Forget Warlocks, nerf Imps
by Eliah Hecht 
Feb 2nd 2007 at 12:22AM
Apparently, Warlocks' littlest demon friends have been performing far better than expected. This would be due to receiving way too much of Warlocks' +damage bonus. To remedy the situation, a hotfix has been instated that removes Imps' spell damage coefficient entirely. Drysc:- We will be implementing a hotfix this evening that temporarily removes the Warlock Imp's spell damage coefficient as it was performing far in excess of our intention. This will remove any spell damage bonuses from improving the Imp's attacks. We are currently on schedule to be implementing the correct values with the next patch. While we are able to effectively block the spell damage bonus with a hotfix it will require a client side patch to input the intended spell damage bonus the Imp is receiving.
[Thanks, Tim]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Matthew Rossi Feb 2nd 2007 12:49AM
I... honestly, I never thought I would say this, but man, that's not fair to locks. If the imp is supposed to be getting some of the bonus, then fix it, don't just screw them entirely.
BobSaget Feb 2nd 2007 1:35AM
Okay, this is annoying. I don't agree that we're overpowered, but I'm not going to throw a fit if we're nerfed a little bit. What nothers me is that they keep messing with hidden coefficients and making them inconsistent with the rules, and not labeling them as such. It's as if they made a spell that violated global cooldown, and didn't mark it at all.
Twinny Feb 2nd 2007 4:28AM
this is insane, i purposely put talent points into the little fecker to achieve this, now i have to respec?
this makes me a sad panda.
Muess Feb 2nd 2007 6:16AM
I don't play a 'lock but this seems like overkill to me. Why not just leave it as is until the next patch and let them have some fun.
Twinny Feb 2nd 2007 7:06AM
@4 "I don't play a 'lock but this seems like overkill to me. Why not just leave it as is until the next patch and let them have some fun."
i think blizz is oversensitive at this stage to warlock overpowered elements, they have maintained a pretty glancing opinion of warlocks being balanced, but when something like this comes up it seems they are being extra vigilent to remove it.
Zuuler Feb 2nd 2007 7:09AM
This does bother me a bit. People have been crying for a lock nerf for a long time, and when they finally do nerf the locks, they do most of the changes in the form of an undocumented nerf, so no one but locks really know it happened, and everyone still cries nerf locks.
I have noticed the imp performing well recently but the only time this gives any real advantage is in instances. The imp is just too fragile to really use any place else. Even then most of what he does is tag along phase shifted until we need a little more firepower. Then I dot up a mob, put curse of elements on it, and let the imp go to town while I target another mob.
In PVP he jsut dies way too fast to be of any real use other than to distract an opposing player for a few seconds while they one shot him.
I think they should just leave it how it is. The imp was meant to be the highest DPS pet to begin with, but with the right talents the succubus becomes more powerful.
Locks have always been termed as a glass cannon, powerful but fragile. THe imp is the perfect demon counterpart to that, very powerful but very fragile. If a fix really is necessary then fine, make the fix, but don't make me suffer for their mistakes.
I'm a software engineer, finding and fixing these mistakes before releases should not be this hard, and neither should fixing the mistake correctly.
Grorgx Feb 2nd 2007 7:32AM
This isn't right, as most people said the imp was ment to do a little extra damage and it's true the only place it is usefull is in instances, we locks can't even use them in anything over a 5-man cause one of the mobs usualy has cleave and it's a pain to resummon it.
This was an uncalled for nerf.
Krianna Feb 2nd 2007 7:35AM
How much extra damage are we talking?
If it's more than 200% more than it's supposed to be, that's worth cutting out the +damage totally.
Mr. Glass Cannon lock: trade you for the mage's vulnerablities.
Zuuler Feb 2nd 2007 8:13AM
@8
No thanks, but my felhunter is hungry.... for mage....
Just seems like bliz has traded in the nerf bat they have carried since lvl 40 for the new and improved High Warlord's Nerf Bow, and are now camped on top of a cubicle taking repeated shots at locks when no one is looking.
Kabira-Fenris Feb 2nd 2007 8:54AM
It's not a nerf, it's just a shoddy way to put a bandaid on a problem until they have time or feel like fixing it. If they're just saying the imps are accidentally overpowered and what they really mean is "we made them that way on purpose but we feel they are too powerful with so much bonus damage" it would be a nerf. That having been said, they probably should have left it alone until they could fix it right.
Xyndra Feb 2nd 2007 3:12PM
Lol. I didn't even notice anything with the imp. I haven't been using mine...it's just me and my sexy succy.
Zuuler Feb 2nd 2007 9:02AM
Whatever you want to call it, it still requires a change in the way locks do instances. The imp can still be used as before but he really won't do much damage when you really need him to. He'll burn through all his mana and then just sit there while a mob or boss continues to wail on your group.
I still don't see why there is a need to completely eliminate the bonus spell damage rather than change the ammount recieved temporarily as a test, then have an official change upon release of the next patch.
Nerf Blizzard.
Apocolipto Feb 2nd 2007 9:07AM
Whatever thats just another BS momment From the idiots that complane about everything. So what a warlocks imp can do some damage for once. big deal. I think he should do more damage. This is not the direction blizzard used to be going with there games. I mean Look at Diablo 2, They installed pathes and upgrades to make you do MORE damage... Now they are trying to make us Weak as crap.. If i wanted to fight with Water pistols Id go to the dollar store. I WANT TO BLOW SOME SHIT UP.. What happened to more power?
Nerf rouges...
Sylythn Feb 2nd 2007 9:46AM
Wait wait...you're telling me my imp can do damage?!
But, that'd cut into his recharge rate...
Leave my mana battery alone!
Twinny Feb 2nd 2007 9:32AM
"Nerf rouges..."
OFC, nerf all red colours.
andrea Feb 2nd 2007 9:39AM
@6 -- Locks may wear dresses, but are anything but fragile and not anything like the glass cannon of a mage.
As for the imp, this is indeed a bandaid. But, few people use him to fight with, he has never been more to me while leveling than a mana battery. You have to invest several points into making him even worthwhile as a cannon, and even then, he doesn't exactly have much staying power, so no, I don't understand why this "fix" is such an emergency, or even needed.
Yes, locks have gotten many "secret" nerfs lately. None that are signficant enough to really hurt a lock, but it is really annoying that it is never documented. Doesn't even make sense, as much as people cry nerf over the locks, you'd think the dev's would schedule a press conference to say they changed them.
Zuuler Feb 2nd 2007 10:07AM
I'm not dem specced so i can't use my imp as a mana battery. Nor can i share my damage with my pet, making me much less durable than a demonology speced lock.
Also with the recent addition of fel armor, I have the choice of increased attack power or increased armor, but not both. For PVE I've been going with the fel armor, since as a dest speced lock, I can use the extra spell damage to simply nuke things before they have a chance to cause damage. Fel armor also has the effect of increases healing spells and effects by 20%. This includes bandages. So downtime is eliminated with lifetap/bandage. Heavy netherweave bandages heal me for 4010, not the 3400 the tooltip says. While not a full heal, its healed enough for me.
I haven't pvp'd since the expansion, other than the pvp objectives in hellfire, and I did that early in the morning and ran into only 1 pally, and that was also before I got fel armor. So I haven't decided which one I will go with, or attempt to dynamically choose armor as the battle progresses. In any case, if a rogue gets the jump on me, I'm toast.
Smithra Feb 2nd 2007 10:19AM
OMG Y R ALL U ARTICALS ABOUT WALROCKS????
Sorry, couldn't resist. I play a warlock myself, but rarely use the imp for dps. To know how fair this is, I'd have to know two things:
1) how much extra damage are we talking?
2) when's the next patch?
Were we so overpowered that we couldn't wait for the patch and how long do we have to wait to get our fair damage coefficient back? If the patch is coming on tuesday, then I think just about everyone can stand to be gimped that long. If the patch is coming next tuesday, then I think you'll get some whining and it'll be ok. After that, it's their mistake and we shouldn't have to suffer for it.
And whoever said that D2 patches were all about powering you up wasn't around for the heydey of corpse explosion.
Corley Feb 2nd 2007 12:32PM
The imps were doing a ton of damage, some of the forum posts say over 600 dps, and they could get a lot of big damage off in a hurry. It made them basically unusable for damage in instances (the only time you'd have them out anyway) and overpowered in PvP.
I remember tanking Quagmirran on my druid and when he was around 20% the warlock had his imp attacking, and it pulled aggro over everyone and died 1 hit. No-one else but me got aggro after that. I was like damn, I've never seen an imp pull aggro off a boss, I guess this explains it. ;)
chris Feb 2nd 2007 12:11PM
Eh.
If a warlock spec'd that far into demonology and destruction, taking the otherwise useless imp fireball talent, and expected the imp to continue to push 600+dmg fireballs at one fireball per second, I have one thing to say.
LOL
Otherwise, however, this really sucks because it took a 200-300 imp and turned it into a, what, 150-180 imp? Ick.
That said, affliction 'lock here, my imp is a mana battery.
The rest of you? You're all just soul shards I haven't gotten around to making yet 'cause I'm out of bag space.