Seriously, someone -- what is my Imp good for anymore?

I never did the outrageous 40/xx Machinegun Imp spec.

I used him occasionally for some "free" DPS, which lasted all of 15 seconds. Now there is no reason to bring him out of Phase Shift, ever, because his +stam buff is better than whatever DPS he can contribute.

I'd just like to hear the logic. I mean, any Lock can tell you that the reason why the Imp was bugged was primarily because of the bugged Demonology talents -- Unholy Power and Demonic Knowledge -- so why did you have to lower the Imp's coefficient AND nerf Improved Fireball as well?

At +500-ish shadow damage, my imp was doing pretty paltry DPS -- maybe 250-ish per hit? I don't find a problem with that, seeing as even someone 5 levels below me can one-shot him.

So I'm not asking you to change it back. I just want to know what motivated these changes, seeing as the problem could have been fixed without this scale of an impact on marginal, situational DPS. I personally don't mind the nerf that much, from a gameplay perspective -- since it's on the scale of nerfing Firestone or Health Funnel or Aftermath -- but because it's the nerf of something fairly useless into something completely useless, I am just utterly confused as to why someone decided to take the time to code such a waste of time into the game.

P.S. - How the hell do I get my avatar to update? I haven't been 60 in weeks!

I am bumping this until I get a semi-coherent response.

Shame. Now you'll only be able to kill anything in sight in 6 seconds, instead of...6 seconds.

same thing he is always used for. 910hp and a fireshield with talents. Just don't take him off phase shift

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Q u o t e:
Shame. Now you'll only be able to kill anything in sight in 6 seconds, instead of...6 seconds.

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You're just mad because your only pet is a steaming pile.

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Q u o t e:
lolz u c he is jus a imp an imps aint got teh juice.. if u want teh juice u haf 2 use LOLCHARGENSMACK pet.. he got lots o juice an u'll never hav prolems agin.. wut was dis poast abut agin?

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Not all of us want to use big ugly, because some of us don't like Demonology.

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Q u o t e:


Not all of us want to use big ugly, because some of us don't like Demonology.

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Funny you say that, because..not every mage has a pet. Tasty tears, tasty.

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Q u o t e:
Seriously, someone -- what is my Imp good for anymore?

I never did the outrageous 40/xx Machinegun Imp spec.

I used him occasionally for some "free" DPS, which lasted all of 15 seconds. Now there is no reason to bring him out of Phase Shift, ever, because his +stam buff is better than whatever DPS he can contribute.

I'd just like to hear the logic. I mean, any Lock can tell you that the reason why the Imp was bugged was primarily because of the bugged Demonology talents -- Unholy Power and Demonic Knowledge -- so why did you have to lower the Imp's coefficient AND nerf Improved Fireball as well?

At +500-ish shadow damage, my imp was doing pretty paltry DPS -- maybe 250-ish per hit? I don't find a problem with that, seeing as even someone 5 levels below me can one-shot him.

So I'm not asking you to change it back. I just want to know what motivated these changes, seeing as the problem could have been fixed without this scale of an impact on marginal, situational DPS. I personally don't mind the nerf that much, from a gameplay perspective -- since it's on the scale of nerfing Firestone or Health Funnel or Aftermath -- but because it's the nerf of something fairly useless into something completely useless, I am just utterly confused as to why someone decided to take the time to code such a waste of time into the game.

P.S. - How the hell do I get my avatar to update? I haven't been 60 in weeks!

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The Imp is pretty handy as a mobile buff-bot in instances, even if its damage output is pretty unimpressive.

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Q u o t e:
Funny you say that, because..not every mage has a pet. Tasty tears, tasty.

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Alright, because it's a well-established fact that Mages periodically coalesce out refuse, I'm going to explain this in terms you should be able to understand, assuming that you actually were smart enough to buy skills from your class trainer.

So, let's take some generally useless but situationally useful Mage spell. Amplify Magic. You don't use it while grinding. Blizz says to you: we have decided to make Amplify Magic useless to you because some people who spec'd 50 points in Arcane were getting marginal benefit from it.

This is where you scratch your head, because if you were smart enough to understand what was said, you would be confused. Amplify Magic wasn't useful to most people to begin with. Why is it getting nerfed?

That's my motivation here. I couldn't care less about the fact that my Imp can't DPS because I never really used him to DPS except on exceedingly rare occasions. Maybe 5-10 times in my career after level 15. I just want to know why they decided to make him completely useless rather than just fixing what was causing the problem in the first place.

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Q u o t e:


Funny you say that, because..not every mage has a pet. Tasty tears, tasty.

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Don't worry, even without the imp you'll still get owned. No need to get all excited.

also the fact that another play could one shot the imp has no bearing on the nerf. You have to know that blizz nerfed it because of what it could do as pve dps not as pvp dps.

Its not just the lack of the spell damage now its the fact that the improved firebolt talent was reduced too 1/2 of what it was last week. This plus the damage nerf has made him about where he was two years ago, where the improved firebolt talent was not working right with the GC.

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Q u o t e:
The coefficient has been removed until we can get the proper spell damage fix into the game. When the coefficient was being applied incorrectly, utilizing talents created a dps output for the Imp which simply could not exist in the game without being a large and unintended advantage.

While the removal of the coefficient is somewhat extreme, it is a temporary measure. In a game state, it is no different than having your Imp on passive, so we are settling with that for now until we get the proper fix in.

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My apologies for not being more clear.

People on the Warlock forums are reporting that the Improved Fireball talent now reduces casting time by 0.25 seconds per point instead of .5 seconds per point, and that the Imp is now recieving somewhere in the neighborhood of 8.25% spell damage (I believe), which I guess is on the PTRs. But it also appears that the Imp is still getting (apparently) unintentional bonuses from Demonic Knowledge and Unholy Power.

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Q u o t e:
The coefficient has been removed until we can get the proper spell damage fix into the game. When the coefficient was being applied incorrectly, utilizing talents created a dps output for the Imp which simply could not exist in the game without being a large and unintended advantage.

While the removal of the coefficient is somewhat extreme, it is a temporary measure. In a game state, it is no different than having your Imp on passive, so we are settling with that for now until we get the proper fix in.

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What about the nerf to Improved Firebolt?

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Q u o t e:


Alright, because it's a well-established fact that Mages periodically coalesce out refuse, I'm going to explain this in terms you should be able to understand, assuming that you actually were smart enough to buy skills from your class trainer.

So, let's take some generally useless but situationally useful Mage spell. Amplify Magic. You don't use it while grinding. Blizz says to you: we have decided to make Amplify Magic useless to you because some people who spec'd 50 points in Arcane were getting marginal benefit from it.

This is where you scratch your head, because if you were smart enough to understand what was said, you would be confused. Amplify Magic wasn't useful to most people to begin with. Why is it getting nerfed?

That's my motivation here. I couldn't care less about the fact that my Imp can't DPS because I never really used him to DPS except on exceedingly rare occasions. Maybe 5-10 times in my career after level 15. I just want to know why they decided to make him completely useless rather than just fixing what was causing the problem in the first place.

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It wasn't marginal... and it wasn't situational... the damn thing was pumping out insane dps... with certain buffs and gear it was doin game breaking dps

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Q u o t e:


The Imp is pretty handy as a mobile buff-bot in instances, even if its damage output is pretty unimpressive.

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It was a little more than just unimpressive....with 700+ dmg (800 with a trinket) and no points in the Improved Fireball my imp could hit for 350-400 consistently, and crit for over 600. Now imagine those kinds of numbers with a faster cast time.....ouch.

Besides, it's a temp fix until they get the right coefficients in.