I don't see there being much choice during a boss fight when a warlock uses the abilities that are enhanced by shard usage.

It'll be just like glyphs and talent trees. There will be required spells to use alongside required shard usage.

I don't see how someone can "mess up" when you only have a few shards.

How would one "mess up" with so few reagents?

This what I don't understand about this shard change. What choice do the designers believe is going to be available?

There wont be. There'll be a specific way to cast things using these shards.

I'm still not convinced this new system is going to do anything but add more key-binds to my screen.

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Q u o t e:
I don't see there being much choice during a boss fight when a warlock uses the abilities that are enhanced by shard usage.

It'll be just like glyphs and talent trees. There will be required spells to use alongside required shard usage.

I don't see how someone can "mess up" when you only have a few shards.

How would one "mess up" with so few reagents?

This what I don't understand about this shard change. What choice do the designers believe is going to be available?

There wont be. There'll be a specific way to cast things using these shards.

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In pve that's likely true, though warlocks currently lack cooldowns to blow at specific times to help maximize their dps, other than meta. This could give you that option. It'll probably be a lot more interesting in pvp though.

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Q u o t e:
I'm still not convinced this new system is going to do anything but add more key-binds to my screen.

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Or you could probably replace whatever key you use for Fel Dom with the Soul Shard button, since it sounds like Soul Shards will replace Fel Dom's functionality. Or possibly even drain soul, if they decide to get rid of it.

I just want to say ... to Ghostcrawler:

Thank you again, for popping your head in and giving a little tidbit of info. regarding our class. I have been very concerned about the shard system and saw it as a move in the wrong direction. However, the more I see coming down the line and the general mindset seen in your posts regarding the change makes me get excited.

Again...thank you for giving us some feedback. It goes a LOOOOONG way for some of us.

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Q u o t e:
works fine, stop whining.

would be nice if placing the circle were instant, but i dont see any need to change it otherwise.

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In my ideal world, the circle would be target-able and instant. So when the elevators raise on Ring of Valor, I could actually place it on the non bugged floor. Or when I'm either chasing or guarding a flag carrier in WSG, I could move with him, and if a rogue decided to gank me from stealth, I could still actually place and use a portal once I got out of stunlock.

This would be incredibly powerful, and result in many mage tears, so it will probably never happen, but I'm sick of my trump card being unplayable in the situations where I most need it.

Then again, Ring of Valor is incredibly flawed to begin with, so maybe if they did the right thing and redesigned it or scrapped it, the flaws in DC/T wouldn't be so apparent.

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Q u o t e:
In pve that's likely true, though warlocks currently lack cooldowns to blow at specific times to help maximize their dps, other than meta. This could give you that option. It'll probably be a lot more interesting in pvp though.

Or you could probably replace whatever key you use for Fel Dom with the Soul Shard button, since it sounds like Soul Shards will replace Fel Dom's functionality. Or possibly even drain soul, if they decide to get rid of it.

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Well, okay, so when we're out of the shards (we get, what, 3?), how do we fel dom?Stand there in arena and drain soul? The cooldown for fel dom is nice right now. I'd rather not be limited to bringing out a pet 3 times in arena. Or doing anything a maximum of 3 times.

Are you going to make soul shards stackable in a future patch since devoting a bag slot to an admittedly worthless resource is a huge quality of life issue for locks at the moment. The 32 shard limit already prevents us from carrying too many and makes us have to manage it.

Just one question. If you don't answer I won't cry over it =P

Generally, is the goal to make Soul Burned spells directly more powerful or instant, or will there be some versatility baked in for other abilities? For example: Soul Burning Howl of Terror to make it a horror effect so it works better on Warriors, rather than simply increasing the duration of the fear effect.

(Yes, I had to lace my question with a suggestion >.>)

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Q u o t e:
works fine, stop whining.

would be nice if placing the circle were instant, but i dont see any need to change it otherwise.

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My problem isn't with DC:T per se. DC:T is fine, DC:T is supercool. But it's not enough to count as a defensive cd. It's like if you took away CloS, evasion, and vanish from rogues and then said, "hey, you guys still have sprint. L2P."

Ok so its 9am here and I just finished reading the posts in this thread, here are some predictions on Topic:

Soul Drain - Damage increased, when used it will re-activate 1 soul shard in combat every Tick , ticks once every 3 seconds, alternatively soul drain is removed and soul shards are treated exactly like DK runes

Curse of Agony - Curse of Agony effect baked into the other curses, you no longer sacrifice damage for utlity.

Soul burn can add an AOE effect to some single target abilities, e.g. cast soul burn and your next corruption spell will affect the target and up to 5 other targets within 15 yards

Any other predictions are welcome, comments on them by the power that be are most welcome ;)

*Goes to grab his morning coffee*

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Q u o t e:

You mean like Demonic Circle? :)

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You mean like the ability that's rendered completely useless much of the time?

When the OP suggested a defensive "oh-noes" ability he meant something to get you out of a bind (i.e. ice block, divine shield). While the teleport is great in certain situations (even bordering OP in Blades Edge arena or grabbing the enemy flag in WSG), it has the huge drawback of being completely useless in many other situations (for example in Ring of Valor a warrior can charge you or a DK can deathgrip you before you have a chance to place a teleport).

It would be a much stronger defensive ability if it didn't require pre-placement. (Perhaps instead using a Rain of Fire type targeting radial). I'm more into BGs than arena and perhaps the OPness of it in Blades Edge make up for it's uselessness in RoV, but for BGs where you are often on the move (and over greater distances than an arena map) it loses much of its usefullness.

Some things that may go a long way in improving it's viability (not suggesting we do all, just different options):

-Instant cast (even though half a second isn't long, having to stop to place it gives melee time to close)
-Removing pre-placement req. (as mentioned above) having to drop one while melee are already on top of you renders it a useless defensive ability since you now need to move sufficient distance away from it (while being slowed of course) in order to use it
-Let it remove stuns, I know the counter argument is then locks will only use it as a stun removal but so what? Is anyone complaining mages often use ice block as a dot removal instead of just a last minute defensive save-me abililty? And even now any decent lock against a warrior is saving the teleport for bladestorm, what's the difference between that and saving it for kidney shot against a rogue for example?
-Let it be place-able on the elevator in RoV so it can be dropped before the match starts.
-Make it invisible to the enemy, it's always fun to teleport to discover the rogue that was sitting there waiting for you.
-Maybe lengthen the CD (45 or 60 sec) and give it a short (2 or 4 sec) aoe fear when used, so that you aren't getting charged or deathgripped half a second after you use the thing.

@GC

Ty for answering the questions. This along with hunter functionality is really sweetening the deal for me in next xpac.

And another suggestion I may have touched on before:

Rather than make it a flat "3 shards per fight" with the potential of a "shard innervate" what if they regenerated at flat rate, but the rate in which they regenerate changes based on how aggressively they're used? The idea that it becomes taxing on the Warlock's own soul to regenerate several soul shards at once.


What if shards had a 5 minute cooldown. They begin cooling down at a normal rate, but it speeds up over time. A little bit faster after 30 seconds. A lot faster after a minute. The cooldown speed is reset, however, when you use a shard. You might could also tie the speed into how many unused shards you have left. The more you have unused the quicker the remaining ones recharge. A nice balance point would be being able to use 1 shard every minute perpetually. Starting using them more frequently and your long term shard regen takes a hit.

It really plays into the theme of the class. You can achieve great power quickly at the cost of your potential longterm well being. Balancing the two would be the perrogative of the player based on situation and play style.

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Q u o t e:
And another suggestion I may have touched on before:

Rather than make it a flat "3 shards per fight" with the potential of a "shard innervate" what if they regenerated at flat rate, but the rate in which they regenerate changes based on how aggressively they're used? The idea that it becomes taxing on the Warlock's own soul to regenerate several soul shards at once.


What if shards had a 5 minute cooldown. They begin cooling down at a normal rate, but it speeds up over time. A little bit faster after 30 seconds. A lot faster after a minute. The cooldown speed is reset, however, when you use a shard. You might could also tie the speed into how many unused shards you have left. The more you have unused the quicker the remaining ones recharge. A nice balance point would be being able to use 1 shard every minute perpetually. Starting using them more frequently and your long term shard regen takes a hit.

It really plays into the theme of the class. You can achieve great power quickly at the cost of your potential longterm well being. Balancing the two would be the perrogative of the player based on situation and play style.

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While i don't know about its gameplay impact, on a purely class feel that is one of the most original suggestions ive heard in a while. It fits in right with the idea of a being that can tap into his own corrupted soul to wield a lot of power.

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Q u o t e:


The fight starts. You use your 3 shards. Then adds come. Or characters start to die and the fight lasts longer than you thought. And you're sitting there with no shards.

It's a little bit like asking "Why would a mage need Evocation? They should have enough mana for the fight."

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Premature sharding.

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Q u o t e:


The fight starts. You use your 3 shards. Then adds come. Or characters start to die and the fight lasts longer than you thought. And you're sitting there with no shards.

It's a little bit like asking "Why would a mage need Evocation? They should have enough mana for the fight."

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Hmm nice idea. A quick drain soul?

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Q u o t e:


It's cooler if not every spell works the same way. We use the example of "makes this instant" a lot, because it's easy for players to understand both why that would be powerful and also situational. If you get 3 shards and use all 3 on Conflagrate or Chaos Bolt every time, then the system isn't adding as much as it potentially could.

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Well you know that in PvE players are going to do what ever gives them the most dps they can get. The interesting functionality would probably be more in the PvP venue.

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Q u o t e:


It's cooler if not every spell works the same way. We use the example of "makes this instant" a lot, because it's easy for players to understand both why that would be powerful and also situational. If you get 3 shards and use all 3 on Conflagrate or Chaos Bolt every time, then the system isn't adding as much as it potentially could.

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True.. i rather have it do something something crazy. Say it enhances my lifetap which based on whatever stat gives me so much mana and temporary Spellpower. Now with a potential enhancement, it instead takes the SP component and boosts it by a huge percent ( temporary powerup a la arcane power or power infusion or similar haste/sp/crit effects)

It would be a nice addition to the warlock feel

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Q u o t e:


The fight starts. You use your 3 shards. Then adds come. Or characters start to die and the fight lasts longer than you thought. And you're sitting there with no shards.

It's a little bit like asking "Why would a mage need Evocation? They should have enough mana for the fight."

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Well, okay, so whether stuff dies now or later, you'd be using shards in the beginning or using shards in the end... are these empowerings supposed to be like executes or cooldowns then?

So what if there's no adds and the fight just goes on for longer than a 3 shard usage duration... are warlocks just out of luck then?

Sorry this fight is too long for your reagents, you'll get to do less DPS for part of it.

Perhaps I'm dense but I'm not seeing how there will be any choice in a PVE situation.

Will it be like icy veins or adrenaline rush? Execute or cooldowns that all other classes have - classes who use talent points instead of shards?