Blood Pact: Looking at tier 13 bonuses
by Tyler Caraway 
Sep 26th 2011 at 7:00PM
Many welcomes back once again, favored warlocks. If, like me, you are a studious creature of the night who probably has coffee flowing through his veins instead of anything closely resembling blood, then you know that late on Saturday night, Blizzard released some fun new information. My personal favorite CM (just don't tell the others), Zarhym, released the new set bonuses associated with the up-and-coming tier 13. While at first we cursed that Zar would have the audacity to post such a thing in the wee hours of night, let's take a look at what we're to expected for the next patch and the terrible implications that come with it.
All does not seem to be well in the house of warlocks, my friends. Both of our newest tier sets hold warning signs of terrible things to come. We'll be looking into those not-so-quiet rumblings and what they might hold for us in the next patch as we battle Deathwing himself.
The initial problems
First, I suppose the best start would be to actually show off those tier set bonuses, huh? If you haven't already caught the memo, here are the bonuses that are currently slated for our next raiding set.
Warlock
2P -- The duration of your Doomguard and Infernal summons is increased by [15|45] sec and the cooldown of of those spells is reduced by 4 min. (45 for Demonology, 15 for non--Demonology.)
4P -- Soulburn grants a 10% increase to your spell power for 10 sec.
2P -- The duration of your Doomguard and Infernal summons is increased by [15|45] sec and the cooldown of of those spells is reduced by 4 min. (45 for Demonology, 15 for non--Demonology.)
4P -- Soulburn grants a 10% increase to your spell power for 10 sec.
I feel that we should probably start with the obvious that immediately sprang to everyone's mind the moment that this information hit the proverbial streets. Without a doubt, the two-piece bonus is miles ahead in power for demonology than either of the two specs; that much is obvious, yet it's far more than that. As it stands now, the Doomguard is already considered to be immensely powerful, perhaps even to the point of being a touch overpowered -- and here we have demonology, who already has a far too strong Doomguard as it is, getting a massive additional bonus that just puts the other specs to shame.
Make no mistake, if there are no other changes from the game that we are playing today, if you merely gained this set bonus as everything stands, then demonology would be the only warlock spec choice. Demonology and affliction are pretty much on equal footing in terms of the damage that they cause as it is now. This wouldn't just push demonology over the edge; it would fling it off a cliff in a catapult. The paradigm would become go demo or don't raid. Hell, if the Doomguard were usable in PVP at all, then demonology would be required there too.
There have been a few suggestions that not everything is as it seems. The set bonus mentions that affliction and destruction gain 15 additional seconds on their duration while demonology gains 45 sweet, sweet seconds to play with. A small number have thought that perhaps the additional demonology duration accounts for the gains from Ancient Grimoire. Sadly, that just doesn't seem to be the case at all. To start, this would still mean that demonology is gaining 10 more seconds than affliction and destruction on the duration increase -- less than before but still clearly favoring it -- and that doesn't even take into account that the two should be reversed to begin with. Demonology naturally gets a much better return off the set bonus even if it was just the cooldown reduction because it has the hardest hitting Doomguard. Compound that with also gaining more duration than the other specs, and this clearly does not bode well. Sadly, my friends, there is only one thing that this all could mean.
Good night, sweet prince
That's right, the Doomguard is going to get a hefty nerf bat beat down. Once Blizzard is done, you probably won't even recognize him anymore. It will be one of those situations in cop shows where the police all comment how they have to use dental or DNA to identify a victim because you can't tell anything at all by looking at them. It might be a tough pill to swallow, but there is no other reasonable explanation. The set bonus way too clearly boosts demonology over the other two specs; Blizzard is practically forcing itself to nerf the Doomguard.
To be fair, I don't think this is a bad thing at all. Look at that set bonus again. Doesn't it seem a little strange to you? A massive cooldown reduction coupled with a duration extension? Either of those alone would have been enough to make a solid set bonus, yet as they stand, it's nearly as powerful as the current elemental shaman two-piece bonus. Not to cause any mass panic, as there is another way of looking at it. The Doomguard has a 10-minute cooldown, which is prohibitively long, as many a warlock has complained for ages. With such a horribly long cooldown, the spell likely isn't going to be usable for every single attempt made; normally it is only capable of being used every other attempt. Reducing the cooldown might not be done for the potential damage that you might gain from it, but rather to allow the warlock the ability to take advantage of the bonus every single attempt.
That assumption does seem logical, but it still doesn't address the fact that the duration bonus alone (particularly that of demonology) is worth a huge bulk of DPS. The Doomguard is going to have to be nerfed, if not from a baseline perspective then at least for demonology directly, which may be how this all plays out. Blizzard could just directly nerf demonology's mastery scaling for the Doomguard in order to compensate for their additional duration gain. No matter what, something's going to happen.
Issues with Soulburn
Oh, Soulburn, you've been nothing but trouble. There were many warlocks that were less than thrilled to see the system overhaul that Blizzard made to this resource management this expansion. Although I don't think anyone misses having to carry around bags full of nothing but annoying pink crystals, the new soul shard system just hasn't ever really held a place, nor has the spell associated with it. Right from the offset, Soulburn has been in an identity crisis. Blizzard had said directly that it doesn't want for Soulburn to be nothing more than another DPS cooldown, something that you use on cooldown, every cooldown, just like every other button out there.
The reality is that Soulburn, because of Blizzard's fear of turning it into something it didn't want, has left it as mostly nothing. Aside from destruction, Soulburn is a rather worthless ability that really isn't even used. Demonology can take some advantage of it to do some pet swapping for Demon Soul, but most of this isn't exactly how Blizzard intended for the spell to operate. Soulburn is supposed to be a form of additional utility, a quick measure to get your pet back if it dies, an extra boost on your Healthstone, a better escape tool. In terms of damage, Soulburn just hasn't even really held any importance, which it shouldn't -- but if you give players DPS options, then they will always take them.
This set bonus does exactly what it is that Blizzard had said that it wanted to avoid doing -- it turns Soulburn into nothing more than a common DPS cooldown that is pushed every cooldown just to chase that DPS high. Players are damage junkies, and things like this are our fix. The sad thing about this is how it all plays out. Destruction really doesn't mind; they're already using Soulburn on cooldown for Improved Soul Fire anyway, so there's no change for them. Affliction really doesn't care one way or another; they have no practical use for Soulburn as it stands. Demonology, though -- demonology could suffer for this.
Demonology uses the Felhunter for single-target DPS, but the Felguard is a much better choice for using Demon Soul on. What to do? Easy. Start the encounter with the Felguard out, Demon Soul, use your cooldowns, and when all of that ends, just Soulburn your pet into a puppy. You can do this again for the next Demon Soul too if you like, burning one Soulburn to bring the Felguard back and another to return to the Felhunter. If demonology has to use Soulburn on cooldown instead of when they need it, then it might not be up for when they next might make use of it -- a minor work-around, but it's still an annoyance worth showing. Soulburn isn't made to be a direct DPS cooldown.
The problem with Soul Shards
The other glaring flaw with this set bonus is that it is the absolute weakest set bonus ever. Even if you assume an unlimited number of Soul Shards, the bonus is only average at best. It should hover around a 2% DPS increase, which is fairly close to what a two-piece set bonus is usually worth, despite this being a four-piece bonus. Still, Blizzard usually does make it a habit of alternating strong set bonuses. A strong two-piece one tier means a strong four-piece the next; it helps with transition gearing. From raw numbers, the bonus isn't that bad. Then we hit a minor detail of a snag.
Warlocks don't have unlimited Soul Shards. We have three per encounter, and if the encounter happens to have any adds, then we can refresh our supply when they die. In this raiding tier, I suppose you could argue that this isn't really too much of a problem. After all, every encounter save Baleroc has an add from which you can resupply yourself. But what if the next raid isn't like that? Certain the previous raids didn't have as many adds involved in them; what's to say the next one will? If a warlock cannot regain any of their lost Soul Shards, then this is the weakest set bonus we've ever seen.
This brings up another issue: Affliction doesn't have this issue. Affliction has no purpose or need for Soulburn. They gain no special benefits from it in anyway, so what they end up using it for is rather trivial. Affliction does have one major perk though -- they have the only method of regaining Soul Shards without killing something. Seed of Corruption can be used in conjunction with Soulburn, and when it goes off, the shard used is returned. Awesome as it may seem, this does come with something of a price.
Corruption and Seed of Corruption cannot exist on the same target, so you have to go through the whole mess of using Seed of Corruption with Soulburn, waiting for it to explode, then reapplying Corruption back onto the target. In reality it isn't all that bad, but considering Corruption is usually a spell that we spend no focus on, it gets annoying.
Either Blizzard needs to change the way warlocks regeneration soul shards in the next patch, or this set bonus cannot remain as it is.
Blood Pact is a weekly column detailing DOTs, demons and all the dastardly deeds done by warlocks. We'll coach you in the fine art of staying alive, help pick the best target for Dark Intent, and steer you through encounters such as Blackwing Descent and The Bastion of Twilight.Filed under: Warlock, (Warlock) Blood Pact
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
iamtehg Sep 26th 2011 7:12PM
Well I'm finally glad to see someone agree with me that the 2p, with all the current benefits the Doomguard gets from a Demo lock, is far too OP for things to just stay as they are now. Having people tell me that the 2p isn't all that powerful cause it only makes one spec OP is beyond BS to me. I do agree that, at the very least, the Demo Doomguard is going to get some kind of nerf done to it for sure and that'll probably be coming sooner rather than later. As for the 4p, if it stays the way it is now, I believe that the itemization would need to be close to perfect on the other two additional pieces you'll need to get the bonus for it to actually be worthwhile. Maybe Affliction can make great use of it but I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to get it, like I will the 2p, regardless of what spec I was playing at the time.
IvanZephyr Sep 26th 2011 10:19PM
I think you're exaggerating the issue with Doomguard a fair bit.
albanesp Sep 27th 2011 10:17AM
Do you even play as a Demo lock?
Doomguard does about 1 million damage for me as Demo (16-17k dps) in the 65 seconds it is out. Adding another 45 seconds to the Doomguard's duration means another 700k damage which is about 1900dps increase for a 6 minute fight.
For affliction and Demo, the Doomguard does significantly less damage (about 1/3 the damage) for a shorter duration of time.
The two piece bonus for affliction/destro will only be worth about 211 dps.
Now people are claiming that perhaps Blizz meant to give Affliction/Demo an extra 45 and Demo an extra 15 seconds. This makes absolutely no sense, because it penalizes Demo for putting 2 points into Ancient Grimoire and I won't comment beyond that.
awa64 Sep 26th 2011 7:21PM
Psst.
A Soulburned Seed of Corruption applies Corruption to the target Seed of Corruption was on when it detonates.
Tyler Caraway Sep 26th 2011 8:44PM
AMG
I feel stupid, this is what I get for attempting to write when I dead tired, I totally forgot about that part, which is what makes the entire system so effective.
Revynn Sep 26th 2011 7:26PM
- "Corruption and Seed of Corruption cannot exist on the same target, so you have to go through the whole mess of using Seed of Corruption with Soulburn, waiting for it to explode, then reapplying Corruption back onto the target."
Actually, from what I've seen, if you only hit Seed once and are not spamming it after a SB:SoC, the target that you put SoC on will also get corruption applied to it like any other in the blast radius. The thing is that in AoE situations we're usually following up with more Seeds that end up clearing that Corruption off before it does anything.
canoninjarepelnt Sep 26th 2011 7:30PM
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=86664/soulburn-seed-of-corruption
SoC has hit the original target since T10, so no you do not need to reapply Corruption.
Also, at least 4pc T13 is a DPS cooldown you can stack with Meta/DG and get some use out of. 2pc T11 was just useless.
Bellajtok Sep 26th 2011 7:37PM
So basically this is going to happen to your doomguard: http://sarakleeyo.webcomic.ws/comics/5/
Have fun with that!
darkjapheth Sep 26th 2011 8:12PM
the worst part about this is, I can get behind stupid set bonuses that are pretty terrible, as I remember Burning Crusade (T5 wanted us to go demo, but that was a DPS loss versus just Shadowbolting repeatedly) pretty well.
What I can't deal with is -boring-. And that's kind of what these are. After t11, which gave us fiery imps exploding everywhere and oh man look its like a macross missile attack oh damn- I really wanted more. Like, your Doomguard becomes a Deathguard, which has a giant metal chin and just runs around punching the everloving hell out of everything. Not crap like "lol soulburn gives you some DPS and doomguard lasts longer, herp"
emberdione Sep 26th 2011 8:15PM
I think it says something that when I first saw these bonuses I thought "Haha, funny funny, now where are the real set bonuses..."
I am so not giving up my 4 piece t12 for that crap.
Ice Sep 26th 2011 9:18PM
Cooldown reduced to 6 mins is hardly OP.
No fight part from raggie (or 3 healer 1 flying alyz 10man) is taking over 6 minutes from normal guild, specially after the nerfs. This will def not allow you to use it twice on the fight unless its like deathwing that might last long as lich king did (15-20 minutes at very start?).
It should be like this in the game already tbh. Maybe it was intended to not be double usable tho, just more uses in progression fights where you might wipe every 1-3 minutes into the fights allowing you to use it more on progression and not "when constantly getting into last phase so it wont go to waste" (because wiping with like 1 million left on boss and knowing doomguard would've chewed that if only it was up..).
+45 seconds is very amazing indeed. I'm fairly sure by my detective skills that this is just testing will they change doomguard cd in future by half or something similiar.
I hope they change 4set bonus. 4set bonus is WORSE than 2set?
Hell, I would take those generic 5% crit's as 4set rather than something I can use 3 times in the fight unless
1) Affliction seed of corruption singletarget (feels odd man..)
2) Drainsouling add that actually dies(no dewspawn, no "fake death(nef T11 adds))" and that add spawns and dies at least every 2 minutes..
Only good thing is that you can control it. But making stuff because "its under-used" is not good idea specially when you can only get 3 of it...and its just 10 seconds timer..
Kendro Sep 26th 2011 10:46PM
I really do dislike how soulburn was handled. The ability had such great potential to add flavor to the class, and not just be variation of fire or frost mage with different pets. So far it hasn't proved to be anything but a different form of clunky and disappointing as its predecessor.
dsauto Sep 27th 2011 2:51AM
This will probably get me canned but I am past caring now.
The game has been around long enough & they have enough data to predict what will happen in almost any given situation regarding set bonuses & each time these idiots try something they manage to mess it up. A simple minded 4 year old could come up with a more intelligent set bonus than these are. The T11 4 piece was pretty meh & the T12 2 piece is about the same proving Tyler's point.
For the 2 piece-if the times were 45 for aff/destro & 15 for demo it would make, very slightly, more sense from the point of view that afflict/destro have almost no "burst" & will prevent the 45 second DG from being a suicide pact for demo.
The 4 piece is too little for to short duration especially for the effort required to get the items. 30% for 20 seconds would be closer to the mark even though (as many others here have said) GC stated that soulburn would not be used for purely a dps increase.
If these aren't place holders & this tier goes ahead as is then its basically forcing players who wish to be effective in a raid/pvp setting to reroll.
I know the "A" team has gone to work on titan but having reached the "J" team ( J for Janitor) they have really swept the garbage into the corner,scooped it up & called it a set bonus!
TecXero Sep 27th 2011 8:26AM
Soulburn: Seed of Corruption applies Corruption to everything effected including the target, so really it wouldn't hurt every 45s to just burn out a Seed of Corruption for the buff. It'd kind of be like ISF except for Affliction and not sucking due to it not having a long hard cast time and only having to do it every 45s.
Xayíde Sep 27th 2011 8:59AM
"burning one Soulburn to bring the Felguard back and another to return to the Felhunter."
You're actually supposed to hard cast your Felguard and use Soulburn only on the Felhunter.
Natsumi Sep 27th 2011 10:45AM
@Tyler
"...this set bonus is that it is the absolute weakest set bonus ever..."
I'd like to point you at the DPS Warrior 4 piece bonus:
Your Execute critical strikes have a 20% chance to refresh the duration of Colossus Smash.
Execute:
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=5308
"Only usable on enemies that have less than 20% health."
Colossus Smash
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=86346
20 second Cooldown, lasts 6 seconds, on the global cooldown.
Our 4 piece is only able to proc 22.5% of the last 20% of a boss's health, and at only a 20% chance to proc. This is about 4.5% of the fight that it's usable and a 0.9% uptime overall. This is slightly higher for Arms, but arms doesn't care because we have about a 50% (or more) uptime on Colossus Smash anyway due to Sudden Death ( http://www.wowhead.com/spell=29725 ). Your bonus is (assuming only 3 soul shards) 30 seconds per fight assuming each fight lasts longer than 2 minutes 15 seconds and burning SoulBurn at the beginning of the fight and on CD. Assuming a 6 minute boss fight and no additional soul shards from adds, this has a 5% uptime AND you can use it when you need it (when the boss is vulnerable, burn phases, etc) and it ALWAYS procs.
locksoflocks Sep 27th 2011 6:27PM
This 2 piece bonus would complete the cycle for this x-pac. Bliz likes cycles, last x-pac went through the same cycle if I recall correctly, started with Destro as top DPS, then Aff was top, and finished with Demo as top. And this x-pac has seen Destro and Aff as top DPS, so now it is Demo's turn.
It would also help with the steep drop off of Demo's initial burst, the way things are now when I start a boss fight I blow all of my CDs up front exploding my DPS to 37-39k, but as my Meta comes down and all of the rest of my CDs drop off it reduces and I end some where around 22-24k (usually in the middle of the pack). So by extending the duration of 1 CD they may help me stay closer to 30k at the end of the fight. I don't know what the expected minimum DPS out put for the bosses will be but I would think it will be closer to 30k than 20k.
As an additional point, our Aff lock tends to smoke me in DPS (finishes most bosses at 24k+) and is geared roughly the same as I am, we both have an average iLvl of 371.