A New Affliction.

Well what can I say about the new design for Warlocks in World of Warcraft? They're now awesome! Each spec has its own resource in addition to Mana. Affliction has Soul Shards, something familiar with a twist. Demonology has Demonic Fury which allows quick changing between normal and Demon forms allowing you to multi dot with the unique dots available to each form. Destruction has burning embers which are a completely new addition.

In this post i'm going to discuss affliction as it has always been my ideal spec. As a foreword I'd just like to say that when I first logged into 5.0.4 I was a little overwhelmed at what I saw, most importantly where the hell was my shadowbolt that blizzard had forced me to use? After a short plough through my spell book I was even more confused all my spells had different names and where was my bane of doom? After frantically searching the screen for an answer I spied the core abilities tab. Agony, Corruption, Unstable Affliction, Malefic Grasp, Haunt and Drain Soul. What the heck is Malefic Grasp you might ask? Well it's a new shiny affliction only spell that deals damage while adding 50% of your DOTs damage on top for every tick while it's ticking. Haunt now increases your critical hit chance for its duration. Soul burn + Soul Swap applies all three dots in one hit. Demon Soul is now called Dark Soul: Misery which is an awesome buff that increases spell haste by 30% for 20 seconds (I hear a nerf bat coming, best enjoy it while we can!). Drain Soul should be used below 20% health on any opponent as it regenerates soul shards but also deals 200% damage and an additional 100% damage to your DOTs that are on the target, did anyone ask for an execute spell? 'Cause we just got an awesome one!

All in all I'm very pleased with the changes and love Warlocks have received this expansion the rotation is still complicated but simple enough to break down and learn and adapt to situations. And our output? Well I'm pleased enough with being up there on the top end of raid recount!

Well done Blizzard, you gave me a reason to love my Warlock again!

Why I Chose to Play A Warlock.

Let's face it, Warlocks are cool! We're not self righteous, zealous, heroic, morally strong or particularly nice. What we are is ruthlessly efficient. THE anti-hero if you would. Bare in mind that this goes against most of the point of world of warcraft, to be the heroes that saved the world. We are the reclusive wielders of the dark forces that perpetuate the fabric of Azeroth. We're not in it for hero worship, we're in it because no one enslaves the world except us! We use our abilities for self gain at the expense of others. We summon and sacrifice demons, we infuse our very soul with the darkness, we manipulate the mind instilling fear into our opponents. We care little for the elements, banishing them as we see fit, we enslave lesser demons and on top of that we throw shadow and fire at our enemies. We suck the life and soul from our enemies to empower ourselves and we sacrifice our own life force to replenish our dark magics. We are warlocks, the darkest force amongst your allies and with 5.0.4 we're back with more hurt than before.

Affliction:

Masters of inflicting damage over time, vampiric drains and all round malevolence.

Destruction:

Reckless fire slingers who just love to see things burn!

Demonology:

Master summoners of the lethal burning legion, using their dark forces against everything in our paths. And if summoning doesn't get the job done, we'll metamorphose and do it ourselves!

Welcome to the fold and experience Azeroth from a darker perspective.

This is why I chose to play a warlock, because deep down we all want to see the world burn, it's in our nature.