All this does is simplify Affliction which is nice cause the only dots we will need to maintain after the 1st round is UA - Immo and CoA.

Combining Corr/SL is something I've been asking for since 3.0 and its great that they finally did it. The only other thing I really want to see happen to Aff is making Haunt be instant cast and/or eliminate the travel time.

The DS change is nice, more for soloing and 5 mans than anything else really.

ISB should be interesting to see how it works out. Aff locks cant be counted on to keep it up, and at least in my raids we usually dont have a destro lock because we'd prefer everyone to be doing the max dmg they can do and spec aff. I really hope that destro starts to scale better with 3.1 gear and beyond. Having the replenishment down the tree is nice, but if the gap between aff and destro stays so large I cant see many high end guilds taking destro/demo locks over aff locks.

If ISB had a decent enough debuff length (30s+) then keeping it up sub 25 might be a small dps decrease but only a very small one because we also don't have to refresh SL sub-25 anymore with the changes. I'm more worried about the loss of the current ISB bonus, if that's the case then ya it will be a pretty big DPS loss (assuming your raid already had scorch up).

I think the ISB change is also targeted (besides the obvious affliction) at deep Demo Locks. This changed, paired with the future changes to those deep demonology talents (Demonic Emphaty maybe?), it should be a buff to Demo in PVE.

If it benefits your raid as a whole to keep the new ISB buff up, do it. I'd rather lose a bit of personal DPS and have overall raid DPS maxed.

Damage meters are great to push people to play their best and help us improve as players but the downside is i think sometimes people forget that the objective of the fight is to kill the boss, typically as fast as possible (to minimize the chances of a wipe) ..... not to maximize your personal DPS. Most of the times those two objectives are compatible, but sometimes they aren't.

If no other lock can keep up the ISB buff, its not going to kill you to use SB the last 25% versus drain soul.

I'm going to say we do not have a clear picture of all the changes yet, and lets remember people that these changes are NOT set in stone! A lot of people are assuming these are coming down for sure, and they will likely adjust them before 3.1.0 goes live. The ISB change is great, and I for one welcome it as an Affliction lock. Sure the debuff won't be up the last 25% but who cares? It means 75% of the boss fight the raid gets a nice Critical Strike damage bonus!

In addition to that most top-end Mages are not casting Scorch at *All* due to Arcane being overpowered as hell in PVE right now, so explain to me how this equates, in current terms, a bad thing? Its a buff! WELCOME IT!

The rest of the changes are indeed good as far as I can see, and do RETAIN our DPCT or INCREASE it greatly. The Siphon Life change means better GCD mgmt, and a DPS increase overall. I can't see these as being negative changes.

On its face I have pretty mixed feelings about the changes.

The Good:

Giving Corruption the secondary effect of Siphon Life is a good thing. It reduces GCD use and makes a cycle easier to manage, etc.

Cleaning up some bloat is good, but I'm curious how they intend to reduce ranks in talents like Suppression and Demonic Empathy seeing as they're already 3 points for 3% XXX. We'll have to wait and see, but their hearts are in the right place.

The Recklessness/Weakness merge seems like a good pvp change.

The Bad:

Improved Soul Leech and Shadow Bolt in a literal interpretation of what's written will have their current effects replaced. This seems like another step in the "Bring the Player, not the Class" direction and I don't like it. ISB changing is a strict personal DPS loss in exchange for something that mages can bring in two forms (though only one is really viable at this time). It's homogenization and that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

ISL is pretty much the same as above. Many other classes bring it already and it was a unique Warlock mechanic that helps us cope with high mana use + low in combat regen ability. Emphasis on 'unique'.

I guess we'll see where this goes, but for now I'm reticent to call these changes overwhelmingly "good".

I think some people are looking to hard into this. SL was changed from a active ability to a passive meaning you have to cast corruption and corruption will apply SL for you. Which would mean SL will still be a debuff and do the same dmg meaning affliction will still do the same dps but blizz achieves its goal of simplifing the affliction rotation.

Eyonix comfirms this here

World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> "Siphon Life" Changes. Damage Loss?

This was just confirmed by a blue post: MMO-Champion BlueTracker - "Siphon Life" Changes. Damage Loss?

In regards to the change to Siphon Life I can see it happening in two ways, one would be increasing the damage of Corruption and making a percent of the damage done heal you, or have it apply the current Siphon Life debuff on the mob when casted.

The first scenario is kind of imbalanced due to the fact that the Siphon Life damage is now effected by Improved Corrpution as well as Empowered Corruption. The second scenario would raise questions as to if Haunt would refresh the Siphon Life debuff as well as Corruption (if not it would make the change completely pointless).

*edit* Sorry, didn't see the blue posts before this, but the second half still applies.

I'm sorry, I'm at work and it took a while to post that and those both were posted after I had started. Also, Shadowbolt refreshed Shadow Embrace, not Corruption. My point is, I wouldn't put it past Blizzard to have an oversight of making Siphon Life used on application of Corruption, not refreshing (as we all know Haunt doesn't apply a new Corruption just resets the duration as shown by you not losing ticks).