I think most Locks agree with you. Any more anti caster power is just excessive. Get rid of the silence and give back the pacify

Not only is that spell still egregiously excessively, as well as unnecessary, it also doesn't remotely resemble any of the several other spells named "Cripple" in WoW or WC3. It still needs a vast retuning and a new name. Plus, it treads on the toes of Curse of Exhaustion a bit too much. CoEx does have the advantage of being multi-target, but the overlap is a bit much for two talented abilities in the same tree.

Casters? What casters? Most casters are hybrids and can heal themselves up. TBC and pillars buffed healing by a so ridiculous amount that anyone who has healing spells can benefit from it. Oh, you probably meant Mages... Mages obviously suffer, and mirrors become ridiculously boring (almost like Resto Druids and Holy Paladins)

Affliction? Did you check the new Mage Armor? Best anti-casters are Rogues, they can actually solo healers.

Mage armor will not survive in a pvp/arena environment. I can say this with utmost confidence since every single skilled warlock I have ever played against, and every single time I play against a mage on my warlock, the first thing that occurs is the warlock strips the mage of his buffs. Expecting a warlock not to strip your buffs is like expecting a druid not to use HoTs, or a rogue not to clos.

In short, its bad play.

That being said, I see little a healer can do with such intense CC. Remember, firstly, the spell is spammable. Secondly its DRs can be rotated with fear, and thirdly, none of this cycle actually breaks on damage. No matter how skilled the enemy caster is, once they are caught in the warlock's CC chain of death, there is little they can do, all the while the uber powerful afflic locks dots can keep ticking away.

Though what you say is true, mages will probably have to suffer at extreme lengths at the hand of this spell. Though, isn't that the whole point of affliction in the first place? :P

In Warcraft 3, Cripple reduced a unit's movement speed by 75%, attack speed by 50% and reduced damage dealt by 50%. The WoW versions of Cripple from mobs (most notably the Coilfang Collaborator in Slave Pens) reduces movement speed by 50%, attack speed by 100% and STR by 50%.

Insofar as resembling these Cripples, the current Warlock Cripple gets the snare and damage reduction part right, but the Silence and physical immunity doesn't seem to thematically fit.

I agree that it deserves a rename (how about Despondency?) and a revamp of mechanics. I'd much rather they remove the silence and reinstate the pacify. Warlocks already have a plethora of tools to deal with casters, yet the whole SL/SL concept derives from having to survive melee assaults.

Hell, you could even lift the snare if it means getting the pacify, since an Afflock is going to have CoEx anyway, which should give you enough legroom to escape given that they can't reapply any snares because of the pacify (exception being Enhancement Shaman's Frostshock if you drop the silence).

Actually, Fear, Cripple, Seduce and Howl of Terror are all on the SAME DR. That means the "chain CC" is maxed at 17 seconds for most classes (8.75 for Mages and Ele.Shaman), while precluding any melee damage from your pet or team members. With that mechanic, it does not in any way increase a warlocks CC durations or chains, it only gives you another possibility than Fear... Which is a major issue.

Fear is already Interrupt fodder, and with PvP gloves only has a 1.3sec cast time. Cripple is 1.5seconds and (for non-casters) only equally as reliable! There in lies the problem. It's basically another Fear that we can't use when we need it. It fixes none of the problems facing Affliction, and only exacerbates the caster dominance of the Warlock class. It's 100% contrary to what should be done - An effective anti-melee ability with minimal effect on Casters.

I know a lot of mages are already afraid of Cripple, but I'll set your fears aside. You'll almost never see it. Not when you can spec 24/47 for Fel Synnergy (15% of your damage heals your demon), Demonic Empowerement (Felhunter Cooldown Reset & Felguard CC immunity+20% damage on a 1min cooldown), Mana Feed, Felguard and Demonic Empathy (33% chance to enrage your pet)...

It's not even basic math. It's common sense. The Affliction Demo Hybrid is EONS above 51 point Affliction. Cripple needs to be good enough to compete with THAT combo... Which not only has superior pet survivability, superior untility, superior damage reduction and less reliance on 4 CC's all sharing the same Diminishing Returns, but allows your the instant choice (via Fel Domination) to take out the Felguard + Intercept Stun to deal with troublesome melee.

You are mixing Warlocks with Shamans and Priests. Shamans and Priests can remove 2 buffs in 1 GCD, Warlocks can remove only 1 every 8 seconds, and it is subject to Shadow Resistance, and of course requires one particular type of pet, which is however de-facto the most viable PVP pet.

I had thought that mage armor coupled with magic absorbtion and shatter shield would provide a good defense against a fel pup. Add in shadow protection from a priest and that should give you quite a defense from devour.

It's actually a slight nerf in some cases. Previously you could tie your on use effects to the cast of your corruption spell which would ensure that you got any buffs for the duration of the corruption. Now, any on use or proc effect that lasts less than the duration of the corruption spell will only effect a portion of the corruption equal to the duration of the buff (roughly) because as soon as the buffs fade and you cast another shadow bold you refresh a beefed up corruption with a weaker one.

If you combine the above scenerio with the fact that it is easier to have your corruption benifit from proced buffs, like the enternity ring, it's roughly a wash on DPS gain/loss.

That said there is still the gains from removing the recast from corruption which are offset by the requirement to put points into improved corruption anyway.

If you're going to add a priest, consider that a Priest's dispell is Holy School and as such any resistance is, funnily, futile. Shatter Shield is of little consequence to the dog: How often have you seen any spell penetrate the thing's mad resistances?

can anyone confirm that Improved SB has been removed from the Destro tree in FFA?

The latest leaked Lock tree has Imp SB missing.