Talents, version 5.

So yesterday / sometime early this morning, Blizzard released the 5.0 talent calculator, which turned out to be a preview of the entire new class/specialization/talent system. Warlock received some interesting changes in the month since my last post, and rather than going over all the individual changes in depth, I'll be going over the changes this means for warlock affliction play. I don't know Demonology and Destruction well enough to do a good analysis for them.

First, there are some quality-of-life changes. Curse of Enfeeblement merges two curses (Weakness and Tongues) that were never used in conjunction and, in short, saves a hotbar button. Empowered Channeling is an interesting mechanic that I am happy to see applied to more of warlock, as it now applies to Drain Life and Health Funnel, which will save a lot of trouble in trying to hit a half-second-or-less window to not clip Drain Life's last tic. Shadow Ward is now Twilight Ward, which covers Holy damage as well. Demonic Circle Teleport removes snares by default.

Second, there are mechanics changes. Demon Armor is gone, old Fel Armor is gone, new Fel Armor is an armor/stamina/health generation buff. Fel Armor's spellpower bonus has been moved into Dark Intent, of all places, which has become a raidwide spellpower buff. Worth noting, Focus Magic also appears to be gone from mage. The health-per-hit generation of Fel Armor is apparently the level 15 talents. Fel Flame no longer refreshes the duration of Unstable Affliction, same as Hand of Gul'dan no longer refreshes Immolate. Haunt seems to be gone, the damage from it and Shadow Bolt merged into Malefic Grasp, the new Affliction filler spell. Bane of Doom is removed to a Demonology exclusive ability, and Bane of Agony takes its place with a new 1 minute duration. Soulburn can now be used to make Fear instant cast.

Last, the outright new stuff. Malefic Grasp is a channeled spell, does a small amount of damage over time for 3 seconds, is subject to Empowered Channel, and causes dots to tic twice as fast. Nightfall now affects Malefic Grasp instead of Shadow Bolt, causing it to be instant cast and dots tic twice as fast for the next 9 seconds. Unending Resolve gives an actual damage reduction cooldown to warlock, 50% less damage for 12 seconds, 3 minute cooldown. Demonic Portal is a Demonic Circle for everybody else, teleporting people between two portals up to 70 meters apart.

Some talents have been redone as well. Hour of Twilight at level 45 is gone, replaced by Spell Drain from level 60. The other level 60 talents have been replaced by 3 new abilities, Blood Fear, Burning Rush, and Dark Bargain, all focused around spending HP. Blood Fear is a fairly spectacular ability, Fear becomes instant cast, but costs 10% HP. Burning Rush gives a 25% for 8 seconds movement speed bonus to Life Tap. Dark Bargain is a 30 second recast/duration absorb, with a neat mechanic. It absorbs damage equal to 20% of your maximum HP, but any absorption not used will be dealt as damage to the player when the effect ends, so you can't just leave it up all the time.

Overall, the new warlock direction looks interesting, and Malefic Grasp should help a lot with Affliction's filler spell not really feeling... affliction-y.