After a lengthy period of practically no substantial news on the WoW front whatsoever, the internets has just about exploded with activity regarding some new and interesting information about Patch 2.4. Many people are incredibly excited, and even Warlocks seem happy about what they are seeing. However, not all information is straightforward information, and unfortunately for us Warlocks, it looks like Patch 2.4 offers us the short end of the buff-stick yet again.As Eyonix explains in a thread on the Warlock Forums from earlier today, Warlocks will be able to use their Ritual of Summoning to summon a player into an instance from anywhere in the world. In other words, the restriction that prevented players from being summoned into an instance will be removed, allowing them to be summoned from the outside, in. And, that's it. Seriously.
To put things into perspective about just how dull this "buff" to the Warlock class is, take into account what other clothies are receiving. Mages will see their DPS much improved thanks to the synergy they'll have between their Icy Veins talent and a newly tweaked Spell Haste system, which will lower the Global Cooldown of spells that are cast in under 1.5 seconds. And lets not forget about Priests, who will be allowed to cast Fear Ward in Shadowform, removing the need to switch forms to cast it while saving some much needed mana -- a very functional change.
Those changes, THAT is what you call "caster love," my friends. What the other casters are getting? THOSE are buffs, people. What Warlocks are receiving, well, lets put it this way. The change makes life more convenient for those being summoned, and does next to nothing for the summoners themselves. It's not a buff to the Warlock class -- it's just another tweak we receive to a non-combat ability, while seeing many other classes have their combat skills improved. This is not a buff.
It's a back-handed slap in the face.
7 comments:
Is this a buff locks post?
Jago, play an anything else for a while ;)
Copied from wowinsider because I'm too lazy to write it myself:
Excuse me!?
You have got it all wrong sir.
mages are not the main ones benefiting from spell haste starting to affect GC - Warlocks more so, at least in PvE, where mages rely on spells (fireball and frostbolt) that already benefited from haste, as the spells are longer than 1.5 seconds, and as you may be aware, mages hardly cast any instant spell, as opposed to warlocks.
Thus this is a great buff for classes with quick and instant spells, but not so much for classes, such as mages, with slow spells.
In fact, this change will just reinforce the current in
mbalance in favour of debuffing/insta-casting classes that benefit from the constantly-on-the-move nature of most high-end raid encounters.
Saw that comment over their earlier. After speaking with a few career-long mages, I'm under the current impression that both that commenter and myself are just a tad off.
I already clarified over at WoW-I, basically laying out conditions that would have to be met in order for my thoughts to be true. My mistake was being too general, I suppose.
Thanks for posting. =)
anonymous, this is a HUUUUGE deal for arcane mages. Anyone who says differently hasn't been in Black Temple or Mount Hyjal. It is reasonable to predict an increase in arcane blast damage by at least 25% with current haste gear, and that is a big deal!
Warlock instant casts won't see shit! So you can apply another dot a split second sooner and they tick a tiny bit faster. whoopdefukindoo! It still doesn't make up for the shit damage affliction does!
Get your shit straight before trying to call someone out.
Take a look at this thread, which I will post more about later (when I get home later tonight):
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=4311214418&sid=1
That should help clarify the Haste-DoT issue just a bit.
And before I forget to mention it, Haste does not speed up DoT damage. Spell Haste is a function of casting time (which includes channeling), not duration. And even though I'm sure Warlocks would love to see 45 second CoD procs, I doubt we'll see them happen any time soon. =)
It does at least make me happy that they are adding back a little of the utility that locks had pre-summoning stones in groups. There was plenty of demand for a lock to summon people to outside instances and I remember always being one of the ones to traverse the distance to get set up first when my guild was running something. This makes mid-instance switches a lot simpler. No more running out or dealing with re-clearing trash mobs.
The point about spell haste seems right on as well. It's a great benefit to lessen the global cooldown. With 3-5 instant cast spells in your rotation, that global cooldown is what is slowing down your ability to get the DPS rocking from the start.
While it certainly isn't the greatest buff ever... in some ways I feel like we should be proclaiming, at least we didn't get nerfed. Yeah? Everyone wants that after all.
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