Affliction Warlock is (once again) receiving a handful of changes in Patch 10.1.5! While not necessarily a full overhaul like some other specs, Affliction is receiving a huge quality of life increase with a couple minor changes here and there. In early 10.1, Affliction was seen to be exceptionally strong, but this was mainly due to a handful of bugs with
Демоническое воодушевление,
Гневный прислужник and
Семя порчи. The spec was sadly nerfed after a few days and that coupled with the bug fixes, meant Affliction went back to being our worst spec.
Recently however, Affliction received a 3% aura buff in an early raid tuning pass, (essentially invalidating the nerfs that occurred in 10.1) making it a much stronger option. While it is not seeing as much play as Demonology or Destruction currently, it is not too far behind in terms of raw damage. When it comes to gameplay however, that is a different story. Thankfully, Patch 10.1.5 looks to be addressing most of Affliction's awkward rotational gameplay.
Developers’ note: The number of casts required for Affliction to be properly setup is high and something that can feel especially punishing in multi-target situations and PVP. We are replacing Malefic Affliction and implementing changes to Dread Touch and Doom Blossom to make Affliction’s rotation more accessible and less punishing.
-Malefic Affliction has been removed.
-New Talent: Xavius’ Gambit – Unstable Affliction deals 15/30% increased damage.
-Xavius’ Gambit is located in Malefic Affliction’s previous location.
-Unstable Affliction damage increased by 10%.
-Dread Touch has been redesigned – Malefic Rapture causes targets suffering from your Unstable Affliction to take 30% additional damage from your damage over time effects for 8 seconds.
-Doom Blossom has been redesigned – When Seed of Corruption damages targets suffering from your Unstable Affliction, they explode for Shadow damage.
-Seed of Corruption’s cast time has been reduced to 2 seconds (was 2.5 seconds).
