Had I been aware that this class was going to be turned into a primary healing class I would have never wasted my time with it..
Exactly. The description when you choose Warlock basically states you are here to do damage.
Now you can have a puppet or heal....because every other AoE is nerfed to nothing. Want to curse everything as a Hellbringer? No, switch to Soulweaver and use Harrowstorm.
Warlocks..they channel demons from the Nine Hells to.......heal. Huh?
All this changes destroyed half of our playstyle as DPS, making us a healer class, i agree, when i made my Warlock i made him to be a DPS, not a healer... Now some of our DPS powers aren't in the DPS path (Pillar of Power, Harrowstorm, E.Defile) if devs wanted to have another healer class, why just don't make a new healer class? No, they nerf our DPS versatility to allow us to queue as healers... At least make our only DPS path effective.
You want to deal damage..Is what we read in the class description.
As others have pointed out, our General feats and Hellfire Mastery paragon feat really force warlocks into a full crit build, which means even at full capacity we'll only get all those benefits 50% of the time (depending on your hidden personal LUCK score whether that 50% swings to the godly or worst). But then we're given tools like No Pity, No Mercy's bit of "Your critical strikes now grant you Combat Advantage on your target for 4 seconds". No doubt, it's just a copy/paste bring over from Live. But given the investment one will have to put into a Crit build to get that bit working, you won't be getting much, if anything, out of those 4 seconds of CA. And if the CA bit was meant to benefit allies more than the warlock, frankly it's on the wrong Paragon for that.
The warlock's paradox going into M16 currently is looking like: Do I invest highly in Crit to use all this Crit Sev that I was given just for being a warlock, even though I'll only be able to hit it 50% of the time? Or should I ignore 20% Crit Sev baked into my kit and my soul spark building passive on Hellfire Mastery to invest in a CA build I can reliably use 100% through positioning.
I unfortunately don't have any suggestions on what to do with that 20% Crit Sev at the moment. I don't mind the crit for soul spark part of Hellfire Mastery since I already do that on Live (albeit with 100% Crit) and you can bypass that part with Hellish Rebuke or Eldritch Blast. But as for No Pity, No Mercy, I would like to see the CA portion changed. In my opinion, something like "When you critically strike a target, your next attack against that target deals 5-10% more dmg", giving it a nature of going in for the kill strike to put them down quick (no mercy!). Though I would ask to ensure it only procs on a strike, and not on DoTs.
Warlock: Don't want to let you down but I am hell bound. - Imagine Dragons Cleric: You can be an angel of mercy or give in to hate. - Shinedown Wizard: The more the dark consumes me, I pretend I'm burning bright. - Shinedown Barbarian: Am I beautiful... as I tear you to pieces? - In This Moment
Now you can have a puppet or heal...Warlocks..they channel demons from the Nine Hells to.......heal. Huh?
A week or so ago another player mentioned the celestial pact for warlocks which is pretty new in tabletop, and I could get behind that if they made it a thing in Neverwinter, but otherwise, the only infernal pact healing that makes any sense at all is if the warlocks wrung the life from their enemies til all that remained were dry crackly husks. Damage and Healing going hand in hand seems okay.
Slipping hither and thither through flaming corpse light, explosions, flailing hands, strangle holds, creepy soul puppets rising, mobs cursed red, yellow, blue, and green - I don't get that kind of show with any of my other characters. I'd hate to see that go.
I'm also wondering if the warlock's going to get sidelined again in groups. I can't imagine the rest of the team wanting it for its subpar dps, and why would they want it as healer when there are better options?
Now you can have a puppet or heal...Warlocks..they channel demons from the Nine Hells to.......heal. Huh?
I'm also wondering if the warlock's going to get sidelined again in groups. I can't imagine the rest of the team wanting it for its subpar dps, and why would they want it as healer when there are better options?
They only want us for healing now...I sneak in as Hellbringer now. When is the last time you saw "CODG 9/10 Need SW Hell"
There are easy ways to fix all those problems at once and make the class work and be fun to play.
First of rename Lesser Curse into Warlocks Curse. -Make At wills apply lesser Curse since we lost our core-function-> TAB, to apply curses at all! There is nor argument to make that core function only work by using one classfeature (makes no sense), same as few more Encounter should have the ability to apply LC like: Dreadtheft, Harrowstorm and BoVA. -By that you have more option to cycle a rotation like DT+effect"x"/AoH+"cc"/BoVA+"deflect"->Curse -> Fiery Bolt or Consume with Curse Bite, reapply etc.
That´s how about a Hellbringer damagetable looks on live today: "Boss dummy in Chult from100 to zero" Creeping death (75%+damage) up to 34% overall damage. All powers were balanced arround this capstone. Now CD is gone and as it looks like powers are still balanced arround that capstone (Dailies Encounter, At Wills), I checked it. At this point again->Brood of Hadar deals only 50% compared to every other classes "top Daily". There is not much this Daily gets buffed from, no Capstone, nothing tbh. Hunter has a classfeature wich buff his range damage for 50% , dealing triple the damage a warlock does with one Daily!!! We have to discuss basic stuff actually, that should have been calculated in advance imo If you watch a damagetable now without having a source from Curses or a capstone, this is your picture The class misses that capstone (+75%), creeping death not to mention that 24% from POP missing on top. Now it's 10% Creeping Death and 20% Executioners gift, but you can only pick one of them, both give +10% more or less in the end, nothing to close that gap. If Lesser Curse tics with 25 magnitude in general when applied the table looks like this (achieved from using ACC+Deadly Curse), normally LC is 20%+ vs a target at full health and KF is far lower (dead Dummy) Even doing so you can't close the gap vs other striker, this might be closed by a significant higher encounter reset from lev 80 feat, maybe not...we will see. All in all a better result but why having a Curse with no impact as long as you don´t use one single classfeature (as the build in the middle shows) ? The Lesser Curse should have a bigger impact in general so maybe make it tic with 25 mag (every 1-2 seconds) when active not only when applied. The class circles arround Curses but that Curse itself is "zero" in case you don´t use a specific classfeature, making the gameplay "oneway".
About Hellfire Expertise, Crit as the only option to build in for better sparkgain and NPNM affording crit to work at all.
1. Hellfire Expertise: "... and Soulsparksare now gained on 1. applying Lesser Curse or 2. using your powers (giving every power a fix number of sparks you gain)." 2. Actually when running solo ACC is perma-active same as NPNM on top, the best outcome by far 100% Combat Advantage on crits. To keep this as an option on a "no-crit build" tweak NPNM a bit No Pity no Mercy:".... applying Lesser Curse now grants you Combat Advantage for 4 seconds"...done the best of this changes, it pushes low geared player and makes the class perform better even with low stats, no matter if you have HAMSTER gear and no crit (= no sparks and no Combat Advantage), a win-win.
But as long as we have no dialogue or feedback about those pretty essential topics running over 6 pages now, there is no way to head forward. It´s not that much needed to get things running, many aspect look very good actually, same as campaign a lot of very good work One general aspect to discuss on top. A class based on Curses that has lower burst compared to other classes, should allways deal higher damage in the sum, than a class that can 100% burst, not the other way, having low burst and dealing less damage in the sum, actually up to 50% damage is dealt by DOT's ! @noworries#8859@asterdahl
Bug fixes I look forward to seeing in today's/next weeks patches
Curse Bite can be cast up to 4 seconds after all cursed enemies are dead. This can waste a charge or cause it to needlessly go on cooldown. Not major, more a QoL change.
Harrowstorm hitting players as well as failing to crit
Essence Drain: Ability to keep walking whilst it is active.
Flames of Empowerment: Buff is currently stacking up to ten times.
Parting Blasphemy: Procs even if you haven't chosen the feat. Not a huge part of our damage, but still skews the overall impression of the Warlock's capabilities.
Life Bind: Does not work.
Creeping Death: Multiple hits stop this from proccing.
Risky Investment: Doesn't work at all. No buff and no buff icon
Immolation Spirits: Ability to spawn an armada of Spirits. Once again another bug that skews the overall impression of the Warlock's capabilities.
General feedback to some of the dev suggestions and implementations
Switching Dust to Dust to Hellbringer, two thumbs up.
Switching Fiery Bolt to single target doesn't sound great. Killing Flames is our real go to single target encounter, a slight increase in magnitude to this would be better. Also, Fiery Bolt as an AoE without synergy/consume effect would have great utility for spreading Lesser Curse, especially for a leveling player.
Buffing damage boosts to Warlock's Curse and Executioner's Gift sound good, not sure about the switching around of their positioning in the feat tree. Also, Tyrannical Curse debuff currently over-rides the Warlock's Curse buff in mod 15. Testing will need to be done to see if this still occurs in mod 16. Should that be the case, taking Warlock's Curse feat then invalidates Tyrannical Curse usage in terms of the added effect.
Hellfire Ring cooldown reduction would be great. It is currently absurdly long.
Hi all - didnt know if this had been postet yet, but my sw did something wrong - he ran sidewards or backwards after i killed the mob and he didnt stop this. I have to leave room or instance. It was the entire quest were you come from the ship. He runs forward but he looks always in wrong directions. Think it has to do with dreadtheft but didnt know it exactly. Maybe he needs some glasses
With Lev 80 feat "Soul Spark recovery" you have a 3 sec Cooldownreduction on every SoulScorch with 18 sparks, a pretty good feat tbh.. You can lower Hellfirering CD down to 15 seconds on a Dummy. Warlock is maybe one of the " most dynamic classes" in mod 16 as it looks, same as the rotation looks not that bad at all. Hellfirering will get CD reduction "cut in halve" I read. Hellfirering and Harrowstorm allready apply LC, I did not recognize that tbh, my fault. I had less issues in the last quest lev80 "Master of the Depth" running a Hellbringer setup than a Soulweaver, despite healing those mobs had to be killed fast, no chance to heal all that damage. No clue how low geared player should get that done, I died many times in there. Nevertheless compared to my low level striker, the damage all in all is underwhelming somehow, Norbert Nub "the worst hunter in NWO" deals 500k dailies...
Agreed. That feat is the best reason to use Soul Scorch. Unfortunately, it's not a lot of use for a sub-80 toon. With that HB will revolve around popping SS for cooldown reduction, then making sure we're full on soul sparks in time for the next encounter
My Paladin pretty much waltzed through all of Vanrakdoom, while my Warlock had to tiptoe. Doing the final quest, I had to exploit artefact damage to stop the ‘lock dying constantly, the Paladin died because of bugs, my mistakes or lag. This isn’t just a matter of a tank is more durable, Smite hits for 200k damage one shoting enemies, Divine Judgement hits harder, Relentless Avenger will hit for enough to one shot a minion. So the Paladin can clear mobs faster because it’s hitting harder and that’s with a 25% damage reduction.
That’s not a case for reducing the power of the Paly, that’s a case for buffing the effectiveness of the ‘lock. The Paly is clearing mobs at 20k iL slightly worse than it does on live, but tuning of it in the coming weeks should fix that. The ‘lock is struggling more in comparison.
Obsidian Moonlight - Paladin Obsidian Oath - Warlock A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
With Lev 80 feat "Soul Spark recovery" you have a 3 sec Cooldownreduction on every SoulScorch with 18 sparks, a pretty good feat tbh.. You can lower Hellfirering CD down to 15 seconds on a Dummy. Warlock is maybe one of the " most dynamic classes" in mod 16 as it looks, same as the rotation looks not that bad at all. Hellfirering will get CD reduction "cut in halve" I read. Hellfirering and Harrowstorm allready apply LC, I did not recognize that tbh, my fault. I had less issues in the last quest lev80 "Master of the Depth" running a Hellbringer setup than a Soulweaver, despite healing those mobs had to be killed fast, no chance to heal all that damage. No clue how low geared player should get that done, I died many times in there. Nevertheless compared to my low level striker, the damage all in all is underwhelming somehow, Norbert Nub "the worst hunter in NWO" deals 500k dailies...
in regards to hellfire ring i doubt it will be cut in half... it would be completely against the whole idea of slowing down encounters but making them more impactful when they are used.. if you cut it in half it would run at about 11 sec cooldown.. thats a bit too low for their average CD time on SW encounters. I could see it being cut down to about 16 sec cooldown since it is supposed to be a high dmg encounter, but who knows.. maybe .. just maybe they would knock it down to 11-12 sec, at least then it would be more worth while to risk casting
With Lev 80 feat "Soul Spark recovery" you have a 3 sec Cooldownreduction on every SoulScorch with 18 sparks, a pretty good feat tbh.. You can lower Hellfirering CD down to 15 seconds on a Dummy. Warlock is maybe one of the " most dynamic classes" in mod 16 as it looks, same as the rotation looks not that bad at all. Hellfirering will get CD reduction "cut in halve" I read. Hellfirering and Harrowstorm allready apply LC, I did not recognize that tbh, my fault. I had less issues in the last quest lev80 "Master of the Depth" running a Hellbringer setup than a Soulweaver, despite healing those mobs had to be killed fast, no chance to heal all that damage. No clue how low geared player should get that done, I died many times in there. Nevertheless compared to my low level striker, the damage all in all is underwhelming somehow, Norbert Nub "the worst hunter in NWO" deals 500k dailies...
in regards to hellfire ring i doubt it will be cut in half... it would be completely against the whole idea of slowing down encounters but making them more impactful when they are used.. if you cut it in half it would run at about 11 sec cooldown.. thats a bit too low for their average CD time on SW encounters. I could see it being cut down to about 16 sec cooldown since it is supposed to be a high dmg encounter, but who knows.. maybe .. just maybe they would knock it down to 11-12 sec, at least then it would be more worth while to risk casting
noworries already said it's planned to reduce Hellfire Ring's CD (along with the magnitude) in an upcoming patch, so we'll see.
Patched and did some quick testing, nothing rigorous yet. But with Dust to Dust on the DPS spec things feel smoother in Vanrakdoom.
Still that is fundamentally a problem.
If the Active Choices are basically restricted to All Consuming Curse and Dust to Dust so that the class is effective then we are back where we started.
Warlock needs All Consuming Curse built into the class, too many powers and feats depend on the curse for you to not run ACC now, so it needs to be inherent in the class - At-Wills apply Curse.
Dust to Dust - the same problem exists here, if the DPS spec isn't killing stuff fast enough without this slotted in solo play then we have an inherent problem in the damage of the class. Fortunately this can be embedded in the Paragon Features for the DPS spec.
This also brings up Dark One's Blessing - this requires things to die with the Curse, too many powers remove the curse and require it be reapplied. Every time something dies in the window where our own powers are removing the curse this passive is gutted in effect. Also 1% of HP is pointless, when we are faced with things like Assassin adds in Vanrakdoom hitting for 30k plus damage, the heal effect needs to be at least 10%.
Obsidian Moonlight - Paladin Obsidian Oath - Warlock A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
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espasbadfistMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 39Arc User
Hellfire ring will apply LC - no need for ACC here. I ran Vanrakdoom with Shadow Slip and NPNM and it worked fine for me. For survivability try using a healer or tank companion. I find the changes to the companion system really nice and from my point of view it makes absolut more sense for a DPS to have a healer/tank at its side. I even pulled out my old Iounstone and was surprised that it gave me more own damage than the other - would like to see how this performs in party.
If you are not using any Curse Consume options, then yes Hellfire Ring is enough. But start putting in some Curse Consume options and you need more ways to apply Curse, and Hellfire Ring does not apply for the Healing spec, but the need to have curses on things does.
(And I am using my best tank companion.)
Obsidian Moonlight - Paladin Obsidian Oath - Warlock A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
That’s not a case for reducing the power of the Paly, that’s a case for buffing the effectiveness of the ‘lock. The Paly is clearing mobs at 20k iL slightly worse than it does on live, but tuning of it in the coming weeks should fix that. The ‘lock is struggling more in comparison.
Agreed, but have to add one point about dailies in general, regarding the damagetable. Warlock deals about 10% with his daily, wich is a healthy solution, my hunter deals arround 35% from all damage with one daily same as my Wizard is arround 25%, both deal top damage with those powers.
Patched and did some quick testing, nothing rigorous yet. But with Dust to Dust on the DPS spec things feel smoother in Vanrakdoom. Still that is fundamentally a problem. If the Active Choices are basically restricted to All Consuming Curse and Dust to Dust so that the class is effective then we are back where we started. Warlock needs All Consuming Curse built into the class, too many powers and feats depend on the curse for you to not run ACC now, so it needs to be inherent in the class - At-Wills apply Curse. Dust to Dust - the same problem exists here, if the DPS spec isn't killing stuff fast enough without this slotted in solo play then we have an inherent problem in the damage of the class. Fortunately this can be embedded in the Paragon Features for the DPS spec. This also brings up Dark One's Blessing - this requires things to die with the Curse, too many powers remove the curse and require it be reapplied. Every time something dies in the window where our own powers are removing the curse this passive is gutted in effect. Also 1% of HP is pointless, when we are faced with things like Assassin adds in Vanrakdoom hitting for 30k plus damage, the heal effect needs to be at least 10%.
Agreed, Curses should be applied easily. Powers like BoVA and Dreadtheft should have that ability too, otherwise they loose functionality. Same as I had no utility for Dark Ones Blessing so far, too weak to even think about.
I also think Lesser Curse should have a bigger damageing-impact on mobs, also dealing damage without slotting Deadly Curse. Lesser Curse should tic with 25 mag applying it in general or should tic allways with 25 mag every 2 seconds, so you have a constant damagesource, except you consume that Curse with a powerfull aoe(Cursed Bites) (+/- proc Parting Blasphemy) or lift the target (HG) or get a HP buff (Vampiric E.). Deleting that Curse impacts DoB from healing you, so using that feature you are forced to play without Cursed bites, a situaltional "trade"-more heals less aoe-damage.. if it was buffed up from 1% From all my testings ACC+Deadly Curse are the most effective combo vs single targets, even beating the actual 9-10% buff from Flames of Empowerment+ACC. Actually FoE+DtD should have a slightly better outcome, but only slighty... If I slot two damage feature to overcome two class feature, wich have 1. a functional asepct (ACC) and 2. an AOE aspect (DC), there is somthing wrong.
ACC could be tweaked into something else by makeing that aspect a permanent ability (Curse on At Will), like: "Lesser Curse last twice as long" or "Curse tics with double ammount of damage" or anything else (Aoe feature), same as Deadly Curse should have a compareable AOE aspect like "spreading Curses on mobs not alleady cursed and damaging them on impact with 25mag" , by that you 1. avoid DC to being from any impact on a single target combined with ACC and 2. have a far better game experience in case you want to have an easy source of Curses running solo/group doing trash
Hellfire ring will apply LC - no need for ACC here. I ran Vanrakdoom with Shadow Slip and NPNM and it worked fine for me. For survivability try using a healer or tank companion. I find the changes to the companion system really nice and from my point of view it makes absolut more sense for a DPS to have a healer/tank at its side. I even pulled out my old Iounstone and was surprised that it gave me more own damage than the other - would like to see how this performs in party.
It´s more the need off reapplying a Curse, Hellfire procs it once, Cursed Bites comsumes it, now you have issues to reapply it. I also Agree that Companios now have a far better viabliity for the setup, a nice effect, did not try my Ioun stone so far tbh., but normally those bondings will overcome ioun stones in all aspects if they are working as they should. 195% statbonus, slotted with adaequat companion gear will have the better outcome in the end. I run all those without a barkshield enchant at max tbh, this enchant makes a very big difference imo and at that point want to add that a soulforgeenchant pretty weak compared to an enchant that absorbs near 150% of incoming damage.
I know 99% of the SW will hate me for saying this but;
I like the change to fiery bolt – at last it feels (at least upon my pre 80 level lock) like a warlock has a hard hitting single target ability. A much improved encounter that I have enjoyed and see myself using especially in boss fights.
I also feel it is good to have a couple of single target ability encounter options to choose from – I like it.
Is there a list of what they changed this patch somewhere – my overall performance seems to have taken a big nosedive, perhaps it’s just me
Thanks in advance
If you have been playing Heals with Dust to Dust, that is the change that is most likely affecting you (aside from any smaller changes that are harder to track). Dust to Dust was moved to the DPS spec and replaced with a passive that only works with the Tab power for Heals.
Obsidian Moonlight - Paladin Obsidian Oath - Warlock A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Thanks guys for your suggestions - and yes I did have dust to dust slotted upon my hillock
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espasbadfistMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 39Arc User
Dear @schietindebux : I tried the augment only shortly because i was missing a companion for tanking (HB build). My impression was that my personal damage was noticeable bigger than with non-augment. Did not do much testing on this but it felt as if the bondings were on all the time plus that one selectable companion effect where it says "you gain blahblah when your companion is near you". Just wanted to point on this, maybe one or another likes to give it a try.
A thing i like to ask about soulscorch: Is my impression correct that this one shines more as an aoe than a single target up to the last patch? Seemed to me that the DOT from it was applied to near mobs the same way as to the main target.
And can someone confirm that tryrannical curse does not work as intended? Not sure about it because usually the cast on any target just killed it at once or made so much damage that it died short after. Anyway it felt to me that the damage bonding did not work.
And btw i did not use Curse Bite usually. I personally like the movement advantage from Shadow Walk and the defense and crit buff feels nice to me too. NPNM for nearly constant combat advantage for me, the puppet and my companion(?). And for rotation: Killing Flames (LC on target), Fiery Bolt (full damage AoE) and when mobs arrive Hellfire Ring giving all that nice LC again. No curse consum for me and i need no ACC.
Tyrannical is working fine, I was testing it tonight in eToS.
Part of the goals that have been discussed for the module is to move away from "best builds and rotations" being clearly superior and increase build diversity because people have a smaller gap between "optimal" and "my fun build" (though not all builds are supported, some player discretion is needed).
Putting Curse on At-Wills is a way of freeing up design space in Warlock and making it less likely that a given choice is ineffective on a player's behalf. Similarly with rolling Dust to Dust into Hellbound (class feature).
Its not that you cannot find ways to play without it, its that more people can make more diverse choices if its changed imo.
Obsidian Moonlight - Paladin Obsidian Oath - Warlock A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
I know 99% of the SW will hate me for saying this but;
I like the change to fiery bolt – at last it feels (at least upon my pre 80 level lock) like a warlock has a hard hitting single target ability. A much improved encounter that I have enjoyed and see myself using especially in boss fights.
I also feel it is good to have a couple of single target ability encounter options to choose from – I like it.
Have a lovely weekend all .
Why waste time on hating? I see nothing wrong with you taking the underdog position to stand out....
Few would deny a hard hitting single target encounter option is a boon. I just thought that is what Killing Flames is for. Sure, reducing the Warlocks choices even further by making killing flames even weaker in comparison and taking away its niche is a choice that can be made. I just do not particularly think it is a good one.
I would think it a better choice to make Killing Flames an actual hard hitting single target power (for a change)? And use Fiery Bolt as a curse spreading AOE.
Comments
Now you can have a puppet or heal....because every other AoE is nerfed to nothing. Want to curse everything as a Hellbringer? No, switch to Soulweaver and use Harrowstorm.
Warlocks..they channel demons from the Nine Hells to.......heal. Huh?
You want to deal damage..Is what we read in the class description.
The warlock's paradox going into M16 currently is looking like: Do I invest highly in Crit to use all this Crit Sev that I was given just for being a warlock, even though I'll only be able to hit it 50% of the time? Or should I ignore 20% Crit Sev baked into my kit and my soul spark building passive on Hellfire Mastery to invest in a CA build I can reliably use 100% through positioning.
I unfortunately don't have any suggestions on what to do with that 20% Crit Sev at the moment. I don't mind the crit for soul spark part of Hellfire Mastery since I already do that on Live (albeit with 100% Crit) and you can bypass that part with Hellish Rebuke or Eldritch Blast. But as for No Pity, No Mercy, I would like to see the CA portion changed. In my opinion, something like "When you critically strike a target, your next attack against that target deals 5-10% more dmg", giving it a nature of going in for the kill strike to put them down quick (no mercy!). Though I would ask to ensure it only procs on a strike, and not on DoTs.
Cleric: You can be an angel of mercy or give in to hate. - Shinedown
Wizard: The more the dark consumes me, I pretend I'm burning bright. - Shinedown
Barbarian: Am I beautiful... as I tear you to pieces? - In This Moment
Slipping hither and thither through flaming corpse light, explosions, flailing hands, strangle holds, creepy soul puppets rising, mobs cursed red, yellow, blue, and green - I don't get that kind of show with any of my other characters. I'd hate to see that go.
I'm also wondering if the warlock's going to get sidelined again in groups. I can't imagine the rest of the team wanting it for its subpar dps, and why would they want it as healer when there are better options?
First of rename Lesser Curse into Warlocks Curse.
-Make At wills apply lesser Curse since we lost our core-function-> TAB, to apply curses at all! There is nor argument to make that core function only work by using one classfeature (makes no sense), same as few more Encounter should have the ability to apply LC like: Dreadtheft, Harrowstorm and BoVA.
-By that you have more option to cycle a rotation like DT+effect"x"/AoH+"cc"/BoVA+"deflect"->Curse -> Fiery Bolt or Consume with Curse Bite, reapply etc.
That´s how about a Hellbringer damagetable looks on live today: "Boss dummy in Chult from100 to zero" Creeping death (75%+damage) up to 34% overall damage. All powers were balanced arround this capstone. Now CD is gone and as it looks like powers are still balanced arround that capstone (Dailies Encounter, At Wills), I checked it.
At this point again->Brood of Hadar deals only 50% compared to every other classes "top Daily". There is not much this Daily gets buffed from, no Capstone, nothing tbh. Hunter has a classfeature wich buff his range damage for 50% , dealing triple the damage a warlock does with one Daily!!! We have to discuss basic stuff actually, that should have been calculated in advance imo
If you watch a damagetable now without having a source from Curses or a capstone, this is your picture
The class misses that capstone (+75%), creeping death not to mention that 24% from POP missing on top.
Now it's 10% Creeping Death and 20% Executioners gift, but you can only pick one of them, both give +10% more or less in the end, nothing to close that gap.
If Lesser Curse tics with 25 magnitude in general when applied the table looks like this (achieved from using ACC+Deadly Curse), normally LC is 20%+ vs a target at full health and KF is far lower (dead Dummy)
Even doing so you can't close the gap vs other striker, this might be closed by a significant higher encounter reset from lev 80 feat, maybe not...we will see.
All in all a better result but why having a Curse with no impact as long as you don´t use one single classfeature (as the build in the middle shows) ?
The Lesser Curse should have a bigger impact in general so maybe make it tic with 25 mag (every 1-2 seconds) when active not only when applied. The class circles arround Curses but that Curse itself is "zero" in case you don´t use a specific classfeature, making the gameplay "oneway".
About Hellfire Expertise, Crit as the only option to build in for better sparkgain and NPNM affording crit to work at all.
1. Hellfire Expertise: "... and Soulsparksare now gained on 1. applying Lesser Curse or 2. using your powers (giving every power a fix number of sparks you gain)."
2. Actually when running solo ACC is perma-active same as NPNM on top, the best outcome by far 100% Combat Advantage on crits. To keep this as an option on a "no-crit build" tweak NPNM a bit
No Pity no Mercy:".... applying Lesser Curse now grants you Combat Advantage for 4 seconds"...done
the best of this changes, it pushes low geared player and makes the class perform better even with low stats, no matter if you have HAMSTER gear and no crit (= no sparks and no Combat Advantage), a win-win.
But as long as we have no dialogue or feedback about those pretty essential topics running over 6 pages now, there is no way to head forward. It´s not that much needed to get things running, many aspect look very good actually, same as campaign a lot of very good work
One general aspect to discuss on top. A class based on Curses that has lower burst compared to other classes, should allways deal higher damage in the sum, than a class that can 100% burst, not the other way, having low burst and dealing less damage in the sum, actually up to 50% damage is dealt by DOT's !
@noworries#8859 @asterdahl
Curse Bite can be cast up to 4 seconds after all cursed enemies are dead. This can waste a charge or cause it to needlessly go on cooldown. Not major, more a QoL change.
Harrowstorm hitting players as well as failing to crit
Essence Drain: Ability to keep walking whilst it is active.
Flames of Empowerment: Buff is currently stacking up to ten times.
Parting Blasphemy: Procs even if you haven't chosen the feat. Not a huge part of our damage, but still skews the overall impression of the Warlock's capabilities.
Life Bind: Does not work.
Creeping Death: Multiple hits stop this from proccing.
Risky Investment: Doesn't work at all. No buff and no buff icon
Immolation Spirits: Ability to spawn an armada of Spirits. Once again another bug that skews the overall impression of the Warlock's capabilities.
General feedback to some of the dev suggestions and implementations
Switching Dust to Dust to Hellbringer, two thumbs up.
Switching Fiery Bolt to single target doesn't sound great. Killing Flames is our real go to single target encounter, a slight increase in magnitude to this would be better. Also, Fiery Bolt as an AoE without synergy/consume effect would have great utility for spreading Lesser Curse, especially for a leveling player.
Buffing damage boosts to Warlock's Curse and Executioner's Gift sound good, not sure about the switching around of their positioning in the feat tree. Also, Tyrannical Curse debuff currently over-rides the Warlock's Curse buff in mod 15. Testing will need to be done to see if this still occurs in mod 16. Should that be the case, taking Warlock's Curse feat then invalidates Tyrannical Curse usage in terms of the added effect.
Hellfire Ring cooldown reduction would be great. It is currently absurdly long.
Warlock is maybe one of the " most dynamic classes" in mod 16 as it looks, same as the rotation looks not that bad at all.
Hellfirering will get CD reduction "cut in halve" I read.
Hellfirering and Harrowstorm allready apply LC, I did not recognize that tbh, my fault.
I had less issues in the last quest lev80 "Master of the Depth" running a Hellbringer setup than a Soulweaver, despite healing those mobs had to be killed fast, no chance to heal all that damage. No clue how low geared player should get that done, I died many times in there.
Nevertheless compared to my low level striker, the damage all in all is underwhelming somehow, Norbert Nub "the worst hunter in NWO" deals 500k dailies...
That’s not a case for reducing the power of the Paly, that’s a case for buffing the effectiveness of the ‘lock. The Paly is clearing mobs at 20k iL slightly worse than it does on live, but tuning of it in the coming weeks should fix that. The ‘lock is struggling more in comparison.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
in regards to hellfire ring i doubt it will be cut in half... it would be completely against the whole idea of slowing down encounters but making them more impactful when they are used.. if you cut it in half it would run at about 11 sec cooldown.. thats a bit too low for their average CD time on SW encounters. I could see it being cut down to about 16 sec cooldown since it is supposed to be a high dmg encounter, but who knows.. maybe .. just maybe they would knock it down to 11-12 sec, at least then it would be more worth while to risk casting
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
Still that is fundamentally a problem.
If the Active Choices are basically restricted to All Consuming Curse and Dust to Dust so that the class is effective then we are back where we started.
Warlock needs All Consuming Curse built into the class, too many powers and feats depend on the curse for you to not run ACC now, so it needs to be inherent in the class - At-Wills apply Curse.
Dust to Dust - the same problem exists here, if the DPS spec isn't killing stuff fast enough without this slotted in solo play then we have an inherent problem in the damage of the class. Fortunately this can be embedded in the Paragon Features for the DPS spec.
This also brings up Dark One's Blessing - this requires things to die with the Curse, too many powers remove the curse and require it be reapplied. Every time something dies in the window where our own powers are removing the curse this passive is gutted in effect. Also 1% of HP is pointless, when we are faced with things like Assassin adds in Vanrakdoom hitting for 30k plus damage, the heal effect needs to be at least 10%.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
(And I am using my best tank companion.)
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Warlock deals about 10% with his daily, wich is a healthy solution, my hunter deals arround 35% from all damage with one daily same as my Wizard is arround 25%, both deal top damage with those powers.
Agreed, Curses should be applied easily.
Powers like BoVA and Dreadtheft should have that ability too, otherwise they loose functionality.
Same as I had no utility for Dark Ones Blessing so far, too weak to even think about.
I also think Lesser Curse should have a bigger damageing-impact on mobs, also dealing damage without slotting Deadly Curse.
Lesser Curse should tic with 25 mag applying it in general or should tic allways with 25 mag every 2 seconds, so you have a constant damagesource, except you consume that Curse with a powerfull aoe(Cursed Bites) (+/- proc Parting Blasphemy) or lift the target (HG) or get a HP buff (Vampiric E.).
Deleting that Curse impacts DoB from healing you, so using that feature you are forced to play without Cursed bites, a situaltional "trade"-more heals less aoe-damage.. if it was buffed up from 1%
From all my testings ACC+Deadly Curse are the most effective combo vs single targets, even beating the actual 9-10% buff from Flames of Empowerment+ACC. Actually FoE+DtD should have a slightly better outcome, but only slighty...
If I slot two damage feature to overcome two class feature, wich have 1. a functional asepct (ACC) and 2. an AOE aspect (DC), there is somthing wrong.
ACC could be tweaked into something else by makeing that aspect a permanent ability (Curse on At Will), like: "Lesser Curse last twice as long" or "Curse tics with double ammount of damage" or anything else (Aoe feature), same as
Deadly Curse should have a compareable AOE aspect like "spreading Curses on mobs not alleady cursed and damaging them on impact with 25mag" , by that you 1. avoid DC to being from any impact on a single target combined with ACC and 2. have a far better game experience in case you want to have an easy source of Curses running solo/group doing trash It´s more the need off reapplying a Curse, Hellfire procs it once, Cursed Bites comsumes it, now you have issues to reapply it.
I also Agree that Companios now have a far better viabliity for the setup, a nice effect, did not try my Ioun stone so far tbh., but normally those bondings will overcome ioun stones in all aspects if they are working as they should. 195% statbonus, slotted with adaequat companion gear will have the better outcome in the end.
I run all those without a barkshield enchant at max tbh, this enchant makes a very big difference imo and at that point want to add that a soulforgeenchant pretty weak compared to an enchant that absorbs near 150% of incoming damage.
Is there a list of what they changed this patch somewhere – my overall performance seems to have taken a big nosedive, perhaps it’s just me
Thanks in advance
I know 99% of the SW will hate me for saying this but;
I like the change to fiery bolt – at last it feels (at least upon my pre 80 level lock) like a warlock has a hard hitting single target ability. A much improved encounter that I have enjoyed and see myself using especially in boss fights.
I also feel it is good to have a couple of single target ability encounter options to choose from – I like it.
Have a lovely weekend all
.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
A thing i like to ask about soulscorch: Is my impression correct that this one shines more as an aoe than a single target up to the last patch? Seemed to me that the DOT from it was applied to near mobs the same way as to the main target.
And can someone confirm that tryrannical curse does not work as intended? Not sure about it because usually the cast on any target just killed it at once or made so much damage that it died short after. Anyway it felt to me that the damage bonding did not work.
And btw i did not use Curse Bite usually. I personally like the movement advantage from Shadow Walk and the defense and crit buff feels nice to me too. NPNM for nearly constant combat advantage for me, the puppet and my companion(?). And for rotation: Killing Flames (LC on target), Fiery Bolt (full damage AoE) and when mobs arrive Hellfire Ring giving all that nice LC again. No curse consum for me and i need no ACC.
Part of the goals that have been discussed for the module is to move away from "best builds and rotations" being clearly superior and increase build diversity because people have a smaller gap between "optimal" and "my fun build" (though not all builds are supported, some player discretion is needed).
Putting Curse on At-Wills is a way of freeing up design space in Warlock and making it less likely that a given choice is ineffective on a player's behalf. Similarly with rolling Dust to Dust into Hellbound (class feature).
Its not that you cannot find ways to play without it, its that more people can make more diverse choices if its changed imo.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Few would deny a hard hitting single target encounter option is a boon. I just thought that is what Killing Flames is for. Sure, reducing the Warlocks choices even further by making killing flames even weaker in comparison and taking away its niche is a choice that can be made. I just do not particularly think it is a good one.
I would think it a better choice to make Killing Flames an actual hard hitting single target power (for a change)? And use Fiery Bolt as a curse spreading AOE.