An Open Letter to Blizzard: The State of Affliction Lock

[Fael]

Only in my dreams, only in my dreams.
Perhaps it can be reality once again.

 

[Kiri]

Let me tell you a story. A long long time ago Drain Life used to do something. And fear didn't DR (or at least not until forever). The days of DoT, Drain, Fear, reapply DoT were glorious. And all was right in the world. Since then an evil force has taken over the minds of Blizzard. They have forgotten the dark arts of Corruption. They no longer care for the Warlock and will do everything in their power to destroy what was once a beautiful thing...

No but seriously what is going on? This isn't some mid exp patch that may of broken a few things. This is a completely new, stat squish expansion that promised "major changes" for Locks.

Why am I procing Nightfall at lvl 10?
Why is this shown? I don't have shards. Even if I did they don't do anything. Why is Nightfall procing for 10 levels before I can even use it? And even at 20, why are you giving me instant demons... this is not Demonology... I want something that feels like Affliction, that's why I chose this spec. All those shard enhanced spells, even at later levels are really lackluster.

Why are you going away from what made this spec great?
This is a dot spec, plain and simple. It's about applying dots and out lasting your opponent with health regen. Make Drain Life DO something. Give it a slow, make it tick for something that's worth while. We need something to prolong the fight. Dots need to tick WAY harder, everyone's dots. You should fear the dot and think about dispell. Not just blindly keep attacking and bandage through the damage.

Give us Soul Swap.
We need something, let us apply dots faster. Or consume dots for a small burst and reapply on new target.

Give us Howl of Terror and Soul Link back.
We need an AoE fear. We shouldn't have to juke everything to survive all the time. If you don't want to give us movement (since we are inverse Mages) then at least give us a chance to create some distance.

Make Curse of Agony baseline.
We should be able to Curse and Disease at 10. Thats pretty standard Afflication stuff.

Move Fear to Level 10.
If you can enter a Battleground you should be able to CC as DPS. You get to heal as a healer... All Tanks should have AoE damage before they enter a Dungeon too. I don't understand why they give some class abilities and others not. Everyone should have the tools to do their jobs at the level they are trying to do them.


This isn't meant to be a QQ, I'm generally sad that this is the best they could come up with for a "complete revamp" of Warlocks. Broken abilites, procs that do nothing, and just general lack of attention to what this spec is about...

What say you Locks?

Just give me VW Sac and aoe stealth detection back and I'd be happy ^^

 

[Tilt Shift]

Affliction sucks now but demo and destro are in the best place they've been since the advent of ftp, generally speaking. I suspect blizz may address this in the future as the spec doesn't offer any distinction (aside from a huge dps deficiency) until mid to late 20's. It's the only spec in the game that has such a long stride before it becomes playable atm.

Footnote: I made a lock after reading salfirs excellent guide. I saw him in exactly one wsg when I was playing an ally rogue. With 6 hunters on our team, all he could do was spend the entire game at the GY practicing his demo leaps.

I solo queue and am glad that the above is rarely the case these days.

 

[Kiri]

Let me tell you a story. A long long time ago Drain Life used to do something. And fear didn't DR (or at least not until forever). The days of DoT, Drain, Fear, reapply DoT were glorious. And all was right in the world. Since then an evil force has taken over the minds of Blizzard. They have forgotten the dark arts of Corruption. They no longer care for the Warlock and will do everything in their power to destroy what was once a beautiful thing...

No but seriously what is going on? This isn't some mid exp patch that may of broken a few things. This is a completely new, stat squish expansion that promised "major changes" for Locks.

Why am I procing Nightfall at lvl 10?
Why is this shown? I don't have shards. Even if I did they don't do anything. Why is Nightfall procing for 10 levels before I can even use it? And even at 20, why are you giving me instant demons... this is not Demonology... I want something that feels like Affliction, that's why I chose this spec. All those shard enhanced spells, even at later levels are really lackluster.

Why are you going away from what made this spec great?
This is a dot spec, plain and simple. It's about applying dots and out lasting your opponent with health regen. Make Drain Life DO something. Give it a slow, make it tick for something that's worth while. We need something to prolong the fight. Dots need to tick WAY harder, everyone's dots. You should fear the dot and think about dispell. Not just blindly keep attacking and bandage through the damage.

Give us Soul Swap.
We need something, let us apply dots faster. Or consume dots for a small burst and reapply on new target.

Give us Howl of Terror and Soul Link back.
We need an AoE fear. We shouldn't have to juke everything to survive all the time. If you don't want to give us movement (since we are inverse Mages) then at least give us a chance to create some distance.

Make Curse of Agony baseline.
We should be able to Curse and Disease at 10. Thats pretty standard Afflication stuff.

Move Fear to Level 10.
If you can enter a Battleground you should be able to CC as DPS. You get to heal as a healer... All Tanks should have AoE damage before they enter a Dungeon too. I don't understand why they give some class abilities and others not. Everyone should have the tools to do their jobs at the level they are trying to do them.


This isn't meant to be a QQ, I'm generally sad that this is the best they could come up with for a "complete revamp" of Warlocks. Broken abilites, procs that do nothing, and just general lack of attention to what this spec is about...

What say you Locks?

This is gonna sound weird but... affliction is rlly strong atm
At least from the few bgs I've done

 

[Kiri]

What was we goin to QQ about again ? xD