5.4 Changes and Notes as of 7/10

[Sifon 25]

Ahh, makes sense now thanks JV. Also it wouldn't effect Meta form because instead of triple dipping, its gonna 3.9x dip.

[Zagam 1,983]

They still haven't modified that stupid ass trinket? The one that is CLEARLY game breaking? Now they're balancing other crap around it? All so they can redesign all the classes for 6.0. Brilliant.

On a side note, how would it get a 3.9x multiplier? Am I seeing something different?

Mastery base starts off at 8.00% at 0 rating. To get to 25.00%, you'd need 17x600 = 10,200 Mastery rating. If you had 10,200 rating, your paperdoll would read:

Does 25% additional damage in caster form. Pets do 25% additional damage. Damage done in Metamorphosis increased by 75%.

Current Dark Soul increases Mastery by 18,000 rating, so 10,200 becomes 28,200. Paperdoll would read:

Does 55% additional damage in caster form. Pets do 55% additional damage. Damage done in Metamorphosis increased by 225%.

What does the PTR meaning actually mean? Is it going to take Meta damage from 75% to 105% instead of 225%? That's the area of confusion for me. I don't understand why they changed it unless it's a nerf to Meta's burst.

[Sifon 25]

Demo mastery will be %30 powerful when Dark Soul is used, 600 mastery rating will give %1.3 damage on caster form instead of %1 and %3.9 damage on meta form instead of %3. It increases mastery by %30 now, it will increase efficency of mastery by %30 on 5.4.

[Zagam 1,983]

So they'll treat it with percentages? If it's all based on Mastery percentages, then would this math be correct?

Caster Form

Present 10,000 Mastery = 8.00 + 10,000/600 = 16.666 = 24.666%

Present Dark Soul = 8.00 + 28,000/600 = 8 + 46.666 = 54.666%

Future Dark Soul = 8.00 + 16.666 + 30 = 54.666% (no change)

Metamorphosis Form

Present Dark Soul = 8.00*3 + 28,000/200 = 24 + 140 = 164%

Future Dark Soul = 8.00*3 + (10,000/200) + 30 = 24 + 50 + 30 = 114%

Where is my confusion because I just don't see how the multiplier is going to work without it being gutted tremendously.

I mean...I really feel like I'm missing something. Take it down 18,000 and increasing the effect of Mastery by 30% just isn't translating to me without using the 18,000 in the formula.

[Zagam 1,983]

Yeah, some of the people on the PTR are reporting HUGE dropoffs in damage with the new Dark Soul. Are my fears confirmed? Can anyone else validate or refute my math?

[Sifon 25]

There is a huge dropoff on damage with new Dark Soul becuase if you had Dark Soul(+18k mastery) and amplification trinket procs,you would get 50-55k mastery which is RIDICULOUS. I'm trying to understand new wording on Dark Soul and 2 possibility comes in my mind.

First one is a flat %30 mastery increase which is same as current, amplification trinket should only increase haste and mastery by your ratings not percents because it would be over powered with LMG and BL.

Second one is no mastery increase in what you see on character panel but giving an extra %30 effect to our mastery. As example, if you have %20 mastery, you would see %50 damage increase on caster form and hopefully %150 damage increase on meta form.(Extra effect on meta isn't on tooltip yet so we might see %90 instead of %150 for a while on PTR but I'm %100 sure it will be fixed.)

With all the talks about mastery, I felt like mastery is so yummy, maybe I will go back to mastery again

EDIT: Demo 4pc is nerfed, procs Chaos Wave instead of Hand of Gul'dan on meta.

Edited July 16, 2013 by Sifon

[Zagam 1,983]

Still a silly set bonus...free big AoE attack? I knew Hand of Guldan wouldn't make it live because of the AoE possibilities. At least with Chaos Wave, it'll just be random big 200k+ bursts.

[Sifon 25]

But but I loved it the way it was :( it was awesome even for single target with possibility of 12 seconds of 2 stacks Shadowflame.

[Zagam 1,983]

Oh of course. Either way, it woulda been awesome. Free HoG > Free Chaos Wave. I wish the set bonus didn't involve something so...lazy. The other set bonus sounds better.

[Sifon 25]

Can anyone test if 2pc T16 proccing from Soul Fires in meta? Last time I check it wasn't, I hope it is a bug.

[Sifon 25]

Amplification trinket being reworked, it gives some amount of haste and mastery(and possible crit damage too) and procs some little intellect. Might be passive stat + proc int in the future.

[JvChequer 43]

14% more mastery, crit and Haste.

Sad, Amplification was really amazing.

[Alphric 7]

So is this the end of demo as king?

[Khaos 5]

ATM , as far as i know affli is king in everything on ptr

[Sifon 25]

If amp trinket will have some sort of proc(it has a very very little int proc atm) it will be king still. On current test enviroment(T15 gear with T16 set pieces and trinkets) Demo with UVLS is still the best and crit focused non-UVLS Demo is competitive. Affliction is also in a good position unless it gets nerfed in 1-2 weeks due to PvP reasons.

[Zagam 1,983]

So, they nerfed the fact Dark Soul gave us 18k Mastery because of the synergy of a trinket and now they nerf the Amplification effect...this seems like a tricksy way to nerf Demonology. I'm still shaky on the Dark Soul effect since no one came on the theorycrafting math journey with me. I still think the 'increases effect by 30%' in Metamorphosis comes up short.

I haven't done any PTR fights, and I won't be doing any of them. But from the few videos I've seen, Manno's Fury Demonology Warlocks will have a place just about in every fight. There are tons of adds, lots of multiple targets for UVLS to shine, and it really didn't get any modification to its DPS. Affliction will always scale the best with gear, even moreso now that they worked Mastery different in MoP. I'm still anticipating Destruction spell buffs to off-set the change in Ember generation. Surely they won't let one spec fall out of the running, right?

[Sifon 25]

I tested on PTR Zagam, it works the same way as now, no nerf or anything, %30 damage increase on caster form, %90 damage increase on meta form.

Only nerf might be losing %14 of the 18k mastery from Dark Soul but it wasn't intended anyway. Affliction has % modifier on Dark Soul same as Desturction, only Demo benefitting from a trinket with a spell all specs have is just unfair.

[Zagam 1,983]

Ah, perfect. Thanks for response. Glad to know its a 90% modifier in Meta. Have you tested with your level of Mastery if it modifies the same? Like my Mastery base is 27%. With raid Mastery buff, it's 32%. So on PTR, my caster form would see 62% and Meta would see 122% instead of it being calculated via 18k Mastery. I see why they did it now.

[Omaric 246]

Surely they won't let one spec fall out of the running, right?

Have you seen Marksman Hunters? :P

Also, WTB more concrete changes to discuss. I don't know how many more itemization threads I can take before I go cray cray.

[Lappenforce 0]

Glyph of Imp Swarm Teaches you the ability Imp Swarm. Requires Demonology. Imp Swarm Summons 4 Wild Imps from the Twisting Nether to attack the target.

[Lappenforce 0]

Glyph of Imp Swarm Teaches you the ability Imp Swarm. Requires Demonology. Imp Swarm Summons 4 Wild Imps from the Twisting Nether to attack the target. Also increases Wild Imp's cooldown by 4 sec.

Mad.

EDIT: Whoops sorry double post fail.

Edited July 24, 2013 by Lappenforce

[Zagam 1,983]

They nerfed it to 4 Imps? Might be time to drop the glyph as I see 4 Imps being a DPS loss than using the basic Demonic Calling.

[Zagam 1,983]

Talents and Specialization

• Harvest Life: Drains the life from all enemies within 15 yards of the target, causing 187 [+ 17.5% of SpellPower] Shadow damage and restoring 3-4.5% of the caster's total health every 1 sec. Lasts 6 sec. Replaces Drain Life.Increases the damage of your Drain Life spell by 50% and the healing of your Drain Life spell by 150%.

• Soul Swap: You copy your Shadow damage-over-time effects from the target, preserving their power and duration. For 63 sec afterwards, the next target you cast Soul Swap: Exhale on will be afflicted by the copied Shadow damage-over-time effects. You cannot Soul Swap to the same target.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Drain Life: Increases the healing of your Drain Life by 30%.Increases the healing from Harvest Life generated by your primary target by 20%.

• Glyph of Havoc: Havoc gains 3 additional charges, but the cooldown is increased by 35 seconds.

• Glyph of Imp Swarm: Teaches you the ability Imp Swarm. Requires Demonology. Imp Swarm Summons 54 $104316lWild Imp:Wild Imps; from the Twisting Nether to attack the target. The Wild Imps passive effect is disabled while Imp Swarm is on cooldown. Imp Swarm's cooldown is reduced by spell haste. Also increases Wild Imp's cooldown by 4 sec.

• <a class="icontiny" href="http://ptr.wowhead.com/spell=146964" rel="diff=17227"> Glyph of Unending Resolve: The damage reduction of Unending Resolve is reduced by 20%, but the cooldown is reduced by [s2 / 10060 sec.

[Zagam 1,983]

Harvest Life complete re-work. No longer an AoE ability, this ability will be a snap-decision healing tool. Looks like a good use in PvP, but not sure if a buff of 50% makes the damage competitive. 150% increased healing will be quite significant, but typically DPS avoid using a utility spell such as this when maximizing DPS is important. Interesting to watch pan out.

Soul Swap duration has been halved. You will be using this back-to-back or losing the buff. Just requires quick targetting.

The Glyph of Drain Life is going to make the healing component of Drain Life enormous.

Glyph of Havoc was datamined a while ago. Not likely to be a DPS increase unless a secondary target presents itself in 60 second intervals. If constant secondary target is present, Glyph will not be a gain.

Change to Imp Swarm is annoying. It will lower our burst, and I'm going to have to re-work the math theorycrafting on whether or not the Glyph is a DPS gain over Demonic Calling. It's going to change it quite a bit...

The change to Unending Resolve via the Glyph looks rather lame. Reducing a 180 sec CD to 120 sec CD but reducing the potency by 20% makes it a rather soft CD. A 2 min CD with only a 20% reduction is pretty tame. Compartively, Paladins get a 30 sec CD cooldown 20% mitigation spell. With Sacrificial Pact and Soul Link at our disposal, I think keeping UR to a 40% mitigation tool will be better than glyphing it. For PvP, the extra protection from being silenced may prove worthwhile.

[Twinkielock 15]

An one imp loss would be that drastic? What's the other option? (I can't access the client at work)

Edited July 24, 2013 by Twinkielock