WARLOCK CLASS TREE
---------------------------------------------- GENERAL FEEDBACK --------------------------------------------
- Too many 2 point nodes. The recent addition of Soul Link and Fel Synergy as 2 point nodes has removed most “flex” points that warlocks had.
- Because of this we’re losing utility options and having to chose between them when we didn’t have to in Dragonflight.
- Turning a couple of the 2 points node into 1 point node will solve this.
- There’s still a couple of useless and/or expensive talent that don’t do much that we’ve never taken in Dragonflight or are forced to take because of pathing.
---------------------------------------------- CLASS TALENTS ----------------------------------------------------
- Curses of Enfeeblement + Demonic Embrace
We’re forced to take this talent to get to Demonic Embrace that’s super mandatory. Curse of Enfeeblement is ok but really niche and 99% of the time useless in raids.
Swapping the position of both talents would give us back a flex point.
- Demonic Inspiration + Wrathful Minion
Very weak and underwhelming talents that we have to take because of pathing and because it’s throughput.
I think they could be removed to free up some flex points and give us access to more utility.
- Accrued Vitality + Libeblood
Those talents are super weak and cost 2 points. We’ve never taken them in all of Dragonflight because they ignore how Warlocks keep themselves alive now.
Drain Life is absurdly weak, with or without this, with or without Soulburn. The healing from Accrued Vitality isn’t going to keep you alive.
Healthstones with Soulburn are basically Lay on Hands that brings us back to full HP. Some extra leech after that is meaningless.
Those 2 talents need to be removed and replaced with 1 point nodes to offer alternative pathing to Dark Pact and Shadowfury.
- Sweet Souls
It’s a cool talent but as soon as you have more than 1 warlock in your party, 1 warlock basically gets no value from this, but you have to take this talent to get to Dark Pact.
Either make Sweet Souls work for all warlocks in the party regardless of who distributed the healthstones.
Or offer alternative pathing by changing Accrued Vitality.
- Scorethar’s Guile + Sargerei Technique
Those 2 talents are my favourite option to turn into 1 point nodes to free up some “flex points”.
They create this “wall” to get to the last section of the tree that doesn’t feel good. They’re not super weak but not amazing either.
If turning them into 1 point node requires a slight nerf, I’m okay with that.
- Swift Artifice
Very niche talent that really doesn’t do much and acts as an obstacle to Resolute Barrier that’s a pretty cool talent that we could take in some situations in Dragonflight, but now we can’t because not enough points and Swift Artifice.
- Demonic Tactics
Grants +10% crit chance to the Warlock instead of 5%. The 5% supposed to go to our pet is given to us as well.
- Teachings of the Black Harvest
Doesn’t do anything if playing with the Felhunter and talented into Grimoire of Sacrifice.
- Resolute Barrier
Very nice talent that’s now inaccessible unfortunately for reasons explained previously.
This could become a 1 point node. The second point does nothing frankly.
- Fel Synergy + Soul Link
Those have been turned into 2 point nodes with the Alpha but they still do the same thing whether you spend 1 or 2 points into them.
We’re forced to spend 2 points in them anyways. Fel Synergy was always a very weak talent, I really don’t see how you could justify it costing 2 points, unless you want to make Pact of Gluttony more expensive but that would just feel bad.
- Amplify Curse
Doesn’t work properly with Curse of the Satyr of the Hellcaller hero tree.
- Pact of Gluttony
This is an amazing new talent, extremely powerful with Soulburn.
- Soul Conduit
All 3 specs generate a lot more shards in TWW so I understand why this got nerfed.
However 5% is very very low, I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up not taking it because the proc chance is just too low.
Might need to be replaced by something else.
WARLOCK HERO TREES
--------------------------------------------------- HELLCALLER --------------------------------------------------
- Wither
Doesn’t work properly with Absolute Corruption in the Affliction tree. Wither randomly disappears after casting Summon Darkglare or Malevolence.
Doesn’t work properly witth Channel Demonfire, it doesn’t extend its duration if talented in to Raging Demonfire. Sometimes you have Wither up and you just can’t cast Channel Demonfire at all.
I’m not sure why, I think it’s when I go up very high in Blackened Soul stacks?
- Xalan’s Ferocity
Very weak talent compared to Xalan’s Cruelty that is instanely powerful. Both are tuning knobs talents.
- Blackened Soul
Sometimes the stacks stop being consumed randomly before dropping to 0. Sometimes you can go above 8 stacks without turning Wither acute.
It’s not a big deal, but it can be confusing.
- Curse of the Satyr + Aura of Enfeeblement
This is a bad choice node, there’s not really a choice.
Curse of the Satyr is just saving us 1 keybind, that’s all it does.
Curse of the Satyr also doesn’t work properly with Amplify Curse, the curse of tongues part doesn’t get amplified.
Curse of the Satyr will always be picked despite being very underwhelming because the alternative is even worse.
Aura of Enfeeblement does nothing. You will NEVER use Unending Resolve to trigger this effect, and this effect will never have any impact on whether you survive or die. So it might as well not exist.
This needs to be changed to be something else. AOE curses were nice, I don’t understand why it got removed.
- Zevrim’s Resilience + Illhoof’s Design
Another pretty bad choice node. There is no choice there either.
Zevrim’s Resilience
It is absurdly weak and not well designed. The healing is unnoticeable but that’s a tuning issue.
The biggest issue is that the healing is active only when Dark Pact hasn’t been consumed.
Dark Pact is meant to be consumed, otherwise you didn’t use it properly.
I would argue the healing needs to be triggered WHEN Dark Pact is consumed. Or this talent needs to be reworked.
It also has a pretty big counter-synergy with Ichor of Devils in the class tree, because there’s just nothing to heal.
We’re forced to pick Zevrim’s Resilience despite it doing nothing because Illhoof’s Design is a straight up nerf in its current form.
Illhoof’s Design
This talent looks cool at first glance but it’s actually a nerf. You’ll have a bit more shield on pull, but for the rest of the encounter you just have 10% less HP and 10% less Dark Pact.
This talent needs to come with a pretty massive buff to our Soul Leech shield generation. Either by doubling the generation from Demon Armor and Soul Leech. And/or by making healing received contribute to the shield in some proportion.
Increasing the size of the shield is useless without increasing our ability to fill the shield. Only the warlock can do that. If we can’t fill the shield -and we can’t-, it doesn’t matter that its maximum size has increased.
- Seeds of their Demise
Insanely powerful for Destruction, it might require a nerf frankly. A lot more reasonnable for Affliction.
- Malevolence
I think it needs to be off the GCD despite it doing a lot of things.
Visually it’s cool but you can’t really enjoy how it looks on big character models or with big shoulders/helmets. It needs to go over 3D elements somehow, not necessarily easy.
----------------------------------------------- SOUL HARVESTER -----------------------------------------------
- Demonic Soul + Succulent Soul
First Succulent Soul is heavily bugged for Affliction. Tormented Crescendo and Succulent Soul procs consume each others.
You very often have both procs at the same time, and your next Malefic Rapture consumes both. So we’re missing out on a massive amount of Malefic Rapture.
Demonic Soul tooltip is confusing because it mentions “unleashing” the Demonic Soul.
Sataiel’s Ambition makes the Demonic Soul “appear”.
Shadow of Death makes you “invoke” the Demonic Soul.
And there is a real difference, because the Sataiel’s Ambition Demonic Soul is different from the others, but it’s just not explained clearly.
- Friends in Dark Places + Gorebound Fortitude
Friends in Dark Places doesn’t work.
This is a good choice node, contrary to Hellcaller.
Both talents are good and competitive. Gorebound Fortitude might even allow us to save a point in the class tree by skipping over Soulburn in certain fights.
- Eternal Servitude + Spirited Away
This is a bad choice node, and it’s not really a choice.
Eternal Servitude
It is very niche, you only really use Fel Domination when you’re dying again and again, usually not a good sign.
There are also plenty of situations where we don’t pick Fel Domination, because we simply don’t need it.
But we have to take this talent because the alternative is a straight up nerf to our mobility (just like Illhoof’s Design is a survivability nerf in the Hellcaller tree).
Spirited Away
This is a nerf to our mobility plain and simple. The 60s CD is absurdly long, the buff to Burning Rush is not nearly powerful enough to justify it.
Burning Rush is so good BECAUSE it doesn’t have a CD.
The CD needs to be massively reduced, to something like 10/15s. Or it needs to become a passive effect that enhances Burning Rush for 6s with a 60s CD but that doesn’t prevent us from using Burning Rush.
Or it needs a massive power buff (and keep the 1min CD), by allowing us to cast while moving during those 6s, or something like that.
- Feast of Souls + Shared Fate
Feast of Souls is heavily bugged for Affliction, again because of Tormented Crescendo procs.
Shared Fate needs to be a trackable debuff on the target affected. Its visual effect is not clear enough, you simply don’t see when it’s active or not unless you go check your logs.
- Quietus + Sataiel’s Ambition
Both talents are heavily bugged for Affliction. They don’t work at all if talented into Drain Soul.
They only work with Shadow Bolt if you have 2 stacks of Nightfall up and then your next Shadow Bolt triggers their effects but both Nightfall stacks are consumed.
The demonic soul summoned via Sataiel’s Ambition is different than the one summoned via Succulent Soul or Shadow of Death, as it doesn’t deal the same amount of damage. But somehow both trigger Soul Anathema despite it being worded to only proc from Shadow of Death and Succulent Soul?
It’s not a big deal, but it’s confusing.
- Shadow of Death
Very underwhelming for Demonology, because Summon Demonic Tyrant doesn’t grant 5 shards like it used to. So very often after finishing our Tyrant set up we have 0 shards and we’re forced to spam Shadow Bolt and 1 shard hand of Gul’dan.
Would be solved if Demonic Tyrant gave us 5 shards on summon again.
------------------------------------------------- DIABOLIST ----------------------------------------------------
- Diabolic Ritual + Demonic Art
Still has some bugs. Demonic Art can be consumed by Soulburn or by summoning your pet even with Fel Domination (which removes the shard cost).
When it does, your Demonic Art is consumed but you don’t even summon the OVerlord/Shivarra/Pit Lord.
- Touch of Rancora
This talent is constantly being wasted for Demonology since the spec has a lot of shard spenders with its summons of demons that (rightfully) don’t benefit from it.
It’s not a big deal but it feels bad to have a talent that you benefit something like once a minute when Destruction gets basically full benefit (unless you use Soulburn at the wrong time).
- Secrets of the Coven
Infernal Bolt cast time is too short, it’s below the GCD because it has naturally a shorter cast time than Shadow Bolt/Incinerate AND it benefits from our talents that reduce the cast time of those spells.
Spells with cast time faster than the GCD feel bad in the rotation, they feel like a hitch. Also more often than not we end up queueing a SB/Incinerate on the back of it which we don’t want to.
Very often Infernal Bolt makes us overcap shards, which feels a little bad? But we’re not really lacking in shards whether it’s in Demonology or Destruction so it’s not a big deal.
- Cruelty of Kerxan + Infernal Machine
I find both talents to be underwhelming, especially Cruelty of Kerxan.
I think the Diabolist tree is overall very good and this choice node could disappear and I wouldn’t notice it.
I think this could use a redesign.
- Utility Nodes
Both utility nodes in the Diabolist tree work and are decent.
I do wish Annihilan’s Bellow would uncap the number of targets feared by Howl of Terror, so that we can maybe use it in M+.
- Ruination
Hits like a truck, especially as Destruction. It has a super short cast time, is not interruptable and can be cast while moving. This is going to cause issues in PVP.
So first it can be cast while moving, it’s not written anywhere, so I think it’s a bug?
Then for Destruction, the imp summoned is meaningless. I don’t know what it’s doing there, it deals no damage, doesn’t generate shards. Ruination does more than enough damage on its own, just get rid of the imp.
It should also replace Rain of Fire in our bars, just like it does for Chaos Bolt, so that in AOE scenarios we don’t have to do a weird switch between both abilities.
For Demonology, the animation takes a long time and so it takes a very long time for the imps to spawn.
This can cause issues if you get a Ruination proc during your Tyrant set up. You might cast it, but the imps won’t show up before you’ve summoned your Tyrant.
WARLOCK SPEC TREES
------------------------------------------------- AFFLICTION ----------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------- GENERAL FEEDBACK ---------------------------------------------
I don’t understand why Affliction still has 2 point nodes but not Destruction and Demonology. There are a bunch of completely useless talents that do nothing that have to go.
I get the feeling that the devs have ran out of ideas for Affliction. The bottom of the tree which is supposed to be where you get your most powerful stuff is weak. Talents there are randomly scattered, there’s no structure or idea or “specialization”. But at least it’s just 1 point nodes.
The bottom of the tree feels like a buffet with just mediocre options.
I’m glad that things like Dread Touch are gone, but Affliction doesn’t feel at all like a DoT spec on alpha. We play Absolute Corruption and we’re just spamming Shadow Bolt and Malefic Rapture.
Hellcaller still has a big emphasis on our DoTs, Wither is our first source of damage and our DoTs deal a significant part of our overall, but there’s not DoT management anymore.
With Soul Harvester our DoTs feel irrelevant. They deal barely 20% of our overall and there’s no DoT management either because we’re playing Absolute Corruption too.
The tier set bonus is pretty good because it helps make the overwhelming amount of Nightfall and Tormented Crescendo procs feel more relevant.
------------------------------------------- AFFLICTION TALENTS -------------------------------------------
- Seed of Corruption + Kindled Malice
We’re forced to take Seed of Corruption all the time for pathing reasons.
I don’t think it’s a big deal but I don’t understand why it can’t swap places with Kindled Malice or be moved somewhere else in the top section of the tree?
Kindled Malice is powerful, I just don’t understand why it can’t be a 1 point node, even if it comes at the cost of a slight nerf.
- Dark Virtuosity
There is no choices in the top section of the tree, we will always take the same talents in all situations.
We will NEVER pick Dark Virtuosity because it’s very weak and very expensive. This talent NEEDS to become a 1 point node, there’s no justification for costing 2 points.
Of course the issue with going down to just 1 point is that you need to come up with other talents, and it seems to be an issue for Affliction.
- Absolute Corruption + Siphon Life
Siphon Life healing doesn’t work.
The 5% damage difference doesn’t seem to be enough to justify not playing Absolute Corruption. Absolute Corruption makes the spec 100x times simpler to play, it frees up so many GCDs.
Even for Hellcaller that’s all about Corruption/Wither damage, I don’t see a world where we don’t go AC.
Absolute Corruption is bugged with Wither, it will randomly disappears at times after casting Summon Darkglare or Malevolence. Or it will get a random timer after refreshing it via Seed of Corruption.
- Volatile Agony
AOE talent that we’re forced to pick in all scenarios, like Seed of Corruption. It’s a very good talent that makes manually refreshing agonies mid-pack feel very satisfying.
- Nightfall
Nightfall is heavily bugged. Stacks get consumed when casting a Shadow Bolt that wasn’t buffed by it.
If you get 2 stacks both are consumed by our next Shadow Bolt/Drain Soul.
It’s also completely bugged for the Soul Harvester tree, it doesn’t trigger what it’s supposed to, especially if you play Drain Soul.
- Improved Shadow Bolt + Drain Soul
Drain Soul is at a massive disadvantage compared to Shadow Bolt in TWW.
That’s because we have a lot more Nightfall and Tormented Crescendo than before so you’re constantly forced to interrupt your Nightfall Drain Souls as not to overcap on Tormented Crescendo procs.
If you finish a Drain Soum channel you more likely than not “wasted” 1/2 Tormented Crescendo procs.
Drain Soul is also at a disadvantage because of Shadow Embrace.
- Shadow Embrace
Given the issues that Drain Soul has, I don’t understand why applying/maintaining Shadow Embrace should be more punishing for Drain Soul.
Just make it go up to 2 stacks, just like for Shadow Bolt, it’s a no-brainer.
- Improved Haunt
Makes Haunt apply Shadow Embrace even if you’re not talented into Shadow Embrace.
This is an issue because again, if you’re playing Improved Shadow Bolt, that means you get a 4% damage amp for free with Haunt.
But if you play Drain Soul, it’s just 2%.
You can also do some shenanigans to maintain Shadow Embrace at max stacks by casting your first Haunt at max range, then the following in melee range, etc. Something has to change there.
I think talenting into Shadow Embrace is what should make Haunt contribute to it, not Improved Haunt. It would solve the issue.
- Malediction
Doesn’t work. Should be a 1 point node at the cost of a slight nerf.
- Cunning Cruelty
Doesn’t work with Drain Soul.
So this is meant to be a cleave/AOE talent, it’s actually much better in ST, it’s a beast in ST.
That’s because in AOE we generate so many shards, we’re just spamming Malefic Rapture, we’re not actually casting our filler.
Whereas in ST we’re spamming SB/DS quite a lot, there’s roughly a 50% chance to proc, and so you’re throwing out so many free SB that deal a lot of damage.
That’s 5% of your overall in ST for free. It’s too powerful.
- Vile Taint
NEEDS TO STOP OVERWRITING MANUALLY APPLIED CURSES OF WEAKNESS/TONGUES/SATYR WITH A USELESS SHORT CURSE OF EXHAUSTION. PLEASE.
This prevents Affliction from using curses in M+, it is beyond annoying.
- Infirmity
This talent does nothing if playing Vile Taint. Applying Agony with 4 extra stacks is utterly meaningless. Just like Agonizing Corruption was utterly meaningless in Dragonflight.
Let Vile Taint apply Infirmity as well, just like Phantom Singularity.
- Contagion
Should be a 1 point node at the cost of a slight nerf.
- Cull the Weak
Should be a 1 point node at the cost of a slight nerf.
Very good AOE talent, but it’s actually quite hard to get to. Paradoxically, Infirmity and Cunning Cruelty are pretty bad AOE talents that you don’t really want to pick, so it makes getting to Cull the Weak very expensive.
Create a connection directly between Vile Taint/Phantom Singuliarity and Cull the Weak.
- Soul Rot
Still not listed as benefitting from our Mastery, despite the fact that it does.
- Xavius’ Gambit
Unstable Affliction is actually pretty weak now, so just a +15% buff to it isn’t competitive in any scenario.
- Perpetual Instability
This talent is a joke. It does nothing.
Merge it with Xavius’ Gambit, increase the damage amp to UA to +35% or something, and then we have a decent talent.
- Oblivion
Very niche talent that’s stuck behind Xavius Gambit that’s weak and has nothing to do with it.
Oblivion doesn’t scale with our mastery, doesn’t interact with our talent tree or our Hero talent trees.
I don’t really get what role this is supposed to fill.
It has a 45s CD just like Phantom Singularity, so maybe with Infirmity there’s a synergy there? But you hold Phantom Singularity for your Soul Rot window, even more with the Hero trees and Malevolence/Shadow of Death.
And during those windows you’re heavily incentivized to cast Malefic Rapture.
- Focused Malignancy
Decent talent, for some reason it’s on the opposite side of 2 other talents that buff Malefic Rapture. But nothing very exciting there.
- Death’s Embrace
This talent is a joke. It does nothing. Thank god it has moved to a corner of the tree where we don’t even have to look at it.
Healing buff to Drain Life is meaningless. Damage amp below 5% is meaningless. This talent will just collect dust.
- Dark Harvest + Malign Omen
PLEASE SWAP THE POSITION OF THOSE 2 TALENTS. MALIGN OMEN IS ONE OF THE RARE COOL THING IN THE BOTTOM OF THE TREE, MAKE IT ACCESSIBLE.
- Improved Malefic Rapture
Pretty weak. Destruction has the same talent for Chaos Bolt that’s twice as powerful and also just at the cost of 1 point.
Just buff this to +10% damage and 20% reduced cast time. It’s a no-brainer.
- Malefic Touch
A fifth talent in the tree to buff Malefic Rapture. This deals decent extra damage but will fall off because it doesn’t scale with our mastery.
I think it could be easy to tweak this so that it’s directly added to Malefic Rapture damage and so scales with our mastery.
I’ll post about destruction/demonology later.