wow Warlock Changes and Explanations in War Within Alpha: May 21st

[Staff 1,488]

Destruction in on the stage in this week's Alpha build, starting with Soul Fire moving away from its execute role and more into a crit-focused one. Infernals will now be more easily reached in the talent tree, with a more central position. The main spec talent tree has also been tightened up, with fewer talents and talent points available/needed, as Blizzard look for feedback on the proper balance of the tree. 

Warlock (Source)

Greetings Warlocks.

Today’s Alpha build focuses on restructuring the Destruction specialization tree. We will provide context for some of these changes in this post.

Heads up! Some talents are not yet implemented but should be in a future build.

Soul Fire, Channel Demonfire, and Shadowburn
We’re pivoting away from Soul Fire becoming another execute spell as Shadowburn already fills this purpose. Instead, it will serve as a reward for high critical strike chance and will naturally become more available when Shadowburn benefits from a low health target.

Both Channel Demonfire and Shadowburn spells are retaining their current uses and identities; however, we are introducing new talents that should increase how valuable these spells are in Destruction’s toolkit. We look forward to hearing your feedback regarding the direction of each of these spells.

Summon Infernal
We’ve moved Summon Infernal to a more central location in the Destruction tree to provide an interesting and powerful spell to look forward to while leveling. Additionally, it’s an incredibly iconic spell for Destruction and by making it easier to get we can ensure that regardless of your build you have a longer cooldown to look forward to.

Tree Structure
In this alpha build you’ll see new pathing and a reduction of available talents and ranks to reduce the bloating the previous tree had. We’re interested in hearing feedback regarding if it’s too easy to get across the tree, too difficult, if a talent’s placement doesn’t make sense, or if a talent can be taken and it won’t provide any benefit unless another talent is taken.

As mentioned last week, we will have an update for Affliction in a future build and will be focusing on hero talents and polish after. We appreciate the discussions and look forward to further feedback.

And here are the actual changes themselves, straight from the development notes:

Warlock (Source)

• WARLOCK
  • Demonology
    • The size of Gloomhound and Charhound has been decreased by 20%.
  • Destruction
    • The cooldown of Summon Infernal is now 2 minutes (was 3 minutes).
    • Decimation has been redesigned – Your critical strikes have a chance to reset the cooldown of Soul Fire and reduce the cast time of your next Soul Fire by 80%.
    • Scalding Flames has been redesigned – Increases the damage of Immolate by 25% and its duration by 3 seconds.
    • New Talent: Indiscriminate Flames – Backdraft increases the damage of your next Chaos Bolt by 5% or increases the critical strike chance of your next Incinerate or Soul Fire by 35%.
    • New Talent: Blistering Atrophy – Increases the damage of Shadowburn by 20%. Shadowburn always critically strikes a target that is at or below 30% health.
    • New Talent: Fiendish Cruelty – When Shadowburn fails to kill a target that is at or below 30% health, its cooldown is reduced by 5 seconds.
    • New Talent: Demonfire Mastery – Increases the damage of Channel Demonfire by 30% and it deals damage 35% faster.
    • New Talent: Improved Chaos Bolt – Increases the damage of Chaos Bolt by 10% and reduces its cast time by 0.5 seconds.
    • New Talent: Avatar of Destruction – Consuming Ritual of Ruin summons an Overfiend for 8 seconds. Overfiend generates 1 Soul Shard Fragment every 0.5 seconds and casts Chaos Bolt at its summoner’s target, dealing Chaos damage.
    • New Talent: Dimension Ripper [Not Yet Implemented] – Incinerate has a chance to create a Dimensional Rift or recharge Dimensional Rift if learned.
    • New Talent: Flame Rift [Not Yet Implemented] – Dimensional Rift can now summon a powerful Flame Rift.
    • New Talent: Lessons of Space-Time [Not Yet Implemented] – While you have a Dimensional Rift open, all of your damage is increased by 5%.
    • New Talent: Unstable Rifts [Not Yet Implemented] – Bolts from Dimensional Rift deal 25% of the damage dealt to nearby enemies.
    • Backlash moved to gate 1.
    • Summon Infernal moved to gate 2.
    • Channel Demonfire moved to gate 2.
    • Raging Demonfire moved to gate 3.
    • Soul Fire moved to gate 3.
    • Decimation moved to gate 3.
    • Devastation moved to gate 3.
    • Ruin moved to gate 3.
    • The following talents have been removed:
      • Pandemonium
      • Cry Havoc
      • Improved Immolate
      • Decimating Bolt
      • Grand Warlock’s Design
    • The following talents are now 1 rank:
      • Burn to Ashes
      • Master Ritualist
      • Power Overwhelming
      • Infernal Brand
      • Crashing Chaos
      • Ashen Remains
      • Eradication
      • Conflagration of Chaos
      • Ruin
      • Scalding Flames
      • Fire and Brimstone
      • Rolling Havoc
      • Raging Demonfire
      • Flashpoint
      • Emberstorm