5.3 Warlock Changes

[Zagam 1,983]

Posted on MMO-Champion on 3/25/2013.

Warlock

ALL - Dark Intent now costs 1% of base mana, down from 4%.

ALL - Demonic Gateway now has HP equivalent to your maximum HP, scales with your resilience, and can be killed by players.

ALL - Certain pets will now cast without delay between casts. This includes the Doomguard, Terrorguard, and Wild Imps.

DEMONOLOGY - Grimoire of Sacrifice now buffs single target spells by 25%, down from 30%.

DEMONOLOGY - Hand of Guldan now does Shadowflame damage instead of pure Shadow damage

DESTRUCTION - Fire and Brimstone will now remain on until cancelled so long as you have at least 1 Burning Ember.

The Fire and Brimstone change is absolute bliss. Not sure why this wasn't a toggle ability like Blade Flurry anyways...

The pet buff is confusing. I've tested it and found that you won't see more casts of the Doomguard or Terrorguard. I thought perhaps we'd see more casts, but he still does his 17 bolts and that's it. Since he is no longer capped by a queue time on his spell, he's now constricted to his energy bar which I never noticed until recently. This will, however, provide a small burst buff for Wild Imps. They will spam cast their abilities which will make them last less time but do just as much damage. This will hopefully provide the Demonic Fury that Demonology craves in its opener with Imp Swarm.

[Stonesie 5]

Good lord I HOPE that's a typo

[Zagam 1,983]

HAHA, yeah. What's interesting is a while back, I said that the Grim of Sac nerf from 50% to 30% was perfect for Affliction. They took it another 5% and now barely anyone plays Affliction, and those who do saw the dramatic decrease the spec took. The 5% re-buff should buffer some of that out. All this does is put Demonology at the bottom of the barrel again. Around 522 ilvl, Affliction catches Destruction and zooms past. Now it'll be a bit sooner and the emphasis on 535+ ilvls will have Affliction near the top, if not the best spec, again.

[Rrasis 13]

I thought Affliction Grimoire of Sacrifice was already at 30% that's what the tool tip has shown since 5.2 anyways.

[Scorp 5]

i hope this patchnotes is april joke but no one know its blizzard they can make it even moore absurd :)

[Zagam 1,983]

I thought Affliction Grimoire of Sacrifice was already at 30% that's what the tool tip has shown since 5.2 anyways.

The tooltip for Affliction has, and has for quite some time, read that it buffs your abilities by 25%, not 30%.

[Zagam 1,983]

Oooooh, a mention of tri-spec! This would be heavenly on my abilities in raiding. Now if only they could save reforging and gem choices...

[Livendula 0]

The tooltip for Affliction has, and has for quite some time, read that it buffs your abilities by 25%, not 30%.

Uhhh... no it hasn't. It has been, and still is, 30%.

[JvChequer 43]

Uhhh... no it hasn't. It has been, and still is, 30%.

Indeed,

[Cruzan 71]

Oooooh, a mention of tri-spec! This would be heavenly on my abilities in raiding. Now if only they could save reforging and gem choices...

OMG please yes! I've been respeccing my destro spec to demo everytime i go to pvp haha. This would be a godsend, err a blizzsend..or something like that.

[Zagam 1,983]

Interesting on the Affliction Sac...I'm looking at patch notes and saw 25%...it must have been a tool tip thing then, but I now remember that they said Demo and Aff's Sacrifice would be the same. Regardless of what it is, it sucks now.

[JvChequer 43]

Even with 30%, Sacrifice still worth it in ilvl 520+ probably, or with rppm trinkets + LMG.

I don't know if it's a dps gain until 530+, but is totally worth if it's a dps loss above 500-1k , IMO.

Edited March 26, 2013 by JvChequer

[Livendula 0]

Even with 30%, Sacrifice still worth it in ilvl 520+ probably, or with rppm trinkets + LMG.

I don't know if it's a dps gain until 530+, but is totally worth if it's a dps loss above 500-1k , IMO.

I was under the impression that it was already the talent of choice for pure single target as Affliction.

[Zagam 1,983]

Yes, it is. I imagine it will be nerfed again when they find out how well it scales since Haste is the primary stacking stat for Affliction and it buffs everything that is benefited by Haste.

[Omaric 246]

I just saw a banner at the bottom of the site that said "One click for a Roman Orgy".

That is all.

[Undeadmuffin 0]

Opinions on demonology for pvp with grimiore of sacrifice, sounds stupid i know but hear me out, i think it could be very good as i have noticed im not sure if it's just me but with demo i get alot of crits, and they're frequent, obviously you can spam chaos wave so would it work out better?

[Zagam 1,983]

Changes made to original post based on live patch notes. HOORAY FOR SPAMMING AOE INCINERATE WITHOUT TOGGLING FIRE AND BRIMSTONE! This will make Heroic Primordius and any constant AoE (Destro Tortos) absolutely flawless to execute. No more single Incinerates because of a lag issue with a macro or toggle!