Crit DoTs for Affliction, sorta
by Eliah Hecht 
Sep 5th 2008 at 7:00PM
The Shadow Priest world was recently pleased to learn that Mind Flay is going to be enhanced in an upcoming beta build with the ability to crit (as well as a 30% increased spell power coefficient). The Affliction Warlock community, meanwhile, just wanted to know if they'd get a similar treatment, and it looks like the answer is: maybe? Kind of?
Let me explain. Last night, class designer Koraa said the following in the beta forums:
There will be a new talent in Affliction in an upcoming build. Keywords: "DoT" and "Crit" (Well, sorta)
How do we interpret that "well, sorta"? Who knows, really. I'm sure we'll all see soon enough. In the mean time, it's always fun to speculate! What's like critting, but isn't actually a crit? Well, there could be a chance of 1.5x/2x damage, without actually being counted as a crit. This way it wouldn't trigger effects that trigger from crits. However, it would then not solve the issue of crit rating being next to meaningless for Aff locks. "Sorta" could also mean that crit mechanics will apply to DoTs, but not in a traditional way:
- A crit DoT could have each tick do extra damage (this would be the closest analogue of a regular crit, I think).
- It could be extended in duration, which would save on mana but not really raise DPS.
- Each tick could have a separate chance to crit.
- It could actually compress the DoT, making it do the same amount of damage in less time, which would raise DPS and keep DPM constant.
I think that last one is my favorite. What do you think they'll do? What do you want them to do?
Update: Semi-crit mechanism revealed! New talent: Pandemic - Each time you deal damage with Corruption or Unstable Affliction, you have a chance equal to your spell critical strike chance to deal 33/66/100% additional damage.
Filed under: Warlock, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Saelorn Sep 5th 2008 7:13PM
If periodic damage can critically hit, does it face double jeopardy from resilience? This may be something they have to deal with.
Personally, I hope that drain life can critically hit, but letting curse of agony or corruption crit is just begging for equal treatment for warriors, cats, and rogues.
Granted, I think it would be hilarious if a deep wounds warrior could crit, causing the target to bleed as normal, but then the bleeding crits could open up secondary deep wounds, and so on ad nauseum.
mizatt Sep 5th 2008 7:14PM
If I had to guess I would think it means that they'll make your crit rating affect the damage of your dots, as opposed to allowing your dots to crit
Heilig Sep 5th 2008 7:24PM
Bingo. Otherwise they would have to rewrite every single DoT in the game to take advantage of crit effects. This way they just add extra spellpower to certain spells if you take the talent.
Fingal Sep 5th 2008 7:14PM
Could be something like
corruption causes sbolts to crit (but it consumes the corruption)
same with immolate / conflag
similar to the shammy flame shock / lava burst thing.
Riph Sep 5th 2008 7:18PM
I'm not sure how thrilled I would be about that last idea. It sure would screw up any semblance of a spell/DoT rotation...
(Also if you don't really care about that, then by all means, it does sounds pretty sweet.)
my2cents Sep 5th 2008 7:21PM
Personally, I'd go for allowing individual ticks crit. If they went with "a crit DoT could have each tick do extra damage" I think it would make for some awkward gameplay in that players would find themselves spamming a DoT over and over in hopes that its latest application will crit. (Not saying that would necissarily be worthwhile to do, but it would be a weird dilemma to present to players.) I'd rather be able to apply DoTs as normal, and sometimes (based on spell crit %) be pleasantly surprised to see a tick crit.
Zombi Sep 5th 2008 7:28PM
Whatever the case may be, as a warlock who spent a few months gearing for Destruction in endgame to finally decide that Affliction is simply more interesting to play, even while sacrificing personal DPS, I would love to think that I won't need to completely regem to make the most of what I already have.
mnederlanden Sep 5th 2008 7:33PM
I don't know if it would be a good thing or not, but Nightfall could be retooled to affected by a player's crit rating.
Kaizen Sep 5th 2008 7:44PM
I like the idea of compressing the DoT into a smaller time frame. More damage, same mana and it keeps true to what affliction truly is, damage over time, not burst.
Patrick Sep 5th 2008 7:47PM
I'm pretty sure they won't be going the route of affecting the duration of the DoTs, as talents like Everlasting Affliction make added duration next to useless.
Montius Sep 5th 2008 7:55PM
Its a talent called pandemic. Each time you deal damage with corruption or unstable affliction there is a chance equal to your crit chance to deal 100% more damage. thats with 3/3 ranks. 40 point talent, requires unstable affliction.
audioSE Sep 5th 2008 8:15PM
I'd be so disappointed if that were the talent. 'Critting' on just two out of all the spells available to a warlock just seems weak. Especially for three talent points so deep in a tree.
Warbly Sep 5th 2008 8:19PM
Whoa, new talent spec on mmo-champion. Talents look.... much better
wudefliction Sep 5th 2008 8:45PM
I like the "pandemic" idea. UA and Corruption are the two big money Affliction skills. SL is useless for the damage portion (so 100% more damage would be nice, but it is still not a lot), CoA is rarely up in raiding unless it's trash, and Immolate is considered Destruction and can crit with the splash effect. That said, I also like the idea of each tick of EVERY DoT having an opportunity to crit would be excellent. I would also like to see DoT duration scale with haste, but that would make for an interesting rotation, and almost eliminate SB spam.
skynes Sep 5th 2008 10:06PM
"It could actually compress the DoT, making it do the same amount of damage in less time, which would raise DPS and keep DPM constant."
So enact a Haste-style mechanic based on Crit rating.
No offense but that's a pretty silly idea. Haste based upon Haste, yes. Crit based upon Crit, yes. Make DoTs hastey based on crit? You what?
Purgatory Sep 5th 2008 10:38PM
sadly it doesn't affect Curse of Doom......
Imagine 15k crit for a CoD with amplify curse and popping all trinkets and NOT on Netherspite ;)
Caithris Nov 17th 2008 1:12AM
That would be awesome. Too bad they killed amplify curse so hard that I still wonder if CoE is worth the total waste of a talent point to get it. /mourn
Fletch Sep 5th 2008 11:04PM
Don't warlocks already do enough damage? The only reason that spriests got these changes were that their dps was poor and their unique raid utility had been handed to other classes.
Balasan Sep 5th 2008 11:52PM
Not affliction locks. And based on warlock gear in TBC, the higher the tier, the less spell damage increase but there's an increase of crit rating instead - totally useless for afflocks.
Not anymore with Pandemic (In theory).
It's just one more way blizz is helping making all specs scale equally.
Radiophonic Sep 6th 2008 12:03AM
I see my TPS going up...up...*crit* damn, I'm dead.