test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Warlock changes discussion
rudygandalf
Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 6 Arc User
Hello
At the start I want to say i appreciate all the work that the dev team devotes to the game.
I wanted to talk about a few things with the warlock here, because now is the best time to change, because the class was and is not fully optimized
I will also point out that these are mostly to do with the DPS(hellbringer) class warlock not the Healing(Soulweaver)
One of the class's biggest shortcomings is the constant delay in the animations and the unexpected things these cause.
The animations aren't smooth and the long duration of casting makes warlock clunky to play.
At will powers need to cast faster
[Arms of Hadar] needs more damage and could stun enemys for a short time
[Vampiric Embrace] magnitude is to low, for players wishing to stay further away from the enemy this could be an alternative
[Dreadtheft] it shouldn't block other skills. This power could be changed to allow us to use other skills while this is in use, because it blocks everything,
to provide an alternative for players who wish to remain in range
[Hellfire Ring] casting is way to long, animation could be more dynamic
[Infernal Spheres] [Blades of Vanquished Armies]
If I can suggest a favoured consideration for both of these powers.
Infernal Spheres
The Infernal Spheres could work like the current blades without the possibility of using them on other players.
This power could increase player damage by 5% and deal 3 tic of damage like blades does now with decent damage.
Blades of Vanquished Armies
Could be changed to be a more buff/protective skill,
On the dps path the power could provide small amounts of temporary hp just like a wizard's shield and add additional damage with a specific value -
same as the ranger daily powers but with a significantly reduced value
+ making blades only attacheable to yourself and not other players
For heal paragon, blue temorary hp could be increased and in addition the power
could provide 5%-10% protection of damage and provide small healing over time
Casting could even work with the tab mechanic
[Tyrannical Curse] Another suggestion I'd like to make is to change the cost of the Tyrannical Curse to a 50% action point.
Reduce the damage dealt by this skill after use and reduce the damage bonus from 15% to 10%. After this change, it would
be possible to use this skill twice in less time, which would help the warlock do consistent damage.
It would open up a lot of combinations in character building AND possible to use a combination of two daily powers because at this point the only daily power
that is in use is just [Tyrannical Curse]
[Soul Puppet] The next thing I would suggest is changing the soul puppet. If this mechanic needs to stay in the game suggesting
that soul puppet appeared after 5 seconds of combat without any use of skills
this would keep the soul puppet in battle can stack up to 5 stack as is now but in way shorter time.
The third lower feat would have to be optimized and be as attractive to choose from as the third up.
[Curse]The base curse skill could have a small amount of damage increase and a damage indicator as the damaged caused does not show on screen.
[Soul Scorch]
This mechanic has a lot of bugs, the animation does not work properly using this skill often causes character movement and animations to glitch and the only
option to remove this is use a quick burst of shadowstep. The animation and the end time must be shortened and optimized because
it is one of the greatest problems of the warlock. If soul scorch had greater damage after using it, you could completely change the first class feat and
add something new there that will be more useful (maybe even transfer [Double Scorch] to class feature)
because at this point players must give up dealing increased damage [Double Scorch] on tab mechanic
and choose [Power of nine hells] because the lack of stability of the soul puppet causes to be almost unplayable.
https://streamable.com/0fe05s
The class features could be changed, there are many of them but only a few are playable,
I would suggest changing some useless powers and combining them with the encounter powers as with fighter where combining some skills increase dps.
[Dark Prayers][Dust to Dust][Dark One's Blessing][Flames of Empowerment]are completly useless.
Dust to dusk provides 5% damage but it cannot be fully utilized because most combinations now require 2 completely different class features.
Changing one of them makes the character unable to utilize the build properly.
The mechanics of soul spark have to be improved because the warlock becomes even slower and is not very dynamic.
After the changes on the test server there is no longer a mechanic that gives sparks when dealing critical hits.
Thank you for your time.
Maybe other players will add something else.
Please consider this changes.
At the start I want to say i appreciate all the work that the dev team devotes to the game.
I wanted to talk about a few things with the warlock here, because now is the best time to change, because the class was and is not fully optimized
I will also point out that these are mostly to do with the DPS(hellbringer) class warlock not the Healing(Soulweaver)
One of the class's biggest shortcomings is the constant delay in the animations and the unexpected things these cause.
The animations aren't smooth and the long duration of casting makes warlock clunky to play.
At will powers need to cast faster
[Arms of Hadar] needs more damage and could stun enemys for a short time
[Vampiric Embrace] magnitude is to low, for players wishing to stay further away from the enemy this could be an alternative
[Dreadtheft] it shouldn't block other skills. This power could be changed to allow us to use other skills while this is in use, because it blocks everything,
to provide an alternative for players who wish to remain in range
[Hellfire Ring] casting is way to long, animation could be more dynamic
[Infernal Spheres] [Blades of Vanquished Armies]
If I can suggest a favoured consideration for both of these powers.
Infernal Spheres
The Infernal Spheres could work like the current blades without the possibility of using them on other players.
This power could increase player damage by 5% and deal 3 tic of damage like blades does now with decent damage.
Blades of Vanquished Armies
Could be changed to be a more buff/protective skill,
On the dps path the power could provide small amounts of temporary hp just like a wizard's shield and add additional damage with a specific value -
same as the ranger daily powers but with a significantly reduced value
+ making blades only attacheable to yourself and not other players
For heal paragon, blue temorary hp could be increased and in addition the power
could provide 5%-10% protection of damage and provide small healing over time
Casting could even work with the tab mechanic
[Tyrannical Curse] Another suggestion I'd like to make is to change the cost of the Tyrannical Curse to a 50% action point.
Reduce the damage dealt by this skill after use and reduce the damage bonus from 15% to 10%. After this change, it would
be possible to use this skill twice in less time, which would help the warlock do consistent damage.
It would open up a lot of combinations in character building AND possible to use a combination of two daily powers because at this point the only daily power
that is in use is just [Tyrannical Curse]
[Soul Puppet] The next thing I would suggest is changing the soul puppet. If this mechanic needs to stay in the game suggesting
that soul puppet appeared after 5 seconds of combat without any use of skills
this would keep the soul puppet in battle can stack up to 5 stack as is now but in way shorter time.
The third lower feat would have to be optimized and be as attractive to choose from as the third up.
[Curse]The base curse skill could have a small amount of damage increase and a damage indicator as the damaged caused does not show on screen.
[Soul Scorch]
This mechanic has a lot of bugs, the animation does not work properly using this skill often causes character movement and animations to glitch and the only
option to remove this is use a quick burst of shadowstep. The animation and the end time must be shortened and optimized because
it is one of the greatest problems of the warlock. If soul scorch had greater damage after using it, you could completely change the first class feat and
add something new there that will be more useful (maybe even transfer [Double Scorch] to class feature)
because at this point players must give up dealing increased damage [Double Scorch] on tab mechanic
and choose [Power of nine hells] because the lack of stability of the soul puppet causes to be almost unplayable.
https://streamable.com/0fe05s
The class features could be changed, there are many of them but only a few are playable,
I would suggest changing some useless powers and combining them with the encounter powers as with fighter where combining some skills increase dps.
[Dark Prayers][Dust to Dust][Dark One's Blessing][Flames of Empowerment]are completly useless.
Dust to dusk provides 5% damage but it cannot be fully utilized because most combinations now require 2 completely different class features.
Changing one of them makes the character unable to utilize the build properly.
The mechanics of soul spark have to be improved because the warlock becomes even slower and is not very dynamic.
After the changes on the test server there is no longer a mechanic that gives sparks when dealing critical hits.
Thank you for your time.
Maybe other players will add something else.
Please consider this changes.
4
Comments
Yes, warlocks suffers with long and clumsy casting animations since Mod 16. I posted into several topics, that some of the encounters, dailies needs some adjustment.
- Soul siphon 2.2 sec,
- Flames of Phlegetos 1,45,
- Brood of Hadar 1,3,
- Hellfire ring 1,13 (but feels like an eeeternity), and "my favorite": soul scorch 1 sec.
In the next mod we gonna lose Hellfire expertise with the 20% recharge speed and spark generation will work differently. We are forced to use soul scorch all day long with such slow casting animation to reduce our encounters cooldowns. A little attention and minor fixes here would really be appreciated, please!Imo we should be able to have combat advantage with soul puppet, that would open up a space on the class features, cuz atm No pity, no mercy is pretty much a feat thats slotted always (except the 2 latest trials).
I dont use ACT and never will, not sure if Creeping death would do damagein every 1,5 secs instead of the current 2 secs, how would it be?
Magnitudes are okayish, but I could suggest 2 or 3 which would add a lil favor to the gameplay. Hadar's grasp with my current 25% recharge speed has 16 secs CD with 230 magnitude. With the loss of our 20% recharge speed in next mod its gonna have higher CD, I think it would be welcomed to increase the magnitude up to 300.
Arms of Hadar 65 magnitude should be atleast 80 and Killing Flames should be within the 600-750 magnitude range (up from the current 500-750).
Rest is "it is, what it is".
___________
Now Mod 20 is on preview, half of the above wishes was granted! Wow... that went fast