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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsCataclysm Class Changes: Warlock
by Adam Holisky 
Apr 7th 2010 at 3:14PM
The initial post was a Spanish Translation from Google. We now have the full English version up.
Some of the major highlights:
- Green fire is confirmed
- Demon Soul (level 85): Merges the soul of the Warlock and the demon, giving a benefit to damage
- Dark Intent (level 83): The targeted player receives an additional 3% chance to critically hit with all damaging spells and damage-over-time effects;
- Voidwalker Torment will do increased damage and generate a lot of area-of-effect (AoE) threat.
This post is currently being edited; thank you for your patience.
Warlock Cataclysm ChangesIn World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, warlocks will receive changes to their class talents and abilities. Outlined below are some of these changes. Keep in mind that this is an early preview and that these modifications are still under development, so you may see further adjustments to the listed changes as we get closer to launch. That said, here is a first look at these new warlock spells and abilities!
New Warlock Spells
Fel Flame (level 81): Quick-hitting spell dealing Shadowfire damage. This is similar to the mage ability Frostfire Bolt, in that the lower of the two resistances (in this case shadow and fire) on your target will be used for calculating its damage. Additionally, Fel Flame refreshes the duration of Immolate and Unstable Affliction. Our goal for Fel Flame is to provide a spell that's good for mobility and for use by Destruction and Demonology specs. Also, did we mention it uses green fire? Yep. Instant cast.
Dark Intent (level 83): Increases the target's chance for a critical effect with periodic damage or healing spells by 3%. When the target lands a crit, you get a buff to your damage for 10 seconds. This effect stacks up to three times.
Demon Soul (level 85): Fuses the warlock's soul with his or her demon. This provides warlocks with a self-burst cooldown to use. The specific effects granted by Demon Soul depend on the demon chosen. Demon Soul lasts for a certain number of charges or until it expires (around 20 seconds), depending on the demon used. 2-minute cooldown.
Soul Shard Overhaul
This major change regarding Soul Shards was previously announced at BlizzCon 2009. Soul Shards will no longer be inventory items, but instead a new UI resource mechanic. Warlocks will have 3 Soul Shards that can be used during a fight and will not be able to gain additional shards during combat. Soul Shards will not be required outside of combat. Soul Burn will consume a Soul Shard resource, thereby allowing you to use the secondary effects of some spells. Soul Burn has no mana or health costs and is off the global cooldown. Planned secondary effects are outlined here.
Next you will find a list of some of the warlock spell and talent changes for the release of Cataclysm. There will be further changes, but those revealed below should offer some insight into our goals.
Changes to Abilities and Mechanics
New Talents and Talent Changes
Affliction
Demon Damage: The damage caused by pets and Metamorphosis is increased.
Fire Direct Damage: The damage caused by Fire direct damage spells is increased.
Well that concludes this Cataclysm preview for the warlock class. The development of these changes will continue to evolve in the coming months. Please be sure to provide any feedback and thoughts you might have on what was covered here.
New Warlock Spells
Fel Flame (level 81): Quick-hitting spell dealing Shadowfire damage. This is similar to the mage ability Frostfire Bolt, in that the lower of the two resistances (in this case shadow and fire) on your target will be used for calculating its damage. Additionally, Fel Flame refreshes the duration of Immolate and Unstable Affliction. Our goal for Fel Flame is to provide a spell that's good for mobility and for use by Destruction and Demonology specs. Also, did we mention it uses green fire? Yep. Instant cast.
Dark Intent (level 83): Increases the target's chance for a critical effect with periodic damage or healing spells by 3%. When the target lands a crit, you get a buff to your damage for 10 seconds. This effect stacks up to three times.
Demon Soul (level 85): Fuses the warlock's soul with his or her demon. This provides warlocks with a self-burst cooldown to use. The specific effects granted by Demon Soul depend on the demon chosen. Demon Soul lasts for a certain number of charges or until it expires (around 20 seconds), depending on the demon used. 2-minute cooldown.
Soul Shard Overhaul
This major change regarding Soul Shards was previously announced at BlizzCon 2009. Soul Shards will no longer be inventory items, but instead a new UI resource mechanic. Warlocks will have 3 Soul Shards that can be used during a fight and will not be able to gain additional shards during combat. Soul Shards will not be required outside of combat. Soul Burn will consume a Soul Shard resource, thereby allowing you to use the secondary effects of some spells. Soul Burn has no mana or health costs and is off the global cooldown. Planned secondary effects are outlined here.
- Summon Demon + Soul Burn = summon the demon instantly.
- Drain Life + Soul Burn = Reduces cast speed by 60%.
- Demonic Circle + Soul Burn = Increases movement speed by 50% for 8 seconds after teleporting.
- Unstable Affliction + Soul Burn = Instantly deals damage equal to 30% of its effect.
- Soul Fire + Soul Burn = Instant cast.
- Healthstone + Soul Burn = Increases total health by 20% for 8 seconds.
- Searing Pain + Soul Burn = Increases the crit chance of Searing Pain by 100%, and subsequent Searing Pain spells by 50% for 6 seconds.
Next you will find a list of some of the warlock spell and talent changes for the release of Cataclysm. There will be further changes, but those revealed below should offer some insight into our goals.
Changes to Abilities and Mechanics
- All warlock damage-over-time (DoT) spells will benefit from crit and haste innately. Haste will no longer act to reduce the DoT's duration, but rather to add additional ticks. When reapplying a DoT, you can no longer "clip" the final tick. Instead, this will just add duration to the spell, similar to how Everlasting Affliction currently works.
- Curse of Agony and Curse of Doom will be converted into Bane of Agony and Bane of Doom. Bane spells are considered magic instead of curses. This means you will be able to cast one Bane (e.g. Bane of Agony) and one Curse (e.g. Curse of Elements) on a single target.
- Hellfire will no longer deal damage to the warlock.
- Imps will lose Fire Shield, but will gain a new ability, Burning Ember, which is a stacking DoT.
- The succubus melee range will be increased. The succubus will no longer have Soothing Kiss, but will instead have Whiplash, which knocks back all enemies within 8 yards.
- Voidwalker Torment will do increased damage and generate a lot of area-of-effect (AoE) threat. Suffering will become a single-target taunt.
New Talents and Talent Changes
- Pandemic will now cause Drain Soul to refresh Unstable Affliction and Bane of Agony on targets below 25% health.
- The ability Fel Domination will be removed (because Soul Burn accomplishes the same effect).
- Demonology will gain a new direct-damage spell, Demon Bolt. Demon Bolt will add a debuff that improves the damage done by the demon to the target.
- We plan to add a new talent, Impending Doom, which will give certain spells a chance to reduce the cooldown on Metamorphosis and Bane of Doom.
- Metamorphosi
s will no longer be subject to demonic crowd control. Furthermore, abilities available only while under the effects of Metamorphosis will be altered to put more emphasis on the warlock's own spells. - Shadowburn will now do additional damage to targets below 25% health.
Affliction
- Spell Damage
- Spell Crit
- Shadow DoTs
- Spell Damage
- Spell Haste
- Demon Damage
- Spell Damage
- Spell Critical Damage
- Fire Direct Damage
Demon Damage: The damage caused by pets and Metamorphosis is increased.
Fire Direct Damage: The damage caused by Fire direct damage spells is increased.
Well that concludes this Cataclysm preview for the warlock class. The development of these changes will continue to evolve in the coming months. Please be sure to provide any feedback and thoughts you might have on what was covered here.
In addition to commenting, don't forget that we're also looking for guest posts on the above changes.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.Filed under: Warlock, News items, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 6 of 9)
Zhiva Apr 7th 2010 4:05PM
# Dark Intent (level 83): Increases the target's chance for a critical effect with periodic damage or healing spells by 3%. When the target lands a crit, you get a buff to your damage for 10 seconds. This effect stacks up to three times. #
"Let's take mage talent, make it better and make it warlock baseline spell"
Roxton Apr 7th 2010 5:05PM
I hope you don't mind, but I've quoted you in a blogpost. To my mind you're disturbingly correct.
http://doyoumindifiplay.blogspot.com/2010/04/oh-my-prophetic-soulburn.html
KJP Apr 7th 2010 4:12PM
Curses become Banes. PvP mages wince.
maybesew Apr 7th 2010 4:45PM
And every single healing class can now dispel them.
Michelle Madison Apr 7th 2010 5:31PM
You can't dispel a BANE! They mean business.
RetPallyJil Apr 7th 2010 4:16PM
Yay, green fire for my lock friend (whose life has apparently been utterly ruined by non-green fire. Locks are weird) but still, yay!
Magma Apr 7th 2010 4:19PM
If you had bothered reading, you'd realize a single spell gets green fire. Nothing else.
kingjolly Apr 7th 2010 4:21PM
/screams excitedly, O.O oops (clears throat) MU AH HA HA HA HAAA!!!
Bharat Apr 7th 2010 6:53PM
lol this was my reaction, my friend was like "why are you squealing like a fucking girl" so i swapped into my malevolent laugh and she looked even more confused .
Hendrata Apr 7th 2010 4:23PM
What does this really mean?
When reapplying a DoT, you can no longer "clip" the final tick. Instead, this will just add duration to the spell, similar to how Everlasting Affliction currently works.
So say Corruption has 18 seconds with 3 seconds per tick. If I apply it right before the final tick, it adds duration to the spell by 18 seconds, effective after that final tick? How is this similar to Everlasting Affliction?
And what's preventing me from say, casting Corruption 100 times, and leave the enemy with a DOT for 1800 seconds?
Magma Apr 7th 2010 4:25PM
..Mana?
GrumblyStuff Apr 7th 2010 4:36PM
You cast Corruption. 18 seconds left.
Three seconds later, Corruption ticks for damage. 15 seconds left.
Two seconds later, you cast corruption again.
Instead of taking three more seconds for a tick, it happens in one.
Artigrius Apr 7th 2010 4:38PM
I swear I've seen this question asked so many times; does nobody, er, play a warlock? It even says, similar to everlasting affliction. Essentially, when the dot is refreshed though the timer may reset to 18 seconds (or whatever it is, i only have a rarely played aff lock alt) it retains the original tick frequency. Sooooo....If corruption ticks every 3 seconds, and it has 1 second left and is refreshed, you could "clip" the last tick, having to wait an entire 3 more seconds for it to tick and deal damage. With this change, corruption will now tick at 17 seconds, 14, and so on. To simplify it, your corruption will always tick at the same rate, regardless of the time left on it.
SR Apr 7th 2010 4:24PM
Now, if only WoW was popular in Japan... Maybe they'd release it in MY language for once. :P
SR Apr 7th 2010 4:24PM
. . . wrong reply.
sphere777 Apr 7th 2010 4:25PM
still....
GREEN FIRE!!!!!
Magma Apr 7th 2010 4:26PM
I'll copy paste from above. If you had bothered reading, you'd realize a single spell gets green fire. Nothing else.
Draelan Apr 7th 2010 4:28PM
I prefer the spanish to english google translation, simply for this:
"Burn Pain hugger + soul = 100% increases the probability of getting a critical hit with scorching pain, also increases by 50% the probability of getting a critical hit with scorching pain subsequent applications for 6 s."
Burn Pain Hugger = best warlock spell EVER. Make it happen, Blizzard!
darisarix Apr 7th 2010 4:32PM
The changes which struct me were:
1: pet cc is gone, getting a knockback instead. Interesting change, and will perhaps give warlocks more survivability vs rogues and the like.
2: Curses seem to be changing to pure utility, with coa/cod moving to magic effects, which every healer in the game can remove (although, at a higher cost).
vanye111 Apr 7th 2010 4:37PM
Pet crowd control is not gone. From what I saw in the other comments, the spell that's going is away is the succubus aggro dump.