As far as aggro goes, it remains to be seen how effective the new 41 point Defensive Warrior talent is. There's a good possibility it will increase MT threat gen significantly. On top of that, Horde guilds are getting Blessing of Salvation (keep in mind they've managed to get to Naxx without it). A 50% threat dump at will is pretty damn good for long fights, too. I may be remembering incorrectly, but wasn't the MD/Imp threat reduction additive before, now nerfed to multiplicative? The added threat bonuses (which is pretty nice gravy on the already useful talent Destructive Reach) reduce the threat gap, which is all they *should* do considering the MD/Imp requires sacrifices for that one, now smaller, threat advantage. Considering all these things, I believe there's a good chance that Warlocks will be able to get by without the MD/Imp combo, while maintaining its viability.
Mana feed looks awesome - finally a way to restore pets' MP, or get more from DP. I still would like to see pet's stats/abilities scale with spell damage or something gear-dependent though. The Soulwell looks awesome too, finally something to make Healthstones for a raid at a reasonable shard cost.
We'll have to wait and see just what exactly the Fel Guard's abilities are. It could have a large impact that we don't even know about yet. The only indication we have from the preview is that it's grouped with the Succubus in MD. It's not even listed in DS though, which is odd.
Affliction looks like it could be pretty insane for group PVP. I'm not sure about how exactly dispels work; are the debuffs on a "stack" which pops the top debuff off? If so, I expect Decursive to be updated to simply skip targets with Unstable Affliction on the top of the debuff stack. Unstable Affliction could be a "decursive shield" for the other magic DoTs, including Seed of Corruption which effectively would give you a 36 yd range AOE. Improved HoT looks awesome, too.
It remains to be seen whether Contagion's damage bonus is additive or multiplicative in relation to the Imp CoA/Corruption bonuses. Even if all of the damage bonuses become additive, you're still looking at a 1900 Corruption, 2200 CoA, and 1800 UA on a +500 SD geared lock with the new +100 SD armor buff. That's 5900 damage if they don't get dispelled - talk about lethal.
We don't yet know whether the duration increase for Lasting Afflictions is meant as a damage buff or as a counterbalance to the 30% dispel resist. If it's a damage increase, that'd boost the two instant cast spell Corruption/UA combo to 4950 damage! If the talent does not increase overall damage, I don't think it would be all that useful if UA is usable as a shield for other magic DoTs.
Of course, I have completely skipped Immolation. If the UA "decursive shield" does end up working, that would open up a new combo. Queue up an immolate, once it goes off an immediate Corruption is cast, leaving only 1.5 seconds for a safe dispel before UA comes in. So you're looking at over 4700 damage to an unsuspecting target if the dispellers are busy for only 1.5 seconds, or you're forcing the dispellers to take that 1575 damage hit and dispel anyway.
Who knows, perhaps UA's dispel damage gets increased by spell damage and SM. Talk about a hurtful dispel!
Overall, I'm pretty excited about the Warlock preview. The possibility of locks specializing in DoTs seems realistic. The Fel Guard is intriguing. There are some overall improvements, and the threat situation looks decent enough to me at this early stage. It may not have everything I want, but it's definitely something I'm excited about.
Mana feed looks awesome - finally a way to restore pets' MP, or get more from DP. I still would like to see pet's stats/abilities scale with spell damage or something gear-dependent though. The Soulwell looks awesome too, finally something to make Healthstones for a raid at a reasonable shard cost.
We'll have to wait and see just what exactly the Fel Guard's abilities are. It could have a large impact that we don't even know about yet. The only indication we have from the preview is that it's grouped with the Succubus in MD. It's not even listed in DS though, which is odd.
Affliction looks like it could be pretty insane for group PVP. I'm not sure about how exactly dispels work; are the debuffs on a "stack" which pops the top debuff off? If so, I expect Decursive to be updated to simply skip targets with Unstable Affliction on the top of the debuff stack. Unstable Affliction could be a "decursive shield" for the other magic DoTs, including Seed of Corruption which effectively would give you a 36 yd range AOE. Improved HoT looks awesome, too.
It remains to be seen whether Contagion's damage bonus is additive or multiplicative in relation to the Imp CoA/Corruption bonuses. Even if all of the damage bonuses become additive, you're still looking at a 1900 Corruption, 2200 CoA, and 1800 UA on a +500 SD geared lock with the new +100 SD armor buff. That's 5900 damage if they don't get dispelled - talk about lethal.
We don't yet know whether the duration increase for Lasting Afflictions is meant as a damage buff or as a counterbalance to the 30% dispel resist. If it's a damage increase, that'd boost the two instant cast spell Corruption/UA combo to 4950 damage! If the talent does not increase overall damage, I don't think it would be all that useful if UA is usable as a shield for other magic DoTs.
Of course, I have completely skipped Immolation. If the UA "decursive shield" does end up working, that would open up a new combo. Queue up an immolate, once it goes off an immediate Corruption is cast, leaving only 1.5 seconds for a safe dispel before UA comes in. So you're looking at over 4700 damage to an unsuspecting target if the dispellers are busy for only 1.5 seconds, or you're forcing the dispellers to take that 1575 damage hit and dispel anyway.
Who knows, perhaps UA's dispel damage gets increased by spell damage and SM. Talk about a hurtful dispel!
Overall, I'm pretty excited about the Warlock preview. The possibility of locks specializing in DoTs seems realistic. The Fel Guard is intriguing. There are some overall improvements, and the threat situation looks decent enough to me at this early stage. It may not have everything I want, but it's definitely something I'm excited about.
Less QQ more Pew Pew