Demonology in 6.2: Dev Q&A Responses

Don't Play Demonology: We're Changing It!

*Note: I do see on the current patch notes that our benefits from mastery are going up, so this would just mean that our scaling has been pushed back 25% until we obtain enough gear to come back to par. It isn't really the nerfing I am concerned with but just strange and poor decisions being made as a whole.

My initial reaction to the nerf data back in April for the Demonology spec was "well, I better play Demonology if they are actually that great".

I'm going to try to make my comments on Ion's response to why "Demonology is being nerfed to the ground".

The reason Demonology is receiving nerfs is because it is the current "go to spec" since the other two specs do not feel as flexible and well-rounded. However, they also say that Demonology also feels too complex and requires add-ons to play (uh, no, unless you are blind and can't count the tick-down of your corruption on 3+ targets in your head?).

This feels contradictory. Sure, Demo is better well rounded for multi-target damage and your demon makes up for some of our sub-par single target. We aren't THAT great for single target.

So Ion is basically saying "The Affliction and Destruction spec are currently non-optimized, with players feeling pressured to play the more clunky class which turns out to be more balanced in all fights in general".

Um. Wut?

Now if I remember correctly, demon form used to just make us flat out stronger, with the same spells. You were literally just x% stronger.

Then came demon "form"/stance. There were extra spells that allowed us to become a bit more mobile, and modified our existing spells.


Is Demonology Clunky?

If you're talking single target then we are pretty basic and almost boring. Get your basic dots up, pop demon form for Doom and then build up your energy bar and wait for your CDs and the stars to align and pop demon form again and unleash terror. Now this is all single target.

I found multi-target fights such as Triple Boat Bitches to be very fun and engaging. I'm doing more or less the same on 2-3 targets, but instead of wasting my Hand of Guldan, I am popping in and out of demon form to use Chaos Wave (which, sure is pretty strong but has limited use) to more damage. I do agree to Chaos Wave MAYBE drawing back a bit, I mean it is a very powerful AOE that one can cast while jumping around like a chicken with its head cut off.

I would use JUST this time to use Chaos Wave to refresh any running corruptions on targets (I don't specifically pop into demon form to refresh corruption, I think Noxxic is crazy?).

Why would I need an addon? What am I looking for? Why do we need addons for anything anyways? Just ignore me I'm one of them no-addon snobs, sure they're helpful but not necessary unless you're going for world firsts.

Every fight has a pattern, every mechanic has its trigger, and those that are timed happen at the exact same time so why is there even a reason to have an addon tell you? You pull, pop your potion and you know EXACTLY 1 min after your first CD something happens and you deal with it.

(Tips to developers: Make encounters where addons CAN NOT track mechanics. Your in-game warnings are awesome and sufficient).

Ok I'll stop now. Back to rant.

Sorry I'll Stop Ranting About Add-ons!

So class balancing is a dud, and can I blame the removal of rain of fire ember regen on this? I feel this would have helped a lot for multi-target fights?

So what I am hearing is: "People feel they must play Demo, so we must push them away from it. They are too lazy to learn the semi-clunky rotation, as it is not 1-dimensional like how we have pushed a lot of the other classes to become in WoD. And BTW, we are also going to redesign the spec so when said lazy people see a change in Demo AGAIN, they do not bitch and cry and moan".

Did I Feel Forced to Play Demonology?

No I did not. Usually if Destro isn't workout out for me I will defeault to Demo and then if Destro still doesn't work I will drop it and become Demo/Affliction.

Demo has worked so I haven't had to go the latter route yet.

I also don't like the word forced.

Early on when I was still sitting at a mere 630 ilvl worth of stats, ANY spec was just horrendous. What would I have been "forced" to do. Gear up, but slowly and horribly. So I stopped playing.

I am quite excited to see how Demo will turn out to be. Perhaps they'll remove Hellfire, and our imps, and the Felguard, and Hand of Guldan gets a cast time.

Throughout the expansions I have followed how our talents and spells have evolved and have obtained a general sense of what should be done to maximize the output of each tree so switching between the three specs isn't really a big deal to Truny.

WoD however was different. Having been almost exclusively destro in MoP and only coming back to Demo for current raids, I found my numbers to be significantly higher (over 10%) simply for being in a different spec.

Is This a Real Solution?

I get it. It is Demo's turn to be bottom of the pack again. But you HAVE to look at the big picture. Warlocks aren't that great to begin with now. I had to actually hit 690 to catch up and exceed my 690 peers, while I was eating their dust at 680. This is a fundamental error. Make us godly again (please.).

But seriously, take a look at the spec as a whole. If people were compelled to move away from 2/3 of the specs and now you're going to make the one they moved to less attractive, it doesn't solve the fact that perhaps all the changes have made the entire class feel unattractive. Sure maybe Affliction will be the new top dog within Warlocks, but how about compared to OP Fire Mages?

One thing I despise about WoD is that it has turned my blog into a pseudo gaming and corporate strategy and planning rant-fest. All I want is to be excited about random stuff, not complain about EVERY SINGLE component of the current game.

Uh Oh, Rant Mode Unrestrained

My question to the team that took over WoW: Have you ever PLAYED WoW within the past five years? Or an MMO? I feel there were a lot of grandiose ideas put into place where the expected result was "Let's see what happens".

I get it, the industry needs a change and WoW is the perfect catalyst to hold this change. And here I go on again about mobile mobile mobile.

Mobile gaming is a finicky princess, the retention and revenue models are completely different than what can be provided in an MMO environment.

I also get that integrating SOME parts of mobile gaming, such as quicker updates, weekly/occasional events can keep things fresh with minimal development time. But you have to be careful.

Garrisons could have been this feature, a side feature, not the main feature. Where is your mission/vision for the game? I feel that this has either been lost or is being concealed from the public.

Were you guys on a vendetta to single handedly destroy gold sellers? Were you trying to give us more immersion with our main character?

Ok I'll stop.

I also want to add that I am one of those cash-cow players where I could care less about $15 a month and when there are content lulls or I am bored, I'll just go somewhere else and come back later knowing things will be great.

WoD was the FIRST TIME ever since my subscription started in WOTLK that I had considered not even contributing to the revenue stream of the game, and this was only a few months into Highmaul! It wasn't that I didn't want to play, I just didn't want to. Period. And I'm surprised that there wasn't foresight put into a LOT of the quickly made redundant features such as Apexis gear and ok ok I said I'll stop.

Let's wait for 6.2.

Truny the Still Going to Play Demonology Probably