Hello,
would like to share with my personal thoughts and feelings about how Affliction talent tree could/should look like to embrace its core mechanic and fantasy. If did attracted your curiosity dear reader and you want to step ahead, please wipe out from your memory everything you know about how Affliction is played now because I will be ripping out, smashing and remaking all what Affliction is and was.
My focus of end content in the game is Mythic plus so it’s very likely that some ideas might be counterintuitive or not working in other activities. With step ahead to any skeptical commenters: I do agree, it very possible was a waste of time, but personally had lot of fun during this process and very likely had more fun than if I would spend time playing Affliction on live.
On the start I need to say that it will be almost impossible to give good representation of the tree on the forum due to the editing limits. I will split the tree into 3 tiers and share details of it separately (which is very similar to this one we have now) and then for each I will list talents combined into groups to keep them in logical order.
Changes overview:
Tier 1 – Baseline rotation
- Agony is core spell and mechanic of the specialization; it’s damage now starts at 100% and no longer ramps up.
- Agony is replacing Corruption. Corruption as additional DOT brings very little fun to the gameplay and rotation. With such change more focus will be putted into refreshing Agony manually. To smooth the rotation casting Agony on target affected by your Agony extend duration of your Agony by few seconds on all other targets.
- Agony can be empowered by further talents: Agony now stack its damage with every tick, when Agony reaches 10 stacks it does instant damage into target and reset its stacks. When Agony strikes critically or is refreshed, Agony gains extra stack.
- Unstable Affliction is now single target Soul Shard spender, stack up to 3 times on one target.
- Malefic Rapture is now the only AoE Soul Shard spender and no longer scales with number of DOTs on the target.
- Seed of Corruption is removed, as in multi target situations it’s moving away Affliction too much from identity of DOT specialization. Keeping dots up in such scenarios should be important part of rotation and damage.
- Vile Taint now has no cooldown but its Agony application no longer can be applied to targets already affected by Agony. The key part of Vile Taint as the spell is to help Affliction with spreading Agony at the start of the combat and certain mechanics when for example adds are spawned. Cost of Soul Shard justifies it’s possibly to cast it multiply times during short window of time if need be.
- Drain Soul and Shadow Bolt is now choice note. Shadow Bolt can generate Soul Shard if target dies during 5 seconds after hit lands. Value of the Drain Soul in Mythic plus is way higher for Shadow Bolt to compare, this change will reduce the gap between spells.
Tier 2 – Main cooldown and advanced rotation
- Reap Souls is back as Affliction specialization cooldown increasing your Haste by X% for X sec per soul consumed.
- Reap Souls can now increase Unstable Affliction damage and extend the duration of Agony and Unstable Affliction per soul consumed.
- Drain Soul damage has a chance to rend the target’s soul and summon an additional Tormented Soul.
- When Shadow Bolt and Drain Soul deals damage, they can occasionally generate Soul Shard, effect is significantly increased when you don’t have any Soul Shards.
- Agony, Unstable Affliction and Siphon Life deal up to X% increased damage on targets below X% health.
- Phantom Singularity is removed.
Tier 3 – Capstones
- Siphon Life is now capstone path as replacement to Haunt.
- Summon Darkglare does no longer extends your damage over time effects.
- Summon Darkglare now increase damage of your damage over time effects on the target which it’s attacking.
Affliction talent tree overview:
Tier 1 – Baseline rotation
| 1 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 3 | 4 | ||||
| 5 | 6 | 7 | ||||
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
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(1) Agony – Replace Corruption. Inflicts increasing agony on the target, causing up to X Shadow damage over 18 sec. [Agony damage sometimes generates 1 Soul Shard]
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(3) Casting Agony on target affected by your Agony extend duration of your Agony by X seconds on all other targets.
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(6) Agony can now stack its damage, when Agony reaches 10 stacks it releases harmful damage into target soul instantly dealing X% of Agony damage (scales with Mastery) and reset all gained stacks.
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(10) When Agony does critical damage or is refreshed, it generates additional stack.
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(2) Unstable Affliction (1.5 sec cast, cost 1 Soul Shard, up to 3 stacks) – Afflicts one target with X Shadow damage over X sec. If dispelled, deals X damage to the dispeller and silences them for 4 sec. [Generates 1 Soul Shard if the target dies while afflicted]
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(5) Agony deals X% more damage when target is affected by Unstable Affliction.
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(8) Casting Unstable Affliction on a target affected by your Unstable Affliction increase its damage by X%.
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(4) Malefic Rapture (1.5 sec cast, cost 1 Soul Shard) – Your damaging periodic effect from your spells erupt on all targets, causing X Shadow damage
per damage over time effect. -
(7) Casting Malefic Rapture when target is affected by Agony, guarantee next Agony tick to be critical strike. This debuff can stack on targets and it is consumed with Agony tick.
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(12) Casting Agony on target affected by your Agony cause your next Malefic Rapture to deal X% additional damage, stacking up to 5 times.
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(9) Choice 1: Drain Soul – Replace Shadow Bolt. Drains the target’s soul, causing (X) Shadow damage over 5 sec. Damage is increased by 100% against enemies below 20% health. [Generates 1 Soul Shard if the target dies during this effect]
(9) Choice 2: Shadow Bolt Generates 1 Soul Shard if the target dies within 5 sec after being damaged. -
(11) Vile Taint (1.5 sec cast, cost 1 shard, no cooldown) – Unleashes a vile explosion at the target location, dealing X Shadow damage over 10 sec to 8 enemies within 10 yds and applies Curse of Exhaustion and Agony if target is already not affected by Agony.
Tier 2 – Main cooldown and advanced rotation
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11, 12 | 13, 14 | 15, 16 |
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(2) Reap Souls – Consume all Tormented Souls collected, increasing your Haste by X% for X sec per soul consumed. Tormented Souls spawn from each target you kill and occasionally escaped souls it previously collected.
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(6) Reap Souls increase Unstable Affliction damage by X%.
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(8) Reap Souls extend the duration of Agony and Unstable Affliction by X seconds per soul consumed.
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(13, 14) Drain Soul damage has a X% chance to rend the target’s soul and summon an additional Tormented Soul.
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(1) Agony damage has a chance to cause your next Shadow Bolt or Drain Soul to deal X% increased damage. Shadow Bolt is instant cast and Drain Soul channels 50% faster when affected.
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(5) Shadow Bolt and Drain Soul deal X% increased damage, up to X%, per damage over time effect you have active on the target.
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(11, 12) Agony, Unstable Affliction and Siphon Life deal up to X% increased damage on targets below X% health.
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(3) Vile Taint does additional X instant damage when explode at the target location.
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(9) Casting Malefic Rapture cause your next Vile Taint explode damage to deal X% additional damage, stacking up to 3 times.
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(15, 16) Malefic Rapture deals X% increased damage to targets suffering from Vile Taint or Soul Rot and deals 2*X% increased damage to targets suffering from Unstable Affliction
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(4) When Shadow Bolt and Drain Soul deals damage they can occasionally generate Soul Shard, effect is significantly increased when you don’t have any Soul Shards.
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(7) Soul Swap (cost 1 Soul Shard, 20 sec cooldown) – Copies your damage over time effects from the target, preserving their duration. Only one Unstable Affliction can be copied at ones. Your next use of Soul Swap within 10 sec will exhale a copy damage of the effects onto a new target.
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(10) When you kill a target affected with Agony, its soul bursts into flames, dealing X Shadowflame damage to nearby enemies. Deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets.
Tier 3 – Capstones
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5, 6 | 7 | 8, 9 | 10, 11 | 12 | 13, 14 | |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
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(1) Siphon Life – (12 sec cooldown) Siphons the target’s life essence, dealing X Shadow damage over 15 sec and healing you for 30% of the damage done.
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(5, 6) Siphon Life deals X% additional damage and healing is increased by X%.
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(15) Your Siphon Life spell also increases the damage of your damage over time effects to all targets by 20% while active.
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(2) Your Agony deal damage 20% faster.
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(8, 9) Unstable Affliction deals X% increased damage.
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(16) Malefic Rapture causes targets suffering from your Unstable Affliction to take 30% additional damage from your damage over time effects for 12 sec.
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(3) Summons Darkglare – Summons a Darkglare from the Twisting Nether that will serve you for 20 sec, blasting its target for X Shadow damage and increase damage of your damage over time effects by 25% which are active on his current target. [Darkglare does prioritizing your last Unstable Affliction target]
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(10, 11) Darkglare increase damage of your damage over time effects by additional X%. Darkglare lasts an additional 5 sec.
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(17) When Darkglare deals damage, it deals X% of that damage to all enemies affected by your damage over time effects and increase damage of your damage over time effects by X%.
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(4) Soul Rot – Wither away all life force of your current target and up to 4 additional targets nearby, causing your primary target to suffer X Shadow damage and secondary targets to suffer X Shadow damage over 8 sec. For the next 8 sec, casting Drain Life will cause you to also Drain Life from any enemy affected by your Soul Rot, and Drain Life will not consume any mana.
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(13, 14) Soul Rot cooldown is reduced by X sec.
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(18) Each target affected by Soul Rot increases your haste and critical strike chance by 4.0% for 8 sec.
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(7) While Agony and Unstable Affliction are active, your Shadow Bolt has a 30% chance and your Drain Soul has a 20% chance to make your next Malefic Rapture or Unstable Affliction cost no Soul Shards and cast instantly.
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(12) Agony grants an application of Wrath of Consumption when a target dies, increasing all periodic damage dealt by 3% for 30 sec, stacking up to 5 times.
