Bug: Borrowed Time So, I decided to test this out at full 30 sparks, and found something interesting - the listed values are inaccurate. at 30 sparks, my Warlock recovers a little over 1900 HP. My warlock has 27,425 HP standard, which suggests Borrowed Time heals for 0.25% HP every two seconds per spark, contrary to the tooltip (I have three power points slotted into Borrowed Time). Borrowed Time's regeneration also ignores healing depression in pvp.
Bug: Borrowed Time So, I decided to test this out at full 30 sparks, and found something interesting - the listed values are inaccurate. at 30 sparks, my Warlock recovers a little over 1900 HP. My warlock has 27,425 HP standard, which suggests Borrowed Time heals for 0.5% HP every two seconds per spark, contrary to the tooltip (I have three power points slotted into Borrowed Time). Borrowed Time's regeneration also ignores healing depression in pvp.
According to my math it's actually about half that amount - 0.25% of max HP per spark per second. A 0.5% rate would give you 15% regen at 30 sparks and 15% of 27,425 HP is ~4,114 HP every 2 seconds.
A few initial comments from testing PVE in IWD for a few hours. For reference I am about 17k GS, wearing AD, rank 8s, P.Vorp and all purples - I normally play a Templock with this toon.
Sparks fall off too quickly after combat.
The sparks are consumed immediately even before you can engage a neighbouring mob.
Sparks take too long to fill.
Either we need to spam the at-will which is lackluster (and a weird animation) or we rely on crits.
Sparks don't provide much meaningful benefit.
The class features are very weak. Especially when compared to No Pity, No Mercy.
No room for the new Encounter in rotations
For crits there is a nice synergy with Dreadtheft, which means we should still slot Warlocks Bargain. So for the one remaining slot Soul Scorch isn't a natural fit. It isn't necrotic, takes too long to cast, expends the new resource and is only single target. There isn't a very big gap in my rotation that needs filling with a spammable (realistically probably only 2 charges per rotation are available anyway) encounter and situationally there are usually better choices.
Spec: Temptation
Most comments as per Fury. DPS is still vital to healing but there is less reliance on necrotic sources of damage.
Soul Scorch fairs a little better in single target situations.
High HP mobs and bosses at the early stages of a fight could see some usage for this - mainly for the mini spike heals it could provide. Assuming we don't just run WB, DT etc anyway but want or need to take a more supportive role.
Class features are still meh
We don't need anymore self-healing the AP gain is negligible and No Pity, No Mercy is far more efficient for damage/healing boosting
The Daily is unlikely to see usage:
Phlegm, Hodor, Accursed and TT all offer more either in steady ticks of damage/heals or added control benefits.
A few general comments:
There needs to be a standardization across the descriptions of what is a spark - is it a full 'pip' or is it one of the 30 'atoms' of a 'pip'. Currently the descriptions switch between the 2.
Suggestion - treat them like DC divinity pips and stop thinking about the 'atoms'.
I don't understand why we have a new visual representation for 'stacks' of an effect.
Essentially sparks are analogous to Arcane stacks on a CW - build them up using your powers, gain benefit from them and they fall off out of combat. Seems to break the existing design conventions.
What 'role' is the new paragon supposed to fill?
You did a good job with the base Warlock class having versatility in play style already. It covers, DOTs, Tankier Melee, Ranged, Healer, Full DPS etc. You haven't left much room for this new paragon to differentiate itself. I can't see what the intention is here.
Would I respec to it?
Not in it's current state. I dislike the visual treatment and I don't gain any benefit from the path to my play-style.
Possible bug: Dust to Dust giving less AP per spark
According to tooltip Dust to dust should gain 0.8+0.04+0.04 = 0.88% AP gained per spark. From ACT parse I currently get 0.2% AP per spark at rank 3. I tried it with different amounts of recovery and the action point gain has no effect on this figure.
From both the description and the amount of AP gain there seems to be a bug or miscalculation. I mean, the 2 upgrades are negligible.
Perhaps it is meant to be 0.8+0.4+0.4 for up to 1.6% AP gained per spark?
Module 4 Comprehensive DC guide |Module 4 MoF CW Handbook |New! Scourge Warlock Guide| NW Numbers and Mechanics guide |Crit, Power and DPS guide | Dungeon Delving guide and more
This was from another player. Just quoted from him as m he has posted on the wrong area.
Hey I am a primarily Warlock player and was on the test server checking out the new Soulbinder paragon. I was wanting to offer a bit of a suggestion and wasn't sure if this was the place to do it to get to the devs ear. Please make Soul Scorch do a bit better damage, maybe AoE, something! It is worse then many other options in solo while burning your precious soul sparks. I do better damage with killing flames and fiery bolt, heck it almost matches my AT-WILL hand of blight in damage. I need to see a bigger pay-off if I am going to burn through my sparks. The at-will Essence Defiler has the lamest animation! Please change fast before release. It looks like my lock is spazzing in this weird temper tantrum. That is no bueno if you are going for the cool suave lurking quiet type. I mean, its time to fight and all the other players are throwing spells and smashing people with big weapons, the lock pulls out his pact blade with a practiced flourish and then starts jumping around like a 4 year old with a wedgie and a sugar high! Dignity ruined. So far though I don't have much more to offer as I have just begun. I may be back if I am struck with another issue.
IGN: Granzon
军医骑士 超过三千水平 突破极限释放开
Daily: Granworm Sword
Enounter: Vow of Enmity | Worm Smasher | 縮退砲
Class Feature: Kabbalah System
Aura: Warp Field
IGN: Faluzure 19k Tenebrous Soulbinder Scourge Warlock
(The Corrupted) (Retired)
0
bajornorbertMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 272Arc User
edited October 2014
I finally had a bit of time to do some testing. I would like the new path but there are some major problems:
1. The casting animations for the new at-will and the new encounter are way too long. The new encounter has a very long animation, even longer than killing flames, and even that can be easily dodged thx to that.
2. Soul Scorch's damage could use some buff as of now there's little reason to slot it instead of WB, KF or FB, since all of them do more damage. KF can deal huge damage on low HP mobs, useful in boss fights or as a finisher in PvP, WB deals more dmg + buffs your lifesteal + it's a perma curse, FB is AoE and deals more damage / enemy.
3. Soul Sparks needs to stay for a few secs after you exit combat, because as of now i loose all of my soul spark even by stopping to use an artifact, it drops off that fast. The second you exit combat you loose all of them.
4. Immolation spirit, the new daily, has a long casting animation, deals damage over longer time than flames, even though it's a bit more, it would need a big damage boost to be considered a valid alternative to any of the other dailies.
Yeah terror is working now, now I wonder about tenebrous.....
Seems like tenebrous is still not very useful,
does not seem to proc creeping death,
and only activates upon first execution of powers / or at each start of at-wills based on its internal cooldown.
IGN: Granzon
军医骑士 超过三千水平 突破极限释放开
Daily: Granworm Sword
Enounter: Vow of Enmity | Worm Smasher | 縮退砲
Class Feature: Kabbalah System
Aura: Warp Field
IGN: Faluzure 19k Tenebrous Soulbinder Scourge Warlock
(The Corrupted) (Retired)
We are making some changes to improve Soulbinder game play.
Soulbinder Immolation Spirits: Now gains 25% increased damage for each set of 6 sparks consumed (up from 10%). Ranking this power now increases damage by 20% (up from 10%).
Soul Scorch: Damage changed to Necrotic Damage and now activates Creeping Death.
Soul Scorch: Now deals 20% more damage.
Thank you all for your continued feedback!
Chris "Gentleman Crush" Meyer
We are making some changes to improve Soulbinder game play.
Soulbinder Immolation Spirits: Now gains 25% increased damage for each set of 6 sparks consumed (up from 10%). Ranking this power now increases damage by 20% (up from 10%).
Soul Scorch: Damage changed to Necrotic Damage and now activates Creeping Death.
Soul Scorch: Now deals 20% more damage.
Thank you all for your continued feedback.
Chris "Gentleman Crush" Meyer
Interesting, will test.
By the way Crush, you forgot the Exclamation point after the word Feedback (Thank you for your continued feedback !), which would always tell us you were happy to hear feedback, but that dot at the end... it's worrying me.
We are making some changes to improve Soulbinder game play.
Soulbinder Immolation Spirits: Now gains 25% increased damage for each set of 6 sparks consumed (up from 10%). Ranking this power now increases damage by 20% (up from 10%).
Soul Scorch: Damage changed to Necrotic Damage and now activates Creeping Death.
Soul Scorch: Now deals 20% more damage.
Thank you all for your continued feedback.
Chris "Gentleman Crush" Meyer
Super sweet! Thank you for this... I look forward to testing it this weekend after it's patched in.
Any consideration for having Soul Sparks lasting slightly longer once combat ends?
By the way Crush, you forgot the Exclamation point after the word Feedback (Thank you for your continued feedback !), which would always tell us you were happy to hear feedback, but that dot at the end... it's worrying me.
Super sweet! Thank you for this... I look forward to testing it this weekend after it's patched in.
Any consideration for having Soul Sparks lasting slightly longer once combat ends?
Currently we like the Soul Sparks filling a largely in combat resource. For shorter world fights you will see more passive interaction with Sparks, but we improved the damage on these powers to make it easier to spend those first 6, which you should gain relatively quickly.
We are making some changes to improve Soulbinder game play.
Soulbinder Immolation Spirits: Now gains 25% increased damage for each set of 6 sparks consumed (up from 10%). Ranking this power now increases damage by 20% (up from 10%).
Soul Scorch: Damage changed to Necrotic Damage and now activates Creeping Death.
Soul Scorch: Now deals 20% more damage.
Thank you all for your continued feedback!
Chris "Gentleman Crush" Meyer
Zoinks! That makes Fury well worth testing again, assuming Burning Soul is fixed in the same patch?
We are making some changes to improve Soulbinder game play.
Soulbinder Immolation Spirits: Now gains 25% increased damage for each set of 6 sparks consumed (up from 10%). Ranking this power now increases damage by 20% (up from 10%).
Soul Scorch: Damage changed to Necrotic Damage and now activates Creeping Death.
Soul Scorch: Now deals 20% more damage.
Thank you all for your continued feedback!
Chris "Gentleman Crush" Meyer
Immolation Spirits, can it be changed to necrotic damage aswell??
Immolation Spirits, can it be changed to necrotic damage aswell??
This also please! Gates of Hell is Fire Damage I believe, the Daily from Hellbringer, and it would make sense for Soulbinders Daily to be Necrotic then also... At least in my mind!
At present there is an issue that Soulbinder is competing with Hellbringer, i.e. trying to do the same thing in a different way. This is not working and *should* not work, you're duplicating your efforts. Instead, Soulbinder will work well as a defensive and survival-oriented path that will suit well with solo and pvp players whereas Hellbringer is a dps path that is more suited to dungeons and other group pve combat. I note these types of defensive warlocks ("deflocks") are already possible with existing non-paragon powers; it is a simple matter to create a defensive oriented warlock with powers such as Warlock's Bargain, Wraith's Shadow, Warding Curse, Hand of Blight and Damnation warlocks in particular have improved defensive capabilities.
Soul sparks:
a. Return to original five spark mechanics.
b. No ICD on gaining sparks; sparks have a 40% chance to be gained upon a crit (not tied to having Soul Scorch). See info below re Essence Defiler.
c. Sparks should "convert off" after a set period of time (15 secs?) regardless of combat state. When sparks "convert off" they restore 3% of total hp to the Warlock and while they are present they increase life steal by .5% each.
d. This spark mechanic gives Warlocks a window with which to maintain sparks via crit without forcing them to use Defile Essence but also allows them to use Essence Defiler selectively to restore sparks without forcing them to use it constantly. It is a relatively quick gain of sparks but you are forced to maintain them. Additionally warlocks are not hit so hard when combat ends, I have noticed other posters here say it is not working for combat's end to take all sparks immediately and having tested the concept myself I agree.
e. Furthermore I note that until DoT damage is standardized to have an individual crit roll on each tick of each ability that crit-based gain mechanics are going to be undesirably streaky. I recommend updating that as soon as possible (currently affected powers include Warlocks' Bargain, Wraith's Shadow, Harrowstorm, Lesser Curse, etc.).
Essence Defiler:
a. Pursuant to the restoration of the original five-spark mechanic I recommend changing the spark mechanic to 50% chance to gain a soul spark on last cast in chain - curse synergy: chance becomes 100%.
b. The combat animation is not attactive, I recommend using the animations from Eldritch Blast for the first two attacks instead of the spinning motions and blending them with the existing last one.
c. The damage info in the tooltip is wrong and should be updated.
d. Recommend changing damage type to necrotic. It's currently listed as physical in the tooltip which is very strange and seems like an error. I would suggest changing the color to purple-black as well.
Soul Scorch:
a. Recommend changing current no-cooldown mechanic to a 10 second cooldown (alter as needed based on testing).
b. Recommend cutting base damage to 75% current and adding self-healing equal to damage done. This will give the power far more utility than it has now and it is appropriate given how soulbinders have a "vampire's thirst for life energy" (referencing paragon path description).
c. Recommend changing current spark-consumption mechanic to a spark-bonus mechanic as follows: "For every soul spark you possess the damage and healing of Soul Scorch is increased by 5%). Spark consumption by powers creates a conflict with the basic spark mechanic and spark passives and this is not desirable. This, combined with the new cooldown, gives warlocks the choice to start immediately using the ability at a lower damage or to save up some sparks and then start using it at a higher damage.
d. The animation for this power is currently a green beam. This doesn't resemble the "black fire" that is noted in the tooltip. I would recommend changing the animation to utilize fiery bolt's explosion graphics colored black (and to not use the beam effect).
Sparkbinder (feat):
a. Recommend changing this to "Your soul sparks now increase your damage resistance by .2%/.4%/.6%/.8%/1.0% each." This is in line with Fury's flat dps improvement and Temptation's flat life drain improvement.
Borrowed Time:
a. Restore effect basis to original five-spark mechanic.
b. Rename ability to "Siphon Spark" (the current power suggests it makes you move faster or something) and add descriptive text "You know how to siphon life force from sparks prior to converting them to life energy. Your sparks heal you every 2 seconds for .5% of your HP per Soul Spark." (+.25% per rank).
c. I am weighing the defensive power of this ability vs. the offensive ability of Hellbringer's Prince of Hell. Just as Prince of Hell is mostly beneficial for it allowing you to save on your armor piercing gear needs this power will help you save on your regeneration gear needs.
d. I note in particular that this power must be weighed carefully vs. Warding Curse as that will prevent 8% damage of up to three targets at once and will do so regardless of the amount of sparks you have. That is effectively hp saved and also improves the value of basic life steal, regeneration and potions accordingly (the hp you gain is basically 8% to 24% more).
Snuff Out:
a. Change effect to "You know how to more effectively convert soul sparks. When a soul spark is converted to hp you gain that amount of temporary hp as well." (rank 2 is double temp hp, rank 3 is triple temp hp). The temp hp should not stack but should refresh as sparks convert.
b. I am weighing the defensive power of this ability vs. the offensive ability of Hellbringer's Flames of Empowerment. This power would give the Warlock a more or less continually-refreshing ablative hp layer that at rank 3 is meaningful. It would encourage smart spark management as if a bunch of sparks convert at once the benefit is going to be lower than if you keep them more spaced out. This is a similar mindset to how Flames of Empowerment must be planned as it has no benefit unless your AP is at 100%.
Dust to Dust:
a. Change effect to "Your soul sparks act as a distracting cloud in combat. You gain 1.0% deflection rate per spark." (+1.0% per rank).
b. I am weighing the defensive power of this ability vs. the offensive ability of Hellbringer's No Pity, No Mercy. Seeing as how Warlocks typically lack good deflection ratings this will help improve that if chosen. Even so, while 15% deflection is functional it is nowhere near as strong as the damage bonus from No Pity, No Mercy (which has a high uptime) so testing will be in order.
c. I note, again, this must be compared to Warding Curse. A 15% chance of blocking (usually) 50% damage is helpful at an overall 7.5% damage resistance but you only get that bonus at five sparks whereas Warding Curse will instantly give you 8% against up to three targets. In that deflection triggers Fey Thistle and has benefit vs. crowd control it may be balanced against Warding Curse but testing will, as usual, be needed.
I must have missed this... What's going on with Burning Soul?
Currently gives a 60% boost to DPS rather than the intended 10% or so as it missed the adjustment pass when total number of sparks was increased. Next patch will adjust it down to give ~9% DPS boost at full sparks.
It turned my low-geared Furylock into a death machine when I gave it a try.
At present there is an issue that Soulbinder is competing with Hellbringer, i.e. trying to do the same thing in a different way. This is not working and *should* not work, you're duplicating your efforts. Instead, Soulbinder will work well as a defensive and survival-oriented path that will suit well with solo and pvp players whereas Hellbringer is a dps path that is more suited to dungeons and other group pve combat. I note these types of defensive warlocks ("deflocks") are already possible with existing non-paragon powers; it is a simple matter to create a defensive oriented warlock with powers such as Warlock's Bargain, Wraith's Shadow, Warding Curse, Hand of Blight and Damnation warlocks in particular have improved defensive capabilities.
I run a defensive warlock. Temptation, Hand of Blight (enhanced by artifact weapon), Hellish Rebuke, Warlock's Bargain, Blades of the Vanquished Army, damage debuffing feats, Nether Mage Armor. In solo it basically never dies at 15,6k GS. I tried soloing the Hammerstone Dwarves Epic encounter in Dwarven Valley and resisted Arcanists and other Dwarves with no real issues while dealing reasonable damage for several minutes, before other players joined the fight. In dungeon I tend to tank the strongest monsters to debuff them and heal melee characters by staying close to them. Teamed with a GF it works wonders.
Le-Shan: HR level 80 (main)
Born of Black Wind: SW Level 80
b. The combat animation is not attactive, I recommend using the animations from Eldritch Blast for the first two attacks instead of the spinning motions and blending them with the existing last one.
I have to agree with this one.
IGN: Granzon
军医骑士 超过三千水平 突破极限释放开
Daily: Granworm Sword
Enounter: Vow of Enmity | Worm Smasher | 縮退砲
Class Feature: Kabbalah System
Aura: Warp Field
IGN: Faluzure 19k Tenebrous Soulbinder Scourge Warlock
(The Corrupted) (Retired)
I run a defensive warlock. Temptation, Hand of Blight (enhanced by artifact weapon), Hellish Rebuke, Warlock's Bargain, Blades of the Vanquished Army, damage debuffing feats, Nether Mage Armor. In solo it basically never dies at 15,6k GS. I tried soloing the Hammerstone Dwarves Epic encounter in Dwarven Valley and resisted Arcanists and other Dwarves with no real issues while dealing reasonable damage for several minutes, before other players joined the fight. In dungeon I tend to tank the strongest monsters to debuff them and heal melee characters by staying close to them. Teamed with a GF it works wonders.
You're farther down my own path then I am then (I run a Damnation warlock). I hadn't really dared consider that deflocks could be actual tanks but it looks like it is possible. If that's so then making soulbinder into a defensive oriented path would work well for everyone, including pve groups.
As things stand now, I could see myself (using my own ideas) doubling up with Warding Curse, and Dust to Dust as passives and using a combination of Hand of Blight (with artifact) and Essence Defiler to both debuff enemy damage and generate soul sparks. Soul Scorch could be used to both grab aggro and further heal self along with Warlock's Bargain and Wraith's Shadow (or Blades of the Vanquished) to further debuff/reflect enemy damage. That would be a tank all right, one that uses selfhealing and damage debuffing as opposed to raw massive defense/deflect/cc as a warrior or such would do. Sounds good.
We are making some changes to improve Soulbinder game play.
Soulbinder Immolation Spirits: Now gains 25% increased damage for each set of 6 sparks consumed (up from 10%). Ranking this power now increases damage by 20% (up from 10%).
Soul Scorch: Damage changed to Necrotic Damage and now activates Creeping Death.
Soul Scorch: Now deals 20% more damage.
Thank you all for your continued feedback!
Chris "Gentleman Crush" Meyer
Note, yesterday i was on pvp, on enemy base, so a cw was coming to kill me, so i noticied and have a harrowstorm ready, so when it come close i ahve used it,(he was still on mount), he come to me, used EF, and i still haven't cast my harrowstorn. so i wonder why we have 2~3sec cast time when CW have less then 1 sec?
At present there is an issue that Soulbinder is competing with Hellbringer, i.e. trying to do the same thing in a different way. This is not working and *should* not work, you're duplicating your efforts. Instead, Soulbinder will work well as a defensive and survival-oriented path that will suit well with solo and pvp players whereas Hellbringer is a dps path that is more suited to dungeons and other group pve combat. I note these types of defensive warlocks ("deflocks") are already possible with existing non-paragon powers; it is a simple matter to create a defensive oriented warlock with powers such as Warlock's Bargain, Wraith's Shadow, Warding Curse, Hand of Blight and Damnation warlocks in particular have improved defensive capabilities.
Soulbinder already sacrifices some DPS for enhanced defensive/healing capabilities. And it works pretty well as is IMO, with a noticeable survivability buff over the equivalent Hellbringer build. The tweaks in this latest patch should enhance that further.
Comments
So, I decided to test this out at full 30 sparks, and found something interesting - the listed values are inaccurate. at 30 sparks, my Warlock recovers a little over 1900 HP. My warlock has 27,425 HP standard, which suggests Borrowed Time heals for 0.25% HP every two seconds per spark, contrary to the tooltip (I have three power points slotted into Borrowed Time). Borrowed Time's regeneration also ignores healing depression in pvp.
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
Spec: Fury
A few initial comments from testing PVE in IWD for a few hours. For reference I am about 17k GS, wearing AD, rank 8s, P.Vorp and all purples - I normally play a Templock with this toon.
The sparks are consumed immediately even before you can engage a neighbouring mob.
Either we need to spam the at-will which is lackluster (and a weird animation) or we rely on crits.
The class features are very weak. Especially when compared to No Pity, No Mercy.
For crits there is a nice synergy with Dreadtheft, which means we should still slot Warlocks Bargain. So for the one remaining slot Soul Scorch isn't a natural fit. It isn't necrotic, takes too long to cast, expends the new resource and is only single target. There isn't a very big gap in my rotation that needs filling with a spammable (realistically probably only 2 charges per rotation are available anyway) encounter and situationally there are usually better choices.
Spec: Temptation
Most comments as per Fury. DPS is still vital to healing but there is less reliance on necrotic sources of damage.
High HP mobs and bosses at the early stages of a fight could see some usage for this - mainly for the mini spike heals it could provide. Assuming we don't just run WB, DT etc anyway but want or need to take a more supportive role.
We don't need anymore self-healing the AP gain is negligible and No Pity, No Mercy is far more efficient for damage/healing boosting
Phlegm, Hodor, Accursed and TT all offer more either in steady ticks of damage/heals or added control benefits.
A few general comments:
Suggestion - treat them like DC divinity pips and stop thinking about the 'atoms'.
Essentially sparks are analogous to Arcane stacks on a CW - build them up using your powers, gain benefit from them and they fall off out of combat. Seems to break the existing design conventions.
You did a good job with the base Warlock class having versatility in play style already. It covers, DOTs, Tankier Melee, Ranged, Healer, Full DPS etc. You haven't left much room for this new paragon to differentiate itself. I can't see what the intention is here.
Not in it's current state. I dislike the visual treatment and I don't gain any benefit from the path to my play-style.
That is indeed a typo. It adds .08% per spark (for a total of 2.4%).
According to tooltip Dust to dust should gain 0.8+0.04+0.04 = 0.88% AP gained per spark. From ACT parse I currently get 0.2% AP per spark at rank 3. I tried it with different amounts of recovery and the action point gain has no effect on this figure.
From both the description and the amount of AP gain there seems to be a bug or miscalculation. I mean, the 2 upgrades are negligible.
Perhaps it is meant to be 0.8+0.4+0.4 for up to 1.6% AP gained per spark?
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You did mentioned before that it should proc from all necrotic damage.
军医骑士 超过三千水平 突破极限释放开
Daily: Granworm Sword
Enounter: Vow of Enmity | Worm Smasher | 縮退砲
Class Feature: Kabbalah System
Aura: Warp Field
IGN: Faluzure 19k Tenebrous Soulbinder Scourge Warlock
(The Corrupted) (Retired)
Hey I am a primarily Warlock player and was on the test server checking out the new Soulbinder paragon. I was wanting to offer a bit of a suggestion and wasn't sure if this was the place to do it to get to the devs ear. Please make Soul Scorch do a bit better damage, maybe AoE, something! It is worse then many other options in solo while burning your precious soul sparks. I do better damage with killing flames and fiery bolt, heck it almost matches my AT-WILL hand of blight in damage. I need to see a bigger pay-off if I am going to burn through my sparks. The at-will Essence Defiler has the lamest animation! Please change fast before release. It looks like my lock is spazzing in this weird temper tantrum. That is no bueno if you are going for the cool suave lurking quiet type. I mean, its time to fight and all the other players are throwing spells and smashing people with big weapons, the lock pulls out his pact blade with a practiced flourish and then starts jumping around like a 4 year old with a wedgie and a sugar high! Dignity ruined. So far though I don't have much more to offer as I have just begun. I may be back if I am struck with another issue.
军医骑士 超过三千水平 突破极限释放开
Daily: Granworm Sword
Enounter: Vow of Enmity | Worm Smasher | 縮退砲
Class Feature: Kabbalah System
Aura: Warp Field
IGN: Faluzure 19k Tenebrous Soulbinder Scourge Warlock
(The Corrupted) (Retired)
1. The casting animations for the new at-will and the new encounter are way too long. The new encounter has a very long animation, even longer than killing flames, and even that can be easily dodged thx to that.
2. Soul Scorch's damage could use some buff as of now there's little reason to slot it instead of WB, KF or FB, since all of them do more damage. KF can deal huge damage on low HP mobs, useful in boss fights or as a finisher in PvP, WB deals more dmg + buffs your lifesteal + it's a perma curse, FB is AoE and deals more damage / enemy.
3. Soul Sparks needs to stay for a few secs after you exit combat, because as of now i loose all of my soul spark even by stopping to use an artifact, it drops off that fast. The second you exit combat you loose all of them.
4. Immolation spirit, the new daily, has a long casting animation, deals damage over longer time than flames, even though it's a bit more, it would need a big damage boost to be considered a valid alternative to any of the other dailies.
5. Soul Scorch gives no AP.
6. Dust to dust's AP regen is unnoticable.
Will come back with more testing.
On the current preview build, Terror Enchantments do trigger Creeping Death.
Good. Will test it see if it works when i had the time. Thanks for informing.
军医骑士 超过三千水平 突破极限释放开
Daily: Granworm Sword
Enounter: Vow of Enmity | Worm Smasher | 縮退砲
Class Feature: Kabbalah System
Aura: Warp Field
IGN: Faluzure 19k Tenebrous Soulbinder Scourge Warlock
(The Corrupted) (Retired)
军医骑士 超过三千水平 突破极限释放开
Daily: Granworm Sword
Enounter: Vow of Enmity | Worm Smasher | 縮退砲
Class Feature: Kabbalah System
Aura: Warp Field
IGN: Faluzure 19k Tenebrous Soulbinder Scourge Warlock
(The Corrupted) (Retired)
Seems like tenebrous is still not very useful,
does not seem to proc creeping death,
and only activates upon first execution of powers / or at each start of at-wills based on its internal cooldown.
军医骑士 超过三千水平 突破极限释放开
Daily: Granworm Sword
Enounter: Vow of Enmity | Worm Smasher | 縮退砲
Class Feature: Kabbalah System
Aura: Warp Field
IGN: Faluzure 19k Tenebrous Soulbinder Scourge Warlock
(The Corrupted) (Retired)
Thank you all for your continued feedback!
Chris "Gentleman Crush" Meyer
Interesting, will test.
By the way Crush, you forgot the Exclamation point after the word Feedback (Thank you for your continued feedback !), which would always tell us you were happy to hear feedback, but that dot at the end... it's worrying me.
It's a typo.... right?
Any consideration for having Soul Sparks lasting slightly longer once combat ends?
Its indeed a typo, never fear
Currently we like the Soul Sparks filling a largely in combat resource. For shorter world fights you will see more passive interaction with Sparks, but we improved the damage on these powers to make it easier to spend those first 6, which you should gain relatively quickly.
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
Indeed.
/10char
Immolation Spirits, can it be changed to necrotic damage aswell??
At present there is an issue that Soulbinder is competing with Hellbringer, i.e. trying to do the same thing in a different way. This is not working and *should* not work, you're duplicating your efforts. Instead, Soulbinder will work well as a defensive and survival-oriented path that will suit well with solo and pvp players whereas Hellbringer is a dps path that is more suited to dungeons and other group pve combat. I note these types of defensive warlocks ("deflocks") are already possible with existing non-paragon powers; it is a simple matter to create a defensive oriented warlock with powers such as Warlock's Bargain, Wraith's Shadow, Warding Curse, Hand of Blight and Damnation warlocks in particular have improved defensive capabilities.
Soul sparks:
a. Return to original five spark mechanics.
b. No ICD on gaining sparks; sparks have a 40% chance to be gained upon a crit (not tied to having Soul Scorch). See info below re Essence Defiler.
c. Sparks should "convert off" after a set period of time (15 secs?) regardless of combat state. When sparks "convert off" they restore 3% of total hp to the Warlock and while they are present they increase life steal by .5% each.
d. This spark mechanic gives Warlocks a window with which to maintain sparks via crit without forcing them to use Defile Essence but also allows them to use Essence Defiler selectively to restore sparks without forcing them to use it constantly. It is a relatively quick gain of sparks but you are forced to maintain them. Additionally warlocks are not hit so hard when combat ends, I have noticed other posters here say it is not working for combat's end to take all sparks immediately and having tested the concept myself I agree.
e. Furthermore I note that until DoT damage is standardized to have an individual crit roll on each tick of each ability that crit-based gain mechanics are going to be undesirably streaky. I recommend updating that as soon as possible (currently affected powers include Warlocks' Bargain, Wraith's Shadow, Harrowstorm, Lesser Curse, etc.).
Essence Defiler:
a. Pursuant to the restoration of the original five-spark mechanic I recommend changing the spark mechanic to 50% chance to gain a soul spark on last cast in chain - curse synergy: chance becomes 100%.
b. The combat animation is not attactive, I recommend using the animations from Eldritch Blast for the first two attacks instead of the spinning motions and blending them with the existing last one.
c. The damage info in the tooltip is wrong and should be updated.
d. Recommend changing damage type to necrotic. It's currently listed as physical in the tooltip which is very strange and seems like an error. I would suggest changing the color to purple-black as well.
Soul Scorch:
a. Recommend changing current no-cooldown mechanic to a 10 second cooldown (alter as needed based on testing).
b. Recommend cutting base damage to 75% current and adding self-healing equal to damage done. This will give the power far more utility than it has now and it is appropriate given how soulbinders have a "vampire's thirst for life energy" (referencing paragon path description).
c. Recommend changing current spark-consumption mechanic to a spark-bonus mechanic as follows: "For every soul spark you possess the damage and healing of Soul Scorch is increased by 5%). Spark consumption by powers creates a conflict with the basic spark mechanic and spark passives and this is not desirable. This, combined with the new cooldown, gives warlocks the choice to start immediately using the ability at a lower damage or to save up some sparks and then start using it at a higher damage.
d. The animation for this power is currently a green beam. This doesn't resemble the "black fire" that is noted in the tooltip. I would recommend changing the animation to utilize fiery bolt's explosion graphics colored black (and to not use the beam effect).
Sparkbinder (feat):
a. Recommend changing this to "Your soul sparks now increase your damage resistance by .2%/.4%/.6%/.8%/1.0% each." This is in line with Fury's flat dps improvement and Temptation's flat life drain improvement.
Borrowed Time:
a. Restore effect basis to original five-spark mechanic.
b. Rename ability to "Siphon Spark" (the current power suggests it makes you move faster or something) and add descriptive text "You know how to siphon life force from sparks prior to converting them to life energy. Your sparks heal you every 2 seconds for .5% of your HP per Soul Spark." (+.25% per rank).
c. I am weighing the defensive power of this ability vs. the offensive ability of Hellbringer's Prince of Hell. Just as Prince of Hell is mostly beneficial for it allowing you to save on your armor piercing gear needs this power will help you save on your regeneration gear needs.
d. I note in particular that this power must be weighed carefully vs. Warding Curse as that will prevent 8% damage of up to three targets at once and will do so regardless of the amount of sparks you have. That is effectively hp saved and also improves the value of basic life steal, regeneration and potions accordingly (the hp you gain is basically 8% to 24% more).
Snuff Out:
a. Change effect to "You know how to more effectively convert soul sparks. When a soul spark is converted to hp you gain that amount of temporary hp as well." (rank 2 is double temp hp, rank 3 is triple temp hp). The temp hp should not stack but should refresh as sparks convert.
b. I am weighing the defensive power of this ability vs. the offensive ability of Hellbringer's Flames of Empowerment. This power would give the Warlock a more or less continually-refreshing ablative hp layer that at rank 3 is meaningful. It would encourage smart spark management as if a bunch of sparks convert at once the benefit is going to be lower than if you keep them more spaced out. This is a similar mindset to how Flames of Empowerment must be planned as it has no benefit unless your AP is at 100%.
Dust to Dust:
a. Change effect to "Your soul sparks act as a distracting cloud in combat. You gain 1.0% deflection rate per spark." (+1.0% per rank).
b. I am weighing the defensive power of this ability vs. the offensive ability of Hellbringer's No Pity, No Mercy. Seeing as how Warlocks typically lack good deflection ratings this will help improve that if chosen. Even so, while 15% deflection is functional it is nowhere near as strong as the damage bonus from No Pity, No Mercy (which has a high uptime) so testing will be in order.
c. I note, again, this must be compared to Warding Curse. A 15% chance of blocking (usually) 50% damage is helpful at an overall 7.5% damage resistance but you only get that bonus at five sparks whereas Warding Curse will instantly give you 8% against up to three targets. In that deflection triggers Fey Thistle and has benefit vs. crowd control it may be balanced against Warding Curse but testing will, as usual, be needed.
It turned my low-geared Furylock into a death machine when I gave it a try.
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
I run a defensive warlock. Temptation, Hand of Blight (enhanced by artifact weapon), Hellish Rebuke, Warlock's Bargain, Blades of the Vanquished Army, damage debuffing feats, Nether Mage Armor. In solo it basically never dies at 15,6k GS. I tried soloing the Hammerstone Dwarves Epic encounter in Dwarven Valley and resisted Arcanists and other Dwarves with no real issues while dealing reasonable damage for several minutes, before other players joined the fight. In dungeon I tend to tank the strongest monsters to debuff them and heal melee characters by staying close to them. Teamed with a GF it works wonders.
Born of Black Wind: SW Level 80
I have to agree with this one.
军医骑士 超过三千水平 突破极限释放开
Daily: Granworm Sword
Enounter: Vow of Enmity | Worm Smasher | 縮退砲
Class Feature: Kabbalah System
Aura: Warp Field
IGN: Faluzure 19k Tenebrous Soulbinder Scourge Warlock
(The Corrupted) (Retired)
You're farther down my own path then I am then (I run a Damnation warlock). I hadn't really dared consider that deflocks could be actual tanks but it looks like it is possible. If that's so then making soulbinder into a defensive oriented path would work well for everyone, including pve groups.
As things stand now, I could see myself (using my own ideas) doubling up with Warding Curse, and Dust to Dust as passives and using a combination of Hand of Blight (with artifact) and Essence Defiler to both debuff enemy damage and generate soul sparks. Soul Scorch could be used to both grab aggro and further heal self along with Warlock's Bargain and Wraith's Shadow (or Blades of the Vanquished) to further debuff/reflect enemy damage. That would be a tank all right, one that uses selfhealing and damage debuffing as opposed to raw massive defense/deflect/cc as a warrior or such would do. Sounds good.
Note, yesterday i was on pvp, on enemy base, so a cw was coming to kill me, so i noticied and have a harrowstorm ready, so when it come close i ahve used it,(he was still on mount), he come to me, used EF, and i still haven't cast my harrowstorn. so i wonder why we have 2~3sec cast time when CW have less then 1 sec?
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder