5.4 Changes and Notes as of 7/10

[Felbrew28 1]

Allright team, what are we going to do to fix this fiasco?

[Zagam 1,982]

Patch 5.4 Notes Changes

- Voidwalkers now are passively under the "Will Chase Anything That Despawns Me" stance. This replaces Passive, Defensive, and Assist modes.

- Imps now tell jokes instead of casting spells because they have become Impsters, the demonic incantation of hipsters.

- Felguards now truly do all of their abiltiies backwards. Mortal Strike now increases healing taken by its target by 10% and your Felguard will now only repeat the saying "will it blend?" while performing Felstorm.

- Succubi now wear complete goth suits including oversized trenchcoats. They also have had an attitude adjustment talking only about sewing, cooking, cleaning, and being proper female demons. No longer whips herself.

- Felhunters now click "decline" when being summoned by their masters. They choose, instead, to frequent reddit/r/awww and can't be bothered from missing out on gathering more and more karma.

Tier 6 Talents are now blank and do absolutely nothing worthwhile. In fact, choosing one is only deemed necessary to avoid the pop up bubble that states "you have unspent talent points."

Demonic Circle: Teleport now randomly teleports you somewhere in Northrend.

Demonic Gateway is no longer able to be used by the Warlock who generated it. Allies who take the Demonic Gateway yell out "WEEEEEE" in Demonic language when teleporting to the connecting gateway portal.

Chaos Bolt damage has been reduced by 95%.

Unstable Affliction no longer benefits from Affliction's Mastery. Mastery now only decreases the silence effect from dispelling Unstable Affliction.

Metamorphosis now makes you hostile to all party and raid members enabling them to attack you and preventing you from receiving any beneficial buffs or heals. This effect also removes you from the party. You have 60 seconds to be reinvited before being teleported out of the instance.

[Omaric 246]

The only reason I knew this was fake is because hipsters aren't actually funny.

[Kaboozey 16]

Tier 6 Talents are now blank and do absolutely nothing worthwhile. In fact, choosing one is only deemed necessary to avoid the pop up bubble that states "you have unspent talent points."

The line between being a sarcastic joke and reality is nigh invisible. Touché.

[Gravyspasm 70]

i'd like to say that these proposed changes in 5.4 are all Zagam's fault.

his recent poll (http://www.icy-veins...ifficulty-poll/) allowed Blizzard to see that a large part of the community was happily comfortable playing destro, and was shying away from Demo.

these changes are made to revert that.

[Charladuce 1]

I was all excited about virtual realms.... And then I scrolled down. /cry. Good thing one of our healers quit and I can bring my disc priest to raid because my lock is going to be craptastic.

[Zagam 1,982]

Gravy, you have remarkable penmanship.

[tassadar 1]

So, should I start gearing up my resto shaman now, or wait a little bit more?

[Zagam 1,982]

Now, don't go all bailing on Warlocks. You're supposed to know that no matter what comes at us, we'll be fine. You know I'll come up with the best way to deal with all these changes. If you're bailing, you were never really a Warlock.

Remember, this patch is AT LEAST 2 months away. We literally just hit 5.3. They're just going to ACTUALLY spend time developing 5.4. Things will be tested. Things will change.

Good news? Maybe KJC nerf doesn't make it.

Bad news? The nerf bat isn't done.

[Felbrew28 1]

Once a warlock, always a warlock. Just would prefer to spec as I choose and not sacrifice dps, or green fire.

[Zagam 1,982]

They will do some serious balancing. Preliminary indications are Affliction will be crazy out of control, but they won't let that happen. As long as we have at least ONE viable spec, we should be happy. Having all 3 this tier spoiled us a bit. Remember 5.0/5.1?

[tassadar 1]

The problem is, I really like the pyromaniac destro feel, and don't want to switch to demo, as Blizzard seem to want me to.

[JvChequer 43]

You Zagam, won the internet.

Take your prize at Backstage.

[Zagam 1,982]

You Zagam, won the internet.

Take your prize at Backstage.

Sounds like a trap...

[Cruzan 71]

So, should I start gearing up my resto shaman now, or wait a little bit more?

If you like playing a warlock then wait. If you have a hankering to fill up health bars instead of taking them down, then go resto.

Its a bummer to hear people saying they're unsubbing or rerolling so quickly. The likelihood of most of these preliminary changes being completely different when 5.4 goes live is very high. Even if KJC does remain the same its still a vast improvement over not being able to move+cast 9 months ago. I'd take no KJC over being a melee class any day of the week. We did it before...

They will do some serious balancing.

If by serious balancing you mean they'll slap a -25% to a third of our abilities again then I have no doubt about that. I kid, I kid (sort of...)

It seems like the issue always comes up of trying to not only balance things for PvE or PvP individually, but coming up with something that is balanced for both. I would hate to be on the team that has to try to figure that out. There always seems to be something that sneaks through that was designed or tuned for PvE, but becomes exploited through PvP, but rarely vice versa.

I'll check back in more seriously a week before the patch goes live like usual since everything will probably be different. Not like we have any control over things anyway.

[Charladuce 1]

Oh I was having a drama queen fest for sure - no, I'll stay on the warlock. After all, who else brings tasty green cookies?

[gahhda 95]

I enjoy destruction. Affliction is the worst spec ever made, and I'd rather play my shaman than demo any day.

So, unless they complete change how destro functions, make it 20% ahead of all other specs single target to compensate for THE WORST MOVEMENT BASED DPS IN THE GAME PERIOD, or revert the fucked up KJC change, I have no reason to keep playing a warlock.

[Vestion 8]

Affliction is the worst spec ever made

WAT?!

[Soulzar 42]

They removed the baseline 10% damage reduction. They buffed Soul Leech, but that's a PvE buff to compensate for the 10% baseline reduction. All of the patch notes have PvP in mind and not PvE except MAYBE Mannoroth's Fury.

I donno, I'd think the Mannoroths would be more of a pvp change than anything, that said thereis nothign stopping a pvp lock from casting multiple RoF to accomplish the same area coverage The Mannoroths change is the only one of the proposed changes that has me confised. I've been spoiled with KJC, but will manage without... even though its a big hit. I have no idea how affliction will play without it.. perhaps thats why teh 2pc seems so crazy strong.

I enjoy destruction. Affliction is the worst spec ever made, and I'd rather play my shaman than demo any day.

So, unless they complete change how destro functions, make it 20% ahead of all other specs single target to compensate for THE WORST MOVEMENT BASED DPS IN THE GAME PERIOD, or revert the fucked up KJC change, I have no reason to keep playing a warlock.

I agree with the Affliction thing. They took the unique feeling of the drain soul execute and evovled the whole spec around it.. terrible IMO. Took that way too far. The hasted shadowbolt filler was probably the peak for me on affliction and its been downhilll ever since.

I still love demo, however after playing destro predominently this patch... Demo's execute feels so weak. Specifically with the UVLS or tier set bonuses next tier, MC procs are not in short supply, how is chain casting SF in execute any different than normal play now?

[Annoroth 5]

There's a consolidated thread on the Official Forums regarding the change:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/9280508340

The thread in question has been manually extended, and I believe is intended to serve as an official feedback collection tool regarding the KJC change. If you have any opinions to add, please make your voice heard there.

[Cruzan 71]

Locks will still be in a good place without KJC. You'll have good specs for fights with little needed mobility and a go-to mobility spec. Whether you choose to make Demo your main spec based on this sole aspect is your choice, but I don't think it's a bad thing to choose between mobility vs. non-mobility based on encounters. Sure Destro/Aff would suck balls at Lei Shen and many other fights without KJC. Without seeing what the future holds with upcoming encounter mechanics it's hard to judge these changes. Maybe 5.4 will be full of stationary fights where a burst of movement is needed for 15-20 seconds. Great! We'll have a talent for that. If every fight is Lei Shen phase 3....then let god have mercy on our souls. We can have group therapy sessions when the time comes.

I don't really have much sympathy for people who only roll as a warlock to play one spec. It is a pure DPS class with three options...come on! However, we all play this game for different reasons and get our enjoyment from different places, so to each his own.

[Huhwut 1]

I have survived years without KJC, I think I can survive without it. My biggest gripe is it's going to be an unnecessary additional keybinding.

Though I am curious if Breath of Gul'dan is going to be a dps increase to use, and to stand in melee again. I hope not - but the snare it gives will be nice to have again.

[Omaric 246]

Who knows, maybe a *real* legendary item will finally come out that allows casters to cast on the fly.

[keefbeef 1]

LOL, how about:

New in 5.4! Legendary Shoulder enchants for all casters!

Embossment of the Wisps

+400 Int

+245 Mastery

You are able to cast while moving. Casting while moving will incur a 20% movement speed reduction for 8 seconds. This effect stacks up to 3 times.

The legendary quest line could have you collect 50x [Garrosh's used Tissues] which will have a 5% drop rate on the final boss of SoO.

[tassadar 1]

Who knows, maybe a *real* legendary item will finally come out that allows casters to cast on the fly.

On the fly? Please post this idea to the aforementioned feedback thread