Forum post of the day: Insta-cast Corruption
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
Nov 8th 2007 at 7:38PM
When I rolled my baby UD lock (now 52 and lost somewhere in Feralas), my warlock friends told me that my first five talent points MUST be spent making Corruption instant cast. "Everyone does that," they said.
Well, apparently not everyone. There's a 22-page thread on the General Forums arguing for a trainable instant Corruption. A lot of endgame locks spec 0-21-40, and don't have the talent points to spend in Affliction. But Corruption's spell damage coefficients treat it as an instant DOT, even though it's a two-second cast without talents. Most locks don't consider Corruption worth it without the talents because of this.
The thread quickly degenerates into mage vs. warlock fighting, but it does raise an interesting point. A lot of other "essential" talents have become trainable -- Innervate, Evocation, instant Arcane Explosion. Should the locks get the same benefit, or are their dots already powerful enough?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Erika Nov 8th 2007 7:43PM
The will probably make it instant but do something involving cooldowns
Khallah Nov 8th 2007 7:54PM
The coefficients aren't so much a problem as the itemisation. Pretty much all dps caster gear post karazhan is itemised heavily for crit, which is near useless for affliction. Shadow priests get a raw deal itemisation-wise as well. The common rebuttal is, well, spec 21/40, but every raid needs at least one affliction warlock for raid utility, even in endgame (BT/Hyjal) content.
IowaSuby Nov 8th 2007 7:55PM
They should make it instant cast. If they can give every mage iceblock, which is a 21 point talent, they can certainly give warlocks a 5 pt talent.
Basic Nov 8th 2007 7:59PM
So the history of talents made trainable:
innervate
2/5 of tactical mastery
ice block
any more? This is such a whiner's request... a non-starter in my book.
apavluck Nov 8th 2007 8:01PM
Yeah, locks are easy mode enough. I support this move. Then we can go afk, make a sandwich, and still wtfpwn.
TheSporkWithin Nov 8th 2007 8:15PM
@5
Innervate, Cyclone, Holy Nova; I'm sure there are more. And really, this is a pretty fair complaint, especially when you look at the coefficient for it compared to, say, Shadow Word: Pain.
chris Nov 8th 2007 8:13PM
Now I wonder how post of the day works. :P
Felshen Nov 8th 2007 8:13PM
Omg, I got the first reply in that thread!!1
@5: There are a few more. This isn't the first mage talent to be made a trainable spell.
Mats Nov 8th 2007 8:15PM
I have to agree with the problems for affliction locks past Karazhan.
There is not one single item in Zul'aman I can benefit 100% from, and almost all gear from SSC, TK and Mt.Hyjal that might be upgrades, are still with crap like Crit and Hast on them, both of are next to useless for a affliction lock.
Yes, warlocks are great at scaling with green, blue and early epics, but after that there is just nothing left to gain. Everyone else is making "wish lists" where they tell the raid what they need from X bosses, but with warlocks all we find are sidegrade. Itemization for affliction locks is close to worthless.
Also, big creds to WoWInsider, for having a full staff of people, and not a single level 70 warlock among you to write this article with some insight.
mizatt Nov 8th 2007 8:21PM
#10, it's not an article. It's a link to a forum post. You could be a little more grateful to them for at least helping to bring the issue to light.
hpavc Nov 8th 2007 8:26PM
Well get the bug fixed, makes sense.
If Corruption is 93% (can be increased to 129% with the talent Empowered Corruption) with or without the talent then it needs to be changed.
Improvidence Nov 8th 2007 8:29PM
@5
Evocation and Instant Arcane Explosion are mentioned above. Consecration and Improved Sap, off the top of my head. It's not uncommon.
Smorisha Nov 8th 2007 8:36PM
First I expected to see yet another leveling build recomendation or something bit this is a bit over the top. U got it a bit mixed up there I think. Getting a single talent point trainable is purely because its in not-so-wanted tree of that class (Innerivate), thats a single talent point (whereever it is in a tree), u are asking for 5/5 ability improvement to become trainable, as a warrior should I feel free to ask for trainable cruelty (+5% crit)or 5/5 Improved shout trainable? Thats not how it works...
Rob Nov 8th 2007 8:53PM
Yeah, we wouldn't want to limit any warlock's access to an instant cast DOT now would we? Hell, let's give them 12 more while we're at it. And if that makes them even more OP... then we'll nerf shaman some more to make up for it.
Charneldeath Nov 8th 2007 8:56PM
the fact that it is already treated as a instant cast, while 2 second cast without talents, is in itself, a grievous error. Everyone hates warlocks, and I'm sorry that we are a dueling class, that's not my fault. The point about end game gear, haste, and crit are also major points that need addressed. Warlocks need 2 versions of their tier gear, flat out. One for affliction, and one for destruction.
This has always been an issue to warlocks, and of course, leave it to mages to cry foul, because if they aren't the end all, be all of cloth DPS, they cry. Unfortunately, the issue is serious, and needs to be address as so. Mages, for the love of whatever god, accept the fact we are ALWAYS going to be your anti-class, and stop the QQ.
P.S. I read WoW Insider everyday, and it's shameful that no articles dealing with warlocks, are written by warlocks. You should be embarrassed.
Wulfhere Nov 8th 2007 9:02PM
Why would they be embarrassed? They had their warlocks write warlock posts, y'all cried and whined and bitched and moaned and flamed each and every one of them.
They'd have to be as stupid as, well, you warlocks to write any more posts for warlocks.
bulgur Nov 8th 2007 9:03PM
Locks are QQing that if they spend most of their talents in one or two talent trees, they cannot also get the benefits from the third tree?
If there is a problem with itemization, by all means fix that then, but the solution being to hand out the benefits from one talent tree to every lock is just pure madness..
Octonus Nov 8th 2007 9:21PM
Previous talents made trainable:
Evocation
Improved Arcane Explosion
Tactical Mastery (partial)
Shadowstep
Ice Block
Innervate
And correct if I am wrong, but I believe Cyclone was a talent for a while, too.
One of the big things in support of Insta-corruption was a blue post that stated the developers already treat the spell as an instant. Why not make that official?
anon Nov 8th 2007 9:23PM
wow, the pure hatred for warlocks is incredible. the issue isn't locks wanting more power, or more dots, etc. its simply that we want the damage coefficient to match the cast time. if blizzard wants to make the coefficient that of an instant cast, fine then make the spell an instant cast. if they want to make the coefficient that of a 2 second cast time spell fine then make it a two second cast time spell.
the issue is, if a warlock doesn't take the talents in imp. corruption their spell is using the instant cast damage coefficient instead of a 2 second damage coefficient. this isn't asking for a buff or a nerf, its asking for a fix.
bulgur Nov 8th 2007 9:45PM
Anon your reasoning is still crazy: If you choose another spec, you can't expect to get the benefits from another spec. So perhaps you won't consider spells from the "wrong" school worthwhile. Holy priests don't cast much shadow spells because they are not as worthwhile. It is the whole purpose of the talent trees, that you cannot have everything and some spells will not be as worthwhile as spells in your favoured school. Live with it.