Blizzard
As we've mentioned before, we're making a number of changes to the resource model for Destruction Warlocks in the next patch. The goal is to create smoother, more granular, less random
Soul Shard generation and make
Chaos Bolt casts feel more impactful.
First, for Destruction Warlocks, Soul Shards are being split into parts of 10 , which we're currently calling Soul Shard Fragments. Mechanically, this will be similar to the Mists of Pandaria resource system of
Soul Shards, except we want to go with a consistent
Soul Shard visual, updated Soul Shard UI (work in progress), and name for the resource across all 3
Warlock specs. Some relevant spell changes:
- Incinerate generates 1 Soul Shard Fragment. Doubled on critical strikes. Fire and Brimstone (talent) will cause Incinerate to generate 1 Soul Shard Fragment per target hit, also doubled on critical strikes.
- Immolate periodic damage has a 50% chance to generate 1 Soul Shard Fragment. 100% chance on critical strikes.
- Improved Conflagrate generates 6 Soul Shard Fragments.
- Dimensional Rift (artifact active) generates 3 Soul Shard Fragments.
The net result of these changes is that every baseline rotational damage spell will contribute to
Soul Shard generation, pushing your resource forward at a steady pace.
Second, Soul Shard generation/refund rate is being reduced overall , mainly for the single-target rotation. However, this is coupled with major damage increases to both
Soul Shard spenders -
Chaos Bolt and
Rain of Fire. Combined, this means that
Chaos Bolts will be cast less frequently, but they will hit much harder:
For the AOE rotation,
Fire and Brimstone (talent) will cause Incinerate to generate Soul Shard Fragments per target hit, which would largely push
Immolate out of the AOE rotation with enough targets. Alternately, if you want to go down the route of maintaining
Immolate on all targets in a clumped AOE situation, Cataclysm (talent) will have reduced cooldown (30 sec) and slightly reduced cast time, making it easier for you to do so.
As usual, everything discussed here will continue to be iterated on during 7.2.5 PTR and may change based on further playtesting and feedback.
Any chance you can tell us whats happening with
?
It's probably holding destro back more than almost anything else. It has way too much power in it.