Curse of the Elements (Rank 5) - Increased to 13% spell damage, up from 10%.
Curse of Recklessness has been removed.
Curse of Weakness - Now also reduces the armor of the target by 5%.
Enslave Demon: Spell haste penalty reduced by 10%, Melee haste penalty reduced by 10%.
Warlocks now innately have an increased 10% spell hit chance on the Enslave Demon spell.
Fire Shield (Imp): You can now cast this ability on raid members, rather than party members.
Ritual of Summoning: The summoning of the initial portal is now instant cast, down from 5 seconds.
Talents
Affliction
Eradication re-designed: Eradication: When you deal damage with Corruption, you have a 2/4/6% chance to gain the Eradication effect. The Eradication effect increases the critical strike chance of your Shadow Bolt spell by 30%. Each critical strike reduces the critical strike bonus by 10%. Lasts 30 sec.
Haunt: Now only increases your shadow damage-over-time on the target. (No longer includes non-Shadow damage over time spells.)
Malediction: No longer increases the effect of Curse of the Elements.
Pandemic: This talent has been reduced to a 1-point talent, now grants your Corruption and Unstable Affliction the capability to critically hit.
Shadow Embrace: Now only increases the damage done by your shadow damage periodic spells.
Siphon Life: The Siphon Life spell has been removed. Siphon Life now causes your Corruption spell to instantly heal you for 40% of the damage done.
Suppression: Now increases spell hit for all of your spells.
Demonology
Demonic Empathy has been removed.
Demonic Empowerment: This talent spell now has a unique spell effect and sound.
Demonic Sacrifice:This talent has been removed.
Fel Synergy has been moved to tier-1. No longer increases Intellect, Stamina and damage of your summoned demon.
Improved Enslave Demon talent removed.
Mana Feed: This talent is now a 1-point talent, down from 3-points. Now is the 21-point talent in Demonology. Now grants 100% mana return to your pet, up from 33/66/100%.
New Talent: Molten Skin: Reduces all damage taken by 2/4/6%.
New Talent: Decimation: When you Shadowbolt or Incinerate a target that is at or below 35% health, your next Soulfire cast time is reduced by 30/60% and costs no shard. Lasts 10 sec.
New Talent: Nemesis: Reduces the cooldown of your Demonic Empowerment, Metamorphosis, Soulstone and Fel Domination spells by 10/20/30%.
Destruction
Aftermath re-designed: Increases the periodic damage done by your Immolate by 3/6%, and your Conflagrate has a 50/100% chance to daze the target for 5 sec.
Backlash has been moved up to tier-5, up from tier-7. Now requires Intensity (pre-req).
Cataclysm: Now reduces the mana cost of Destruction spells by 4/7/10%. No longer increases the chance to hit.
Conflagrate: Spell now works similar to Swiftmend, consuming an Immolate or Shadowflame effect on the target and dealing damage based on the strength of that effect. Reduced to a single rank.
Improved Immolate: Now increases the damage done by your Immolate by 10/20/30%, rather than just the direct damage.
Improved Shadow Bolt: Now increases the damage done by your Shadow Bolt spell by 1/2/3/4/5%, and causes your target to be vulnerable to spell damage, increasing spell critical strike chance against that target by 1/2/3/4/5%. Effect lasts 30 sec.
Improved Soul Leech: Now has a 50/100% chance to proc Replenishment.
Master Conjuror: Increased from 15/30% up to 150/300%.
Molten Core: This talent has been moved to Demonology (Tier .
Pyroclasm re-designed: Now increases your Shadow and Fire spell power by 2/4/6% when you critically hit with Searing Pain or Conflagrate. Lasts 10 sec. Also moved down to tier 7, down from tier-5.
I like all these "new" demonology talents that used to be destro and all the various excessive nerfs to us. Eradication's nerf is pure retarded.
The only good thing I see out of this patch is the changes to the imp's Fire Shield, how Fel Synergy will now be a tier1 talent in demonology (at least it'll help a bit in pvp), and I suppose the changes with suppression/cataclysm
/wrists
edit: forgot to mention that the nerf to siphon life is absolutely ridiculous. After over 4 damn years they're completely removing that from the game? get bent blizzard.
Less DPS from Immolate even with 6% new talents ( Immolate now doesn't suffer from Shadow Embrace/Haunt + MC in demonology so -34% damage )
No damage from siphone - just heal from corruption and no aditioonal damage
Nerfed Eradicatipn ( or ppm should be to high )
Now we need only 10% hit on gear
Interesting changes at first glance. Couple early thoughts:
1) The Siphon Life change sounds like a HUGE dps loss if Siphon just doesn't exist as a DoT effect anymore, both because you're losing a high DPCT spell and because that's one less Affliction effect per warlock for Drain Soul.
2) I'm curious as to whether the 5% crit bonus on Imp Shadow Bolt is an error (or the Mage version is being reduiced) or whether ours is really weaker than the Mage version. While the discrepancy would be odd, I wouldn't be that surprised given that our talent is in Tier 1 and doesn't really require you to do anything special (unlike Improved Scorch).
These are obviously some initial stabs by the developers to give us something slightly more usable. What I am rather stymied about is the cross tree prorogation and interrelated talents that were properly placed before. (MC in DEMO?)
I think a deep breath, and some serious testing will allow us to flesh out what works and what doesn't. As usual, round one of the PTR will have some serious deficiencies, and perhaps some surprises.
I am not certain bolstering of Demonology will work as intended, but perhaps it deserves a closer look now!
It does look like we will have some talent points left over to move into other areas to make up for the initial (what appears to be) a dps loss.
Wow, I have to say this isn't what I was expecting.
If they've removed Siphon Life as a Damage ability completely, and if the changes to Haunt and Shadow Embrace remove Immolate from the rotation, then not only has Affliction been dumbed down considerably, but it's also lost quite a lot of damage. I guess 1pt Pandemic and baseline 13% CoE is nice...
Decimation sounds really interesting, and is the kind of thing Soul Fire has needed for a long time. So now Demonology gets an 'execute' style effect too, by weaving SB and Soul Fire. By the fact that it includes Incinerate too, I'm guessing it's not going to be too deep into the Demo tree to allow Destruction locks access to it as well?
Aftermath change makes the talent worth taking I suppose, although I doubt most specs will take Cataclysm now. Guessing that the Conflag change won't actually have an impact on it's damage, rather just a way to reduce it to one rank? Improved Immol change is good, Improved SB change ... well I'm suprised that the mage notes don't say that Imp Scorch is being reduced...
Molten Core moved to tier 8 Demo... why??
Master Conjurer change seems crazy... 300% more crit/haste rating from the Stones? :|
And Pyroclasm... an attempt to make Searing Pain (and Imp Searing Pain) useful... i wonder if that will work.
Even though Demonic Sacrifice is rarely used anymore, it's weird to see it being removed. I mean it was our bread and butter talent of TBC and now it'll be gone.
Improved Shadow Bolt seems to be a scorch like talent. Wonder if it's just for the player for raid wide. If it's raid wide, it looks like each raid will want to bring along someone to spam shadow bolts to up raid DPS.
It seems like Blizzard wanted to remove Immolate from the affliction rotation.
With removal of its benefit from Haunt and Shadow Embrace, aswell as Molten Core, it seems that Shadow Bolt will have a higher DPCT than Immolate. Though I haven't done the math on it yet, but I assume it will since Blizzard obviously wants to simplify affliction further.
Nemesis seems to be a fairly neutral change. The cooldown reductions seem to be about the same as what we'd gain from demonic empathy, with the advantage of being able to use immolation aura more often. Not quite the buff I was hoping for.
Decimation sounds really interesting, and is the kind of thing Soul Fire has needed for a long time. So now Demonology gets an 'execute' style effect too, by weaving SB and Soul Fire. By the fact that it includes Incinerate too, I'm guessing it's not going to be too deep into the Demo tree to allow Destruction locks access to it as well?
I think Decimation working with incinerate is for the fg/emberstorm locks who will do quite nicely with these changes.
As far as demonology goes, the biggest buff we can get out of this patch will be if they fix the Demonic Pact calculations to use the fel armor spirit bonus.
It seems really difficult to build a decent FG/ES build now too... you miss out on 2 points in Demonic Tactics if you want Soul Fire Execute, and you miss 2 points in Molten Core if you want the (probably incorrect...) Master Conjurer.
The next couple of weeks are going to be interesting to say the least.
They nerfed afliction bad, but they buffed hybrids specs quite a lot.
You can have both Emberstorm and decimation and roll with the little guy for 5% fire crit and 5% Fire damage. TBH it's a bit OP to me, but we already needed it for Soulfire.
Though i dont know what to do with the 2 or 3 pts that you have left after going 38/30 (Imp + Decimation + Emberstorm) you'd only lose 3%critchance from Imp's MD effect + Backlash.(compared to DTs which is 10%)
I dont know how can deep destro or deep afflic (with these nerfs) will compare to this.
Yay for hybrids specs being in the top.
I won't focus much on quantifying dps impact, I'm sure they can adjust the numbers here and there. From a design and play standpoint, several things have been accomplished it seems:
1. Affliction's rotation is simpler - Siphon Life is gone and immolate is probably back in optional status. They probably think the buff to pandemic and eradication (yes i think it will end up being a buff) will balance the nerfs to SL and immolate.
2. Demonology got less reliance on pet dps and a more interesting rotation - Meta every 2mins (approx), and an execute with soulfire. Warlock's dps is buffed, FG's is nerfed.
3. All warlocks got some additional utility (and yes, mages imp scorch is getting nerfed to 5% - blue has hinted as much)
4. Destro gets a mechanic change to conflagrate. If the glyph doesn't change, it effectively just changes the scaling mechanism to be tied to immolate. Sounds like a buff (15 second dots scale better than instant casts).
Questions I have on the notes:
Where is Master Conjurer now located?
Molten Core to Tier 8 demonology, is that a typo? (tier 5 or 6 makes much more sense) - Edit: Nevermind. Answered above.
Not only have they nerfed Affliction, they have made the rotation so simplistic that it will take all the fun out of Affliction as it is on live. I don't wish to SB > Haunt > UA > Corr(once) > CoA > Spam SB for the entire raid. I believe the developers have focused far too much on "fixing" PvP for warlocks (not that it needed fixing in Arena) and that because of this they have neglected the PVE element of our rotation. The changes to Eradication(2/4/6% chance to gain 30% crit chance on SB -_-) and Siphon Life are laughable for PVE. Looks from a first glance as if its back to a Demo/Destro combo for us in PVE, even though the changes there are laughable (Molten Core). A sad shame.
Anyone got any opinions on what spec could potentially work for us regarding Affliction? I know it will be hard to construct without the use of the PTR but would welcome any suggestions that followed.
Goodbye Top Spot for DPS on Patchwerk , good game Blizzard
I won't focus much on quantifying dps impact, I'm sure they can adjust the numbers here and there. From a design and play standpoint, several things have been accomplished it seems:
1. Affliction's rotation is simpler - Siphon Life is gone and immolate is probably back in optional status. They probably think the buff to pandemic and eradication (yes i think it will end up being a buff) will balance the nerfs to SL and immolate.
2. Demonology got less reliance on pet dps and a more interesting rotation - Meta every 2mins (approx), and an execute with soulfire. Warlock's dps is buffed, FG's is nerfed.
3. All warlocks got some additional utility (and yes, mages imp scorch is getting nerfed to 5% - blue has hinted as much)
4. Destro gets a mechanic change to conflagrate. If the glyph doesn't change, it effectively just changes the scaling mechanism to be tied to immolate. Sounds like a buff (15 second dots scale better than instant casts).
Questions I have on the notes:
Where is Master Conjurer now located?
Molten Core to Tier 8 demonology, is that a typo? (tier 5 or 6 makes much more sense)
According to MMO-Champions talent calculator, Master Conjurer is where it always was, and Molten Core is indeed tier 6.
Hmm I don't want to seem like I'm complaining because I'm not I'm happy for changes and it's very interesting to see whats going on.
I do think a lot of you guys are underestimating the new eradication it's pretty decent considering how little crit an aff lock runs and they say nothing of it's internal cooldown. Though it may be safe to assume it's 45 seconds again.
The problem I see is the buff to demo is so large and the nerf to the other trees as well as the current lack luster state of deep destro seems they have just caused less interest and made demo the default spec for both pvp and PVE.
The problem with affliction is it scaled too well do to drain soul, and the only way they though to nurf drain soul was to nurf our overall damage with the SL change. I think the aff changes fix the over scaling that aff had, but then again simplify it to the point of disinterest.
Also don't forget the buff to aftermath is in some ways as good as molten core was do to the static % increase to fire dmg vs the periodic increase in fire dmg. I'm not sure if immo is out of the question.
Add in the 3% hit talent in suppression that seems quasi mandatory for all trees. Then again 3 pts vs 78 hit is close call on which would be better.
I'm definitely interested in giving this all a try and I'm sure these changes will keep evolving.
The character linked in your profile appears to be below level 10. This may account for your poor Patchwerk DPS.
Improved SB change ... well I'm suprised that the mage notes don't say that Imp Scorch is being reduced...
Mage changes have clearly not gone in yet, apart from the Replenishment change, and I bet somebody went and did the Hunter, Warlock and Mage Replenishment changes all together. For example, we know with 100% certainty that Impact is being changed, but it hasn't happened yet; we know they're working on some shatter combo problem for Frost and survivability issues for Fire, but no changes related to those. So I think they just haven't decided yet what to do with our trees. I completely expect that Improved Scorch and Winter's Chill will change to be similar to Improved Shadow Bolt, with the crit debuff reduced to 5% and a personal DPS increase added as a second effect. Remember that, with the exception of the various spell power buffs, every fully-talented buff or debuff is supposed to be exactly the same strength, and remember also that GC stated that 10% crit was probably too strong a debuff.
At Veridian Dynamics, we can even make radishes so spicy, people can't eat them. But we're not, because people can't eat them.
Hmm after playing with the calculator it seems that destro locks wont even use a shadow dot anymore since you wont have molten core... back to Doom or CotE. Looks like they tried to take the idea of the mage hit talent and put it on us. Imp will have some more survival might make him more usable with heavy destro. Pyroclasm looks like their answer for moving Molten core over to Demo even though it's slightly weaker. Overall though I kind of like the Destro changes outside of the hit talent moving.
Originally Posted by supplicium
I do think a lot of you guys are underestimating the new eradication it's pretty decent considering how little crit an aff lock runs and they say nothing of it's internal cooldown. Though it may be safe to assume it's 45 seconds again.
I also agree it's a 30 second buff and has 3 charges plus is directly connected to the new ISB for up time and it really addresses the problem of ISB falling off which was a concern for me.
02/24/09, 1:12 AM
much more it's a pitty.
, good game Blizzard
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