Infraction for Smurrf: Fake talents are awesome!

Kaubel · 08/22/08, 5:37 PM

Post: [Warlock] WotLK Talent Preview / Discussion
User: Smurrf
Infraction: Fake talents are awesome!
Points: 2

Administrative Note:

Message to User:

http://elitistjerks.com/f38/announcements.html

See #1 of the first post? That's why you're getting two infractions for the price of one.

Original Post:

Alright, so I was thinking after I wrote my previous post, about specifically how to fix PvE Affliction (and perhaps PvP as well, though that's always iffy.) (I'm ignoring Demo & Destro because I'm really not that strong in either of those.)

2 things always come to mind when dealing with Affliction: Use of Shadow Bolt as filler, which goes directly against the grain of the class, and lack of ability to use anything but a single Curse. We're given a whole bunch of toys to play with, but told we can only play with one at a time (well, per mob at least.) So how do we fix those? It seems to me like both can be fixed at the same time, by simply changing the way we work with Curses.

As of right now, all locks have access to CoA, CoD, CoW, CoT, CoR, and CoE. CoEx is also available through a talent as well, but isn't exactly cheap to obtain. Therefore, unless there's a specific reason (say, Vashj?) next to no raiding lock will actually pick it up.

What if Haunt was moved down to Malediction's spot, Malediction was removed (because with CoE & CoS combined, there's arguably no need for it anymore), and a new 51 pt talent was put in place?

Proposal:

New 51 pt talent
Torture
Allows access to Tortured versions of all Curses the Warlock knows. These spells are instant cast, and have varying effects based on the Curse from which they come from.

Tortured Agony
1.5 sec cast
A spike of Agony fills the target, dealing X Shadow damage to the target. This ability can crit.

Tortured Doom
20 min CD
2 Soul Shards
Instant
Makes your next Curse of Doom do its damage instantly. The caster and the target must both be in combat to use this ability.

Tortured Weakness
3 min CD
1 Soul Shard
1.5 sec cast
Your target's muscles temporarily atrophy, causing your target's next 3 physical attacks to have their miss chance increased by 15%.

Tortured Recklessness
3 min CD
1 Soul Shard
1.5 sec cast
Intentionally angers your target to the point of reckless abandon, causing his next 3 attacks to cost twice as much Runic Power, Mana, Rage, or Energy.

Torture of Elements
5 min CD
1 Soul Shard
1.5 sec cast
Weakens the target against the next 5 direct damage attacks from Fire, Shadow, Frost, or Arcane sources, causing an additional 20% of damage done by those sources.

Tortured Exhaustion
1 min CD
1 Soul Shard
Requires: Curse of Exhaustion
2 sec cast
Forces the target into a comatose state, lasting for 8 secs. May only be cast on Humanoids, Giants, Dragonkin, or Beasts. Any damage done to the target will wake him up. The caster must be out of combat to cast the spell, and casting this spell does not place the caster into combat.

Tortured Tongue
30 sec CD
1 Soul Shard
Instant
Sears the target's tongue, interrupting any spell being cast at that time.

There's a lot of Soul Shards being used here, admittedly, but I think the power of those spells needs something to counter it. Of course, changing Drain Soul to have a chance to give a Soul Shard per tick, with a guaranteed Shard at end of cast/target death would probably be enough to make this all work (oh, and give a purpose to actually spending time casting Drain Soul as well.) Another possibility is to give Empowered Corruption a (small) chance to award a Soul Shard per tick.

Under this, TA would then become the standard filler spell in between DoT refreshes. I'm not sure how the damage would be worked, I envision something like 15-20% of CoA's potential damage. Making it crit, as well as allowing it to benefit from Haste would fix problems associated with a dislike of those two stats for Affliction locks, provided damage was balanced properly. Which reminds me, none of the above numbers are intended to be taken as set in stone. I have done no theory-crafting with it, and it all needs to be balanced out, but I think it fits the Affliction style MUCH more than what we have now, and actually gives a benefit to taking much of the lower-tier stuff that we bypass or begrudgingly pick up because we have no choice. Incidentally, with all of this, I think Shadowburn needs to be buffed, and either have much more direct damage done for its shard cost, or allow it to, you know, burn the target as a fire DoT for a short period of time...always wondered why that spell didn't have a DoT component. Also, I think that Frailty should have an impact on TR and TW, by extending the number of attacks affected by 1 per point.

Given the sheer amount of utility this talent would offer, I think it would be perfectly acceptable to see the overall DPS numbers from the lock with this talent reduced in comparison to the other two specs, but it'd be well worth it, I think.

(PS...I know people will complain about TE...but A) it gives warlocks some form of reliable, albeit short, CC for non-demons, and B) allows for more varied group comp. Well, that, and I couldn't come up with anything better. If anyone can come up with a better fit for Tortured Exhaustion, please say so.)

I'll let it sit here for the next day or so; if the community feels that this is worth a longer look, I'll post it in the main forums; if not, I'll let it die a lonely death here. Obviously, the entire tree would have to be balanced around this talent, so this would have far reaching consequences...but since there's already so many problems with the tree as it stands, would it really hurt to shift it around some?

Edits: Cleaned up stuff, added cast times.