Possible Warlock PvE Changes Outlined
Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street has outlined some possible Warlock PvE changes on the official damage dealing forum. Ghostcrawler said they're "generally happy" with Warlocks for PvE, but they're still looking into a few changes. In my opinion, one of Ghostcrawler's most interesting comments is regarding shards:
"Get shards into a place that is more interesting and less of a hassle. We have two models we're considering. One is very cool, but a huge change to gameplay, which might mean it has to wait. The other is more of a quick fix that we'd do until we can implement the very cool model."
A very cool gameplay-changing shard model? My curiosity is piqued. You can read the rest of the possible changes here or after the jump. They involve simplifying Affliction's rotation, adding quicker damage since fights aren't lasting long enough for DoTs to shine, improving demons and fixing "awkward places" in talent trees.
We're generally happy with locks for PvE too. I think the rotations are more interesting than they were in BC and it's nice to see Affliction up there with Destro. Demo is probably still too low, but see below.
As I've suggested before, there are a few things we are looking at on the PvE side of locks:
1) Get shards into a place that is more interesting and less of a hassle. We have two models we're considering. One is very cool, but a huge change to gameplay, which might mean it has to wait. The other is more of a quick fix that we'd do until we can implement the very cool model.
2) Simplify Affliction's rotation a little bit. This might involve making dots last a more uniform duration (so you didn't feel that external mods were mandatory) or just reducing the number of spells you're expected to cast.
3) Locks are still built a lot around damage over time, but a lot of fights just aren't lasting a long time. This might mean locks needs some more options for quick damage, or the problem might fix itself in Ulduar.
4) We're a lot happier with demons in LK, but we still have some work to do. The Voidwalker, Succubus and maybe the short-term demons aren't quite there yet. Improving demons should also help kick Demonology up a notch.
5) There are a couple of awkward places in the talent trees still.
Note that I am only talking PvE here. Some of these changes will help PvP too, but some of the lock problems in PvP will require different solutions too.