybe give Felhunter another utility spell to increase its potential playbility in comparison to other pets.

Not to mention, this means Demo is once again forced to spend a PvP talent for something as simple as Spell Lock. Meh…

Its always a bad move to remove “options” and “force” things.

2 Likes
15

Really, what is the purpose of having pets in the first place if they are meaningless? I don’t understand your point of view. You want all pets to be equally good in all situations, thus making them a cosmetic pet. I want my pets to be more unique than they are currently, not less.

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Why not buff the other pet abilities instead? Do you really want pets to be a cosmetic choice?

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Not sure how having the option I mentioned in my comment make the pets a cosmetic choice.

18

Because either you make every pet the same, or you are bound to have one be best in certain situations. All of you whining about being “forced” into using Felhunter because spell lock is too good would start whining about being forced into using Imp because dispell is too good. And when that is nerfed you would whine about being forced to use Felhunter again due to purge.

Either pets matter or they don’t. You can’t have it both ways!

19

So better be forced into Felhunter than Imp of your choice, but don’t want that. So gibt it back as talent. If you choose the talent, the Felhunter won’t have spell lock. But if you don’t choose the talent your Felhunter will have the spell lock. Abd everyone is happy.

20

This is such a weird comment.

In PvE, you need Spell Lock. End of discussion. Thus, you are forced into Felhunter. The option I cited would not affect you at all, so I am not certain whats there to complain for you.

I complain because I do PvP. I could potentially utilize Seduction or Imp dispel (which is particularly strong against Hunters) but I can’t because Spell Lock is such a crucial and irreplaceable ability.

2 Likes