Death Coil: Diminishing, but only against itself.
by Krystalle Voecks 
May 1st 2007 at 4:05PM
Seems like those who have been in PVP battles against groups of multiple warlocks, then felt the sting of Death Coil landing and sending you screaming off into the distance have something to look forward to in their upcoming battles... somewhat. According to Eyonix on the General Forums:
We're actually going to be updating the patch notes soon, with a new note indicating that Death Coil will now be subject to diminishing returns with itself, in the Horror category.
Currently, only Death Coil is in this category.
On the other hand, Death Coil is on, what, a 2 minute cool down? As such, this is really only going to apply if you get into a fight with more than one warlock Death Coiling you at a time.
Perhaps it's just me, but it doesn't seem like this is going to be too terribly much of a concern to most warlocks running around on their own. (I admit, my 'lock is only 58) Especially when you consider that Death Coil's fear effect doesn't diminish based on a warlock using other fear effects -- only itself, currently.
Now, if you make it's effect diminish when combined with other fear effects...
Filed under: Blizzard, News items, PvP
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Andrew May 1st 2007 4:10PM
Dual box PvPing my two warlocks just got nerf'd.
Blizzard just nerf'd less than 0.01% of the WoW players. lol
braydn May 1st 2007 4:14PM
this won't affect gameplay too much, but it is a stupid waste of time for the devs to worry about it. deathcoil is not a free spell, it costs a shard to use it, whereas fear and horror and seduce are all free cast and have dimishing returns because you can cast them back to back, death coil can not be cast back to back, so diminishing returns to itself is the dumbest thing i have ever heard of, or at least one of the dumbest things i have ever heard of, well, now that you mention it, any nerfs to locks are dumb ideas....if they want to put it in diminished returns, they need to remove teh shard cost to cast it and lower cool down to 20 secs, just like shadowfury.
tiamazzo May 1st 2007 4:15PM
I'm sure they'll find a reason to complain about it. Remember the DoT nerf?
"OMG Blizzard you broke my class!"
=)
tiamazzo May 1st 2007 4:19PM
At 2.
Any nerf to locks is a great idea. And the thought of a 20 second coooldown Death Coil gives me nightmares. But since when did DC require a Soul Shard? Still leveling my lock, but I don't see any literature to back that up. Maybe I'm wrong.
Aphreal May 1st 2007 4:20PM
@2 - Wtf are you talking about. It doesn't take a shard to use. lol. It's actually a pretty mana efficient spell considering it gives more life than the mana cost.
Jenet May 1st 2007 4:21PM
My main is a lock, it doesn't cost a shard.
I think maybe they were thinking that instacast spell that may return a shard if the mob dies soon. But I'm affliction, and entirely forget what it's called.
Dozan May 1st 2007 4:25PM
@2
Do you even play a warlock? Death Coil doesn't require a shard to use. A 20 second cooldown on it would just be ridiculously overpowered even with this new diminishig returns. Assuming you can get three off in a fight that's a free 1800 health along with 6-9 seconds of horror. Add that to at most 3 fears and the poor sap you're facing doesn't even get a chance to move. My main is a 70 'lock and even I would be against your proposed change.
Kingfox May 1st 2007 4:25PM
My 3v3 all warlock team (current rating: 1666) is going to be sad about this.
braydn May 2nd 2007 1:21PM
oops, i think you are right, i think i was thinking of soulfire which does cost a shard....it's been several months since i was able to play....but in any case, deathcoil has a 2 min cooldown so that is diminished enough as it is, so it is not like a smart lock would stand around worrying about abusing deathcoil, most pvp i end up with i am the only lock in the group, maybe if i am lucky there might be a second lock in the pvp group and the game plan is usually to split the locks up, so deathcoil abuse is rarity no one should be worrying about anyway...
Pritchard May 1st 2007 5:05PM
Yeah, Deathcoil requires a shard...along with Mana Tap and every time you use your wand.
Seriously, I almost fell out of my chair.
I feel really bad for the 5 people out of the 8 million that play this game that will actually feel this "nerf." Wow, Blizz...way to stick it to those locks!
oshin May 1st 2007 5:25PM
Dc on diminishing returns isn`t going to save anybody from two or more warlocks ;)
fedora May 1st 2007 5:29PM
maybe its diminishing returns are shared with howl of terror since howl of terror isnt shared with fear.
Bradley Nash May 1st 2007 5:40PM
Holy crap I am so sick of Warlock bashing threads. Seriously now, wtf? Holy crap it's not we're the only class with fear abilities. I mean, we are the class that depends most on our fears, but we're not the only classes with them. Every other class has some form of CC, why not us? Screw all of you, buff Locks!
Pritchard May 1st 2007 5:51PM
nerf locks!
fedora May 1st 2007 5:55PM
@12... if u honestly think locks need a buff i think u should switch back to mario bros. My main is a lock, and I think they are fine how they are. Honestly who fusses about death coil sharing a DR with itself... go QQ on the rogue forums
Krystalle Voecks May 1st 2007 6:31PM
@12 - This wasn't meant as a "nerf locks" posting - I too have one (witness above picture, that's my warlock) and I think she's a lot of fun to play!
I'm generally one of the last people to scream nerf. (Although I will scream "buff!" once in a while) This is primarily because I PVP so rarely that I don't notice too many potential imbalances. I just figure that my opponent is better at PVP than I am. :D
Acceptable Risk May 1st 2007 6:43PM
This isn't really a nerf. It just brings the Deathcoil horror effect in line with just about every other crowd control effect in the game. It's an attractive change pretty much strictly from a design point of view.
The situations that would cause this diminishing returns effect to arise are so seldom and and the effect of the diminishing returns are so completely inconsequential that this change (if it's not actually just a joke) isn't even worth wasting zeros and ones on.
It's just an excuse to get people all fired up over warlocks. Seriously, it's getting pretty tired. Warlocks are fine, L2P, yadda yadda...
Arturis May 2nd 2007 12:08AM
Actually, if you read between the lines, it seems that what this is hinting at is that in the future there may be more spells in the "horror" category.
-Arturis