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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 9 of 9)
kia Apr 8th 2010 12:20AM
You paid 900g for a 28 slot soul bag? Whoa. 32 slot soul bags are under 500g on mine. You got shafted.
As for your post I'm assuming you're being facetious because when soul shards become a UI resource only, it means we get 20+ slots (how you can have anything less than 22 slots these days, I don't know) for gear, quest items, profession items that we didn't have before. It's an awesome change that I'm very much looking forward to. We're the only class left that only gets 4 bags for general use, since hunters lost their ammo pouches.
Hatred Apr 8th 2010 6:21AM
DoT haste:
Seems that it works so that total amount of DoT is increased by the haste by added ticks into that DoT and since DoT duration is not increased it means that more ticks result increased total damage.
No clipping anymore.
This seems very straightforward change.
When you reapply DoT it is added after ongoing tick.
So for example our Corruption (18sec duration) has 3sec tick and if there is let say 1,5sec left on that tick (doesn't matter if it last tick or first tick or something between) then new DoT duration is just added after ongoing tick and you effectively get 1,5 + 18 sec DoT.
It presumably works so that only ongoing tick is consumed till the end so it doesn't allow you to chain DoTs.
We still have to watch our casting since we don't want to use excess mana by adding new DoT on top of old one but we cannot anymore wipe any ticks away by mistake.
Green fire change is bleeh, why cannot they give whole package but instead screw us by giving it with smallest spoon possible?
One green spell :(
Hellwraith Apr 8th 2010 6:20AM
Yeay for locks! I think all these changes are awesome, really looking forward to the SoulShard mechanics. My lock will have such a great time when the Cataclysm hits.
netty Apr 8th 2010 7:15AM
Curse and Bane changes. What on earth is the point? As far as I can see this is purely to stop the first lock in a group without a moonkin or unholy DK gimping their potential dps by casting CoE and not a direct damage curse. So why not just make the CoE debuff common to all curses in addition to their current effects? Warlocks are already notorious "slow starters" on fights, and adding another dull but essential GCD to the start of the fight will make this worse. It reminds me of the Shaman totem issue for which a good fix eventually appeared - while everyone else is getting stuck in and actually killing the boss, the buff class is still busy with preparation. If there was an actual, meaningful choice here (i.e. if bosses weren't immune to other useful curses - and I'd love to get stuck in with Tongues!) I'd be ok with the change, but as it stands it's the wrong solution - I agree the problem needs fixing, but don't like any fix that makes another problem worse.
I also have grave reservations about the Hellfire change. It's the last nifty exploit 'locks had left and it seems unfair to take this away from us just as Priests get the best griefing tool the game has ever seen. As for Hellfire becoming the AoE of choice for Demonology, that will require some serious adjustments to Demo threat. I find something odd about all this encouragement for the only tree with no passive aggro reduction to be running into melee range to AoE. At least when it's done with Meta/Immo-aura there's a bit of extra mitigation when the inevitable happens. At the moment Hellfire is only used by 'locks to commit suicide. This change simply adds the requirement to be in combat.
Disgruntled Apr 8th 2010 9:11AM
If you publish to seed, publish it elsewhere first, so that AOL can only acquire a non-exclusive license to your written work.
Celtian Apr 8th 2010 11:02AM
Interesting changes to the 'lock class, so far I like what I see! As far as another pet goes, I'd be thrilled with a permanent Infernal. To me nothing says bad-ass like walking around with one of those trailing behind. If they added a little screen shake as he walked by that would only increase the bas-assery.
The only reservation I have, as a lock player, is how the soul shard system will work. I'm a little worried about there not being a way for them to refresh while in combat; how many times have you experienced the "still in combat" bug when you're not?! I have that happen fairly often, and if that rears its head while trying to do PVP that could determine the direction the fight is going. I reserve final judgement until I actually get to play with the new changes, but it would be nice if they refreshed on a timer, like the DK runes.
n64ite2 Apr 8th 2010 12:11PM
? why are they keeping drain soul if we are not going to have to "steal souls" for that shards, why dont they just combine drain soul and drain life or mana?
gamerunknown Apr 11th 2010 9:50PM
I'm presuming bane of doom is for bosses (since bane of agony will be for trash), but unless it does massive damage will it be worth it? If it is worth it, couldn't it be OP in PvP? Say it crits for 30k damage and PvP starter HP is 40k in Cata, it'd be too easy to global a team that lacks a dispel.
taijathehuntress Apr 8th 2010 1:24PM
It all sounded really good.. until I hit
"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. "
Excuse me, but Soothing Kiss was the ONLY realistic and good ability the succubi had.
A Succubus is a demonic creature that through its kiss drains life from men.
Myth wise.
Hello Blizz? Are you in there?
So to me it's kind of like saying, Vampires who don't drink blood, or Sealions who don't eat fish.
Now game mechanic wise..
Soothing Kiss was the only cool thing to have a succubus for..
You had small dps imps
Tanking Voidwalkers
Spell killing Felhunters
Big Melee Felguards
and the Succubus was the charm and CC demon.
So they can knock back people.
who cares, I'd rather have the damn DK i'm fighting standing still like a big dope fawning over my succubus while I light his ass up like a Christmas tree soaked in Kerosene.
If anything they should have made the Soothing kiss more effective rather than removing it.
Ignimbrite Apr 8th 2010 1:49PM
Eh... Soothing Kiss is the aggro reduction ability.
I fail to see how that is the only cool thing to have a Succy for...
Anyway, cool changes.
A bit worried about how it's gonna work out if we are balanced around being
able to pop shards, but won't be able to regen them in combat. In a PvP fight it could
be absolutely devastating, while in a 10 minute boss-fight popping 3 shards might not be that big a deal...
A recurring timed resource like the DK runes would make more sense.
annedroo May 17th 2010 3:00AM
as we herassed the others who made that comment soothing kiss isnt the cc thats seduction, now succubus will be the obvious choice for those who wanna cc there enemies and who wanna camp lm to knock people off of it.
Smoe Apr 8th 2010 2:10PM
"Burning Pain Hug"
/hug
/hug
/hug
/hug
/hug
/hug
/hug
/hug
/hug
/hug
/hug
/hug
/hug
Basella Apr 8th 2010 10:05PM
Gotta say I'm not excited.
As one of the few strict demo locks left, it looks like a lot of nerfing to give other specs the demon talents and make other spec-specific spells(that demos don't get) more powerful.
Unless the increased damage from meta is significant, I can see absolutely no benefit for us that will set us apart from the others.
Affliction get stronger DoTs that don't need to be as closely monitored.
Destruction gets harder hits with an unending immolate.
Demo gets... instant summon demons and fast cast SoulFire? Wait... oh yeah, already have that.
I'm happy that I'll no longer be CCd by stupid Pallys when I go meta in PvP.
I'm not happy that my AoE will pull even more aggro- while I'm in melee range. I may as well spam that improved Searing Pain while I'm at it, right?
I feel demo locks are getting neglected here, and I fail to be happy about it.
bengrimm99 Apr 9th 2010 10:38AM
If soul shards won’t be necessary outside of combat, then I assume Well of Souls, Soul Stone and the evil TV will all mana casts now? Our minor glyphs have been pretty lame until now, maybe we’ll get some glyphs to make these pre-battle “buff spells” cost less or no mana. Summoning most pets costs a shard… will that be a mana cast now and possibly glyphed less or free mana?
Also, if there will be a 3 shard limit during battle, will Soulfire become a mana cast? Will my favorite Demo proc, Decimation, be affected?
Utsukushii Apr 10th 2010 2:52PM
We want summonable flying mounts. Druids get 2 flight forms, Deathknights get their own mounts, and Pallies and Locks get ignored again.
Who cares what color your spells are if you don't get class-specific mounts? I mean... what's next? Warriors using bladestorm like a helicopter?
totamic Jun 21st 2010 3:08PM
agreed we want a flying mount! give us the demon bat thing from eragon! it would be great. or something covered in fire and smoke to fly through the skies riding soemthing thats got a look thats saying "Yeh? you got a problem"
something from the depths of hell!