[ post edited by Graguk ]

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Q u o t e:
1. Tier 1 to Tier 2 set item degree of upgrade

With the recent revision of Felheart to completely remove the expensive hp/5 bonus, it's brought the quality of Felheart much closer to that of Nemesis, such that many warlocks no longer feel Nemesis is as much of an upgrade.

Given Nemesis has recently been revised, I'm sure the point distribution is correct for the item level, however a significant amount of hp/5 warlock items still exist, and many feel this is itemisation points spent badly..

Nemesis Gloves (more on these later)
Nemesis Skullcap (shouldn't this be renamed Horns like Felheart Horns did with the graphic change)
Nemesis Spaulders
Sash of Whispered Secrets (not part of the Nemesis set, but still a warlock item with expensive hp/5)


Given the recognition the itemisation team has clearly developed recently, that hp/5 is too expensive to be worth using liberally, are there plans to revisit these items?


2. Tier 1 and Tier 2 set bonuses

Many warlocks feel these set bonuses are fairly weak compared to set bonuses for other classes.


The 5 piece bonus is pretty much identical in effect for both Tier 1 and Tier 2 sets, and equally useless for anyone who does not rely heavilly on their pets (ie anyone who does not have an MD spec).

We'd like to see a review done of at least the Tier 2 set to make it more unique from the Tier 1 set, and to make it more in line with that of Mages.


One of the biggest limiting factors to an end-game DPS caster is that of threat (see item 7). Mages are able to spec for threat reduction very early in their talent trees for one of their damage types (arcane). They also receive threat reduction on their first set bonus for their Tier 2 set.

Personally, I'd be perfectly happy for an exact match of their bonuses but applied for warlocks. May I suggest however, to differentiate the sets, something like:


Nemesis set bonuses:

3 piece: Reduces the threat generated by your spells by 20%. (maybe limited to destruction, although Blizzard seems to be pushing warlocks to do more damage with their dots)

5 piece: 3% chance when struck in melee combat of afflicting the attacker with a 3 second horror effect.

8 piece: 10% chance when casting destruction spells that your next spell cast will have 0 mana cost.


3. Tier 1 and Tier 2 gloves

Even after the recent revision of both Tier 1 and Tier 2 items, the gloves of both sets remain far and away the worst piece of the set.

Personally, I wear Felcloth gloves with +33 shadow damage over Felheart gloves for all encounters except when I want a bit more FR along with some HP. I am not alone either. I find it sad that the Felheart gloves are so undesirable, making it even more of a sacrifice in order to attain the 8 piece set bonus.

The Nemesis gloves are equally poor. For a warlock who is working on or farming BWL, attaining the Ebony Flame Gloves is certainly possible, and definately more attractive. Ebony Flame gloves have 28 more shadow damage than Nemesis.. This is huge. Now I understand the need for Tier 2 items to be valuable for any spec'ed character, however such a difference means that to shadow focused warlocks (I'd even go as far to say they are the majority), they have almost tripple the damage of Nemesis. I'm sure if the hp/5 was removed from the Nemesis gloves and those points were spent as +damage, there would be less disparity. I think this really needs to be addressed.

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Q u o t e:
4. Debuff Prioritisation System

The warlock community would really appreciate a status update on the Debuff Prioritisation system.

The last update we received was that assigning a value to every debuff in the game takes a long time.

From a player point of view, we'd be happy with the 10-15 most commonly used debuffs having a value assigned, and everything else being placed into a catch-all lower priority.

Sunder > CoE/CoS/CoR/CoD/Hunter's Mark/Faerie Fire/Insect Swarm > Corruption/CoA/Shadow Word: Pain > Moonfire/Hunter Stings > Rend > all (I know I've missed a few, but you get the idea)

Obviously this is a simplistic view that may not meet the original goals of this system, which I believe has more to do with players pushing debuffs off other players during raid encounters. I surmise this since the system was first announced at the time people were using Mind Vision to push Burning Adrenaline off the MT during the Vael encounter. Still, it's a suggestion that meets the players needs in the meantime, and would not in fact require any significant time to assign the values.

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Q u o t e:
5. Doomguard and Infernals:

I've just read your post on the intended use of the Doomguard and Infernal, and understand the need for balance etc, however most warlocks feel there's absolutely no point in using these pets as they are currently implemented. Many felt differently when Diminishing Returns was removed from the game. At that point in time, they were used more frequently, but not exclusively or by every warlock. Many felt that without diminishing returns, it was viable to use the demons, even though there was still the risk of an early break at a bad time, and that they needed to keep a close eye on their shard stock. Most felt that this was by no means overpowered, but finally allowed them to use Enslave Demon to have a bit of fun and to do things a little differently.

Would reinstating the behaviour in 1.8 of no diminishing returns really make this that overpowered? How about if you increased the shadow resistances on both demons to 100 instead of 75, to make it slightly more likely to break early? This would also give Warlocks a better use for the Resist Penetration items..

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Q u o t e:
6. Shard Bag bonus update

The last we heard from you regarding bonuses to shard bags, you said that it was definately being considered.

Can you let us know if there has been any updates to this issue?

Every warlock (that I've read posts from) agrees that the Core Felcloth Bag especially is rediculously expensive in mat requirements, and feel that this bag more than the others needs some special bonus associated with it. Ideas have ranged from:

+damage
+spell hit
+spell crit
Chance on casting spell with shard requirement to not consume the shard
Return 2 soul shards when drain soul successfully gains a soul shard

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Q u o t e:
7. Threat Reduction

As per comments in item 2, the biggest limiting factor for an end-game warlock's dps is threat. This issue is especially apparent for any warlock who ventures into BWL, or more specifically against any boss with a percentage deagro ability on the main tanks.

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Q u o t e:
8. Defensive Abilities/Escape Abilities

The changes made to Death Coil were definately appreciated, and it finally gives us a limited chance to escape once a melee player/mob has engaged us in melee. Previously, this was pretty much a death sentence, where now we have an option once every 2 minutes.

This isn't quite what we were after however, and we still feel we lack escape options in both PVE and PVP.

Mages have access to any number of options, from Frost Nova, Iceblock, blink, and sheep (which they don't need a certain pet out to use).

In PVP, in most cases you just die while trying to use your instant casts. In PVE, you just run to the tank and die if you've over agroed.

Having options in these scenarios would definately be an improvement. Having all the HP in the world doesn't help if you can't get away/move/iceblock etc.

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Q u o t e:
I don't think Nemesis set bonuses need an upgrade, except maybe the 8 piece.

In all honesty, if you're running Blackwing Lair and have access to Nemesis, there are many other pieces of gear with as much damage potential or more in your immediate grasp.

Good post overall though, I'm looking to see what Tseric has to say about it.

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