cata: Warlock preview

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tsjoen
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cata: Warlock preview

Post by tsjoen » 08 Apr 2010 22:57

New Warlock Spells

Fel Flame (level 81): Quick-hitting spell dealing Shadowfire damage. This is similar to the mage ability Frostfire Bolt, in that the lower of the two resistances (in this case shadow and fire) on your target will be used for calculating its damage. Additionally, Fel Flame refreshes the duration of Immolate and Unstable Affliction. Our goal for Fel Flame is to provide a spell that's good for mobility and for use by Destruction and Demonology specs. Also, did we mention it uses green fire? Yep. Instant cast.

Dark Intent (level 83): Increases the target's chance for a critical effect with periodic damage or healing spells by 3%. When the target lands a crit, you get a buff to your damage for 10 seconds. This effect stacks up to three times.

Demon Soul (level 85): Fuses the warlock's soul with his or her demon. This provides warlocks with a self-burst cooldown to use. The specific effects granted by Demon Soul depend on the demon chosen. Demon Soul lasts for a certain number of charges or until it expires (around 20 seconds), depending on the demon used. 2-minute cooldown.

Soul Shard Overhaul

This major change regarding Soul Shards was previously announced at BlizzCon 2009. Soul Shards will no longer be inventory items, but instead a new UI resource mechanic. Warlocks will have 3 Soul Shards that can be used during a fight and will not be able to gain additional shards during combat. Soul Shards will not be required outside of combat. Soul Burn will consume a Soul Shard resource, thereby allowing you to use the secondary effects of some spells. Soul Burn has no mana or health costs and is off the global cooldown. Planned secondary effects are outlined here.


* Summon Demon + Soul Burn = summon the demon instantly.
* Drain Life + Soul Burn = Reduces cast speed by 60%.
* Demonic Circle + Soul Burn = Increases movement speed by 50% for 8 seconds after teleporting.
* Unstable Affliction + Soul Burn = Instantly deals damage equal to 30% of its effect.
* Soul Fire + Soul Burn = Instant cast.
* Healthstone + Soul Burn = Increases total health by 20% for 8 seconds.
* Searing Pain + Soul Burn = Increases the crit chance of Searing Pain by 100%, and subsequent Searing Pain spells by 50% for 6 seconds.


Next you will find a list of some of the warlock spell and talent changes for the release of Cataclysm. There will be further changes, but those revealed below should offer some insight into our goals.

Changes to Abilities and Mechanics


* All warlock damage-over-time (DoT) spells will benefit from crit and haste innately. Haste will no longer act to reduce the DoT's duration, but rather to add additional ticks. When reapplying a DoT, you can no longer "clip" the final tick. Instead, this will just add duration to the spell, similar to how Everlasting Affliction currently works.

* Curse of Agony and Curse of Doom will be converted into Bane of Agony and Bane of Doom. Bane spells are considered magic instead of curses. This means you will be able to cast one Bane (e.g. Bane of Agony) and one Curse (e.g. Curse of Elements) on a single target.

* Hellfire will no longer deal damage to the warlock.

* Imps will lose Fire Shield, but will gain a new ability, Burning Ember, which is a stacking DoT.

* The succubus melee range will be increased. The succubus will no longer have Soothing Kiss, but will instead have Whiplash, which knocks back all enemies within 8 yards.

* Voidwalker Torment will do increased damage and generate a lot of area-of-effect (AoE) threat. Suffering will become a single-target taunt.


New Talents and Talent Changes


* Pandemic will now cause Drain Soul to refresh Unstable Affliction and Bane of Agony on targets below 25% health.

* The ability Fel Domination will be removed (because Soul Burn accomplishes the same effect).

* Demonology will gain a new direct-damage spell, Demon Bolt. Demon Bolt will add a debuff that improves the damage done by the demon to the target.

* We plan to add a new talent, Impending Doom, which will give certain spells a chance to reduce the cooldown on Metamorphosis and Curse of Doom.

* Metamorphosis will no longer be subject to demonic crowd control. Furthermore, abilities available only while under the effects of Metamorphosis will be altered to put more emphasis on the warlock's own spells.

* Shadowburn will now do additional damage to targets below 25% health.


Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

Affliction
Spell Damage
Spell Crit
Shadow DoTs

Demonology
Spell Damage
Spell Haste
Demon Damage

Destruction
Spell Damage
Spell Critical Damage
Fire Direct Damage

Shadow DoTs: The damage caused by Shadow damage-over-time spells is increased.

Demon Damage: The damage caused by pets and Metamorphosis is increased.

Fire Direct Damage: The damage caused by Fire direct damage spells is increased.

Well that concludes this Cataclysm preview for the warlock class. The development of these changes will continue to evolve in the coming months. Please be sure to provide any feedback and thoughts you might have on what was covered here.
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Jasoran
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Re: cata: Warlock preview

Post by Jasoran » 09 Apr 2010 09:08

Blizzard giveth and Blizzard taketh away...

Fel Fire: OK, if done right this could address one the lock's big concerns - the fact that on trash, by the time I've had the time to cast a single DD spell or a DoT has ticked once or twice, all the classes with all-instant attacks have rushed in and blown everything away. A lot depends on what sort of cooldown they're thinking for this spell. That fact that it refreshes DoTs is somewhat worrying because it implies they don't see this as a starter in your rotation.

Dark Intent: Nothing exciting to see here, move right along...

Demon Soul: Potentially very cool. But the description given so far tells us absolutely nothing. I don't even know what a "self-burst" is - it sounds like it might be a PBAoE instant, but we'll just have to wait and see I guess.

Soul Shards: I'm in favor of anything that frees up bag space! As for the Soul Burn - every effect in their list of examples is mainly for PvP. I see nothing there that I would waste a limited resource on during a boss fight - except ofc the demon summoning, so it looks like I'll be keeping all 3 shards in reserve in case my pet goes and dies during the fight. I suppose for trash an instant Soul Fire would help with the issues I mentioned at the start of this post.

DoTs: I must be woefully behind on my theorycrafting since I don't even know what "clipping" a DoT means. :P Does it refer to the fact that if you reapply before the spell has run out, you waste the ticks that remained? If so, the new mechanic is of course an improvement. Well, I guess it still won't matter for CoA (now BoA) unless they change the basic idea of its damage progression.

Banes: Aw damn, now I will be called on to improve everyone else's damage with CoE again. :P

Hellfire: WTF? Taking away our money-saving suicide ability? That's really slaughtering a sacred cow.

Pet changes: Whatever.

Talent changes: I'm curious how Demon Bolt will fit into a rotation - will it replace SB or will it be something you only do when you want to reapply the debuff?
Anything that lessens the CD on Metamorphosis is cool by me.
I'm not sure that reducing the CD on CoD (now BoD) is useful - unless it goes down so low (10 secs maybe) that you can keep it up on several mobs simultaneously.
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Neferata
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Re: cata: Warlock preview

Post by Neferata » 09 Apr 2010 09:23

Hmmmmz u are right...no more suicide..../cry !!

OH btw, ur guess about the clipping is also right :)
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MindyMcfly
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Re: cata: Warlock preview

Post by MindyMcfly » 09 Apr 2010 09:26

"clipping" is timeing the re-cast of your dots so you dont overwrite the original. A good example being CoA since it increases in damage the longer the its there.

Just need to get on a play with the new specs, though Im not keen on re-learning to play a class :?
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