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Affliction Shadowlands – No Agony?
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Post by
Gowu
Introduction
Hello all! Gowu here. I would like to share with you guys a fresh point of looking at the Affliction Warlock in Shadowlands.
I’m playing Affliction since early TBC, my total days played at Destruction and Demonology you can count with your finger of the one hand.
I believe current state of this specification does not cover all of the developed systems in the game.
Affliction as we know it today been design in times when there was only two end-game general system of the game, Raids and PvP.
And it was good for both of then, but somewhere along the path with each new expansions we still been lost many step behind.
At the current state of the game the Affliction Warlocks are in good shape for Raids, and maybe not the worst for the PvP.
Battle of Azeroth showed us that Affliction is terrible at the Mythic+ content, in Legion in been carry mostly by the legendries not by their gameplay.
When you compare Affliction with the other classes or even specializations, I think it’s fair to say we are they slowest DPS specialization in the game, and it’s fine as long you don’t call Affliction the Damage over time Master.
Even in Shadowlands Alpha/Beta, after getting new burst spell - Malefic Rapture – it’s easy to see… something is still wrong in Mythic+.
Some will say “It will be better at higher keys”, I would say “It’s okay to have some talents better at higher or lower keys, but not a whole specialization which is Affliction”
Getting to the main problem, and solution of it, the most problem is with a set-up time, which mean your need a time to prepare your ground to start doing any visible damage.
The one common thing in any combat is to spread your Corruption, Agony and Unstable Affliction, many of GDC later you can start to play.
Since Corruption (Vanilla) and Unstable Affliction (TBC) is in the game since beginning, with Agony you just can’t say that.
Agony spell evolved from the curse which been named “Curse of Agony”. It been replaceable on the target with any other curses which we know today, which mean you could have only one curse on the target.
“Curse of Agony” mechanic also worked in different way, it didn’t had stacks, damage was ramping from the lowers value to the highest, if you did recast it, it was starting over again.
In general, until Cataclysm when you had not better Curse to use, you used Agony but it’s damage was not very impactful.
Now we get to the current days… situation is not very different, Agony cause us only troubles… it’s damages are not so high, it’s still ramping and we have to use it cause it generate shards.
Unfortunately, at the current state of the game when it comes to Mythic+, time decides if you win or lose.
But what if we imagine World (of Warcraft) without Agony, for Raids it’s not a big deal, for PvP maybe even improvement, but for Mythic+ it makes Affliction fun and playable.
At the next pages I would like to invite you into this world…
Changes
Spell: Agony
Action: Removed
Switch part of the damage to the Corruption and Shard generation to the Unstable Affliction.
Spell: Unstable Affliction
Action: Changed
After remove Agony it would be good to change target cap from 1 to 3 targets.
Unstable Affliction was always multitarget spell, with Agony gone 2 additional targets will help you generate more shards.
What’s a different between spreading Agony or Unstable Affliction you ask?
- Limit cap to 3 targets.
- It’s not ramping.
- It has other interaction in the talent tree which you will see later.
- It’s generate shard after target die
Unstable Affliction will be also responsible for shards generation, as Agony did.
Spell: Vile Taint
Action: Changed name. Removed form the talent. New baseline toolkit.
Vile Taint is a spell which fulfil Affliction toolkit, it's great spell cause of it’s AoE range.
With its cooldown and short period of time if creates great synergy with Malefic Rapture, to create burst damage.
It would be good so see it ability baseline for Affliction, and cause Agony have been removed also name can be different.
Replaced with Vile of Agony.
Spell: Vile of Agony
Action: New
Old Vile Taint.
Spell: Drain Soul
Action: Removed from the talent. New baseline toolkit.
Drain Soul and Affliction? No need to explain.
Spell: Summon Darkglare
Action: Changed
Darkglare lost his value after removing the Unstable Affliction stacking. Reducing by 60 sec should not be talented, only baseline. For now it’s worst pet-burst-utility of all three specializations.
Legendries and Conduits
Agony spell modifiers will be split between Unstable Affliction and Corruption.
Spells
Curve bold text = Change/New
Unstable Affliction
40 yd 1.5 sec
Afflicts one target with (x% of Spell power) Shadow damage over 16 sec.
If dispelled, deals damage to the dispeller and silences them for 4 sec.
Limit 3 targets.
Unstable Affliction damage sometimes generates 1 Soul Shard.
Generates 1 Soul Shard if the target dies while afflicted.
Vile of Agony
40 yd 1.5 sec 30 sec cooldown
Unleashes an agony explosion at the target location, dealing (X% of Spell power) Shadow damage over 10 sec to all enemies within 10 yds and reducing their movement speed by 30%.
Malefic Rapture
100 yd 1.5 sec
Your damaging periodic effects erupt on all targets within line of sight, causing Shadow damage per effect.
This damage is reduced by 25% for each additional damage over time effect above one.
Summon Darkglare
Instant 2 min cooldown
Summons a Darkglare from the Twisting Nether that extends the duration of your damage over time effects on all enemies by 8 sec.
The Darkglare will serve you for 20 sec, blasting its target for (32% of Spell power) Shadow damage, increased by 10% for every damage over time effect you have active on any target.
Talents
Curve bold text = Change/New
15 Row
Nightfall
Approximately 4 procs per minute
Corruption damage has a chance to cause your next Shadow Bolt to be instant and deal 50% increased damage.
Damage is spread to all targets affected with the Unstable Affliction.
Inevitable Demise
Passive
Damaging an enemy with
Unstable Affliction
increases the damage of your next Drain Life by 15%. This effect stacks up to 50 times.
Malefic Grasp
Passive
While channeling Drain Soul, your damage over time effects deal 20% increased damage to the target.
25 Row
Contagion
Passive
You deal 10% increased damage to targets affected by your Unstable Affliction.
Absolute Corruption
Passive
Corruption is now
last 24 sec
and deals 15% increased damage.
35 Row
Endless Rapture
Passive
When you cast Malefic Rapture while your targets are affected by Vile of Agony it’s duration will increase by 2 sec.
40 Row
Paralyzing Fear
Passive
Your Fear causes the target to tremble in place instead of fleeing in fear.
45 Row
Dark Caller
Passive
Reduces Summon Darkglare's cooldown by
30
seconds.
Grimoire of Sacrifice
Instant 30 sec cooldown
Sacrifices your demon pet for power, gaining its command demon ability, and causing your spells to sometimes also deal additional Shadow damage.
Lasts 60 min or until you summon a demon pet.
50 Row
Creeping Death
Passive
Your Agony, Corruption, Siphon Life, and Unstable Affliction deal their full damage 15% faster.
Post by
Blaylock
I actually like these Ideas , Nostalgic sake I would miss agony but these ideas are well thought out and I had some of those same ideas but this is explained way better .
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