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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsInstant Corruption and other infernal joys
by Zach Yonzon 
Sep 10th 2008 at 9:30AM
First of all, Metamorphosis will no longer replace a summoned demon -- a no-brainer feature that should have been there from the start considering that most talents in the tree buff up the Warlock's demon! It will also now increase armor by 600%, up from 360%, a coefficient that scales better with a Warlock's base armor of... cloth. Significantly, the demon form will now also increases all damage by 40%, after players realized that turning into a demon with many melee abilities and being cut off from normal spells actually reduced their DPS. Speaking of normal spells, Warlocks in demon form can now cast those, too. These changes come in addition to a few others that Blizzard is working on such as a few demon form-exclusive abilities -- and it seems like Demonology will finally be truly, diabolically fun. [EDIT: In my excitement I forgot to mention that the spell was reverted to a 5-minute cooldown and the form lasts 45 seconds. Still awesome!]
I griped about this on the last Blood Pact along with a throng of other Warlocks, and it seems like Blizzard has heard us -- Corruption will now be baseline instant cast! It's a change that has been a long time coming, and it's finally turning real. Improved Corruption will instead increase the damage of Corruption by up to 20%, effectively negating Empowered Corruption and hopefully freeing up space for a new, exciting talent or at least more points to use in an already bloated tree.
Lastly, the highly desirable DPS talent Ruin will be moved higher in the trees, making it more accessible to other specs. It will take the place of Devastation and become a 5-point talent to grant the same bonus while Devastation will move deeper into the tree and become a 1-point talent for 5% spell crit. This change allows players to take Ruin without having to sacrifice their 51st talent point in another tree. Koraa also mentions that Pandemic animation and some of its spell mechanics will change. I'm quite certain these aren't everything that will change for Warlocks this build... will we finally see Fire and Brimstone and Chaos Bolt in action?
Filed under: Warlock, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Forums
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 5)
ghusnak Sep 10th 2008 10:21AM
can u plz remove those gnome pictures from the articles ? it looks like gnomes are charismatic ... they are the ugliest forms of life
sephirah Sep 10th 2008 11:14AM
"It increases all your damage by 40%"
It's a personal buff, not raid.
And having your damage raised by 40% for 45 secs every 5 mins is an *average* increase of 6% over those 5 mins.
wrathwillcome Sep 10th 2008 10:32AM
wow. just wow. This is going to be freaking awesome. I am almost speechless. I think I just p'd a little.
=)
Necrouss Sep 10th 2008 10:50AM
MUHAHA-*hack*hack*
coughcoughcough
*ehmm*
MUHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
martin Sep 10th 2008 10:56AM
mages hastily retract their thoughts about Mirror Image being OP...
Naix Sep 10th 2008 10:47AM
Locks will now be at least close to the DPS Shamans will be given.
Buff Locks a little more please to bring us up to speed.
iliya Sep 10th 2008 12:36PM
"development team shows how amazingly fast they work and how they actually listen to players. "
The treatment of most paladins not only proves this statement wrong, but how violently they'd disagree with it.
ScorchHellfire Sep 10th 2008 7:10PM
oh right because ret pallies are totally not destroying everything in beta right now... oh wait...
Axxam Sep 10th 2008 10:55AM
Personally I *don't* think it should resummon the minion once it wears off. It should be a tradeoff, from a lore perspective as if you were absorbing your minion's ability.
Locks get to transform into a demon and insta cast DoTs. Shamans get... a pair of wimpy dogs. GG Blizz.
What I'd call balance is having DoTs end if the caster is killed or if the person moves out of range.
Charneldeath Sep 10th 2008 11:16AM
Um? If the caster dies or moves out of range......and you call that balanced.
You get a case of HIV, for instance. The person who gave it to you dies, or the person who gave it to you moves away.
Does your HIV go away as well?
....right. I thought not.
Faar Sep 10th 2008 11:40AM
Lore schmore. The lore is there to make the game more interesting, not strangle the game by enslaving every skill to perfectly correspond to it.
It's obvious you don't know what makes good gameplay and what doesn't - if you lose your demon every 5 minutes you quickly become annoyed, and why would blizzard intentionally want to annoy their own paying customers? Makes no sense! They want you to have FUN, not be angry.
As for the wimpy dogs, well I have a moonkin who would happily take them off your hands in exchange for three befuddled and rather useless trees. They're not housebroken, but since all they eat is leaves their messes are easy to clean up. :P
And dots used to disappear after the warlock got killed, blizzard fixed that in a patch a very long time ago now. If all you had to do was move out of casting range to wash them off the dot would be little more than a waste of mana for the warlock (or shadow priest). Your skills as a game designer leave much to be desired... ;)
Axxam Sep 10th 2008 2:04PM
Because I point out the overpowered nature of them, I don't know game design?
There are two classes that are universally considered overpowered:
1) Rogues
2) Warlocks
Personally I think the game would be much improved if the mechanics required PvP defense as well as offense: Keeping the locks and priests alive to do the damage, while the mages ran crowd control to keep people from fleeing out of range, as opposed to the spam death coil.
Oh yes, as for the comment about how annoying it is for warlocks to have to keep resummoning their minions every five minutes, keep in mind you are talking to a shaman who has to keep resummoning totems every two minutes or whenever he moves beyond the radius, whose guardians summon every 20 minutes and whose dogs are worthless.
Oh yes, tell me how hard you locks have it.
/sarcasm
Tech Sep 10th 2008 2:22PM
Axxam,
You obviously have never played a lock at end game, at it seems as if you have not played PvP for about a year now.
Locks were once OP I admit but we were then nerfed again and again over the past year and are far from it in PvP right now. I would say we are one of the more balanced classes at the moment.
Rogues, Druids and Warriors currently hold the OP title.
"What I'd call balance is having DoTs end if the caster is killed or if the person moves out of range."
This statement just proves your ignorance. Quit hating on locks when you obviously know very little about the class.
V Magius Sep 10th 2008 2:51PM
I can spam Death Coil? Sweet, I've been waiting 3-5 minutes between uses, but if I can cast it whenever the GCD is down, even better.
As to the resummoning of totems. Does that require material components and a talent so it takes less than 6 seconds?
The rest of complaint, I hope the Beta Fairy smacks the Shamans around too. When you reach the end of the talent tree, there should be a good prize at the end.
Warlocks don't really have it easy or hard. It's a pretty balanced class that isn't too complicated and has few problems. The hardest part is when people want it nerfed, but can't give valid reasons beyond, "it beat me" and "it's OP". I'm sure people will be demanding Fear be nerfed because it makes the 'lock OP long after Fear is completely removed from the game.
Axxam Sep 10th 2008 3:10PM
I have a 70 Shaman currently on Thunderhorn, who I am prepping for WOLK, preferring PVE over PVP, and have a good idea who I have a chance against and who I don't in the BGs.
Rather elitist on your part to say I have never rolled a lock (I have, but don't like casters) and that I don't know anything about game mechanics because my view is different from yours.
When a Shaman dies, all the totems he has up disappear, and the harm he can do is gone. Why shouldn't a lock be under a similar restriction
More accurate to say I prefer a game which avoids the situation where one class is trying not to die fighting similar level mobs while another class is able to talk about what instances they can solo:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html;jsessionid=9F7DAE27F59AA4D4EC81D4EE3629357A?topicId=3547725439&sid=1
Here's a modest proposal. How about either:
1) Warlocks suffer the GCD and other limitations of a Shaman
2) Shamans can spam their attacks as fast as a lock.
I'd be happy either way. Would you?
Tech Sep 10th 2008 3:47PM
You fail miserably...
"What I'd call balance is having DoTs end if the caster is killed or if the person moves out of range."
just kill our whole class design....
"as opposed to the spam death coil."
let me guess... you do this all of the time with your warlock right?
"Warlocks suffer the GCD and other limitations of a Shaman"
"Shamans can spam their attacks as fast as a lock."
awesome! they took away GCD for locks!
Just because you have concerns with your class does not mean you should just go and bash other classes you don't even understand. This is Beta and I am sure there is some good stuff coming out for Shamans as well, so quit your bitching and wait until they are done with balancing before you cry OP.
Ben Sep 10th 2008 11:14AM
Insta- Corruption and Ruin in the top of the destro tree? That's called having your cake and eating it too. I though Chaos Bolt was too good to be true. I wonder if the new demon form will level the playing field between us and rogues.
I think Chaos bolt should have an knock-back effect that rotates the victim upside down and lands them on their back dazed.
wrathwillcome Sep 10th 2008 11:30AM
"I think Chaos bolt should have an knock-back effect that rotates the victim upside down and lands them on their back dazed."
LOL.
Jon Sep 10th 2008 11:52AM
As soon as I saw the words "instant corruption" and "ruin being moved higher in the tree" a band started playing, I decided to redact every nasty thing I've said about my warlock in the beta, and there was much rejoicing. Unfortunately, we were still forced to eat Robin's minstrels ...
Shinken Sep 10th 2008 11:59AM
My first knee-jerk reaction is to say it is OP. But as long as they keep it on a 5 min cd, it's fine. It will help warlocks against melee. They just need to tone the fel hunter down.